No Comfort in the Black Sea

George W. Bush is gonna leave one awful mess for the next Prez.
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Pentagon, White House at odds over aid to Georgia
By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The Bush White House and the Pentagon are at odds over whether to station a Navy ship in the Black Sea to demonstrate U.S. support for the embattled Georgian military and government, two defense officials told McClatchy Tuesday.
The White House thinks that deploying a vessel such as the hospital ship USNS Comfort would showcase the Bush administration's support for Georgia and signal U.S. concern that Russia has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Georgia.
The Pentagon officials, who both spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss internal policy deliberations, said the move is unnecessary. Last week, the U.S. military sent a 12-member assessment team to determine how much humanitarian aid Georgians need.
Air Force and Navy aircraft are sending supplies daily and military officials don't think Georgia requires much additional assistance.
The Comfort, which is based in Baltimore, could be ready to leave as early as Friday but would take five weeks to arrive, and the two military officials said they believe that air support is sufficient.
"That is all they need right now," one senior defense official said.
Moreover, to send the Comfort, a destroyer or any other major naval vessel, the Bush administration would need to obtain permission from Turkey under the Montreux Convention, an international treaty that regulates naval passage in the Black Sea. [my bold] So far, Turkey, which controls the Bosporus and the Dardanelles that link the Mediterranean and the Black Seas, has refused, the Pentagon officials told McClatchy.
The White House is frustrated, the officials said, but the Pentagon is unperturbed.
Last week, McClatchy reported that President Bush publicly declared that U.S. "naval forces" would assist Georgia before his administration had consulted Turkey or the Pentagon has planned a naval operation.
Throughout the Georgia conflict, Pentagon officials have resisted using U.S. weapons, troops or ships to send political messages to Russia. The Marine Corps would like to withdraw 17 Marines who were in Georgia to train Georgian troops for duty in Iraq, but the White House has insisted that the trainers remain in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, to head off any chance that the administration would be seen to be abandoning an ally.
Earlier this year, Turkey, a member of the NATO alliance, approved a U.S. military plan to send the destroyer USS McFaul and the USS Dallas, a submarine, to the Black Sea for a training exercise. The military is stocking those ships with humanitarian aid in case defense officials decide to proceed with the training exercise, naval officials said. For now, however, the two ships remain docked in Greece.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/49307.html

Tough Times Ahead for Italia

Cari amici, now it is up to you to bring some sense back to Italians and make Berlusconi listen to you! Turn off your TVs, go to the Internet for news, not Berlusconi's hysterical media which uses fear tactics worthy of FAUX News. Now they're going to convince you to send more troops to AFGHANISTAN? Will you buy it? I also have a very nice bridge, right nearby, very well known, and you might like to purchase it?
Bush to press Berlusconi on Iran and Afghanistan
Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:35pm EDT
By Matt Spetalnick and Stephen Brown
ROME (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush will urge Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as an old ally on Thursday to take a tougher stand over Iran's nuclear program and expand Italy's military role in Afghanistan
[...] But beyond the smiles and handshakes, Bush will be looking for concrete signs that Berlusconi, whose previous government supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, is bringing Italy's foreign policy back closer in line with Washington's.
[...] Berlusconi's admiration for Bush runs counter to public sentiment in Europe where he is widely reviled for the Iraq war.
While Berlusconi and Pope Benedict prepared to roll out the red carpet for Bush over the next two days, about a thousand leftists and anti-war activists staged a peaceful protest in the centre of Rome after his arrival on Wednesday.
Bush's bid to ratchet up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program is expected to be high on the agenda with Berlusconi, as it has been since the start of his European trip on Monday.
[...] Italy, one of Iran's top foreign investors, could have an impact should the European Union carry out a threat to impose new measures on Tehran beyond existing U.N. sanctions if it keeps defying demands to stop uranium enrichment.
Washington had urged the centre-left government of Berlusconi's predecessor Romano Prodi to take a harder line with Italian companies doing business in Iran but to little avail.
Signalling a stronger stance, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in a television interview the "path of sanctions should be resumed more firmly than ever" if Tehran rejected a revised incentives package it would soon be offered.
Bush wants a firmer commitment from Berlusconi to the war effort in Afghanistan. He has pressed NATO allies, so far with limited results, to increase troop levels and lift bans on deployment of forces to places where fighting is fiercest.
Italy has about 2,700 troops in Afghanistan, mostly off the front lines.
Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday he had agreed to a "limited" deployment of Italian troops to combat zones.
[...] Bush's critics say he has been so distracted by Iraq that he has neglected the Afghan war. The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was opposed by Germany and France and sowed division in Europe, but bitterness has gradually subsided.[...]
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GCA-iraq/idUSL1157145920080612

