Messages In This Digest (5 Messages)
- 1.
- As Syria Beckons, Libya Descending Into Chaos After NATO "Success" From: Rick Rozoff
- 2.
- WAR ALERT! - Turkey: NATO should view Syria as attacking it; Demands From: mart unknown
- 3.
- NATO War Council To Target Syria From: Rick Rozoff
- 4.
- (Correct) NATO War Council To Target Syria From: Rick Rozoff
- 5.
- U.S. Expanding Bases To Contain China From: Rick Rozoff
Messages
- 1.
-
As Syria Beckons, Libya Descending Into Chaos After NATO "Success"
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Mon Jun 25, 2012 11:48 am (PDT)
http://thechronicleherald.ca/ opinion/110702- taylor-libya- descending- into-chaos- after-nato- success
Chronicle Herald
June 25, 2012
Libya descending into chaos after NATO ‘success’
By Scott Taylor
Last week, it was reported that the Canadian military is studying their options should an international intervention in war-torn Syria become a reality.
The Defence Department sources quoted claimed this preparatory planning was not being conducted at the request of the government, rather it was simply a prudent exercise given the escalating violence in Syria.
No troops or squadrons have been put on alert as of yet, but if the international community comes calling for partners in a coalition force, the Canadian military wants to have a handy list of options available to present Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The usual pro-war pundits have opined that Canada could, yet again, take a lead role in this deployment as we did with the Libya mission last year.
Canadian combat aircraft could rapidly be deployed to support a NATO-led air campaign to assist the Syrian rebels and HMCS Charlottetown, which is already on station in the Arabian Sea, could easily be enforcing an arms embargo off the Syrian coast.
What is interesting is the fact that even the most rabid of the tub-thumping Colonel Blimps, who claimed our soldiers’ sacrifice in Afghanistan proved our nation was “punching above our weight on the international stage” and earning Canada a “seat at the table” with the world powers, are now unanimous in warning against putting boots on the ground in Syria.
The rationale for using the Libyan template for intervention is based on the presumption that the Libyan conflict was a resounding success.
From a NATO perspective, it certainly would appear that way. For 10 months last year, NATO aircraft, ably led by Canada’s own highly decorated Lt.-Gen. Charles Bouchard, bombed the bejeezus out of Libyan targets without suffering a single casualty.
Those repeated airstrikes, in addition to the arming and training of opposition forces, the freezing of President Moammar Gadhafi’s finances and the enforcement of a one-sided arms embargo, finally led to a rebel victory.
Allied leaders, including Prime Minister Harper, cheered the demise of a tyrant when Gadhafi was captured, beaten, sodomized and executed in cold blood by a mob of rebels.
True to a Hollywood-style script, it was at this juncture that the international media began running the credits on the Libyan saga against a backdrop of NATO countries staging elaborate victory parades.
Unfortunately for the long-suffering people of Libya, whom we ostensibly intervened to protect, no one thought to tell the rebels to stop fighting.
While the Western propaganda machine labelled the anti-Gadhafi forces as pro-democracy fighters, the fact is that, from the outset, this fractious gaggle of ill-disciplined armed militias were fighting for a variety of tribal, economic and religious objectives.
Once the last vestiges of Gadhafi’s regime were removed, these armed factions refused to disarm.
Without any form of central authority, Libya has become virtually lawless. Revenge killings, detention, ethnic cleansing and torture continue unabated.
On Jan. 25, the organization Doctors Without Borders brought brief attention to the atrocities being committed when they suspended their operations in Misrata. The reason for their withdrawal was the fact that they realized they were providing medical treatment to prisoners just so they could become healthy enough to be tortured again.
Last month, one rebel faction stormed and held the Tripoli airport when they mistakenly thought their commander had been arrested.
Last week, Juma Obaidi al-Jazawi, a military prosecutor, was gunned down outside a mosque in Benghazi because it is believed that he was responsible for the arrest and execution of fellow rebel, Gen. Abdul Fatah Younes last July.
In addition to the savage infighting, the jihadists among the rebel ranks are starting to flex their muscles as well. Rather than being grateful for NATO helping drive out Gadhafi, the al-Qaida elements have begun targeting British, American and UN facilities.
To add insult to injury, mobs of Libyan Islamic fundamentalists have now, twice, stormed the desecrated Commonwealth war graves in Benghazi that date back to the Second World War.
