3 New Messages
Digest #4817
Messages
Wed Sep 25, 2013 9:16 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://www.aco.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations/Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
September 25, 2013
Steadfast Pinnacle 13: The journey continues
Story by SHAPE Public Affairs Office
The second instalment of the two-week long Steadfast Pyramid & Pinnacle Exercise continued this week in Riga, Latvia. The candidates, a variety of Senior Leaders arriving from the NATO command Structure, NATO Force Structure and partner nations will make maximum use of the planning achieved during Exercise Pyramid. The aim is to allow the participants to hone their skills as commanders at the Operational/
In his welcoming remarks Mr Veiko Spolitis, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, Latvia, emphasized the importance of Steadfast Pinnacle 13, in that it not only shows a clear example that NATO is in the Baltics, but also underlines Latvia's commitment to supporting NATO. "Latvia will keep its promises while slightly increasing the defence expenditures next year to reach the 2 % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2020". "NATO, the strongest ally of democracy, builds trust among the nations"
General Sir Richard Shirreff, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR), thanked Latvia for hosting this event for the third time. He also welcomed the partner nations' (Australia, Austria, Finland and Sweden) who he believes "add further political strength to the 28-nation Alliance"
"Key leader training remains a strategic goal for NATO", he stated. Civilian expertise is a key ingredient of the comprehensive approach and he was happy that so many IO’s and NGO’s were represented. The Comprehensive Operational Planning Guidance, the tool-box given to commanders, is only a tool box and using "refreshed operational knowledge should allow best practices to be developed over the coming week.
Prior to being split into 3 syndicates, the participants were given a series of lectures on a broad spectrum of topics such as Crisis Management Processes in NATO, Knowledge Development and the Commander'
The exercise is scheduled to finish on 27 September 2013.
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============
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations/Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
September 25, 2013
Steadfast Pinnacle 13: The journey continues
Story by SHAPE Public Affairs Office
The second instalment of the two-week long Steadfast Pyramid & Pinnacle Exercise continued this week in Riga, Latvia. The candidates, a variety of Senior Leaders arriving from the NATO command Structure, NATO Force Structure and partner nations will make maximum use of the planning achieved during Exercise Pyramid. The aim is to allow the participants to hone their skills as commanders at the Operational/
In his welcoming remarks Mr Veiko Spolitis, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, Latvia, emphasized the importance of Steadfast Pinnacle 13, in that it not only shows a clear example that NATO is in the Baltics, but also underlines Latvia's commitment to supporting NATO. "Latvia will keep its promises while slightly increasing the defence expenditures next year to reach the 2 % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2020". "NATO, the strongest ally of democracy, builds trust among the nations"
General Sir Richard Shirreff, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR), thanked Latvia for hosting this event for the third time. He also welcomed the partner nations' (Australia, Austria, Finland and Sweden) who he believes "add further political strength to the 28-nation Alliance"
"Key leader training remains a strategic goal for NATO", he stated. Civilian expertise is a key ingredient of the comprehensive approach and he was happy that so many IO’s and NGO’s were represented. The Comprehensive Operational Planning Guidance, the tool-box given to commanders, is only a tool box and using "refreshed operational knowledge should allow best practices to be developed over the coming week.
Prior to being split into 3 syndicates, the participants were given a series of lectures on a broad spectrum of topics such as Crisis Management Processes in NATO, Knowledge Development and the Commander'
The exercise is scheduled to finish on 27 September 2013.
============
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@
============
Thu Sep 26, 2013 6:04 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://www.eucom.
United States European Command
September 25, 2913
MWCS-28 make their mark at Combined Endeavor 2013
Mass Communication Specialist Chief Petty Officer Jim Bane, Combined Endeavor Public Affairs
U.S. ARMY GARRISON, GRAFENWOEHR: U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Ryan Zabriskie was completing his training in Twentynine Palms, Calif., when he learned he was supporting a fleet activity – in Germany.
“Someone tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘you need to report for a briefing on Combined Endeavor,’ which I had never heard of,” said Zabriskie.
Combined Endeavor 2013 (CE13) is the world’s largest communications and interoperability exercise, with 38 nations providing equipment and personnel to build, operate, maintain and defend a coalition network.
MWCS-28 was tasked with providing communications services including chat and web port interoperability that would allow all the nations and organizations participating in CE13 to communicate.
“Adapting to the way everything operates in a joint environment was the real challenge,” said Wallace. “We had no problem doing everything our way, but that’s not how it works in this (CE 13) environment. What we had to do was simulate a regimental level command operations center over a large number of multinational battalions.”
Monty Martinez, of the Computer Science Corporation Center of the Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity (MCTSSA) is part of a support group that travels with the Marines.
