‘Israel behind missile fire from Lebanon’

Lebanese MP Nabil Nicolas

A Lebanese lawmaker holds sleeping cells working for Tel Aviv responsible for carrying out rocket attacks from southern Lebanon into Israel.

In an interview with NBN television on Friday, Change and Reform bloc MP Nabil Nicolas warned that some parties attempt to give the impression that Hezbollah was violating the UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

Nicolas said the area from where the rockets were launched on Thursday was under the authority of UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and Hezbollah forces were not present in the southern Lebanese region.

This is while even Israeli authorities have admitted that the rockets fired at northern Israel were of an old model no longer used by Hezbollah.

He emphasized that an Israeli conspiracy was being implemented in Lebanon, calling for containment rather than “exaggeration” of the rocket-launching issue.

According to Israeli officials, four rockets landed on northern Israeli town of Nahariya – 8 km (5 miles) south of the Lebanese border – early on Thursday, leaving two people slightly injured.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah, however, denied any role in the alleged firing of rockets onto Israel from Lebanon.

Israel launched ‘retaliatory’ missiles onto Lebanon while its warplanes violated Lebanon’s airspace following the incident, conducting overflights over southern Lebanon.

Some Israeli media claimed the rocket attacks were most likely fired by Palestinian groups in retaliation for the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.

The Islamic Hamas movement has also denied the reports that it was behind the shelling and ruled out using other Arab states to respond to the occupation of Palestine by Israel.

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troops kill more Palestinian children, women in Gaza

The brutal Israeli occupation army continued its monstrous aggression on the tiny Gaza Strip for the fourteenth successive day, killing around 800 Palestinians and wounding more than 3250 others, hundreds of them in serious condition.

According to Dr. Muaweyya Abu Hassanien, the director of the emergency department in the PA health ministry in Gaza Strip confirmed that at least 50% of the martyrs were children and women, adding that ambulance teams were unearthing new bodies of Palestinian civilians buried under the rubbles of their homes that were destroyed by the Israeli air strikes and tank shelling.

Paramedics and ambulance vehicles face big difficulties in reaching out to wounded Palestinian civilians, especially in the northern part of the coastal Strip where many Palestinian families believed to be killed or forced out of their homes at the hands of the IOF troops.

At least eight paramedics and a doctor were killed after IOF troops deliberately shot them as they tried to aid wounded children and women in various areas of the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Basim Naim, the PA minister of health, confirmed that Gaza hospitals face sharp shortage in medicine and medical equipment and couldn’t cope with the increasing number of Palestinian victims.

He also pointed out that 50% of the ambulance vehicles were either destroyed or suspended that, he added, doubles the burden on the Palestinian doctors and paramedics, urging an immediate help from doctors in neighboring Arab countries.

Tens of Arab doctors and surgeons had been waiting at the Rafah crossing point for nearly one week, and prepared to go into Gaza Strip to help their Palestinian colleagues, but the Egyptian authorities refused to allow them in.

However there were reports on Friday evening of 11 Arab doctors crossing the Rafah terminal into the Gaza Strip to help their Palestinian colleagues.

The intensive Israeli air, land, and sea shelling had targeted civilian homes in addition to schools run by the UNRWA were hundreds of Palestinian families sought a refuge. At least 30 Palestinian civilians were massacred in the UNRWA-run Al-Fakhora school in Jabalya city after Israeli warplanes shelled it.

Local mosques and civil infrastructure were also destroyed by the intensive Israeli bombardment. Local observes opined that the Israeli behavior in targeting civilians reflects their failure in defeating the Palestinian resistance despite the simple weapons they have compared to the Israeli state-of-the-art weapons.

The Israeli occupation government imposed media blackout on the Israeli casualties in the war in Gaza with the aim not to demoralize the Israeli public; but sources in the Palestinian resistance confirmed that tens of Israeli soldiers, including high-ranking officers were killed and wounded in the ongoing fighting.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en

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Israel troops targets civilians, avoids confrontation with resistance

Hamas said on Friday that most of the targets attacked by the Israeli occupation airforce ad ground forces have been civilian targets and that the resistance has lost very little so far.

Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, said that the targeting by Israelis of civilian installations indicates a grave military and political failure on the part of the Israeli occupation.

“The more than 1000 targets struck by the Zionist enemy were civilian, including universities, hospitals, mosques and houses. This sort of targeting indicates a failure on the part of the enemy which has so far not confronted the resistance on the ground.”

He pointed out that the Israeli occupation ground forces remained close to borders and in open areas to avoid confrontations with the resistance.

Furthermore, the Qassam Brigades, announced on Friday morning that its fighters fired on Friday morning a Grad rocket at an Israeli occupation military air base of Tal-Nov about 45 kilometres from Gaza, so far the farthest place targeted the Palestinian resistance.

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en

Israel fires missiles at Lebanon

Tel Aviv has launched five missiles at Lebanon claiming the assault was in retaliation to rocket attacks on northern Israeli towns ( is that really true?).

According to Israeli officials four rockets landed on northern Israel early on Thursday, a Press TV correspondent reported. Israeli sources said 4 settlers were injured in the attack.

Israeli Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the rockets landed around the town of Nahariya, 8 km (5 miles) south of the Lebanese border. Tel Aviv claims the rockets were launched from southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah, however, says it is not responsible for the alleged firing of rockets at Israel.

An army spokesperson said that following the attack the Israeli military launched missiles onto Lebanon in what it described as ‘retaliatory’ fire.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar television and Lebanese officials announced that five mortar rounds had landed on the Lebanese soil near the southern border with Israel. However, the artillery landed on desert areas causing no damage or casualties, Press TV’s Beirut correspondent, Ali Rizk, reported.

Israeli warplanes breached Lebanon’s airspace following the incident, conducting overflights over southern Lebanon.

Despite Israeli officials’ claims that Tel Aviv is not interested in opening a new front against Hezbollah in the north, Israeli reconnaissance aircraft regularly fly over Lebanon.

On December 28, a day after Tel Aviv launched its bloody airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes conducted overflights at a low altitude over south Lebanon, violating the country’s airspace in breach of UN Security Council resolution 1710.

Meanwhile, Israeli media say the rocket attacks were most likely fired by Palestinian groups in retaliation for the 13-day-long Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.

Radio and television reports cited unnamed military sources saying the incident was likely to be an ‘isolated attack’.

The Islamic Hamas movement has also denied the reports that it was behind the shelling. “We cannot blame any Palestinian faction and we don’t know who fired the rockets,” said Hamas spokesman in Lebanon, Raafat Morra.

“Hamas is pursuing its combat inside Palestine and our principle is not to use any other Arab soil to respond to the occupation. This is our firm policy,” he said.

“Basically what is happening is the fault of Israel because it is impossible to contain the Arab and Islamic world after the Gaza massacre.”

http://www.israel-stop.com

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Vatican Cardinal: Gaza like Nazi Camp

Israel on Wednesday slammed a senior Vatican official for comparing the Gaza Strip to a “concentration camp,” saying the comments were “based on Hamas propaganda.”

“Making remarks that seem to be based on Hamas propaganda while ignoring its numerous crimes … does not bring the people closer to truth and peace,” foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

Cardinal Renato Martino, the Vatican’s justice and peace minister, was quoted by the online Italian daily Il Sussidiario as saying the conditions in Gaza “increasingly resemble a big concentration camp.”

On Tuesday Pope Benedict XVI said he wanted to encourage efforts to get Israelis and Palestinians to sit down together in ‘peace talks’ over the Gaza conflict. Benedict was speaking to visitors and tourists in St. Peter’s Square.

The pope said he was following the news of the armed clashes in Gaza with “strong worry.” He repeated his warning that hate and rejection of dialogue only lead to war.

Benedict added he is encouraging all efforts and initiatives by those who want peace, and who are trying to help Israelis and Palestinians to sit down and talk. The Vatican has said the pope would like to go the Holy Land on a pilgrimage this spring, but no concrete plans have been made.

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38 arrested over mossad coup plot in Turkey

More than thirty-eight people have been detained in Turkey in the latest wave of arrests over the controversial Ergenekon coup plot.

Three retired generals, a colonel – who is on active duty – academics and journalists are reportedly among the detainees.

Turkish police, meanwhile, conducted a search of a house belonging to former chief prosecutor, Sabih Kanadoglu. However, Kanadoglu was not detained during their raid.

Turkey’s state-run Anatolia News Agency reported that police raids were conducted simultaneously in twelve provinces across the country.

A court in Istanbul also issued search warrants for the suspects’ homes and workplaces.

The Ergenekon case has been filed against more than 80 people on charges that they sought to establish an unlawful organization to provoke a series of events that would pave the way for a military coup in Turkey.

The shadowy Ergenekon group has been indicted of at least two violent attacks — the bombing of a secularist newspaper in 2006 and an attack on a court in the same year, in which a judge was killed.

Mossad plot to topple the Turkish government

A report alleges that Israel’s national intelligence agency, Mossad has been behind the Ergenekon plot to topple the Turkish government.

A secret investigation of detained Ergenekon group members and other studies outside Turkey indicate that Mossad orchestrated coups against the Turkish government, the Turkish daily Milliyet reported Sunday.

The Ergenekon group is a Turkish neo-nationalist organization with alleged links to the military, members of which have been arrested on charges of plotting to foment unrest in the country. Investigators uncovered evidence that show a Jewish rabbi named Tuncay Guney, who worked for Mossad and fled to Canada in 2004, was a key figure behind attempts to overthrow the Turkish government, the paper said, Fars news reported.

A document uncovered this week by the Sabah daily shows how Guney deliberately infiltrated Ergenekon and another organization known as JITEM, an illegal intelligence unit linked with the police and suspected of hundreds of murders and kidnappings.

Meanwhile, a separate report by Turkish daily Yeni Safak has claimed that Turkish security forces have discovered documents in Guney’s Istanbul house that disclose information concerning suspicious investment and economic activities by certain Jewish businessmen in Turkey.

The businessmen allegedly have significant relations with individuals, political groups and cultural organizations affiliated with the Ergenekon group.

