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7a.: NATO Loses Soldier In Eastern Afghanistan From: Rick Rozoff

8.: Poland Hands NATO Baltic Air Patrol Over To U.S. From: Rick Rozoff

9.: Now Full NATO Member, Albania's Military Revamped By Pentagon From: Rick Rozoff

10.: Arctic: U.S. Raptors, Strike Eagles In Air Warfare Drills From: Rick Rozoff

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1.: Middle East Loses Trillions As U.S. Strikes Record Arms Deals

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Sep 2, 2010 7:19 pm (PDT)

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/middle-east-loses-trillions-as-u-s-strikes-record-arms-deals

Stop NATO
September 2, 2010

Middle East Loses Trillions As U.S. Strikes Record Arms Deals
Rick Rozoff

The Internet has provided the world with, if nothing else, instantaneous access to news and in-depth information previously available only to governments and think tanks. It has also allowed for the exchange of data and analyses between groups and individuals around the globe, in part by making one tongue, English, the language of the World Wide Web. It remains to be seen whether the keystroke is mightier than the sword.

An illustrative case in point is an August 29 report from China's Xinhua News Agency on a news article by Egypt's Middle East News Agency regarding a study conducted by the Strategic Foresight Group in India. The latter, a report published in a book entitled The Cost of Conflict in the Middle East, calculates that conflict in the area over the last 20 years has cost the nations and people of the region 12 trillion U.S. dollars.

The Indian report adds that the Middle East has recorded "a high record of military expenses in the past 20 years and is considered the most armed region in the world." [1]

The study was originally released in January of 2009 and was recently translated into Arabic by the Institute for Peace Studies of Egypt. It estimates that in a peaceful environment the nations of the Middle East could have achieved an average annual growth in gross domestic product of 8 percent.

Sundeep Waslekar, president of the Strategic Foresight Group and one of the report's authors, was quoted in January of last year saying of the region's nations, "The choice they have to make is the choice between the danger of devastation and the promise of peace." [2]

An account of the presentation of the report last year added that the cost of conflict in the region is estimated at 2 percent of growth in gross domestic product.

In regards to specific cases, it stated:

"One conclusion is that individuals in most countries are half as rich as they would have been if peace had taken off in 1991.

"Incomes per head in Israel next year would be $44,241 with peace against a likely $23,304. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip they would be $2,427 instead of $1,220.

"For Iraq, income per head next year is projected at $2,375, one quarter of the $9,681 that would have been possible without the conflicts of the past two decades." [3]

Other sources estimate the overall rate of unemployment in the Middle East at 20-25 percent, with joblessness in nations like Lebanon and Yemen at 30 percent or more. This despite the fact that the region has achieved one of the more impressive successes in improving educational opportunities, measured by the amount of years students spend in school, in the world.

The Middle East requires comprehensive regional development, but instead is receiving billions of dollars worth of arms. The area's nations could be spending that sum on rural and urban infrastructure, dams and reservoirs, desalination and irrigation, forestation and fisheries, industry and agriculture, medicine and public health, housing and information technology, equitable integration of cities and villages, and repairing the ravages of past wars rather than on U.S. warplanes, attack helicopters and interceptor missiles.

An American news report of a year ago revealed that, according to a U.S.-based consultancy firm, several Middle Eastern nations are slated to spend over $100 billion on weapons in the upcoming five years. Most of those arms purchases - "unprecedented packages" - will be by Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and the "core of this arms-buying spree will undoubtedly be the $20 billion U.S. package of weapons systems over 10 years for the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council - Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain." The expansion of American arms sales and military presence in the Persian Gulf targets Iran in the first place.

The same feature documented plans for the U.S. to supply Egypt with a $13 billion arms package and Israel with $30 billion in weaponry over ten years, the latter "a 25 percent increase over previous levels." [4]

A year later it was disclosed that Washington will sell $13 billion worth of arms and military equipment to Iraq, "a huge order of tanks, ships and hardware that U.S. officials say shows Iraqi-U.S. military ties will be tight for years to come." A $3 billion deal for 18 F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole jet fighters is also in the works. Iraq will become one of the largest purchasers of U.S. weapons in the world.

According to the U.S. Army's Lieutenant General Michael Barbero, ranking American officer in charge of training and advising Iraqi troops, such military agreements help "build their capabilities, first and foremost; and second, it builds our strategic relationship for the future." [5]

With 4.7 million Iraqis displaced since 2003, 2.2 million as refugees in Jordan, Syria and other nations, and a near collapse of the nation's civilian infrastructure since the U.S. invasion, surely there are better ways of spending $16 billion that on American arms.

