1 November 2011 — Stop NATO
- U.S. AFRICOM ‘Ecstatic To Partner With Friends In Libya’
- Iraq Scenario Replayed: Libyan ‘WMD’ Ploy For U.S. And NATO To Stay
- U.S. Citizen New Prime Minister Of Libya
- Regional Tensions To Grow, Not Subside, After U.S. Iraq Withdrawal
- U.S. To Maintain Forward-Deployed Military Forces In Persian Gulf
- Deadliest Afghan War Incident To Date: Three Australian Troops Killed, Seven Wounded By Afghan Soldier
- Pakistan: Growing Movement Against Drone Attacks, NATO
- Pakistani Supreme Court Petitioned On Drone Strikes, NATO Incursions
- Russia, China Seek Full SCO Membership For India And Pakistan
- Counter-NATO: Turkey Poised For SCO Partnership
U.S. AFRICOM ‘Ecstatic To Partner With Friends In Libya’
http://www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123277882
U.S. Air Forces in Libya
October 29, 2011
Team Ramstein supports AFRICOM, transports wounded Libyans
by Senior Airman Katherine Holt
86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany: Four seriously wounded Libyan fighters were evacuated from Tripoli, Libya and transported here Oct. 29.
At the request of the Department of State, U.S. Africa Command was directed by the Secretary of Defense to support the…effort in Libya by aeromedically transporting more than 30 wounded Libyans to medical facilities in Europe and the United States.
‘We are ecstatic to partner with our friends in Libya,’ said Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward, 17th Air Force and U.S. Air Forces Africa commander…
The fighters were cared for in flight by a seven-person team from the 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and a critical care air transport team from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
‘We are always on standby and ready to go,’ said Col. Meg Walsh, 86th AES commander. ‘We can go anywhere at any time.’
Flown in on a C-130J Super Hercules, assigned to the 37th Airlift Squadron, patients were loaded onto civilian aircraft and German ambulances then transported to German health care facilities.
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Iraq Scenario Replayed: Libyan ‘WMD’ Ploy For U.S. And NATO To Stay
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/10/31/59659389.html
Voice of Russia
October 31, 2011
Chemical weapons in Libya good pretext
The chemical weapons found by the rebels in Libya are necessary for the USA and NATO to justify their further presence in that country, Russian defence expert General Leonid Sazhin said in his interview for the ITAR-TASS news agency.
The US representatives, with reference to the rebels who discovered the chemical weapons which had never been hidden, started talking about their danger for the NTC and NATO and the risk of their getting into the hands of international terrorists, the expert pointed out. The general reminded the journalists that the USA has known for a long time how the mustard gas was destroyed in Libya under the supervision of an international organization.
Today almost a complete version of the Iraqi scenario is being repeated. In Iraq the USA and its allies also carried out a military operation with the aim of finding weapons of mass destruction. ‘The weapons were never found but the dictator unsuitable for the West was hanged,’ the general summed up.
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U.S. Citizen New Prime Minister Of Libya
Washington Post
October 31, 2011
Dual U.S.-Libyan citizen chosen as prime minister of Libya
TRIPOLI: Libya’s leaders on Monday elected a U.S.-educated engineering professor to serve as prime minister during the critical postwar period…
Abdurraheem el-Keib, a dual U.S.-Libyan citizen, was chosen by members of the Transitional National Council…
El-Keib is expected to announce a Cabinet in the next few days.
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El-Keib, a resident of Tripoli, earned his PhD at North Carolina State University in 1984 and was a longtime professor at the University of Alabama. He joined the interim council last spring.
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He replaces Mahmoud Jibril, an American-educated political scientist who was seen as divisive and criticized for frequent overseas travel. Jibril did not seek re-election.
El-Keib’s election came just hours before NATO formally ended its seven-month bombing campaign in Libya.
‘You acted to change your history and your destiny. We acted to protect you. Together we succeeded,’ NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told interim President Mustafa Abdel Jalil at a news conference.
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More than 8,000 servicemen and women from the United States and other countries participated in the NATO operation to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya…Allied air forces struck nearly 6,000 targets, playing a key role in cutting the supply lines to Gaddafi troops.
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Interim President Mustafa Abdel Jalil thanked NATO for its support. ‘On behalf of the Libyan people, we express our appreciation and gratitude,’ he said.