Turkish security forces have detained many members of the Ergenekon group, including retired army generals, politicians, popular lawyers and famous journalists.

The individuals currently face trail on charges of plotting to overthrow Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

http://atheonews.blogspot.com/2008/11/report-mossad-behind-ergenekon-plot.html

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VIDEO: Turkish Fans riot and throw shoes at Israeli Basketball team

Signs Of An Attempted Coup In New Delhi

With a traumatized nation and a paralyzed government, a core group of secular ideologues and Hindu nationalists are executing a ‘soft coup’ in New Delhi to bring to power hawks who want to pursue America’s agenda of grooming India as a regional policeman, sort out Pakistan and confront China. India will self-destroy in the process. India’s military and intelligence has been penetrated. The man who uncovered the plot, Hemant Karkare, the antiterrorism chief of C police, was the first target of the mysterious terrorists. Patriotic Indians need to wake up and save their country

Preliminary signs emerging from India’s power center, New Delhi, paint a picture of an unstable situation. Security is already compromised. But a bigger story is taking place in New Delhi, not Mumbai. There are disturbing signs that India, a nuclear-armed nation of a billion people, is witnessing a ‘soft coup’ attempt involving secular rightwing ideologues and Hindu nationalists.

Exploiting the fears of a traumatized nation and a government caught sleeping at the wheel, a core group of rightwing ideologues within India’s military, intelligence and political elite are trying to overthrow Manmohan Singh’s government. The plan apparently is to help the rise of rightwing elements in power and firmly push India in a confrontation with Pakistan and some other countries in the region.

The objective of this core group is to see India emerge as a superpower closely allied with the United States. They are excited about American plans for India as a regional policeman and have no problem in confronting China and Pakistan to achieve this status. They think time is slipping and they don’t want a hesitant political leadership in their way. Already the instability in the wake of Mumbai attacks is being exploited to start a war with Pakistan. The fact that this will also help U.S. military that is facing a tough time in Afghanistan appears to be more than just a coincidence.

In the very first hours of the Mumbai attack, the unknown terrorists were able to achieve a singular feat: the targeted murder of Hemant Karkare, the chief antiterrorism officer in the Indian police. The man was responsible for exposing the secret links between the Indian military and Hindu terror groups. His investigation resulted in uncovering the involvement of three Indian military intelligence officers in terrorist acts that were blamed on Muslim groups. At the time of his murder, Karkare was pursuing leads that were supposed to uncover the depth of the nexus between the Indian military and the sudden rise of well armed and well financed Hindu terrorism groups with their wide network of militant training camps across India.

Curiously, a CCTV camera has caught on tape one of the unknown terrorists when he arrived with his group at their first target: a train station. The man, dressed in a jeans and a black T-shirt and carrying a machine gun see picture below, is wearing an orange-colored wrist band very common among religious Hindus. As a comparison, a recent picture of a Hindu militant activist taken during an event this year is shown to the right where the militant is wearing a similar band.

Left, a CCTV snapshot of one of the Mumbai terrorists, wearing the sacred Hindu armband and carrying a machine gun. Right, a picture of a typical member of Hindu terror groups, wearing the same armband. The band is sacred to fundamentalist Hindus who believe wearing it shows devotion and brings good luck from gods. click here if you can’t see the pictures

An aggressive advertisement campaign has already begun across India urging a scared population to rise against the government.

On Friday, front-page advertisements appeared in several newspapers in Delhi showing blood splattered against a black background and the slogan “Brutal Terror Strikes At Will” in bold capital letters. The ads signed off with a simple message: “Fight Terror. Vote B.J.P.”

The Indian, the Pakistani and the international media has not woken up yet to this ‘soft coup’ taking place in New Delhi. Some observers and journalists are beginning to catch its first signs. This is how a New York Times reporter, Somini Sengupta, has characterized it today:

“Mr. Singh’s government had lately hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party with evidence that its supporters, belonging to a range of radical Hindu organizations, had … been implicated in terrorist attacks. Indeed, in a bizarre twist, the head of the police antiterrorism unit, Hemant Karkare, killed in the Mumbai strikes, had been in the midst of a high-profile investigation of a suspected Hindu terrorist cell. Mr. Karkare’s inquiry had netted nine suspects in connection with a bombing in September of a Muslim-majority area in Malegaon, a small town not far from Mumbai. “

Evidence is emerging that Karkare knew he was facing the prospect of a violent death because of the investigation he was pursuing. What Karkare probably didn’t know is that his elimination would come in such a perfectly executed operation.

Only hours before Karkare’s violent death, his close friend, retired Colonel Rahul Gowardhan, received an envelope. Karkare called him to say he was sending him a confidential letter. This is how Times of India has reported the story:

Just some hours before that, Karkare had sent a letter to him in an envelop which had some “personal” content. “Hemant had called me up on Wednesday,” said Gowardhan, a top official with MSEDCL. “As I was in a meeting, we decided to postpone the talk. He hung up saying he would be sending me an envelope. When I wanted to know the content, he told me to just read the letter that’s inside it. I returned home and read it. I cannot share the content of the letter with anyone,” said Gowardhan.

The highly sophisticated nature of the attack in Mumbai, lasting for almost 60 hours, diminishes the chances of a foreign invasion and increases the possibility that influential elements in Indian intelligence and Hindu militant organizations might have helped orchestrate this incident, pretty much like they did in the Sept. 29 Malegaon attack, in which they tried to simulate a Muslim terrorist group. In that attack, in which three Indian military intelligence officers have been arrested, the objective was to provoke a Muslim backlash that could justify a massive state crackdown against minorities.

Observers are already seeing how the hawks within the Indian establishment and Hindu militant organizations have seized the initiative from a paralyzed government. The Indian army and intelligence are already penetrated. Now the real culprits are channeling the fears of a traumatized people toward Pakistan.

India is on the same path today that the Bush administration hawks took the American nation on after 9/11. But this time, patriotic Indians have the benefit of hindsight. They should stop the secular warmongers and Hindu militants from hijacking their country. The future of the entire region depends on it.

Link

By AHMED QURAISHI

Saturday, 29 November 2008.

WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

Statement issued by David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, as printed in the Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 1967:

“The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological State is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs.

This lover of the Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for the world Zionism that it should now take immediate steps against Pakistan.

Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula are Hindus whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims, therefore, India is the most important base for us to work therefrom against Pakistan.

It is essential that we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans.”

Axis of The Apocalyptic (India-Israel-USA)

AS old, established global alliances break like empty beer bottles in a Bombay street brawl- the War on Terror is giving birth to a strange coalition across the continents. India-Israel-USA.

In their own words they call themselves a Triad against Terrorism. In reality they are nothing more than the curious progeny of a spurious theory- Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations.

The Hindus, Jews and Christians versus the Moslems of the world today and the Confucians of China tomorrow. This is nothing less than the Axis of the Apocalyptic.

On May 8, India’s National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra formally announced its arrival at the 97th annual dinner meeting in Washington of the American Jewish Committee, an out-and-out Zionist outfit.

To quote Mishra “a core, consisting of democratic societies” must emerge, “which can take on international terrorism in a holistic and focused manner – to ensure that global terrorism is pursued to its logical conclusion”. The India-Israel-USA triad would form the core of this ‘democratic’ alliance. (He could have added that the ‘logical conclusion’ will be annihilation of all those defined as ‘terrorists’).

Topping up his irrational exuberance over the viability of this axis Mishra went to make a startling announcement. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will visit India sometime in the second week of June this year.

Before we get into discussing the life expectancy of this newborn creature a little bit of background first. This is an axis that has been in the making for a while now ever since the quasi-fascist Hindu chauvinists came to power in India a few years ago.

The Indian loony right have used ‘Islamic terrorism’ as the ostensible excuse for their assiduous cultivation of both the US and Israel in search of strategic partnership. But for those who know them well it is also obvious they harbor grandiose illusions about the destiny of the nuclear-armed ‘Hindus’ becoming a great power in global affairs.

While Israel responded warmly to the Indian overtures right from the start, the US was initially indifferent. It already had an old and trusted slave in South Asia- Pakistan- the pet hate object of the Hindu chauvinists- and was reluctant to retire it hastily.

The events of September 11 however have seen the US do precisely that- fire Pakistan- and allow India to qualify for the post of Uncle Sam’s favorite vassal in the region. The blooming India-Israel romance has merely helped seal this dubious deal between three very different countries.

For the obvious question that arises is – what do the world’s only hyper-power, a nation set up by the survivors of the Nazi holocaust and the world’s largest producer of masala movies- really have in common ? It seems, their interests do intersect on several themes.

To begin with- they are all deeply in love with Osama Bin Laden.

Seriously, in Bin Laden all three governments have found their perfect demon- a demon with designer horns. He is Muslim, suitably long-bearded, a religious fanatic, a confirmed terrorist and likes living in caves. Even better he pops up once in a while on our television screens speaking in a strange tongue. Just like the odious villain in a James Bond flick threatening to blow up the world if not allowed to take it over. (Heck, I thought the Talebs prohibited music, dance and photography)

All of which makes it easier for the regimes that run these three countries to keep their citizens perpetually scared, jack up military spending and justify whatever economic/social policies their corporate masters want them to implement.

Secondly, since all three nations pretend to be great democracies (the messiest, the costliest and the loneliest) the Bin Laden bogey allows them to squash every semblance of civil and political rights from the lives of their citizens- while getting extreme right wingers re-elected on ultra-nationalist, anti-terrorist platforms.

At a deeper level there is another interesting commonality emerging between these three countries. The power elites ruling all of them are deeply obsessed with manipulating the structures of the STATE.

The Hindu right wing is desperately trying to capture the Indian State and cleanse it of all the secular, pluralist, democratic elements inherited from the Indian struggle against British colonialism (a struggle to which they contributed absolutely nothing). They want to redefine what it means to be an Indian completely in ‘Hindu’ terms and define what it means to be a Hindu according to the Weltenschauung of a minority upper-caste. And all this in a country where there are large non-Hindu minorities present.

