Is NATO The Real War Criminal In Libya?

NATO's War On Libya is not everything it seems, far from it.

Susan Lindauer at Intel Hub :

It’s a story CNN won’t report. Late at night there’s a pounding on the door in Misurata. Armed soldiers force young Libyan women out of their beds at gun-point.

Hustling the women and teenagers into trucks, the soldiers rush the women to gang bang parties for NATO rebels—or else rape them in front of their husbands or fathers. When NATO rebels finish their rape sport, the soldiers cut the women’s throats.

Rapes are now ongoing acts of war in rebel-held cities, like an organized military strategy, according to refugees. Joanna Moriarty, who’s part of a global fact-finding delegation visiting Tripoli this week, also reports that NATO rebels have gone house to house through Misurata, asking families if they support NATO. If the families say no, they are killed on the spot.

If families say they want to stay out of the fighting, NATO rebels take a different approach to scare other families. The doors of “neutral homes” are welded shut, Moriarty says, trapping families inside.

In Libyan homes, windows are typically barred. So when the doors to a family compound get welded shut, Libyans are entombed in their own houses, where NATO forces can be sure large families will slowly starve to death.

These are daily occurrences, not isolated events. And Gadhaffi’s soldiers are not responsible. In fact, pro-Gadhaffi and “neutral” families are targeted as the victims of the attacks.

The Full Story Is Here

Libya, Get Ready To Be Fallujahed

A few days ago, EOTAD published a list of 14 Potential Justifications For An Invasion Of Libya By The US. Many of these are already getting a good work by US State Department officials and, interestingly, some of the same old NeoCons who chanted a reluctant America into War On Iraq eight years ago.

The List :

#1 "We Can't Stand Aside And Watch Gaddafi Kill His Own People"

#2 "It Would Just Be A Humanitarian Mission"

#3 "Libya Is Torturing Prisoners"

#4 "The Libyan Rebels Will Not Be Able To Take Down Gaddhafi With Our Help"

#5 "U.S. Interests Are Being Threatened"

#6 "Gaddafi Is Crazy"

#7 "Gaddafi Has Weapons Of Mass Destruction"

#8 "Gaddafi Will Use Chemical Weapons If We Don't Stop Him"

#9 "Gaddafi Has "1,000 Metric Tons Of Uranium Yellowcake"

#10 "European Energy Companies Are Deeply Invested In Libyan Oil And Gas Fields"

#11 "Millions of Dollars Worth Of Infrastructure Will Be Destroyed If We Don't Intervene"

#12 "The Crisis In Libya Is Bad For The Global Economy"

#13 "Someone Has To Protect The Oil"

#14 "We Have Got To Go Into Libya To Keep Al-Qaeda From Getting A Foothold"

If an invasion is on the immediate horizon, they'll have to work hard and fast. A recent poll claimed 67% of Americans wanted their military to stay the hell out of Libya.

The special forces of the US, the UK, Germany and others are already inside Libya, but my prediction is an (official) US/NATO invasion of Libya will begin March 11. All the big, long range world changing events seem to happen on the 11th of the month.

Russia Sees NATO Closing In From All Sides

From RIA Novosti :

Russia is concerned over NATO's expansion, which is aimed at building up its military potential around Russian borders rather than strengthening European security, the foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Russia has been unnerved by NATO's eastward expansion and recent U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic.

"We are certain that the geographical expansion of NATO cannot be justified by security concerns," Sergei Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow.

"But it is clear that NATO is building up its military potential around our borders and its new members continue to increase their defense budgets," he said.

Lavrov said NATO's "open-door" policy has been inherited from the Cold War and can only antagonize relations with Russia.

"This policy cannot resolve any security problems," the minister said.

NATO has signaled its backing for the recent bids by Russia's former Soviet allies, Georgia and Ukraine, to join the alliance, a move that has infuriated Moscow.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the country would have to take "appropriate measures" if Ukraine were to join NATO.

An additional problem overshadowing cooperation between Russia and NATO is the bloc's refusal to ratify an updated version of the Soviet-era Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE), aimed at regulating the deployment of non-nuclear weapons on the continent.

Russia imposed in December last year a unilateral moratorium on the arms reductions treaty, which the West regards as a cornerstone of Euro-Atlantic security, and said it would resume its participation in the treaty only after NATO countries ratify the document.

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Foreign Minister Warns Russia Will Not Back Down Over Kosovo

Russia Tells NATO New CFE Treat Must Take Naval Forces Into Account

Russia Uses Supersonic Ballistic Missile To Successfully Take Out Flying Target

NATO To East : Pre-Emptive Nuclear Strikes Are On The Table

It's not often we get to see the contents of the numerous reports about nuclear weapons and the politics, and policies, of pre-emptive nuclear strikes that the world's war leaders spend hundreds of hours each year discussing and debating.

And when we do get a peak, it's downright horrific :

The West must be prepared to carry out pre-emptive nuclear strikes to halt the spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, a radical new manifesto argues.

The document - written by five of the West's most senior military officers and strategists - has been presented to the Pentagon and NATO's secretary-general.

They argue there is a need for urgent and comprehensive reform of NATO, The Guardian reports.

