position:military officer

Former Ford executives found guilty for aiding in the 1970s torture of workers
▻https://america.cgtn.com/2019/03/24/former-ford-executives-found-guilty-for-aiding-in-the-1970s-torture-of
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PceTiUr0eTE

Adolfo Sanchez is one of the victims of the torture. He’s something of a cult figure in Argentina. He became very popular as Julio Cesar in the popular wrestling TV show, “Titanes en el Ring” back in the 1980s and 90s. But long before that he worked at the Ford motor factory in Buenos Aires. It was there that he and 23 other workers were detained and tortured.

In an historic trial, in December 2018, two former Ford executives and one military officer were sentenced to 12 years for these “crimes against humanity.”

“Americas Now” met with Sánchez. He relives that episode in his life and shares his fight for justice.

Joshua Landis on Twitter: “In some respects, Syria’s move to USSR was driven by the Arab/Israeli conflict.”
▻https://twitter.com/joshua_landis/status/884387103718735873

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/739156624942604288/-DACvjap_400x400.jpg

1. In some respects, Syria’s move to USSR was driven by the Arab/Israeli conflict.
2. US was planning to rebuild Syrian military in 1947, with training mission and arms sales.
3. The start of fighting in Palestine in 1947 caused Sec State Marshall to cancel the agreement & training mission.

He knew that congress could not support helping Syria military w war looming in Palestine. Also Tripartite Arms Embargo imposed by US/FR/GB
5. Once Syria’s Pres. Quwatli was told of US retraction, his men began counseling him to seek arms from USSR. Quwatli refused for fear of GB
6. But the refusal of all Western Powers 2 help Syrian military, caused it to turn 2 USSR w friendship agreement & follow Nasser’s arms deal
7. These BBC interviews w Syrian statesmen & PM, underline that they did not associate Friendship Agreement w becoming Communist, as US did
8. By organizing failed coups against Khalid al-Azm and Sabri al-Asali’s government, the US undermined the pro-Western politicians of Syria.

The Baath Party leaders and their military officer sympathizers used the West’s interventions and plotting to go to Nasser & form the UAR.
10. Politicians, such as Azm & Quwatli, who knew making Nasser was a bad idea & who had fought for Syrian independence, had to go along.
11. They feared being called Western stooges. They also were confused by the West’s stupidity and aggression against them.
12. This is the context of these BBC interviews, which were carried out during the lead up to the UAR and the time of the Suez Crisis.
13. Between 1955 and 1958, Syria received about $294 million from the Soviet Union for military and economic assistance.
14. In a meeting of Ambassadors at end of WWII, US decided best postwar strategy was to align w KSA & Syria. The KSA because of oil & Aramco
15. Syria, because pipelines would run from KSA thru Syr. Also Syria had no exclusive agreement with FR or GB. It was free & turned to US
16. Khalid al-Azm who was PM at end 1948, negotiated military agreement w US & base rights w GB, which wanted 2 est MEDO - Mid East Def Org
17. But the US broke off these agreements to support Jewish State in Palestine & then supported Chief of Staff Husni Zaim to overthrow Azm.
18. US supported Azm/Quwatli overthrow, even though they were democratically elected gov, because Zaim offered to sign armistice w Israel.
19. Zaim also offered to build Tapline, oil pipeline that Syr parliament put on hold, and to arrest communists, etc.

The US was not a driving force behind Zaim coup. Zaim was determined 2 take power, b/c Quwatli gov was going to accuse him of corruption.
21. Pres Quwatli was going to use Zaim as the scapegoat for loss of 1948 war. Major corruption trials were leading to top officers.

#Syrie

Russian naval activity in Europe exceeds Cold War levels: U.S. admiral

Recent Russian naval activity in Europe exceeds levels seen during the Cold War, a top U.S. and NATO military officer said, voicing concern that the distributed nature of the deployments could end up “splitting and distracting” the transatlantic alliance.

http://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20170409&t=2&i=1179978951&w=780&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&sq=&r=LYNXMPED380H9#.jpg

Exclusive: Turkish military officer seeking asylum in United States - U.S. officials | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-turkey-asylum-exclusive-idUSKCN10L03U

A Turkish military officer on a U.S.-based assignment for NATO is seeking asylum in the United States after being recalled by the Turkish government in the wake of last month’s failed military coup, U.S. officials told Reuters.

