Messages In This Digest (15 Messages) Messages - 1.
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Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:25 pm (PDT) http://en.apa. az/news.php? id=155786 Azeri Press Agency September 24, 2011 Turkey: US likely to deploy Predator drones Baku: The U.S. will likely deploy some Predator drones on Turkish soil, the Turkish prime minister said Friday. Turkey has been pressing for the drones in an escalating war against Kurdish rebels, APA reports quoting AP. The U.S. shares drone surveillance data from northern Iraq with Ankara to aid its fight against Kurdish rebels who have bases in Iraq. The two countries have been negotiating the possible deployment of Predator drones after the U.S. leaves Iraq. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday the two allies have agreed "in principle" over the deployment of the drones in Turkey, the state-run Anatolia news agency said. Turkey has offered to purchase or lease the drones, Erdogan said. "Our negotiations will continue," Anatolia quoted Erdogan as saying. "The developments are moving toward an agreement." Turkey is operating Israeli-made Heron drones against the Kurdish rebels who have been fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984. They have stepped up attacks on security forces in recent months, who have retaliated with airstrikes in the rebels’ suspected bases in northern Iraq. ... In a nationwide crackdown on alleged Kurdish rebel sympathizers, police on Friday detained the mayors of the towns of Sirnak, Silopi and Idil in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, increasing the number of Kurdish suspects captured so far this week to more than 80, NTV television reported. ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 2.
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Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:25 pm (PDT) http://english. ahram.org. eg/~/NewsContent /2/9/22278/ World/Internatio nal/EU-must- learn-lessons- from-Libyan- crisis-defence- m.aspx Agence France-Presse September 23, 2011 EU must learn lessons from Libyan crisis: defence ministers European Union defence ministers urged the 27-member bloc Friday to learn lessons from the Libyan conflict which revealed several glaring weaknesses in European armies. The Libyan war is a "success" but it "has highlighted the limitations of Europe's capabilities, " Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said at a two-day meeting with his EU counterparts in Wroclaw, south-eastern Poland. "Lessons have to be learned from Libya, about what capabilities need to be invested in, given there have been some shortfalls," added Gerald Howarth, Britain's Minister for International Security Strategy. His French counterpart Gerard Longuet said it was necessary to "draft without delay a list of what we know and don't know how to do, of what we can or cannot do." He added that officials from Britain and France, two leading countries in the conflict, would meet October 12 to "exchange mutual experience." The weak spots most often mentioned at the meeting in Poland, which holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, included a lack of in-flight refuelling aircraft, a shortage of ammunition, and shortfalls in information about the conflict. ... ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 3.
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Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:26 pm (PDT) http://www.reuters. com/article/ 2011/09/24/ us-japan- fighter-usa- idUSTRE78N03X201 10924 Reuters September 23, 2011 U.S. commander eyes "interoperable" Japan fighter fleet WASHINGTON: The head of U.S. military forces in Asia and the Pacific predicted Friday that Japan's choice of a new multibillion- dollar fighter fleet would reflect plans to stay "very complementary" with U.S. air forces. Proposals are due in Tokyo on Monday from the three rivals for Japan's so-called F-X deal - Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp of the United States and Europe's Eurofighter GmbH consortium, made up of Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain. Japan is expected to buy 42 planes, a deal experts say could be worth $6 billion to $8 billion, including spares, pilot training and related gear. U.S. Navy Admiral Robert Willard, head of the Hawaii-based, U.S. Pacific Command, stopped short of predicting that Tokyo would pick Boeing's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet or Lockheed's radar-evading F-35 Lightning II over the Eurofighter Typhoon. But he said Japanese defense forces "understand the importance of remaining interoperable with the United States, their ally that is home based in Japan or being hosted in Japan, as well as U.S. forces that are deployed in the region." ... Pressed to say whether the Americans would best the Europeans, Willard replied: "No, I wouldn't go that far." But he said he was confident that Japanese commanders will make sure that whichever plane they buy "remains interoperable and very complementary to our capabilities. " (Editing by Bob Burgdorfer) ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 4.
