18 October 2011 — Stop NATO
- Libya War: Need To Strengthen War Powers Resolution
- NYT: U.S. Debated Cyberwarfare In Attack Plan On Libya
- NATO-Iraq Partnership: Italian Military Trains 11,000 Federal And Oil Police
- Video And Text: NATO Plans Final Solution For Kosovo Serbs
- Thousands Of Serbs Prepare For NATO Assault
- U.S. Warship Arrives In Georgia Despite Russian Anger
- NATO’s Sun King: Saakashvili Says Today’s Louis XIV Visited Georgia
- Assembly: NATO Plans Drone Attacks In Balochistan
- New NATO: Estonia Loses Ninth Soldier In Afghanistan
- Gulf Of Guinea: U.S. Strengthens Military Cooperation With Nigeria
Libya War: Need To Strengthen War Powers Resolution
http://www.iar-gwu.org/node/353
International Affairs Review
October 17, 2011
After Libya: The Need to Revise the War Powers Resolution
The debate over U.S. involvement in NATO’s Libya mission shows that Congress must revise the War Powers Resolution and ensure effective oversight of future military operations.
By Chris Economou
Before U.S. President Barack Obama committed American forces to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) mission in Libya last spring, he neglected to provide an adequate reason for America’s involvement or seek approval from Congress. Because of this decision, Obama faced extensive criticism as the conflict dragged on. In a letter sent to the president in March 2011, House Speaker John Boehner wrote that he was ‘troubled’ that Obama committed U.S. military forces to the conflict ‘without clearly defining’ what the mission is and without first consulting Congress.
Additionally, on June 3, 2011, the House of Representatives passed a nonbinding resolution demanding that President Obama define U.S. goals in Libya. Obama’s failure to consult with Congress creates a dangerous precedent that denies Congress a say in deciding when and how U.S. military forces should be used and instead places these decisions into the hands of just one person – the president. To ensure that this practice does not continue, Congress should learn from Obama’s actions in Libya and make the War Powers Resolution binding and more specific.
The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to declare wars and fund the military. However, the Constitution simultaneously empowers the president to carry out wars as commander-in-chief. Both branches of government have long debated this dichotomy of war powers.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 meant to end this debate by requiring closer collaboration between the branches when the United States enters into a conflict. The War Powers Resolution states that the president may not engage the U.S. military in any conflict for more than 60 days unless Congress has declared war extended the sixty-day period, or cannot convene due to an armed attack on U.S. territory. Passed over a presidential veto, the War Powers Resolution means to serve as a check on the president’s ability to commit U.S. forces to lengthy military engagements without approval from Congress.
Since the start of U.S. involvement in NATO’s Libya mission, President Obama has neglected the War Powers Resolution by denying that the conflict is actually a war. In a 38-page report sent to lawmakers on June 15, 2011, the Obama administration asserted that since ‘U.S. operations do not involve sustained fighting or active exchanges of fire with hostile forces, nor do they involve U.S. ground troops,’ the Libyan conflict does not constitute a war or fall under the War Powers Resolution.
Despite Obama’s argument to the contrary, the Libya mission is exactly the type of conflict that the War Powers Resolution was meant to control.
Through air support and strategic bombings, NATO’s mission was clearly of a military nature and directly assisted the Libyan rebels’ takeover of the capital city of Tripoli on August 23, 2011. Considering that America provided the bulk of NATO’s military capabilities and funding in Libya, this was as much America’s war as it was NATO’s. Therefore, Obama should have consulted with and sought approval from Congress and adhered to the 60-day deadline, as the Resolution requires.
To prevent future presidents from ignoring Congress’ role in military conflicts, the War Powers Resolution should be revised to make it more specific and binding. Such revisions should include accurately defining terms used in the original resolution such as ‘engaging in hostilities’ that are ambiguous and can be easily circumvented by the executive branch.
