Phantom Report

EU gives green light for civilian mission to support border security in Libya

stratagem — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:17:53 +0000

Editor’s Note: Civilian Mission = private security forces|mercenaries Source: ENPI The EU today established a civilian EU integrated border management assistance mission in Libya (EUBAM Libya). It will support capacity building for enhancing the security of Libya’s land, sea and air borders and is expected gradually to start deploying in June. EU Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine [...]

Uzbekistan quest for US weapons could dent Central Asia

stratagem — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:47:21 +0000

Source: DT Uzbekistan currently faces an international arms embargo because of prisoner deaths, and its operation in 2005 in Andijan 2014 is approaching, and so is the deadline for the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces’ from Afghanistan. Leon Panetta, the US Defence Secretary, in 2012 announced that by the end of 2014, the coalition forces [...]

Syrian Army Detains French, British, Belgian, Dutch, Qatari Officers in al-Qusseir

stratagem — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:57:30 +0000

Editor’s Note: You can be your own judge. Related Articles: Spy chief: Dutch citizens fighting in Syria ,Libya transporting weapons and fighters to Syria: Americans, Moroccans, Libyans, Egyptians, Bosnians fighting alongside rebel forces , Turkish Intelligence transporting al-Qaeda from Pakistan to fight in Syria, Are Yemeni militants fighting alongside al-Qaeda in Syria?, Yemen Is Sending Thousands Of Young Men To Fight [...]

Battle to secure oil, rare minerals and the water – Libya’s Vast Borders Still a No-Man’s Land for Most:

stratagem — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:39:10 +0000

Source: Think Africa Press On the outskirts of Ubari, a remote outpost in Libya’s southwest near the Algerian border, armed militia from the Tebu tribe speed across the desert in Toyota trucks towards the sprawling Sharara oil fields. They, along fighters from the town of Zintan further north, are spearheading efforts – under the auspices of [...]

Low-flying choppers are ‘conducting surveillance projects’

stratagem — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:32:59 +0000

Source: WTVR Helicopter blades are still piercing the air and rattling the nerves of one Chesterfield woman. “It was green, no words on it from what I could see, no special symbols, but, what looked like two guns on the front,” says Mekelle Ford. She continues to see what appear to be military choppers, flying [...]

Battle for Qusair raises threat of Syria partition

stratagem — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:24:30 +0000

Source: France 24 More than two years after the conflict began, Syria today is totally transformed. While experts discuss the threat of partition, on the ground, Syria is effectively a divided country. “What the country is experiencing today is in fact a real partition – even if it’s not official,” said Syrian anthropologist Randa Kassis [...]

Sahel: Algeria’s Proxy War

stratagem — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:19:00 +0000

Source: moroccoboard Who is benefiting from recent MUJAO terrorist attacks in the Sahel? What party wants to weaken the resolve of the Touareg people and undermine the Azawadi rights to local rule in a unified Mali? To answer these questions, Western diplomats need to take a closer look at the long-term effects of the MUJAO’s military [...]

Syria Defending Itself from the Intrigues of Israel: Al-Qaeda, America, Gulf powers and Tel Aviv

stratagem — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:14:41 +0000

Source:MTT The nation of Syria is surrounded by many hostile nations which are openly siding with al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist groups and the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) which is a proxy of outside nations. In the past Turkey under Prime Minister Erdogan also tried to entangle Syria into a broader conflict because he knows NATO [...]

Israeli, Syrian troops trade fire in Golan Heights and the strategic battle for Qusair

stratagem — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:11:46 +0000

Source: WP Israeli military and Syrian regular army troops exchanged fire early Tuesday along the cease-fire line in the occupied Golan Heights, an area that has become a potential flash point for spillover from the civil war in Syria. After an Israel Defense Forces jeep was hit by small-arms fire from the Syrian military post, [...]

Killer robots instead of soldiers?

stratagem — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:03:41 +0000

Source: DW Increasingly, drones and robots are being used in combat to replace soldiers in high-risk situations. Some researchers and politicians are concerned that, in future, autonomous machines may reign over life and death. A Pentagon video shows a fighter jet taking off from a US aircraft carrier. At first glance, the maneuver is unspectacular. [...]

The future of propaganda: big data will be a key part of the propaganda campaigns around the wars.

stratagem — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:59:31 +0000

Source: Gigaom In 2009, Sean Gourley, an Oxford-trained physicist, gave a TED talk called “The Mathematics of War.” Gourley had been working with the Pentagon, the United Nations and the Iraqi Government to help them better understand the nature of the insurgency in Iraq, and in his presentation he announced something fairly striking: After analyzing the location, timing, [...]

EU mission seeks to rebuild Mali army after U.S. faltered

stratagem — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:53:02 +0000

Source: Reuters A European Union training mission faces a considerable challenge as it seeks to succeed where years of U.S. instruction failed by turning Mali’s rag-tag army into a force capable of facing an Islamist threat stretching across the Sahara. Years of corruption and neglect led the army to a string of defeats against al [...]

