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1.: Afghanistan: Global NATO's First Ground War In Its Tenth Year

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

Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:24 pm (PDT)

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/2543

Stop NATO
October 10, 2010

Afghanistan: Global NATO's First Ground War In Its Tenth Year
Rick Rozoff

The military alliance that 61 years ago identified its core mission as to "promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area" is now embroiled in the tenth year of a war in Afghanistan launched by its dominant member, the United States.

South Asia is as far removed from the North Atlantic Ocean as possible while remaining in the Northern Hemisphere.

After "promoting stability and well-being" in the Balkans in the last decade by conducting a three-week bombing campaign against the Bosnian Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) in 1995 and a 78-day air war against Yugoslavia four years later, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization intervened in Macedonia in 2001 and shortly thereafter invoked its founding treaty's Article 5 - "The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and...each of them...will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith...such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force" - on September 12, 2001.

In doing so NATO signed on for participation in Washington's so-called Global War on Terror, last year renamed Overseas Contingency Operations and perhaps to be called something else tomorrow as pretexts change.

As a consequence and demand alike of doing so, the North Atlantic Alliance deployed military forces to the first major military base the Pentagon has secured in Africa, Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, and on October 4, 2001 launched Operation Active Endeavour to patrol the entire Mediterranean Sea from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Suez Canal and the Dardanelles Strait, ostensibly to - in NATO's own words - "help detect, deter and protect against terrorist activity" and especially to "combat...the proliferation and smuggling of weapons of mass destruction." The terrorism-weapons of mass destruction link was an obedient reflection of Washington's rhetoric at the time, though the second half of the combination has been shifted away from Iraq toward Iran as the 2003 invasion of the first failed to locate any weapons of mass destruction as well as connections to al-Qaeda.

No vessel enters or leaves the Mediterranean except under NATO surveillance. The Alliance's ships have hailed over 100,000 commercial vessels and boarded an admitted 155 or more. "Since April 2003, NATO has been systematically boarding suspect ships....[M]erchant ships passing through the Eastern Mediterranean are hailed by patrolling NATO naval units and asked to identify themselves and their activity. This information is then reported to both NATO's Allied Maritime Component Commander in Naples, Italy, and the NATO Shipping Centre in Northwood, England." [1]

Without a mandate from the United Nations or attempt to obtain one and no justification under international law, the U.S.-dominated military bloc arrogates to itself the right to stop, board (peaceably or otherwise) and search any ship in the Mediterranean and in theory to seize its cargo and detain its crew, even to impound the ship itself. What is tantamount to a blockade of the entire sea if not what if perpetrated by a non-state actor would be condemned as piracy on the high seas.

NATO's Active Endeavour is now in its tenth year and there is no indication that it will ever end, even though not a single terrorist has been apprehended or a weapon of mass destruction confiscated. When an Israeli German-made Dolphin submarine, assumed to carry missiles with nuclear warheads - the ultimate weapon of mass destruction - crossed from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea in June of 2009, NATO made no attempt to interdict it.

The Mediterranean Sea has become NATO's mare nostrum.

A similar situation exists in the Horn of Africa where NATO nations have deployed troops to Djibouti since the beginning of the century to join 2,000 American and 3,000 French troops based in the small nation. Germany, Britain, Spain and the Netherlands are or have been among the troop contributors. By no later than the beginning of 2002 Germany had more than 1,200 soldiers, several warships and spy planes based there, with the second component at the time representing "Germany's biggest naval deployment since World War Two." [2] It also based surveillance aircraft in Kenya in early 2002, where NATO warships have docked since.

In March of 2009 NATO began rotating the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) and Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) off the Horn of Africa, first with Operation Allied Provider until August of 2009 and since with Operation Ocean Shield, which has been extended for over three years more. As with Operation Active Endeavor in the Mediterranean, NATO warships in the Gulf of Aden will never leave voluntarily.

This March NATO began airlifting Ugandan troops into war-torn Somalia where they are belligerents in the armed conflict and not peacekeepers. 1,700 were flown in and 850 out.

