Wednesday, February 2, 2011

KLA BLACKMAILS TO DESTROY MACEDONIA




Messages In This Digest (10 Messages)

Messages

1.

KLA/NLA's Ahmeti: We Will Join NATO, EU Or Destroy Macedonia

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

Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:23 am (PST)



http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n239103

Focus News Agency
January 10, 2011

Vreme, Macedonia: We will either join EU, NATO together or we will destroy the country, says Albanian party leader

Skopje: "We will either join the EU and NATO together or we will destroy the country together," said leader of the Democratic Union of Integration (DSI) Ali Ahmeti at a party meeting in Kumanovo, Macedonian Vreme daily writes.

"EU and NATO integration cannot be done separately. It is impossible for us, the Albanians, to join NATO, while you to stay behind the door. We will either go together or not. We will either build the country or will destroy it," Ahmeti said.

In his words the future of Macedonia depends on cooperation between the two biggest communities.

2.

NATO: 1,400 More U.S. Marines To Arrive In Afghanistan Soon

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

Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:23 am (PST)



http://en.trend.az/regions/world/afghanistan/1809037.html

Trend News Agency
January 10, 2011

1,400 U.S. Marines to arrive Afghanistan within weeks: NATO

The deployment of 1,400 U.S. Marines to Afghanistan, announced by Washington early this month, would begin within weeks, spokesman of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (SAF) Josef Blotz said here Monday.

Pentagon chief Robert Gates had announced the deployment of an additional 1,400 U.S. Marines to Afghanistan early this month to bolster the already some 140,000-strong NATO-led troops stationed in the militancy-plagued country, Xinhua repoted.

"They (1,400 Marines) are expected to arrive in the next few weeks to operate in Afghanistan," Blotz told newsmen at a press conference.

The fresh troops, he added would be deployed in the troubled Helmand province.
....

3.

NATO Air Strike Kills Three Afghan Policemen

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

Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:23 am (PST)



http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/10/three-afghan-police-nato-strike

Reuters
January 10, 2011

Three Afghan police killed in Nato air strike
Deadly air strike in central Afghanistan is the third 'friendly fire' incident in fewer than five weeks

A Nato air raid in central Afghanistan may have killed three Afghan police officers and wounded three others, the third such incident in fewer than five weeks.

Foreign troops on patrol in Daykundi province yesterday called in an air strike after seeing nine people setting up what appeared to be an ambush, the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said. It was later determined the raid may have targeted Afghan police, it said.
....
The air strike in Daykundi, a remote province west of Kabul, is the third such incident in more than a month. Civilian casualties and the mistaken killing of members of the Afghan security forces have been a frequent source of friction between President Hamid Karzai's government and western military forces in a war now in its 10th year.

On 8 December, the Afghan defence ministry condemned a foreign air raid in Logar province in which it said two of its soldiers were killed and wounded five.

On 16 December, the defence ministry said a US air strike in southern Helmand province killed four Afghan soldiers.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan with record casualties on all sides. Last year, 711 foreign soldiers were killed, according to monitoring website iCasualties.com, up from 521 in 2009.

Afghan security forces have been hit even harder. A total of 1,292 police and 821 soldiers were killed in 2010, according to the Afghan government.

Ordinary Afghans, however, have borne the brunt of the fighting. The UN has said 2,412 civilians were killed and 3,803 wounded in the first 10 months of last year, a 20% increase on 2009.

The government has said 5,225 insurgents were killed last year.
....

4.

U.S. To Conduct Bilateral Security Consultations With Azerbaijan

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

Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:27 am (PST)



http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=137965

Azeri Press Agency
January 10, 2011

Azerbaijan-US security consultations to be held early February
Victoria Dementieva

Baku: Azerbaijan-US bilateral consultations in the security sphere are planned to be held in Baku early February, US Embassy's spokesman Keith Bean told APA.

According to him, a dialogue on security issues is planned to be held in Baku in early February: "There is no final date yet. A high-level delegation led by State Department officials, but also including Department of Defense representatives, will attend". Such consultations between Azerbaijan and US are held once a year.

Diplomatic sources told APA that the consultations will be held on February 7. The Azerbaijani delegation will be led by Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov, and the US delegation by Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro.

5.