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Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:26 pm (PDT) http://www.cbc. ca/news/world/ story/2011/ 09/23/russia- canada-arctic. html Canadian Broadcasting Corporation September 23, 2011 Russians move to bolster Arctic forces Gen. Walt Natynczyk meets Russians in Moscow for 3 days but no details released By Brian Kemp Just days after Gen. Walt Natynczyk, Canada’s chief of defence staff, left Moscow after meeting his counterpart last weekend, a Russian official announced that the country would be increasing its Arctic military presence, a move that could increase tensions in the resource-rich area. Anton Vasilev, a special ambassador for Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was quoted this week by the Interfax news agency as saying his country would be beefing up its presence in the Arctic, and that NATO was not welcome there. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was in Iceland this week meeting with the country's leaders, with the Arctic being at the top of the agenda, local media reported. Putin, according to the Moscow Times, then announced that Russia would be ordering three nuclear and six diesel icebreakers to be delivered by 2020, with the goal of expanding transportation in the Arctic. In July, Russia said it would create two specialist brigades to be based in the Arctic. It’s not known if the latest announcement is tied to that declaration or if additional forces will be moved to the region. ... Arctic a priority for Harper Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made a priority of increasing Canada’s presence in the North, as the countries that border the Arctic region eye the vast amount of oil and other resources in the area. The North Pole itself is considered an international site and is administered by the International Seabed Authority. But if a country can prove its underwater shelf is an extension of its continental border, then it can claim an economic zone based on that. There has been tension as countries wait for the UN to rule on legal claims in the resource-rich area. In that vein, a military presence is also seen as a way to stake an even higher claim in the Arctic region. Since 1994, the Russians have staffed year-round a research base called Ice Station Borneo on the deep Arctic ice, only 60 kilometres from the pole. Their planes have sometimes approached Canadian airspace and jets have been scrambled to shadow them. The Canadian Forces, on its website, said it has a “real, growing, and long-term presence in its Arctic region,” and has been in the North since 1898. In August, Canada held one of its largest military exercises, dubbed Operation Nanook, in the North. The month-long operation involved more than 1,000 troops. Canada, along with Russia, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the U.S. belong to a group called the Arctic Council, which was created by the Arctic nations in 1996 and is billed as a high level intergovernmental forum. ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 5.
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Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:26 pm (PDT) http://news. xinhuanet. com/english2010/ world/2011- 09/24/c_13115667 6.htm Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2011 8 killed in U.S. drone strike in Pakistan ISLAMABAD: At least eight suspected militants were killed when two missiles were fired by U.S. drones in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of North Waziristan on Friday night, reported the local Urdu TV channel WAQT. According to local media reports, the strike took place at about 9:30 p.m. local time in the Mir Ali area of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, one of the seven tribal areas in northwest Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan. .... Friday's U.S. drone strike is the 52nd of its kind (counted on daily basis) in Pakistan in 2011. To date, a total of 463 people...have reportedly been killed in such strikes since this year. The strike came shortly after the Pakistani leadership including the prime minister and Army chief expressed on Friday discontent with the recent remarks made by a top U.S. military official's accusation that Pakistan's secret agency ISI is supporting the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network in Afghanistan. ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 6.
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Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:26 pm (PDT) http://en.apa. az/news.php? id=155759 Azeri Press Agency September 23, 2011 Moldova has a strategic interest in the AGRI project Victoria Dementyeva Baku: The Republic of Moldova has a strategic interest in the AGRI project due to bring natural gas from Azerbaijan via Georgia to Romania, Moldova prime minister said in an interview with HotNews.ro. He also said that early elections would be catastrophic for his country, discussed the 5+2 negotiations over Transdniester and dismissed the possibility to bring the communists into the Moldovan government. Asked whether there was a possibility for the Republic of Moldova to be linked to the interconnecting project AGRI, as talks were held recently over Ukraine’s being connected to the future project, Filat said he had discussed the issue repeatedly and he was about to discuss it again with Romanian President Traian Basescu on Thursday. He said Moldova had a strategic interest in the project and that Moldova authorities were looking into the possibility of joining it. Filat said that depending on a single source of natural gas supplies or electricity leads to serious issues including the energy security of the country. He said two projects to inter-connect the natural gas networks of Romania and Moldova and of energy networks should be worked on fast, so that they become operational by mid-2013. ... ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 7.
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Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:41 am (PDT) http://www.nato. int/nato_ static/assets/ pdf/pdf_2011_ 09/20110924_ 110924-oup- update.pdf North Atlantic Treaty Organization September 24, 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, 06.00GMT) a total of 23,682 sorties, including 8,865 strike sorties, have been conducted. Sorties conducted 23 SEPTEMBER: 111 Strike sorties conducted 23 SEPTEMBER: 36 ... ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 8a.
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Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:42 am (PDT) http://channel6news online.com/ 2011/09/five- nato-soldiers- killed-in- western-and- eastern-afghanis tan/ BNO News September 23, 2011 Five NATO soldiers killed in western and eastern Afghanistan KABUL: Five coalition service members were killed as a result of two separate incidents in western and eastern Afghanistan on Friday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. ISAF said three of its service members were killed as a result of non-battle related injuries in western Afghanistan while two others died as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in the country's east. As usual, the multinational force gave no other details about the incidents, including the exact locations. The nationalities of the service members were also not immediately disclosed by ISAF. "It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities, " a brief statement said. Coalition casualties in Afghanistan have been rising sharply in recent years, with a total coalition death toll of 709 in 2010, making it the deadliest year for international troops since the war began... So far this year, at least 454 coalition service members have been killed in Afghanistan. Most troops are American and are killed in the country's south, which is plagued by IED attacks on troops and civilians. The deadliest incident happened last month when a U.S. helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 U.S. troops, seven Afghan troops and an Afghan interpreter. ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 9.
