Russian Commandos Being Readied for Possible Peacekeeping Operations Outside Country

Syrian direction of Russian troops

Defense beginning intensive training units for operations outside the country

Sergei Konovalov

Navy Commander Vladimir Shamanov on orders ready to send commandos to address peacekeeping challenges. 
Picture Inter / PhotoXPress.ru

The Ministry of Defence in the number of tasks, has recently put the generals by President Vladimir Putin, a new plan for use of the armed forces outside Russia. One of the countries where there may be actions of Russian troops abroad – Syria.Details of the plan worked out with the joint headquarters of the Organization of Collective Security Treaty, as well as regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of Shanghai Cooperation Organization. This is “NG” on condition of anonymity, said a source in the military.

An indirect confirmation of this information are also words of Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Nikolai Bordyuzha. He said the possibility of participation of the CSTO peacekeeping force in resolving the crisis in Syria. On the intensive training of Russian troops to do likewise show a special training program for the airborne troops, GRU and light compounds Army and Marine Corps of the Navy.

A source in the Defense Ministry said on condition of anonymity, “NG”, that the participation of Russian troops outside the country, including in Syria, we need a political solution to the Russian leadership and the relevant resolutions of the United Nations. However, Russian troops were already training work out peacekeeping tasks as a part of a feasible multinational force, as well as their own. At the same time practiced the specific tactical issues – technical equipment areas, checkpoints and observation posts, the use of weapons, training and firing, etc.

Notes that the effort involved in operations in the Middle East is fraught with active combat. This fact confirms the statement Bordyuzha as saying: “In Syria, the same seems to be needed to carry out an operation to enforce peace first of all fighters.That is, those who are trying to solve political problems by force of arms, not in the Constitution of the State. “ However, according to the Secretary General of Collective Security Treaty Organization, the initiative was “bright for politicians, but not for those who are in the peacekeeping force will fall into a hell.” ”There is in fact, seems to have carried out combat with heavy weapons on both sides” – concludes Bordyuzha.

Desatniki Pskov Airborne Division took part in peacekeeping operations, and local military conflicts.  Photo PhotoXPress.ru

Such scenarios are, apparently, were studied during the outbreak last Monday inspections Pskov 76th air assault division (DSHD) Navy. The inspection will take place under the direction of the chief military inspector general-lieutenant, Gennady Borisov. As a representative of the Defense Ministry told reporters on the Navy, Colonel Alexander Kucherenko, such a check in the compounds of the Airborne troops for the first time. It will last about three weeks at military ranges, “Struga Red” and “Zavelich’e.” It is necessary to determine the “state of combat readiness and combat training, staffing division, level of training and field training of personnel”, – said Kucherenko. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense official reports do not say that the 76th DSHD began preparations for military action in Syria.

It should be noted that the Pskov Airborne Division – one of the most combat-ready connections in the Armed Forces. Its officers, NCOs and men participated in the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo (1999-2001), the fighting in Chechnya (1994-1996, 1999-2007) and the war with Georgia (August 2008). In 2004 she was the first in the Russian army was fully contracted.

In addition to the 76 th DSHD are intensively trained to act outside the country conducts the 15th combined arms brigade in Samara. How to tell “NG” in the headquarters of the Central Military District, in addition to all traditional infantry tactics, fire and engineering training peacekeepers from June 1, 2012 began an extended study of international humanitarian law and intensive language practice. In addition, Samara will learn the rules of military duty at roadblocks and checkpoints, as well as practice in patrolling the so-called separation of bands. They tend to create the borders of the conflicting parties.

According to sources from the Southern Military District, for combat operations outside the Russian Federation prepared and special units, staffed by the Chechens, who had previously served in the GRU spetsbatalonah “West” and “East”. Recall, on the initiative of then-Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov Chechen soldiers in 2006-2007, has successfully carried out peacekeeping missions in Lebanon. They distinguished themselves in the brief war to repel the Georgian aggression against South Ossetia in August 2008.

Possible actions in Syria have already been trained special forces from the separate brigade of marines Black Sea Fleet. As you know, they were present at the patrol ship “Smetliviy”, which in May 2012 with a business calling visited the Syrian port of Tartus, where the lease sites are Russian Navy.

Editor in Chief, “Problems of national strategy,” said Ajdar Kurtov “NG”, that Russia has geopolitical interests in the Middle East, and it will support Syria, including, possibly using its peacekeepers. ”Syria is slipping into civil war. And its leaders need help, which, with appropriate political will of the Russian Federation may have – said the expert. - It is desirable, of course, to carry out in cooperation with the allies of Russia in the CSTO and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. But the West and the Arab world this is, of course, will interfere. Ahead of us are waiting for hard times. And because the Russian army should be prepared accordingly, so that contact with the Allies to fulfill its peacekeeping missions in Syria, in order to defend its interests there. “

Number Two Zeta Arrested By US Authorities At His Oklahoma Horse-Breeding Ranch

[SEE:  Oklahoma, New Mexico horse-racing tracks linked to Mexican drug cartel, Feds say]

Jose Trevino Morales captured brother of Z-40

U.S. authorities arrested the brother of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, the second in command of Los Zetas, who ran a ranch horse racing in Oklahoma in which washed billion, The New York Times.

The brothers settled in U.S. Trevino a successful business breeding thoroughbred horses, called Tremor Enterprise, which allowed them to launder money obtained through drug trafficking, according to reports of police officers obtained by the NYT.

With the money from Miguel Angel Trevino, aka Z-40, his brother Joseph bought a ranch in Oklahoma and about 300 stallions and mares, and in just a period of 3 years did win three of the most important races in the U.S., winning about 2.5 million dollars in prizes.

The Justice Department on Tuesday made a raid on the ranch in Oklahoma, involving helicopters and hundreds of agents, making the capture of Jose Trevino and several of his collaborators, who are expected to be indicted soon.

According to EU authorities, this network of Los Zetas earmarked about one million dollars a month to buy racehorses in the United States.

