NATO-Israel cooperation, will the Arabs react?

thepeopleofpakistan.wordpress.com
February 8, 2010

If Israel succeeds in joining NATO, its regional belligerency would be backed by the collective strength of the entire alliance. Before that happens, will the Arabs react?

Israel wants to be a member of NATO. It no longer looks down its nose at military alliances. It no longer wants to stay away from Western military arrangements. It wants in.

A majority of Israelis believe NATO membership would boost Israel’s security as well as NATO’s strategic power. Interestingly enough, there has been no Arab reaction to Israel’s desire to join NATO, no Arab attempt to block the move, and no preparations to deal with its consequences.

Israel and NATO have grown closer over the past decade or so. In 2000, NATO expanded its Mediterranean Dialogue through talks with seven countries from the Middle East and North Africa; namely, Egypt, Israel, Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania. In 2004, NATO- Mediterranean talks were held under the name “Partnership for Peace”. Six new countries were included in the new dialogue: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Israel, in particular, was eager to use every opportunity the Partnership for Peace had to offer.

On 24 February 2005, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer became NATO’s first secretary-general to visit Israel. In the following month, NATO and Israel held their first joint military drills in the Red Sea. Within weeks, a flotilla of six NATO ships called on the Israeli port of Eilat. Israel (and Jordan) also took part for the first time in joint military drills held within the Partnership for Peace programme in Macedonia in the former Yugoslavia in February 2005.

According to the UK-based Jane’s military magazine, Israel’s “geopolitical position” provided NATO with a foreign base to defend the West, while NATO’s military and economic might enhanced the security and economic potential of the “host country”.

In June 2005, Israel participated in submarine manoeuvres off the coast of Taranto, Italy. At the time, US sources said that Israel was seeking to widen the “scope of its strategic alliance” with NATO in preparation for full membership in NATO. Israeli ground forces also took part in NATO drills lasting two weeks and a half in Ukraine. In 2006, Israel told NATO that it wanted to participate in “active operational efforts” conducted by NATO in the Mediterranean as part of the campaign to “confront terrorism”. Read more…

Ukraine On Brink Of New Era

english.aljazeera.net

Ukraine may be on the brink of a new political era as polls suggest Victor Yanukovich, the pro-Russian opposition leader, will be the country’s next president.

Private surveys already predict a victory for Yanukovich, who is competing agains Yulia Tymoshenko, the current prime minister.

Voting on Sunday follows a brutal campaign and has prompted concern from analysts that the losing candidate will not concede defeat but instead turn to the courts or street protests – similar to those which followed the disputed 2004 elections in which Yanukovych was also a contender.

Al Jazeera’s Neave Barker reports from the capital Kiev.

Ukraine Security Service Averted Terrorist Attack In Kiev

KIEV, February 5 (RIA Novosti)

Ukraine’s National Security Service (SBU) prevented on Friday a terrorist attack on Kiev’s Independence Square, the Unian news agency reported.

SBU chief Valentyn Nalivaichenko told the Inter TV channel that his service detained a Georgian national, born in 1968, who had TNT and electrical detonators.

Investigators suspect the man had “intended to commit a crime or organize an explosion in one of Kiev’s venues for mass events.”

The detained man had a Ukrainian passport, and the SBU is checking into how the foreign national received the passport.

Outgoing Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko earlier today put into force a decision of the National Security and Defense Council to enhance security measures for the presidential election’s second round slated for Sunday.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych will face each other in the runoff. Yushchenko received just 5% in the first round of the current vote.

http://en.rian.ru/exsoviet/20100205/157788087.html

Pentagon Confronts Russia In The Baltic Sea

by Rick Rozoff
Global Research, January 29, 2010

Twelve months ago a new U.S. administration entered the White House as the world entered a new year.

Two and a half weeks later the nation’s new vice president, Joseph Biden, spoke at the annual Munich Security Conference and said “it’s time to press the reset button and to revisit the many areas where we can and should be working together with Russia.”

Incongruously to any who expected a change in tact if not substance regarding strained U.S.-Russian relations, in the same speech Biden emphasized that, using the “New World Order” shibboleth of the past generation at the end, “Two months from now, the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will gather to celebrate the 60th year of this Alliance. This Alliance has been the cornerstone of our common security since the end of World War II. It has anchored the United States in Europe and helped forge a Europe whole and free.” [1]

Six months before, while Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he rushed to the nation of Georgia five days after the end of the country’s five-day war with Russia as an emissary for the George W. Bush administration, and pledged $1 billion in assistance to the beleaguered regime of former U.S. resident Mikheil Saakashvili.