Brazil's Finance Minister: Currency War To Cause Global Trade War

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

Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:45 am (PST)



http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=137952

RTT News
January 10, 2011

Guido Mantega: "World is on the threshold of global trade war"

Baku: Brazil Finance Minister Guido Mantega has warned that the world is heading for a "trade war" amidst what he termed currency manipulation by the likes of China and the US, RTT News reported.

Mantega said he was considering more measures to control the appreciation of the local currency, the real, and that he would raise the issue of currency manipulation at the World Trade Organization and other global bodies such as the G20.

"This is a currency war that is turning into a trade war," Mantega told the Financial Times newspaper on Sunday.

He said Brazil's balance of trade with the US had slipped from about a surplus of $15 billion to a deficit of $6 billion since the US introduced loose monetary policy to boost growth.

He criticized the Federal Reserve's $600 billion quantitative easing - the printing of new money to buy up debt - as a strategy to weaken the dollar and boost exports.

Mantega, who first coined the term "currency war" last year, was also critical of China's exchange rate policy and called for a faster revaluation of the yuan.

"The exchange rate is one of the main drivers of economic policy, more so even than productivity," he said.

"Even as the US recovers, they will continue with quantitative easing because deep down it's a trade strategy. This forces countries to defend themselves as best they can," Mantega added.

6.

Japan, South Korea Discuss Military Pact

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

Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:55 pm (PST)



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=132793614

Associated Press
January 10, 2011

South Korea, Japan Discuss Military Pact
by The Associated Press


South Korea and Japan held military talks Monday on accords to share intelligence and provide each other with fuel and medical support, officials said, in what would be their first military agreement since Tokyo's brutal colonial rule of the Korean peninsula ended in 1945.

Seoul and Tokyo are important trading and diplomatic partners, but the possibility of such a military pact is a sensitive topic in South Korea....

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and his Japanese counterpart Toshimi Kitazawa met Monday for talks on the military accords, North Korea's nuclear weapons programs and the artillery attacks, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry.

The accords are aimed at strengthening defense cooperation by sharing important intelligence, mostly on North Korea, and assisting each other's military with fuel and medical supplies during peacekeeping operations abroad, a Defense Ministry official said.
....
Ahead of the talks, a dozen activists rallied near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, chanting slogans like "We oppose (the accords)!" More than 20 police officers guarded the Embassy and watched over the demonstrators.

"How can South Korea-Japan military cooperation be possible without resolving the issue of Japan's past wrongdoing?" the activists asked in a statement distributed at the protest site.

Last year marked the 100th anniversary of Japan's annexation of the Korean peninsula, which ended with Tokyo's defeat in World War II in 1945. Historians say that hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forced to fight as front-line soldiers, work in slave-labor conditions or serve as prostitutes in brothels operated by the Japanese military.
....
———

Associated Press writer Haeran Hyun contributed to this report.

7.

Rwanda: U.S. AFRICOM Heads Meets With DM, Chief Of Defense Staff

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

Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:55 pm (PST)



http://allafrica.com/stories/201101100160.html

New Times
January 10, 2011

Africa: Africom's General Ward Arrives Today
James Karuhanga

Kigali: Gen. William E. Ward, the commander of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), is expected in the country this Monday morning.

According to Army and Defence Spokesperson, Lt. Col. Jill Rutaremara, Gen. Ward will arrive early Monday and visit the Ministry of Defense (MoD) headquarters before jetting out later in the day.

At the MoD, Gen. Ward will meet with the Minister of Defence, James Kabarebe, and the Chief of Defence Staff [CDS], Lieutenant General, Charles Kayonga.

"He will also visit the Genocide Memorial Centre at Gisozi before he leaves," said Lt. Col. Rutaremara.

During his last visit, in April 2009, he held discussions with the then Minister of Defence, Gen. Marcel Gatsinzi, as well as former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. James Kabarebe and other senior officers in the Rwanda Defence Force(RDF), with whom he discussed bilateral military issues.

In 2009, Gen. Ward praised the RDF's professionalism, and announced that the US army learns a lot from the Rwandan military.

"The Rwandans don't need to be told how to be a professional force. They have that. What they ask for are ways of how to enhance that professionalism, just as we (US army) ask for that," Gen. Ward told reporters during his last visit.

"We learn from Rwandans, and can pick those lessons and adjust our own training programmes."
....

