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Pakistan closed the Torkham border crossing in the Khyber tribal agency. The road through the Khyber Pass is NATO's primary supply line into Afghanistan. The government claimed Taliban threats and poor security on the strategic road into Afghanistan forced the closure. The road has been shut down exclusively for NATO traffic. "All Afghanistan-bound supplies for the International Security Assistance Force have been stopped as the [Torkham] highway is vulnerable," the Khyber Agency’s political agent told Daily Times. According to Dawn, the closure only applies to fuel trucks heading to Afghanistan. But trucks carrting supplies other than fuel have been held...

In combative mood the US Vice-President stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the besieged Georgian President Dick Cheney delivered a bellicose warning to Russia yesterday during a brief visit to war-torn Georgia, promising that America's small Caucasus ally would one day join the Nato alliance . In combative mood, the US Vice-President stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Mikhail Saakashvili, the Georgian President, and bluntly reinforced Russia's worst fears — that Washington would not stop pushing for Georgian membership in Nato. He also attacked Moscow for trying to redraw the country's borders by force. “Georgia will be in our alliance,” he said, in defiance of the...

US Vice-President Dick Cheney has said Ukraine has the right to live without fear of invasion, adding that the US stands by its bid for Nato membership. Mr Cheney met both the prime minister and president in Kiev, the last stop of a tour aimed at underlining support for US allies in the former Soviet Union. Mr Cheney reassured the president that the US had a "deep and abiding interest" in Ukraine's security. Analysts fear Ukraine could be the next flashpoint between Russia and the West. "We believe in the right of men and women to live without the threat...

Russia will not respond with military action to strengthening of NATO group in Black Sea - Russian Foreign Ministry MOSCOW. Sept 5 (Interfax) - Russia will not respond with military action to the strengthening of the NATO group in the Black Sea, but may raise this issue with the UN, said the Russian Foreign Ministry. "We are not talking about any possibility of military actions or anything like that," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told reporters on Friday.

...Cheney declared: "After your nation won its freedom in the Rose Revolution, America came to the aid of this courageous young democracy. We are doing so again, as you work to overcome an invasion of your sovereign territory, and an illegitimate, unilateral attempt to change your country's borders by force that has been universally condemned by the free world." He said he had assured the Georgian leader that he "can count on continued support and assistance from the United States." "I assured the president as well of my country's strong commitment to Georgia's territorial integrity. Georgia has that right, just...

A joint Ukrainian-Polish-British tactical exercise began on Tuesday at the Nova Demba military training grounds in Poland, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. The Cossack Steppe 2008 exercise is part of the NATO Partnership for Peace Program and has been conducted in succession on the territories of the three countries since 1997.

Almost three thousand British troops in southern Afghanistan have successfully transported a huge hydroelectric power turbine through Taleban territory. In one of their biggest operations in Helmand, a convoy of 100 vehicles took five days to move the massive sections of the turbine 180km (112 miles). The $6m (£3.4m) turbine will mean the Kajaki power station can bring power to an extra 1.9 million people. British forces were helped by 2,000 Nato and Afghan troops. The operation was part of a development project which has been planned for two years. Late at night The convoy travelled the length of the...

NATO: On Terrorism by: Irene Warren, September 02, 2008 In the wake of Sept. 11, 2008, terrorists’ attacks, America was alerted to a new type of threat: a threat so detrimental to domestic security and to our civil liberties that it took immediate action, and retaliated against insurgents in the Middle East. Today, combating terrorism still remains a high priority in terms of protecting the liberties and freedoms of democratic countries, Richard Prosen, a ranking official at the U.S. Department of State, explained at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies on August 22. “We see a growing threat of violent...

Even though my country, Sweden, isn't a NATO-member, I'm beginning to feel somewhat annoyed over the behavior the Russian Air Force displays towards my dear neighbor country Norway. I think the Nordic countries, as well as the whole of "Democratic" Europe will have to fight Russian Expansionism within a generation. Russia will lose. Russia stands no chance against a united Western Europe - and if Russia does not wish to realize this, we will make them highly aware of their inferiority in terms of population size, technological know-how, production capacity and overall management skills. Compared to governments like those of...

Turkey threatened on Friday to restrict imports from Russia in a trade dispute that has highlighted Ankara’s precarious diplomatic position between its Nato allies and Moscow. Kursad Tuzmen, Turkey’s foreign trade minister, said his country would impose unspecified curbs on Russian goods after thousands of Turkish lorries were held up at Russian border posts. Turkish ministers fear that the disagreement is more significant than past export rows and could mark a Russian attempt to punish Turkey for allowing US warships to pass through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea. The dispute comes in spite of Ankara’s efforts to maintain good...