But it is in Afghanistan, and of late Pakistan, that NATO has emerged as a global combat force. With the recent transfer of tens of thousands of U.S. troops from Operation Enduring Freedom to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the Alliance now has the most troops under its command in a foreign mission in its history: 120,000 in Afghanistan compared to 60,000 in Bosnia in 1995, 50,000 in Kosovo in 1999, several thousand in Djibouti since 2001 and a smaller force in Macedonia starting in the same year.

Afghanistan is also the theater furthest from its European territory NATO has even deployed troops to and the war there is the bloc's first military conflict in Asia and its first ground war.

The Afghan war is also the battleground on which NATO has lost its first soldiers in combat operations.

As of October 10, the U.S. and its NATO allies have lost 2,144 troops, almost 1,100 since last year. So far this year 574 foreign troops have been killed, 27 percent of the total in the over nine-year-long war, compared to 55 in Iraq, a more than ten-to-one ratio. And whereas all those killed in Iraq this year were American servicemen, almost 35 per cent of all occupation forces slain in Afghanistan were non-American. 4,475 of 4,743 foreign troops killed in Iraq since 2003 - 94.3 percent - were from the U.S. while 820 of the 2,144 killed in Afghanistan since 2001 - 38.3 percent - were not.

Nations that have not been engaged in a war since World War Two and in some instances longer or never at all are now providing NATO troops for Afghanistan: Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, the Czech Republic/Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Austria and Mongolia. (Many of the above, especially new NATO members, also supplied troops for deployment to Iraq after 2003, which have since been withdrawn and redeployed to Afghanistan.)

Even Switzerland, a NATO Partnership for Peace member, assigned a nominal contingent from 2004-2008, withdrawing it because "The peacekeeping support mission in South Afghanistan has gradually turned into an operation to combat insurgents," according to a Swiss source. [3]

Other nations have troops in Afghanistan that had not sent military forces to a foreign combat zone since the Korean War - Belgium, Canada, Greece and Turkey - and the Vietnam War: Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. [4]

In the last week of September NATO helicopter gunships launched four deadly raids into Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas and on September 30 an attack by two NATO helicopters killed three Pakistani soldiers in the Kurram Agency there.

This month the Czech Republic announced that it was increasing its NATO contingent by 30 percent, from 530 to 730 troops, and was redeploying its special forces to Afghanistan. Many of the troops are being transferred from NATO's Kosovo Force to its International Security Assistance Force, as with those of other NATO members and much as occurred from December of 2008 onward when all Eastern European nations' troops were reassigned from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Meeting with Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg in Washington on October 6, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "said she had been happy at the Czech step." [5]

The day before, Clinton met with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov and the two "discussed the situation in Afghanistan," [6] where Bulgaria announced this summer it was deploying a "700-strong combat unit to boost its troops...as of 2013 at the latest," [7] notwithstanding talks of a drawdown of foreign troops next July.

At a joint press conference with Georgian Prime Minister Nika Gilauri in Washington before the second meeting of the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Commission within the framework of the U.S.-Georgia Charter on Strategic Cooperation on October 6, Clinton applauded the South Caucasus nation for increasing its troop strength in Afghanistan to almost 1,000, condoled it on the recent loss of four soldiers there, supported its NATO aspirations and in effect demanded Russia remove its troops from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The governments of the latter two nations reacted to Clinton's characterization of them as "occupied Georgian territories," and Abkhazia "challenged Mrs Clinton to label countries like Iraq and Afghanistan American-occupied territories." [8]

A U.S. armed forces publication recently disclosed that U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) is training joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs) from fellow NATO nations at an American Air Force school in Germany to order bombing runs in Afghanistan. "[T]he Air Force has ramped up efforts to train more [controllers] from allied nations, many of whom could deploy to Afghanistan to call in NATO airstrikes....USAFE Commander Gen. Roger Brady has directed the Europe-based school to double its training capacity, from 72 to 144 graduates a year....At least 50 percent of those students are expected to come from countries other than the United States." [9] In a five-week initial qualification class this month, U.S. Air Force personnel were joined by counterparts from Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania and Slovenia, all but two of whom are new NATO members inducted since 1999.

