6 April 2011 — Stop NATO
NATO’s New Humanitarian Intervention: Words And Pictures
- Libyan Rebel Commander: Weapons Supplied By “Allied Countries”
- NATO Shouldn’t Arm Libyan Insurgents: Russian Foreign Minister
- Deputy Commander: Libyan Rebels Shouldn’t Doubt NATO Support
- “Historic Time” For AFRICOM: Transferred Libyan War To NATO
- Africa Union Head Condemns Western Military Intervention In Libya, Ivory Coast
- White House Authorized CIA Operations Inside Libya
- Pentagon Chief In Saudi Arabia To Discuss $60 Billion Weapons Deal, Containing Iran, Interceptor
- Missile Collaboration, “Evolutionary Versus Revolutionary” Changes In Arab World
- Gates Meets Saudi King, Defense Minister On Good Versus Bad Arab Uprisings
Libyan Rebel Commander: Weapons Supplied By “Allied Countries”
en.trend.az/regions/met/arabicr/1856515.html
Trend News Agency
April 6, 2011
Rebel general confirms weapon delivery
The military leader of the Libyan rebels, General Abdul Fattah Younis, confirmed in a television interview that his forces had received weapons from allied countries, dpa reported.
But Younis did not tell satellite broadcaster Al-Aan details about where the weapons had come from, saying only that they had received light weapons from friendly nations.
“That is not enough,” he said, calling on NATO to make an exception to its enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya to allow rebels to attack troops controlled by leader Moamer Gaddafi with their own planes.
He had earlier criticized NATO for not being quick enough with airstrikes against Gaddafi’s forces.
Younis, a former Gaddafi interior minister, left the regime to join with the rebels.
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NATO Shouldn’t Arm Libyan Insurgents: Russian Foreign Minister
english.ruvr.ru/2011/04/06/48544394.html
Voice of Russia
April 6, 2011
NATO shouldn’t arm Libyan rebels – Lavrov
Yevgeny Kryshkin, Yelizaveta Isakova
Libya’s opposition is pulling NATO into a civil war by asking for military support, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in Moscow on Wednesday, noting that this wasn’t approved by the Security Council.
Libyan rebel military leader, General Abdul-Fatah Younis, recently reproached NATO for the sluggishness of its actions, saying that the rebels are swift to inform NATO on Gaddafi’s troops, while NATO takes too long to make decisions. Younis threatened to ask the UN to stop the operation if NATO doesn’t change its ways.
However, Russia wants an explanation for NATO’s possible arming of Libyan rebels, Lavrov stated:
“The UN should be considering the Libyan issue on a regular basis, whatever the calls from Benghazi or Tripoli might be. NATO is still following resolution 1973, being accountable to the UN. The UN Secretary General has his envoy in he country, Jordan’s ex-FM , Abdul Ilah Al Khatib who deals with humanitarian and political aspects of the crisis and who has already reported on the situation in the country. Russia is also interested in the opinion of the Arab League and the African Union.”
Recently, Russia’s Deputy Premier Sergey Ivanov was rather pessimistic about the issue. He said that drawing out the war in Libya may result in a Somalia scenario, splitting the country into several weak states with high crime rates, including piracy. Thus, the conflict needs to be solved diplomatically.
Meanwhile, some Western countries have begun to change their position. General Carter F. Ham, the current Commander of the U.S. Africa Command, who is in charge of enforcing the no-fly zone above Jamahiriya recently stated that Washington has a right to an independent campaign in Libya irrespective of NATO’s actions. Earlier the Obama Administration decided to withdraw US warships and jets, which were bombing Gaddafi’s supporters.
Still, the EU seems to be firm on the issue, as its President Herman Van Rompuy continuing to insist that EU involvement has saved thousands of civilian lives in Libya.
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en.rian.ru/russia/20110406/163403845.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti
April 6, 2011
Moscow says may ‘look into’ Libyan rebel complaints against NATO
MOSCOW: Moscow wants to analyze complaints made by the Libyan opposition about the ineffectiveness of a NATO-led mission to protect civilians in the war-torn country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
The Libyan opposition said on Tuesday that alliance has been slow to launch airstrikes against government troops and said it is considering complaining to the UN Security Council.