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Regional Tensions To Grow, Not Subside, After U.S. Iraq Withdrawal
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/10/31/59651253.html
Voice of Russia
October 31, 2011
A withdrawal or an escalation of conflict?
Boris Volkhonsky
The U.S. administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to the New York Times, citing officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.
It is an open secret that the decision to withdraw the troops completely was taken by the Obama administration earlier in October only due to the fact that the Iraqi authorities firmly protested against prolonging their stay in the country. Before that the administration and especially the U.S. generals had insisted that several thousand troops should stay in Iraq to conduct special operations and maneuvers.
Now few people remember that this is a clear contradiction with the statements made early this year that all U.S. combat troops had been completely withdrawn from Iraq, and the remaining several tens of thousands were only ‘military advisors’ and instructors. Also, the withdrawal of regular troops does not mean that private companies operating in Iraq are not going to keep an unspecified number of personnel. They will be slightly less than the number of troops previously stationed there. Also a number of security personnel will remain to fulfill the same duties as the military.
The decision to keep and even bolster the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf area only highlights that the war in Iraq and American participation in it is far from over. More so – this is a clear indication that the U.S. is ready to widen the scope of its operations and is not going to let the peoples of the region decide their destinies for themselves.
The issue, whether the U.S. should stay in Iraq or withdraw completely, has been a matter of dispute for a long time in the U.S. Lately, it has become an issue relevant to the electoral campaign. Many Democrats and a few Republicans claim that the U.S. has been in the region for too long, while most Republicans insist on prolonging the military presence. Last week, a group of twelve Republican senators wrote a letter to the chairman of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee demanding that hearings should be held on the issue. ‘The complete withdrawal of our forces from Iraq is likely to be viewed as a strategic victory by our enemies in the Middle East, especially the Iranian regime,’ the senators wrote in their letter.
The opposition to the troop withdrawal forces the administration into showing that the decision was not taken from a position of weakness. Shortly after President Obama announced the decision, State Secretary Hillary Clinton, on a visit to Tajikistan, declared, ‘We will have a robust continuing presence throughout the region, which is proof of our ongoing commitment to Iraq and to the future of that region, which holds such promise and should be freed from outside interference to continue on a pathway to democracy.’
The words that the region ‘should be freed from outside interference’ sound at least dubious when pronounced by the U.S. Secretary of State.
As for the powers in the region, the pending troop withdrawal has already been perceived by the Iranians as a sign of U.S. weakness. After a meeting in Tehran with Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the exit of American forces from Iraq as a ‘golden’ victory.
Most probably, Ayatollah Khamenei was too fast in his judgment. As it turns out, the withdrawal of troops from Iraq does not really change the picture too much. There are too many U.S. satellites in the region, who do not have any warm feelings towards Iran. And Kuwait is only one of them.
Definitely, there are many countries ready to assist the U.S. in its anti-Iranian moves. For example, such countries as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, which played an important role in the ‘Arab Spring,’ instigating the overthrow of…regimes, but happily avoiding (sometimes, with American help, like in the case of Bahrain) anything of the kind on their own soil. Such states are being courted by the U.S.
Therefore, one should not expect that the tensions in the region will subside after the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. On the contrary, the conflict will reach a new level.
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U.S. To Maintain Forward-Deployed Military Forces In Persian Gulf
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=65881
U.S. Department of Defense
October 31, 2011
U.S. Will Maintain Ties, Presence in Persian Gulf
By Jim Garamone
WASHINGTON: The United States will maintain a forward-deployed presence in the Persian Gulf region, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said here today.
The United States, he said, has had troops in that part of the world since World War II.
‘Our goal is to promote stability and we expect to continue to have strong military-to-military relations with countries in the region including Iraq, to include Kuwait, to include others,’ Little said.
The number of troops serving in the region and where they will be based remains to be decided, said Navy Capt. John Kirby, deputy assistant secretary of defense for media operations.
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‘Whatever decisions are made about force posture moving forward will be based upon our security commitments we have made and will continue to honor in that region,’ Kirby said.
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The United States has a range of interests and partners in the Persian Gulf region, Little said, noting the number of U.S. forces in the region has waxed and waned in response to events since 1945.