Canada, which has more than once announced plans to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan without doing so, reactivated the 1st Canadian Division Headquarters in Kingston, Ontario on October 8 under the command of Major-General David Fraser, who commanded NATO troops in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan in 2006. Fraser said "putting the organization back in place means that the Forces will be more nimble and can respond to future missions - be it combat such as Afghanistan or humanitarian assistance in Haiti - faster and smoother." He added that the multi-service (army, air force and navy) rapid deployment headquarters "incorporates a lot of what we learned in Afghanistan." [10]

On October 6 an Afghan soldier fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an outpost manned by French troops in the northeastern province of Kapisa.

Three NATO soldiers were killed in attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan and NATO lost a drone in Paktika province near the Pakistani border on October 7. The next day three more ISAF soldiers were killed in the south of the country while NATO forces killed what were described as six pro-government militiamen in the southeastern province of Khost. "Local villagers took the bodies to the governor's office in the provincial capital, also called Khost, to protest the killing," an Afghan police official reported. [11]

Also on October 8, a German soldier was killed and six others wounded - two seriously, one critically - in northern Afghanistan in a suicide bomb attack, bringing Germany's death toll to 44. A German news agency reported that "The Germans came under mortar and rifle fire after the detonation and the skirmish apparently lasted for several hours." [12] The same source stated that there are 5,350 German soldiers now stationed in the north, up from the 4,500 maximum allowed for by the Bundestag until this February. The number is substantially higher than any previous amount of German troops stationed abroad - and moreover for war - since World War Two.

The following day four Italian soldiers were killed and another injured in an attack in western Afghanistan, bringing Italy's death count to 34. "The victims were killed when a bomb exploded near their armoured car, part of a column of 70 Italian military vehicles." [13]

On the same day a member of Australia's Special Operations Task Group was wounded in a roadside bomb attack. Australia is the largest NATO partnership nation (one of four Contact Countries along with Japan, New Zealand and South Korea) contributor to the war, with 1,550 troops in theater. According to the country's Ministry of Defence, 21 Australian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan and 150 wounded, 50 of the latter this year.

With the war in Afghanistan and its expansion into Pakistan, NATO is not only waging an armed conflict in Asia, it is also consolidating military partnerships with nations in the Asia-Pacific area and creating the nucleus of an Asian NATO. [14]

On October 8 Britain's Chief of Joint Operations, Air Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, signed a Memorandum of Understanding at his nation's Permanent Joint Headquarters with the minuscule Pacific island nation of Tonga (which has a population of 104,000) to supply over 200 troops for NATO's ISAF in Afghanistan. The deployment is to occur over the next two years, beginning with a contingent of 55 soldiers to be trained by the British Royal Air Force next month for stationing in Helmand province. Although a news report attributes the move to Tonga's alleged desire to "show its support to the alliance," it also revealed that "the Tongan service members will receive an operational allowance in British pounds in addition to their standard salary for the duration of their deployment." [15]

Tonga has now become the 48th Troop Contributing Nation for NATO's war effort, with reports that Bangladesh, with a population far larger than the island state (160,000,000), is being recruited to be the next by U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke. [16]

If the latter materializes, the latest five nations offering troops for NATO in Afghanistan will all be from the Asia-Pacific region: Mongolia, South Korea, Malaysia, Tonga and Bangladesh. Australia, New Zealand and Singapore also have troops serving under NATO as do - assuming the broader definition of Asia - Jordan and the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East and Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the South Caucasus. Thirteen Asia-Pacific nations in all would be contributing forces for NATO's first Asian war. [17]

The recruitment of new national contingents and the expansion of ones already in place give the lie to Washington's claim that a transition to Afghan government control of security operations in the nation will begin next July.

