Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Saturday 8 September 2012


8 New Messages

Digest #4484

Messages

Fri Sep 7, 2012 6:00 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff

http://rt.com/politics/missile-defense-asia-concerns-577/

RT
September 7, 2012

Moscow to react to US Asian missile defense

Russia has expressed its concern over American plans to deploy a new missile defense shield in Southeast Asia.

"The continuing growth of the US potential in what we call the Far East – the Asia-Pacific region – does not go unnoticed in Russia," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said at a nonproliferation conference in Moscow. “We are closely following what is happening between the USA and its allies in Asia.”

According to the diplomat, “important events” are unfolding in the region and “a lot has already been achieved,” cites Interfax.

Moscow’s concerns about the situation arise from the technology involved, as well as the “geography and the US capability to deploy these assets in different locations.”

It is important that Washington eases these concerns. Otherwise, “there is a set of measures worked out by the Russian leadership,” Ryabkov noted.

Earlier, it was reported that Washington was planning to expand its missile defense in Asia in response to threats from North Korea and to counter China’s growing missile capabilities.

The buildup could include an early-warning radar system on a southern Japanese island and possibly another one in Southeast Asia. These two new radars would supplement the one already installed in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan in 2006.

The US global missile defense shield – in particular its European sector – has long been a stumbling block in the relations between Moscow and Washington. Russia worries that the planned system may pose a threat to its national security. The US has so far refused to provide legally-binding guarantees that the European missile defense assets would not be targeted against Russia.

“The US missile defense system – is surely one of the key issues on today’s agenda because it involves Russia’s vital interests,” President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with RT.

The differences on the issue can only be solved if both sides accept as an axiom that they are “reliable partners and allies for each other.” That would mean the parties “jointly do missile threat assessments and control this defense system together,” Putin said.

The president stressed that Russia had done what it could and offered to work on the system together. However, the American partners are “refusing to go along.” Moscow is set to continue the dialogue on the matter, he stressed.

“But naturally, as our American partners proceed with developing their own missile defense we shall have to think of how we can defend ourselves and preserve the strategic balance,” Putin added.

In November last year, then-President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia could place offensive weaponry on its borders with Europe as one possible measure against the deployment of American elements of missile defense shield in the region.
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Fri Sep 7, 2012 6:01 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff

http://rt.com/news/germany-us-nukes-upgrade-519/

RT
September 7, 2012

US nukes to stay in Germany – media

Berlin has decided to drop plans to remove remaining American nuclear weapons from German soil, local media say. The bombs and the German aircraft that can deploy them will be instead upgraded.

The plans would go against the promises Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle made in 2009, when the coalition government was being formed, the report in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper says. At the time he pledged to seek the removal of the nuclear stockpile from Germany.

Germany is one of the European NATO members hosting US nuclear weapons as part of the nuclear sharing agreement. It is thought to have between 10 and 20 B61 nuclear bombs stored at the Büchel Air Base. They are a fraction of some 200 American nuclear weapons that were deployed in the country in the Cold War era.

The bombs are meant to be dropped by German Panavia Tornado IDS fighter-bomber jets in case of war. The Bundeswehr is expected to spend around 250 million euro to keep the fleet in service until 2024, the report says.

The bombs themselves are currently undergoing a multibillion refurbishment program. Initially priced at $2 billion, the upgrade is expected to be closer to $6 billion, Spiegel reported online in May. The Pentagon wants to replace the four existing modifications of B61 with a single new one.

One of the key features of the new version is a new tail kit with controllable flaps, which would dramatically increase the bomb's precision and options for use. Currently the bombs are meant to be parachuted from a speeding aircraft. The change would make the bomb a strategic weapon instead of a tactical one, some military experts say.

The German government gave up plans to get rid of the stockpile at the NATO summit in Chicago in May, the Berliner Zeitung newspaper reported.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Westerwelle both assented to a joint declaration, which among other things stated that tactical nuclear weapons were a crucial component of the alliance’s capabilities and that the current deployment of the arsenal corresponds to NATO’s deterrence goals.

