Messages In This Digest (11 Messages)
- 1.
- U.S. And NATO Strengthen Positions Along Russia's Southern Flank From: Rick Rozoff
- 2.
- Russian Foreign Minister Tells NATO To Stay Out Of Arctic From: Rick Rozoff
- 3.
- NATO Troops Slay Two Afghan Protesters From: Rick Rozoff
- 4.
- U.S. Tests New Generation Ship-Based Anti-Ballistic Missile From: Rick Rozoff
- 5.
- U.S. Drone Strikes In Pakistan, Afghan Special Ops Raids At All-Time From: Rick Rozoff
- 6.
- State Department Approves $30 Million In Military Aid To Colombia From: Rick Rozoff
- 7.
- NATO Pressures New Zealand For More Afghan War Troops From: Rick Rozoff
- 8.
- Brazil Opposed To NATO Expansion Into South Atlantic From: Rick Rozoff
- 9.
- Eurocorps Commander Visits NATO Headquarters In Virginia From: Rick Rozoff
- 10.
- NATO Wants To Replace UN, Dominate The World: Expert From: Rick Rozoff
- 11.
- NATO Asks Netherlands For Afghan War Trainers After Withdrawal From: Rick Rozoff
Messages
- 1.
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U.S. And NATO Strengthen Positions Along Russia's Southern Flank
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:49 am (PDT)
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/u-s-and-nato-strengthen-positions-along-russias-southern-flank/
Stop NATO
September 16, 2010
U.S. And NATO Strengthen Positions Along Russia's Southern Flank
Rick Rozoff
On September 15 U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov signed a memorandum of understanding on military cooperation in Washington, D.C.
The two defense chiefs also issued a joint declaration committing their respective states to establishing a defense working group which will meet annually.
According to a spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, the two officials discussed what is euphemistically referred to as missile defense and ratification of the updated Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) agreement. In addition, "The parties also plan[ned] to focus on some problems of regional security, including the situation in Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Caucasus," according to Itar-Tass.
The mainstream media in both countries will doubtlessly herald the news as further confirmation of warmer ties between the nations after the current U.S. administration succeeded that of George W. Bush in the tiresome seesaw of Republican-Democratic rotations that have gone on since 1852 with little enough substantive difference in foreign policy.
Obligatory and unimaginative references to a largely rhetorical "reset button" and similar cliche-mongering will be rife.
All's now right with the world whether or not God's in his Heaven, and the unfortunate contretemps that set in after then-Russian president Vladimir Putin dared to speak the truth about contemporary world affairs at the Munich Security Conference three years ago and the five-day war between Washington's client in Georgia and Russia of a year later has been relegated to the realm of the regrettable past.
Official Moscow is permitting the transit of non-lethal cargo across Russian territory for NATO's war in Afghanistan - evidently without any sense of historical irony - and there is talk of reactivating the NATO-Russia Council after the suspension of its work following the 2008 Caucasus war.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will tout his role in recalibrating relations with the world's sole military superpower and expect to harvest corresponding political rewards for himself and his United Russia party.
Russia's experience with military cooperation pacts, from that with Napoleon Bonaparte's France in 1807 to that of Adolf Hitler's Germany in 1939, might have taught it a lesson or two. But history is long and memory is short.
While Gates and Serdyukov discussed South and Central Asia and the Caucasus, the Pentagon, in its own right and through the global military bloc it controls, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has been doing more than talking.
Reports persist of the U.S. planning to set up new military training sites in the former Soviet Central Asian republics of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, in addition to the Pentagon and NATO continuing to transit an estimated 50,000 troops a month through Kyrgyzstan for the war in Afghanistan and NATO running operations from an air base in the Tajik capital.
American troops and those of its British ally wrapped up ten days of 2010 Steppe Eagle military exercises in Kazakhstan, the one Central Asian nation that borders Russia.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a post-Soviet defense alliance led by Russia which also includes Belarus, Armenia and Uzbekistan. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan are the only nations outside of Europe to have been granted a NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan.
