Un maire se félicite de la chasse aux migrants
En Hongrie, Laszlo Toroczkai est fier des milices privées arrêtant les réfugiés qui traversent sa commune pour rejoindre l’ouest de l’Europe.
*Pig-head propaganda: Hungary’s war on refugees*
“What crime did we commit for 40 police officers to surround us? It’s like they think we are terrorists or criminals,” 48-year old Khatoon, a Yazidi woman from Iraq who had several family members who were murdered or taken hostage by the jihadist group Isis, told me.
▻https://euobserver.com/opinion/134762
#porc #cochon #islamophobie
En #Bulgarie, cette milice secrète à l’accent russe qui #traque les migrants
La région à cheval entre la Bulgarie et la Turquie est une pièce maîtresse dans le dispositif de sécurité européen. C’est aussi ici qu’opèrent ces milices de volontaires qui font la chasse aux migrants. Reportage au sein de la plus importante – et la plus secrète – d’entre elles.
Il a fallu montrer patte blanche, argumenter, négocier chaque détail. L’#Union_Vassil_Levski - #BNO_Shipka, organisation paramilitaire et patriotique, n’aime pas les curieux. « Nous sommes les seuls et véritables gardiens de la frontière de l’Europe face à la menace islamiste », nous avait annoncé #Vladimir_Roussev à Varna, principale ville au nord de la mer Noire, où se trouve son QG. Plus connu sous le nom de guerre de « Walter », ce petit homme râblé à la moustache fournie, dirige d’une main de fer l’organisation regroupant essentiellement d’anciens officiers des forces de sécurité du pays et qui affiche, selon lui, pas moins de 800 membres. Lui-même ex-colonel de l’armée de terre, Vladimir a du mal à se défaire du jargon militaire lorsqu’il nous expose ses activités : il y est question de « front » et de « base arrière », de « logistique » et de « chaîne de commandement ». Nous comprenons que la véritable action ne se passe pas à Varna, mais beaucoup plus au sud.
« #Patrouilleurs volontaires »
Cap donc sur Bourgas à l’autre bout de la côte, où après plusieurs jours d’attente nous allons enfin recevoir le feu vert de « Walter » pour rejoindre ses miliciens déployés à la frontière turque. Les instructions arrivent la veille, codées : il y est question d’une « randonnée dans la nature ». Le rendez-vous est fixé à Marinka, petit village à la lisière de la Strandja, cette montagne sauvage à cheval entre la Bulgarie et la Turquie. De nouveau l’attente, puis le doute.
Ces redoutables « patrouilleurs volontaires » qui inondent la Toile de leurs exploits, existent-ils vraiment ? C’est alors que deux voitures, comme sorties de nulle part, nous prennent en sandwich. Un grand gaillard aux cheveux retenus par un catogan en surgit pour nous inviter à les suivre. Nous prenons la direction de Malko Tarnovo, le principal poste-frontière de la région, avant de bifurquer vers la mer, direction le village de Iasna Poliana, nommé d’après la dernière résidence du grand classique russe Tolstoï.
Le hameau, situé à quelque 30 km de la frontière, est connu pour servir de halte, ou de point de rassemblement, des migrants – ou du moins ceux qui ont réussi à échapper aux checkpoints mis en place par la police. La toponymie du lieu, renvoyant à l’auteur de Guerre et Paix, vient s’ajouter à un autre élément troublant : l’homme qui nous a adressé la parole avait indiscutablement l’accent russe, un accent reconnaissable parmi mille dans ce pays connu pour avoir été le plus fidèle allié de l’Union soviétique.
Equipement militaire
Nous quittons la route goudronnée pour nous engager sur une piste qui nous mène encore plus à l’intérieur des terres. Devant une cabane utilisée par les chasseurs, les deux véhicules déversent une demi-douzaine de jeunes avant de repartir. En quelques minutes, ces derniers tronquent leur jean, t-shirt et baskets contre un équipement militaire complet : treillis, bottes, gourde, sac à dos, radio. A cela s’ajoutent de longs couteaux accrochés à leur ceinture, une bombe lacrymogène et un pistolet à air comprimé. Et des cagoules, noires, qu’ils vont enfiler « pour des raisons de sécurité ».
« Nous ne portons rien d’illégal », précise l’homme à l’accent russe qui est à la fois leur instructeur et leur chef de groupe. Il nous présente les membres de la patrouille par leur nom de code : « Boxeur », « Coq », « Glissière de sécurité », « Ingénieur » et « Astika » (une marque de bière locale) pour la seule femme du groupe. Lui, c’est « Chamane ». Après avoir fait une série de pompes, les membres de la patrouille sont désormais prêts. Ils sont invités à ne pas se montrer « agressifs » envers les migrants mais sont autorisés à « agir selon les circonstances ». « Nous sommes en opération. Ceci n’est pas un entraînement », rappelle « Chamane ».
« Devenir quasi invisible »
Les cinq jeunes s’enfoncent dans la forêt, guidés par leur commandant. Ils longent des sentiers, grimpent des collines, enjambent des ravins sans quitter des yeux la forêt : des canettes de Red Bull, des boîtes de cigarettes, des conserves, des bouteilles d’eau ou encore un vêtement abandonné sont des indices qu’ils sont sur la bonne piste. Au passage, « Chamane » leur enseigne comment placer un poste d’observation, traverser à découvert, ramper et se fondre dans la nature. « Le but c’est de voir l’autre avant d’être vu. Devenir quasi invisible, pour avoir l’avantage sur l’ennemi », explique-t-il.
Vu l’absence de migrants à cette heure de la journée, le groupe va se faire la main sur des bergers, avant d’approcher au plus près une étable, toujours en « mode furtif ». Régulièrement, « Chamane » immobilise le groupe avant d’envoyer l’un de ses membres inspecter les environs pendant que les autres font le guet. « Je leur enseigne les techniques de base des Spetsnaz, les forces spéciales russes, en milieu hostile : renseignement, diversion, dissimulation », reconnaît-il.
En fait, dans cette patrouille tout est russe : la terminologie, les techniques utilisées et même les cartes – issues de l’état-major soviétique – parce que « celles de l’OTAN sont nulles », s’amuse le mystérieux commandant. Et lui, qui est-il ? D’une prudence de Sioux, le Russe livre très peu de détails sur lui-même : on comprendra qu’il est un vétéran du Caucase du Nord, qu’il a fait la deuxième guerre de Tchétchénie (1999-2000) et qu’il est bien officier, diplômé d’une école militaire. Il explique sa présence ici par ses origines bessarabes, cette ancienne région aujourd’hui partagée entre l’Ukraine et la Moldavie, foyer de nombreux bulgares ethniques qui ont bénéficié d’un « droit au retour » dans leur patrie historique. « La Russie n’a rien à voir dans cette histoire, pour le meilleur comme pour le pire d’ailleurs », tient-il à préciser. « C’est à nous, ici, de faire le boulot. Pratiquement à mains nues. »
« Effet de surprise »
On l’aura compris, pour « Chamane » et ses camarades l’ennemi ce sont bien les migrants. « Il s’agit à 90% des combattants étrangers, avec une hiérarchie et de réflexes de guerriers », croient-ils savoir en soulignant qu’ils ne croisent ici, dans cette région présentée comme une bifurcation de la fameuse « route balkanique », que des groupes de jeunes Afghans. Tous des hommes, avec dans leur sillage des Pakistanais, des Irakiens et, parfois, des Iraniens. Ils affirment en appréhender plusieurs par semaine, qu’ils remettent aux gardes-frontières. « On évalue d’abord la taille, puis la dangerosité du groupe avant de surgir du bois. Le plus souvent l’effet de surprise est tel que les intrus se laissent faire », poursuit « Chamane ».
« Nous ne sommes pas des chasseurs de migrants, mais des citoyens responsables ! », met en garde depuis Varna Vladimir Roussev. A Sofia, plusieurs voix se sont élevées contre les activités de son organisation, certains demandant au contre-espionnage bulgare d’enquêter sur la présence de ces instructeurs russes qu’ils ont comparé aux « petits hommes verts » de Vladimir Poutine, les commandos sans signes distinctifs envoyés en Ukraine. En juin dernier, le Comité Helsinki pour la défense des droits de l’homme a demandé au Parquet d’interdire les activités de l’organisation paramilitaire, jugées anticonstitutionnelles et dangereuses. « Ces idiots ne savent pas qu’ils sont, eux aussi, sur la liste des hommes à abattre des combattants de Daech [Etat islamique]. Juste après les notables juifs », dit encore « Walter » en insistant lourdement sur le dernier point. Là aussi, on l’aura compris.
