Thursday, November 4, 2010

Iran Opens Airspace For Chinese Warplanes En Route To Turkey





Messages In This Digest (25 Messages)

1.
12 Killed As 28 NATO Tankers Attacked Near Pakistan's Capital From: Rick Rozoff
2.
Georgia Offers NATO Transport Route For Afghan War From: Rick Rozoff
3.
War Brings Displacement, Misery To Afghan Civilians From: Rick Rozoff
4.
Afghanistan: NATO Loses Eight Soldiers In Four Days From: Rick Rozoff
5.
Australian PM To Discuss Afghan War At NATO Headquarters From: Rick Rozoff
6.
NATO Chief To Expand Ties With Asia-Pacific Partners From: Rick Rozoff
7a.
Three Polish Soldiers Wounded In Afghan Attack From: Rick Rozoff
8.
NATO Kills Five Afghan Civilians In Bombing, Shooting Incidents From: Rick Rozoff
9.
Iran Opens Airspace For Chinese Warplanes En Route To Turkey From: Rick Rozoff
10.
New U.S. Missile Strike Kills Four Pakistanis, Wounds Several More From: Rick Rozoff
11.
Russia, Belarus Scenario: Poland Holds Large-Scale Baltic War Games From: Rick Rozoff
12.
'Europe Whole And Free': NATO Chief Hails German Reunification From: Rick Rozoff
13.
Armenian Armed Forces: From CSTO To NATO From: Rick Rozoff
14.
U.S. Global Strike Command Reaches Full Operational Capability From: Rick Rozoff
15.
Germany: U.S. Trains NATO Allies To Call In Air Strikes From: Rick Rozoff
16.
NATO Sends Jordanian Instructors To Train Afghan Army From: Rick Rozoff
17.
Lawmakers Back Nuclear Weapons Budget Boost From: arn specter
18.
Report: KLA's Thaci To Become Kosovo President From: Rick Rozoff
19.
NATO Trains Iraqi Combat Instructors For "Next 10 Or 15 Years" From: Rick Rozoff
20.
Russia Not Ready to Accept NATO Missile Defense Offer From: arn specter
21.
Afghan Attacks Kill Five NATO Soldiers From: Rick Rozoff
22.
Genocide In Africa: Exposing Ban Ki-Moon's And Ocampo's Coverups From: Rick Rozoff
23.
After Missiles, Troops: U.S. Warplanes, More Troops In Poland? From: Rick Rozoff
24.
U.S. To Sell Japan Global Hawk Surveillance Drones From: Rick Rozoff
25.
Pentagon Builds Military Partnerships With Hungary, Serbia From: Rick Rozoff

Messages

1.

12 Killed As 28 NATO Tankers Attacked Near Pakistan's Capital

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 6:29 am (PDT)



http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-10/04/c_13541523.htm

Xinhua News Agency
October 4, 2010

12 killed as 28 NATO oil tankers attacked near Pakistan's capital


ISLAMABAD: At least 12 people were killed as 28 NATO oil tankers were attacked by unknown militants early Monday morning in Rawalpindi, a city near Pakistan's capital Islamabad, reported local media.

According to the report, nine unknown militants riding on motorcycles opened fire at a NATO convoy nearby the DHA Phase II area of Rawalpindi, a city which is only about half-an-hour ride south of Islamabad. The attackers also pulled out of the people from the trucks and shot them dead, said eyewitnesses.

Monday morning's attack on NATO supply trucks is the third of its kind and also the most serious of its kind over the past three days following the air strikes by NATO helicopters in Pakistan's territory on Thursday, which killed three Pakistani troops and injured three others.

Early on Friday morning, some 20 militants attacked a NATO convoy with rockets in Shikarpur, a city in the northern part of Pakistan's Sindh province, killing three people and having 27 NATO oil tankers completely burnt.

Later on Friday evening, another two NATO supply trucks were attacked by a rocket in the country's southwest city of Khuzdar, during which two people were killed.

Following the attacks, Pakistan Taliban claimed the responsibility and threatened more attacks on NATO convoys if NATO did not stop its air strikes over the Pakistani territory.

On Thursday, two NATO helicopters shelled a check post of the Pakistani army in Kurram agency in the country's northwest tribal area which borders Afghanistan, killing three border soldiers and injuring three others.

The incident has caused a strong protest from the Pakistani government which has not only sought an explanation, apology and compensation for the incursion from the NATO side, but also ordered a blockade of the NATO convoys which supply goods to the U. S.-led NATO troops in Afghanistan via the land route of Pakistan, leaving hundreds of NATO trucks stuck on the road heading towards Afghanistan.

It is reported that nearly 70 percent of NATO supplies and 40 percent of its fuel are being shipped to Afghanistan via Pakistan. The blockade of the NATO convoys by the Pakistani government seems to have exercised an influence on the NATO side. It is reported by local media on Sunday that the blockade which has entered its fourth day is likely to end very soon, indicating a deal might have been clinched among the various parties concerned.
===========================
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2.

Georgia Offers NATO Transport Route For Afghan War

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 6:29 am (PDT)



http://en.trend.az/news/politics/foreign/1761008.html

Trend News Agency
October 4, 2010

FM: Georgian president offers NATO country' territory to transport goods to Afghanistan
N. Kirtzkhalia

Tbilisi: Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili offered NATO to use its territory to transport goods to Afghanistan, and if the offer is followed by a official response, then negotiations will begin, Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze said at a news briefing on Monday. She commented on the proposal made by Saakasvili to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Georgia may offer NATO its territory to transport goods to Afghanistan, the president said at the joint press briefing with Rasmussen. In addition, Saakashvili has promised that this route would be safest.

Kalandadze said this issue has been discussed before.
===========================
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3.

War Brings Displacement, Misery To Afghan Civilians

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 6:29 am (PDT)



http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2010-10/04/c_13542443.htm

Xinhua News Agency
October 4, 2010

War renders displacement, miseries to Afghans
by Shoaib, Abdul Haleem

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: "Like the past decades, war once again forced me to leave everything behind and migrate to safer place in Kandahar city," Hamidullah, a 22-year-old from Arghandab district, whispered.

Hamidullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, is one of hundreds of war-weary villagers who left his home in Arghandab, in southern Kandahar province, last month following military operation against Taliban insurgents to escape the war.

"The time for launching operation was not ripe as we could not collect and sell our pomegranates properly," the dejected Hamidullah lamented.

A joint operation of Afghan and NATO-led forces have been continuing in Arghandab and the adjoining Jalai and Panjwai districts over the past one month....

Hamidullah is not alone who has left his village to escape the battle between security forces and the Taliban militants.

More than 900 families are said to have left their houses for safer places in and around Kandahar city and mostly used to live with relatives or in slum areas.