Sharon’s ‘Likud’ationists are ruthlessly seeking to consolidate and expand the racist Israeli State to fulfill an ultra-nationalist vision of lebensraum for a Greater Israel.

The most audacious of all manipulations is of course the attempt by the US elites to breakdown existing international structures and create a completely new State- at the global level. A State that will serve their interests and their interests alone. The 100 year American Reich.

But is that all it is about- their common grounds ? I wish it were. Really. Quite frighteningly, all three regimes are today run by people who will not show a moment’s hesitation in using weapons of mass destruction against anyone they dub their ‘enemy’.

The repeated pronouncements in recent times by the United States that it ‘reserves the right’ to exercise the nuclear option, even for a first strike, is to be taken seriously. Particularly as it comes from a nation that is the only one on this planet to have ever carried out a nuclear attack anywhere.

Israel, the middle-east’s only nuclear power, has also repeatedly threatened there will be ‘devastating consequences’ for countries that dare to strike Israel even with conventional weapons. Surely a clear signal of their willingness to use WMDs.

The Indian Minister of Defence George ‘loose cannon’ Fernandes, has in the past year said publicly several times that if there is a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan ‘ We will lose a few million people but Pakistan will be wiped out completely’. (I want to know the names and addresses of these few million people he is willing to sacrifice)That a senior minister of any government will even talk about such a possibility so casually shows the material these madmen are made of.

Wait, it gets worse. What is even more horrific about this emerging Axis of the Apocalyptic is that all of them today harbor elements who have classic Nazi-like intentions towards Muslims (in the abstract).

In the US there are those who talk of ‘nuking Mecca’ who are dangerously close to the powers-that-be. In Israel the extreme rightwing would like to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and Gaza of its Palestinian people.

In India the state sponsored pogrom against Muslims in the western Indian state of Gujarat two years ago showed the world the true face of Hindu fascism. Over 2000 Muslim men, women and children were systematically killed by Hindu mobs while state authorities looked on or even joined in. A clear attempt was made by the Hindu fanatics to push the entire Muslim community out of the province by destroying their sources of income.

At the national level, echoing the practices of the Nazis, the current Indian regime, has systematically rewritten history text books and cooked up archaeological evidence to suit its fanciful theories about India’s past, persecuted religious minorities and sent storm troopers to physically intimidate its critics.

In fact, talking about the Nazis – the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militarist, so called ‘cultural’ organization, which mentored many senior leaders of the current Indian government, is a vintage fascist organization. The Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, considered a ‘moderate ‘ (and believe me he looks like one compared to the rest) among the Hindu Hawks, has been a life-long member of the RSS. And I do not use the term ‘fascist’ as an abuse word (I have choicer words for that purpose) but to refer specifically to the political ideology spewed up by Mussolini in Italy of the 1920s and later ‘developed’ so devastatingly by Herr Hitler in Germany. But there will be no irony at all when Ariel Sharon shakes hands with his Indian counterpart later this month. Unfortunately, the man presiding over a nation built to say Never Again to the Nazi holocaust (built on somebody else’s land of course) will be very comfortable in bed with this bunch of Indian Nazi-lovers. Sharon’s visit to India at this juncture will be just one more episode in the relentless realpolitik of the Zionists that has seen Israel transform from a land of the 20th Century’s greatest victims to one of its most reviled oppressors.

India’s Hindu fundamentalists too will see no contradiction in admiring Hitler and Sharon in the same breath. With their paranoia about ‘Muslim terrorism’ and their own vision of a Greater India the proponents of an Indian fascism are ardent fans of Sharon- for his willingness to use disproportionate force to put down the rebellious Palestinians, his contempt for both international and human rights laws and his ability to make the monkey (s) in the US White House dance to his tune.

Coming back to how this new Axis is likely to fare in the future it is obvious that there are glaring contradictions within its fold. Contradictions, that have to do with the sheer mismatch in the abilities and ambitions of India and Israel on one hand and the United States on the other.

The simple fact is that while India and Israel delude themselves about being invited to sup with the Superpower for the latter they are both a highly dispensable duo. Mere client-states to be disposed off with when their utility is over.

Israel, as the United State’s best bulldog in the turbulent Arab world, to keep an eye on those precious oil reserves. India the dumb, short-sighted elephant to be suckered into conflict with the Chinese dragon someday. And both to seek, hunt and destroy subversive Muslim militants on behalf of Uncle Sam.

So, on closer observation, this Axis of the Apocalyptic turns to be not a single creature but a strange menagerie of a bulldog, elephant and the man-eating tiger that the US has currently become. A tiger that has always had permanent interests, never permanent friends.

Together in the short run they could be a terrifying lot indeed. But if the prey turns out to be tougher to get and the hunt gets longer than planned the tiger will surely not mind supping solo. All alone by itself- on elephant steak and bulldog burger.

SHLURP ! BURP! SHALOM ! NAMASTE!

Satya Sagar is an Indian journalist based in Thailand. He can be reached at sagarnama@yahoo.com

 Flashback: India falls in love with Israel

India falls in love with Israel and deserts Iran

India has traditionally been friendly with Iran.

However, things are changing, as India gets increasingly into bed with Israel and Mossad.

According to an article at Asia Times, 7 February 2008, (India shoots out of Iran’s orbit):

1. Israel now sells more weapons to India than to any other nation.

2. Mossad has been training parts of India’s security services.

“India has recently allowed its new strategic relationship with the US and Israel to prevail over its traditional friendship with Iran,” says Achin Vanaik, professor of international relations and global politics at Delhi University.

“Shamefully,” says Vanaik, “India has not uttered a word against Israel’s recent blockade and collective punishment of the people of Gaza.” (India shoots out of Iran’s orbit)

PIB Photo of Israel’s Barak meeting Singh in 2007 from Siliconeer: August 2006

Gordon Brown has been in Mumbai talking about the need for a New World Order and praising the Neo Cons. (BBC NEWS Politics Brown wants a ‘new world order’)

According to an article once at aljazeera.com (Stranger Than Fiction: An Independent Investigation of the True … – Google Books Result)

In February of 2000, Indian intelligence officials detained 11 members of what they thought was an Al Qaeda hijacking conspiracy. It was then discovered that these 11 ‘Muslim preachers’ were all Israeli nationals!

… India’s leading weekly magazine, The Week, reported ( Aborted Mission Investigation: Did Mossad attempt to infiltrate … ):

“On January 12 Indian intelligence officials in Calcutta detained 11 foreign nationals for interrogation before they were to board a Dhaka-bound Bangladesh Biman flight…

The eleven had Israeli passports… ‘They are Israeli nationals,’ said a Central Intelligence official. He claimed that Tel Aviv ‘exerted considerable pressure’ on Delhi to secure their release…

It was Indian Intelligence that helped the U.S. to so quickly identify the ‘19 hijackers’! On April 3, 2002, Express India, quoting the Press Trust of India, revealed:

“Washington, April 3: Indian intelligence agencies helped the U.S. to identify the hijackers who carried out the deadly September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, a media report said here on Wednesday.”

… Indian intelligence has an extremely close working relationship with Israel’s Mossad because both governments hate the Muslim nation of Pakistan. (RAW & Mossad: The Secret Link)

How might the Mossad have managed to increase racial tensions in India?

Narendra Modi is the chief minister of Gujarat (Bombay area). Reportedly he has used acts of terror against Moslems in order to increase his power.

Modi hopes his Bharatiya Janata Party will increase its power throughout India. (‘Gujarat showed India the way’)

Modi is a fan of Israel.

According to Zee News, 7 June 2006:

“Gujarat and Israel can cooperate with each other in solving their water scarcity… says Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Both Gujarat and Israel are ‘divided by land but united by water’, says Modi who was recently in the Jewish nation as part of the Indian delegation attending Agritech-2006.” (Sunday, January 6 2008 GujaratFiles.net)

The methods of Narendra Modi might appear to be similar to the methods of Israel’s Mossad.

Modi appears to have been involved in acts of terror.

In October 2007, the investigative newsmagazine Tehelka reported on the Tehelka Gujarat riots sting :

1. Several Hindu nationalist (Sangh) leaders explain on camera how they planned a massive massacre of Moslems.

 (http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107spycam_videos.asp)

2. The involvement of the Chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, is revealed.

3. The complicity of the police is revealed.

4. The connivance of the judiciary is revealed.

Frontline India ( Action replay) commented:

“Yet, no action has followed one of the most explosive news investigations in India.

“None of those caught on tape boasting about raping, burning and hacking Muslims have been arrested or even interrogated.

“Modi’s authority has not been questioned.

“Instead, there is an eerie silence. Far more eerie than the cold-blooded murders of more than 1,000 innocent people during the communal massacres of March 2002.

“The role of the Modi government in the State-sponsored terrorism of 2002 is well documented. Even the Supreme Court had censured Modi for being ‘a modern day Nero who watched while Gujarat burned’.

“Now, the Tehelka tapes offer irrefutable proof of how the Sangh (Hindu nationalists) organised a ‘Hindu jihad’ across Gujarat and protected the murderers.”

Link

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Mullen for action against “extremists” all over Pakistan

Visiting Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen acknowledged Pakistan’s success in the border regions, but urged leaders to act against extremists across the country.

The appeal came amid the US official’s meetings with President Asif Ali Zadari, National Security Adviser Mahmud Durrani, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the army chief and the ISI chief to discuss the Mumbai terror attacks.