▻https://www.letemps.ch/monde/bulgarie-cette-milice-secrete-laccent-russe-traque-migrants
#Bulgarie #milices #asile #migrations #réfugiés #anti-réfugiés #xénophobie #racisme
"Cacciatori di migranti" in Bulgaria, stasera il reportage del TG1 insieme all’Osservatorio
Ai confini esterni dell’Unione europea, alla frontiera tra Bulgaria e Turchia, gruppi di autoproclamanti “difensori dell’Europa” pattugliano i boschi alla ricerca di migranti che tentano di entrare nel paese, per poi proseguire lungo la “rotta balcanica” verso i paesi ricchi dell’UE.
▻http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/aree/Bulgaria/Cacciatori-di-migranti-in-Bulgaria-stasera-il-reportage-del-TG1-insi
Bulgaria, ronde anti-immigranti sul confine con la Turchia
Difendere Bulgaria ed UE dall’“invasione” dei migranti: in Bulgaria vari gruppi di auto-proclamati “patrioti” pattugliano il confine con la Turchia e il governo lascia fare
▻http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/Media/Multimedia/Bulgaria-ronde-anti-immigranti-sul-confine-con-la-Turchia
Existe aussi en anglais :
▻http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Media/Multimedia/Bulgaria-anti-immigrant-patrols-at-the-border-with-Turkey
Bulgarie : #Petar_Nizamov, le « chasseur de réfugiés », a été acquitté
Petar Nizamov, l’un des chefs des « milices anti-migrants », était assigné à résidence depuis la diffusion en avril 2016 d’une vidéo où on le voyait arrêter manu militari trois Afghans. La justice bulgare vient de le blanchir de toutes les accusations qui portaient contre lui.
Bulgarian Vigilantes Patrol Turkey Border to Keep Migrants Out
Figures in camouflage and ski masks gather at a fishing lodge. Many are armed with long knives, bayonets and hatchets.
The 35 men and women are on the hunt in Strandzha Massif, a forested mountain range on Bulgaria’s border with Turkey. Migrants trying to cross into Europe are their prey.
▻http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/bulgarian-vigilantes-patrol-turkey-border-keep-migrants-out-n723481
Ceux qui disent « halte » aux migrants
La frontière turco-bulgare, aux marches de l’Europe, est la nouvelle route utilisée par les passeurs de migrants. En Bulgarie, pour stopper cet afflux de clandestins, une unité de volontaires, encadrée par des vétérans de l’armée, s’organise pour faire le travail de la police.
Sofia est dépassé par l’ardeur des « chasseurs de migrants »
Après avoir encouragé à demi-mot l’aide fournie par des volontaires à la frontière turque, les autorités bulgares semblent vouloir sévir contre ces initiatives qui risquent de dégénérer
▻https://www.letemps.ch/monde/2016/04/14/sofia-depasse-ardeur-chasseurs-migrants
Des migrants ligotés et arrêtés par des habitants
Des civils ont arrêté des réfugiés dans une forêt à la frontière bulgaro-turque. Une action « illégale » rappellent les autorités.
▻http://www.lematin.ch/monde/Des-migrants-ligotes-et-arretes-par-des-habitants-/story/25672749
Bulgaria tries to restrain its vigilante “migrant hunters”
Rights groups demand that Bulgaria’s government bring illegal border-policing groups under control
Dutch #Pegida leader and expelled German deputy hunt migrants on Bulgaria border
The former frontwoman of Germany’s Pegida anti-Muslim movement and a leader of its Dutch offshoot have travelled to Bulgaria to hunt down migrants attempting to cross the border from Turkey, it has emerged.
Human rights experts: Unchecked atmosphere of anti-migrant discourse results in abuses
They call them “migrant hunters” or “citizen protection” organizations. They are volunteers, whose self-appointed job is to patrol Bulgaria’s border with Turkey, seeking out people trying to cross. - See more at: ►http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/MigrationXenophobiaRacisminBulgaria.aspx?platform=hootsuite#sthash.8B8AouOl.d
►http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/MigrationXenophobiaRacisminBulgaria.aspx?platform=hootsuite
#hongrie #asile #migrations #réfugiés #xénophobie
Al confine bulgaro-turco parte la caccia al migrante: “Qui non entra nessuno”
Gruppi autorganizzati si muovono nei boschi. Le tv li seguono e li esaltano come eroi
Bulgarian Vigilantes Patrol Turkey Border to Keep Migrants Out
Figures in camouflage and ski masks gather at a fishing lodge. Many are armed with long knives, bayonets and hatchets.
The 35 men and women are on the hunt in Strandzha Massif, a forested mountain range on Bulgaria’s border with Turkey. Migrants trying to cross into Europe are their prey.
Patches on their irregular uniforms — a coat of arms bearing a snarling wolf’s head framed by Cyrillic text — proclaim them to be members of the Bulgarian National Movement Shipka, abbreviated in Bulgarian as “BNO Shipka.”
Members of the paramilitary organization form into ranks as their leader, Vladimir Rusev, speaks. A former colonel who says he fought in Chechnya as a volunteer alongside Russians, Rusev declares his support for a man they admire: President Donald Trump.
“The CIA is trying to undermine Trump,” said Rusev, a compact 58-year-old with a neat mustache and short-cropped hair. “They want to destroy him. We offer our support to him.”
Trump’s hard-line stance on immigration and vocal criticism of Islam finds an appreciative audience here.
Most BNO Shipka members are friendly, courteous and open. The organization’s website projects a different message: slick videos replete with firearms and military training, and declarations that Europe must be defended against Islam.
Rusev claims they have as many as 50,000 members, although NBC News was unable to verify this number.
“I’m not nationalistic or anything like that. I’m just a patriot,” said Nikolai Ivanov, a 34-year-old who was one of the group’s founding members in 2014.
“Many of these immigrants are not just some guys who are trying to run away from war. They are from age 17 to 35, with good physiques and training,” Ivanov added. “It’s not a problem that they are Muslims. The problem is it’s a different civilization. They don’t think like us, they have a totally different view about life, about everything.”
While the group has been criticized by human rights advocates, it isn’t hard to find people who agree with Ivanov’s views in Bulgaria. The head of the country’s border police praised a nationalist volunteer group for intercepting migrants in April.
Rust Belt of the Balkans
Bulgaria occupies a place at the seams. Looking east, this Eastern Orthodox crossroads shares a traditional alliance with Russia. To the south is Turkey, once home to a Muslim empire that for centuries dominated the region. The European Union, with liberal values and a promise of wealth, lies to the west.
Since the end of the Cold War, Bulgaria has firmly embraced the West — joining NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007. But the rapid rise in living standards for its seven million citizens stalled during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. Now, average annual income remains the lowest in the EU, even when measured by purchasing power.
In the Soviet era, heavy industry and chemical production dominated the economy. Now, abandoned factories litter a landscape replete with decaying smokestacks and depopulated villages.
On top of this, Bulgaria has become a major overland route as Europe grapples with a migration crisis due to its borders with Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Romania.
According to Eurostat, 20,165 people applied for asylum in Bulgaria in 2015, the most recent year for which firm numbers were available. This was a fraction of the around 1.2 million who claimed asylum in the EU that year, more than three quarters of whom were from majority Muslim countries.
Although only a handful of Europe-bound migrants have settled in Bulgaria, concern about the newcomers resonates in a country that was dominated for centuries by the Ottoman Turks.
Ivanov believes the refugee crisis was part of a plan in which ISIS militants would slip into the country and attack. Then, neighboring Turkey would deploy troops to Bulgaria under the auspices of the NATO alliance, he said, effectively reclaiming a portion of the lost Ottoman Empire.
Conspiracy theories like this abound among BNO Shipka members, some of whom make a point of speaking Russian. Their affinity for Moscow is perhaps understandable in the context of Bulgaria’s unhappy history with its Muslim-majority neighbor. Shipka, after all, refers to a battle in which a Russo-Bulgarian force defeated the Ottoman Turks in 1877.
Bulgaria’s weak economy and status outside the borderless Schengen area means most migrants aim for Greece as a gateway to more prosperous countries further west.
So the “refugee situation here is not that serious,” said Krassimir Kanev, a founder of the human rights group Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. "Bulgaria is a transit country, the refugees want to move to [other] EU countries.”
However, Bulgaria “registered 31,281 new arrivals in 2015, which represents 89.3 percent of all land arrivals in the EU for the same year,” according to a report by Radoslav Stamenkov, the head of the Bulgaria office at the International Organization for Migration. The “migration shock” that began in 2013 created social tensions “in a country that had a very limited experience of receiving migrants,” Stamenkov wrote.