A lady who declined to be named and lives in a slum room in the Juni area of Kandahar city also said that she left her home after losing her two sons during an operation in the Arghandab district last month.

"So far, 650 families have left their houses in the Arghandab district to escape the war," head of the Refugees Department in the provincial capital Kandahar city Mohammad Azim Nawabi told Xinhua.

Some 300 more families have fled the war in the Jalai district and several other families from Panjwai have left for safer places to escape the war, the official further said.

"Clashes between soldiers and Taliban have taken everything from us. My only income was pomegranates, collected from my garden in Arghandab, but endemic war had forced me to leave empty-handed and since then I am living a miserable life in a corner of Kandahar city, " 62-year-old Fazal Bari commented.

Wandering aimlessly on a street in Kandahar city, the depressed Bari said he has no house and no tent to spend the night there.

"My pomegranate garden was everything for me but has been shattered," the hapless Bari said.

"I sold about 100,000 Afghanis (some 2000 U.S. dollars) of pomegranates once last year when the environment was peaceful," he recalled.
....
The operations Dragon Strike and Hamkari or Partnership, covering Arghandab, Jalai and Panjwai districts and adjacent areas, have been going on since last month....

Kandahar, the second Afghan largest city, is famous for its pomegranate orchards and vineyards. The residents of Kandahar, like other war-weary Afghans, are relying on grain produced in farmlands and fruits grown on their gardens.

"Fear of bloody conflicts, bombardments, casualties and destruction have forced me to leave my home in Jalai and take shelter in Kandahar city," a resident of Jalai district Abdullah Khan, 53 told Xinhua.
....
Although, the exact number of those left their houses for safer places to escape the battle is not known, an Afghan family is usually made up of six to eight persons.

"We are trying our best to provide food assistance to the displaced people as much as possible but majority of them particularly women and children are suffering from homelessness, according to our survey," Nawabi the head of Refugees Department in Kandahar stated.
===========================
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4.

Afghanistan: NATO Loses Eight Soldiers In Four Days

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 6:29 am (PDT)



http://www.todayonline.com/BreakingNews/EDC101004-0000145/NATO-soldier-killed-in-bomb-blast-in-southern-Afghanistan,-the-8th-in-four-days

Associated Press
October 4, 2010

NATO soldier killed in bomb blast in southern Afghanistan, the 8th in four days

KABUL, Afghanistan: NATO says one of its soldiers has been killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan - the eighth so far this month.

An alliance statement says the bomb attack occurred Monday but gave no other details.

The death was the eighth in the first four days of this month sustained by the coalition, according to an Associated Press count.

A U.S. troop surge in southern Afghanistan has been accompanied by rising military casualties and civilian deaths.

NATO said Sunday two soldiers were killed in weekend attacks.
===========================
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5.

Australian PM To Discuss Afghan War At NATO Headquarters

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 6:29 am (PDT)



http://www.skynews.com.au/politics/article.aspx?id=521361&articleID=

Sky News (Australia)
October 4, 2010

PM to meet NATO Secretary-General

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will meet NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Brussels to further discuss Australia's role in Afghanistan.

Ms Gillard is expected to discuss the transition to Afghanistan-led security after surprising Australian troops and officials at Tarin Kowt on the weekend on her first official overseas trip.

The PM's visit to Afghanistan comes as federal parliament prepares to debate Australia's role in the war.

There are currently 1550 Australian soldiers in Afghanistan and the opposition has called for more troop and firepower but soldiers on the ground have rejected opposition defence spokesman David Johnston's calls for more tanks.
....
===========================
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6.

NATO Chief To Expand Ties With Asia-Pacific Partners

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 8:54 am (PDT)



http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/05/3029360.htm?section=justin

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
October 4, 2010

NATO eager to deepen Australian ties
By Europe correspondent Emma Alberici and wires

The NATO secretary general has praised Australia's mission in Afghanistan and spoken with Prime Minister Julia Gillard of closer ties between Australia and the security bloc.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen met the Prime Minister in Brussels and thanked her for Australia's contribution to the Afghan army trust fund.

The NATO secretary general congratulated Australia's efforts to support the Afghan National Security Forces.

"Australia's contribution of $150 million to the Afghan Army trust fund making it the leading contributor is highly welcome," he said.

Ms Gillard has come to Brussels after a brief stop in Afghanistan.
....
Ms Gillard cautiously welcomed the idea of deepening relations with NATO, as the alliance mulls closer ties with its Afghan war allies.

"Australia will look at being engaged with NATO in a flexible way in the future," she said.

Mr Rasmussen said he had shown Ms Gillard a draft of NATO's new "strategic concept" which leaders of the 28-nation alliance will adopt at a summit in Lisbon on November 19-20.

The NATO chief said a key element of the concept will be "a fresh approach to NATO partnerships with countries around the globe."

"Australia will have the opportunity to deepen its relations with NATO," he said.

Australia has a military representative at NATO and the Australian military is formally consulted by the alliance on operations Australian troops participate in.

Rasmussen wants to tighten NATO's relations with key partners such as Australia, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand in the face of global threats such as terrorism and cyber attacks.
===========================
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7a.

Three Polish Soldiers Wounded In Afghan Attack

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 9:28 am (PDT)



http://www.thenews.pl/international/artykul140810_three-soldiers-wounded-in-afghanistan.html

Polish Radio
October 4, 2010

Three soldiers wounded in Afghanistan

Three Polish soldiers were wounded after a motor attack by insurgents in Afghanistan, Sunday morning.

The press service of the Polish armed forces in Afghanistan said the injuries sustained were not serious and the lives of the soldiers are not in danger.

The attack in Ghazni province to place "during the execution of a joint combat mission with the Afghan Security Forces and US soldiers when insurgents executed a complex attack. As a result, the Polish soldiers were slightly wounded," reads the statement.

A helicopter immediately took the wounded to hospital. The soldier's families have been informed of the incident.

Poland current has around 2,600 troops in Afghanistan where 21 soldiers and officers have been killed.
===========================
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8.

NATO Kills Five Afghan Civilians In Bombing, Shooting Incidents

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 9:28 am (PDT)



http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\10\04\story_4-10-2010_pg7_6

Daily Times/Reuters
October 4, 2010

NATO kills 5 civilians in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR: At least three Afghan civilians were killed along with 17 insurgents in a NATO airstrike targeting senior Taliban commanders in southern Helmand, the provincial police chief said on Sunday.

In a separate incident, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said its troops accidentally killed two civilians in a province just south of Kabul.

Police chief Abdul Hakim Angar said four civilians were also wounded in the strike, called in to kill militants meeting in the Nad Ali district of Helmand.
....
In the second incident, ISAF said it had accidentally killed two civilians when insurgents attacked a military base in Baraki Barak district of Logar.

