3 New Messages
Digest #4439
Messages
Sun Jul 22, 2012 8:19 pm (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://english.
Voice of Russia
July 22, 2012
US attempting to pull former Soviet allies in NATO - interview
John Robles
Audio at URL above
In the second part of an interview with the Voice of Russia, NATO expert Rick Rozoff outlines U.S. plans to bring former Soviet Republics and allies into the alliance’s sphere of influence and away from Russia, isolating Russia and China, and eventually surrounding them with NATO member countries. Mr. Rozoff also speaks of U.S. plans to stay in Afghanistan
This is John Robles, you are listening to an interview with Mr. Rick Rozoff – the manager of the Stop NATO website and mailing list, and a contributing writer to www.globalresearch.
An article appeared in one of the major newspapers - I’ve heard it referred to as the major newspaper - in Slovenia a couple of weeks ago that stated that the largest and worst mistake made by the government of Slovenia was joining NATO That what that has entailed is, far from defending the territory of NATO’s member states, that it is simply waging wars worldwide. That was followed very shortly thereafter, a couple of days ago, by the head of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro, the Metropolitan, who made a similar statement. He said the NATO should break up, that it is guilty of waging aggression upon people throughout the world.
So, I think what you are starting to see even in Southeast Europe and perhaps other nations that have been dragooned into NATO without first thoroughly explaining to the population what NATO membership entails. And what it entails in the case of countries like Slovenia and Montenegro is sending their sons and daughters off to some endless and useless war like that in Afghanistan. And what is happening in Pakistan is not dissimilar to that. It is a case where if a government, if a regime, accommodates NATO demands, they are violating the trust and undermining the wellbeing of their own nation and their own people, and this is in fact what is going on in Pakistan.
We heard a statement by Hilary Clinton before that supply route was opened.
Yes, I haven’t read the complete text by Hilary Clinton but I'll bet anything the substance of it was that she regrets the unfortunate incident, or words to that effect, that occurred in Salala where 24 Pakistani military personnel were killed last November. But certainly something short of acknowledging that the U.S. had committed a crime. We have to recall that wasn’t too long of Hillary Clinton made a tour to Central Asia where she went to, I believe, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. And shortly thereafter, as your listeners know, Uzbekistan suspended its participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Armenia.
So, it appears that the State Department has succeeded once again in pulling a country out of an organization of which Russia is a member and through which, that organization, the country, Uzbekistan, was allied with Russia, to separate it from Russia - and China - and to pull it into the US orbit. After Clinton left Paris on July 6 we know she went to Afghanistan where she proclaimed Afghanistan a major non-NATO ally of the United States, meaning they get preferential arrangements with weapons and so forth. But identifying Afghanistan then as a strategic American military ally indefinitely. So, that hardly suggests the U.S. intends to leave the area.
But I think even more significant than that was after having left Afghanistan and gone for a one-day conference on Afghanistan to Japan, that she then went to Mongolia, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. And if your listeners are as old as me, or older, they recall that all four of those countries were political allies of the Soviet Union during the Cold War period, Mongolia going back since almost to the formation of the Soviet Union, but in the case of Vietnam - unified Vietnam - and Laos from 1975, and Cambodia after the overthrow of the pro-Chinese Khmer Rouge in 1979.
So, if we need any further evidence that the U.S., far from having ended the Cold War, it is simply consummating its victory of 20-some years ago by moving into territory that is geographically close, in many cases, as in Laos and Vietnam, bordering China, and in the case of Mongolia bordering both Russia and China. And recruiting not only political and economic, but ultimately military, allies throughout the world, but more particularly now in Eurasia and in the backyard of Russia and China. Central Asia fits into that pattern. If the five former Soviet Central Asian republics are increasingly integrated into the U.S. sphere of influence, then this essentially isolates Russia and China in Eurasia.
Hilary Clinton said that the US had never planned to leave Afghanistan.
