Messages In This Digest (25 Messages)
- 1.
- Bangladesh: U.S., NATO Forge New Military Partnership In South Asia From: Rick Rozoff
- 2.
- NATO Troops Kill 17 Afghan Civilians, Four Children From: Rick Rozoff
- 3.
- NATO Loses Another Soldier In Afghan Fighting From: Rick Rozoff
- 4.
- Scotland: NATO Navies Hold War Games Simulating "Territorial Dispute From: Rick Rozoff
- 5.
- 2005-2009: U.S. Sold $37B In Arms To Gulf States, Plans $123B More From: Rick Rozoff
- 6.
- Albanian President: "Balkans Need U.S. Troops in Kosovo" From: Rick Rozoff
- 7.
- Former Pakistani Army Chief: Shoot Down NATO, U.S. Aircraft From: Rick Rozoff
- 8.
- NATO Chief Wants Russia, Ukraine In Continental Missile Shield From: Rick Rozoff
- 9.
- Kuriles: Japan Toughens Stance Against Russia From: Rick Rozoff
- 10.
- FBI Raids Activists' Homes in Sinister COINTELPRO Replay From: Richard Frager
- 11.
- Poland, Lithuania: U.S. Interoperability For Afghan, Other Battle Sp From: Rick Rozoff
- 12.
- Ex-Polish PM: U.S., EU "Should Get Tough With Russia" From: Rick Rozoff
- 13.
- Rasmussen: NATO Summit To Leave Door Open For Georgia, Ukraine From: Rick Rozoff
- 14.
- NATO Chief To Meet Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister In Georgia From: Rick Rozoff
- 15.
- Afghan Children Killed By NATO Bombs From: Rick Rozoff
- 16.
- Alliance-Azerbaijan Integration: Foreign Minister At NATO HQ From: Rick Rozoff
- 17.
- U.S., Indian Defense Chiefs Push Military Ties, $5 Billion Arms Deal From: Rick Rozoff
- 18.
- U.S., NATO Offensive Forces Tens Of Thousands Of Afghans To Flee From: Rick Rozoff
- 19.
- Military Committee: NATO To Continue Building "Afghan" Army From: Rick Rozoff
- 20.
- 20-Year Indoctrination: NATO Should Be Able To Operate Outside Europ From: Rick Rozoff
- 21.
- U.S. Headquarters: NATO, Microsoft Boost 15-Year Partnership From: Rick Rozoff
- 22.
- NATO Trains Iraqi Federal Police, Armed Forces From: Rick Rozoff
- 23.
- Europe: Cost Of NATO Theater Interceptor Missile System To Rise From: Rick Rozoff
- 24.
- Poland: U.S. Joint Exercise Command Holds Mass Casualty Exercise From: Rick Rozoff
- 25.
- U.S. Warplanes Complete NATO Rotation In Iceland From: Rick Rozoff
Messages
- 1.
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Bangladesh: U.S., NATO Forge New Military Partnership In South Asia
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 7:56 am (PDT)
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/bangladesh-u-s-and-nato-forge-new-partnership-in-south-asia/
Stop NATO
September 29, 2010
Bangladesh: U.S. And NATO Forge New Military Partnership In South Asia
Rick Rozoff
The Foreign Ministry of Bangladesh disclosed on September 26 that the United States had requested combat troops for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's military command in Afghanistan.
The effort to recruit Bangladeshi soldiers for the nine-year-old war was made in an overture by U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke to Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Dipu Moni in New York City, presumably on the sidelines of or following last week's United Nations General Assembly session.
A statement issued by the government of Bangladesh said that Holbrooke "sought for any kind of help like deploying combat troops, providing economic and development assistance or giving training among the law enforcement agencies." [1]
Should the government of Bangladesh accede to the American request, it would become the 48th official Troop Contributing Nation for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the seventh Asia-Pacific nation to provide troops to the North Atlantic military alliance for its war in South Asia, one which has further advanced across Afghanistan's eastern border into Pakistan with marked ferocity during the past five days. NATO will have gained another major ally in the building of its Asian complement using the Afghan-Pakistani war theater as the grounds for integrating the armed forces of countries on the other side of the world from the North Atlantic for what is expanding into a global U.S.-led military network.
Bangladesh's combat forces would join military units from Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand among Asia-Pacific countries, with a report that a 275-troop marine contingent from Tonga is also to arrive in Afghanistan soon. Japan has personnel assigned to NATO's Provincial Reconstruction Teams in the country and in the past has supplied the U.S. with naval assistance for the war effort.
The inclusion of Bangladesh into the ranks of NATO's ISAF, however, would constitute a milestone in two key ways. It would be the only country in South Asia with troops in the war zone aside from the two nations in which the expanding conflict is being fought: Afghanistan and Pakistan. And Bangladesh would be the second most populous state contributing to NATO's military campaign, only surpassed by the U.S., as it has the seventh largest population in the world at 160 million.
The war in Afghanistan has provided the Pentagon and NATO the groundwork for working with the militaries of scores of nations under real-world and real-time combat conditions. Every European country except Belarus, Cyprus, Malta, Moldova, Russia and Serbia has deployed troops to Afghanistan under NATO command, as have the nations of the South Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The United Arab Emirates is the first Persian Gulf state to do so.
Though not yet official contributing nations, several other countries have personnel in Afghanistan or on the way, including Bahrain, Colombia, Egypt, Japan and Ukraine. Over a quarter of the world's nations have supplied military units of various size for the North Atlantic bloc's war in Afghanistan.
In the past year both the U.S. and NATO have intensified activities aimed at integrating Bangladesh into the West's military nexus, both in preparation for the deployment of its troops to Afghanistan and for solidifying what for the past decade has been referred to as Asian NATO.
This May 12 a roundtable meeting was held in the capital of Bangladesh entitled "The Role of NATO in the New Security Order" with the participation of several "experts, military personnel and former government officials from the region." [2] The title of the event suggests it was conducted in the context of last year's discussions of the new NATO Strategic Concept held in several European and North American nations. The Indian subcontinent is far-removed from the North Atlantic Alliance's point of origin, but the new doctrine to be adopted this November at NATO's summit in Portugal will institutionalize the bloc's expansion into an international military and - to use its own term - security organization.
The keynote address was delivered by former Norwegian defense minister Anders Christian Sjaastad and the roundtable as a whole "discuss[ed] the present and possible role of NATO in [the] new security order...."
A local newspaper account of the meeting reported that "Speakers at a roundtable here...said the greatest evolution taken place in NATO over the past 20 years was its transition from a static, defensive force to a force ready to take on security missions well beyond its traditional Trans-Atlantic borders."
"Since the last revision of the strategic concept, NATO forces have undertaken missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, counter-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden, counter-terrorism missions in the Mediterranean Sea, training missions in Iraq, and active military operations in Afghanistan." (NATO's bombing campaign in and deployment of 60,000 troops to Bosnia in 1994-1995 predated the current Strategic Concept adopted in 1999.)