US might step in for a Cyprus solution to appease Turks

stratagem — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:07:21 +0000

Source: hurriyet President Barack Obama gave two messages to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by hosting him in Blair House, a gesture that was last made in 1999.First, in view of the fact that Erdoğan’s Washington visit was only possible after a normalization process started between Turkey and Israel, Obama reiterated one more time that having good [...]

Will the Taiwan-Philippines Dispute Unite Taiwan With China?

stratagem — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:52:33 +0000

Source: Trumpet The Philippine Coast Guard shot and killed a Taiwanese fisherman on May 9 in waters claimed by both nations, setting off a chain of events that could mend the breech between Beijing and Taipei. Both Taiwan and the Philippines are allies of the United States, but Washington’s ties with Manila run deeper than [...]

China, Tajikistan establish strategic partnership: mineral, and oil and gas resources

stratagem — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:42:02 +0000

Source: xinhua China and Tajikistan established a strategic partnership on Monday, pledging to boost bilateral cooperation. The announcement was made during talks held between President Xi Jinping and his visiting Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon, who is visiting China from May 19 to 20. China and Tajikistan share the need to consolidate cooperation, safeguard common interests and [...]

China deploys Su-27 fighters in Tibet, can target key Indian air bases

stratagem — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:24:47 +0000

Source: IBN China’s all-weather fighter base in Tibet is now widening its range of options in the event of a conflict with India. Intelligence intercepts and satellite monitoring has confirmed that China may have to some extent overcome Tibet’s extreme altitude and temperatures to operationalise an all-weather airfield near the Tibetan capital Lhasa. The airfield [...]

Pepsi to march in, as foreign troops leave Afghanistan

stratagem — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:21:42 +0000

Source: Yahoo PepsiCo will open its first plant in Afghanistan in 2014, its Afghan partner said on Monday, the same year foreign troops complete their withdrawal from the country after 13 years of war. “It will go on stream in 2014,” Hamed Kakar, head of marketing for Dubai-based Alokozay, which has an exclusive bottling agreement with PepsiCo [...]

Russia to arm Turkey with new military arsenal

stratagem — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:13:06 +0000

Source:RBTH As a NATO member, Turkey depends on the supplies of American and European weapons. Moscow has repeatedly tried to get a piece of the action and fascinate the Turkish military with its advanced technology. The first attempt was made at a mid-1990s tender to supply 145 attack helicopters worth $5 billion, when Moscow offered [...]

Syria’s Low-Intensity Conflict | Hybrid War: A military-strategic assessment

stratagem — Sun, 19 May 2013 03:37:56 +0000

Source: JP The overall geostrategic characteristic of the Syrian military picture is a robust armed struggle for supply routes, lines of communication, major highways and key choke points that is somewhat similar to the initial phase of the first Arab-Israeli War in 1947 – a battle for the roads. As a component of the Battle [...]

Hezbollah fighters head to strategic Aleppo town as fighting rages

stratagem — Sun, 19 May 2013 03:30:11 +0000

Source: Al Arabiya Battles raged in Qusayr between fighters from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah and the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), as activists reported the killing of at least 10 Hezbollah members. Sources told Al Arabiya early Sunday morning that Hezbollah fighters are reportedly heading to Qusayr, located in the central Homs province. [...]

Energy Weapons: The Next Gunpowder?

stratagem — Sun, 19 May 2013 03:26:44 +0000

Source: NDM Lasers powerful enough for use in war were once a fantastical weapons technology reserved for the sinister and unrealistically complex plots of James Bond villains. In reality, the U.S. military has been investigating and investing in solid-state lasers and other directed energy weapons for half a century. All that work has finally paid [...]

Expert: Withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan may become pretext for U.S. to establish bases in Caspian region

stratagem — Sat, 18 May 2013 19:59:58 +0000

Source: Trends.AZ Withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan could become the pretext for the Americans to establish long-term bases in the Caspian region, Director General of the Caspian Cooperation Institute, Sergei Mikheev believes. “Per se, the withdrawal of troops could become the pretext for the Americans create long-term bases, and for consolidation in the region [...]

The time has come to consider enabling Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to attack enemy bases

stratagem — Sat, 18 May 2013 19:53:45 +0000

Source: Japan News It is essential to reexamine the division of roles between the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military, in order to boost the deterrence of the Japan-U.S. alliance. The Liberal Democratic Party has put together a report containing proposals related to the new National Defense Program Guidelines to be compiled by the government [...]

After Fighting Over Mountains, India and China Lock Horns in the Indian Ocean

stratagem — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:29:14 +0000

Editor’s Note: China and India strategic positioning in eastern Ladakh is over mineral resources. The next strategic battle for raw materials and hydrocarbons whether it be diplomacy or conflict will be West/ East Africa, Horn of Africa, Bay of Bengal, south china sea. The powers[Government-Corporations] at play who control the Indo-Pacific sea lines of communication and chokepoints through [...]