You know, the U.S.’s cards are truly not on the table when it comes to Afghanistan. I heard the same statement and it is remarkable because a few years ago, perhaps when she first became Secretary of State, about that time, she made what on the surface was one of the more candid statements I’ve heard by any U.S. official about the genesis of the crisis in Afghanistan. Acknowledging in so many words that it was the U.S. support for the so-called Mujahidin forces in, operating out of northwest Pakistan, from the late 70ss through to 1992, that was really the basis for all the disorganization and the conflict that has occurred in Afghanistan since then. She made that statement maybe three or four years ago.
But, she then mouthed the conventional American wisdom on the subject, saying our mistake – I’m paraphrasing her – our mistake was then to have pulled out and left the country to internecine fighting between the U.S.’s former Mujahidin allies, and in fact that occurred as we know after 1992 when they were rocketing parts of the capital of Kabul in rivalry amongst each other. And subsequent to that by four years the Taliban marches in and takes control of the country. So, what Clinton’s most recent statement at the donor’s conference, or the Conference on Afghanistan in Japan, seems to be simply a reiteration of that – we won’t make the same mistake. If we overthrow a government in Afghanistan and allow our clients to take over we will this time stay there and support them, is how I read that.
Moving on to Syria. A Syrian general, Major General Adnan Salo, he was the former Head of the Chemical Weapons Unit of the Syrian Army, he’s made public statements calling for NATO intervention, although he says limited military intervention is needed. He said that they need two air strikes on the presidential palace to get rid of Assad. Do you think this is going to happen?
I sincerely hope it doesn’t. And I similarly hope that this is simply bravado. But it could be, too, a trial balloon to see what the world’s reaction is to inflammatory statements of this sort. The idea that you bomb the presidential palace in the name of protecting civilians or humanitarian concerns and so forth shows you just how far down the road to barbarism the world has evolved over the past twenty years. It won’t be the first time that’s happened of course; efforts to bomb the presidential palace in Yugoslavia in 1999. And apparently anything is fair game at this point.
============
Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine:
http://groups.
Stop NATO website and articles:
http://rickrozoff.
To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status:
stopnato-subscribe@
============
Voice of Russia
July 22, 2012
US attempting to pull former Soviet allies in NATO - interview
John Robles
Audio at URL above
In the second part of an interview with the Voice of Russia, NATO expert Rick Rozoff outlines U.S. plans to bring former Soviet Republics and allies into the alliance’s sphere of influence and away from Russia, isolating Russia and China, and eventually surrounding them with NATO member countries. Mr. Rozoff also speaks of U.S. plans to stay in Afghanistan
This is John Robles, you are listening to an interview with Mr. Rick Rozoff – the manager of the Stop NATO website and mailing list, and a contributing writer to www.globalresearch.
An article appeared in one of the major newspapers - I’ve heard it referred to as the major newspaper - in Slovenia a couple of weeks ago that stated that the largest and worst mistake made by the government of Slovenia was joining NATO That what that has entailed is, far from defending the territory of NATO’s member states, that it is simply waging wars worldwide. That was followed very shortly thereafter, a couple of days ago, by the head of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro, the Metropolitan, who made a similar statement. He said the NATO should break up, that it is guilty of waging aggression upon people throughout the world.
So, I think what you are starting to see even in Southeast Europe and perhaps other nations that have been dragooned into NATO without first thoroughly explaining to the population what NATO membership entails. And what it entails in the case of countries like Slovenia and Montenegro is sending their sons and daughters off to some endless and useless war like that in Afghanistan. And what is happening in Pakistan is not dissimilar to that. It is a case where if a government, if a regime, accommodates NATO demands, they are violating the trust and undermining the wellbeing of their own nation and their own people, and this is in fact what is going on in Pakistan.
We heard a statement by Hilary Clinton before that supply route was opened.
Yes, I haven’t read the complete text by Hilary Clinton but I'll bet anything the substance of it was that she regrets the unfortunate incident, or words to that effect, that occurred in Salala where 24 Pakistani military personnel were killed last November. But certainly something short of acknowledging that the U.S. had committed a crime. We have to recall that wasn’t too long of Hillary Clinton made a tour to Central Asia where she went to, I believe, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. And shortly thereafter, as your listeners know, Uzbekistan suspended its participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Armenia.