Kanev sees BNO Shipka and similar groups as xenophobic nationalists at best, or at worst, violent and racist extremists. In October 2015, an Afghan migrant was shot and killed when he tried to cross into Bulgaria. In November, protests by locals over rumors of disease forced the temporary closure of the country’s largest refugee camp and led to riots.
“There are ongoing criminal proceedings against a number of these groups,” Kanev said. Bulgarian vigilantes have detained migrants and tied them up, sometimes beating and humiliating them before forcing them back across the border, he added.
Asked for its position on vigilante groups, Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry did not respond.
Jokes and Cigarettes
Back in the forests of the Strandzha Massif, BNO Shipka is going out on patrol. In bitter cold and with snow on the ground, this isn’t the high season for refugees crossing from Turkey. Some still try.
After a series of short speeches by leaders, members gear up and head toward the border. But the presence of a large group of people in ski masks and military regalia dashing from cover to cover in view of the highway attracts the attention of local authorities.
Two border police officers, accompanied by several soldiers armed with assault rifles, drive up in four-by-fours and ask for an explanation. They seem less concerned than confused. Most BNO Shipka members wear Bulgarian military fatigues from their own service so the groups merge, trading jokes and cigarettes. Only the slung rifles indicate who is an active soldier and who is a vigilante.
The authorities seem unsure what to do, particularly with members of the media present.
A BNO Shipka squad leader informs journalists that police are letting them continue, but the training mission has been completed and the team will return to the fishing lodge. As the group marches back, police follow them having called in reinforcements.
No one is detained or questioned further, but police return the following day.
Undeterred, BNO Shipka members record a video message to Trump. They put on snow camouflage oversuits and sneak around police stationed at the road leading to the lodge.
Asked if he is afraid Bulgaria is losing its identity, founding member Ivanov nods. "If we don’t do something soon,” he said. “It’s not just Bulgaria, but all of Europe.”
BNO Shipka didn’t catch any migrants this time. Still, they intend to keep looking.
Coups Inside NATO : A Disturbing History – Consortiumnews
▻https://consortiumnews.com/2016/07/27/coups-inside-nato-a-disturbing-history
... the assumption that NATO has always before respected peaceful political change within its ranks is false. The historical record — which may fuel Turkish paranoia — suggests that anti-communist solidarity within the alliance has too often taken precedence over the fine democratic sentiments endorsed in NATO’s founding document.
Before this summer’s botched attempt, for example, Turkey previously experienced military coups in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997. Comforted by the staunch anti-communism of its military, U.S. officials rarely batted an eye when Turkish officers took charge. In some cases, Washington may have had foreknowledge of the plots.
The 1960 coup was engineered by Colonel Alparslan Türkes, reportedly a liaison officer to the #CIA and founder of a NATO-backed “counter-guerrilla” paramilitary organization.
After that coup, which led to mass purges of judges, prosecutors and universities, the New York Times called it “gratifyingly reassuring” that “the new rulers declare that they remain completely loyal to the United Nations and to both NATO and CENTO.”
Following the bloody 1980 coup, a story in the New York Times noted, “Officials in Turkish military circles privately suggested recently that the armed forces would not intervene unless they received prior approval from Washington.”
In this article, I examine two other military interventions within the democratic heart of NATO: the Greek military coup of 1967 and the attempted overthrow of the Italian government in 1970. Both cases offer disturbing evidence of U.S. support.
Dangerous Propaganda : Network Close To NATO Military Leader Fueled #Ukraine Conflict
▻http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/breedlove-network-sought-weapons-deliveries-for-ukraine-a-1104837.html
The newly leaked emails reveal a clandestine network of Western agitators around the NATO military chief, whose presence fueled the conflict in Ukraine. Many allies found in Breedlove’s alarmist public statements about alleged large Russian troop movements cause for concern early on. Earlier this year, the general was assuring the world that US European Command was “deterring Russia now and preparing to fight and win if necessary.”
The emails document for the first time the questionable sources from whom Breedlove was getting his information. He had exaggerated Russian activities in eastern Ukraine with the overt goal of delivering weapons to Kiev.
The general and his likeminded colleagues perceived US President Barack Obama, the commander-in-chief of all American forces, as well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel as obstacles. Obama and Merkel were being “politically naive & counter-productive” in their calls for de-escalation, according to Phillip Karber, a central figure in Breedlove’s network who was feeding information from Ukraine to the general.
#OTAN #va_t_en_guerre #falsifications #propagande_mensongère
The New Byzantine Alliance — The Kremlin And The Porte Revolutionize The Centre Of The Old World
▻http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/07/john-helmer-the-new-byzantine-alliance-will-russia-and-turkey-revol
On August 9, in St. Petersburg, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will meet Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The moment is revolutionary. There has not been a comparable political turning-point in the 67 years since the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); [...].
France’s brush with ISIS holds lessons for India
By M K Bhadrakumar – July 15, 2016
(...) Of course, ISIS is as much an explosive ideology as a terror network. And, sequestering human minds from ideas, especially young minds at impressionable age that are vulnerable to seductive ideas, is not entirely practical. What the state can do pre-emptively is to clean up the environment that surrounds the youth – political as well as socio-economic milieu.
In this context, the horrific terrorist strike in Nice, France, on Thursday will help us draw some useful conclusions. Clearly, France is in the crosshairs of extremist Islamist groups. Why so? Three reasons can be ascribed.
First and foremost, in the downstream of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington and the ensuing ‘war on terror’, the authorities in France began discriminating against the Muslim community in many subtle ways, while also claiming to be a secular country and a truly multicultural society.
France was probably not alone in the western world in taking such a dubious course borne out of Islamophobia, but it certainly took matters to an extreme degree – even restricting the use of ‘hijab’. Without doubt, something churned within the Muslim mind in reaction to this. Religion is a sacred turf in the inner world of man and he feels humiliated when the state and society violates or desecrates it.
Second, France rushed into the frontline of the US-led war against the ISIS with a gusto that is, simply put, incomprehensible – except, perhaps, in geopolitical terms. And for France, as for those countries that are waging the proxy war in Syria and Iraq today – US, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, etc. – a blowback became almost inevitable at some point, like night following the day. Some of the warrior-states are already experiencing it – Turkey and Saudi Arabia – while others are yet to face it so far. But, make no mistake, this proxy war is going to haunt all these warrior-states for a long time to come.
Being a multicultural society, France ought to have thought twice before declaring war on the ISIS – following the terror strikes in Paris. President Francois Hollande probably took that route as a matter of political expediency to salvage his sagging popularity among the French electorate and in a desperate attempt to ride the wave of nationalism sweeping over his country, but it was lacking in far-sighted statesmanship. With the tragic history in Algeria and the shameful experience in Libya recently (where France led the NATO intervention that ultimately resulted in chaos), Hollande should have been circumspect about France’s credentials to wage yet another war in the Muslim Middle East.
Finally, France is itself passing through a historic lurch to right-wing nationalism. It is within the realms of possibility that the noted nationalist leader Marine Le Pen may emerge as frontrunner in the presidential poll next year. Her vitriolic political campaign against ‘Islamification’ and her attacks on immigration from the Muslim world – “French citizenship should be either inherited or merited” – or, her famous trial in last October in Lyon on charges of inciting racial hatred (after her explosive remark comparing Muslims praying in the street to Nazi occupation) – these are painful memories for the Muslims in France to assimilate. (BBC)
In sum, there is profound alienation among the Muslims in France and the ISIS attracts followers in such a mileu.(...)
Upgrades At US Nuclear Bases In Europe Acknowledge Security Risk - Federation Of American Scientists
▻http://fas.org/blogs/security/2015/09/nuclear-insecurity
NATO in figures – ahead of the Warsaw summit - Think Tank
▻http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_ATA%282016%29586604
Via Philippe Perchoc à Bruxelles
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/9zxzt91lbggfukr/Capture%20d%E2%80%99%C3%A9cran%202016-07-06%20%C3%A0%2014.13.52.png?dl=0 
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/dpi94rnd5qf9pki/Capture%20d%E2%80%99%C3%A9cran%202016-07-06%20%C3%A0%2014.14.12.png?dl=0 
The end of the Cold War and the 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA changed the face of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The alliance has developed, with interventions both within and outside Europe (the Balkans, Afghanistan, the African Horn, and Sub-Saharan Africa). More recently, the alliance has increasingly organised exercises in Europe, in order to reassure its members in the face of military build-up to the East of its borders.