To Iraq's south, last month the U.S. announced one of the largest weapons sales in its history: A $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon notified Congress of the colossal transaction which the U.S. legislative body will approve later this month.

Over the next decade Washington will supply Saudi Arabia with F-15SA Strike Eagle jet fighters (SA is for Saudi Advanced), 72 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, 60 AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters, helicopter-carrying offshore patrol vessels and upgrades for the 96 Patriot Advanced Capability-2 interceptor missiles already stationed in the kingdom.

Last month Kuwait announced that it planned to purchase more than 200 U.S. Patriot anti-ballistic missiles in a $900 million deal. The U.S. Defense Department also advised Congress of that transaction, stating "Kuwait needs these missiles to meet current and future threats of enemy air-to-ground weapons."

The news agency which reported the above, Agence France-Presse, also provided the following information:

"The U.S. has several military bases in Kuwait, including Camp Arifjan, one of the biggest U.S. military facilities in the region. There are between 15,000 and 20,000 U.S. troops stationed in Kuwait." [6] The American Fifth Fleet is headquartered in neighboring Bahrain.

The U.S. is also providing Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates with Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile interception batteries.

Last year Washington approved the transfer of a Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) missile shield system to the United Arab Emirates. The deal, estimated to cost $7 billion, is the first transfer of the advanced interceptor missiles outside the U.S.

In May the Barack Obama administration requested $205 million from Congress for the Israeli Iron Dome layered interceptor missile shield, in the words of a Pentagon spokesman "the first direct U.S. investment in the Iron Dome system." [7]

In the autumn of 2008 the U.S. opened an interceptor missile radar base in Israel's Negev Desert centered on a Forward-Based X-Band Radar with a range of 2,900 miles.

This August 15 Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced his country is to receive - one can't say buy - 20 U.S. F-35 Joint Strike Fighters worth $96 million apiece along with spare parts, maintenance and simulators. "The $2.7 billion deal will be paid for using U. S. military assistance." [8] The fifth generation stealth warplanes are the world's most advanced. According to Israeli government sources in reference to the prospect of eventual deployment of Russian air defenses to Iran and Syria, "the purchase of F-35 fighters would effectively eliminate the threat from Russian-made S-300 air defense systems because a series of computer simulations had clearly demonstrated that new U.S. stealth fighters outperform the Russian missiles."

This year the State Department confirmed that $2.55 billion in U.S. military assistance was given to Israel in 2009 and that the figure will "increase to $3 billion in 2012, and will total $3.15 billion a year from 2013 to 2018." [9] That is, will grow by almost 25 percent.

Since the administration of Jimmy Carter and his National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski bought off Anwar Sadat and through him Egypt in 1978 at the expense of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and other Arab states, Washington has provided Cairo with $1.3 billion a year in military aid, adding up to $50 billion by 2008.

In January of this year General David Petraeus, then head of U.S. Central Command and now in charge of 150,000 American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, visited Yemen and called for more than doubling military aid to the strife-torn nation from $70 to $150 million annually. He was later forced to retract his comments, but the Wall Street Journal reported on September 2 that "The U.S. military's Central Command has proposed pumping as much as $1.2 billion over five years into building up Yemen's security forces." The United Nations Statistics Division estimated Yemeni gross national income per capita for 2008 at $1,260.

The U.S. has launched several missile strikes inside Yemen over the past nine months and "U.S. Special Operations teams...play an expansive role in the country." [10] Funding for what the Pentagon describes as a counterterrorism program in the country has grown from $5 million a year in fiscal year 2006 to over $155 million four years later.

Washington is planning to add unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) equipped with lethal missiles operated by the Central Intelligence Agency to its operations in Yemen, replicating the same arrangement in Pakistan.

After the so-called Cedar Revolution in Lebanon in 2005 - modeled after comparable "color revolutions" in the former Soviet states of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan in 2003, 2004 and 2005 respectively - led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country and the installation of pro-Western Fouad Siniora as prime minister, the U.S. reestablished military contacts with Lebanon, which had been broken off after 1983. A dozen U.S. military officials travelled to Beirut at the end of the year, inspecting bases as part of a "comprehensive assessment of the condition of U.S.-made equipment in the Lebanon armed forces." [11]

After the Israeli invasion of the country the following summer, Washington started military aid to the nation of four million people which two years later had exceeded $410 million. According to an Associated Press account in 2008, "The [George W. Bush] administration has spent about $1.3 billion in the past two years trying to prop up Siniora's Western-allied government, including about $400 million in military aid." [12]

On October 6, 2008 the U.S. established a joint military commission with Lebanon "to bolster military cooperation."

