Libyan war updates/Stop NATO news: June 1, 2011

====

Libya: NATO Has Killed 718 Civilians, Wounded 4,067

Final Assault: NATO Deploying Hellfires, Apaches And Bunker-Busters Against Libya

Tripoli Bishop: NATO Bombs Coptic Church, Causes Civilian Casualties

NATO Chief: Libyan War To Last At Least Six Months

NATO Extends War Against Libya For Another 90 Days

Shame On Us For Pulverizing Libya

NATO Spurns, Sabotages African Union Peace Plan By Bombarding Tripoli

NATO’s Devastastion Of Libya’s Infrastructure Unacceptable: Iranian Official

NATO’s Libyan Air War: 9,183 Sorties, 3,489 Combat Missions

Poland: NATO Commandants Discuss Eurasian, Mediterranean Partnerships

Rasmussen: NATO To Replicate Eastern European Model In Arab World

Iraq: NATO Builds Another Proxy Army

Pentagon: Cyber Attacks Can Be “Punished With Missiles And Bombs”

Afghan War: 150,000 NATO Troops Needed For Two More “Fighting Seasons”

Afghan President’s Appeal Over NATO Killings Falls On Deaf Ears

French Soldier Killed In Afghan Firefight

NATO Opens Liaison Office In Kyrgyzstan

U.S. Expands Military Ties With Malaysia: Pacific Command Chief

Spain: NATO Launches 25-Nation Plus Submarine Exercise

Video And Text: As Washington Spends Billions On Three Ongoing Wars, Americans Reduced To Scrambling For McJobs

====

Libya: NATO Has Killed 718 Civilians, Wounded 4.067

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/libya-says-nato-raids-killed-718-civilians-20110601-1ff79.html

Agence France-Presse
June 1, 2011

Libya says NATO raids killed 718 civilians Imed Lamloum

Libya has accused NATO of killing 718 civilians and wounding 4,067 in 10 weeks of air strikes, as African efforts for a truce stalled and Italy said Muammar Gaddafi’s regime is “finished.”

The toll of dead and injured was given at a news conference on Tuesday in Tripoli by government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim, who also warned the departure of Gaddafi would be a “worst case scenario” for Libya.

“Since March 19, and up to May 26, there have been 718 martyrs among civilians and 4,067 wounded – 433 of them seriously,” Ibrahim said, citing health ministry figures….

He said these figures do not include Libyan military casualties, a toll the defence ministry refuses to divulge.

“If Gaddafi goes, the security valve will disappear,” Ibrahim said….

“Gaddafi’s departure would be the worst case scenario for Libya,” he told reporters, and warned of “civil war.”

Ibrahim also denied that South African President Jacob Zuma, who met Gaddafi in Tripoli on Monday, had discussed an “exit strategy” with him.

Zuma “never discussed any exit strategies as they have been described in the media,” the spokesman said.

Earlier, a statement from the South African presidency in Pretoria said Gaddafi would not leave Libya despite…intensified NATO strikes on his regime.

“Colonel Gaddafi called for an end to the bombings to enable a Libyan dialogue. He emphasised that he was not prepared to leave his country, despite the difficulties,” Zuma’s office said in a statement.

NATO pounded Tripoli earlier on Tuesday, only hours after Zuma left Libya’s capital having failed to close the gap between Gaddafi and rebels fighting to oust him since February.

….

Zuma said raids by NATO…were undermining African mediation efforts.

South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane called for an immediate ceasefire after Zuma said Gaddafi was “ready” to implement an African Union peace plan already rejected by NATO and the rebels.

….

Italy, the former colonial ruler of Libya and strategic economic partner with Gaddafi’s regime, has joined international calls led by Britain, France and the United States for the Libyan leader to go.

In Washington, State Department spokesman said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit the United Arab Emirates on June 9 for a meeting of the Libya contact group.

….

====

Final Assault: NATO Deploying Hellfires, Apaches And Bunker-Busters Against Libya

http://www.businessinsider.com/nato-hellfire-missiles-qadaffi-britain2011-6

Business Insider
June 1, 2011

NATO Is Deploying Hellfires, Apaches And Bunkerbusters As The Libyan War Enters Endgame
Robert Johnson

[Excerpts]

…In mid-May British Army Air Corps Apache AH Mk1 helicopter gunships launched Hellfire missiles at sea for the first time. Hellfires are precision, fire-and-forget warheads, accurate up to five miles away.

Days later Britain announced it was deploying the largest ship in its fleet, a helicopter transport, to the coast of Libya and sending the Apaches into the besieged city of Misrata.

To support its helicopter fleet, The Royal Air Force just received Enhanced Paveway III bombs at the Gioia Del Colle airbase in Southern Italy.

The 2,000 pound “bunker busting” bombs are designed to penetrate fortified and hardened structures….These were being attached to the RAF’s Typhoon and Tornado aircraft yesterday.

With the ordnance in place, NATO forces needed a little bit of time to focus on their mission.

Today they got it, when NATO announced unanimous approval for extending the strikes another 90 days from the June 27 deadline.

….

====

Tripoli Bishop: NATO Bombs Coptic Church, Causes Civilian Casualties

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Bishop-of-Tripoli:-NATO-bombs-a-Coptic-church.-Civilian-Casualties.-21722.html

AsiaNews
June 1, 2011

Bishop of Tripoli: NATO bombs a Coptic church. Civilian Casualties.
Last night bombs damaged a Coptic church located near a military barracks. Migrant Filipino Catholics witness charity among the Libyan people affected by war

Tripoli: “NATO has intensified bombings and continues to create victims. Missiles are falling everywhere and, unfortunately, not only affect military zones, but also civilian areas. The people in Tripoli are suffering, even if nobody talks about it.” So says Mgr Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli. The prelate said that the bombing last night damaged several buildings, including a Coptic church located a few hundred meters from a military barracks.

According to the Libyan government, the NATO operation against Gaddafi has killed more than 700 people and injured over four thousand….Monsignor Martinelli explains that the city lacks fuel and the population is afraid to leave home; psychological damage is also caused by the bombings.

The prelate emphasizes the active presence of more than three thousand migrant Filipino Catholics, working in different hospitals in the city and throughout the country. They attend Mass every week in the cathedral despite the bombings. For the prelate, “they represent the heart of the local Catholic community and are a testimony of love and service to the Libyan people who suffer.”

Meanwhile, NATO today announced the extension of the mission to Libya by an additional 90 days. “This decision is a clear message to the regime of Gaddafi,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General of NATO….

On 30 May, Professor Angelo Del Boca spoke to AsiaNews about the unusual duration of this war. According to the historian, “the high cost of the operation against Gaddafi has transformed a lightening conflict into a war of nonsense by the media. What NATO hoped to achieve with the No Fly Zone has now been dissolved.”

====

NATO Chief: Libyan War To Last At Least Six Months

http://en.rian.ru/world/20110601/164366529.html

Russian Information Agency Novosti
June 1, 2011

NATO extends mission in Libya

Moscow: NATO will continue its military campaign in Libya until at least September, NATO Secretary General Andres Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday.

“We are determined to continue our operation…We will keep up the pressure to see it through,” Rasmussen said, adding that the allies would extend the presence in Libya for another 90 days.

Fourteen of the 28 NATO countries are taking part in the operation Unified Protector in Libya, which includes airstrikes, a no-fly zone and naval enforcement of an arms embargo….

Russia abstained in the Security Council vote authorizing the NATO-led military operation to protect civilians in the war-ravaged North African country, and has strongly criticized the alliance’s handling of the operation.

Western media reports claim the United States has suggested the Libyan rebels open a representative office in Washington.

====

NATO Extends War Against Libya For Another 90 Days

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/06/01/51127201.html

Voice of Russia
June 1, 2011

NATO to prolong operation in Libya by 90 days

NATO and the coalition partners have decided to prolong their operation in Libya by another 90 days, says NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

He spoke of the alliance’s determination not to weaken efforts while acting on the UN mandate to protect the people of Libya. NATO launched its operation on March 19th.

A spokesman for the Jamahiriya Government, Moussa Ibrahim, said on Tuesday that 718 people, mostly civilians, have died in NATO bombing attacks since the outbreak of the military campaign. More than 4,000 others have been wounded.

====

Shame On Us For Pulverizing Libya

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11152/1150408-374-0.stm

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
June 1, 2011

Shame on us for pulverizing Libya
By Dan Simpson

-We as a people are acting in Libya like some maddened pit bull that just has to attack something. It is shameful.

Two questions troubled me over Memorial Day: Why is the United States destroying Libya, and why do I care?

For nearly three months America and its pony pal Pokeys – Denmark, France, Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom – have been busily destroying Libya.

The war started out as at least vaguely comprehensible and well-meaning. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had responded to the Arab Spring stirrings against his government with furious threats against the Libyan population. The U.N. Security Council, at the urging of three permanent members (France, the United Kingdom and the United States) but with significant abstentions by Brazil, China, Germany, India and Russia, agreed to military action to protect Libyan civilians from the potential ravages of the government’s armed forces. That limited objective made some sense in humanitarian terms.

Libyan rebels launched an effort to oust Mr. Gadhafi from power but quickly ran out of gas. The allies began fighting under the banner of NATO, with the United States in principle having handed over leadership of the effort – which became, clearly, aimed at regime change, allegedly a “no, no” for the regime of President Barack Obama because it saw this as a major fault of the preceding administration of President George W. Bush. The allies, having eliminated Mr. Gadhafi’s air power, began bombing not only government military targets but also making parts of Tripoli, the Libyan capital, look like Joplin, Missouri, after the tornado. This was done in the name of hitting military installations, although it has become evident that Mr. Gadhafi himself was their real target.

The U.S. role moved into semi-clandestine mode. CIA and special operations forces were on the ground, helping with targeting and providing other intelligence support to NATO air forces as they demolished targets in Libya.

In the meantime, the rebels’ provisional “government” in eastern Libya – in Benghazi, formerly known as Cyrenaica – continued to take an informal approach to military action, in principle taking advantage of the NATO air strikes to move westward toward Tripoli. In fact, it remains divided by tribe, ill-disciplined, indifferently led and, in the end, lightly motivated, in spite of all the bold talk about fighting for freedom. The “government” now has 40 ministers and has eliminated women from all significant positions of leadership.

When preparing to go to Libya in 1963 one of the first books I read was on the tribes of Cyrenaica. The Cyrenaicans still operate on a tribal basis. They oppose the tribes of western and southern Libya.

I haven’t figured out yet whether the geniuses who run U.S. foreign policy don’t know that, or whether their reasons for proceeding to destroy Libya as a nation were so compelling that they were willing to put their nickels on the eastern Libyans in spite of the legendary divisions among their tribes and the problems these present.

Mr. Obama is moving ahead even though he is in clear violation of the terms of the U.S. War Powers Act. So what is behind his adherence to a policy of pounding Libya?

It is oil, to a degree. Even though Libya produces only 2 percent of the world’s oil, the companies that Libya nationalized after Mr. Gadhafi took power in 1969 were owned in part by British and American companies with long memories and a lot of lobbying clout in Washington due to their political contributions to parties and congressmen. France, the United Kingdom and the United States would just love to get their concessions back.

It is also clear that Mr. Gadhafi is not anyone’s idea of an enlightened ruler. Even though he handed over his nascent nuclear weapons program during the Bush years, winning big points, he also took down Pan Am 103 in 1988. He paid compensation to victims’ families but that tragedy remains an unsettled score between the United States and Libya. But is he worse than some of the Persian Gulf emirs – not to mention Saudi Arabia’s royalty – that we cuddle up to for oil, arms sales, military bases and whatever else?

Which leaves the fundamental question, what business is it of the United States to decide who should rule Libya or any other country in the world that poses no threat to us? Do we see no conflict of principles between taking the greatest of pride in our own independence, glorifying our founding fathers and praising our troops who fight and die to preserve that independence, while at the same time bombing into rubble some other country’s capital to try to change its current leaders?

My own personal question is, why do I care? Or at least, why do I care more than most Americans? There is no noticeable resistance among Americans or in Congress to the destruction we are bringing to Libya.

The answer is, I think, because I have seen and lived in the Libya that U.S. and NATO armaments are now pulverizing. It is hard for Americans to imagine Libya. There are places where robed women and men with donkeys raise water from wells just like the pictures in the books in Sunday school. There are green hills of Cyrenaica where it is possible to wander through Greek and Roman ruins alone.

It is also hard for Americans to imagine the destruction that modern arms can bring to a city. The videos of Joplin and eastern Japan give us some idea. Grainy black-and-white footage of post-war Europe shows us more. But why Libya? In the name of exactly what?

We as a people are acting in Libya like some maddened pit bull that just has to attack something. It is shameful.

Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador, is a Post-Gazette associate editor

====

NATO Spurns, Sabotages African Union Peace Plan By Bombarding Tripoli

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/458421

Agence France-Presse
May 31, 2011

NATO strikes Tripoli after Zuma ends peace mission

-Zuma said raids by NATO, which is enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and protecting civilians from a regime crackdown under a UN mandate, were undermining African mediation efforts.
“Even going there had to be delayed because of bombing,” he said in apparent reference to an initial AU mission to Libya.

Tripoli: NATO pounded Libya’s capital on Tuesday, only hours after South Africa’s president left following talks that produced only a commitment to a peace plan already rejected by the military alliance and rebels.

South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, representing the African Union, held talks on Monday with Muammar Qadhafi as NATO insisted that the Libyan leader’s “reign of terror” is nearing an end.

….

Zuma said before he left the Libyan capital that Qadhafi was “ready” to implement the African Union plan to end the conflict between regime forces and rebels….

“He is ready to implement the roadmap of the AU,” said Zuma, adding it would begin with a ceasefire that must include a halt of NATO-led bombing.

Qadhafi insisted “all Libyans be given a chance to talk among themselves” to determine the country’s future, Zuma said.

Libyan state television reported fresh NATO air raids overnight against targets in Tripoli, the suburb of Tajura and Jafra, a city south of the capital.

The report cited a military source as saying “NATO colonialist crusaders” had targeted military and civilian sites in Tripoli and Tajura, causing deaths and damage.

From the centre of Tripoli, which NATO has been attacking for several weeks now, an AFP correspondent reported warplanes flying overhead and distant explosions around midnight local time (2200 GMT).

The state-run Jamahiriya TV also said there had been air raids on civilian and military sites in the city of Jafra, about 600kms (370 miles) from Tripoli.

Zuma said raids by NATO, which is enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and protecting civilians from a regime crackdown under a UN mandate, were undermining African mediation efforts.

“Even going there had to be delayed because of bombing,” he said in apparent reference to an initial AU mission to Libya.

“We only went there long after the time that we had taken a decision, and even going there, you have to ask permission from the NATO to get to Libya.”

….

At a meeting of NATO’s parliamentary assembly in Bulgaria, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen insisted: “Qadhafi’s reign of terror is coming to an end.

….

The Libyan regime also got support from two French lawyers who planned to initiate legal proceedings against France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy for crimes against humanity over the Libya campaign.

Libyan justice ministry official Ibrahim Boukhzam told reporters in Tripoli that Jacques Verges and Roland Dumas had offered to represent families he said were victims of the NATO bombs.

….

====

NATO’s Devastastion Of Libya’s Infrastructure Unacceptable: Iranian Official

http://en.trend.az/regions/iran/1884457.html

Trend News Agency
June 1, 2011

’NATO war on Libya is unacceptable’

Baku: An Iranian official has criticized the West’s double-standard approach to the issue of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa and condemned the NATO-led war in Libya as “unacceptable”, APA reports quoting Press TV.

“Politically motivated and instrumental approaches to the honorable issue of human rights are by no means acceptable and will yield no result,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs Ali Ahani said in a meeting with the director general of the Middle East and North Africa Department of the Swedish Foreign Ministry, Robert Rydberg, in Tehran on Tuesday.

“The devastation of Libya’s economic infrastructure by NATO’s bombardments, based on wrong and egotistical interpretations of the [UN] Security Council’s resolution, is unacceptable and deplorable,” Ahani stated.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister urged the international community to compel the Western powers to revise their biased approach to the recent developments in the Middle East and North Africa.

“The international community’s efforts to enforce a basic democratic framework based on respect for the principle ’one individual, one vote’ will make a great contribution to solving the issues in the region,” Ahani asserted.

….

Recent reports indicate that many civilians have…been killed in the…aerial offensives.

NATO itself has admitted to killing revolutionary fighters and civilians in an airstrike in eastern Libya but has adamantly refused to apologize for the deadly bombardment.

….

====

NATO’s Libyan Air War: 9,183 Sorties, 3,489 Combat Missions

http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_06/20110601_110601-oup-update.pdf

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
June 1, 2011

NATO and Libya
Allied Joint Force Command NAPLES, SHAPE, NATO HQ

….

Over the past 24 hours, NATO has conducted the following activities associated with Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR:

Air Operations

Since the beginning of the NATO operation (31 March 2011, 08.00GMT) a total of 9183 sorties, including 3489 strike sorties, have been conducted.

Sorties conducted 31 May: 147

Strike sorties conducted 31 May: 46

….

Arms Embargo Activities

A total of 19 ships under NATO command are actively patrolling the Central Mediterranean.

15 Vessels were hailed on 31 May to determine destination and cargo. 2 boardings (no denials) were conducted.

A total of 1119 vessels have been hailed. 63 boardings and 7 denials have been conducted since the beginning of arms embargo operations.

….

====

Poland: NATO Commandants Discuss Eurasian, Mediterranean Partnerships

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-A55368A0-D45E28CE/natolive/news_74984.htm

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
June 1, 2011

Deputy Chairman of NATO Military Committee attends Commandant Conference in Krakow

Krakow: Lieutenant General Walter E. Gaskin, the Deputy Chairman of NATO Military Committee, attended the 40th Conference of Commandants. The conference was organized by the NATO Defence College (NDC) and hosted by the National Defence University of Poland (Akademia Obrony Narodowej) at Krakow, Poland, from 29 May – 1 June 2011.

Polish Minister of National Defence, Bogdan Klich, the Chief of Polish General Staff, Gen. Mieczysław Cieniuch and the Commandant of NATO Defence College LtGen Wolf-Dieter Loeser along with over 120 rectors and commandants of military schools participated at the conference discussing the most important tasks of the military education system from a perspective of global security.

Discussions were also concentrated on budget constrains, Comprehensive Approach and future chances of cooperation, coordination or integration efforts between military and civilians, new challenges of the NATO Strategic Concept and its consequences for Partner [for Peace] and Mediterranean Dialogue countries.

====

Rasmussen: NATO To Replicate Eastern European Model In Arab World

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/opinion/01iht-edrasmussen01.html

International Herald Tribune/New York Times
May 31, 2011

NATO and the Arab Spring
Anders Fogh Rasmussen

-Many allies went through demanding reforms after their own revolutions over 20 years ago and have a wealth of experience to share.
-[T]he Arab Spring has shown the importance of intensifying our political dialogue. NATO already has two partnership frameworks that bring together the 28 allies with many countries of the region: our Mediterranean Dialogue with Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, and our Istanbul Cooperation Initiative with Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates….We are open and stand ready to include other countries. A democratic Libya, if it were interested, would be a most welcome new partner.

BRUSSELS: The dramatic developments across North Africa and the Middle East remind me of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. From Tunis to Cairo to Benghazi, people overcame fear to embrace freedom. Some governments in the region have taken important steps to meet the rightful demands of their citizens. Others realized their time was up and moved aside. But I was appalled to see that in some countries, and especially in Libya, the call for freedom and dignity has been met with state violence.

NATO’s reaction to the crisis in Libya has been quick and resolute. In March…the alliance took overall command of military operations….

Three months ago, nobody would have predicted a NATO operation in North Africa. But NATO allies have long understood that our security is closely tied to that of our southern neighbors. That is why it also makes perfect sense to consider how we can help North Africa and the Middle East become a region that is free, democratic, and stable.

….

As the Contact Group and the recent G-8 summit made clear, the question is not if Qaddafi will go, but when.