One has to hope that the Canadian military strategists toiling away at devising a strategy for Syria take a closer look at what was actually claimed to be a victory in Libya.
Scott Taylor is editor of Esprit de Corps.
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- 2.
-
WAR ALERT! - Turkey: NATO should view Syria as attacking it; Demands
Posted by: "mart unknown" martmns@gmail.com
Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:35 pm (PDT)
Forward from mart
*IMPORTANT! PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY!
WAR ALERT! - Turkey: NATO should view Syria as attacking it; Demands
Invocation of NATO Article 5.*
--------------------- --------- --------- --------- ---
http://news.yahoo.com/ turkey-nato- view-syria- attacking- 184320549. html
*Associated Press via Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com
Mon. June 25, 2012*
*Turkey: NATO should view Syria as attacking it
By SELCAN HACAOGLU
Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) �* Turkey said Monday it would push NATO to consider
Syria's downing of a Turkish jet as an attack on the whole military
alliance.
The announcement came on the eve of a meeting by NATO's governing body to
discuss the incident. Despite deep frustration among many NATO countries
over the conflict in Syria, where the opposition says President Bashar
Assad's crackdown on an increasingly armed popular uprising has killed
14,000 people, it's highly unlikely the military alliance will take armed
action against the Arab state.
The unarmed RF-4E reconnaissance jet was shot down a mile (1.6 kilometers)
inside international airspace on Friday, and two Turkish pilots are still
missing, the Turkish government says. It has insisted the plane was not
spying on Syria.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc also said for the first time
Monday that Syrian forces had opened ground fire on a CASA search and
rescue plane shortly after the downing, but did not say if that plane was
hit.
Arinc said Turkey retained its right to "retaliate" against what he called
a "hostile act," but he added, "We have no intention of going at war with
anyone."
Still, he added that Turkey will push NATO to consider the jet's downing
under Article 5 in a key alliance treaty. Article 5 states that an attack
against one NATO member shall be considered an attack against all members.
The North Atlantic Council � which includes ambassadors of the 28 NATO
countries � works by consensus and all members must approve any action. The
meeting Tuesday comes after Turkey requested it under Article 4 of the
treaty, which allows a NATO ally to request such a consultation if it feels
its territorial integrity or security has been threatened.
Asked if Turkey will insist on the activation of Article 5 of NATO, Arinc
said, "No doubt, Turkey has made necessary applications with NATO regarding
Article 4 and Article 5."
"It should be known that within legality we will of course use all rights
granted under international law until the end," Arinc said. "This also
includes self-defense. This also includes retaliation many-fold. This
includes all sanctions that can be applied to the aggressor state under
international law. Turkey will not leave anything out on this issue. The
public should be assured."
The prospect of Western military intervention in Syria remains remote,
despite all the tough talk.
Such action is unlikely to get the support of either the U.N. Security
Council or the Arab League, and outside intervention without the blessing
of both of those bodies is all but unthinkable. And there is little
appetite among the NATO countries � of which the U.S. is the largest � for
another war in the Middle East.
Arinc strongly denied Syrian claims that the downed plane was shot by
anti-aircraft fire while flying low inside Syrian airspace. The Syrian
government said Monday said the plane was hit by a short-range
anti-aircraft gun to prove that the plane was inside Syrian territory.
Arinc, however, said Turkey believed the plane was hit with a laser-guided
or heat-guided missile � capable of hitting the plane in international
airspace.
The deputy premier admitted the jet mistakenly strayed into Syrian airspace
when it was flying at an altitude of 200 feet and at a speed of 300 knots,
but said it left the Syrian airspace after warnings from Turkish radar
operators and that it received no warning from Syrian forces during its
five-minute flight inside Syrian territory.
"It was hit while flying 13 miles away (from the Syrian coast) at an
altitude of 7,400 feet," Arinc said. "It leaned on its left side and fell
steeply for four miles toward the east."
Arinc said the plane crashed into Syrian waters and its wreckage is
believed to be below 1,000 meters (3,280 feet).
Arinc also said Syria was misleading the world when it says its forces
could not recognize the plane until after it was downed.
He said the plane's electronic signals, which indicate if an aircraft is
friend or foe, were activated during the entire flight and that Turkey even
intercepted radio conversations in which Syrian forces referred to the
plane. Arinc did not elaborate, but Hurriyet newspaper, citing intelligence
sources, said Monday that Syrian forces referred to the plane using the
Turkish word for "neighbor" � "komsu" �in an intercepted radio conversation.