The civilians were killed when ISAF forces returned fire following a mortar or rocket attack by the insurgents, it said in a statement. The incident was under investigation.
....
Days before that the Afghan government and ISAF said they were separately investigating reports of civilian casualties caused by an air attack in eastern Laghman.
===========================
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9.

Iran Opens Airspace For Chinese Warplanes En Route To Turkey

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 9:42 am (PDT)



http://en.trend.az/regions/iran/1760625.html

Trend News Agency
October 4, 2010

Iran opens airspace to China warplanes

The Islamic Republic of Iran has reportedly opened its airspace to Chinese warplanes taking part in joint military maneuvers with Turkey, Press TV reported.

Ankara and Beijing conducted the drills in Turkey's Central Anatolia region last month.

The war games, codenamed the Anatolian Eagle, were the first involving Turkey and China. Turkey had previously carried out Anatolian Eagle maneuvers with the US and other NATO members as well as Israel.

Turkish F-16, Chinese Su-27 and Mig-29 fighter jets took part in mock dogfights during the drills.

The maneuvers come ahead of a planned visit by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to Turkey.

Turkey and China took their first step in military cooperation in the late 1990s with joint missile production, manufacturing weapons with a 150-kilometer range, the Hurriyet daily reported on its website.

The multinational Anatolian Eagle exercise is hosted by the Turkish Air Forces and is aimed at boosting aerial cooperation and training. The exercises have been performed since June 2001.
===========================
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10.

New U.S. Missile Strike Kills Four Pakistanis, Wounds Several More

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 9:42 am (PDT)



http://www.presstv.ir/detail/145184.html

Press TV
October 4, 2010

Unauthorized US attack kills 4 Pakistanis

Another non-UN-sanctioned attack by unmanned US planes on Pakistan's troubled tribal belt has killed at least four people and wounded several others.

According to Pakistani security officials, the US drone bombed a house in North Waziristan near the Afghan border. Officials say the house belonged to a local resident.

The death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured are reportedly in critical condition.

The US-led forces have carried out a record number of unauthorized airstrikes in Pakistan this year.

In the most recent of such attacks, two US drone attacks killed at least 18 people in Pakistan on Saturday.

The drone attacks, initiated by former US president George W. Bush and continued under President Barack Obama, have drastically increased in recent weeks at a time when floods have caused devastation in the country.

This has turned into a source of tension between Islamabad and Washington. Islamabad has condemned the airstrikes, describing them as a violation of its sovereignty.

In retaliation to the surge in cross-border attacks, Pakistan has closed its borders with Afghanistan to NATO supply trucks. ===========================
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11.

Russia, Belarus Scenario: Poland Holds Large-Scale Baltic War Games

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 9:47 am (PDT)



http://www.thenews.pl/national/artykul140876_anaconda-2010-gets-to-grips-in-baltic-sea.html

Polish Radio
October 4, 2010

Anaconda 2010 gets to grips in Baltic Sea

-The exercise scenario involves a growing local armed conflict with territorial claims between imaginary states of Wislandia and Monda allied with Bari. Although such states do not exist, their location resembles that of Poland and Russia and Belarus.

Anaconda 2010 military exercise by Poland's armed forces has begun on the Baltic Sea.

More than 7,000 soldiers and nearly 1,000 units of equipment, including: 25 aircraft, 23 helicopters, 16 warships, a submarine, over 120 tanks and infantry vehicles have been deployed in the exercise, the Defence Ministry has announced.

Monday morning, several warships left the ports in Gdynia and Swinoujscie to start a defence operation against the enemy's fleet.

The exercise scenario involves a growing local armed conflict with territorial claims between imaginary states of Wislandia and Monda allied with Bari. Although such states do not exist, their location resembles that of Poland and Russia and Belarus.

"The main goal of the exercise is to check the readiness of the Polish Armed Forces to defend the country in case of the threat," said the commander of the exercise Gen. Edward Gruszka. During the exercise Polish warships will practice how to protect sea lanes, destroy submarines, respond to sea and air attacks and prevent a sea blockade. The state border protection and maintaining integrity will be the main effort of the exercise.

The exercise Anaconda 2010 – named after a snake that feeds off aquatic life forms - ends a six-year cycle of Polish training forces interoperability, will last until 6 October.

Russia was heavily criticized earlier this year for exercises, also in the Baltic Sea, simulating the amphibious invasion of Poland.
===========================
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12.

'Europe Whole And Free': NATO Chief Hails German Reunification

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 11:39 am (PDT)



http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_66615.htm?mode=pressrelease

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
October 3, 2010

NATO Secretary General congratulates Germany on anniversary of unification

I warmly congratulate the German people on the 20th anniversary of the unification of their country. The division of Germany was a tragedy for the German people, and a symbol of the larger division of Europe.

For decades, NATO stood firmly in defence of Germany, and the values shared by all the Allies. Reunification was a victory for those values, and an essential step towards creating a Europe whole, free and at peace.
===========================
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13.

Armenian Armed Forces: From CSTO To NATO

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 12:11 pm (PDT)



http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/2176400.html

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
October 4, 2010

Ex-Envoy To NATO Promoted In Defense Ministry Reshuffle
Ruzanna Stepanian

President Serzh Sarkisian has appointed Armenia's former top military representative to NATO as first deputy minister of defense and relieved the controversial chief of the Armenian military police of his duties.

The appointments announced at the weekend may be a prelude to a further reform of the Armenian military and a response to a recent series of non-combat deaths within its ranks.

Colonel Davit Tonoyan, who will hold the hitherto vacant post of first deputy minister, had served as the military's first permanent representative to the NATO headquarters in Brussels for several years before becoming the head of the Defense Ministry's Department of Defense Policy in 2007. Tonoyan, 42, is widely regarded as Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian's right-hand man.

Ohanian has favored closer cooperation between Armenia and NATO ever since being appointed defense minister more than two years ago. He is also known as a strong backer of defense reforms that would bring the Armenian army into greater conformity with NATO standards and practices.
....
===========================
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14.

U.S. Global Strike Command Reaches Full Operational Capability

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 12:26 pm (PDT)



http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123224563

American Forces Press Service
October 1, 2010

Global Strike command reaches full operational capability

BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. - Officials declared Air Force Global Strike Command to be at full operational capability Sept. 30, on schedule, and less than 14 months after its initial activation as a command.

To reach that milestone, the command accomplished more than 700 action items identified by the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force in 2009, when they chartered Global Strike Command to strengthen the nuclear enterprise by aligning all Air Force long-range nuclear-capable forces under a single command.

Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz, the Global Strike Command commander, reported full operational capability status in a memorandum to the secretary and the chief of staff of the Air Force today.

Full operational capability status is the final step in any military unit's stand up. Air Force Global Strike Command is the first completely new major command the Air Force has activated in more than 27 years.
....
The command was formally activated at Barksdale AFB on Aug. 7 2009, on the premise that no mission is more important than operating, maintaining, securing and supporting the nuclear enterprise, officials said.

Since then, according to General Klotz's official memo, the command has established and manned a fully-functional headquarters. It also assumed responsibility for all units of both 20th Air Force, headquartered at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., and 8th Air Force, headquartered at Barksdale AFB.

The command is fully engaged in long-range planning for the nuclear deterrence and global strike mission, now having in place a strategic master plan that aligns AFGSC with the larger Air Force strategic plan.

Global Strike Command assumes full responsibility for planning, programming and financial management activities Oct. 1, and will be lead for both sustainment and modernization of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles operated out of F.E. Warren AFB; Minot AFB, N.D.; and Malmstrom AFB, Mont.; the B-52 Stratofortress nuclear-capable bombers here and at Minot AFB; and the B-2 Spirit nuclear-capable bombers at Whiteman AFB, Mo.; as well as UH-1N Huey helicopters.
....
Other command missions include targeting analysis at the 625th Strategic Operations Squadron at Offutt AFB, Neb., and the ICBM test launch operations of the 576th Flight Test Squadron at Vandenberg AFB, Calif.

(Courtesy of Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs)
===========================
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15.

Germany: U.S. Trains NATO Allies To Call In Air Strikes

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 12:26 pm (PDT)



http://www.stripes.com/news/air-force-increases-airstrike-training-for-allies-1.120645

Stars and Stripes
October 4, 2010

Air Force increases airstrike training for allies
By Jennifer H. Svan

-In the current five-week initial qualification class of 14 students, for example, only three are from the U.S. Air Force. The rest come from Romania, Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, Norway, Slovenia, Croatia and Poland.

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany: Faced with a critical shortage of joint terminal attack controllers, the Air Force has ramped up efforts to train more from allied nations, many of whom could deploy to Afghanistan to call in NATO airstrikes.

JTACs, as they are called, are airmen trained to call in airstrikes on enemy targets. Typically assigned to an Army ground unit, it is the JTAC's job to choose the right bomb to be dropped and to help guide the pilot to the target if the unit comes under attack....

About 28 NATO nations are contributing troops to the war in Afghanistan, as are about 14-non NATO nations. Many of those countries have never had a JTAC capability before.
....
Last year, Gen. David Petraeus, then the U.S. Central Command commander, highlighted in a memo to the Army and Air Force chiefs of staff the need for more JTACs, according to military officials. There's a "big shortage" of JTACs that regularly serve with platoon-sized security teams and special forces' units, Petraeus said.
....
The Air Force trains its JTACs at two schools, Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and at the USAFE school in Germany.

USAFE Commander Gen. Roger Brady has directed the Europe-based school to double its training capacity, from 72 to 144 graduates a year, said the school's commander, Air Force Lt. Col. Al Roberts. At least 50 percent of those students are expected to come from countries other than the United States, he said.

In the current five-week initial qualification class of 14 students, for example, only three are from the U.S. Air Force. The rest come from Romania, Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, Norway, Slovenia, Croatia and Poland.

While the expansion of training in Europe won't immediately boost the number of American JTACs, it has led to increases of controllers from other countries working in Afghanistan, which will help shrink the gap.

"We have seen a great increase in the number of JTACs that are deploying," Lemley said. "The primary intent is for them to support their own forces. However, in the current fight that we have down there, there are times we will look to other nations and other nations will look to us for support."

With help from USAFE, Romanian forces in Afghanistan now have their own JTACs; the previous six years they did not, Lemley said, and the U.S. military provided Romania with a U.S. Air Force JTAC.

"We create the capacity for them and it also takes the burden off our cadre of JTACs," he said.

Communication is vital to being a JTAC, Roberts said. It's not just about the English language, but getting used to the JTAC terminology that goes along with close-air support, he said. "After we teach them what to say, they get to practice saying it," he said. "Then we take them out in the field to talk to airplanes."

The JTAC students train with a variety of pilots and their aircraft, from German Tornados and PC-9s to U.S. and Belgian F-16s.

"Everybody gets to talk to everybody, which is exactly what they're going to be doing downrange," Roberts said.

The school also employs several Army personnel to "teach JTACs how to talk to the Army," Roberts said.
....
After going through the initial qualification class at USAFE, JTACs undergo more training with their unit, and then when arriving in theater, they're tested on their JTAC skills and knowledge of rules of engagement.

Maj. Andreas Olssen, 35, a JTAC student and commander of Norway's Air Ground Operations School, said his country has a robust JTAC training program but also sends students to the USAFE school and to the United Kingdom.

The U.S., he said, "sets the standard for what's to be done in theater" since it owns a majority of the air assets there.

"Normally a JTAC is assigned to its own country unit," he said. "It's a national responsibility." But if U.S. troops without a JTAC are under fire and a Norweigan JTAC is in the vicinity, "we always try to help each other out because we're in it together."
===========================
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16.

NATO Sends Jordanian Instructors To Train Afghan Army

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 2:50 pm (PDT)



http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/jordanian-instructors-sent-train-afghan-forces

Radio Netherlands/Agence France-Presse
October 4, 2010

Jordanian instructors sent to train Afghan forces

A group of Jordanian military instructors was sent to Afghanistan on Sunday to help train the country's security forces, the official Petra news agency reported.

"Instructors from Jordan's armed forces and security service went on Sunday to Afghanistan where they will train Afghan forces in security methods, to help them do their duty in restoring law and order there," it said.

The agency did not report how many instructors were sent.

In March, Jordan said it had been asked by NATO to train Afghan police, and said it was studying the request.

In May, Information Minister Nabil Sharif told a news conference: "Jordan has trained 2,500 members of the Afghan special forces. This was in the past. The group has completed its training and there are no trainees now."

A Jordanian military source told AFP that training took place in 2007, but declined to elaborate.

Jordan's special forces chief Brigadier Ali Jaradat has said in published remarks that 1,500 servicemen, including anti-terror forces, from Afghanistan and Iraq have received training at the 200-million-dollar King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Centre, which was inaugurated in May last year.
....
Jordan acknowledged it had a counterterrorism role in Afghanistan after the death in a January suicide bombing of a senior intelligence officer, who was also a member of the royal family.

His death along with seven US Central Intelligence Agency personnel spotlighted for the first time Jordan's role in the international coalition in the war-hit country.
===========================
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17.

