Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

[TODD & NORA]

Prepare for fallout from the election...events will unfold in ways you do NOT expect after Trump is elected.

[Sueanne47]

Is US planning to attack Russia's Electric grid? :

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kJOCs3vmlk4

[Sophocles]

UK military intelligence issues warning over Russian supertank threat

Telegraph.co.uk
By Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter Ben Farmer Roland Oliphant
6 November 2016 • 1:15pm

British military intelligence has issued a warning over a ground-breaking tank being developed by Russia, according to a leaked document seen by The Telegraph.

The Ministry of Defence internal briefing paper raises doubts over the UK’s ability to combat the threat posed by the Kremlin’s new Armata tank.

It also questions why the Government has no plans for a rival tank for at least 20 years.

"Without hyperbole, Armata represents the most revolutionary step change in tank design in the last half century." Military intelligence report

The internal document, written by a senior Army intelligence officer, states: “Without hyperbole, Armata represents the most revolutionary step change in tank design in the last half century.”

It adds: “Unsurprisingly, the tank has caused a sensation,” and it goes on to question the failure of current defence strategy to plan for a new tank that can compete.

There is growing alarm among military chiefs that a presidential victory for Donald Trump, who has criticised US funding of Nato, could leave the West badly exposed to Vladimir Putin’s aggression, especially in the vulnerable Baltic states.


Credit: Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images



A prototype of the Armata was rolled out last year at the annual May Day parade in Moscow, prompting the commissioning of the five-page intelligence report. The tank is pioneering, according to the document, because of a revolutionary turret design that makes crew less vulnerable under fire.

The tank is also reckoned to be lighter, faster and lower in profile than Western rivals.

The document also suggests the tank will be kitted out with a radar system currently used on state-of-the-art Russian fighter jets and new composite armour. It has a “reported higher muzzle velocity” gun and the possibility of an upgraded missile system.

“As a complete package, Armata certainly deserves its billing as the most revolutionary tank in a generation,” concludes the intelligence briefing paper.

“For the first time, a fully automated, digitised, unmanned turret has been incorporated into a main battle tank. And for the first time a tank crew is embedded within an armoured capsule in the hull front.”

"Are we on the cusp of a new technological arms race? Has an understandable focus on defeating the single threat of IEDs distracted Western military vehicle designers?" Military intelligence report

The Army intelligence officer says UK defence strategy has concentrated on the threat from improvised explosive devices deployed by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and ignored the danger posed by tanks.

The paper asks: “Are we on the cusp of a new technological arms race? Has an understandable focus on defeating the single threat of IEDs distracted Western military vehicle designers? Challenger 2 [the British tank], with life extension programmes, is currently due to remain in service until 2035. Is it time to rethink?”

The paper also raises concern over the Scout, a light armoured fighting vehicle due to be introduced for British forces from next year. “In a familiar story of measure and countermeasure, the intelligence assumptions that informed the procurement of Scout as a superior battle-winning platform may now be open to question.”



The document says that on top of the Armata tank, Russia is adding “six additional armoured vehicles to the stable”, including a heavy infantry fighting vehicle and a self-propelled artillery system.

The intelligence report, which it stresses should “not be interpreted as an official MoD statement”, also raises the spectre of far superior Russian tank numbers, with plans to build 120 Armata tanks a year from 2018.

It points out Russia already has a fleet of 2,500 tanks with a reserve of 12,500, which is “35 times the size of the fleet in the British Army”.

“With such numbers, decisive effect is credibly achievable and losses are less important,” says the document.

The conclusions will ring alarm bells, not least following Russia’s annexation of the Crimea and the threat to the Baltic states.

Analysis for Western military leaders has suggested Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – all Nato member states – would be overrun by Russian tanks within 60 hours of an invasion.

Brigadier Ben Barry, a land warfare specialist at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said two features on the Armata would threaten Nato forces.

“Firstly, it is the first tank designed with an unmanned turret. This will potentially improve crew survivability,” he said. “The turret also looks to have the stretch potential to accommodate a larger-calibre gun of up to 150mm. If fielded, this would overmatch the guns and armour on existing Nato tanks.

“Secondly, it appears to be the first tank designed from the outset with an active protection system, to intercept incoming anti-tank guided missiles and shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons.”

He added: “This has the potential to greatly reduce the firepower of Nato infantry. Of course, there are few Armata yet, and it is not clear how rapidly they will enter service. But as they do, they will increase the effectiveness of Russian armoured forces.”

The Russian defence ministry announced in September that it had signed a contract for the delivery of the first 100 Armata tanks. Another 2,200 are expected to follow.

By contrast, the British Army has 227 Challenger 2 main battle tanks, dating from 1998. Germany has 410 Leopard 2 tanks, and France has 200 Leclerc tanks. America has 2,338 M1 Abrams main battle tanks – although just 250 tanks and armoured fighting vehicles are stationed in Eastern Europe.


Vladimir Putin

The Ukrainian government estimates that Russian-backed separatists in their country have 700 tanks.

Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord, said he was “very concerned” about Russian rearmament. “At the moment, their economy is a war economy,” he said. “They have got the GDP of Italy and they are trying to spend the same on defence as America. What they are doing is unsupportable and when something is unsupportable, then anything could happen.”

Fears over Russia’s tank programme have intensified over the prospect of a Trump win in Tuesday’s US election.


Donald Trump Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images



Mr Trump has threatened to abandon a core tenet of Nato – that an attack on one member is an attack on all under article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty – over his belief that Washington is shouldering too much of the financial burden for the military alliance.

General Sir Richard Shirreff, the former deputy supreme allied Commander Europe, said: “Here we are days from the election and that’s a real, real threat – Trump saying he might not commit to article 5.

“The defence of Europe during the Cold War depended on total certainty that whichever president was in the Oval Office, of whatever party, [the US] would come to Europe’s defence.”

Source

[Hervé]

Posted by Sophocles (here)
[...]
“The defence of Europe during the Cold War depended on total certainty that whichever president was in the Oval Office, of whatever party, [the US] would come to Europe’s defence.”
[...]

If I am not mistaken, that's called a racket... you know... gangsters... mafia type of "protection"...

I guess Trump is very reluctant to touch that kind of dough, even via a 10' pole

PS: See this thread "ALL WAR is a RACKET" as well.

[Hervé]

HRW calls attack on Idlib school ‘war crime,’ Russian MoD slams report as work of ‘liar or madman’

RT Published time: 7 Nov, 2016 08:25
Get short URL

© Russian Defense Ministry

The Russian Defense Ministry has slammed a recent Human Rights Watch report that calls the alleged October 26 bombing of a school in Syria’s Idlib province a possible “war crime,” stating it is nothing more than another information attack.

The HRW report in question, published on Sunday, November 6, assumes without question or hard evidence that the attack on the school in Idlib province, which it claimed “could constitute a war crime,” had been carried out by “the joint Russian-Syrian military,” merely citing ‘witness accounts’ it apparently got over the telephone.

“Airstrikes by the joint Russian-Syrian military operation that killed dozens of civilians, mostly schoolchildren, in the northern, opposition-controlled Syrian governorate of Idlib on October 26, 2016, could constitute a war crime. […]

“The repeated striking of a large school complex in a residential area indicate the attacks were unlawful, being either indiscriminate or deliberately targeting civilians. Serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war), when committed with criminal intent, amount to war crimes,” the report from HRW reads.

The Russian Defense Ministry, however, denounced the report.

“The Human Rights Watch publication of yet another accusation of a ‘war crime,’ which comes more than a week [after the incident] and contains some phone ‘interviews’ with seven victims as new ‘evidence,’ does not hold up to criticism and is just another information attack,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement on Monday.

Initial reports on the attack on the school in the village of Al-Hasa in Idlib province, where some 28 civilians are said to have been killed, came from the controversial London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and opposition activists from the Western-funded Civil Defense Network, also known as the White Helmets, who published pictures of the aftermath of an alleged attack and were quick to pin the blame on either Russian or Syrian warplanes.

However, the Russian Defense Ministry dispatched a drone to analyze the site of the alleged bombing on the same day and found no evidence of airstrikes.

“The Ministry of Defense already published comprehensive and absolute drone-filmed photographic facts on October 27, which showed the absence of any traces of bombing at the school complex in Al-Hasa,” the statement from the ministry noted.

Konashenkov also said earlier that the ministry had analyzed the photo and video ‘evidence’ from the supposed attack, which had been presented by the White Helmets and published in a range of Western media outlets, and found it to consist of “more than 10 different shots, filmed at different times of the day and in different resolutions, that were edited into a single clip.” Overall, the Russian Defense Ministry said the alleged evidence did not amount to proof that the school had suffered from an airstrike, while noting that no Russian Air Force planes had even been in the vicinity of the school on the morning of the supposed attack.

For some time now, Idlib province has been under the control of the Army of Conquest, an anti-government alliance of rebel groups run by Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the Al-Nusra terror group, which has recently rebranded by renaming itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Front. The Russian Defense Ministry pointed out that, given these circumstances, it is “foolish” to think that secular schools are still operating in the area, and therefore doubted that there were, in fact, any children in the vicinity of the school complex at the time of the incident.

“I would like to remind the so-called ‘human rights defenders’ from the ‘Human Rights Watch’ that the province of Idlib, including the settlement of Al-Hasa, has been under the full control of Al-Nusra terrorists for over a year… Moreover, there has not yet been any even indirect evidence that children were, in fact, present there at all, not only in those buildings, but in Al-Hasa village in general. Therefore, one has to be an explicit liar or a madman to say that secular schools built by [President Bashar] Assad’s government are continuing to operate on territory controlled by the Syrian branch of ‘Al-Qaeda’ and under constant battle action,” the Defense Ministry statement read.