Sources said the leaders denied Pakistan’s involvement in the attack, with a US embassy statement saying Mullen had called on Pakistan to launch an ‘investigation into the attacks’.

sajjad malik.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\124\story_4-12-2008_pg1_2

The International Backers of the Mumbai Attacks

Les Blough, Editor. Axis of Logic

November 26, 2008

November 26, 2008, Axis of Logic – Reuters states that at least 80 people have been killed and that, “An organisation calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed it was behind attacks”. CNN television is already stating as fact that the Mumbai attacks were funded and supported by foreign sources, implicating Pakistan where President-elect Obama promised to take the so-called “war on terrorism” when he assumes office in January. The attacks which are on-going at this moment set the stage for redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq to Pakistan as Obama promised. George W. Bush has been quick to condemn the attacks and CNN is giving round-the-clock coverage, reminiscent of corporate media coverage of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

Linking Pakistan, Al-Queda, Muslims and Terrorism

CNN, Reuters and other corporate media immediately called these attacks with bombs, automatic weapons and hand grenades “terrorist attacks” emanating from Pakistan with roots in “Al Queda” and “Islamist Terrorists”. CNN TV also states that these attacks target “western business people and well-heeled western tourists”, staying at Mumbai’s luxury hotels. The Deccan Herald states that the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility via a convenient e-mail message received by the Deccan Herald (DC). DC states,
“The term itself (Deccan Mujahideen) is not very specific, and according to CNN may just be a generic term for radicals in the region. ‘Deccan’ is an area of India and ‘Mujahideen’ is the plural form of a term referring to a Muslim participating in a jihad.”
Associated Press described the attackers,
“Teams of heavily armed gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India’s financial capital Wednesday night, killing at least 78 people and taking Westerners hostage, police said. A group of suspected Muslim militants claimed responsibility.”
Reuters describes them, “The previously unknown or little known group sent an email to news organisations claiming responsibility.” This is a familiar attribution to “terrorist attacks” which, because the organisation is “unknown”, noone can prove otherwise. CNN TV states emphatically, “This is definitely an international attack using domestic terrorists”. We have no doubt that the latter statement is true but the question is, “Who are those international backers of these attacks?”

International backing and support

Modern criminal investigation still rests on the Aristotile’s 3 equally important causal factors: Means, Method and Motivation.

Factor analysis – Means, Method and Motivation: Powerful western media organisations reinforce their opinions with repetition, linking assaults like these with former “Islamist attacks” and another “terrorist attack”. Their logic and factor analysis use (1) the weapons used, (2) the similarity of past attacks by “Al Queda” and (3) motivation. But of course they never consider the possibility, based on this same factor analysis, that the architects may be the CIA and/or Mossad.

Means: That the most powerful military machine in the world has the means to arm groups like the one who is carrying out the Mumbai attacks requires no apology or defense.

Method: History is replete with examples of U.S./Israeli use of a surrogate to attack their enemies. William John Fox pointed this out in his exemplary analysis, Deliver Us From Chaos: Ten Political Commandments. In 1953 they used domestic terrorism to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddeq, former Prime Minister of Iran. They used the Afghan Mujahideen to attack Russia in the same year of their resistance. The CIA and the U.S. ambassador secretly engineered the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia in 2003 and “the U.S. encouraged the Israeli-trained Georgian army to invade the disputed enclave of South Ossetia five years later”.

Motivation: The only difference between the factors used by the capitalist media and ours is motivation. Regarding motivation, CNN states “they (Deccan Mujahideen) want to create as much damage and attention to themselves as possible”. CIA/Mossad are masters at destruction, but the last thing they want is bringing attention to themselves. Motivation for the U.S. to take it’s war to Pakistan fits perfectly with these attacks. As a matter of fact, Barack Obama and Joe Biden already declared their intention to take the war to Pakistan and stated with certainty that Obama’s “mettle would be tested” by a major international “incident” in the near future. If the perpetrators want to draw attention to themselves, their method (i.e. killing civilians), simply does not make sense unless one buys the Bush regime’s religion-based simplism that they are simply “evil”. Militant’s fighting for causes such as independence or national sovereignty want least of all, international negative attention or popular hatred. The only thing missing from the corporate media explanation is George W. Bush’s idiotic claim that “the terrorists are jealous of our freedoms”. Using this the corporate media’s methodology, it is entirely reasonable and just as easy to implicate the CIA and Mossad.

Terrorism

We must also remember where the very term, “terrorism” was born in 1947 and who carried it out? – Israel. The term has been internationalised and popularised since then by the corporate media, rarely if ever pointing to its origins. Today, “terrorism” has become a household term, associated solely with Muslims throughout the world and it was developed into a basis for a war without end. The military assault on Mumbai is another a mini-9/11 in the sense that it provides a platform for juicing and expanding the “anti-terror” war under a new Obama administration which will no doubt be backed by other western governments.

Criminal Investigation

CNN tells us that the FBI has offered to help investigate the crime. The question is whether their interest is real investigation or damage control. If the FBI uses this time worn formula it could very easily end up evidence pointing to their own government. Were the FBI to “discover” CIA or Mossad involvement can any sane person expect they would reveal their findings to the public? Using “means, method and motivation” analysis, our “criminal investigation” leads to the CIA and Mossad as perpetrators of this event.

Les Blough, Editor

Axis of Logic

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_25924.shtml

Statement issued by David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, as printed in the Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 1967:

“The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological State is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs.

This lover of the Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for the world Zionism that it should now take immediate steps against Pakistan.

Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula are Hindus whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims, therefore, India is the most important base for us to work therefrom against Pakistan.

It is essential that we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans.”

 The Israeli Mossad False Flag Opperation Strikes In Mumbai

The Anti Defamation Leauge expressed outrage at the Mumbai ‘terrorist’ attacks that “targeted innocent victims because they were Jews.” Abraham Foxman, ADL Director, issued the following statement:

“This brutal attack once again shows that terrorists single out Jews. The attack is a reminder that the world must stand up against all terrorism, because in the end no one is safe until terrorism is combated in all its manifestations.”

Well of course Jews like Foxman use the Mumbai incident as an opportunity to promote the ‘war on terror.’ Once again, Muslims are made the ‘enemies’ of all mankind, rather than the Zionist Jews, who are engaged in ethnic cleansing of Arab Muslims & Christians in Palestine and responsible for world wide chaos since the inception of their rogue state of Israel. Also – the ‘terrorist’ attacks in Mumbai will be used by Zionist Jews as justification for a US invasion of Pakistan, yet another ‘enemy’ of Israel.

The Mumbai operation was too sophisticated for the alleged Deccan Mujahideen to carry out, which, according to the FBI, “e-mailed news organizations on Thursday claiming it had carried out the attacks.” (Great proof, you sleuths!)

The initial firing began at the Chabad/Nariman House, an easy access for Mossad operatives. Hindus of the Nariman area spoke live on several TV channels saying that for two years suspicious activities were taking place in the Chabad/Nariman House, raising concern regarding Israel’s involvement in the Hindutva Revolution, the current opposition government.

MOSSAD ACTIVITY IN INDIA

ISRAELI COUNTER-TERRORISM ASSISTANCE has mobilized since 2000 in the Jammu and Kashmir areas of India, where the Indian government has been pursuing a ‘security’ issue with regard to the Kashmiri people. In 2000, The Times Of India reported on the Israeli presence in India:

“Israeli counter-terrorism experts are now touring Jammu and Kashmir and several other states in India at the invitation of Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani to make an assessment of New Delhi’s security needs.

The Israeli team, headed by Eli Katzir of the Israel Counter-Terrorism Combat Unit, includes Israeli military intelligence officials and a senior police official.” View Entire Story Here.

The Israelis were asked to determine the areas in which Israel could offer assistance to help reduce the incidence of terrorist incursions into Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan. It was agreed that Israeli assistance would include “information transfers, instruction in operational methods, and the sale of equipment.”

Home Minister Advani already visited Israel in June 2000 and advocated for “closer India-Israeli cooperation on all security matters.” Much of his time in Israel was spent learning about counter-terrorism techniques from the heads of the Mossad. View Entire Story Here.

The Jewish-controlled media has been spewing the lie that a massive intelligence failure by Indian security agencies occurred — despite reports that Indian authorities had been aware of rumors of an impending attack, including even the mention of the Taj Mahal Hotel. 

http://www.daily.pk/world/asia/8383-the-israeli-mossad-false-flag-opperation-strikes-in-mumbai.html

Indian airstrikes if Pakistan does not act fast: McCain

• US senator says Washington will not be able to do much to stop India * McCain will ‘privately try’ to dissuade India

By Ejaz Haider

LAHORE: US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has said that there is enough evidence of the involvement of former Inter-Services Intelligence officers in the planning and execution of the Mumbai attack and if Pakistan does not act, and act fast, to arrest the involved people, India will be left with no option but to conduct aerial operations against select targets in Pakistan.

Senator McCain, who arrived in Pakistan Friday from New Delhi with Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), was talking to a select group of Pakistanis at an informal lunch in Lahore.

When Daily Times quizzed him on the issue of use of force he said that this is what he and the other Senators were told by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who, as Mr McCain put it, was visibly angry and reeling from the shock of the attack.

“The democratic government of India is under pressure and it will be a matter of days after they have given the evidence to Pakistan to use the option of force if Islamabad fails to act against the terrorists,” he said.

To a question about what the United States would do in the event that India carries out such a threat, Mr McCain said that Washington would not be able to do much even as “privately I will try to dissuade India from doing so”. “We were angry after 9/11. This is India’s 9/11. We cannot tell India not to act when that is what we did, asking the Taliban to hand over Osama Bin Laden to avoid a war and waging one when they refused to do so.”

He conceded the point that such an Indian attack could beget retaliation from Pakistan and that this is precisely the trajectory of actions and reactions that those who attacked Mumbai were hoping for but stressed that at this point, if Pakistan does not do anything to find and arrest the “bad guys”, India will have no option but to use force.

Senator McCain who left for Islamabad shortly after lunch said that he and the other Senators would meet the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, before proceeding to Kabul in the evening.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\127\story_7-12-2008_pg1_1

Rice tells Pakistan to act ‘or US will’

By Baqir Sajjad Syed 

The US Secretary of State, Dr Condoleezza Rice, is reported to have told Pakistan that there is ‘irrefutable evidence’ of involvement of elements in the country in the Mumbai attacks and that it needs to act urgently and effectively to avert a strong international response.

The information emerging after her departure indicates that in her meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani during her four-hour stay in Islamabad, she had told the them that Islamabad’s options were quite limited.

