The New Dark Age

23 March 2011 — Stop NATO

1. Tbilisi: NATO Conference Discusses Georgia’s “Euro-Atlantic” Integration
2. Saakashvili: Full NATO Membership Georgia’s Main Political Goal
3. NATO Air Strike Kills Afghan Child And “Militants” On Motorcycle, Wounds Civilians
4. Belarus: NATO Courts Europe’s Last Holdout
5. Twelve Years Later: 20 Million Square Meters Of Serbia Contaminated With NATO Cluster Bombs
6. U.S. Achieves “Holy Grail” Of Star Wars Missile Interception
7. Romania: U.S. Strengthens Bilateral Air Force Relations

1. Tbilisi: NATO Conference Discusses Georgia’s “Euro-Atlantic” Integration

en.trend.az/news/politics/1849620.html

Trend News Agency

March 23, 2011

76th Rose-Roth seminar of NATO PA starts in Tbilisi

N. Kirtskhalia

Washington To Rearm Georgia For New Conflicts

Tbilisi: The 76th Rose-Roth seminar of NATO PA will be held in Tbilisi, Georgia, on March 23-25.

The three-day seminar will be attended by representatives of the Georgian leadership, a delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, head of the EU observer mission in Georgia Hans Joerg Haber, heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Georgia, as well as experts.

The seminar will focus on global issues and the situation in the region, the Georgian-Russian conflict, Georgia’s integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures, development of democracy in Georgia, role of media and civil society, combating corruption, and many other issues.

Seminar participants also plan to get acquainted with the situation at the administrative border with the Tskhinvali [South Ossetia] region.

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rustavi2.com/news/news_text.php?id_news=40812&pg=1&im=main&ct=0&wth=

Rustavi 2

March 23, 2011

Tbilisi hosts 76th Rose-Roth seminar of NATO PA

Tbilisi is hosting the 76th Rose-Roth seminar of the NATO Parliamentary assembly. The seminar focuses on global issues and the situation in the region, the Georgian-Russian conflict, Georgia`s integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures, development of democracy in Georgia, the role of media and civil society, combating corruption, and many other issues.

The president of the NATO PA Karl Lamers arrived in Georgia to participate in the international event, which is attended by the diplomatic corps and Georgian and Polish lawmakers.

The participants of the seminar are discussing all those issues which are topical for Georgia today in the process of its integration into NATO.

…

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2. Saakashvili: Full NATO Membership Georgia’s Main Political Goal

en.trend.az/news/politics/1849551.html

Trend News Agency

March 23, 2011

President of Georgia and President of NATO PA discuss prospects for Georgia’s accession to NATO

N. Kirtskhalia

Tbilisi: Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Karl Lamers on Tuesday discussed the prospects of Georgia’s accession to NATO.

The meeting was held behind closed doors, a source at the presidential administration told Trend.

“Lamers reiterated support for Georgia’s aspirations to [join] the alliance and expressed his respect for Georgia’s efforts in this regard,” said the Administration.

In turn, the President of Georgia said that accession to NATO is the main direction of Georgia’s politics.

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3. NATO Air Strike Kills Afghan Child And “Militants” On Motorcycle, Wounds Civilians

en.trend.az/regions/world/afghanistan/1849799.html

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

March 23, 2011

Local official: NATO airstrike kills two militants, Afghan child

U.S. Employs Afghan War To Build Global NATO

NATO: Afghan War Model For Future 21st Century Operations

A NATO airstrike killed two suspected militants and a child Wednesday in the south-eastern Afghan province of Khost, a local official said, dpa reported.

The adults were killed when a NATO aircraft hit their motorbike on a road in the Sabari district, said Mubarez Mohammad Zadran, spokesman for the provincial governor.

A civilian vehicle driving behind the motorbike was also caught in the

explosion, he said, adding “One child inside the car was killed, and two

civilian men and one woman were injured.”

NATO was not immediately available for comment.

Civilian casualties at the hand of international troops have been a sensitive issue in Afghanistan. Such deaths have caused friction between the Afghan government and its Western military allies.

Dozens of civilians have been killed in US-led operations in recent months, according to Afghan officials. The deaths included nine children in the south-eastern province of Kunar and President Hamid Karzai’s cousin in his hometown of Kandahar.

The recent killings of children prompted Karzai to lash out at the foreign

troops and demand a halt to the operations that carry the risk of hurting civilians. US official, including President Barack Obama, offered apologies after that incident.

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Belarus: NATO Courts Europe’s Last Holdout

news.belta.by/en/news/politics?id=619624

Belarusian Telegraph Agency

March 23, 2011

Belarus-NATO cooperation may continue on mutual interests

MINSK: France believes that it is possible for Belarus-NATO cooperation to continue on the basis of mutual interests, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Belarus Michel Raineri told media on 23 March.

The Embassy of France has been acting as NATO’s representative office in Belarus since 1 January 2011.

The diplomat said that various NATO delegations visit Belarus and the Embassy of France assists with arranging such visits and meetings. In his words, a NATO delegation visited Belarus in January. NATO officials are expected to visit Belarus in May to discuss future Belarus-NATO cooperation.

Michel Raineri underlined that general matters of future development of Belarus-NATO cooperation would be discussed in Brussels.

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5. Twelve Years Later: 20 Million Square Meters Of Serbia Contaminated With NATO Cluster Bombs

www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=03&dd=23&nav_id=73394

Tanjug News Agency

March 23, 2011

NATO cluster bombs to be cleared

It has…been determined that 290 sites, located in 16 Serbian municipalities and covering a total of 14,920,000 square meters, are contaminated with cluster bombs from the NATO bombing.