Afghanistan Body Count Rises

Once again the powers that be have another war to supply, more money to be made by shedding the blood of pawns. Not a mention of who the new soldiers are and where they will come from. Oh, right, we're recruiting from places Americans never would imagine, like Uganda. See my post of 4/9/08–Uganda: The New Face of US Military? for details on what we’re doing to entice that country’s young men to sign up. And there are plenty of Third World Countries where people are willing to risk death in war to escape death from famine, or tribal wars or juntas. Aren't you sick of it?
May Combat Deaths In Afghanistan
Outnumber Those In Iraq
AP, June 13, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmt5RrIrR8Kpia74k7R0PNVwVAbQD919ETBO0
via http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=44859&s2=14
BRUSSELS, Belgium — It's a grim gauge of U.S. wars going in opposite directions: American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan in May passed the monthly toll in Iraq for the first time.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates used the statistical comparison to dramatize his point to NATO defense ministers that they need to do more to get Afghanistan moving in a better direction. He wants more allied combat troops, more trainers and more public commitment.
[...] But the deterioration in Afghanistan suggests a troubling additional possibility: a widening of the war to Pakistan, where the Taliban and al-Qaida have found haven.
By the Pentagon's count, 15 U.S. and two allied troops were killed in action in Iraq last month, a total of 17. In Afghanistan it was 19, including 14 Americans and five coalition troops. One month does not make a trend, but in this case the statistics are so out of whack with perceptions of the two wars that Gates could use them to drive home his point about Afghanistan.
Even when non-combat deaths are included, the overall May toll was greater in Afghanistan than in Iraq: a total of 22 in Afghanistan, including 17 Americans, compared with 21 in Iraq, including 19 Americans, according to an Associated Press count.
[...] Gates made a point upon taking his Pentagon post in December 2006, amid great and growing U.S. public doubt about Iraq, that he was deeply concerned about backsliding in the less publicized and less unpopular war in Afghanistan. He seems even more troubled now.
And he appears less patient with the allies, aware that much of the European population is unconvinced by the American argument that al-Qaida in Central Asia _ whether it's Afghanistan, Pakistan or the largely ungoverned areas along their mountainous frontier _ poses a grave danger to Europe as well as to the United States.
Gates said that when it came his turn to talk at Thursday's defense ministers meeting on Afghanistan he tossed aside the remarks his aides had prepared for him and stated his case as sharply and directly as he could.
[...] NATO has no direct combat role in Iraq. In Afghanistan, several allies are taking a fighting role, but most have shied away, preferring to contribute in other ways such as humanitarian assistance.
The relatively low U.S. death toll in Iraq in May continues a trend of declining violence against Americans as well as Iraqi civilians, although the situation there remains fragile. If the trend continues _ which is far from a certainty _ then U.S. officials may decide to withdraw more U.S. troops in the second half of the year and perhaps beyond. That would enable the Pentagon to send more troops to Afghanistan _ for combat and for training Afghan forces.
And that's just what the next president may have to do unless things begin turning around in Afghanistan.
United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks during a media conference after a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday June 13, 2008. NATO nations have agreed to broaden their peacekeeping mission in Kosovo to include training for the newly independent nation's security forces. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