The asylum bid is the first known case involving a Turkish military officer in the United States as Turkey purges military ranks after mutinous soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks in an unsuccessful attempt to oust President Tayyip Erdogan.

The case has the potential to further strain ties between the United States and Turkey, which is already demanding Washington hand over a U.S.-based Turkish cleric it alleges was responsible for the failed coup.

The two U.S. officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the Turkish officer was working at the headquarters of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, located in Norfolk, Virginia. They did not name him or offer his rank.

However, an official at Turkey’s embassy in Washington said Turkish Navy Rear Admiral Mustafa Ugurlu had failed to report to authorities after Turkey issued a detention order for him last month.

“On July 22, on that day he left his badges and his ID at the base and after that no one has heard anything from him,” the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Turkish official said he was unaware of a subsequent asylum request. An April news article on the NATO website identified Ugurlu as the Norfolk-based command’s assistant chief of staff for command and control, deployability and sustainability.

Trial of former Chile military officer for murder of #Víctor_Jara opens in Florida
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/13/victor-jara-trial-former-chile-military-officer-florida

A Chilean army officer accused of murdering the popular folk singer and political activist Víctor Jara in the first days of Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 CIA-backed coup d’etat goes on trial in a Florida courtroom on Monday, a landmark moment in his British widow’s four-decades-long fight for justice.

Tout dans cette affaire est franchement farfelu. Entre autre le fait qu’on croyait que ce cousin de Bachar était en prison en attendant d’être jugé pour meurtre. Assad cousin accused of killing military officer led charge on kidnapping Gadhafi’s son
▻http://www.albawaba.com/news/assad-cousin-accused-killing-military-officer-led-charge-kidnapping-gadhaf

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s son, Hannibal, sources said Sunday.

The sources told The Daily Star a mob headed by Suleiman Assad kidnapped Hannibal in Syria and handed him over to an armed group in Lebanon.

They said Hannibal was held for a few days near the eastern city of Baalbek before locals became aware of the kidnapping, which eventually compelled the abductors to release him.

In a video broadcast on Lebanese TV Friday, Hannibal was seen appealing for more information concerning the 1978 disappearance of Lebanese cleric Sheikh Musa al-Sadr.

He was later handed over to the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch in Beirut through unidentified intermediaries.

Palestinian teen shot dead after alleged attack near Tulkarem
Dec. 1, 2015 10:38 A.M. (Updated: Dec. 1, 2015 12:30 P.M.)
▻http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769111

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An Israeli military officer shot and killed a 19-year-old Palestinian woman at a checkpoint east of Tulkarem on Tuesday, saying that she had attempted to stab him, Israel’s army said.

An Israeli army spokesperson said that the officer killed the young woman at a checkpoint near the illegal settlement of Enav east of Tulkarem because she posed an “immediate danger” to him.

The Israeli officer was not injured during the encounter.

A spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent said that one of their emergency teams arrived on the scene shortly afterward. She confirmed that the young woman had no vital signs.

The team was prevented from taking away her body, which was instead taken away in an Israeli army medical jeep.

The Red Crescent initially estimated the woman to be around 15 years old. However, a Palestinian family later identified her from photos circulating social meda as their 19-year-old daughter, Maram Ramiz Hassouna , from Rafidia in Nablus.

The family told Ma’an that she had spent a year in Israeli custody after she was charged with attempting to stab an Israeli soldier at the same checkpoint near Enav settlement two years ago.

#Palestine_assassinée

Russia and Iran helping Assad gain upper hand in Syria, head of Joint Chiefs says
▻http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-russia-syria-support-20151028-story.html

Russian bombing and Iranian-backed forces have helped give Syrian President Bashar Assad’s embattled forces an advantage in the country’s bitter civil war, the top U.S. military officer said Tuesday, suggesting a sharp setback for the Obama administration.

Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared to contradict upbeat assessments by the White House last month that indicated Assad’s government had suffered a series of military losses and was losing control.

Although the long-term effect is far from clear, Pentagon intelligence has concluded for now that Russian air attacks, which began Sept. 30, and growing involvement by Iranian-backed forces have helped Assad’s military advance on several critical fronts and extend his grip on power.