China fires ‘anti-satellite rocket’

stratagem — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:09:07 +0000

Source: Australian CHINA has test-fired a new long-range rocket capable of destroying orbiting satellites, according to US intelligence assessments. The launch of the interceptor, which reached an altitude of 10,000km, could pose a serious threat to the US’s military communications in the Asia-Pacific region. Communications and the navigation of carrier strike groups, surveillance aircraft and long-range [...]

How Qatar seized control of the Syrian revolution

stratagem — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:58:25 +0000

Source: FT Related : Qatar bankrolls Syrian revolt with cash and arms A short drive from the rising skyscrapers of Doha’s West Bay, emblems of the once-sleepy Qatari capital’s frenetic growth, the three-starred flag of the Syrian revolution can be seen fluttering over a modern villa guarded by police cars. The villa is the new [...]

Fearing Afghan instability, Russia mulls border troops

stratagem — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:42:35 +0000

Source: Reuters Russia, predicting instability once NATO-led troops withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year, is considering deploying border guards on the Tajik-Afghan border, Moscow’s envoy to Kabul told Reuters in an interview. Moscow, still sore from its disastrous, decade-long war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, is increasingly concerned by what it describes as the combined threat [...]

‘Expect Israeli strikes on Russian arms shipment to Syria-Hezbollah’

stratagem — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:34:31 +0000

Source: israel hayom U.S. officials tell The Wall Street Journal: Another round of Israeli airstrikes could target a new Russian transfer of Yakhont advanced anti-ship missiles in the near future • Russia moving more quickly than previously thought to deliver S-300 surface-to-air defense systems to Syria.• CIA Director John Brennan in Israel to coordinate policy. U.S. [...]

U.S. could use cyberattack on Syrian air defenses

stratagem — Fri, 17 May 2013 03:30:36 +0000

Editor’s Note: Electronic Warfare : IDF’s teleprocessing corps C4i , Israel’s high-tech whiz kids, Unit 8200, and W32.Flame and Israel invests millions in drive for elite ‘cyber warriors’: Unit 8200 Source: USA Today The Pentagon has cyberattack capabilities that allow the U.S. military to help blind Syrian air defenses without firing a shot, according to military analysts. “One [...]

The greatest Game of Thrones is on

stratagem — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:17:36 +0000

Source: ODT Australia recently released its ”Defence White Paper 2013” highlighting its role in the Indo-Pacific region, ascertaining its security and mercantile interests. This white paper comes at an important time, with the United States pivoting to the Asia-Pacific region, and the geopolitical scenario rapidly changing with the rise of China. Because Australia is a [...]

US Sens: Pentagon Attempting to ‘Rewrite the Constitution’

stratagem — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:29:36 +0000

Editor’s Note: Pentagon is ‘Rewriting the Constitution’ U.S. Military ‘Power Grab’ Goes Into Effect: Pentagon Unilaterally Grants Itself Authority Over ‘Civil Disturbances’ Source: Defense News US senators blasted senior Pentagon legal officials Thursday for suggesting the 2001-passed measure authorizing the war on al-Qaida would justify American ground operations anywhere in the world. The Obama administration’s armed [...]

US Instructors [Special Operation Forces] to Train African Troops for Mali in Niger

stratagem — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:21:29 +0000

Source: TDL U.S. military instructors in Niger will train African forces participating in a U.N.-backed offensive against al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in neighbouring Mali, senior military officers said on Thursday. The United States and several European nations have backed a French-led military intervention which since January 11 has driven militant insurgents out of the towns [...]

US smuggling weapons to Syrian rebels: The real Benghazi story

stratagem — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:22:39 +0000

Source: Asia Tribune There is a ‘side story’ going on in the American media – both the electronic and print about the Islamist jihadists lethal attack on the American ‘post’ in Benghazi, Libya last September 11 which killed American ambassador Christopher Steven and three others; The emphasis and the debate is on why the event [...]

Chinese army general says Okinawa not Japan’s

stratagem — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:06:46 +0000

Source: CNA A senior Chinese military officer has said the Ryukyu Islands — which include Okinawa and its US military bases — “do not belong to Japan”, as a territorial row mounts between the Asian powers. The comments by People’s Liberation Army Major General Luo Yuan were published by the China News Service website Tuesday, [...]

Would A New ‘Bretton Woods’ Save The Global Economy or is it the Making of a New World Order

stratagem — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:00:40 +0000

Source: NPR Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, center right, at the start of the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting on Friday, May 10 in Aylesbury, England. The role of central banks in shoring up the global economic recovery is set to be a key point of discussion among top financial [...]

CIS Security Services to track Syria mercenaries – FSB

stratagem — Wed, 15 May 2013 21:55:29 +0000

Source: Indrus The security services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member states will be closely monitoring the movement of mercenaries from CIS nations fighting in Syria, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) head Alexander Bortnikov said on Wednesday. According to the FSB, some 200 mercenaries from Russia, as well as from CIS member states [...]

