The New Dark Age

4 July 2011 — Stop NATO

• Why Allow NATO Thugs To Destroy Africa Mercilessly?
• Turkmenistan: NATO Troops Can Join Caspian Energy War Against Russia
• Azerbaijan: Faithful NATO Partner On The Caspian
• NATO International School Of Azerbaijan Holds Session On Middle East
• NATO Soldier Missing In Southern Afghanistan
• Armed Confrontation In The Arctic?

Why Allow NATO Thugs To Destroy Africa Mercilessly?

http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2011/07/03/au-needs-young-leaders-to-stop-nato-s-bullying-ilive

The Times (South Africa)
July 3, 2011

AU needs young leaders to stop Nato’s bullying: iLIVE
Makhosonke Mkhaliphi and Piet Retief

When the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was established in 1949, its main objective was to provide security and collective military intervention to vulnerable countries.

Today in Africa, we have the African Union. Its main principles are to ensure peaceful resolution of conflicts for member states, and to prohibit the use of force or threat to use force among members of the union.

Considering the above statements, it is apparent that AU leaders have failed the African people.

The conflicts that come to my mind are the ones in Egypt, Tunisia and, of late, Libya.

The AU should have foreseen these conflicts and called its member states into order.

Why allow Nato thugs to destroy Africa mercilessly?

To put salt into the wound, the UN-mandated International Court of Justice has issued a warrant of arrest for Muammar Gaddafi.

Is he going to follow the likes of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden?

Is this court made for Africa and the Arab countries?

It is high time the African Union is disbanded or allows young leaders to take over its leadership, otherwise Africa will continue to be the victim of incompetent leadership structures and eventually become a playground for Nato missiles.

Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Sudan may be next in line.

====

Turkmenistan: NATO Troops Can Join Caspian Energy War Against Russia

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/63794

EurasiaNet
July 3, 2011

Turkmenistan Weekly Roundup
By Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

The NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai, visited Ashgabat and was received by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. NATO did not have a statement about the meeting, and the Turkmen state-controlled press had very little information beyond the State News Agency of Turkmenistan’s report that the topics discussed included responding to natural disasters and combating illegal drug-trafficking, international crime, and terrorism – all areas that NATO has placed under its purview in its new Emerging Security Challenges Division opened last August. Appathurai also spoke of science and education exchanges, which have been a recent priority for the Turkmen government.

Most interestingly, the NATO representative expressed appreciation for Turkmenistan’s economic assistance to neighboring war-torn Afghanistan, and noted the importance of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline. NATO itself is in the pipeline business, maintaining its own strategic pipeline to ensure energy resources for its own operations. Russian media was quick to pick up this reference as indication of the intention by NATO planners of actually guarding the TAPI or other regional pipelines. In recent articulations of its own role by NATO spokespersons, for example Robert Simmons, then NATO’s Special Representative to the Caucasus and Central Asia, mentioned NATO’s own experience of 40 years in securing pipelines and the inclusion of pipeline management agencies within its own structure. In 2009, however, then NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, rebuffing the speculation about its policing role, said ‘NATO is not in the
business of protecting pipelines.’

However, the role of the Western alliance continues to invite open speculation by Russian and other regional media, as he added, ‘But when there’s a crisis, or if a certain nation asks for assistance, NATO could, I think, be instrumental in protecting pipelines on land.’

TAPI members have said they will ensure security with their own forces, but given NATO’s role in training the Afghan army and also assisting other militaries in the region, including that of Turkmenistan, the speculation is likely to continue about NATO’s involvement in ensuring the West has an energy supply unimpeded by Russia or other forces.

…

====

Azerbaijan: Faithful NATO Partner On The Caspian

http://en.trend.az/news/politics/1900150.html

Trend News Agency
July 4, 2011

Envoy: Azerbaijan-NATO relations develop in positive direction

Baku: Azerbaijan’s relations with NATO are developing positively, Azerbaijan’s Permanent Representative to NATO Khazar Ibrahim said on Monday.

Azerbaijan is not an ordinary partner of NATO, as it was throughout the 1990s. The country already works closely with the alliance, he said.

‘Azerbaijan performs a major peacekeeping activity in Afghanistan and is one of the main transit countries for peacekeeping operations in the country,’ Ibrahim said. ‘Azerbaijan also conducts training for representatives of Afghanistan’s infrastructure and assists the country in various spheres.’

Ibrahim said Azerbaijan is among the countries making considerable contributions to peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan.

Azerbaijan ‘s entry in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Ibrahim said, would not affect Baku’s cooperation with the Alliance.

…

====

NATO International School Of Azerbaijan Holds Session On Middle East

http://abc.az/eng/news_04_07_2011_55587.html

Azerbaijan Business Center
July 4, 2011

NATO summer session has started in Baku

Baku: The regular summer session of the NATO International School of Azerbaijan (NISA) has started in Baku today.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan reports that the summer session, which runs until 9 July, will focus on the theme of Middle East Puzzle: Security & Democracy.

