Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Wednesday, 3 September 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 02 Sep 2014 03:34 PM PDT
William Binney
With the escalating Ukrainian crisis towards the top of the agenda at this week’s NATO summit in Wales, a group of former American intelligence workers is urging the alliance to be careful before crafting a response.
Sixty foreign leaders and dozens of diplomats and defense officials from around the globe will convene at the event this week and are expected to approve a plan that calls for assembling a 4,000-strong “spearhead” force to counter “Russia’s aggressive behavior,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday, in the wake of the release of satellite images purported to show the advancement of at least 1,000 Russian troops and artillery into eastern Ukraine.
But on the eve of the first major NATO meeting since 2012, a coalition composed of seven former United States intelligence officers is asking the alliance to recall the 2003 invasion of Iraq before authorizing any military action.
According to the group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, the evidence produced by NATO from the Ukrainian-Russian border is on par with the “same dubious, politically ‘fixed’ kind used 12 years ago to ‘justify’ the US-led attack on Iraq.”
“We saw no credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq then; we see no credible evidence of a Russian invasion now,” reads an excerpt from the memo signed by the VIPS steering group, a coalition composed of former National Security Agency analyst William Binney, retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern, retired US Army Colonel Ann Wright and others published online over the weekend and addressed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Photos can be worth a thousand words; they can also deceive. We have considerable experience collecting, analyzing and reporting on all kinds of satellite and other imagery, as well as other kinds of intelligence. Suffice it to say that the images released by NATO on August 28 provide a very flimsy basis on which to charge Russia with invading Ukraine,” the group added.
Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, begged to differ, however. Upon release of the satellite images last week, the UN group held an emergency meeting on Thursday, the likes of which Power said marked the twenty-fourth time the Security Council hosted a meeting “to try to rein in Russia’s aggressive acts in Ukraine.”
“Every single one of those sessions has sent a straight-forward, unified message: Russia, stop this conflict. Russia is not listening,” Power added. “We said it when Russia flagrantly violated international law in occupying Crimea. We said it after the shocking downing of Malaysian Airlines flight 17, which took the lives of innocent men, women, children and infants from 11 countries. And we say it today, as Russia’s soldiers, tanks, air defense and artillery support and fight alongside separatists as they open a new front in a crisis manufactured in and fueled by Russia.”
Power’s sentiments were countered by Russia’s UN representative, Vitaly Churkin, who said, “Russian volunteers in eastern parts of Ukraine” are involved in the conflict, but not the Kremlin.
Despite insistence from the State Dept., all-but-one member of the Security Council and NATO, however, VIPS wrote in their statement to Chancellor Merkel that evidence alleged to show actual encroachment into Ukraine by the Russian military lacks substance.
“If the photos that NATO and the US have released represent the best available ‘proof’ of an invasion from Russia, our suspicions increase that a major effort is under way to fortify arguments for the NATO summit to approve actions that Russia is sure to regard as provocative,” reads part of their open letter to Merkel.
On her part, Merkel said over the weekend that evidence continues to suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin is behind attacks on Ukraine, Bloomberg reported, and that the European Union plans on soon introducing a new round of sanctions against Moscow in response.
“It’s become ever clearer that, from the beginning, this hasn’t been about a conflict within Ukraine, but a conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” Merkel said Monday during an event in Berlin.
Both Merkel and Obama have said the conflict in eastern Ukraine must be resolved by diplomatic means and not a military response. With intelligence suggesting that Russia continues to move troops across the border, however, Rasmussen, the NATO secretary-general, said the alliance must be ready to respond to any activity in the region at a “very, very short notice,” and that “several thousand troops” could be deployed within “very few days” to counter future advancements from the Kremlin.
Mikhail Popov, the deputy secretary of Russia’s national security council, countered that the alliance’s plan is “evidence of the desire of US and NATO leaders to continue their policy of aggravating tensions with Russia,” according to The Telegraph, and defense officials in Moscow added that a new expanded military doctrine is being drafted in response.
In addition to Binney, McGovern and Wright, the VIPS steering group consists of retired National Intelligence Council official David MacMichael, retired deputy national intelligence officer for Middle East, Elizabeth Murray, retired US Army Judge Advocate Todd Pierce and a former FBI special agent, Coleen Rowley.
Source
        
Posted: 02 Sep 2014 04:08 AM PDT

A controversial plan has emerged in Saudi Arabia to demolish the tomb of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and relocate his body to an anonymous grave, in a move sure to draw an angry response from the Muslim world, a report says.
A leading Saudi academic put forward the proposal as part of a consultation document, which has been circulated among the supervisors of al-Masjid al-Nabawi mosque in the holy city of Medina, where the Prophet (PBUH) are laid to rest under the Green Dome, visited by millions of pilgrims and regarded as Islam’s second-holiest site, the UK’s Independent newspaper reported on Monday.
Based on the 61-page document, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)’s body could be moved to the nearby al-Baqi cemetery to be buried anonymously.
Several pages of the consultation document that have just been published urge the destruction of the rooms surrounding the tomb – used by the Prophet (PBUH)’s family members. The document also seeks the removal of the Green Dome.
“The Prophet would be anonymous,” Dr Irfan al-Alawi, director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, said, adding, “Everything around the Prophet’s mosque has already been destroyed. It is surrounded by bulldozers. Once they’ve removed everything they can move towards the mosque.”
“I’m sure there will be shock across the Muslim world at these revelations. It will cause outrage.”
So far, there has been no suggestion that any decision has been taken to act upon the plans.
Source
        
Posted: 02 Sep 2014 03:51 AM PDT


Police fired 24 rounds at unarmed 18 year old, apparently to prevent him from committing suicide. Media doesn’t care because he is white.
In Ottawa, Kansas, at least eight police officers fired 24 rounds at Joseph Jennings. He was riddled with bullets and killed. Family members say at least two shots hit him in the back. At the same time police held back his parents who screamed “don’t shoot.” Family members say fourteen officers were involved, and that Jennings was completely unarmed.
The purpose of the shooting was apparently to prevent Jennings from committing suicide with a drug overdose. So they “helped” him by shooting him 24 times! What ever happened to those good old tasers who would have been perfect in this situation?
This has only received local coverage. Why is the national media completely ignoring this, when they have given Mike Brown round the clock national coverage for two weeks?
If Joseph Jennings had been black, an army of media vans would be racing from Ferguson to Ottawa right now. Where’s the protests, the riots, the lootings? No one cares about whites anymore?
       