Russian military officials say the attack on the Idlib school had been deliberately made to look like an airstrike. They also identified several schools in Syria that actually have been targeted, but by rebel fire. One such attack, which militants carried out on a school in government-controlled western Aleppo, claimed the lives of at least six children.

Related:
School in Syria’s Idlib province not hit by airstrike, drone photos show – Russian MoD
6 children killed, over a dozen injured in rebel shelling of Aleppo school (VIDEO)

Also, see this thread: How CNN fakes news reports: must see

[Baby Steps]

A POSSIBLE FLASH-POINT - SNAKE ISLAND IN THE BLACK SEA


Certainly this is strategically important. I have been struck by hearing (from A Romanian) that this tiny island has been recently annexed by Ukraine, yet all the material I find states that it has been Ukrainian since the days of the Soviet Union.

Swedish experts: Russia can occupy snake island
Instead of offensive operations on land against Ukraine in 2016, Putin can resort to offensive sea and capture the snake island, cutting off the Odessa sea trading port from the message with the world.
This scenario does not exclude the former Advisor to ex-Minister of foreign Affairs of Sweden Aaron Korewa in its publication «Which means 2016 for Ukraine» on the website «the Atlantic Council».
«Instead of a new ground military offensive, Putin is testing his luck at sea. 14 December Russia stole two Jack-up rigs that were in Ukrainian territorial waters near the natural gas fields of Odessa in the Black sea 100 km East from the coast of Ukraine», — says the expert.
West of the fields, not far from Western Ukrainian Black sea coast, there is a tiny snake island, a former Soviet base with a population of 100 people, he says.
«If Russia were to occupy the island, the port of Odessa can be cut; this will close Ukraine is almost all the way out to sea, as Russia holds Crimea and gas field between him and Snake island,» notes Corea.
According to him, it can happen in 2016 about the same as was implemented Crimean scenario. This time you may experience «freedom fighters «Odessa», which is «actually are Russian military Navy unmarked, capture the island and declare it a part of «Odessa national Republic».
Russia can then there to send «humanitarian convoys» or «civil activists» from the Crimea. «Such convoys are likely to need «protection» by Russian naval vessels», — said the expert.
If Russia were to occupy snake island, it can be turned into a naval base, where «little green men» will act on motor boats, armed with Kalashnikovs and RPGs. It can be a nightmare for merchant shipping.
«It sounds crazy and far-fetched? Maybe, but also saw the seizure of Crimea by Russia two years ago,» says Corea.
We will remind, on December 15, the State border service of Ukraine said on violation by the Russian Federation international Maritime law and legislation of Ukraine during the move two Jack-up drilling rigs «Petro Godovanets» and «Ukraine», which in 2014 were illegally seized by Russia during the annexation of Crimea.

http://en.reporter-ua.ru/swedish-exp...ke-island.html


http://www.languagesoftheworld.info/...t-islands.html

http://www.qatarliving.com/forum/pol...-snakes-island

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/20...0/18724802.php

[Sueanne47]

NATO High Alert 300,000 troops :

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=h12AL7Xb45Y

[Cara]

Just came across an interesting email from Wikileaks re the UAE, Erik Prince and mercenaries in the Middle East. I am not sure this is the best place for it but I couldn't find a more appropriate thread.

https://wikileaks.org/hackingteam/emails/emailid/574850

Secret Desert Force Set Up by Blackwater’s Founder
Email-ID 574850
Date 2011-05-15 17:19:14 UTC
From vince@hackingteam.it
To mork@ork.it, costa@hackingteam.it, emanuele.levi@360capitalpartners.com, rsales@hackingteam.it

La nuova "Legione Straniera" , con forti aspirazioni in tutti i paesi nel Golfo Persico.

[Translation:
La nuova "Legione Straniera" , con forti aspirazioni in tutti i paesi nel Golfo Persico. = The new "Foreign Legion", with strong aspirations in all the countries in the Persian Gulf.]

David

Secret Desert Force Set Up by Blackwater’s Founder Adam Ferguson/VII Network
Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, has a new project.

By MARK MAZZETTI and EMILY B. HAGER
Published: May 14, 2011

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Late one night last November, a plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touched down in this glittering seaside capital. Whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boarded an unmarked bus and drove roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand.
Doug Mills/The New York Times

Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi hired Erik Prince to build a fighting force.

The army is based in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, but will serve all the emirates.

The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom.

Mr. Prince, who resettled here last year after his security business faced mounting legal problems in the United States, was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E., according to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times.

The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show. Such troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest in their crowded labor camps or were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year.

The U.A.E.’s rulers, viewing their own military as inadequate, also hope that the troops could blunt the regional aggression of Iran, the country’s biggest foe, the former employees said. The training camp, located on a sprawling Emirati base called Zayed Military City, is hidden behind concrete walls laced with barbed wire. Photographs show rows of identical yellow temporary buildings, used for barracks and mess halls, and a motor pool, which houses Humvees and fuel trucks. The Colombians, along with South African and other foreign troops, are trained by retired American soldiers and veterans of the German and British special operations units and the French Foreign Legion, according to the former employees and American officials.