Afghan Special Operation Forces to Start Conducting Spy Flights

stratagem — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:59:52 +0000

Source: USN Afghan special operations will start conducting their own spy missions with new fixed wing aircraft, a top U.S. commando in Afghanistan said Wednesday, adding another critical stepping stone to allow the U.S. to withdraw by 2014. The U.S. has begun supplying Afghan forces with Swiss-made PC-12 planes, and training local forces to conduct [...]

6,000 Algerian troops on the Tunisian border

stratagem — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:56:05 +0000

Source: Libya TV The Algerian army is reported to have deployed 8 brigades and special forces, made up of more than 6,000 troops on the Tunisian border to counter the possible infiltration by armed Salafist groups. Ground troops and air monitoring on the eastern border with Tunisia are working with Tunisian troops who are hunting [...]

Marine rapid reaction unit moved to Italy amid escalating crisis in Libya

stratagem — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:42:22 +0000

Source: Stars and Stripes Just weeks after arriving in Spain, a “small element” from a new 550-Marine-strong rapid reaction force has repositioned to southern Italy amid deteriorating security conditions in nearby Libya, where there have been a series of recent evacuations by western diplomats, defense officials said Wednesday. “The unit, which is temporarily deployed to [...]

‘Minority Report’ policing comes to the UK

stratagem — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:36:39 +0000

Source: Telegraph Kent Police is using computer software to analyse historic offending and criminal behaviour to try and pinpoint where crimes will happen next. It is an echo of the Tom Cruise science fiction film Minority Report in which “pre-crime” units use psychics to predict future criminals and arrest them before they have even offended. [...]

U.S. Military ‘Power Grab’ Goes Into Effect: Pentagon Unilaterally Grants Itself Authority Over ‘Civil Disturbances’

stratagem — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:47:36 +0000

Source: Long Island Press The manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects offered the nation a window into the stunning military-style capabilities of our local law enforcement agencies. For the past 30 years, police departments throughout the United States have benefitted from the government’s largesse in the form of military weaponry and training, incentives offered in the ongoing [...]

Orchestrated destabilization of Libya: Killer militias hike security crisis

stratagem — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:53:27 +0000

Source: UPI Eighteen months after the downfall of Moammar Gadhafi, Libya remains a powder keg with a government unable to control dozens of armed groups whose lawless marauding has created a security crisis that’s driving off desperately needed foreign investment. The energy-rich North African state is in a constant state of uproar and anxiety, riven by [...]

Hezbollah Fighters reach Syrian-Jordanian border

stratagem — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:39:49 +0000

Source: Ammon News Hezbollah forces fighting in Syria are advancing southwards towards the border town of Deraa on the Syrian-Jordanian borders, a source affiliated with Hezbollah said. Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah fighting forces are sent to Syria to fight alongside the Syrian regime’s military, including a comprehensive logistics team from Hezbollah’s Military chiefs of staff [...]

Energy security, power and technology

stratagem — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:17:59 +0000

Editor’s Note: Major U.S. military operations/actions to protect oil Source: Fuel Fix A team of journalism graduate students has published a detailed project on energy security, geopolitics and technology that debunks several national myths about oil. The team of nine graduate students at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism spent three months investigating “vulnerabilities in U.S. [...]

Asia Is Becoming Israel’s New Frontier

stratagem — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:13:01 +0000

Source: Forbes When we think of Israel, we usually think of the Middle East (its neighborhood), North America (its close ally the United States) and Europe (the long history of Ashkenazi Jews). Rarely do we think about Israel and Asia, even less about Asia as Israel’s new frontier. We don’t think of Asia as playing [...]

Qatar and CIA tighten coordination of arms flows to Syria

stratagem — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:55:11 +0000

Source: Chicago Tribune Qatar, which has taken a lead in arming the Syrian opposition, is coordinating with the CIA and has tightened control of the arms flow to keep weapons out of the hands of al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters, according to rebels and officials familiar with the operation. With Britain and France discussing lifting an [...]

‘India preparing for a possible two-front war with Pak, China’

stratagem — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:49:12 +0000

Editor’s Note: India upgrading weaponry to be able to fight a possible two-front war with China and Pakistan Source: Zee Beijing: India continues to view Pakistan as the “real threat” even though it is adjusting its military strategy to include the possibility of a limited two-front war with both Pakistan and China, the first Blue [...]

Generals: ‘Human Domain’ Will Dictate Future Wars

stratagem — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:08:54 +0000

Source: DoDBuzz The leaders of the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Forces have offered their response to the Air Force and Navy’s Air-Sea Battle with an exclusive task force of their own: Strategic Landpower. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos and Adm. William McRaven, head of U.S. [...]

Grand Designs: Chechen bombers are the natural by-product of Western strategy in the Caucasus.

stratagem — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:54:34 +0000

Source: Indrus Chechnya Blowback: West gets what it paid for Here’s a quick quiz. Where are the largest concentrations of Chechen terrorists located? No, they are not in the countries the West has classified as terrorist nations – Iran, Syria or North Korea. Here’s the definitive list of the leading supporters and backers of Chechen [...]

