Messages In This Digest (14 Messages)
- 1.
- Global NATO Raises Alarms From Arctic To Brazil From: Rick Rozoff
- 2.
- Africa, Brazil: Call For NATO To "Pay Attention" To South Atlantic From: Rick Rozoff
- 3.
- Defense Minister: U.S. Missile Shield Targets Russia From: Rick Rozoff
- 4.
- Bulgaria Provides NATO With Mechanized Unit "In Case Of Attack" From: Rick Rozoff
- 5.
- Georgian Aggression To Be Repelled Promptly: Russian Defense Ministe From: Rick Rozoff
- 6.
- U.S. Air Force To Base Advanced Drones On Guam From: Rick Rozoff
- 7.
- Polish Soldier Wounded In Attack On Afghan Base From: Rick Rozoff
- 8.
- Hung Up On The Horn Of Africa From: Rick Rozoff
- 9.
- Germany: U.S. Army Activates First "Civil Affairs" Unit In Europe From: Rick Rozoff
- 10.
- Saakashvili To Make Georgia English-Speaking Country From: Rick Rozoff
- 11.
- US Missile Defense Radar: Homeless but Searching; Protests Called Fo From: arn specter
- 12.
- Romania: U.S. Holds Third Round Of Talks On Missile Shield From: Rick Rozoff
- 13.
- NATO Fiefdom: Troops In Afghanistan Long-Term Czech Priority From: Rick Rozoff
- 14.
- Ousted Honduran President Again Demands Right To Return From: Rick Rozoff
Messages
- 1.
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Global NATO Raises Alarms From Arctic To Brazil
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:44 pm (PDT)
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/global-nato-raises-alarms-from-arctic-to-brazil
Stop NATO
September 17, 2010
Global NATO Raises Alarms From Arctic To Brazil
Rick Rozoff
The current century's only and history's largest military bloc will hold the latest of what have become annual summits in Lisbon, Portugal this November 19 and 20. Heads of state, defense chiefs and chiefs of general staff from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 28 full members will be in attendance, as will be leaders from an unannounced number of the military alliance's forty some odd partner states.
Starting last year a 12-member Group of Experts headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and ex-president and chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell Jeroen van der Veer toured Europe and North America to promote NATO's new Strategic Concept, its first in the 21st century as the current version was adopted in 1999, the year of the bloc's first expansion into Eastern Europe and its 78-day air war against Yugoslavia, the first military assault against a sovereign nation in Europe since World War II.
On May 17 of this year Albright and her cohorts submitted their recommendations - a set of already determined priorities for the expanding military alliance - to the North Atlantic Council, NATO's top governing body, to be formally endorsed at the Lisbon summit. [1]
The new Strategic Concept will elaborate upon and extend the policies of its predecessor and will reflect the past decade's transformation of an erstwhile Cold War-era alliance into an increasingly global warfighting machine. One which has grown in the interim from 16 to 28 full members, the 12 new inductees all in Eastern Europe, 10 of them former members of the Warsaw Pact and three of those ex-Soviet republics.
When the 1999 Strategic Concept was approved NATO was conducting its first full-blown war, Operation Allied Force, a nearly three-month-long relentless bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, followed by the deployment of 50,000 troops under NATO command to the Serbian province of Kosovo.
Two years afterward the North Atlantic bloc intervened in an armed conflict in Macedonia, itself the offshoot of NATO's war against Yugoslavia, with the deployment of troops under the banner of Operation Amber Fox.
Since 2001 all Balkan nations, including ones that did not exist as the time, have become NATO members or partners. [2]
In the same month, September, NATO activated its Article 5 collective military assistance provision for the first time in its then 52-year history the day after the September 11 attacks in the United States, although no state actor had been accused of perpetrating them. In so doing it committed itself to the following month's invasion of Afghanistan and all that has ensued.
The war in Afghanistan will enter its tenth year almost two months before this year's NATO summit and there are currently 150,000-strong foreign troops in the war zone, 120,000 from 50 nations serving under NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The Alliance also has bases in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and has conducted shelling and helicopter and special forces raids inside Pakistan.
After invoking its war clause on September 12, 2001, NATO launched the ongoing Operation Active Endeavor naval surveillance and interdiction mission throughout the entire Mediterranean Sea, which will last as long as NATO itself does.
NATO has also run troop airlift operations in Africa, first in the Darfur region of western Sudan and later in Somalia. Since 2008 it has conducted naval surveillance, interdiction and boarding operations off the Horn of Africa.
The NATO Training Mission - Iraq continues to instruct Iraqi officers and soldiers inside the country and at NATO facilities in Europe. [3]
What has occurred since and as a result of the adoption of the last Strategic Concept at the 50th anniversary summit in Washington, D.C. while the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland were welcomed as member states and bombs and cruise missiles descended on Yugoslavia, is a qualitative transformation of the U.S.-dominated, European-based military alliance into an international intervention and occupation force.
In 2003 the bloc launched its first rapid reaction force, the NATO Response Force, described by NATO as to consist of 25,000 troops "capable of performing missions worldwide across the whole spectrum of operations." [4] Its initial test was in the Steadfast Jaguar exercise in the African nation of Cape Verde in 2006 with 7,800 troops, U.S. F-16s, German armored vehicles and Spanish helicopters. NATO's first major deployment on African soil.
What has transpired in the interim is what Ivo Daalder, now U.S. permanent representative (ambassador) to NATO, advocated in a 2006 article in Foreign Affairs appropriately titled "Global NATO": The Alliance has expanded into not only a combat-capable and expeditionary organization but one with members and partners far from its original area of responsibility and one conducting operations around the world.
