TOKYO MASTER BANNER

MINISTRY OF TOKYO
US-ANGLO CAPITALISMEU-NATO IMPERIALISM
Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies
Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships
Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution
No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans.
U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY
[LINK | Article]

*U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR*

Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
[info from Craig Murray video appearance, follows]  US-Anglo Alliance DELIBERATELY STOKING ANTI-RUSSIAN FEELING & RAMPING UP TENSION BETWEEN EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA.  British military/government feeding media PROPAGANDA.  Media choosing to PUBLISH government PROPAGANDA.  US naval aggression against Russia:  Baltic Sea — US naval aggression against China:  South China Sea.  Continued NATO pressure on Russia:  US missile systems moving into Eastern Europe.     [info from John Pilger interview follows]  War Hawk:  Hillary Clinton — embodiment of seamless aggressive American imperialist post-WWII system.  USA in frenzy of preparation for a conflict.  Greatest US-led build-up of forces since WWII gathered in Eastern Europe and in Baltic states.  US expansion & military preparation HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED IN THE WEST.  Since US paid for & controlled US coup, UKRAINE has become an American preserve and CIA Theme Park, on Russia's borderland, through which Germans invaded in the 1940s, costing 27 million Russian lives.  Imagine equivalent occurring on US borders in Canada or Mexico.  US military preparations against RUSSIA and against CHINA have NOT been reported by MEDIA.  US has sent guided missile ships to diputed zone in South China Sea.  DANGER OF US PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES.  China is on HIGH NUCLEAR ALERT.  US spy plane intercepted by Chinese fighter jets.  Public is primed to accept so-called 'aggressive' moves by China, when these are in fact defensive moves:  US 400 major bases encircling China; Okinawa has 32 American military installations; Japan has 130 American military bases in all.  WARNING PENTAGON MILITARY THINKING DOMINATES WASHINGTON. ⟴  

December 29, 2015

2013 - Abu Ghraib & Other Captive Torture Iraq - US Govt Contractor to Pay Tortured Captives

Article
SOURCE
Archived News - 2013


Times of Israel 
/ AP  - 2013

Summary:

Engility Holdings Inc
Chantilly, Virginia, USA
US government defence contractor

lawsuit:  conspiring to torture detainees
at:   Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq

Paid $5.28 million
to 71 former inmates held Abu Ghraib
(& at other US-run detention sites)
between 2003 and 2007

L-3 Services Inc.
(now an Engility subsidiary)
provided translators to US military in Iraq
over  6,000 translators in Iraq
(at $450 million per annum contract)

CACI International Inc.
Arlington, Virginia, USA
(another US government defence contractor)
case expected to go on trial

  • each of the 71 Iraqis received a portion

Torture - Iraq
  • mock execution (trigger pulling)
  • wall slammed until unconscious
  • stripped, bound (chain) & hooded, threatened with rape
  • forced to consume so much water, vomited blood
  • several captives raped & beaten
  • kept naked extended periods of time

2003 to 2006
USA Defence Department
paid $30.9 million to Iraqi & Afghan civilians

re killings, injuries, property damage
due to US or coalition forces' military actions


US government is immune from lawsuits
stemming from combatant activities of the military at war



2013 - Times of Israel:

"Courts are still sorting out whether contractors in a war zone should be accorded legal immunity from being sued, just as the government is immune."

In its defense four years ago against the lawsuit, L-3 said the fact that the claims in the case “cannot be brought against the government means that they also cannot be brought against L-3.”

No court in the United States has allowed aliens — detained on the battlefield or in the course of postwar occupation and military operations by the US military — to seek damages for their detention,” the company told the federal court four years ago. “Yet these plaintiffs bring claims seeking money damages for their detention and treatment while in the custody of the US military in the midst of a belligerent occupation in Iraq.”

Allowing the case to proceed “would require a wholly unprecedented injection of the judiciary into wartime military operations and occupation conduct against the local population, in particular the conditions of confinement and interrogation for intelligence gathering,” L-3 added.



http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-defense-contractor-pays-over-5-million-to-ex-abu-ghraib-inmates/



---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------

COMMENT

The Iraqi torture victims didn't receive much:  $5.28 million between 71 victims is peanuts.

Maybe the whole of Iraq should mount a class action lawsuit and get restitution for decades, seeing the entire Iraq war was illegal.

If the US cannot be sued re 'war' military actions, why have US taxpayers paid:  $30.9 million to Afghans and Iraqis?

And check out the $450-million American taxpayer money that went to the interpreters.

And let's not forget the 2010 monthly costs borne by the American taxpayer, that's in the BILLIONS (and, no, that's not a typo):

February 2010
Cost of War to USA Taxpayers
  • Afghanistan - $6.7 billion per month
  • Iraq - $5.5 billion per month


Bankers must love war

USA debt clock:

Over $18 Trillion dollars payable to bankers
by US taxpayers for generations ahead

More US debt clocks:




*I think that's 'trillions' ... but I'm no good at reading big numbers.