The event involved up to 50 students and lecturers from NATO partner and member countries.

The summer session will discuss issues relating to the events taking place recently in the Middle East region, the causes and nature of their occurrence, the existing political status, social networks and the role of the media, decision-making and international law, international intervention, etc.

At the opening ceremony Khazar Ibrahim, the head of Azerbaijan’s representative mission in NATO, made a speech. Deputy foreign minister Araz Azimov is also expected to make a speech at the session.

====

NATO Soldier Missing In Southern Afghanistan

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/us-afghanistan-missing-idUSTRE7631JV20110704

Reuters
July 4, 2011

Foreign soldier missing in south Afghanistan: NATO

KABUL: A soldier from Afghanistan’s NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has gone missing in the south of the country and his status is unknown, the force said on Monday.

‘An International Security Assistance Force service member has been listed as duty status whereabouts unknown in southern Afghanistan,’ ISAF said in a statement, adding a search had begun for the soldier.

ISAF gave no further details regarding the incident or the nationality of the soldier.

A spokesman for the Taliban told Reuters the militant group had captured the soldier on Sunday and had executed him in the Babaji area of southern Helmand.

‘The soldier was captured yesterday evening during a firefight. When the fighting got more intense we couldn’t keep him so we had to kill him,’ Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

…

Most of the troops in southern Afghanistan are American and British, however, soldiers from other countries also operate in the south.

In June 2009 insurgents captured American soldier Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in southeastern Afghanistan and have released videos showing him in captivity dressed in both Afghan clothing and in military uniform.

(Reporting by Jonathon Burch; Additional reporting by Ismail Sameem in Kandahar and Abdul Malik in Lashkar Gah; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison)

====

Armed Confrontation In The Arctic?

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/07/04/52755726.html

Voice of Russia
July 4, 2011

A new arms race in the Arctic?
Boris Volkhonsky

Over the weekend, Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Chief of the Defence Staff General Walter Natynczyk visited the Canadian military contingent in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Their mission was to thank and congratulate the troops which are leaving Afghanistan this week. But, even while foreign (including Canadian) troops are being withdrawn from the country leaving behind complete chaos with unpredictable consequences, Canada does not seem to be losing military momentum. Its aircraft are taking part in the NATO-led operation against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. And the Defence Minister used the visit to Kandahar to declare new far-reaching plans for the Canadian military.

He declared that in August about 1,000 Canadian troops will take part in a massive military exercise Nanook (Polar Bear) in the Canadian sector of the Arctic. ‘It will be the largest operation that has taken place in recent history,’ said Mr. MacKay.

The question is, what prompted the Canadian military to shift their attention from Afghanistan and the Middle East to the high latitude Northern areas? Definitely, they must be realizing that the war in Afghanistan is lost. More so, it has never been a Canadian war. Neither is the war in Libya.

But the High Arctic is an area of vital importance for Canada. And some observers are even toying with different scenarios of a Third World War taking place around the North Pole.

The fact is that due to global warming and the development of technologies, the Arctic is no longer an unfriendly underdeveloped area of no practical interest to humanity. And in the nearest future it is doomed to provide even better opportunities to the countries that have direct access to the Arctic seas (that is, Russia, Canada, the US, Denmark and Norway), and also present a challenge to other countries that would like to participate in sharing the ‘Arctic pie’.

The region is rich with resources, especially oil and gas. And even if some ten years ago drilling in deep Arctic waters covered with ice for the most part of the year seemed unprofitable, now with the extension of the ‘ice-free’ period and the advance of new technologies of deep-water drilling, the situation is rapidly changing. Hence, the rise of interest of all Northern countries in the region and hence the fears of a new confrontation.

More so, with the melting of the polar ice, the Northern routes become open for much longer periods than the previous two or three months a year. And the route is the shortest (and the cheapest) way of transportation from Western Europe to its #1 world trade power, China, and the Pacific region in general.

Ever since the possibility of a new confrontation arose, Russia has been opposing the idea of a new militarization of the Arctic. But when in 2007 Russia presented its claim to the Lomonosov underwater ridge saying that it was part of the Siberian shelf, this peaceful claim resulted in an escalation of military arrangements on the part of the other Arctic countries. The first one to declare its military arrangements was Denmark. Canada and others followed suit.

As Russian Premier Vladimir Putin said recently, ‘We are open for a dialogue with our foreign partners and with all our neighbors in the Arctic region, but of course, we will defend our own geopolitical interests firmly and consistently.’

Definitely, the preferable course of events would be to avoid any confrontation in the region, least of all a military standoff. But that does not seem to be dawning on Canada and other NATO members. Their military activity in regions far away from their borders has gained such momentum that they virtually cannot stop.

The fact that NATO has by and large lost the campaign in Afghanistan and has come to a stalemate situation in Libya does not seem to alter their far-reaching military plans. The saddest thing about it is that all other parties will have to come up with an adequate answer, but that would mean a further militarization of the region.