In outsourcing critical parts of their defense to mercenaries — the soldiers of choice for medieval kings, Italian Renaissance dukes and African dictators — the Emiratis have begun a new era in the boom in wartime contracting that began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. And by relying on a force largely created by Americans, they have introduced a volatile element in an already combustible region where the United States is widely viewed with suspicion.

The United Arab Emirates — an autocracy with the sheen of a progressive, modern state — are closely allied with the United States, and American officials indicated that the battalion program had some support in Washington.

“The gulf countries, and the U.A.E. in particular, don’t have a lot of military experience. It would make sense if they looked outside their borders for help,” said one Obama administration official who knew of the operation. “They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.”

Still, it is not clear whether the project has the United States’ official blessing. Legal experts and government officials said some of those involved with the battalion might be breaking federal laws that prohibit American citizens from training foreign troops if they did not secure a license from the State Department.

Mark C. Toner, a spokesman for the department, would not confirm whether Mr. Prince’s company had obtained such a license, but he said the department was investigating to see if the training effort was in violation of American laws. Mr. Toner pointed out that Blackwater (which renamed itself Xe Services ) paid $42 million in fines last year for training foreign troops in Jordan and other countries over the years.

The U.A.E.’s ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, declined to comment for this article. A spokesman for Mr. Prince also did not comment.

For Mr. Prince, the foreign battalion is a bold attempt at reinvention. He is hoping to build an empire in the desert, far from the trial lawyers, Congressional investigators and Justice Department officials he is convinced worked in league to portray Blackwater as reckless. He sold the company last year, but in April, a federal appeals court reopened the case against four Blackwater guards accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

To help fulfill his ambitions, Mr. Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, obtained another multimillion-dollar contract to protect a string of planned nuclear power plants and to provide cybersecurity. He hopes to earn billions more, the former employees said, by assembling additional battalions of Latin American troops for the Emiratis and opening a giant complex where his company can train troops for other governments.

Knowing that his ventures are magnets for controversy, Mr. Prince has masked his involvement with the mercenary battalion. His name is not included on contracts and most other corporate documents, and company insiders have at times tried to hide his identity by referring to him by the code name “Kingfish.” But three former employees, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements, and two people involved in security contracting described Mr. Prince’s central role.

The former employees said that in recruiting the Colombians and others from halfway around the world, Mr. Prince’s subordinates were following his strict rule: hire no Muslims.

Muslim soldiers, Mr. Prince warned, could not be counted on to kill fellow Muslims.

A Lucrative Deal

Last spring, as waiters in the lobby of the Park Arjaan by Rotana Hotel passed by carrying cups of Turkish coffee, a small team of Blackwater and American military veterans huddled over plans for the foreign battalion. Armed with a black suitcase stuffed with several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of dirhams, the local currency, they began paying the first bills.

The company, often called R2, was licensed last March with 51 percent local ownership, a typical arrangement in the Emirates. It received about $21 million in start-up capital from the U.A.E., the former employees said.

Mr. Prince made the deal with Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates. The two men had known each other for several years, and it was the prince’s idea to build a foreign commando force for his country.

Savvy and pro-Western, the prince was educated at the Sandhurst military academy in Britain and formed close ties with American military officials. He is also one of the region’s staunchest hawks on Iran and is skeptical that his giant neighbor across the Strait of Hormuz will give up its nuclear program.

“He sees the logic of war dominating the region, and this thinking explains his near-obsessive efforts to build up his armed forces,” said a November 2009 cable from the American Embassy in Abu Dhabi that was obtained by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.

For Mr. Prince, a 41-year-old former member of the Navy Seals, the battalion was an opportunity to turn vision into reality. At Blackwater, which had collected billions of dollars in security contracts from the United States government, he had hoped to build an army for hire that could be deployed to crisis zones in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He even had proposed that the Central Intelligence Agency use his company for special operations missions around the globe, but to no avail. In Abu Dhabi, which he praised in an Emirati newspaper interview last year for its “pro-business” climate, he got another chance.

Mr. Prince’s exploits, both real and rumored, are the subject of fevered discussions in the private security world. He has worked with the Emirati government on various ventures in the past year, including an operation using South African mercenaries to train Somalis to fight pirates. There was talk, too, that he was hatching a scheme last year to cap the Icelandic volcano then spewing ash across Northern Europe.

The team in the hotel lobby was led by Ricky Chambers, known as C. T., a former agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who had worked for Mr. Prince for years; most recently, he had run a program training Afghan troops for a Blackwater subsidiary called Paravant.

He was among the half-dozen or so Americans who would serve as top managers of the project, receiving nearly $300,000 in annual compensation. Mr. Chambers and Mr. Prince soon began quietly luring American contractors from Afghanistan, Iraq and other danger spots with pay packages that topped out at more than $200,000 a year, according to a budget document. Many of those who signed on as trainers — which eventually included more than 40 veteran American, European and South African commandos — did not know of Mr. Prince’s involvement, the former employees said.