These revisions should also include penalties which are automatically enacted should the president fail to uphold the resolution’s requirements. Such penalties would most likely include the automatic withholding of funds reserved for the conflict without a congressional debate or vote. The outcome would be a new War Powers Resolution, which still allows the president to dispatch American armed forces when necessary, but ensures effective oversight by elected officials in Congress.
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NYT: U.S. Debated Cyberwarfare In Attack Plan On Libya
New York Times
October 17, 2011
U.S. Debated Cyberwarfare in Attack Plan on Libya
By Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker
WASHINGTON: Just before the American-led strikes against Libya in March, the Obama administration intensely debated whether to open the mission with a new kind of warfare: a cyberoffensive to disrupt and even disable the Qaddafi government’s air-defense system…
While the exact techniques under consideration remain classified, the goal would have been to break through the firewalls of the Libyan government’s computer networks to sever military communications links and prevent the early-warning radars from gathering information and relaying it to missile batteries aiming at NATO warplanes.
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In the end, American officials rejected cyberwarfare and used conventional aircraft, cruise missiles and drones to strike the Libyan air-defense missiles and radars used by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government.
This previously undisclosed debate among a small circle of advisers demonstrates that cyberoffensives are a growing form of warfare. The question the United States faces is whether and when to cross the threshold into overt cyberattacks.
Last year, a Stuxnet computer worm apparently wiped out a part of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and delayed its ability to produce nuclear fuel. Although no entity has acknowledged being the source of the poisonous code, some evidence suggests that the virus was an American-Israeli project…
The Obama administration is revving up the nation’s digital capabilities, while publicly emphasizing only its efforts to defend vital government, military and public infrastructure networks.
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The debate about a potential cyberattack against Libya was described by more than a half-dozen officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the classified planning.
In the days ahead of the American-led airstrikes to take down Libya’s integrated air-defense system, a more serious debate considered the military effectiveness…of using cyberattacks to blind Libyan radars and missiles.
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Gen. Carter F. Ham, the head of the military’s Africa Command, which led the two-week American air campaign against Libya until NATO assumed full control of the operation on March 31, would not comment on any proposed cyberattacks. In an interview, he said only that ‘no capability that I ever asked for was denied.’
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The War Powers Resolution, a Vietnam-era law enacted over President Richard M. Nixon’s veto, does not define ‘hostilities.’ In describing its actions to Congress and the American people, the White House argued that its use of conventional forces in the Libyan intervention fell short of the level of hostilities requiring Congressional permission under either the Constitution or the resolution…
Charlie Savage contributed reporting.
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NATO-Iraq Partnership: Italian Military Trains 11,000 Federal And Oil Police
http://www.aco.nato.int/nato-gendarmerie-training-unit-achieves-important-milestone-in-iraq-.aspx
North Atlantic Treaty Organziation
Allied Command Transformation
October 17, 2011
NATO Gendarmerie Training Unit achieves important milestone in Iraq
-Armentani stressed that while this ‘tactical’ phase of the NTM-I mission had come to its end, a new, more strategic phase, was beginning. The Carabinieri who will continue to serve within the Police Advisory and Training Division, led by Col. Michele Facciorusso, will provide advice to the most senior stakeholders in the Iraqi Security Forces at the ministerial level, and will increase the number of the Out-of-Iraq activities in schools and centres of excellence of NATO member States.
Baghdad, Iraq: The NATO Training Mission-Iraq Deputy Commander, Maj. Gen. Giovanni Armentani, recently bid farewell to the Carabinieri of the Gendarmerie Training Unit who are scheduled to leave Iraq after four years of uninterrupted service in the NATO mission.
The general congratulated unit members on their exceptional work and said: ‘The result you achieved speaks by itself: you have trained nearly 11,000 Policemen from the Iraqi Federal and Oil Police since 2007 on 20 basic courses. You also ran 17 courses to train instructors and 41 specialty courses ranging from Counter IED and Counter Insurgency to Crime Scene Investigation.