Somalia: Oil thrown on the fire

stratagem — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:40:53 +0000

Source: FT After an absence of more than 30 years, Abdirizak Omar Mohamed has returned to Somalia, the country of his birth. Last year he gave up his job as a civil servant in the housing sector in Canada to take up a position as one of only 10 ministers in Mogadishu’s new, slimline cabinet. [...]

Biometrics: A new intelligence discipline-Identity Intelligence Project Office

stratagem — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:18:06 +0000

Source: Defense News The intelligence community is pushing to make biometrically enabled intelligence — the art of identifying people by fingerprints, digital mugshots, iris scans or DNA — a regular part of business. Biometrics has evolved dramatically during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and is used in countless manhunts, but the discipline has not been [...]

Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline geopolitics driving Syria conflict

stratagem — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:49:40 +0000

Source: Guardian [...] Yet the conflict is fast taking on international dimensions, with unconfirmed allegations that rebel forces might have used chemical weapons following hot on the heels of US-backed Israeli air strikes on Syrian military targets last weekend. But the US, Israel and other external powers are hardly honest brokers. Behind the facade of humanitarian concern, familiar interests are [...]

The ultra-lethal Special Forces unit few have ever heard of

stratagem — Mon, 13 May 2013 04:24:23 +0000

Source: Examiner In the wake of the special congressional hearings on the jihadist terror attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012, the American people have become inundated with a bevy of brain-dizzying acronyms such as FEST (Foreign Emergency Support Team), SEAL (Sea, Air, Land), SOF (Special Operations Forces) and FAST [...]

China’s Strategic Energy Security Pivot : Myanmar Pipelines to Benefit China

stratagem — Mon, 13 May 2013 04:18:38 +0000

Source: WSJ Two pipelines in the highlands of northeast Myanmar will soon begin pumping oil and gas into China, representing a major step in Beijing’s quest for energy security. At the end of a bumpy road here, a 45-minute ride from the nearest town, Cheng Chong Zhen, a 40-year-old Chinese electrician working for state-owned energy [...]

CIA and MI6 ‘GHOST MONEY’ Fueling Afghanistan’s Opium drug trade and guerrilla warfare in Syria

stratagem — Mon, 13 May 2013 04:09:24 +0000

Source: HP Afghan president Hamid Karzai, has recently been criticised for taking ‘ghost money’ from the CIA and MI6. The sums are inevitably unknown, for the usual reasons of ‘national security’, but are estimated to have been tens of millions of dollars. While this is nowhere near the eye-bleeding $12billion shipped over to Iraq on [...]

The Iran route for India to access Central Asia, Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea mineral and energy resources

stratagem — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:26:15 +0000

Editor’s Note: Or a strategic pivot against China-Pakistan ? Source: FC India has been looking for an access route to Afghanistan through Iran for long; more so after it began constructing the Delaram-Zeranj road in Afghanistan. Upgrading of the Chabahar port on Iran’s eastern-most point and building a road connection to Zahedan city and then [...]

AFRICOM Special Operations Forces-trained Congolese Commando Battalion among units accused of rape

stratagem — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:04:31 +0000

Source: Stars and Stripes For U.S. diplomats and military officials who were involved in training a Congolese army unit, a troubling question loomed: Would the 391st Commando Battalion serve as protectors of the population or would they revert to acts of sexual violence once on the battlefield? A United Nations report released this week indicates [...]

Interpreting Chinese basing diplomacy

stratagem — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:34:37 +0000

Source: Hindu There is a renewed interest among scholars and strategists on the matter of Chinese overseas basing diplomacy, i.e. protection of sea lanes, control of chokepoints, access to forward staging areas for possible interventions related to resource requirements, access to markets, raw material sources, and/or investments, bases and facilities (including technical installations), aircraft over-flight [...]

Electronic Warfare : IDF’s teleprocessing corps C4i

stratagem — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:30:31 +0000

Source: JP “I’m directing EW at the head. This is also a form of psychological warfare. I can engage in this and then deny it. It wrecks the functionality of the enemy,” the source added. These days, the idea of Israel engaging its enemies in a war, whether in near or distant arenas, without its [...]

In eastern Syria oil smugglers benefit from chaos

stratagem — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:21:57 +0000

Editors Notes: The military community, historians and media have not and will not call for what the war for Syria is. Chaotic and brutal war-fighting using guerrilla warfare tactics to kill the enemy/people.The war result will never be final, only more chaos and despair will come to those on both sides of the line. Source: TZ In Syria’s eastern province of Deir al-Zor, [...]

Artificial telepathy to create Pentagon’s telepathic soldiers

stratagem — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:05:08 +0000

Source: DJ As voice-activated technologies have become reality, including the recent use by Google Glass’ software, what about telling machines to do what we want simply by telepathically thinking about it? Telepathy has long been considered an aspect of psychic phenomena or a super power. Telepathy has commonly been defined as a sort of information [...]

Pentagon Plans East Coast Missile Defense Sites

stratagem — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:00:13 +0000

Source: Military Related: Pentagon, NATO allies witness missile defense test in skies over Central New York The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is evaluating potential missile-defense sites on the East Coast to fortify existing interceptor locations in Alaska and California. “The effort has started in terms of defining criteria and evaluating sites,” Navy Vice Adm. James Syring, [...]