Arinc reiterated Turkey's insistence that the plane was not spying on Syria
but just testing Turkey's radar capabilities.
"There is no doubt that Syrians deliberately targeted our plane in
international airspace," Arinc said. "It was an extremely hostile action."
He accused Syria of acting in a "cold-blooded" manner.
--------------------- -----
*Photo -* "T*urkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, arrives for
a cabinet meeting in his office in Ankara, Turkey, Monday, June 25, 2012.
Upon Turkey's request, NATO will hold a meeting Tuesday in Brussels over
article 4 of its charter concerning Friday's incident, when a Turkish
warplane was shot down by Syria. Syria's Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad
Makdissi said Monday his country has "no hostility" toward Turkey as
tensions soar between the former allies three days after Syria shot down a
Turkish plane*."
http://news.yahoo.com/ photos/world- events-slideshow /turkish- prime-minister- recep-tayyip- erdogan-arrives- cabinet-photo- 165834009. html
===================== ==
- 3.
-
NATO War Council To Target Syria
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:05 pm (PDT)
http://rickrozoff.wordpress. com/2012/ 06/26/nato- war-council- to-target- syria/
Stop NATO
June 26, 2012
NATO War Council To Target Syria
Rick Rozoff
On Monday, June 26 Belgium time the North Atlantic Council, the highest governing body of the U.S.-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization military bloc, will take up the issue of Syria under provisions of its founding document that in the past ten and a half years have resulted in military deployments preparatory to and the subsequent waging of full-scale wars.
The ambassadors of the alliance's 28 member states constitute the council, nations whose collective population is 900 million. Its founding members include three nuclear powers - the U.S., Britain and France - the first the self-proclaimed world's sole military superpower.
Until the day before the meeting NATO was to take up a request by member Turkey to hold consultations under the terms of the North Atlantic (Washington) Treaty's Article 4, which allows any member state to call on the entire alliance to respond to alleged threats to its territorial integrity and security.
On June 25, three days after a Turkish F-14 supersonic fighter-bomber was shot down over Syrian waters, Turkey announced that it was going to ask the military alliance to discuss its Article 5, which states that "an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all" and commits NATO allies to "assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force..."
Article 5 was invoked for the first and to date only time in October 2001 and is the basis for the deployment of troops from 28 NATO and 22 partner states to Afghanistan over the past decade.
Article 4 was first invoked on February 16, 2003, again by the North Atlantic Council and again in relation to Turkey, on the eve of the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq. So-called Operation Display Deterrence was launched as a result and five Patriot interceptor missile batteries, three Dutch and two American, and four Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) surveillance aircraft were deployed to Turkey in conjunction with NATO's Integrated and Extended Air Defence System.
NATO, in its own words, deployed "1000 technically advanced and highly capable forces" to run the operation.
The first AWACS aircraft arrived on February 26 and three weeks later the bombardment and invasion of Iraq began. Although Iraq at the time had a population of approximately 25 million and Turkey 70 million, and although Turkey had one of the most formidable militaries in the region while Iraq's had been weakened by the eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s, the U.S. and allied bombing campaign of 1991 and in the interim, and twelve years of crushing sanctions, NATO afterward praised Operation Display Deterrence as having "tested and proved the success of NATO’s military to respond immediately and with appropriate defensive force to a rapidly developing threat against a member of the Alliance."
In what manner a fatally debilitated Iraq had presented Turkey with "a rapidly developing threat" was never specified.
The AWACS flew 100 missions and the Dutch Patriot batteries included Patriot Advanced Capability-2 missiles and "a more modern missile provided by Germany," according to NATO.
The operation was concluded on May 3, 65 days after it began and 45 days after the invasion of Iraq. To provide an indication of what NATO will claim after its meeting on Syria, the then-Turkish ambassador to the bloc stated after the invoking of Article 4:
"I convey once again the most sincere gratitude of the Turkish people and Government for the Alliance solidarity shown in reinforcing the defence of my country in response to the latest crisis in Iraq. We are convinced that, through such an active and collective display of deterrence, NATO has not only extended a much-appreciated helping hand to one of its members in her hour of need, but also proven, once again, its credibility and relevance as the cornerstone of collective security in the Euro-Atlantic area".