Not only is NATO intensifying its involvement in Afghanistan as well as extending its combat operations into Pakistan, but it is preparing more missions of the nature and scope of that in South Asia as part of its 21st Strategic Concept to be adopted next month at its summit in Portugal.

On October 7 Reuters reported in a story called "NATO says must stay capable of Afghan-size missions," that NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has emphasized "the need for NATO to retain the ability to mount major missions around the world."

In a recent speech on the Strategic Concept, he said:

"No other organization can marshal, deploy and sustain NATO's military power. I am totally unconvinced by the media suggestions that after Afghanistan, NATO might never take on another big mission.

"First and foremost, because I have no doubt that we will succeed in Afghanistan. And second, because there will be other missions in future for which only NATO can fit the bill. We will have to be ready." [18]

A war in its tenth year in which NATO's casualties mount by the day is not sufficient for an increasingly ambitious and expansionist, indeed global, NATO. While attacks on its forces increase steadily and its troop strength reaches record levels - and with at least 170 of its oil tankers destroyed in Pakistan since the killing of Pakistani troops on September 30 - the military bloc is planning new wars on the scale of the one in Afghanistan.

As to where those future operations will be conducted, Rasmussen recently stated in a video post on his blog: "We should reach out to new and important partners, including China and India. We should encourage consultations between interested allies and partners on security issues of common concern, with NATO as a hub for those discussions." Not with the United Nations, not with regional organizations on an equal footing, but with NATO as the initiator of and chief force conducting operations in Asia.

While reasserting that "the 'pillars' upon which NATO was founded in 1949 - including the principle of collective defence, a powerful military capability and strong transatlantic relations - were 'still fundamental,'" the NATO chief advocated that "the alliance also needed to look beyond its borders, as it had done in Afghanistan, where its military mission is supported by 19 non-NATO countries, in addition to the alliance's 28 members."

In Rasmussen's own words: "Defence of our territory and our citizens no longer begin[s] at our borders. Threats can originate from Kandahar or from cyberspace....As a consequence, NATO must build more partnerships and engage more with the wider world." [19]

The American-led military alliance is no longer a strictly North Atlantic one. It is rather only residually based in and controlled from that region of the world. It is no longer confined to the alleged defense of its member states, even the twelve new ones far to the east of NATO's original area of operations.

It is instead the world's first international military formation, one which even aspires to render nations like the BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India and China) junior partners in an international military-security structure. [20]

The war in Afghanistan has provided NATO the opportunity to initiate new and candidate members into its 21st century network under combat conditions and to recruit and integrate the armed forces of nations in six continents for the same purpose.

When leaders from NATO's 28 member states and from scores of partnership allies gather in Lisbon next month as the Afghan-Pakistani war continues to escalate to even more dangerous dimensions, the formal institutionalization of NATO as a Western-initiated, U.S.-directed global organization will be unveiled to the world.

1) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Operation Active Enveavor
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_7932.htm#aim
2) BBC News, March 13, 2002
3) Current Concerns, No 3/4, 2008
4) NATO In Afghanistan: World War In One Country
Stop NATO, May 13, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/nato-in-afghanistan-world-war-in-one-country
End Of The Year: U.S. Recruits Worldwide For Afghan War
Stop NATO, December 23, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/end-of-the-year-u-s-recruits-worldwide-for-afghan-war
Afghan War: NATO Builds History's First Global Army
Stop NATO, August 9, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/afghan-war-nato-builds-historys-first-global-army
5) Czech News Agency, October 6, 2010
6) Standart News, October 6, 2010
7) Sofia News Agency, July 30, 2010
8) Voice of Russia, October 8, 2010
9) Stars and Stripes, October 4, 2010
10) Canadian Press, October 7, 2010
11) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, October 8, 2010
12) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, October 7, 2010
13) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, October 9, 2010
14) U.S. Expands Asian NATO To Contain And Confront China
Stop NATO, August 7, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/u-s-expands-asian-nato-to-contain-and-confront-china
Australian Military Buildup And The Rise Of Asian NATO
Stop NATO, May 6, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/australian-military-buildup-and-the-rise-of-asian-nato
15) BNO News, October 8, 2010
16) Bangladesh: U.S. And NATO Forge New Military Partnership In South Asia
Stop NATO, September 29, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/bangladesh-u-s-and-nato-forge-new-partnership-in-south-asia
17) Afghan War: Petraeus Expands U.S. Military Presence Throughout Eurasia
Stop NATO, July 4, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/afghan-war-petraeus-expands-u-s-military-presence-throughout-eurasia
U.S. Consolidates Military Network In Asia-Pacific Region
Stop NATO, April 28, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/s-consolidates-military-network-in-asia-pacific-region
18) Reuters, October 7, 2010
19) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, October 7, 2010
20) Global NATO Raises Alarms From Arctic To Brazil
Stop NATO, September 17, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/global-nato-raises-alarms-from-arctic-to-brazil
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
Part II: U.S.-China Crisis: Beyond Words To Confrontation
Stop NATO, August 17, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/part-ii-u-s-china-crisis-beyond-words-toward-confrontation
U.S.-China Conflict: From War Of Words To Talk Of War, Part I
Stop NATO, August 15, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/u-s-china-conflict-from-war-of-words-to-talk-of-war-part-i
U.S. And NATO Strengthen Positions Along Russia's Southern Flank
Stop NATO, September 16, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/u-s-and-nato-strengthen-positions-along-russias-southern-flank
U.S., NATO Intensify War Games Around Russia's Perimeter
Stop NATO, March 6, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/u-s-nato-intensify-war-games-around-russias-perimeter
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2.: Argentina Protests British Military Exercise In Falklands/Malvinas

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

Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:45 pm (PDT)

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6982CO20101009

Reuters
October 9, 2010

Argentina protests UK Falklands military exercise

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina protested to Britain on Saturday over a plan to carry out military tests in the Falkland Islands, stoking tensions that have increased over oil exploration in the disputed archipelago.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alberto D'Alotto said a letter of protest had been sent to the British ambassador in Buenos Aires over the exercises, which he said would involve firing missiles. He gave no further details.

"The Argentine government expresses its formal and energetic protest to this planned military exercise and demands the British government refrain from carrying it out," D'Alotto said, reading from the letter.

He said the plan, which Britain informed Argentina about last week, was "an unacceptable provocation."

President Cristina Fernandez condemned the plan via her Twitter account, saying it represented "a militarization of the South Atlantic."

Nearly 30 years after the two countries fought a war over control of the British-ruled islands, tensions have increased this year because Argentina is angry British firms are searching for oil and gas in the seas around them.

In 1982, Britain sent a naval force and thousands of troops to reclaim the islands after Argentine forces occupied them. About 650 Argentine and 255 British troops died in the 10-week conflict.

Britain has a permanent military presence on the islands, called Las Malvinas in Argentina, and maintains a force of 1,076 troops and four ships in the region.

(Reporting by Magdalena Morales and Helen Popper; editing by Todd Eastham)
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3.: Italy Mulls Using Fighter Jets For Afghan Bombing Missions

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

Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:45 pm (PDT)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jZ78Ns6N4coaFduM6UYE56HEuYpw?docId=4798989

Canadian Press/Associated Press
October 10, 2010

Italy's defence minister after troop deaths; our jets must be able to bomb in Afghanistan
By Frances D'Emilio

ROME: The defence minister said Sunday that he is considering authorizing bombings by Italian fighter jets in Afghanistan if Parliament backs the decision following the killing of four soldiers there.

Minister Ignazio La Russa told Sky TG24 TV Sunday that while Italy's participation in the NATO mission in Afghanistan can't change "from one day to the other," its fighter jets must be able to bomb if necessary.

La Russa has withheld permission for aerial bombings in order to avoid mistakenly killing innocent civilians.

Four Italian soldiers died Saturday in a bomb and shooting attack on a convoy.