NATO's naval squad is no match for Russia's Black Sea Fleet and would fall to pieces should the fleet launch a 'single missile salvo.' Former Russian commander Admiral Eduard Baltin said "a single missile salvo from the Moskva missile cruiser and two or three missile boats would be enough to annihilate the entire group." The one-time fleet commander was quoted by Ria Novosti as saying that the NATO squad looked better than they fought. "Despite the apparent strength" the 10-pieace NATO armada in the Black Sea "is not battle-worthy." He noted that the entire squadron could only brave the Black...

Russia's propaganda warfare By William Horsley European affairs analyst Western leaders face two fronts in their stand-off with Russia over its use of force to re-draw borders in Europe: one is the Russian army on the ground. The other is a propaganda war. Russia's defence of its intervention has not always been convincing So far, the West has failed to spell out a common response, to get Russia to end its occupation of large parts of Georgia and undo its recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Meanwhile, Russia has unleashed a propaganda barrage against an "aggressive"...

August 28, 2008, 0:00 a.m. Farewell, NATOAmerica's Cold War alliance with Europe has ceased to be a fruitful one. By Victor Davis Hanson When I was growing up in the 1960s, we had a majestic Santa Rosa plum orchard on my family’s farm. The trees were 40 years old and had grown to over 20 feet high. My grandfather would proudly recall how its once-bumper crops of big, sweet plums had helped him survive the Depression and a postwar fall in agricultural prices. But by the 1960s, the towering, verdant trees were more a park than a profitable orchard....

A new Cold War between Russia and the West grew steadily closer yesterday after the Kremlin gave a warning about “direct confrontation” between American and Russian warships in the Black Sea. Dmitri Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, declared that Russia was taking “measures of precaution” against American and Nato naval ships. “Let’s hope we do not see any direct confrontation in that,” he said. Any attempt by countries in the West to isolate Russia would “definitely harm the economic interests of those states”, he said. A day after the Kremlin said that it was ready to...

Russia's navy is to monitor the build-up of Nato forces in the Black Sea, a senior Russian defence official has said. "Given the build-up of Nato forces in the Black Sea area, the (Russian Black Sea) fleet has also begun taking measures to monitor their activity," Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff said. The move comes as a US military ship intending to dock at the Georgian port of Poti where Russian forces are posted on the outskirts, changed course to dock in Batumi, a port well south of the zone of fighting in this month’s...

David Miliband warned President Medvedev of Russia today that he had had a "big responsibility" not to start a new Cold War. But the Foreign Secretary told a group of students on a visit to Ukraine that it would be counter-productive to isolate Russia over its military actions and continued presence in Georgia. "Russia has not reconciled itself to the new map of this new region," he said. "We do not want a new Cold War and he (Mr Medvedev) has a big responsibility not to start one." Mr Miliband was fiercely critical yesterday of the Kremlin's decision to afford...

David Miliband is expected to deploy his fiercest rhetoric yet in the West's showdown with Russia when he makes a keynote speech in Ukraine over the conflict in the Caucasus. The Foreign Secretary will also use the occasion, and meetings with both President Yushchenko and Yulia Timoshenko, the Prime Minister, to give Nato aspirant Ukraine a strong message of solidarity. The day after President Medvedev formally recognised the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Mr Miliband said that would use the visit to assemble the “widest possible coalition against Russian aggression in Georgia”. Mr Medvedev was yesterday accused of...

President Medvedev of Russia is threatening a military response to the deployment of an American missile defense system in Poland, which was once within the Kremlin's zone of control. Mr. Medvedev, who yesterday recognized the independence claims of two separatist Georgian provinces, told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that, though Russia is not seeking a resumption of the Cold War, it is "not afraid" of such an outcome. President Bush condemned Mr. Medvedev's decision to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, and Western diplomats and politicians said Russia was risking international isolation and other consequences.

PARIS (AP) — French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Wednesday accused Russia of breaking international law by recognizing the independence of the Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Kouchner also warned in an interview with Europe 1 radio of signs of ethnic cleansing by Russian forces in South Ossetia. (snip) Asked about his own earlier comments warning of a risk of ethnic cleansing by Russian forces in the territories, Kouchner responded: "I hope that didn't happen overnight. But there has already been evidence that the armies are pushing away the Ossetians who favored Georgia, and in a certain way,...