To demonstrate how serious Biden and the government he represented were about rhetorical gimmicks like reset buttons, four months after his Munich address Biden visited Ukraine and Georgia to shore up their “color revolution”-bred heads of state (outgoing Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is married to a Chicagoan and former Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush official) in their anti-Russian and pro-NATO stances.

While back in Georgia he insisted “We understand that Georgia aspires to join NATO. We fully support that aspiration.”

In Ukraine he said “As we reset the relationship with Russia, we reaffirm our commitment to an independent Ukraine, and we recognize no sphere of influence or no ability of any other nation to veto the choices an independent nation makes,” [2] also in reference to joining the U.S.-dominated military bloc. Biden’s grammar may have been murky, but his message was unmistakeably clear.

Upon his return home Biden gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal, the contents of which were indicated by the title the newspaper gave its account of them – “Biden Says Weakened Russia Will Bend to U.S.” – and which were characterized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies as “the most critical statements from a senior administration official to date vis-a-vis Russia.” [3]

It took the Barack Obama government eight months to make its first friendly gesture to Russia. In September of last year the American president and Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that they were abandoning the Bush administration’s plan to station ten ground-based midcourse interceptor missiles in Poland in favor of a “stronger, smarter, and swifter” alternative.

The new system would rely on the deployment of Aegis class warships equipped with SM-3 (Standard Missile-3) missiles – with a range of at least 500 kilometers (310 miles) – which “provide the flexibility to move interceptors from one region to another if needed,” [4] in Gates’ words.

The first location for their deployment will be the Baltic Sea according to all indications.

The proximity of Russia’s two largest cities, St. Petersburg and Moscow, especially the first, to the Baltic coast makes the basing of American warships with interceptor missiles in that sea the equivalent of Russia stationing comparable vessels with the same capability in the Atlantic Ocean near Delaware Bay, within easy striking distance of New York City and Washington, D.C.

Although Washington canceled the earlier interceptor missile plans for Poland, on January 20 the defense ministry of that country announced that not only would the Pentagon go ahead with the deployment of a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 anti-ballistic missile battery in the country, but that it would be based on the Baltic Sea coast 35 miles from Russia’s Kaliningrad district. [5]

The previous month Viktor Zavarzin, the head of the Defense Committee of the Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament), said “Russia is concerned with how rapidly new NATO members are upgrading their military infrastructure” and “that Russia was especially concerned with the reconstruction of air bases in the Baltic countries for NATO’s purposes which include signal and air intelligence radio of Russian territory.” [6] Read more…

Georgian ‘Observers’ Arrive In Eastern Ukraine To Subvert Presidential Elections On 17th January

Infowars Ireland by Staff Writer

Mysterious Georgians, all males between 25 and 45 years of age, arrive en masse to Ukraine.

In the Donetsk region of Ukraine, people are arriving en masse from Georgia. This has been reported by Olena Bondarenko, a member of the parliamentary faction of “The Party of Regions” (Presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych’s Party, who will be running against Viktor Yushchenko in the upcoming elections on 17th January) to a correspondent of IA Regnum News at a press conference on January 15th.

A Georgian Airlines chartered flight arrived at Donetsk airport (Eastern Ukraine) on January 14th, carrying 152 passengers, all men aged 25 to 45 years. As they were being processed at passport control they initially declared they were in Ukraine as “international observers”, however after being informed by the State Border Service that Ukraine requires certification for observers they claimed their registrations weren’t completed yet and changed their reason for entry to “personal business” only.

After this the 152 men organized themselves and left the airport building. They were taken on buses to the Druzhba and Shakhtar hotels.

On Friday 15th January, Donetsk airport received notification to expect two additional chartered flights by Georgian airlines, one arriving that day (15th Jan) and one on the 19th January, and they would both have a similar number of passengers as the first plane.

It is estimated that the cost of each chartered flight (one way) is 26-28 thousand dollars.
“Why are these Georgians arriving in Ukraine now? and if they are “international observers” why have they been selected for a specific age and gender? These questions need to be answered”, said Olena Bondarenko.

