Monthly Archives: February 2017

Child exploitation, free speech and net neutrality tangle in fervent documentary ‘I Am Jane Doe’ – Los Angeles Times

Posted: February 10, 2017 at 2:57 am

Mary Mazzios documentary I Am Jane Doe is a whirlwind primer on the case of Backpage, a classified ads website with a serious problem: the exploitation and trafficking of minors conducted in the escorting and adult section of the site.

Backpage is now the center of a legal drama that has proceeded all the way to the Senate floor, and I Am Jane Doe attempts to elucidate the dizzying legal proceedings alongside the stories of trafficking victims, including two known as M.A. and J.S., who ultimately sued Backpage for culpability in their trafficking.

Their stories are horrifying and sad, and offer a glimpse into the stark reality of online child sex trafficking, a context that becomes obfuscated in the courtroom. The Communications Decency Act and the First Amendment are repeatedly cited by lawyers for Backpage, asserting that the freedom of the Internet should be preservedand that websites are not liable for the ads posted by third parties.

Its a conundrum wherein the inherently evil act of child exploitation and abuse becomes entangled in issues of free speech and net neutrality.

Mazzio intersperses the personal stories with the techno-legal thriller that races along a timeline up to January of 2017and narration from producer Jessica Chastain. Each moment is resonant, but the intimate reflections halt the momentum, and the legal dramas interfere with the emotional impact.

Its an overwhelming, and sometimes disorganized firehose of information. Mazzio doesnt includeany advocates for Internet freedom, which feels like a missed opportunity to fully illustrate the tensions and reasons why the court cases have stalled. Ultimately, however, I Am Jane Doe is a powerful call to action to protect children over profit.

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I Am Jane Doe

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Playing AMC Universal CityWalk

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JPost Editorial: Free speech – Jerusalem Post Israel News

Posted: at 2:57 am

A woman reads testimonies during a gathering in Tel Aviv to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Israeli NGO "Breaking the Silence". (photo credit:AFP PHOTO)

Are there limits to free speech? If so, who decides what they are? Should venues owned by the state or a municipality be used to stage events that bash Zionism or the State of Israel? These are tough questions. So tough, in fact, that Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat might have chosen to cite zoning violations as the reason for issuing an eviction notice against the managers of the Barbur Gallery in the capital instead of admitting he was curtailing freedom of speech.

It just so happens that Barkats eviction notice on Wednesday came after calls from right-wing activists to prevent representatives of an NGO critical of Israeli policy in the West Bank from appearing at the gallery.

Breaking the Silence, an NGO that presents anonymous testimony accusing the IDF of war crimes, had planned on holding an event at the gallery, which is purportedly municipal property. The eviction notice might now block that event.

On Tuesday, Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev and Matan Peleg, CEO of Im Tirzu, called on Barkat to cancel the planned lecture by Yuli Novak, the executive director of Breaking the Silence.

Both Peleg and Regev claimed that because the gallery was municipal property, it was not right that Breaking the Silence be allowed to appear there.

The Barbur Gallery, which is funded from public money, will not constitute a home for Breaking the Silence, an anti-Israel propaganda organization that spreads lies against the State of Israel and IDF fighters, Regev wrote on her Facebook page.

Whatever the reason for Barkats eviction notice, attempts to silence or intimidate left-wing NGOs such as Breaking the Silence must be stopped. Freedom of speech is much about the right of an audience to hear unpopular opinions as it is about the right to voice them.

Allowing organizations such as Breaking the Silence to use venues owned by the municipality should, therefore, be seen as a service provided by the city of Jerusalem to its residents. It does not mean that the municipality is advocating the opinions held by Breaking the Silence or any other organization.

Regev and Peleg might argue that the municipality is indirectly supporting Breaking the Silence by permitting the Barbur Gallery to be used. But the alternative banning Breaking the Silence raises much graver problems.

To whom do we wish to give the responsibility for deciding which organizations are permitted to use municipal venues and which are not? We can think of no one we can trust to perform the role of censor, certainly not Regev or Peleg. Self-appointed censors should be suspect. They often have their own political agendas to advance.

