Black Lives Don’t Matter to Susan Rice: Africa Edition
Susan Rice has meddled in multiple countries in Africa to bloody and disastrous results. Art by Tanzanian Wojak & Tax Evader
“One roll could land you in jail or cutting cake, blowing kisses in the Rice rain / Nice whip, nice chain, a closet of skulls / The stench is like slave blood at Providence Hall, yeah”
Given that Susan Rice’s whole career has been dealing with foreign policy, it is odd that she has been picked to run the White House Domestic Policy Council. It is also troublesome. If one thing is clear from Susan Rice’s career, it’s that Black lives do not matter to her. Whether it be from genocide, political assassinations, famine, or poverty, Black lives—particularly in Africa—are easily expendable in pursuit of American foreign policy.
Susan Rice was born to a college professor father and a policy scholar mother. She graduated from Stanford University and received the Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, a British imperialist who ruled South Africa in the 1890s. After receiving degrees in International Relations Oxford, she joined McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm that recently came under scrutiny due to its ties to China, Saudi Arabia, and the makers of Oxycontin. After McKinsey, Rice went on to work for the National Security Council, the same government intelligence unit that produced Oliver North and helped give birth to the Iran-Contra scandal, where the United States illegally sold arms to Iran to fund right-wing Nicaraguan rebel forces—and their cocaine trafficking.
Rice’s specialty at the NSC would be Africa, working with the Clinton administration as Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping from 1993 to 1995. The ‘Peacekeeping’ title is quite ironic for someone who brought destabilization and destruction all over Africa—perhaps ‘Director of Warmongering’ would be better suited.
The Rwandan Genocidepill
According to Reuters, Susan Rice would become acquainted with a man by the name of Roger Winter in 1993. Roger Winter was Executive Director of the U.S. Committee on Refugees. He was part of a group of American foreign policy wonks known as The Council. The group had no formal partisan slant but ther main motivation seemed to be encouraging the USA to overthrow African governments they disliked and replacing them with ones more favorable to American interests. Rice became a member of The Council and with them regularly.
In The Council, Winter was known as ‘Spearcarrier’ and another member was ‘The Emperor’—fitting titles for the foreigners planning on overthrowing governments in Africa. Winter became a key advisor to Rice. He put “strong pressure” on the State Department for Rice to be made Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, which Clinton granted from 1997 to 2001.
In 2008, Rice would praise Roger Winter in The New York Times and hint at their long working relationship, saying: “I’ve seen him be an advocate when I was a policy maker, and when I was on the outside, he was somebody on the inside we could trust to do the right thing.”
In 1994, the careers of both Winter and Rice would coincide due to what would become known as the Rwandan genocide. For years, Rice and others have promoted the narrative that the Rwandan genocide was caused by a bunch of Hutus who went on a mad killing spree against half a million innocent Tutsis—the Hutus and Tutsis are the two main ethnic groups in Rwanda—until the heroic Tutsi General Paul Kagame ended the genocide by defeating the Hutus.
Susan Rice with Rwandan strongman Paul Kagame in 1998.
Several investigations into the Rwandan genocide tell a different story. The “Report to UN Security Council: Rwandan Genocide: The People Cry Justice !, Feb 2008” concluded that it was the assassination of the Hutu Rwandan President, Juvénal Habyarimana—his plane was shot down—that led to the civil war. The report also concluded that it was the American-supported Tutsi General, Paul Kagame, who was behind the assassination, and that his Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) forces were equally, if not more, guilty of mass killings.
In 2007, French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere came to the same conclusion: that Kagame that was behind the assasination that preceded the genocide and that a foreign country was involved. When pressed to name the foreign country, the judge told journalist Robin Philbot that it was the American CIA. Journalist Pierre Péan later reported that the CIA and Roger Winter had helped Kagame procure the missiles that took down Habyarimana’s plane. The Americans had accomplished their goal of turning Rwanda into an asset for the American Empire to exploit the resources of neighboring countries like the Congo.
Rice, through her role at the NSC, assisted Kagame and her colleague Roger Winter. Leaked memos show that Rice—although gravely warned by colleagues that withdrawal of UN peacekeeping troops would lead to “the Rwandans quickly [becoming] victims of genocide”—still pushed for the withdrawal of those troops, allowing Kagame to bloodily take control of Rwanda. These actions led Keith Harmon Snow, a former genocide investigator for the United Nations, to proclaim “Susan Rice is another one. She’s the architect. Susan Rice and a guy named Roger Winter are the architects of genocide in Rwanda.”