GIF - Free Assange


Free Assange
Political Prisoner Britain

ꕤ COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.
Political Persecution



Transcript
[For quotation purposes, confirm audio]

Melinda Taylor, Lawyer
Geneva Press Club
26 January 2015


How Is Julian Assange being detained?

"Now, if you're in a castle surrounded by a moat with crocodiles, obviously you're free to leave if you're willing to swim across that moat and get eaten by crocodiles.

Similarly, as a matter of law and as Señor Garzon said, it's very clear under the European Court of Human Rights, it's very clear under the Human Rights Commission and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, you cannot be compelled to put your life at risk [and] you cannot be compelled to give up a fundamental right such as a right of asylum.

For this reason, for example, if you have asylum seekers in an airport, who are trying to claim asylum:  yes, they can go back to where they came, but if they have to stay there for months or years, while their asylum application is being processed, that can be detention, because it's not a real choice to leave and expose yourself to a risk of persecution, a risk of harm, or a risk of torture.

And that is exactly what would happen to Mr Assange:  the day he steps outside that door, he exposes himself of a risk of extradition to the united States, where he will face an unfair and illegal investigation.  He will face a similar fate to Chelsea Manning, who was subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment, and that's just not a choice.

So, yes, he is detained."

SOURCE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qILMyxer80



---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------



Julian Assange
Journalist
Editor, WikiLeaks


BOOK:  The WikiLeaks Files (2015)







Afghan War 2001 - 2010 Ninth Anniversary Article

Article
SOURCE
archived news - as marked


http://theredphoenixapl.org/2010/10/07/on-the-ninth-anniversary-of-the-afghanistan-war/

Afghan War 2001

On the Ninth Anniversary of the Afghanistan War

By The Red Phoenix on October 7, 2010

Today, the war and military occupation in Afghanistan continues onwards for its tenth year, marking the ninth anniversary of the invasion on October 7th, 2001. The so-called “Global War on Terror” has escalated into a full-scale invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the bombing and terrorization of Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen and other countries. Since then, the financial costs of the Afghanistan War have trampled that of the Iraq War. In February 2010, the monthly cost for Afghanistan was $6.7 billion, while the Iraq War was $5.5 billion. Costs aside, let us take a look at where the Afghan War has taken the Afghan population nine years down the line.  “Operation Enduring Freedom” (OEF) has brought nothing but destruction, a military dictatorship, legalized rape and the re-opening of Afghanistan’s poppy and opium fields to fuel the global drug trade.  [comment:  I thought the figure in the billions per month was a typo, but a check indicates monthly figures in the BILLIONS is correct & the figures given in this 2010 article are correct - here]

In addition, NATO airstrikes and ground operations have not ceased for a moment. Even pro-US Afghan President Hamid Karzai is calling on the US to withdraw. The death tolls for both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars have independently claimed thousands of lives. Some civilian death estimates for Afghanistan say between 11,443 and 14,240 deaths have been recorded total as “direct deaths,” with 6982 since 2007. Some estimates go as high as over a million dead in Iraq alone. The recent escalation of the war in Afghanistan by the US imperialists is the beginning of President Barack Obama’s plan to send 30,000 more troops in the coming months before a supposed gradual drawdown of troops (much like the recent Iraq “drawdown” no doubt) in 2011. The CIA remains poised and ready to borrow armed bomber drones from the US military in order to expand their covert assassination campaign, which has been known to violate the borders of Pakistan in North Waziristan and commit political assassinations.

Current State of Afghanistan  [at 2010]

A global public opinion survey involving 47 nations conducted in 2007 found that only 2 out of the 47 countries possessed a majority that supported the continued US/NATO occupation of Afghanistan. These two were Israel (59%) and Kenya (60%) (1). More breaking news included that “The Taliban issued a statement marking the invasion anniversary, claiming 75 percent of Afghanistan was now under its control. ‘The strongholds of jihad and resistance against the invading Americans and their allies are as strong as ever,’ it said. ‘The invading Americans spent hundreds of billions of dollars in order to continue this illegitimate war, lost thousands of soldiers — with tens of thousands of them being injured — and faced heavy losses in terms of military hardware.’ The Taliban urged the U.S. and its allies to immediately leave the country” (2). A report by the Open Society Foundations, a think-tank, said that “Afghans are increasingly angry and resentful about the international presence in Afghanistan and do not believe insurgents are responsible for most attacks and civilian deaths” (2).