So, it appears that the State Department has succeeded once again in pulling a country out of an organization of which Russia is a member and through which, that organization, the country, Uzbekistan, was allied with Russia, to separate it from Russia - and China - and to pull it into the US orbit. After Clinton left Paris on July 6 we know she went to Afghanistan where she proclaimed Afghanistan a major non-NATO ally of the United States, meaning they get preferential arrangements with weapons and so forth. But identifying Afghanistan then as a strategic American military ally indefinitely. So, that hardly suggests the U.S. intends to leave the area.
But I think even more significant than that was after having left Afghanistan and gone for a one-day conference on Afghanistan to Japan, that she then went to Mongolia, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. And if your listeners are as old as me, or older, they recall that all four of those countries were political allies of the Soviet Union during the Cold War period, Mongolia going back since almost to the formation of the Soviet Union, but in the case of Vietnam - unified Vietnam - and Laos from 1975, and Cambodia after the overthrow of the pro-Chinese Khmer Rouge in 1979.
So, if we need any further evidence that the U.S., far from having ended the Cold War, it is simply consummating its victory of 20-some years ago by moving into territory that is geographically close, in many cases, as in Laos and Vietnam, bordering China, and in the case of Mongolia bordering both Russia and China. And recruiting not only political and economic, but ultimately military, allies throughout the world, but more particularly now in Eurasia and in the backyard of Russia and China. Central Asia fits into that pattern. If the five former Soviet Central Asian republics are increasingly integrated into the U.S. sphere of influence, then this essentially isolates Russia and China in Eurasia.
Hilary Clinton said that the US had never planned to leave Afghanistan.
You know, the U.S.’s cards are truly not on the table when it comes to Afghanistan. I heard the same statement and it is remarkable because a few years ago, perhaps when she first became Secretary of State, about that time, she made what on the surface was one of the more candid statements I’ve heard by any U.S. official about the genesis of the crisis in Afghanistan. Acknowledging in so many words that it was the U.S. support for the so-called Mujahidin forces in, operating out of northwest Pakistan, from the late 70ss through to 1992, that was really the basis for all the disorganization and the conflict that has occurred in Afghanistan since then. She made that statement maybe three or four years ago.
But, she then mouthed the conventional American wisdom on the subject, saying our mistake – I’m paraphrasing her – our mistake was then to have pulled out and left the country to internecine fighting between the U.S.’s former Mujahidin allies, and in fact that occurred as we know after 1992 when they were rocketing parts of the capital of Kabul in rivalry amongst each other. And subsequent to that by four years the Taliban marches in and takes control of the country. So, what Clinton’s most recent statement at the donor’s conference, or the Conference on Afghanistan in Japan, seems to be simply a reiteration of that – we won’t make the same mistake. If we overthrow a government in Afghanistan and allow our clients to take over we will this time stay there and support them, is how I read that.
Moving on to Syria. A Syrian general, Major General Adnan Salo, he was the former Head of the Chemical Weapons Unit of the Syrian Army, he’s made public statements calling for NATO intervention, although he says limited military intervention is needed. He said that they need two air strikes on the presidential palace to get rid of Assad. Do you think this is going to happen?
I sincerely hope it doesn’t. And I similarly hope that this is simply bravado. But it could be, too, a trial balloon to see what the world’s reaction is to inflammatory statements of this sort. The idea that you bomb the presidential palace in the name of protecting civilians or humanitarian concerns and so forth shows you just how far down the road to barbarism the world has evolved over the past twenty years. It won’t be the first time that’s happened of course; efforts to bomb the presidential palace in Yugoslavia in 1999. And apparently anything is fair game at this point.
============
Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine:
http://groups.
Stop NATO website and articles:
http://rickrozoff.
To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status:
stopnato-subscribe@
============
Sun Jul 22, 2012 8:19 pm (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://en.rian.
Russian Information Agency Novosti
July 23, 2012
U.S. F-16 Fighter Crashes in Pacific near Kuril Islands
PETROPAVLOVSK-
“The Kamchatsky territorial naval rescue center reported at 8:30 p.m. local time [8:30 a.m. GMT] that an aircraft was in distress over the Pacific Ocean near northern Kurils,” the spokesman said.