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Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:42 am (PDT) http://english. ruvr.ru/2011/ 09/24/56621921. html Voice of Russia September 24, 2011 U.S. lost to China - expert Interview with Ahmed Quraishi senior research fellow at an Independent Pakistani think-tank Project Pakistan 21. Since in this program we are discussing Pakistani-US relations, I have the impression that as the US is laying all the blame on Pakistan for its failures in Afghanistan, it is hardly convincing and it also gives me an impression that US positions in the region are becoming increasingly shaky. Is my understanding correct, do you support this, or perhaps I am wrong? There is a clear understanding right now that the Americans are desperate in Afghanistan and they are very embarrassed after a series of security lapses in Afghanistan, when you had an attack on both NATO headquarters and the US embassy on the same day and a few days earlier you had a series of assassinations of senior Afghan officials who were allied with the US military in Afghanistan ‑ this is a huge security lapse and it is very interesting to see how the US government and the US military, and also the US intelligence community, have to lead forward and sort of undercut any potential questioning within the United States ‑ whether in the US Congress or in the US media ‑ about the performance of the US military in Afghanistan and lay the entire blame at Pakistan’s door. It is very much clear for Pakistani officials that the American military and intelligence are Afghanistan is trying to use this series of attacks, these lapses which are a direct result of whatever the various Afghan militant groups or resistance groups – whatever you want to call them ‑ are doing in Afghanistan. The Americans are using all of this to try to settle scores with the Pakistani government and the Pakistani military especially, and the ISI which is the Pakistani intelligence service. Of course, the Afghans present a problem for the Americans, but somehow US officials are trying to create the impression that all of their problems in Afghanistan are the result of the Haqqani group and once this group is eliminated Afghanistan would somehow turn into a paradise, which is an oversimplification, and I am very much surprised to see that some very credible people in US public discourse ‑ whether in the media or in the think tanks ‑ not one of them is really questioning the certainty of the US military and of the CIA about the Haqqani group; it seems that the Americans are exaggerating the impact and effect of the Haqqani group. I would like just to share with you an incident that occurred last week when the US ambassador here, in Pakistan, Mr. Cameron Munter, met a senior Pakistani official and again repeated these accusations that there is a proxy connection between the Haqqani group and the Pakistani ISI, and the Pakistani official – and this was reported a couple of days ago in the Pakistani media – the Pakistani official responded to the US ambassador by saying: “If we assume and if we believe for a second that the Haqqani group is really responsible for all of the troubles that your military is facing in Afghanistan, I have a simple question and the question is this – if the Haqqani group is based inside Pakistani territory, there is a lot of distance between the Pakistani territory and Kabul where all of these attacks and assassinations have taken place. So, my question is: when these terrorists were moving from the Pakistani border to Kabul, where was NATO, where was the US military, where were the Afghan National Police, where was the Afghan National Army – where are all these people, where is the CIA, where are other allied intelligence agencies working with the coalition forces in Afghanistan?” So, there is a huge security lapse over there and it just appears that somehow the US government is trying to shift the blame. Now, the Pakistani government somehow has been trying ever since the accusations started coming against the American side, it has trying to resolve this matter quietly, but firmly, in private. But as of yesterday we are now seeing government officials, the Pakistani foreign ministry and the Pakistani military, openly saying that we do not consider whatever the Americans are saying as incontestable, we do not even have evidence and it would be better for the American side to present any evidence that would show – number one, that the Haqqani group is actually on Pakistani soil, and number two, that there is actually a connection between the recent attacks in Kabul - the major, the huge, the embarrassing security lapses in Kabul - a connection between them and the Haqqani network as well, because it seems to us that the Americans are trying to use this opportunity, these attacks, to put more pressure on the Pakistani government. There is one issue between Pakistan and the United States which never is addressed openly or publicly by US officials and that is visas for CIA agents – the real contention between Pakistan and the United States is actually the question of giving visas to CIA agents – Pakistan does not want to do that. Pakistan unfortunately has been doing that during ten years of former president Pervez Musharraf and there was no written understanding on that – the agents just simply kept coming and when the issue became problematic a year or a couple of years ago, the Pakistani government and the Pakistani military restricted issuing such visas to CIA agents who normally come carrying diplomatic passports, so they are basically pretending to be diplomats posted to their embassies and various consulates when they are actually agents, working without the knowledge of the Pakistani government. This is the real issue and the entire reason why the Americans are upset, why they are holding up military assistance throughout the country is basically this – they want to return to whatever arrangements existed five years ago, but that is no longer possible. Pakistani interests and policy direction are quietly changing, there is a growing realization – of course, the Americans call it anti-Americanism, but I do not think it is anti-Americanism, I think this is a misleading term American officials use normally to put their counterparts on the defensive. It is not anti-Americanism; it is very simply that there is a growing realization in Islamabad that over the past eight years we have supported the Americans, at our own expense sometimes, but we have not seen in return a real appreciation from the American side. Of course, the US government keeps repeating that we are given billions of dollars in aid, much of this actually is not even aid, in