In the same year as Daalder's article appeared Kurt Volker, then Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and two years later U.S. ambassador to NATO, said in February and May, respectively, that "NATO currently has partnership relationships with 30 countries in Eurasia and another 22 countries in the broader Middle East, and it is looking at other relationships" [5] and in 2005 had been "engaged in eight simultaneous operations on four continents with the help of 20 partners in Eurasia, seven in the Mediterranean, four in the Persian Gulf, and a handful of capable contributors on our periphery." [6]
To bring matters up to date, this September 14 the Pentagon's website paraphrased Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, as maintaining that "NATO's roadmap for a new world and its mission in Afghanistan will be the main topics of discussion when the alliance's leaders gather in Lisbon...." Describing NATO's global objectives within the context of the upcoming summit, she said in her own words: "The first will be revitalizing the alliance for the 21st century and the second will be succeeding as an alliance in Afghanistan....NATO has now had more than a decade of experience in the requirements to do expeditionary operations – to actually have your command structure actually be able to deploy and employ forces in real-world contingencies."
She also mentioned a third, critically important, aspect of 21st century global NATO: Participating in the belated realization of the Ronald Reagan administration's Strategic Defense Initiative, so-called Star Wars.
The same Defense Department article quoted from above stated, "Missile defense is another priority for NATO in Lisbon, Flournoy said, and the United States hopes the alliance will embrace missile defense as a mission." [7]
A day after returning from a meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen described to Britain's Daily Telegraph plans in which "an anti-ballistic missile 'shield' would be extended across Nato's territory, coordinated by a new command and control system that would 'knit together' existing radar and other sensor systems, with new SM-3 missiles based on land."
Rasmussen also asserted that he has "full American backing for a proposed $200 million (£165 million) defensive 'shield', which he hopes will be agreed in November at a summit of members in Lisbon." [8]
Three days earlier he was cited claiming that "an alliance-wide territorial missile defense system would cost about €200 million ($245 million) over the next 10 years.
"This is above the €800 million ($1.2 billion) investment already required to field theater missile defenses designed to protect deployed troops." [9]
That is, almost a billion and a half American dollars for a layered, integrated interceptor missile system expanding from theater to regional to continental range and ultimately linking up with Pentagon plans for a worldwide network even reaching into space.
The founding of NATO in the last century allowed the U.S. to station nuclear weapons in Europe, where hundreds of them remain, and in the new century NATO will assist Washington in placing all of Europe under an American missile shield, one that is being extended into the South Caucasus and the Middle East. [10]
NATO has also provided the Pentagon with the mechanism for penetrating almost all of Europe, gaining new bases and other military facilities in the east of the continent - Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Kosovo and Poland - and integrating the armed forces of all but three countries - Russia, Belarus and Cyprus - for interoperability for missions in Europe and around the world.
Perhaps not a day passes that U.S. military personnel are not leading exercises in Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia in some manner linked with NATO, especially with its Partnership for Peace program.
This month alone U.S. European Command ran Combined Endeavor 2010 at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany from September 2-16, "the world's largest military communications and information systems exercise," a purpose of which was to build "interoperability between NATO and Partnership for Peace (PfP) nations." [11] Other nations participating included Austria, Afghanistan, Armenia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Britain, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Iraq, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Spain, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
On September 13 the latest Northern Coasts military exercise was begun in Finland, the first time in that NATO partner state, with "50 warships and 4,000 naval personnel from 13 countries including Finland, Germany, France, Great Britain, the United States, Sweden, Denmark and Norway" in what is "the largest military exercise ever staged in Finland's territorial waters." [12]
Five days before over 300 U.S. and local troops "kicked off a military exercise...dubbed Medical Central and Eastern Europe Exercise 2010 (MEDCEUR 2010)," in Montenegro - the world's newest nation - a NATO Partnership for Peace initiative and "the biggest military exercise held in Montenegro so far." [13]
Last month Canada conducted the largest of regular military exercises in the Arctic started in 2007 after Russia renewed its territorial claims in the region. Operation Nanook 2010 was not only the biggest such exercise, but for the first time included military forces from other nations: NATO allies the United States and Denmark. [14]
In early 2009 NATO held a two-day conference in Iceland called Security Prospects in the High North which was attended by its secretary general, its two top military commanders and the chairman of its Military Committee. [15]
This week Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon [16] disclosed that Ottawa will contest ownership of the main basis for Russia's Arctic claims, the Lomonosov Ridge. On September 15 President Dmitry Medvedev warned "The Russian Federation is keeping a close eye on this activity (NATO in the Arctic) because it (Arctic) is a zone of peaceful and economic cooperation." [17]
The following day Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Canadian counterpart Cannon in Moscow and said, "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." [18]
A Chinese analysis of a week before indicated why the U.S. and NATO - with Canada the proxy and if need be the sacrificial offering - are moving into the Arctic Ocean. Author Wang Wei identified two of the strategic purposes motivating NATO states' drive into the Arctic, the third being massive reserves of oil and natural gas: "[T]he Arctic is important in the military field. Currently, all global powers are located in the northern hemisphere just a short distance to the North Pole. This makes the region the most strategic place to launch a ballistic missile. The special landscape of the polar region makes it easy to hide nuclear submarines. These factors combine to pose a great challenge to the defense of countries neighboring the Arctic."
Russian intercontinental ballistic missile-equipped submarines operating under the Arctic polar ice cap are that component of the country's nuclear triad least susceptible to a U.S. first strike, but in recent years the U.S. and Britain have conducted joint anti-submarine warfare maneuvers under the ice cap.
"[T]he famous Northwest Passage, a sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, will be fully navigable. There will be no need for European vessels to detour to the Panama Canal to reach Asia." [19]
It is not only at the top of the world that NATO's global ambitions are touching a raw nerve.
On the same day that the Russian foreign minister issued his statement, it was revealed that senior Brazilian government aides were cited warning that "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."
Defense Minister Nelson Jobim "made clear his country would oppose any inroads by NATO or its members," and said that NATO's intrusion into the South Atlantic region would be "inappropriate." [20]
He was responding in part to comments by his Portuguese counterpart, Defense Minister Augusto Santos Silva, who demanded the new NATO Strategic Concept address the South Atlantic region, stating it "does not pay as much attention to the South Atlantic as NATO should" and that he would raise the matter with Secretary General Rasmussen.