A new pact - involving the United States, NATO and the European Union - was also essential to face the challenges ahead, they said.

The manifesto is likely to be discussed at a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, in April, the paper said.

The authors include some of the top defence minds in the West, including General John Shalikashvili, the former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff and NATO's ex-supreme commander in Europe.

The others are General Klaus Naumann, Germany's former top soldier and ex-chairman of NATO's military committee; General Henk van den Breemen, a former Dutch chief of staff; Admiral Jacques Lanxade, a former French chief of staff; and Lord Inge, field marshal and ex-chief of the general staff and the defence staff in the United Kingdom.

The former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a "first strike" nuclear option remains an "indispensable instrument" as there is "simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world", The Guardian reports.

It said the manifesto had been written following discussions with active commanders and policymakers, many of whom were unable or unwilling to publicly air their views.

"The risk of further (nuclear) proliferation is imminent and, with it, the danger that nuclear war fighting, albeit limited in scope, might become possible," the authors wrote, according to The Guardian.

"The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction."

It identified a number of key threats to the West's values and way of life, including international terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction and political fanaticism and religious fundamentalism.

It also cited the weakening of organisations such as the United Nations, NATO and the EU.

To prevail, they said, NATO's decision-taking methods must be overhauled, moving to a majority rather than a consensus model, putting an end to national vetoes.

A new "directorate" of US, European and NATO leaders must also be established to respond rapidly to crises.

The five also proposed the use of force without UN security council authorisation when "immediate action is needed to protect large numbers of human beings," The Guardian reported.

Ron Asmus, head of the German Marshall Fund thinktank in Brussels and a former senior US state department official, described the manifesto as "a wake-up call".

"This report means that the core of the NATO establishment is saying we're in trouble, that the West is adrift and not facing up to the challenges," he told the paper.

Gen Naumann admitted the plan's retention of the nuclear first strike option was "controversial" even among the five authors.

But he said proliferation was spreading, and NATO needed to show "there is a big stick that we might have to use if there is no other option".

Lord Inge argued that "to tie our hands on first use or no first use removes a huge plank of deterrence."

The logic of using weapons of mass destruction pre-emptively to try and stop the possible building of weapons of mass destruction is pure Dr Strangelove.

Is there any connection between this report being made public at exactly the same time stock markets around the world are seeing hundreds of billions of dollars wiped from their values?

And is there any connnection between the release of this report and the show of force by the Russians in the Atlantic?

Well, of course there is. A pre-emptive nuclear strike on Iran would cause chaos on world markets. The chaos has already begun, so there can only be so much market fallout if US and Israel move forward with their pre-emptive nuclear Iran strikes in the coming weeks or months.

It certainly does appear that the ground has been well and truly laid now for such strikes.

Whether Iran is hit or not, it will be years before we learn most of the details of the economic world war now being waged.

US Defence Secretary : NATO Alliance At Risk Of Breaking Apart

NATO countries are failing to "step up the plate" when it comes to Afghanistan, said US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. This failure, he said in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, puts the entire structure of the alliance at risk of collapse :

I know, as do you, the members of this committee, that if the world’s greatest democracies cannot summon the will to accomplish a mission that all agree is morally just and essential for our collective security, then the citizens of these democracies will begin to question the mission’s worth – and perhaps even the worth of the Alliance itself. We must not allow this to happen.

The Afghanistan mission has exposed constraints associated with interoperability, organization, critical equipment shortfalls, and national caveats. I believe the problem arises in large part due to the way various allies view the very nature of the Alliance in the 21st century – about facing threats that are quite different from those of the Cold War. NATO must adjust to the challenges associated with conducting operations in distant locations. And NATO needs to ensure that it has the resources and the organizational structure to counter terrorist networks and triumph over insurgencies that threaten to cause instability and failed states....

I have been urging our allies to commit more troops and resources to the fight and to remove restrictions on the troops they already deploy. I know that several members of Congress have been doing the same thing. We in the administration will continue to work with NATO to fix these shortfalls. I would also like to stress the importance of American unity on this matter. If other governments are pressured by this body and the Senate, it may help push them to do the difficult work of persuading their own citizens that it is time to step up to this challenge.

Afghanistan : 10o Killed In Three Days Of Attacks, Bombings

Suicide Bombers Kill More Than 30 In Kabul

US Air Strikes Kill Dozens Of Children, Civilians At Religious Schools

The war in Afghanistan grows more deadly, more confused, more convoluted as the current joint Taliban-Al Qaeda offensive unfolds.

It seems all but a certainty that military elements of Pakistan's dictatorship will seep through the border states and join in the fighting. Or to join those who have already crossed into Afghanistan to take on NATO. Clearly, some in Musharraf's military have, but it's only a matter of time before many more of the jihadist elements of Musharraf's clique decide to take on NATO and the forces of the Afghanistan government.

Musharraf can only push back so hard, and the US can only push Musharraf so far. He has already told President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney that if they continually pressure him, and embarrass him in the world's media, he will rein in his current efforts to hold back Pakistan jihadists.

The time when a greater regional conflict breaks out across the borders will be hastened by a furtherance of attacks by American elements in NATO like that of yesterday, where missiles believed to have been fired by a US-controlled drone slammed into a Warziristan madrassa, killing and wounding dozens of teachers, students and locals in a small village.