“MCTSSA fields a team of technical experts to support operations and exercises,” said Martinez. MCTSSA is made up of active duty Marines, government contractors and civilians. All of the MCTSSA staff is experienced in CE13 field operations.
“We are here to provide engineering, field operating procedure and help desk support to these guys,” said Martinez. “We are able to advise on gear rooming, verifying software baseline compatibility, and we also ran these guys through putting this whole thing together several times.”
Combined Endeavor is an annual U.S. European Command-sponsored event that runs from Sept. 13-26, 2013.
============
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@
============
United States European Command
September 25, 2913
MWCS-28 make their mark at Combined Endeavor 2013
Mass Communication Specialist Chief Petty Officer Jim Bane, Combined Endeavor Public Affairs
U.S. ARMY GARRISON, GRAFENWOEHR: U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Ryan Zabriskie was completing his training in Twentynine Palms, Calif., when he learned he was supporting a fleet activity – in Germany.
“Someone tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘you need to report for a briefing on Combined Endeavor,’ which I had never heard of,” said Zabriskie.
Combined Endeavor 2013 (CE13) is the world’s largest communications and interoperability exercise, with 38 nations providing equipment and personnel to build, operate, maintain and defend a coalition network.
MWCS-28 was tasked with providing communications services including chat and web port interoperability that would allow all the nations and organizations participating in CE13 to communicate.
“Adapting to the way everything operates in a joint environment was the real challenge,” said Wallace. “We had no problem doing everything our way, but that’s not how it works in this (CE 13) environment. What we had to do was simulate a regimental level command operations center over a large number of multinational battalions.”
Monty Martinez, of the Computer Science Corporation Center of the Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity (MCTSSA) is part of a support group that travels with the Marines.
“MCTSSA fields a team of technical experts to support operations and exercises,” said Martinez. MCTSSA is made up of active duty Marines, government contractors and civilians. All of the MCTSSA staff is experienced in CE13 field operations.
“We are here to provide engineering, field operating procedure and help desk support to these guys,” said Martinez. “We are able to advise on gear rooming, verifying software baseline compatibility, and we also ran these guys through putting this whole thing together several times.”
Combined Endeavor is an annual U.S. European Command-sponsored event that runs from Sept. 13-26, 2013.
============
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@
============
Thu Sep 26, 2013 6:25 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff
http://www.itar-
Itar-Tass
September 26, 2013
Ryabkov: NATO seeks to repeat Libyan scenario in Syria
NIZHNY TAGIL: NATO seeks to repeat the Libyan scenario in Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said at an expert meeting within the exhibition Russian Arms EXPO-2013 in the Ural city on Thursday.
“By their actions the NATO member-countries violate the rules, which the U.N. Security Council had set. Thus, they seek to repeat the Libyan scenario in Syria,” the diplomat noted. He noted that Russia opposes such actions on the international scene.
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http://en.rian.
Russian Information Agency Novosti
September 26, 2013
Russia Says Sarin Gas in Aug. 21 Syria Attack Was 'Homemade&#
MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with a US newspaper published Thursday that homemade sarin nerve agent was used in a chemical weapons attack in Damascus on August 21, an attack that the United States maintains was carried out by the Syrian regime.
Lavrov gave an interview to The Washington Post on Tuesday after a meeting with his US counterpart John Kerry. Lavrov said he had used the meeting to hand over evidence proving Russia’s contention that chemical weapons were used by Syrian rebel groups in the controversial August 21 attack.
Russia investigated the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syrian city of Aleppo on March 19 after a request from the Syrian government, Lavrov said, adding that its findings have been “broadly” made available to the United Nations Security Council and the public, The Washington Post reported.
“The main conclusion is that the type of sarin used in that incident [on March 19] was homemade, and we also have evidence that the type of sarin used on August 21 was the same, only of higher concentration,” Lavrov said, according to The Washington Post.
The United States, as well as Britain and France, said last week that a UN report into the use of chemical weapons on August 21 in Damascus confirmed their contentions that it was the work of the Syrian regime, Reuters reported.
The UN investigation – which did not have a mandate to determine which side was responsible – said that sarin gas was delivered via surface-to-surface rockets during the attack on August 21, which also coincide with meteorological conditions that maximized the spread of the gas, according to Reuters.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on September 18 that the UN investigation was carried out in the absence of a full understanding of the situation in Syria, and described its conclusions as “politicized, biased and unilateral.”
Lavrov told The Washington Post on Tuesday that the evidence he had presented to Kerry to support Russia’s case that chemical weapons were used by rebel groups on August 21 was “available on the Internet,” and that it included reports from journalists who were told by combatants that “they were given some unusual rockets and ammunition by some foreign country and they didn’t know how to use them.”