Turkey was then, as it is now, portrayed as the victim - in its "hour of need" moreover - and besieged and soon to be devastated Iraq as the aggressor.
Syria's population now is much the same as Iraq's was then and Turkey is now a nation almost three times as large. Syria is isolated and its military forces are small compared to its neighbor Turkey's. The latter can count on the support of 27 allies, including most of the world's major military powers. The U.S. has an estimated 90 B61 tactical nuclear weapons stationed at the Incirlik Air Base 35 miles from Turkey's Mediterranean coast.
Activating the Article 5 mutual military assistance - in effect war - clause has been mentioned by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at least twice since April, on the first occasion over two months before the downing of the Turkish warplane last week.
On June 25 Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc announced that his nation "has made necessary applications with NATO regarding Article 4 and Article 5."
According to the Associated Press, he added:
"It should be known that within legality we will of course use all rights granted under international law until the end. This also includes self-defense. This also includes retaliation many-fold. This includes all sanctions that can be applied to the aggressor state under international law. Turkey will not leave anything out on this issue..."
The U.S. and NATO have been itching for a pretext to attack Syria, and Turkey, the only NATO member to border the country, has always been the pretext which would be employed to justify military action against the Arab nation.
Last Friday's incident and the NATO meeting following it signal the fourth act in a tragedy that the world community has precious little time to stop.
===================== ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==
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.
-
(Correct) NATO War Council To Target Syria
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:10 pm (PDT)
http://rickrozoff.wordpress. com/2012/ 06/26/nato- war-council- to-target- syria/
Stop NATO
June 26, 2012
NATO War Council To Target Syria
Rick Rozoff
On Tuesday, June 26 Belgium time the North Atlantic Council, the highest governing body of the U.S.-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization military bloc, will take up the issue of Syria under provisions of its founding document that in the past ten and a half years have resulted in military deployments preparatory to and the subsequent waging of full-scale wars.
The ambassadors of the alliance's 28 member states constitute the council, nations whose collective population is 900 million. Its founding members include three nuclear powers - the U.S., Britain and France - the first the self-proclaimed world's sole military superpower.
Until the day before the meeting NATO was to take up a request by member Turkey to hold consultations under the terms of the North Atlantic (Washington) Treaty's Article 4, which allows any member state to call on the entire alliance to respond to alleged threats to its territorial integrity and security.
On June 25, three days after a Turkish F-14 supersonic fighter-bomber was shot down over Syrian waters, Turkey announced that it was going to ask the military alliance to discuss its Article 5, which states that "an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all" and commits NATO allies to "assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force..."
Article 5 was invoked for the first and to date only time in October 2001 and is the basis for the deployment of troops from 28 NATO and 22 partner states to Afghanistan over the past decade.
Article 4 was first invoked on February 16, 2003, again by the North Atlantic Council and again in relation to Turkey, on the eve of the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq. So-called Operation Display Deterrence was launched as a result and five Patriot interceptor missile batteries, three Dutch and two American, and four Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) surveillance aircraft were deployed to Turkey in conjunction with NATO's Integrated and Extended Air Defence System.
NATO, in its own words, deployed "1000 technically advanced and highly capable forces" to run the operation.
The first AWACS aircraft arrived on February 26 and three weeks later the bombardment and invasion of Iraq began. Although Iraq at the time had a population of approximately 25 million and Turkey 70 million, and although Turkey had one of the most formidable militaries in the region while Iraq's had been weakened by the eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s, the U.S. and allied bombing campaign of 1991 and in the interim, and twelve years of crushing sanctions, NATO afterward praised Operation Display Deterrence as having "tested and proved the success of NATO’s military to respond immediately and with appropriate defensive force to a rapidly developing threat against a member of the Alliance."
In what manner a fatally debilitated Iraq had presented Turkey with "a rapidly developing threat" was never specified.
The AWACS flew 100 missions and the Dutch Patriot batteries included Patriot Advanced Capability-2 missiles and "a more modern missile provided by Germany," according to NATO.