Most interesting from all of this is the claim by Presidential candidate Michael Brodsky (one of 18 candidates) that he has in his possession a tape recording of a conversation between Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili and a woman he says has a voice remarkably similar to Ukranian presidential candidate Julia Tymoshenko.

He claims this recording reveals a conspiracy to send a group of trained fighters from Georgia to subvert the presidential elections in Ukraine. He calls on Ukraine president Viktor Yushchenko, the security services and the central election commission to verify this information.

It is likely however that the claim made by Brodsky is a diversionary tactic or outright disinformation. A more feasible explanation would be a covert deal between Saakashvili and the present Ukraine president Viktor Yushchenko, who in August 2008 sent weapons and personnel to aid Saakashvili during the South Ossetia conflict.

It should be noted that the Donetsk region of Eastern Ukraine is highly industrialised and has natural resources, most notably a large coal mining industry. A large proportion of the regions populace are of Russian extraction and are orientated more towards Russia. Viktor Yushchenko has very little support at present throughout all of Ukraine (ranking 6th place now in official presidential race polls), but in the eastern region support for Yushchenko is virtually non-existent.

In 2005 Victor Yushchenko and his wife Ekaterina visited the NYC Rockefeller Center to take part in a ceremony to found the Orange Circle Public Organization. Addressing Zbigniew Brzezinski and Madeleine Albright, Yushchenko thanked them for supporting Ukraine’s ‘democratic’ aspirations. (Related link)

Intrigue aside, and the questionable claims by Michael Brodsky to have a tape recording of Julia Tymoshenko and Mikheil Saakashvili engaged in a conspiracy, one fact is clear from this report. Georgian men of military age and questionable intent have arrived in large numbers to eastern Ukraine as ‘international observers’. What will happen during the coming months in Ukraine is uncertain, what is certain is they have an international audience watching them closely.

References:

http://regnum.ru/news/1242985.html

http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/1227.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_presidential_election,_2010

http://const-info.narod.ru/news/05/11/23/jushenko_mason.htm

Baroness Ashton ‘has lost control of EU foreign policy’

telegraph.co.uk

Baroness Ashton’s political inexperience has allowed the European Commission to seize control of Europe’s foreign policy from national governments, MEPs and diplomats have warned.

During a hearing in the European Parliament on Monday, Lady Ashton faced repeated questions over who was really in charge of Europe’s foreign affairs and security policy.

The Labour life peer, who has never held elected public office or a post as a diplomat, has been instructed by national governments to set up a new diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service (EEAS), to carry out EU foreign policy independently of the commission.

As High Representative, or foreign minister, a post created under the Lisbon Treaty, Lady Ashton, 53, is also supposed to preserve the control of the Council of the EU, representing national governments, over foreign policy while also being a commission vice-president.

But since taking up her post on January 1, she has been criticised for failing to assert her own authority, for basing her office in the Brussels executive’s headquarters and for using commission officials as her key advisers.

Geoffrey Van Orden, a Conservative MEP on the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, warned the commission was using the Lisbon Treaty and Lady Ashton’s dual role as a commissioner and foreign minister to undermine national sovereignty.

“The Eurocrats want to shift foreign policy away from the nation states to the commission. She is the instrument for this,” he said.

“Her whole thrust is in the direction of the commission. Her office is in the commission. It is providing the resources. Her power base is there. I would say to national governments – beware your foreign policy is at risk.”

Following the introduction of the Lisbon Treaty at the end of last year, a turf war has broken out between commission officials and diplomats over control of the foreign minister and EEAS.

Many larger EU member states, including Britain and Germany, are concerned that José Manuel Barroso, the commission president, is plotting to keep national diplomats out of senior European diplomatic corps jobs.

Mr Barroso’s decision, late last year, to remove “neighbourhood” affairs, EU foreign policy for neighbouring countries such as Ukraine and the Balkans, from Lady Ashton’s brief as commissioner was widely seen as a power grab.

Diplomats have also noted the growing influence over Lady Ashton of Joao Vale de Almeida, Commission director general for external relations, who was Mr Barroso’s closest and most senior adviser until last June. Read more…

Ukraine: Corrupt Municipality Bosses Kill Stray Animals For EURO 2012 In Lugansk

Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine to form joint brigade

www.wbj.pl

The defense ministers of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine signed a letter of intent last week regarding the establishment of a joint military unit.