The authorities were alerted about the cartel’s activities on U.S. soil in January 2010 when they were informed that Los Zetas a day paid a million dollars for two mares for breeding.

Agents said that horse racing is one of the favorite pastimes of Miguel Angel Trevino, and although always in constant motion, he manages to handle several ranches and racetracks in Mexico and Guatemala where organized races “parejeras “

Clinton Should Share the Blame For Killings of Armenian Soldiers

Harut Sassounian

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

A tragic pattern of bloody engagements continues to recur along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border at great human cost. Whenever high level visits or international meetings are scheduled on the Artsakh (Karabakh) conflict, Azerbaijan unfailingly initiates attacks on Armenian border guards causing many casualties.

Azerbaijan’s leaders hope that such hostile action would impress upon the mediating countries the urgency of resolving the conflict by pressuring Armenia’s leadership to make territorial concessions on Artsakh.

Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the Caucasus republics. On the day of her arrival in Yerevan, Azeri forces attacked two Armenian border posts, killing three soldiers and wounding many others. In the ensuing days, more Azeri attacks took place, drawing Armenian return fire, resulting in scores of casualties, mostly on the Azeri side.

Armenians expected Secretary Clinton to strongly condemn Azerbaijan after its initial attack. Clearly, the Azeri military action was timed to coincide with her visit to Armenia. Yet, regrettably, the Secretary merely urged both countries to refrain from “the use of force,” stressing that the Artsakh conflict “can be resolved exclusively by peaceful means.” Clinton’s totally unacceptable statement equated the aggressors with the victims. Moreover, by not condemning the Azeri attacks, she actually emboldened Azerbaijan to commit further acts of aggression against Armenia.

Since it is common knowledge that Azerbaijan orchestrates such attacks to coincide with visits of high-ranking officials to the region, Secretary Clinton should have warned Azerbaijan, before embarking on her trip, not to initiate any hostile action while she was in the area. The State Department should have advised the Azeri government that any breach of the ceasefire during the Clinton visit would be personally embarrassing for the Secretary of State, leaving her no choice but to cancel her trip to Baku. Even if such a warning was not issued in advance, Clinton should have refused to go to Baku after the Azeri attacks. Unfortunately, the Secretary placed a higher value on Azeri oil than on Armenian blood. By her actions, she also undermined the international prestige and moral standing of the United States!

As this could be Clinton’s farewell visit to the region — she is retiring from public service later this year — it is regrettable that she will leave behind a legacy of violence and conflict rather than peace and reconciliation. The US Secretary may have come to Yerevan and Baku to encourage a negotiated settlement to the Artsakh conflict, yet she left the region more destabilized than before.

Another factor that has encouraged Azerbaijan to continue its attacks is the inadequate Armenian response to the countless ceasefire violations since 1994. Armenians will be unable to stop Azeri aggression simply by firing back. The Aliyev regime should be made to understand that it would pay a heavy price for breaching the ceasefire. Rather than simply returning fire, the Armenian response should be to neutralize the Azeri military positions responsible for initiating the attacks.

Although some may fear that a more robust Armenian response would lead to all-out conflict, such concerns are misplaced because Azerbaijan is not ready to wage war, according to most military experts. By starting a premature war, the Azeris risk losing even more territories, not to mention the enormous economic losses!

To deter further Azeri aggression and reduce Armenian casualties, here are seven actions that Armenia may consider taking should Azerbaijan continue to violate the ceasefire:

– Respond by targeting Azerbaijan’s petroleum industry, disrupting its oil and gas pipelines. The best defense is a good offense.

– Take preemptive action to neutralize Azeri snipers who regularly target Armenian border guards and civilians in nearby villages.

– After each attack suspend peace talks with Azerbaijan for an indefinite period. One cannot talk peace and fight at the same.

– Demand that all countries refrain from the sale of weapons to Azerbaijan.

– Urge CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization), a defense-alliance that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, to warn Azerbaijan that any further attacks on Armenia would trigger a collective military response from all CSTO members.

– Declare that Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan in the Artsakh conflict constitutes a hostile act, and hence withdraw Armenia’s signature from the Armenia-Turkey Protocols.

– Recognize the Republic of Artsakh as an independent state and invite other countries to do likewise.

Turkmen Govt. Keeps Firing Blanks Over Trans-Caspian Pipeline Fuel It Cannot Produce

[The following article from Rockefeller-associated Trend website is a total fluff piece, which falls flat.  Instead of highlighting Turkmenistan's large hydrocarbon reserves, it only serves to draw attention to the Turkmen inability to live up to its bullshit claims, that it can fulfill its current gas commitments, as well as filling a proposed trans-Caspian pipeline.  Whatever Turkmenistan has to offer beyond what it is already pumping-out of the ground, is locked deep underground--most of it under the deep blue Caspian waters.  Pipelines cannot be filled with promises alone.  The only possible way that Turkmenistan production can fulfill Turkmen pipe dreams is if the major Western oil and gas corporations are brought in to run the show, but so far, Berdi has been reluctant to relinquish that degree of control over his buried goldmine.  

The Trend fluff piece also misses the boat on what is left of the original Nabucco backers.   At least two pipeline backers have so far backed-out of the consortium, German RWE and Hungarian MOL.  (Nabucco Is Toast).]  

Turkmenistan to examine underwater pipeline construction technologies

Turkmenistan, Ashgabat

Trend 

H. Hasanov

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has urged the scientists of the Academy of Sciences to develop innovative pipeline-building technologies for the Caspian Sea bed, the Turkmen government said today.

The president said fundamental research must be conducted in Turkmen seismology. The international cooperation must be expanded in the field of seismology. New techniques and technologies must be introduced.

Turkmenistan also voiced the initiative to give concrete content to international efforts to preserve the unique natural resources of the Caspian Sea at the 66th session of UN General Assembly in New York City. A proposal was made to organize the Caspian Environment Forum as a permanent body to deal with environmental issues.