fact, anything between 50 to 80 percent of that money was actually reimbursement for using Pakistani facilities and so forth in the American war in Afghanistan. Of course, the Pakistanis believe that for the kind of support we have been giving the Americans over the eight years we did not receive at least, not money – it is not a question of money, it is a question of appreciating Pakistan’s goal and strategic interest. If there are two allies and they are working on a similar, on a single issue, both countries need to respect the interest of each other: the Americans are not doing that, they think the Pakistani government, the Pakistani military need to follow whatever policy lines given by Washington without questions asked – that is not possible. Pakistan has its own interests and obviously in recent months those interests have been diverging more and more and they will not end anytime soon, but the Americans have begun to appreciate the fact that this is a country that has its own interests and if the Americans want cooperation with Pakistan, they would also have to respect Pakistani interests. You cannot send diplomats, CIA agents disguised as diplomats, and allow them free roaming and operation facilities in Pakistan and you cannot do whatever you want in a country that is a neighbor to Pakistan without consulting with all those people who are supposed to be your allies. From what I have been reading and from what I have been hearing from you I get an impression that the frustration with the current US policy in Pakistan is really high and at the same time I know very well that the US has always been competing for Pakistan with China. So, is US losing to China in the region? I think the United States has already lost to China quite a long time back. I can give you a very simple example: the current situation of flash floods in Pakistan this year and last year – the Americans have stepped forward with aid; in fact last year they did a lot, they are not doing the same, but they did a lot last year. So did the Chinese, and the Saudis, and the Turks, and others, but Pakistani public opinion actually highlighted more what, for example, the Turks, and the Saudis, and the Iranians, and the Chinese specially have done, more than highlighting what the Americans have been doing, and last year the United States initially was reluctant to intervene but later they did send helicopters and that was very helpful during the floods to save people in distant areas. Then there was not really much appreciation for that in the public, mainly because of the other issues. They did deserve appreciation for that, they did send helicopters – no one can deny that. They really became frustrated, the US diplomats here, and quite later, I think, maybe two or three months after they started operations ‑ they were very frustrated, they were not receiving the kind of media attention they thought they deserved, so we saw the US ambassador personally visiting newspaper newsrooms and distributing photographs and videos and so forth. This is one example that gives the answer to your question: despite several positive things that the Americans have been doing in Pakistan, they do not receive any appreciation because they already have lost the battle for people’s minds and hearts. ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 10.
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Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:42 am (PDT) http://english. ruvr.ru/2011/ 09/24/56668150. html Voice of Russia September 24, 2011 BRICS favours UNSC central role in Libyan, Syrian settlement The Russian delegation to the ongoing session of the UN General Assembly continues making active diplomatic efforts on the fringes of the world forum in New York. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has met his counterparts from the BRICS countries (Brazil, India, China and South Africa). The Voice of Russia has the details. The BRICS foreign ministers focused on the situation in Libya and Syria, but also took up other issues of foreign policy interaction by the informal alliance of the five countries. The parties to the meeting agreed that the UN Security Council should play the central role in dealing with a post-conflict settlement in Libya, with the BRICS nations due to learn a lesson from the Libyan crisis. According to Sergei Lavrov, it is important to strongly insist on the Security Council’s central role in guaranteeing international peace and security. To avoid abuse of sanction resolutions, the Council should press for utmost clarity in such issues as the nature of resolutions and the terms of their imposition, Lavrov said. "We aren’t happy about the developments in Libya, Sergei Lavrov says. The basic objective that the UN Security Council set was to protect the civilian population. But civilians in Libya continue to be killed in great numbers. I think it is in the interests of the Libyan people to find ways of ending their strife and start negotiating a settlement. We proceed from the assumption that it is necessary to speedily start making efforts to attain the basic objective, set by the Security Council, that of protecting the civilian population. Russia and our BRICS partners have repeatedly pointed out that we are concerned about the way resolutions 1970 and 1973 are being implemented. " The BRICS countries’ concern about the way NATO was implementing the resolutions in question, and more importantly, about the lateral [liberal, open-ended] interpretation of these resolutions by the western countries was specifically prompted by the fact that the current situation in Syria is likely to follow the Libyan scenario. That is why the BRICS foreign ministers pointed out their resolve to remain as one, at the Security Council, about their stand on the Syrian issue. Imposition of sanctions on Damascus may provoke the Syrian opposition into stepping up their confrontation with the authorities. But Sergei Lavrov also pointed out the need for an urgent implementation of the Syrian government-promised reforms, so the population could see the results of declared intentions in practical terms. ... The BRICS foreign ministers have urged the UN Security Council to come out against any violence in Syria and insist that all parties to the Syrian conflict should sit down at the negotiating table. The foreign ministers agreed that the dialogue among the BRICS countries is growing more intensive and concrete in character. Russia sees its participation in the alliance as one of its top foreign policy priorities and will actively contribute to consolidating BRICS, the Russian Foreign Ministry says in its statement. ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 11.