Second, President Obama has already announced a far-reaching policy to support democratic reform and economic development in North Africa and the Middle East. The European Union could also have a major role to play. NATO, too, can make a unique contribution. Many allies went through demanding reforms after their own revolutions over 20 years ago and have a wealth of experience to share. Modern defense and security institutions which are fully accountable to democratically elected authorities will be a vital reform priority for Libya and many other countries in the region.

Finally, the Arab Spring has shown the importance of intensifying our political dialogue. NATO already has two partnership frameworks that bring together the 28 allies with many countries of the region: our Mediterranean Dialogue with Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, and our Istanbul Cooperation Initiative with Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. They form an excellent basis to discuss common security concerns, develop common responses, and build lasting trust between our nations. We are open and stand ready to include other countries. A democratic Libya, if it were interested, would be a most welcome new partner.

….

Anders Fogh Rasmussen is the secretary general of NATO.

====

Iraq: NATO Builds Another Proxy Army

http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default.aspx?page=article_page&c=slideshow&id=142860

Aswat al-Iraq
May 31, 2011

Iraq’s Foreign Minister discusses training of Iraqi security forces with NATO delegation

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Hoshiar Zibary, has discussed with a visiting NATO delegation in Baghdad on Monday the training of the Iraqi security forces, according to the Foreign Ministry’s electronic site on Tuesday.

“The Foreign Minister had received on Monday NATO’s Assistant Secretary-General for General Operations, Martin Howard, the Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces for Rehabilitation & Training and NATO’s Special Representative for Central Asian States,” the site reported.

It said that the conferees discussed in the meeting “NATO’s plans and programs in Iraq, especially the rehabilitation and training of the Iraqi Security Forces, as well as the future relations and necessity to carry out a political dialogue between Iraq and the NATO.”

….

The meeting, the site added, was attended by the Iraqi Foreign Minister’s Advisor, the Chairman of its Europe’s Department and Iraq’s Ambassador to Brussels.

====

Pentagon: Cyber Attacks Can Be “Punished With Missiles And Bombs”

http://www.stripes.com/news/dod-cyberattack-on-u-s-could-warrant-deadly-response-1.145183

Stars and Stripes
May 31, 2011

DOD: Cyberattack on U.S. could warrant deadly response
By Chris Carroll

WASHINGTON: A damaging attack on the United States that comes via the Internet could be punished with missiles and bombs, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday.

A Defense Department strategy for cybersecurity, to be released in June, points to “the idea that attacks in cyber would be viewed the same way that attacks in a kinetic form are now,” said Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan.

Unidentified military officials who spoke on background to The Wall Street Journal for a story in Tuesday’s editions were even more explicit.

“If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks,” one official told the paper.

….

Lapan pointed out Monday that the prospect of a conventional military response to a cyberattack was raised in President Barack Obama’s International Strategy for Cyberspace, announced May 16.

The strategy doesn’t rule out conventional responses to online attacks.

“When warranted, the U.S. will respond to hostile attacks in cyberspace as we would to any other threat to our country,” it said.

Defense officials have previously voiced similar ideas publically.

“You don’t take any options off the table from an attack on the United States of America,” said General Kevin Chilton, who oversaw cyber defense for the Air Forces at the time, at a media event in May 2009. “Why would we constrain ourselves on how we would respond?”

….

====

Afghan War: 150,000 NATO Troops Needed For Two More “Fighting Seasons”

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=148360

Azeri Press Agency
June 1, 2011

Three US soldiers killed in Afghanistan

Baku: Three US soldiers have been killed in eastern Afghanistan in an improvised explosive device attack, the US military says, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The US military announced the deaths on Tuesday, saying the incident happened over the weekend but provided no additional information about the victim’s identities or where the attack had taken place, AFP reported.

Attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan have increased since the Taliban started the spring season offensive. Militants carry out more attacks during spring and summer.

The Taliban recently stepped up attacks on US-led foreign soldiers after vowing to avenge the death of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Earlier on Tuesday, one Czech soldier serving with the US-led forces was killed in a bomb attack in the eastern province of Wardak.

US President Barack Obama has pledged to begin a drawdown of US troops in July 2011, without exactly saying how many soldiers will be pulled out

However, Britain’s senior commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General James Bucknall, says the current number of forces should be kept for the next two “fighting seasons.”

Bucknall stated that the withdrawal of forces should start with support staff.

A spokesman for Britain’s Ministry of Defense has said there will be no reduction in the number of British forces in Afghanistan until they see “sufficient and lasting security.”

Casualties among Afghan civilians have been on the rise recently despite the presence of nearly 150,000 foreign troops.

====

Afghan President’s Appeal Over NATO Killings Falls On Deaf Ears

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/06/01/51141149.html

Voice of Russia
June 1, 2011

Afghan President’s ultimatum means nothing to NATO
Inessa Frolova

On Tuesday, the Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned that the U.S.-led NATO military in Afghanistan risks becoming an “occupying force” if aerial bombings which cause civilian casualties continue.

Karzai’s statement came after another air strike by NATO forces had killed 16 peaceful citizens including four women and 12 children. Last weekend a unit of the ISAF forces fell into ambush and called air support. The planes almost demolished the village where Taliban insurgents were hiding in one of the houses.

The commanders of the NATO troops in Afghanistan apologized to the Afghan authorities and paid monetary compensation to the families of the victims. But this was not enough, considering that this is not the first tragic episode when NATO forces kill peaceful citizens in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai stressed that the patience of his nation is stretched to the limit.

According to Sergey Demidenko, an expert with the Institute of Strategic assessment and analysis, facing the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan the Afghan president has to listen to the public opinion:

“It is not a secret that Karzai controls only Kabul and the suburbs and he does not enjoy support among the Afghan people. That is why he is running a risk of staying face-to-face with an unfriendly population and Islamists who are very influential in the country. So he has to play a national leader and to take anti-American steps to please his nation.”

On the other hand, Karzai is no longer the political figure the US wants to see as the Afghan president. In fact, already back in 2009, the Americans wanted to see someone else as the Afghan president but there was no alternative to Karzai and they had to deal with him, Demidenko continues:

“Karzai has disappointed the Americans. I do not exclude that within the changing context of their Eastern policy the US is intensively looking for a more suitable candidate to replace Karzai.”

NATO’s officials have already made it clear they are not going to listen to Karzai’s ultimatums. Indeed, victims among peaceful population are a serious thing. The spokesman with ISAF forces told reporters that the coalition will do its best to reduce the number of such victims but NATO won’t give up night air attacks, which are very efficient in fighting insurgents. NATO does not even think that this may lead to the uprising of the local population against NATO, according to Karzai’s warning.

It is unlikely that Kazrai’s attempt to act as the protector of his nation will bring any results. Victims among peaceful citizens are inevitable as long as the military standoff is on. Karzai’s ultimatum won’t help him to raise his rating among the Afghan population.

====

French Soldier Killed In Afghan Firefight

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-06/02/c_13906240.htm

Xinhua News Agency
June 2, 2011

French soldier killed in Afghanistan

PARIS: One French soldier was killed by local militants late Wednesday in Afghanistan, marking the 59th death of French servicemen in the war-torn country since 2001, the Elysee Palace said in a statement.

The statement said a corporal was killed during an exchange of fire with local insurgents in Alasay Valley, north of the Afghan capital Kabul, while conducting a reconnaissance operation.

….

Around 4,000 French soldiers are deployed to Afghanistan mainly in the district of Surobi and Kapisa province in the east of the country.

====

NATO Opens Liaison Office In Kyrgyzstan

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/06/01/51133242.html

Voice of Russia
June 1, 2011

NATO opens liaison office in Kyrgyzstan

NATO will open its liaison office in Kyrgyzstan’s capital of Bishkek, a source in the country’s Defense Ministry reports.

He said that this will provide for better bilateral relations and military and cultural cooperation with NATO’s Partnership for Peace program.

The office will be located at a NATO member embassy.

====

U.S. Expands Military Ties With Malaysia: Pacific Command Chief

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-06/01/c_13905862.htm

Xinhua News Agency
June 1, 2011

U.S. to expand cooperation with Malaysian military: U.S. admiral

KUALA LUMPUR: U.S. Admiral Robert F. Willard said here Wednesday that the United States would improve and expand its military cooperation with Malaysia in its effort to help protect the Asia Pacific region.

Willard, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, who was here to give talks at the 25th Asia Pacific Roundtable, said he has met with Malaysian Armed Forces chief Azizan Ariffin, as both talked about ways to contribute to the security of Asia Pacific region.

“Malaysia and the U.S. already conducted training together,” Willard said….

He commended Malaysia for its “very accomplished military in the region” and its increased participation in the “Cobra Gold” military exercise in Thailand.

The biennial exercise also involves the U.S., Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand.

Willard said Asia Pacific was a strategically crucial part of the world and the U.S. Pacific Command will continue to play its role to keep the maritime and sea lanes safe for use.

====

Spain: NATO Launches 25-Nation Plus Submarine Exercise

http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=60697

Navy NewsStand
June 1, 2011

Bold Monarch 2011 Kicks Off in Spain
By MCC(SW/AW) Katt Whittenberger, Expeditionary Combat Camera

CARTAGENA, Spain: Participants and observers from more than 25 countries departed May 30, for the NATO exercise Bold Monarch 2011, the world’s largest submarine rescue exercise.

The 12-day exercise supports interoperability between submarines and submarine rescue units, and this is the first time a Russian submarine has participated in a NATO exercise.

“In Bold Monarch 2008, NATO and our partner nations demonstrated dramatic improvements in international cooperation and interoperability in this challenging field,” said Capt. David Dittmer, deputy commander, Submarines North….

More than 2,000 personnel and 20 ships have gathered off the coast of Spain, bringing with them rescue forces equipped with a range of sophisticated debris clearance, diver assisted gear and submarine rescue systems (SRS)….

….

Bold Monarch 2011 will culminate with a 48-hour scenario involving the rescue of more than 150 personnel from multiple ships. Aircraft from Italy will deliver divers from the Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom via parachutes, to provide first response. The medical professionals will respond to multiple mass casualty scenarios. Rescue systems from multiple countries will recover trapped Sailors.

====

Video And Text: As Washington Spends Billions On Three Ongoing Wars, Americans Reduced To Scrambling For McJobs

http://rt.com/news/wage-mcdonald-unemployment-us/

RT
June 1, 2011

Golden archway to jobs in tough US market

Video

Three ongoing military campaigns that are costing the US a fortune give no comfort for millions of unemployed Americans. Food stamps and a minimum wage are the only hope for many, just to avoid a life of hunger.

­They are the golden arches that stretch across the globe – from London to Brussels to Moscow. Millions flock to McDonald’s in search of French fries, Big Macs, and Happy Meals. Some also come in search of a career.

Europeans, when asked about working at McDonald’s, say “it’s just the worst opportunity about a job ever.”

“If I was in dire straits I might go to McDonald’s, but the entire time I was there I would be looking for something else. No offense to McDonald’s workers,” says one passerby in London.

Meanwhile, just across the Atlantic, there is the same aroma, but a much greater sense of appreciation.

Eric Warrior, a McDonald’s Manager in New York shares his opinion about working for Ronald McDonald: “It’s great working here. I was able to go from a grill person to a restaurant manager. The benefits? Ongoing benefits, working with people day in and day out.”

In the US, where nearly 14 million people are unemployed, a career at McDonald’s has become appealing. In April, the company launched its first ever national hiring day. Nearly one million Americans applied for a job at the fast food chain. Yet only six out of every 100 applicants were hired.

Still, McDonald’s created 62,000 new minimum wage jobs in one day.

But over the past seven weeks, more than 400,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment. This, as 45 million Americans are reportedly receiving food stamps.

Les Leopold, economist and author of “The Looting of America”, says Washington is ignoring a ticking time bomb.

“We have the richest country on Earth that can’t put its own people to work. That’s a disaster waiting to happen. By far, the greatest threat to the American people,” says Leopold.

In the wake of Osama Bin Laden’s assassination, US President Barack Obama said terrorism continues to be the biggest threat against Americans.

“There’s no doubt that Al-Qaeda will continue to pursue attacks against us,” said Obama.

In the meantime, the US has become a country where some 44 million Americans do not have health insurance, a reported one of seven children is homeless and a double-war bill tops US$1.2 trillion.

Meanwhile, the richest 400 Americans hold more wealth than the entire bottom 50 per cent combined.

“Two unfunded wars and tax cuts for the super rich. They’ve lost their focus. They no longer have their eye on the prize, which is: you have to put the American people back to work,” says Leopold.

Back to work in what is being dubbed a McJobs US recovery, where a nationwide recruitment drive by a low-wage employer still sends 94 per cent of applicants back to the golden arch queue.

====

Edward Young: Draw the murd’ring sword to give mankind a single lord

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Edward Young
From The Love of Fame, the Universal Passion (1728)
Satire VII

While I survey the blessings of our isle,
Her arts triumphant in the royal smile,
Her public wounds bound up, her credit high,
Her commerce spreading sails in ev’ry sky,
The pleasing scene recals my theme again,
And shews the madness of ambitious men,
Who, fond of bloodshed, draw the murd’ring sword,
And burn to give mankind a single lord.
The follies past are of a private kind;
Their sphere is small, their mischief is confin’d;
But daring men there are (awake, my Muse!
And raise thy verse!) who bolder frenzy chuse;
Who, stung by glory, rave, and bound away,
The world their field, and humankind their prey.

The Grecian chief, th’ enthusiast of his pride,
With Rage and Terror stalking by his side,
Raves round the globe; he soars into a god!
Stand fast, Olympus! and sustain his nod.
The pest divine in horrid grandeur reigns,
And thrives on mankind’s miseries and pains.
What slaughter’d hosts! what cities in a blaze!
What wasted countries! and what crimson seas!
With orphans’ tears his impious bowl o’erflows,
And cries of kingdoms lull him to repose.

And cannot thrice ten hundred years unpraise
The boist’rous boy, and blast his guilty bays?
Why want we then encomiums on the storm,
Or famine or volcano? they perform
Their mighty deeds; they hero-like, can slay,
And spread their ample deserts in a day.
O great alliance! O divine renown!
With dearth and pestilence to share the crown.
When men extol a wild destroyer’s name,
Earth’s Builder and Preserver they blaspheme.

One to destroy is murder by the law,
And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;
To murder thousands takes a specious name,
War’s glorious art, and gives immortal fame.

When after battle I the field have seen
Spread o’er with ghastly shapes which once were men,
A nation crush’d, a nation of the brave!
A realm of death! and on this side the grave!
Are there, said I, who from this sad survey,
This human chaos, carry smiles away?
How did my heart with indignation rise!
How honest Nature swell’d into my eyes!
How was I shock’d to think the hero’s trade
Of such materials, fame and triumph, made!

Audio And Text: Obama Convicting Himself Of War Crimes In Afghanistan

http://www.presstv.com/usdetail/182594.html

Press TV
May 31, 2011

‘Obama is convicting himself of war crimes in Afghanistan’

Audio

President Obama is “convicting himself of war crimes” by saying, “I am ultimately accountable” for civilian deaths in Afghanistan, says Rick Rozoff manager of the Chicago-based Stop NATO.

“The fact that president Obama has acknowledged that he’s accountable for the actions not only in Afghanistan… is something he may want to retract,” Rozoff said in a phone interview with Press TV’s U.S. Desk on Tuesday.

“Because he is essentially convicting himself of war crimes by making that statement,” he added.

He noted that any extension of U.S.-NATO presence in Afghanistan will only mean “daily helicopter gunship attacks on villages where innocent civilians are killed.”

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called for an increase in the military budget of member states to extend the U.S.-led presence in Afghanistan.

Libyan war updates/Stop NATO news: May 31, 2011

====

Libyan War: Over 9,000 NATO Air Missions, Nearly 3,500 Strike Sorties

Rebels Reject Truce Offer, NATO Bombs Libyan Cities

Western Troops Seen On The Ground In Libya

Mediterranean: U.S. Leads Naval Exercises With NATO, North African Partners

NATO In Afghanistan “As Long As It Takes To Finish Job”: Rasmussen

Two Australian Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan

Afghan War: Czech Soldier Killed, Two Wounded

Occupying Force: Karzai Tells NATO To Halt Bombing Of Afghan Villages

NATO Helicopters Stage Raid Inside Pakistan

Three NATO Oil Tankers Torched In Pakistan

Youth Groups Oppose Expansion Of NATO Presence In Kyrgyzstan

====

USS Robert G. Bradley guided missile frigate

Chinook helicopter

====

Libyan War: Over 9,000 NATO Air Missions, Nearly 3,500 Strike Sorties

http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_05/20110531_110531-oup-update.pdf

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
May 31, 2011

NATO and Libya
Allied Joint Force Command NAPLES, SHAPE, NATO HQ

….

Over the past 24 hours, NATO has conducted the following activities associated with Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR:

Air Operations

Since the beginning of the NATO operation (31 March 2011, 08.00GMT) a total of 9036 sorties, including 3443 strike sorties, have been conducted.

Sorties conducted 30 May: 158

Strike sorties conducted 30 May: 58

….

Arms Embargo Activities

A total of 19 ships under NATO command are actively patrolling the Central Mediterranean.

11 Vessels were hailed on 30 May to determine destination and cargo. 1 boarding (no denial) was conducted.

A total of 1104 vessels have been hailed. 61 boardings and 7 denials have been conducted since the beginning of arms embargo operations.

….

====

Rebels Reject Truce Offer, NATO Bombs Libyan Cities

http://www.rferl.org/content/libya_nato_bombing_cease-fire_zuma/24210311.html

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
May 31, 2011

Fresh NATO Libya Raids As Rebels Reject New Truce Offer

There are reports of renewed NATO air strikes targeting Muammar Qaddafi’s regime, following the apparent failure of a new attempt to mediate in the Libyan conflict by South African President Jacob Zuma.

Libyan television reported NATO air raids against targets in Tripoli and Al-Jafra, a city south of the capital.

On May 30, Zuma, representing the African Union (AU) group of nations, met with Qaddafi in Tripoli and said the Libyan ruler was ready to implement an AU-backed truce that would halt NATO air strikes against his regime.

However, there was no indication that Qaddafi is prepared to meet Western and Libyan rebel demands that he resign, and the new offer was quickly rejected by the rebels who have been fighting Qaddafi’s regime since February.

“Brother leader [Qaddafi] took up his position today that he’s ready to implement the decision of the AU,” Zuma said on Libyan television. “There must be a cease-fire, which is unconditional. The view is that that must include bombing by NATO, [which] must also come to an end.”

….

compiled from agency reports

====

Western Troops Seen On The Ground In Libya

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/05/31/Western-troops-seen-on-the-ground-in-Libya/UPI-11841306825200/?spt=hts&or=1

United Press International
May 31, 2011

Western troops seen on the ground in Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya: A TV report showing Western troops on the ground with Libyan rebels in a possible violation of a U.N. decree brought no immediate comment from the world body.

The al-Jazeera English report showed six armed Western troops, “possibly British, seen liaising with the fighters” in Dafniya, a rebel battle area front line near Misurata, Libya’s third-largest city. The city has been under attack by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The Westerners, which al-Jazeera reported may have been facilitating forthcoming helicopter attacks, “left hurriedly” when they spotted the TV camera, the Qatari network reported.

A spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told United Press International Monday night Ban’s office had no comment on the report. She did not say whether the U.N. Security Council intended to investigate the report.

A March 17 Security Council resolution approved a no-fly zone over Libya to protect civilians from attacks by Gadhafi forces and authorized “all necessary measures” to protect civilians, but specifically excluded a “foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory.”

….

The al-Jazeera footage emerged as South African President Jacob Zuma arrived in Tripoli in an attempt to broker a cease-fire, hours after NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark said Gadhafi’s “reign of terror” was coming to an end.

….

====

Mediterranean: U.S. Leads Naval Exercises With NATO, North African Partners

http://www.naveur-navaf.navy.mil/article232center.html

Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet
May 23, 2011

Phoenix Express 2011 Begins at Souda Bay, Crete
By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jeff Troutman Navy Public Affairs Support Element-East Detachment Europe

SOUDA BAY, Crete: Phoenix Express 2011 (PE-11), a multi-national maritime exercise between U.S., North African and European naval forces, commenced training here today. PE-11, a three-week evolution divided into two phases, is designed to enhance regional maritime partnerships.

