Is he still our guy?

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - A shadowy spy master formerly the right-hand man to toppled President Blaise Compaore seized power in Burkina Faso at the head of a military coup on Thursday, less than a month before elections meant to restore democracy in the West African state. General Gilbert Diendere, who for three decades served as Compaore's chief military adviser and operated an intelligence network spanning West Africa, was named as the head of a military junta called the National Council for Democracy.

The photo is then Colonel Major Gilbert Diendere, chief of staff of the president overthrown in last year's coup (with today being the counter-coup). The occasion of the photo was the 2010 Operation Flintlock, which is a joint Pentagon and European annual military exercise with militaries in West Africa; Diendere was the local host that year. The 2015 host is the Boko Haram-butt-kickers in Chad.

No doubt the Pentagon types thought he was a heckuva guy.

U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Jeremiah Erickson