Earlier in the week, at least seven children were killed, and many more wounded when US air strikes hit a mosque and religious school in the eastern Afghanistan province of Paktika.

US military spokesmen claimed that Al Qaeda fighters were sheltering at the mosque-school complex, and used the children as "human shields." Such claims may play well to the Western audience, but they are dismissed mostly as lies, even if they are true, in Taliban-friendly regions of the border lands.

The belief that the 'War on Terror' is a mere Western-friendly title for what is actually a War On Islam is already a widespread belief across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and most of Muslim dominated countries. Such attacks on religious schools, while presumably killing Al Qaeda fighters, also ratchet up civilian casualties and supply endless propaganda material for Al Qaeda and the Taliban to capitalise on. And capitalise they do.

In three days of fighting in southern Afghanistan, more than 100 people have been killed, including Taliban militants, police and dozens of civilians :

Mullah Ahmidullah Khan, the head of Uruzgan's provincial council, said clashes in Chora district had killed 60 civilians, 70 suspected Taliban militants and 16 Afghan police.

An official close to the Uruzgan governor, who asked not to be identified because he was talking about preliminary estimates, said 70 to 75 civilians had been killed or wounded, while more than 100 Taliban and more than 35 police had been killed.

Police said Monday they had detained a suspect in connection with the deadly suicide bombing that destroyed a bus full of police instructors at Kabul's busiest transportation hub, killing 35 people and wounding 52.

Sunday's enormous blast didn't leave much of the bus and it didn't leave much left of the notion that the renewed Taliban insurgency is being contained in Afghanistan...

The attack wasn't only deadly, it made several points: the Taliban attacks are becoming bolder, more frequent and are spreading across the country...

The bombing raised the specter of an increase in Iraq-style bombings with heavy casualties. It was at least the fourth attack against a bus carrying Afghan police or army soldiers in Kabul in the last year. The bomb sheared off the bus' metal sidings and roof, leaving a charred frame.

The explosion was the fifth suicide attack in Afghanistan in three days, part of a sharp spike in violence around the country.

Afghan officials have recently said that civilian deaths are the main concern of Afghans, and President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called for foreign troops to do more to prevent civilian casualties.

Insurgency-related violence has killed more than 2,400 people in Afghanistan this year, mostly insurgents, according to an AP count based on figures from U.S., NATO, U.N. and Afghan officials.

More on the Sunday suicide attack on Afghan police trainers from the UK Independent :

The deadliest attack by militants since the ousting of the Taliban killed 35 people and wounded at least the same number yesterday when a bomb destroyed a bus packed with police recruits in Kabul.

One of the wounded recounted how the bomb had exploded when the bus was close to the station. Khalid Mohammed Ali, who suffered injuries to his stomach and legs, said: "There were lots of policemen in the bus and the bomb was near the front. The top of the bus blew off and there were people screaming and shouting. I felt something hot and a pain in my stomach. Then I saw blood on my right leg and there was a hole there."

Amir Nasrullah, 38, a shopkeeper said: "I first heard a roaring noise then I saw the bus was on fire. I saw one man with his arm hanging off but he was still alive. There were two others who looked dead."

Officials said at least 22 of the dead were police recruits and that two Pakistanis, two Japanese and one Korean national were among the wounded.

Last Saturday, suicide bombers hit targets in Kabul and killed four people :

A suicide car-bomber attacked a military-civilian convoy in Kabul on Saturday morning, killing at least three civilians and wounding five others, government and police officials said.

Hours later, two bombers riding a motorcycle attacked a military convoy in Mazar-i-Sharif, killing at least one Afghan civilian and wounding 15, a local security official said.

A spokesman for the Taliban, waging an insurgency against the Afghan government and its foreign allies, said the group was behind the attacks, which included two suicide blasts on Friday in south and central Afghanistan.

"Our many Taliban suiciders are present in the all cities in Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Zabi-u-llah Mujahid told Reuters by satellite phone. "We will increase our suicide and guerrilla attacks...in coming days," he added.

The Taliban and their al Qaeda allies have adopted the tactics of Iraq's insurgency over the past two years, using suicide bombings, mostly aimed at foreign troops, to try to dispel the notion that foreign and Afghan forces are in control.

In Mazar-i-Sharif, seen as one of the most peaceful Afghan cities, the motorcycle bombers blew up as the convoy swept past on a stretch of road near a crowded vegetable market. It was the first suicide bombing in Mazar-i-Sharif in three years

The Taliban promised earlier this year that it had more than 2000 fighters willing to become suicide bombers and they had been sent out to every city and every major town and village to wait for their moment to attack NATO forces and their allies in the Afghanistan government, police and military forces. When a wave of suicide bombings failed to appear in April, US commentators, and some US government military and government spokespersons, adopted mocking tones claiming the Taliban had conned the world's media into repeating its propaganda as fact.

The last week has proved that the Taliban's claim of having 2000 suicide bombers in reserve may not have simply been propaganda.