On September 11 of this year the CSTO's main rival in post-Soviet space, NATO, began disaster simulation exercises in Armenia under the auspices of the Alliance's Partnership for Peace program, one that includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. That is, all former Soviet republics except for Russia and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the last three full NATO members since 2004.
The Armenia 2010 exercise includes troops from 15 Partnership for Peace and Mediterranean Dialogue NATO partners. The Mediterranean Dialogue consists of Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. Five warships with the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 docked in Morocco on September 16 to "allow NATO forces to develop cooperation with civil and military (Moroccan) authorities," according to a statement by the North Atlantic military alliance.
Russia and Armenia signed an agreement on August 20 to extend the lease on a Russian military base in the South Caucasus country until 2044. But leases are frequently broken.
Last December Armenia approved a request from NATO to deploy its troops to serve under the bloc in its war in Afghanistan, the first and to date only CSTO member state to do so. Its two neighbors in the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan and Georgia, have over a thousand troops assigned to NATO in the Afghan theater of war.
This week Robert Simmons, the NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, was in the Armenian capital as the Armenia 2010 exercise was underway.
Simmons' post was created at the 2004 Istanbul summit of the North Atlantic military bloc, one which registered the largest single expansion in NATO's 61-year history with seven new members - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia - inducted, and the launching of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative to elevate the six-nation Mediterranean Dialogue to the level of the Partnership for Peace (the recruiting mechanism for NATO's 12 newest members) and to build military partnerships with the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The last-named is the first Persian Gulf state to provide NATO with troops for Afghanistan.
The year before Simmons, an American, was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary General of NATO for Security Cooperation and Partnership, where he concentrates on the former Yugoslavia and the western portion of the former USSR, a position he holds in addition to that for the Caucasus and Central Asia. His agenda is to expand NATO influence and presence from the Balkans to China's western border.
While in Yerevan, he discussed further implementation of the country's Individual Partnership Action Plan, invited Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to attend this year's NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal for discussions on the military alliance's first 21st century Strategic Concept, and broached the subject of deploying NATO forces as putative peacekeepers for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The U.S. and its NATO partners have long entertained plans to "internationalize" the Karabakh dispute after the earlier Yugoslav model.
Earlier this month the president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, John Tanner, pledged to raise the Nagorno-Karabakh issue at the Assembly's autumn session. Several Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers have been killed in fighting in the last three weeks.
This month Azerbaijani troops have been involved in NATO training exercises in Germany, Ukraine and Montenegro.
Earlier this month Simmons continued efforts to bring Uzbekistan back into NATO's and the Pentagon's fold after the country expelled U.S. military forces five years ago following a deadly uprising in Andijan. German NATO troops have remained near the city of Termez and the Uzbek government has reached an agreement with NATO for the transit of supplies as part of the Northern Distribution Network for the Afghan war.
In a message on the nation's independence day, Simmons praised Uzbekistan for the use of an air base, the transit of NATO supplies and its recently intensified efforts toward NATO integration under Partnership for Peace provisions.
Ten days later it was announced that Uzbekistan would not participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's Peace Mission-2010 exercises in Kazakhstan with fellow members Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Last week Georgian officials revealed that NATO will open a permanent mission in their country later this month, "another step in deepening the integration of Georgia into NATO" according to the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Akaki Minashvili. Until now the Alliance has been represented by a liaison officer in the Georgian Defense Ministry. Shortly after the five-day war between Georgia and Russia in August of 2008 - which began with a Georgian assault against South Ossetia a week after NATO exercises in Georgia with 1,000 U.S. Marines ended and with American troops and equipment still in the country - NATO granted Georgia an unprecedented Annual National Program and Washington crafted the United States-Georgia Charter on Strategic Partnership.
