DTN News - UKRAINE CRISIS: Merkel, U.S. Warn Putin of Crimea Annexation

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - UKRAINE CRISIS: Merkel, U.S. Warn Putin of Crimea Annexation

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources CBC News

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 9, 2014: Germany's Angela Merkel delivered a rebuke to President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, telling him that a planned Moscow-backed referendum on whether Crimea should join Russia was illegal and violated Ukraine's constitution.

Putin defended breakaway moves by pro-Russian leaders in Crimea, where Russian forces tightened their grip on the Ukrainian region by seizing another border post.

As thousands staged rival rallies in Crimea, street violence flared in Sebastopol, when pro-Russian activists and Cossack militiamen attacked a group of Ukrainians.

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Russian forces' seizure of the Black Sea peninsula has been bloodless but tensions are mounting following the decision by pro-Russian groups there to make Crimea part of Russia.

The operation to seize Crimea began within days of Ukraine's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich's flight from the country last month. Yanukovich was toppled after three months of demonstrations against a decision to spurn a free trade deal with the European Union for closer ties with Russia.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk will hold talks with President Barack Obama in Washington on Wednesday on how to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis, the White House said.

One of Obama's top national security officials said the United States would not recognise the annexation of Crimea by Russia if residents vote to leave Ukraine in a referendum next week.

Putin declared a week ago that Russia had the right to invade Ukraine to protect Russian citizens, and his parliament has voted to change the law to make it easier to annex territory inhabited by Russian speakers."We won't recognize it, nor will most of the world," deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken said.

Speaking by telephone to Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron, Putin said steps taken by authorities in Crimea were "based on international law and aimed at guaranteeing the legitimate interests of the peninsula's population," the Kremlin said.

A German government statement, however, said the referendum was illegal. "Holding it violates the Ukrainian constitution and international law."

BORDER POST TAKEN

Late on Sunday, an armed pro-Russian force wearing military uniforms bearing no designated markings sealed off another military airport in Crimea, a defence ministry spokesman on the peninsula said.

The 80 or so-strong group, who were supporting 50 civilians, blocked off the entrance to the airport near the village of Saki and established machine-gun posts along the landing strip, the spokesman, Vladislav Seleznyov, told Reuters by telephone.

KREMLIN STATEMENT

'Despite the differences in the assessments of what is
happening, they (Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British PM David Cameron) expressed a common
interest in de-escalation of the tensions and normalization of
the situation as soon as possible.'

The civilian group, who were wielding sticks and clubs, sought to break into the airport's control terminal, he said

Earlier in the day, Russian forces seized a border post on the western edge of Crimea, trapping about 15 personnel inside, a border guard spokesman said, revising an earlier figure of 30.

The spokesman, Oleh Slobodyan, said Russian forces now controlled 11 border guard posts across Crimea, a former Russian territory that is home to Russia's Black Sea fleet and has an ethnic Russian majority.

In Sevastopol, several hundred people held a meeting demanding that Crimea become part of Russia, chanting: "Moscow is our capital."

Across town at a monument to Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, violence flared at a meeting to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth, when pro-Russian activists and Cossacks attacked a small group of Ukrainians guarding the event and the police had to intervene.

Footage from the event showed a group of men violently kicking one of the Ukrainians as he lay on the ground and a Cossack repeatedly hit him with a long black leather whip.

Former Russian oil tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, released from jail in December, addressed a crowd in Kyiv's Independence Square lambasting his old foe Putin for his heavy-handed approach to protesters in Ukraine.

"Russian propaganda lies, as always. There are no fascists or Nazis here, no more than on the streets in Moscow or St  Petersburg," said Khodorovsky, who spent 10 years in a Russian prison. "These are wonderful people who stood up  for their freedom."

In Simferopol, Crimea's main city, pro- and anti-Russian groups held rival rallies.