Just to give our readers an idea of just how bad the drug trade in Afghanistan has gotten since the US occupation, on Wednesday a “joint patrol […] seized a vehicle with 1,700 pounds (760 kilograms) of heroin, 550 pounds (250 kilograms) of hashish, 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of wet opium, five anti-personal mines, and bomb-making materials in Kandahar […]” (2).

As Afghanistan was getting ravaged with bombs, the U.S. government enlisted the help of the Northern Alliance led by warlord Rashid Dostum to do their bidding on the ground. In a U.S. orchestrated operation, the Northern Alliance captured the Taliban stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif. Thousands of Taliban fighters were taken prisoner in the nearby town of Kunduz. Kunduz fell in November of that year, and in December, New York Times correspondent Carlotta Gall reported, “dozens…of prisoners asphyxiated in shipping containers used to transport them to [the] prison in Shibarghan, a journey that took two or three days” (3). The NA needed to transport thousands of “potentially dangerous men” and as such they were stuffed into sealed containers that often line the roads of Afghanistan and are used to transport prisoners. This figure of “dozens” comes from the prison commander who admitted that 43 had died during the journey, most from combat injuries. However, inquiry with inmates held in Shibarghan lead Gall to believe that the actual number of deaths may be much higher.

The following May, Gall offered a follow-up report, offering the news, “A tangle of abandoned clothes, half-covered in sand, lies just off the desert track. Pieces of white bone are strewn among the mess and the smell of decaying bodies drifts over the site” (4). She then went on to offer some background information on what she had discovered: The desert outside Shibarghan “hides what are suspected to be large-scale killings committed five months ago by Afghan allies of the US” (3).

“Kill Team” in Afghanistan Exposed for War Crimes

As for a more recent event, rogue members of a platoon from the fifth Stryker Combat Brigade, second infantry division were charged with killing civilians for sport and for dismembering and photographing corpses. According to the army’s own charge documents, an Afghan man approached the platoon in the small village of La Mohammed Kalay. One soldier, falling back on the excuse that they were under attack, threw a fragmentary grenade and ordered others to open fire. This unprovoked attack, taking place on January 15th, was the beginning of a wide-reaching shooting spree against civilians. The subsequent investigation has pressured the belief that the military ignored warnings of the rouge soldiers and what they were doing.

One of the soldiers facing charges, Spc. Adam Winfield, wrote home to his parents after he was notified of the killings done by his fellow soldiers, “I’m not sure what to do about something that happened out here, but I need to be secretive about this” (5). He wrote this on a Facebook message to his parents, dated January 15th, 2009. About a month later, he was able to present his family with the details. Soldiers in his unit were on patrol and killed, “some innocent guy about my age, just farming” (5). He then added that those who had committed the murder suggested that he “get one of his own.” The soldier’s father, Christopher Winfield, went to contact the Army through a hotline in order to prompt an investigation. However, his efforts were all for none. Months later, two more Afghan civilians were killed.

Spc. Winfield later told his parents that he had “proof that they [the soldiers in his unit] are planning another one in the form of an AK-47 they want to drop on a guy” (6). He added that he felt a strong concern for his personal safety if he made the decision to report the killings to the authorities. “Should I do the right thing and put myself in danger for it? Or just shut up and deal with it,” adding, “There are no more good men left here. It eats away at my conscience every day” (7). Winfield had good reason to worry. Another soldier in the same unit, Pfc. Justin Stoner, who told superiors about hashish-smoking among soldiers, was savagely beaten by several members of the platoon. Staff Sgt. Gibbs and another soldier further intimidated Stoner by displaying on the floor a set of severed fingers, telling Stoner that “if I don’t want to end up like that guy…shut the hell up” (6). This led Stoner to tell investigators about the murders of the three Afghan civilians.

Spec. Jeremy N. Morlock, 22, and a member of the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade admitted to taking place in the killings, which took place in the Kandahar province between January and May 2009. He attempted to shift the blame entirely on Gibbs, claiming that he was the one that planted the idea with their unit to kill innocent Afghans. “Gibbs had pure hatred for all Afghanis and constantly referred to them as savages,” Morlock said in one statement, details of which were first reported by the Associated Press (8).

Morlock, Gibbs and three other U.S. soldiers have been charged with murder in the deaths of the three Afghan civilians. In some of the most gruesome allegations against American military personnel since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, they and other soldiers from their platoon also face charges of using hashish, dismembering and photographing corpses, and possessing human bones. Morlock’s defense attorney sought to toss out his client’s statements by arguing that he was on heavy medication at the time of his discussion with Army investigators in May of that year.

http://theredphoenixapl.org/2010/10/07/on-the-ninth-anniversary-of-the-afghanistan-war/


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/11/kill-team-calvin-gibbs-convicted


The Guardian - 2011

'Kill team' US platoon commander guilty of Afghan murders

Calvin Gibbs, who made soldiers help him kill civilians and take body part 'trophies', could be out in less than 10 years

Chris McGreal in Washington

Friday 11 November 2011 14.36 AEDT

A US military court has convicted an army squad commander of leading a "kill team" in Afghanistan that murdered unarmed civilians and collected body parts as war trophies.

But Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, 26, could be freed in less than 10 years after receiving a life sentence with the possibility of early parole for murder, assault and conspiracy over the killings of three Afghans in separate incidents staged to look as if the victims were combatants.

In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, Gibbs recruited other soldiers to murder civilians he called "savages" after he took over command of a US army squad in Afghanistan's Kandahar province in November 2009. Prosecutors described Gibbs as hunting innocent Afghans "for sport", a view reinforced by the staff sergeant's statement likening the amputation of body parts as trophies to collecting antlers from a deer.

The military prosecutor, Major Rob Stelle, told the court: "Sergeant Gibbs had a charisma, he had a 'follow me' personality. But it was all a bunch of crap, he had his own mission: murder and depravity. No one died before Sergeant Gibbs showed up."

Gibbs was convicted of murder for inciting two soldiers to kill 15-year-old Gul Mudin as he worked in a field. The platoon commander gave a grenade to one of the soldiers, Jeremy Morlock, who threw it at Mudin. A second soldier, Andrew Holmes, then shot the boy. Gibbs played with the corpse of the teenager "as if it was a puppet", Morlock told the trial.

The staff sergeant was also convicted of shooting dead Marach Agha, a man sleeping by a roadside, and then planting a Kalashnikov next to the corpse to make it look as if he was a fighter. He kept part of the victim's skull as a trophy.

Gibbs was convicted on a third count of murder for killing a Muslim cleric, Mullah Adahdad, with a grenade and then shooting him. Two other soldiers, Morlock and Adam Winfield, have already pleaded guilty over their roles in the killing.

Gibbs and other soldiers collected fingers, teeth and other body parts as trophies. They also took photographs of themselves posing next to their dead victims. In one of the pictures Morlock is seen lifting Mudin's [teenager's] head by its hair for the camera and smiling. The soldiers also took ghoulish pictures of themselves with dead combatants.

The jury of five soldiers was shown pages of Facebook messages sent by Winfield to his parents in which he described how Gibbs led the killings. In one exchange with his father Winfield recounted Mudin's killing.

"An innocent dude. They planned and went through with it. I knew about it. Didn't believe they were going to do it. Then it happened. Pretty much the whole platoon knows about it. It's OK with all of them pretty much. Except me. I want to do something about it. The only problem is I don't feel safe here telling anyone. The guy who did it is the golden boy in the company who can never do anything wrong and it's my word against theirs," Winfield wrote.

Winfield later told investigators: "[Gibbs] likes to kill things. He is pretty much evil incarnate. I mean, I have never met a man who can go from one minute joking around, then mindless killings."

The court martial was told that Gibbs had six skull tattoos on his leg to mark up each of his "kills" from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In his testimony Gibbs denied responsibility for the killings, saying the victims all died in legitimate combat. But he did admit slicing off body parts from Afghans, including the fingers of a man, and keeping them or giving them to other soldiers as trophies.

"In my mind I was there to take the antlers off the deer. You have to come to terms with what you're doing. Shooting people is not an easy thing to do," said Gibbs.

The prosecution witnesses against Gibbs included members of his army unit who were also involved in the atrocities. Morlock and Holmes have pleaded guilty to murder and received prison sentences of 24 years and seven years respectively. Winfield pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for failing to prevent other soldiers from attacking Afghan civilians. He was jailed for three years.

Another soldier, Michael Wagnon, is awaiting trial over the killings and collecting human body parts.

The killings came to light in May after the army began investigating an assault on a soldier, Justin Stoner, after he reported to superiors that members of his unit were smoking hashish. Gibbs, Morlock and other members of the platoon are alleged to have beaten Stoner and told him to keep his mouth shut. Stoner reported the beating and told investigators what he knew of the "kill team".

Prosecutors called Gibbs "monstrous" and "savage" and told the military jury he should never be released from prison. But the jurors acceded to the convicted soldier's plea to have the hope of being reunited with his son and sentenced him to life with the possibility of parole after less than 10 years.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/11/kill-team-calvin-gibbs-convicted


SUMMARY

February 2010
Cost of War to USA Taxpayers
  • Afghanistan - $6.7 billion per month
  • Iraq - $5.5 billion per month

est. civilians killed Afghanistan

  • direct: 11,443 - 14,240
  • indirect: 6,982

*other estimates as high as over 1-million dead, Iraq alone

➭  CIA covert political assassination program

2007 Survey
only majority support for US/NATO occupation  of Afghanistan
  • Israel (59%)
  • Kenya (60%)
➭ Drug trade booming