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Deadliest Afghan War Incident To Date: Three Australian Troops Killed, Seven Wounded By Afghan Soldier
http://www.smh.com.au/national/resolve-remains-says-gillard-as-greens-demand-end-20111030-1mqh5.html
Sydney Morning Herald
October 31, 2011
Resolve remains, says Gillard as Greens demand end
The murder of three Australian soldiers and the wounding of seven others by a supposed Afghan ally has left the government and military scrambling to shore up support for a war that has claimed the lives of 32 Diggers, including 11 this year.
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Describing the shootings as ’a bitter day for Australia’, Ms Gillard stressed that the mission in Afghanistan to train the Afghan National Army must continue.
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The three Diggers – Captain Bryce Duffy, 26, Lance Corporal Luke Gavin, 27, and Corporal Ashley Birt, 22 – belonged to the Mentoring Task Force. They were gunned down on Saturday afternoon, Australian time, by a member of the Afghan National Army during a parade at Forward Operating Base Pacemaker, in the Shah Wali Kot area of Kandahar province. An Afghan interpreter was also killed.
Of the seven Australians wounded, one has life-threatening injuries, four are in a serious condition and two have minor injuries. The gunman was killed.
The incident equals Australia’s single worst day in the 11-year war. A helicopter crash in June 2010 killed three Australians and injured seven.
It mirrors the incident in May, when Australian Lance-Corporal Andrew Jones was shot and killed by a member of the Afghan National Army.
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The gunman belonged to the 6th Kandak Regiment of the ANA. His colleagues have all been disarmed and confined to barracks.
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Pakistan: Growing Movement Against Drone Attacks, NATO
The Nation
October 30, 2011
Movement against drones
Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has said it is matter of shame for Parliament that the drone attacks by the USA are continuing. He said this while addressing the culmination of a rally by the PTI in Islamabad against drone strikes, which he accused of causing civilian casualties in large numbers.
A ‘Waziristan Grand Jirga’ which he attended at an Islamabad hotel the same day called on the UN and the Supreme Court to intervene, while Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Hussain Haroon, in a comment to a private TV channel, said that Pakistan could raise the matter provided the government so instructed. However, the government is as careful to avoid giving such instructions as it is careful to avoid telling PAF to shoot down the drones. The silence of the Pakistan government on this issue leads to the conclusion that Mr Khan drew at his rally, that the continuing strikes meant that the USA was paying no attention to the unanimous resolution by Parliament calling for their end.
As Mr Khan pointed out, the resolution called for NATO supply routes to be disconnected if the USA carried out any further attack was just a piece of paper.
Mr Khan did tell the Jirga that the war could only be won if Pakistan pulled its military out of the tribal areas, but he did not mention that Pakistan should also talk to those it called militants. The paradox of American behaviour must be noted, where it sees itself as having every right to talk with militants itself, but presses Pakistan to conduct ever-widening operations against them, to the extent that it is willing to accuse Pakistan of complicity with the Haqqani Network, even though it itself is engaged in sporadic talks with it.
Mr Khan also pointed out at the PTI rally that both the major parties had failed to do anything about the drone attacks.
As that is true, these two parties can only counter this if the PPP was to end its almost complete dependence on the USA, and was to adopt a stance more consistent with national interest and the PML-N its desire to win US favour.
This means breaking off an alliance encumbered by the overweening boorishness of the other, which has brought Pakistan violations of its national sovereignty and the killing of its citizens. This protest should also provide a reminder to the major parties that the alliance they are pursuing with such singlemindedness, with the USA, comes at the cost of Pakistani lives. The USA should also be aware that in arguing the case against the attacks, Mr Khan is not being anti-American, but merely conveying common sentiment among the Pakistani people.
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Pakistani Supreme Court Petitioned On Drone Strikes, NATO Incursions
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=75524&Cat=5&dt=11/1/2011
News International
November 1, 2011
SC moved against drone attacks
A constitutional petition has been filed in the Supreme Court Lahore registry seeking directions for the federal government to act to stop US drone attacks and other attacks into the country’s territory.
The Watan Party has filed the petition through its Punjab President Hashmi Shaukat Khan saying the US drone attacks are in violation of the article 3 of universal declaration of human rights, 1948 and charter of United Nations.