Contrary to the formal statements issued by Pakistani authorities and her own statement at the Chaklala Airbase before her departure, sources said she “pushed the Pakistani leaders to take care of perpetrators, otherwise the US will act”.

She is reported to have said that the response needed to be “effective and focused” and that India was thinking on similar lines.

Dr Rice had told the media at Chaklala that there had been no talk of military action and the discussions had focussed on ways of dealing with the problem of terrorism.

She hinted at having communicated to Pakistani leaders that the matter of dealing with the perpetrators was more urgent than they might have thought. She said: “There is urgency in getting to the bottom of it; there is urgency in bringing the perpetrators to justice; and there is urgency for using the information to disrupt and prevent further attacks.”

Sources privy to the meetings said Pakistan had expressed its readiness to work jointly with India in investigating the incident, but had wanted such a cooperation to be comprehensive and also addressed its own concerns.

However, Ms Rice was reportedly not ready to listen to Pakistan’s grievances about India’s interference in Balochistan, the role of Indian consulates along the Afghan border in promoting instability in Pakistan and other such issues. Instead, she told Pakistani leaders that she would like to discuss only the issue at hand.

Meanwhile, despite Dr Rice’s hopes that the two countries would keep their channels of communication open, the India-Pakistan Composite Dialogue has effectively been put on hold, making the peace process one of the major casualties of the Mumbai attacks.

“Proposed dates for the meetings of different segments of the composite dialogue were being finalised, but the entire process has now come to a halt,” a source in Foreign Office told Dawn.

Sources in the Indian High Commission have indicated that the peace talks would not resume until Pakistan fully addressed their concerns.

The trade talks have already been postponed.

Similarly, a meeting of the defence secretaries of the two countries expected to be held in January is unlikely to go ahead. A visit by a team from India’s Planning Commission has also been put off.

A meeting of technical experts on the Sir Creek was postponed earlier because of technical reasons and it is not being rescheduled.

The fifth round of the composite dialogue began in July this year with a meeting of foreign secretaries of both countries in New Delhi.

The composite dialogue was last suspended by India in July 2006 after another terrorist attack on Mumbai’s commuter trains.

Foreign Minister Qureshi had earlier said that the peace process was under stress because of the terrorist incident, but expressed the hope that the two countries would soon overcome the hiccup in their ties.

After a meeting with the Indian High Commissioner, MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar told DawnNews TV that the four-year-old peace process between Pakistan and India had suffered a major setback as a result of the Mumbai attacks.

http://www.dawn.com/2008/12/06/top14.htm

Whos is really behind MUMBAI, India terror…

 Update 4 :

The Mumbai based group alleged that Al-Qaeda is a front organization of CIA and MOSSAD. “There is enough evidence that the Al-Qaeda is a front organization of the CIA and MOSSAD. The Bush junta has used the bogey of terror and of Al Qaeda to justify his unending and ever expanding Global War on Terror, which is only a means of capturing the resources of the world and of establishing the sole hegemony of Israel in West Asia,” said the group of activists and intellectuals. The group is holding a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday to “expose the links between Al-Qaeda and the CIA-MOSSAD”.

 

Holding American-Israeli operation accomplices of the 9/11 attack on the WTC, the spokesman of the group said that this has been widely written about in USA and Europe itself and more than 50% of the American people and far more Europeans, now believe and are convinced about this fact. He said that sections of the Indian ruling political and military elite are importing the same Bush-Olmert formula into India. “The increasing terror attacks only serve the cause of the Indian elite and divide the masses along communal lines. It is only the ordinary Indians who are the victims of terror either in temples, mosques, buses or trains,” he said adding that practically no political leader suffers a similar fate, where the terrorists are apprehended and killed in “encounters”.

 

“Every terror attack is meant to push and drag the Indian masses further into the waiting arms of Uncle Sam and the Israeli Goliath. Every terror attack spreads further hatred for Muslims and Islam and weakens the Indian Muslim community,” he said.

 

 

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/17121.asp

 

 

 

 

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Crisis in UK or trouble in India ? The solution for Zion-west to always go total control of the economical world is to split China, India and Russia, that’s the plot, the solution is to rise up ethnical an religious hate every where, now it’s India…

The West want to split India in a civil war, the first steps was the “good”(or infiltration mossad of India) relatons with Israel, the second is the nuclear deal between USA and Inda (that’s what India think), but the plot in eyes of the financial crisis is more bigger.

On the one hand, it’s an international monetary-financial crisis, in which the collapse of the entire world international monetary system could be completed within a time as early as this year, and even sometime earlier in this year, because that’s the way human events are

The British monarchy is not the controlling force inside the British Empire. The controlling force is a slime-mold, called the Anglo-Dutch Liberal financial establishment.

They run the empire. They are not necessarily British citizens; they’re often Dutch, they are French, they’re Venetian, they’re New York bankers.

George Shultz, for example, the guy who sank the Roosevelt monetary system, is part of this. He’s a fascist.

So’s Rohatyn. Rohatyn’s a fascist. It’s not a term, it’s a species designation.

The issue has always been, in European civilization, in particular, that the tendency has been by oligarchs, to degrade the lower 80% or more of the family-income brackets of a population to virtual animals, by denying them access to the process of developing creativity and new discoveries.

A similar operation was run in Indonesia. There was a very effective liberation movement in Indonesia against the Dutch imperialism. The British backed that, with armed forces, a war that went on for some time, and created the mess which we suffer still today.

Similar things were done in the split-up of India, in the Pakistan-India split—and it was a horrible scene to see, the way it occurred. This was done, by the British.

Africa was given liberation, but not liberation: They were given the title to liberation, but no power to run their countries. Similar kind of thing.

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While discussing bomb blasts at different places in Maharashtra, Muslim leaders, writers and political analysts have repeatedly pointed fingers to Bajrang Dal and other Hindutva extremists who are working under the guidance of Israeli secret agency Mossad, now operating in Maharashtra. They also write that Maharashtra police and A.T.S. is trying to shield Hindutva extremists.Senior Muslim leader and Member of Parliament Ilyas Azmi, in an UNI news item published in the Sahara of September 14, alleged that everyone including Maharashtra police knows for certain that all the incidents that happened in Nanded, Mumbai, Malegaon and Nasik are being perpetrated under the guidance of Mossad. But, out of enmity with Islam, those who have seated Mossad in Mumbai and Worli will not crackdown on Mossad until and unless the country falls prey to slavery once again, he said.

In April this year two persons were killed when they were busy making bombs in the house of a Bajrang Dal office bearer. In the light of police investigations (now shelved) the people belonging to the same group were found in the bomb attack on a mosque in Parbhani in 2003 and blasts in Purna and Jalna in August 2004. Experts opine that the influence of Massad has been gaining roots in India now, he wrote.

In another edit-page article entitled After Nanded, Jalna, Parbhani and Mumbai, It is Now Malegaon: Who are the terrorists? in the Sahara (September 14) Farman Chaudhary opines that if ground realities are taken into consideration without any bias and prejudice then it is easily understandable that these blasts were perpetrated by only those who want to harm Muslims and can go to any extent to seek their goal.

In the house of Bajrang Dal activist in Nanded where a bomb went off on April 6 this year the police had seized the names, addresses, maps indicating location of those mosques, as well as Muslim clothing and fake beards. But under the mounting pressure of terrorist organisations like R.S.S. and Bajrang Dal the police did not pay attention to it.

www.indianmuslims.info/articles/special_reports/urdu_press_roundup/2006_september/

articles/muslim_mps_meet_maharashtra_cm_as_police_tries_to_wipe_out_p

Statement issued by David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, as printed in the Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 1967:

“The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological State is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs.

This lover of the Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for the world Zionism that it should now take immediate steps against Pakistan.

Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula are Hindus whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims, therefore, India is the most important base for us to work therefrom against Pakistan.

It is essential that we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans.”

“Iran and India could develop relations not only in the field of energy but also in new industries, mineral products and banking activities,” Indian Ambassador to Iran, Manbir Singh said Sunday . . .

www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=76360&sectionid=351020102

Syria: Time ripe for Russia military ties

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the conflict in the Caucuses underlines the need for Russia and Syria to expand military ties.

In an interview with Kommersant, President al-Assad said Damascus is prepared to ’speed up’ defense cooperation with Moscow.

“I think that everyone in Russia and in the world is now aware of Israel’s role and its military consultants in the Georgian crisis,” said President al-Assad, who will meet his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, on Thursday.

Such deals would irk Washington and Tel Aviv, which have long asked Moscow not to sell weapons to countries that share borders with the occupied territories.

Reports, however, indicate that Russia is eager to revive its defense ties with Syria following the South Ossetian conflict, in which Georgia used Israeli-supplied equipment.

An Israeli website reported that Moscow plans to deploy advanced missile systems – including the S-300 air-missile defense system as well as the nuclear-capable Iskander missiles – in Syria in the near future.

A Russian official was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying that a number of deals involving anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems are being prepared by Russia and Syria.

“Damascus is Moscow’s long-standing partner in military cooperation and we are expecting to reach an agreement in principle on new weapons deals,” said the source.

The official added that the Syrians are interested in acquiring Russia’s Pantsyr-S1 Air Defense Missile systems, BUK-M1 surface-to-air medium-range missile system, military aircraft, and other hardware.

Russia has condemned both Israel and the US for their role in arming the Georgian military with sophisticated weapons.

Israel claims it has not directly equipped or trained the Georgian military, and private Israeli firms – with the defense ministry’s approval- are responsible for such dealings.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=67094§ionid=351020206

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Assad says West ‘distorting facts’ in Georgia

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the conflict in the Caucuses underlines the need for Russia and Syria to expand military ties.

In an interview with Kommersant, President al-Assad said Damascus is prepared to ’speed up’ defense cooperation with Moscow.

“I think that everyone in Russia and in the world is now aware of Israel’s role and its military consultants in the Georgian crisis,” said President al-Assad, who will meet his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, on Thursday.

Such deals would irk Washington and Tel Aviv, which have long asked Moscow not to sell weapons to countries that share borders with the occupied territories.