NATO has in fact expanded into a global military force, the first in history, and in the words of the former Norwegian defense chief, "It was the attacks of September 11 in 2001 and the Afghanistan campaign that turned what had been theoretical analysis into reality." [3]
"The event made NATO 'go global.'" [4]
Whether fully cognizant of it at the time or not, Sjaastad spoke volumes regarding NATO's 21st century plans in stating that Asia "is where the action is nowadays. Europe, in comparison, is rather dull....All the global conflicts originated from this part of the world." Whether regarding the recent or remote past, his claim that all global conflicts originated from Asia is an absurd contention, but is indicative of NATO's determination to pacify and subjugate "unruly" parts of the non-Euro-Atlantic world.
The opening remarks were made by retired Major General ANM Muniruzzaman, the founder and president of the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies which sponsored the event, who "spoke of the eastward expansion of NATO, saying that the institution has undergone a sea change. The New NATO had a fresh strategic concept and was expanding beyond its original Eurocentric perimeters." That is, Europe has been united under NATO control and now it is time to move on Asia.
Someone identified as retired Major General Roomi was in the audience and commented from the floor:
"NATO instead of doing policing is protecting its own security and posing a threat to others. And why are you in Afghanistan? It is not just because of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. It is also because of the oil in the region. You want to 'tame' Pakistan, Iran. All this has other motives. NATO only comes with its own interests at heart." [5] The former general evidently remembered which side the U.S. and its NATO allies were on during his country's 1971 war of independence.
Since late last year the Pentagon has demonstrably increased efforts to pull the armed forces of Bangladesh into its geopolitical orbit.
In early November three U.S. military commanders visited Bangladesh. Theirs were names to conjure with: Lieutenant General Benjamin Mixon, Commanding General of United States Army Pacific and former commander of the Multi-National Division North in Iraq. Vice Admiral John Bird, commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, the largest forward-deployed fleet in the world. U.S. Marine Corps Major General Randolph Alles, Director for Strategic Planning and Policy at the U.S. Pacific Command, the largest overseas military command in the world.
The three made "separate trips, but the goal of each of the visits [was] to strengthen bilateral security cooperation between the two countries." They met with the chiefs of the host country's army and navy as well as senior government officials. Beforehand the U.S. embassy in Dhaka announced that "Their discussions will focus on interoperability, readiness in the region, security-force assistance, and bilateral approaches to maintaining regional stability." [6]
Also in early November the U.S. led the first of four Tiger Shark military exercises held in the nation. The latest, Tiger Shark-4, ended on September 26.
At the close of the first, U.S. Ambassador James F. Moriarty attended a graduation ceremony for 59 navy commandos at the Bangladesh Navy Special Warfare and Diving Salvage Centre at the BNS (Bangladesh Naval Ship) Issa Khan Naval Base in Chittagong. "The commandos received specialised training during the US-Bangladesh 'Tiger Shark' exercise" that ended on November 13.
According to the American envoy, "The United States Government will continue to assist the Government of Bangladesh in developing this professional, elite force.
"The training demonstrates the United States Government's commitment to Bangladesh and to regional security by promoting military-to-military relationships throughout Asia and the Pacific." [7]
Tiger Shark-2 was held this May and U.S. army personnel "provided highly sophisticated training to the Bangladesh Army on counter terrorism, marksmanship and urban operations." Ambassador Moriarty "reaffirmed the US government's support to the Bangladesh government's efforts to establish a more capable military." [8]
Tiger Shark-3 occurred the next month and this time was multi-service on the Bangladeshi side, with army, navy, air force and coast guard units training with the U.S. to "enhance interoperability between the militaries of the two countries" in exercises that included "combat diving, infiltration and ex-filtration techniques, rappelling, helicopters operations, vessel boarding search and seizure, small boat maintenance and repair, maritime navigation, small unit tactics and small boat handling and tactics." [9]
Tiger Shark-4 was held from September 19-26 with 500 Bangladesh army, air force and navy personnel along with helicopters and ships and 350 U.S. troops and aircraft, helicopters and ships. For the first time the exercises provided comprehensive "joint military exposure between Bangladesh and the USA," and "a Commodore from the Bangladesh side and a Rear Admiral from the US side" led their respective nation's forces. [10]
As the largest of the four Tiger Shark exercises was underway, 65 American airmen and two C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft arrived in Bangladesh for the three-day Cope South 2010 exercise to practice "aircraft generation and recovery, low-level navigation, tactical airdrop, and air-land missions; and conducting subject-matter expert exchanges in the operations, maintenance and rigging disciplines" [11] for regional disasters. In the words of U.S. 36th Airlift Squadron commander Lieutenant Colonel Tim Rapp, "The techniques our two nations share and the relationships we build will significantly ease planning and execution of any future combined efforts." [12]
Washington's efforts to recruit Bangladesh into an Asia-Pacific military alliance that includes all but a small handful of nations in the region complements its building a new army and upgrading strategic air bases in Afghanistan. Its penetration of Pakistan's armed forces. Its further forging of a strategic military alliance with India. [13]
After employing NATO to subjugate Europe, launching U.S. Africa Command to gain military dominance over the 54-nation continent, and occupying and pacifying most of the Middle East, the Pentagon is concentrating on Asia and increasingly on South Asia.
1) Radio Netherlands/Agence France-Presse, September 26, 2010
2) The New Nation, May 11, 2010
3) The New Nation, May 13, 2010
4) Probe News Magazine, May 2010
http://www.probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId=6024
5) Ibid
6) All Headline News, November 2, 2009
7) Financial Express, November 13, 2009
8) Associated Press of Pakistan, May 13, 2010
9) All Headline News, June 20, 2010
10) The New Nation, September 15, 2010
11) 13th Air Force Public Affairs, September 21, 2010
12) American Forces Press Service, September 21, 2010
13) India: U.S. Completes Global Military Structure
Stop NATO, September 10, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/india-u-s-completes-global-military-structure
===========================
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==============================
- 2.
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NATO Troops Kill 17 Afghan Civilians, Four Children
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 8:00 am (PDT)
http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2010/09/29/nato-soldiers-kill-children-officials-say
Pajhwok Afghan News
September 29, 2010
NATO soldiers kill children, officials say
by Mirwais Himmat
GHAZNI CITY: Four children were killed by coalition forces after a militant attack on a security patrol in southern Ghazni province on Wednesday, officials saids.
Helicopter-borne foreign soldiers killed the children and wounded two men and a woman in an orchard in the Andar town, said the district chief, Sher Khan Yousafzai.
He told Pajhwok Afghan News the Taliban insurgents, who attacked a patrol of Afghan and foreign soldiers in the Mamoot area, manage to flee the scene.
....
The district police chief, Col. Sher Afzal, confirmed the incident, saying the international troops suffered no casualties in the militant assault. The bodies of victims were still lying in the orchard.
The NATO-led soldiers did not let civilians collect the bodies, community chief, complained Dr. Ghani Bahadari, a member of the community council.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the NATO soldiers had killed seven civilians. He claimed the fighters had killed three foreign troops and wounded a fourth.
----------------------------------------------------------
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/2010929114014622446.html
Al Jazeera
September 29, 2010
'Afghan children' die in Nato raid
Local official contradicts Nato claim of insurgents being killed, saying four children have died in Ghazni attack
A Nato raid in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province has killed four children and wounded three adults, an Afghan official has said.
