Troops from Niger ousted the country’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, last week. One of the coup leaders had previously received training from the U.S. government, becoming the 11th coup in the region led by U.S.-trained officers since 2008.
The main thing that makes it a hit piece is that it buried the lede about the US’s efforts to stabilize the situation, it blatantly words the headline in a way to make those people who just read headlines say “US sponsors a coup in Niger” that’s the way it sounded to me until I read the article. Without the detail that these officers were trained for in counter terrorism to fight a very real terrorist threat the headline absolutely makes it sound like the US was training these guys to go coup’ing. It’s a fairly typical tactic that the Intercept and other less than reputable news organizations use to push their agenda.