Reports, however, indicate that Russia is eager to revive its defense ties with Syria following the South Ossetian conflict, in which Georgia used Israeli-supplied equipment.

An Israeli website reported that Moscow plans to deploy advanced missile systems – including the S-300 air-missile defense system as well as the nuclear-capable Iskander missiles – in Syria in the near future.

A Russian official was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying that a number of deals involving anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems are being prepared by Russia and Syria.

“Damascus is Moscow’s long-standing partner in military cooperation and we are expecting to reach an agreement in principle on new weapons deals,” said the source.

The official added that the Syrians are interested in acquiring Russia’s Pantsyr-S1 Air Defense Missile systems, BUK-M1 surface-to-air medium-range missile system, military aircraft, and other hardware.

Russia has condemned both Israel and the US for their role in arming the Georgian military with sophisticated weapons.

Israel claims it has not directly equipped or trained the Georgian military, and private Israeli firms – with the defense ministry’s approval- are responsible for such dealings.

 Presstv

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Russia says ready to supply Syria with defensive weapons

http://en.rian.ru/world/20080821/116199385.html

The Role of Israel in the Georgian War

Two airfields in southern Georgia had been earmarked for the use of Israeli military aircraft, intended to launch an attack on identified targets relating to Iranian atomic energy projects. This attack was approved by President Bush in an undertaking with the government of Israel signed in Washington, D.C., on July 4, 2006 it is now believed that the Russian special forces have captured, intact, a number of the Israeli drones and, far more important, their radio controlling equipment… , units of the Russian air force bombed the Israeli bases in central Georgia and in the area of the capital, Tbilisi. They also severely damaged the runways and service areas of the two Georgian airbases designed to launch Israeli sir force units in a sudden attack on Iran.

By this manner, Israel could claim that it had a very small number of IDF people in Georgia “mainly connected with our Embassy in Tiblisi.” The Russians, however, were not fooled by this and their own intelligence had pinpointed Israeli surveillance bases and when they went after the Georgians who invaded South Ossetia, units of the Russian air force bombed the Israeli bases in central Georgia and in the area of the capital, Tbilisi. They also severely damaged the runways and service areas of the two Georgian airbases designed to launch Israeli sir force units in a sudden attack on Iran.

Israel is currently a part of the Anglo-American military axis, which cooperates with the interests of the Western oil giants in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Israel is a partner in the Baku-Tblisi- Ceyhan pipeline which brings oil and gas to the Eastern Mediterranean. More than 20 percent of Israeli oil is imported from Azerbaijan, of which a large share transits through the BTC pipeline. Controlled by British Petroleum, the BTC pipeline has dramatically changed the geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Caucusus:

“[The BTC pipeline] considerably changes the status of the region’s countries and cements a new pro-West alliance. Having taken the pipeline to the Mediterranean, Washington has practically set up a new bloc with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Israel, ” (Komerzant, Moscow, 14 July 2006)

While the official reports state that the BTC pipeline will “channel oil to Western markets”, what is rarely acknowledged is that part of the oil from the Caspian sea would be directly channeled towards Israel, via Georgia. In this regard, an Israeli-Turkish pipeline project has also been envisaged which would link Ceyhan to the Israeli port of Ashkelon and from there through Israel’s main pipeline system, to the Red Sea.

The objective of Israel is not only to acquire Caspian sea oil for its own consumption needs but also to play a key role in re-exporting Caspian sea oil back to the Asian markets through the Red Sea port of Eilat. The strategic implications of this re-routing of Caspian sea oil are far-reaching

What has been planned, is to link the BTC pipeline to the Trans-Israel Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, also known as Israel’s Tipline, from Ceyhan to the Israeli port of Ashkelon.

The Isreali unmanned surveillance drones

The unmanned Israeli clandestine surveillance drones are a favorite of intelligence agencies world-wide. Their most popular drone is the Hermes 450 drone aircraft.

The Hermes 450 is a large, capable 450 kg spy drone manufactured by Elbit Systems of Israel. Able to stay airborne for a maximum of 20 hours, it has a 10.5 metre wingspan and is 6.1 metres long. It can carry a variety of different surveillance packages, including the CoMPASS (Compact Multi-Purpose Advanced Stabilised System), which is a combined laser marker and infrared scanner.

Elbit also offers Hermes with the AN/ZPQ-1 TESAR (Tactical Endurance Synthetic Aperture Radar) from Northrop Grumman of the US, a ground-sweeping radar which can detect objects as small as one foot in size and pick out those which are moving from those which aren’t. Radars of this type are essential for full bad weather capability, and help a lot with scanning large areas of terrain. Electro-optical scanners such as CoMPASS tend to offer a “drink-straw” view of only small areas in detail. The TESAR is the same radar used in the hugely successful “Predator” drone, in service for several years now with the US forces.

The U.S. Army has a drone trainng school located at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, an intelligence center located 10 miles from the Mexican border and the home of massive telephonic intelligence intercept units, aimed at Central and South America. At present there are 225 soldiers, reservists, and National Guardsmen training at this school. And on the faculty are three Israeli specialists. This unit is not destined for the middle east or even Pakistan; it has been set up to conduct surveillance of northern Mexico. There are two reasons for wanting to watch our southern neighbor. The first is to watch for great treks of illegal aliens but the second, and most important, is to conduct reconnaissance of territory over which American military units might be traversing in any punitive actions that could very, very well be triggered by the growing political instability in Mexico, caused by a growing struggle between the central government and the very powerful Mexican-based drug lords, who are wreaking havoc in that very corrupt country.

If a highly irate CIA employee, complaining of “excessive Israeli influence” in his agency, had not passed on files of information to the Russians late last year in Miami, in all probability, we would be reading about a stunning Israeli attack on Tehran. Now, the Iranian anti-aircraft missile batteries, supplied and manned by Russian “technicians,” have the probable coordinates of such an Israeli surprise attack, from the north, which would give the defenses of Tehran a vital heads-up.

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This is a tale of US expansion not Russian aggression

War in the Caucasus is as much the product of an American imperial drive as local conflicts. It’s likely to be a taste of things to come

The Guardian

A couple of hours to the west, in the town of Senaki, it’s the same picture. A flagship military base, home to the Second Infantry Brigade, is in Russian hands. And down on the Black Sea coast, the radars and installations for Georgia’s sole naval base at Poti have been scrupulously pinpointed by the Russians and destroyed.

Gori and Senaki are not ramshackle relics of the old Red Army of the type that litter the landscape of eastern Europe. “These bases have only recently been upgraded to NATO standard,” said Matthew Clements, Eurasia analyst at Jane’s Information Group. “They have been operationally targeted to seriously degrade the Georgian military.”

“There is a presence of our armed forces near Gori and Senaki. We make no secret of it,” said the general staff in Moscow. “They are there to defuse an enormous arsenal of weapons and military hardware which have been discovered in the vicinity of Gori and Senaki without any guard whatsoever.”

The “enormous arsenals” are American-made or American-supplied. American money, know-how, planning, and equipment built these bases as part of Washington’s drive to bring NATO membership to a small country that is Russia’s underbelly.

The American “train and equip” mission for the Georgian military is six years old. It has been destroyed in as many days. And with it, Georgia’s NATO ambitions. “There are a few countries that will say ‘told you so’” about the need to get Georgia into NATO,” said Andrew Wilson, Russia expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “But many more will want to walk away from the problem. And for the next few years, Georgia will be far too busy trying to pick itself up.”

If Georgia and NATO are the principal casualties of this week’s ruthless display of brute power by Vladimir Putin, the consequences are bigger still, the fallout immense, if uncertain. The regional and the global balance of power looks to have tilted, against the west and in favour of the rising or resurgent players of the east.

In a seminal speech in Munich last year, Putin confidently warned the west that he would not tolerate the age of American hyperpower. Seven years in office at the time and at the height of his powers, he delivered his most anti-western tirade

As the Russian officers sat on the American stockpiles of machine guns, ammunition, and equipment in Gori, they were savouring a highly unusual scenario. Not since the Afghan war had the Russians seized vast caches of US weaponry. “People are sick to the stomach in Washington,” said a former Pentagon official. And the Russians are giddy with success.

Celebrating the biggest victory in eight years of what might be termed Putinism, the dogged pursuit by whatever means to avenge a long period of Russian humiliation and to deploy his limited range of levers – oil, gas, or brute force – to make the world listen to Moscow, the Russian prime minister has redrawn the geopolitical map.

In less than a week, Putin has invaded another country, effectively partitioned Georgia in a lightning campaign, weakened his arch-enemy, President Mikheil Saakashvili, divided the west, and presented a fait accompli. The impact – locally, regionally, and globally – is huge.

“The war in Georgia has put the European order in question,” said Alexander Rahr, one of Germany’s leading Russia experts and a Putin biographer. “The times are past when you can punish Russia.”

That seems to be the view among leading European policymakers who have been scrambling all week to arrange and shore up a fragile ceasefire, risking charges of appeasing the Kremlin.

“Don’t ask us who’s good and who’s bad here,” said Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, after shuttling between Tbilisi and Moscow to try to halt the violence. “We shouldn’t make any moral judgments on this war. Stopping the war, that’s what we’re interested in.”

His boss, President Nicolas Sarkozy, went to the Kremlin to negotiate a ceasefire and parade as a peacemaker. Critics said he acted as Moscow’s messenger, noting Putin’s terms then taking them to Tbilisi to persuade Saakashvili to capitulate. Germany also refused to take sides while Italy warned against building an “anti-Moscow coalition”.

That contrasted with Gordon Brown’s and David Milliband’s talk of Russian “aggression” and Condoleezza Rice’s arrival in Tbilisi yesterday to rally “the free world behind a free Georgia”.

The effects of Putin’s coup are first felt locally and around Russia’s rim. “My view is that the Russians, and I would say principally prime minister Putin, is interested in reasserting Russia’s, not only Russia’s great power or superpower status, but in reasserting Russia’s traditional spheres of influence,” said Gates. “My guess is that everyone is going to be looking at Russia through a different set of lenses as we look ahead.”