Maritime and land forces from 14 countries will participate in the international military partnering exercise in the Mediterranean Sea from May 23 to June 15, and will serve as a unique training opportunity to enhance each country’s ability to work together….

Exercise events will consist of training in, Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) and Interdiction Operations (MIO), Command and Control from an ashore Combined Maritime Operations Center (CMOC), Search and Rescue operations (SAR), communications, division tactics, and medical response.

“Phoenix Express has evolved over the past six years, growing from six nations in 2005 to 13 participants this year. It is an essential training exercise in the Mediterranean that fosters trust among Allies and Partners, leverages our combined maritime strength, and promotes unity of effort…,” said Capt. Martin Beck, Commander Task Force Phoenix Express 2011….

Once the in-port phase is complete, ships and personnel will depart Souda Bay and sail into the central Mediterranean Sea to begin the underway training phase.

….

U.S. units participating in Phoenix Express include USS Robert G. Bradley (FFG 49), USS Stephen W. Groves (FFG 29), and Military Sealift Command’s maritime prepositioning ship USNS LCPL Roy M. Wheat (T-AK 3016) and fleet replenishment oiler USNS Big Horn (T-AO 198). Additional U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa staff personnel will also participate alongside other international naval forces in this exercise.

====

NATO In Afghanistan “As Long As It Takes To Finish Job”: Rasmussen

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20115\31\story_31-5-2011_pg7_26

Agence France-Presse
May 30, 2011

NATO must ‘stay course’ in Afghanistan: Rasmussen

VARNA: NATO must stay in Afghanistan as long as it takes to finish the job, the alliance’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told member states on Monday, urging unfaltering support.

“It is of utmost importance that we stay the course, that we stay as long as it takes to finish our job,” Rasmussen told a session of NATO’s parliamentary assembly in the Black Sea city of Varna. The assembly is NATO’s key link to the parliaments of its member states, which vote on defence budgets and approve troop deployment abroad.

Rasmussen urged the assembly to increase defence budgets and keep up contributions to NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, which was far from complete….

[A[ rapid exit from Afghanistan at this point was still “premature,” he added. “In that case we would easily leave behind a security vacuum.”

….

====

Two Australian Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/31/c_13902649.htm

Xinhua News Agency
May 31, 2011

Two Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan

CANBERRA: Two Australian soldiers have been killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston announced on Tuesday.

The incidents on Monday coincided with the arrival home of the body of Sergeant Brett Wood, who was killed in Afghanistan more than a week ago in a bomb blast.

According to Defense force chief Angus Houston, it was “a very bad day” for the Australian Defense Force.

….

One of the soldiers was a 25-year-old, Queensland-based lance corporal who was shot by an Afghan National Army soldier with whom he was serving on guard duty at a patrol base in the Chora Valley.

The Australian, from the Mentoring Task Force, was airlifted to the Australian base at Tarin Kowt but died from his wounds.

The Afghan soldier fled the scene and escaped, despite being shot at by another Afghan soldier.

Houston said it was yet to be determined whether the fatal shooting was accidental or deliberate, adding that the circumstances of the 25-year-old soldier’s death were disturbing, given that Australian personnel were training and mentoring elements of the Afghan National Army.

….

The other soldier died in Afghanistan on Monday was a Victorian- based pilot, a 27-year-old lieutenant traveling as a passenger in a Chinook helicopter that crashed during a resupply mission 90 kilometers east of Tarin Kowt.

Despite immediate medical assistance, Houston said the 27-year-old Army lieutenant from Victoria could not be saved.

The other five soldiers were evacuated to a medical facility at Kandahar where they were in a satisfactory condition. The helicopter could not be recovered and was destroyed “in place”.

Houston said it is not known if the crash was the result of enemy action.

….

The two soldiers’ death bring to 26 the number of Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001.

====

Afghan War: Czech Soldier Killed, Two Wounded

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/czech-soldier-dies-in-afghanistan-another-two-suffer-injuries/644868

Czech News Agency
May 31, 2011

Czech soldier dies in Afghanistan, another two suffer injuries

Kabul/Prague: A Czech soldier died in the Afghan province of Wardak this morning when an Iveco vehicle with him and another three passengers hit an improvised explosive device, Czech general military staff spokeswoman Jana Ruzickova has told CTK.

The soldiers´ Afghan interpreter also died in the accident and another two soldiers suffered injuries.

This is the fourth Czech soldier to have died in Afghanistan.

The accident happened this morning.

The dead soldier who suffered suffered a lethal injury was born in 1980.

Another soldier and the Afghan interpreter suffered severe injuries.

The fourth person in the car, the Czech military Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) commander Michal Kucharsky, received a light injury.

….

The wounded soldiers were transported to the Shank base in Logar province where the Afghan interpreter succumbed to the injuries sustained.

The Czech soldier with severe injuries will be helicoptered to the military hospital in Kabul, Ruzickova said.

Picek has ordered the wounded soldiers and the bodily remains of the dead soldier to be transported to the Czech Republic as soon as possible, Ruzickova said.

Czech Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra expressed deep sorrow at the soldier´s death.

“Like every year, the situation in Afghanistan has worsened in the summer months and the frequence of similar incidents has increased,” he said.

“However, this changes nothing about our further operation in Afghanistan. Our soldiers continue fulfilling their tasks,” Picek said.

….

Before the incident today, the Czech unit had 54 members, mainly troops from the tank base in Praslavice, north Moravia. For most of them this is not their first deployment in a foreign mission.

====

Occupying Force: Karzai Tells NATO To Halt Bombing Of Afghan Villages

http://en.rian.ru/world/20110531/164336578.html

Russian Information Agency Novosti
May 31, 2011

Karzai tells NATO to stop bombing Afghan villages

Kabul: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday NATO air strikes on people’s homes in pursuit of Taliban insurgents were no longer allowed.

At least nine people, including women and children, were killed in an NATO attack in southern Helmand on Sunday.

“From this moment, air strikes on the houses of people are not allowed,” Karzai told a news conference.

“If after the Afghan government said the aerial bombing of Afghan houses is banned and if it continues, then their presence will change from a war against terrorism to an occupying force,” he said.

NATO has said such strikes are only carried out with Afghan government approval.

—————————————————————————

http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2011/05/31/night-raids-make-isaf-occupying-force-karzai

Pajhwok Afghan News
May 31, 2011

Night raids to make ISAF occupying force: Karzai
by Frozan Rahmani

KABUL: NATO-led international forces would become occupation troops if they do not stop nighttime raids that caused civilian casualties, President Hamid Karzai warned on Tuesday.

The multinational force killed 14 civilians, including five girls, seven boys and two women, and injured several others three days ago when it bombed houses in the Salam Bazaar area of Nawzad district in southern Helmand.

At a news conference in Kabul, Karzai once again condemned the airstrike and warned international service members to end raids that harmed noncombatants.

“If foreign troops continue night raids, they would turn from a counterterrorism force into an occupying force. And history is witness to the fact how Afghans deal with occupation troops,” Karzai told reporters.

He added his government was duty-bound to take effective steps to prevent civilian deaths, an emotive issue for the Afghan nation.

….

The president reiterated his administration would no longer allow ISAF aerial bombing of civilian houses. “From this moment, airstrikes on the houses of people are not allowed.”

====

NATO Helicopters Stage Raid Inside Pakistan

http://tribune.com.pk/story/179191/nato-helicopters-violate-pakistans-airspace/

Express Tribune/Agencies
May 31st, 2011

NATO helicopters violate Pakistan’s airspace

PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD: Air-borne troops from the US-led Nato forces intruded into the North Waziristan tribal region on Monday in pursuit of militants and took into custody five suspected militants from the Haqqani network.

….

According to media reports, Nato helicopters violated Pakistan’s airspace in “hot pursuit’” landed in the mountainous area of Gorveet in North Waziristan and took into custody five suspected members of the Haqqani network.

The political agent of North Waziristan confirmed the incident and the arrests. Locals said that fear gripped the area following the incident.

….

—————————————————————————

http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/31-May-2011/Nato-frisks-away-5-men-in-unilateral-NWA-raid

The Nation/Agencies
May 31, 2011

Nato frisks away 5 men in unilateral NWA raid

MIRANSHAH: Nato forces violated Pakistani airspace on Monday as two of its helicopters intruded into the Pakistani territory.

Sources said that two Nato choppers entered the Pakistani airspace to hunt insurgents in the border area of North Waziristan Agency (NWA). The Nato helicopters entered the border area, claiming that five members of the Haqqani network have been arrested after the search operation.

It is worth mentioning here that two Nato helicopters had violated Pakistan’s airspace at Admi Kot post in North Waziristan Agency last week and had fired at an army check post, injuring two security personnel.

Meanwhile, tribesmen and citizens have expressed their anguish over repeated violations of airspace by Nato in the border areas. Criticising the suspicious silence of the country’s leadership over Nato violations, they said that sovereignty of the country has been ruined in the hands of the current rulers.

They urged the armed forces to appropriately protest the violation by Nato forces to ensure safety of the citizens. Unconfirmed reports from intelligence sources said that five Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders were arrested Monday morning in the Gorvait area of North Waziristan by Nato forces and later taken away by two Nato helicopters to Afghanistan.

According to the sources, who asked to remain anonymous, the action was taken by the Nato forces without informing the Pakistani government. If so, this is yet another Abbottabad-like operation taken by the foreign forces on the Pakistani soil without the knowledge of the Pakistani side.
A political agent of North Waziristan also confirmed the news. So far there is no official report about the Monday morning’s operation taken by the Nato forces in North Waziristan.

On May 2, US forces conducted a raid in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Abbottabad, during which al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in his compound. As the US side did not inform the Pakistani side until the raid was over, it led to a strong protest from the Pakistani side as Pakistan considers the unilateral action taken by the United States has seriously violated its sovereignty.

====

Three NATO Oil Tankers Torched In Pakistan

http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/1-front-top-news/15649-3-nato-oil-tankers-torched-in-khuzdar.html

Associated Press of Pakistan
May 31, 2011

3 NATO oil tankers torched in Khuzdar

KHUZDAR: Unknown armed men set on fire three NATO oil tankers and injured one of drivers on National Highway in different incidents on Tuesday.

According to the Levies Force, gunmen opened fire on two Afghanistan-bound NATO oil tankers coming from Karachi near the Wadh area.

Resultantly, the tankers caught fire and were incinerated. Another NATO oil tanker was set ablaze on the National Highway near Mastung while one of its drivers received bullet injuries. The injured was rushed to hospital, where he later was referred to Quetta in view of his precarious condition.

The Levies Force is investigating the incidents.

====

Youth Groups Oppose Expansion Of NATO Presence In Kyrgyzstan

http://eng.24.kg/politic/2011/05/31/18411.html

24.kg News Agency
May 31, 2011

Youth associations are against NATO mission in Kyrgyzstan
Irina Pavlova

Bishkek: Youth associations are speaking against the opening of a NATO mission in Kyrgyzstan, member of the Kyrgyzstan Zhashtar Keneshi public association Almazbek Dzhasybayev stated at a press conference today.

According to him, mass media published the information that NATO’s Special Envoy for Central Asia and Caucasus James Appathurai visited the country. He met with the president for the transitional period Roza Otunbayeva behind closed doors. “They decided to open a NATO mission in Kyrgyzstan. We are urging the people, the head of the state, MPs not to allow this,” said Almazbek Dzhasybayev.

“Russia is a strategic partner of the Kyrgyz Republic; it exports 80-90 percent of POL to Kyrgyzstan. In the case of confrontation, Russia may apply economic sanctions that will impact on the level of living of Kyrgyzstanis. Besides, tens of thousands of Kyrgyz migrants are living and working in Russia. Such betrayal from our side will impact on them. Besides, our pro-Russian neighbors can close borders under various pretences,” explained Almazbek Dzhasybayev.

He noted that the republic is a member of the UN, CSTO, SCO and this is enough to maintain security in the region.

“We think that the report of the Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission, statements of the U.S. Ambassador Pamela Spratlen, construction of the biolaboratory of the third security level and opening a NATO mission are links in one chain. The report can cause unpredictable consequences that will give occasion to the enlargement of the foreign military commitment in Kyrgyzstan,” added he.

====

Alexander Herzen: War and “international law”

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Alexander Herzen
From My Past and Thoughts
Letter 4 (1862)
Translated by Constance Garnett

*****

Napoleon waged this war as a remedial measure to pacify the French by the gymnastics of liberation and the galvanic shocks of victory…How was it possible to avert a war which was essential for domestic interests? If it had not been Austria the French would have had to beat somebody else.

*****

Proudhon was perfectly right. There are two or three ideas which are particularly precious to me; I have been repeating them for about fifteen years; fact upon fact confirms them with unnecessary abundance. Part of what I anticipated has come to pass, the other part is coming to pass before our eyes, yet these ideas seem as wild, as unaccepted, as they were.

And what is most mortifying, people seem to understand you; they agree, but your ideas remain like aliens in their heads, always irrelevant, never passing into that integral part of consciousness and the moral being, which as a rule forms the undisputed foundation of our acts and opinions.

It is owing to this inconsistency that people apparently highly cultured are continually being startled by the unexpected, caught unawares, indignant with the inevitable, struggle with the insurmountable, pass by what is springing into life, and apply all sorts of remedies to those who are at their last gasp…

Pedantry and scholasticism prevent men from grasping things with simple lively understanding more than do superstition and ignorance. With the latter the instincts are left, hardly conscious, but trustworthy; moreover, ignorance does not exclude passionate enthusiasm, and superstition does not exclude inconsistency, while pedantry is always true to itself.

At the time of the Italian war a simple-hearted, worthy professor lectured on the great triumphs of ‘international law,’ describing how the principles of Hugo Grotius had developed and entered into the conscience of nations and governments, how questions which had in old times been decided by rivers of blood and the miseries of entire provinces, of whole generations, were now settled, like civil disputes between private persons, on the principles of national right.

Who, apart from some old professional condottiere, would not agree with the professor that this is one of the greater victories of humanity and culture over brute violence? The trouble is not that the lecturer’s judgment is wrong, but that humanity is very far from having gained this victory.

While the professor in eloquent words was inspiring his young audience to the contemplation of these triumphs of peace, very different commentaries on international law were taking place on the fields of Magenta and Solferino. It would not have easy for any international court to avert the Italian war, since there was no international cause for it, for there was no subject to dispute. Napoleon waged this war as a remedial measure to pacify the French by the gymnastics of liberation and the galvanic shocks of victory. What Grotius or Vattel could have solved such a problem? How was it possible to avert a war which was essential for domestic interests? If it had not been Austria the French would have had to beat somebody else. One can only rejoice that the Austrians presented themselves.

Battle of Solferino

Then India, Pekin – war waged by democrats to maintain the slavery of the blacks, wars waged by republicans to obtain the slavery of political unity. And the professor goes on lecturing; his audience is touched; they fancy that they have heard the last creak of the gates of the temple of Janus, that the warriors have laid down their weapons, put on crowns of myrtle and taken up the distaff, that the demobilized armies are tilling the fields…And all this at the very moment when England is covered with volunteers, when at every step you meet a uniform, when every shopkeeper has a gun, when the French and Austrian armies stand with lighted matches, and even a prince – I think it was of Hesse Cassel – put on a military footing and armed with revolvers the two hussars who had from the time of the Congress of Vienna ridden peacefully without weapons behind his carriage.

If war breaks out again – and that depends on thousands of chances, on one casual shot – in Rome or on the borders of Lombardy, a sea of blood would flow from Warsaw to London. The professor would be surprised, the professor would be pained…

To complete the absurdity we ought not to lose sight of the fact that in abstract logic the professor is right, and that if not a hundred but a hundred million men had grasped the principles of Grotius and Vattel, they would not slaughter each other for the sake of exercise or for the sake of a bit of land. But the misfortune is that under the present political regime only a hundred and not a hundred million men can understand the principles of Grotius and Vattel.

Notes:

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865): French political philosopher

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645): Dutch legal philosopher, author of De Jure Belli ac Pacis (Law of War and Peace)

Emerich de Vattel (1714-1767): Swiss legal philosopher, author of Droit des gens; ou, Principes de la loi naturelle appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des nations et des souverains (The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Law Applied to the Conduct and to the Affairs of Nations and of Sovereigns)

Italian war: Napoleon III’s war with Austria over Italy in 1859, whose major battles were at Magenta and Solferino

“England is covered with volunteers”: Herzen lived in exile in London at the time he wrote the above

Libyan war updates/Stop NATO news: May 30, 2011

====

73-Day War: 8,878 NATO Air Missions, 3,385 Combat Flights

USS George H.W. Bush: “World’s Most Powerful Warship” Headed To Central Mediterranean

Libya: NATO Air Strikes Kill Eleven, Wound Scores

NATO Chief Rallies Member States For All-Out War On Libya

Video And Text: NATO To Shed Own Blood In Escalation Of Libyan War

Algeria: Killing Of 50 Soldiers Related To Chaos In Libya

Shanghai Cooperation Organization Can Counter Pentagon And NATO In Central Asia And Middle East

Rasmussen: NATO To Complete Full Integration Of Balkans

Bulgaria: U.S.-NATO Missile System In Strategic Black Sea

Bulgaria: NATO Chief Touts Interceptor Missile System

Leading MP: Unilateral U.S.-NATO Missile Plan Unacceptable To Russia

Afghanistan: Attack On NATO Base Kills At Least Four Soldiers, Wounds 28

NATO General: Deadly Afghan Night Raids To Continue

Afghan Soldier Kills NATO Soldier

Defense Minister: German Troops Can Be Deployed To Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan And Somalia

Reports: Coup Threats In Greece And Turkey

Obamania To Obamanic Depression: Neocon In Sheep’s Clothing

Video And Text: Paranoid Act: America’s Politics Of Fear

====

Tornado fighter-bomber

USS George H.W. Bush nuclear supercarrier

Aegis class warship launches Standard Missile-3 interceptor

====

73-Day War: 8,878 NATO Air Missions, 3,385 Combat Flights

http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_05/20110530_110530-oup-update.pdf

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
May 30, 2011

NATO and Libya
Allied Joint Force Command NAPLES, SHAPE, NATO HQ

…

Over the past 24 hours, NATO has conducted the following activities associated with Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR:

Air Operations

Since the beginning of the NATO operation (31 March 2011, 08.00GMT) a total of 8878 sorties, including 3385 strike sorties, have been conducted.

Sorties conducted 29 May: 149

Strike sorties conducted 29 May: 58

…

Arms Embargo Activities

A total of 19 ships under NATO command are actively patrolling the Central Mediterranean.

11 Vessels were hailed on 29 May to determine destination and cargo. 1 boarding (no denial) was conducted.

A total of 1093 vessels have been hailed. 60 boardings and 7 denials have been conducted since the beginning of arms embargo operations.

…

====

Libya: NATO Air Strikes Kill Eleven, Wound Scores

http://en.trend.az/regions/met/arabicr/1883674.html

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
May 30, 2011

Libya says 11 killed in NATO strikes south of Tripoli

The Libyan government said that 11 people were killed by NATO airstrikes Monday against civilian and military sites south of the capital Tripoli, a military source said, DPA reported.

Scores were injured by NATO attacks on Zlitan, Jafara and the Ein Kam valley areas, around 600 kilometres south of Tripoli.

He added that this is the second time NATO has conducted daytime strikes in the country.

NATO carried out its first daytime airstrikes in the current operation over Libya on Saturday….

NATO has launched more than 8,800 sorties in its air campaign, which began in late March….

In a speech delivered in Bulgaria, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the “Libya operation was a great success” in terms of NATO managing to act at an early stage of a conflict.

….

====

USS George H.W. Bush: “World’s Most Powerful Warship” Headed To Central Mediterranean

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/05/27/world-s-most-powerful-warship-drops-anchor-off-the-uk-115875-23160942/

Daily Mirror
May 27, 2011

World’s most powerful warship drops anchor off the UK

A giant aircraft carrier which is the world’s newest and most powerful surface ship dropped anchor off the UK today in order for its crew to make a port visit.