“The balance of forces right now are in Assad’s advantage,” Dunford, who visited the region last week, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Spy Agency Maps Show How the Arctic Is Heating Up | WIRED
▻http://www.wired.com/2015/10/arctic-maps/#slide-1

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/bathymetry-934x630.jpg

The Arctic is heating up, both literally and geopolitically. Climate models point to melting sea ice in the coming decades, opening up new shipping routes, potentially vast new oil and gas reserves, and plenty of opportunity for international conflict. All that has prompted a flurry of activity at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the mapmaking organization for the US military and intelligence community.

Naturally, most of the maps made by the NGA aren’t for the likes of you—unless, of course, you’re a spy or a military officer with high-level security clearance. But not all of them. The agency recently released a slew of unclassified maps and geospatial data for the Arctic region, including some of the most detailed terrain maps of Alaska available to the general public.

The maps, which you can browse on the NGA’s website, include things like shipping lanes, ports and airfields, and the potential for oil and gas discovery across the region. There are maps of national boundaries—including some that are well agreed upon, some that have been submitted as claims to the United Nations, and some that are disputed.

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Bering-Strait-1024x768.jpg http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/energy-resources-1024x768.jpg

NGA Arctic GEOINT Services
▻http://nga.maps.arcgis.com/apps/PublicGallery/index.html?appid=dc06e1570de14885bb6c7adbaa5bfec5

#arctique #cartographie @reka

Why is Israel preventing rights experts from entering #Gaza?
By Amira Hass | Dec. 8, 2014
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.630618

Israel prevented experts from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch from entering the Gaza Strip during Operation Protective Edge, and it still is preventing them. As a result, no independent professionals (for example, a certain retired British military officer) have been able to check in real time the army’s claims and versions; for example, about weapons caches or firing near or from inside UN buildings.

If the Israel Defense Forces and its legal advisers were so sure they were adhering to international law, why were they scared to let these experts enter Gaza – alongside the many journalists who were allowed in?

It could very well be that every word in the IDF spokesman’s recent statement on the decision to investigate “exceptional incidents that occurred during Operation Protective Edge” is truthful. But these words – true or not – are just a veneer covering the problematic layers of Protective Edge and all Israeli military operations against the Palestinians.

The IDF, its lawyers and its commanders hold a monopoly on information from Israeli theaters of war because of the IDF’s technological superiority. So they also hold a monopoly on concealing information, telling untruths and dismissing the findings of Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups – and of course on ignoring Hamas’ claims.

They can claim that their information – which they gather through the Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza and its large collaborator network – is precise due to the sophisticated means of observation and location, and the abundant data gathered by the Civil Administration and the army of collaborators.

This monopoly on information and the sophisticated methods for gathering it lets the IDF choose a few “exceptional” cases in order to portray the rest as proper and passing an objective self-examination.

The IDF has decided to conduct a criminal investigation into the bombing that killed the entire Abu Jama family in Bani Suheila. But as rights group B’Tselem has found, 72 IDF bombings of populated buildings killed 547 people, including 125 women under the age of 60, 250 minors and 29 men and women over 60. Of course, this doesn’t mean the rest (men under 60) were a “legitimate target.” What makes the bombing of the Abu Jamas manslaughter and the rest appropriate?

CQFD.

Israeli military officer: Abbas sanctifies security cooperation in words and actions

▻https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/15315-israeli-military-officer-abbas-sanctifies-security-cooperat

Photo d’archive éloquente :

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NrcTPExv43Y/VGtajluC5FI/AAAAAAABE9M/gXOiq2W-LEY/s1600/abbas2.jpg

The Israeli occupation army revealed that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made an effort to limit the celebrations commemorating the death of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, in order to reduce the chances of a new uprising, Felesteen Online reported on Monday.

Citing Israeli media, Felesteen Online quoted a senior officer in the Israeli Central Command, a military division of the occupation forces, as saying that “Abu Mazen (Abbas) ordered a reduction of the budget allocated for the commemoration in order to refrain from contributing to transforming this year’s event into an opportunity to ignite the [occupied Palestinian territories].”

The military officer noted that Abbas took this measure against the wishes of Jibril Rajoub, a member of the Fatah Central Committee who is responsible for overseeing the commemoration celebrations. There are reportedly tensions between him and Abbas.

He also stressed that despite Abbas’s sharp criticism of Israel’s policies in occupied Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, Abbas continues to urge his security forces to continue their security cooperation with both the Israeli army and intelligence services.

