At the next summit of the U.S.-controlled military bloc in Istanbul, Turkey in 2004, Rumsfeld stated, "The reality is that NATO is a military alliance that has no real relevance unless it has the ability to fairly rapidly deploy military capabilities." [9]
In 2005 the Washington, D.C.- based Center for Strategic and International Studies' Task Force on Gulf of Guinea Security released a report reiterating and updating U.S. strategy in West Africa which stated that "The Gulf of Guinea is a nexus of vital US foreign policy priorities."
The Task Force consisted of "oil executives, academics, diplomats and retired naval officers under the chairmanship of Nebraska's Senator
Chuck Hagel and received briefings from serving US ambassadors, oil companies, the CIA and US military commanders." [10]
In the same year U.S. Naval Forces Europe announced that it had embarked on "a 10-year push to help 10 West African nations either develop or
improve maritime security." The nations are Angola, Benin, Cameroon,
Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Prà ncipe, and Togo, all on the Gulf of Guinea.
When the above report appeared, in July, U.S. European Command had already "conducted 18 military-to-military exercises in Africa so far in 2005." [11]
The following month a U.S. Coast Guard cutter visited the waters off petroleum-rich Sao Tome and Principe, travelling "through the seas of West Africa's Gulf of Guinea, where an oil boom could outpace Persian Gulf exports to America in a decade." [12]
In 2002 the president of Sao Tome and Principe, Fradique De Menezes, reportedly agreed to host a U.S. naval base, disclosing that "Last week I received a call from the Pentagon to tell me that the issue is being studied." [13]
In 2006 the Ghanaian press wrote that "Marine General James L. Jones, Head of the US European Command, said the Pentagon was seeking to acquire access to two kinds of bases in Senegal, Ghana, Mali and Kenya and other African countries." [14]
Later in the year Jones was cited confirming that "Officials at U.S. European Command spend between 65 to 70 percent of their time on African issues...Establishing [a military task force in West Africa] could also send a message to U.S. companies "that investing in many parts of Africa is a good idea.'" [15]
In his other capacity, that of top NATO military commander, Jones asserted that "NATO was going to draw up [a] plan for ensuring security of oil and gas industry facilities" [16] and "raised the prospect of NATO taking a role to counter piracy off the coast of the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, especially when it threatens energy supply routes to Western nations." [17]
Also in 2006, while still Supreme Allied Commander Europe, he announced that "NATO is developing a special plan to safeguard oil and gas fields in the region," adding that "a training session will be held in the Atlantic oceanic area and the Cabo Verde island in June to outline activities to protect the routes transporting oil to Western Europe" and "the alliance is ready to ensure the security of oil-producing and transporting regions." [18]
As Jones had alluded to, in June the NATO Response Force (NRF) was first tested in Exercise Steadfast Jaguar war games on and off the coast of the African Atlantic Ocean island of Cape Verde with 7,100 Alliance military personnel, including French and German infantry, American fighter pilots and Spanish sailors, along with warplanes and warships. "The exercise [was] the first to bring together the land, sea and air components of the NRF. Once operational, it will give the Alliance the ability to deploy up to 25,000 troops within five days anywhere in the world." [19]
A Western news agency at the time described the exercise in these terms: "The land, air and sea exercises were NATO's first major deployment in Africa and designed to show the former Cold War giant can launch far-flung military operations at short notice."
It also quoted then-NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer boasting that "You are seeing the new NATO, the one that has the ability to project stability." [20]
In September of 2007, Captain John Nowell, commodore of the Africa Partnership Station, travelled from Sao Tome and Principe to Ghana "to lay the groundwork for upcoming Africa Partnership Stations with local government and military officials from both countries." [21]
Late in the following month the U.S. activated the Africa Partnership Station by deploying the USS Fort McHenry amphibious dock landing ship and the embarked Commander Task Group 60.4 (later joined by High Speed Vessel Swift) to the Gulf of Guinea. The APS deployment included stops in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal and Togo. USS Fort McHenry had staff from other NATO nations on board.
In November of 2007 Associated Press reported that with ships assigned to the U.S. Sixth Fleet patrolling the Gulf of Guinea, "U.S. naval presence rose from just a handful of days in 2004 to daily beginning this year." [22]
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