NATO strategy for Afghanistan will be reviewed next week at a meeting in Rome including Gen. David Patraeus, top commander for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told Corriere Sera newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

And next month in Lisbon, Allied leaders will ponder plans for Afghanistan at a NATO summit.

"It was my decision that the fighter jets use only small cannons aboard, thus Italy has planes without bombs," La Russa said on state TV."I thought they could do without them, because there is the risk of harming civilians. That's why, up to now, I've said no."

But given the "enormous sorrow" over mounting Italian troop deaths, "I no longer feel able to take this responsibility by myself, given what has been happening" he added.

"I want that decision to be either backed or changed by the relevant parliamentary commissions," La Russa said.

Parliament periodically approves funding to continue Italy's participation in the NATO force in Afghanistan.

Italy has 3,500 soldiers in Afghanistan. Saturday's deaths increased to 34 the number of Italian soldiers who have either been killed in Afghanistan, including those killed by accidents.

....
A NATO spokesman in Afghanistan said that while air strikes are not supposed to be used when a more targeted approach is possible or when civilians are in an area, this does not prevent firing in self-defence.

"All fires are available for use to protect soldiers at risk," said Lt. Col. John Dorrian, a NATO spokesman in Kabul. "The tactical directive is in no way meant to hinder an individual's right to self-defence or a commander's judgment."

Associated Press writer Heidi Vogt contributed to this report from Afghanistan.
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4.: Raytheon To Provide Japan With Ship-Based Interceptor Missiles

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

Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:45 pm (PDT)

http://www.azbiz.com/articles/2010/10/08/news/doc4cae1d98ecf83637735753.txt

Inside Tucson Business
October 8, 2010

Missile lands $175M Japan contract

Raytheon Missile Systems has been awarded a $175 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency for a development program with Japan.

The contract continues engineering and development efforts for the SM-3 Block IIA missile, the next generation of which is scheduled to begin test flights in 2014.

The missile, being developed in Tucson, will be built with larger motors and warheads to make it more effective against various targets.

The contract covers preliminary design revue, scheduled for early 2011.

Raytheon expects to deploy the missile by 2018 in Europe. It is being developed by the Department of Defense's MDA and the U.S. Navy's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.
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5.: 3,000 Troops, Ships, Aircraft In Philippines Military Exercise

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

Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:45 pm (PDT)

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/281498/rpus-military-training-exercises-start-monday

Manila Bulletin
October 10, 2010

Joint RP-US Military Training Exercises Begin
By ELENA L. ABEN

MANILA, Philippines: The annual bilateral military training exercises — called Amphibious Landing Exercise (PHIBLEX) and Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) — between Philippine and American forces start Monday.

At least 3,000 US servicemen are now in the country for the nine-day bilateral training, with their counterparts in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo, Philippine Navy Public Affairs Office (NPAO) director, said around six US Navy vessels and aircraft will also participate in the annual event that involve five Philippine Navy ships and at least 1,000 Philippine Navy and Marine personnel.
....
The NPAO director said PHIBLEX will involve American and Filipino Marines and amphibious vehicles. A boat raid exercise will be held in Marine Base Ternate in Cavite and a mechanized raid will be held in the coast of the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) in Zambales.

PHIBLEX will officially begin on Thursday, Oct. 14, at Clark, Pampanga and will end on Oct. 22 at the Philippine Marine Corps Headquarters at Marine Barracks Rudiardo Brown, Naval Station Jose Francisco in Taguig City.
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6.: Pakistan: U.S. Missile Attack Kills Eight People

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

Sun Oct 10, 2010 4:45 pm (PDT)

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/pakistan/us-missile-attack-kills-eight-people-1.694648

Gulf News
October 11, 2010

US missile attack kills eight people
By Mohsin Ali

Islamabad: A US drone missile strike on Sunday killed eight people and injured several others in Pakistan's tribal area of North Waziristan along the Afghan border, security officials said.