#otan #cartographie #eu
Hacked Emails Reveal NATO General Plotting Against Obama on Russia Policy
▻https://theintercept.com/2016/07/01/nato-general-emails
RETIRED U.S. AIR FORCE Gen. Philip Breedlove, until recently the supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe, plotted in private to overcome President Barack Obama’s reluctance to escalate military tensions with Russia over the war in Ukraine in 2014, according to apparently hacked emails from Breedlove’s Gmail account that were posted on a new website called DC Leaks.
Exclusive: Prominent GOP Neoconservative to Fundraise for Hillary Clinton | Foreign Policy
▻https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/23/exclusive-prominent-gop-neoconservative-to-fundraise-for-hillary-clin
A prominent neoconservative intellectual and early promoter of the Iraq War is headlining an official campaign fundraiser for Hillary Clinton next month, Foreign Policy has learned. The move signals a shift in the Clinton campaign’s willingness to associate with prominent Republicans and is the latest sign of how far some GOP defectors are willing to go to block a Donald Trump presidency.
#Robert_Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a co-founder of the Project for the New American Century, will speak at a Hillary for America fundraiser in Washington’s Logan Circle neighborhood on July 21. According to an invite obtained by FP, the “event will include an off-the-record conversation on America’s continued investment in NATO, key European allies and partners, and the EU.”
Lire absolument: The Slow Death of the Syria Cease-Fire Brings a Hybrid War With Russia Closer
▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/syria-cease-fire-russia_b_10510126.html
In brief, the cease-fire has failed. It was not observed. The U.S. made no real effort to separate the moderates from Nusra around Aleppo (as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has affirmed). Instead, the U.S. reportedly sought Nusra’s exemption from any Russian or Syrian attack. It reminds one of that old joke: “Oh Lord, preserve me from sin — but not just yet!” Or in other words, “preserve us from these dreadful jihadist terrorists, but not just yet, for Nusra is too useful a tool to lose.”
The cease-fire did not hasten any political solution, and Russia’s allies — Iran and Hezbollah — have already paid and will continue to pay a heavy price in terms of casualties for halting their momentum toward Aleppo. The opposition now has renewed vigor — and weapons.
It is hard to see the cease-fire holding value for Moscow much longer. The original Russian intention was to try to compel American cooperation, firstly in the war against jihadism and, more generally, to compel the U.S. and Europe to acknowledge that their own security interests intersect directly with those of Moscow and that this intersection plainly calls for partnership rather than confrontation.
The opposition now has renewed vigor — and weapons.
The present situation in Syria neither facilitates this bigger objective nor the secondary one of defeating radical jihadism. Rather, it has led to calls in Russia for a less conciliatory approach to the U.S. and for the Kremlin to acknowledge that far from preparing for partnership, NATO is gearing up for a hybrid war against Russia.
It is also hard to see the cease-fire holding any continuing value for Tehran either. While the Iran nuclear agreement seemed to hold out the promise of bringing Iran back into the global financial system, such expectations seem now to be withering on the vine. As a result, Iran is likely to feel released from self-imposed limitations of their engagement in Syria and in other parts of the Middle East. Damascus, meanwhile, only very reluctantly agreed to leave its citizens in Aleppo in some semi-frozen limbo. Iran and Hezbollah were equally dubious.
All this suggests renewed military escalation this summer. Russian President Vladimir Putin will probably not wish to act before the European summit at the end of June. And neither would he wish Russia to figure largely as an issue in the U.S. presidential election. Yet he cannot ignore the pressures from those within Russia who insist that America is planning a hybrid war for which Russia is unprepared.
Steinmeier nous informe : le roi est nu
▻http://www.dedefensa.org/article/steinmeier-nous-informe-le-roi-est-nu
Steinmeier nous informe : le roi est nu
Le ministre allemand des affaires étrangères a, dans une interview à Bild am Sundag, soit “mis les pieds dans le plat”, soit “jeté un pavé dans la mare”, – on choisira l’expression la plus appropriée, ou bien ce sera les deux en même temps, voire une troisième qu’on pourrait imaginer, comme “placer une bombe à retardement dont la mèche est déjà allumée” (hypothèse la plus optimiste, la plus joyeuse et la plus festive). Comme le résume ZeroHedge.com, près avoir consacré quelques paragraphes à l’incroyable narrative accompagnée d’exercices divers et de menaces sans fin que l’OTAN nous fait subir depuis au moins trois ans vis-à-vis de la Russie... « Et soudain tout s’est désintégré abruptement quand pas moins que le ministre des affaires étrangères de l’Allemagne... a martelé (...)
Un détail : dans la premier paragraphe, une traduction de l’article de ZeroHedge, où « Russia » est devenu « URSS ». L’enthousiasme sans doute :-))
L’Allemand Steinmeier critique l’attitude de l’Otan aux frontières russes
RFI | Publié le 19-06-2016 | Avec notre correspondant à Berlin, Pascal Thibaut
▻http://www.rfi.fr/europe/20160619-allemagne-steinmeier-otan-frontieres-russie-pologne-ukraine-minsk?ref=t
Dans une interview accordée au quotidien Bild Zeitung, le ministre des Affaires étrangères allemand Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) a critiqué ouvertement la politique de l’Otan qui a décidé d’augmenter sa présence militaire à proximité des frontières russes. Steinmeier se refuse à une politique qu’il juge trop unidimensionnelle et veut privilégier le dialogue politique et la diplomatie.
« Celui qui croit que plus de sécurité passe par des parades symboliques de chars se trompe. Nous devrions éviter d’envenimer la situation avec des cris guerriers et des bruits de bottes. » Le très mesuré Frank-Walter Steinmeier critique sur un ton des plus fermes la décision de l’Otan de déployer des forces de l’organisation militaire près des frontières russes. Ces quatre bataillons se veulent une réaction contre les agissements agressifs de Moscou, d’après l’Otan.
Ces derniers jours, l’organisation a effectué une manœuvre militaire de grande ampleur en Pologne avec 30 000 soldats de 24 pays. Une opération qui se voulait une réaction à une éventuelle agression russe.
« Il serait fatal de réduire notre politique à une dimension militaire et de considérer que la dissuasion militaire constitue notre seule option », ajoute le ministre allemand des Affaires étrangères dans son interview au quotidien Bild Zeitung.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier plaide depuis longtemps pour une politique du dialogue. Il avait ces dernières semaines proposé une réduction graduelle des sanctions contre la Russie en raison de l’annexion de la Crimée en cas de progrès dans l’application des accords de Minsk et non pas lorsqu’ils seront pleinement appliqués.
Diplomatie allemande à l’OTAN : au lieu de brandir des armes face à la Russie, préférez le dialogue
18 juin 2016, 07:49
▻https://francais.rt.com/international/22326-diplomatie-allemande-otan-dialogue-russie
(...) Depuis le début de l’année 2016, Frank-Walter Steinmeier souligne la nécessité d’entretenir de bonnes relations entre l’OTAN et la Russie. En mai, à l’issue de négociations avec son homologue russe Sergueï Lavrov, le chef de la diplomatie allemande a souligné qu’il faudrait rétablir les contacts car cela « serait conforme aux intérêts des deux parties ».
Pour autant, les responsables de l’OTAN restent sourds. Depuis plusieurs années, la Russie appelle à ne pas poursuivre le renforcement de l’alliance en Europe de l’Est, expliquant que de tels mouvements pouvaient déstabiliser la région sur le plan sécuritaire. Mais l’OTAN ne cesse de mener des exercices militaires près des frontières russes sous prétexte du renfoncement des pays d’Europe de l’Est face à "l’agression russe" ».
La prétendue agression russe serait illustrée par l’exemple de la Crimée, qui a fait sécession de l’Ukraine après le coup d’Etat de Kiev en 2014. La région, précédemment ukrainienne, avait voté en 2014 par référendum son rattachement à la Russie, ce qui avait été immédiatement qualifié par Kiev et ses alliés étrangers d’« annexion illégale » obtenue par la force militaire.
Moscou avait rejeté ce raisonnement, estimant que l’alliance profitait de la crise politique en Ukraine pour justifier son existence en jouant la carte habituelle de la menace russe.
Ce mois de juin, l’alliance atlantique a entamé deux séries de manœuvres dans l’Est de l’Europe. Saber Strike a débuté en Lettonie, en Lituanie et en Estonie le 27 mai et se poursuivra jusqu’au 22 juin. Au total, 13 Etats membres y prennent part.
En parallèle, l’OTAN mène les manœuvres BALTOPS, qui réunissent plus de 6 000 militaires de 15 pays membres de l’alliance ainsi que des soldats suédois et finlandais pour une période allant du 3 au 19 juin. D’après les déclarations de leurs organisateurs, ces exercices maritimes ont pour but de préparer la défense de la région balte à de potentielles menaces.