➭ Taliban claims 75% control of Afghan territory


http://theredphoenixapl.org/2010/10/07/on-the-ninth-anniversary-of-the-afghanistan-war/



WAR CRIMES - Afghanistan
  • Killing civilians
  • Suffocation of Captives
Northern Alliance
USA orchestrated op
take town of:  Mazar-i-Sharif
1,000s Taliban fighters taken prisoner (Kunduz)
transport to prison in Shibarghan
3-day journey
➭ dozens captives suffocated in sealed shipping containers

---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------

COMMENT
Checking some old stories, as I was having a look at some old photos to get a feel for 2010 wars.  I missed out on what was going on in Afghanistan and Iraq, because I wasn't interested at the time.

On reading of the random killings of civilians and body parts collection, the initial feeling was horror and disgust.

It makes no sense to kill civilians for nothing and it's sick to play around with dead things, glorifying the slaughter and glorifying one's role in committing the slaughter.

While you want people in the military (esp. the army) that can kill and aren't at all squeamish, you don't want sickos targeting civilians or killing unjustly and randomly, and certainly not sickos with a fetish for body parts.

But I'm not sure why that's so offensive.  As in, when people are dead, they're dead.  

I guess because it goes beyond maybe taking a photograph of someone killed in combat (but this wasn't even combat, it was civilians randomly targeted), and it's taking disgusting trophies -- which is a lot like playing around with and treasuring decay.

[I'm eating toast at the moment & my stomach's sort of unhappy with that imagery.]

It's sick to be that hung up on dead things,  and the entire thing was staged to pump up this guy's ego and self-image as 'killer.' 

It didn't even matter to him that the whole thing was a fraud (in the sense that his victims weren't even combatants) and that he was therefore no great combatant.

Odds are that the Staff Sergeant, Calvin Gibbs, is a psychopath.

That it was a US military commander, that it was planned in advance, and that the platoon (15-30 soldiers) were OK with this, is damning of the US military.

The Winfield guy getting 3 years prison seems harsh, seeing he wasn't involved and wasn't into what his unit was doing, and seeing he expressed fear about speaking up about what was going on.

*I can't believe they're going to free the sicko commander & let him loose in US society.

Saudi Arabia Backed By West - Killing Civilians Wholesale in Yemen


Yemen
attacked & bombed by Saudi Arabia
supported by West
& Gulf  States










Yemen

93% of deaths & injuries in Yemen are civilian

Over 2,200 civilian deaths had been registered by September 2015

overwhelming from:
  • air-launched explosive weapons – 93%;
  • ground-launched explosive weapons – 94%;
  • improvised explosive devices – 97%.

Report | PDF
https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/Documents/Yemen%20EWIPA%20report.pdf

SOURCE
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/oct/27/yemen-deaths-93-civilian-this-must-change



Hakim Almasmari
@HakimAlmasmari


Yemen Expert. Reporting/analysis on CNN, WSJ, AJE, BBC, RT, etc. Editor in Chief of Yemen Post Newspaper @YemenPostNews, University Lecturer, Yemeni American.


reports:
  • 150,000 Saudi airstrikes
  • Over 40,000 civilians killed in 272 day war



---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------



COMMENT

I've not check the PDF report attached to The Guardian story.

Not sure what the go is with that figure.

Academic & Yemen Post editor gives a figure of 40,000 civilians killed (which is vastly more than that 2,200 figure).

No time to check now.

The man that's holding up 'something' is holding up a human hand.





UAE Mercenaries Fighting in Yemen - Western Advisers

Article
SOURCE

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/mercenaries-charge-uae-forces-fighting-yemen-764309832



Middle East Eye
British news website
'independently funded'
David Hearst, editor
(formerly at The Guardian)
wholly owned by MEE Ltd
sole director: Jamal Bassasso
fmr director at Qatari-funded al-Jazeera

MIDDLE EAST EYE

Revealed: The mercenaries commanding UAE forces in Yemen
The UAE has brought in experienced foreign military officers to command an elite force reporting to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed

Rori Donaghy
Wednesday 23 December 2015 09:30 UTC

Last update:
Saturday 26 December 2015 12:25 UTC


An Australian citizen is the commander of an elite UAE military force deployed in Yemen as part of the Saudi-led coalition, which human rights groups accuse of war crimes.

Mike Hindmarsh, 59, is a former senior Australian army officer who is publicly listed as commander of the UAE’s Presidential Guard.

The Presidential Guard is a unit of marines, reconnaissance, aviation, special forces and mechanised brigades, according to the US State Department website.