Vladimir Kirichenko, 58, an engineer, opposed the regional parliament's plans for a vote this month on Crimea joining Russia. "I don't call this a referendum. It asks two practically identical questions: Are you for the secession of Ukraine or are you for the secession of Ukraine? 

So why would I go and vote?"Several hundred opponents of Russian-backed plans for Crimea to secede gathered, carrying blue and yellow balloons the colour of the Ukrainian flag. The crowd sang the national anthem, twice, and an Orthodox Priest led prayers and a hymn.

SOVIET SONGS

Around 2,000 Russian supporters gathered in Lenin Square, where there is a statue of the Soviet state founder, clapping along to nostalgic Soviet era songs being sung from the stage.

Alexander Liganov, 25 and jobless, said: "We have always been Russian, not Ukrainian. We support Putin."

President Vladimir Putin declared a week ago that Russia had the right to invade Ukraine to protect Russian citizens, and his parliament has voted to change the law to make it easier to annex territory inhabited by Russian speakers.

At a rally in the eastern city of Donetsk, home to many Russian speakers, presidential candidate Vitaly Klitschko, a former boxing champion, said Ukraine should not be allowed to split apart amid bloodshed.

"The main task is to preserve the stability and independence of our country," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking to Russia's foreign minister for the fourth day in a row, told Sergei Lavrov on Saturday that Russia should exercise restraint.The worst face-off with Moscow since the Cold War has left the West scrambling for a response, especially since the region's pro-Russia leadership declared Crimea part of Russia last week and announced a March 16 referendum to confirm it.

"He made clear that continued military escalation and provocation in Crimea or elsewhere in Ukraine, along with steps to annex Crimea to Russia, would close any available space for diplomacy, and he urged utmost restraint," a U.S. official said.

SHOTS FIRED

A spokeswoman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said military monitors from the pan-Europe watchdog had on Saturday been prevented for the third time in as many days from entering Crimea.

Moscow denies that the Russian-speaking troops in Crimea are under its command, an assertion Washington dismisses as "Putin's fiction." Although they wear no insignia, the troops drive vehicles with Russian military plates.Shots were fired to turn back the mission of more than 40 unarmed observers, who have been invited by Kyiv but lack permission from Crimea's pro-Russian authorities to cross the isthmus to the peninsula. No one was hurt.

A Reuters reporting team filmed a convoy of hundreds of Russian troops in about 50 trucks, accompanied by armoured vehicles and ambulances, which pulled into a military base north of Simferopol in broad daylight on Saturday.

Ukrainian troops are performing training exercises in their bases but there are no plans to send them to Crimea, Interfax news agency quoted acting Defence Minister Ihor Tenyukh as saying. Ukraine's military, with 130,000 troops, would be no match for Russia's. So far Kyiv has held back from any action that might provoke a response.

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources CBC News
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DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Funeral For Top Hezbollah Commander Marches in Sidon

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - SYRIA UNREST: Funeral For Top Hezbollah Commander Marches in Sidon

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - December 9, 2013: (Sidon, Lebanon) Hezbollah held a funeral procession in the suburb of the coastal city of Sidon Monday for a top military commander who was killed in Syria a day earlier.

The procession was led by Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad, the Imam of Haret Sayda Sheikh Abdel-Hussein Abdallah and a Hezbollah Commander, Ali Daoun.

Ali Bazzi's coffin was carried on the shoulders of Hezbollah members as the commander's friends fired shots in the air.

The large procession prompted the Lebanese Army to deploy at the northern entrance of the city and in several neighborhoods leading to Haret Sayda.

Sidon is the home of fugitive Salafi-labelled Sheikh Ahmad Assir who was a staunch critic of Hezbollah and its involvement in the Syrian crisis. Assir and his supporters were engaged in deadly armed clashes against the Army in June.

Bazzi is originally from the southern town of Bint Jbeil but his family moved to Sidon decades ago. His father owns a shoe shop in the area.