Steinmeiers beispielloser Akt der Illoyalität
Außenminister Frank-Walter Steinmeier attackiert offen die Nato. Er unterminiert eine westliche Strategie, die seine Regierung mitträgt. Sein Motiv für die Absetzbewegung: der Traum von Rot-Rot-Grün.
Von Richard Herzinger | 19.06.16
▻http://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/article156358027/Steinmeiers-beispielloser-Akt-der-Illoyalitaet.html
(...) Dass ein deutscher Außenminister nun aber sogar dem gesamten westlichen Verteidigungsbündnis in den Rücken fällt, indem er es wegen dringend nötiger Übungen, an denen auch die Bundeswehr teilnimmt, mit Kriegslüsternheit in Verbindung bringt, ist ein beispielloser Akt von Illoyalität.
Steinmeier übernimmt die Logik der Linken
Inhaltlich übernimmt Steinmeier damit die demagogische Logik der SED-Nachfolgepartei Die Linke. In Übereinstimmung mit der Kremlpropaganda werden deren Anführer nicht müde, bei den Spannungen zwischen Russland und dem Westen das Ursache-Wirkungs-Verhältnis auf den Kopf zu stellen. (...)
Vigilantes Patrol Parts of Europe Where Few Migrants Set Foot
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — The People’s Party-Our Slovakia, after months of stirring up fears about foreigners and Muslim migrants, decided to take action: This spring, the group’s leader proudly stood in front of the main railway station in #Zvolen, Slovakia, and announced that a new group of volunteers would begin patrolling passenger trains to keep the “decent citizens” of Slovakia safe from criminals and minorities.
v. aussi pour la #Bulgarie et la #Hongrie : ▻http://seen.li/a96r
cc @tintin
Anti-migrant militias spring up in central Europe
Czech and Slovenian authorities have voiced alarm over the emergence of armed anti-migrant militias in the two central European countries.
The concerns come after revelations of a paramilitary base, with tanks and armoured personnel carriers, used by a biker gang with Kremlin ties in Slovakia.
The Czech intelligence service, the BIS, voiced its worries about a group that calls itself the National Home Guard in a classified report seen by Czech daily Mlada Fronta Dnes.
“Parts of this group have begun to adopt the concept of armed groups. Due to the fact that some of the members are strongly xenophobic, racist, and completely reject the orientations of Czech internal and foreign policy, they could pose a significant [security] risk,” the BIS report said.
The home guard groups, which have up to 2,500 members in 90 national branches, patrol the streets of some small Czech towns, such as Nymburk, 50km west of Prague, looking for irregular migrants.
They appear to have links with local police and have political support from National Democracy, a fringe far-right party.
They also have ideological leaders, such as David Buchtel, a Czech academic and National Democracy member, who publishes leaflets saying that Nato plans to “occupy” the Czech Republic and force it to take in migrants.
The Czech foreign ministry has said the groups pose a risk of violent protests, such as the recent anti-migrant riots in the town of Chemnitz, Germany.
PRESENTED BY CECE
Andor Sandor, the former chief of Czech military intelligence, the VZ, told Radio Prague, that even if it does not come to that, their day-to-day activities pose a threat to the Czech political landscape.
“This could stem from the view, that the European Union is not able to manage the migration crisis. People who believe that neither the state nor Europe can manage this [crisis], will take matters into their own hands to protect their families and their property,” he said.
The Czech worries surfaced a few days after a social media stunt by Andrej Sisko, a far-right politician, which caused alarm in Slovenia.
Sisko posted a Facebook video of himself with a group of some 70 masked men armed with machine guns in the Slovenian countryside.
The group, called the Stajerska Guard, was filmed taking an oath to secure public order in the country. It numbers several hundred people in total, the Reuters news agency said.
“We are doing nothing wrong and we would be even interested in co-operating with the police,” Sisko said, in an echo of the Czech home guard’s modus operandi.
His political party, the anti-migrant United Slovenia Movement, has also vowed to protect the county’s ethnic identity.
Borut Pahor, the Slovenian president, said: “Slovenia is a safe country in which no unauthorised person needs or is allowed to ... illegally care for the security of the country and its borders”.
The creation of the Stajerska Guard was “absolutely unacceptable” and it “needlessly stirs up fear and spreads hatred”, outgoing Slovenian prime minister Miro Cerar said.
Earlier in July, Slovakia was also put an alert when journalists filmed a paramilitary compound in Dolna Krupa, a town some 50km north of Bratislava.
The base, a former pig farm, is used by the Night Wolves, a biker gang and by two far-right militias called the Slovak Levies and NV Europa, the BBC reported at the time.
It contained a shooting range and tanks and armoured personnel carriers that had been supplied by a military vehicle museum.
The revelations were “disturbing” and the groups’ influence was “harmful, especially in spreading their opinions that strive to rewrite history”, a Slovak foreign ministry spokesman said.
The Night Wolves gang has well known links to the Kremlin.
The other paramilitary groups and their political supporters also repeat Russian propaganda lines on migrants and EU failures, but neither the Czech or Slovene authorities spoke of Russian involvement in their activities.
The notion of a ’migrant invasion’ in central Europe is not borne out by facts.
The Czech Republic took in 12 migrants from Greece and Italy under an EU scheme and granted asylum to just 145 people last year.
Slovenia granted asylum to 152 people last year.
Slovakia has boycotted the EU scheme, along with Hungary and Poland, and had juts 56 applications for asylum as of June this year.
But the Czech intelligence assessment that the home guard group “completely [rejected] the orientations of Czech internal and foreign policy,” was also open to question.
Czech prime minister Andrej Babis has vowed to join an anti-migrant political axis in Europe alongside Hungary and Italy’s far-right leaders.
Meanwhile, anti-migrant rhetoric by leading politicians has become a mainstay in Slovakia and Slovenia, where the far-right Slovenian Democratic Party became the biggest one in June elections, but failed to find coalition partners to form a government.
Russia: We will respond to entry of U.S. naval vessel into Black Sea | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-usa-ship-idUSKCN0YW0PP
The Russian Foreign ministry said Moscow would respond to a U.S. naval ship’s entry into the Black Sea with unspecified measures, saying it and other deployments were designed to ratchet up tensions ahead of a NATO summit, the RIA news agency reported.
Russian state media reported that the USS Porter, a U.S. naval destroyer, entered the Black Sea a few days ago on a routine deployment, a move it said raised hackles in Moscow because it had recently been fitted with a new missile system.
U.S. Navy officials told reporters on Wednesday the U.S. military would also have two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean this month ahead of a July NATO summit in Warsaw as Washington sought to balance Russian military activities.
Il faudrait d’abord enlever la rouille… et le convoyer de la Caspienne (il y a une liaison fluviale)
Non, je verrais plutôt des passages rapprochés comme en a subi son grand frère de la même classe, l’ USS Donald Cook, d’abord en cette même Mer Noire le 12 avril 2014, ►http://seenthis.net/messages/247442 puis en Baltique, le 13 avril 2016 ►http://seenthis.net/messages/479796 …
Ça permettra de tester les nouveaux équipements anti-aériens à courte distance RIM-116 qui remplace les vieux Phalanx (canons rapides automatiques). Ce sera intéressant, puisque en version de base, les RIM-116 n’ont pas de système de détection autonome mais dépendent d’un système extérieur.
Ce qui fait que l’affaire est très certainement une suite de l’incident de 2014, puisqu’il se murmurait à l’époque, que les super-systèmes (Aegis) du Donald Cook n’avaient absolument rien vu, ayant été aveuglés par les contre-mesures russes.
À suivre, donc…
Alors la tactique n’a pas changé depuis les années 1960 quand les Migs survolaient Berlin à basse altitude à mach > 1 ...
#boum
Mobilize European workers to defend French strikers! - World Socialist Web Site
▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/05/26/pers-m26.html
The repression bearing down on workers in France is a warning to the international working class. The basic answer of the ruling elite in France and internationally to the growth of social tensions and working class resistance is to move rapidly toward dictatorship.
It is clear that the state of emergency introduced in France and Belgium shortly after the Paris terror attacks last year was aimed not at Islamist terror networks, which in any case serve as instruments of NATO foreign policy in Syria, but at domestic opposition centered in the working class. The PS is using the emergency powers to smash occupations and assault peaceful demonstrators, threatening them with long prison terms.
The events in France demonstrate how the working class is left with no option but to take the revolutionary road, fighting to bring down pro-austerity governments in France and across Europe. As struggles spread, France and all of Europe are entering into a pre-revolutionary situation.