The, by Lebanese standards, unprecedented donations of arms and military equipment by the Pentagon were explicitly for internal use - against Hezbollah - and for deployment at the Syrian border. Not for defending the nation against the country that had invaded it in 1978, 1983 and 2006 - Israel.

On August 2 of this year, a day before two Lebanese soldiers were killed in a firefight with Israeli troops on Lebanese territory, Congressman Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, blocked a $100 million security assistance package to the Lebanese military. There should be no misunderstanding: The Pentagon has not built up the armed forces of post-"Cedar" Lebanon to defend the nation, its people or even the army itself.

The sum blocked by Berman, added to that already provided by the Pentagon, well exceeds half a billion dollars. That amount of money would go a long way in alleviating the suffering of 900,000 Lebanese displaced and in rebuilding some of the 30,000 housing units destroyed by the Israeli military in 2006.

Weapons are the most expensive of manufactured goods and the least productive, generating no value and designed only to destroy and kill. They are not produced solely or primarily to be displayed in parades or at air shows.

The Middle East is that part of the world that has known the least peace in the past 60 years and that is in most need of it. Regional disputes - over land and borders, over water and other resources - need to be resolved in a non-antagonistic manner.

The foreign and national security policies of the region's states need to be demilitarized. Disarmament of both conventional and nuclear forces is imperative.

Washington pouring over $100 billion in news arms into the Middle East will not contribute to the safety and security of its inhabitants. It will not benefit the nations of the region. In truth not a single one of them.

1) Xinhua News Agency, August 29, 2010
2) Reuters, January 23, 2009
3) Ibid
4) United Press International, August 25, 2009
5) USA TODAY, August 31, 2010
6) Agence France-Press, September 1, 2010
7) Reuters, May 13, 2010
8) Russian Information Agency Novosti, August 15, 2010
9) Reuters, May 13, 2010
10) Wall Street Journal, September 2, 2010
11) Chicago Tribune, March 2, 2006
12) Associated Press, May 14, 2008

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2.: NATO may open counterterrorist center in Tajikistan

Posted by: "ANTIC.org-SNN" mantic@rogers.com minimaks

Thu Sep 2, 2010 7:20 pm (PDT)

NATO may open counterterrorist center in Tajikistan

NATO may establish a counterterrorism center in Tajikistan, NATO Secretary General's special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, Robert Simmons, said on Tuesday following talks with the Tajik leader Emomali Rakhmon. Simmons did not specify a location, but it is no secret that Moscow takes a negative view toward any expanding Western military presence in its sphere of influence, which includes Tajikistan. Experts say that if NATO troops start arriving at the airport Aini, which is located near the town of Gissar, 25 kilometers from Dushanbe, it could strain relations between the alliance and Russia.

Robert Simmons made his sudden announcement on Tuesday right after his meeting with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon. He did not specify a location. Furthermore, according to reports from other news agencies, the NATO official had in mind a Central Asian country other than Tajikistan.

But on Wednesday, Robert Blake, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, who visited Dushanbe in Robert Simmons' wake and also had talks with Rakhmon, hastened to deny possible rumors about U.S. troops appearing in Tajikistan. Following the talks, the diplomat said the United States had no plans to set up a military base in Tajikistan.

Meanwhile, Moscow points to the increased attention being shown by NATO countries and the U.S. in Central Asia. "Missions and training centers are used as a way for the U.S. and its allies to establish their presence in other countries," said Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's NATO envoy. "Reports of possible NATO training centers from nearly every Central Asian republic continue to reach Moscow.. But these reports need verification." The Russian Foreign Ministry said it has no information in which of the region's countries NATO is interested.

Andrei Grozin, head of the Central Asia and Kazakhstan department at the Institute of CIS Countries, believes that if the alliance opts for Tajikistan as a base for a counterterrorist center, the most likely places for NATO counterterrorism fighters to appear are Kulyab and the military airfield at Aini near Gissar not far from Dushanbe. It is also true that Moscow has long shown interest in the facility. The Tajik government even promised to allow Russian pilots in as long ago as 2004.