A total of 5,300 sailors from the US Navy’s aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush are expected to visit Portsmouth, Hampshire, following the ship’s arrival this morning.

The vessel has to anchor off Stokes Bay because it is too large to fit into Portsmouth Harbour.

The warship completed war games in UK waters with HMS Dauntless and HMS Gloucester from the Royal Navy before its arrival in the Solent.

A Royal Navy spokesman said: “The 97,000-ton Bush carries in excess of 70 aircraft from eight squadrons and 5,300 sailors and aircrew.

“The 1,100ft nuclear-powered supercarrier, commissioned at the beginning of 2009, is too large to enter Portsmouth Harbour so dropped anchor in the sheltered waters of Stokes Bay.

“Two other foreign vessels from the exercise – the destroyer USS Truxtun and the Spanish frigate ESPS Almirante Juan De Borbon – will spend the weekend in Portsmouth Naval Base.”

Exercise Saxon Warrior is one of the largest war games hosted by the Royal Navy in UK waters in recent years with other Nato forces, plus RAF and British Army units also taking part.

The USS George HW Bush is set to depart on Tuesday morning.

====

NATO Chief Rallies Member States For All-Out War On Libya

http://en.trend.az/regions/met/arabicr/1883673.html

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
May 30, 2011

NATO chief criticises hesitancy over military commitment in Libya

Western allies have been too hesitant in supplying the NATO mission in Libya with the necessary military contributions, the head of the military alliance said on Monday.

In a speech delivered in Varna, Bulgaria, and posted on the NATO website, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the “Libya operation was a great success” in terms of NATO managing to act at an early stage of a conflict, DPA reported.

“Where we were less successful, however, was in backing up that political decision with the necessary military contributions,” he said.

“In the case of Libya, as well as in Afghanistan, we have sometimes struggled to generate the right forces and the right capabilities.”

Urging NATO member states “to demonstrate alliance solidarity not just in words, but also in deeds,” Rasmussen said NATO members needed to “take the political decision to deploy the right forces and capabilities. And this includes deploying them without caveats.”

In Libya, some NATO countries are contributing to the enforcement of the no-fly zone and the policing of the naval arms embargo, but are holding back from taking part in air raids.

Rasmussen said that “the constraints that caveats impose upon (NATO commanders) severely reduce the flexibility they need and limit their options.”

====

Video And Text: NATO To Shed Own Blood In Escalation Of Libyan War

http://rt.com/news/nato-pressure-gaddafi-libya/

RT
May 30, 2011

NATO risks spilling own blood while mounting pressure on Gaddafi

Video

NATO is stepping up its pressure on Colonel Gaddafi as Britain and France are ready to deploy strike helicopters into Libya. But it comes at the risk of suffering their first casualties after two months of one-way bunker buster bombing.

NATO Secretary General Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday Gaddafi’s “reign of terror is coming to an end”. He added the coalition forces will keep pressuring the Libyan government as it’s coming closer to achieving its goals.

Part of this mounting pressure is the deployment of the strike helicopters, which are soon to provide NATO forces in Libya with new capabilities.

“They can fly low; they can fly slow; so they can hit targets that fast jets can’t hit from the air. They also involve a fair amount of risk. They can be shot down much more easily than a fast jet, so the prospect of NATO personnel being captured on the ground has just gone up,” explains Shashank Joshi, associate fellow a the defense think tank Royal United Services Institute.

The Apaches, which will be joined by a contingent of French helicopters, can maneuver in urban areas and attack fairly small targets. They’ll make it easier to take out arms stores, and target places where Colonel Gaddafi may be hiding.

The deployment is part of Prime Minister David Cameron’s strategy to “turn up the heat” in Libya.

“They seem to think if they quote the UN resolution at the same time as they call for Gaddafi to go and for regime change, it’s a sort of guarantee, or as a laissez-passer. Frankly they’re involved in a civil war in Libya. The deployment of helicopters, the intensive bombing of Tripoli that’s going on – this is a war about regime change,” British MP Jeremy Corbyn believes.

The helicopters mark only the latest escalation of this conflict. Following the no-fly zone, NATO sent in advisors to train the rebels, introduced drone patrols and by the first week of May, had flown nearly 6,000 strike sorties, with Tripoli subjected to the heaviest bombing.

A recent YouGov poll for the Sun tabloid newspaper showed less than half of Britons now support the intervention in Libya. But that number’s likely to plummet once UK troops are in significantly more danger.

“Just wait, if a helicopter crashes and God forbid we lose ten people… If that happened, [if] we started being blown out of the sky – don’t even think about it. So the issue is we haven’t dropped any blood. Yeah, we’ve dropped tens of millions of pounds which we haven’t got, but not single one of our people has died. When that happens, the game, and the PR game, will change,” Kelvin MacKenzie, former editor for The Sun expects.

People have marched against the Libyan war in the UK, but in small numbers compared to the million that marched ahead of the invasion of Iraq. But helicopters bring the fighting closer to the ground, and with it, a higher risk of death, as well as fierce opposition at home.

The government might be able to defend that, as long as the new strategy makes rapid progress. But if it doesn’t, many see the next step as troops on the ground – in clear defiance of the UN resolution that allowed the original no-fly zone to be enforced in Libya.

­The situation is getting worse for the West in Libya, as an operation which they believed would be short and easy is taking longer than expected, said Patrick Hayes, a reporter for the London-based Spiked online magazine.

“In many ways it seems that the situation is getting worse for the West in Libya,” Hayes said. “I think that at first they thought they could swoop in and actually bomb the country into democracy. They thought this is going to be quite a quick process, where they could basically keep their hands [clean] at a distance – bomb [their way] into Libya, get rid of Gaddafi and then everything will be all right. Now obviously that is not the case. And these bunker-buster bombs and helicopters are inevitably going to make the situation worse. They could bring about civilian casualties in Libya, and I think that reeks of desperation.”

====

Algeria: Killing Of 50 Soldiers Related To Chaos In Libya

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/30/c_13900135.htm

Xinhua News Agency
May 30, 2011

Killing of 40 Algerian soldiers has direct connection with chaos in Libya: PM

ALGIERS: Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said Sunday that the killing of 40 soldiers in clashes with armed groups in the country is due to the spread of Libyan arms in the African Sahel region.

Ouyahia told a news conference here that the unrest in Libya has led to the spread of weapons among “terrorist groups,” adding that the killing of 40 Algerian soldiers in the past few weeks has a direct connection with the spread of arms in the region.

Ouyahia also called for an “immediate cease-fire in Libya.”

Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci had earlier expressed concerns that violence in Libya might have a negative impact on Algeria’s counterterrorism activities.

“We have to take into consideration that in case the crisis in Libya is aggravated, the situation would probably go beyond the Libyan borders and then would become an issue for the region,” Medelci said.

====

Shanghai Cooperation Organization Can Counter Pentagon And NATO In Central Asia And Middle East

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/ea_china0650_05_30.asp

World Tribune
March 30, 2011

Shanghai Cooperation Organization outflanking U.S. in Mideast, Central Asia regions
By Fariborz Saremi

-The most urgent issues for Russia and China, however, have been Western intervention in Libya, events in Syria, charges of the West’s hypocrisy concerning Bahrain, and the U.S. determination to keep a military presence in Iraq, all of which suggest that the West is determined to maintain a controlling presence in the Middle East.
Closer to home, Moscow fears that Obama is preparing to reactivate plans to deploy missile defense shields in Poland and Romania and to establish a long-term military presence in these two countries.

The U.S. government suffered a major diplomatic setback in the Central Asian region when Zalmay Rasoul, the Afghan Foreign Minister, traveled to Beijing to discuss proposals for tightening Afghan relations with the Chinese government despite prior American warnings that it should not do so.

Rasoul’s recent four day trip (May 9-12) was particularly irksome as it came at a time in which the United States has been particularly active in the region and because it reflects the growing confidence of China that it can undermine U.S. ambitions in Central Asia by establishing diplomatic ties with various neighbors.

Moreover, the move was so swift and effective that the Americans seem to have caught on the wrong foot. It has most certainly made U.S. and NATO efforts to secure a long-term military presence in Afghanistan and Central Asia more strenuous than they already were.

The primary mover behind such diplomacy has been the Shanghai Cooperation Organization which has enabled China and Russia to cooperate more closely in their dealings with the Central Asia and the Middle East than in any other region. China has been given a platform to expand interests in the region without inciting Russian ire and at the same time Russia now has a means for indirectly but actively participating in Chinese policy.

The SCO has presented itself to the region as an alternative provider of security to NATO even as China and Russia publicly profess interest in supporting Western security efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Thus, since the SCO already contains China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as members and is now cozying up to Afghanistan, it seriously threatens the USA’s exclusive right to secure military bases in Afghanistan and other parts of the area.

China has other potential allies in its sights too, one of these being India, which has made it clear that it prefers to pursue an independent regional policy rather than simply toe the U.S. line.

Both India and China share an interest in stabilizing Afghanistan and Pakistan but neither wants the United States to use either the war against terrorism or the conflict in Afghanistan to further its “Great Central Asia” strategy. The SCO provides an ideal framework for cooperation on regional security issues.

Of all the countries in the region, however, Pakistan is the one whose confidence in American intentions and ambitions has been most keenly shaken.

Relations between Islamabad and Washington have never been easy but they were seriously affected by the operation to kill Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad. The U.S. government made it clear that it was willing to act inside Pakistan’s territory without concern for Pakistan’s sovereignty or sensitivities. Moreover, Obama has warned Pakistan it would not hesitate to repeat such an operation and that Pakistani public opinion takes second place to American security as Washington’s concerns about Pakistan’s attitude to terrorism seem confirmed.

This has severely damaged the Pakistan government’s self confidence, and weakened its faith in Washington’s interest in real cooperation. It has been embarrassed by the impression it cannot secure its own territorial integrity.

SCO membership would seem to come at an ideal juncture as Islamabad seeks alternative allies to help it provide for its own security.

The most urgent issues for Russia and China, however, have been Western intervention in Libya, events in Syria, charges of the West’s hypocrisy concerning Bahrain, and the U.S. determination to keep a military presence in Iraq, all of which suggest that the West is determined to maintain a controlling presence in the Middle East.

Closer to home, Moscow fears that Obama is preparing to reactivate plans to deploy missile defense shields in Poland and Romania and to establish a long-term military presence in these two countries. This would challenge Moscow’s traditional hegemony over the Black Sea. Russia’s efforts to be a part of discussions concerning the U.S.’s and the European Union’s missile defense program have failed.

All of these developments and the obvious distaste in both the Middle East and Central Asia for prolonged U.S. and NATO military presence in the two regions have encouraged all participants to speed up their diplomatic efforts.

Thus, while Rasoul was courting Beijing, Pakistani President Zardari was visiting Russia and Indian Prime Minister Singh was undertaking an extraordinary two-day visit to Kabul.

These shifting power balances have been provided an ideal shelter, namely the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Dr. Fariborz Saremi is a commentator on TV and radio (German ARD/NDR TV,SAT 1,N24, Voice of America and Radio Israel) on Middle East issues and a contributer to FreePressers.com, WorldTribune.com and Defense&Foreign Affairs.

====

Rasmussen: NATO To Complete Full Integration Of Balkans

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n251044

Focus News Agency
May 30, 2011

We want Western Balkan states integrated into Euro-Atlantic structures: NATO chief
Desislava Antova

Sofia: “We all would like to see Western Balkan states completely integrated into the Euro-Atlantic structures. I think the recent arrest of Ratko Mladic is a very important step,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after meeting with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov in Sofia, FOCUS News Agency reported.

“First, his arrest sends a very clear message that war crimes are punished sooner or later and second, which is not less important, the arrest removes a very important hurdle on Serbia’s path to the European Union and NATO membership,” said Rasmussen.

“I want to see a stronger and more reinforced cooperation between Serbia and NATO,” he said.

He noted there could be skepticism about NATO in the Serbian society because of historical reasons.

“I would like to send a very clear message to the Serbian people – your future is in a productive and mutually beneficial cooperation between Serbia on the one hand and the EU and NATO on the other, which might lead to full-fledged membership in both organizations. I can assure you we are friends of the Serbian people today. You must not suffer from the mistakes made in the past,” said NATO chief.

“Thanks to the NATO intervention in the Balkans, the peoples of the Western Balkans can live in peace, security and stability. We managed to oust an autocratic system and assist the development of freedom and democracy. Now we call on you to try to use the maximum potential of the opportunities you have. You can do this by drawing closer to the EU and NATO. In this respect, I believe Bulgaria can play a constructive role in the region,” underlined Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

====

Bulgaria: U.S.-NATO Missile System In Strategic Black Sea

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=128734

Sofia News Agency
May 30, 2011

Bulgarian PM: NATO Missile Shield Must Cover Entire Country

-The PM pointed out to participants in the assembly the Black Sea Region, where three countries are NATO members and the other three are partners, is the place of crucial strategic transport corridors.
-Fogh Rasmussen is on an official visit to Bulgaria Monday to take part in the parliamentary assembly.

Bulgaria has a firm position on the NATO missile defense system – it must cover the entire territory of the country, Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, declared.

Borisov spoke Monday at the NATO parliamentary assembly, held between May 27 and May 30 in Bulgaria’s Black Sea capital Varna.

According to Borisov, the missile shield guarantees the security of NATO countries’ territories, but where and what exact elements are to be located, would depend on technical and strategic decisions of the Alliance.

The PM pointed out to participants in the assembly the Black Sea Region, where three countries are NATO members and the other three are partners, is the place of crucial strategic transport corridors.

Regarding NATO’s mission in Libya, Borisov stated Bulgaria is taking part according to its possibilities such as the “Drazki” frigate, adding the Bulgarian State has expressed its support from day one.

….

Bulgaria’s leader announced the country is going to be included next week in the work of a contact group on Libya, and appealed to all to listen to Bulgaria carefully since it has a lot to say about Gaddafi.

Borisov further focused on energy security of NATO members, explaining energy independence is a warrant for the economic one.

“I assure NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen that Bulgaria is a predictable and active ally,” Borisov concluded.

Fogh Rasmussen is on an official visit to Bulgaria Monday to take part in the parliamentary assembly.

====

Bulgaria: NATO Chief Touts Interceptor Missile System

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=128731

Sofia News Agency
May 30, 2011

NATO Secretary General in Bulgaria: Missile Threat Is Real

NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is taking part Monday in the spring session of the Alliance’s Parliamentary Assembly, held in Bulgaria’s Black Sea city of Varna.

The forum, which began on Friday, May 30, is focusing on issues such as cyber terrorism, nuclear disarmament in Europe, the economic crisis, security, and developments in northern Africa and the Middle East.

The meeting is held in Bulgaria for the second time…

While in Bulgaria, Fogh Rasmussen is also scheduled to meet with President Georgi Parvanov, the Speaker of the Parliament Tsetska Tsacheva, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, and Foreign Affairs Minister Nikolay Mladenov.

“The missile threat is real and NATO needs protection. We have asked Russia for support – our relations are improving. We have no intentions of menacing Russia and we have invited it to negotiations. We believe there have to be two missile defense systems – Russia’s and NATO’s to protect from a direct attack and exchange data,” the Secretary General said in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television, BNT, pointing out a decision on the location of elements of the missile shield, including Bulgaria, is still pending.

====

Leading MP: Unilateral U.S.-NATO Missile Plan Unacceptable To Russia

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?pg=4&id=247725

Interfax-Military
May 30, 2011

U.S. proposal of ‘cooperative missile defense’ unacceptable for Russia – State Duma Defense Committee head

MOSCOW: The ‘sectoral missile defense’ suggested by Moscow for Europe is rejected by Western states, while the U.S. initiative of ‘a cooperative missile defense system’ is not acceptable for Russia, Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Viktor Zavarzin told Interfax-AVN.

“While putting forward the proposal of ‘sectoral missile defense’ in Europe, we primarily proceeded from the need to minimize the negative effect of the U.S. missile defense network in Europe on the potential of the Russian strategic nuclear forces and to avoid Russia’s involvement in an arms race and a tough confrontation with the U.S. and other NATO member states,” he said.

“However, the United States and Western countries rejected the Russian proposals. The alternative ‘cooperative missile defense’ offered by Washington is not acceptable for us. This approach means the development of a missile defense without due account of Russian concerns,” he said.

The Russian proposals imply the U.S. decision to not place missile defense elements in northwestern and northern Europe, Zavarzin said. “In exchange, Russia agrees to cooperate in the southern sector without indicating a specific military threat,” he said.

The success of this approach would have NATO interceptor missiles removed from the Russian borders in the north and northwest, he said.

Zavarzin said that he declared the Russian stance on missile defense at a meeting of a subcommittee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, which had a spring session in Varna from May 26-30.

====

Afghanistan: Attack On NATO Base Kills At Least Four Soldiers, Wounds 28

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/05/30/51021549.html

Voice of Russia
May 30, 2011

NATO base in Afghanistan attacked

Insurgents attacked a NATO base in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat on Monday, killing four Italian soldiers in a car blast, the country’s Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa reports.

The second blast ripped through the city center injuring 24 Italians, who
mainly serve in this area.

—————————————————————————

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Security/Afghanistan-Attack-near-Italian-base-killed-at-least-4-Nato-troops_312074679394.html

ADN Kronos International
May 30, 2011

Afghanistan: Attack ‘near’ Italian base ‘killed at least 4 Nato troops’

Herat: A suicide attack in the western Afghanistan city of Herat on Monday killed at least four Nato soldiers, according to a report by Arab-language satellite news channel Al-Jazeera.

The attack, which wounded at least 28 people, took place close to the military base overseen by the Italian Nato contingent.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemari Bashary said two suicide bombers launched their attack near the joint civilian/military Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) base. He gave no details on casualties.

…
————————————————————————–

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Security/Afghanistan-Five-Italians-wounded-1-seriously-in-attack_312075053581.html

ADN Kronos International
May 30, 2011

Afghanistan: ‘Five Italians wounded, 1 seriously’ in attack

Herat: A suicide attack in the western Afghanistan city of Herat on Monday wounded five Italian soldiers, according to Italian defense minister Ignazio La Russa.

One of the Italian’s wounds are considered serious, he said.

“It was a captain who was wounded in the abdomen,” La Russa said.

At least 4 people died and 27 were wounded by the attack that took place near the base overseen by the Italian Nato contingent, according to reports.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemari Bashary said two suicide bombers launched their attack near the joint civilian/military Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) base. He gave no details on casualties.

…

====

NATO General: Deadly Afghan Night Raids To Continue

http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2011/05/30/nighttime-raids-continue-gen-blotz

Pajhwok Afghan News
May 30, 2011

Nighttime raids to continue: Gen. Blotz
by Muhammad Hassan Khetab

KABUL: Despite President Hamid Karzai’s orders for an immediate stop to nighttime raids, the NATO-led force said on Monday it would go ahead with the operations.

On Sunday, Karzai issued a final warning to NATO-led troops over civilian deaths – hours after 14 non-combatants were killed in a new airstrike in southern Helmand province.

The fatalities resulting from a raid in Nawzad district included women and children, said the governor’s spokesman Daud Ahmadi. Governor Gulab Mangal, condemning the casualties, said a team had been set up to investigate the raid.

Karzai strongly denounced the latest instance of collateral damage, his office said in a statement. “The US and ISAF forces have been told repeatedly that their irresponsible operations are harming innocent and poor Afghans.”

The statement added: “Although such raids trample all human and moral values, NATO-led forces seem not to heed our warnings,” the president was quoted as saying.

On behalf of Afghans, Karzai issued a final warning to foreign soldiers and condemned the Helmand strike as a blunder. He directed the provincial authorities to probe the raid and compensate the victims’ families.

“In order to achieve our goals, we should continue with nighttime raids” ISAF spokesman Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz said at a joint press conference with NATO senior civilian representative’s spokesman, Dominic Medley.

….

====

Afghan Soldier Kills NATO Soldier

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/30/afghan-soldier-kills-nato-soldier/

CNN
May 30, 2011

Afghan soldier kills NATO soldier

An Afghan soldier shot and killed a NATO soldier Monday in southern Afghanistan, high-ranking officials from the country’s National Directorate for Security said.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said an “individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his weapon against” an ISAF service member, “killing the service member.” Afghan officials confirmed that the man who did the firing was an Afghan soldier.