A Lebanese security source told The Daily Star Sunday that Bazzi was killed in a combat zone.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Hezbollah fighters were killed during battles in Nabk, one of the last rebel-held areas in the Qalamoun region bordering Lebanon.

Hezbollah-backed regime forces have launched a military campaign to root out rebel forces in Qalamoun, near the border with Lebanon.

Residents of southern Lebanon said Sunday that two other Hezbollah fighters – Ali Saleh and Qassem Ghamloush – were also killed in Syria Sunday and buried.

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DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: North Korea Has Failed Again Says Obama

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: North Korea Has Failed Again Says Obama

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Matthew Pennington - Associated Press
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 7, 2013: President Barack Obama said Tuesday that North Korea can no longer create an international crisis with nuclear provocations, asserting the United States and South Korea are fully capable of defending themselves.

"The days when North Korea could create a crisis and elicit concessions, those days are over," Obama said from the White House East Room, after he and South Korean President Park Geun-hye met privately in the Oval Office.

Obama's comments came in a news conference with Park on her first foreign visit as the country's leader. It marked the 60th anniversary of the U.S.-South Korean alliance.

Obama said that Pyongyang has failed to drive a wedge between the U.S. and South Korea or to garner global respect with its threats. He says the joint U.S.-South Korea meeting at the White House was evidence that North Korea has "failed again."

Ahead of the meeting, U.S. officials said North Korea has taken a step back from its recent escalation of regional tensions by removing from its launch site a set of medium-range ballistic missiles that had been readied for possible test-firing.

Obama says he doesn't know North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally and has never spoken to him, but says he can still take a different path. He said actions by the unpredictable young leader, who came to power after the death of his father Kim Jong Il in December 2011, seem to pursue a dead end.

"There's going to have to be changes in behavior," Obama said. "We have an expression in English, 'Don't worry about what I say, just watch what I do."

Park arrived at the White House with a color guard lining the driveway from Pennsylvania Avenue. Her Oval Office meeting, working lunch and joint news conference with Obama will be followed Wednesday by an address to a joint meeting of Congress.

Obama said such an address is an honor "reserved for our closest of friends." He called Park "tough," spoke of a great friendship between the two nations and joked that "the Korean wave" of culture has hit the United States.

"My daughters have taught me a pretty good 'Gangnam Style,'" Obama joked, a reference to the hit dance song by South Korean singer PSY that has become YouTube's most watched video with 1.5 billion views since its release last summer.

Park has had something of a baptism of fire since she took office in February, two weeks after North Korea's latest atomic test ratcheted up tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula and undermined her hopes of forging a more trusting relationship with a difficult neighbor.

"Instead of just hoping to see North Korea change, the international community must consistently send the message with one voice, to tell them and communicate to them that they have no choice but to change," Park said.

After the U.N. Security Council tightened sanctions on North Korea in response to the nuclear test — its third since 2006 — it claims to have scrapped the 1953 Korean War armistice and has threatened nuclear strikes on the U.S., prompting Washington to bolster missile defenses.

Two Musudan missiles at a site in eastern North Korea had been in what American officials described as launch-ready status for some weeks. Two U.S. officials confirmed their removal on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss a matter involving sensitive U.S. intelligence. It's not clear why they removed the missiles in recent days, but Pentagon press secretary George Little said on Monday that U.S. officials have seen a "provocation pause" by North Korea.

Park touched down in New York on Monday, meeting first with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister who praised her "firm but measured" response to North Korean provocations and determination to resolve their differences though dialogue.

However, Park made clear in an interview on the eve of her visit that she was willing to get tough on North Korea. She told CBS News that if South Korea came under attack, "We will make them pay."

Park, the first democratically elected female leader in Northeast Asia, is no stranger to Seoul's Blue House, as the residence of the chief executive is known. She's the daughter of the late South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee, and in her 20s she took over the duties of first lady for five years after a gunman claiming orders from North Korea killed her mother in a botched attack targeting her father.