“Moscow wants to understand what is behind these calls and find out what the countries which have taken responsibility for the implementation of the UN Security Council’s resolution think about them,” Lavrov told a news conference following a meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni.
Russia abstained from a UN Security Council resolution enforcing the military intervention in Libya but has since been critical of the operation. Lavrov said Moscow was concerned that the rebels’ complaints would lead the alliance to breach the resolution.
“If the rebels want those who are enforcing the no-fly regime to defend civilians, which is in line with the UN Security Council’s resolution, that is one thing,” Lavrov said.
“But it is an absolutely different matter if they are calling on NATO to arm rebels. Such a move would constitute an interference in the civil war, and this is not sanctioned by the security council.”
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Deputy Commander: Libyan Rebels Shouldn’t Doubt NATO Support
www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/06/libya-nato-naples-idUSLDE7351EB20110406
Reuters
April 6, 2011
Rebels should not doubt NATO support-deputy commander
NAPLES: Libyan rebels have no reason to lack confidence in the support of NATO, the deputy commander of the alliance’s operations in Libya said on Wednesday.
Rear Admiral Russell Harding made the comment in response to the commander of Libya’s rebel army, who angrily accused NATO of being too slow to act against the forces of Muammar Gaddafi and said civilians were dying as a result.
“Libya must be 800 miles wide and in all that air space we are dominating, so perhaps, and I am not criticising anyone, in one or two areas, if they don’t hear us or see us, I can understand how that might lead to a lack of confidence,” Harding said.
“But I can reassure you that at every hour of every day we are watching what is going on in Libya and making sure that we are protecting civilians,” he told a news conference at NATO’s southern European headquarters.
(Reporting by Laura Viggiano, editing by Tim Pearce)
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“Historic Time” For AFRICOM: Transferred Libyan War To NATO
www.defense.gov//News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=63443
U.S. Department of Defense
April 5, 2011
Africom Faces Historic Time Amid Growing Challenges
By Terri Moon Cronk
WASHINGTON: The unrest in Libya and the coalition intervention there illustrates the dynamics of the African political and military environment, the commander of U.S. Africa Command told a congressional committee today.
The continent has seen the growing threat of terrorists groups such as al Qaida, piracy, election crises, coups, and other potential challenges, including a voter-approved referendum to create a new country in southern Sudan, Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, who recently assumed the command, told the House Armed Services Committee.
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“This is a historic time for us in Africa Command,” Ham said. “We completed a complex, short-notice, operational mission in Libya and have now transferred that mission to NATO.”
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Africa Union Head Condemns Western Military Intervention In Libya, Ivory Coast
Agence France-Presse
April 5, 2011
AU chief condemns foreign intervention in Ivory Coast, Libya
African Union chief Teodoro Obiang Nguema condemned foreign military intervention in Ivory Coast and Libya, saying that Africa must be allowed to manage its own affairs.
“Africa does not need any external influence. Africa must manage its own affairs,” Obiang Nguema, who is also president of Equatorial Guinea, told an international conference in Geneva.
The AU chairman noted that violence in Ivory Coast has led to significant human losses and that the union pressured…Laurent Gbagbo to step down and to recognise Alassane Ouattara as the president of the Ivory Coast.
But this should not “imply a war, an intervention of a foreign army,” he said.
He also singled out the UN-sanctioned intervention in Libya.
“I believe that the problems in Libya should be resolved in an internal fashion and not through an intervention that could appear to ressemble an humanitarian intervention. We have already seen this in Iraq,” said Obiang Nguema.
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White House Authorized CIA Operations Inside Libya
www.voanews.com/english/news/CIA-Secretly-as-Work-Inside-Libya-119250474.html
Voice of America News
April 5, 2011
CIA Secretly at Work Inside Libya
Gary Thomas
Published reports say CIA officers are at work inside Libya. But just what they are doing is not clear and, in keeping with practice, the CIA would not comment on the reports. The Obama administration has said it has not yet decided whether to arm the Libyan rebels. But, there is much the CIA may be doing in Libya short of that.