The operation was concluded on May 3, 65 days after it began and 45 days after the invasion of Iraq. To provide an indication of what NATO will claim after its meeting on Syria, the then-Turkish ambassador to the bloc stated after the invoking of Article 4:
"I convey once again the most sincere gratitude of the Turkish people and Government for the Alliance solidarity shown in reinforcing the defence of my country in response to the latest crisis in Iraq. We are convinced that, through such an active and collective display of deterrence, NATO has not only extended a much-appreciated helping hand to one of its members in her hour of need, but also proven, once again, its credibility and relevance as the cornerstone of collective security in the Euro-Atlantic area".
Turkey was then, as it is now, portrayed as the victim - in its "hour of need" moreover - and besieged and soon to be devastated Iraq as the aggressor.
Syria's population now is much the same as Iraq's was then and Turkey is now a nation almost three times as large. Syria is isolated and its military forces are small compared to its neighbor Turkey's. The latter can count on the support of 27 allies, including most of the world's major military powers. The U.S. has an estimated 90 B61 tactical nuclear weapons stationed at the Incirlik Air Base 35 miles from Turkey's Mediterranean coast.
Activating the Article 5 mutual military assistance - in effect war - clause has been mentioned by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at least twice since April, on the first occasion over two months before the downing of the Turkish warplane last week.
On June 25 Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc announced that his nation "has made necessary applications with NATO regarding Article 4 and Article 5."
According to the Associated Press, he added:
"It should be known that within legality we will of course use all rights granted under international law until the end. This also includes self-defense. This also includes retaliation many-fold. This includes all sanctions that can be applied to the aggressor state under international law. Turkey will not leave anything out on this issue..."
The U.S. and NATO have been itching for a pretext to attack Syria, and Turkey, the only NATO member to border the country, has always been the pretext which would be employed to justify military action against the Arab nation.
Last Friday's incident and the NATO meeting following it signal the fourth act in a tragedy that the world community has precious little time to stop.
===================== ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==
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.
-
U.S. Expanding Bases To Contain China
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:47 am (PDT)
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_ 06_26/79350701/
Voice of Russia
June 26, 2012
US tosses new challenge to China in Asia
Konstantin Garibov
Thailand is soon likely to be on the list of the Asia-Pacific countries where US troops will be based on a permanent basis.
Right now, the Pentagon is mulling its return to the U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield which was a military base for the USAF B-52 bombers during the Vietnam War in the early 1970s to launch airstrikes on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Located 40 kilometers from the Thai resort of Pattaya, U-Tapao also serves as an international civil airport which mainly receives tourist charter flights from Russia, the CIS countries and those of Eastern and Western Europe. Speaking at a regional security conference in Singapore earlier this month, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that NASA was weighing the use of U-Tapao as its basic airfield which would help implement its regional meteorological program. Panetta also said that the US would shift 60 percent of its naval forces to Pacific ports, a move that commentators say is designed to contain China’s growing military clout.
It is clear that conducting atmospheric studies will hardly be the only goal of the US base in U-Tapao. Speaking on condition of anonymity earlier this month, a spokesman for the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters said that Bangkok is concerned over China’s reaction to the possible use of U-Tapao airfield by the United States which Beijing fears may be used for collecting intelligence information.
These concerns seem well-grounded given that there is already a small-sized US company in U-Tapao which deals with refueling US planes and ships which transport US servicemen and military supplies to Afghanistan and Iraq. Speculation is also rife that U-Tapao’s US sector was used by stealth aircraft to transport foreign terrorism suspects to the United States and its Guantanamo base in Cuba.
Washington wants Bangkok to help it implement a program on aerial surveillance of the transportation of trade and military cargos en route from the Middle East to the Pacific Ocean. This is the main maritime transportation artery that China uses to develop its trade relations with many Asian and African countries, says Andrei Volodin of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy.
"The United States is dismayed about China’s ever-increasing geo-economic might which may well be transformed into military and political clout," Volodin says. "This is why Washington is trying to resuscitate its Cold War-era dominance in the Pacific, something that is designed to contain China. By doing so, the United States hopes to implement its strategy on containing communism on the whole," Volodin says.
In a bid to expand its Pacific clout, the United States is also considering its return to the Cam Ranh Air Base in Vietnam and the Subic Bay Air Base in the Philippines. Experts say that US troops returning there is just a matter of time. Washington’s policy on building up its military presence in Asia is already bringing its first results, something that analysts say is almost certain to prod China to respond in kind. Given many regional countries’ dependence on China, Beijing will try to prevent these countries from cooperating with Washington, pundits say, referring to China’s drive to uphold its strategic interests.