Hindmarsh oversaw the guard’s formation in early 2010 shortly after he took up his estimated $500,000-a-year, tax-free job in Abu Dhabi, where he reports directly to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

The Presidential Guard has been lauded for playing a key role in the Saudi-led coalition seeking to reinstall the exiled Yemeni government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

The coalition was formed in March to push back the rebel Houthi movement, which Arab Gulf states view as being backed by regional rival Iran.

Presidential Guard troops have been in Yemen since 4 May, and were reported to have played a key role in the recapturing of port city Aden by local Hadi-allied forces on 17 July.

Human rights groups
including Amnesty International have called for a suspension of arms exports to members of the Saudi-led coalition after reporting what they described as “damning evidence” of war crimes in Yemen. There is no evidence to suggest that Hindmarsh is responsible for the alleged war crimes claimed by rights groups.

At least 5,700 people – about half of them civilians – have been killed since the coalition launched its campaign. Yemen was already suffering a serious humanitarian crisis before the coalition's entry into the war; however, the country’s situation has since grown increasingly grave, with more than 80 percent of the population of 24.5 million needing humanitarian assistance.


The Australian connection

While the Arab coalition fighting in Yemen is widely described as being led by Saudi Arabia, one Gulf official told Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity that the external ground forces were in reality being steered by the UAE.

More than 10,000 coalition troops have been sent to Yemen and, while no official numbers have been released, it is believed that at least 1,500 Emirati troops are taking part in ground operations.

The best trained and equipped coalition troops are likely to be those from the UAE Presidential Guard, which was the only Arab force to undertake full military operations in Afghanistan, where they fought alongside American soldiers.

A defence website has estimated that there are around 5,000 soldiers in the Presidential Guard.

It was announced in 2014 that the UAE was to pay the US Marines $150mn to train the guards. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed was reported to have ordered the force to be instilled with a “warrior ethos”.

Overseeing the development of this elite force has been Hindmarsh, who had a distinguished career in the Australian army before moving to Abu Dhabi.

Hindmarsh served in his home country’s military between 1976 and 2009, during which time he received 11 awards and took part in tours that included deployments to the Middle East.

Mike Hindmarsh (UAE Armed Forces)

After first heading up the Australian SAS between January 1997 and January 1999, he moved on to command Australian Special Forces between October 2004 and January 2008, before leading Australian forces in the Middle East from March 2008 until January 2009.

Hindmarsh was based in Baghdad and oversaw the moving of Australia’s regional base to the UAE after their withdrawal from Iraq. Local media reported that during this time Hindmarsh had “dealings at the highest security levels with senior officials and the UAE military”.

Since then Australian troops have been based at the Minhad Air base, and earlier this year then Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that 600 Australian troops would be sent to the UAE as part of the wider fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

After moving back to Australia from the Middle East, Hindmarsh took up a new role in March 2009 heading up the Army Training Command at Victoria Barracks in Sydney for a salary of $230,000 a year.

However, in October 2009 it was announced that the Australian government had approved Hindmarsh retirement from the army to take up a new role commanding the UAE Presidential Guard.

Military expert Michael Knights said Hindmarsh's role in the guard, reported on Twitter, was a “smart” move by the UAE.

“All GCC (Gulf) states should be doing this. Don’t just buy the best equipment, buy talent too,” he wrote, referring to the Gulf state's huge investment in military hardware.

It would appear that the UAE has followed the principle of bringing in experience to develop the Presidential Guard, as a quick search through LinkedIn throws up numerous results of experienced soldiers - mainly from Australia - who occupy senior roles in the elite force.

Among those working in Abu Dhabi is Peter Butson, a former Australian soldier and intelligence corps officer who since February 2014 has been an adviser to the Presidential Guard.

Scott Corrigan, a former special operations commander in the Australian army, has been a specialist adviser to the Presidential Guard since January 2013. Kevin Dolan is an evaluator for the guard and was previously a warrant officer in both the Australian and British armies. Steve Nichols is another former senior commander in the Australian army who is now in his fifth year as a senior adviser to the guards.

It is not known how many Australians work for the UAE army; however, local media reported at the time of Hindmarsh's appointment that there were "dozens" working in "leadership, training and mentoring roles".

While Australians appear to dominate the foreign contingent of commanders in the Presidential Guard, there are other nationalities who are advising and training the force.

Dizzy Dawson, a former manager at the UK’s Ministry of Defence and an ex-Royal Marine officer, is a senior security adviser to the guard; and American Robert B Cross Sr headed up the UAE Presidential Guard Institute as part of the US Marine Corps training programme.

Responding to critical comments about the UAE employing mercenaries, military expert Knights tweeted: “It is the same business whether for your original state or a new one. A good general can end a war faster, save lives.”

Knights added that employing foreign mercenaries “was a fairly traditional part of conflict before the age of nationalism”.

