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NATO allies Turkey, U.S. to train 15,000 fighters for war in Syria

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Xinhua News Agency
February 27, 2015

Turkey, U.S. to start training Syrian rebels on March 1

ANKARA: Turkey and the United States will launch a program for training and equipping Syrian rebels on March 1, spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry Tanju Bilgic said on Friday.

On Feb. 19, Turkey and the U. S. signed an agreement for providing training and equipment for the Syrian opposition forces.

The program aims to train a total of 15,000 Syrian opposition fighters in a three-year period, 5,000 of them will be trained at a military base in the central Turkish city of Kirsehir.

The Syrian rebels will be trained and equiped to fight both the Islamic State (IS) militants and Syrian government forces, Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said.

https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/nato-allies-turkey-u-s-to-train-15000-fighters-for-war-in-syria/

John Pilger on modern fascism and the lies of America’s warmongers

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Why the rise of fascism is again the issue
By John Pilger
February 26, 2015

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The recent 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was a reminder of the great crime of fascism, whose Nazi iconography is embedded in our consciousness. Fascism is preserved as history, as flickering footage of goose-stepping blackshirts, their criminality terrible and clear. Yet in the same liberal societies, whose war-making elites urge us never to forget, the accelerating danger of a modern kind of fascism is suppressed; for it is their fascism.

“To initiate a war of aggression…,” said the Nuremberg Tribunal judges in 1946, “is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

Had the Nazis not invaded Europe, Auschwitz and the Holocaust would not have happened. Had the United States and its satellites not initiated their war of aggression in Iraq in 2003, almost a million people would be alive today; and Islamic State, or ISIS, would not have us in thrall to its savagery. They are the progeny of modern fascism, weaned by the bombs, bloodbaths and lies that are the surreal theatre known as news.

Like the fascism of the 1930s and 1940s, big lies are delivered with the precision of a metronome: thanks to an omnipresent, repetitive media and its virulent censorship by omission. Take the catastrophe in Libya. Continue reading →

NATO’s Vershbow says EU-NATO “deeper cooperation” needed to fight Russia — a merger perhaps?

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The Deputy Secretary General noted that while NATO-EU cooperation has intensified in recent years, “the logic of closer cooperation between NATO and the EU is more compelling than ever before.” He added that the two organisations should “further coordinate our approaches to counter hybrid warfare, dispel propaganda and misinformation, and defend our shared democratic values.”

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
March 5, 2015
Deputy Secretary General: NATO-EU cooperation is more important than ever

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NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow has called for deeper cooperation between NATO and the European Union in the fight against new security threats. “We need to work together to manage crises, bring relief, and project stability beyond our borders,” he said. Ambassador Vershbow made his remarks in Riga, Latvia on Thursday (5 March 2015) in a speech to the Interparliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy. “This is a critical time for the security of all our nations,” Ambassador Vershbow said.

The Deputy Secretary General warned that the Euro-Atlantic community faces “new threats and challenges both on our eastern and our southern borders”. To the east, we see “an angry, revisionist Russia that breaks international rules” and continues to destabilise Ukraine and intimidate its neighbours, he said. Meanwhile, to the south, across the Middle East and North Africa, “ISIL’s violent ideology has poured oil on the fire of extremism and sectarianism”. Ambassador Vershbow noted that migrants fleeing turmoil have placed strain on countries like Italy and Turkey, and that violent ideologies have inspired terrorism on the streets of Europe.

The Deputy Secretary General stressed that NATO and its partners must also be ready to counter hybrid warfare, which combines military intimidation, economic and diplomatic duplicity, and media manipulation. Ambassador Vershbow noted that hybrid warfare has been “central to the Russian strategy” in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. He underlined that any response to hybrid threats should be “multi-faceted”, leveraging the complementary hard and soft power tools of NATO and the European Union.

Ambassador Vershbow also pointed to other areas ripe for deepened cooperation between NATO and the European Union, including support for partners like Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova; as well as for nations to the south. “There is a key role for the European Union to help these countries with political and economic reforms, to build strong institutions, and to fight corruption,” he said.

