3 New Messages
Digest #4635
Messages
Thu Feb 21, 2013 6:00 am (PST) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_02
Voice of Russia
February 21, 2013
US drones killed 4,700 people worldwide
“Sometimes you hit innocent people and I hate that.”
A US senator has estimated the total number of drone attack fatalities at 4,700 people, including civilians. As many have been murdered in America’s continuing secret bombing raids the world over.
This is the third time an American lawmaker speaks on the death toll of the US drone war.
“We have killed 4,700,” U.S. Republican senator Lindsey Graham acknowledged at a meeting in Easley in South Carolina on Wednesday.
“Sometimes you hit innocent people and I hate that,” he said, commenting on the use of drones by the United States.
The figure named by Sen. Graham matches the high end of a tally by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, who said the number killed in hundreds of drone strikes was between 3,072 and 4,756.
Those are the first estimates of the drone related loss of life openly cited by a U.S. official.
Washington has been using remote controlled unmanned aircraft in overseas operations since 2004.
Voice of Russia, Interfax
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Voice of Russia
February 21, 2013
US drones killed 4,700 people worldwide
“Sometimes you hit innocent people and I hate that.”
A US senator has estimated the total number of drone attack fatalities at 4,700 people, including civilians. As many have been murdered in America’s continuing secret bombing raids the world over.
This is the third time an American lawmaker speaks on the death toll of the US drone war.
“We have killed 4,700,” U.S. Republican senator Lindsey Graham acknowledged at a meeting in Easley in South Carolina on Wednesday.
“Sometimes you hit innocent people and I hate that,” he said, commenting on the use of drones by the United States.
The figure named by Sen. Graham matches the high end of a tally by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, who said the number killed in hundreds of drone strikes was between 3,072 and 4,756.
Those are the first estimates of the drone related loss of life openly cited by a U.S. official.
Washington has been using remote controlled unmanned aircraft in overseas operations since 2004.
Voice of Russia, Interfax
==============================
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==============================
Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:14 pm (PST) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
February 21, 2013
NATO Defence Ministers agree to expand exercises and multinational cooperation
NATO Defence Ministers agreed [on] concrete goals for more ambitious training and exercises to maintain the lessons of interoperability at their meeting in Brussels on 21 February.
“Over the last decade, in Afghanistan, Kosovo and other operations, our servicemen and -women have learned to work together more closely than ever before. The challenge we will face over the coming decade is to preserve and pass on those skills, as our biggest operation comes closer to completion,” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
“We will answer that challenge with what we call the Connected Forces Initiative: expanding our education and training, and enhancing our exercises,” he added.
As part of the initiative, ministers agreed that the Alliance should hold a major live exercise in 2015, and draw up a comprehensive programme of training and exercises for the period 2015-2020.
They also agreed that the NATO Response Force (NRF) will be at the core of the initiative. The NRF is the Alliance’s rapid-reaction corps, which is prepared and validated through an annual cycle of training and exercises.
“We will build on its exercises, to make sure each new group of forces is up to the task. And we will build on those exercises – for example, by including the battalion which the United States government has pledged to rotate through Europe for precisely this purpose, and by building in more contributions from other Allies and partners,” the Secretary General said.
“This will make the NATO Response Force a cooperation school, as well as a quick-reaction tool. An immediate resource, but also an investment in the future,” he said.
Ministers also discussed ways to make the Alliance’s defence planning and spending more efficient, more transparent and more responsive.
“That is largely a national responsibility. But NATO can help, by coordinating between nations”, Mr. Fogh Rasmussen said.
Ministers also agreed that the Alliance should do more with NATO common funding to support Alliance’s priorities.
==============================
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
Stop NATO website and articles:
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==============================
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
February 21, 2013
NATO Defence Ministers agree to expand exercises and multinational cooperation
NATO Defence Ministers agreed [on] concrete goals for more ambitious training and exercises to maintain the lessons of interoperability at their meeting in Brussels on 21 February.
“Over the last decade, in Afghanistan, Kosovo and other operations, our servicemen and -women have learned to work together more closely than ever before. The challenge we will face over the coming decade is to preserve and pass on those skills, as our biggest operation comes closer to completion,” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
“We will answer that challenge with what we call the Connected Forces Initiative: expanding our education and training, and enhancing our exercises,” he added.
As part of the initiative, ministers agreed that the Alliance should hold a major live exercise in 2015, and draw up a comprehensive programme of training and exercises for the period 2015-2020.
They also agreed that the NATO Response Force (NRF) will be at the core of the initiative. The NRF is the Alliance’s rapid-reaction corps, which is prepared and validated through an annual cycle of training and exercises.
“We will build on its exercises, to make sure each new group of forces is up to the task. And we will build on those exercises – for example, by including the battalion which the United States government has pledged to rotate through Europe for precisely this purpose, and by building in more contributions from other Allies and partners,” the Secretary General said.
“This will make the NATO Response Force a cooperation school, as well as a quick-reaction tool. An immediate resource, but also an investment in the future,” he said.
Ministers also discussed ways to make the Alliance’s defence planning and spending more efficient, more transparent and more responsive.
“That is largely a national responsibility. But NATO can help, by coordinating between nations”, Mr. Fogh Rasmussen said.
Ministers also agreed that the Alliance should do more with NATO common funding to support Alliance’s priorities.
==============================
Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
Stop NATO website and articles:
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.co
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stopnato-subscribe@yahoogroups
==============================
Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:28 pm (PST) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
February 21, 2013
NATO and Australia reinforce partnership with new cooperation programme
NATO and Australia reinforced their partnership and set out their priorities for future cooperation by signing an Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme (IPCP) on Thursday 21 February. This further enhances NATO's partnership with countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
“NATO and Australia are already strong partners. With this agreement, our partnership will become even stronger,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after he signed the IPCP with Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith.
The signature follows and complements the Joint Political Declaration between NATO and Australia which was signed by the Secretary General and Prime Minister Julia Gillard on 14 June 2012 in Canberra.
The Declaration, which was the first of its kind NATO signed with a partner nation, underlined the interest shared by NATO and Australia in forging a closer strategic partnership...
The IPCP takes that commitment forward and sets out in detail more areas for future cooperation.
Australia is one of the largest non-NATO contributors to the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. It has also committed to the follow-on mission to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces once ISAF is completed at the end of 2014 and has joined the process of planning that mission.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
February 21, 2013
NATO and Australia reinforce partnership with new cooperation programme
NATO and Australia reinforced their partnership and set out their priorities for future cooperation by signing an Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme (IPCP) on Thursday 21 February. This further enhances NATO's partnership with countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
“NATO and Australia are already strong partners. With this agreement, our partnership will become even stronger,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after he signed the IPCP with Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith.
The signature follows and complements the Joint Political Declaration between NATO and Australia which was signed by the Secretary General and Prime Minister Julia Gillard on 14 June 2012 in Canberra.
The Declaration, which was the first of its kind NATO signed with a partner nation, underlined the interest shared by NATO and Australia in forging a closer strategic partnership...
The IPCP takes that commitment forward and sets out in detail more areas for future cooperation.
Australia is one of the largest non-NATO contributors to the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. It has also committed to the follow-on mission to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces once ISAF is completed at the end of 2014 and has joined the process of planning that mission.