8.

NATO Commitments Drag Central Asian States Into Afghan War

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

Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:55 pm (PST)



http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62683

EurasiaNet
January 10, 2011

Turkmenistan: Ashgabat Playing Key US/NATO Support Role in Afghan War
by Deirdre Tynan

-Fuel is exempt from local duties and taxes due to Turkmenistan's and Azerbaijan's participation in the NATO Partnership for Peace program....Similar arrangements are in place in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan....US military aircraft have been using Turkmen airspace and facilities since at a least 2002, and Ashgabat is a hub for operations involving C-5 and C-17 transport planes.

Despite its long-avowed status as a neutral nation, Turkmenistan is playing an important supporting role for US and NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan. Washington and Ashgabat are both keen to keep Turkmenistan's strategic role low-key, especially the financial aspects of cooperation.

What is known is that the US government and its contractors do not pay taxes on fuel intended for military use that is purchased in Turkmenistan, as well as in Azerbaijan. Fuel is exempt from local duties and taxes due to Turkmenistan's and Azerbaijan's participation in the NATO Partnership for Peace program, a spokeswoman for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the Pentagon's main procurement arm, told EurasiaNet.org.

Initial enquiries to the US Embassy in Ashgabat about tax arrangements for US contractors buying fuel in support of Operation Enduring Freedom elicited denials that such tax break were available. However, in late December, Michelle McCaskill, a DLA spokeswoman, confirmed that fuel bought in Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are "delivered free of all duties and taxes."

"It is DLA's understanding that both Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are partners in the NATO Partnership for Peace. As partners, they agree to abide by the terms of the NATO status of forces agreement, which provides in relevant part that NATO member countries shall make special arrangements for fuel, oil and lubricants for use by another member countries military and civilian personnel to be delivered free of all duties and taxes," McCaskill explained.

Similar arrangements are in place in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, although DLA does not purchase fuel in these countries she added.

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan signed Partnership for Peace agreements with NATO in 1994. Tajikistan signed up in 2002.

US military aircraft have been using Turkmen airspace and facilities since at a least 2002, and Ashgabat is a hub for operations involving C-5 and C-17 transport planes. World Fuel Services, a Miami-based entity, currently holds a three-year contract worth $11 million for refueling services carried out at Ashgabat airport.

Both Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are also major exporters of fuel to US facilities in Afghanistan. In 2008 Red Star Enterprises Ltd was awarded a $720.6 million-contract to supply jet fuel to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. According to the US government's Federal Procurement Data System, the fuel's country of origin is Turkmenistan.

In 2009, the last year for which complete statistics are available, the US war effort in Afghanistan consumed 1.1 million gallons of fuel daily. Of that amount, "70 percent of all petroleum sustainment" arrived from Central Asia via the Northern Distribution Network, according to an article published in the September/October 2010 issue of Army Sustainment magazine.

Prior to the publication of an investigatory report by a US congressional committee in December, titled Mystery at Manas, it was widely believed that US Central Command's fuel needs in the region were met chiefly by Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. The Manas report detailed re-export operations that delivered Russian jet fuel to Afghanistan.

Russia's introduction of an excise tax on fuel exports to Kyrgyzstan last April cost the US government an additional $15.4 million over just a 16-day span. The additional payments were made to Mina Corp, the aviation fuel contractor at the Manas air base. Just over a month later, Mina Corp refunded the money due to "changes [to] Russian duty compensation procedures."

Russia has promised to lift the excise tax on fuel exports to Kyrgyzstan, but observers suggest it may be late February before the tariff is actually scrapped.

Editor's note: Deirdre Tynan is a Bishkek-based reporter specializing in central Asian affairs.

9.

South Africa's Entry Into BRIC Enhances African Voice In World

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

Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:55 pm (PST)



http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-01/09/c_13683055.htm

Xinhua News Agency
January 9, 2011

News Analysis: S. Africa's entry into BRIC enhances African voice in world


JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's recent admission to BRIC, which grouped Brazil, Russia, India and China, would not only benefit both sides but boost the African continent's voice across the world, analysts say.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has issued an invitation to his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma, inviting him to attend the third BRIC leaders' meeting to be held in Beijing in 2011, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu told a news briefing on Dec. 28.

After South Africa's joining, BRIC has been renamed as BRICS.