‘Your efforts covered more than twice the number of requests for training made by the Iraqi authorities…’
Furthermore, Armentani stressed that while this ‘tactical’ phase of the NTM-I mission had come to its end, a new, more strategic phase, was beginning. The Carabinieri who will continue to serve within the Police Advisory and Training Division, led by Col. Michele Facciorusso, will provide advice to the most senior stakeholders in the Iraqi Security Forces at the ministerial level, and will increase the number of the Out-of-Iraq activities in schools and centres of excellence of NATO member States. Also, specialty police training will be offered, and facilitated, by NATO mobile training teams.
A ceremony to commemorate the lowering of the flag in Camp Dublin – the Carabinieri training base – marked the beginning of NTM-I’s transformation into an organization better suited to assist Iraq…and will set the conditions for a solid partnership between Iraq and NATO in the future.
Finally, Maj. Gen. Armentani praised Lt. Col. Sergio Di Rosalia, who commanded the Gendarmerie Training Unit for seven months…and Col. Michele Facciorusso, Chief PATD, for his steadfast support and guidance.
The NATO Training Mission in Iraq (NTM-I) was established in 2004…The aim of NTM-I is to assist in the development of Iraqi security forces training structures and institutions…
NTM-I is…a distinct training mission, under the political control of NATO’s North Atlantic Council. Its operational emphasis is on training and mentoring. The activities of the mission are coordinated with Iraqi authorities and the US-led Deputy Commanding General Advising and Training (DCG (A&T)) who is also dual-hatted as the Commander of NTM-I. NATO has an enduring commitment to Iraq.
NTM-I advises and supports the Defence University for Military Studies, National Defence College, War College, and the Defence Language Institute with the other institutions in Baghdad. Other cooperation projects for NATO in Iraq are out-of-country training courses for Iraqi nationals at NATO schools as well as the Iraqi Police (Iraqi Federal Police and Oil Police) training led by Italian Carabinieri.
Currently, NTM-I is a…tactical force of NATO/PfP personnel, representing 14 member nations (as at August 2011): Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine (Partner for Peace), UK, USA.
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Video And Text: NATO Plans Final Solution For Kosovo Serbs
http://rt.com/news/kosovo-serbs-barricades-ultimatum-065/
RT
October 18, 2011
Kosovo border dispute escalates
Video
NATO forces have extended the deadline for Serbs in northern Kosovo to remove barricades near the Kosovar-Serbian border, delivering them an ultimatum to clear the roadblocks by early Tuesday or face forced removal.
Pristina, the capital of Albanian-dominated Kosovo, wants to erect customs posts between the Serb-dominated part of the self-proclaimed republic and Serbia, tearing the Serb enclave in Kosovo from Belgrade and urging Serbs to leave their homes and depart for Serbia.
That means the clock is ticking for Kosovar Serbs because NATO’s Kosovo Peacekeeping Force (KFOR) is on the side of the Albanians, and they have already shown that they will not hesitate to fire at Serb protesters with live rounds.
But the Serbs who were born in Kosovo do not want to leave their motherland, and they have attempted to prevent Albanian police and customs officials from seizing control of the border crossings to Serbia.
Still, KFOR appears to mean business, and seems intent on delivering Kosovar officials to border checkpoints under the protection of their guns.
But Kosovar Serbs have nowhere to retreat. When RT visited the site of the protests, the roadblocks remained in the same place they have been for the last two months.
With the Tuesday deadline approaching, tensions in the area are boiling.
On Saturday, KFOR Commander General Erhard Drews met with the mayors of four northern Kosovo towns, claiming that KFOR needs the roads cleared in order access northern parts of Kosovo. At the moment, supplies for the KFOR troops stationed there – water, food and fuel – are being delivered by helicopters.
Last month KFOR attempted to bulldoze the Kosovar Serb barricades, but the only result was violence that left 11 Serbs wounded. Despite KFOR’s attempt to cover up the scandal by saying soldiers were only shooting rubber bullets, the doctors who treated the injured confirmed all the wounds were real gunshots. It could be said that blood has already been spilled, and it was Serb blood.