The move reportedly was taken under pressure from other NATO members concerned with Russia’s stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons and unwilling to give up their arsenals unilaterally.

Russian generals see the nuclear tactical weapons as part of deterrence against possible conventional attack. NATO currently has overwhelming conventional capabilities, while Russia has downsized its non-nuclear armed forces and sees them as a tool to address possible regional conflict rather than a defense against a full-scale war.
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Fri Sep 7, 2012 11:20 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff

http://en.trend.az/news/politics/2063040.html

Trend News Agency
September 7, 2012

Azerbaijani President receives NATO Secretary General

Baku: President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has today received a NATO delegation led by Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

The Azerbaijani leader said the NATO Secretary General`s visit would be fruitful in terms of discussing the current state of and prospects for cooperation between the country and the organization.

President Ilham Aliyev praised Azerbaijan-NATO relations, saying they were developing successfully on different fronts.

The head of state recalled his last visit to NATO headquarters and his meetings with representatives of the diplomatic corps, as well as his New York visit when Azerbaijan chaired the UN Security Council, and his participation in the NATO`s Chicago Summit. He stressed the importance of the discussions held during the visits.

President Ilham Aliyev emphasized Azerbaijan`s contribution to NATO`s peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, as well as its role as a transit country for the transit of goods to Afghanistan, and the Azerbaijan`s successful cooperation within the Partnership for Peace programme.

The head of State reaffirmed Azerbaijan would continue its contribution to the cooperatson with NATO.

...

The NATO Secretary General praised development processes in Azerbaijan, and the country`s growing influence on the international scene.

He hailed Azerbaijan`s contribution - both direct and through transit - to the Afghan peacekeeping mission.

The Azerbaijani leader and the NATO Secretary General exchanged views over a wide range of other issues of mutual interest, including regional security and stability, and energy cooperation.

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Fri Sep 7, 2012 11:20 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2012/09/07/trial-over-human-organs-business-in-kosovo.html

Strategic Culture Foundation
September 7, 2012

Trial over Human Organs Business in Kosovo
Pyotr Iskenerov

====

Evidence in the case being absolutely convincing, chances are still slim that the trial held in Pristina and supervised by the EU would help Serbia or Kosovo Serbs some day see justice prevail. The likelier outcome is that, as when the International Court of Justice rolled out an advisory opinion on the unilateral proclamation of Kosovo's independence, the verdict resulting from the trial underway in Kosovo will exemplify the deep crisis into which the architects of the new world order have thrown the system of international law as a whole.

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Dick Marty who, as the PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] special rapporteur, submitted in late 2010 an explosive report on the grisly crimes committed by Kosovo separatists, spoke for the fist time in Pristina at the trial unfolding over illicit human organ business in the province. The scope of the inquiry, which opened in the summer of 2011, so far remains confined to the Medicus clinic which was shut down in 2008 after the EU and a number of international organizations became aware of kidney extractions secretly performed at the facility. Crucially in the context, Dick Marty says there are serious reasons to believe that the illicit human organ business in Kosovo was at full swing already in the late 1990s, much earlier than the information surfaced and the scandal erupted.

Evidence in the case being absolutely convincing, chances are still slim that the trial held in Pristina and supervised by the EU would help Serbia or Kosovo Serbs some day see justice prevail. The likelier outcome is that, as when the International Court of Justice rolled out an advisory opinion on the unilateral proclamation of Kosovo's independence, the verdict resulting from the trial underway in Kosovo will exemplify the deep crisis into which the architects of the new world order have thrown the system of international law as a whole. In today's world, national interests can only be protected with the backing from powerful international blocs, and, in this regard, Serbia's only reasonable option is strategic partnership with Russia.