500 Anti-War Activists Arrested in Brussels!

Just as Tibetans around the world (especially those IN Tibet), gain courage from knowing they are supported, we in the US anti-war community can look overseas and know, as another anti-war group so wisely said: the world won’t wait!
Belgian police arrest 500 at NATO headquarters
dpa - International News Service in English, Mar 22, 2008 14:35 EST
Brussels (dpa) - Belgian police arrested nearly 500 demonstrators Saturday at NATO headquarters in Brussels as peace activists from 17 countries had tried to enter the grounds.
A Belgian peace initiative had called the protest under the motto "NATO game over" to prompt a debate on the alliance's role in the world.
Organizers and police put the total number of demonstrators at around 1,000.
"NATO is a relict of the Cold War," said Hans Lammerant of the Belgian peace organization Vredesactie which has called for a reduction of military intervention forces in the run-up to the NATO summit in Bucharest.
"A fundamental reform of NATO is on the agenda there. They want to present a new, strategic concept on the 60th anniversary of NATO in 2009," he said, adding military expenditure should be lowered.
Huge numbers of police took up positions around NATO's headquarters early Saturday.
Police had been monitoring the situation from a helicopter and also used a water cannon to disperse demonstrators.
The peace activists had armed themselves with rugs in order to climb over the barbed wire fence uninjured.
Those arrested were later released far from NATO's headquarters.
Italy's RAI Telegiornale reported that some were injured because they fell on barbed wire.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=97151

Will Russia Join NATO to Fight Taliban?

Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979, giving Charlie Wilson & all the cold warriors an excuse to arm tribal leaders (the Taliban) to fight the Russians. Ten years later Russia was defeated and the Taliban took over. Now, European leaders are looking to Russia to fight the Taliban and assist with the “reconstruction of Afghanistan.” As always, [my bold]:
Russia throws a wrench in NATO's works

By M K Bhadrakumar

For the first time in the 60-year history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Russia will attend the alliance's summit meeting on April 2-4 in Bucharest, Romania.
It is clear that NATO will defer to a future date any decision to put Ukraine and Georgia on its Membership Action Plan. This means effectively that the two former Soviet republics cannot draw closer to NATO for another year at the very least, which in turn implies that the earliest the two countries can realize their membership claim would be in a four-year timeframe.

That is a huge gesture by NATO to Moscow's sensitivities. Conceivably, it clears the decks for what could prove to be a turning point in Russia-NATO relations. Russia may be about to join hands with NATO in Afghanistan.
[...] From the feverish pace of diplomatic activity, the expectation of the two sides seems to be that an agreement could be formalized at NATO's Bucharest summit. In an interview with German publication Der Spiegel on Monday, Rogozin confirmed this expectation, saying, "We [Russia] support the anti-terror campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. I hope we can manage to reach a series of very important agreements with our Western partners at the Bucharest summit. We will demonstrate that we are ready to contribute to the reconstruction of Afghanistan."
[...] Given the complicated history of Russia-NATO relations, the issue is loaded with geopolitics. Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted as much at a joint press conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Moscow last Saturday. He said, "NATO is already overstepping its limits today. We have no problem to helping Afghanistan, but it is another matter when it is NATO that is providing the assistance. This is a matter beyond the bounds of the North Atlantic, as you are well aware."
ANP leader Amir Haider Khan Hoti bluntly told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in an exclusive interview this week, "Our priorities are clear. We first want to move toward peace through negotiations [with the Taliban], jirgas [tribal councils], and dialogue. God willing, we will learn from [failed talks and jirgas in the past] and will try not to repeat the same mistakes. We will try to take into confidence our people, our tribal leaders, and our [clerics] - and together with them, we will try to move toward peace through negotiations."

Hoti didn't speak a word about the "war on terror" or the George W Bush administration's expectations of Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas. It remains a riddle why the Bush administration should have so far kept out of conflict resolution in Afghanistan countries such as Russia and China, whose interests are vitally affected, perhaps even more immediately than the US or European countries. As US statesman Henry Kissinger wrote in an article in the International Herald Tribune on Monday, "A strategic consensus remains imperative ... Pakistan's stability should not be viewed as an exclusively American challenge." [Thanks, Hank!]