“The primary role in solving ecological problems of the Caspian Sea should be given to the scientists,” he added. I think that it is necessary to develop multi-purpose long-term regional research programs aimed at developing new scientific approaches to protect the Caspian natural area.”

Ashgabat is sure the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project has the right to a speedy implementation. It is the best variant for Turkmen gas exports to European market.

The EU, which is interested in diversifying energy flows, has already begun negotiating to conclude the agreement on this project between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. West and Turkmenistan think that the issue of laying a 300-kilometer pipeline through the Caspian Sea
bed is under the jurisdiction of the countries covered by the project – that is, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

While meeting with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in Ashgabat early last year, Berdimuhamedov said he considers the European direction to be the most promising and expressed his willingness to sign specific agreements on Nabucco project after detailed negotiations.

Barroso stressed the importance of building the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline to ensure the safety and security of energy supplies to Europe, as well as a stable demand for Turkmen gas.

During talks about the possible realization of the Trans-Caspian project, Russia and Iran, having the largest natural gas reserves in the world, discussed potential risks to the Caspian ecosystem.

Practice proves the opposite: the Russian Gazprom gas monopoly has implemented itself and continues to implement even more ambitious projects via the Black and Baltic seas. Turkmen ecologists at the international ecological conference in Ashgabat recalled that “there has been a pipeline at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea since the 1970s”.

At the same time, it was said that marine pipelines “are much more practical, cheaper and environmentally safer” because they are “virtually isolated from the influence of human activity due to being under a layer of water and away from the coast.”

Ashgabat is committed to the view that the environmental component for any economic project and in particular, one of this scale, is “extremely important” and said it was ready to undertake the necessary expertise at a high level with the parties concerned.

The Trans-Caspian route might become part of the Nabucco transnational project with its implementation of which Brussels expects at the expense of Caspian resources to diversify sources of gas consumption, a significant portion of which at this stage is ensured by Russia.

Potential buyers are Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Turkish Botas, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, and German RWE which are all members of Nabucco. The last of these is represented on the Turkmen market under the Production Sharing Agreement on the shelf of the Caspian Sea.

Turkmenistan has expressed willingness to supply the Nabucco project annually with 40 billion cubic meters of gas of which 10 billion could be provided by Malaysian Petronas working on the Turkmen sea block.

The rest of the volume can be provided by the 1000km long East-West gas pipeline being built on the territory of Turkmenistan which originates from the country’s largest deposits of Southern Yoloten and ends near the coast of the Caspian Sea.

Experts believe that ‘resource ensuring’ of Nabucco by Turkmenistan is of interest not only to potential customers in Europe, but also Turkey, as a recipient and transit facilitator, as well as Azerbaijan, on which in particular, on its Caspian oil fields, the consortium members rely.

Baku will be able to receive long term significant profit for the transit. Turkmen oil has already been actively and successfully transported via Azerbaijani ports.

As for the route, the northern part of the South Caspian basin is stable. So it’s better to lay gas pipelines between the cities of Turkmenbashi and Baku, as the Caspian Sea there is quite shallow and not so wide.

Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az

Yemen War Working-Out Just the Way CIA Had It Planned

U.S. risks getting dragged into Yemen war

Yemen claims it recaptured the southern town of Jaar from al-Qaida but the situation could still drag the United States into another war against militant Islam.

Yemeni soldiers stand guard as men wait to cast their votes during the presidential elections at a polling center in Sanaa, Yemen on February 21, 2012. The election brought an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year hardline rule in Yemen, the first Arab state where a revolt ended in a negotiated settlement. UPI/Mohammad Abdullah 

License photo

SANAA, Yemen, June 12 (UPI) – Yemen’s army claims it has recaptured the southern town of Jaar from al-Qaida in a U.S.-backed offensive to crush the jihadists and their allies in which the Americans risk being dragged into another war against militant Islam.

In recent weeks, Yemen forces, heavily backed by U.S. intelligence, Special Forces and airborne strikes, have claimed to have pushed back the forces of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula across the south.

On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, announced the army had retaken Jaar, killing at least 20 militants and driving out others.

AQAP’s local subsidiary, Ansar al-Shariah, captured Jaar in March 2011. In the months that followed, the jihadists had established six so-called caliphates in the ever-restive south, in Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, Lawdar, Maudia, Shaqra, Azzan and al Houta.

Jaar, with a history of deep Islamic fundamentalism, was the centerpiece of Ansar al-Shariah’s rise to power.

If the town has indeed fallen, it will mark a major — and badly needed — victory for Yemeni President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi. But there’s a long way to go yet.

Hadi, with U.S. and Saudi backing, replaced the Machiavellian Ali Abdullah Saleh, in February. Saleh, who had played both ends against the middle with the Americans and al-Qaida, had headed a brutal and corrupt dictatorship for three decades and eventually Washington decided he had to go.

Hadi has been trying to purge the military of Saleh’s relatives, with some success, but the army is now divided.

Ultimately, Hadi is the Americans’ creature and they have little choice but to back him and if that means bumping off his enemies as well as al-Qaida, Washington’s primary target, so be it.

Hence the ever-growing involvement of U.S. Special Forces and the CIA in Yemen, where the Saudi and the Iranians are fighting their particular war as well.

It has got to the point that U.S. President Barack Obama has had to send in Special Forces teams to stiffen Hadi’s forces.

Washington has tried to do this quietly but, as usual, such subterfuges are revealed and the growing U.S. involvement in Yemen, a country bound for economic and social collapse, has raised fears of U.S. involvement in yet another war.

The Americans see Yemen “as an incubator of transnational terrorist plots with AQAP being thought of as al-Qaida Central’s most potent franchise,” analyst Derek Hendry Flood wrote in Asia Times Online.

The group has made at least three unsuccessful attempts to bomb the United States or blow up U.S. airliners in flight.