It turned out later, he said, that the aircraft was a U.S. Air Force F-16 Falcon fighter.
“The pilot ejected before the crash and was later rescued by a Japanese vessel, the Hokko Maru,” he added.
F-16.net website reported that the jet belonged to the 35th Fighter Wing and was en route from Misawa air base in Japan to Alaska, when it crashed some 200 miles North-East of Japan’s Hokkaido.
============
Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine:
http://groups.
Stop NATO website and articles:
http://rickrozoff.
To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status:
stopnato-subscribe@
============
Russian Information Agency Novosti
July 23, 2012
U.S. F-16 Fighter Crashes in Pacific near Kuril Islands
PETROPAVLOVSK-
“The Kamchatsky territorial naval rescue center reported at 8:30 p.m. local time [8:30 a.m. GMT] that an aircraft was in distress over the Pacific Ocean near northern Kurils,” the spokesman said.
It turned out later, he said, that the aircraft was a U.S. Air Force F-16 Falcon fighter.
“The pilot ejected before the crash and was later rescued by a Japanese vessel, the Hokko Maru,” he added.
F-16.net website reported that the jet belonged to the 35th Fighter Wing and was en route from Misawa air base in Japan to Alaska, when it crashed some 200 miles North-East of Japan’s Hokkaido.
============
Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine:
http://groups.
Stop NATO website and articles:
http://rickrozoff.
To subscribe for individual e-mails or the daily digest, unsubscribe, and otherwise change subscription status:
stopnato-subscribe@
============
Sun Jul 22, 2012 8:29 pm (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://uk.reuters.
Reuters
July 22, 2012
Eight killed in deadly 24 hours for NATO in Afghanistan
By Amie Ferris-Rotman
HERAT: A gunman wearing an Afghan uniform turned his weapon against foreign trainers working for NATO in the western province of Herat on Sunday, killing three, in a grim 24 hours for the coalition which also saw five NATO soldiers killed.
The latest rogue shooting by an Afghan in a police or army uniform happened at a regional training centre in the relatively peaceful western province near Afghanistan'
"An individual wearing an Afghan National Security Force uniform turned his weapon against ISAF contracted civilian employees in western Afghanistan today, killing three," a spokesman for the NATO-led coalition said, adding that an unknown number of other people had been wounded.
"Also, one insurgent was killed in the engagement and we are still looking for one more shooter," he said.
Early Afghan media reports, which could not immediately be confirmed by Reuters, said the three dead contractors were all American citizens. Some reports put the death toll at four.
Four foreign soldiers were killed earlier on Sunday by improvised bombs in two incidents in the east and south, while another was killed in an insurgent attack in the volatile east late on Saturday.
So-called green on blue shootings, in which Afghan police or soldiers turn their guns on their Western mentors, have seriously eroded trust between the allies as NATO combat soldiers prepare to handover to Afghan forces by 2014, after which most foreign forces will leave the country.
GREEN ON BLUE SHOOTINGS
According to NATO, there have been 20 green on blue attacks on foreign troops since January in which 27 people have been killed. Last year, there were 21 attacks in which 35 people were killed.
The latest attack is not technically considered to be the 21st green on blue attack this year as the victims were all contractors.
NATO commanders have downplayed most episodes as the work of disgruntled Afghan soldiers, rather than as evidence of Taliban infiltration of the security forces.
Earlier this month, an Afghan policeman opened fire on British soldiers in Helmand province, killing three in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
The latest attack happened at Camp Zafar, one of two camps where Afghan forces are trained, located eight kilometres (4.9 miles) south of the main NATO base in the province.
Camp Arena, the main Italian base near Herat City, the provincial headquarters, was locked down after the shooting while the search for the rogue shooter was conducted. The base is home to 2,000 Italian soldiers and 400 Spanish troops.
Agha Saqeb, the Herat police chief, told Reuters by telephone that the shooter, thought to have been in a police uniform, was from neighbouring Badghis province.