In another incident, two ISAF service members died after an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Afghanistan, NATO said.

The nationalities of the service members were not immediately released.

Separately, Afghan and coalition forces repelled an attack on the provincial reconstruction team headquarters in the Herat district of Herat province on Monday, ISAF Joint Command said in a statement.

Insurgents trying to get inside the compound attacked the headquarters with a vehicle-borne IED and small-arms fire, but Afghan and coalition forces returned fire, killing several insurgents, it said.

Several ISAF service members were wounded.

The incidents took place a day after NATO apologized for an airstrike that killed nine civilians in southern Afghanistan.

….

Earlier, Afghan and NATO officials said the attack – an airstrike Saturday in Helmand province – had killed a dozen children and two women. There was no immediate explanation for the disparity between these figure and the toll of nine civilians offered Sunday by Toolan, who also noted that a U.S. Marine was killed immediately before the strike.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the airstrike and said he was warning the U.S military and government “for the last time” on behalf of the Afghan people about civilian deaths. He called the operation a mistake.

Journalist Reshad Fazel contributed to this report.

====

Defense Minister: German Troops Can Be Deployed To Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan And Somalia

http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=94510

News Network International
May 27, 2011

Germany open to troops deployment in Pak or Yemen

-[German Defence Minister Thomas de Maziere] said in future up to 10,000 soldiers would be able to participate simultaneously in various military missions abroad.

Berlin: German Defence Minister Thomas de Maziere does not rule out deployment of German troops in unstable countries, including Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan or Somalia, the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Friday.

De Maziere said he expected that requests would be made for the stationing of German forces in volatile states as part of international military operations like in Afghanistan or the Balkan region.

‘How we respond to these depends on the type of request as well as our considerations,’ he told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The minister underlined the fact that ‘soldiers are part of (German) foreign policy, and a political process must accompany the deployment of soldiers.’ He pointed to Germany’s alliance interests which are ‘usually also national interests.’

De Maziere made headlines earlier this month by saying his country would be ready to boost its global military intervention role.

‘We have to be prepared for many conceivable scenarios,’ the minister told German public broadcaster ZDF.

The spectrum of German military missions abroad could include merely election monitoring as well as a major military interventions like what took place in the Balkans, de Maziere was quoted as saying.

He said in future up to 10,000 soldiers would be able to participate simultaneously in various military missions abroad.

There are presently around 6,750 German troops deployed around the world of whom over 5,300 soldiers are stationed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Critics of Germany’s growing global military interventionist role say it smacked of new form of imperialism.

====

Reports: Coup Threats In Greece And Turkey

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=report-military-coup-possible-in-greece-2011-05-29

Hurriyet Daily News
May 30, 2011

Report: Military coup possible in Greece

BERLIN: The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency warned in a report that the tough austerity measures and the dire situation could escalate and even lead to a military coup, according to a report by Germany’s popular daily Bild.

According to he CIA report, ongoing street protests in crisis-hit Greece could turn into escalated violence and a rebellion and the Greek government could lose control, said Bild. The newspaper said the CIA report talks of a possible military coup if the situation becomes more serious and uncontrolled.

Greece is under immense pressure owing to public debt that has swollen to 340 billion euros. The EU, IMF and European Central Bank are pressing Greece to step up a privatization program and get all political parties to approve more austerity and reform measures that have sparked violent protests, but emergency talks called by the president on Friday failed to make any headway, AFP reported.

Opposition parties have mostly refused to support the government in its quest to cut spending by trimming an overblown civil service and the sweeping privatization drive announced this week has attracted even stronger protests.

Meanwhile, the Dutch finance minister said his country, Germany, Finland and other EU members won’t give Greece any more bailout money, if the debt-laden country fails to adopt further austerity measures.

Jan Kees de Jager said Saturday that “it’s vital that Greece will live up fully” to conditions set by the International Monetary Fund if it’s to receive the next batch of a 110 billion euros ($155 billion) bailout loan deal it agreed to last year, the Associated Press reported.

Last year, as the financial crisis battered Greece, Bild went as far as to highlight a suggestion by a conservative politician that Athens sell off some of its many islands to help pay off its debts.

A bailout for Greece was put in place a year ago by the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, involving loans of 110 billion euros ($157 billion) over three years.

But there are now grave doubts whether Athens can meet its repayments and talk of a second bailout, or even a drastic debt restructuring, is rife.

—————————————————————————

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=prosecutor-demands-arrest-of-top-officer-2011-05-30

Hurriyet Daily News
May 30, 2011

Top military officer arrested on coup charges

ISTANBUL: An Istanbul court has ordered the arrest of the highest-ranking active-duty military officer charged with plotting to overthrow the government.

War Academies Commander Gen. Bilgin Balanlı, who testified for three hours in front of the prosecutor before being sent to court and then testified in court for another four hours Monday, is the first active-duty top general arrested in connection with the alleged coup plans.

Gen. Balanlı was arrested as a suspect in the ongoing “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) case, which is based on documents reportedly seized in February from a house that belonged to Col. Hakan Büyük. A member of the intelligence branch of the Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, Col. Büyük has already been arrested on charges of plotting a military coup.

The new evidence regarding the case, according to police reports, consists of written documents, video files and digital material on a flash disk, and includes plans to be put into action if the alleged coup attempt were to fail.

Eight active-duty officers were released early Saturday after providing 12 hours of testimony in Istanbul on the same charges.

The testimonies came at a time when relations between the government and the TSK are increasingly tense, reportedly due to the ongoing investigations of alleged coup plots. Of the TSK’s approximately 300 active-duty generals, 29 are under arrest on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.

More than 160 soldiers – both active-duty and retired – are in prison pending trial on suspected links to the alleged coup plans.

====

Obamania To Obamanic Depression: Neocon In Sheep’s Clothing

http://rt.com/politics/columns/bridge-too/barack-obama-us-bridge/

RT
May 30, 2011

Barack Obama: A Neocon in sheep’s clothing
­Robert Bridge

I admit it; I was one of the estimated 5.9 billion people worldwide who was initially captivated, enraptured, shellacked, call it what you will, by America’s “first black president” Barack Hussein Obama.

But who on earth wasn’t?

Following eight brutal years of being dragged around the planet in search of monsters by a self-declared “war president,” it was all too easy to be seduced by Obama’s honey-dripping message of Hope and Change.

The Bush years, we believed, were an unfortunate and very un-American anomaly and Obama would put the American house back in order. Yes, we’d sit down and chat with tyrants; we’d get tough with transnational corporations; we’d put the long-forgotten rugged individuals back where they belong in the grand order of things. With the triumphant election of Barack Obama, it felt like morning again in America, which had just passed through the longest, darkest night of its history.

Indeed, the need to believe the hype and hysteria was so powerful that it even compelled the otherwise intelligent people at the Nobel Institute to pin the peace laurels on Obama’s chest at the very same time US troops were hunkered down on two fronts.

The international community is no longer enamored by Obama, however, at least not the way they were just three years ago. The American president can still charm the pants off a news conference, and deliver a mesmerizing speech via the teleprompter, but the magic of those early days, when Change was so close you could almost reach out and touch it, has vanished into thin air.

“Obamania” has been downgraded to “Obamanic depression.”

The British betrayed their inner feelings about America’s Commander in Speech when they chose a tongue-in-cheek codename for Obama’s recent UK visit.

According to the Daily Mail: “More than one person has wanted to call Barack Obama a ‘smart alec’, and now British police will get the chance to do so without getting reprimanded. That’s because Scotland Yard has tapped the codename ‘Chalaque’ to refer to the U.S. president for security reasons during his upcoming state visit to the United Kingdom May 24-26.”

And what exactly does “Chalaque” mean? The Mail, quoting a Punjabi speaker, said the word is used “when we want to denigrate someone who we think is too clever for their own good.”

Although Scotland Yard says the name was selected randomly from some cheeky supercomputer, the characterization appears too accurate to be the product of mere chance. Besides, even if the program really did spit out the very applicable designation, the British authorities could have easily commanded the computer to ‘try again.”

Anyways, there is no need for name calling when simply reporting the facts is so much more effective.

GUANTANAMO BAY

Of Barack Obama’s numerous unfulfilled promises, the failure to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility is the most glaring and unpardonable. Not only does this prison, situated in a remote corner of communist Cuba, fly in the face of democratic principles, it has actually served to harden the resolve of America’s enemies due to the inhumane treatment of the detainees, some of whom are innocent.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, “Washington has ignored human rights standards in its own treatment of terrorism suspects. It has refused to apply the Geneva Conventions to prisoners of war from Afghanistan, and has misused the designation of ‘illegal combatant’ to apply to criminal suspects on U.S. soil.”

On May 25, 2005, Amnesty International released its annual report calling the detention facility the “gulag of our times.”

Meanwhile, Lord Steyn, a prominent judge in the United Kingdom, called it “a monstrous failure of justice,” because “… The military will act as interrogators, prosecutors and defense counsel, judges, and when death sentences are imposed, as executioners. The trials will be held in secret. None of the guarantees of a fair trial need be observed.”

Remember, Obama was going to reverse all of this insanity. And there is no question about: it is insane.

Guantanamo Bay ranks as one of the most sinister war-time camps ever devised. Who will ever forget (certainly, America’s enemies never will) the images of cuffed detainees kneeling on the ground, inside of barbed-wire enclosures, while sporting sensory-deprivation devices – i.e. no light, no sound, no tactile stimuli whatsoever. All the while, US soldiers, armed to the teeth, were inside of the enclosures as well. Even if there was a chance that one of the bad guys would pull a Houdini and escape, Guantanamo Bay is in the middle of shark-infested waters miles away from nothing. Why so many over-the-top security measures, which only make the American captors look cruel and ridiculous?

On January 22, 2009, much of the free world let out a sigh of relief when Barack Obama announced the facility would be shuttered within one year. At this point, the Democratic president got his first indication as to what a joy it would be trying to work with the Republican Party. With former vice president Dick Cheney suddenly on every news channel, the Neocons came out of the woodwork, arguing that the country with the world’s premier prison system could not handle a couple hundred broken “terrorists” on American soil for their trials. What?!

Obama finally caved in to the incredible pressure, and to this day Guantanamo Bay, the darkest chapter in America’s history since at least the days of slavery, remains open for business. Not only is it open for business, but the detainees, who have been blamed for some of the worst crimes against the United States, will not have an opportunity to tell their story before a civilian court. More importantly, however, nor will the American people get to hear their story. The voice of the detainees of Guantanamo Bay will disappear into the void of military tribunals, where closed courts will keep Americans in the dark.

Not democracy’s best day.

WAR

Barack Obama has failed to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as he promised to do on the campaign trail. In the case of Afghanistan, US troop strength has tripled there, while the death of American soldiers is on the rapid uptick. According to justforeignpolicy.org, since Obama took over the Oval Office, 910 US troops have been killed in Afghanistan, compared to 575 in the seven years that Bush served as president.

In Iraq, where the official close of military operations has been announced, Obama has left behind a 50,000-strong “transitional force” tasked with training the Iraqi Security Forces and conducting counterterrorism operations. Obama says the troops there “may” remain until the end of 2011, but only a fool would take Obama’s golden words at face value.

Did Obama stop the illegitimate and indiscriminate use of drone technology? Here is Cindy Sheehan, anti-war activist who lost her son in Iraq: “On day three (of Obama’s presidency), he ordered his first drone bombing strike in the tribal regions of North Pakistan thus murdering a reported 36 civilians. Since that day, the US has used this tactic of abject terror 192 more times resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths. In the four years the Bush stain used this tactic of terror it was used 43 times. In this area, Obama is definitely an overachiever.”

Not only has our Nobel Laureate failed to bring home the boys from Afghanistan and Iraq, he threw his support behind military intervention in Libya, where antigovernment rebels are attempting to overthrow Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi. NATO forces are now conducting massive aerial bombardments over Tripoli, inflicting untold casualties on the civilian population. According to Bloomberg News, “thousands” have been killed since the bombing campaign started two months ago, and hundreds of thousands have fled the country.

The alleged killing of Osama bin Laden (no proof of this exploit exists, not even a video, which the US Army has proven very adept at providing in the past) can not wash away all of these failed promises, especially when it remains possible that OBL was not even remotely responsible for pulling off 9/11. Indeed, how a man on the run in the mountains could pull off a sophisticated attack against the strongest country in the world will be a question for the historians to ultimately decide.

OBAMA BATTING FOR BUSH

Ok, so you are still unconvinced that Barack Obama has not only continued Bush-era policy, but actually intensified it? In addition to recently continuing with Bush tax cuts for the rich, at a time when the US is facing the deepest deficit in its history, Obama also snuck through an extension of the Patriot Act minutes before it was set to expire.

The Patriot Act, rammed through by the Bush administration when America was in a code-red panic following the events of 9/11, empowers US security agencies to implement wiretaps, as well as conduct extensive searches against private citizens. But that is only the tip of the iceberg concerning its powers, since there has never been a real democratic debate on this autocratic piece of legislation.

Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon complained that “the government won’t even tell the American people how it interprets these provisions, or whether it sees any limits on its authority at all.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico said almost 10 years after the Patriot Act’s passage, “we still haven’t had the debate that we need to have on this piece of legislation.”

Did Obama the Great Changer give America the debate it wants and needs on the subject of this invasion of privacy? Did he listen to his own constituents, many of whom expected the Democratic wunderkind to end this draconian trend toward tyranny? Of course not. In fact, at the eleventh hour, just minutes before the highly controversial Patriot Act was set to succumb to a much-deserved demise, Obama, who once challenged us to have the audacity to hope, signed the legislation for another four years with his autopen while away in France.

And I would imagine the Stature of Liberty, if caught at that moment, blushed; blushed in frustration, anger and hopelessness for what has become of her once proud nation.

====

Video And Text: Paranoid Act: America’s Politics Of Fear

http://rt.com/usa/news/america-politics-of-fear/

RT
May 30, 2011

America’s politics of fear

Video

US President Barack Obama and the US Congress joined forces to successfully extend the Patriot Act until 2015, meaning broader domestic surveillance will pioneer through America for another four years.

The variety of far-reaching surveillance measures being used to collect information from most law-abiding citizens are being criticized as tools to perpetrate fear for political purposes.

The country that created Blackberry phones and gave birth to iPhones has more than 300-million wireless users. And in the name of national security, the US government will soon have a direct link to each and every hand held device.

Gathered at the scene of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Federal and New York City officials joined the presidents of the four largest wireless carriers to announce the nation’s new tech tool. An alert system enabling the president and government agencies to blast every American with text messages warning of terror threats, weather disasters and kidnappings.

“It’s like a police officer’s gun. It’s there for a good reason. But we hope we never had to pull the trigger,” said New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

The cell phone alert system will launch in New York City and Washington, DC by the end of this year, expanding nationwide thereafter. Some carriers may allow cell phone users to opt out of receiving certain alerts, but Americans will not be allowed to opt out of the presidential texts.

Opponents say politicians are promoting more fear while providing little protection.

“Now we have a system of mandatory and inescapable alerts through every cellphone in the land. In the event that the government decides that something’s happening that we ought to know about. Just as the introduction of the patriot act came after nine-eleven, this new technological invasion comes to us without any public discussion, right after the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, which has raised our terror alerts,” said Mark Crispin Miller, NYU Professor and author.

He added that Americans are living in an age of creeping authoritarianism and scare tactics.

“The use of fear for any kind of government that craves any kind of control over people’s lives and thoughts is that it makes people malleable. It makes people obedient. You go to any airport today and you see this in action. That people are taking off their shoes. Submitting to getting groped,” Miller commented.

Under the auspices of airport safety, babies, senior citizens and everyone in between must now endure pat-downs or pass through body scanners before boarding.

In the case Muslim-Americans, that may not be enough. Six days following the US assassination of Osama Bin Laden, four Imam’s on two separate US flights were illegally kicked off planes for looking suspicious.

“You have a few hate mongers who can evoke emotions and that’s what people do. They play on people’s emotions. They play on people’s ignorance about Islam and Muslims and that’s created a climate of fear you see,” said Imam Al Amin Abdul Latif, President of the Islamic Leadership Council of NY.

In December, the department of homeland security began encouraging Americans to report suspicious activity to American largest food retailer, as Wal-Mart joined Washington’s “see something say something” campaign.The marriage between government and business has been accused of perpetuating a climate of panic and subsequent need for more surveillance.

“You need to create and enemy for people to rally around endless wars and we’re spending fifty percent of our taxes on war and our national defense. When there’s really no threat directly to this country. There’s really a need to keep validating this spending,” said Abby Martin, journalist and founder of Media Roots.

Following the assassination of enemy number one, New York’s senior US Senator Charles Schumer called for an increase in rail safety funding and the creation of a no-ride list.

As US officials warn of more terror threats following Bin Laden’s death, many Americans remain concerned, while others, are left wondering about the dangers of forsaking too much liberty for security.

====

John Dos Passos: Three Soldiers

====

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

American writers on peace and against war

====

John Dos Passos
From Three Soldiers (1921)

Almost out of sight among the moving tree trunks was a log. It was not a log; it was a bunch of grey-green cloth. Without thinking Chrisfield strode towards it. The silver trunks of the beeches circled about him, waving jagged arms. It was a German lying full length among the leaves.

Chrisfield was furiously happy in the angry pumping of blood through his veins.

He could see the buttons on the back of the long coat of the German, and the red band on his cap.

He kicked the German. He could feel the ribs against his toes through the leather of his boot. He kicked again and again with all his might. The German rolled over heavily. He had no face. Chrisfield felt the hatred suddenly ebb out of him. Where the face had been was a spongy mass of purple and yellow and red, half of which stuck to the russet leaves when the body rolled over. Large flies with bright shiny green bodies circled about it. In a brown clay-grimed hand was a revolver.

Chrisfield felt his spine go cold; the German had shot himself.

*****

Perhaps he was badly enough wounded to be discharged from the army. The thought set his heart beating like mad. That meant that he, who had given himself up for lost, who had let himself be trampled down unresistingly into the mud of slavery, who had looked for no escape from the treadmill but death, would live. He, John Andrews, would live.

And it seemed inconceivable that he had ever given himself up, that he had ever let the grinding discipline have its way with him. He saw himself vividly once more as he had seen himself before his life had suddenly blotted itself out, before he had become a slave among slaves. He remembered the garden where, in his boyhood, he had sat dreaming through the droning summer afternoons under the crepe myrtle bushes, while the cornfields beyond rustled and shimmered in the heat. He remembered the day he had stood naked in the middle of a base room while the recruiting sergeant prodded him and measured him. He wondered suddenly what the date was. Could it be that it was only a year ago? Yet in that year all the other years of his life had been blotted out. But now he would begin living again. He would give up this cowardly cringing before external things. He would be recklessly himself.

The pain in his legs was gradually localizing itself into the wounds. For a while he struggled against it to go on thinking, but its constant throb kept impinging in his mind until, although he wanted desperately to comb through his pale memories to remember, if ever so faintly, all that had been vivid and lusty in his life, to build himself a new foundation of resistance against the world from which he could start afresh to live, he became again the querulous piece of hurt flesh, the slave broken on the treadmill; he began to groan.

…

Andrews lay, comfortable in his cot, looking into the ward out of another world. He felt no connection with the talk about him, with the men who lay silent or tossed about groaning in the rows of narrow cots that filled the Renaissance hall. In the yellow glow of the electric lights, looking beyond the orderly’s twisted face and narrow head, he could see very faintly, where the beams of the ceiling sprung from the wall, a row of half-obliterated shields supported by figures carved out of the grey stone of the wall, handed satyrs with horns and goats’ beards and deep-set eyes, little squat figures of warriors and townsmen in square hats with swords between their bent knees, naked limbs twined in scrolls of spiked acanthus leaves, all seen very faintly, so that when the electric lights swung back and forth in the wind made by the orderly’s hurried passing, they all seemed to wink and wriggle in shadowy mockery of the rows of prostrate bodies in the room beneath them. Yet they were familiar, friendly to Andrews. He kept feeling a half-formulated desire to be up there too, crowded under a beam, grimacing through heavy wreaths of pomegranates and acanthus leaves, the incarnation of old rich lusts, of clear fires that had sunk to dust ages since. He felt at home in that spacious hall, built for wide gestures and stately steps, in which all the little routine of the army seemed unreal, and the wounded men discarded automatons, broken toys laid away in rows.