BRIC's acceptance of South Africa as a full member was a mutually beneficial and strategic choice, and would make the organization's mechanism better representative of emerging economies, analysts and officials said.

Due to the global financial crisis, South Africa's economic growth has slowed down over the past two years.

The country's financial minister Pravin Gordhan recently said South Africa's entry into BRIC would bring the country a better environment to boost the economy, experience in realizing rapid economic increase, more advanced knowledge and technology, and trade volume expansion.

Meantime, Martin Davis, a well-known South African expert on China-Africa ties, told Xinhua that the entry would promote BRICS' international prominence and its voice in international affairs.

South Africa's Business Day newspaper also said the participation would be conducive to the rise of South Africa, a country with a population of 49 million, in the international arena, and help boost the political and economic ties between South Africa and the other four BRICS countries.

Analysts said the entry of South Africa, Africa's biggest economy, would also lift up Africa's voice in the world community.

Sonny Maghess Vandru, a researcher with the China research center of South Africa's Stellenbosch University, told Xinhua that BRICS plays a very important role in the current changeable world, and South Africa, through the BRICS platform, would speak with a louder voice of the African continent with a population of over 1 billion.

Yang Lihua, director of the South Africa research center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said BRICS, after accepting South Africa, would help Africa turn into reality its development potentiality and promote Africa's influence in world political and economic affairs.

Although South Africa's latest participation brought an encouraging picture for the country, BRICS and Africa at large, challenges still lie ahead of South Africa if it wants to better play as a BRICS member, observers said.

South Africa needs to close the GDP gap between it and the other four BRICS members. Currently, the country's annual GDP is some 350 billion U.S. dollars, which is much less than that of the other four members.

South Africa also should improve its infrastructure, including roads, ports, power grids and so on, raise its scientific and technological levels, and boost its trade competitiveness.

Despite the challenges, the enlargement of BRICS, without doubt, has provided a good opportunity for South Africa and the bloc itself to achieve development.

BRICS would have a brighter future with the concerted efforts of the five members and the backup of all emerging economies.

10.

U.S. Uses Laser To Destroy Ballistic Missile In Boost Phase

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

Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:43 pm (PST)



http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/01/10/flying-laser-to-attempt-another-missile-shoot-down/

Wall Street Journal
January 10, 2011

Flying Laser to Attempt Another Missile Shoot-Down
By Nathan Hodge

-[T]onight's anticipated test is supposed to demonstrate something more ambitious: The laser's ability to zap a missile in the vulnerable "boost phase" (the first few minutes after launch) at longer distance.

Last year, the U.S. military achieved what some described as a game-changing first: shooting down a ballistic missile in flight with a laser.

As early as tonight, testers will attempt to repeat the feat. Missile Defense Agency spokesman Richard Lehner said that the Airborne Laser Test Bed, a modified jumbo jet equipped with a powerful chemical laser, will attempt to knock down a target missile in a test off the California coast.

If the experiment is a success, it is likely to revive congressional interest in funding the flying laser. In 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates downgraded the program to a research and development effort, canceling plans to procure a second laser-equipped jet. But the Airborne Laser has long enjoyed support in Congress, particularly in Kansas, where the experimental plane was modified, and in New Mexico, home to the Air Force's laser research directorate.

The test of the Airborne Laser represents the latest effort by the Pentagon to showcase the power of lasers. Last year, the Navy shot down four drones off San Nicolas Island, Calif., using a laser cannon that combined the beams of six industrial-use lasers. And in 2009, the Air Force downed several unmanned aircraft with laser weapons in a series of tests at China Lake, Calif.

But tonight's anticipated test is supposed to demonstrate something more ambitious: The laser's ability to zap a missile in the vulnerable "boost phase" (the first few minutes after launch) at longer distance.

A similar test of the Airborne Laser failed in September. That test, originally planned for August, was held up repeatedly over a number of issues. In one instance, the stand that held the target missile up malfunctioned, forcing the cancellation of a test. Another test was called off because of a problem with the cooling system for a tracking camera, a glitch that forced a system reboot.

Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, the director of the Missile Defense Agency, said the February 2010 experiment gave testers more confidence they could hit a missile target at twice the range.

"There was a lot of debate about a year ago about whether we could shoot it [a missile] down at all," he told reporters in August.

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