Analysts say it should come of no surprise that the CIA is already at work in Libya. Reva Bhalla, Middle East analyst for the private intelligence firm, Stratfor, says gathering intelligence is the most basic function of the CIA.
“Obviously when you have a military campaign like this under way you’re going to need people on the ground, painting [identifying] targets for air strikes…,” said Bhalla.
Beyond gathering intelligence
According to published accounts, an unknown number of CIA officers, along with British intelligence and special forces counterparts, are working with the Libyan rebels. The CIA has its own paramilitary component, known as the Special Activities Division. But what the CIA might be doing in Libya beyond just gathering intelligence is unclear.
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[M]any analysts believe that for the rebels to turn the tide back in their favor, they will need sophisticated weapons, such as those the U.S. provided to Afghan rebels fighting Soviet occupation in the 1980s – and specialized training on how to use them.
Secret authorization
According to published accounts quoting Obama administration sources, President Barack Obama signed a secret authorization, known as a presidential “finding,” authorizing possible future training and arming of the rebels.
But such a program carries great risks. In 1961, a CIA-trained force made an unsuccessful attempt to land at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba and topple Fidel Castro. It was a humiliation for the then-new president, John F. Kennedy.
In the 1980s, the CIA, in concert with Pakistan, armed and trained anti-Soviet Afghan rebels. The rebels, known as mujahedin, drove the Soviet army out, but many of their members went on to form the nucleus of the Taliban and al-Qaida. And many of the sophisticated weapons the mujahedin received, such as shoulder-held surface-to-air missiles, were unaccounted for at war’s end.
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What the CIA actually ends up doing in Libya may never be publicly known. But, as former CIA officers have pointed out, the larger an operation, the more difficult it is to keep it secret.
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Pentagon Chief In Saudi Arabia To Discuss $60 Billion Weapons Deal, Containing Iran, Interceptor Missile Collaboration, “Evolutionary Versus Revolutionary” Changes In Arab World
www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=63444
U.S. Department of Defense
April 6, 2011
Gates, Saudi King Discuss Defense Relationship
By John D. Banusiewicz
-”The secretary has developed and enjoys an excellent relationship with King Abdullah to the point where he has been invited to, essentially, drop in on the king whenever he’s in the region. He has been trying to take advantage of that kind invitation over the last couple of years.”
-Saudi Arabia is the No. 1 consumer of American military hardware…and part of Gates’ discussion with the king about the U.S.-Saudi military-to-military relationship will center on progress in finalizing a recent $60 billion arms sale agreement.
-A senior Defense Department official said Gates planned to encourage King Abdullah to continue moving forward in working with the United States on ballistic missile defense cooperation and naval modernization as they discuss the military relationship between their countries.
-”It depends on what makes sense in any particular country – what’s possible, what’s realistic, what the opposition is demanding, what’s within the realm of the conceivable. In a lot of these cases, it’s really an evolutionary approach, as opposed to a revolutionary approach to reform, that might be appropriate.”
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: The bilateral military relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, progress in a major arms sale and concerns about Iran are among the topics Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Saudi King Abdullah are discussing in a meeting here today, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said.
Gates arrived here late this morning for the latest in a series of visits that have taken him to six other countries in the region since mid-March.
“The secretary has developed and enjoys an excellent relationship with King Abdullah,” Morrell said, “to the point where he has been invited to, essentially, drop in on the king whenever he’s in the region. He has been trying to take advantage of that kind invitation over the last couple of years.”
Saudi Arabia is the No. 1 consumer of American military hardware, Morrell noted, and part of Gates’ discussion with the king about the U.S.-Saudi military-to-military relationship will center on progress in finalizing a recent $60 billion arms sale agreement.
Gates and the Saudi monarch also will share their perspectives on the recent political developments in the region, Morrell told reporters traveling with the secretary, a discussion that inevitably will include Iran.