This September 8 Frank Boland, director of NATO's Defense Policy and Planning Department, arrived in Georgia to join a group of NATO experts to evaluate the country's implementation of obligations under the Partnership for Peace Planning and Review Process and the Annual National Program. The delegation met with officials of the defense, interior and finance ministries and the National Security Council, including Deputy Defense Minister Nodar Kharshiladze and other defense and military officials as well as military attaches of NATO nations and representatives of member states' embassies.
On August 30 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was quoted in the Russian newspaper Kommersant warning that the U.S, is still rearming Georgia, stating, "further rearmament of Georgia is underway. Why? That's real; we see that. There would have been no aggression and bloodshed if not for the rearmament of Georgia two years ago; we had been telling this to our partners, including to our European friends; and everyone kept silence; and how did it all end? It led up to the war. This rearmament continues today."
Last week former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Georgia to attend a "symposium dedicated to discussion of the issues [relating to] global challenges."
On September 13 Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili spoke at a military base in the city of Kutaisi where a NATO Square was inaugurated during last October's NATO Days events in the country. Days after Georgia lost its first soldier in Afghanistan, the U.S.-educated leader stated that the nearly 1,000 troops he has provided to NATO for the war were gaining "combat experience" and were becoming "further integrated with its Western allies." According to the Civil Georgia website, he asked "can we say no to a war school? This is an opportunity to become integrated to the world's best armies, to see the most advanced (military) equipment and achievements."
When Saakashvili attacked South Ossetia on August 7-8 of 2008, 2,000 Georgian troops were in Iraq - the third largest contingent after the U.S. and Britain - receiving war zone experience, and they were flown home on U.S. military transport planes for the war with Russia. The Georgian soldier killed in Afghanistan had earlier served in Iraq. In all three of the nation's soldiers were killed in Iraq and 19 were wounded.
Like Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, Georgia borders southern Russia and like the two other nations has an advanced NATO integration program; in fact two, an Individual Partnership Action Plan and an Annual National Program.
On the eastern sector of Russia's southern flank, last month U.S. Pacific Command led the latest of annual Khaan Quest military exercises conducted since 2003 to train Mongolian troops for deployments to, first, Iraq, and lately Afghanistan. This year's war games included forces from the U.S.'s NATO allies Canada, France and Germany and Asian nations India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, all of whom except for India - officially - have provided troops for or in other manners assisted the war effort in Afghanistan.
Along with the Pentagon's recent deployment of a Patriot missile battery and over 100 troops to eastern Poland, 35 miles from Russian territory, to be followed by the stationing of a land-based version of Standard Missile-3 anti-ballistic missiles and radar in Romania and Bulgaria across the Black Sea from Russia, NATO has expanded and modernized the Soviet-era Amari Air Base in Estonia which will now be able to accommodate 16 NATO fighters, 20 transport planes and 2,000 military personnel daily. The base will complement one in Lithuania, the Siauliai Air Base, used by NATO aircraft to patrol Baltic airspace since Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia joined NATO in 2004.
The four-month rotation started on September 1 is being conducted by the U.S. with F-15C Eagle warplanes.
The U.S. led the 12-nation, two-week Sea Breeze 2010 Partnership for Peace maritime exercise in Ukraine's Crimea in July, the largest maneuvers in the Black Sea this year with 20 ships, 13 aircraft and over 1,600 troops from Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Moldova, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and U.S.
On September 14 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned against a NATO build-up to Russia's north, in the Arctic Ocean, and the following day Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated, "We do not see what benefit NATO can bring to the Arctic....I do not think NATO would be acting properly if it took upon itself the right to decide who should solve problems in the Arctic."
When Pentagon chief Robert Gates, who has a doctorate degree in Russian studies from Georgetown University, met with his opposite number this week, Defense Minister Serdyukov would not have been out of place asking his counterpart to genuinely push the reset button and cease the U.S. and NATO military encroachment on his nation from almost every direction.