Marty's report was the first internationally accepted document to shed light on the atrocities perpetrated by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the breakaway province. The document contained revelations about forced extractions from people held by the KLA - mostly ethnic Serbs - for illicit sale in Europe. According to Marty, in a makeshift clinic in the town of Fushe-Kruje, near the Albanian capital, some are said to have been killed and their organs removed to be sold on the international market. “As and when transplant surgeons were confirmed to be in position and ready to operate, the captives were brought out of the 'safe house' individually, summarily executed by a KLA gunman, and their corpses transported swiftly to the operating clinic”.

Carla del Ponte's accounts identify the locale used for the human organs extractions as a “yellow house” near Burrel, in the northern part of Albania. Neither Marty nor del Ponte managed to tease out of the Albanian administration consent for the necessary on-site investigations. Albanian premier Sali Berisha expressed the curious view that Marty's investigation was "completely racist and defamatory” and Albanian parliamentarian and delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Shpetim Idrisi somehow traced the Swiss lawyer's findings to Serbia and Russia. Eulex [European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo] representatives who oversee the probe tend to cast their skepticism in a more cautious form. “There is no evidence whatsoever in this case...No bodies. No witnesses", said head of the war crimes unit of the mission Matti Raatikainen.

The problem is that the lack of evidence is due to the Western countries' and international groups' reluctance to seriously unearth the facts. Under the conditions, the Albanian and Kosovo administrations have no difficulty declining to cooperate in the investigation, and the EU mission to Kosovo chose to simply ignore the storyline involving the Serbs' plight and to focus narrowly on the Medicus clinic, asserting that the case was limited to donors being deceived and surgeries performed without licenses, as if hundreds of Serbs were not held in captivity and mowed down.

The crimes that did come into the probe's spotlight are still gross and punishable offenses, but it is also clear that the extremely diluted version of the drama serves to insulate from criticism the wider Kosovo independence project and to shield Hashim Thaci and other key figures involved from due inquiries.

Carla del Ponte's statements like “NATO and UNMIK did not allow us to access important documents on Kosovo, while Albania did not let us enter its territory” cannot be taken at face value. As the Hague Tribunal persecutor she – and the powers behind her - surely had the leverage it would have taken to expand the investigation and to piece together the entire picture with all the finishing touches.

Big politics factored into the situation at all phases, and now justice only hangs over a crew of minor players like an Israeli go-between, a Turkish surgeon, a Kosovo urologist, and another fellow – a ministerial clerk – from the province. The individuals actually implicated in the framework generated by Marty's report continue to be at the top of the political hierarchy, and Belgrade should steer its own course cleverly, mindful of what has happened to Serbs in Kosovo.

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Fri Sep 7, 2012 11:20 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff

http://en.trend.az/regions/scaucasus/georgia/2063010.html

Trend News Agency
September 7, 2012

Georgian Ambassador: U.S. Congress to consider another resolution in support of Georgia
N. Kirtzkhalia

Tbilisi: The U.S. Congress is to consider another resolution on Georgia.

Presumably it will happen in mid-September, Georgian ambassador to the U.S. Temur Yakobashvili said.

"It is important that Congress will pass a resolution which is associated with Georgia and Georgian-American relations and de-occupation. Resolution has been introduced and approved by the Committee on Foreign Relations," Yakobashvili said.

The resolution will support democratic changes in the country and it will call for Russia to respect Georgia's territorial integrity and to withdraw its troops from the occupied territories, the ambassador said.

Military actions were launched in the Georgian territory, South Ossetia on Aug.8 in 2008. Later the Russian troops occupied the city of Tskhinvali and drove the Georgian military back. Russia recognised the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in late August. In response, Tbilisi broke off diplomatic relations with Moscow and announced the two unrecognised republics as occupied territories.
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Fri Sep 7, 2012 11:20 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff

http://en.trend.az/regions/met/arabicr/2062696.html

Trend News Agency
September 7, 2012

US sends more spies, diplomats to Turkish-Syrian border


The US is beefing up its presence along the Syrian border with Turkey, Today`s Zaman reported

US officials say they are sending more intelligence agents and diplomats to advise the rebel forces in their mismatched fight against the better-armed Syrian regime...