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Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:42 am (PDT) http://news. xinhuanet. com/english2010/ world/2011- 09/24/c_13115675 8.htm Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2011 Might of powerful nations cannot prevail: Sri Lanka UNITED NATIONS: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday called upon the United Nations to build a more equal international order, saying that "the might of powerful nations cannot prevail." Rajapaksa made the remarks here as he was speaking at the general debate of the 66th session of UN General Assembly, with the theme of the role of mediation in settling disputes by peaceful means. "The might of powerful nations cannot prevail against justice and fair play," the president said, adding that at the heart of dramatic changes of world order lies "the need to protect smaller countries in the developing world and to advance their interests vigorously." Rajapaksa said every country's values, traditions and religious convictions cannot be diluted or distorted by the imposition of alien cultures under the guise of human rights. "If this were done, it would amount to a violation of human rights in a fundamental sense," Rajapaksa said. By saying this, the president referred to cases of Palestine and Cuba. He said that it is a "profound disappointment" that the Palestinian people have not had a state of their own within secure borders, and expressed once again his solidarity with the people of Cuba. "Even where sanctions are imposed, extreme care has to be taken to ensure that the people at large are not harmed by such action," Rajapaksa said. He urged the international community to take into account the vulnerability of developing nations and protect them by means of appropriate institutional arrangements. "Dumping of commercial and industrial goods manufactured in developed countries imperils the economies of many Asian and African countries represented here," Rajapaksa said. He pointed out that developed countries'substanti al subsidies to support agricultural production and other forms of protectionism, have caused serious distortion of the interplay of market forces, and reduced to a great extent the ability of farmers in many developing countries to access international markets for their export products on an equitable basis. Rajapaksa also talked about the disproportionate environmental pollution by industrialized countries and the resultant impact on global warming and climate change. He said that these impacts "cannot be remedied with any semblance of justice by imposing harsh restraints on developing countries which have contributed very little to aggravation of the problem." "These circumstances heighten the importance of social equity at the international level," Rajapaksa said. ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 12.
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Sat Sep 24, 2011 6:43 am (PDT) Stuxnet Happens September 23rd, 2011 The USA and Israel worked together to sabotage the Iranian centrifuges last year. The virus seemingly developed in Israel is now available to copy by hackers and governments around the world to commit real world cyber-attacks that can have real world effects according to Ralph Langer, the researcher who broke the code. The world is in for a major cyber war and nothing is being done about it Langer claims. I would suspect that since the USA and Israel developed the virus, the government is fairly certain that they have it under control. Since there have not been any attacks since then, and the one attack was against Iran, then either there is certain amount of hubris on the part of security professionals or there is a control mechanism that has not been shared with people like Langer. But we can see another reason why the USA and Israel are such buddies and are unwilling to part, simply because of the number of military, intelligence and other unspecified arrangements that keep them from going their separate ways. There must be secrets that Netanyahu knows and dangles over Obama's head to keep him from doing the right thing and acknowledging Palestinian Statehood. Blackmail is one answer, the other is simply that the stakes are higher than Palestinian statehood and the US is willing to put up with world approbation for the sake of the higher level of gamesmanship that is being played by the US, Israel and their security buddies. From NY Times Israeli Test on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay By WILLIAM J. BROAD, JOHN MARKOFF and DAVID E. SANGER Published: January 15, 2011 Ralph Langner, an independent computer security expert, solved Stuxnet. The Dimona complex in the Negev desert is famous as the heavily guarded heart of Israel's never-acknowledged nuclear arms program, where neat rows of factories make atomic fuel for the arsenal. Over the past two years, according to intelligence and military experts familiar with its operations, Dimona has taken on a new, equally secret role as a critical testing ground in a joint American and Israeli effort to undermine Iran's efforts to make a bomb of its own. Behind Dimona's barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Iran's at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. They say Dimona tested the effectiveness of the Stuxnet computer worm, a destructive program that appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Iran's nuclear centrifuges and helped delay, though not destroy, Tehran's ability to make its first nuclear arms. http://www.nytimes. com/2011/ 01/16/world/ middleeast/ 16stuxnet. html?pagewanted= all From Christan Science Monitor From the man who discovered Stuxnet, dire warnings one year later Stuxnet, the cyberweapon that attacked and damaged an Iranian nuclear facility, has opened a Pandora's box of cyberwar, says the man who uncovered it. A Q&A about the potential threats. By Mark Clayton, Staff writer / September 22, 2011 One year ago a malicious software program called Stuxnet exploded onto the world stage as the first publicly confirmed cyber superweapon a digital guided missile that could emerge from cyber space to destroy a physical target in the real world. It took Ralph Langner about a month to figure that out. While Symantec, the big antivirus company, and other experts pored over Stuxnet's inner workings, it was Mr. Langner, a industrial control systems security expert in Hamburg, who deciphered and tested pieces of Stuxnet's "payload" code in his lab and declared it a military-grade cyberweapon aimed at Iran's nuclear facilities. Days later, he and other experts refined that assessment, agreeing Stuxnet was specifically after Iran's gas centrifuge nuclear fuel-enrichment program at Natanz. After infiltrating Natanz's industrial-control systems, Stuxnet automatically ordered subsystems operating the centrifuge motors to spin too fast and make them fly apart, Langner says. At the same time, Stuxnet made it appear random breakdowns were responsible so plant operators would not realize a nasty software weapon was behind it. In the end, Stuxnet may have set back Iran's nuclear ambitions by years. But it also could prove a Pyrrhic victory for its still-unknown creator a sophisticated cyberweapons nation state that Langner argues could be the US or Israel. Like the Hiroshima bomb, Stuxnet demonstrated for the first time a dangerous capability in this case to hackers, cybercrime gangs, and new cyberweapons states, he says in an interview. http://www.csmonito r.com/USA/ 2011/0922/ From-the- man-who-discover ed-Stuxnet- dire-warnings- one-year- later?cmpid= ema:nws:Daily% 20Custom% 20 Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus. Video. From Australia TV 1 Link below. Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus from Patrick Clair on Vimeo. or simply go to the site http://vimeo. com/25118844 From PC World Was Stuxnet Built to Attack Iran's Nuclear Program? By Robert McMillan, IDG News A highly sophisticated computer worm that has spread through Iran, Indonesia and India was built to destroy operations at one target: possibly Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor. That's the emerging consensus of security experts who have examined the Stuxnet worm. In recent weeks, they've broken the cryptographic code behind the software and taken a look at how the worm operates in test environments. Researchers studying the worm all agree that Stuxnet was built by a very sophisticated and capable attacker possibly a nation state and it was designed to destroy something big. Though it was first developed more than a year ago, Stuxnet was discovered in July 2010, when a Belarus-based security company discovered the worm on computers belonging to an Iranian client. Since then it has been the subject of ongoing study by security researchers who say they've never seen anything like it before. Now, after months of private speculation, some of the researchers who know Stuxnet best say that it may have been built to sabotage Iran's nukes. Last week Ralph Langner, a well-respected expert on industrial systems security, published an analysis of the worm, which targets Siemens software systems, and suggested that it may have been used to sabotage Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor. A Siemens expert, Langner simulated a Siemens industrial network and then analyzed the worm's attack. http://www.pcworld. com/businesscent er/article/ 205827/ was_stuxnet_ built_to_ attack_irans_ nuclear_program. html From Wikipedia article on Stuxnet In May 2011, the PBS program Need To Know cited a statement by Gary Samore, White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction, in which he said, "we're glad they [the Iranians] are having trouble with their centrifuge machine and that we the US and its allies are doing everything we can to make sure that we complicate matters for them", offering "winking acknowledgement" of US involvement in Stuxnet. According to the British Daily Telegraph, a showreel that was played at a retirement party for the head of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Gabi Ashkenazi, included references to Stuxnet as one of his operational successes as the IDF chief of staff. http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Stuxnet From Security Dark Reading Stuxnet Changes Terrorism Equation, Says Former CIA Official The attack marks a turning point for counterterrorism efforts, making cyber a potential threat to any nation's domestic security Aug 03, 2011 | 02:06 PM | By Robert Lemos, Contributing Editor Dark Reading BLACK HAT USA 2011 Las Vegas The ability of the Stuxnet cyberattack to physically impact equipment has made cybersecurity significantly more important for U.S. domestic security strategy, a former counterterrorism official told attendees during the opening keynote at the Black Hat Security Briefings in Las Vegas. Until now, the primary worry of the U.S. government's counterterrorism groups has been stated by CBRN, which listed threats in order of likelihood: chemical, bacteriological, radiological, and nuclear, said Cofer Black, vice president for global operations for threat analysis firm Blackbird Technologies, and a 30-year veteran of the CIA's counterterrorism efforts. Since Stuxnet, terrorism concerns have morphed into KBC: kinetic, bacteriological and cyber, he said. http://www.darkread ing.com/advanced -threats/ 167901091/ security/ news/231300136/ stuxnet-changes- terrorism- equation- says-former- cia-official. html From Global Politician Stuxnet: First Phase in now-aborted Israeli Military Attack on Iran Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 9/28/2010 Stuxnet is a worm which attacks Siemens SCADA industrial controls. It uses various vectors to enter a system and spread through a network. It leverages two zero-day software vulnerabilities (largely patched by Microsoft by now) and two pilfered digital certificates from Taiwan. It was developed by the resurrected Lishka le-Kishre Mada (Laka"m) in the Office of the Prime Minister: the same unit that handled Jonathan Pollard when it was headed by Rafael (Rafi "the Stinker") Eitan in the 1980s. Its aim was to attack the PCs and, later, the industrial controls of the Iranian uranium-enrichment facility in Natanz (not in Bushehr, as the Iranian misinformation campaign would have it). The worm contains a "time-bomb" in the form of an Easter egg: a backdoor kernel rootkit. It was set to be activated on Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of Atonement). The key to its activation was steganographically disguised as a snippet of minacious Biblical text. Following the incapacitation of the facility in Natanz, Israeli forces were to follow with a multi-frontal military attack (for details, see below). Yet, it was not to be. Netanyahu called it off on September 1, 2010, following a phone call from Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State. Former Bush administration officials also warned Israel against civilian casulaties incurred by a cloud of radioactive fallout should an attack on physical facilities be attempted after the end of August. Obama invited the leaders of Israel and Palestine (as well as Egypt and Jordan) to Washington for a peace conference in early September 2010 in order to forestall an imminent Israeli attack on Iran scheduled for September 18-20, 2010. Israel exacted a price for its newfound transigence in American jet fuel and spare parts deliveries as well as access to enhanced intelligence sharing. http://www.globalpo litician. com/26604- stuxnet-iran- israel-nuclear- netanyahu - 13.