In Kiev certainly. Ukraine’s pro-western prime minister, Viktor Yushchenko, Saaksahvili’s fellow colour-revolutionary, is chastened and wary. His firebrand anti-Russian prime minister, Yuliya Tymoshenko, has gone uncharacteristically quiet.

Invasion of the Ukraine?

“An invasion of Ukraine by ‘peacekeeping tanks’ is just a question of time,” wrote Aleksandr Sushko, director of Kiev’s Institute of Euro-Atlantic Cooperation. “Weimar Russia is completing its transformation into something else. If Russia wins this war, a new order will take shape in Europe which will have no place for Ukraine as a sovereign state.”

All around Russia’s rim, the former Soviet “captive states” are trembling. Even Belarus, the slavishly loyal “last dictatorship in Europe”, went strangely silent, taking days before the regime offered Moscow its support. “Everybody’s nervous,” said Wilson.

The EU states of the Baltic and Poland are drumming up support for Georgia, with the Polish president Lech Kaczynski declaring that Russia has revealed “its true face”. That divides the EU since the French and the Germans refuse to take sides and are scornful of east European “hysteria” towards Russia. Rahr in Berlin says the German and French governments are striving to keep the Poles and the Baltic states well away from any EU-led peace negotiations. It was the Germans and the French who, in April, blunted George Bush’s drive to get Georgia into NATO. They will also resist potential US moves to kick Russia out of the G8 or other international bodies.

There are many who argue that Putin’s gamble will backfire, that he has bitten off more than he can chew, that Russia remains weak, a “Saudi Arabia with trees” in the words of Robert Hunter, the former US ambassador to NATO.

Compared to the other rising powers of China, India or even Brazil – the companions referred to as the BRIC – Russia does indeed appear weak. Its economy struggles to develop goods or services, depends on raw material exports and on European consumption and the price of oil for its current wealth.

Resources

But Putin’s talent is for playing a weak hand well, maximising and concentrating his limited resources, and creating facts on the ground while the west dithers.

“There is a lack of a clear and unified European policy towards Russia,” said Clements. In the crucial contest over energy “the Russian strategy of keeping control of exports and supply is outpacing any European response”.

Putin may now calculate he can call off the dogs of war, having achieved his aims and able to pocket his gains very cheaply. The Georgia campaign becomes the triumphant climax of Putinism.

“In politics, it is very important to know one’s measure,” wrote Aleksey Arbatov, director of Moscow’s International Security Centre. “If Russia continues to inflict strikes on Georgian territory, on facilities, on population centres, we may lose the moral supremacy we have today.”

But Wilson and many in eastern Europe worry that rather than being the climax of Putinism, the Russians in Georgia signal the start of something else. “This may not be a culmination, but only step one,” said Wilson. “If you don’t stop this kind of behaviour, it escalates.”

Rice in Poland to sign defence deal

Kaczynski has said the signing is an important day in Poland’s history File.

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has arrived in Poland to sign a deal that will see a US missile defence base built on the soil of the former Soviet satellite.

Rice and Radek Sikorski, her Polish counterpart, are to sign the deal on Wednesday in Warsaw, the capital, in the presence of both the Polish president and prime minister.

But the plan has infuriated Russia, which says the Poles risk attack, if the deal goes ahead.

The deal to site 10 US interceptor missiles by 2011-2013 at a base 180km from Russia’s westernmost frontier has further strained Moscow’s ties with the West.

Russia is already at war with Georgia, a former Soviet republic backed by the US.

‘Important day’

Lech Kaczynski, Poland’s president, said on Wednesday that the signing ceremony would be “an important day in our history”.

The deal “strengthens Poland’s position in the world”, Kaczynski said in a televised address on Tuesday evening.

The country has in recent years joined the EU and is wishing to join Nato.

Philip Coyle, a senior adviser with the Centre for Defence Information in Washington DC, said the Bush administration has been trying for about 18 months to reach this deal, but the timing has turned out to be “most unfortunate from a Russian point of view”.

“The tragedy in all of this confrontation with Russia is that the system that’s proposed for Poland and the Czech Republic is a scarecrow,” he told Al Jazeera.

“It’s not something that Europe can rely on, it is not dependable. If Iran had missiles that could reach central Europe, which they don’t yet, this system couldn’t be relied on to defend against them anyway.”

‘Sword-rattling’

The “commotion and sword-rattling with Russia is for nothing”, Coyle said.

“Some of this may be just a threat, but Russia has shown in just the past week or so it has a formidable military force, so if I were Poland or the Czech Republic, I would be more worried about Russia than I would be about Iran or North Korea.”

The US says the missile defence system is aimed at protecting it and Europe from future attacks from states such as Iran.

It rejects Moscow’s insistence that it is a threat to Russia.

For Poles, it has a further dimension at a time when Russia’s actions in Georgia have generated alarm throughout Eastern Europe.

They see it as offering a form of protection beyond that of Nato in light of a resurgent Russia to the east.

The two countries spent a year and a half negotiating, and talks recently had stalled on Poland’s demands that the US bolster Polish security with Patriot missiles in exchange for hosting the missile defence base.

Washington agreed to do so last week, as Poland invoked the Georgia conflict to strengthen its case.

Short-range missiles

The Patriots are meant to protect Poland from short-range missiles from neighbours – such as Russia.

Kaczynski stressed that the missile defence shield was purely a defensive system and not a threat to any nation.

“For that reason, no one who has good intentions toward us and toward the Western world should be afraid of it,” he said.

Poles have been shaken by Russian threats against their nation in punishment for accepting the US site.

A day after Warsaw and Washington reached agreement on the deal last week, a leading Russian general made his country’s strongest warning to date against the system.

“Poland, by deploying the system is exposing itself to a strike – 100 per cent,” General Anatoly Nogovitsyn was reported as saying on Friday by the Interfax news agency.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/08/20088204579879999.html

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syria’s assad to visit Moscow

MOSCOW: Syrian President Bashar Assad plans to visit Russia on Wednesday at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

“On August 20-21, 2008, the president of the Syrian Arab Republic, Bashar Assad, will make a working visit to Russia at the invitation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,” the Kremlin said in a statement, providing no further details on the agenda for the visit.

It was announced as Russia faced mounting international pressure to pull its forces out of Georgia and as Moscow signaled it was in no rush to do so.

Assad visited Moscow in December 2006, when he said that, as an influential power in the Middle East, Syria was open to dialogue with the United States but would not take “instructions” from Washington.

Russia’s conflict with Georgia has also turned into a standoff between Moscow and Washington. The United States has strongly supported Georgia and also backs Syrian adversary Israel in the Middle East.

In remarks to soldiers near the conflict zone on Monday, Medvedev warned that no one should have any “illusion” about Russia’s determination to ensure security in the Caucasus region

Last year, Russian media reported that Moscow had delivered MiG-31 fighter planes and modern air-defense systems to Syria, angering Israel. – AFP

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=95203

‘Russia to deploy missiles in Syria’

Russia plans to deploy Iskander missiles in Syria:

Russia plans to place its advanced missile systems in Syria to counter US and Israeli interventions in South Ossetia, an Israeli website says.

DEBKAfile said in a report on its website that Moscow appears to be eying Poland, the Middle East, and possibly Ukraine, as the main arenas for its reprisals against Israel and the US for supplying arms to the Georgian army.

“The retaliatory plan includes the establishment of big Russian military, naval and air bases in Syria and the release of advanced weapons systems including, the S-300 air-missile defense system, and the nuclear-capable Iskander to Syria,” the report said on Tuesday.

It further said that Russia is arming warships, submarines and long-range bombers in the Baltic and Middle East with nuclear warheads.

Reacting to the report it said Israel’s army should revamp its anti-missile defense array and Air Force assault plans for the third time in two years.

The chairman of the Israeli Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee, Tzahi Hanegbi, slammed Ehud Olmert’s plan to cut military budget, claiming that the regime faces grave confrontations in the coming year.

Meanwhile, the official Syrian SANA news agency reported on Tuesday that President Bashar Assad pays a visit to Russia on Wednesday at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

Russia has condemned both Israel and the US for their alleged role in arming the Georgian army with sophisticated weapons and elite training to face Russian troops in South Ossetia.

MMS/PA

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Foreign ministers have concluded there can be “no business as usual” with Russia so long as Moscow keeps its forces in Georgia

Foreign ministers have concluded there can be “no business as usual” with Russia so long as Moscow keeps its forces in Georgia.

Nato made the statement following a meeting in Brussels to discuss the situation in Georgia, where Russia has been slow to honour a peace agreement brokered last week.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice called for a “neutral peacekeeping force in Georgia… because Russia is clearly party to this conflict.

“Russian peacekeepers>’Russian peacekeepers’ have engaged in wanton destruction and this has isolated Russia; the US has not isolated Russia.”

Meanwhile foreign secretary David Miliband said there was unity among his peers that Russia should abide by the ceasefire and said Britain would be supporting Georgia “starting on the road to Nato membership”.

“The use of force is not a basis to redraw the map of countries around Russia,” he added.

Russia was due to begin its pullout of troops in Georgia proper yesterday, but reports on the ground claim tanks and soldiers remain in place around South Ossetia.

Nato secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after today’s meeting in Brussels on the issue that there are no plans for the Nato-Russia council to meet while Russian forces continue to occupy a “large part” of Georgia.

“There can be no business as usual with Russia under the present circumstances,” he said.

“The future of our relations will depend on the concrete actions Russia will take to honour the words of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to abide by the peace plan – which is not happening at the moment.

“It is now in the hands of Russia to take action. Russia should adhere to the six-point plan and Russians should go back to their positions on August 6th.

“I should add we will certainly not have the intention to close all doors in our communication with Russia. The future will depend on concrete actions on the Russian side.”

While shunning cooperation with Russia on the one hand Nato has opted to strengthen its links with Georgia on the other. Most importantly, Mr de Hoop Scheffer said, a Nato-Georgia commission is being set up “which can be seen as the same kind of consultation mechanism we have with our other partner Ukraine”.