The unit, descriptively titled the “LITPOLUKRBRIG,” was a Polish initiative intended to improve ties between the Ukrainian army and its NATO peers.

“I’m greatly satisfied that this document has been signed. I’m happy that this idea, which I conceived of, is beginning to materialize,” Defense Minister Klich, who did not attend the signing, said in a statement.

The brigade is expected to number 4,500 soldiers and will be stationed in Lublin. Initial operational readiness should be achieved in 2011, with full readiness planned for 2013.
That the agreement was signed just days before a Russia-EU summit raised a few eyebrows. The Kremlin has long been vocal in its objections to the idea of Ukraine becoming a member of NATO. Ukraine is a candidate for membership in the alliance, but has not been offered a membership action plan.

The future of LITPOLUKRBRIG is not assured, however, as Ukraine’s January presidential election could shift the balance of the country’s political allegiance towards Russia.

“If pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych becomes president, there could be problems with the project,” former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk told Gazeta Wyborcza. “But if current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko [is elected], it will be continued.”

Source: Warsaw Business Journal

Doctors In The Ukraine Accuse President Of Genocide

www.theflucase.com

Doctors in the Ukraine have accused the President, Viktor Yushchenko, and his agents of committing genocide in a letter published on the Ukrainian website Rupor Info, sparking fears that the reports of the deaths of thousands of people from artificially created pandemics and vaccinations are true.

The doctors accused Yuschchenko of deliberately creating “epidemics” in specific regions for political reasons.

By the ploy of pandemics, the doctors say Yushchenko was able to postpone elections he would have almost certainly lost, declare martial law and remain in power as president.

The doctors who signed the letter have been forced to withdraw it.

The letter has ignited fears that many more people have died inside the quarantine zones set up in the Ukraine than the government-controlled media is reporting.

Sources in Poland are reporting that many people who are sick in the Ukraine received vaccinations.

One source reported that 99% of the people who came down with an unusually severe sickness were vaccinated.

After a vaccination with what appears to be the seasonal flu with an HIN1 virus, they became sick in 2 to 3 weeks and infected their family.

According to sources, 200,000 people in the Ukraine got a flu shot, resulting in an epidemic of sickness.

An especially severe flu gripping Poland also appears to be associated with the seasonal flu jab, with an H1N1 virus, according to the package.

Last week a woman reported thousands of people had been killed by vaccines inside closed-off quarantine zones inside western Ukraine.

Link to letter

Read more…

WHO talks up alleged “fatal cases” of Norway’s mutated virus in press briefing

www.theflucase.com

Public health significance of virus mutation detected in Norway

Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 briefing note 17

20 NOVEMBER 2009 | GENEVA — The Norwegian Institute of Public Health has informed WHO of a mutation detected in three H1N1 viruses. The viruses were isolated from the first two fatal cases of pandemic influenza in the country and one patient with severe illness.

Norwegian scientists have analysed samples from more than 70 patients with clinical illness and no further instances of this mutation have been detected. This finding suggests that the mutation is not widespread in the country.

The virus with this mutation remains sensitive to the antiviral drugs, oseltamivir and zanamivir, and studies show that currently available pandemic vaccines confer protection.

Worldwide, laboratory monitoring of influenza viruses has detected a similar mutation in viruses from several other countries, with the earliest detection occurring in April. In addition to Norway, the mutation has been observed in Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine, and the US.

Although information on all these cases is incomplete, several viruses showing the same mutation were detected in fatal cases, and the mutation has also been detected in some mild cases. Worldwide, viruses from numerous fatal cases have not shown the mutation. The public health significance of this finding is thus unclear.

The mutations appear to occur sporadically and spontaneously. To date, no links between the small number of patients infected with the mutated virus have been found and the mutation does not appear to spread.

The significance of the mutation is being assessed by scientists in the WHO network of influenza laboratories. Changes in viruses at the genetic level need to be constantly monitored. However, the significance of these changes is difficult to assess. Many mutations do not alter any important features of the virus or the illness it causes. For this reason, WHO also uses clinical and epidemiological data when making risk assessments.

Although further investigation is under way, no evidence currently suggests that these mutations are leading to an unusual increase in the number of H1N1 infections or a greater number of severe or fatal cases.

Laboratories in the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network closely monitor influenza viruses worldwide and will remain vigilant for any further changes in the virus that may have public health significance.

Source: theflucase.com

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