A remarkable confession from a former British ambassador to Washington on why the UK felt such an urgent need to join the United States in the War On Afghanistan, following the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Prime Minister Tony Blair was afraid that if he didn't join the US, and the US went in alone, President Bush would have "nuked the shit" out of the Taliban dominated country :

Christopher Meyer said that fear explained why Prime Minister Tony Blair chose to stand with US President George W. Bush in his decision to invade Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks -- to temper his aggressive battle plans.

"Blair's real concern was that there would be quote unquote 'a knee-jerk reaction' by the Americans ... they would go thundering off and nuke the shit out of the place without thinking straight..."

Finally, David Ax, writing for Military.com, has an essential read : Anatomy Of A Suicide Bombing. It takes you through the process of how investigators piece together the trail that leads up to a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. It's a very important story, the kind that is rarely reported in the mainstream media, and Ax has done a remarkable job.

3 American Troops, Afghan Interpreter Killed By Roadside Bomb In Southern Afghanistan

US/NATO Air Strikes Killing Civilians Seriously Erode Afghan Goodwill Towards Coalition, Build Grassroots Support For Taliban-Al Qaeda

3 Canadian Soldiers, 5 Afghans Killed In Roadside Bombings In Southern Afghanistan

BBC : Can The War In Afghanistan Be Won?

The Iranian Influence In Afghanistan

The Misery Of Heroin In Afghanistan Spreads Amongst Poverty, Trauma, High Unemployment

The Demonisation Of Russia In American Media Ramps Up

Russia Warns Of A New Cold War Over US Missile Defence In Europe

Russia Promises To Counter Missile Deployments With "Our Own Measures"

Relations between Russia and the United States remain tense, despite the surprise visit to Moscow by US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.The visit was also a surprise to Israel, who were expecting Rice to visit them. But problems between Russia and the United States are multiplying so rapidly, Rice had little choice but to change her plans.

That Rice saw the need to visit Russia and meet with Russian president Putin, and his senior ministers, is being viewed in the Russian media as the US showing signs of weakness and fear in the face of Russia's growing power and influence, while the United States' power and influence fades, mostly off the back of the churning defeat of the US military in Iraq.

The new round of Russia demonisation in the US, by the media and prominent politicians, began with a fairly mundane statement by Russian president Vladimir Putin about the global threats Russia faces as it re-secures its place in the pantheon of world powers. Putin was speaking during annual Russian celebrations that mark the stunning, but costly, Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War 2.

Putin said that he could see parallels between the threats his people faced during World War 2 and the rapidly changing power paradigms of today. The quote was enough for the American media to go hog wild about how Russia had "compared the US to Nazis".

Putin's quotes, however, were far more interesting, and nuanced, than that simple tabloid quality headline :

“We do not have the right to forget the causes of any war, which must be sought in the mistakes and errors of peacetime.”

“Moreover, in our time, these threats are not diminishing,” he said. “They are only transforming, changing their appearance. In these new threats, as during the time of the Third Reich, are the same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionality and diktat in the world.”

Of course it is in the interests of the Bush administration, and their media allies, to demonise Putin's Russia as much as possible, mostly due to Russia's opposition to American plans to seed missile caches across Europe, under the 'missile shield' cache.

Americans, by and large, see no problem with the US deploying missiles to friendly nations in Europe, even if they happen to be hard up against Russia's borders.

But Russians hate the US plans with a passion, as do the Chinese, though far more quietly than their Russian allies.

Russia is also opposed to an independent Kosovo, now being shuttled towards reality by the UN, and fully backed by the Bush administration, and frowns on the expansion of NATO. Iraq, of course, still concerns the Russians immensely, as they fear the spread of the war into other Middle East countries, particularly Iran, with whom they have multi-billion dollar energy and trade deals.

From the New York Times :

Mr. Putin’s analogy was a small part of a larger speech, otherwise unambiguously congratulating Russian veterans of World War II, known here as the Great Patriotic War. Mr. Putin spoke from a podium in front of Lenin’s mausoleum on Red Square before troops mustered for a military parade.

The United States, Mr. Putin has maintained, is seeking to establish a unipolar world to replace the bipolar balance of power of the cold war era.

In a speech in Munich on Feb. 10, he characterized the United States as “One single center of power: One single center of force. One single center of decision making. This is the world of one master, one sovereign.”

On the growing US threat to Russia via its missile shield expansion, the Gulf Times reports :

Russia will take “counter-measures” against elements of a US missile defence shield planned for Europe, the head of the Russian armed forces’ General Staff said yesterday.

“If we see a threat emanating from those objects ... we will unambiguously plan actions against them,” Yury Baluyevsky, head of the military council, said of the 10 interceptor missiles planned for Poland and radar for the Czech Republic, Interfax reported.

The military man’s language was among the most direct yet used against the shield, which Russian officials have been frequently and uniformly critical of since Washington’s negotiations with Prague and Warsaw came to light last fall.

Speaking in Moscow, Baluyevsky said that Russia was changing its military doctrine and that while the country was not yet altering plans for military hardware acquisition before 2010, that was subject to “radical changes” going on in the world.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates met with Putin and other officials last month in an emergency visit to offer Moscow partnership in the shield, a trip the US official called “excellent”.

As part of the expanding talks between Russia and the US over the future of their relations and the US 'missile shield', a big meeting is planning for September.