Four missiles destroyed a house and blew up two vehicles, at Shewa located 40 kilometres northeast Miramshah, the main town in North Wazirsitan, which has witnessed a significant surge in drone strikes lately.
....
Around 25 drone attacks in Pakistani tribal areas, most in North Waziristan, were reported in September, the highest number in a single month in the last six years. In the current month of October five attacks have taken place so far.

The US has dramatically increased the number of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt. The US rarely acknowledges the covert missile strike programme, but officials have said privately that they have killed several senior Taliban and Al Qaida commanders.
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7.: Uganda Offers U.S., EU 20,000 Troops For Somalia

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

Sun Oct 10, 2010 5:23 pm (PDT)

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Uganda-Willing-to-Provide-20000-Troops-for-Somalia-104346534.html

Voice of America News
October 5, 2010

Uganda Willing to Provide 20,000 Troops for Somalia

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni says his country can provide the 20,000-troop force the African Union says is needed to defeat Islamic militants in Somalia.

In a statement released by his office late Monday, Mr. Museveni said Uganda can provide the force if it can get the required logistics and equipment. He said a few committed African nations with military capacity should take on the job of pacifying Somalia.

Mr. Museveni made the comments earlier in the day to a group of visiting generals from European Union states.

Ugandan troops make up most of the AU peacekeeping force of 7,200 in Somalia....

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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8.: U.S. Pay Salaries As EU Builds Somali Army

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

Sun Oct 10, 2010 5:23 pm (PDT)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130326384

National Public Radio
October 5, 2010

Building An Army In Somalia, Teaching It To Fight
by Frank Langfitt

Second of four parts

Imagine trying to build an army to defend a state that barely exists.

That's what the European Union is trying to do for Somalia.

EU soldiers are spending a year training 2,000 Somali recruits in hopes of sending them to Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, to help fight off Islamist insurgents trying to topple the country's beleaguered government.

And the salaries for those soldiers are funded by the United States.

The training, which began in April, is being held on a remote military base in the rolling hills of southwestern Uganda. Classes include crowd control, target practice and urban warfare.

On a recent day, 1st Sgt. Paulo Gujao of the Portuguese army teaches Somali recruits how to fight in streets and abandoned buildings.
....
Col. Philippe Bouillard, the training mission's deputy commander, says the biggest surprise was the Somalis' fighting skills. For people who'd spent so much time at war, they weren't very good at it.
....
The European Union has a basic budget of $7 million to train the Somalis.

Next month, the recruits will return home and join thousands of Somali army soldiers, who are heavily supported by about 7,000 African Union troops.
....
The U.S. government [is] providing $100 a month in salary to recruits in Somalia through the end of the year.
....
The U.S. government is paying the salaries of some government army units through the accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers to make sure American taxpayer dollars end up where they should.
....
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9.: Officials: Over 60% Of Afghans Suffer From Stress, Psychiatric Disor

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

Sun Oct 10, 2010 5:23 pm (PDT)

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\10\11\story_11-10-2010_pg20_5

Agence France-Presse
October 10, 2010

Over 60 percent of Afghans suffer mental health problems

KABUL: Scarred by decades of war, social problems and poverty, more than 60 percent of Afghans suffer from stress disorders and mental health problems, officials warned on Sunday.

"This is a major problem," Suraya Dalil, Afghanistan's acting public health minister, told a ceremony in Kabul on World Mental Health Day. "More than 60 percent of Afghans are suffering from stress disorders and mental problems." The picture is particularly grim in parts of the country where government healthcare workers are unable to provide basic services because of Taliban insurgency, she said.

"Extreme poverty, insecurity, violence and gender disparities are the major factors contributing to worsening mental health in Afghanistan." The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that more than 60 percent of Afghans, mostly women, suffered from psychosocial problems or mental disorders. The WHO said that because only a fraction of the health budget is spent on mental health, a large majority of people suffering from these disorders received no care at all.