Sher Khan Yousafzai, the chief of Andar district, told the local Pajhwok Afghan News that the Nato raid on Wednesday occurred after a joint patrol by Afghan and foreign forces came under attack.
Yousafzai said helicopter-borne Nato forces fired on the locals in an orchard near one of the district's towns, also named Andar.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the international troops had killed seven civilians.
In a statement, Nato said its joint patrol came under small-arms fire from insurgents.
....
Wednesday's incident comes days after Nato was accused of killing 13 civilians in Laghman province on Sunday.
....
===========================
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- 3.
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NATO Loses Another Soldier In Afghan Fighting
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 8:01 am (PDT)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvWEqwq3CrRvaQCmt21MfoYhjZJQD9IHC5C81?docId=D9IHC5C81
Associated Press
September 29, 2010
NATO: Service member killed in south Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan: NATO says a service member has been killed in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan.
The coalition announced the death on Wednesday. It said the service member was killed in a fight with insurgents in the south on Tuesday, but gave no further details. NATO generally does not announce the nationalities of troops killed until after family members have been contacted.
Southern Afghanistan remains highly volatile. The coalition is currently conducting an operation to clear insurgents from areas around the city of Kandahar, in the Taliban's spiritual home.
===========================
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- 4.
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Scotland: NATO Navies Hold War Games Simulating "Territorial Dispute
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 8:24 am (PDT)
http://www.inverclydenow.com/index.php/news/local/3364-clyde-to-host-30-navy-ships-as-part-of-exercise
Inverclyde Now
September 29, 2010
CLYDE To Host 30 Navy Ships As Part Of Exercise
The Clyde will be at the heart of an international military exercise involving around 30 ships and three submarines.
Exercise Joint Warrior also involves seven helicopter units, 14 land based air units and 11 separate ground forces and takes place over two weeks across the UK and around Scotland's coastline.
The first eight ships are due to sail up to Glasgow on Thursday with five frigates following on Friday plus the aircraft carrier Ark Royal travelling to Faslane on the same day.
HM Naval Base Clyde will also play host to a number of American ships. Other countries taking part are Canada, Italy, France, Estonia, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Turkey, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Apart from Ark Royal, the Faslane naval base will be visited by 15 more ships, meaning that by Friday, Faslane and Glasgow's King George V docks will have 28 ships tied up between them.
Exercise Joint Warrior is a UK wide exercise conducted in spring and autumn each year and is believed to be the largest of its kind in Europe.
The aim is to provide coordinated tactical training for all three UK armed services and also forces from allied nations many of whom will be preparing for deployment on operations in Afghanistan and off the Horn of Africa countering piracy.
The exercise scenario involves three sovereign nations, disputed territory and terrorist movements.
===========================
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- 5.
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2005-2009: U.S. Sold $37B In Arms To Gulf States, Plans $123B More
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 8:24 am (PDT)
http://www.emirates247.com/news/government/88-of-us-arms-sale-in-gulf-to-uae-saudi-2010-09-29-1.296959
Emirates 24/7 News
September 29, 2010
88% of US arms sale in Gulf to UAE, Saudi
GCC countries buy US weapons worth $37bn between 2005 to 2009
By Waheed Abbas
The Gulf countries splashed $37 billion (Dh135.8 billion) on buying US weapons during 2005 to 2009 with 88 per cent of them going to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
The Defense Department authorised about $22 billion of transfers under the Foreign Military Sales programme to the Gulf countries, the GAO found. Saudi Arabia and the UAE accounted for more than 88 percent of the total value.
....
Between 2005 and 2009, the UAE had about $11 billion in authorised arms transfers; Saudi Arabia was next with about $8 billion.
The UAE's biggest purchase was Patriot defence missile system valued at $6.5 billion in 2009. The Emirates are also considering a $10-billion fighter jet deal with the US, media reports said earlier this month.
In all, the Gulf states are expected to spend approximately $123bn on the purchase of US arms in the coming years.
Saudi Arabia will top the list with $67 billion, followed by the UAE ($40bn), Oman ($12bn) and Kuwait ($7bn).
===========================
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- 6.
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Albanian President: "Balkans Need U.S. Troops in Kosovo"
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 8:39 am (PDT)
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-28/balkans-need-u-s-troops-in-kosovo-berisha-says.html
Bloomberg News
September 29, 2010
Balkans Need U.S. Troops in Kosovo, Berisha Says
Peter S. Green
U.S. troops are needed in Kosovo to ensure peace in the Balkan peninsula as sectarian divisions continue to roil the region's politics, Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said in an interview.
"The U.S. military presence is crucial for stability; the risk from nationalists[that is, ethnic Serbs] is still real," Berisha said. "Nationalism hasn't disappeared from the peninsula."
Berisha also said he'll tell Serbian President Boris Tadic on a forthcoming visit to Belgrade that his country must accept a July 22 ruling by the International Court of Justice in the Hague recognizing the legitimacy of Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia.
Serbia, backed by Russia, has refused to recognize Kosovo's independence following the 1999 North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led bombing campaign that forced the Serbian army and paramilitary units from Kosovo after a crackdown on ethnic Albanians in what then was a Serbian province.
Serbia says the declaration was illegitimate and fears Kosovo's ethnic Albanian government will force the remaining Serbian minority from its ancestral homeland.
"There is a bitter recent past" in the Balkans, Berisha said, referring to the region's decade of war, marked by ethnic fighting and attempts at genocide. "Countries must stick to existing borders." [!]
KFOR Presence
The U.S. has about 1,480 troops in Kosovo in the 9,900-person NATO-led Kosovo Force, known as KFOR.
....
===========================
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- 7.
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Former Pakistani Army Chief: Shoot Down NATO, U.S. Aircraft
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 8:48 am (PDT)
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Lahore/29-Sep-2010/Beg-for-shooting-down-intruding-ISAF-copters-drones
The Nation
September 29, 2010
Beg for shooting down intruding ISAF copters, drones
By Ashraf Mumtaz
LAHORE: Former army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg on Tuesday bitterly criticised the government for involving Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in the conflict between the executive and the judiciary, and demanded that the Pakistan Air Force should be tasked to shoot down the helicopters and drones involved in attacks on Pakistan's territories....
===========================
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- 8.
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NATO Chief Wants Russia, Ukraine In Continental Missile Shield
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:32 am (PDT)
http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/09/29/22999878.html
Voice of Russia
September 29, 2010
NATO plans joint ABMs with Russia, Europe
NATO is prepared to invite Russia, Ukraine and other East-European nations to join in the efforts to set up an ABM system, says the General Secretary of the North Atlantic Alliance Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
He points out that NATO will basically lean on Russia. We have already launched cooperation in the area and have even held joint drills, Rasmussen told Ukrainian news agencies in an interview.
According to him, the would-be ABM system should be deployed to protect both military units and civilians against possible missile attacks.
===========================
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- 9.
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Kuriles: Japan Toughens Stance Against Russia
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:34 am (PDT)
http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?pg=3&id=192123
Interfax
September 29, 2001
Japanese Foreign Ministry statement on Kuril islands harsh – Kosachyov
MOSCOW: Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the State Duma international affairs committee, said the statement by Japan's new foreign minister saying that the Russian president's visit to the Kuril Islands will negatively affect Russian-Japanese relations is inappropriately tough.