The petitioner through his counsel Barrister Zafarullah Khan stated that the US drone attacks were not only in violation of international laws but were also in violation of national sovereignty and independence. He said the Pakistani government should take strong stand against these drone attacks but it so far failed to do so.
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Russia, China Seek Full SCO Membership For India And Pakistan
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/260797.html
Itar-Tass
October 31, 2011
Russia, China want India, Pakistan to become SCO members shortly
MOSCOW: Russia and China would like to [recruit] India and Pakistan among the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Foreign Ministry said on Monday, October 31, after a meeting between Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin and his Chinese counterpart Cheng Guoping.
‘The sides called for accelerated SCO enlargement in keeping with the decisions of the Council of the SCO Heads of State made in Astana in June,’ the ministry said, referring to admission of India and Pakistan as members and Afghanistan as an observer, and granting of the status of dialogue partner to Turkey.
The diplomats ‘coordinated the positions of the sides on further improvement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s activities in the light of preparations for a meeting of the Council of Heads of Government in St. Petersburg on November 7 and the SCO summit in China in the summer of 2012.’
They ‘confirmed the readiness of Russia and China to interact effectively in ensuring security and stability in the SCO region, intensifying economic cooperation, primarily in the fields of transport, energy, science and technologies, in financing joint projects, and further facilitating humanitarian ties within the organisation,’ the ministry said.
‘The consultations were held in an atmosphere of full understanding and trust that are characteristic of the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership,’ it said.
No new admissions to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation were made at its summit in Astana on June 14-15.
But ‘the interest in the Organisation is growing’ and the SCO ‘makes an ever growing contribution to the development of confidence and security building measures’, presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said earlier.
‘The Organisation has become an effective mechanism, free of bureaucracy, for working out decisions and recommendations, and makes a positive contribution to the resolution of many regional problems,’ Prikhodko said.
The summiteers in Astana signed a memorandum on the obligations of the SCO Member States for acquiring the status of a SCO Member State.
‘This document will help to further develop the legal framework for SCO enlargement. The next stage would be harmonising legal, organisational and financial aspects of SCO membership for newcomers,’ the official said.
Last year, SCO foreign ministers approved the draft regulation on new admissions.
‘The approval by the ministers of the draft regulation on new admissions to the Organisation has confirmed the Organisation’s openness to other states in the region that undertake to comply with the goal and principles of the SCO Charter and the provisions of other international treaties and documents adopted by the SCO. The endorsement of this document at a meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State in Tashkent on June 10-11 [2010] will start the process of devising a mechanism for enlarging the organisation,’ the ministers said in a joint statement.
‘The ministers considered a number of priority tasks concerning further intensification of interaction in the organisation. The ministers exchanged views on pressing regional and global issues, the main tendencies in the world, and the strengthening of stability and security in Central Asia for further consolidation of the status of the SCO as an influential international organisation,’ the document said.
A country under U.N. sanctions cannot seek membership in the SCO.
The status of SCO observers has been granted to Mongolia, India, Pakistan, and Iran (the latter is under a number of U.N. sanctions).
‘A country that is seeking SCO membership may not be under U.N. Security Council sanctions,’ a Russian diplomat at the SCO said earlier, referring to a provision in the joint statement adopted by the SCO foreign ministers.
A number of countries, including Iran, India, and Pakistan, have already stated their intention to join the SCO. However the organisation has so far had no mechanism for new admissions.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is an intergovernmental mutual-security organisation which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Except for Uzbekistan, the other countries had been members of the Shanghai Five, founded in 1996; after the inclusion of Uzbekistan in 2001, the members renamed the organisation.
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Counter-NATO: Turkey Poised For SCO Partnership
http://indrus.in/articles/2011/10/26/the_sco_is_deemed_deserving_of_cooperation_13169.html
Kommersant
October 31, 2011
The SCO is deemed deserving of cooperation
Aleksandr Gabuyev, Elena Chernenko, Polina Eremenko
-The call for the US to finally determine the date of withdrawal of its troops from regional military bases was made at the 2005 summit in Astana by the SCO. In order to give more weight to these demands, Russia was trying to make sure that the authority of the SCO was comparable to that of alliances in which the tone is set by the United States – primarily NATO.