From the Brisbane Times :

Russia and the US will bring together their defence and foreign ministers in an unusual top-level bid to ease escalating bilateral tensions.

"We have agreed to a Russian suggestion that the secretaries of Defence and State meet with their Russian counterparts and do so in a so-called 2+2 format," US Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried said.

He said the first meeting was planned for September and could be expanded to include the White House and Kremlin national security advisers.

The Russians suggested the enhanced negotiations during a visit to Moscow last month by Defence Secretary Robert Gates focused on addressing Russian concerns about US plans to station 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic.

President Vladimir Putin, already angry about the expansion of the NATO alliance into former Soviet bloc countries, escalated the dispute last month by announcing Russia was suspending compliance with a key Cold War-era defence pact, the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty.

This report from the Anotolian Times explains more on the changing NATO paradigms, and why Russia no longer sees the need to inform the West of its troop movements, even when they are across internationally recognised borders. Something that makes NATO diplomats very nervous :

Russia and the West are at odds over a growing number of issues, from Kosovo to the US missile shield, and the discord may undermine their cautiously built post-Cold War partnership, NATO diplomats say.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, a favourite to replace President Vladimir Putin next year, said Thursday that Moscow would no longer inform partners when it moves troops across its territory.

The announcement, the application of a freeze Putin made on the Soviet-era Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, was the first concrete move in what are tense and possibly changing times.

In the past, the West "accepted the rhetoric when Russian leaders denounced the United States or NATO, but it's not so easy any more," said a diplomat at the military alliance.

At a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Norway late last month, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, reacting to the Russian treaty freeze, said it was vital to keep relations between Moscow and Washington calm.

"We must avoid an escalation," he said.

But a NATO official said "the tone between the (NATO) allies and Russia has now hardened."

....problems of political and military nature, which have simmered almost unnoticed for years, are now bubbling to the surface.

NATO's willingness to continue expanding eastward -- into former Soviet republics and satellite states -- or the installation of US military bases in Bulgaria and Romania last year -- are perceived by Russia as threats.

In February, Moscow threatened to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) so that it could resume production of tactical nuclear missiles.

"Russia seems to want to try to end the relationship that it built up with the United States in the 1990s and in the most theatrical way possible," experts at the Paris-based Strategic Research Foundation said last month.

In this atmosphere of confrontation, some at NATO fear that Kosovo, where the alliance has some 16,000 troops and whose ethnic Albanian majority is impatient for independence, could ultimately pay the price.

"A Russian veto on independence for the Serbian province followed by the US unilaterally recognising Kosovo (as independent) can no longer be ruled out," a diplomat warned.

Russia is not going to wait to see if the United States backs down on its plans to expand its 'missile shield' through Eastern Europe. They are quietly ramping up plans to make sure they have "counter measures" in place, should the United States complete its expansion of missile deployments close to Russian borders.

From Novosti :

Russia's Strategic Missile Forces will complete the deployment of silo-based Topol-M ICBMs by 2010, the SMF commander in chief said Tuesday.

"Alongside the deployment of Topol-M mobile complexes, we are planning to finalize the deployment of fixed-site Topol-M systems by 2010," Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov said.

He said Monday the Topol-M system will be equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV) in the next two or three years, adding the new system will help penetrate missile defenses more effectively.

His statement comes against the background of growing tensions between Moscow and the West regarding plans by the United States to deploy elements of its global antiballistic missile defense system in Central Europe.

Washington has insisted that placing missile shield components in Poland and the Czech Republic is aimed against possible nuclear strikes from rogue states, such as Iran and North Korea, whose controversial nuclear programs have caused international concerns. But Moscow, already unnerved by NATO expansion to former Warsaw Pact member states, has condemned the plans as a threat to national security and a destabilizing factor for Europe.

Gen. Solovtsov said the Strategic Missile Forces would factor in the new threats.

"If the U.S. proceeds with missile defense plans, despite serious opposition from people in Europe, the Strategic Missile Forces will manage to take adequate measures to counter threats to Russia," he said.

Russia Says It Cannot Accept UN Resolution On Kosovo Independence

Putin Triumphant In Monumental Caspian Sea Pipeline Deal

Russia-NATO Talks Over US Missile Shield And Arms Control Break No New Ground

Condoleezza Rice Denies There Is A "New Cold War" Breaking Out Between Russia And The United States

Inciting A New Cold War - Hypocritical American Views On Russia's Democracy

Russia And US Going Through "A Difficult Period"

Afghanistan : NATO Claims 136 "Taliban Fighters" Killed During 14 Hour Battle

Afghanis Claim Civilians Massacred During Air Strikes

When NATO claims, as it has today, that its forces have killed "scores" of Taliban fighters, do they mean men who recieved training under the Taliban, or unemployed farmers who were paid a few dollars a day to pick up a gun and act as a guard for a Taliban outpost?

The controversy over whether all fighters killed in clashes in Afghanistan can be called Taliban, or Al Qaeda, has not gone away in more than six years of fighting, but it is clear that persons aligned or employed by the Taliban are falling in great numbers to NATO forces is a reality.