The Americans consider the key figure in all three attacks to be Ibrahim al-Asiri, a Saudi and AQAP’s highly innovative bombmaker who in two instances was able to get his devices past all security controls onto aircraft.

A third bomb, constructed entirely out of materials unlikely to trigger alarms, was only found because the man chosen to carry it was an undercover Saudi intelligence asset who exposed the operation.

U.S. officials fear that one of these days, al-Asiri or another AQAP innovator, is going to get lucky and wipe out a lot of Americans.

Analyst Micah Zenko of the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York think tank, reported in early May that “there have been more drone strikes in the past month — 17 — than in the preceding nine years, since the first strike on Nov. 3, 2002.

“In the meantime, there have been between 10 and 50 other U.S. attacks on militants in Yemen using manned aircraft or naval platforms.”

Zenko noted: “According to U.S, officials, there is no daylight between armed militants seeking to overthrow Hadi and terrorists working to strike the American homeland.”

The CFR warned that “drone strikes could ultimately unite these disparate groups behind a common banner that opposes both the Hadi regime and … the United States.

“It would be easy for the U.S. military and CIA to become a Yemeni counterinsurgency air force for the Hadi regime …”

As has happened in Pakistan, “the average Yemeni will eventually come to resent a foreign military that repeatedly attacks its territory,” Zenko wrote.

“The current eliminationist, uncompromising counterterrorism mission in Yemen is not delivering results, but it is unlikely that the Obama administration, in alliance with the Hadi regime, will change course anytime soon.

“In the words of President Hadi, the “hunting of terrorists is irreversible’.”

US forces prepare to get their asses handed to them again in Nuristan

[SEE:  The Controversial Battle of Wanat]

U.S. troops return to Afghanistan’s “lost province”

By Rob Taylor

KAMDESH, Afghanistan | Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:09am EDT

(Reuters) – - U.S. troops returned to the area in Afghanistan they call the “dark side of the moon” this week, a remote Hindu Kush region that controls several access routes to Kabul and where the coalition suffered one of its biggest reverses in the decade-long war.

This part of Nuristan province, in the mountainous far east of Afghanistan, could be the target of a planned Taliban offensive, coalition commanders say.

Carrying “speedballs” – black body bags packed with mortars, ammunition and heavy machine guns – a company of U.S. soldiers landed by helicopter on a narrow ridge and trudged up to a tiny Afghan army post overlooking icy peaks and plunging river valleys, as hostile as breathtaking.

With U.S. intelligence pointing to a possible attack by as many as 1,800 Taliban, the soldiers set up weapons over a backyard-sized square, while Afghan army soldiers in camouflage and plastic sandals pointed out fires and torchlight in the distance in the chill night air.

“We’ll get some eyes overhead to check it out. If it’s Taliban, we’ll get a plane up in the morning and drop a bomb on it,” said U.S. Major Jared Bordwell as some of his men from the 1-12 Infantry Regiment dropped down in the dust and tried to get some sleep.

American soldiers withdrew from Nuristan, or the “land of light”, after around 300 insurgents overran an isolated combat outpost near Kamdesh village – below where Bordwell’s men were huddled – on October 3, 2009, killing eight soldiers and wounding 22.

The former U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, decided in 2010 to give up remote combat outposts and shift American troops to protect larger population centers.

But it was through here that the Taliban shifted men and weapons for a suicide assault on Kabul’s diplomatic and government quarter in April, circling beyond the reach of U.S. and Afghan army positions to the south in neighboring Kunar province, coalition commanders say.

With Nuristan now a Taliban staging post and haven, the province is a vital pocket for U.S. forces based in Kunar, with only a few hundred Afghan soldiers and police over an area of 5,800 square km.

“Nuristan remains for me a challenge, a black hole. My line in the sand stops at the Kunar and Nuristan borders,” said Lt-Colonel Scott Green, a wiry former Ranger who oversees Nuristan.

But he will not be in the region for long – NATO troops are due to be withdrawn from north Kunar by October. Green and his men, who are based in Kunar and in Nuristan temporarily, will be among those withdrawn.

So his reduced-strength 1st battalion has to counter insurgents while simultaneously building Afghan capability and “retrograding” – closing up U.S. bases – all within months.

It is one of the most hostile areas in war-torn Afghanistan in a landscape that is equally hostile. Taliban and al Qaeda fighters pass through easily, from either Pakistan or from bases located out of easy NATO reach inside a 4 km-wide border buffer zone.

As many as 2,500 Taliban are thought to be in the province, controlling most districts, and around 300 are foreign, mostly Pakistanis or Chechens, Afghan commanders say.

The insurgents control what few roads there are and have three ways to move deeper into Afghanistan, through either the Kunar, Waygal or Parun valleys, which then wind down into provinces nearer to Kabul.

UP AT DAWN

The next day, Bordwell’s soldiers were up in their body armor and crouched over guns at 4 a.m. to repel a dawn attack that did not happen. Then, they started to coach Afghan soldiers in everything from weapons care to their own health.

The sand-bagged positions became insufferably hot as the sun rose, while the translucent mountain stone underfoot flaked and crumbled to a glittering dust that glued itself to weapons and bodies, as unstable as the province’s security.

“Tell them to drink water. They will get dehydrated in body armor,” said one U.S. officer to a nodding Afghan interpreter.

Bordwell’s soldiers have come back to Kamdesh under a shift this year in NATO’s strategic focus from the Taliban’s southern heartlands to target supply routes and havens in the east, and also to back a former enemy turned warlord ally.

The fighting season began early this year in what has been called Afghanistan’s “lost” province after the Taliban turned against former Hezb-e Islami insurgent and local strongman, Mawlawi Sadeq, who has aligned his militia with the government.

Sadeq, still listed on U.S. government ‘capture or kill’ lists, turned up with seven other local elders to attend a ‘shura’ meeting with Bordwell and the accompanying U.S. mentor to Afghan forces, Lt-Colonel Rocky Burrell.