Lawmakers Back Nuclear Weapons Budget Boost

Posted by: "arn specter" arnpeace@yahoo.com   arnpeace

Mon Oct 4, 2010 2:50 pm (PDT)



Monday, October 4, 2010
Rather than being cautious about Nuclear developments and funding the Obama
administration has allocated funds for Nuclear Weapon development at The Sandia
National Laboratories in New Mexico.
 
Further, Secretary of State Clinton feels these developments support the New
START Treaty with Russia. "I look forward to the vote in the lame duck session
that will once again demonstrate the Senate joining all of its predecessors in
years past to continue to support arms control [treaties]," she said

 
This US policy to continue to proliferate nuclear weapons strongly contradicts
the President's call for a "nuclear free-world" and the calls by thousands of
activists around the world for nuclear disarmament.  Here's what activist Greg
Mello said.
 
"These are not the priorities that would put people to work, provide health care
or education, protect the environment, or halt what most ordinary people
understand to be a continuing economic decline, with no end in sight," Los
Alamos Study Group Director Greg Mello said (Korte, Associated Press).
Lawmakers Back Nuclear Weapons Budget Boost
 
Once again Obama and the military are endangering the world by promoting nuclear
proliferation rather than peaceful co-coexistence with other nations.
Arn Specter, Editor, The Nuclear Review, Oct.4,2010
---------------------------------------------------------- 
Monday, Oct. 4, 2010
A continuing budget resolution to keep the U.S. government operating through
early December provides a $624 million boost in nuclear weapons funding for the
new budget year beyond the amount appropriated in fiscal 2010, the Associated
Press reported Friday (see GSN, July 22; Tim Korte, Associated Press/Alamogordo
Daily News, Oct. 1).
 
(Oct. 4) - The Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, shown above, would
benefit from a $624 million nuclear weapons spending increase contained in a
continuing budget resolution signed into law last week, Senator Jeff Bingaman
(D-N.M.) said (U.S. Sandia National Laboratories photo).

 
President Obama last week signed the resolution to fund federal activities for
the first two months of fiscal 2011, which began Friday, Federal News Radio
reported. The resolution continues only through Dec. 3 (Jolie Lee, Federal News
Radio, Oct. 3).
The funding boost for the National Nuclear Security Administration represented a
victory for the Obama administration, which sought the money as part of a
planned elevation in nuclear weapons spending over five years, according to AP

(see GSN, Feb. 19; Korte, Associated Press).
 
The resolution enables a significant boost in spending for work on the Chemistry
and Metallurgy Research Replacement building at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory in New Mexico, the Albuquerque Journal reported Friday (see GSN, Aug.
17). The facility was projected to cost $4 billion, but its final expense was
still uncertain (John Fleck, Albuquerque Journal, Oct. 1).
"This bill is very good for Sandia and Los Alamos national labs because it
strongly supports the key stockpile stewardship work they do," Senator Jeff
Bingaman (D-N.M.) said in a press release. "It is a sign of how important the
labs are and will remain to our national security," AP quoted him as saying.
Most other branches of the federal government received the same level of funding
under the short-term bill as they had in the previous budget cycle, Bingaman
said. He added that the NNSA spending increase would "lend strong support" to
maintenance of the U.S. nuclear arsenal as lawmakers prepare to consider
ratification of a new nuclear arms control treaty with Russia (see GSN, Sept.
29; Korte, Associated Press).
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton linked the spending increase to an
administration bid to win ratification of the pact, the Journal reported. "I
look forward to the vote in the lame duck session that will once again
demonstrate the Senate joining all of its predecessors in years past to continue
to support arms control [treaties]," she said (Fleck, Albuquerque Journal).
One independent watchdog said the funds could be better spent elsewhere, AP
reported.
"These are not the priorities that would put people to work, provide health care
or education, protect the environment, or halt what most ordinary people
understand to be a continuing economic decline, with no end in sight," Los
Alamos Study Group Director Greg Mello said (Korte, Associated Press).
----------------------------------------------------------

18.

Report: KLA's Thaci To Become Kosovo President

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 2:50 pm (PDT)



http://www.makfax.com.mk/_home/home#117576

Makfax
October 1. 2010

Thaci, Sejdiu to switch places

Pristina: The Albanian daily "Bota Sot" quotes Sejdiu's party sources, that Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has offered his post as prime minister to hitherto president of Kosovo Fatmir Sejdiu.

The paper points out that Thaci and Sejdiu have discussed ways to resolve the national institutional crisis in Kosovo. They've reached a deal, which predicts Thaci to become president of Kosovo, while Sejdiu will take the role as Kosovo's Prime Minister.

Thaci offered his job position to Sejdiu. In other words, Sejdiu will be appointed Prime Minister of Kosovo for the rest of his mandate, while Thaci would take over as a president of Kosovo, a source close to the party said.

Sejdiu hasn't given any comment yet.
===========================
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19.

NATO Trains Iraqi Combat Instructors For "Next 10 Or 15 Years"

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 2:50 pm (PDT)



http://www.aco.nato.int/page272205452.aspx

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
October 4, 2010

Iraqi officers graduate from Battle Staff "Train the Trainer" course

BAGHDAD: The Regional Training Center in Kirkuk marked the conclusion of its first Battle Staff "Train-the-Trainer" course with a Sept. 30 graduation ceremony for 26 students.

This six-day officers' course is offered to majors and below, and instruction includes: the military decision making process, staff duties, intelligence preparation of the battlefield and map reading.

"You are the experts in planning; you are the real professionals," Italian Army Maj. Gen. Claudio Angelelli, deputy commander of the NATO Training Mission-Iraq told the graduates during the ceremony. "Your work is vital to successful operations and key in ensuring the long-term security of Iraq."

Graduates of this course will return to their commands capable of sharing the training they received with other officers in their units.

"You are the battle staff personnel who will lead your military for the next 10 or 15 years," said Staff Brig. Gen. Abdullah Hassan Mohammed, commander of the Regional Training Center. "The power to develop military capabilities to meet the demands of the future lies in your hands."

NTM-I plans to extend the length of the course to three weeks to add operations, site exploitation and other topics into the curriculum.
===========================
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20.

