12 July 2011 — Stop NATO
- U.S., French Security Guards Violently Disperse Syrian Protesters
- Afghan War: French Death Toll Reaches 63
- U.S. Marines: AFRICOM ‘Adding Muscle’ To African Counterinsurgency Campaigns
- Japan: U.S. Army To Open New Battle Systems Center For Afghan-, Iraqi-Style Wars
- Australia: 22,000 U.S., Canadian, Local Troops In Full-Spectrum War Games
- Serbia: U.S., Britain, France Block UN Kosovo Organ Trafficking Probe
- NATO Awards Dutch Commander For Mediterranean, Horn Of Africa Missions
- ACT: NATO, Pentagon Integrate Global Military Transformation
U.S., French Security Guards Violently Disperse Syrian Protesters
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-07/12/c_13979209.htm
Xinhua News Agency
July 11, 2011
Security guards of U.S., French embassies in Damascus violently disperse protestors: witnesses
DAMASCUS: Security guards of the U.S. and French embassies in Damascus fired tear gas and live bullets in the air Monday to disperse hundreds of angry pro-government protestors, who staged a sit-in before the two embassies to protest against the U.S. and France stances toward Syria, witnesses told Xinhua.
Witnesses said some protestors had tried to storm the French embassy after the embassy’s guards opened fire in the air to disperse the crowds, adding that French guards held two protestors inside the embassy and beat them before letting them go.
They further said security guards with rifles were spotted on the embassy’s rooftop, ready for more action.
According to witnesses, protestors in front of the U.S. embassy pulled down the American flag and replaced it with the Syrian flag, adding the embassy guards fired tear gas to disperse the angry protestors, who made it clear that they will not disperse until the ambassadors are fired.
This move was triggered by the unauthorized and controversial visit of the U.S. and French ambassadors to the violence-hit city of Hama on Friday, where the ambassadors went to follow up the anti-government protests.
The visit of the ambassadors has triggered resentment by Syrian authorities, which accused them of fueling the protests in that troubled area.
Syrian Foreign Ministry summoned Sunday the ambassadors of the United States and France to lodge its protest over their recent visits to the restive province of Hama in central Syria without obtaining a prior permission from the ministry.
In a statement sent to Xinhua, Syrian Foreign Ministry said the visit poses a ‘clear interference in Syria’s internal affairs, a matter which demonstrates the presence of a foreign encouragement and support to all that might undermine security and stability in the country, at a time when the national dialogue aiming at building up Syria’s future is being released.’
The city of Hama has a storied history of rebellion against the Syrian leadership and was a stronghold of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, which staged a bloody rebellion in 1982. It is now witnessing the largest turnout since the eruption of protests in mid-March, and also under a self-declared general strike since last Friday.
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Afghan War: French Death Toll Reaches 63
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-07/11/c_13978662.htm
Xinhua News Agency
July 11, 2011
One French soldier accidentally shot dead in Afghanistan
PARIS: A French soldier was accidentally shot dead by a national serviceman on Monday in eastern Afghanistan, raising the total fatalities to 64, the French Defense Ministry said.
The soldier…succumbed to his injuries after another French soldier accidentally shot him, the ministry said on its website.
An investigation is underway to identify the exact causes of the accident, according to the ministry website.
Last month, France announced a progressive withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan would start in this summer.
About 4,000 French soldiers were deployed in Afghan territories as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)…
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U.S. Marines: AFRICOM ‘Adding Muscle’ To African Counterinsurgency Campaigns
Stars and Stripes
July 11, 2011
AFRICOM Marine task force to help train militaries fighting al-Qaida-linked groups in Somalia, Maghreb region
By John Vandiver
-The establishment of an Africa-focused Marine task force comes at a time when the Pentagon is attempting to apply more pressure to groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department, such as the Somali militant group al-Shabab.
The U.S. recently committed $45 million in military equipment aimed at helping Uganda and Burundi, which have forces deployed in Somalia, more effectively engage in urban combat, according to the Pentagon.
-The Marines also will work with militaries in northern Africa…as part of Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans-Sahara.
STUTTGART, Germany: With an eye on insurgent movements in Somalia and volatile parts of northern Africa, a new Marine task force has been assigned to U.S. Africa Command as part of an effort to ramp up training partnerships with militaries fighting al-Qaida-linked groups on the continent.