110 more locations, 6,151,000 square meters in total, are suspected of containing cluster bombs…

BELGRADE: Clearing the ground in Bujanovac, Pre?evo and Kur?umlija in southern Serbia of cluster bombs left by the 1999 NATO bombing should start in April.

The project will be financed by a Norwegian donation worth EUR 3.4mn.

A memorandum of understanding between the Serbian government center for mine clearance and the Norwegian organization People’s Aid is being prepared, reads a release from the demining center made available to reporters on Wednesday at the Serbian Interior Ministry.

The humanitarian demining project in these municipalities will last three years.

According to the data of the center, Bujanovac and Pre?evo have 1,389,900 square meters contaminated with different types of mines, and the area will be investigated further to determine precise information.

It has also been determined that 290 sites, located in 16 Serbian municipalities and covering a total of 14,920,000 square meters, are contaminated with cluster bombs from the NATO bombing.

110 more locations, 6,151,000 square meters in total, are suspected of containing cluster bombs, but the areas need to be investigated more thoroughly.

The 1999 attacks of the western military alliance left Serbia with 64 aerial bombs and rockets at 44 locations, some buried as deep as 20 meters in the ground and some lying in the Sava and Danube riverbeds.

Based on information received from citizens, the Interior Ministry’s Emergency Situations Sector suspects that another 50 bombs and rockets are hidden at several dozen locations which are yet to be fully searched.

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6. U.S. Achieves “Holy Grail” Of Star Wars Missile Interception

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42238237/ns/technology_and_science-space/

www.spacenews.com/military/110323-stss-demo-birth-death-missile-tracking.html

MSNBC/Space News

March 3, 2011

U.S. achieves the ‘Holy Grail’ of missile defense

2 Northrop Grumman satellites track ‘birth to death’ ballistic missile launch

by Turner Brinton

NATO Provides Pentagon Nuclear, Missile And Cyber Shields Over Europe

Europe And Beyond: U.S. Consolidates Global Missile Shield

WASHINGTON: A pair of low Earth-orbiting demonstration satellites built by Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems for the first time on March 16 detected and tracked a ballistic missile launch through all phases of flight, a Northrop Grumman official said March 22.

So-called birth-to-death tracking of a ballistic missile launch had never been done before from space and is the most significant achievement to date for the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) spacecraft, said Doug Young, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of missile defense and warning programs.

“It’s the Holy Grail for missile defense,” Young said during a media briefing here.

Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman built three STSS demonstration satellites for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The first satellite, which had a classified mission, was launched in May 2009. After completing its test program, it was transferred Jan. 31 to the control of Air Force Space Command to continue supporting the service’s space situational awareness mission.

The two unclassified STSS satellites were launched in September 2009 on a single United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket. During an extended on-orbit check-out and calibration phase that concluded in November, the satellites tracked multiple missile launches in the early boost and post-boost phases and demonstrated the ability to relay data from one satellite to the other.

On March 16, an ARAV-B short-range target missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Kauai, Hawaii. An STSS satellite detected the heat signature of the launch with its acquisition sensor, and then its gimbaled tracking sensor locked on to the boosting missile, Young said.

The tracking data was successfully relayed to the other satellite, which continued to observe the target as it coasted through space, re-entered the atmosphere and splashed down in the ocean, he said.

Future STSS tests this year will be more sophisticated, Young said. In the coming months, the MDA will attempt to cue the STSS satellites to a missile launch using data from the operational Defense Support Program missile warning satellites, rather than the acquisition sensors on board STSS, he said.

Another test this year will seek to determine if the STSS satellites can produce missile tracking data good enough to cue the launch of ship-based interceptors, a concept known as launch on remote.

Today, Navy Aegis ships are only able to launch interceptors to defeat ballistic missiles after they are detected by the ship’s own radar. If the interceptors can be fired based on cuing from forward-based sensors, the area that each ship can defend from missiles is greatly increased.

The Navy and MDA plan to conduct the first Aegis launch-on-remote intercept test next month, for which a forward-based AN/TPY-2 X-band radar will cue the launch of a Standard Missile (SM)-3 interceptor before the target missile is detected by the ship’s radar, MDA budget documents show.

Similarly, the STSS demonstration satellites later this year will attempt to track a target missile and feed data to the Aegis system to generate a “fire control solution” for an early interceptor launch, Young said. However, an interceptor will not actually be launched in that test, he noted.

Meanwhile, the MDA is pursuing an operational constellation of geosynchronous missile tracking satellites dubbed the Precision Tracking Space System. The agency will rely on the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., to develop a prototype system to be launched in 2015. An industry team is expected to be chosen in 2014 to build between nine and 12 operational spacecraft planned to begin launching in 2018.

The MDA aims to spend $1.34 billion on the Precision Tracking Space System between 2012 and 2016, budget documents show.

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7. Romania: U.S. Strengthens Bilateral Air Force Relations

www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123247976

U.S. Air Forces in Europe

March 23, 2011

Mission Complete: Carpathian Spring 2011 comes to a close

by Tech Sgt. Jocelyn L. Rich

86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

U.S. And NATO Accelerate Military Build-Up In Black Sea Region

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany: After a week of training between more than 70 U.S. Airmen and Soldiers and their Romanian counterparts, Carpathian Spring officially came to a close March 18.

Members of the 37th Airlift Squadron, 435th Contingency Response Group, 86th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and 5th Quarter Masters Battalion were among the members involved in this year’s event held at Airlift Base Otopeni and Campia Turzii.

The weeklong annual exercise was designed to strengthen the partnership between the U.S. and Romanian air forces, while also enhancing their individual capabilities through training scenarios that are difficult to achieve at home station.

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Airmen have also been working with the Romanian’s in the air traffic control tower to ensure the two nations are learning to work together more cohesively.