The situation on the border might look peaceful for now, but this could change in the blink of an eye.
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Thousands Of Serbs Prepare For NATO Assault
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=10&dd=17&nav_id=76893
Beta News Agency
October 17, 2011
Serbs in north organize ‘rehearsal’ protest
ZUP?E: Serb gathered this morning near the main barricade in the northern Kosovo village of Zup?e to protest against the announced removal of the road blocks.
Local Serbs blocked roads after Kosovo Albanian authorities moved to install their customs and police on the administrative line between central Serbia and Kosovo.
Serbs, who form a majority in northern Kosovo, reject both the authority of the Kosovo Albanian government in Priština, and the ethnic Albanian unilateral declaration of independence made in early 2008.
Zubin Potok Mayor Slaviša Risti? addressed several thousand people gathered today to say that they were not there protecting ‘beeches and tree trunks’, but rather their country, homes, and the future of their children.
Risti? pleaded with the citizens to remain ‘calm and wise’, and called on them to gather again on Tuesday morning at Zup?e.
‘If members of KFOR try to break through the barricades tomorrow, we will stand calmly, we’ll take our chairs too, and sit down. If that’s what their justice and freedom is about – then we don’t need it,’ the mayor told the crowd.
‘We ask nothing from them, except to be left alone, to stay and live in the state of Serbia. If there is no Serbia here, there will be none in Belgrade either,’ warned Risti?, and added that the people defending their homes recognize and appreciate the help they are receiving from friends at this difficult time.
Previously, the residents of the Ibarski Kolašin region say that they will spend Monday at the barricades, and that the protest will be peaceful.
Reports said there were women and children at the barricades, while schools are today closed in the area.
The locals said today’s events were a ‘rehearsal’ for what Serbs intend to do if KFOR starts removing their barricades.
Farther up north, in Leposavi?, Serbs were also ready to peacefully resist Priština’s attempts to install its institutions here.
The citizens are saying that if there is no solution that will be acceptable to them, and if KFOR dismantles their road blocks, they will react by putting up new barricades.
Last night, residents of the towns of Kosovska Mitrovica and Zve?an manned the barricades.
…
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U.S. Warship Arrives In Georgia Despite Russian Anger
Agence France-Presse
October 17, 2011
US warship visits Georgia despite Russia anger
TBILISI: A US warship arrived Monday in Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi for exercises with the country’s coast guard, the US embassy said, in the latest of a series of such calls which have angered Russia.
The guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea’s ‘regularly scheduled’ port call will include ‘combined training exercises with the Georgian Coast Guard,’ the US embassy in Tbilisi said in a statement.
‘This visit serves to continue US 6th Fleet efforts to build global maritime partnerships with Black Sea nations and improve maritime safety and security,’ the embassy said.
US warships delivered humanitarian aid to Georgia after the Caucasus nation fought a brief war with Russia in August 2008.
Moscow has criticised the decision to send the sophisticated warships, saying it might contravene international conventions and that the ships were unsuited for aid missions.
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NATO’s Sun King: Saakashvili Says Today’s Louis XIV Visited Georgia
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=24040
Civil Georgia
October 17, 2011
Saakashvili: ‘Georgia Close to Achieving its Historic Goals’
Tbilisi: President Saakashvili said on October 17 that Georgia had never been so close to achieving its goals as now, including on its drive to join the EU and NATO.
‘Never before we have been so close to achieving our historic goals as now; never before have we been so [close] to NATO and never before we have been so close to theEU as now. Although our invader still rules [in parts] of our territories, and although it still bars you from returning back to your homes, our invaders have never before had so little chances as now,’ Saakashvili said.
He was speaking at an opening ceremony of an EU-funded apartment complex for internally displaced families in the Black Sea town of Poti.