“Clearly, whenever [the secretary] visits the Saudis or anyone else in the region,” he said, “Iran will be a major focus of their conversation – both in terms of the regional threat they pose in pursuit of their nuclear program [and] their ballistic missile program, but also in terms lately of the role they’ve been playing in trying to exploit the unrest in the region to their advantage.”
A senior Defense Department official said Gates planned to encourage King Abdullah to continue moving forward in working with the United States on ballistic missile defense cooperation and naval modernization as they discuss the military relationship between their countries.
Gates’ impressions from his recent visits to the region in the midst of widespread unrest also will be among the topics the secretary discusses with the king, the official said.
“He’ll be sharing his perspectives on how we see the region,” the official said. “I think he will reaffirm the administration’s dual-track approach to the unrest. At the most general level, we’ve been consistent on the articulation of basic principles: the right of free speech, the right of assembly, the right of association, the absolute obligation by all parties – security forces and protesters alike – to refrain from violence, protest peacefully [and] respond to the protests peacefully.
“It’s also our judgment that given this political earthquake rocking the region,” he continued, “it’s ultimately in the interest of all of the leaders in this part of the world to get out ahead of it – to implement genuine reforms.”
That view applies in general terms for the region, the official added, but on a specific level, the path toward reform and the tempo of changes will vary.
“It depends on what makes sense in any particular country – what’s possible, what’s realistic, what the opposition is demanding, what’s within the realm of the conceivable,” he explained. “In a lot of these cases, it’s really an evolutionary approach, as opposed to a revolutionary approach to reform, that might be appropriate.”
The official said Gates will note that neither the United States nor Iran started the turmoil that has rocked the Middle East, but the Iranians are trying to exploit the situation.
“And our eyes are wide open about that,” the official added.
In this visit and during others the defense secretary has made in the region, the official said, Gates has stressed the value of strategic partnerships in meeting common challenges such as extremism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the ballistic missile threat and maritime security. Those common challenges predate the current turmoil in the region, he noted, and they remain as challenges going forward.
“None of that has changed,” the official said. “All of those reasons for our strategic partnership are the same today as they were six months ago, or a year ago, or two years ago. What has changed is the regional context, and one of our shared interests is in stability – stability of our key partners and stability in the region.”
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Gates Meets Saudi King, Defense Minister On Good Versus Bad Arab Uprisings
en.trend.az/regions/met/arabicr/1856972.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 6, 2011
US Defence Secretary in Saudi Arabia for talks on uprisings
-[The Gulf Cooperation Council] has taken on a political role within the region concentrating on security-related issues, recently sent troops to member-state Bahrain at the request of the government there to help quell a mostly Shiite uprising against the minority Sunni rulers.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for a one-day visit to discuss regional uprisings with King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz, DPA reported.
Gates is also scheduled to meet with Defence Minister Khalid Bin Sultan to talk about uprisings in Yemen, Bahrain and Libya.
For its part, Saudi Arabia has also seen small, but significant protests over recent weeks calling for greater freedom and equality for the minority Shiite Muslim population.
Gates was met upon his arrival by Assistant Defence Minister, Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, and the commander of the Royal Saudi Air Force, Lieutenant-General Mohammed bin Abdullah Ayesh.
Washington and Riyadh share concerns about growing Iranian influence in the Gulf region.
The United States late last year announced an arms deal with Saudi Arabia worth up to 60 billion dollars, making it the largest military sale in US history. One of the sale’s major aims is to offset Iran’s growing military capabilities, according to the US State Department.
Both the United States and Saudi Arabia have long supported Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but in recent days have shifted from publicly supporting his bid to stay in power.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a grouping of oil-rich Gulf countries, proposed that Saleh and members of the opposition meet in Riyadh to discuss the unrest that has left around 100 people dead since the beginning of the year.
A shared concern among the United States, Saudi Arabia and its neighbour Yemen, which has unsuccessfully been lobbying to join the Saudi-based GCC, is the ongoing battle against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Additionally, the GCC, which has taken on a political role within the region concentrating on security-related issues, recently sent troops to member-state Bahrain at the request of the government there to help quell a mostly Shiite uprising against the minority Sunni rulers.
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