Mr. Chambers did not respond to requests for comment.

He and Mr. Prince also began looking for soldiers. They lined up Thor Global Enterprises, a company on the Caribbean island of Tortola specializing in “placing foreign servicemen in private security positions overseas,” according to a contract signed last May. The recruits would be paid about $150 a day.

Within months, large tracts of desert were bulldozed and barracks constructed. The Emirates were to provide weapons and equipment for the mercenary force, supplying everything from M-16 rifles to mortars, Leatherman knives to Land Rovers. They agreed to buy parachutes, motorcycles, rucksacks — and 24,000 pairs of socks.

To keep a low profile, Mr. Prince rarely visited the camp or a cluster of luxury villas near the Abu Dhabi airport, where R2 executives and Emirati military officers fine-tune the training schedules and arrange weapons deliveries for the battalion, former employees said. He would show up, they said, in an office suite at the DAS Tower — a skyscraper just steps from Abu Dhabi’s Corniche beach, where sunbathers lounge as cigarette boats and water scooters whiz by. Staff members there manage a number of companies that the former employees say are carrying out secret work for the Emirati government.

Emirati law prohibits disclosure of incorporation records for businesses, which typically list company officers, but it does require them to post company names on offices and storefronts. Over the past year, the sign outside the suite has changed at least twice — it now says Assurance Management Consulting.

While the documents — including contracts, budget sheets and blueprints — obtained by The Times do not mention Mr. Prince, the former employees said he negotiated the U.A.E. deal. Corporate documents describe the battalion’s possible tasks: intelligence gathering, urban combat, the securing of nuclear and radioactive materials, humanitarian missions and special operations “to destroy enemy personnel and equipment.”

One document describes “crowd-control operations” where the crowd “is not armed with firearms but does pose a risk using improvised weapons (clubs and stones).”

People involved in the project and American officials said that the Emiratis were interested in deploying the battalion to respond to terrorist attacks and put down uprisings inside the country’s sprawling labor camps, which house the Pakistanis, Filipinos and other foreigners who make up the bulk of the country’s work force. The foreign military force was planned months before the so-called Arab Spring revolts that many experts believe are unlikely to spread to the U.A.E. Iran was a particular concern.

An Eye on Iran

Although there was no expectation that the mercenary troops would be used for a stealth attack on Iran, Emirati officials talked of using them for a possible maritime and air assault to reclaim a chain of islands, mostly uninhabited, in the Persian Gulf that are the subject of a dispute between Iran and the U.A.E., the former employees said. Iran has sent military forces to at least one of the islands, Abu Musa, and Emirati officials have long been eager to retake the islands and tap their potential oil reserves.

The Emirates have a small military that includes army, air force and naval units as well as a small special operations contingent, which served in Afghanistan, but over all, their forces are considered inexperienced.

In recent years, the Emirati government has showered American defense companies with billions of dollars to help strengthen the country’s security. A company run by Richard A. Clarke, a former counterterrorism adviser during the Clinton and Bush administrations, has won several lucrative contracts to advise the U.A.E. on how to protect its infrastructure.

Some security consultants believe that Mr. Prince’s efforts to bolster the Emirates’ defenses against an Iranian threat might yield some benefits for the American government, which shares the U.A.E.’s concern about creeping Iranian influence in the region.

“As much as Erik Prince is a pariah in the United States, he may be just what the doctor ordered in the U.A.E.,” said an American security consultant with knowledge of R2’s work.

The contract includes a one-paragraph legal and ethics policy noting that R2 should institute accountability and disciplinary procedures. “The overall goal,” the contract states, “is to ensure that the team members supporting this effort continuously cast the program in a professional and moral light that will hold up to a level of media scrutiny.”

But former employees said that R2’s leaders never directly grappled with some fundamental questions about the operation. International laws governing private armies and mercenaries are murky, but would the Americans overseeing the training of a foreign army on foreign soil be breaking United States law?

Susan Kovarovics, an international trade lawyer who advises companies about export controls, said that because Reflex Responses was an Emirati company it might not need State Department authorization for its activities.


But she said that any Americans working on the project might run legal risks if they did not get government approval to participate in training the foreign troops.

Basic operational issues, too, were not addressed, the former employees said. What were the battalion’s rules of engagement? What if civilians were killed during an operation? And could a Latin American commando force deployed in the Middle East really be kept a secret?

Imported Soldiers

The first waves of mercenaries began arriving last summer. Among them was a 13-year veteran of Colombia’s National Police force named Calixto Rincón, 42, who joined the operation with hopes of providing for his family and seeing a new part of the world.

“We were practically an army for the Emirates,” Mr. Rincón, now back in Bogotá, Colombia, said in an interview. “They wanted people who had a lot of experience in countries with conflicts, like Colombia.”

Mr. Rincón’s visa carried a special stamp from the U.A.E. military intelligence branch, which is overseeing the entire project, that allowed him to move through customs and immigration without being questioned.