Posted: 02 Sep 2014 03:30 AM PDT
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
A senior North Korean scumbag banker, who managed financial affairs of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has reportedly defected to Russia with 5 million dollars while North Koreans starve of hunger due to extreme poverty caused by prolonged communism.
Yun Tae Hyong, a representative of Korea Daesong Bank, disappeared in Russia’s far eastern city of Nakhodka last week with $5 million, South Korea’s JoongAng Illbo newspaper reported on Friday quoting an unidentified source as saying.
Pyongyang has called on Russian authorities to cooperate in efforts to arrest the official, the source added.
The US government put the Daesong Bank on its blacklist four years ago, accusing the financial institution of being controlled by Office 39, a North Korean department that allegedly oversees illegal economic projects.
North Korean leader’s uncle, Jang Sung-thaek, who was also said to have been involved in the Office 39 activities, was executed in December 2013 immediately after a special military trial.
Jang was described by the local media as a “traitor for all ages,” who had attempted to overthrow the state by all sorts of intrigues and despicable methods with a “wild ambition to grab the supreme power of state.”
Source
        
Posted: 02 Sep 2014 03:12 AM PDT
A column of BMD-2 airborne combat vehicles move towards the assembly area of combined forces of the Central Military District and airborne troops at the Chebarkul firing range as part of a sudden operational readiness test.
Moscow is to review its military doctrine, a move that is caused by expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe, problems of missile defense and the crisis situation in neighboring Ukraine, says an official from the Russia’s Security Council.
“I have no doubts that the issue of drawing of military infrastructure of NATO member-countries to the borders of our country, including via enlargement, will remain one of the external military threats for the Russian Federation,” Mikhail Popov, deputy secretary of the Security Council said in an interview to RIA Novosti.
All NATO’s actions show that both the US and NATO are trying to escalate a deterioration of relations with Russia, he added.
“We consider that defining factor in [Moscow’s] relations with NATO will remain the unacceptability for Russia of the expansion plans of alliance’s military infrastructure to our borders, including via enlargement,” he stated.
Establishing and deploying of strategic missile defense systems which are undermining the global stability, as well as bringing the weapons into space, will also remain major military threats for Russia, he added.
“The USA wants to strengthen its troops in Baltic States. [They] have already decided to transfer its heavy weapons and military equipment, including tanks and armored infantry vehicles, to Estonia. And all this next to Russia’s border.”
The acting military doctrine was adopted in 2010. The new version will be released by the end of 2014, said Popov.
According to Popov, the pursuit of the USA and NATO members to increase its strategic offensive potential is becoming more evident.
They are trying to do this “at the expense of development of a global missile defense system” and “the elaboration of new weapons, including advanced hypersonic weapon (AHW).”
The 2010 military doctrine caused the most acute reaction in the USA and NATO, said Popov.
“Many high-ranked officials reproached the leaders of our country saying that NATO isn’t a Russia’s enemy and will never attack Russia. But is that true?” he asked. “We were assured of good intentions, but the actions of recent years show entirely different things.”
He added that Russia had not managed to establish an equal dialogue with its Western partners.
“Everyone waits one-sided concessions from Russia in many international relations issues.”
According to Popov, “the role of Russia in the Ukraine crisis is subjectively defined and thus wrong conclusions are drawn and wrong measures are applied.”
“There is an unprecedented informational-propagandist campaign against Russia. The image of the enemy is presented in the face of Russia and its politics is considered as a new threat to NATO.”
‘We’re open to cooperation in Arctic’
The military doctrine will also take into account the stable development of the Arctic – a region thought to contain vast reserves of oil and gas.
“The major national interests of Russia in this region will be the use of the Arctic as a resource base capable of providing the needs of Russia in hydrocarbon riches, water bio resources and other strategic material for solving social-economic tasks.”
Popov added that Russia “is open for cooperation in the Arctic.”
“We not only call for cooperation, but also confirm this intention. Russia’s Security Council in the Arctic Circle is organizing meetings with the officials of the countries of the Arctic Council which show our objects,” he said. “By the way, not all the countries of the region show the same goodwill and openness.”
The five Arctic states – Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the US – have for several years now been in a bitter dispute over how to divide up this resource-rich region.
‘Any aggression against Crimea is aggression against Russia’
“Today Crimea is a territory of Russian Federation, and military aggression against Crimea will be considered as aggression against Russian Federation with all ensuing consequences,” said Popov.
“The military unit in Crimea, set by the president’s [Vladimir Putin] decision, is self-sufficient and is capable of repelling an attack of a potential aggressor on the territory of Russia,” he added.
The tasks of Black Sea fleet and the military units on the peninsula remain the same in Crimea – to provide military security of the country.
“I would like to stress that the borders of the Russia Federation with the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States], including those with Ukraine, are not covered by the military, its control is performed via customs services,” said Popov.
Source
        
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 09:43