However, the expert thinks any conflict over Aini between Russia and NATO is unlikely. "NATO appears to have no desire to step on Russia's toes. Moscow's calm response to Simmons' words also confirms this. What's more, the impression is that Moscow and Washington have already divided up Central Asia between themselves relative to a possible presence there," Grozin believes.

Vzglyad

http://en.rian.ru/papers/20100902/160439262.html

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3.: Pentagon Chief Pays Unannounced Visit To Afghnistan

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Sep 2, 2010 7:23 pm (PDT)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-09/02/c_13475562.htm

Xinhua News Agency
September 2, 2010

U.S. defense secretary on surprise visit to Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan: U.S. Defense Secretary Gates arrived in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Thursday for an unannounced visit.

He is expected to meet with President Hamid Karzai and top U.S. and NATO-led troops commander Gen. David Petraeus.

Gates flew to Kabul from Baghdad, where he participated in ceremonies marking the formal close of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq.
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/US-Defense-Secretary-in-Afghanistan-102053153.html

Voice of America News
September 2, 2010

US Defense Secretary in Afghanistan

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in Afghanistan for meetings with President Hamid Karzai and the commander of NATO forces in the country, U.S. General David Petraeus.

Gates arrived in Kabul Thursday from Baghdad, where he attended ceremonies Wednesday marking the end of the U.S. military's seven-year combat mission in Iraq.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday the drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq has freed up resources to go on the offense against insurgents trying to topple the Karzai government.

Mr. Obama said he will start a transition to Afghan security responsibility next August. But, he added the pace of U.S. troop reductions in Afghanistan will be determined by "conditions on the ground."

NATO says the latest fighting in Afghanistan has killed two American soldiers and a Taliban commander.

The alliance says the U.S. soldiers were killed Thursday in separate attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan, regions where Taliban militants are strongest. This week has been deadly for U.S. troops with a spate of militant attacks, killing at least 21 since Saturday.
....
In August, Taliban militants killed 80 international troops, 56 of them Americans, while NATO said combined forces killed 160 militants and detained more than 500 others.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, and AFP.
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4.: More NATO Tankers Destroyed In Baluchistan

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Sep 2, 2010 7:23 pm (PDT)

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C09%5C02%5Cstory_2-9-2010_pg7_10

Daily Times
September 2, 2010

2 NATO tankers set on fire in Balochistan

QUETTA: Two more NATO tankers were attacked in two separate incidents in Mastung and Khuzdar on Wednesday.

According to sources, a tanker, carrying logistics support for NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan, was heading towards Kandahar from Karachi when some unidentified armed men opened fired on it on the national highway in Mastung.

Resultantly, the driver received bullet wounds and the assailants managed to escape from the scene.

Separately in Wadh, unidentified men intercepted a NATO tanker and took the driver and the cleaner hostage at gunpoint. The attackers sprinkled petrol on the tanker and set it on fire.

Local police are investigating into the matter. Attacks on NATO supply containers are consistently being carried out in Balochistan for the past 10 days. No arrest has been made so far in this regard.
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5.: NATO Bombs Afghan Election Campaign Workers, Kills 10

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Sep 2, 2010 7:23 pm (PDT)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5joBmfjpagAVjwdMZPfPhqOrgNjgA

Agence France-Presse
September 2, 2010

NATO air strike kills 10 civilians: Afghan president

KABUL: Ten Afghan civilians were killed Thursday in a NATO air strike on three vehicles carrying election campaign workers in northern Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai said in a statement.

Karzai strongly condemned the incident in his statement, confirming earlier reports of an air strike that killed election workers in Takhar province.

"Three vehicles carrying the members of a parliamentary election candidate's team was targeted by NATO aircraft twice while travelling towards the Kiwan area in Rustaq district of Takhar province this morning, during which 10 campaign members were martyred (killed) and two others injured," the statement from the presidential palace said.

"In the war on terror, pro-democracy people should be distinguished from those who fight against democracy," the statement quoted Karzai as saying.

"President Karzai once again emphasised that air strikes over Afghan villages will achieve nothing in the war on terrorism but the killing of Afghan civilians," it said.

Officials said earlier that 10 election campaigners had been killed in an air strike by international forces in the relatively peaceful north of the country.
....
Two other people, including a candidate in the September 18 parliamentary elections, were injured in the alleged air raid in Rustaq district, Takhar provincial government spokesman Faiz Mohammad Tawhedi told AFP.

The men were travelling in a "caravan" of vehicles when they were attacked by "aircraft and helicopter gunships," he said.