He soon found himself in the midst of the camp’s daily routines, which mirrored those of American military training. “We would get up at 5 a.m. and we would start physical exercises,” Mr. Rincón said. His assignment included manual labor at the expanding complex, he said. Other former employees said the troops — outfitted in Emirati military uniforms — were split into companies to work on basic infantry maneuvers, learn navigation skills and practice sniper training.

R2 spends roughly $9 million per month maintaining the battalion, which includes expenditures for employee salaries, ammunition and wages for dozens of domestic workers who cook meals, wash clothes and clean the camp, a former employee said. Mr. Rincón said that he and his companions never wanted for anything, and that their American leaders even arranged to have a chef travel from Colombia to make traditional soups.

But the secrecy of the project has sometimes created a prisonlike environment. “We didn’t have permission to even look through the door,” Mr. Rincón said. “We were only allowed outside for our morning jog, and all we could see was sand everywhere.”

The Emirates wanted the troops to be ready to deploy just weeks after stepping off the plane, but it quickly became clear that the Colombians’ military skills fell far below expectations. “Some of these kids couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn,” said a former employee. Other recruits admitted to never having fired a weapon.

Rethinking Roles

As a result, the veteran American and foreign commandos training the battalion have had to rethink their roles. They had planned to act only as “advisers” during missions — meaning they would not fire weapons — but over time, they realized that they would have to fight side by side with their troops, former officials said.

Making matters worse, the recruitment pipeline began drying up. Former employees said that Thor struggled to sign up, and keep, enough men on the ground. Mr. Rincón developed a hernia and was forced to return to Colombia, while others were dismissed from the program for drug use or poor conduct.

And R2’s own corporate leadership has also been in flux. Mr. Chambers, who helped develop the project, left after several months. A handful of other top executives, some of them former Blackwater employees, have been hired, then fired within weeks.

To bolster the force, R2 recruited a platoon of South African mercenaries, including some veterans of Executive Outcomes, a South African company notorious for staging coup attempts or suppressing rebellions against African strongmen in the 1990s. The platoon was to function as a quick-reaction force, American officials and former employees said, and began training for a practice mission: a terrorist attack on the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, the world’s tallest building. They would secure the situation before quietly handing over control to Emirati troops.

But by last November, the battalion was officially behind schedule. The original goal was for the 800-man force to be ready by March 31; recently, former employees said, the battalion’s size was reduced to about 580 men.

Emirati military officials had promised that if this first battalion was a success, they would pay for an entire brigade of several thousand men. The new contracts would be worth billions, and would help with Mr. Prince’s next big project: a desert training complex for foreign troops patterned after Blackwater’s compound in Moyock, N.C. But before moving ahead, U.A.E. military officials have insisted that the battalion prove itself in a “real world mission.”

That has yet to happen. So far, the Latin American troops have been taken off the base only to shop and for occasional entertainment.

On a recent spring night though, after months stationed in the desert, they boarded an unmarked bus and were driven to hotels in central Dubai, a former employee said. There, some R2 executives had arranged for them to spend the evening with prostitutes.

Mark Mazzetti reported from Abu Dhabi and Washington, and Emily B. Hager from New York. Jenny Carolina González and Simon Romero contributed reporting from Bogotá, Colombia. Kitty Bennett contributed research from Washington.

A version of this article appeared in print on May 15, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Secret Desert Force Set Up By Blackwater’s Founder.
--
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Among many other interesting things from this article: I have seen it reported that the Saudi's are using Colombian mercenaries in the war in Yemen. Perhaps this is where that plan originated and the UAE, in "support" of its larger looming neighbour, handed over the troops for this?
Seems the use of Colombian mercenaries met with mixed/poor results in the initial stages as reported above - which does not bode well for either side fighting in the Yemen.

[Sueanne47]

Russia's power down at Northern Command while NATO busy with massive troop movement :

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kDhO4hhbaQE

[Sueanne47]

NATO war planes over the Czech Republic :

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=DK8IHX6VoCk

[Sueanne47]

This provocation of Nato towards Russia is all tied to this Vatican Alliance NWO :

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ORgl9o93_2U

[TODD & NORA]

Presidential vote results were fudged - toggled on/off mid-play...Hillary and Trump both know this - news of this is expected to go mainstream within a matter of days. Party responsible for resetting toggle setting to 'off' is known by our loose-knit hacker network. Not sure who initially set toggle setting which resulted in skewed voting results (suggested ties to Soros), but a member of the Intel Community reset toggle code so votes would be properly counted...buckle up, buttercups.

We are in for a long ride...the 'Tim Kaine' scenario is still in play. Trump "victory" was a pump-fake...used to motivate people to show their cards. It worked.

[thunder24]

INSIDE sources said the sky is falling, don't believe it, We are upside down and apparently gravity doesn't work like that...

on a less serious note... The Native Americans are fighting for clean water for all races in North Dakota, most people on here are worried their way of life will change for a less then accessible way, and everyone is scared of death...