As the conflict stands today, NATO has deployed more than 36,000 troops into Afghanistan, with a focus of operations in the south of the country. The US has deployed an 'extra' 11,000 or more troops into the east, to try and stem the flow of new fighters entering across the borders with Pakistan.

The Taliban, meanwhile, claims it holds the allegiance of hundreds of thousands of Afghanis, many tens of thousands of whom, it claims, are fighting NATO forces or are willing to fight. In addition the Taliban, and Al Qaeda, claim they have at least two thousands suicide bombers waiting for their moment of opportunity to strike as lethal a blow as they are able.

The presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan met in Turkey today and are said to have agreed to work together to stop jihadists entering Afghanistan, or crossing the borders from Pakistan. President Karzai and President Musharraf didn't shake hands at the meeting, and didn't take any questions during a 'media conference'.

President Karzai's fading popularity in Afghanistan is viewed by Pakistan and NATO countries as being a key factor in the decay of the country's security.

From the New York Times :

United States Special Forces said they killed more than 130 Taliban in two recent days of heavy fighting in a valley in western Afghanistan, but hundreds of angry villagers protested in nearby Shindand on Monday, saying dozens of civilians had been killed when the Americans called in airstrikes.

The protesters sacked and burned government buildings, said Noor Khan Nekzad, a spokesman for the provincial police. He said none of the demonstrators were injured, but news reports said a number of protesters were hurt as the police and the army moved in to subdue the crowd.

The American military said that the fighting against the Taliban occurred Friday and Sunday in the Zerkoh Valley, near the Iranian border about 30 miles south of the city of Herat, and that the Special Forces called in airstrikes on at least two occasions. An American soldier was killed in the fighting on Friday, the military said, but there were no other reported casualties on the coalition side.

Forty-nine Taliban fighters, including two leaders of the group, were killed in the first bombardment on Friday, and 87 militants were killed in bombing during a second battle on Sunday that raged for 14 hours, the military said in a statement from the United States-led coalition headquarters at the Bagram air base.

But the local residents said that civilians were killed in the bombardment and that some drowned in the river as they fled, according to a local member of Parliament, Maulavi Gul Ahmad. News agencies reported that demonstrators said women and children were among the dead.

Mr. Ahmad condemned the bombing and said that the fighting angered local residents because the Americans raided their houses at night.

“They should not do that,” he said in a telephone interview. “The number that they claim — that 130 Taliban were killed — is totally wrong. There are no Taliban there.”

Raiding houses touches a nerve in Afghanistan, especially in conservative tribal areas, because the local custom dictates that men who are not family members cannot enter the parts of homes where the women stay. Such raids were upsetting local sensibilities so much several years ago that the American forces made an agreement with the Afghan government that they would not raid houses without the presence of Afghan elders or the police. The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission says that the agreement is still in effect, but that American troops do not always adhere to it.

But an Afghan military official, who asked not to be identified, presented a different version of events from that of Mr. Ahmad. He said that the Special Forces had run into trouble on Friday, when they were surrounded by insurgents, and that they requested support from the Afghan National Army.

Afghan Army and police officials denied any involvement in the fighting.

From the London Times :

In what was reportedly the deadliest fighting in the country since January, US and Afghan army forces claimed to have destroyed seven Taleban positions and killed at least 87 fighters at Herat province yesterday, after receiving a tip-off about Taleban activity in the area's Zerkoh Valley. The attack, which Nato said was a combined ground and air strike, reportedly lasted 14 hours.

No coalition troops were believed to have been killed or injured in either attack.

Gul Aqa, the district's police chief, told the AFP news agency that the attacks had killed "a large number of people," but could not confirm the exact number.

Confirmation of the weekend's operations came as Britain announced today that about 2,000 troops - made up of both UK and Afghan forces - had launched a new operation to flush Taleban fighters out of a valley in Helmand province.

Operation Silicon, which will be focused on the Sangin Valley area, aims to clear the fundamentalist group's forces from Afghanistan's premier opium-producing province.

The province produces about 40 percent of the total amount of opium from Afghanistan, which illegally supplies more than 90 percent of the world's supply of the drug.

Fall Of Popularity For Karzai Could See Failure Of NATO War In Afghanistan

Thousands Of Afghanis Protest US-Led Attacks That Killed Civilians, Storm Government Buildings

317 US Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan, Pakistan And Uzbekistan During 'War On Terror'

Pakistan, Afghanistan Presidents Agree To Work Together To Fight Terrorism, Though Tensions Remain

Pakistan To Continue Fencing Its Borders With Afghanistan

3000 Militants & Fighters Killed In 2006, And More Than 1000 Civilians

Russia Tells The World American Dominance Is Over



Russia under Vladimir Putin continues to position itself in the top tiers of the 'New World Order', as the United States' influence and standing in global affairs diminishes off the back of the tragic failures of the Iraq War, and the international view that its internal troubles are fast growing out of control. The US-initiated 'War on Terror' has failed to curb terror attacks, and it is beyond a fact that it has led to an upsurge in support for Islamic extremism and anti-Americanism across the planet.

Russia counts China and Iran as close, and powerful, allies in the restructuring of the global order, and a new Cold War looms over missile defence, as the United States pushes for an expansion of NATO that will bring in more countries closer to Russia's borders under the missile defence umbrella.