A memo sent to Susan Rice, urging her to consider keeping peacekeeping troops in Rwanda. She denied the request.
Both Rice and Winter assisted Kagame as he became ruler of Rwanda, a position he still occupies today. In 1996, Kagame and his RPF forces invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo, targeting Hutu refugee camps under the pretext of preventing another genocide. According to author and investigative journalist, Jufi Rever, the Rwandan government is "ultimately responsible for the killing of an estimated 200,000 Rwandan Hutu and Congolese Hutu in Zaïre/DRC in 1996-97 and countless Hutus who returned to Rwanda from refugee camps between 1995 and 1998.”
Rice was aware of the potential for impending mass killings and did nothing. The Atlantic reports that Rice told colleagues "Museveni [of Uganda] and Kagame agree that the basic problem in the Great Lakes region [of East Africa] is the danger of a resurgence of genocide and they know how to deal with that. The only thing we [i.e., the US] have to do is look the other way.”
Here, Rice is providing cover for the invasion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by American allies Rwanda and Uganda—led by dictators Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni—under the pretext that they were stopping a genocide, by in turn letting another genocide happen. This was a tactic commonly used by Paul Kagame to invade other countries and target civilians.
Susan Rice with Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni.
Yet Susan Rice did way worse than look the other way. She actively armed rebel forces in the Congo and Sudan, the belligerents in the First Congo War. In 1998, The Executive Intelligence Review published an article, “Rice caught in Iran-Contra-style capers in Africa.” An investigative team “probing the causes behind the genocidal wars that have been ravaging East and Central Africa” found a arms-trading network which mirrored “precisely the notorious Iran-Contra arms supply operation of the 1980s...in direct violation of the official, public policy of the United States government.” The article indicted “the two leading operatives who [were] caught red-handed in such dirty operations....U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice, and Roger Winter, executive director of the U.S. Committee on Refugees.”
The article stated that Susan Rice and Roger Winter were using the State Department to illegally and covertly arm rebels in the Congo and in Sudan, the latter an operation “directly out of the U.S. State Department with the oversight of Rice.” These events led to The First Congo War, which killed approximately 500,000 people, and led immediately to the Second Congo War, the deadliest human conflict since World War II with over 5.8 million dead.
The Poisoning of a Nigerian President
Susan Rice has been personally been accused of murder. On face value, it may seem ridiculous for someone to blame a distinguished woman like Susan Rice for killing a man. However, given the history of the American CIA—which has admitted plots to poison leaders like Congolese President Partice Lumumba and Fidel Castro—the accusations aren’t that crazy.
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On July 7, 1998, Susan Rice and Thomas Pickering, a Bush-appointed State Department official who played a minor role in the Iran-Contra scandal, made a trip to Nigeria. They visited Chief Moshood Abiola, a popular politician who won the 1993 Nigerian Elections only to be jailed by a military dictatorship. They met him on his first day out of jail. During their meeting, Susan Rice gave him some tea, and then he had a ‘heart attack’ and died. Seriously.
In 2001, US Ambassador Howard F Jeter would write in a memo: “The largest single complaint against the Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission was the lack of closure regarding Abiola's death. Numerous claims came from numerous quarters, including a distasteful insinuation that Dr. Susan Rice was involved because she served the tea at the meeting where Abiola became ill.”
Several prominent Nigerians continue to blame Susan Rice for the death of Abiola. Femi Fani-Kayode, a Nigerian politician who served under President Olusegun Obasanjo, Tweeted recently: “Susan Rice, who at that time was Bill Clinton’s Ass. Sec. of State for Africa, were the duo that MADE and GAVE Chief MKO Abiola (the winner of Nigeria’s June 12th 1993 pres. election) a cup of tea in 1998 when they went to see him in detention. 20 minutes later, right in front of them, Abiola dropped dead!”
Nigerian politician Femi Fani-Kayode alleging Susan Rice’s involvement in the death of President-Elect Abiola.
The death of Abiola, along with the poisoning death of his opponent, Sani Abacha (which was also blamed on the CIA), led to mass riots and a political vacuum that was soon filled by Olusegun Obasanjo, a man long favored by the CIA. While it remains unclear if Susan Rice or the CIA was actually involved in the death of either men, they for sure benefitted from their deaths.
Libyan Lies
After the election of Barack Obama, Rice rejoined the federal government as United States Ambassador to the United Nations. She used this position to continue aiding her old dictator friends from Rwanda and Uganda, Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni, as she did in the 90s under Clinton.