The election campaigners were working for parliamentary candidate Abdul Wahed Khurasani, who had survived the bombing with injuries, he said.

NATO has around 150,000 troops in Afghanistan to fight a Taliban-led insurgency.

The international force has been responsible for scores of civilian deaths, many of them killed during air raids aimed against insurgents.

A recent UN report said about 20 percent of the more than 1,300 civilians killed in the first half of the year lost their lives in NATO and other pro-government troops' actions, with most of the rest killed by militants.
----------------------------------------------------------
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100902/160439616.html

Russian Information Agency Novosti
September 2, 2010

Six killed as NATO jets attack election rally in Afghanistan

Kabul: Six people were killed and more than 10 were injured on Thursday when NATO aviation mistakenly attacked an election rally in the country's north, local officials said.
....
Neither NATO, nor the International Security Assistance Force's commanders have commented.

Accidental attacks by NATO aviation on civilians are common in Afghanistan, and are a major cause behind growing resentment at the presence of foreign troops.

Elections to the Afghan parliament's lower house, Wolesi Jirga, will take place on September 18. The polls were initially scheduled to be held in January, but were then postponed because of "security concerns, logistical problems, and insufficient funds."

A total of 2.577 candidates, including 405 women, are expected to run.
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6.: NATO Involved In Deaths Of More Afghan Civilians

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Sep 2, 2010 7:23 pm (PDT)

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/09/02/18405044.html

Voice of Russia
September 2, 2010

Civilians die in Afghan fighting

At least 5 civilians were killed and 12 injured during a Nato-led operation in the province of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

Regional authorities and representatives of coalition forces have launched a joint investigation into the incident.

Four civilians, two women among them, were killed in two separate incidents in the Helmand province on Wednesday.

In the first case, the civilians happened to come under fire in a skirmish between NATO troops and Talibs.

In the second incident, a car driven by local Afghans allegedly approached a NATO convoy too closely.
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7a.: NATO Loses Soldier In Eastern Afghanistan

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Sep 2, 2010 7:23 pm (PDT)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-09/02/c_13475216.htm

Xinhua News Agency
September 2, 2010

Taliban attack claims NATO soldier life in E. Afghanistan

KABUL: Another soldier of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in Taliban-linked activities on Thursday, bringing the number of the alliance' casualties to two since Wednesday, a press release of the alliance said.

"An International Security Assistance Force service member died following an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan today," the press release said.

Nevertheless, it did not identify the nationality of the soldier, saying it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.

Mostly troops from the U.S. are stationed in east Afghanistan.

More than 480 NATO soldiers, the majority of them Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of this year.

Over 140,000-strong NATO-led ISAF forces, theh majority of them Americans, have been deployed in Afghanistan....
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8.: Poland Hands NATO Baltic Air Patrol Over To U.S.

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Sep 2, 2010 8:09 pm (PDT)

http://www.defpro.com/news/details/18005/

Defence Professionals
September 2, 2010

Air contingents conducting NATO Baltic Air-policing mission rotation

On September 1 Air Contingents deployed on the Baltic Air-policing mission rotated in a ceremony is Siauliai Airbase of the Lithuanian Air Force. The outgoing shift of Polish troops was replaced on the mission by a US Air Contingent with four F-15 C Eagle. F-15 and MiG-29 scrambled for a demonstration flight during the ceremony.

The USA will be in charge of the Baltic Air-policing mission for a third time. The country provided F-16 Fighting Falcons to guard Baltic airspace on October-December of 2005, and F-15 C Eagles on October 2008.

The incoming US rotation consists of over 120 personnel - pilots, technicians, medical personnel, logistic teams, communications specialists, etc. - the majority of which comes from a permanent deployment location in the United Kingdom, RAF Lakenheath. It is a second deployment on the QRA Baltic Air-policing mission for troops coming from the US Air Forces in Europe, 48th Fighter Wing, 493rd Fighter Squadron; they were deployed for the first time before two years. US Contingent will be under the command of Lt Col Skip Pribyl, commander of the 493rd Fighter Squadron.