Russia Not Ready to Accept NATO Missile Defense Offer

Posted by: "arn specter" arnpeace@yahoo.com   arnpeace

Mon Oct 4, 2010 2:50 pm (PDT)



Monday, October 4, 2010
Once again Russia is showing restraint along with willing cooperation with NATO
on plans for a regional missile defense system in Europe.  Russia wants the US
to discontinue its unilateral missile defense plans in Poland, the Czech
Republic, Bulgaria and Romaina.
The United States is ignoring Russia's concerns but, as part of NATO may be
forced to reconsider its position on missile defense expansion in Europe.  If
not then agreements with Russia and NATO along with the New START treaty between
the US and Russia are doomed to failure; or possible

dangerous confrontation in the European-Russian region of the world.
Arn Specter, Editor, The Nuclear Review, Phila.
----------------------------------------------------------
Russia Not Ready to Accept NATO Missile Defense Offer
Monday, Oct. 4, 2010
Russia is not dismissing a NATO offer for collaboration on missile defense
operations but is also not prepared to agree to the proposal, a high-ranking
diplomat told Interfax last week (see GSN, Sept. 27).
The NATO offer lacks several crucial elements, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander
Grushko said.
"It is an important and far-reaching proposal, which we treat very seriously,"
Grushko said. "Moreover, many of its elements are in tune with Russia's
initiative to create a European missile defense shield."
"However, it is not clear today what the architecture of such a hypothetical
missile defense system will look like, who will control it and how, what means
it is expected to involve and in what direction it will develop," he added.
"We hope that in the end we will be able to agree upon parameters that would
allow us to find concrete cooperation arrangements," the diplomat said.
Grushko said any antimissile collaboration with NATO must be "equal" and that
Russia must receive pledges that alliance members participating in the shield
would not build their own missile defense systems that undermine Russia's
nuclear deterrent.
Moscow has been wary of U.S. plans for European missile defenses and of NATO
consideration of augmenting its existing battlefield antimissile systems to
cover alliance member states.
Grushko called for a "stage-by-stage approach" to address the differences. He
reaffirmed the Kremlin's call for a joint analysis of actual and probable
missile threats as a first step to collaborative defense efforts.
"Then we can develop a system that would be adequate to these risks and would
envision joint command and control," Grushko said (Interfax, Oct. 2).
Grushko told Interfax the Kremlin anticipates signing a binding defense
agreement with NATO on shared restraint, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
"Although NATO itself acknowledges that all of the threats are coming mainly
from the south, we nevertheless see that the alliance's military infrastructure
has been developing in areas adjacent to Russia," he said.
He drew attention to NATO military buildups in the Baltic region and apparently
to U.S. consideration of locating missile defense installations in Romania and
Bulgaria (see GSN, June 18).
"All this causes our justified concern, and we would like this concern to be
dispelled through dialogue and the formulation of measures that would heed
Russia's security interests properly," Grushko said (Xinhua News Agency, Oct.
1).
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Washington and Moscow have nearly
reached a deal on missile defense that has caused ratification of a new
bilateral nuclear arms control accord to be drawn out, Bloomberg reported.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and President Obama earlier this year called
for a bilateral expert analysis on the dangers of missile proliferation, Lavrov
told the state-run Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
"The paper should be ready soon," Russia's top diplomat said. Afterward, the
former Cold War rivals would join with European states in considering joint
responses to such dangers, which would start with negotiations but could
included armed intervention, Lavrov said (Lucian Kim, Bloomberg/Businessweek,
Oct. 1).
----------------------------------------------------------

21.

Afghan Attacks Kill Five NATO Soldiers

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 2:50 pm (PDT)



http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/afghan-attacks-kill-five-nato-soldiers-0

Radio Netherlands/Agence France-Presse
October 4, 2010

Afghan attacks kill five NATO soldiers

Bombs and shootings on Monday killed five NATO soldiers and targeted two pro-government officials in Kandahar, the Taliban's former capital in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said four soldiers were killed in bomb attacks in the south and a fifth died fighting rebels in the east of the country. It declined to release their nationalities.

The new deaths took to 561 the number of foreign troops killed in the Afghan war so far in 2010, according to a tally by independent website icasualties.org, as the toll from the nine-year Taliban-led insurgency worsens.

This year's toll is the highest on record since the war began in late 2001 with a US-led invasion toppling the Taliban regime.

There are more than 150,000 foreign troops, the majority US and NATO, fighting to end the insurgency with the focus largely on areas of the south, where the Taliban exert a strong presence.
....
Separately, police in the south said that three civilians were killed when NATO-led troops chased a Taliban leader through mud-brick houses in a village.
....
Deputy provincial police chief Kamaluddin Khan told AFP that Western troops raided houses in Kajaki district, killing at least three civilians and 14 insurgents late Sunday.
....
Thousands of Afghan civilians have died in insurgent attacks and operations by Afghan and Western troops since the war began in 2001.
===========================
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22.

Genocide In Africa: Exposing Ban Ki-Moon's And Ocampo's Coverups

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 3:05 pm (PDT)





Genocide In Africa: Exposing Ban Ki-Moon's And Ocampo's Coverups

By Milton Allimadi

October 4th, 2010

 

 

 

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Doing Washington's dirty work to coverup genocide in Africa at the UN?

 
 
 

 

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[Publisher's Commentary]

If any two individuals deserve indictments in connection with war crimes, then they are Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary General and Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Others on the list --and if the current trend continues they may get their just dues-- include Uganda's Gen. Yoweri K. Museveni and Rwanda's General Paul Kagame. Former President Bill Clinton is also a stellar candidate.

Secretary Ban and the ICC's Ocampo are both guilty of an appalling miscarriage and obstruction of justice for their role in tampering with evidence and potentially blocking the criminal prosecution of two architects of genocide in Central Africa, Gen. Museveni and Gen. Kagame.

Ban Ki-moon recently traveled to Rwanda and met with Kagame, who had just conducted sham elections and had been proclaimed president for a fresh 7-year term to appeal that Kagame rescind his threat to withdraw Rwandan troops from a peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur region in retaliation for the impending damning UN report showing his troops' role in genocide.

It is believed that in return the Secretary General promised to shelve the UN report, subsequently published Oct. 1, by not referring it for judicial action. The report confirmed what many people have known for years-- that the Kagame-led Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) committed genocide against Hutus who had fled to what was then Zaire, after Kagame seized power in Rwanda in 1994.

Secretary Ban was following the lead of chief ICC prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo, an accused rapist, who should not even be holding that office and has engaged in coverups benefitting Gen. Museveni.

In 2005, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had ruled that Uganda's army and its allied militias had committed what amounted to war crimes in the Congo, including massacres, mass rapes, razing of homes and theft of natural resources. The ICJ awarded $10 billion in compensation to the Congo for Uganda's war crimes. Thereafter, Congo's President Joseph Kabila referred the case to the ICC, which, had it acted on the same evidence as the ICJ, would have prosecuted several of Uganda's military commanders, including Gen. Museveni.

Ocampo has been sitting on the action for years. Certainly Gen. Museveni knew it was a serious matter and The Wall Street Journal reported on June 8, 2006 that he had begged then Secretary General Kofi Annan to block an ICC investigation.