The indispensable ally of the French, Belgian and Greek workers in this struggle is the European and international working class. It is a basic political task facing workers internationally to support and defend their class brothers and sisters in France against persecution by the PS government.
French workers can make a powerful appeal to workers across Europe, who are carefully following the struggles in France, Belgium and Greece.
NATO agrees bigger Mediterranean mission to stop smugglers | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-foreign-libya-idUSKCN0YA1RO
NATO agreed on Thursday to broaden its operations in the Mediterranean to help the European Union stop criminals trafficking refugees from North Africa but will not act until the fate of rescued migrants is cleared up.
Pentagon Turns to #Silicon_Valley for Edge in Artificial Intelligence
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/technology/artificial-intelligence-as-the-pentagons-latest-weapon.html
On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter made his fourth trip to the tech industry’s heartland since being named to his post last year. Before that, it had been 20 years since a defense secretary had visited the area, he noted in a speech at a Defense Department research facility near Google’s headquarters.
The Pentagon is building a ‘self-aware’ killer robot army fueled by social media — INSURGE intelligence — Medium
▻https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/the-pentagon-is-building-a-self-aware-killer-robot-army-fueled-by-social-med
Official US defence and NATO documents confirm that autonomous weapon systems will kill targets, including civilians, based on tweets, blogs and Instagram
Le document référencé dans le commentaire de @fil
Human Systems Roadmap Review
▻http://www.defenseinnovationmarketplace.mil/resources/NDIA_Human_Systems_Conference_2016_HSCOI_DistroA_FINAL
un point de vue post-humain et très pro-américain mais défendant l’interdiction des #robots_tueurs (pas compris la logique)
▻http://singularityhub.com/2016/10/06/now-is-the-time-to-ban-terminator-like-robots
U.S. launches long-awaited missile defense shield - CNNPolitics.com
▻http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/11/politics/nato-missile-defense-romania-poland
The U.S. launched a new ground-based missile defense system in Romania Thursday, sparking fresh tensions with Russia, which quickly blasted the system as a threat to its security.
The system, to be operated by NATO, is getting up and running nearly a decade after the U.S. first announced plans to do so, only to encounter pushback from Russia. The U.S. has long insisted that the shield is directed against rogue states like Iran and not intended to target Moscow’s missiles, but Russian officials have slammed the move as an “attempt to destroy the strategic balance” in Europe.
“The United States’ Aegis ashore system is declared certified for operations,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday at the ceremony launching the system.
“Missile defense is for defense,” he added. “It does not undermine or weaken Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrent.”
Russia has described the U.S. anti-missile shield in Europe as a “threat” and says it is taking “protective measures” to guard against it, the country’s state news agency TASS reported.
President Barack Obama scrapped the George W. Bush administration’s planned bilateral deployment of a different system to Poland and the Czech Republic and has instead pursued a NATO-centric approach using alternate technology.
The system is to be turned over to NATO command and will be housed at a U.S. naval support facility in Deveselu, Romania, the site of a Romanian military base. Construction will begin on an additional anti-missile platform in Poland on Friday.
The Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System unveiled Thursday is capable of firing SM-3 defensive missiles that can “defeat incoming short and medium range enemy missiles,” according to Lt. Shawn Eklund, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy.
Eklund told CNN that the facility will be manned by approximately 130 U.S. sailors. The inaugural ceremony for the new system will be attended by top U.S. and NATO military officials.
The Romania installation is the first land-based defensive missile launcher in Europe and will join other elements of the NATO defensive shield, including a command-and-control center at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, a radar installation in Turkey and four ships capable of identifying enemy missiles and firing their own SM-3s based in Rota, Spain.
The U.S. and NATO have continually stressed that the system is intended to defend Europe from Iran and its expanding arsenal. Tehran has continued to test-fire ballistic missiles following the internationally negotiated deal to limit its nuclear program.
But Russia has dismissed the justification.
“From the very outset we kept saying that in the opinion of our experts the deployment of an anti-missile defense poses a threat to Russia,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Tass News Agency. “The question is not whether measures will be taken or not; measures are being taken to maintain Russia’s security at the necessary level.”
Russia believes the missile defense system breaches a 1987 agreement it signed with the U.S.
In October, at a meeting of the meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Russia, Russian President Vladimir accused the U.S. of “lying” about a “hypothetical Iranian threat, which never existed” and called the system “an attempt to destroy the strategic balance.”
At a Wednesday press conference in Romania, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Frank Rose pushed back on Putin’s perspective.
“Russia has repeatedly raised concerns that U.S. and NATO missile defenses are directed against Russia and represent a threat to its strategic nuclear deterrent,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
He added that the “U.S. and NATO missile defense systems are directed against ballistic missile threats outside the Euro-Atlantic area. NATO and the United States have explained this to Russia many times over the years.”
Heather Conley, the director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told CNN that Russia has previously suggested that it could retaliate for the missile defense system by stationing S-300 surface-to-air missile systems in Crimea and Kaliningrad, its European enclave located between Poland and Lithuania.
[…]
But she added, “Despite an incredible amount of consultations with Russia, the Russians never bought the argument that the system was not directed at them.”
Les Américains construisent la partie polonaise de leur bouclier antimissile, Poutine proteste - L’Obs
▻http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/topnews/20160513.AFP5105/des-mesures-en-russie-pour-faire-face-au-bouclier-antimissile-a
Washington et Varsovie ont lancé vendredi la construction d’une base faisant partie du système antimissile américain en Europe, s’attirant immédiatement une mise en garde du président russe Vladimir Poutine.
Tant le secrétaire adjoint à la Défense américain Bob Work que le ministre polonais de la Défense Antoni Macierewicz ont affirmé à Redzikowo près de Slupsk dans le nord de la Pologne que leur base, similaire à celle de Deveselu en Roumanie, devenue officiellement opérationnelle jeudi, aurait un rôle purement défensif, devant servir à intercepter des missiles balistiques pouvant venir du Proche-Orient et surtout d’Iran.
Rapprochement des renseignements militaires franco américains 12 Mai 2016 (afp/nxp)
Comme prévu après les attentats de Paris, les services américains et français travaillent à une meilleure communication.
Les responsables du renseignement militaire français et américains se sont réunis mercredi à Washington pour accélérer les échanges de renseignement entre les deux pays, dans le droit-fil des décisions prises après les attentats de Paris, a indiqué le Pentagone.
Le général Christophe Gomart, chef du renseignement militaire français, a rencontré Marcel Lettre, le sous-secrétaire américain chargé au Pentagone du renseignement militaire, a indiqué un porte-parole du département de la défense américain.
Il s’agit de la première réunion au sommet du « comité Lafayette », mis en oeuvre après les attentats de Paris en novembre 2015 pour fluidifier les échanges de renseignement militaire entre la France et les Etats-Unis, selon cette source.
Les forces armées américaines et françaises ont atteint un niveau de coopération inédit dans la guerre contre les réseaux extrémistes islamistes en Afrique occidentale ou au Moyen-Orient.
Freins
Mais les difficultés de partage d’informations sensibles freinent parfois leur collaboration.
Des militaires français déployés au Centcom, le commandement des forces américaines au Moyen-Orient, se sont ainsi retrouvés l’année dernière exclus de réunions de planification de la campagne contre le groupe Etat islamique (EI), faute d’avoir le droit d’accéder à certaines informations classifiées.
Les Français espèrent pouvoir mettre en place avec les Américains un partage de renseignement comparable à celui dont bénéficient les Britanniques, les Canadiens, les Australiens et les Néo-Zélandais dans le cadre de l’alliance dite des « Five Eyes ».
Accès
De leur côté, les Américains ont promis de faire un effort pour améliorer l’accès des Français à leurs renseignements.
« Nous voulons avoir » avec la France « le même niveau de partenariat approfondi » qu’avec les Five Eyes, mais d’une manière « parallèle et unique », a estimé un haut responsable américain de la défense interrogé par l’AFP.
Les responsables américains ont souvent des commentaires appréciateurs pour les services de renseignement français, louant en particulier leurs compétences sur l’Afrique du Nord.
Les 17 agences de renseignement américaines, dont la CIA, la NSA, la DIA (renseignement militaire)... comptent plus de 100’000 employés, selon les services du coordonnateur du renseignement James Clapper. Les agences de renseignement françaises (DGSE, DGSI, DRM) comptent pour leur part plus de 12’000 employés.