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Sat Sep 24, 2011 7:39 am (PDT) http://news. xinhuanet. com/english2010/ world/2011- 09/24/c_13115797 2.htm Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2011 Australia is wasting resources in Afghanistan: experts By Vienna Ma CANBERRA: Australia's military campaign in Afghanistan is a serious policy failure with no serious prospect of achieving, defense experts said in an interview with Xinhua recently, adding that the on-going spending on the war will constitute a drain on resource. The comment came following the assassination of former Afghan president and Afghan peace negotiator, Burhanuddin Rabbani. The killing was the latest high-profile attack by insurgents, who are currently engaged in back-channel peace talks with the U.S. via Pakistani intermediaries. An Australian foreign and defense policy expert at University of Newcastle, Associate Professor Wayne Reynolds, said the recent assassinations and the rising death toll among coalition soldiers indicated the insurgency is gathering pace and sophistication in Afghanistan. He said it is possible that there is a much broader and uncoordinated insurgency then applying the Taliban label would suggest, and he expected the coalition force will continue to struggle with insurgents, who are motivated not only by opposition to North Atlantic Treaty Organization' s (NATO's) presence, but a plethora of local issues that have been long neglected in the strife-torn nation. As of the prospects for peace in the country, Professor Reynolds casted a shadow over it, saying that it is considerable diminished by the uncertainty surrounding the profile of the Taliban leadership. "It is also clear that there is considerable uncertainty about the negotiating framework for peace," he told Xinhua in an interview. "While the elimination by the U.S. and NATO of Taliban leaders suggests a hierarchy it does not seem to extend to intelligence about the chain of command with respect to negotiators. " Meanwhile, former senior Defense Department official and government advisor, Professor Hugh White, said the latest assassination showed that chances of Australian Defense Force completing its objectives in Afghanistan are "very low". "I don't think we are likely to succeed in preventing the Taliban taking a prominent position. Even if they don't completely overtake Afghan politics, they are going to regain a prominent position there after we leave," he said. "I don't think we are going to succeed in ensuring that Afghanistan doesn't become a kind of destabilizing factor in the wide south Asian strategic balance." With the barely noticeable process has been done since the coalition force entered Afghanistan in 2001, Professor Reynolds said the occupying force is not only wasting human and financial resources, but also create ongoing co-lateral damage in Afghanistan and increasingly in Pakistan. "The events in Afghanistan suggest that on-going spending on ' boots on the ground' will constitute a drain on resources, and come at the expense of developing other defense options such as aircraft, submarines and industrial infrastructure, " he said. Australia currently has 1,500 troops in Afghanistan, mainly based in Oruzgan Province. So far, 29 Australian soldiers have died and 194 others have been wounded in Afghanistan since 2001. Since Australia scheduled to hand security arrangements back to Afghanistan from 2014, Professor White said based on recent casualty rates, as many as 40 more Australians could lose their lives in the war before it ends. "If when we leave in 2014 Afghanistan looks just as it looks today, which I think is the most likely outcome, then it is hard to see that any lives we lose between now and then will not have been lost in vain," he said. ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 14.