Russia played a trump card in its strategic poker game with the West yesterday by threatening to suspend an agreement allowing Nato (sic) to take supplies and equipment to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia. The agreement was struck at a Nato (sic) summit in April to provide an alternative supply route to the road between the Afghan capital and the Pakistani border, which has come under attack from militants on both sides of the frontier this year. ... Mr Kabulov also suggested that the stand-off over Georgia could lead Russia to review agreements allowing Nato (sic) members to use...

Virtually everyone believes Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili foolishly provoked a Russian invasion on August 7, 2008, when he sent troops into the breakaway district of South Ossetia. “The warfare began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched a barrage targeting South Ossetia,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend in typical fashion. Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn't start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At...

I've searched around FR a bit looking for anyone asking this question, but haven't found one. Admin, feel free to lock this if I've missed an obvious one. With Russia back to the saber-rattling ways of old, I'm hearing rumbles that some people are re-thinking their presidential vote because they don't think Obama will stand up to the Cold-War type intimidation that the Russians seem to be going back to. I'm hearing some are saying they'll vote McCain because they would rather have him at the helm if a new Cold War with Russia is possibly coming. Any thoughts?

When the United States and its key European allies ignored Russia’s protests and recognized Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in February, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice blithely insisted that the Kosovo situation was unique and set no international precedent whatsoever. Prominent members of the foreign policy communities in Europe and the United States echoed her argument. Moscow’s August 26 decision to recognize the independence of Georgia’s separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia demonstrates the arrogant folly of that position. In just a matter of months, the Kosovo precedent has backfired on the United States and generated dangerous tensions...

Tbilisia/Kiev/Moscow - A NATO-Russia naval confrontation in the Black Sea appeared days away on Tuesday, after American officials announced a US warship would attempt to enter a Georgian port controlled by Russian army and naval forces. US fleet elements will in coming weeks unload humanitarian aid in the Russia-controlled Georgian port Poti, US embassy spokesman Stephen Guice said in remarks widely reported by Georgian media. The American announcement setting the stage for a direct US-Russia naval confrontation came against a background of continuing high tensions in the region in the wake of the Russia-Georgia conflict and with both Russia and...

A top Russian general Tuesday questioned the "extreme level" of activity of NATO naval forces in the Black Sea, saying it could not be needed for the delivery of aid to Georgia or for routine naval exercises, AFP informed. "We're bewildered at the extreme level of activity of NATO naval forces in the Black Sea, which continue to increase their numbers," General Anatoly Nogovitsyn told reporters at a briefing on the conflict. "Only yesterday I said there were nine NATO ships in the sea and by evening another frigate of the US navy passed through the Bosphorus Straits. "We have...

SOCHI, Russia, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev convened security chiefs on Tuesday to consider a plea from parliament to recognise two separatist regions of Georgia as independent, a move Washington says would be unacceptable. The Kremlin gave no details of the security council meeting but a government source said it would start at about 1 p.m. (0900 GMT) in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where Medvedev has a summer residence. Russia's powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will attend the discussion, which may also cover Moscow's future relations with the West, Russian media reported. Medvedev on Monday...

he Russian missile ship “Moscow” has set off from Sevastopol city in direction of Georgia. Russia has expressed concern that NATO is continuing to get a stronger foothold in the Black Sea waters, the deputy chief of Russian General Staff said Monday as reported by RIA Novosti, Russian news agency. According to the news agency, there are a total of 9 NATO ships in the Black Sea equatorial. The NATO military ships are currently in the Black Sea on a humanitarian mission for Georgia.

When he visits Kiev, the Foreign Secretary should remember the threats posed by Nato's drive eastwards Before making his speech on policy towards Russia in Kiev, Ukraine, later this week David Miliband would do well to ponder some wise advice from a great predecessor. Lord Salisbury, Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister in the days of the British Empire, dispensed immense global power; but that did not mean that he liked playing about with that power. Faced with proposals for British policy that he understood to be deeply damaging to the interests of other great powers, Salisbury would look his colleagues...

Russia played a trump card in its strategic poker game with the West yesterday by threatening to suspend an agreement allowing Nato to take supplies and equipment to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia. The agreement was struck at a Nato summit in April to provide an alternative supply route to the road between the Afghan capital and the Pakistani border, which has come under attack from militants on both sides of the frontier this year. Zamir Kabulov, the Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan, told The Times in an interview that he believed the deal was no longer valid because Russia...