The senior officer added that Abbas insists on preventing the outbreak of operations against Israel at all costs by reminding his security services that security cooperation should not be linked to political developments.

He said that Abbas not only “sanctifies” the cooperation with Israel in actions, but also continues to say the “right words” he should say in terms of Israeli interests, just as he did in the case of the three settlers kidnapped and killed by two Palestinians linked to Hamas.

“We continue to examine the activities of the [PA’s] security services in terms of arresting Hamas members, and the data indicates that the arrests have continued as they normally have, and are even increasing,” he added.

He also noted that Abbas continues to attack Hamas and its behaviour, considering the policies adopted by Abbas as representing “the greatest factor of stability in the West Bank”.

#Palestine #Abbas #Israël #collaboration_sécuritaire #Autorité_palestinienne

Dempsey : US Used Attack Helicopters Near Baghdad - ABC News

▻http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/dempsey-us-attack-helicopters-baghdad-26140738

The top U.S. military officer says the U.S. called in Apache helicopters to prevent Iraqi forces from being overrun by Islamic State militants in a recent fight near Baghdad’s airport.

Gen. Martin Dempsey says the extremists were within about 15 miles and had they overrun the Iraqis, “it was a straight shot to the airport.”

Syrian #rebels kidnap rejected presidential hopeful
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syrian-rebels-kidnap-rejected-presidential-hopeful

Syrian rebels from the southern province of #Daraa have kidnapped a presidential hopeful whose bid was turned down by the constitutional court, according to an online video distributed Tuesday. The video shows three armed, bearded rebels wearing fatigues in a room with Mohammed Kanaan, a military officer who had registered to run in June 3 elections that are widely expected to return President Bashar al-Assad to power. In a video filmed by the rebel brigade and distributed online by opposition media activists, he is shown wearing a suit, seated on an armchair. read more

#presidential_elections #syria #Top_News

Suspected Islamists gun down Egyptian army officer
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/suspected-islamists-gun-down-egyptian-army-officer

Gunmen killed an Egyptian military officer and wounded three soldiers in an attack on an army vehicle northeast of Cairo on Tuesday, security sources said, raising concerns that an Islamist insurgency is spreading beyond the Sinai. The number of militant attacks has risen since the army deposed President Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood on July 3. Most of the attacks on the army have been limited to the relatively lawless Sinai. Tuesday’s attack took place in Sharkia province in the (...)

#Egypt #Top_News

Suspected Islamists gun down Egyptian army officer
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/suspected-islamists-gundown-egyptian-army-officer

Gunmen killed an Egyptian military officer and wounded three soldiers in an attack on an army vehicle northeast of Cairo on Tuesday, security sources said, raising concerns that an Islamist insurgency is spreading beyond the Sinai. The number of militant attacks has risen since the army deposed President Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood on July 3. Most of the attacks on the army have been limited to the relatively lawless Sinai. Tuesday’s attack took place in Sharkia province in the (...)

#Egypt #Top_News

Chilean judge charges former U.S. military officer in 1973 deaths
►http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/11/chile-judge-us-military-officer-ray-davis-charles-horman-pinoc

A Chilean judge is seeking the extradition of a former U.S. military officer to face murder charges in the 1973 slaying of freelance journalist and filmmaker Charles Horman, a case dramatized in the Oscar-winning film “Missing,” court sources confirmed Tuesday.

US top military officer arrives in Saudi Arabia - Yahoo ! News UK
►http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20110220/twl-us-top-military-officer-arrives-in-s-3cd7efd.html#ynw-article-par

“Part of what I want to accomplish is to reassure our friends and also just listen to what’s on their mind,” Mullen told journalists.

The highest ranking US military officer’s visit comes as an unprecedented wave of revolts challenges Arab authoritarian regimes, notably in Bahrain and Yemen, after uprisings toppled rulers in Tunisia and Egypt.

The purpose of his mission is to “reassure, discuss and understand what is going on,” Mullen said, adding the “trip was scheduled for other reasons but as it turns out the context has changed.”

In his two-day stay in Saudi Arabia, US President Barack Obama’s top military adviser will meet high-ranking Saudi military officials.

Avec ça on comprend pourquoi les peuples arabes qui luttent pour leurs droits aiment autant les États-Unis...