U.S. Troops Replaced by an Outsourced Army in Afghanistan

stratagem — Fri, 10 May 2013 04:52:02 +0000

Source: Fiscal Times The United States is preparing to withdraw the majority of its troops from Afghanistan next year, ending more than a decade of war that has cost this country hundreds of billion of dollars and 2,126 lives to date. But the military withdrawal does not mean the United States is out of the [...]

Total re-conquest of Mali:Western powers are circling their wagons

stratagem — Thu, 09 May 2013 18:10:49 +0000

Source: AT Russia, China grapple with Mali’s future [...] Indeed, the western powers are circling their wagons. The Pentagon disclosed that its C-17 military aircraft have been transferring French troops and equipment and it is considering deploying aerial refueling tankers. The US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the US is providing intelligence. Italy is sending [...]

New Algeria: Is Tunisia heading towards its black decade?

stratagem — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:46:00 +0000

Source: MEO Press reports warned Thursday that Tunisia was “at war with international terrorism” after the government revealed that jihadists being pursued by the army have ties to Al-Qaeda and the Islamist rebellion in Mali. French-language daily Le Temps raised fears of “a spiral of deadly violence similar to the one that ravaged Algeria” during [...]

Training for war in a virtual battlespace

stratagem — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:38:16 +0000

Source: TPP There is a sandstorm all around, and anything could be hidden up ahead in the haze of central Iraq. As a U.S. Army Humvee edges forward, a burst of gunfire erupts, slamming into the bulletproof glass of the passenger door. For an instant, the world becomes a dizzying mix of frantic steering wheel [...]

5 Of the World’s Most Elite Mercenary Armies

stratagem — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:58:38 +0000

Source: Policy Mic Have you ever wanted to know about the word’s elite mercenary armies? Have you been too afraid to ask because they are the world’s most elite mercenary armies? Well, never fear because we’ve complied a list of some of them right here. These private military contractors are stationed throughout the world in conflicts that [...]

US wants to keep 9 bases after combat troops finish withdrawal in 2014

stratagem — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:50:32 +0000

Source: AP|MG The U.S. wants to keep nine bases in Afghanistan after U.S. combat troops withdraw in 2014 which is fine as long as America makes “security and economic guarantees” in exchange, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday in his first public overture in what have been private talks on a future pact between the uneasy [...]

US is involved militarily directly or advising in 74 countries

stratagem — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:58:03 +0000

Source: Digital Journal While combat troops have been withdrawn from Iraq, and the Afghan war now involves less US troops all the time, the US is still involved in either fighting or helping some struggle thought to be useful in the “war on terror” in numerous countries. Altogether the US is involved in 74 different countries. The [...]

Major U.S. military operations/actions to protect oil

stratagem — Thu, 09 May 2013 02:45:50 +0000

Source: By Kevin Wang and David Kashi -Oil Change America’s role in protecting oil: The U.S. military has used force or the threat of force to protect its energy interests around the world, primarily in the Middle East, for more than five decades, safeguarding foreign oil sources and the sea lanes through which they pass. According to Roger Stern, [...]

The Gulf Union: defense first

stratagem — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:31:00 +0000

Source: Al Arabiya In 2011, when Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah announced the intention to create the Gulf Union, one facet of the initiative stood out immediately—that of defense. The idea of the Gulf Union is to unify many aspects of the GCC under a new mantle, across a number of fields from economics to social issues [...]

Pentagon announces anti-satellite weapons drive

stratagem — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:25:49 +0000

Source: IET The US has announced a “long overdue” effort to develop anti-satellite weapons to protect its own space resources. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter yesterday said the U.S. military had launched a drive to safeguard US national security satellites and develop ways to counter the space capabilities of potential adversaries. “We have established, really, [...]

Pentagon now prepared to repel assaults on diplomatic outposts in Africa

stratagem — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:58:04 +0000

Source: WT The Pentagon says it’s now equipped to launch the type of rescue mission that could have helped American personnel who came under deadly attack at the temporary diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, last year. U.S. Africa Command has positioned a 500-strong Marine task force in Moron, Spain and equipped with Osprey aircraft capable of vertical landing along with KC-130 [...]

Pentagon’s coconut grove, lily pad in Maldives

stratagem — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:51:36 +0000

Source: R&I Report The American diplomats on the South Asia beat maintain that there are “no plans for US base in Maldives.” The US stance is that their Status of Forces Agreement [SOFA] under negotiation with the government of Maldives is a “normal practice.” They argue, the US has signed SOFAs with over 100 countries, so what’s the [...]

Iranian Terror Goes Global: Bold New Tactics For Tehran’s Shadowy Quds Forces

stratagem — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:15:47 +0000

Source: IBT A terrorism case in the East African country of Kenya came to a close on Monday with two suspects convicted of participating in a scheme to set off explosions in several cities. At first glance, the case doesn’t appear to be an exceptional one. Kenya has suffered numerous attacks from the extremist group [...]