“We are happy with you guys coming here and listening to our problems. Our government is not doing anything,” said the aging warlord.

“If you are able to support us with heavy weapons it will be very good. I don’t think there would be any bad guys anymore.”

AIRSTRIKES AND GEMS

Burrell, a veteran of years of U.S. special forces operations in Guatemala, Panama, El Salvador and Colombia, says securing Nuristan would probably take thousands of Afghan soldiers that the government does not have, even though it is one of the country’s most mineral-rich provinces.

An Afghan militia member, Mohammad Ghazi, arrived at the post to have a bullet wound on the back of his head treated by U.S. medics and warned local people were deeply worried about the American pullout from Kunar and the entire country in 2014.

“There are a lot of Taliban around. If the (U.S.) supports the Afghan government it will be very good in future. If not, it will be worse,” Ghazi said.

As the hours passed, Bordwell called air strikes on Taliban fighting positions, with Apache helicopter gunships firing incendiary white phosphorous rockets into caves on a mountainside thought to hide an insurgent gun position.

As forest fires continued to burn from the strikes, a U.S. warplane dropped two bombs on a ridge across the valley, while soldiers hurled mortar shells onto river rapids where Afghan troops believe the Taliban like to gather.

TALIBAN CONTROL

Green acknowledged the Taliban controlled most of the districts within his nominal Nuristan command, which he sees from his north Kunar battalion command at Forward Operating Base Bostick as a line of snow-covered peaks on the horizon.

“I would not disagree with that. The hard part is that while you can say they are Taliban-controlled, that’s only because there is such a limited (U.S. security) presence up there,” he said.

Outside, the thump of outgoing 120mm mortar fire shook his headquarters, a low collection of white-washed huts beside a river flanked by vaulting, folded hills known as “rocket ridge”.

The terrain was proving as difficult for the Taliban as for the NATO-led coalition, Green said. The infamous Nuristan rebel commander Dos Mohammad – who led the attack on Combat Outpost Keating in the 2009 Battle of Kamdesh – had now reportedly moved south into Kunar, he said.

“There’s good and bad there for us. The good is he’s out of Nuristan. The bad is he’s a guy who made a name at COP Keating for rallying insurgents and overrunning U.S. bases,” Green said.

There were signs, though, in northern Kunar – another long-time insurgent supply route and stronghold – that were cause for hope ahead of the American pullback, Green said.

Insurgents have been mostly pushed away from the flashpoint Saw Valley in the south, a traditional Taliban supply inroad, and divisions between different militant groups in other areas that led to an insurgent crossfire.

Green was confident security by Afghan forces would be possible in parts of his command within the two years before NATO’s combat exit, but said securing all of Nuristan would remain difficult.

“I think we can transition in Kunar,” he said. “But if we were to try and expand without increased combat power there, then yes, I do think that we would be spread so thin that it would start to break.”

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Saudis snub Russian trade delegation

Saudi trade bodies refuse to meet Russian businessmen

• By Habib Toumi

Manama: Two Saudi trade bodies have refused to receive a Russian delegation to protest Moscow’s support to the Syrian regime.

“The Russian delegation was not official and comprised seven businessmen,” Abdullah Bin Mahfoodh, member of the Chamber of Commerce in Jeddah. “They were in Saudi Arabia to visit some trade shows and they asked their consulate in Jeddah to coordinate a visit to the chambers of commerce in Riyadh and Jeddah,” he told local Arabic daily Al Sharq.

The delegation visited the Jeddah trade body where they were received by employees, but they did not meet any businessman, he said, adding that four of the members were Muslims and they performed Umrah.

Makkah, where Muslims perform Umrah and Haj (pilgrimage), is about 70 kilometres from the Red Sea resort of Jeddah.

Ben Mahfood attributed the “lack of interest” of the Jeddah commerce chamber in organizing a meeting between Saudi and Russian businessmen to Moscow’s support to the Syrian regime.

A statement from the chamber denied remarks posted on social networks about an official Saudi reception for the delegation despite Moscow’s siding with the Syrian regime.

“The delegation members were received by the head of directorate, but there was never an official meeting with any of the chamber leaders,” it said. Thousands of Saudis launched an online campaign against the planned Saudi Russian meeting and used popular networks to denounce it, saying that it was a source of shame.

Last week, Saud Al Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states were losing hope that a peace plan spearheaded by United Nations and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan could put an end to violence in Syria.

Al Faisal said that Russia needed to change its stance on Syria.

“The time has come for Russia to change its stance from supporting the Syrian regime to working to stop the killing and (supporting) a peaceful transition of power,” he said at a news conference.

Ahmad Al Ghamdi, the head of the chamber media centre, said. They remained committed to the official Saudi Arabian position on the matter.

“Saudi businessmen have turned down all invitations by their Russian counterparts to take part in common activities,” he said, quoted by the daily.

The Russians arrived in Saudi Arabia through an invitation by a private company and the chamber had no role in granting them the necessary papers, he said.

“The limited reception went ahead only after we made sure that some of the visitors represented Muslim areas,” he said.

Abdul Rahman Al Jaraisi, the head of the chamber of commerce in Riyadh, said that the cancellation of the meeting with the Russian delegation was “an expression of compassion with the brotherly people of Syria and a protest against the Russian position on what is happening there.”

“We refused to meet because we wanted to convey the message from the Saudi business community and from Saudi Arabia that we have reservations about the unfair and unjust way they have been dealing with Syria,” he told Al Sharq. “Russia will be the greatest loser and if they stop exporting iron or wheat, we will not lose anything. There are Saudi substitutes for the iron and several other countries are ready to export to us iron and wheat,” he said.

Ambassador Feltman Gets Demoted from State Dept. To United Nations

United Nations confirms top US Middle East diplomat to take UN post

Reuters

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations confirmed on Monday that Jeffrey Feltman, until recently the top US diplomat for the Middle East, will soon take up a senior post at the United Nations.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said Feltman would replace American Lynn Pascoe as U.N. under-secretary-general for political affairs, a key position at the world body. He will be the highest-ranking US official in the UN secretariat.