Santos Silva added that the South Atlantic is "strategic" and that it should be included in NATO's "lines of fundamental action." [21] He made specific reference to his nation's historical role in the area, where it had possessed major colonies on both sides of the South Atlantic: Brazil in the west and Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and Principe and Sao Tome to the east. Over the past decade NATO founding member Portugal has led joint military exercises with all the above-mentioned nations as well as fellow former colonies Mozambique and Timor-Leste.
NATO's drive to the east has taken it to China's borders and its plans for the south are just as far-reaching. Moving into the South Atlantic permits the military alliance to penetrate alike Latin America and Africa, especially its oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, and positions it for the impending battle for Antarctica and its resources which will parallel that over the Arctic. [22]
The expansion of a Northern Hemispheric military bloc to all compass points, from the South Atlantic [23] to the North Pole, is a threat that should concern the people of the world.
On September 16 Pavel Zolotarev, deputy director of the Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, retired major-general and professor at the Academy of Military Sciences, wrote that NATO's new Strategic Concept "will give it undivided global responsibility." Driven by 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," [24] he continued, "NATO's desire to operate in the whole world first surfaced in the 90s of the 20th century" when the "US-led aggression against Yugoslavia showed that the global plan of NATO is to dominate the world," adding that the "invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are other concrete examples of the plan." [25]
Zolotarev's comments are truly the last word on the subject.
1) 21st Century Strategy: Militarized Europe, Globalized NATO
Stop NATO, February 26, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/21st-century-strategy-militarized-europe-globalized-nato
NATO: Global Military Bloc Finalizes 21st Century Strategic Doctrine
Stop NATO, May 8, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/global-military-bloc-finalizes-21st-century-strategic-doctrine
Thousand Deadly Threats: Third Millennium NATO, Western Businesses Collude
On New Global Doctrine
Stop NATO, October 2, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/thousand-deadly-threats-third-millennium-nato-western-businesses-collude-on-new-global-doctrine
2) Full Circle: NATO Completes Takeover Of Former Yugoslavia
Stop NATO, March 23, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/full-circle-nato-completes-takeover-of-former-yugoslavia
Balkans Revisited: U.S., NATO Expand Military Role In Southeastern Europe
Stop NATO, September 14, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/266
Adriatic Charter And The Balkans: Smaller Nations, Larger NATO
Stop NATO, May 13, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/adriatic-charter-and-the-balkans-smaller-nations-larger-n
3) Iraq: NATO Assists In Building New Middle East Proxy Army
Stop NATO, August 13, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/08/14/iraq-nato-assists-in-building-new-middle-east-proxy-army
4) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_49755.htm
5) U.S. State Department, February 24, 2006
6) U.S. Department of State, May 4, 2006
7) United States Department of Defense
American Forces Press Service
September 14, 2010
West Plots To Supplant United Nations With Global NATO
Stop NATO, May 27, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/154
8) Daily Telegraph, September 11, 2010
9) Aviation Week, September 8, 2010
10) Nuclear Weapons And Interceptor Missiles: Twin Pillars Of U.S.-NATO
Military Strategy In Europe
Stop NATO, April 23, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/nuclear-weapons-and-interceptor-missiles-twin-pillars-of-u-s-nato-military-strategy-in-europe
Rasmussen In Poland: Expeditionary NATO, Missile Shield And Nuclear Weapons
Stop NATO, March 14, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/rasmussen-in-poland-expeditionary-nato-missile-shield-nuclear-weapons
NATO's Sixty-Year Legacy: Threat Of Nuclear War In Europe
Stop NATO, March 31, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/natos-sixty-year-legacy-threat-of-nuclear-war-in-europe
11) United States European Command, September 8, 2010
12) Xinhua News Agency, September 11, 2010
13) Southeast European Times, September 10, 2010
14) Canada Opens Arctic To NATO, Plans Massive Weapons Buildup
Stop NATO, August 29, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/08/29/canada-opens-arctic-to-nato-plans-massive-weapons-buildup
15) NATO's, Pentagon's New Strategic Battleground: The Arctic
Stop NATO, February 2, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/natos-pentagons-new-strategic-battleground-the-arctic
16) Loose Cannon And Nuclear Submarines: West Prepares For Arctic Warfare
Stop NATO, December 1, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/loose-cannon-and-nuclear-submarines-west-prepares-for-arctic-warfare
17) Russian Information Agency Novosti, September 15, 2010
18) Russian Information Agency Novosti, September 16, 2010
19) China.org.cn, September 8, 2010
20) United Press International, September 16, 2010
21) Lusa News Agency, September 18, 2010
22) Scramble For World Resources: Battle For Antarctica
Stop NATO, May 16, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/scramble-for-world-resources-battle-for-antarctica
23) NATO Of The South: Chile, South Africa, Australia, Antarctica
Stop NATO, May 30, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/nato-of-the-south-chile-south-africa-australia-antarctic
24) West Plots To Supplant United Nations With Global NATO
Stop NATO, May 27, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/154
25) Voice of Russia, September 16, 2010
===========================
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- 2.
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Africa, Brazil: Call For NATO To "Pay Attention" To South Atlantic
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:46 pm (PDT)
http://www.theportugalnews.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=1079-16
Portugal News/Lusa News Agency
September 18, 2010
NATO neglecting South Atlantic in new strategic concept - MoD
Draft recommendations for a new strategic concept for NATO do not pay sufficient attention to the South Atlantic, says Portugal's defence minister, promising to raise the issue with alliance leaders.
The report, drawn up by a group of specialists headed by ex-US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, is "elaborated well", but "does not pay as much attention to the South Atlantic as NATO should", Augusto Santos Silva told Lusa News Agency.
He said he would call the issue to the attention of alliance Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen when he formally presents his report.
Rasmussen is expected to present recommendations for a new strategic concept to the allies in late September.
They will be discussed at a meeting of NATO defence and foreign ministers in Brussels on October 14 ahead of the alliance's summit in Lisbon in November.
