A fake American embassy in Ghana survived 9 years despite ubiquitous U.S. snooping

06 December 2016

The "little guys" gonna get'cha

Fairly chosen or not, the following news highlights the United States' unenviable position as an unintelligently overreaching underachiever.

Wily criminals bested the American military and intelligence establishments

I suppose you could chalk this one up to the "freedom" displayed by human ingenuity:

For about a decade [a false American embassy in Ghana] operated unhindered . . . .

The sham embassy advertised their services through flyers and billboards to cultivate customers from Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and Togo.

Some of the services the embassy provided for these customers included issuance of fraudulently obtained, legitimate U.S. visas, counterfeit visas, false identification documents (including bank records, education records, birth certificates, and others) for a cost of $6,000.

The imposter embassy operated for 9 years without being detected:

"We learned about it this year," despite the bogus diplomatic facility being in existence for 10 years, [State Department spokesman, Mark] Toner told reporters.

Now, consider the fake embassy's situational context

The United States military has expanded into Africa on a reportedly huge scale. The expansion's purported mission is to detect and offset terrorism and other anti-American developments there:

Along with regional partners, U.S. Africa command conducts military operations to disrupt, degrade and neutralize violent extremist organizations that present a transnational threat.

Operations set conditions for continued partnering to help African partner nations build the capacity they need to secure the region.

Billions of dollars have presumably gone into this effort, most of whose operations and locations remain secret.

The moral? — Effort and skill are not synonymous

Just because someone tells you something is necessary does not mean that it is — or even that the purported mission can be accomplished at anything resembling a sensible price.

The United States' arguably imperialistic forays into Africa are (most probably) simply spreading the tumult we idiotically introduced into the Middle East. There are many places on this planet that our "White Boy and Girl" Christian Presence is not welcome.

The secrecy surrounding American military and intelligence operations just lets incompetence skate undetected. For example, here, we spent billions and billions of dollars to interdict terrorism, while African criminals stole and sold genuine American visas unhindered for 9 years.

We can tentatively conclude that we Americans are becoming quite skilled at combining the worst of all possible worlds. We reduce our own freedoms, light the world afire, and magnify previously manageable problems during our interminable blundering.

This is not a record to be proud of. It is also not one likely to enhance our survival as a purported civilization.

This fake embassy incident would be funny, were it not so typical of our violently overreaching underachievement.

PeteFree.com

A fake American embassy in Ghana survived 9 years despite ubiquitous U.S. snooping