The danger inherent in appointing a censor is much greater than the dangers from which Regev and Peleg wish to protect the citizens of Jerusalem. Permitting the voicing of outrageous or appalling views (it is precisely for the airing of the most fringe opinions that freedom of speech exists at all) is essential for intellectual growth and development. Baseless claims that the world is flat or that the Holocaust did not happen or that the IDF is immoral challenge us to question how we know what we know.

How do we prove all of these claims are false? Perhaps a grain of truth exists in some of them? Moves to curtail freedoms tend to be a slippery slope.

When certain opinions are deemed to be illegitimate, the people who hold these opinions or facilitate their publication run the risk of being treated as less than equal.

This might explain the appalling treatment of Jennifer Gorovitz, the vice president for finance, operations and administrations at the New Israel Fund, which provides Breaking the Silence with funding. Gorovitz, who came to Israel to attend a NIF board meeting, was detained at Ben-Gurion Airport for 90 minutes on Wednesday. Gorovitz said she was grilled by immigration official on the activities of NIF.

It was humiliating and emotionally scarring to find that, although I am a Jew and a Zionist, I might not be allowed into the country because I do not adhere to the governments ultra-right-wing ideology, said Gorovitz in a statement. I was truly shocked that this place I love so much would turn me away at its gates.

Whether at the airport or in Jerusalem, the right to state views that differ from government policy is the gold standard for a thriving democracy. We need to insure that its a right that isnt infringed upon.

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Fired Professor Fights for Free Speech – American Free Press

Posted: at 2:57 am

The case of Dr. James F. Tracy is arguably the most important free speech case that is going on today. As it moves through the courts with barely a notice, AFP spoke with Dr. Tracys attorney, Louis F. Leo IV, to update us on the current situation of the professor, who was disciplined and then fired last year for blogging on his own time.

By Dave Gahary

Dr. James F. Tracy, the tenured professor and award-winning media analyst who gained national notoriety for daring to publicly question the mainstream media and government view of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 filed an amended complaint last month to his wrongful termination lawsuit against Florida Atlantic University (FAU)a public schoolfor violating his rights to free speech following his firing on Jan. 6, 2016.

The original complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, revealed in great detail how Tracy was harassed, hated, and even hunted for having unconventional opinions on several alleged mass shootings.

Because Tracy espoused views different from those offered by the controlled corporate media and the government, he was targeted for attack and removal.

The mainstream media set their sights on Tracy a few days after the Sandy Hook event, as a warning to others to never dare question the official version of events.

On Jan. 5, AMERICAN FREE PRESS spoke with Tracys attorney, Louis F. Leo IV, to discuss the many aspects of the case. He started out by explaining how the attack began.

There was this media blitz against Professor Tracy that was a result of his personal blogging, Leo began. He was on his blog on his own time writing about a matter of public importance, this mass casualty event, and he provided coverage to the American people that the national and international media failed to. And for whatever reason they targeted him and his job.

What Tracy wrote was constitutionally protected, so regardless of what his opinion was on the lack of evidence of the shooting, he had the right to say it, said Leo.

On Jan. 11, 2013, CNN dedicated 15 or 20 minutes just to Professor Tracy, Leo said, shaming him, showing the entire United States where Professor Tracy lives. They were literally outside his house.

CNNs Anderson Cooper led the charge against Tracy, stating in the aforementioned broadcast, shame on you, FAU, to even have someone like this on your payroll. Cooper, who has no formal journalistic education, spent two summers following his sophomore and junior years at Yalea well-known recruiting ground for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)interning at their headquarters, in a program for students interested in intelligence work. CNN, which confirmed details of Coopers CIA involvement to Radar Online, claims his involvement with the CIA ended there, although it is more likely he was trained by the spy agency as part of their ongoing Operation Mockingbird, a large-scale program begun in the early 1950s whose purpose is to propagandize the media to influence public opinion.

That was really the gist of all the media publications about Professor Tracy, Leo explained. None of them talked about his research or the basis for his opinions. They just called him crazy.

Leo did his due diligence before he took on the case.

I discovered really quickly that hes not crazy, Leo said. I explored extensively his blog and his opinions and Ive read the Newtown Police report, Ive looked at all the evidence, heavily redacted reports, I should say. And I was extremely disturbed by what I read. Not only what I saw, but what I didnt see.