The Fourth Great War

stratagem — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:06:46 +0000

Source: Algemeiner The announcement bySecretary of Defense Hagelthat the United States will “rethink all options” including arming Syrian rebel groups, was carefully hedged. “It doesn’t mean… you will” (choose any particular path). The statement however moves the U.S. closer to picking sides in a war with no good options and no good allies, and which [...]

US-TRANSCOM seeking private contractors for African commando transportation

stratagem — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:27:53 +0000

Source: Defense Web ZA The United States Army’s Transportation Command (US-TRANSCOM) is looking for private flight contractors to transport commandos from the Joint Special Taskforce Trans-Sahara as they conduct ‘high risk activities’ in 31 African countries. The pre-solicitation notice, issued by the US-TRANSCOM on 1 April, says the contractor will need to conduct air drops, [...]

AFRICOM and USAID in Dakar

stratagem — Tue, 07 May 2013 01:24:49 +0000

Source: LeBlog Finance Casually, the United States would they not be trying to get a little closer in Senegal? The country is close to the Mali and its raw materials, and is itself endowed with resources such as oil and uranium? Who knows … Do not forget that a few months ago, Washingtown planned to [...]

Chaos in Libya Threatens Entire Sahel Region

stratagem — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:43:44 +0000

Source: Al Monitor How easy it is for world powers to mourn the fatigue that sets in following battles, a weariness owing its existence primarily to the reluctance of their electorates to wage extended wars. One example of this battle fatigue came five months after the end of NATO’s first air campaign against Libya (March 19, 2011); [...]

Countering China’s ‘string of pearls’

stratagem — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:24:35 +0000

Source: WT With China’s “peaceful rise” giving way to a more muscular approach, Beijing has broadened its “core interests” and exhibited a growing readiness to take risks. As if to highlight its new multidirectional assertiveness, China’s recent occupation of a 12-mile-wide Indian border area close to where the borders of India, Pakistan and China converge has coincided with its escalating challenge to Japan’s [...]

Russian bombers buzz U.S. territory

stratagem — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:21:07 +0000

Source: WT Russian strategic bombers conducted flights near the U.S. defense zone close to northern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands last week, Moscow’s latest incident of nuclear saber-rattling against the United States, according to defense and military officials. Two Bear H nuclear-capable bombers were detected flying into the military’s Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone near the Aleutians, [...]

Russia set to conduct surveillance flyover to inspect Canada’s military, industrial infrastructure

stratagem — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:12:20 +0000

Source: NP The Russians are conducting what has quietly become their annual flyover of key Canadian sites this week, revealing the two countries’ regular surveillance of one another at a time when a spy scandal and Arctic sovereignty have markedly strained relations. Russia has routinely exercised a 10-year-old treaty right to fly over Canada and [...]

Disastrous Libyan situation: the controlled destabilization of sovereign nations

stratagem — Sun, 05 May 2013 20:25:12 +0000

Source: Gulf News ‘Liberation’ of Libya was actually an invasion led by the US Special Forces and was part of a similar philosophy that Bush had for Iraq invasion Is Libya still a country? A former colonial geographical unit, maybe yes. But little more: There is no state apparatus, no authority other than that of [...]

Israel has troops and tanks to the Syrian border in case of retaliation by Assad regime

stratagem — Sun, 05 May 2013 19:41:12 +0000

Source: NY Daily News Two-thousand Israeli soldiers, backed by tanks, are on full alert at the Syrian border Sunday after an apparent airstrike by the Jewish state inside the war-torn country — but Israel claims it has no intention of beginning a ground incursion. “We have moved our best-trained people to the border with Syria [...]

Germany’s Bold New Counterinsurgency Ideas

stratagem — Sun, 05 May 2013 17:18:04 +0000

Source: The Trumpet German-Foreign-Policy.com reports that Germany’s Federal Ministry of Defense has received the results of a study it commissioned seeking advice on counterinsurgency efforts in the wake of U.S. military drawdown in the Northern Hemisphere. Prepared by researchers at the University of Kiel, “the counterinsurgency study calls inter alia for the stricter centralization of [...]

You can’t fight alone: The Middle East’s proxy war

stratagem — Sun, 05 May 2013 17:04:11 +0000

Source: Ahram The year 2008 saw the first round of diplomatic talks between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran over the latter’s controversial nuclear activities. Five years on, the result of the equation remains zero, as Tehran insists on resuming its “peaceful” nuclear programme while world powers demand the total opposite. At present, the [...]

ADF Collaboration with US military to increase:B-52 long-range bombers, drone bases and USMC

stratagem — Sun, 05 May 2013 17:01:29 +0000

Source: Australian AUSTRALIA’S armed forces will face firmly north and increase their collaboration with the US military, potentially allowing B-52 long-range bombers and drone aircraft to fly from Australian bases, under plans announced by the government yesterday. The formal response to last year’s Australian Defence Force Posture Review report also committed to upgrading airfields on the [...]