[Sophocles]

US should not provide Gülen ‘safe haven,’ says top Trump advisor

hurriyetdailynews.com


AA photo

The United States should not provide a safe haven for the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who the Turkish government accuses of orchestrating the failed July 15 coup attempt, a top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump has said.

“The forces of radical Islam derive their ideology from radical clerics like Gülen, who is running a scam. We should not provide him safe haven,” retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn wrote for the Hill newspaper in a piece published on Nov. 8.

“In this crisis, it is imperative that we remember who our real friends are,” added Flynn, who is the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Flynn was a key national security adviser to Trump during his presidential campaign and is expected by many to be appointed to a cabinet position.

“We must begin with understanding that Turkey is vital to U.S. interests. Turkey is really our strongest ally against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS], as well as a source of stability in the region. It provides badly needed cooperation with U.S. military operations,” he added.

Ankara accuses Gülen and his followers of organizing Turkey’s deadly coup attempt of July 15, during which parliament was bombed and soldiers attempted to assassinate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. More than 240 civilians died during the failed attempt after Erdoğan called on citizens to take to the streets to counter the attempt.

November/10/2016

[Cidersomerset]

This is very promising if this interview is anything to go by.......( Infact it sounds
to good to be true ) ...I suggest Listening to it twice he says a lot and lays it
out including Clintons collusion with the global elites and much more.

Trump has said he has been listening to advisors particularly military and geo
political and if he can ignore the neo -con/dems and the global oligarchs.
Maybe we can get rid of these war mongers and this 9/11 , war on terror false flag
operations started after the neo -con coup backed by Bush 1 after the cold war.

----------------------------------------------------------

'There was movement towards WWIII with Russia': World awaits Trump's future
policy on Middle East

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=BsbtFuOIUng

Published on 10 Nov 2016

The race is over. Donald Trump is president-elect, defeating HIllary Clinton and
putting a Republican back in the White House. The 2016 election campaign wasn’t
pretty, but it was entertaining. But what's next?

RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air

[Cidersomerset]

David is astute in his analyst of the situation as usual imo....


The NATO War Machine & The Demonisation
Of Russia - The David Icke VideoPodcast Trailer

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rUA6Makjf_E

Published on 11 Nov 2016
World Tour Tickets - http://www.TheWorldWideWakeUp.com 2016/17

[Sueanne47]

I wish David Icke would do more exposure on the Popes. But I think he has been 'silenced' by either the vatican or the establishment, after all, they are the very top of the pyramid controlling us all.

[Cidersomerset]

Putin: Russian military not threatening anybody, we are protecting our borders

By David on 13 November 2016 GMT



RT NEWS.....

12th Nov 1916

‘The Russian military isn’t threatening anybody, Russian President Vladimir Putin said,
expressing bewilderment about the concerned reaction of the West to army drills,
which are carried out inside Russia.

“Our Armed Forces are not threatening anybody,” Putin said as he visited motor maker
Avtodiesel in Russia’s Yaroslavl on Saturday.“I would like to stress once again, to make
sure everyone hears – not only people in this hall,” he added.

“Why would we do this?” Putin said, commenting on claims that Moscow may attack other
countries, particularly, its neighbors in the Baltics.’

Read more: Putin: Russian military not threatening anybody, we are protecting our borders

https://www.rt.com/news/366685-putin...ampaign=chrome

===================================================
===================================================

I wish David Icke would do more exposure on the Popes. But I think he has been 'silenced' by
either the vatican or the establishment, after all, they are the very top of the pyramid controlling us all.

No he is still giving the pope 's----'......LOL

====================================================
====================================================

Meanwhile Israel has been .....


Israel consolidates grip on Golan under cover of Syria’s chaos
By David on 13 November 2016 GMT War and Terror

THE ELECTRONIC INTEFADA

Israel consolidates grip on Golan under cover of Syria’s chaos
Matt Broomfield The Electronic Intifada 11 November 2016

abandoned_israeli_minefields_are_a_lethal_risk_to_druze_farmers

‘“Listen,” Salman Fakherldeen said. “Do you hear?”

Below the drone of a farmer’s tractor, the distant clatter of automatic gunfire
steadily increased in volume and intensity.

Fakherldeen is an activist in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and a
researcher with the Golan-based human rights center al-Marsad. Martial beret
screwed down over his head, he paused for thought as he smoked a cigarette,
watching shells explode on the Syrian plains beyond the demilitarized zone.

“The only winners now are [Bashar] Assad and the Israelis,” he said. “And in the
end, Assad will lose as well.”’

Read more: Israel consolidates grip on Golan under cover of Syria’s chaos

https://electronicintifada.net/conte...51ca-299185473

[Cidersomerset]

Veterans Day Remembrance: US Marine Corps Speaks Out against Profit Driven Wars

By David on 13 November 2016 GMT



GLOBAL RESEARCH...