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Sat Sep 24, 2011 7:39 am (PDT) http://en.trend. az/capital/ energy/1936211. html Trend News Agency September 24, 2011 Trans-Caspian pipeline to prevent Iranian gas from reaching Europe T. Konyayeva -"[T]he project does not involve Iran and Russia although Russia has the largest proven gas reserves and Iran the second largest. Thus, they feel that they are left out of a significant gas project feeding Europe...This would have been an opportunity for Iran to break into the market. But of course the problem is international sanctions and the opposition of the United States and some European countries to Iran's participation. ..The gas project extending a pipeline under the water without the participation of Iran would be de facto recognition of the usage of the sea by Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan without regard for Iran's right." Baku: The Trans-Caspian gas pipeline will reduce Iran’s chances to become a gas exporter for Europe, experts believe. "Protecting its national interest, as a potential gas exporter, Iran naturally cannot be supportive of other exporters in the market," Professor Reza Taghizadeh, a member of the Trend Experts Council, wrote in an email. "The Trans-Caspian pipeline limits Iran's capability to become Europe’s energy partner. Iran will support such a project only if its own supply of gas will be taken on board." Last week, the EU adopted a mandate to negotiate a legally-binding treaty between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to build a Trans-Caspian Pipeline System. Later, Iran and Russia expressed a negative attitude toward this project. Tehran and Moscow think that the pipeline construction will damage the Caspian Sea environment. The pipeline, with a length of 300 kilometers, will be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, where it will be connected to the Southern Gas Corridor. Talks between Turkmenistan and the EU and other countries on the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline have been conducted since the late 1990s. Its construction is now difficult because of the unresolved status of the Caspian Sea. In addition to economic reasons, Taghizadeh thinks Iran’s opposition to the Trans-Caspian pipeline has both political and environmental dimensions. "The environmental concerns are undeniable because the Caspian Sea’s unique ecological system is excessively fragile. The Caspian Sea is closed, and vulnerable towards manmade hazards, such as excessive pollution resulting from further oil and gas productions, " he said. Besides, the Caspian basin is located right on the earthquake belt, Taghizadeh added. "Therefore, any quake under the sea water and around the region could break the pipe, releasing poisonous gases into the sea water and endangering marine life gravely before being controlled. The depth of the sea near the Iranian coastlines, which is about 980 meters, makes it no more palpable to take," he said. As regards to the political reasons, Taghizadeh believes that the Trans-Caspian pipeline would definitely compromise common ownership of the sea status, and in a way, could divide boundaries of the littoral states. "However, Russia and Iran both prefer to stay connected and enjoy the benefits of being neighbours," he said. Taghizadeh thinks Iran would do its best to stand firmly against the Trans-Caspian pipeline before the legal status of the Caspian Sea is determined. "At this stage Iran demands the assumption of a dynamic role in the Caspian Sea energy economy plus a fair share of its sea water and natural resources... ," he said. In November 2003, the Caspian littoral countries (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan) signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea. ... As to finalizing the legal status of the Caspian Sea, consultations are under way on this issue. U.S. Northeastern University Professor Kamran Dadkhah also believes that the real reasons for Iranian and Russian opposition to the Trans-Caspian pipeline are economic benefits and political motives. "First, the project does not involve Iran and Russia although Russia has the largest proven gas reserves and Iran the second largest. Thus, they feel that they are left out of a significant gas project feeding Europe," Dadkhah wrote Trend in an email. He believes Iran feels it is left out of this project as well as the Nabucco pipeline. "This would have been an opportunity for Iran to break into the market. But of course the problem is international sanctions and the opposition of the United States and some European countries to Iran's participation, " Dadkhah said. A second reason for both countries to oppose the project is that the legal framework and boundaries of sovereignty over the Caspian Sea are not finalized, the expert believes. "Iran feels that it has been cheated out of its rightful share in the resources of the sea. The gas project extending a pipeline under the water without the participation of Iran would be de facto recognition of the usage of the sea by Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan without regard for Iran's right," Dadkhah said. ... The European Union’s talks with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on the project of laying Trans-Caspian pipeline will begin in October, European External Action Service (EEAS) Director for Eastern Partnership Gunnar Wiegand told journalists in Baku on Sept. 23. ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== - 15.
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Sat Sep 24, 2011 7:52 am (PDT) http://www.abs- cbnnews.com/ global-filipino/ world/09/ 23/11/ahmadineja d-calls-western- navies-leave- gulf Agence France-Presse September 24, 2011 Ahmadinejad calls for western navies to leave Gulf Agence France-Presse NEW YORK: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday called on NATO naval forces to withdraw from the Gulf, calling them a threat to security. Ahmadinejad was asked about the potential for conflict in the Gulf at the final press conference of his trip to New York for the annual UN General Assembly. "Any tool that can prevent clashes and potential conflict will be welcome. And I don't think there is any need for confrontation, " he said. "But I think the best long term solution to this problem is for the foreign forces to leave the Persian Gulf. There is no need in the Persian Gulf for the presence of the NATO forces," the Iranian leader told journalists. ... The United States and European navies have stepped up their presence in the Gulf in recent years. The United States has a naval base in Bahrain and France opened a base in Abu Dhabi, within 250 kilometers (155 miles) of Iran's coastline, in 2009. "The nations of the region are fully capable of establishing and providing their own security," said Ahmadinejad. "Perhaps some will pretend that energy security is at risk. For decades the countries in the region have been able to shoulder their responsibility for that security. "I tell you in no uncertain terms today that NATO - Great Britain and American forces - if they leave the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, Iran will guarantee the route of energy trade in the region and the security in the region at large," the president added. ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= == Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine: http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/stopnato/ messages Stop NATO website and articles: http://rickrozoff. wordpress. com To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status: stopnato-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com ============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==== Need to Reply? Click one of the "Reply" links to respond to a specific message in the Daily Digest. ![]()
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