The addition of the Marine infantrymen, coupled with the recent commissioning of an Africa-focused Naval Special Warfare unit based is Stuttgart, home of the AFRICOM headquarters, suggests AFRICOM is starting to add some muscle.
The Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force, expected to be based in southern Europe, will focus on training African troops deploying as peacekeepers to Somalia, while also bolstering militaries attempting to take on groups affiliated with al-Qaida that are operating across the Maghreb region…
The unit, which includes air and ground elements, could grow from 123 Marines to about 364 troops in the next few years, if the initial missions prove successful, said Brig. Gen. Paul Brier, deputy commander of MARFOR Africa.
The establishment of an Africa-focused Marine task force comes at a time when the Pentagon is attempting to apply more pressure to groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department, such as the Somali militant group al-Shabab.
The U.S. recently committed $45 million in military equipment aimed at helping Uganda and Burundi, which have forces deployed in Somalia, more effectively engage in urban combat, according to the Pentagon. The two countries provide the bulk of the 9,000 African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.
The Washington Post recently reported that a U.S. drone attacked insurgent targets in Somalia in June.
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[H]uman rights groups have raised concerns about civilians caught between al-Shabab fighters and the AU force, which has been accused of indiscriminately firing mortars at targets and killing non-combatants in the process.
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Marine officials say…the new task force will aim to…provide…local forces with better tactics for confronting the threats that surround them.
‘We’re refining their capabilities,’ said Col. James Bright, chief of staff at MARFOR Africa.
The Marines also will work with militaries in northern Africa, where al-Qaida affiliates have long been a concern for the U.S., as part of Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans-Sahara.
The plan to establish a Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force dedicated exclusively to AFRICOM missions has been in development for two years.
The unit’s members have now been selected, and preparations are under way to forward-deploy them in Europe in a matter of months, according to Marines at the command’s Panzer Kaserne headquarters in Stuttgart…
The U.S. maintains numerous military bases in southern Europe, including Italy, which hosts the Navy’s 6th Fleet and also Army and Air Force units. The U.S. also maintains a naval presence in Rota, Spain.
As a back-up plan, the Marines could operate out of the U.S., if efforts to forward-deploy fall through, Vesely said. New troops will be rotated into the unit every six months.
Brier, the outgoing deputy commander of Marine Forces Africa, acknowledged the SPMAGTF is being formed at a time when troops and resources are stretched thin. However, the unit should be able to grow over time as the Corps looks for efficient ways to return Marines to their more expeditionary roots after years spent on combat outposts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Brier said.
‘We’re doing it with the idea of, how do we sustain it for the long-haul,’ Brier said.
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Top Chinese General Criticizes U.S. Military Policy In Asia
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/07/11/china.mullen/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
CNN
July 11, 2011
Top Chinese general takes aim at U.S. military policy
By Steve Jiang
-’If the U.S. could reduce its military spending a little, and spend more on improving the livelihood of the American people and doing more good things for the world – wouldn’t that be a better scenario?’
Beijing: One day after the top American military officer declared that China ‘has arrived as a world power,’ his Chinese counterpart Monday played down the capabilities of the 3 million strong People’s Liberation Army while criticizing the role of U.S. armed forces in the Asia Pacific region.
Calling $700 billion a year in U.S. defense spending six times the Chinese budget, Gen. Chen Bingde, the PLA’s chief of the General Staff, brushed aside notions that China would challenge America’s military supremacy by building its own aircraft carriers while developing carrier-killing missiles.
‘We are still 20, 30 years behind the United States, no matter how much we have developed,’ he said at a joint press briefing with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Chen was blunt in expressing China’s view on the United States conducting two military exercises in the Asia Pacific region – with the Philippines and Vietnam, respectively – amid rising tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
‘We think the timing of those joint exercises is inappropriate,’ he said.
Mullen, in China for a rare four-day visit to promote military-to-military ties, pointed out to his host that such war games were long planned and small in scale.
‘It’s not that difficult to change the schedule,’ Chen responded.
China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all have competing claims to parts of the 1.3-million-square-mile patch of the Pacific Ocean. The vast area of waters, dotted with partially submerged atolls and reefs, contain some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and are thought to hold large deposits of oil and natural gas.