The officials say intelligence officers are gathering information from refugees and defectors, while State Department workers are helping the rebels organize politically. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the plans publicly.

The increased intelligence is intended to help the White House decide if its current policy of providing only non-lethal aid is enough to keep momentum building in the nearly 18-month revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
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Fri Sep 7, 2012 11:21 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"Nazar" muratoglunazar

Turkish officers take command of Syrian rebel brigades. N. Israel on alert
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 6, 2012

Tags: Turkey Syrian rebels Hizballah Israel David Petraeus
Syrian rebels under Turkish command

Turkish army officers have assumed direct command of the first two Syrian rebel brigades fighting Bashar Assad's government forces, according to debkafile's exclusive sources. This step has sent military tensions rocketing on Israel's northern borders with Syria and Lebanon in case of a backlash.
The rebel North Liberators Brigade in the Idlib region of northern Syria and the Tawhid Brigade fighting in the Al-Bab area northeast of Aleppo are now taking their operational orders from Turkish officers, who exercise their authority from headquarters outside Syria in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep. Nonetheless, Turkey is considered to have stepped directly into the Syrian conflict marking the onset of foreign intervention.
Western and Arab military circles in the Middle East expect Turkey to extend its command to additional rebel units – not all of them part of the Free Syrian Army.
This first step has already caused waves.

1. The consequences of Turkish military action in Syria were urgently aired with CIA Director David Petraeus when he arrived in Ankara Monday, Sept. 3, debkafile's intelligence sources reveal. After hearing how and when Ankara proposed to expand its role in the Syrian conflict, Petraeus discussed with Turkish military and intelligence chiefs the likely Syrian, Iranian and Hizballah responses.
He then flew to Israel to continue the discussion there.

2. By then, US, Turkish and Israeli intelligence watchers were reporting unusual military movements in Syria and on Hizballah turf in southern Lebanon – suspected of being preparations for a blowback from the Turkish intervention in Syria.
3. The IDF countered by placing its units guarding the Syrian and Lebanese borders on a state of alert. Wednesday, Sept. 5, an Iron Dome battery was installed in Gush Dan to head off a potential Hizballah missile barrage on central Israel and its hub, Tel Aviv.

4. Later that day, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan commented: "The regime in Syria has now become a terrorist state."

Only a few of Erdogan's listeners understood he was laying international legal grounding for expanding Turkish military intervention in Syria.

debkafile's military sources report that Thursday, Sept. 6, military temperatures remained high-to-feverish along Syria's borders with Turkey and Israel, and along Lebanon's borders with Syria and Israel.

Fri Sep 7, 2012 7:42 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff

http://www.presstv.com/usdetail/260341.html

Press TV
September 7, 2012

‘Global US drone warfare sees dangerous expansion’

Audio at URL above

The recent spate of U.S. drone attacks inside Yemen signals a deadly expansion of drone warfare around the world by the U.S., says Rick Rozoff, manager of the organization Stop NATO in Chicago.

“The steady and brutal and ruthless escalation of these attacks in Yemen should sound an alarm to the world. The world has to demand an immediate end to these illegal, immoral and deadly attacks,” Rozoff said by phone on Thursday.

Hundreds of Yemenis including youth activists on Monday, September 3, rallied in the southeastern province of Hadramout against U.S. drone strikes in the country, demanding the government take action to halt the killing of civilians in botched air raids, witnesses told Xinhua.

The protesters staged a massive demonstration in Hadramout, chanting slogans and displaying placards with anti-U.S. statements to protest U.S. drone strikes in the country.

Four prominent tribal leaders also joined the demonstration, shouting "No for killing innocent people" and "End alliance with the U.S. government," witnesses added.

On Sunday, September 2, a U.S. drone strike against al-Qaeda members in central Yemen mistakenly killed at least 13 civilians, a provincial police official said. A total of 29 people dead in 8 days has put the U.S. drone war in Yemen in overdrive.