Source : ▻http://www.lematin.ch/monde/rapprochement-renseignements-militaires/story/18181337
#CIA #NSA #DIA #DGSE #DGSI #DRM #OTAN #NATO #Comité_Lafayette
The Calm Before The Global Storm
▻http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/03/the-calm-before-the-coming-global-storm
No wonder Noam Chomsky has noted that support for formal democracy in the West is dwindling, because they are not real democracies. All major decisions affecting the EU are taken by unelected eurocrats in Brussels. In a groundbreaking book published in Spain, Mercado-Estado-Carcel en la Democracia Neoliberal Espanola (Anthropos), Daniel Jimenez, doctor in Juridical Sociology at the University of Zaragoza, details how the new institutional local order is about de-democratization, denationalization and dependency; NATO, IMF, World Bank, the Paris club, BCE, the European Commission, the Fed, they are part of a global web of institutions, private but self-described as public or public but managed by private interests (such as the Fed). Michael Hudson, among others, has detailed how the EU never developed sustained mechanisms of transfer of capital from the wealthier economies towards poorer members.
NATO Ratchets Up Missile Defense Despite Russian Criticism - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/world/europe/nato-russia-poland.html
NATO’s European missile defense system goes live on Thursday when a base in Romania becomes operational. The next day, Poland is scheduled to break ground on its NATO missile-defense base.
The decision by the United States and its allies in Eastern Europe to proceed with ballistic missile defense in the face of increasingly loud Russian criticism is an important stage in the alliance’s new stance toward Moscow.
Those deployments will be coupled this spring with major military exercises in Poland and the Baltics, with significant American participation and a beefed-up rapid reaction force of up to 5,000 troops.
Altogether, said Derek Chollet, a former United States assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, “There will be a quite robust display of military power in Europe and allied resolve, and hopefully Moscow will see it for what it is, an alliance improving its capabilities.”
[…]
Talk of “strategic partnership” is gone; instead, there are calls to abandon the NATO-Russia Founding Act of 1997, which spoke of shared values and a commitment to peace. There is less emphasis on finding “common ground” with Russia than on setting clear limits.
The intention in Warsaw is to move from “reassurance” of eastern NATO allies to “deterrence” of Russia. That means more troops and equipment, longer deployments, bigger exercises and a “persistent” presence of NATO and American troops in countries like Poland and the Baltics.
[…]
How will Russia react? President Vladimir V. Putin views NATO as encircling Russia to limit its influence. Moscow argues that the only possible target of NATO’s missile defenses is Russia, now that Iran has agreed to limit its nuclear program.
Bye bye #Breedlove !
SHAPE | U.S. Army General Scaparrotti - 18th #SACEUR
▻https://www.shape.nato.int/2016/us-army-general-scaparrotti-18th-saceur
NATO’s 18th Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, assumes command of Allied Command Operations (ACO) from General Philip M. Breedlove at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) today.
Military members and civilians from across the 28-nations attended the ceremony, highlighting the continuing unity and solidarity of the military alliance at SHAPE, which celebrated its 65th anniversary in April.
Hello #Scaparrotti !
SHAPE | Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR)
▻https://www.shape.nato.int/saceur-2
General Curtis M. Scaparrotti is a native of Logan, Ohio, graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, in 1978 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
A career infantry officer, General Scaparrotti most recently served as Commander, United States Command / Combined Forces Command / United States Forces Korea. Before that he was the Director Joint Staff. Prior to his tour with the Joint Staff, General Scaparrotti served as Commander, International Security Assistance Force Joint Command and Deputy Commander, U.S. Forces – Afghanistan the Commanding General of I Corps and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and the Commanding General of the 82nd Airborne Division.
Highlights of the ceremony included a flyover of four F-16s from the Belgian Air Force in honour of General Breedlove, who is also an F-16 pilot. At the end of the ceremony, eight paratroopers from Allied nations, including the Vice Chief of Staff, French Lieutenant General Michel Yakovleff, landed on the parade field. Each paratrooper carried a flag representing a different aspect of NATO: the host nation of Belgium, NATO, ACO, and Allied Command Transformation (ACT), France in honour of French General Denis Mercier, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, the European Union, NATO Special Operations Headquarters, and the United States of America in honour of Generals Breedlove and Scaparrotti.
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To view photos from the change of command ceremony, please visit the SHAPE Flickr Change of Command Album.
L’accueil de Scaparrotti par Sputnik News…
NATO’s New Commander Gets Off on the Wrong Foot With Russia
▻http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160505/1039112949/russia-nato-scaparrotti.html
Scaparrotti, handpicked by President Barack Obama to lead the North Atlantic Alliance, singled out Russia as the first of four threats to US and NATO security interests in his written testimony to the US Senate Armed Services Committee. The other three comprise terrorism, migrant and refugee flows, as well as “the collective threats to Israel.”
The general also noted that dialogue and security cooperation with Moscow “should remain limited” until Russia supposedly adheres to international norms.
The US and some of its allies blame Russia for the Ukrainian civil war, although Moscow is not a party to the conflict and has instead played a major role in pushing forward the fragile peace process. Unsurprisingly, Scaparrotti is in favor of sending weapons to Kiev – a move that Russia and Germany have long said would only makes things worse.
During a ceremony at NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Scaparrotti noted that, “We face a resurgent Russia and its aggressive behavior that challenges international norms.” The general also mentioned that NATO needs to be ready to “fight tonight if deterrence fails.”
US warships may join EU in patrolling waters off Libya
Meeting of G5 proposes EU and Nato work together off Libyan coast to shut down networks smuggling refugees from Africa
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/25/us-warships-may-join-eu-in-patrolling-waters-off-libya?CMP=share_btn_tw
#Méditerranée #Libye #frontières #militarisation_des_frontières #asile #migrations #réfugiés #guerre_aux_frontières
Italy’s plan to combat Libyan migrant smugglers could mean chasing shadows
Fears of a refugee wave through north Africa are based on thin evidence and deploying naval vessels may have little effect on dinghies already at sea
►http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/25/italys-plan-to-combat-libyan-migrant-smugglers-could-mean-chasing-shado
#OTAN
US backs NATO blockade of Libya to close refugee route
The United States yesterday (25 April) offered its backing for a NATO naval operation off the cost of Libya, in support of a controversial Italian plan to close the Western Mediterranean refugee route to Europe.
▻http://www.euractiv.com/section/justice-home-affairs/news/us-backs-nato-blockade-of-libya-to-close-refugee-route
NATO to blockade Libyan coast this summer to stop central Mediterranean migrant flows
NATO is planning a naval blockade of the Libyan coat this summer to close off the central Mediterranean migration route, as the numbers of migrants using the route, which features Malta as a central point, are expected to surge.
▻http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2016-04-26/local-news/NATO-to-blockade-Libyan-coast-this-summer-to-stop-central-Mediterran
Dozens of migrants shot dead in central Libya
Thirty migrants were shot dead in a central Libyan town on Wednesday, with at least 12 of them from Egypt, officials in Cairo said on Wednesday.
►http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2016/4/27/dozens-of-migrants-shot-dead-in-central-libya
#assassinat
Libya-Italy: the other route, going through hell
Catania, 14 April 2016 — “I am never going back to Somalia, ever.” Yasmin’s firm determination not to return to her home country is more than justified. The 19-year-old girl left to avoid the unwelcome advances of a member of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group. Saying no was not an option. “Someone from Al-Shabab wanted to marry a friend of mine and her father said ’no’. Both father and daughter were killed.”
Italian minister call on Libya to seal borders
Italy said today that it hoped Libya’s UN-backed unity government could restore control of the country’s borders to limit migrant flows from north and south and was ready to help in any way it could.
L’UE espère un accord avec la Libye pour arrêter l’afflux des migrants
Réunis à Luxembourg, lundi 18 avril, les ministres des affaires étrangères et de la défense de l’Union européenne espéraient marquer fermement leur soutien au nouveau pouvoir qui se met difficilement en place en Libye. Leurs efforts auront été contrariés. Le vote de confiance attendu du Parlement libyen au gouvernement d’union nationale dirigé par le premier ministre désigné Fayez Al-Sarraj, n’a pas eu lieu. Il a été reporté sine die. Les ministres ont donc dû se contenter de renouveler leur soutien au chef du gouvernement et de lui promettre des aides financières, en l’attente d’une stabilisation politique durable.
L’UE, qui a débloqué 100 millions d’euros d’aide économique et humanitaire, propose également aux nouvelles autorités une mission civile« de conseil et de soutien » dans les domaines policier, judiciaire et de la lutte antiterroriste. Le premier ministre a demandé un appui pour lutter contre les passeurs de clandestins, sans, cependant, réclamer directement une intervention de l’UE dans les eaux libyennes, afin d’endiguer l’afflux de migrants.