The South Atlantic is "strategic" and should be included in "the lines of fundamental action" for NATO during the coming decade, Santos Silva said.
He said allies such as Portugal, with its traditional ties to Brazil and African nations, brought to NATO's discussions "the potential for knowing how to dialogue with the South and to look southwards".
===========================
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- 3.
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Defense Minister: U.S. Missile Shield Targets Russia
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:46 pm (PDT)
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15502209&PageNum=0
Itar-Tass
September 17, 2010
Defense minister says US missile shield targets Russia
WASHINGTON: Russia and the United States agreed to discuss US plans to deploy a missile shield in Europe, but Moscow reiterated fears it is aimed against it.
"At the talks with (US Defense Secretary) Robert Gates we agreed to set up a three-tier system of interaction related to the missile shield problem," Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Thursday. He said the system begins with experts and goes up to the chiefs-of-staff and then to defense ministers. If all the three tiers disagree "the presidents will make a political decision."
Serdyukov stressed contradictions in principle remain.
"They tell us their missile shield is not aimed against us, but we tell them our calculations show it is aimed against us," the minister said and proposed "to begin with assessing missile threats."
"Let's together analyze and assess them and decided where they come from. Only after that it is possible to decide how to counter the threats and whether it is necessary to deploy missile shield elements in the planned regions or other options may be found," Serdyukov said.
The minister said Russia wants to participate in the creation of a reliable missile shield. "In reality we want to actively participate in it. As missile shield objects are deployed on the European territory it shall not happen without our participation. We shall directly participate in missile shield construction."
Serdyukov recalled that Chief-of-Staff of the Russian armed forces Nikolai Makarov visited Washington in April. "It was decided to set up a taskforce on missile defense issues. It should exchange opinions on missile threats, assess them and provide recommendations on missile defense architecture: where, how many and which technical means shall accomplish missile defense tasks," he said.
===========================
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- 4.
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Bulgaria Provides NATO With Mechanized Unit "In Case Of Attack"
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:46 pm (PDT)
http://paper.standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2010-09-17&article=34187
Standart News
September 17, 2010
Bulgaria Joins Common NATO Defense with One Mechanized Brigade
"The Bulgarian army will provide one mechanized brigade for NATO's common defense forces, which will be activated in case a NATO member country is attacked," Bulgaria's defense minister Anyu Angelov said yesterday.
At the same time, the Bulgarian army will form a unit of 1,000 troopers to be used in missions abroad. At present, there are about 700 Bulgarian soldiers participating in missions abroad.
....
===========================
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- 5.
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Georgian Aggression To Be Repelled Promptly: Russian Defense Ministe
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:47 pm (PDT)
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15502403&PageNum=0
Itar-Tass
September 17, 2010
Any Georgian aggression to be repelled promptly -- RF Defence Min
WASHINGTON: The Russian military bases deployed in Abkhazia and South Ossetia are capable of repelling any possible military threat from Georgia against the republics, Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov stated.
"With any developments, we know how to behave," he said. "I assure you that to repel possible Georgian aggression like that against South Ossetia in 2008 we will need not five days, but much fewer," the minister stressed.
===========================
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- 6.
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U.S. Air Force To Base Advanced Drones On Guam
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:38 pm (PDT)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hHLDeBRejtrwlpMf0iO9SpLusvEwD9I9F2NO0
Associated Press
September 17, 2010
Air Force to base advanced drones on Guam
By AUDREY McAVOY
HONOLULU: The U.S. military has selected Guam — a U.S. territory in the Pacific strategically located to host forces capable of monitoring North Korea — as the next base for its most advanced unmanned plane.
Pacific Air Forces Cmdr. Gen. Gary North said Thursday that the Global Hawk drone will help the Air Force gather intelligence and conduct surveillance and reconnaissance.
North said the unmanned planes would complement missions currently operated by the U-2 spy plane and the RC-135, another surveillance plane, in the Asia-Pacific region. The U-2 plane, for example, is used for missions in South Korean airspace.
The Air Force was planning a ceremony to formally welcome the planes to Andersen Air Force Base on Monday. It plans to base three of the remotely operated planes on the U.S. territory about 2,000 miles southeast of the Korean peninsula.
The plane can fly at altitudes of 60,000 feet — high above most countries' defenses. It's able to stay in the air for more than 32 hours at a time, in part because it doesn't need to swap crews.
"It flies for more than a day — and it flies at very good speeds — so you could transit a long distance and then be able to recover at your home base," North said. "When you can keep it up for 30 hours or more, that is tremendous."
....
The planes are currently only based in two other places: Beale Air Force Base in California and an "undisclosed location" under the responsibility of the U.S. Central Command.
The command's area stretches from central Asia to eastern Africa.
===========================
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- 7.
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Polish Soldier Wounded In Attack On Afghan Base
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:38 pm (PDT)
http://www.thenews.pl/international/artykul139630_polish-soldier-badly-wounded-in-afghanistan.html
Polish Radio
September 15, 2010
Polish soldier badly wounded in Afghanistan
A Polish soldier was badly wounded on Tuesday after the Warrior Base in Ghazni province, southeast Afghanistan, was shelled by insurgents.
The soldier was taken by Mi-17 medical helicopter to a field hospital where he is currently under constant medical supervision.
His family have been informed of the incident, said military spokesman Sebastian Kostecki.
Poland has over 2,500 troops in Afghanistan as part of the multinational NATO mission.
===========================
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- 8.
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Hung Up On The Horn Of Africa
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:38 pm (PDT)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10258/1087505-374.stm
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
September 15, 2010
Hung up on the Horn of Africa
We should let the fractious region go its own way
By Dan Simpson
With the exception of countries the United States has wrecked through wars - Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan - the area where we have done the most damage in recent years probably is the Horn of Africa.
The Horn of Africa is generally defined to include Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, the "horn" part referring to the fact that the African coastline in the northeast takes that shape. Looking at the region strategically, Sudan belongs to the Horn as well.