===========================
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- 2.
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Russian Foreign Minister Tells NATO To Stay Out Of Arctic
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:24 am (PDT)
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100916/160610966.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti
September 16, 2010
Arctic does not need NATO presence - Lavrov
Moscow: Russia sees no need for a NATO presence in the Arctic, Russian Foreign Minister said on Thursday.
"We do not see what benefit NATO can bring to the Arctic...I do not think NATO would be acting properly if it took upon itself the right to decide who should solve problems in the Arctic," Sergei Lavrov said during talks with his Canadian counterpart, Lawrence Cannon.
On Wednesday President Dmitry Medvedev expressed concern over NATO's activity in the region since, NATO is a military body and the Arctic is a "zone of peaceful and economic cooperation".
Russia and Canada, which occupy three fourths of the Arctic Ocean's coast line, will continue to exercise their sovereign rights over the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, Lavrov said, adding that both countries would work on the development and extension of the Arctic continental shelf.
On Wednesday, Dmitry Medvedev and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg signed a deal to delimitate their maritime border after 40 years of negotiations.
The agreement is expected to boost energy cooperation between the two countries, as it paves the way for the lifting of a 30-year-long moratorium on oil and gas extraction in the disputed zone.
The Russian Geographical Society will host an International Arctic forum in Moscow on September 22-23. The forum will gather world's leading ecologists, experts and politicians to discuss the social, economic and environmental problems of the region.
===========================
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- 3.
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NATO Troops Slay Two Afghan Protesters
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:24 am (PDT)
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1584976.php/NATO-forces-kill-two-anti-US-protestors-in-southern-Afghanistan
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
September 16, 2010
NATO forces kill two anti-US protestors in southern Afghanistan
Kabul: Two protestors were killed Thursday after they tried to enter a NATO base in southern Afghanistan during a demonstration against the burning of the Koran, a police official said.
Hundreds of men took to the streets in the Chora district of Uruzgan province, chanting 'death to America' as they protested a US church's plan to burn copies of the Koran, even though the burning did not go ahead.
The demonstration turned violent when the men threw stones at the military base, Gulab Khan Wardak, the deputy provincial police chief said, adding that the soldiers fired on the protestors as they tried to overrun the base.
'Two protestors were killed, and two others were injured,' Wardak said.
NATO also confirmed the incident in a statement, saying around 100 Afghan civilians threw rocks at soldiers guarding the base.
....
At least four protestors were killed and dozens more injured in previous anti-Koran-burning demonstrations in Afghanistan in the past week, but Thursday was the first incident in which NATO forces were directly involved.
On Wednesday, at least one man was killed and 35 police and 11 protestors were injured in Kabul after clashes erupted between demonstrators and police.
The tensions came ahead of Saturday's parliamentary elections.
The protestors tore down candidates' posters in Kabul on Wednesday and vowed that they would not take part in the process which is supported by US and other Western countries.
===========================
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- 4.
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U.S. Tests New Generation Ship-Based Anti-Ballistic Missile
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:24 am (PDT)
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lockheed-martin-successfully-completes-formal-testing-of-second-generation-aegis-ballistic-missile-defense-capability-103047009.html
Lockheed Martin
September 16, 2010
Lockheed Martin Successfully Completes Formal Testing of Second-Generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Capability
-Currently, a total of 23 Aegis BMD-equipped warships - 20 in the Navy and three in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force - have the certified capability to engage ballistic missiles and perform long-range surveillance and tracking missions. Twelve additional ships have been identified for modification to perform ballistic missile defense in the next 36 months.
MOORESTOWN, N.J.- Lockheed Martin recently demonstrated the second generation of its Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) capability in a formal U.S. Navy test event.
This configuration, known as Aegis BMD 4.0.1, enables the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Navy to defeat more complex ballistic missile threats and also introduces the BMD signal processor, which improves target identification.