China and Russia, and Iran to a lesser degree, are re-arming on a phenomenal scale, and the United States is attempting to hammer their international credibility through harassing and negative human rights reports, while badgering India and smaller nations to be wary of Russia and China's future plans.

But India, and most recently Japan, are closing ranks with China, in particular, and forming massive multi-billion dollar trade deals with Russia and Iran.

Analysts said the Iraq War was risky on a global scale for the United States, long before the war began, because if they failed to win a total victory, allowing greater expansion of US-backed democracy across the Middle East, and instead got bogged down fighting a protracted guerrilla war, it would deplete American military and Treasury resources, allowing China and Russia to make their move. Clearly, this is now exactly what Russia, and China, are doing.

For now, at least, Russia it would appear is taking the lead in challenging the United States' recruitment of Eastern Europe allies, and their subsequent re-arming, and agitating against the US-led destabilising of the Iranian regime.

From the UK Guardian :

The news that an arms race may be underway once more between Washington and Moscow has brought back some unpleasant memories, but it is also a pointer to a more complicated future.

The Kremlin's threat to counter US missile defence installations in eastern Europe is a sign that Russia will no longer acquiesce in a Pax Americana.

What seemed in the west like a post cold-war honeymoon in the nineties is remembered more as a rape by Moscow's new leaders. In their eyes Russia was taken advantage of at a moment of economic weakness by Washington, London and a band of unscrupulous Russian oligarchs. A new Russian foreign policy, published by the government in recent days makes it clear that Moscow believes the era of American hegemony is now over.

"The myth about the unipolar world fell apart once and for all in Iraq," the review says. "A strong, more self-confident Russia has become an integral part of positive changes in the world."

The policy document is an elaboration of an anti-American polemic delivered two months ago by Vladimir Putin to a roomful of shocked western diplomats in Munich. "The Munich speech may be an event ... we look back to and say: that's when everything changed, but we should have seen it coming," said Cliff Kupchan, a former US state department official now at the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy.

Around the world, Putin's Russia has been serving notice for some time it is prepared to challenge US leadership of the international community. It is beginning to push back hard against missile defence and Nato's eastward expansion. It has resisted tough sanctions against Iran, and so far refused to go along with a UN-brokered plan to hand Kosovo autonomy. Moscow is also signalling it wants to be treated as a serious player in the Middle East, meeting Hamas officials at a time they are being ostracised by the US and western Europe.

Washington may be in the throes of intellectual ferment over the Bush doctrine, of defeating extremism by exporting democracy, but the Putin doctrine is by contrast, an exercise in pragmatism. It stresses the importance of national sovereignty and the primacy of the UN in resolving disputes. The common theme is Moscow's demand for its views to be taken into account.

Soaring oil and gas prices have transformed the environment. Russia is no longer a debtor nation. A new self-assuredness was on show when the Russians hosted the G8 meeting at St Petersburg in 2006. "Suddenly, they had all the right suits, watches and the right cars," said a western official who was there.

Along with all the trappings of western affluence came a new determination that Russia would not be absorbed by the west. The Yeltsin government toyed with the idea of joining the European Union, but that idea is now dead. In an article to mark the EU's 50th anniversary, Mr Putin stated openly that Russia has "no intention of either joining the EU or establishing any form of institutional association with it".

Moscow's relationship with Europe is now defined by its role as the continent's oil and gas supplier. Its tactics have been those of a giant corporation seeking to maximise its market power.

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Russia Prepares Military Response To US Plans For Missile Shield Bases In Eastern Europe

Russia Claims US Plans To Interfere In Upcoming Elections - Sees Such Interference As A Threat To Internal Affairs And Sovereignty

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Putin Warns United States Over Military Expansion On Russia's Borders

Claim : US Build Up "Even Greater Threat Than The Cold War"

There are plenty of well-placed fear and tension over the United States' advanced planning to take out Iran's nuclear energy facilities through a series of air-strikes, most likely via Israel, using ground-penetrating nuclear weapons. On the day a United Nations Security Council deadline for Iran to stop uranium enrichment, February 21, the US will have two carrier strike groups in position in the Persian Gulf.

But a second, far more troubling confrontational threat has fully emerged in the past week.

A possible full-blown clash between the United States and Russia, not only in retaliation for possibles strikes on Iran, but over the US' increasing military build-up on its European bases, close to Russia's borders, and the US announcements that it will expand the scope and reach of its 'missile defence' system into countries, literally, bordering with Russia territory.

In a move that has sent earthquake-like rumblings through the world's diplomatic and military communities, Russia's President Vladimir Putin has now come out and directly warned the United States, both subtly and starkly, that it has "overstepped its national borders in every way" as he warned of a new global nuclear arms race.

Putin's astounding remarks followed a flurry of similar 'back off' warnings from Russia's foreign and defence ministers in recent weeks.

From the Associated Press :

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Saturday that the United States' increased use of military force is creating a new arms race, with smaller nations turning toward developing nuclear weapons.

Speaking at a conference of the world's top security officials, including the Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, Putin said nations ''are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations.''

''One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way,'' he told the 250 officials, including more than 40 defense and foreign ministers.