…

Through the window at the opposite side of the ward he could see a bit of blue sky among white scroll-like clouds, with mauve shadows. He stared at it until the clouds, beginning to grow golden into evening, covered it. Furious, hopeless irritation consumed him. How these people enjoyed hating! At that rate it was better to be at the front. Men were more humane when they were killing each other than when they were talking about it. So was civilization nothing but a vast edifice of sham, and the war, instead of its crumbling, was its fullest and most ultimate expression. Oh, but there must be something more in the world than greed and hatred and cruelty. Were they all shams, too, these gigantic phrases that floated like gaudy kites high above mankind? Kites, that was it, contraptions of tissue paper held at the end of a string, ornaments not to be taken seriously. He thought of all the long procession of men who had been touched by the unutterable futility of the lives of men, who had tried by phrases to make things otherwise, who had taught unworldliness. Dim enigmatic figures they were – Democritus, Socrates, Epicurus, Christ; so many of them, and so vague in the silvery mist of history that he hardly knew that they were not his own imagining; Lucretius, St. Francis, Voltaire, Rousseau, and how many others, known and unknown, through the tragic centuries; they had wept, some of them, and some of them had laughed, and their phrases had risen glittering, soap bubbles to dazzle men for a moment, and had shattered. And he felt a crazy desire to join the forlorn ones, to throw himself into inevitable defeat, to live his life as he saw it in spite of everything, to proclaim once more the falseness of the gospels under the cover of which greed and fear filled with more and yet more pain the already unbearable agony of human life.

Libyan war updates/Stop NATO news: May 29, 2011

====

Libyan Air War: Almost 8,800 NATO Sorties, Over 3,300 Combat Missions

NATO Warplanes Kill Dozens Of Afghan Civilians

Afghan Officials: NATO Air Strike Kills At Least 12 Children, Four Women

Afghan President Gives NATO Final Warning Over Civilian Deaths

U.S. To Modernize Its Nuclear Weapons In Europe

Bulgarian Defense Minister To NATO: Need U.S. Interceptor Missiles

Bulgaria: 2,500 U.S. Troops, Tank Exercises At New Base

New Strategic Concept: NATO Must Back Arab “Revolutions,” Train Armies

Report: Sweden Could Join NATO War With Russia Over The Baltics

Estonia: Push For NATO Nordic-Baltic Cyber Warfare Force

Obama Visit: Strengthening Pentagon, NATO Roles In Poland

Encircling Russia With U.S. Bases

Twelve Years Later: Unexploded NATO Bomb Found Near Serbian Factory

Crete Hosts 13-Nation, Three-Week NATO Naval Exercise

====

Mirage multirole warplane of the sort used in Afghanistan

B61 tactical nuclear bomb

Standard Missile-3 interceptor missile

====

Libyan Air War: Almost 8,800 NATO Sorties, Over 3,300 Combat Missions

http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_05/20110529_110529-oup-update.pdf

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
May 29, 2011

NATO and Libya
Allied Joint Force Command NAPLES, SHAPE, NATO HQ

….

Over the past 24 hours, NATO has conducted the following activities associated with Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR:

Air Operations

Since the beginning of the NATO operation (31 March 2011, 08.00GMT) a total of 8729 sorties, including 3327 strike sorties,have been conducted.

Sorties conducted 28 May: 134

Strike sorties conducted 28 May: 53

….

Arms Embargo Activities

A total of 20 ships under NATO command are actively patrolling the Central Mediterranean.

14 Vessels were hailed on 28 May to determine destination and cargo. 1 boarding (nodenial) was conducted.

A total of 1082 vessels have been hailed. 59 boardings and 7 denials have been conducted since the beginning of arms embargo operations.

….

====

NATO Warplanes Kill Dozens Of Afghan Civilians

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20115\30\story_30-5-2011_pg1_3

Agence France-Presse
May 29, 2011

NATO kills dozens of Afghan civilians

KANDAHAR: Afghan authorities said on Sunday that NATO had killed 52 people, mostly civilians, in air strikes against Taliban as violence picked up in recent weeks with the start of the fighting season.

In the southern province of Helmand, local authorities said at least 14 civilians, including women and children, were killed and six injured in an air raid. US Marines in Helmand’s Nawzad district called in air support after their base came under attack from small arms fire, the provincial government said in a statement.

“During the airstrike, two civilian houses were targeted which killed 14 civilians and six others were wounded,” it said. The statement said the dead included five girls, seven boys and two women.

….

Aslam, a local elder of Nawzad district, told AFP he “lost 12 relatives while 10 others including children were injured” in the air strike.

Separately, the governor of Nuristan on Sunday told AFP that 18 civilians and 20 police were killed by “friendly fire” during US-led air strikes against Taliban in his troubled northeastern province.

====

Afghan Officials: NATO Air Strike Kills At Least 12 Children, Four Women

http://en.rian.ru/world/20110529/164299150.html

Russian Information Agency Novosti
May 29, 2011

NATO air strike kills 16 civilians in south Afghanistan

Kabul: A NATO air strike has killed 16 and wounded another six civilians in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, an employee of the provincial governor’s press service who preferred to stay anonymous told RIA Novosti on Sunday.

“By now it is clear that the air strike delivered with Hellfire rockets on houses killed seven girls, five boys and four women who were within the firing range. Not a single Taliban militant has been found on the site of the air strike,” the employee said.

…NATO troops…summoned warplanes for support and the air strike destroyed almost completely the village…the employee said.

It is hard to give the exact figure of victims among the civilians as the police and the local construction company are continuing their work to clear the debris and retrieve dead bodies from the rubble. The exact number of victims is expected to be given by Monday, he said.

….

—————————————————————————

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/29/us-afghanistan-civilians-idUSTRE74S0M720110529

Reuters
May 29, 2011

Afghans say NATO air strike kills 12 children, two women

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan: An air strike called in by NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan killed 12 children and two women, Afghan officials said on Sunday, one of the worst civilian death tolls by foreign forces in months.

….

“ISAF’s air strike took place on two civilian houses. Unfortunately 14 innocent civilians were killed and six civilians wounded,” the Helmand governor’s statement said.

It said seven boys, five girls and two women were among the dead. Three children were among the six wounded, it said.

An ISAF spokesman in Kabul said: “We are aware of the reports that alleged civilians were killed yesterday in Helmand.” He said an assessment team had been sent to the area and would issue its findings shortly.

….

On Saturday, Karzai ordered the Defense Ministry to take control of so-called “night raids,” saying Afghan troops should be carrying out the sensitive operations themselves.

Afghans say the raids, carried out in darkness on houses suspected of harboring insurgents, often lead to civilian casualties.

Residents and local officials from Helmand’s Nawzad district, where the air strike took place, said the attack began at around 11 p.m. local time (0630 GMT) on Friday night.

Bereaved male relatives cradled the bodies of several young children on Sunday, who were wrapped in bloody sheets and placed side to side, and brought them in the back of a truck to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, Reuters pictures showed.

“My house was bombarded in the middle of the night and my children were killed … the Taliban were far away from my home, why was my house bombed?” relative Noor Agha told Reuters.

The NATO air strike comes at a time of high anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan and days after deadly protests by thousands of people against a night raid by NATO troops in which four people, including two women, were killed.

Twelve people were killed during those violent protests and clashes with police in usually peaceful northern Takhar province and more 80 were wounded.

In February, four days of joint operations by Afghan and foreign troops killed 64 civilians in the eastern Kunar province, including many women and children.

That assault followed a NATO rocket attack last July which killed 39 civilians, almost all women or children, in Helmand.

….

Despite the presence of some 150,000 foreign troops, violence in Afghanistan last year reached its deadliest phase since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, with record casualties on all sides. This year is following a similar trend.

….

(Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Paul Tait)

—————————————————————————

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/14-Civilians-Killed-in-NATO-Airstrike-in-Afghanistan-122793729.html

Voice of America News
May 29, 2011

At Least 14 Civilians Killed in NATO Airstrike in Afghanistan

Officials in southern Afghanistan say a NATO airstrike has killed 14 civilians – all women and children.

Authorities say six people were also wounded Sunday in the strike in Nawzad district of Helmand province.

The provincial governor’s office says two civilian homes were hit in the attack, killing two women, five girls and seven boys.

A NATO spokesman says he is aware of the reports of civilian casualties. He said a joint assessment team has been sent to the site and the coalition will release additional information later.

….

Elsewhere Saturday, coalition troops killed an armed woman during a raid on a compound in eastern Khost province. The alliance said coalition forces discovered she was a woman after killing her.

====

Afghan President Gives NATO Final Warning Over Civilian Deaths

http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2011/05/29/president-gives-isaf-final-warning-over-civilian-deaths

Pajhwok Afghan News
May 29, 2011

President gives ISAF final warning over civilian deaths

KABUL: President Hamid Karzai issued a final warning to NATO-led troops over civilian deaths on Sunday – hours after 14 non-combatants were killed in a new airstrike in southern Helmand province.

The fatalities resulting from the raid in the Nawzad district included women and children, said the governor’s spokesman Daud Ahmadi. Governor Gulab Mangal, condemning the casualties, said a team had been set up to investigate the raid.

President Karzai strongly denounced the latest instance of collateral damage, his office said in a statement. “The US and ISAF forces have been told repeatedly that their irresponsible operations are harming innocent and poor Afghans.”

The statement added: “Although such raids trample all human and moral values, NATO-led forces seem not to heed our warnings,” the president was quoted as saying.

On behalf of Afghans, Karzai issued a final warning to foreign soldiers and condemned the Helmand strike as a blunder. He directed the provincial authorities to probe the raid and compensate the victims’ families.

Meanwhile, a statement from the NATO-led force said that it was aware of the reports alleging civilian casualties in Doab district of Nuristan and Nawzad town of Helmand.

….

====

U.S. To Modernize Its Nuclear Weapons In Europe

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/05/29/50969493.html

Voice of Russia
May 29, 2011

US to upgrade its nuclear arsenal in Europe

The US government plans to modernize its atomic weapons arsenal in Europe, Spiegel Online reports.

The refurbishment will affect B61-4 bombs. The newly built bombs, labeled B61-12, will be based at a German air force base in the southwestern city of Buechel.

Technical developments will start next year and are expected to be completed by 2017.

The US initiative may however be opposed by Germany’s government.

The country`s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle had earlier urged for a complete withdrawal of US atomic bombs from German territory.

====

Bulgarian Defense Minister To NATO: Need U.S. Interceptor Missiles

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=128698

Sofia News Agency
May 29, 2011

Bulgaria Under Ballistic Threat, Needs Missile Shield
Defense

-Angelov…touched on the need to develop a specific mechanism for activating Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which mandates that an attack against a member state be considered as a attack against all NATO members.

Bulgaria is located close to countries that might pose a ballistic threat to NATO members, according to Bulgarian Minister of Defense Anyu Angelov.

Angelov spoke Sunday in Varna, where the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO is taking place over the weekend.

The Bulgarian Defense Minister stressed the need for the projected NATO missile shield, and said the country is ready to house facilities for the shield.

….

In his speech, Angelov also touched on the need to develop a specific mechanism for activating Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which mandates that an attack against a member state be considered as a attack against all NATO members.

“We cannot let any NATO member veto Article 5 in case there is aggression against another member,” stated the Bulgarian Minister of Defense.

In his address, Angelov presented the reforms carried out within the Bulgarian military, and underscored the role of the national parliaments in Northern-Atlantic cooperation.

====

Bulgaria: 2,500 U.S. Troops, Tank Exercises At New Base

http://www.khl.com/magazines/international-cranes-and-specialized-transport/detail/item64317/Military-support-from-Potain/

KHL Group
May 25, 2011

Military support from Potain
by Euan Youdale

Twelve Potain self erecting tower cranes and Grove all terrain cranes shared the majority of lifting work on a €50 million (US$70 million) redevelopment of a remote military training base in Bulgaria.

The cranes had to travel more than 400 km from the Sofia headquarters of Manitowoc dealer Euromarket Group, Bulgaria’s largest supplier of construction equipment. Once at the project, the cranes frequently moved to cover a range of jobs over the base’s 144 square km area.

The Novo Selo Training Range supports on site military activities that include a shooting range for tanks as well as training areas for nuclear, biological and chemical warfare.

….

Novo Selo is used by the Bulgarian military and occasionally US troops. Redevelopment of the base is being overseen by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The new buildings will cater for some 2,500 soldiers and should be in operation by 2012.

====

New Strategic Concept: NATO Must Back Arab “Revolutions,” Train Armies

http://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/05/29/1096796_nato-must-send-clear-message-of-support-to-revolutions-in-middle-east-and-north-africa-bulgarias-fm-says

Sofia Echo
May 29, 2011

Nato must send clear message of support to revolutions in Middle East and North Africa, Bulgaria’s FM says

-[T]he key messages of the new strategic concept were to maintain the military character of the alliance, a focus on shared capabilities, missile defence, energy security and an “open door” to Nato.

The revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa are rebellions against corruption and a cry for democracy, and Nato must send a clear message of support to the people in those countries, Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov told the Nato Parliamentary Assembly in Varna.

Mladenov was speaking on the theme “New Strategic Concept of Nato, new partnerships, new challenges: the view from Bulgaria”.

He said that the key messages of the new strategic concept were to maintain the military character of the alliance, a focus on shared capabilities, missile defence, energy security and an “open door” to Nato.

Mladenov said that if the EU and Nato did not support changes in the Middle East, they would simply witness the fulfillment of all the gloomy predictions about Islamisation and a clash of civilisations.

“So Nato has a historical responsibility,” Mladenov said.

Nato could do much to help those countries by drawing on the vast experience that it had accumulated in reforming the security sector to ensure transparency and transformation.

“We do not intend to lead their armies, but to help them to transform them,” he said.

On Libya, Mladenov said that a political solution had to be sought, but it could not include Muammar Gaddafi staying in power.

….

Mladenov reiterated Bulgaria’s wish to be included in the coverage offered by the missile defence shield and said that as a Nato member state, Bulgaria would participate in the development of the shield, but added that it was premature to discuss where the shield would be located.

====

Report: Sweden Could Join NATO War With Russia Over The Baltics

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/interview/?doc=41239

Baltic Course
May 23, 2011

Sweden: What would happen if Russia attacked the Baltics?
Juhan Tere

Tallinn: The Royal Swedish Academy of War has prepared a study on how to act if Russia attacked the Baltic States, the Estonian newspaper Ohtulet reports, in reference to story from the Finnish broadcasting service YLE.

The study was prepared by the Royal Swedish Academy of War, which means it is not the official position of the Swedish government, informs LETA.

According to the study, if Russia were to attack the Baltics, it would happen suddenly and the attack would be very swift. Reinforcements would be deployed to Russia’s western borders, and according to Swedish military experts, Russia would not need much time to organize an invasion. The Swedish experts are confident that it would take Russia only about two weeks to double the number of soldiers on its western borders.

The study also points out that NATO would counter the Russian attack from the air, and Sweden would permit the participation of its fighters in such an operation. The study also emphasizes that it is not part of NATO’s defense plans for the Baltics, but only a possible model of how Sweden would react to a hypothetical war with Russia, taking into account NATO’s overall strategy.

NATO’s nightmare – Russia’s nuclear weapons – are deployed near the borders of the alliance….

====

Estonia: Push For NATO Nordic-Baltic Cyber Warfare Force

http://news.err.ee/politics/bd766f96-444c-43a6-acfa-edb53924a0b6

Estonian Public Broadcasting
May 24, 2011

Defense Minister Proposes Nordic-Baltic Cyber Force

At a meeting in Brussels, Defense Minister Mart Laar proposed to his Baltic and Nordic counterparts the formation of a joint cyber security unit.

….

The cyber defense unit would act as an advisory agency for conflict areas and would assist countries in building infrastructure, according to Laar’s plan.

More in-depth discussions will take place at the next meeting of the Nordic and Baltic defense ministers, to be held in Stockhom in November.

Having already launched an IT unit in the Defense League – a voluntary military reserve force – the former defense minister, Jaak Aaviksoo, proposed in January the initiation of a military draft specializing in cyber defense….

NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence already resides in Tallinn. The headquarters of the EU’s IT security agency – housing the Schengen information center and a large-scale fingerprint database – will begin operations in 2012.

====

Obama Visit: Strengthening Pentagon, NATO Roles In Poland

http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/25128,Pres-Komorowski-heralds-new-chapter-in-PolishAmerican-relations

Polish Radio
May 29, 2011

Pres Komorowski heralds new chapter in Polish-American relations

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has said that the visit by US President Barack Obama has opened a ‘new stage in Polish-American relations’.

In an interview for the TVN24 news channel, President Komorowski spoke of the real chance to meet Warsaw’s expectations concerning a US military presence in Poland, saying that an agreement on the establishment of an American aviation detachment in Poland will be signed.

….

Within NATO, Poland could play an important role in lobbying for strengthening Trans-Atlantic ties, Komorowski said, although conceded that the views of Warsaw and Washington are not shared by all members of NATO and the European Union.

According to Janusz Reiter, Poland’s former ambassador to the United States, President Obama’s visit is very important for Poland’s image on the global stage.

Obama’s visit served to remind the world public opinion of Poland’s peaceful transformation to democracy in 1989, an experience that could be a model for countries in Eastern Europe and the Arab world, Richter maintains.

Meanwhile, Andrew Michta, head of the newly-opened Warsaw office of the German Marshall Fund, told Polish Radio that even though no agreements were signed, President Obama’s visit has brought concrete results.

“There is talk of a new formula to ease the visa regime for Poles and how to finalise the stationing of F-16s and C-17s in Poland,” Michta said, adding that “a new normalcy” is being built in Polish-US relations, based on the transformations of the past two decades and on the recognition of Poland as a medium-size country which has a growing importance in Europe.

====

Encircling Russia With U.S. Bases

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html

May 29, 2011

Encircling Russia with US Bases
by Stephen Lendman

In 1991, after the Soviet Union dissolved, everything changed but stayed the same. As a result, today’s stakes are far greater, presenting much larger threats to world peace.

In America, neocons are still dominant. Obama is more belligerent than Bush, waging four wars and various proxy ones. The Israeli Lobby, Christian Right, and other extremist elements drive them. Conflict is preferred over diplomacy.

Congressional majorities support Washington’s imperial agenda, including global militarization against potential challengers and America’s main rivals – China and Russia, encircling them belligerently with bases and strategic weapons. It’s a policy fraught with danger.

NATO has 28 member states, including 10 former Soviet Republics and Warsaw Pact countries. Prospective new candidates include Georgia, Ukraine, and potentially others later to more tightly encircle Russia and China.

At the same time, the Middle East and parts of Eurasia have been increasingly militarized with a network of US bases from Qatar to Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond – a clear breach of GHW Bush’s promise to Mikhail Gorbachev that paved the way for unifying Germany in 1990 and dissolving the Soviet Union.

Washington’s promises, of course, aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, a hard lesson many nations later learn painfully.

Moreover, the Pentagon has an expanding network of 1,000 or more global bases, including secret and shared ones for greater control. In fact, at a time no nation threatens America, trillions of dollars are spent anyway for what military planners call “full spectrum dominance” over all land, surface and sub-surface sea, air, space, electromagnetic spectrum and information systems with enough overwhelming power to fight and win global wars against any adversary, including with nuclear weapons preemptively.

Encroaching Belligerently Near Russia’s Borders

In late summer 2009, Obama suspended Bush administration plans for interceptor missiles in Poland and advanced tracking radar in the Czech Republic, both NATO members. Purportedly targeting Iran and other “rogue states,” they, in fact, very much aimed at Russia, what new ones will do when installed.

At issue is assuring first strike capability, preventing or diminishing retaliation if America attacks Russia or China, a potentially catastrophic possibility under any scenario, but especially if nuclear war erupts.