Aegis BMD 4.0.1 marks the beginning of the transition to the Navy's open architecture – a transition that will be complete with software upgrades, known as Advanced Capability Build 12, scheduled for 2012.
"This milestone represents the continuing evolution of Aegis that will lead to the merger of Aegis open architecture and Aegis BMD in 2012," said Nick Bucci, Lockheed Martin director of BMD development programs. "This next-generation signal processor upgrade provides a leap-ahead capability that improves system effectiveness against expanding enemy threats."
....
The MDA and the Navy are jointly developing and fielding Aegis BMD as part of the United States' BMD system. Recently the Navy's independent operational test agent assessed the first generation Aegis BMD and SM-3 Block IA system to be operationally effective and operationally suitable.
Currently, a total of 23 Aegis BMD-equipped warships - 20 in the Navy and three in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force - have the certified capability to engage ballistic missiles and perform long-range surveillance and tracking missions. Twelve additional ships have been identified for modification to perform ballistic missile defense in the next 36 months.
....
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 136,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation reported 2009 sales of $45.2 billion.
===========================
Stop NATO
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==============================
- 5.
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U.S. Drone Strikes In Pakistan, Afghan Special Ops Raids At All-Time
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:24 am (PDT)
http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/US_Attacks_in_Pakistan_Reach_Record_Levels_100916
AllGov
September 16, 2010
U.S. Attacks in Pakistan Reach Record Levels
-Jalaluddin Haqqani was once part of the CIA-backed mujahideen that fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, when he became an ally of Osama bin Laden and gained Saudi, American and Pakistani support.
The United States has stepped up its unmanned aerial assaults in Pakistan this month, launching more missile attacks in September than during any other month since the use of drone aircraft began in 2004.
The Associated Press estimates there have been 12 strikes so far from unmanned aircraft in the Pakistani region of North Waziristan that have killed more than 50 people. The attacks have been concentrated around the town of Datta Khel near the border with Afghanistan. U.S. special forces, led by the Joint Special Operations Command, have also carried out an average of 1,000 raids a month in Afghanistan since May, also a record for what is now known as the Af-Pak War.
Although many Americans may be under the impression that the only enemies facing U.S. troops are the Taliban, the focus of the attacks in Pakistan has been insurgents led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son, Sirajuddin.
Jalaluddin Haqqani was once part of the CIA-backed mujahideen that fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, when he became an ally of Osama bin Laden and gained Saudi, American and Pakistani support. During the administration of President Ronald Reagan, the U.S. supplied Haqqani with Stinger missiles, tanks and other weapons. Although the Haqqanis are allied with the Taliban, they also have close, long-standing ties with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani military's leading intelligence agency.
-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff
===========================
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- 6.
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State Department Approves $30 Million In Military Aid To Colombia
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Sep 16, 2010 11:09 am (PDT)
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4781228&c=AME&s=LAN
Agence France-Presse
September 16, 2010
U.S. Clears Colombia For Military Assistance
WASHINGTON: The U.S. State Department said Sept. 15 that Colombia was making progress in human rights and urged Congress to approve giving it more than $30 million in U.S. military aid for fiscal year 2011.
The assessment was included in the yearly certification report, required by the $6 billion Plan Colombia lawmakers approved in 2000, which was presented last week to Congress, the department said in a statement.
"Though there continues to be a need for improvement, the Colombian government has taken positive steps to improve respect for human rights in the country," it told Congress, asking it to authorize $30.3 million for the Colombian Armed Forces.
....
===========================
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- 7.
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NATO Pressures New Zealand For More Afghan War Troops
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Sep 16, 2010 11:09 am (PDT)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10674031
New Zealand Herald
September 17, 2010
Plea for more NZ help in Afghanistan
By Catherine Field
Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has urged New Zealand to stand by its commitment to the international alliance in Afghanistan as he called for help at a crucial stage in the nine-year-old war.