Veterans Day Remembrance: US Marine Corps Speaks Out against Profit Driven Wars

Remembrance Day Special - Alternative Perspectives from Veterans Stan Goff and
Joshua Key. Global Research News Hour Episode 159
By Jonathan WIlson and Stan Goff
Global Research, November 12, 2016




“I spent 33 years and 4 months In active service as a member of our country’s most agile
military force — the Marine Corps…And during that period I spent most of my time being a
high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was
a racketeer for capitalism. ” – Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (1935) [1]


‘Recognized as Remembrance Day in Canada and the British Commonwealth, and Veterans’
Day in the US, the 11th day of the 11th month is an annual occasion to pay tribute to those
who have served their countries on the battlefield.

It is taken as axiomatic that soldiers are heroes for participating in violence at the behest of
the State. Even where there is a recognition that the war being fought is unjust, such as the
Iraq War or the Vietnam War, community members are called on to ‘support the troops.’

There has been a decisive shift away from the notion of remembering the horrors and brutality
of war to the veneration and valourization of the soldier. There is a ritualistic aspect to society’s
relationship with the soldier. Even the language of ‘paying the ultimate sacrifice’ evokes a
religious flavour to the dynamics of militarism.’

Read more...

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_8rbHwMXMT8

Uploaded on 4 Sep 2007
Retired Special Forces Master Sergeant Stan Goff explains what military life really entails.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/veteran...n-wars/5556577

===================================================
===================================================

Well things have not changed much and history is always repeating itself.
I was looking at some Robert Vaughn vids as he has just passed over and
what is happening in Syria/Iraq now echoes Vietnam and Robert explains
how the 1956 the South Vietnamese elections were manipulated....


Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr. "Vietnam"

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=bH0KMR-odsA

Published on 24 Jan 2014
Full Episode:
http://digitalcollections.hoover.org/...

Taped on June 8, 1967
Guest(s): Robert Vaughn


Death threats....

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=M7qNBrfKvTk

[Hervé]

Syria sees impact of Trump election as Al-Qaeda collapses, Western smear campaign falls silent

Alexander Mercouris The Duran Sun, 13 Nov 2016 13:01 UTC

© Politicus USA

Donald Trump's election victory ends Al-Qaeda hopes of Western military intervention in Aleppo and ends Western media campaign to condemn Russian bombing there.

One place where Donald Trump's election victory has had an immediate effect is in the battlefield around Aleppo.

Reports from the area of the battlefield speak of a total collapse of morale amongst the Al-Qaeda led Jihadi forces which have been attacking the city from the south west, as whatever lingering hopes there were of a Western military intervention following a victory by Hillary Clinton in the US Presidential election have turned to dust.

The result is that the Jihadi forces have been rapidly losing ground in the south western suburbs of Aleppo over the last three days, a fact which has apparently obliged Al-Qaeda to draw on its last reserves in order to rush reinforcements to the front to prevent a total collapse there.

As always the situation is confused, but it seems the Syrian army has now entirely liberated the strategically located 1070 housing complex and the Minyan and Al-Assad districts, and that it is starting to develop an offensive towards the strategically important town of Khan Tuman, which is the base from which the Al-Qaeda led Jihadis launch their attacks on south west Aleppo.

Importantly these Syrian army advances are taking place despite the continued absence of Russian bombing in the area of Aleppo.

In the meantime there are reports that the Russian fleet which includes the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and the nuclear powered missile battlecruiser Pyotr Veliky has moved closer to the Syrian coast. There have even been scattered reports that some of the Kuznetsov's aircraft have been spotted flying over Syria on what appear to be reconnaissance missions.

© AFP 2016/ RAMI AL-SAYED Al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria 'crippled' by Trump's election victory

There are also reports that the Russian fleet is preparing to launch heavy cruise missile strikes against the Jihadis forces concentrated in south west Aleppo, and that these will happen within the next few hours.

Reports that such attacks were imminent have in fact been circulating for around a week. It appears the Russian fleet has taken longer to deploy to the Syrian coast than was expected despite being present in the eastern Mediterranean for several days.

Even allowing for a possible political decision by the Russian leadership to delay the attack until after the US Presidential election, it is still not clear why there has been a further delay given that the election took place several days ago.

Possibly there have been technical problems, though there are no reports of any problems with Kuznetsov's engines. Alternatively, the Russians might have felt the need to take additional security precautions after the strange incident several days ago involving the Dutch submarine.

It does however seem that an attack on the Jihadis attacking Aleppo from the Russian fleet in the eastern Mediterranean is indeed now about to happen, and that this attack may now be only hours away.

Regardless of when the attack happens, the key point is that following Trump's election any idea of the West intervening directly in the fighting in Aleppo is now finally and conclusively dead.

Already the West's media campaign against the Russian bombing of the Jihadi districts of eastern Aleppo, which was dominating the news just a few weeks ago, seems like an age away, whilst the demands for Russia to be further sanctioned or prosecuted for war crimes because of its actions in Syria have been quietly dropped.