The United States claims that 1,400 people, including over 400 children, were killed in the August 21 attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, and has used the incident in an attempt to rally international and domestic support for a military strike on Syria.
The use of force against Syria by members of the international community has been put on hold in recent weeks after Russia and the US reached agreement on September 14 on a plan to put all of Syria’s chemical weapons under international control, and then destroy or remove them from the war-torn country by the middle of 2014.
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http://www.interfax
Interfax-Military
September 26, 2013
Moscow expects new report of UN experts on chemical weapons in Syria to be comprehensive - Russian Foreign Ministry
NIZHNY TAGIL: Russia supports sending a new group of UN chemical weapons experts to Syria and hopes that the report they prepare will be objective, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday.
"We think that this decision is correct. And the report, which will be prepared, should be comprehensive and should not contain any hastily-made or one-sided conclusions, which the initial material given to UN Under-Secretary General Angela Kane contains," Ryabkov said at a round table on weapons export issues.
The group of UN experts arrived in Damascus on September 25 in order to investigate all cases of chemical weapons use in Syria, Ryabkov said.
Itar-Tass
September 26, 2013
Ryabkov: NATO seeks to repeat Libyan scenario in Syria
NIZHNY TAGIL: NATO seeks to repeat the Libyan scenario in Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said at an expert meeting within the exhibition Russian Arms EXPO-2013 in the Ural city on Thursday.
“By their actions the NATO member-countries violate the rules, which the U.N. Security Council had set. Thus, they seek to repeat the Libyan scenario in Syria,” the diplomat noted. He noted that Russia opposes such actions on the international scene.
------------
http://en.rian.
Russian Information Agency Novosti
September 26, 2013
Russia Says Sarin Gas in Aug. 21 Syria Attack Was 'Homemade&#
MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with a US newspaper published Thursday that homemade sarin nerve agent was used in a chemical weapons attack in Damascus on August 21, an attack that the United States maintains was carried out by the Syrian regime.
Lavrov gave an interview to The Washington Post on Tuesday after a meeting with his US counterpart John Kerry. Lavrov said he had used the meeting to hand over evidence proving Russia’s contention that chemical weapons were used by Syrian rebel groups in the controversial August 21 attack.
Russia investigated the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syrian city of Aleppo on March 19 after a request from the Syrian government, Lavrov said, adding that its findings have been “broadly” made available to the United Nations Security Council and the public, The Washington Post reported.
“The main conclusion is that the type of sarin used in that incident [on March 19] was homemade, and we also have evidence that the type of sarin used on August 21 was the same, only of higher concentration,” Lavrov said, according to The Washington Post.
The United States, as well as Britain and France, said last week that a UN report into the use of chemical weapons on August 21 in Damascus confirmed their contentions that it was the work of the Syrian regime, Reuters reported.
The UN investigation – which did not have a mandate to determine which side was responsible – said that sarin gas was delivered via surface-to-surface rockets during the attack on August 21, which also coincide with meteorological conditions that maximized the spread of the gas, according to Reuters.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on September 18 that the UN investigation was carried out in the absence of a full understanding of the situation in Syria, and described its conclusions as “politicized, biased and unilateral.”
Lavrov told The Washington Post on Tuesday that the evidence he had presented to Kerry to support Russia’s case that chemical weapons were used by rebel groups on August 21 was “available on the Internet,” and that it included reports from journalists who were told by combatants that “they were given some unusual rockets and ammunition by some foreign country and they didn’t know how to use them.”
The United States claims that 1,400 people, including over 400 children, were killed in the August 21 attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, and has used the incident in an attempt to rally international and domestic support for a military strike on Syria.
The use of force against Syria by members of the international community has been put on hold in recent weeks after Russia and the US reached agreement on September 14 on a plan to put all of Syria’s chemical weapons under international control, and then destroy or remove them from the war-torn country by the middle of 2014.
------------
http://www.interfax
Interfax-Military
September 26, 2013
Moscow expects new report of UN experts on chemical weapons in Syria to be comprehensive - Russian Foreign Ministry
NIZHNY TAGIL: Russia supports sending a new group of UN chemical weapons experts to Syria and hopes that the report they prepare will be objective, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday.
"We think that this decision is correct. And the report, which will be prepared, should be comprehensive and should not contain any hastily-made or one-sided conclusions, which the initial material given to UN Under-Secretary General Angela Kane contains," Ryabkov said at a round table on weapons export issues.
The group of UN experts arrived in Damascus on September 25 in order to investigate all cases of chemical weapons use in Syria, Ryabkov said.