Feltman “brings to the position over 26 years of political and diplomatic experience within the United States Folereign Service, mostly handling Eastern European and Middle Eastern affairs,” the UN press office said in a statement.

In his new position, Feltman will help to formulate U.N. policy in negotiations on the Middle East peace process and other conflicts and to oversee U.N. mediation efforts. Feltman is expected to take up the post this summer.

The US state department said last month that Feltman would retire from the U.S. government.

Feltman has extensive experience in the Middle East, having served as U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s office in Iraq’s Irbil province and as a senior official at the US consulate general in Jerusalem.

Earlier in his career, Feltman – who speaks French, Arabic and Hungarian – worked at the U.S. embassies in Israel, Tunisia, Hungary and Haiti.

As assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, a position he assumed on an acting basis in December 2008, Feltman has covered one of the most strategically important areas of the world during a particularly volatile period.

His tenure included the “Arab Spring” of uprisings that brought down authoritarian rulers in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya as well as the conflict in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad has sought to crush rebels trying to topple him.

Despite having made Israeli-Palestinian peace a priority, US President Barack Obama has little to show for his efforts more than three years into his term. Direct responsibility for this issue rested first with former special envoy George Mitchell and since with his successor, David Hale.

Open Season On Shia Pilgrims In Baghdad, Saudi Militias Have A Score Today of 56 Dead

Blasts Kill 56 Shia Pilgrims, Cops in Iraq

Suicide bomber attacks in Iraq

© REUTERS/ Saad Shalash

MOSCOW, June 13 (RIA Novosti)

A string of coordinated suicide bomber attacks in Iraq killed at least 56 people during a Shi’ite religious festival on Wednesday, media reported.

Four bombs were detonated in the capital Baghdad, killing 30 people, local police said, Al Jazeera television said.

Most victims were pilgrims celebrating the festival of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, a major religious holiday in Shia Islam, the largest religious denomination in Iraq, the report said.

Separate attacks in the southern city of Hilla hit two restaurants popular with local police, killing 22. Four more perished in twin attacks in the city of Balad.

Total number of injured in the attacks across the country stood at 167, Al Jazeera said.

About two thirds of Iraqi population are Shi’ite Muslims and some 30 percent Sunni Muslims. Sunnis controlled most of the government in times of Saddam Hussein, but have been gradually losing their influence after he was deposed during the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

How Does An Idiotic Govt. Sanction Rosoboronexport for Sales To Syria While Buying 21 of Their MI-17 Helicopters for Afghanistan?

Moscow and Washington About To Collide Over Military Support To Both Sides In Syria

U.S. Senator Challenges Pentagon over Russian Arms to Syria

Topic: Protests in Syria

Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters

© RIA Novosti. Alexei Kudenko

MOSCOW, June 13 (RIA Novosti)

A U.S. Senator has called on the Pentagon to take action against Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, which he claims is “arming the Assad regime” in Syria.

“I remain deeply troubled that the [Defense Department] would knowingly do business with a firm that has enabled mass atrocities in Syria,” Republican Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

“Such actions by Rosoboronexport warrant the renewal of U.S. sanctions against it, not a billion-dollar contract.”

Cornyn was referring to a U.S. Army contract with the Moscow-based firm to buy 21 Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters for Afghanistan’s forces. Pentagon officials have said Washington could place an order for additional 12 helicopters, bringing the total value of the purchase to about $1 billion.

Cornyn invoked his senatorial prerogative to put a hold on Heidi Shyu, U.S. President Barack Obama’s nominee to serve as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, as a means of pressurizing the Pentagon to review the contact.

But a Pentagon spokesman said dealing with Rosoboronexport was the “only legally available method” to supply the helicopters to Afghanistan.

“We understand the concerns. We’re not ignoring them,” Pentagon spokesman George Little told a news briefing on Tuesday. “But I would make the point that, in the case of Afghanistan, the Mi-17 is about giving them what they need and what they can use effectively to take on their own fights inside their own country.”

Rosoboronexport was subject to U.S. sanctions from 2006 to 2010 for allegedly providing nations including Iran and Syria with equipment that could be used to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Russia is the biggest supplier of arms to Syria, and maintains its only military base outside the former Soviet Union there. Earlier this month, President Vladimir Putin said Russian arms were not being used against pro-democracy protesters fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a claim derided as “patently untrue” by U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton on Tuesday.

Speaking in Washington, Clinton accused Russia of sending combat helicopters to Syria, saying the shipment will escalate the 15-month-old conflict “quite dramatically.”

Russia has insisted its arms shipments to Damascus were not violating any international laws, but has twice – along with China – vetoed UN resolutions against Damascus over what it calls a pro-rebel bias.

Rosoboronexport declined to comment when contacted by RIA Novosti.

Mil helicopters, which make Mi-17 and Mi-24 attack helicopters, was also unavailable for comment.

Earlier this month, five U.S. defense firms competing for a U.S. army tender issued in April announced plans to use Rosoboronexport as a subcontractor, in a move condemnned by rights activists.

The decision to subcontract through the Russian company was “out of step” with Obama’s committment to stop the violence in Syria, the Human Rights First group said on Tuesday.

A U.S. intelligence report released earlier this week also said the firm was supplying equipment for Iran’s disputed missile program.

Grateful Libyans Bomb Red Cross Office and British Ambassador

Blast hits Red Cross office in Libya, one wounded

TRIPOLI

(Reuters) – The Red Cross office in the Libyan city of Misrata was attacked and one man living nearby was wounded in the blast, a worker at the aid organization and a security source said on Wednesday.

The Libyan security source said the attack was likely carried out by a remote control bomb. “The walls of the building are damaged. Investigations are under way,” the source said.

The blast happened before dawn on Tuesday in the western town. A Libyan man was wounded, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) worker said.