Excerpt- KABUL, Afghanistan: President Hamid Karzai's government has demanded a review of the presence of U.S. and NATO troops in the country and their use of airstrikes in civilian areas, following allegations that many civilians died in raids and airstrikes by foreign forces in recent weeks. ~ snip ~

MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Russia's flagship cruiser re-entered the Black Sea on Monday for weapons tests hours after the Russian military complained about the presence of U.S. and other NATO naval ships near the Georgian coast. The 'Moskva' had led a battle group of Russian naval vessels stationed off the coastline of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia during Russia's recent conflict with Georgia and sank smaller Georgian craft. "'Moskva' has today departed toward the Black Sea Fleet's naval training range to check its radio-controlled weapons and onboard communications systems," Captain Igor Dygalo was quoted as saying by Interfax. The...

President Dmitry Medvedev made it clear that Russia is ready to sever its relations with the NATO after they got worsened over the conflict involving Georgia. According to reports, Medvedev said this during a meeting with Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin. "We are ready to take any decision, up to halting of relations altogether," he was quoted as saying Monday. However, he called on countries of the Western alliance to avert a worsening in ties so that any "difficult decision" could be avoided. Earlier in the day, Russian parliament voted for the recognition of the breakaway provinces of South...

The sale of Russia’s arms is another problem. The governments of Western countries and Israel are concerned about reports saying that Russia started the shipments of first components of its S-300 missile system to Iran. The latter may subsequently use the powerful systems to down US and Israeli aircraft. Russia may complicate USA’s and NATO’s supply of the coalition in Afghanistan In April, Moscow gave France and Germany a right to transit non-combatant cargoes via Russia. Russia’s ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said that the West should not bite the hand that feeds 50,000 servicemen in Afghanistan. Moscow can offer...

Excerpt - KIEV, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said on Sunday joining the NATO alliance was vital to securing the country's defence. Marking 17 years of Ukrainian independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yushchenko said Ukraine must also increase its own defences -- a clear swipe at Russia which unnerved former Soviet republics when it sent troops into Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. In a congratulatory message to mark the day, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on Ukraine not to spoil their historically close ties. ~ snip ~

Europe has been the cause and battleground for all three World Wars of the 20th century. For that reason there has been one supreme question in world affairs since Hitler and Stalin: Can Europe ever learn to avoid repeating its own suicidal history?   For many years the answer seemed to be "Yes." Every German chancellor since Konrad Adenauer voiced the Western consensus that the civilized world had to support democracy and liberty, for its own sake. That meant opposing totalitarian dangers before they became lethal to the civilized world. The Europeans were pretty sober about that, because they could see...

Is the world drifting towards a new global war? From this week the dominant super-power, America, will for three months pass through the valley of the shadow of democracy, a presidential election. This is always a moment of self-absorption and paranoia. Barack Obama and John McCain will not act as statesmen but as politicians. They will grandstand and look over their shoulders. Their eye will stray from the ball. (snip) Any student of McCain or Obama, of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, or of the leaders of Britain, France and Germany, might conclude that these are not people likely...

A TOP Russian general accused NATO of using humanitarian aid deliveries to Georgia as "cover" for a build-up of naval forces in the Black Sea. "Under the cover of needing to deliver humanitarian goods, NATO countries continue to boost their naval grouping," Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of general staff, said. "In addition to the Spanish and German frigates that entered the Black Sea basin on August 21, yesterday a Polish frigate and a destroyer of the US navy passed the Bosphorous," he said. "I don't think that this will help stabilise the situation in the region."

The invasion of Georgia means that Nato must quickly expand eastwards, the Ukrainian President tells The Times Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian President, was in a fierce and defiant mood yesterday as he urged Nato to respond to the Russian invasion of Georgia by moving quickly to expand the frontiers of the alliance eastwards. “It is the first time in Europe since the Cold War that a foreign army has entered the territory of a sovereign state without any internationally accepted legal basis,” he said. “If we were to be ambivalent about this it would give tacit approval to put our...

June 20 | Majority of Icelanders favor cancelling defense agreement with US Several |Icelandic news organizations report the results of a new poll conducted by Gallup and commissioned by Helgi Hjörvar, Member of Parliament for the Social Democrats. The poll asked participants if they were for or against cancelling the defense agreement with the US. 33.2 per cent were "strongly in favor" of cancelling the agreement, 20.6 per cent "moderately in favor"; 9.4 per cent were "strongly against" cancelling the agreement and 15.4 per cent " moderately against". Overall, 53.8 per cent were in favor of cancelling the defense agreement and 24.8...