"There are only 200 beds for psychiatric services in the country, with only two psychiatrists in the country covering the entire population," said WHO representative Peter Graaff. Public health ministry spokesman Ghulam Sakhi Kargar Noryghli said the 60 percent estimate dated from a study carried out with the WHO in 2004.

"Since war has continued, poverty or economic problems have increased in some parts of the country. We believe that the number of those suffering from mental illnesses has increased and now it is more than 60 percent," he said. The population of Afghanistan is estimated at roughly 28 million.
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10.: General Michael Rose: 'Many countries violated UN arms embargo dur

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

Sun Oct 10, 2010 5:42 pm (PDT)

Bosnia: 'Many countries violated UN arms embargo during war'

The Hague, 8 Oct. (AKI) – Many western and Muslim countries had violated the United Nations arms embargo during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, a prosecution witness told the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on Friday.

Former British general Michael Rose, testifying in the trial of wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic told the court that implementation of the arms embargo was a "task of NATO and the United States".

"UN forces had no intelligence capacity and their main task was to supply humanitarian aid to civilians in Bosnia," said Rose, who served as chief of the UN's peacekeepers in Bosnia in 1994.

Rose said he saw an Iranian plane with a cargo of arms landing in the Croatian capital Zagreb, on its way to Bosnia, but the UN peackeeping mission "had no mandate to conduct an investigation to determine whether arms embargo was violated", he added.

Wartime Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic at one meeting complained to United States general Wesley Clark that the Muslim army was being supplied with American uniforms and equipment, Rose stated

"Clark didn't deny this," he said.

"Fifteen years later, it turned out that many countries had violated UN arms embargo," Rose said during cross-examination by Karadzic, who is conducting his own defence.

The Hague tribunal has charged Karadzic and Mladic on multiple counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mladic, and the wartime leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia, Goran Hadzic, are still on the run.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=3.1.1077584090

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11.: Afghan-Bound Canadian Troops To Shift From UAE Base To Cyprus

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

Sun Oct 10, 2010 5:42 pm (PDT)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/uae-threatens-to-kick-canada-out-of-covert-military-base-camp-mirage/article1748917/

Globe and Mail
October 8, 2010

UAE threatens to kick Canada out of covert military base Camp Mirage
STEVEN CHASE AND BRENT JANG

OTTAWA AND TORONTO: It was during a secret meeting in Paris this September that Canada realized there was little room for a compromise that would enable its Afghanistan-bound troops to keep using a covert military base near Dubai.

The Canadian government is now preparing to relocate forces from the United Arab Emirates to somewhere such as Cyprus rather than give in to what it considers unreasonable demands from the host country.

The prospect of a time-consuming move to a potentially costlier and more distant staging location has Defence officials angry and frustrated. The Forces are already engrossed in complicated logistical preparations to withdraw from Afghanistan next year.

In a remarkably blunt diplomatic gambit, the UAE has been threatening to evict Canada from Camp Mirage if the Harper government doesn't grant its two commercial airlines lucrative additional landing rights at airports in Toronto and other cities, sources familiar with the negotiations say.
....
UAE and its state-owned carriers, including Emirates Airline, have been seeking dozens of new landing slots in Canada in return for letting the Canadian Forces stay in Camp Mirage. Air Canada and Transport Canada oppose the idea of linking air negotiations to geopolitics, though. The fear is that UAE is more interested in stealing lucrative international traffic from Air Canada to cities such as Frankfurt than simply flying more customers to its domestic airports.
....
The Harper government had nothing to say officially on the future of Camp Mirage on Thursday, even though sources inside and outside Ottawa said the UAE has sent Canada official notice to vacate it within 30 days.

Officials say the Canadians ramped up plans for a move after the Paris meeting and are eyeing Cyprus as an alternative staging ground. Cargo pallets from Canada might be routed through a German base.
....
Catherine Loubier, director of communications for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, would say only that the Canada-UAE relationship is strong and mutually beneficial.

"The government of Canada is fully capable of supporting our military commitments in Afghanistan, and we choose arrangements that are in the best interests of Canada."
....
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