It was the second attack on the organization in less than a month. A rocket-propelled grenade hit the ICRC’s offices in the eastern city of Benghazi in May, leaving a small hole in the side of the building but causing no casualties.

Tuesday’s attack came a day after a convoy carrying Britain’s ambassador to Libya was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Benghazi, wounding two of his bodyguards in the most serious of a recent spate of assaults on foreign targets.

(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Ali Shuaib; Editing by Pravin Char)

Moscow and Washington About To Collide Over Military Support To Both Sides In Syria

[Mrs. Clinton is intent upon creating a popular perception that military intervention is justified by this latest bit of manufactured "news."  The truth is--the Obama Administration is more "Bush" than either Bush himself or Cheney.  Their sole foreign policy is to fulfill the legacy of George W. Bush.  This has always been a bipartisan effort to cause World War III, a global war fought on our timetable.  American "genius" planners operate under the principle that WWIII is inevitable, but it may be "winnable," if the timing of events was controlled by us.

The Neo-liberal/neo-conservative plot to create an American Century has been the driving force in American foreign policy since the days of Reagan, if not before.  

Together in their "bi-partisan" think-tanks, they have convinced themselves that they have achieved insight into the future, and that the answer to their quest to takeover the world, is to accelerate history.  Working to plan for a future conflict, in bi-partisan committees, the American Congress has drafted and financed the so-called "New World Order," giving substance to the plans to take the world by force.   since they have also determined that they know what is destined to happen next.  If they are right about their speculation, then they stand a solid chance to achieve their Imperialistic goals, but if they are wrong about the course of future events, then they will unnecessarily precipitate global war. 

The "Neo-Lib/Con" plot to rule the world has always been intended to alter the natural flow of historical events, to create a New American History, one more to our liking, or at least one where we know what is likely to happen next.  The Pentagon and State Dept planners who have been given the task of rewriting history before historical events actually occur, have been right as much as they have been wrong, giving them a fifty percent, or better chance of creating the "New American century," which the "neocons"  and the neo-liberals have been planning.  Hillary's "Silk Road" project is just the latest attempt to "imagineer" the American Empire into existence.  

It is the imperative of those of us who oppose the Imperial aggression to "imagineer" our own plans to derail the plans of Washington.  Prepare for an avalanche of similar misinformation and outright lies to flow from the mouths  of Western leaders and mainline media in the days ahead.]

U.S. Says Russia Supplies Syria with Combat Helicopters

Hillary Clinton once again said that the United States wants Russia to stop supplying Syria with all kinds of weapons

© RIA Novosti

WASHINGTON

The United States suspects Russia of supplying Syria with combat helicopters that will be used against peaceful protesters, the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

“We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically,” Clinton said.

She once again said that the United States wants Russia to stop supplying Syria with all kinds of weapons.

“We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued armed shipments to Syria. They have from time to time said that we shouldn’t worry, everything they’re shipping is unrelated to their actions internally. That’s patently untrue,” Clinton added.

However, Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for the Pentagon, told a daily press briefing on Tuesday that the U.S. intelligence service has no information on the type of helicopters the Syrian authorities use against the protesters and denied to confirm that the aircraft comes from Russia.

Russian President Vladmir Putin said in early June that Russia was not supplying arms to Syria which can be used against protesters. “As for arms supplies, Russia is not supplying arms that could be used in civil conflicts,” Putin said during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin last Friday.

Syria is one of Russia’s major weapons clients,and Moscow has opposed a proposal for a UN arms embargo on Damascus.

Russia has supplied Syria with Bastion coastal missile systems with Yakhont cruise missiles and Buk surface-to-air missile systems under a contract signed in 2007.

India About To Drop-Off List of “Investment-Grade” Rating Economies

Standard & Poor’s warns India of a downgrade to junk category

The Times of India

The trigger for the recent S&P report appears to be the sharp drop in India’s quarterly GDP growth numbers and the drop in the value of the rupee.

Mayur Shetty, TNN

MUMBAI: International rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has warned that India risks a sovereign downgrade which would result in the country dropping off the list of countries with an investment-grade rating.

The statement comes less then two months after the agency revised the outlook on India’s rating to negative from stable and said that the country has a one-in-three chances of being downgraded in the next two years. India presently enjoys a BBB- which is the lowest investment grade rating.

Making a pointed observation on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government, S&P said, “It would be ironic if a government under the economist who spurred much of the liberalization of India’s economy and helped unleash such gains were to preside over their potential erosion.”

The trigger for the recent report appears to be the sharp drop in India’s quarterly GDP growth numbers and the drop in the value of the rupee.

“In our view, setbacks or reversals in India’s path toward a more liberal economy could hurt its long-term growth prospects and, thus, its credit quality. How India’s government reacts to potentially slower growth and greater vulnerability to economic shocks may determine, in large part, whether the country can maintain its investment-grade rating, or become the first “fallen angel” among the BRIC nations (which include Brazil, Russia, India, and China),” it said.

According to S&P, business confidence has been undermined by a perceived slowdown in government decision-making, failure to implement announced reforms, and growing bottlenecks in key sectors (including lack of reforms to archaic land acquisition laws that hinder investment). And, infrastructure problems, combined with growing shortfalls in the production of coal and other fuels, have dampened investment prospects.

“For example, various regulatory and other obstacles have delayed a proposed $12-billion investment in the steel sector by Korean steelmaker POSCO–potentially the biggest foreign investment project in Indian history–by more than seven years. Other steel projects have also faced extensive delays because of land acquisition hurdles and other issues,” S&P said.

The rating agency is concerned about recent setbacks in economic policy which have hurt investor sentiment.

“Strong opposition from within the Congress party-led ruling coalition, as well as from opposition parties, recently forced the government to reverse its decision to raise the cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in multibrand retail to 49% of total ownership from 26%. Similarly, pressure from a coalition ally of the governing Congress party caused the government to roll back a 10% hike in passenger train fares and forced the Railway Minister to quit. (Passenger fares have been flat for many years despite substantial growth in personal income and high inflation.),” S&P said.