While focused squarely on the North Korean threat, Park's visit is a chance to build a rapport with Obama, who enjoyed an unusually close bond with the previous South Korean leader, Lee Myung-bak. The two presided over the adoption of a U.S.-South Korean free trade pact in 2012 that expanded the scope of an alliance largely built on security ties and deterring an attack from the North. Some 28,500 U.S. troops are still based in South Korea for that purpose.

Lee took a hard line on relations with Pyongyang, cutting aid to the impoverished nation. While his approach had Obama's firm backing, public frustration in the South has mounted over the North's continued weapons tests and provocations â€" including attacks in 2010 that left dozens of South Koreans dead.

In a change of tone, Park, although a conservative, has advocated trying to build trust with Pyongyang through aid shipments and large-scale economic initiatives if there's progress on the nuclear issue, even as she and South Korea's military promise to respond forcefully to any possible attack from the North.

But to date, relations have only gotten worse. Most recently, North Korea has withdrawn its 53,000 workers from an industrial park on its territory run by South Korean companies. After Pyongyang rejected Seoul's offer of talks, the South last week withdrew its last staff from the facility, closing the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation that began during the "sunshine" engagement policy championed by Lee's more liberal predecessors.

On Tuesday, North Korea threatened the U.S. and South Korea over joint naval drills taking place this week in the Yellow Sea. The section of the Korean People's Army responsible for operations in North Korea's southwest said it will strike back if any shells fall in its territory during the drills. Should the allies respond to that, the statement said, Pyongyang's military would then strike five South Korean islands that stand along the aquatic frontline between the countries.

Daniel Russel, White House senior director for Asian affairs, said Obama would reaffirm the U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea. He said the joint appearance of the two leaders at the White House would make it crystal clear to Pyongyang that the allies stand shoulder to shoulder.
"In dealing with North Korea, it's vital we show unity," Russel told reporters.

Dealing with Pyongyang's secretive regime, never easy, has become increasingly tough under the unpredictable young leader Kim Jong Un, who came to power after the death of his father Kim Jong Il in December 2011.

Russel cautioned it was premature to judge whether North Korea's cycle of provocation "is going up, down or zigzagging." He said both the U.S. and South Korea support "incremental engagement" with Pyongyang, but it has to take "irreversible steps" signaling a commitment to end its nuclear program.

The past year has already seen disconcerting progress in the North's weapons development, including its first successful launch of a three-stage, long-range rocket, although it is not yet believed to have to have the means to fire a nuclear-tipped missile at mainland America.

The Obama administration has put increasing emphasis on the role the North's main ally and benefactor, China, can play to press Pyongyang to honor its previous commitments on denuclearization. In a significant move, one of China's biggest banks said Tuesday it has halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the U.S. of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs in the latest sign of Beijing's displeasure with its estranged ally.
___
Associated Press writers Robert Burns, Nedra Pickler and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Matthew Pennington - Associated Press
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DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: Barack Obama Invites First Black Miss Israel To Dinner

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - WHITE HOUSE NEWS: Barack Obama Invites First Black Miss Israel To Dinner
*Yityish Aynaw, the first Ethiopian-born pageant winner, said the US president had been a 'notable influence in her life'

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Phoebe Greenwood, Tel Aviv  - guardian.co.uk
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 14, 2013:  It will be one of the hottest tickets in town. When the US president,Barack Obama, arrives in Israel on an official visit next week, one of the highlights for the country's dignatries will be a dinner hosted at Israeli president Shimon Peres's home. And among those set to dine with the two presidents is the first black Miss Israel, Yityish Aynaw.

When the president's staff called to invite her to the dinnerAynaw, who was crowned just a few weeks ago, was understandably taken aback. "I didn't believe this was happening," she told the Jerusalem Post.