Mike Hindmarsh speaks to a room of Emiratis (UAE Armed Forces)

Mercenaries killed in Yemen

Some mercenaries have been killed in Yemen. The Houthi-run Saba News reported on 8 December that six Colombians and their Australian commander were killed in fighting around the flashpoint southeast province of Taiz.

Saba News updated their report on 9 December to say 14 foreign mercenaries had been killed – including two Britons and one French citizen on top of the Australian and Colombians – although this claim is unconfirmed.

Colombian mercenaries were first reported to have been fighting in Yemen in October, when about 100 former Colombian soldiers were said to have joined coalition troops, with about 800 in total planned to be sent in to back up pro-Hadi forces.

The Colombians are believed to have been recruited to fight in Yemen by the UAE. The New York Times reported in 2011 that experienced Colombian troops had been offered high salaries to join a secretive UAE force established in response to the Arab Spring uprisings.

It is not known if the Colombians fighting in Yemen are linked to the Presidential Guard; however, both the secretive force established in 2011 and the guard report directly to Mohammed bin Zayed.

Many reports have referred to the Colombians as being employees of Blackwater – a controversial American military company whose guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. However, as former Guardian Middle East editor Brian Whitaker has written, the contractor who set up the UAE force is a company called Reflex Responses.

Reflex Responses, which is also known as R2, has denied that Erik Prince, the former Blackwater chief, is behind their company.


Presidential Guard recruitment

While the Colombian and Australian mercenaries remain largely behind the scenes, the UAE Presidential Guard is far from secretive, at least in its recruitment strategies.

The guard has been promoted as a symbol of national strength, rooted in pride at how strong the UAE has become since its establishment in 1971.

The UAE has engaged in military action across the region, including in the Saudi-led coalition and the US-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria.

Abu Dhabi has independently launched air strikes in Libya – to the surprise of American officials – and been described as a “potent ally” for the US.

This developing sense of military strength is on full display in a 2011 promotional video for the Presidential Guard. Men in military fatigues singing nationalistic songs are interspersed with images of the country’s rulers and shots of the UAE’s military hardware.

A recruitment presentation posted online in October 2013 said the guard is at the “heart of the nation”. The presentation said recruitment should be targeted at men and women between the ages of 16 and 29 who are at a “crossroads” in their lives.

The guard has a Facebook page and Twitter account. Recruitment has been publicly advertised, projecting Emirati members as proud citizens protecting their country.

The Presidential Guard has not only sought to expand its numbers but its members experience has also been used to train young men completing their national service.

Mandatory national service was introduced by the UAE in June 2014. All men aged between 18 and 30 who completed secondary education must serve nine months, while those who did not must serve for two years. National service is voluntary for women, and those who sign up are trained for nine months.

A way of completing national service is to train with the Presidential Guard, according to the LinkedIn profile of one Emirati.

Some national service conscripts have been sent to fight in Yemen. However, this was stopped in September after 45 Emirati troops were killed in a Houthi attack.

Emirati families told MEE in August that they were shocked their sons had been sent to Yemen, as they had no conflict experience.

At the time, military expert Knights said the rationale behind sending national service conscripts to Yemen was likely to bring untrained troops experience as part of a nation-building exercise.

There is no official death toll of the number of UAE troops killed in Yemen.

'Ally with the Muslim Brotherhood'

There is no sign of the war in Yemen coming to an end. Peace talks between opposing sides ended in Switzerland at the weekend with little progress, while fighting continues on the ground.

According to one Gulf official, the UAE should build more pragmatic alliances on the ground in Yemen if they want the war to end soon.

The official, who spoke to MEE on condition of anonymity, said that the war could be over “in two to three weeks” if the Emiratis agreed to ally with Islah, the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate in Yemen
.

“But they won’t because they have this problem with the Muslim Brotherhood,” the official said.

The UAE has led a region-wide assault on the Muslim Brotherhood, including labelling the group as terrorists domestically and supporting the Egyptian army in overthrowing Egypt's first elected president Mohamed Morsi, who is a Brotherhood leader.

Abu Dhabi has refused to work with Islah, and Emirati officials have blamed the Brotherhood for the failure to drive Houthi rebels out of areas including Taiz province.

Emirati disdain for the Brotherhood has gone so far that Abu Dhabi is said to have aided and abetted the Houthis' takeover of Yemeni capital Sanaa in September last year, in order to undermine the role played by Islah in the country's governance, senior sources told Middle East Eye at the time. Now, 15 months later, the Emiratis are mired in a battle to push back the Houthis, but are wary of empowering their Brotherhood foe.

The Gulf official said: “It is time for the UAE to prioritise the lives of Yemenis and ally with Islah. Their men are being killed by the Houthis and there is a clear way to end this.”