The rating agency has said that in a pessimistic scenario there is a risk that political problems could prevent the government from containing the growth in current spending, and lower-than-projected GDP growth could result in revenue shortfalls.

Politically inspired spending programs could further widen the fiscal deficit. “Lack of progress in alleviating bottlenecks in key sectors of the economy could lower both domestic and foreign investment levels. Fiscal slippage, combined with persistently high inflation, could further weaken investor confidence. Both the government’s debt burden and fiscal flexibility could continue to erode, in step with rising external vulnerability because of higher trade and current account deficits. India’s credit quality would suffer under such a scenario, and a downgrade could result,” the rating agency said.

NATO preparing vast disinformation campaign

In a few days, perhaps as early as Friday, June 15, at noon, the Syrians wanting to watch their national TV stations will see them replaced on their screens by TV programs created by the CIA. Studio-shot images will show massacres that are blamed on the Syrian Government, people demonstrating, ministers and generals resigning from their posts, President Al-Assad fleeing, the rebels gathering in the big city centers, and a new government installing itself in the presidential palace.

 

This operation of disinformation, directly managed from Washington by Ben Rhodes, the US deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, aims at demoralizing the Syrians in order to pave the way for a coup d’etat. NATO, discontent about the double veto of Russia and China, will thus succeed in conquering Syria without attacking the country illegally. Whichever judgment you might have formed on the actual events in Syria, a coup d’etat will end all hopes of democratization.

The Arab League has officially asked the satellite operators Arabsat and Nilesat to stop broadcasting Syrian media, either public or private (Syria TV, Al-Ekbariya, Ad-Dounia, Cham TV, etc.) A precedent already exists because the Arab League had managed to censure Libyan TV in order to keep the leaders of the Jamahiriya from communicating with their people. There is no Hertz network in Syria, where TV works exclusively with satellites. The cut, however, will not leave the screens black.

Actually, this public decision is only the tip of the iceberg. According to our information several international meetings were organized during the past week to coordinate the disinformation campaign. The first two were technical meetings, held in Doha (Qatar); the third was a political meeting and took place in Riyad (Saudi Arabia).

The first meeting assembled PSYOP officers, embedded in the satellite TV channels of Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Fox, France 24, Future TV and MTV. It is known that since 1998, the officers of the US Army Psychological Operations Unit (PSYOP) have been incorporated in CNN. Since then this practice has been extended by NATO to other strategic media as well.

They fabricated false information in advance, on the basis of a “story-telling” script devised by Ben Rhodes’s team at the White House. A procedure of reciprocal validation was installed, with each media quoting the lies of the other media to render them plausible for TV spectators. The participants also decided not only to requisition the TV channels of the CIA for Syria and Lebanon (Barada, Future TV, MTV, Orient News, Syria Chaab, Syria Alghad) but also about 40 religious Wahhabi TV channels to call for confessional massacres to the cry of “Christians to Beyrouth, Alawites into the grave!.”

The second meeting was held for engineers and technicians to fabricate fictitious images, mixing one part in an outdoor studio, the other part with computer generated images. During the past weeks, studios in Saudi Arabia have been set up to build replicas of the two presidential palaces in Syria and the main squares of Damascus, Aleppo and Homs. Studios of this type already exist in Doha (Qatar), but they are not sufficient.

The third meeting was held by General James B. Smith, the US ambassador, a representative of the UK, prince Bandar Bin Sultan (whom former U.S. president George Bush named his adopted son so that the U.S. press called him “Bandar Bush”). In this meeting the media actions were coordinated with those of the Free “Syrian” Army, in which prince Bandar’s mercenaries play a decisive role.

The operation had been in the making for several months, but the U.S. National Security Council decided to accelerate the action after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, notified the White House that he would oppose by all means, even by force, any illegal NATO military intervention in Syria.

The operation has a double intent: the first is to spread false information, the second aims at censuring all possible responses.

The hampering of TV satellites for military purposes is not new. Under pressure from Israel, the USA and the EU blocked Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi, Libyan and Iranian TV channels, one after the other. However, no satellite channels from other parts of the world were censured.

The broadcast of false news is also not new, but four significant steps have been taken in the art of propaganda during the last decade.
• In 1994, a pop music station named “Free Radio of the Thousand Hills” (RTML) gave the signal for genocide in Rwanda with the cry, “Kill the cockroaches!”
• In 2001, NATO used the media to impose an interpretation of the 9/11 attacks and to justify its own aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq. At that time already, it was Ben Rhodes who had been commissioned by the Bush administration to concoct the Kean/Hamilton Commission report on the attacks.
• In 2002, the CIA used five TV channels (Televen, Globovision, ValeTV and CMT) to make the public in Venezuela believe that phantom demonstrators had captured the elected president, Hugo Chávez, forcing him to resign. In reality he was the victim of a military coup d’etat.
• In 2011, France 24 served as information ministry for the Libyan CNT, according to a signed contract. During the battle of Tripoli, NATO produced fake studio films, then transmitted them via Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, showing phantom images of Libyan rebels on the central square of the capital city, while in reality they were still far away. As a consequence, the inhabitants of Tripoli were persuaded that the war was lost and gave up all resistance.

Nowadays the media do not only support a war, they produce it themselves.

This procedure violates the principles of International Law, first of all Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights relating to the fact of receiving and imparting information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Above all, the procedure violates the United Nations General Assembly resolution, adopted after the end of World War II, to prevent further wars. Resolutions 110, 381 and 819 forbid “to set obstacles to free exchange of information and ideas” (like cutting off Syrian TV channels) and “all propaganda provoking or encouraging threats to peace, breaking peace, and all acts of aggression”. By law, war propaganda is a crime against peace, the worst of crimes, because it facilitates war crimes and genocide.

Thierry Meyssan