The United States officially stays neutral in the disputes, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has angered China since she declared last July maritime freedom in the area a U.S. national interest and expressed willingness to facilitate multilateral talks on the issue.
As Mullen repeated Washington’s stance, Chen fired back.
‘In the South China Sea, freedom of navigation has never been a problem,’ he said. ‘It serves as an excuse to sensationalize the issue.’
‘Some countries might be thinking of relying on U.S. support to address the issue – that’s not realistic,’ he added.
Chen pledged to work for a peaceful resolution to the disputes but showed clear irritation at ‘frequent, close-in reconnaissance activities by U.S. planes and ships against China,’ calling them unnecessary and counterproductive to improving military relations.
Emphasizing the routine nature of such U.S. military actions, Mullen acknowledged Beijing’s concern.
‘The United States has enduring interests in the region,’ he said. ‘We will continue to support those enduring interests and we want to do it in a way that is supportive of this relationship as well.’
Mullen, whose visit marked the first of its kind in four years, started his trip Sunday. He has addressed university students in Beijing, visited normally top-secret missile force facilities and met the Chinese vice president.
Despite his assertive tone, Chen described his country — already the world’s second-largest economy — as a poor one due to its population of 1.3 billion people. He reassured the audience that China would use its newfound strength only for self-defense and the improvement of global security.
‘Our sole purpose is to make China a better country and the Chinese people live happier lives,’ he said. ‘If we spend too much money on the military, the people won’t agree.’
The top general of the world’s largest military force apparently even keeps the welfare of American taxpayers in mind.
‘I know the U.S. is still recovering from the financial crisis,’ Chen pondered aloud at the joint press briefing. ‘But it’s still spending so much money on its military – isn’t that placing too much pressure on the taxpayers?’
‘If the U.S. could reduce its military spending a little, and spend more on improving the livelihood of the American people and doing more good things for the world – wouldn’t that be a better scenario?’
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Japan: U.S. Army To Open New Battle Systems Center For Afghan-, Iraqi-Style Wars
Stars and Stripes
July 11, 2011
U.S. Army to open battle systems training center in Japan
By Seth Robson
-The Sagami Mission Command Training Center is part of a network of 28 such Army-run facilities worldwide, but the first in Asia, according to director Hal Ayrton.
-The center will train command groups that could control thousands of troops in battle. It could also be used for a rehearsal exercise to prepare troops for a particular mission…
TOKYO: The Army soon will open a $17 million facility near Tokyo that will train Army commanders and soldiers on computerized battle command systems that have been used extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan to control friendly forces and track insurgents.
The Sagami Mission Command Training Center is part of a network of 28 such Army-run facilities worldwide, but the first in Asia, according to director Hal Ayrton.
‘The (low) number of tactical missions we have had to perform here, until recently, meant the priority has been stateside units,’ said U.S. Army Japan spokesman Maj. Randall Baucom.
The Army opened the doors of the new facility to the media last week. It will officially open Aug. 4 at Sagami General Depot.
The center includes classrooms for individual instruction as well as areas that can be configured for use as a tactical operations center. Part of the center is set aside for a staff of up to 17 who can run simulations through the battle command systems to test commanders with different scenarios such as disaster relief operations, Ayrton said.
U.S. Army Japan has begun using some of the systems in the field, including Blue Force Tracker, which tracks vehicles on the battlefield, and it will soon start fielding a computerized intelligence collection system.
Some of the features of the new systems include giving commanders access to instant messages from ground troops, or providing Google Earth-style maps that display a wide range of information including signals from GPS devices attached to equipment on the battlefield.
The center will train command groups that could control thousands of troops in battle. It could also be used for a rehearsal exercise to prepare troops for a particular mission, Ayrton said.
The center also will be able to combine individual virtual training, in which a soldier navigates a mission on a computer screen, with command group training. In that case, information relayed to the battle command systems would be based on the actions of individual soldiers playing simulations, Ayrton said.
‘The commanders in another room will be calling back to people in these simulations with further instructions,’ he said.
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The facility, which took 18 months to build, includes 35,000-square-feet of indoor space along with 65,000-square-feet of outdoor space equipped with power supplies and communications networks where units can set up command posts and other field equipment, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project manager Tanya Bazemore.
Soldiers who train at the facility will be eligible for college credits or promotion points, Ayrton said.