Apparently, Museveni's plea fell on Ocampo's sympathetic ears. That a man who first made his name as a hero prosecuting and successfully convicting genocidal war criminals in Argentina should now cover-up for a war criminal of the same ilk in Africa is mind-boggling.

Now Secretary Ban is playing the same role for Rwanda, presumably with the support of the United States. The UN report implicating Kagame's troops was officially published last Friday. For weeks there had been speculation that the UN might delete any references to "genocide" and succumb to Kagame's blackmail that he would pull troops from Darfur.

Not surprisingly, Uganda through its foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa had also announced that it would consider pulling troops from Somalia if the UN released the report, which, not surprisingly in light of the ICJ finding, also implicates Ugandan troops in Congo crimes.

Why would the United Nations and the United States consider covering up crimes of genocide, even if the victims were Africans, a people whose lives are not regarded as valid currency in many quarters?

Is it really only about protecting Kagame and Museveni, both responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans? Or is it more about shielding the role of the United States in the Central African genocide?

Indeed, this is the angle that has yet to be adequately explored. We have dealt with it in previous commentary and there are other media sources that have touched upon it.

Rwanda erupted in mass and uncontrollable blood letting on April 6, 1994, after its president Juvenal Habyarimana was assassinated. His plane, with its French crew, was shot down by missiles, which The New York Times has reported was linked to a shipment sent to Uganda; it's believed Uganda supplied them to Kagame's RPF.

Cyprien Ntaryamira, Burundi's Hutu president who was accompanying Habayarimana, also died in the crash.

Yet, the path towards the 1994 massacres was paved on October 1, 1990, when Uganda launched a war of aggression against Rwanda and occupied its territory. Units of the Ugandan army carried out the invasion; after seizing territory in Rwanda, these units, farcically, became the "Rwanda Patriotic Front." In fact, these units were comprised mostly of soldiers of Rwandan and ethnic Tutsi origin who had taken up residence in Uganda.

A senior Ugandan military officer of Rwandan origin, Gen. Fred Rwigyema, led the 1990 invasion. When he was killed early in the invasion, Museveni summoned Kagame, then chief of Uganda's Military intelligence, to take command.

Kagame at the time was being trained at the United States military academy at the U.S. Army Command and Staff College (CGSC) in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He abandoned the training, returned to Uganda and took charge of the war of aggression.

When the French government tried to bring the matter up for discussion at the UN Security Council, it was blocked by the United States. This was clear evidence that the United States wanted the war to proceed; Museveni had convinced Bill Clinton that if French influence could be displaced from the region, the mineral wealth in neighboring Congo, a country then comatose under Mobutu, would become available to U.S. interests.

Clearly, Uganda was guilty of launching a war of aggression, and contributed directly to all the attendant calamities and suffering that befell Rwanda and its citizens; further still, the United States also shares culpability.

From 1990 to 1994, with the acquiescence of the United States, Gen. Museveni continued to arm, advise and finance the RPF, which had offices based in Uganda as well as in the territory it had seized inside Rwanda; it was actually a case of Uganda supplying its regular army on loan to Kagame.

The swift downfall of Rwanda's President Habyarimana was only delayed when French and Congolese forces bolstered his army during the initial stages of the war. Later, many Western newspapers started referring to a "civil war" when it was in fact a war of aggression from a neighboring country backed by a superpower, the United States.

Thereafter, a war of attrition ensued for years. During this period Kagame recruited and built up his army. News clips document the atrocities Kagame's RPF committed during that period; and even more violent retributions against ethnic Tutsis by Habyarimana's regime followed.

At the same time, the International community half-heartedly sponsored peace talks. A power sharing arrangement was concluded, with a call for elections.

Meanwhile, the RPF and its Ugandan sponsor, Gen. Museveni, realized that elections would negate the fruits that had been attained through warfare, terror, and destruction. Hutus comprised almost 90% of the population in Rwanda and any candidate on the Kagame and Museveni-sponsored ticket would be defeated. The aggressors would be exposed.

Kagame and Museveni had to explore a game-changing option.

So on April 6, 1994, the presidential plane carrying Habyarimana was shot from the sky as it prepared to land in Kigali. According to a New York Times article, parts of the missiles found later matched the series that had been provided to Uganda, who then supplied them to the RPF. Indeed, years later, in 2006 a highly respected French prosecutor Jean-Louis Bruguière indicted Kagame in connection with the assassination of Habyarimana.

The recent UN report --despite attempts at a cover-up by Secretary Ban-- merely tightens the noose around Gen. Kagame, and by extension, Gen. Museveni. The American players have yet to be clearly identified, but certainly any fair review should look at the roles of then President Bill Clinton and his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

What resulted from the murder of Habyarimana is well documented. The images of the victims of the mass killings --many chopped to pieces with machetes-- were beamed throughout the world. Human beings everywhere wanted someone to halt the abominable bloodletting.

The killings continued as the Museveni-backed RPF, under Kagame, routed the demoralized and discredited Rwandan army, which was in utter disarray after the murder of its commander in chief Habyarimana. After the RPF seized power, Kagame was hailed as a hero. Machiavelli himself would have nodded approvingly; the engineers of the war of aggression against Rwanda and the architects of genocide through the assassination of Habyarimana had prevailed.

Subsequently, the looming elections, which had already been agreed on --and which would have exposed and nullified the RPF-- were suddenly of no importance.

Rwanda has never had a democratic election since the RPF seized power, and in the decades before the RPF victory there were also no democratic elections, except at independence.

After Habyarimana was assassinated, a sea of humanity, comprising millions of Hutu civilians, fled towards and then into Congo, following the routed Habyarimana army.

Eventually, Kagame's RPF entered Congo in hot pursuit. The RPF continued the atrocities that it had committed during the four-year period prior to when it seized power in 1994. The United Nations documented the massacres. The United States, under Clinton --whom some people believe deserves to be hauled away as an accessory to the war crimes in Rwanda-- blocked the release of the 1994 report, which forms the basis of the report issued last week.

After all, how would it look if it was revealed that the U.S. had trained Kagame; and that the U.S. had blocked France's attempts to have the Security Council debate Uganda's war of aggression in the early 1990s; and, that the U.S. had continued to equip Uganda's army and train more Ugandan officers when one of the trainees commanded an invasion against a neighboring country?

Consequently, the fiction that Kagame and the RPF had "rescued" Rwanda and "ended the genocide" began to be disseminated all over the world by U.S. officials and by pliant --or even co-opted media-- including the BBC, The New York Times, and The New Yorker magazine. Reporters such as the Times' Donatella Lorch and the New Yorker's Phillip Gourevitch were principle mouthpieces of this fairy tale about an angelic and heroic Kagame and the RPF.