''This is nourishing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons,'' Putin said, but did not elaborate on specifics and did not mention the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Russian leader also voiced concern about U.S. plans to build a missile defense system in eastern Europe -- likely in Poland and the Czech Republic -- and the expansion of NATO as possible challenges to Russia.

''The process of NATO expansion has nothing to do with modernization of the alliance or with ensuring security in Europe,'' Putin said.

''On the contrary, it is a serious factor provoking reduction of mutual trust.''

On the missile defense system, Putin said: ''I don't want to accuse anyone of being aggressive'' but suggested it would seriously change the balance of power and could provoke an unspecified response.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had little to say about Putin's remarks, noting only that ''he was very candid.''

Putin's spokesman Dimitry Peskov said the Russian leader did not intend to be confrontational, but acknowledged it was his harshest criticism of the United States since he was elected in March 2000.

''The reason for his comments is Russia's concern about the growing amount of conflicts and the malfunctioning of international law,'' Peskov told the AP.

Russia spent just $8 billion on military defence in 2001. In 2007, that budget has shot up to well over $30 billion, and the development of a new generation of nuclear submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles and aircraft carriers is underway.

The United States budget for 2007 will be in the vicinity of some 20 times the total Russian military budget. In comparison, Australia (a nation of only 20 million people, but with a land mass of similar size to the United States) will spend more than $18 billion in 2007, much of which will go towards making it a more useful, valuable military ally of the United States.

A prominent Russian general was quoted, on February 8, by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying, "NATO is expanding, and it is expanding directly toward Russia."

General Makhmut Gareyev, president of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, was reacting to the US plans to place key elements of its missile defence system in the Czech Republic and Poland.

The United States has claimed it needs missile defence in these two key NATO allied counties as part of its 'umbrella' world defence against the possible threat posed by Iranian and North Korean nuclear missiles.

But the Russians regard such claims as rubbish. They see clearly that the US wants to have the ability to knock Russian missiles out of the sky almost as soon as they are launched.

From the Financial Times :

A chill descended on relations between Washington and Moscow on Friday as Russia’s top defence officials criticised what they called US military expansion in Europe.

Sergei Ivanov, Russian defence minister and a possible successor to President Vladimir Putin, said he did not believe the Bush administration’s claims that its planned missile defence programme was aimed at protecting the US from Iran, North Korea or terrorist groups.

Speaking after meeting his Nato opposite numbers in Seville, Mr Ivanov spelled out Moscow’s plans to counteract the US programme.

“What is the real intention of these activities?” he asked. “This will not harm the Russian deterrent. We will develop our own strategic system, which will have the capability to surpass any missile system. We want to be absolutely sure that under no circumstances are we under pressure.”

But he added: “We will not get back in the arms race.”

Mr Ivanov’s comments came after Russia’s army chief of staff warned that expansion of the US military presence in Russia’s traditional zones of influence was a top security threat.

General Yuri Baluyevsky said Russia faced even greater military threats than during the cold war, and needed a new doctrine to respond to them.

Tensions over the missile defence programme have grown since Washington announced last month that it was negotiating installing a radar station for the scheme in the Czech Republic and interceptor rockets in Poland.

Mr Ivanov said the two countries, both former Soviet satellites, were too far away to play a part in disabling missiles from North Korea or Iran. “Take a look at the map,” he said. He added that he did not believe the system would be effective against terrorist groups.

“They just don’t need missiles,” he said. “They have other forms of delivery – human bodies and civilian aircraft.”

(US Defence Secretary Robert Gates) sought to soothe Russia’s concerns on the anti-missile scheme. “We have made it quite clear that it is not directed at them,” he said.

Taliban Claims It Has 2000 Suicide Bombers Ready To Attack In Coming Summer Offensive

The Taliban claims it has a suicide bomber force of some 5000.

So many in fact, there is not enough explosives to go round, or enough viable, valuable targets for them to hit.

So for the moment they are threatening NATO forces with 2000 suicide bombers in what is believed to be a great increased offensive in the coming spring.

So many suicide bombers, so few explosives with which to blow themselves, and others, up.

Such is the insanity of Islamist-Jihadi war.

From Reuters :

The Taliban is gearing up for a massive summer offensive, with more than 2,000 suicide bombers ready for action and even more preparing, a senior commander said on Saturday.

The warning comes a day after a top U.S. diplomat warned Afghanistan was in for a bloody and dangerous spring after the bloodiest year since the hardline Islamist Taliban was ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

"The Taliban will intensify their guerrilla and suicide strikes this summer," Mulla Hayat Khan told Reuters from a secret location. "This will be a bloodiest year for foreign troops."

He said 2,000 suicide bombers were ready -- about 40 percent of the total suicide force -- adding numbers were so high it was sometimes hard to find enough explosives and targets.

More than 4,000 people died last year, a quarter of them civilians, as the resurgent Taliban fought back with what NATO generals said was surprising ferocity.

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British Commanders Says Reinforcements Are On The Way - 3200 American Troops To Stay 4 More Months After Year's Deployment

Suicide Bomber Strikes In Kandahar - Senior Taliban Leader Thought Killed In Airstrikes