– ‘Due to their influence in global politics and their economic power, as well as their joint struggle against various threats and economic partnership, the RF and the PRC were able to make the SCO an effective structure. Considering that Mongolia, India, Pakistan, and Iran have observer status in the organization, and Sri Lanka and Belarus were granted the status of dialogue partners, the SCO has become one of the largest organizations in Eurasia,’ said a Turkish diplomatic source explaining Ankara’s motivation…
According to Kommersant’s sources, Ankara can count on receiving new status within the SCO as soon as 2012. The US, meanwhile, will most likely not be allowed to join the organization due to objections from a number of Central Asian countries.
Several diplomatic sources from the SCO member states have informed Kommersant that Turkey and the US have begun moving towards the status of dialogue partner with the SCO. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, Ankara has made further progress by already having submitted an official application to the SCO secretariat in Beijing. And the US, say diplomats, has just begun holding informal consultations and gauging the opinions of the organization’s member states.
In the ten years since creation of the SCO (in addition to Russia, its members include China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan), Moscow has been actively seeking the organization’s recognition at the international level. To a great extent it was due to the fact that during Vladimir Putin’s presidency the RF was trying to use the SCO as a counterweight to the growing influence of the United States in Central Asia.
The call for the US to finally determine the date of withdrawal of its troops from regional military bases was made at the 2005 summit in Astana by the SCO. In order to give more weight to these demands, Russia was trying to make sure that the authority of the SCO was comparable to that of alliances in which the tone is set by the United States – primarily NATO.
Since its creation the SCO has been able to form partnerships with other international structures such as the UN and the OSCE, as well as associations patronized by Russia, such as the CIS, the CSTO and the EurAsEC. Now, the circle of global players who recognize the SCO as a serious organization is expanding with Turkey, one of the leading powers in the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as the global superpower, United States. ‘Ankara and Washington’s interest proves that we were able to create a serious and influential organization in record time,’ a source in Russia’s Foreign Ministry tells Kommersant.
The position of dialogue partner in the SCO was established in August, 2008. According to the document, ‘the status of partner is granted to a country or organization that shares the goals and principles of the SCO and wants to establish equal, mutually-beneficial partnership with the organization’.
Meanwhile, the status of dialogue partner is lower than the status of observer. Partners are able to participate only in selected SCO events. Moreover, they do not have access to the organization’s unpublished documents (but they can obtain them upon request, given there are no restrictions on their distribution).
Kommersant’s sources say that Turkey filed an official application for the partnership status in April. ‘Due to their influence in global politics and their economic power, as well as their joint struggle against various threats and economic partnership, the RF and the PRC were able to make the SCO an effective structure. Considering that Mongolia, India, Pakistan, and Iran have observer status in the organization, and Sri Lanka and Belarus were granted the status of dialogue partners, the SCO has become one of the largest organizations in Eurasia,’ said a Turkish diplomatic source explaining Ankara’s motivation to Kommersant. ‘The relations we want to develop with this organization will reinforce the effective multilateral nature of our foreign policy and provide an opportunity to observe the ongoing events in the SCO and to familiarize members of the organization with our views.’
A source in the State Department has a similar explanation of the US interest in the SCO: ‘We have underestimated the potential of this structure. Surprisingly, in 10 years Moscow and Beijing were able to create an organization with a coherent vision and growing influence. Of course, it’s not NATO, as the values of the SCO member states are entirely different, and yet it is an interesting format with potential for growth. We would like to know more about the work of the organization.’ According to Kommersant’s sources, the US has not yet submitted an official application for the status of dialogue partner, but has already clearly indicated its interest in cooperating with the SCO.
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Meanwhile, Washington’s application, if ever officially submitted, may face problems. According to Kommersant’s source from the foreign ministry of one of the SCO member states, the situation is clear when it comes to Turkey: ‘No one has any objections regarding Turkey’s application. Members were generally ready to approve it at the SCO summit in Astana in July, but were unable to address all of the procedural issues on time. It will most likely be approved at the next summit’.
Due to the objections of certain SCO members, it is possible that the US will not reach the stage of submitting an official application, says Kommersant’s interlocutor. ‘In the SCO, decisions are made on a consensus basis, and it turns out that we are unable to accept the US as our partner. For Washington, this situation would be somewhat humiliating. And for the SCO, which advocates the principle of openness, declining the application would be not be easy. So, both sides will probably try to spare themselves the embarrassment.’
The New Dark Age 
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