Les Vingt-Huit aimeraient élargir le mandat de la mission « Sophia », opération navale de lutte contre les passeurs au large de la Libye, lancée à l’été 2015. Elle a sauvé 13 000 vies jusqu’ici, a indiqué la Haute Représentante Federica Mogherini, et pourrait être étendue à la lutte contre les trafics d’armes et de drogue, dans les eaux territoriales libyennes si, du moins, le nouveau pouvoir marque son accord. La mission « Sophia » est actuellement limitée aux eaux internationales, ce qui laisse le champ libre aux passeurs qui exploitent les migrants.
Inquiétude de l’Italie
L’extension de la mission navale européenne pourrait même ensuite s’accompagner d’une coordination avec l’OTAN afin, notamment, de mettre sur pied un corps de garde-côtes libyens. L’Italie s’inquiète particulièrement de la possible arrivée sur ses côtes de migrants partis de Libye, même si, pour le premier ministre Matteo Renzi, il ne s’agit pas d’une « invasion ». Rome recense depuis le début de l’année 25 816 arrivées, soit 7 000 de plus que l’année dernière à la même date. M. Renzi prône aussi une véritable stratégie européenne et a adressé à ses homologues un document proposant une accélération de la conclusion d’accords avec les pays d’origine, ainsi que la mise en place de fonds pour inciter les pays de transit à bloquer les flux. Cette dernière idée s’est heurtée, lundi, au refus de l’Allemagne.
Mais une rumeur, d’abord confirmée, puis nuancée par la diplomatie italienne, est venue ajouter à l’urgence de traiter le problème : une embarcation comptant 200 – voire 400 – migrants, essentiellement somaliens, aurait coulé lundi en Méditerranée. Parti d’Egypte, en direction des côtes italiennes, le bateau aurait emprunté une nouvelle route tracée par les passeurs pour échapper aux contrôles au large de la Libye. Diffusée par la BBC en langue arabe, l’information n’était toutefois toujours pas confirmée mardi matin.
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2016/04/19/l-ue-espere-un-accord-avec-la-libye-pour-arreter-l-afflux-des-migrants_49048
Italy says NATO three months from Libya coast mission
NATO is three months away from launching patrols off Libya as part of a plan to stop migrants arriving in Italy, Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said in an interview published Monday.
▻http://www.france24.com/en/20160425-italy-says-nato-three-months-libya-coast-mission
Obama et les leaders européens pour une mission maritime en Libye
Les dirigeants américain, allemand, britannique, italien et français réunis lundi à Hanovre (nord de l’Allemagne) ont appelé l’Otan et l’UE à travailler en commun « pour maîtriser les flux de migrants » en provenance de Libye, a indiqué la Maison Blanche.
www.libe.ma/Obama-et-les-leaders-europeens-pour-une-mission-maritime-en-Libye_a74141.html
Migrants : Obama et les Européens favorables à une mission maritime Otan/UE en Libye
L’Otan pourrait lancer dans trois mois ses premières patrouilles maritimes au large de la Libye pour tenter de réduire le flux de migrants arrivant en Italie. Quelque cinq cents personnes ont trouvé la mort récemment après avoir embarqué à Tobrouk (Libye).
▻http://www.leparisien.fr/international/migrants-obama-et-les-europeens-favorables-a-une-mission-maritime-otan-ue
Mona Eltahawy’s Headscarves and Hymens
▻http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2016/04/mona-eltahawys-headscarves-and-hymens.html
Don’t laugh at me but I have been reading her book, “Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution”. Is this a joke? Or is this a new genre of anti-feminist essentialism fake feminism which Western culture welcomes? She reminds me of the anti-feminist Lebanese Joumana Haddad. I think Western culture welcomes such manifestation because they internalize the racism and bigotry and non-scholarly generalizations about all Arabs and about all Muslims. And the documentation of the book is hilarious: she mentions in passing some feminist names but then is obsessed with Newsweek and various shallow journalism of the West. This is her audience and her sources. And she loves to titillate Western readers with stories about “what Arab men are doing to us”. Her generalization about Arabs and their peculiar culture are based on ranking by the World Bank. I kid you not (p. 2—of an electronic edition). She tells you that Newsweek committed an error in hailing King Abdullah of SA as a reformer and adds that it “ought to know better”. Yes, because Newsweek has a history of first-rate journalistic coverage of the world. She tells you that clerics of Saudi Arabia are obsessed with women, as if reactionary clerics of Judaism and Christianity are not obsessed with women. But don’t think that she didn’t work hard in researching her book. For example, when she talks about Islamism, she knows what she is talking about and she even uses the official definition of Islamism as offered by...AP. I am not making this up. (p.4). She tells you that Arab “men can’t control themselves”, thus implying that all Arab men are rapists and sexual harassers and predators. Her questions reminds me of when a boy or a girl stumbles on feminism at age 11 or 12. As in: why are there double standards, etc. And she implies that in Arab culture women are not expected to have sexual drives, when the entire Islamic and Arab system of gender restriction is based recognition and even exaggeration of the sexual desires of women. But here she is extrapolating Western Christian standards on Arab culture. She tells you that the regime that NATO installed in Libya was very sexist but instead of faulting NATO she faults...Arab men. She tells you that Egypt is a “classist society”. What can’t Arabs enjoy living in the classless societies of the West, why? But wait: she makes a case that if you disagree with her: you are either a Western right-wing bigot or you are a Western liberal who refuse to condemn misogyny. So you are stuck: you have to agree with her or else.
Stephen Walt dresse le bilan de la politique étrangère d’Obama en exécutant l’idée défendue par certains de ses critiques (liberal Hawks et neocons) qu’il serait un « réaliste » - ce que Walt se revendique être. Walt lui reproche au contraire de ne pas l’avoir assez été.
Obama Was Not a Realist President
If he had been, he might have avoided some of his biggest foreign-policy mistakes.
Foreign Policy / 07.04.16
▻http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/07/obama-was-not-a-realist-president-jeffrey-goldberg-atlantic-obama-doc
Pour la bouche la conclusion :
In short, Obama did not in fact run a “realist” foreign policy, because he doesn’t fully embrace a realist worldview, didn’t appoint many (any?) realists to key positions, and never really tried to dismantle the bipartisan consensus behind the grand strategy of liberal hegemony. As I’ve noted before, a genuinely “realist” foreign policy would have left Afghanistan promptly in 2009, converted our “special relationships” in the Middle East to normal ones, explicitly rejected further NATO expansion, eschewed “regime change” and other forms of social engineering in foreign countries such as Libya or Syria, and returned to the broad strategy of restrained “offshore balancing” that served the United States so well in the past.
Of course, even if Obama had explained the logic behind this strategy carefully and followed it consistently, he might still have failed to transform the foreign-policy establishment’s interventionist mindset. After all, that worldview is supported by plenty of wealthy individuals, powerful corporations, influential think tanks, and well-connected lobbies. A more ambitious effort to change how Americans think about foreign policy might not have succeeded. But as his presidency approaches its close, I still wish he had tried.
Ça ne m’étonnerait pas que @dedefensa nous fasse un commentaire de cette analyse brillante de Walt.
A serious question that must be asked: Is Turkey facilitating ISIS members travel to Libya, where they then attack Tunisia?
▻https://mideastwire.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/a-serious-question-that-must-be-asked-is-turkey-facilitating-
Translated today by our Mideastwire.com below. If we believe that extremist Tunisians and others are “returning” or moving to Libya as a staging ground for attacks in this region and in Tunisia specifically, then the likely ways they are coming back from the Syria-Iraq theatre is via Turkey and their air routes or via ships from Turkey, or possibly rebel controlled Syrian shores (where Turkey also a plays a huge role).
This represents a major maritime security issue for the EU, the US and regional states, especially Tunisia. And it should, if there is tacit acceptance or even coordination with Turkey-Isis et al., raise a major problem for NATO and others.
This report on ISIS’s “famed” Al-Batar battalion should raise major red flags for all of those concerned with Tunisia’s security in this next stage – and of course Libya’s security.
Ask yourself: How are all these hundreds, possibly thousands, of fighters (many of them “returning Tunisians” it seems) flowing into Libya? They aren’t flying out of Jordan, crossing Israel and Egypt… or passing through Iraq into Saudi Arabia (well it is unlikely). Iran isn’t helping and Lebanon is very unlikely to be a main route.
On March 9, the independent, leftist As-Safir daily newspaper carried the following report: [...]
‘ISIS Sees Turkey as Its Ally’: Former Islamic State Member Reveals Turkish Army Cooperation
Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobane, Turkish army tanks take position on the Turkish side of the border, October 8, 2014.
►http://www.newsweek.com/isis-and-turkey-cooperate-destroy-kurds-former-isis-member-reveals-turkish