The alliance will also attempt to prop up Georgia’s ability to resist further attacks. The state of the Georgian armed forces will be assessed, Nato will help re-establish Georgia’s air traffic system and efforts will be made to help Tbilisi improve its cyberdefence capability.

And Nato’s special representative is being dispatched to Tbilisi, while 15 civil emergency planning experts are being sent to assist the Georgian government.

“Georgia is a sovereign country with a democratically elected government. At the moment that principle is not accepted by some,” Mr de Hoop Scheffer added.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said Nato would not allow Russia to achieve its “strategic objective” of undermining democracy in Georgia.

She said: “There was very strong language around the table of the need for Russia to honour the ceasefire commitment that its president has undertaken.

“It is time for the Russian president to keep his word – to withdraw Russian forces from Georgia back to the August 6th/7th status quo ante.”

Georgian shelling of the breakaway province earlier this month sparked a ten-day conflict that saw the Russian army advance on Tbilisi and both sides accuse the other of genocide.

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/international-affairs/nato-puts-freeze-on-russian-relations-$1237002.htm

U.S. presses Turkey to allow NATO forces’

deployment to Black Sea

The United States is expected to pile pressure on Turkey to deploy permanent NATO navy forces for patrol missions in the organization’s summit which would start in Brussels. Turkey is concerned that such move would open a debate on the 1936 Montreux Convention and eventually harm its sovereign rights on the straits.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan attended the meeting of 26 NATO foreign ministers that met in Brussels on Tuesday. The members are expected to reaffirm their support for Georgia and send a strong message to Russia without freezing out Moscow diplomatically.

Turkey has long opposed to the deployment of NATO navy forces on the Black Sea, saying the region is safe and the Blackseafor’s, which was formed by the contribution of the surrounding countries, patrol mission is sufficient.

Diplomatic sources, however, told hurriyet.com.tr that the clashes between Georgia and Russia had weakened Turkey’s thesis, prompting the U.S. to relaunch its bid for deployment of NATO forces on the Black Sea.

The deployment of NATO forces in the Black Sea would breach the Montreux Agreement, which limits the total weight of the warships that a country who does not have border with the Black Sea can deploy to 45,000 tons.

The Turkish Straits are considered as one of the most strategic waterways of the world and located within Turkey’s territorial waters. The Montreux Convention, reinstating its sovereignty over the strategic Turkish Straits, and regulating navigation through them, was signed in 1936.

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US left isolated over Nato plans to maintain relations with Russia

The United States has been left diplomatically isolated after European members of NATO moved to reject an American proposal to scale back ties with Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Georgia.

By Adrian Blomfield in Tbilisi

The Telegraph’s Group Foreign Editor explains that it’s not just Georgia who have been alarmed by Russia’s actions. ; http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1488655367/bctid1738801465

http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=1139053637

US diplomats attending an emergency NATO summit in Brussels had called on the alliance to suspend ministerial meetings with Russia, held twice a year, as a way of demonstrating the West’s disapproval of the war.

But other members of the alliance, including Britain, rejected the plan, saying that it would be foolish to isolate Russia. Instead diplomats released their strongly-worded statement, stopping short of concrete action, at least for now.

David Miliband, the foreign secretary, implicitly criticized Washington’s proposal to suspend the Nato-Russia council, established six-years ago to improve dialogue between Moscow and the West, as short-sighted.

“I am not one that believes that isolating Russia is the right answer to its misdemeanours,” he said. “I think the right answer is hard-headed dialogue.” A French diplomat, however, signaled that Nato was getting fed up with Russia’s failure to carry out repeated pledges to withdraw its troops from Georgian territory and warned that the time could come for a re-examination of the West’s ties with Moscow.

“We are at risk of entering, if there is not a very rapid evolution on the ground, into a relationship which will be of a different nature to what it was until now,” he said.

Russia, however, seemed unfazed by the mounting criticism. Its troops smashed their way into the Black Sea port of Poti, blockaded it and then took 22 Georgian servicemen prisoner.

Russian forces last week used explosives to sink Georgian naval ships and coastguard vessels in the port as part of what appears to be a plan to damage the country’s civilian and military infrastructure.

Russia has brought transport and the passage of goods, including oil bound for the West, to a halt by blowing up an important railway bridge, closing down the country’s main highway and attempting to bomb a crucial BP pipeline.

There was also little sign of a Russian military withdrawal from other towns in undisputed Georgian territory where, far from pulling out, troops have been digging trenches and building concrete barricades.

Russia yesterday warned that its withdrawal was being hampered by Georgia’s refusal to abide by the terms of a French-brokered ceasefire to pull back its own forces to positions held before the fighting erupted.

“Such actions seriously complicate the general situation and impede the withdrawal process,” Gen Anatoly Nogovitsyn said.

With Russia in control of much of the country, there has been little sign of Georgian forces attempting to return to the positions they fled after suffering a crushing victory on the battlefield.

Russian troops, on the other hand, have taken advantage of the truce to advance within 25 miles of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

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New world order’ seen as powers square off on Georgia

By Christopher Boian

Russia has signalled that it considers the rules of the international game as it has been played for the past generation are a thing of the past

WHEN Georgia attacked South Ossetia late the night of August 7, it was clear that something out of the ordinary was afoot.

But few could have guessed the events which transpired with breathtaking speed over the next week would ring alarm bells around the world and, according to analysts, instantly alter the international order for many years to come. Fundamental principles for developing relations with Russia and other countries once part of the Soviet Union, taken for granted in the West at least since the 1991 Soviet collapse, have abruptly been called into question.

At the same time, Russia has signalled that it considers the rules of the international game as it has been played for the past generation are a thing of the past, a thought that will give its ex-Soviet neighbours something to ponder. “The recent conflict will have dramatic repercussions for Russia and the international community as a whole for quite some time to come,” said Yevgeny Volk, a political analyst with the US-based Heritage Foundation think tank.

“It is the biggest geopolitical turning point since the 1991 Soviet collapse. It is a new stage in international relations, the end of any illusion about the peaceful nature of development in East-West relations,” he said. Numerous other experts agreed with this, saying that regardless of how the crisis is viewed looking back and how it plays out in the future a seminal event has now occurred that has already deeply impacted the global landscape.

“The status quo ante has gone forever,” James Nixey, manager of the Russia and Eurasia programme at the London-based research centre Chatham House, wrote in an essay as the crisis unfolded. “Whatever happens now in the Caucasus, relations between Russia and the West (and Russia’s West-leaning neighbours) must surely, from this moment on, be re-evaluated by all,” Nixey said.

In repelling Georgia’s bid to take control of the separatist province by force and then launching its own massive offensive into Georgia proper, Russia had a number of aims, several of which it has attained, experts said. These included the general aim of bolstering its weight in world affairs, the strategic aim of fortifying its presence in the Caucasus and the economic aim of stepping back into a vital oil and gas transport corridor.

“Russia’s reaction was a predetermined policy in search of an appropriate application,” Martha Brill Olcott, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said at a seminar last week in Washington. “The situation in South Ossetia proved a perfect storm for Moscow,” she said, according to a transcript of her remarks published by the Brookings Institution, another US policy research organisation.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is strongly supported by the United States and Washington has for years said it backs his objective of reasserting Georgian control over South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia. Sporadic violence between rebel fighters and Georgian troops in both areas had been a feature of life in Georgia since the two regions, both backed by Russia, de facto split from the country in the early 1990s.

But what surprised many about the fighting that erupted there last week was how quickly it rocketed into a major confrontation between Russia on one side and the United States and much of western Europe on the other. The long-term implications of that confrontation are only now beginning to dawn on policymakers around the world, analysts said.

“Russia had said for many years that it was ready to use force outside its borders” in defence of Russian citizens and interests, explained Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the foreign policy review Russia in Global Affairs. “But the fact of actually doing it changes the strategic situation,” he said, adding: “At the critical moment, it appeared the United States could not actually do anything” to help Georgia counter the Russian onslaught.

And this, analysts say, may further shake up the international system as Georgia, Ukraine and other ex-Soviet republics re-assess the balance in their own relations with Russia, the United States and the world. Countries like Ukraine and Georgia which have for years pursued resolutely pro-Western policies aimed at integration into NATO and the European Union may change course or demand protection the West has been reluctant to give. “It is a signal that those who decide to bank exclusively on the United States might want to think about this” and either diversify their relations more or extract more solid security guarantees, Lukyanov said. According to a report by the Russian television news network Vesti, one nation once under Moscow’s sway – Poland – managed to do the latter in short order.

Poland obtained US assent to “all conditions” it had been holding out for before agreeing to host elements of a new US missile system, Vesti said. Those included delivery of Patriot missile batteries and training in their use. Russia has for years lashed out at what it perceived as unchallenged US global hegemony, and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, whose country is a close US ally in NATO, said the time had come to change the system.

“A new world order, if I can say it, should emerge,” Gul told the British daily Guardian in an interview published Saturday. It is precisely such a realignment in the relationship among the powers of the world – a change that enhances Moscow’s authority vis-a-vis that of Washington – that is already in progress, according to experts. In two terms as president, Vladimir Putin concentrated on consolidating Russia’s post-Soviet existence as a state and exploiting the country’s vast natural resources to put it back on a more robust economic footing.

As that process took place, the Kremlin began increasingly to believe that, despite talking of partnership, US actions like blocking Russian WTO membership showed Washington was more interested in domination than co-operation. So as an actor in the world, Russia has been aware for years of its sinking relationship with the United States in particular and is less likely to be moved by US threats that its actions in Georgia will worsen them further.

“Frankly speaking, the Western alliance does not have strong leverage to counter” Russia’s actions in the Caucasus, Volk said. “I don’t see that Russia is winning the psychological-information war. But from a point of view of political and economic achievements, I believe Russia has the stronger hand now,” he said. Threats like excluding Russia from the G8, boycotting the 2014 winter Olympic Games in Sochi and others are “not very significant to contain Russia” or coerce it to get in line with the West’s demands, he added.

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