I take full responsibility for my own part in what has occurred in the Horn, having served as U.S. ambassador and special envoy to Somalia during the relatively ruinous years of 1994 and 1995, but there is a fundamental problem for the United States in devising policy toward the area: The people there have an unfortunate, pronounced predisposition to settle problems among themselves by warfare and violence.
They are fractious and heavily armed. If they ever lack arms, they do not hesitate to sell whatever they have to sell to get them -- including their allegiances or humanitarian food deliveries from abroad intended for their hungry populations. The regime of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a sometime-favorite of American leaders, provided the most recent example.
The people of the Horn are also enterprising in getting assistance, including military assistance, from American administrations. It took the Ethiopians and some of the Somalis no time to figure out that America's hot button since 9/11 has been "Islamic terrorism." Suggesting that one's enemy was infected by -- or even in touch with -- al-Qaida or some other radical Islamic group was enough not only to get U.S. military aid, but even to get the Americans to attack the enemy in question.
That particular vulnerability on America's part has become even more severe in recent years as the U.S. military has come to play a large role in determining and carrying out U.S. policy in the Horn. Part of this phenomenon is an accident of history.
For many years the United States had no military command dedicated to Africa. When I was deputy commandant of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., in 1993-1994 I wrote a monograph in which I noted that there were military commands for Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and South Asia but none for Africa. This, I argued, was to slight Africa: It showed a lack of respect that there was no military-to-military contact and none of the ample Department of Defense resources flowing to Africa.
The Pentagon, certainly not because of my advocacy, created an African Command in 2008. Because none of the African countries where AFRICOM might have liked to have been located wanted its headquarters, AFRICOM continues to be based in Germany. Its one base in Africa is in Djibouti, in the Horn.
In late 2006, claiming radical Islamic activity in Somalia, Ethiopia, backed by U.S. arms, aircraft, intelligence and possibly special operations forces, invaded Somalia. The Somalis hate the Ethiopians a lot, dating in part from the 1970s when the United States supported the Ethiopians against them, then switched sides and supported the Somalis in a Cold War-era regional war. Eventually the Somalis "convinced" the Ethiopians to go home in 2009.
The bad part for the Somalis came in the fact that the only stable government it's had since its armies forced dictator Mohamed Siad-Barre out in 1991 was an Islamic Courts regime that was in power in Mogadishu for the six months preceding the Ethiopian invasion. This government was relatively moderate in Islamic terms. (When I was in Somalia in the 1990s, Somalis in general were moderate Sunni Muslims. The women did not go veiled, wore bright colors and played public roles in society.)
By the time the Ethiopians had been driven out, the Islamic Courts had morphed into the more radical and religiously rigid al-Shabab. In the meantime, the world had organized a Somali "transitional" government in Kenya -- after years of arm-twisting and bribes -- that was installed in Mogadishu under foreign, African Union protection. The members of this "government," busily fighting among themselves, are now cornered in a few square blocks in Mogadishu, and the African Union troops, from Uganda and Burundi, are cursing the day they got dragged into the intra-Somali conflict.
My guess is that pretty soon al-Shabab will overrun the transitional government enclave, forcing the flight of the fickle government forces and obliging the AU to leave. I fervently hope the Americans at the base in neighboring Djibouti do not intervene to help the government hold on against the al-Shabab forces. But I don't rule that out.
In the meantime, elsewhere in the Horn, Ethiopia and Eritrea, both with undemocratic, heavy-handed governments, continue to quarrel with each other as they have since Eritrea's breakaway from Ethiopia in 1993. Djibouti hangs on -- a tiny, reasonably democratic state of 850,000 living like a chihuahua sleeping among pit bulls.
Sudan is what needs to be watched now. The basic problem there is that an agreement brokered in 2005, including by the United States, provides for the people in the south to vote on independence in 2011. The South undoubtedly will choose independence. But the current government is based in the north, in Khartoum, and most of the country's oil wealth is located in the south -- a recipe for conflict. The Obama administration is having internal policy differences over what U.S. policy toward Sudan should be.
I would suggest that Sudan's fate is, almost entirely, none of America's business. Last of all should U.S. military resources based in Djibouti come into play in seeking to determine one outcome or another in Sudan.
Just because you think you can do something doesn't mean you should, particularly in the Horn of Africa.
Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador, is a Post-Gazette associate editor....
===========================
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- 9.
-
Germany: U.S. Army Activates First "Civil Affairs" Unit In Europe
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:04 pm (PDT)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvBAjqznlw8UbNqcH58Xp_0CaNVgD9I9MLVG0
Associated Press
September 17, 2010
US Army activates civil affairs brigade in Germany
BERLIN: The U.S. military says it has set up a new civil affairs brigade in Germany, the first to be based in Europe.
The 361st Civil Affairs Brigade was activated Friday and will be headquartered in Kaiserslautern. Such units help with projects like rebuilding infrastructure and providing aid.
The military says basing the unit in Germany will put around 300 soldiers closer to places they might be needed to help with natural disasters or other missions, such as Africa, eastern and southern Europe, the Middle East or Afghanistan.
The unit will be primarily comprised of reservists, drawn from the U.S. expatriate community in Germany. The military says they are ideal for the job because they have daily experience working and operating abroad.
===========================
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- 10.
-
Saakashvili To Make Georgia English-Speaking Country
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:04 pm (PDT)
http://messenger.com.ge/issues/2195_september_17_2010/2195_edit.html
The Messenger
September 17, 2010
Will Georgia become an English speaking country?
Obligatory English studies have become essential for Georgia's current administration, not only from an educational point of view, but also from a political perspective. "We should become a country which speaks English," sated President Saakashvili, demanding to take steps actively. However, this determination of the current leadership has already caused certain irritation in the public and it could yield some negative results. "If during the communist regime, somebody would say that we needed to introduce 10 000 teachers of Russian, the whole of Georgia would consolidate with the claim of Russification. I do not understand. Will learning English mean that the country will develop? No. Saakashvili wants to bring up Georgians as a servant nation waiting for somebody to visit and therefore to know how to serve them," stated the poet Bagatur Arabuli.