The Deputy Secretary General noted that while NATO-EU cooperation has intensified in recent years, “the logic of closer cooperation between NATO and the EU is more compelling than ever before.” He added that the two organisations should “further coordinate our approaches to counter hybrid warfare, dispel propaganda and misinformation, and defend our shared democratic values.”

https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/real-nato-boss-nato-eu-merger-needed-for-war-with-Russia/
Real NATO Boss: NATO-EU Merger Needed For War With Russia

Russia concerned as U.S. military moves into Ukraine, Black Sea

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Xinhua News Agency
March 6, 2015

Russia concerned with U.S. military deployment in Ukraine

MOSCOW: Russia is concerned with arrival of U.S. military personnel on Ukraine soil, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

“Up to 300 U.S. troops reportedly have been deployed to a peacekeeping center in Ukraine’s western Lvov region,” the ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters.

Noting that those U.S. military instructors would train Ukrainian soldiers from March 5 to Oct. 21 on western military hardware operations, Lukashevich said that U.S. military presence in that country has become a fact.

He also highlighted danger of U.S. plans to start massive arms supply to Ukraine despite successful implementation of the ceasefire agreement reached in Minsk, the Belarusian national capital, on Feb. 12 between Ukrainian government and Donbass insurgents in eastern Ukraine.

Moreover, the U.S. Congress has been drafting a bill on allocating one billion U.S. dollars for Ukraine’s army training and armament equipment, according to Lukashevich,

“It seems like Washington decided to take (Ukrainian armed forces) under full maintenance,” Interfax news agency quoted Lukashevich as saying.

Meanwhile, the spokesman blamed the U.S. for its military presence in the Black Sea, as NATO Maritime Command said Wednesday in an online announcement that six NATO warships had arrived in the Black Sea for joint exercises.

“This somehow contradicts the public statements of the U.S. administration supporting political settlement of conflict in Ukraine,” Lukashevich said.

He warned that such actions might lead to “the most serious consequences” for the peaceful settlement of the crisis.

Lukashevich also urged the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitoring mission in Ukraine to verify implementation of Minsk agreements, especially to monitor the weapon withdrawal by conflicting parties in the “impartial, well- organized and systemic way.”

 

https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/u-s-nato-move-military-into-ukarine-black-sea-russia-mildly-perturbed/

Top Army commander in Europe wants U.S. tanks In Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania

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Ukrinform
March 6, 2015
Putin wants to destroy NATO – General Hodges

IA receives last shipment of GoI-purchased tanks
U.S. Abrams tanks

KYIV: Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to destroy NATO.

This was announced by Commander of the U.S. army in Europe, Lieutenant-General Frederick “Ben” Hodges, the Yevropeiska Pravda online newspaper reported with reference to an article published by The Telegraph.

“I’m sure Putin wants to destroy our alliance, not by attacking it, but by splintering it,” he said.

Hodges also said that Russia may try to destabilize one of the NATO member states by using “rebels” as in eastern Ukraine, or other forms of “hybrid warfare.” He also proposed positioning some of U.S. tanks in the countries located along the eastern flank of NATO to make it a limiting factor for Putin. In particular, he said, these are Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, and Bulgaria.

 

https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/top-army-commander-in-europe-wants-u-s-tanks-in-bulgaria-estonia-latvia-lithuania-poland-Romania/

Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine — West’s absorption of former Soviet countries

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From Stop NATO

Civil Georgia
March 7, 2015
Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine to Hold Consultations over EaP Riga Summit
Eastern Partnership: The West’s Final Assault On the Former Soviet Union

eastern-partnership

Tbilisi: Deputy foreign ministers of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine will meet next week in Tbilisi to elaborate “joint position” in the process of their European integration, especially in the light of upcoming Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit in Riga in late May, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

“During the meeting a special emphasis will be made on expectations, which are related to the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga,” it said.