Speaking at Nato headquarters in Brussels yesterday ahead of parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, Mr Rasmussen praised New Zealand for its contribution but called on all coalition members to send more instructors to help in the war-torn country.
"Let me express my strong appreciation of New Zealand's contribution to operations in Afghanistan," Mr Rasmussen, who is Nato's secretary-general, said in response to a question from the Herald.
"The contributions from all ISAF partners are highly appreciated from an operational point of view, because we need more troops," he said, referring to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force.
Mr Rasmussen...also said the 205 New Zealand troops were a potent show of political support.
"From a political point of view, it is also important that the international community stays committed and keeps this as a broad international alliance effort," he said.
....
Mr Rasmussen spoke after a meeting of Nato and ISAF ambassadors that discussed plans to beef up trainers to help the Afghan police and military take over more responsibility.
....
There are also about 70 Special Air Service troops, whose 18-month deployment runs out in April 2011.
The official figure of 205 troops in ISAF varies according to troop rotations, say specialists.
....Nato's appeal for extra help comes at a sensitive time for New Zealand with the Defence White Paper due out next month.
Nearly 150,000 troops are on the ground in Afghanistan, under Nato or US command. On August 1, the Netherlands became the first country with a major deployment - 1950 troops - to withdraw from Afghanistan.
===========================
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- 8.
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Brazil Opposed To NATO Expansion Into South Atlantic
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Sep 16, 2010 11:12 am (PDT)
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/09/16/Brazil-opposed-to-NATO-role-in-South-Atlantic/UPI-88501284657209/
United Press International
September 16, 2010
Brazil opposed to NATO role in South Atlantic
BRASILIA, Brazil: Brazil is opposed to any NATO presence in the South Atlantic or any attempt to forge links between the north and the south of the oceanic region, senior Brazilian government aides said.
Brazil's expected rebuff to any European or North American overtures coincided with pronouncements by Brazil, Argentina and other regional states they see the oil-rich southern oceanic territories as their strategic backyard.
This week Argentina announced plans for drilling for hydrocarbons in its southern-most waters, near the narrow Magellan Strait, which connects Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Brazil's Petrobras is part of an Argentine-led consortium expected to conduct the drilling operations.
Senior Argentine officials said they regard the region as the country's "soft underbelly" while continuing to oppose British-backed drilling for oil in the Falklands Basin further afield, southeast of Argentina.
Earlier in the year, Latin American leaders met to discuss joint security arrangements - and military integration farther into the future - that pointedly excluded the United States and Canada from the deal.
Current talks between the European Union and South America's Mercosur trade bloc are also geared toward creating an interdependent commercial bridge that will give Mercosur clout in the EU commodity markets while affording cash-strapped Europeans a share of the Latin American member-countries' import boom. Mercosur's import requirements are on the rise as its annual gross domestic product of more than $1 trillion increases in response to growth and prosperity.
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim made clear his country would oppose any inroads by NATO or its members.
Having a NATO presence in the South Atlantic region would be "inappropriate," Jobim said in comments quoted by Brazilian media. Jobim made the comment during an address at the Lisbon Defense Institute in Portugal during his current European tour.
"Security measures for each side of the Atlantic Ocean are very different from each other," he said, in a follow-up to previous comments opposing NATO, specifically U.S., moves in the area.
Despite good Brazil-U.S. ties, Brazil hasn't hesitated in voicing its opposition to large-scale U.S. naval presence in the South Atlantic.
Brazil wants its regional pre-eminence recognized through a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, for which President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva has been lobbying members of the world body.
In 2008 Lula da Silva launched a major military regeneration program. He has announced plans to revive defense manufacturing, a major earner during the 1980s military dictatorship years.
The buildup in one oil discovery after another in Brazil's waters has also fed into Brasilia's strategic concerns and the country's political ambitions, as indicated by the decision to increase Brazil's offshore frontier to 350 nautical miles.