There is an opinion among the Georgian population that the high ranking officials themselves do not know and respect their native language, preferring instead to read and communicate in English. There are many questions. Even during the communist regime, apart from Russian, other foreign languages were taught and everybody had the opportunity to choose between French, German or English. Now Russian is neglected almost completely and everybody should know English, how about other languages? What if a talented youngster wants to become a painter and wants to know Italian? Would he not be accepted into the art academy because of this shortcoming? Similar questions are asked permanently. Of course, the ruling administration will ignore such statements and opinions. However, one should say for certain that this initiative eventually will backfire and people will start to operate under the banner of the protection of our mother tongue. There is an opinion
among the population that the ruling authorities want to make English language one of the state languages and that higher education will be conducted in English. It should be remembered that when such initiatives came from Moscow, they were condemned, protested against and opposed even during the red regime.
The accelerated process of anglicizing Georgia's education, business and everyday life is here and it provokes a feeling of protest in the mood of the population. This could possibly evolve into anti-English sentiments, some time from now. Certain forces might use this to further split society and could give the opposition extra ammunition for its confrontation against the ruling power. So, it seems that a controversial step has been taken which will provide yet another challenge for the country.
===========================
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- 11.
-
US Missile Defense Radar: Homeless but Searching; Protests Called Fo
Posted by: "arn specter" arnpeace@yahoo.com arnpeace
Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:05 pm (PDT)
September 17, 2010 by Arn Specter, Phila. USA
The following article, US Missile Defense Radar: Homeless but Searching by
Justin Vela in Bulgaria, August 6, 2010, is very important. (also see
supportive articles below Vela's article)
It describes the US attempts to expand the missile defense program - missiles
and radar - into the southern Russian area despite serious objections by peoples
in that region and by Russia herself. This expansion is seen by experts in
Russia such as; Alexei Borodavkin, Deputy Foreign Minister, and Dr. Andrei
Kokoshin, Scientist and political analyst, asprovoking and threatening. Both
speak of responses to the US aggression, which
indicate that the current attempts to ratify the New START Treaty in Russia and
the United States will not ameliorate the imposing danger that the US missile
defense expansion in Eastern and Southern Europe represents.
It behooves us to study their perspectives and proposals as well as that of
other experts who see the US expansion of missile defense as unnecessary and
dangerous, instilling greater instability in the region for the millions of
people residing there. Protests by the Invisables in the Czech Republic,
activists in Poland and Bulgaria, and demonstrators in other countries have
taken to the streets and to their governments in recent years protesting the
missile defense buildup by the United States.
Kokoshin speaks of a 'Asymmetric' response by Russia as imminent, indicating a
war response against the United States is being considered, with evidence, etc.
warranted, in his opinion.
Borodavkin calls for regional monitoring of missile defense, a non-military
response to keep further proliferation from accelerating, or at least close eye
on the systems already in place.
It would seem that in the United States practically no one is overly concerned
with this missile defense buildup except for a few activists and non-profit
organizations leading the way. Congress continues to appropriate monies for
missile defense with practically no opposition and now President Obama and the
Pentagon have decided to accelerate the nuclear weapons program by building new
facilities and weapons despite the New START negotiations designed to reduce
proliferation.
This two-faced approach by the US is extremely dangerous and must be seen by
Europeans and Russia as duplicitous and misleading, to say the least. We need
to challenge the Obama and Pentagon plans for missile defense as well as the
Missile Defense Agency that carries out such plans. Too, in my opinion, Europe
and the southern Russian territories need to speak up and protest further US
military expansion in their regions! The world needs to be made a safer place
rather than more threatening and dangerous by further military-missile (with
nuclear warhead capabilities) buildup.
To gain a larger perspective we can research the work of Rick Rozoff and
STOPNATO, on their website and publications. Also, Global Security Newswire,
NucNews and other websites which report on nuclear developments keep us
informed.
Gates, O'Reilly, and Obama, as well as Congress, seem intent on proliferating
missile defense and the expansion of US world power.
Despite their rhetoric about reducing nuclear threats they are accelerating them
dramatically with this massive program in Eastern Europe, southern Russia and
the Middle East region. Too, with Iran and Israel threatening one another we
need to reduce any nuclear or missile threats with serious diplomacy and
negotiations now!
Time is running out with the movement of any missile on foreign soil.
Arn Specter, The Nuclear Review, Phila. USA
----------------------------------------------------------US
Missile Defense Radar: Homeless but Searching
August 6, 2010:
Justin VelaContributorAOL News
SOFIA, Bulgaria (Aug. 6) -- What if you had a missile system and nowhere to put
part of it? That seems to be Washington's dilemma as it shops around for a site
for a system meant to protect its forces and allies in Europe and the Mideast
from possible missile attacks from Iran.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov this week denied a reportin The
Washington Post that his government was engaged in talks with Washington about
hosting a radar station, a key part of the system intended to thwart Iran's
budding missile capability, which might one day even include nuclear warheads.
Turkey, another well-situated NATO member the Pentagon says it's been talking
to, is even less willing to admit that it would consider hosting the facility.
The so-called X-band radar ground station is supposed to enable the first phase
of the administration's new missile defense shield over southern Europe and the
Mediterranean, slated for a first phase of limited deployment next year. Other
elements of the system are to be deployed in Israel and a number of U.S. allies
in the Persian Gulf.
The system was conceived in part as a substitute for the missile system that the
George W. Bush administration planned to deploy in Poland and the Czech
Republic. The Obama administration pulled the plug on that system last fall,
arguing that a broader system would do the job better -- and at the same time
blunting fierce Russian opposition to the program.
The new shield will have high-tech Aegis combat ships armed with missile
interceptors patrolling the Mediterranean and Black Seas, linked up with radar
stations providing the ships with early warning if a missile is fired from Iran.