In 2012, Susan Rice tried to block a UN resolution that condemned the Rwandan and Ugandan governments for supporting Congolese rebel group M23. M23 had been accused of murder, “rape, kidnapping, child soldiers” and other atrocities. A United Nations report had found that Rwanda created and commanded the group. Yet Rice tried to protect Kagame. According to The New York Times, Rice had made efforts “to shield the Rwandan government, and [her close associate] Mr. Kagame in particular, from international censure.”
Susan Rice used her position as Ambassador to the United Nations to bring war to another African country. Rice famously alleged that Libyan leader Mummar Qaddafi was providing Viagra to his soldiers so they could rape women. This claim was quickly debunked by Amnesty International, but still spread by Hillary Clinton.
While Rice was covering up the rapes and klling by the M23 forces supported by her allly Kagame, she would brazenly lie about atrocities committed by Qadaffi in order to push America towards another war. According to several reports, it was Rice along with Hillary Clinton who were driving forces in persuading Obama to to wage war on Libya.
Emails between Clinton and Sidney Blumental show that the primary motive for the Libyan war was not driven by humanitarian concerns but financial ones, specifically Libya’s gold and oil and Qadaffi’s desire to start his own African currency. Blumenthal wrote Clinton that “The positive case for national interest in terms of removing [Qaddafi], establishing stability in North Africa, security democracy in Egypt, economic development, effect throughout Arab world and Africa, extending US influence...[. The] humanitarian motive offered is limited [and] conditional...” Kagame would return Rice’s favor by being the only African leader to advocate for war on Libya. He wrote an op-ed, “Rwandans Know Why Gaddafi Must Be Stopped.”
Rice was involved in the Libyan war at a deeper level. The Middle East Eye uncovered an email between Rice and the United Emirates Ambassador to the USA, Yousef Otaiba. It stated that he was sending “‘equipment’ to [their] friends in the western part of Libya in the next 2-3 days...heads up this will be happening so that no one is caught off guard.” The Middle East eye traced the email’s background to a UN Security Council report that revealed the UAE had illegally sent arms to Libyan rebel leader Khalifa Haftar. Susan Rice replied: “Roger. Thanks.” So Rice was complicit in arming the Libyan rebels, while simultaneously advocating for war against Qadaffi. That is what economists call ‘market manipulation.’ We at Countere call it warmongering.
If the grounds for Obama’s war on Libya was humanitarian, it was a complete and utter failure. The power vacuum it left was staggering. Islamic Militias ran free. Anti-Black Arab militias caged and hung Black Africans. Libya would break out into another civil war and the man whose arming was approved by Susan Rice, Khalifa Haftar, would be charged with war crimes.
All Lives Matter
In many ways, Susan Rice has simply served as an instrument of American foreign policy. The CIA has a long history of supporting violent rebels and oppressive dictators to support American business interests. From their wars in Africa to their operations in Latin America that led to the crack epidemic, ruining the lives of countless African-Americans, it’s clear that Black lives don’t matter to the CIA. In fact, whether they be Hispanic in Nicaragua, Black in Jamaica, or white in Eastern Europe, no lives matter to the CIA—except the rich and powerful.
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Kagame is still in power to this day ruling Rwanda with an iron grip. Filip Reyntjens, who Newsweek called a “Belgian scholar whom many consider the world's foremost expert on Rwanda,” told the publication that Kagame is “probably the worst war criminal in office today." Armed forces are fighting in the Congo over diamonds, gold and cobalt (the mineral that powers smartphones). Roger Winter’s war in Sudan continues even after South Sudan got its independence and broke out into its own civil war.
Rice has never had to answer for the millions of Africans killed as the result of her support for Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni, her covert wars in the Congo, and her imperialist meddling in the Original Continent. Even in private life she cannot stop threatening people with war. In February of this year, she Tweeted at rapper Snoop Dogg regarding her friend, journalist Gayle King: “Snoop, back the **** off. You come for @GayleKing, you come against an army. You will lose, and it won’t be pretty.”
Susan Rice threatening Snoop Dogg.
What did Susan Rice mean by this? What ‘army’ is she talking about? Is she threatening to have Roger Winter and Paul Kagame assassinate Snoop by shooting down his plane? Will she send the Rwandan Army to massacre civilians in Long Beach? Will she send covert arms to the Bloods to start a civil war with the Crips to take down Snoop as the King Of LA and replace him with a military dictator? Now that she is back in the White House as a Director of Domestic Policy, what will Susan Rice do to her own people?
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