Ever a pragmatist, Lula da Silva indicated this week he backed equal partnerships. A new British-Brazilian agreement calls for defense cooperation in a spectrum of related sectors, including joint military production, technology transfers, education and training.
===========================
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- 9.
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Eurocorps Commander Visits NATO Headquarters In Virginia
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Sep 16, 2010 11:29 am (PDT)
http://www.act.nato.int/component/content/article/42-news-stories/339-eurocorps-commander-visits-hq-sact
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
September 16, 2010
Eurocorps Commander Visits HQ SACT
Norwegian Army Brigadier General Roy Hunstok, Deployable Joint Staff Element (DJSE) Co-Chairman, [spoke with] with German Army Lieutenant General Hans-Lothar Domrose, Commander, Eurocorps, at Headquarters, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (HQ SACT) September 7.
The visit included an office call with French Air Force General Stephane Abrial, Commander, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) and briefings from Allied Command Transformation staff on ACT Command and Policy, the NATO command structure, the status of counter-insurgency (COIN) and counter hybrid threats, and Eurocorps' support to NATO.
Eurocorps is a multi-national army corps within the framework of the Western European Union headquartered in Strasbourg, France.
===========================
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- 10.
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NATO Wants To Replace UN, Dominate The World: Expert
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Sep 16, 2010 12:23 pm (PDT)
http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/09/16/20731550.html
Voice of Russia
September 16, 2010
NATO seeks unshared responsibility
Yevgeny Kryshkin
The General Secretary of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has told journalists that the alliance was working on a new concept, which will give it undivided global responsibility.
According to Mr. Rasmussen, the new concept will have no place for geographic zones of responsibility, a departure from the old one in which there was a clear-cut division of area of responsibility for members of the alliance. The is what Pavel Zolotarev of the Institute for the US and Canada had to say on the absence of a division of responsibility.
The lack of emphasis on spheres of influence in the new concept of NATO is due to a desire not to anger other countries, but the desire to operate without a clear-cut delineation of zones of responsibility remains. First, because of the desire by the US to use the military alliance as an instrument of its foreign policy in the security sphere, and American plans to replace the UN with NATO, declares Zolotarev. NATO's desire to operate in the whole world first surfaced in the 90s of the 20th century.
At the international conference of the Institute for Strategic Studies held in Brussels in 1993, the then general secretary of NATO, Manfred Worner, declared that efforts to achieve a political settlement will be effective only if they are backed by a military force that is resolved to use force. That was the basis of NATO's doctrine.
In the end, the strategy led to an arms race, an increase in the members of the alliance, culminating in the eastward enlargement of NATO. The US-led aggression against Yugoslavia showed that the global plan of NATO is to dominate the world. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are other concrete examples of the plan.
NATO ought to have disappeared at the end of the Cold War since there was no more confrontation between opposing blocs. But leaders of the military alliance, who want to have undivided global responsibility, are against the disbanding of NATO.
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NATO Asks Netherlands For Afghan War Trainers After Withdrawal
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Thu Sep 16, 2010 2:18 pm (PDT)
http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/nato-requests-dutch-trainers-afghanistan
Radio Netherlands
September 16, 2010
NATO requests Dutch trainers in Afghanistan
US General David Petraeus, the supreme commander of international forces in Afghanistan, has asked the Netherlands for trainers to train Afghan soldiers and police.
Dutch caretaker Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop says the request was for "a substantial number" of the 2,000 trainers required by NATO.
In an interview with evening paper NRC Handelsblad, Minister Van Middelkoop says he was asked about supplying trainers during a visit to the Afghan capital Kabul last week. He says he will pass the request on to the next cabinet. "I'll leave it up to the new cabinet to decide what to do with the request, but I think the Netherlands should remain a loyal NATO ally. If the Netherlands does not in any way comply with this request, it will not be appreciated."
===========================
Stop NATO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato
Blog site:
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/
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