"Such an inappropriate and tough statement by the Japanese foreign minister is regrettable," Kosachyov said in an interview with Interfax on Wednesday.
"Like the parliament of that country did earlier, Tokyo is consistently toughening its stance, pointing out the debatable status of the Kuril islands. That may only drive the situation into a deadlock," Kosachyov said.
===========================
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- 10.
-
FBI Raids Activists' Homes in Sinister COINTELPRO Replay
Posted by: "Richard Frager" science@zzz.com falseflagusa
Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:34 am (PDT)
FBI Raids Activists' Homes in Sinister COINTELPRO Replay
by Tom Burghardt
In a replay of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's infamous COINTELPRO operations targeting the left during the 1960s and '70s, America's political police launched raids on the homes of antiwar and solidarity activists.
Heavily-armed SWAT teams smashed down doors and agents armed with search warrants carried out simultaneous raids in Minneapolis and Chicago early morning on September 24.
Rummaging through personal belongings, agents carted off boxes of files, documents, books, letters, photographs, computers and cell phones from Minneapolis antiwar activists Mick Kelly, Jessica Sundin, Meredith Aby, two others, as well as the office of that city's Anti-War Committee.
Meanwhile, as federal snoops seized personal property in Minneapolis, FBI agents raided the Chicago homes of activists Stephanie Weiner and Joseph Iosbaker. According to the Chicago Tribune, "neighbors saw FBI agents carrying boxes from the apartment of community activist Hatem Abudayyeh, executive director of the Arab American Action Network."
"In addition," the Tribune reported, "Chicago activist Thomas Burke said he was served a grand jury subpoena that requested records of any payments to Abudayyeh or his group."
Amongst those targeted by the FBI were individuals who organized peaceful protests against the imperialist invasion and occupation of Iraq and 2008 protests at the far-right Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.
As Antifascist Calling reported in 2008 and 2009, citing documents published by the whistleblowing web site WikiLeaks, state and local police, the FBI and agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon's Northern Command (NORTHCOM), the United States Secret Service, the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency implemented an action plan designed to monitor and squelch dissent during the convention.
As part of that plan's execution, activists and journalists were preemptively arrested, and cameras, recording equipment, computers and reporters' confidential notes were seized. Demonstrations were broken up by riot cops who wielded batons, pepper spray and tasers and attacked peaceful protesters who had gathered to denounce the war criminals' conclave in St. Paul.
With Friday's raids, the federal government under "change" huckster Barack Obama, has taken their repressive program to a whole new level, threatening activists with the specter of being charged with providing "material support of terrorism." A felony conviction under this draconian federal law (Title 18, Part I, Chapter 113B, § 2339B) carries a 15 year prison term.
State-Corporate Nexus
The trend by federal, state and corporate securocrats to situate antiwar and international solidarity activism along a bogus "terrorism continuum," is an alarming sign that plans for building an American police state are well underway as I pointed out in my 2008 analysis of the FBI's "Counterterrorism Analytical Lexicon."
Recently, the secrecy-spilling web site Public Intelligence posted 137 bulletins produced by the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR), an American-Israeli company, under terms of a $125,000 contract to the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security.
Billing itself as "the preeminent Israeli/American security firm providing training, intelligence and education to clients across the globe," ITRR is part of a large, but little understood nexus of "public-private partnerships" fusing state and corporate surveillance against leftists and environmentalists.
Amongst the targets of ITRR's alarmist screeds were anti-drilling and environmental activists, permanent quarry for corporate spies and provocateurs, as the web site Green Is The New Red (GNR) amply documents.
Earlier this month, GNR reported that while ITRR and their political paymasters have been monitoring non-violent activists, "including a film screening of Gasland," Pennsylvania's heimat security boss James Powers wrote in an email that his office intended to "continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies."
In the bizarre parallel universe inhabited by Powers and his Israeli cohorts, anti-drilling activists are "ecoterrorists," while the mass-murdering neo-Nazi mastermind of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people including 19 children, Timothy McVeigh, was "just a person very angry with the U.S. government."
While corporate polluters and criminals get a free pass from the federal government and an anti-Muslim and anti-Arab crusade is in full-swing, stoked by right-wing goons and their media shills, it is little wonder then, that Friday's raids targeted supporters of the Palestinian solidarity movement.
Neo-McCarthyite Witchhunt
With a pretext that the raids were seeking "evidence related to an ongoing Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation," FBI spokesperson Steve Warfield told The New York Times that repressors are "looking at activities connected to the material support of terrorism."
Attorney Ted Dooley who represents Mick Kelly, a union- and socialist activist targeted by the Bureau told the Times that the SWAT team broke down Kelly's door at 7 a.m. on Friday and served a search warrant on his companion.
According to Dooley, the warrant claimed the secret state was searching for "evidence" that activist groups had provided "material support" to "Hezbollah, the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia."
Dooley told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that the raids are nothing less than "a probe into the political beliefs of American citizens and any organization anywhere that opposes the American imperial design."
The political nature of the raids was blatantly transparent. A copy of the search warrant on Kelly's home obtained by Twin Cities Independent Media Center (TC-IMC) revealed that the order, signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Nelson specified that Kelly's membership in the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) was a primary motive behind the Bureau's home invasion.
The warrant allowed the FBI to take "documents, files, books, photographs, videos, souvenirs, war relics, notebooks, address books, diaries, journals, maps, or other evidence, including evidence in electronic form relating to Kelly's travels to and from and presence and activities in Minnesota and other foreign countries, to which Kelly has traveled as part of his work for FRSO."
Reprising the red-hunting frenzy of the McCarthy period at the height of the Cold War, the warrant specifies that the Bureau was authorized by Obama's Justice Department to seize material relating to "the recruitment, indoctrination, and facilitation of other individuals in the United States to join FRSO, including materials related to the identity and location of recruiters, facilitators, and recruits, the means by which the recruits were recruited to join FRSO, the means by which the recruitment was financed and arranged."
In other words, with a bogus "terrorism investigation" as a pretext, the Obama regime is targeting socialist political groups for destruction in order for Democrats to whip-up "War on Terror" and anticommunist hysteria prior to November general elections that may see Congress pass into the hands of the troglodytic Republican faction of war criminals and corporatists.
Grand Jury Intimidation
In addition to turning over the homes of antiwar and solidarity activists in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota, the FBI handed out subpoenas ordering individuals to appear before a federal grand jury that will convene next month in Chicago.
While the Bureau cannot compel citizens to answer their questions, administrative means can be used by the secret state to coerce testimony against fellow activists: the federal grand jury system.
As civil liberties scholar Frank Donner wrote in his groundbreaking book, The Age of Surveillance: "Federal grand juries, judicial bodies limited under our legal system to an accusatory role, were in the same way [as red-hunting congressional committees] taken over by the executive branch in the Nixon years and converted into intelligence instruments."
Historically, federal grand juries have targeted dissident groups and individuals as an harassment and intimidation tactic, particularly when activists and organizations challenged the government's imperial adventures abroad and capitalist depredations at home.
