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❌ US-ANGLO CAPITALISM
 EU-NATO IMPERIALISM ❌
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Poland’s defence ministry is ready to send humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but is this enough?
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Poland to Contest Russia's Food Import Ban at WTO
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| NATO Poland base may be prepared for blitz against Russia Published time: July 24, 2014 13:39 NATO’s Europe commander advocates stockpiling a base in Poland with enough weapons, ammunition and other supplies to support a rapid deployment of thousands of troops against Russia, British media reported. |
European court rules against Poland over secret CIA jail
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday that the CIA ran a secret jail on Polish soil, a judgment that adds to pressure on the United States and its allies to reveal the truth about the global program for detaining al Qaeda suspects. ... The Strasbourg-based court ruled that Poland had violated Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights that cover torture, the right to liberty, and the right to an effective remedy for victims of crime.... | ... The court ruling did not cover the United States, which is outside its jurisdiction. Thursday’s decision puts the Polish government in an awkward position. It has a close security relationship with the United States and Polish officials have always denied the existence of any CIA jail on their territory. The ruling may also have implications for other European states alleged to have hosted CIA prisons: similar cases have been lodged with the court in Strasbourg against Romania and Lithuania. Source - The Global Mail - here. |
The geopolitical consequences of the shale revolution transcend periodic, regionally specific crises such as Ukraine or Iran (where U.S. sanctions have been able to bite exactly because of growing North American oil and gas supplies entering world markets).
Aside from physical exports, U.S. shale expertise may well help Europe diversify its energy sources away from Russia, too. There’s talk of exploiting significant shale basins in Britain, France, Germany, Poland and, yes, Ukraine. According to NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen, Russian intelligence has sought ways to co-opt European environmental NGOs that oppose hydraulic fracturing.
Ever since the early 1970s, the dominant motif has posited “energy needs” with “energy vulnerability,” as the United States became the major global oil importer. This vulnerability has rested heavily on our thinking about security, itself a legacy of oil embargoes from that era. Today, the shale revolution is changing that calculus.
New trends, such as the revival of energy-intensive U.S. industries and a distinct improvement in our terms of trade, reflect the still-surprising energy abundance accelerating since 2005. Future natural gas exports and high-value North American shale expertise will play an ever larger part of the geopolitical long game. This new game has only started and, for a change, we seem to have a winning hand.
James Clad, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia, consults for energy and investment firms and is senior adviser at the Center for Naval Analyses and at Jane’s Defence and Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
FULL - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - here.
"Another criticism of NGOs is that they are being designed and used as extensions of the normal foreign-policy instruments of certain Western countries and groups of countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made this accusation at the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy in 2007, concluding that these NGOs "are formally independent but they are purposefully financed and therefore under control. [wikipedia]"
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POLISH Defence Minister (Tomasz Siemoniak)Inspects first US troops to arrive in eastern Europe |
'A message to Moscow': First of 600 U.S. soldiers arrive in eastern Europe prompting Kremlin to launch its own military drills near the border as death toll rises in Ukraine
Published: 03:35 AEST, 25 April 2014
The first of 600 U.S. soldiers have arrived in eastern Europe as a Pentagon spokesman declared the mission was sending a 'message to Moscow'.
But the Nato drills prompted a backlash from Russia, which sent its troops on exercises along the Ukrainian border today and declared: 'We have to react somehow'.
The escalation of east-west tensions comes amid a slowly rising death toll in Ukraine, where the government renewed its crackdown today on pro-Russian militants leaving at least five shot dead.
Around 150 soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade arrived yesterday at an air force base in Swidwin, western Poland, as the U.S. stepped up its presence in eastern Europe.
Flying to the region from their previous posting in Italy, they were met by Polish troops in similar red berets and the nation's defence minister.
Within a few days there will be 450 more American Nato troops spread between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The Americans insisted the military exercises will not be a precursor to intervention in Ukraine...
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But Russia has insisted the build-up may violate the Founding Act, a 1997 agreement between Moscow and Nato.
Today Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reacted by ordering new military exercises in Russia's south and west, along the Ukrainian border.
The latest exercises - which add to the tens of thousands of troops already massed on the border - will involve ground and air forces.
'We have to react to these developments somehow,' he said.
Mr Shoigu quoted unspecified sources claiming Kiev has deployed more than 11,000 troops and 160 tanks against just 2,000 pro-Russian insurgents.
Today Russian President Vladimir Putin added: 'If the Kiev government is using the army against its own people this is clearly a grave crime.'
The U.S. and Nato ...
... are 'temporarily' boosting their presence in eastern Europe in a drive to reassure allies ...
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