Silence followed. Hutu opposition was muted; even moderate Tutsis were sidelined. What was the use of shouting out when Kagame had the backing of the world's single remaining superpower?

Years later, Clinton was able to travel to Rwanda and shed crocodile tears. In fact, he must have known, or should have known, that Uganda's war of aggression against ethnically volatile Rwanda might spark the kind of mass murders the world witnessed in 1994.

Kagame ruled with an iron fist. Whenever he was questioned, his retort was: Where was the rest of the world when we suffered genocide? He used the genocide card conveniently. It was quite a perverted strategy, considering that he and Museveni were the prime architects.

Kagame's most recent sham elections were in August. He "won" by 93%. Leading up to the election, a prominent opposition figure was beheaded, and a major candidate, whom many believe would have won, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, was placed under house arrest --under "genocide denial" charges, and prevented from registering and campaigning; several other opposition parties were also disqualified and blocked from participating in the elections.

Now, finally, comes the official United Nations report. Will justice prevail? Will the UN call for a Special Tribunal to try the perpetrators of the war crimes? Will Uganda's role in launching the 1990 invasion also be examined? And what about the U.S. role during the Clinton Administration?

The court of international public opinion must be heard demanding for justice and accountability, so that charlatans like Ocampo and Secretary General Ban can be prevented from committing a travesty.
 
Read the full report here.

 
[Full URL: http://www.scribd.com/doc/38542370/Drc-Mapping-Report-Eng-10-08-26-Final-a4#about]

 
"Speaking Truth To Empower."
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23.

After Missiles, Troops: U.S. Warplanes, More Troops In Poland?

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 3:06 pm (PDT)



http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1588418.php/Poland-seeks-stronger-US-military-presence

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
October 1, 2010

Poland seeks stronger US military presence

Warsaw: Poland's defence minister is seeking a larger presence by the US military in the country, seeing it as guarantee of greater security, local media reported Friday.

Polish Defence Minister Bogdan Klich met Thursday with US counterpart Robert Gates in Washington to discuss boosting cooperation between US and Polish special forces and basing US fighter jets and transport aircraft in Poland.

'The greater the presence of our allies in our country, the greater Poland's security,' Klich told reporters.

He said discussions with the Pentagon touched on the stationing of US troops in Poland and the temporary stationing of F-16s and Hercules transport planes.

Poland is already host to a US Patriot missile battery, which it unveiled in May in Morag, northern Poland, a town some 60 kilometres from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

Russia was critical of the move, saying it threatened regional security.
===========================
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24.

U.S. To Sell Japan Global Hawk Surveillance Drones

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 3:26 pm (PDT)



http://www.presstv.ir/detail/145117.html

Press TV
October 4, 2010

Japan plans to buy US spy drones

Japan's Defense Ministry is reportedly planning to buy three American reconnaissance unmanned planes in a bid to increase its espionage capabilities.

Citing unnamed ministry sources, Kyodo News said on Monday that Japan would pay $150 million for three Global Hawk spy drones.

Tokyo hopes to use the camera-equipped drones to monitor its neighbors' military and nuclear programs, the report said.

"Equipped with sophisticated communications capabilities, the Global Hawk can fly at an altitude of 60,000 feet (18,000 meters) -- about twice as high as commercial passenger planes -- for more than 30 hours on autopilot," the agency said.

The report came as a territorial dispute over the ownership of a chain of islands in the East China Sea has soured relations between Japan and China in recent weeks.

Kyodo also said in a separate report that Japan and the US are planning to hold a joint military exercise in December focused on defending the disputed islands. The exercise could heighten tensions between Japan and China.

Both states claim sovereignty over the islands that are said to have vast oil and gas reserves.

The Japanese call the disputed islands 'Senkaku,' while the Chinese call them 'Diaoyu.'

The latest diplomatic row intensified between the two Asian economic powers after a Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese patrol boats near the islands.
===========================
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==============================

25.

Pentagon Builds Military Partnerships With Hungary, Serbia

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

Mon Oct 4, 2010 3:26 pm (PDT)



http://www.dvidshub.net/news/57456/bilateral-affairs-officer-eyes-and-ears-guard-partnerships

National Guard Bureau
October 4, 2010

Bilateral Affairs Officer: Eyes and ears for Guard partnerships
by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill

ROSZKE, Hungary: A motorcade carrying Army Maj. Gen. Gregory Wayt from Belgrade, Serbia, stops at the border here.

The general climbs out and crosses the diagonal red border line painted across the M5 motorway to another motorcade driving him to Budapest.

Wayt, the adjutant general of the Ohio National Guard, is midway through a visit to the state's partners in the almost 20-year-old, 62-nation National Guard State Partnership Program: the adjoining nations of Serbia and Hungary.
....
Army Maj. Devin Braun is wrapping up an accompanied, two-year tour as the Ohio National Guard's BAO in the Balkan nation of Serbia. Air Force Capt. Jeremy Ford has served as Ohio's BAO in the Central European nation of Hungary on an unaccompanied tour since October 2009.

"We're the eyes and ears of the [adjutant general]," Ford said.

"The adjutants general need someone they can trust and rely on who understands the country team, who can be part of the embassies … to facilitate the close working relationships between the state and the country, to plan those training events that are most worthwhile and to understand the budgetary limitations of the program," Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, said as he returned from Germany in August from meetings with U.S. Africa Command and National Guard leaders about the SPP.
....
Ford's primary responsibilities here in Hungary include arranging military-to-military exchanges between the partners and coordinating joint deployments to Afghanistan that have resulted from the SPP, where Ohio Guard members and their Hungarian counterparts have served side-by-side on a Hungarian-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization mission.

"We had such a good relationship with Hungary that they asked us to join them," Ford said.

Ohio and Hungary have been partners since 1993, during which time Hungary has emerged from the former Soviet Bloc to be a full member of both NATO and the European Union.
....
"The list of supporting agencies that support our activities is 25 or 30 long," said Braun, Ohio's BAO in Serbia. "It can very complex. There's a lot of synchronization that has to occur. That's a big part of your job."
....
Braun and Ford's positions are paid for by EUCOM. Serbia and Hungary fall within EUCOM's area of responsibility.

"We've got to find those slots … so that we can populate these BAOs, whether they be Air Guard or Army Guard, so that they can be the link between the state and the country," McKinley said.

BAOs can be either Army or Air billets. In Ohio's case, Serbia is an Army billet, and Hungary is Air.
....
"I look forward to 10 years from now meeting some of these Hungarians that are captains and majors at my level and maybe seeing them as lieutenant-colonels, colonels … generals," Ford said....

Such relationships are a unique aspect of the National Guard's contribution to Defense and State Department efforts to build partnership capacity.
....
===========================
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==============================

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