Individuals subpoenaed by the state who refuse to answer questions posed by Star Chamber inquisitors can be receive an indeterminate jail sentence for failing to do so.
During the Nixon administration according to Donner, some one hundred grand juries subpoenaed more than one hundred thousand witnesses in a blatant attempt to silence New Left and antiwar groups; as well, members of the Catholic left and supporters of the African-American, Native American, Puerto Rican independence and women's liberation movements were similarly targeted.
While corporate media insist that the COINTELPRO-era disappeared with Nixon, FBI snoops throughout the 1980s, '90s down to the present moment have marked the left for destruction.
Recently, Bay Area Indymedia journalist Josh Wolf was jailed for 226 days in 2006-2007 by the U.S. District Court in San Francisco after refusing to turn over his raw, unedited video footage to the FBI in connection with the Bureau's alleged "arson investigation" against anti-G8 anarchist protests in 2005.
Wolf refused to comply with the subpoena, and National Lawyers Guild attorneys argued that to do so would have a "chilling effect" on journalists who covered future protests, effectively transforming reporters into an arm of the government. Their arguments failed to sway the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Wolf was imprisoned.
When Wolf was released from the Federal Corrections Institution in Dublin, California in 2007, he had been jailed longer than any other journalist for refusing to divulge sources or source materials.
Cover-Ups, Terror, Repression
Today, as the capitalist economic crisis deepens and the "War on Terror" morphs into a multiyear, multibillion dollar boondoggle engorging defense and security corporations with taxpayer-funded boodle, labor, environmental and socialist opponents are in the cross-hairs of the Obama administration, just as they were during the years of the criminal Bush regime.
Activists with diverse groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Group, Students for a Democratic Society, the Twin-Cities Anti-War Committee, the Colombia Action Network, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera, a Colombian political prisoner, have now been targeted for "special handling" by Obama's Justice Department.
As the imperialist occupation project flies off the rails in Afghanistan, and as governments in Central and South America reject the capitalist "free trade" paradigm of militarism, hyperexploitation and resource extraction that benefit grifting North American multinationals and drug-money laundering banks, the repressive state is moving to shore-up its crumbling edifice here at home.
Friday's raids are all the more ironic, given the fact that just last week the Justice Department's own Office of the Inspector General (OIG) revealed that the Bureau had used false claims to launch "counterterror" investigations to justify covert spying and infiltration operations by provocateurs against activist groups across the country.
That report was a whitewash and largely exonerated the Bureau, clearing secret state agents of deliberate violations of their targets' civil rights and claimed that FBI snoops were motivated by a concern over "potential violence," not the leftist views expressed by U.S. policy opponents.
Although a cover-up, the OIG report disclosed new details of illegal FBI spying on an array of antiwar, Muslim, environmental and animal rights groups. Filled with mendacious characterizations designed as an alibi for "overzealous" agents, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine asserted that people were placed on terrorist watch lists because of "factually weak" evidence and that investigations were opened and continued "without adequate basis," not their opposition to imperialism or destruction of the environment.
The conduct by secret state repressors however, goes far beyond overzealousness. In the wake of the provocative 9/11 attacks, materially aided by the FBI's own informant, the al-Qaeda triple agent Ali Mohamed, "terrorism" continues to serve as a pretext--and justification--for a domestic clampdown against organizations engaged in legal political activity guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and is a key feature of Washington's "War on Terror" policies.
Parenthetically, Fox News reported Sunday that the Pentagon "has burned 9,500 copies of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's memoir 'Operation Dark Heart,' his book about going undercover in Afghanistan."
"The Defense Intelligence Agency," the right-wing news outlet reports, "attempted to block key portions of the book that claim 'Able Danger' successfully identified hijacker Mohammed Atta as a threat to the United States before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks."
According to Fox, "the DIA wanted references to a meeting between Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, the book's author, and the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow, removed. In that meeting, which took place in Afghanistan, Shaffer alleges the commission was told about 'Able Danger' and the identification of Atta before the attacks. No mention of this was made in the final 9/11 report."
Undercover at the time, Shaffer recounted that there was "stunned silence" at the meeting after he told the executive director of the commission and others that Atta was identified as early as 2000 by 'Able Danger'."
While far-right terrorists are given entrée to the United States by secret state agencies to murder its own citizens, organizations targeted by the Bureau's blanket spying according to the Inspector General included Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Catholic Worker and the Thomas Merton Center, a pacifist group dedicated to nonviolence. In one telling passage, Fine wrote, "in some cases, the FBI classified some investigations relating to nonviolent civil disobedience under its 'acts of terrorism' classification."
Given imperial assertions by the Bush and now, Obama regimes, that the Executive Branch, and it alone, has the authority to arrest and indefinitely detain anyone it so chooses without trial, on suspicion of "terrorism," categorizing nonviolent protesters as "terrorists" could lead to the seizure of individuals so designated and send them on a one-way trip to a military gulag such as Guantánamo Bay or even a CIA "black site."
In a statement commenting on the release of the OIG's report, Michael German, the American Civil Liberties Union Senior Policy Counsel, and a former FBI whistleblower said:
"The FBI has a long history of abusing its national security surveillance powers, reaching back to the smear campaign waged by the American government against Dr. Martin Luther King. Americans peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights were able to become targets of FBI surveillance because spying guidelines that were established after the shameful abuses of the 60s and 70s were loosened in 2002. Unfortunately, they were loosened again in 2008, even after this abuse was uncovered.
"Unless the rules regulating the FBI are strengthened to safeguard the privacy of innocent Americans, we are all in danger of being spied on and added to terrorist watch lists for doing nothing more than attending a rally or holding up a sign."
With the recent raids on activist homes, the Bureau has issued its unambiguous reply to the Inspector General and the American people.
In response, over 150 people attended a community meeting in Minneapolis Friday night "on less than six hours notice, to begin to respond to Friday morning's FBI raids and subpoenas to local antiwar and international solidarity organizers," the Twin Cities Independent Media Center reported.
"Organizers," according to TC-IMC, "also announced two upcoming events: a protest outside the Minneapolis FBI office, 111 Washington Ave. S., at 4:30pm on Monday; and a solidarity committee meeting on Thursday at 7pm, location to be determined. The subpoenas ask activists to appear before a grand jury in Chicago, where a solidarity vigil was held last night as a raid was still ongoing in that city, on or around October 19, reported a Chicago Indymedia post."
Minnesota civil rights attorney Bruce Nestor told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that he was "profoundly troubled" by the raids. "Overwhelmingly they're people who are doing public political organizing, so I think it's shocking to have heavily armed federal agents show up at their homes. ... It's all people involved in anti-war activity, and it appears to be focused largely on opposition to the U.S. policy in Colombia and Palestine."
Nestor added. "This is a direct attack on people who are strong, dedicated advocates of freedom, of the right of people to be free from US domination. It is an attack upon anybody who organizes against US imperialism and US militarism abroad."
Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly and Global Research, his articles can be read on Dissident Voice, The Intelligence Daily, Pacific Free Press, Uncommon Thought Journal, and the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. He is the editor of Police State America: U.S. Military "Civil Disturbance" Planning, distributed by AK Press and has contributed to the new book from Global Research, The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21208
- 11.
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Poland, Lithuania: U.S. Interoperability For Afghan, Other Battle Sp
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:37 am (PDT)
http://www.eucom.mil/english/fullstory.asp?article=Coalition-Forces-service-members-attend-training
United States European Command
September 28, 2010
Coalition Forces service members attend interoperability training
Sgt. Eric J. Glassey, 13th Public Affairs Detachment
The experiences and lessons learned from the current war in Afghanistan underscore the critical importance of deliberate planning for coalition special operations forces (SOF) missions.
Training opportunities such as the Jackal Stone 10 exercise, co-hosted this year by Poland and Lithuania and coordinated by the U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, provide a unique venue for the U.S. to develop commonalities with its international SOF partners whether by land, air or sea.
In an effort to understand interoperability within the air battle space, multinational staff members and flight commanders working in the Combined Joint Special Operations Air Component (CJSOAC) took part in a training seminar to better synchronize and coordinate air planning with each other.
By definition, a CJSOAC is a task force composed of special operations aviation units from one or more foreign countries and more than one U.S. military service formed to prosecute special operations air missions in support of a theater campaign or other operations.
During Jackal Stone 10, the CJSOAC consisted of aviation personnel from the 352nd Special Operations Group, based out of RAF Mildenhall, England, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), from Fort Campbell, Ky., and aviation representatives from Poland and Lithuania.
According to instructors who travelled from Special Operations Command Joint Forces Command (SOCJFC) to provide the training, the goal was to showcase how successful planning between partner nations led to interoperability.
"Planning equals enabling the mission," said Brian Cutts, SOFJFC air operations analyst and trainer. "It [enabling the mission] is what we're all about."
The training allowed the air planners to integrate seamlessly with the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force (CJSOTF) and provide continuity between the air and ground forces during the exercise.
"The CJSOAC's purpose is to provide specialized air power to the CJSOTF," said a current operations officer from the CJSOAC. "We control and run the airpower for the commander."
Successful interaction between the CJSOTF and the CJSOAC is essential for any mission, particularly with respect to coordination between the ground force commanders and the air planners.
....
The Jackal Stone 10 exercise allows SOCEUR an opportunity to enhance the capabilities of its partner nations so they can become an integral part of the NATO footprint, specifically in developing the staff planning and operational ability of special operations forces.
"This is an important exercise to this theater," Cutts said. "By using all the assets we have available, we will enhance the effectiveness of the training while building partnership capability."
....
===========================
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- 12.
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Ex-Polish PM: U.S., EU "Should Get Tough With Russia"
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:40 am (PDT)
http://www.thenews.pl/international/artykul140577_kaczynski---us--eu-should-get-tough-with-russia.html
Polish Radio
September 29, 2010
Kaczynski - US, EU should get tough with Russia
-The letter was sent to ambassadors of all EU member states, plus the United States, Canada, Israel, Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. [The last six are members of the European Partnership initiative of the EU first launched by Poland and Sweden.]
In an unprecedented move for a leader of an opposition party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski has written to 738 members of the European parliament (MEPs) and dozens of ambassadors worldwide, urging them to help block an expansion of Russia's influence abroad.
The letter by the leader of the Law and Justice party says the European Union and the United States should oppose Russia extending its economic and political zone of influence.
Washington and Brussels should also give greater assistance to countries that want to free themselves from the Russian sphere of influence.
In his letter - the existence of which was confirmed to TVP public television by MEP Ryszard Karnack - Jaroslaw Kaczynski analyses Poland's foreign policy in recent years, with particular emphasis on what his late twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski and the Law and Justice led coalition government which he led from 2005 -7.
The letter was sent to ambassadors of all EU member states, plus the United States, Canada, Israel, Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.
Kaczynski has fiercely criticised both President Bronislaw Komorowski and the ruling Civic Platform party led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk for what he sees as amounting to appeasement of Russia in Poland's foreign policy. ===========================
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- 13.
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Rasmussen: NATO Summit To Leave Door Open For Georgia, Ukraine
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:48 am (PDT)
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/politics/detail/84315/
Interfax-Ukraine
September 29, 2010
NATO chief: Georgia, Ukraine will become NATO members, if they wish
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expects that the upcoming NATO summit in Lisbon on November 19-20 will confirm the organization's open door policy.
At the summit NATO will confirm the resolution of the Bucharest summit saying that Georgia and Ukraine will become NATO members, if they wish and meet the necessary criteria, Rasmussen said in an interview with Interfax and Ukrinform new agencies.
The alliance also recognizes that Georgia and Ukraine may have other Euro-Atlantic aspirations, he said.
Asked by Interfax whether there is sense for NATO to leave the decision of the Bucharest summit in force if Ukraine no longer strives for NATO membership Rasmussen said that there is sense because an open door policy is a fundamental principle of the alliance. Doors remain open....
Rasmussen also felt that the extension of the agreement on the presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea did not influence the state of security in the region.
He said that NATO attaches great significance to the fact that the Ukrainian leadership, including the president, has declared that Ukraine will continue fulfilling its obligations in the exiting framework of cooperation with NATO.
===========================
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- 14.
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NATO Chief To Meet Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister In Georgia
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:48 am (PDT)
http://www.aysor.am/en/news/2010/09/29/mamedyarov-rasmoussen/
Aysor (Armenia)
September 29, 2010
NATO Secretary General to meet with Azerbaijan's FM in Tbilisi
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will meet on Friday with Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mamedyarov, NATO spokesperson James Appathurai said at the weekly briefing held Tuesday. He said that the meeting will be held in Tbilisi, where NATO Secretary General is heading on September 30.
"It's expected that Secretary General will meet with Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov on Friday. The meeting is one of the traditional talks held within the cooperation plan between NATO and Azerbaijan. Included on meeting's agenda are issues of cooperation," Trend agency quoted Mr. Appathurai as saying.
Within the framework of his visit to Georgia, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will also meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Speaker David Bakradze, Prime Minister Nika Gilauri, and Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze.
===========================
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- 15.
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Afghan Children Killed By NATO Bombs
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:50 am (PDT)
http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/09/29/23087462.html
Voice of Russia
September 29, 2010
4 Afghan children killed by NATO bombs
4 children were killed and three adults wounded in a NATO raid in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province.
Sher Khan Yousafzai, the chief of Andar district, told the local media that the raid occurred after a joint patrol by Afghan and foreign forces came under attack. 4 insurgents and some civilians were killed in the bombing.
The incident followed the death of 13 civilians in a NATO strike in Laghman province on Sunday.
===========================
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- 16.
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Alliance-Azerbaijan Integration: Foreign Minister At NATO HQ
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:56 am (PDT)
http://en.trend.az/news/politics/foreign/1758168.html
Trend News Agency
September 29, 2010
Azerbaijani FM to hold meeting at NATO headquarters (UPDATE)
I. Huseynov
Baku: The Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov will hold a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels Oct.1., NATO Spokesman James Appathurai said at a weekly press briefing Sept. 28, NATO official website reports.