Issues of bilateral relations will also be discussed when deputy foreign ministers of Moldova and Ukraine, Iulian Groza and Olena Zerkal, respectively, will visit Tbilisi on March 10-11 and meet their Georgian counterpart Gigi Gigiadze, according to the Georgian Foreign Ministry.

When visiting Brussels late last month Georgia’s PM Irakli Garibashvili said that Tbilisi is committed to fulfill all the requirements under the visa liberalisation action plan with the EU and expects the European Commission to recommend visa waiver by the time of the Riga summit.

Preparation for the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit was one of the issues discussed by EU foreign ministers at an information meeting in Riga on Saturday.

“There has been a broad agreement that Riga summit has to reaffirm the political commitment of the European Union to its eastern neighborhood,” said after the meeting Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs, whose country holds EU’s rotating presidency.

“We are of the same opinion that we should have more individual approach to any of eastern partners, it applies also to our southern neighborhood. We also are of the same opinion that we need more support to those countries that are conducting reform process,” he said.

“We have to work on the package of assistance for all three countries that have signed the Association Agreement with the EU – Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The assistance package should help them implement deep and comprehensive free trade agreement,” Rinkēvičs said.

He also said that the issue of visa liberalisation was also discussed at the EU foreign ministers’ informal meeting and added that they are now waiting for the results of the European Commission assessment of how Georgia and Ukraine are implementing their respective visa liberalisation action plans.

If Georgia’s progress is assessed positively and the European Commission recommends the lifting of visa requirements, it must then be approved by the European Parliament and the EU-member states before it comes into force.

https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/gum-wests-absorption-of-former-soviet-space/

U.S. to deploy interceptor missiles to Poland for NATO war games

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From  Stop NATO

Trend News Agency
March 7, 2015

US Patriot missile battery to arrive in Poland for drills

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A battery of US Patriot missile systems will arrive in Poland at the end of March to take part in NATO military exercises, Polish Ministry of National Defense said Friday.

“This time the deployment of a Patriot battery [in Poland] will be a part of operation Atlantic Resolve aimed at increasing military presence at NATO’s Eastern flank,” the Ministry spokesman Janusz Walczak said.

According to Walczak, the military exercises with participation of about 100 US troops and some 30 vehicles will last for several days. The battery to be deployed in Poland belongs to the US military contingent stationed in Germany.

US Patriot batteries participate in military exercises in Poland under the 2008 bilateral missile defense agreement.

 

https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/poland-u-s-to-deploy-interceptor-missiles-for-nato-war-games/

CIA restructures to “cover entire universe”: Director John Brennan

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Posted on Stop NATO

Xinhua News Agency
March 7, 2015

CIA to be restructured to “cover entire universe”: Director

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WASHINGTON: The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is planning to create new units in a series of reorganizations, aiming to “cover the entire universe” amid modern threats and crises, CIA Director John Brennan said Friday.

Announcing the restructuring to the 67-years-old agency Friday, Brennan said the move comes after nine outside experts spent three months analyzing the agency’s management structure, including what CIA deputy director David Cohen called “pain points”, organizational areas where the CIA’s bureaucracy does not work efficiently.

Briefing reporters at CIA headquarters earlier this week, Brennan said officers will be reassigned to 10 newly created ” mission centers,” a move to concentrate the agency’s focus on specific challenges or geographic areas, such as weapons proliferation or Africa.

“I know there are seams right now, but what we’ve tried to do with these mission centers is cover the entire universe, regionally and functionally, and so something that’s going on in the world falls into one of those buckets,” he told reporters.

“I’ve never seen a time when we have been confronted with such an array of very challenging, complex and serious threats to our national security, and issues that we have to grapple with,” he said.

The CIA chief also noted that he is establishing a new ” Directorate of Digital Innovation” to lead the agency’s efforts to track and take advantage of advances in cyber technology.

Brennan said the new digital directorate will have equal status within the agency with four other directorates which have existed for years.

“Our ability to carry out our responsibilities for human intelligence and national security responsibilities has become more challenging” in today’s digital world, Brennan said. “And so what we need to do as an agency is make sure we’re able to understand all of the aspects of that digital environment.”