Read the first five paragraphs of the NATO statement on the Russian invasion of Georgia and you will find not a hint of who invaded whom. The statement is almost comically evenhanded. "We deplore all loss of life," it declared, as if deploring a bus accident. And, it "expressed its grave concern over the situation in Georgia." Situation, mind you. It's not until paragraph six that NATO, a 26-nation alliance with 900 million people and nearly half of the world's GDP, unsheathes its mighty sword, boldly declaring "Russian military action" - not aggression, not invasion, not even incursion, but "action"...

ISTANBUL (AFP) — One of three US ships carrying relief supplies to Georgia cleared Turkish straits and headed for the Black Sea Friday, where it was due to arrive in the Georgian port of Poti in a few days. The two other ships -- the Coast Guard cutter Dallas and the Mount Whitney, currently being loaded up in an Italian port -- are also bound for Georgia with humanitarian aid.

RUSSIAN MILITARY CONFIRMS HAS SUSPENDED SOME COOPERATION WITH NATO

NATO warships, which passed through Istanbul's Bosporus Strait Thursday, entered the Black Sea for long-planned exercises and routine visits to ports in Romania and Bulgaria, the alliance said. A U.S. Navy warship entered Turkey's Dardanel Strait on Friday taking relief supplies to Georgia. Three warships - from Spain, Germany and Poland - sailed into the Black Sea on Thursday. The move is not linked to the tensions over Russia's invasion of Georgia, which lies on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, about 900 kilometers (550 miles) from the Romanian coast, said officials at NATO's military command in southern Belgium....

This is what Nato is for Last Updated: 12:01am BST 21/08/2008 There can be legitimate doubts about the effectiveness of the planned American missile shield in Eastern Europe in thwarting attacks from Iran, North Korea or al-Qaeda. But it is absurd to pretend that the 10 interceptor rockets and the X-band radar to be installed in Poland and the Czech Republic between 2011 and 2013 pose a danger to Russia. This is a country with an estimated 7,200 nuclear warheads which has recently embarked on a $189billion programme to enhance its military capabilities, from intercontinental missiles to nuclear submarines and...

Interview recorded on August 19, 2008. Source: http://echo.msk.ru/programs/personalno/534948-echo.phtml [Style preserved] Anchor (A): Sergei Butman Interviewee (I): Andrei Illarionov, former economic adviser to Putin [] A: And to [most burning issues] [several remarks about NATO-s decisions etc]; I have a question, during last couple of days, after reaching an agreement, whatever Russia is not doing, i.e. not withdrawing / retreating its troops as fast as the world would want to see this happening, [which] [as our military says], had impact on decision-making within NATO? Or this was inevitable after Georgian – Russian war? [] I: I would add, at least, two...

Excerpt - TBILISI, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The United States expects to help Georgia rebuild its military following the conflict with Russia over breakaway South Ossetia, U.S. General John Craddock said on Thursday. "One would assume ... we would have to help them rebuild because they are a partner in the war on terror, they've been helpful. They are going to ask us, I am sure, to replace and rebuild," Craddock, who is also NATO's top operational commander in Europe, told reporters during a trip to Georgia. ~ snip ~

France reacted in shock on Wednesday to the death of 10 of its soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan and questions began to be asked about the country's worst military loss in 25 years. President Nicolas Sarkozy, who flew to Kabul on Tuesday, said France was committed to its engagement in Afghanistan where it took part in the 2001 invasion to topple the Taliban. But the opposition Socialists called for a parliamentary committee to meet and doubts were expressed about the official account of the incident in which the 10 soldiers were killed and 21 wounded in a fierce mountain...

Russia's envoy to NATO said yesterday that Russia will behave in a pragmatic manner following the alliance's decision to freeze regular contact with Moscow. Under US pressure, NATO agreed Tuesday to freeze contact with Russia until Moscow had withdrawn its troops from Georgia in line with a peace deal. "We will carefully analyze this situation," the envoy, Dmitry Rogozin, said. "There won't be any aggressive action from anyone on our side. We will behave in a pragmatic manner. . . . There will definitely not be a Cold War."

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents mounted their most serious attacks in six years of fighting in Afghanistan over the last two days, including a coordinated assault by at least 10 suicide bombers against one of the largest American military bases in the country, and another by about 100 insurgents who killed 10 elite French paratroopers. The attack on the French, in a district near Kabul, added to the sense of siege around the capital and was the deadliest single loss for foreign troops in a ground battle since the United States-led invasion chased the Taliban from power in 2001. Taken...

Norway's Defense Ministry says Russia has informed it that it plans to cut all military ties with NATO. Ministry spokeswoman Heidi Langvik-Hansen says the country's embassy received a telephone call from Russia's Defense Ministry on Wednesday, saying Moscow plans "to freeze all military cooperation with NATO and allied countries."