Aynaw arrived in Israel from Ethiopia when she was 12 years old. The beauty queen, who has worked as a sales assistant since leaving the army, has admitted that it was initially difficult for her to assimilate into Israeli society. Despite being 100,000 strong, the Ethiopian Jewish community is marginalised in Israel, where some rabbis have questioned the authenticity of their Jewish faith.

In the course of the Miss Israel competition, Aynaw told the panel of judges: "It's important that a member of the Ethiopian community win the competition for the first time. There are many different communities of many different colours in Israel, and it's important to show that to the world."

On learning that she would be dining with the US president alongside the Israeli leadership, Aynaw admitted that as a young immigrant, she would not have believed "such a thing could happen" to her. Once the news sunk in, however, the 21 year-old former Israeli army officer declared herself "excited" and reasoned: "The first black Miss Israel to be chosen and [Obama] is the first black American President. These goes together."

Obama, she said, has had a "notable influence in her life".

Shortly after winning the title, Aynaw named assassinated US civil rights leader Martin Luther King as one of her heroes: "He fought for justice and equality, and that's one of the reasons I'm here: I want to show that my community has many beautiful qualities that aren't always represented in the media."

While she may have embraced her life in Israel, Aynaw has refused to adopt a Hebrew name as many of African immigrants have done. "I was born sick but my mum believed I had a future," she told Jewish publication The Tablet, explaining that her name in Amharic, the second most spoken Semitic language in the world after Arabic, means "looking towards the future". "I'd never change my name," she said. "Ever".

With African roots and controversial names in common, Miss Israel and President Obama have ample mutual ground to break the ice. 

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Phoebe Greenwood, Tel Aviv  - guardian.co.uk
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DTN News - OBAMA IN AFGHANISTAN: Obama’s Afghanistan Plan - Echoes of Vietnam In The U.S. Exit Strategy

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - OBAMA IN AFGHANISTAN: Obama’s Afghanistan Plan - Echoes of Vietnam In The U.S. Exit Strategy
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Tony Karon - Time (Blog)
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 2, 2012: To understand the historical significance of President Barack Obama’s visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday, imagine that President Richard Nixon had, in the spring of 1972, flown to Saigon to signal American voters that the Vietnam war was coming to an end — and to ink a deal with President Nguyen Van Thieu codifying a long-term U.S. relationship with the Republic of South Vietnam, which would shortly be left responsible for its own security. 

“Today, I signed a historic agreement between the United States and Afghanistan that defines a new kind of relationship between our countries – a future in which Afghans are responsible for the security of their nation, and we build an equal partnership between two sovereign states; a future in which the war ends, and a new chapter begins,” Obama said Tuesday.  Nixon might have said something similar on that imaginary 1972 visit. Except, of course, everyone knew that Vietnam’s future would not be defined by an agreement between Washington and Thieu, as much as by the one signed in Paris, two months after Nixon’s reelection, between Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, representing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (a.k.a. “North Vietnam”). Even that deal collapsed, of course, with the DRV and its supporters in the south finishing off the Thieu regime 19 months after U.S. troops withdrew.

Any deal between Presidents Obama and Karzai premised on the ability of the current political order in Kabul to protect itself independently of foreign troops is hardly likely to be the last word, pleasing as the spectacle may be for presidential campaign purposes. The key — but by no means the only — conversation shaping Afghanistan’s future will be the one conducted on the battlefield, and at the negotiating table, between the U.S., its Afghan interlocutors and the Taliban. That point seemed to be underscored by a Taliban car bomb attack near U.S. bases in Kabul just hours after Obama’s departure, which served as a counterpoint to the President’s insistence in his speech that the insurgents’ momentum has been broken. 

Sure, the U.S. has made important tactical gains against the Taliban in designated operational areas in southwestern Afghanistan, but tactical gains in an expeditionary counterinsurgency war tend to be just that; the insurgents know that, as Henry Kissinger famously put it, guerrilla armies win by not losing. They know that the civilian population has little faith in Western forces or in the government those forces protect, and they know the U.S. and its allies are seeking an expeditious exit from Afghanistan. The brutal truth of the Afghanistan equation is that time is still on the side of the Taliban.