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/mercenaries-charge-uae-forces-fighting-yemen-764309832



SMH

Australia's basing its $87m secret on sensitive absurdity

Date     November 8, 2009

DON'T tell anyone, but the Federal Government is spending $87.5 million of your money on a new Middle East military base.
Not that it uses the word ''base''. Instead, budget papers say that the money is being spent on ''command and control enhancements'' which will ''consolidate ADF supporting assets to one location''.

Nor will it say where the base is because under a deal with the host country, Australia agrees not to reveal it. Nor does it give the location of the old bases the new one is replacing.

An ADF spokesman told The Sunday Age that Defence did not say where the bases are because of security considerations and ''host national sensitivities''.

The coyness has less to do with security and more to do with the ''sensitivities'' of the the Arab hosts, who don't want to advertise that they accommodate foreign troops and their hardware, including big, noisy aircraft with red kangaroos stencilled on the fuselage.

The secrecy leads to a curious absurdity: details and images of most of the bases are on the internet, in the Middle East press and even on ADF websites. Australian ambassadors have openly said where they are. They are mentioned in Hansard.

The Sunday Age is also a party to the subterfuge. On an ADF-escorted trip to the Middle East and Afghanistan, we undertook not to reveal ''operationally sensitive information'' - including ''the country in which ADF support bases are located outside of Iraq and Afghanistan''.

Without breaching that undertaking, we can reveal - drawing on what spies call ''open sources'' and Sunday Age readers call Google - where these bases are.

One of them has a big sign out the front, adorned with red kangaroos and the words ''Billabong Flats''. Drawing on the public record, we can reveal that bases have been or are being closed in Kuwait and Qatar.

The new one is at Al Minhad Air Base in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

Australia's Middle East bases have mushroomed since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Now their focus is supporting the war in Afghanistan. Australian troops going to Afghanistan acclimatise in Kuwait, at a compound attached to a US base notorious for its fast food outlets on a stretch of sand and gravel known as Fat Alley.
The base is alongside Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base. You can find more than you need to know about the base at globalsecurity.org, including its precise location: 29°20'48"N 47°31'15"E.

Liberal senator David Bushby visited the base on an ADF-escorted trip and told the Senate all about it on June 18. ''The ADF conducts a training course for all personnel arriving in the Middle East theatre at Billabong Flats, a base Australia maintains in Kuwait,'' he said.

The community information page on the website of the army's 3rd Brigade also mentions the Kuwait base and its fast food outlets, including one that boasts ''the world's best cheesesteak''.

About 110 soldiers at Billabong Flats form what is called the force support unit. Their presence in the emirate has been reported in newsletters issued by the Australian embassy in Kuwait.

Billabong Flats is due to close at the end of the year, in a phased consolidation of Australian bases. While its Kuwait location was handy for invading Iraq, it's not convenient for Afghanistan.

Moving it will slash flying time, saving fuel bills and offsetting the cost of the new base.

When the force support unit moves to Dubai, it will join Defence's regional headquarters and the RAAF.
The Government has not announced this but Australia's ambassador to the UAE has, in an interview with Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper last month.

The paper revealed that 250 ADF personnel have been stationed at Dubai's Al Minhad Air Base since December.

Air force Hercules and crews completed their move from Qatar to Dubai last Thursday, joining an Orion detachment that has been there since 2003.
By the end of the year, 500 Australians will be permanently based there, the numbers boosted by hundreds more as troops transit to and from Afghanistan.

The fact that the locations are widely known does not prevent media groups on ADF trips from spicing their stories with references to ''secret'' installations they can't identify ''for security reasons''.

Townsville radio host Steve ''Pricey'' Price revealed in a report last month, presumably filed from Billabong Flats, that: ''I'm with another wonderful bunch of Aussies in a secret spot that James Bond, Frodo Baggins or even Lawrence of Arabia could never find.''

There's a serious side to all this, said academic Richard Tanter, director of the Nautilus Institute at RMIT, which maintains an online database on Australian forces abroad.
''Governments ought to be as transparent as possible, and secrecy should only be justified in serious cases of potential danger to persons,'' Professor Tanter said.
''The double standard imposed by the UAE Government corrodes trust in co-operation between allies.

''They are fooling no one, certainly not their own people. Forcing Australia to collude in what's a fairly destructive process is a hypocritical basis for public policy.''

http://www.smh.com.au/national/australias-basing-its-87m-secret-on-sensitive-absurdity-20091107-i2vy.html



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COMMENT

Who knew Australia was such buddies with the United Arab Emirates, and who knew Australia has a base in Iraq?

It sounds like the Emirates is some kind of proxy for Western interests in the region.

The Houthis don't deserve to be attacked by Columbian mercenaries (and the rest of them) in their own country, irrespective of the military expert's history lesson.

Foreign powers are interfering with the Yemen's right to self-determination.

Might have to come back to look at this.  Trouble taking it all in.