[...] The Kremlin has badly cornered the Bush administration. Taking Russia's help at this critical juncture makes eminent sense for NATO. The alliance is struggling to cope with the war in Afghanistan. By the analogy of Iraq, some observers estimate that a force level close to half a million troops will be required to stabilize Afghanistan, given its size and difficult terrain.

[...] Washington faces an acute predicament insofar as Moscow won't settle for selective engagement by NATO as a mere transit route but will incrementally broaden and deepen the engagement, and major European allies might welcome it. Moscow insists on the involvement of the CSTO and even SCO. On the other hand, Russia's involvement could invigorate the NATO mission in Afghanistan and ensure that the mission is not predicated on the highly unpredictable factor of Pakistan's partnership.

[...] At the very least, history comes full circle when Putin arrives in Bucharest in the next 18 days for the gala 60th anniversary summit of the alliance. That would be 54 years since the Soviet Union suggested it should join NATO to preserve peace in Europe.

M K Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for over 29 years, with postings including India's ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-1998) and to Turkey (1998-2001). (Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JC15Ag01.html

Operation Gladio

Two articles to tweak your interest in this subject. The second post has videos.
Operation Gladio
1997 David Guyatt
Europe's "Stay Behind" Units
Origins of the Stay Behind Network
Information that surfaced in recent years suggests that the "Stay Behind" concept first arose in Britain. Senior military sources told the Guardian newspaper in December 1990, that a British guerrilla network was already in place following the fall of France in 1940. Numerous arm "caches" were buried for later use by a special forces ski battalion of the Scots Guards under the leadership of Brigadier "Mad Mike" Calvert. After the war, the decision was taken to create new units throughout Europe. The plan was conceived by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and spearheaded by the newly formed CIA.
Italy was not alone in having covert "stay behind" units in operation. The operation encompassed all of western Europe. In France the unit was called "Glaive" - again named after a Gladiatorial sword. Austria's unit was named "Schwert," also meaning sword. In Turkey the unit was named "Red Sheepskin" and in Greece "Sheepskin." Sweden's unit was called "Sveaborg." In Switzerland it went by the title P26. Other units in Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark and Holland remain unnamed. Not least, the United Kingdom's unit was simply known as "Stay Behind."
http://www.copi.com/articles/guyatt/gladio.html
and here is the BBC documentary from 1992:
Operation Gladio
"One of the most secret programs that ever existed" http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=16921
"Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the State" - James Jesus Angleton, Head of CIA Counter Intelligence 1954-1974

NY 9/11 Truth Events

NY 9/11 Truth's usual meeting on 6:30 Sunday, St. Marks Church will show the very provocative "Operation Gladio." Here’s the info on that and other NY 9/11 events.
OPERATION GLADIO – This BBC documentary gives a profile of Operation Gladio, a decades-long covert campaign of terrorism and deceit directed by the intelligence services of the West, against their own populations. Originally set up as a network of clandestine cells to be activated behind the lines in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, Gladio quickly expanded into a tool for political repression and manipulation directed by NATO and Washington. Many innocents were killed as well as highly visible targets such as Italian president Aldo Moro. Understanding the false flag operations behind Gladio enables us to realize how 9/11 could occur.
BREAKING NEWS – William Rodriguez, survivor of the North Tower and a true hero who saved many lives on 9/11, is working on a film. It will contain new testimony from a co-worker who corroborates his explanation of what he experienced the morning of 9/11. Check out a clip here at http://www.william911.com/. This is powerful!
REPRISE OF MAINSTREAM ACTION IN UNION SQUARE – Big news! After the great success of screeing 9/11 Mysteries in Union Sq. on Sept. 12th (video coming soon!), we're doing it again next Friday the 19th at 6PM! This will be a great opportunity to invite friends, co-workers, etc., out to have a moving, educational experience which will make a positive difference. See you there!
Truth will prevail,
NY 9/11 Truth