"He killed at least two foreign trainers at the police training centre. An Afghan interpreter was also injured in the attack," Saqeb said.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its fiercest since U.S.-led Afghan troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001. Insurgents have extended their reach from traditional strongholds in southern and eastern areas to parts of the country once considered relatively safe.
In a separate incident, the Taliban executed five Afghan civilians kidnapped on Saturday who worked for NATO in Wardak province, close to the capital Kabul, a statement from the provincial governor given to Afghanistan'
A sixth prisoner reportedly escaped to raise the alarm.
The bodies were found booby-trapped with explosives meant to kill or maim searchers, the statement said.
The killings followed the public execution of a woman several weeks ago for adultery, an act that prompted international outrage and led President Hamid Karzai to admit his government had been unable to deliver effective justice for many Afghans.
(Additional reporting by Rob Taylor in Kabul; Writing by Rob Taylor; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Reuters
July 22, 2012
Eight killed in deadly 24 hours for NATO in Afghanistan
By Amie Ferris-Rotman
HERAT: A gunman wearing an Afghan uniform turned his weapon against foreign trainers working for NATO in the western province of Herat on Sunday, killing three, in a grim 24 hours for the coalition which also saw five NATO soldiers killed.
The latest rogue shooting by an Afghan in a police or army uniform happened at a regional training centre in the relatively peaceful western province near Afghanistan'
"An individual wearing an Afghan National Security Force uniform turned his weapon against ISAF contracted civilian employees in western Afghanistan today, killing three," a spokesman for the NATO-led coalition said, adding that an unknown number of other people had been wounded.
"Also, one insurgent was killed in the engagement and we are still looking for one more shooter," he said.
Early Afghan media reports, which could not immediately be confirmed by Reuters, said the three dead contractors were all American citizens. Some reports put the death toll at four.
Four foreign soldiers were killed earlier on Sunday by improvised bombs in two incidents in the east and south, while another was killed in an insurgent attack in the volatile east late on Saturday.
So-called green on blue shootings, in which Afghan police or soldiers turn their guns on their Western mentors, have seriously eroded trust between the allies as NATO combat soldiers prepare to handover to Afghan forces by 2014, after which most foreign forces will leave the country.
GREEN ON BLUE SHOOTINGS
According to NATO, there have been 20 green on blue attacks on foreign troops since January in which 27 people have been killed. Last year, there were 21 attacks in which 35 people were killed.
The latest attack is not technically considered to be the 21st green on blue attack this year as the victims were all contractors.
NATO commanders have downplayed most episodes as the work of disgruntled Afghan soldiers, rather than as evidence of Taliban infiltration of the security forces.
Earlier this month, an Afghan policeman opened fire on British soldiers in Helmand province, killing three in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
The latest attack happened at Camp Zafar, one of two camps where Afghan forces are trained, located eight kilometres (4.9 miles) south of the main NATO base in the province.
Camp Arena, the main Italian base near Herat City, the provincial headquarters, was locked down after the shooting while the search for the rogue shooter was conducted. The base is home to 2,000 Italian soldiers and 400 Spanish troops.
Agha Saqeb, the Herat police chief, told Reuters by telephone that the shooter, thought to have been in a police uniform, was from neighbouring Badghis province.
"He killed at least two foreign trainers at the police training centre. An Afghan interpreter was also injured in the attack," Saqeb said.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its fiercest since U.S.-led Afghan troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001. Insurgents have extended their reach from traditional strongholds in southern and eastern areas to parts of the country once considered relatively safe.
In a separate incident, the Taliban executed five Afghan civilians kidnapped on Saturday who worked for NATO in Wardak province, close to the capital Kabul, a statement from the provincial governor given to Afghanistan'
A sixth prisoner reportedly escaped to raise the alarm.
The bodies were found booby-trapped with explosives meant to kill or maim searchers, the statement said.
The killings followed the public execution of a woman several weeks ago for adultery, an act that prompted international outrage and led President Hamid Karzai to admit his government had been unable to deliver effective justice for many Afghans.
(Additional reporting by Rob Taylor in Kabul; Writing by Rob Taylor; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