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Australia: 22,000 U.S., Canadian, Local Troops In Full-Spectrum War Games
http://www.stripes.com/news/navy/talisman-sabre-kicks-off-in-australia-1.148876
Stars and Stripes
July 11, 2011
Talisman Sabre kicks off in Australia
TOKYO: Talisman Sabre 2011, a joint U.S. and Australia military training exercise, kicked off Sunday with an open house at the Rockhampton Showgrounds in central Queensland, Australia.
The event featured a variety of military vehicles and equipment, as well as hands-on displays.
Australia and U.S. military troops will conduct land, sea and air training throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory through July 29, U.S. military officials said.
Some 22,000 personnel from the U.S., Australia and Canada – including about 14,000 U.S. servicemembers from the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Army – are taking part in the military and humanitarian exercise.
This is the fourth Talisman Sabre exercise. For the first time, there will be a significant presence of civilians from government agencies in the U.S. and Australia. Officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Agriculture and Department of Justice will be on hand in an attempt to better synchronize their efforts with the military boots on the ground.
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Serbia: U.S., Britain, France Block UN Kosovo Organ Trafficking Probe
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=07&dd=11&nav_id=75379
Tanjug News Agency
July 11, 2011
‘Big powers against UN-mandate organ trafficking probe’
-’I would like to believe that, in the weeks to come, we will manage to overcome the obstacle and achieve progress. If that does not happen, it will be extremely difficult to resist the impression that there is something in the case of human organ trafficking in Kosovo that, for some reason, should by no means see the light of day.’
BELGRADE: The U.S., Britain and France are hindering Serbia’s request for the investigation into human organ trafficking in Kosovo to be conducted under the UN mandate.
This is according to Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremi?.
‘Our request for the investigators to work with a mandate on the case of organ trafficking in Kosovo and Albania, and submit their reports to the UN Security Council, has unfortunately been hindered by those who have the institutional capacity to do that,’ Jeremi? told Belgrade-based daily Blic in an interview.
He identified those countries as the United States, Britain and France.
When asked about whether this ‘ruins the last chance to carry out an independent investigation under the mandate of the UN Security Council’, Jeremic said that ‘talks continued’.
‘I would like to believe that, in the weeks to come, we will manage to overcome the obstacle and achieve progress. If that does not happen, it will be extremely difficult to resist the impression that there is something in the case of human organ trafficking in Kosovo that, for some reason, should by no means see the light of day.’
The Marty report published in late 2010 named members of the ethnic Albanian KLA as perpetrators of the body part trafficking atrocities, and kidnapped Serb and other civilians as their victims.
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NATO Awards Dutch Commander For Mediterranean, Horn Of Africa Missions
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_76341.htm
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
July 11, 2011
Captain Hugo Ammerlaan receives the NATO Meritorious Service Medal
Brussels: Captain Hugo Ammerlaan, Royal Netherlands Navy, was awarded with the NATO Meritorious Service Medal by Lt. General Juergen Bornemann, Director General of the IMS. Capt Ammerlaan was awarded this honor due to his command of the ship HNLMS DE Zeven Provinciën in Operations Ocean Shield and Active Endeavour and as SNMG2 flagship and his participation in Exercise Joint Warrior 102.
The NATO Meritorious Service Medal is awarded to commend staff whose personal initiative and dedication went beyond their duty to make a difference both to their colleagues, and to NATO as an organization.
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ACT: NATO, Pentagon Integrate Global Military Transformation
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
July 7, 2011
Senior Leaders discuss future ACT-US Relations
Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, French Air Force General Stephane Abrial and other senior ACT leaders met with General James E. Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the United States’ Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Raymond T. Odierno, Commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command (US JFCOM) for transition talks on July 7.
With the coming disestablishment of JFCOM, these tri-lateral talks offered an opportunity for a face-to-face discussion to on the future connections between ACT and the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Staff.
ACT and JFCOM have for several years had a close collaborative relationship based on a similarity of missions. The organisations share efforts and work together to improve Alliance military capabilities.
‘ACT will continue to remain closely linked to US military transformational efforts in the future, working with the Americans to ensure this cooperation continues’ General Abrial said.
The Commanders agreed to meet on a regular basis to assess the progress in this relationship.
Mr. Joseph Mcmillan, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs also participated in the talks.
The New Dark Age 