"This is one of the traditional meetings in the framework of cooperation between NATO and Azerbaijan. The meeting will discuss the partnership and practical cooperation between the Alliance and Azerbaijan," Appathurai said.
===========================
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- 17.
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U.S., Indian Defense Chiefs Push Military Ties, $5 Billion Arms Deal
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:13 am (PDT)
Agence France-Presse
September 28, 2010
U.S., Indian Minister Meet; Defense Deals Pending
-In their meeting, Gates and Antony discussed "the progressively increasing trade in military-technical equipment, service to service exchanges, joint military exercises and collaboration in defense technologies" between the two countries
WASHINGTON: U.S. and Indian defense chiefs met Sept. 28 amid efforts by Washington to step up arms sales to New Delhi and ease restrictions on hi-tech weaponry.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates hosted India Defense minister A.K. Antony for talks as both countries touted a growing strategic alliance and expanding military ties, including a pending multi-billion-dollar deal for American C-17 cargo planes.
U.S. and Indian officials have been negotiating an agreement that would see New Delhi buy at least 10 C-17 planes, manufactured by Boeing.
The deal, which is in its final stages and worth an estimated two to five billion dollars, could be signed in November when U.S. President Barack Obama visits India, officials said.
Before the Sept. 28 meeting, Gates had said he wanted to see India given more access to U.S. military technology as part of a wider effort by the administration to loosen export controls for friendly countries.
"India certainly is high on our list in terms of a country that ... I would like to see those restrictions eased," he told a news conference last week.
Indian officials have asked Washington to lift restrictions which they say have hampered potential arms sales.
Gates also said last week that he expected to talk about India's competition for a new fighter jet.
Two US combat aircraft, the F-16 and the F-18, are competing against four other planes, the Saab Gripen, Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and Mikoyan MiG-35.
In their meeting, Gates and Antony discussed "the progressively increasing trade in military-technical equipment, service to service exchanges, joint military exercises and collaboration in defense technologies" between the two countries, the Indian embassy in Washington said in a statement.
After decades of mutual unease during the Cold War, India's relations with the United States have steadily improved and defense ties have expanded since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, including annual joint military exercises.
....
Defense-related trade between the two nations is on the rise after a deal in July between the two countries opened the way for the sale of sophisticated U.S. weaponry to India.
===========================
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- 18.
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U.S., NATO Offensive Forces Tens Of Thousands Of Afghans To Flee
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:13 am (PDT)
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/144554.html
Press TV
September 29, 2010
US-led offensives displace Afghans
A new US-led offensive in troubled southern Afghanistan has forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee their homes, Kabul officials say.
Hundreds of families have been displaced by fierce clashes around Kandahar city.
According to Afghan authorities, so far over 900 families have fled the area.
"More than 900 families have arrived from Arghandab and Zhari districts to Kandahar city in the past month," said Mohammad Azim Nawabi, the director of Kandahar refugee department.
"People are still fleeing their villages and are in a very bad state when they arrive."
Many of those, who fled their homes, are now receiving aid via international charity organizations.
More than 7,000 US-led troops launched Operation Dragon Strike outside Kandahar last week.
Hundreds of civilians have lost their lives in US-led airstrikes or ground operations in different parts of the war-ravaged country over the past months.
Civilian deaths at the hands of foreign troops have always been a source of anger for Afghans, and drawn strong criticism from Kabul.
The loss of civilian lives at the hand of foreign forces has led to a dramatic increase in anti-American sentiments in Afghanistan.
A recent UN report revealed that civilian deaths have jumped by 31 percent in the first half of 2010.
===========================
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- 19.
-
Military Committee: NATO To Continue Building "Afghan" Army
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:21 am (PDT)
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_66497.htm?
North Atlantic Treaty Organziation
September 28, 2010
NATO to sustain training momentum, says NATO Commander
The Commander of the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A), LtGen William Caldwell, briefed Brussels-based media on progress in training Afghan national security forces at NATO Headquarters on 28 September.
At the roundtable, which followed a briefing to the Military Committee on 27 September, LtGen Caldwell insisted on the need for additional specialized trainers to speed up the build-up of self-sufficient and self-sustaining Afghan security forces....
"We have made tremendous progress since NTM-A was created last November," LtGen Caldwell said. Thanks to the all-out efforts of ISAF troop-contributing nations, the number of NTM-A trainers has tripled – up to 3 500 personnel – in only ten months...."
===========================
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- 20.
-
20-Year Indoctrination: NATO Should Be Able To Operate Outside Europ
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:21 am (PDT)
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_66546.htm?selectedLocale=en
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
September 29, 2010
Transatlantic Trends survey shows support for the Alliance still strong
A major recent survey has found that broad support for NATO across its members states still stands strong. Now in its ninth year, the Transatlantic Trends "Key Findings 2010" compared public opinion across 11 European Union countries, the United States and Turkey.
The survey examines public opinion on topics such as the Euro and the EU, the rise of Asia, and Turkey and the West. In a section on transatlantic security, a majority of American and EU respondents said NATO was essential for their country's security.
The EU and American majority also believed that NATO should be prepared to act outside of Europe to defend members from security threats.
Transatlantic Trends is a comprehensive annual survey of American and European public opinion carried out by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Compagnia di San Paolo, based in Italy. Polling was conducted between 1 and 29 June 2010.
===========================
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- 21.
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U.S. Headquarters: NATO, Microsoft Boost 15-Year Partnership
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:27 am (PDT)
http://www.act.nato.int/component/content/article/42-news-stories/361-act-signs-declaration-of-mutual-collaboration-with-microsoft
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
September 29, 2010
ACT signs Declaration of Mutual Collaboration with Microsoft
Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and the Microsoft Corporation broke new ground with the recent signing of a Declaration of Mutual Collaboration, a document formally opening the door for the two organisations to begin exchanging ideas on topics of mutual interest.
The declaration of collaboration between ACT and Microsoft, which took place September 26, is the first of several planned collaborations between ACT and various industrial companies....
Italian Admiral Luciano Zappata, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (DSACT), and Frank McCosker, Managing Director of Global Strategic Accounts for Microsoft, signed the document via live video chat. Zappata, at ACT in Norfolk, and McCosker, logging on from his home in the United Kingdom, spoke briefly on the importance of the collaboration before signing the document.
"The relationship between military world and industry is very important, since even if the end aim is substantially different, the interaction brings beneficial effects to both sides," Zappata said to McCosker. "The industry benefits from understanding the direction in which we are going, and we open a window on the technological future and have a broader range of solutions to choose from."
"I want to thank Microsoft for its continuous positive support to ACT," he continued. "This work is very important and I am sure this cooperation will continue in the future and strengthen through the next Industry Day. I want to give my strong thanks to you for recognizing the importance of this collaboration...."
Under the declaration, ACT and Microsoft will engage in five collaborative, non-procurement projects to include capabilities for ACT's Civil Military Fusion Centre (CFC)/CimicWeb (CMO), information exchange on Best Practices in Business Management Techniques, information exchange on collaborative technologies such as Cloud-Computing, techniques for knowledge retention during turnover of key personnel and creation of health record systems.
....