Authorization for Use of Military Force: a blank check for war without end

stratagem — Sun, 05 May 2013 16:51:29 +0000

Source: Guardian A handful of Democratic and Republican senators are considering a rewrite of 60 of the most consequential words to ever pass through Congress. The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed after the attacks of 11 September 2001, and provides the legal cornerstone for the so-called US “war on terror”. Only one brave Congress [...]

How Many Wars Is the US Fighting Today?

stratagem — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:24:00 +0000

Source: Degruyter The US has withdrawn from Iraq and is planning to do likewise from Afghanistan in 2014. This article argues that the US has been fighting at least 5 wars, most of which are unannounced and undeclared, and are fought with air power and robotics technology. Most people in the US and around the [...]

U.S. Security Strategy in South Sudan – an Anti-China Strategy?

stratagem — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:10:43 +0000

Source: All Africa The cornerstone of an academic debate which took shape over the last twelve years among Marxist scholars – since the publication of Empire (2000) – focuses on what can be considered the mother of all questions for scientists of international politics: what is the structure of the current geopolitical world order we [...]

“Mission Accomplished”: Civil war in Iraq has already begun … it will be worse than Syria

stratagem — Fri, 03 May 2013 03:14:20 +0000

Source: Belfast Telegraph Iraqi leaders fear that the country is sliding rapidly into a new civil war which “will be worse than Syria”. Baghdad residents are stocking up on rice, vegetables and other foodstuffs in case they are prevented from getting to the shops by fighting or curfews. “It is wrong to say we are [...]

U.S. Bulks Up to Combat Iran

stratagem — Fri, 03 May 2013 03:05:58 +0000

Source:WSJ The Pentagon has redesigned its biggest “bunker buster” bomb with more advanced features intended to enable it to destroy Iran’s most heavily fortified and defended nuclear site. U.S. officials see development of the weapon as critical to convincing Israel that the U.S. has the ability to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb if [...]

War moves in cycles, from air power to the ‘way of the knife’

stratagem — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:22:18 +0000

Source: Telegraph The three British soldiers tragically killed in Helmand this week were travelling in a remarkable vehicle. The Mastiff 3 looks like the meeting point of two methods of war. Its boxy, armoured cladding and motorised turret speak to an earlier generation of tank manoeuvres on the plains of Europe. But its speed and [...]

Report: China to challenge US for East-Asia supremacy

stratagem — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:50:40 +0000

Source: NDTV Tokyo: China’s growing industrial might is likely to allow it to mount an increasingly formidable challenge to the military supremacy of the United States in the waters around China that include Japan and Taiwan, although it will probably seek to avoid an outright armed conflict, according to a detailed new report by a group [...]

UWSA rebels caught up in regional chess match for control of trade routes and resources in the Golden Triangle

stratagem — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:43:29 +0000

Source: Irrawaddy China did not sell helicopter gunships to ethnic Wa paramilitaries in eastern Burma, Wa sources speaking to The Irrawaddy claimed this week. The alleged deal was reported by Jane’s Intelligence Review on Monday, citing Burmese government and Wa sources. But as the Burmese military steps up its offensive against ethnic rebels in Shan [...]

Where is the world’s gold

stratagem — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:02:58 +0000

Source: RK Mufti Mubashir History says Gold goes to where it is respected. 98 percent of Gold at Federal Reserve Bank of New York is owned by central bank of foreign nations and 2 percent is owned by United States of America. Germany holds more than 3,000 tons of gold bullion, which represents more than [...]

Marines Ready to Respond in Northern Africa

stratagem — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:15:27 +0000

Source: Heritage Asked about the attack last fall on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, President Obama asserted, “our job with respect to Benghazi has been to find out exactly what happened, to make sure that U.S. embassies not just in the Middle East but around the world are safe and secure and to bring those [...]

Pentagon deploys small number of troops to war-torn Mali

stratagem — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:49:12 +0000

Source: WP The Pentagon has deployed a small number of troops to Mali to support allied forces fighting there, despite repeated pledgesby the Obama administration not to put “boots on the ground” in the war-torn African country. About 10 U.S. military personnel are in Mali to provide “liaison support” to French and African troops but [...]

Deutschland Bundeswehr soldiers ‘for hire as mercenaries’

stratagem — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:14:16 +0000

Source: Local DE German soldiers are moonlighting illegally at private security firms while off-duty, a newspaper revealed on Monday. Working as heavily armed guards on freighters or in war-zones, some do it for the cash and others for the adrenaline kick. As members of the German army, Bundeswehr, soldiers are not allowed to work as mercenaries [...]

American/Saudi Covert Operations In Chechnya : BCCI,Ricin, Diamonds, Stingers

stratagem — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:06:18 +0000

Source: Sri Lanka Guardian As the Cold War between the USSR and the USA drew down in the early 1990’s, organizations/institutions used to fund proxy wars—and destabilization efforts–between the two Empires became exposed. With the Cold War ostensibly over, the corrupt and illegal actions of such groups could no longer be ignored, or covered up, [...]