Chief of Defence of the Lithuania Maj Gen Arvydas Pocius, US Ambassador in Lithuania HE Anne Elizabeth, Commander Lithuanian Air Force Brig Gen Arturas Leita, Chief of Defence of Latvia Maj Gen Raimonds Graube, Maj Gen Mark R. Zamzow is the Vice Commander, 3rd Air Force, Ramstein Air Base, Chief of Support Centre, Polish Operations Command Adm (R) Adam Mazurek, Chief of Staff - Deputy Commander of the Polish Air Force Brig Gen Slawomir Kaluzinski, Commander of the Lithuanian Air Force's Airbase Lt Col Virginijus Steponavicius, Commander of AMari Airbase of the Estonian Air Force Lt Col Roman Timofejev, Vice Mayor of Siauliai City Daiva Matoniene, representatives of Poland's and US embassies and military attachés in Lithuania were present in the changeover ceremony.

The ceremony was also attended by the Adjutant General of the US Pennsylvania National Guard Maj Gen Jessica Lynn Wright on a visit in Lithuania from August 31 to September 4.

In the event outgoing Polish Air Contingent were bestowed with awards, Commander of the Polish Air Contingent handed over the symbolic key to the Baltic airspace to the US Air Contingent's commander.

The Polish Air Contingent guarded Baltic skies with four MiG-29s. Poland had deployed around 100 personnel to conduct the mission. The unit was led by Lt Col Robert Kozak. The unit scrambled MiG-29 for training events for over 80 times....

NATO countries began sending their air contingents to ensure the security of the Baltic skies since March 2004 when the three Baltic States entered NATO.

The mission has been conducted on a three-month rotation basis by Belgian, Danish, United Kingdom's, Norway's, Dutch, German, US, and Polish troops since then; in spring of 2006 four-month duty period was introduced and Turkey, Spain, Belgium, and France took part in the mission in a sequence till present. The Romanian Air Force participated in the mission for the period of three months; the mission of the Portuguese Air Force lasted for a month and a half, whereas the Norwegian, Polish, German and the USA personnel served in the Baltic States for the duration covering three months each. The later detachments of the Danish, Czech, German, French and Polish Air Force participated in the mission for four months. The present USA Air Force contingent will also serve four months. The US Contingent will guard Baltic airspace with single-seat fighters F-15 C Eagle. F-15 C Eagle is highly maneuverable tactical fighters for aerial warfare capable of reaching
ultrasonic speed and conducting tasks under any weather conditions.
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9.: Now Full NATO Member, Albania's Military Revamped By Pentagon

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Sep 2, 2010 8:09 pm (PDT)

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/breakingnews/albania-getting-3-coast-guard-patrol-boats-from-the-us-102089508.html

Associated Press
September 2, 2010

Albania getting 3 coast guard patrol boats from the US

TIRANA, Albania: Albania says the United States has given it three coast guard patrol boats to help in its fight against terrorism, organized crime and illegal trafficking.

Albania's defence ministry says the first three vessels have already been handed over, while two more will arrive next year. The ministry statement Thursday said the US Coast Guard has trained Albanian crews to use the craft, which are worth a total â‚¬4.13 million ($5.3 million).

Former Communist Albania joined NATO last year, and the U.S. has been a main backer of efforts to reform the small Balkan country's military.
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10.: Arctic: U.S. Raptors, Strike Eagles In Air Warfare Drills

Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff

Thu Sep 2, 2010 8:14 pm (PDT)

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123220352

United States Air Force
American Forces Press Service
September 2, 2010

Airmen train in Arctic Circle
by 2nd Lt. David Liapis
366th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho: More than 200 Airmen from here arrived at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Aug. 20 and 21 to participate in an exercise with some of the Air Force's most advanced operational fighter squadrons.

The 209 members of the 391st Fighter Squadron and aircraft maintenance unit will spend approximately three weeks in Alaska, flying with F-22 Raptors from JB Elmendorf's 90th FS and the 525th FS. The Idaho-based unit will play the aggressor and also work on the integration of two different generations of aircraft.

"We will not just be supporting the (F-22s), but rather (we) will be working toward the effective integration of the F-15E (Strike Eagle) with a fifth-generation fighter," said Lt. Col. Brian McCarthy, the 391st FS commander.

In addition to the integration mission, 391st Airmen will be flying "red air" (flying as aggressors) against the F-22s just as Mountain Home's 389th FS has done for the Raptors from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., for the past few weeks at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho.

The Airmen from Mountain Home AFB will have the opportunity to engage in air-to-air strafing while flying near the Arctic Circle, said Capt. Raymond Rounds, a pilot from the 391st FS. The Airmen also will get to fly "blue air", flying as partners, with the F-22s against F-16 Fighting Falcon "aggressors" from the 354th Fighter Wing from Eielson AFB, Alaska.,
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