"Our 15-year partnership with NATO is an important example of the benefits gained by sharing expertise and best practices," he continued....
The projects will be coordinated under ACT's Framework for Collaborative Interaction (FFCI) initiative, which aims to increase opportunities for ACT to benefit from industry's extensive knowledge, experience and capabilities through non-procurement collaborative projects.
"FFCI relies on several key principles including transparency and fairness," said Richard Simpson, the liaison between ACT and Microsoft for identifying the projects. "Projects such as the ones agreed to by Microsoft today, will help ACT to solve challenges at the technical level which will lead to improvements in NATO's capability development efforts, to the benefit of all. ACT is actively seeking opportunities to engage with other companies across the Alliance in similar ways to this, on areas of mutual interest."
===========================
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- 22.
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NATO Trains Iraqi Federal Police, Armed Forces
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:42 am (PDT)
http://www.aco.nato.int/page27220019.aspx
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
September 29, 2010
Graduation Ceremony held for Iraqi Federal Police
-A few of the topics covered in the specialized course included operational planning, police intelligence and counter-insurgency skills....Other cooperation projects for NATO in Iraq are out-of-country training courses for Iraqi nationals at NATO schools as well as National Police training led by Italian Carabinieri. NTM–I officers also provide mentoring and advice to the Prime Minister's National Operations Centre, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior Command Centre and the Iraqi Ministry of Defence Joint Operations Centre.
Camp Dublin, IRAQ – NATO Training Mission-Iraq (NTM-I) held a graduation ceremony for 527 Iraqi policemen and Kurdish Zerevani as they completed joint Federal Police training at Camp Dublin, Iraq on 23 September, 2010.
Distinguished guests in attendance included the Joint Force Command Naples Commander Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, the NATO Training Mission – Iraq COM LTG Michael Barbero, MG Claudio Angelelli, NTM-I Deputy Commander, Excellency Maurizio Melani, the Italian Ambassador, MG Adnan Ofam Ali Al Zaidy, the Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Federal Police and MG Pinotti Umberto, Carabinieri Mobile Units COM.
This was also the first training completed since the change of Mission of US Forces in Iraq and Iraq's full assumption of responsibility for its internal security.
This intensive nine-week police training course, instructed by the Italian Carabinieri from NTM-I, was designed to provide advanced training for the Iraqi Federal Police. A few of the topics covered in the specialized course included operational planning, police intelligence and counter-insurgency skills....
"I would like to express my respect to the Carabinieri Unit of NTM-I for what they are doing here. I applaud you for your assisting IFP in increasing capabilities and professionalism", said ADM Fitzgerald.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
NTM-I has been training, mentoring and advising officers in the Iraqi Security Forces since 2004, in order to assist the Government of Iraq resume its important place in the international community and to improve the security of all Iraqi people with democratic security forces. NTM-I advises and supports the National Defence University, National Defence College, War College, Joint Staff and Command College, the Military Academy, the Defence Strategic Studies Institute and the Defence Language Institute. The Iraqi Military Academy and the Joint Staff and Command College are based at Ar Rustamiyah to the East of Baghdad with the other institutions in Baghdad.
Other cooperation projects for NATO in Iraq are out-of-country training courses for Iraqi nationals at NATO schools as well as National Police training led by Italian Carabinieri. NTM–I officers also provide mentoring and advice to the Prime Minister's National Operations Centre, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior Command Centre and the Iraqi Ministry of Defence Joint Operations Centre.
===========================
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- 23.
-
Europe: Cost Of NATO Theater Interceptor Missile System To Rise
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:42 am (PDT)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE68R1VI20100928
Reuters
September 28, 2010
MEADS defence system costs may rise - German source
BERLIN: The development costs of U.S.-European missile defence system MEADS could rise by around 250 million euros, a German military source told Reuters on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. MEADS, which may replace the Patriot system in Germany, is being developed by U.S.-based Lockheed Martin Corp, and MDBA, a subsidiary of Europe's EADS, Britain's BAE Systems and Italy's Finmeccanica.
The source said the added costs were due to a restructuring of the project agreed in 2008 by the parent countries.
A spokesman for MDBA said that since the overhaul agreed in 2008, it had been clear that the project would be extended by 18 months, which meant the costs would also increase.
A spokesman for the German defence ministry said Germany's share in the development costs was currently around 1.1 billion euros. Germany has a 25 percent share in the project.
MEADS could replace Patriot, which is run by Raytheon Co of the United States, from around 2018.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Will Waterman)
===========================
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- 24.
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Poland: U.S. Joint Exercise Command Holds Mass Casualty Exercise
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:53 am (PDT)
http://www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123223785
United States Air Forces in Europe
September 29, 2010
Mass casualty exercise allows U.S., Polish medical personnel to be ready for 'real world' crisis
by Tech. Sgt. Marilese Wood
352nd Special Operations Group Public Affairs
SWIDWIN, Poland: Amongst the hundreds of multinational military personnel who arrived to participate in the Jackal Stone 10 exercise, a select few had to prepare not only for the 'front side' play of the training event, but for potential 'real world' emergencies.
To ensure the readiness of U.S. and Polish medical staff, a mass casualty exercise was conducted Sept. 18 at the 21st Tactical Airbase in Swidwin, Poland testing response capability in the event of a medical emergency.
Army Capt. Aaron Flagg, Joint Exercise Command Group, was involved in the planning of the scenario....
Once the radio call was made alerting the base's medical facility that there were injured personnel somewhere on the base, both the U.S. and Polish staff quickly integrated despite having known each other for less than a week.
For Polish anesthesiologist Warrant Officer Anna Matulska, who was part of the medical team, the scenario was a familiar one.
"I've been deployed to Iraq before and it's the same way," Matulska said. "We have to work quickly, we have to triage and as in the case of our burn patients, we have to make sure they are kept warm."
....
"It's important to have exercises like this. You learn to use equipment that may be different from what you're used to in your country."
Capt. Flagg said he particularly enjoyed working with the U.S. Air Force and the local medical personnel.
"This was my first combined, joint exercise, so it helped because I was able to learn about what each of the different services and the local nationals have to offer in terms of medical care," he said.
===========================
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- 25.
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U.S. Warplanes Complete NATO Rotation In Iceland
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:55 am (PDT)
http://www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123224124
U.S. Air Forces in Europe
September 29, 2010
Icelandic Air Policing: mission complete
KEFLAVIK, Iceland: Airmen at the Keflavik International Airport board a KC-135 Stratotanker from the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, England, after completing their rotation of NATO's Icelandic Air Policing Mission on Sept. 24.
The 493rd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron provided air sovereignty for Iceland from Sept. 6, when the squadron achieved full operational capable status, until their departure Sept. 24.
The IAP mission is conducted as part of NATO's mission of providing air sovereignty for member nations and has also been conducted by France, Denmark, Spain and Poland.
KEFLAVIK, Iceland: An F-15C Eagle taxis before taking flight to return to the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, England, after the 493rd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron's completed its portion of NATO's Icelandic Air Policing Mission on Sept. 24. Approximately 200 Airmen were deployed from all over the globe to comprise the 493rd EFS and ensure the mission's success.
===========================
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