For now, according to Obama, Washington will pursue “stronger, smarter, and swifter defenses of American forces and America’s allies,” including Poland and the Czech Republic. Tactics alone may change, not hardline imperial policies.

Last September [2009], Defense Secretary Gates explained a four-phase missile shield plan, including deploying Aegis class warships in the Eastern Mediterranean equipped with SM-3 anti-ballistic missiles and anti-satellite interceptors, followed by upgraded land and sea versions when available.

Moreover, stationing SM-3s in Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland were announced. Last summer, in fact, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) interceptors and about 100 US troops were sent to eastern Poland, close to Russia’s Kaliningrad region, 200 miles from its border.

This same capability was installed in the Persian Gulf, including supplying regional allies with longer range Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile systems, the strategy being to have in place impenetrable interceptors from the Baltic to the Arabian, Black and Red Seas.

In addition, a warning system is planned for the Czech Republic and other countries as well as centrally controlled missile interceptors – from Southern and Eastern Europe through the Middle East to close to Russia’s borders, too close perhaps for comfort.

Instead of abandoning Bush’s scheme, Obama’s plans a far more extensive, sophisticated, flexible, mobile system to be developed through 2020. Included is nearly doubling the number of Aegis class warships to 38 by 2015, equipped with state-of-the-art missile interceptors.

As a result, America’s front line capability will shift from Eastern Germany through the Middle East to the Black Sea and other strategic waterways to the Caucasus and Russia proper, encroaching on Moscow with new Eastern European bases in Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.

It represents the most significant US presence there since WW II. Currently, only limited troop numbers are involved up to 150 or so permanently, but expect an expanded presence ahead.

Last March, in fact, Secretary of State Clinton said Washington will deploy missile interceptor elements and F-16s in Poland. Russia expressed concern, Dmitry Rogozin, its permanent NATO representative, saying US plans complicate dialogue regarding creating a joint European anti-ballistic missile system, adding:

“Mrs. Clinton’s statement contradicts the foundational relationship (between the) Russian Federation and NATO signed in 1997, (stipulating) that NATO must not strengthen the military structure close to the borders of Russia.”

A Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement also expressed concern, saying:

“We have known about plans regarding (an) anti-ballistic missiles system long ago and we plan to (react in response) in the network of the EuroABM project. As for the idea of (US) Air Force base deployment, it requires an additional explanation.”

In late April, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reacted as well, saying:

“The expansion of NATO infrastructure towards our borders is causing us concern. NATO is not simply a political bloc. It is a military bloc. No one cancelled the agreements on how the bloc reacts to external threats. It is a defense structure,” but it’s acting aggressively.

In a post-G-8 Summit press conference, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said:

“I am not satisfied with the American side’s reaction to my proposals and with NATO’s reaction in general. Why? Because we are wasting time. Even though I spoke about the year 2020 yesterday as a deadline, (the) year when the construction of a four-stage system of the so-called adaptive approach ends. After 2020, if we do not come to terms, a real arms race will begin.”

Perhaps much sooner as he’s gotten no assurances that Russia isn’t being targeted. As a result, he added:

“When we ask for the name of the countries that the shield is aimed at, we get silence. When we ask if the country has missiles (able to strike Europe), the answer is no.”

So “who has those type of missiles” interceptors wish to deter? “We do. So we can only think that this system is being aimed against us.”

He and other Russian officials worry about it expanding to Ukraine and Georgia with missile interceptors, attack aircraft, and US troops on its borders, threatening its security.

Obama in Poland

On May 28, Obama met with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, discussing, among other issues, reaffirming a US military presence with “American boots on the ground,” including a permanent aerial detachment of F-16s and C-130 transport planes.

White House national security official Liz Sherwood-Randall said:

“What we will be doing is rotating trainers and aircraft to Poland so they can become more inter-operable with NATO. It will be a small permanent presence on the ground and then a rotational presence that will be more substantial.”

On May 28, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said:

“To the east of the Oder River (dividing Germany and Poland), American forces will appear, and this at a time when America is reducing its overall military presence in Europe.”

In fact, redeployment with interceptor missiles, other offensive weapons, and boots on the ground close to Russia’s borders, not reduction, is planned, what clearly has Moscow officials alarmed.

On May 29, however, Obama disingenuously downplayed those concerns, reaffirming mutual defense and inviting Russia to participate in European missile defense plans, saying:

“I am very proud of (America’s) reset process (with Russia). We believe missile defense is something where we can cooperate with Russia….This will not be a threat to the strategic balance.”

Concerned Russian officials very much disagree, Vladimir Putin’s earlier sentiment likely again being discussed.

In February 2007, in response to US planned missile defense then, he said:

“NATO has put its frontline forces on our borders. (It) does not have any relation with the modernisation of the Alliance itself or with ensuring security in Europe. On the contrary, it represent a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust. And we have a right to ask: against whom is this expansion intended? And what happened to the assurances our western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact?”

At the time, his comments drew a storm of US media Russia bashing, as well as an article by this writer titled, “Reinventing the Evil Empire,” saying:

Russia is back, proud and re-assertive, not about to roll over for America, especially in Eurasia. For Washington, it’s back to the future with a new Cold War, but this time for greater stakes and much larger threats to world peace.

It’s especially true during economic hard times, especially with austerity policies addressing them when social stimulus is needed, provoking spreading discontent for change.

As a result, Western powers may invent threats to distract people, waging greater war for imperial dominance, Russia and China perhaps directly threatened this time.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

====

Twelve Years Later: Unexploded NATO Bomb Found Near Serbian Factory

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n250971

Focus News Agency
May 30, 2011

Unexploded NATO projectile discovered during reconstruction work in Serbia

-During the NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia, the Zastava facilities were targeted on two separate occasions, unleashing more than 30 missiles.

Belgrade: Workers reconstructing a section of the Fiat automobile complex in the central Serbian city of Kragujevac discovered an unexploded projectile, dating from the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, Xinhua informs.

The projectile was uncovered by a bulldozer operator, digging up a section of a parking lot near the entrance of one of the buildings in the original Zastava automobile complex. Fiat purchased the damaged and largely defunct company in 2010. Police cordoned off the area.

According to Bojan Tomic, head of the Emergency Services in Kragujevac, an expert team is scheduled to arrive on Monday to identify the projectile and to determine how best to deactivate or dispose of the unexploded ordnance.

During the NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia, the Zastava facilities were targeted on two separate occasions, unleashing more than 30 missiles.

On the evening between April 8 and 9, 1999, the truck plant and the auto assembly facility sustained significant damage. On Easter, a few days later, the forge, paint shop, an administrative building and tool crib storage facility were completely destroyed.

====

Crete Hosts 13-Nation, Three-Week NATO Naval Exercise

http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=60680

U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet
May 29, 2011

Greek Special Forces Instructor Brings Experience to Phoenix Express 2011
By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Jeff Troutman, Navy Public Affairs Support Element-East Detachment Europe

SOUDA BAY, Crete: Phoenix Express 2011 (PE-11), a three-week exercise bringing together 13 different countries that began May 23, combines a vast array of military training and knowledge from all participants in an effort to deter illicit trafficking at sea.

One Special Forces military member from the Greek navy is sharing more than 20 years of his experience with PE-11 participants.

Ens. Alexander Tsaltas, a Greek Special Forces officer who is an instructor at the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Center (NMIOTC) here, moved to Crete….His position at NMIOTC gave him the unique opportunity to share 21 years of experience in the Greek military – with 16 of those years in the Special Forces – with other militaries from countries all over the world.

….

====

George Santayana on war and militarism

====

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

American writers on peace and against war

====

George Santayana
From Reason and Society (1905)

*****

A military class is…always recalling, foretelling, and meditating war; it fosters artificial and senseless jealousies toward other governments that possess armies; and finally, as often as not, it precipitates disaster by bringing about the objectless struggle on which it has set its heart.

Since barbarism has its pleasures it naturally has its apologists. There are panegyrists of war who say that without a periodical bleeding a race decays and loses its manhood. Experience is directly opposed to this shameless assertion.

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.

[T]he panegyrist of war places himself on the lowest level on which a moralist or patriot can stand and shows as great a want of refined feeling as of right reason. For the glories of war are all blood-stained, delirious, and infected with crime; the combative instinct is a savage prompting by which one man’s good is found in another’s evil.

*****

An army, considered ideally, is an organ for the state’s protection; but it is far from being such in its origin, since at first an army is nothing but a ravenous and lusty horde quartered in a conquered country; yet the cost of such an incubus may come to be regarded as an insurance against further attack, and so what is in its real basis an inevitable burden resulting from a chance balance of forces may be justified in after-thought as a rational device for defensive purposes. Such an ulterior justification has nothing to do, however, with the causes that maintain armies or military policies: and accordingly those virginal minds that think things originated in the uses they may have acquired, have frequent cause to be pained and perplexed at the abuses and over-development of militarism.

An insurance capitalised may exceed the value of the property insured, and the drain caused by armies and navies may be much greater than the havoc they prevent. The evils against which they are supposed to be directed are often evils only in a cant and conventional sense, since the events deprecated (like absorption by a neighbouring state) might be in themselves no misfortune to the people, but perhaps a singular blessing.

And those dreaded possibilities, even if really evil, may well be less so than is the hateful actuality of military taxes, military service, and military arrogance.

Their action irresponsible.

Nor is this all: the military classes, since they inherit the blood and habits of conquerors, naturally love war and their irrational combativeness is reinforced by interest; for in war officers can shine and rise, while the danger of death, to a brave man, is rather a spur and a pleasing excitement than a terror. A military class is therefore always recalling, foretelling, and meditating war; it fosters artificial and senseless jealousies toward other governments that possess armies; and finally, as often as not, it precipitates disaster by bringing about the objectless struggle on which it has set its heart.

Pugnacity human.

These natural phenomena, unintelligently regarded as anomalies and abuses, are the appanage of war in its pristine and proper form.

*****

Victory, no doubt, has its fruits for the victor. If fighting were not a possible means of livelihood the bellicose instinct could never have established itself in any long-lived race. A few men can live on plunder, just as there is room in the world for some beasts of prey; other men are reduced to living on industry, just as there are diligent bees, ants, and herbivorous kine.

But victory need have no good fruits for the people whose army is victorious. That it sometimes does so is an ulterior and blessed circumstance hardly to be reckoned upon.

Barrack-room philosophy.

Since barbarism has its pleasures it naturally has its apologists. There are panegyrists of war who say that without a periodical bleeding a race decays and loses its manhood. Experience is directly opposed to this shameless assertion. It is war that wastes a nation’s wealth, chokes its industries, kills its flower, narrows its sympathies, condemns it to be governed by adventurers….

*****

To call war the soil of courage and virtue is like calling debauchery the soil of love.

Military virtues.

Military institutions, adventitious and ill-adapted excrescences as they usually are, can acquire rational values in various ways. Besides occasional defence, they furnish a profession congenial to many, and a spectacle and emotion interesting to all. Blind courage is an animal virtue indispensable in a world full of dangers and evils where a certain insensibility and dash are requisite to skirt the precipice without vertigo. Such animal courage seems therefore beautiful rather than desperate or cruel, and being the lowest and most instinctive of virtues it is the one most widely and sincerely admired.

In the form of steadiness under risks rationally taken, and perseverance so long as there is a chance of success, courage is a true virtue; but it ceases to be one when the love of danger, a useful passion when danger is unavoidable, begins to lead men into evils which it was unnecessary to face.

Bravado, provocativeness, and a gambler’s instinct, with a love of hitting hard for the sake of exercise, is a temper which ought already to be counted among the vices rather than the virtues of man. To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.

Discipline, or the habit of obedience, is a better sort of courage which military life also requires. Discipline is the acquired faculty of surrendering an immediate personal good for the sake of a remote and impersonal one of greater value. This difficult wisdom is made easier by training in an army, because the great forces of habit, example and social suasion, are there enlisted in its service. But these natural aids make it lose its conscious rationality, so that it ceases to be a virtue except potentially; for to resist an impulse by force of habit or external command may or may not be to follow the better course.

Besides fostering these rudimentary virtues the army gives the nation’s soul its most festive and flaunting embodiment. Popular heroes, stirring episodes, obvious turning-points in history, commonly belong to military life. They are splendid vices. Nevertheless the panegyrist of war places himself on the lowest level on which a moralist or patriot can stand and shows as great a want of refined feeling as of right reason. For the glories of war are all blood-stained, delirious, and infected with crime; the combative instinct is a savage prompting by which one man’s good is found in another’s evil. The existence of such a contradiction in the moral world is the original sin of nature, whence flows every other wrong. He is a willing accomplice of that perversity in things who delights in another’s discomfiture or in his own, and craves the blind tension of plunging into danger without reason, or the idiot’s pleasure in facing a pure chance. To find joy in another’s trouble is, as man is constituted, not unnatural, though it is wicked; and to find joy in one’s own trouble, though it be madness, is not yet impossible for man. These are the chaotic depths of that dreaming nature out of which humanity has to grow.

Libyan war updates/Stop NATO news: May 28, 2011

====

NATO States To Have 80,000 Cruise Missiles, 2,000 Nuclear-Powered, By 2020: Russian Commander

Russian General Warns Of NATO Missile Threat

“Just One Step From Sending In Ground Troops”: British Attack Helicopters Wield “Gruesome” Cluster Bomb Missiles

NATO Commander: Helicopter Gunships To Ramp Up Libyan Attacks

African Leaders Demand NATO Stop Air Strikes Against Libya

NATO Bombards Libyan Capital For Fifth Night In A Row

NATO’s Libyan Air War: 8,595 Sorties, 3,274 Strike Missions

French Warplanes Forced To Land In Malta

Obama In Warsaw: U.S. To Redeploy F-16s To Poland

Pentagon Plan To Muscle Out China: New Scramble For Africa

Afghanistan: 15 NATO Soldiers Killed In Three Days

Three German Soldiers, Afghan General Kill In Bomb Attack

McCain Versus Russia: Arm Georgia, Bring It Into NATO

NATO Only Global Force That Can “Integrate” “Depopulated” Balkans

Sanctions-Obsessed Obama: Belarus Political Leadership “Unacceptable”

====

Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile

Apache Longbow attack helicopter

Mirage F-1

German troops in Afghanistan

====

NATO States To Have 80,000 Cruise Missiles, 2,000 Nuclear-Powered, By 2020: Russian Commander

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110528/164287627.html

Russian Information Agency Novosti
May 28, 2011

West to have 80,000 cruise missiles by 2020 – interview

Mowcow: Russian military experts forecast that Western nations will have 80,000 cruise missile by 2020, a deputy commander of the Russian General Staff said on Saturday.

“We expect Western countries to have at least 80,000 cruise missiles by 2020, including about 2,000 of them nuclear-powered,” Gen. Igor Sheremet said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

He added these missiles are clearly not simply designed for drilling or intimidation purposes.

“They can deliver disarming or even ‘decapitation’ strikes,” Sheremet said.

Hence, he said, the plans to develop Russia’s air and space defense system in 2011 as instructed by President Dmitry Medvedev in November.

The new system will combine the existing air defense and missile defense networks, missile early-warning systems and airspace monitoring systems under a unitified strategic command.

In mid-February, Valery Ivanov, commander of the strategic command of the new air and space defense system, said the system would be set up and start operating by the end of 2011.

The Russian political and military leadership have long considered plans to develop strong missile and space defenses by 2020, but no concrete steps have been taken so far and the country does not even have a well-defined command structure to tackle this problem.

According to one proposal, the unified aerospace defense command will absorb some air defense units which are currently part of the Russian Air Force, and Space Forces units.

The Russian military plans to build a comprehensive air and space defense network consisting of S-400 Triumf and future S-500 air defense systems and the Soviet-era MiG-31 Foxhound supersonic interceptors.

The S-500 system is expected to have an extended range of up to 600 km (over 370 miles) and simultaneously engage up to 10 targets. The system will be capable of destroying hypersonic and ballistic targets.

Russia’s leading missile manufacturer Almaz-Antei said last March that it was developing at least six types of advanced air defense systems to be available for the Russian military in around 2015.

====

Russian General Warns Of NATO Missile Threat

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/05/28/Russian-general-cites-NATO-missile-threat/UPI-79331306605061/

United Press International
May 28, 2011

Russian general cites NATO missile threat

MOSCOW: Russia must upgrade its air defenses because Western powers will have 80,000 cruise missiles by 2020, a senior general said Saturday.

About 2,000 of those missiles will be nuclear, Gen. Igor Sheremet, deputy commander of the general staff, told Ekho Moskvy radio in an interview reported by RIA Novosti.

The NATO missiles will be able to launch “disarming or even decapitation strikes,” he warned.

In November, President Dmitry Medvedev announced plans to combine existing air defense and missile defense networks, early-warning systems and airspace monitoring systems under a unified strategic command.

Gen. Valery Ivanov, commander of new force, said in February it will be operating by the end of this year.

Russia’s leading missile manufacturer, Almaz-Antei, has said it will have at least six types of advanced air defense systems ready by 2015.

====

“Just One Step From Sending In Ground Troops”: British Attack Helicopters Wield “Gruesome” Cluster Bomb Missiles

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/05/28/apache-goes-in-to-libya-armed-with-mincer-missile-115875-23161899/

Daily Mirror
May 28, 2011

Libya: Apache goes in armed with “mincer” missile
by Chris Hughes

UK forces are sending in attack helicopters armed with a deadly missile dubbed “the mincer” in a bid to oust Colonel Gaddafi.

….

Last night a senior Whitehall source said the deployment was “just one step from sending in ground troops”.

The Apache boasts “the mincer” – a ­gruesome anti-personnel missile containing 80 5in-long steel darts called flechettes.

It opens up as it screams towards the target zone and the darts, right, are blasted out of the missile at subsonic speed.

The two-man 205mph war machines are heavily armoured against small arms and rocket fire but will run high-risk missions against fighters and tanks hidden in cities.

Prince Harry recently qualified as an Apache pilot and they are one of the ­deadliest air-to-ground weapons.

Nato has also confirmed French Tiger attack choppers will also be sent in alongside the Apaches in a bid to launch precision attacks on Gaddafi’s forces.

Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday spurned offers of international help to bring an early end to the three-month campaign in Libya. Russian President Dimitry Medvedev reportedly said he was willing to mediate to hasten Gaddafi’s exit.

But Mr Cameron rejected the proposal at the G8 summit of world leaders in Deauville, France. Mr Cameron also refused to say how much the military operation had so far cost the British taxpayer, despite claims that the bill had now topped £400million.

Chancellor George Osborne said the cost would only be tens of millions of pounds, rather than hundreds of millions. Mr Cameron said yesterday: “There have been various offers to mediate and I don’t particularly recognise the Russian offer from Medvedev. I think the most important thing is to send a message back down the pipe – Gaddafi has to go.”

….

The PM and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy are planning a joint visit to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi shortly.

Mr Cameron told the summit yesterday that the war was entering a “new phase” with a more intense bombardment….

He said there was a growing “momentum” to the Nato campaign and a sense “the regime is very much on the back foot”.

….

====

NATO Commander: Helicopter Gunships To Ramp Up Libyan Attacks

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-05/27/c_13897806.htm

Xinhua News Agency
May 28, 2011

NATO commander says attack helicopters arrive “timely”

BRUSSELS: The commander of NATO’s mission in Libya on Friday welcomed French and British helicopter contribution, saying it will ramp up the alliance’s targeting power against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

“I consider their arrival timely … (They will provide) additional capability to pinpoint exactly those that are much more difficult to see from high altitude,” Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard said via video conference from Naples, Italy.

The helicopters, with higher precision than fighter jets, will be operated under NATO’s command and control, the commander said.

“We are still in the process of developing their capabilities. And they will be brought into action as soon as they are ready,” he said.

The British government said Friday that it was ready to deploy attack helicopters in Libya along with France, which has confirmed the contribution of around a dozen Tiger helicopters.

….