Saakashvili said centuries ago Georgian kings were sending letters and envoys to Europe requesting help and then added by citing a verse from Georgian poetry, that one such envoy had to wait in a long queue before a meeting with the Sun King, Louis XIV of France.
‘A week ago, today’s Louis XIV arrived and addressed [public] and pledged friendship and assistance from Tbilisi’s central square,’ Saakashvili said referring to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit in Tbilisi on October 7.
He said that the major goal was to strengthen Georgia in order to peacefully return territories now occupied by Russia.
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Assembly: NATO Plans Drone Attacks In Balochistan
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C10%5C18%5Cstory_18-10-2011_pg7_4
Daily Times
October 18, 2011
BA members resent NATO airspace violations
By Mohammad Zafar
QUETTA: Resentment over the violation of Pakistani airspace by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) echoed in the Balochistan Assembly on Monday.
During the session, the parliamentary leader of ANP demanded that the federal government raise the issue with NATO and the United States.
Deputy Speaker Matiullah Agha chaired the session in absence of Speaker Aslam Bhootani, who was in his hometown in Lasbela over the death of his mother.
Provincial Minister for Revenue and ANP Parliamentary Leader Zamruk Khan Achakzai took the floor on a point of order and informed the House that NATO had again violated Pakistani airspace by making a low flight in the area for 20 minutes. ‘The NATO and International Alliance Forces have a mandate to stay in Afghanistan. These violations are creating fear and panic amongst the local people. We assume these violations are an indication that NATO forces will soon launch drone attacks in Balochistan,’ he said.
…
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New NATO: Estonia Loses Ninth Soldier In Afghanistan
Baltic Review
October 17, 2011
Estonian soldier 25-year-old Corporal Agris Hutrof killed in Afghanistan
An Estonian soldier deployed as part of the Estcoy-12 mission to Afghanistan was killed after a firefight with militants during a foot patrol in south of the war-torn nation on October 15, the Baltic country’s military announces.
Estonian military spokesman Georgi Kokoshinski said Corporal Agris Hutrof died after his unit came under attack in Helmand on Saturday morning.
While on a patrol mission in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, 25-year-old Corporal Agris Hutrof’s unit became engaged in two battles with anti-government forces, according to information from the Defense Forces Headquarters.
Hutrof was evacuated to Camp Bastion for treatment, but doctors were unable to save him. Three other wounded members of Estcoy-12 were evacuated along with him. Their injuries are reported to be non-life-threatening.
Hutrof, who joined the army as a conscript in 2008 and then opted to turn professional, had been serving in Afghanistan since May 2011.
Estonia’s 160-strong contingent is part of NATO’s US-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
There are currently about 150,000 US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan, 100,000 of whom are from the United States.
Saturday’s death was Estonia’s ninth fatality in Afghanistan since the Baltic state first sent troops in 2003 after the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.
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Gulf Of Guinea: U.S. Strengthens Military Cooperation With Nigeria
http://leadership.ng/nga/articles/6742/2011/10/16/nigeria_us_strengthen_defence_ties.html
Leadership
October 16, 2011
Nigeria, US To Strengthen Defence Ties
Abiodun Oluwaratimi
Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defence for Africa, says that her country and Nigeria will strengthen ties in defence. Huddleston gave the assurance on Friday in Abuja when she paid a courtesy call on the minister of state for defence, Mrs Olusola Obada, in her office.
She said that she came to have talks with the minister because of the meeting between U.S. president Barrack Obama and president Goodluck Jonathan on some issues bordering on security.
‘We want to discuss with you on how we can further our co-operation on security. Security is a critical issue for Nigeria; it is a critical issue for West Africa and, indeed, the whole world.
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Huddleston said that Nigeria and the U.S. could partner in developing security programmes…by expanding co-operation in military issues.
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Obada thanked the U.S. for its assistance in the training and re-training of Nigeria’s military personnel.
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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Huddleston was accompanied on the visit by the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Terence McCulley and other top U.S. officials.
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