Bulgaria's northern neighbor, Romania, agreed earlier this year to host elements
of the system beginning in 2015, despite Russia's continued objections, but the
Pentagon's efforts in Turkey and Bulgaria are running up against considerable
political obstacles.
"With regards to Iran, Turkey is trying to establish more cordial relations,"
said Yaprak Gursoy, an expert on security issues at Istanbul's Bilgi University.
"With the uranium swap deal and Turkey's decision in the United Nations Security
Council to oppose a possible embargo on Iran, it is clear that Turkish foreign
policy now involves having good relations with Iran. Why would they jeopardize
that by allowing the U.S. to use Turkey as a location for the missile defense
shield?"
Turkey imports a large amount of its energy from Iran, and though the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP) has not definitively said yes or no to the
U.S. system, most observers there say even the possibility of improving
relations with the West won't offset the political costs for hosting the
station.
At issue isn't only Iran's shadow, but also Russia's. "Any radar tracking device
deployed in Turkey [or Bulgaria] can and will track everything on the Russian
airspace as well," wrote Mehmet Ali Tugtan, an expert on foreign policy and
security issues at Bilgi University, in an e-mail. "Hence, the Russians regard
this as a hostile act. The Russians believe a missile defense system in their
vicinity, even if it is explicitly established against Iran, would impair the
Russian second-strike capability. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to
convince them otherwise."
Bulgaria shares a long history and common Slavic culture with Russia, making
many Bulgarians hesitant to do anything that is considered to be against Russia.
While the Bulgarian prime minister's statements signal that political
sensitivity, they don't necessarily sound a death knell for the deployment of
the radar station, experts say. They do suggest that a perceived backroom deal
between Washington and Sofia may not be the best approach.
"I am skeptical of the level of education of the broader public on this issue,"
said Plamen Pantev of the Institute for Security and International Studies in
Sofia. "Bulgaria and NATO and the U.S. need a more active communication strategy
to explain so it becomes understandable."
Pantev thinks it is likely that Bulgaria would eventually agree to host the
radar station, as neighboring Romania has already agreed to host a land-based
Aegis combat system in 2015. He said Bulgaria's participation will be more
likely if NATO members vote in a November meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, to make
missile defense part of the alliance's overall strategy, rather than the U.S.
project it is now.
Adding what is best described as a very Bulgarian touch, Pantev said that since
Bulgaria is a NATO and European Union member that is also historically close to
Russia, its ideal missile defense shield would be a project that incorporates
the U.S., NATO and Russia. "What would work best in the Bulgarian concept is an
interpolar world," Pantev said. "Maybe that's wishful thinking."
Filed under: World
----------------------------------------------------------
US revives ABM plans in EuropeRussia's "asymmetric" response to US ABMs
Andrei Gribanov Aug 3, 2010 17:18 Moscow Time
US radar station. © flickr.com/aperture7.1/cc-by-nc-sa 3.0
Washington has resumed its plans to build a missile shield in Europe and is
about to sign a treaty with one of the Southern European countries on deploying
a radar station as part of its air defense system. The new facility, aimed to
counter a possible threat from Iran, may be commissioned as early as next year
in either Turkey or Bulgaria.
Statements of the Pentagon and the White House on the approaching deployment of
a radar station in the Black Sea basin may substantially aggravate the
situation. This move will obviously complicate Washington's bilateral relations
with Moscow, with regard to Russia's sharp criticism towards US missile defense
elements in Poland and the Czech Republic. President Barack Obama had to
considerably alter the American ABM concept to reset relationships with the
Russian side. Although the new dispute is unlikely to start as yet, Russia is
deeply concerned over US air defense systems close to its border.
Iran, whose alleged aggression America intends to promptly respond to, will also
be dissatisfied with the new plans concerning missile defense elements, given
Washington's active cooperation with Israel in this area. The US it now
considering the possibility of deploying another radar station on its territory.
This may be followed by Tehran's refusal to resume negotiations on its nuclear
program.
The place where the new radar will be deployed is therefore by no means
unimportant. In this respect, as one of the chief mediators in disputes between
Iran and the West, Turkey may provoke a conflict involving Ankara and Tehran. It
is worth mentioning here that Turkish diplomats recently managed to persuade
Iran to enrich most of its uranium fuel in third countries. Senior Fellow with
the Center for International Security at the Institute of World Economy and
International Relations Vladimir Yevseyev believes Tehran will exert every
effort to avoid this conflict:
"Iran will apparently convince Ankara of rejecting the deployment of a US radar
station. This is also evidenced by the fact that both sides are closely
cooperating to fight against the Kurdish opposition and conducting joint
warfare."
Apart from this, Turkey has some other arguments, according to Director General
of the Russian Political Information Center Alexei Mukhin:
"Relying upon its own development concept in the Mediterranean region, Turkey is
behaving somewhat willfully at the NATO level and will not therefore tolerate
the radar deployment. Bulgaria appears as a more profitable and probable
variant, in light of Washington's strong influence on that country."
Many Bulgarians, like the Czech and the Polish, are fiercely opposed to the US
plans. Thus, the Pentagon's decision on deploying a radar station in southern
Europe may have severe negative consequences. In spite of this, America will not
give up its plans to field ballistic missile interceptors in Romania by 2015.
----------------------------------------------------------
"Practically by this time there is no threat of any war between USA and Russia.
But the threat of proliferation of nuclear and other mass destruction weapons is
growing. And we do not have adequate international mechanisms to cope with these
problems. The public does not recognize fully the reality of the nuclear war,
horrors of the potential use of all kinds of weapons of mass destruction. NTI,
among other tasks, has to stimulate the efforts of politicians, scientists and
experts to minimize the threat of the use of the weapons of mass destruction."
Dr. Andrei Kokoshin
Dr. Andrei Kokoshin is a scientist, scholar and author and is a Member of the
State Duma of the Russian Federation.