====

African Leaders Demand NATO Stop Air Strikes Against Libya

http://www.portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/noticias/africa/2011/4/21/African-Leaders-Urge-Nato-Stop-Airstrikes,fae2e87e-956c-4bc0-8f18-4572b61fa2e3.html

Angola Press
May 28, 2011

African Leaders Urge Nato to Stop Airstrikes

Addis Ababa: The Africa Union (AU) security summit ended today in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, calling for an outright end to NATO-led air strikes on Libya.

The 53 state bloc also said the air strikes in Libya have gone beyond the range of the UN resolutions mandated to protect civilians.

“As far as NATO air strikes are concerned, you will see a clear call by heads of state and government for those air strikes to come to an end,” said Ramtane Lamamra, the AU’s Peace and Security Commissioner on Wednesday.

“This is part of the requirement for political solutions to become possible,” he said, adding, “The African Union shares the belief that what is taking place now goes beyond the scope of [UN resolutions] 1970 and 1973.”

AU calls come as Libya’s government proposed a new ceasefire and offered fresh talks with rebels.

Participants in the summit denounced the direct military intervention of western powers and accused the UN Security Council of double standards in their approach to resolutions to different conflicts.

The AU Commission chief, Jean Ping, while addressing 37 heads of states at the opening of the summit on Wednesday, noted that some international players have been undermining the continent’s attempts to resolve the conflict

Some international players seem to be denying Africa any significant role in the search for a solution to the Libyan conflict,” he said adding “Africa is not going to be reduced to the status of an observer of its own calamities” said Ping.

The two day assembly was held on account of the decision out of the 275th meeting of the UN Peace and Security Council on 26 April and has assessed the state of the security, challenges and crises facing the continent.

….

NATO took command of the air campaign on 31 March

====

NATO Bombards Libyan Capital For Fifth Night In A Row

http://en.trend.az/regions/met/arabicr/1883163.html

Trend News Agency/Deutsche Presse-Agentur
May 28, 2011

NATO conducts fifth night of airstrikes on Tripoli

NATO carried out airstrikes on Libya’s capital, Tripoli, for the fifth straight night late Friday and early Saturday, news reports said.

State television said several explosions were heard and smoke was seen rising above the city, dpa reported.

The targets of the attack were not immediately known.

NATO has launched more than 8,000 sorties in its air campaign, which began in late March….

The renewed airstrikes followed a Group of Eight meeting in France Friday, at which the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States said, “Gaddafi and the Libyan government have failed to fulfil their responsibility to protect the Libyan population and have lost all legitimacy.”

“He must go,” they said.

US President Barack Obama also said the NATO airstrikes would not end until the Libyan leader was ousted from power.

====

NATO’s Libyan Air War: 8,595 Sorties, 3,274 Strike Missions

http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_05/20110528_110528-oup-update.pdf

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
May 28, 2011

NATO and Libya
Allied Joint Force Command NAPLES, SHAPE, NATO HQ

….

Over the past 24 hours, NATO has conducted the following activities associated with Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR:

Air Operations

Since the beginning of the NATO operation (31 March 2011, 08.00GMT) a total of 8595 sorties, including 3274 strike sorties,have been conducted.

Sorties conducted 27 May:

151 Strike sorties conducted 27 May: 45

….

Embargo Activities

A total of 20 ships under NATO command are actively patrolling the Central Mediterranean.

8 Vessels were hailed on 27 May to determine destination and cargo.

2 boardings (nodenials) were conducted.A total of 1068 vessels have been hailed.58 boardings and 7 denials have been conducted since the beginning of arms embargo operations.

….

====

French Warplanes Forced To Land In Malta

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iH2FcnW0ePrgTDvo0q2iDlUZ3j8Q?docId=CNG.3e52658d1fdbadff778404c0f022f256.a61

Agence France-Presse
May 28, 2011

French Mirages on Libya mission forced to land in Malta

VALLETTA: Two French Mirage F1 fighter planes taking part in NATO’s Libya bombing campaign were forced to make an emergency landing in Malta on Saturday after running short of fuel, aviation authorities said.

It is the fourth time since April that a pair of French Mirages has had to land in the Mediterranean island as a result of fuel problems.

A French Navy Dassault Super Etendard bomber aborted operations over Libya last Sunday and requested permission to make an emergency landing in Malta because of the strong winds.

====

Obama In Warsaw: U.S. To Redeploy F-16s To Poland

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/05/28/50954563.html

Voice of Russia
May 28, 2011

US Air Force detachment for Poland

In the period to July 2013, the US Air Force will redeploy 16 F16 fighter bombers and Hercules transport jets from a NATO airbase in Italy to an airfield near Las in Poland.

The announcement comes after a Warsaw meeting between President Obama and the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

—————————————————————————

Agence France-Presse
May 27, 2011

Poland To Host U.S. F-16 Rotations: Official

WARSAW: U.S. F-16 fighter jets and Hercules transport aircraft will be deployed in Poland on a rotating basis while a U.S. aviation detachment will be permanently stationed there, a senior U.S. adviser said May 27 as President Obama arrived in the country.

“We are going to announce tomorrow the conclusion of the agreement to establish an aviation detachment in Poland that will allow for our two air forces to cooperate in training the Poles to utilize the American aircraft that they purchased, F-16 and (Hercules) C-130,” Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a senior adviser for European affairs on the National Security Council told reporters. “What we will be doing is rotating trainers and aircraft to Poland so that they can become more interoperable with NATO….”

Ahead of the visit, officials in Warsaw had expressed hope it would bring a deal for the permanent stationing of a U.S. Air Force technical ground crew at a Polish F-16 base, as well as training rotations of U.S. F-16 fighters and Hercules transport aircraft as of 2013.

Last year saw the first three rotations of unarmed training batteries of U.S. Patriot missiles in Poland, a move that also sparked Russia’s ire. Four rotations are planned this year.

====

Pentagon Plan To Muscle Out China: New Scramble For Africa

http://www.southerntimesafrica.com/article.php?title=The_new_scramble_for_Africa&id=5993

Southern Times
May 27, 2011

The new scramble for Africa
By Tirivangani Masawi

Windhoek: Southern Africa has become the battle ground for a new scramble for resources, with the United States seeking to muscle out Chinese influence so as to secure strategic minerals – mainly for its military.

More frightening is the possibility of the US military itself becoming involved in securing these strategic minerals within the next 20 years.

According to a study by Dr Stephen Burgess, a Zimbabwean-born associate professor at the US Air War College, Washington may have to enlist the services of the Department of Defence, the National Security Agency and the Africa Command (AFRICOM) to secure Southern Africa’s resources.

His study, titled ‘Sustainability of Strategic Minerals in Southern Africa and Potential Conflicts and Partnerships’, says the US should move quickly to secure Southern Africa’s uranium, manganese, platinum, chrome, cobalt and rare earth minerals for America’s industrial needs and for its military as well as maintenance of weapons systems.

The study focuses on resource accessibility in the DRC, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe and draws parallels with the 1880s scramble for Africa.

To triumph in this new scramble, Burgess notes, ‘all instruments of (US) power’ must be deployed.

Burgess visited all these countries – except Zimbabwe – and makes recommendations on how the US can muscle out China.

He interviewed mining sector experts, government officials and journalists as part of his research.

There were also consultations with American institutions such as the Defence National Stock Pile Centre, the Defence Logistics Agency and the Marine Corps Command.

A note in the study indicates that it has nothing to do with the US Air War College, raising the possibility that Burgess was working as a consultant for Washington.

‘Southern Africa contains strategic minerals, which the USA and its allies require for industrial purposes and that militaries need for production and sustainment of weapons systems.

‘The principal sustainability challenge in SADC for the USA and its allies is uncertain access to strategic minerals.

‘The cause of this challenge is increasing global demand and supply shortages caused by inadequate infrastructure, politicization of the mining industry and China’s aggressive and sometimes monopolistic behaviour in pursuit of minerals.

‘The challenge is most acute in two Southern African countries – South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – and also growing in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

‘Of particular concern is possible future conflict between the United States, which needs strategic minerals for national defence and other purposes, and China, which needs an increasing amount of resources to fuel its accelerating industrialization.

‘There is a rising scramble for and struggle over resources in Africa, especially in petroleum and mining economies.

‘In particular, the US government is concerned about access to ‘defence critical resources’. This requires increased levels of engagement with the African countries concerned, using all the instruments of American power and working with American and Western mining companies, as well as engagement with China and Chinese companies.

‘In the future, a ‘worst-case’ scenario might see the United States having to use coercive diplomacy in the not-too-distant future (perhaps in 10-20 years) in order to regain access to vital resources.

‘The onset of ‘resource wars’ has been predicted by a number of scholars and experts. Given the rising level of Chinese demand for resources, the probability of conflict is likely to rise.

‘The new scramble for African mineral resources (and petroleum) is most similar to the 19th century European scramble for African minerals and land that contributed to interstate conflict, especially the First World War.’

The ever-strengthening Sino-Africa ties are a major headache for the US and Washington must move quickly or else conflict will become unavoidable.

‘The United States produces a range of materials from strategic minerals, including warships, aircraft, and high tech devices and components.

‘Thus far, the United States and its allies have relied on free market forces in Southern Africa and elsewhere. However, US and allied industries may not always have access in the future and may have to reduce output or even close. For example, a worrisome problem has been Chinese control of production of more than 90 percent of rare earth minerals.

‘Recently, Chinese companies withheld them from Japan over the Senkaku/Daioyu Islands dispute and threatening to withhold them from the United States over arms sales to Taiwan.

‘The minerals are the ingredients in key components in communications devices, satellites, and electric fuel cells and batteries that US industry and the military require.’

Burgess says liberation movements (ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe, ANC in South Africa and SWAPO in Namibia) are politicizing the mining sector to the detriment of free marketeering and this will pose a serious challenge to the US. Issues of black economic empowerment and nationalization of mining feature prominently.

‘The free market and government taxation of mining profits have tended to provide optimal conditions for states and industry and maintain a steady flow of minerals to meet demand. However politicization has occurred in the form of nationalisation of the mining industry and the intervention of black empowerment companies which have tended to disrupt the market and flow of minerals.’

The DRC, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe all have – or in the process of implementing – policies that will see greater indigenous participation in mining.

• South Africa

South Africa is targeted for its vast platinum resources which stand at about 75 percent of global production, as well as its vast manganese deposits.

‘South African President Jacob Zuma and Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu have said that nationalization is not currently part of government policy.

‘However, this does not guarantee it will not be part of government policy in the not-too-distant future. The ANC Youth League managed to get nationalization onto the agenda of the governing party’s September 2010 meeting, fuelling investor worries.

‘Nationalization of South African mines has been given renewed prominence by the ANC Youth League, which in 2009 issued a discussion paper arguing for state control of 60 percent of new mines.’

• Democratic Republic of Congo

The DRC is viewed as a source to quench America’s thirst for cobalt, uranium, coltan (columbite and tantalum), tungsten, tin, and rare earth minerals.

The study says Gecamines, the state miner, has too much control of mining and appears to favour dealing with China over the West.

• Zambia

Zambia’s cobalt constitutes 20 percent of global deposits and it is second only to the DRC.

Again, emphasis is on Beijing’s growing presence in Zambia through integrated firms such as the China Railway Group, SinoHydro and the Metallurgical Group Corporation.

• Namibia

Naturally, America’s interest here is in uranium and there is unease about the activities of the recently created state miner, Epangelo.

Namibia’s Cabinet recently said all future mining of strategic minerals should be done in partnership with Epangelo.

Namibia is the fourth largest producer of uranium and global demand is rising faster than the demand for gold.

‘The recently established state owned mining company, Epangelo has virtually no capital and may look to Russian and Chinese companies for support.

‘Kalahari Holdings (a SWAPO firm) are … looking for uranium prospects and joined ventures, possibly with the Chinese and Russian companies.

‘In the long run the politisization of the mining sector could divert uranium to China.’

Recommendations

‘One measure the United States could take is to assist South Africa in developing beneficiation. US aid could help to develop local mineral processing and metal manufacturing and assist South Africa in developing sufficient electricity to power such ventures.

‘In addition, the United States could negotiate off-take agreements with South Africa and provide assistance to benefit local mining communities.

‘The United States could encourage American mining companies to reengage in South Africa and work with Australian, Canadian and South African companies that are committed to the free market.

‘Also, the US government could step up strategic communications, broadcasting Chinese abuses and dissuading forces in the ANC and SWAPO from moving their governments closer to China.’

Burgess goes further.

‘In order to shape the region to maintain the free market, there are a number of actions that the United States and its allies might take. They might use diplomacy to build strategic partnerships with the most important African countries…

‘In the case of strategic minerals, special attention must be paid to South Africa and the DRC.

‘The United States and its allies could develop military-to-military relationships with a number of strategic African countries. The US National Security Council, DOD (Department of Defence) and (the) US Africa Command might develop contingencies to deal with the eventual prospect of resource cutoffs and the possibility of conflict over strategic minerals. At issue is how US agencies might adjust to the forthcoming challenges.’

The building of strategic partnerships is politically difficult, given the ANC regime’s rejection of AFRICOM during the stand-up process in 2007 and 2008.

‘South Africa is the hegemon in the region and must fully accept AFRICOM before military-to-military partnerships can be built throughout the region.

‘The United States also continues to apply sanctions against President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and his inner circle, which makes building partnerships with the Southern African Development Community difficult.

‘In addition, there is some resistance to US foreign policy from the (President Joseph) Kabila regime in the DRC; SWAPO in Namibia; and the (President Eduardo) dos Santos regime in Angola.

‘By 2020, US intervention, including AFRICOM, might be needed to ensure sustained US/allied access to strategic minerals, which means that the building of strategic partnerships in the next decade is important.’

About the author of the study

Dr Stephen Burgess farmed commercially in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo Province and ceded land during the government’s agrarian reforms. He left Zimbabwe in 2001 and works for the Air War College in the United States. He is the author of three books; ‘South Africa’s Weapons of Mass Destruction’ (with Helen Purkitt), ‘Smallholders and Political Voice in Zimbabwe’, and ‘The United Nations under Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 1992-97′.

Burgess helped lead in the organization and execution of the Air Force Africa Command Symposium.

He is an associate director of the US Air Force Counterproliferation Centre. Burgess holds a PhD from Michigan State University and has been a faculty member at Vanderbilt University, the University of Zambia, the University of Zimbabwe, and Hofstra University.

The full study can be found on http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/

====

Afghanistan: 15 NATO Soldiers Killed In Three Days

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1642060.php/Two-NATO-soldiers-killed-in-attacks-in-southern-Afghanistan

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
May 28, 2011

Two NATO soldiers killed in attacks in southern Afghanistan

Kabul: Two soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed Saturday in attacks in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said.

One soldier was killed in a roadside bomb while another was killed in a suspected insurgent attack, ISAF said in a statement, without revealing their nationalities or the exact locations of the incidents.

Most of the troops based in the volatile southern region are from the United States, Britain and Canada.

The latest fatalities take the death toll for NATO forces to 15 in three days. On Thursday, eight US soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in a southern province, the deadliest single attack on American forces so far this year.

More than 200 foreign troops have been killed in the conflict so far this year, according to ICasualties.org, an independent website that tracks NATO military fatalities in Afghanistan.

Taliban-led insurgents stepped up their attacks after their movement announced the spring offensive against more than 140,000 US-led troops, currently based in Afghanistan, last month.

….

====

Three German Soldiers, Afghan General Kill In Bomb Attack

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iWAkp-_Dzhn9wjlRNk-uX-neOdzA?docId=CNG.3e52658d1fdbadff778404c0f022f256.c91

Agence France-Presse
May 28, 2011

Police chief, 3 Germans killed in Afghan attack

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan: The police chief of northern Afghanistan and three German soldiers were among seven people killed in a suicide bombing at the Takhar governor’s office Saturday, an official said.

“Seven people were killed and nine wounded,” Faiz Mohammed Tawhidi, spokesman for the Takhar provincial governor, told AFP.

“Three German soldiers and four Afghans, including General Mohammed Daoud Daoud and the chief of police (for Takhar province) were among the dead,” he said.

Qutbuddin Kamal, a senior aide to provincial governor Abdul Jabar Taqwa, confirmed that General Daoud, who was a former deputy interior minister, and the provincial police chief had been killed, adding that the governor was wounded.

“There was a meeting about security at the complex where the governor’s office is,” he said.

“At the end of the meeting, when we wanted to leave, a suicide bomber waiting in the corridor blew himself up.”

A spokesman for the Taliban, contacted by AFP, claimed responsibility for the attack.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed that it had troops among the victims, without specifying whether they had been killed or wounded.

====

McCain Versus Russia: Arm Georgia, Bring It Into NATO

http://rustavi2.com/news/news_text.php?id_news=41758&pg=1&im=main&ct=0&wth=

Rustavi 2
May 28, 2011

John Mccain gives interview to Rustavi 2 TV channel

Russia violates international law, therefore the international community should convince Moscow to fulfill its commitments to [the] cease-fire, U.S. Senator John Mccain said in an exclusive interview with the Rustavi 2 TV channel.

The influential senator talked about the necessity of selling defensive arms to Georgia, the country`s possible integration into NATO, and situation in Russia.

“I think it`s an international outrage. I`m very disappointed in many of our European friends, because clearly, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are within the internationally recognized borders of the sovereign national of Georgia. And I would hope that President Sarkozy, who negotiated the cease-fire, would become active in making true the ceasefire”, Mccain said.

“…I intend to push very hard on the Defense Authorization Bill to authorize the sale of defensive weapons to Georgia so that they can defend themselves. Russians continue to consolidate their position in Eastern countries, to issue Russian passports to some other citizens, violating the norms of international behavior”, he added.

“As you know, NATO is 28 nations and there are varying views among those countries. I think the best way to ensure Georgia`s security in the long-term is to provide them with defensive weapons and include them into NATO. So far this administration has not pursued this goal with any kind of significant effort.

“I think that Russia is not adhering to the standards that would make them eligible at this time for membership into the WTO. There is a breakdown in the rule of law in Russia….I think the Russians have to make significant improvements in adhering to the standards”, he said.

====

NATO Only Global Force That Can “Integrate” “Depopulated” Balkans

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n250868

Focus News Agency
May 28, 2011

Antoniy Galabov: NATO is the only global partner that can integrate the Balkans

Varna: Currently, NATO is the only global partner that can integrate the Balkans. This is what sociologist Professor Antoniy Galabov stated at the Spring NATO Parliamentary Assembly, held near coastal Varna, a reporter of Radio Focus – Varna announced.

Within the Assembly, he delivered a lecture entitled Regional Development and Challenges on the Balkans. According to him, for the Balkan countries remain major risks associated with degraded social and economic infrastructure.

“The infrastructure here was built in the 70′s and 80′s. At the time it is destroyed or is morally and physically obsolete. This creates great risks for the region primarily for environmental and major industrial accidents,” Prof. Galabov said.

He said migration to big cities in the Balkans lead to the depopulation of peripheral areas and thus creating greater social sparsely populated areas that generate risk for terrorism and the criminalization of the region.

Antoniy Galabov pointed out that it is very possible in the Balkans to arise movements on religious grounds. “Soon they will be a factor because of the large percentage of Muslim population in the region. Among this population there is so-called “virtual socialization” – the younger generation of Muslims is educated by the internet and there put their demands,” Prof. Galabov said further.

====

Sanctions-Obsessed Obama: Belarus Political Leadership “Unacceptable”

http://en.rian.ru/world/20110529/164293488.html

Russian Information Agency Novosti
May 28, 2011

Obama urges more pressure on Belarus’ Lukashenko

Pressure must be applied to the Belarusian authorities to put an end to political repression of the country’s opposition, U.S. President Barack Obama said during his visit to Poland on Saturday.

“President [Alexander] Lukashenko has shown a total disregard for democratic values, the rule of law and human rights of his own people,” Obama said during a speech in Warsaw that followed talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

….

Obama said the situation in Belarus was “unacceptable.”

Tusk said in his turn that Poland fully shared Washington’s position and that Lukashenko’s authoritarian regime had no future in Europe.

On Friday, Obama said the United States was set to expand sanctions against Belarus for its leadership’s crackdown on the dissent, which he described as “a major step backward for democracy in Belarus.”

….

====