BEFORE THE U.S. military began building its $100 million drone base in Agadez, Niger, U.S. Africa Command and the State Department took the temperature of locals through public-opinion surveys. The results indicated mixed feelings about the United States and its motives in the region — and take on added resonance in the wake of an ambush last October in Niger that killed four American soldiers.

“The devout of Agadez are divided on variables associated with violent religious extremism,” reads a military report that contains data from surveys conducted in 2012 by the polling firm ORB International. The 2013 report by U.S. Army Africa, which is the Army component of AFRICOM, is titled “Special Assessment: Agadez, Niger – Strategic Crossroads in the Sahara,” and was obtained by The Intercept via the Freedom of Information Act.

A July 2012 survey found that 83 percent of Agadez respondents believed that American and European cultures pose a threat to traditional Muslim values. Nearly 50 percent were convinced that the United States is fighting Islam, rather than terrorism, across the Muslim world. And 40 percent believed that using violence in the name of their religion was always or sometimes justified.

The surveys were carried out just before Niger signed a status of forces agreement with the U.S. in 2013 that provided legal protection for American personnel, setting the stage for expansion of U.S. military activity there. Since then, the 100 troops sent to carry out drone reconnaissance missions have multiplied eightfold and one drone base in the capital, Niamey, will soon be joined by an outpost deemed the “top MILCON [military construction] project for USAFRICOM,” according to formerly secret AFRICOM documents published by The Intercept in 2016.

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