The U.S. plans to drawn down troop levels from the current 90,000 to less than 20,000 by the end of 2014, while helping Afghan security forces “surge” to an anticipated 352,000 troops this year. The new agreements seemed to signal a ten-year commitment to maintain an unspecified number of troops for training, intelligence and logistics purposes, and to conduct operations against al-Qaeda. (More importantly, the U.S., as well as other NATO countries, will commit later this month to a decade-long financial package to the government in Kabul worth over $4 billion a year, a sum some say Karzai considers insufficient.)

“We will not build permanent bases in this country, nor will we be patrolling in cities and mountains,” Obama said. “That will be the job of the Afghan people.” But so narrow is the political base of the Karzai regime, which was elected by a small minority of Afghans and whose corruption is endemic, that its ability to lead a credible counterinsurgency fight against the Taliban remains seriously in doubt. The problem is not simply that the Afghan forces lack sufficient training, or that the Afghan government can’t afford to pay for the indigenous army that NATO has created to keep it alive; the problem is fundamentally one of motivation. How many Afghan troops are really ready to fight and die to keep President Karzai in power? One troubling indicator might be the by-now routine incidence of Afghan friendlies turning their weapons on their U.S. and other Western mentors — an incidence the AP claims the military is systematically underreporting.

President Obama did, of course, acknowledge that negotiations with the insurgency were underway. “My Administration has been in direct discussions with the Taliban,” he said. “We have made it clear they can be part of this future if they break with al-Qaida, renounce violence and abide by Afghan laws.” The Taliban may negotiate, and they may not — for a range of reasons ranging from mistrust of the U.S. to the fact that they feel the wind at their backs and because they know the Americans will leave, and also because the Taliban is no longer a single hierarchical entity, but a series of networks, with many of the younger commanders who have replaced those killed by U.S. forces in recent years adopting an even more militant and intractable position. The longer the fighting rages on, analysts of the Taliban warn, the less likely it becomes that those more inclined to negotiate a compromise are able to prevail in the movement’s internal debates over those who believe they will win a bigger victory by fighting on.

Still, even if the Taliban was willing to negotiate a political settlement, it’s a relative certainty that the insurgents won’t accept the terms laid down by President Obama: Even if the Taliban was willing to commit to preventing Afghan territory being used to stage international terror attacks, it’s unlikely to accept Afghan laws and a constitution adopted on the back of a Western invasion. Afghanistan had been engaged in a civil war for a decade before the U.S.-led invasion prompted by the 9/11 attacks, and the invasion didn’t change that; it simply tipped the balance in that civil war against the Pakistan-backed and predominantly Pashtun Taliban and in favor of the Northern Alliance, dominated by ethnic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, and backed by India, Iran and Russia. It is the Northern Alliance that forms the basis of the current order in Kabul, but take Western troops out of the equation, and the equation changes. The Taliban would only be likely to accept the Karzai order in Kabul if it had lost the war; right now, that’s not happening, meaning that a political solution is unlikely without a substantial renegotiation of the distribution of power. The likelihood that the Taliban will reconcile itself to a lesser role in the Karzai order is about as remote as those of the North Vietnamese being willing to accept Thieu’s authority.

Nor is it simply a case of Karzai reaching an accommodation with the Taliban: Key elements in the Northern Alliance are deeply mistrustful of any deals with the Taliban, and mistrust Karzai — and what they see as his effort to juggle the interests of competing warlords. His regime is brittle, at best, and could easily collapse — particularly because 2014 is also the year in which his tenure expires

Then again, right now the insurgents may be more likely to wait out 2014 and test the proposition that the Karzai regime will be able to defend itself without U.S. forces making the decisive difference — just like the Vietcong did in the period between the Paris agreement and the fall of Saigon.

Related Images;

 


*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Tony Karon - Time (Blog)
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*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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