Between 1992 and 1997, Dr. Kokoshin served as First Deputy Minister of Defense
of the Russian Federation and as State Secretary. From 1997 to 1998, Dr.
Kokoshin was Secretary of Defense Council and Chief Military Inspector and then
became Secretary of Russia's Security Council.
In 2003 he was elected to the post of Chairman of the State Duma's Committee for
the Commonwealth of Independent States' Affairs and Relations with Compatriots.
That same year he became Dean of the World Politics at Moscow University. Dr.
Kokoshin is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Institute
for International Studies at Stanford University.
Dr. Kokoshin holds an engineering degree in radioelectronics from Moscow Higher
Technical School and a doctorate in political science. He is the author of 12
books on international security, political and military affairs and defense
industry policy.
State Duma of the Russian Federation
----------------------------------------------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_warfare
Asymmetric Warfare: Wikipedia, in depth article.
----------------------------------------------------------
Asymmetric warfare
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Asymmetric warfare is warbetween belligerentswhose relative military power
differs significantly, or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly.
"Asymmetric warfare" can describe a conflict in which the resources of two
belligerents differ in essence and in the struggle, interact and attempt to
exploit each other's characteristic weaknesses. Such struggles often involve
strategies and tactics of unconventional warfare, the "weaker" combatants
attempting to use strategy to offset deficiencies in quantity or quality.[1]
Such strategies may not necessarily be militarized.[2] This is in contrast to
symmetric warfare, where two powers have similar military power and resources
and rely on tactics that are similar overall, differing only in details and
execution.
----------------------------------------------------------
Sep 13, 2010 17:47 Moscow Time
Andrei Kokoshin. Photo: RIA Novosti
Russia should be ready to give an "asymmetric" response to the deployment of US
anti missile defense, Russian academician and deputy of the State Duma, the
lower house of parliament Andrei Kokoshin said.According to the scientist and
lawmaker, Russia has enough grounds to do so.
Russia is particularly concerned with the US' potential means of interception of
intercontinental missiles, he said.He added that Russia should also respond to
non strategic anti missile defense systems on boardlocated on US cruisers and
destroyers.Kokoshin said he is convinced that Russia has sufficient scientific,
technical and economic potential to ensure an asymmetric response.
----------------------------------------------------------
Russia urges multilateral work on missile defense
Tags: Military news, Russia, News, missile defense
Sep 14, 2010 17:29 Moscow Time
Alexei Borodavkin. Photo: EPA
Moscowinsists that a unilateral approach to missile defense undermines
international security and calls for multilateral collaboration on the issue,
Russia's deputy foreign minister, Alexei Borodavkin, said in an interview
released on the ministry's official website.
Russia suggests creating a kind of an association of countries and organizations
to monitor the proliferation of missile technologies and discuss how to
adequately react to real missile threats.
----------------------------------------------------------
- 12.
-
Romania: U.S. Holds Third Round Of Talks On Missile Shield
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:13 pm (PDT)
http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?issue=4767&page=detalii&categorie=homenews&id=20100917-13578
Nine O'Clock News
September 17, 2010
Bucharest to host third round of missile shield negotiations
The third round of negotiations centered on Romania's participation in the US missile defence system will take place today in Bucharest, the Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) announced, pointing out that talks will continue in order to negotiate the judicial framework that will regulate bilateral cooperation in this domain.
According to the MAE communiqué, the delegations will be led by Bogdan Aurescu, secretary of state with the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and Frank Rose, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense Policy and Verification Operations.
The schedule will also include a meeting in which the heads of the two delegations will discuss security aspects of mutual interest, the MAE points out.
Romania's Supreme Defence Council approved on February 4 the invitation that the US extended to Romania concerning its participation in developing the phased adaptive approach for missile defence in Europe. Negotiations officially started on June 17 when US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs. Ellen Tauscher, visited Bucharest.
===========================
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==============================
- 13.
-
NATO Fiefdom: Troops In Afghanistan Long-Term Czech Priority
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:17 pm (PDT)
http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/presence-in-afghanistan-is-czech-long-term-priority-pm-necas/529346
Czech News Agency
September 17, 2010
Presence in Afghanistan is Czech long-term priority - PM Necas
Brussels: Presence in NATO´s Afghan mission is a long-term priority of the new Czech government, Prime Minister Petr Necas said after a meeting with NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Brussels today.
Prague is ready to negotiate about changes in the Czech contingent in Afghanistan, Necas said in connection with NATO´s call for a higher number of experts to train Afghan security forces.
Czech Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra said recently he will submit a material on changes in Czech participation in missions to the government in September or early October.
Participation in Afghanistan should increase while Czech soldiers would be withdrawing from Kosovo. He did not mention any figures, however.
Necas was not more specific today either.
At present there are about 530 Czechs in Afghanistan.
All this depends on negotiations within the government and afterwards in parliament. The government parties want to discuss the issue with the opposition that is not in favour of raising Czech participation in foreign missions.
Necas would like the current system of approving missions for one year only to be extended to two years for the ***sake of better planning.***
===========================
Stop NATO
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==============================
- 14.
-
Ousted Honduran President Again Demands Right To Return
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:42 pm (PDT)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-09/18/c_13518138.htm
Xinhua News Agency
September 18, 2010
Former Honduran president again demands return to his country
TEGUCIGALPA: Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on Friday demanded that the Honduran government allow him to return to the country to exercise his political rights.
Speaking at a press conference after meeting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in Managua, capital of Nicaragua, Zelaya vowed that international efforts for his pacific return to Honduras would continue.
He stressed his return should be without any preconditions and that after his return, he would lead a movement in favor of restoring the democratic order in the country.
He also said he would travel to Guatemala to campaign for a seat in the in the Central American Parliament.
Zelaya was ousted on June 28 last year in a coup as he pushed for a constitutional change which would allow him to run for another term.
Zelaya has been living in Dominican Republic since Jan. 27, 2010 after new Honduran President Porfirio Lobo took office following victory in the general elections of Nov. 29, 2009.
===========================
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