Founded in 1947, the CIA consists of four major directorates. Two – the Directorate of Science and Technology, which among other activities invents spy gadgets, and the Directorate of Support, which handles administrative and logistical tasks – will retain their names.

The Directorate of Intelligence will be renamed “Directorate of Analysis” to reflect its function as the home of agency experts who collate and analyze information from secret and open sources, Brennan said.

The National Clandestine Service, home of front-line agency undercover “case officers”, who recruit spies and conduct covert actions, will be renamed Directorate of Operations, which it used to be called in the agency’s history.

The 10 new “mission centers” will bring together CIA officers with expertise from across the agency’s range of disciplines to concentrate on specific intelligence target areas or subject matter, said the CIA chief.

 

https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/cia-to-restructure-to-cover-entire-universe-director/

Are the six NATO warships in the Black Sea studying Crimea’s defenses in preparation for an invasion?

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Posted on Fort Russ

March 5, 2015
Regnum
Translated by Kristina Rus

Officer of the Black Sea Navy: NATO Exercises in the Black sea – is study of Crimea’s defenses 

Six NATO warships are conducting war games in the Black Sea.

“The Black Sea navy staff is closely monitoring all the activities of the North Atlantic Alliance in the region,” – said the officer of the Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol.

All six ships – the American missile cruiser “Vicksburg” the type of “Ticonderog”, canadian frigate “Fredericton”, the Turkish frigate “Turgutreis, an Italian frigate “Alesia”, the Romanian frigate “Regina Maria” and the German supply ship  “Spessart” – are part of “the second marine group of NATO”.

According to the source, the exercises involve practicing protection against air attacks and torpedo attacks from submarines. The commander of the group, Admiral Williamson, has already stated that the exercises in the Black sea are conducted “at the invitation of Turkish, Bulgarian and Romanian governments” and support “preparedness for any NATO mission, which may be needed to perform its obligations under the collective defense”. At the same time, NATO planned exercises “according to the scenario of the crisis between the two non-Alliance countries.”

“We closely monitor the movements and actions of NATO ships, because regardless of the legend about the exercises, the activities of the ships of the Alliance are aimed at studying the defenses of Crimea“, – said the officer.

According to the source, the recently relocated to Crimea, latest Su-30 and front-line bombers Su-24, which are in constant contact with the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, in particular with 519-m separate division reconnaissance ships, are involved in monitoring the NATO group.

Earlier, an official spokesman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Lukashevich called the entrance of NATO ships into the Black sea “a provocative idea, which will not contribute to the settlement of the conflict in Eastern of Ukraine.”

Rada deputy Lyashko urges shooting the Kharkov authorities for refusing to declare Russia as an “aggressor”

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Posted on Fort Russ

Pro-Russian rally in Kharkov, March 2014

March 5, 2015
Vognebroda.net
Translated by Kristina Rus

The head of the Radical party, Oleg Lyashko asked the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to consider the dissolution of the city and regional councils of Kharkov for not recognizing Russia as an “aggressor”.

“Today an extraordinary event took place in Kharkov. Kharkov regional council refused to include in the agenda the recognition of Russia as an aggressor. Let me remind you, that earlier the Kharkov city council refused to recognize Russia as an aggressor. I think this is an extremely dangerous event. Kharkov region is a border region. [!!!] When the city and regional councils refuse to recognize Russia as an aggressor, then tomorrow they can hold a referendum on the accession of the Kharkov region to Russia,” – said Lyashko.

The politician promised to register a draft law on the dissolution of the regional and city councils of Kharkov, as well as new elections. However, he did not stop there.

“Kharkov regional and city councils should be dissolved for contributing to terrorism, conducting anti-state activities. As a minimum – dissolution, and the maximum – Kharkov mayor Kernes and the head of the Kharkov regional Council should be shot,” – suggested deputy Lyashko.

http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/03/rada-deputy-threatens-to-shoot-kharkov.html