Although the process of discoverya pretrial procedure in a lawsuit in which each party obtains evidence from the other partyhas not yet begun, it appears that the faculty union, ostensibly there to protect Tracy, was actually hurting him.

It remains to be seen exactly what the reasoning of the union was in failing to represent him, misleading him, misadvising him, not to mention discouraging him, coercing him, and really acting in a way that FAU was acting, Leo explained. They were basically doing FAUs bidding by subjecting him to unlawful directives and ultimately violating his civil rights and his right to freedom of speech, and academic freedom, as well as his right to due process.

Records were obtained utilizing Floridas Sunshine Laws, which generally refer to Floridas freedom of information legislation, the most expansive laws of their kind in the U.S. Specifically, Floridas Government in the Sunshine Law, which passed 50 years ago but with precedent back to 1905, requires that all meetings of any state, county, or municipal board or commission be open to the public, and mandates that any official action taken at the closed meeting not be binding.

AFP asked how much was received.

Hundreds and hundreds of pages of internal communications, records, and his personnel file, Leo said, and what we did receive and review was pretty shocking. These internal communications show that theyre really not firing him because of a policy that he didnt comply with. Hes being fired because of the controversy surrounding his personal blogging.

Leo highlighted the significance of this case beyond FAU and Florida.

This is alarming because its not just happening at FAU, and this case is not going to affect just this one university, Leo explained.

This is really a test case. This is something that universities are going to be using in the future when shaping their policies or dealing with the speech of their faculty members, as well as other employees and students, he said.

This is the First Amendment under attack, Leo said. If you allow Professor Tracy to be disciplined and fired for his personal blogging, whats next, and where does it stop? And what is the First Amendment if this can happen to somebody like Professor Tracy, who has an unremarkable academic record, literally has no complaints about his teaching?

Contributions to this case can be submitted in the form of personal check or money order, payable to James Tracy Legal Defense Fund, 300 NW 36th Court, Boca Raton, FL 33431. You may also visit Tracys website at tracylegaldefense.org.

Dave Gahary writes for American Free Press.

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Study: High School Teachers, Students Hostile To Free Speech … – Daily Caller

Posted: at 2:57 am

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The majority of the nations high school students and almost half of all high school teachers say freedom of speech does not apply to speech that is offensive to others, according to a new study on the future of the First Amendment.

The study, released by the Knight Foundation on Wednesday, found that 51 percent of high school students and 45 percent of high school teachers disagree with the statement that People should be allowed to say whatever they want in public, even if what they say is offensive to others.

Students hold a free-speech rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington March 19, 2007. REUTERS/Molly Riley

High school teachers are even more hostile to public speech that could be seen as bullying others. The study found that 66 percent of teachers disagree with the statement that People should be allowed to say whatever they want in public, even if what they say could be seen as bullying others.

High school students are, like their teachers, hostile to speech considered offensive or bullying: 51 percent of students disagreed that offensive speech should be allowed in public and 60 percent disagreed that public speech that could be seen as bullying others should be protected.

Teachers and students are similarly hostile to freespeech on social media: 53 percent of students and 48 percent of teachers disagree that offensive speech should be allowed on social media.

For example, while most agreed that people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions, a significant percentage disagreed that people should be allowed to say what they want in public even if what they say could be offensive, or considered bullying to others. And 66% of student respondents believe that students should be allowed to report on controversial issues in student newspapers without approval from school authorities.

I think that this points to a failure in educating students on the philosophical and practical bases for freedom of speech. One of the essential understandings inherent in our system of free expression is that speech on controversial issues is bound to offend someone, somewhere, and that restricting expression based on whether it could offend or hurt someone is fraught with peril. Educators should strive to explain and demonstrate the necessity of being allowed to offend others in our democratic society. If students had a better grasp on the history of offensive ideas that later gained broad acceptance, we might have fewer calls for censorship when those students matriculate to higher education, Cohn said.

The study did show that high school students and teachers overwhelmingly agree that People should be allowed to express unpopular opinions just as long as those unpopular opinions arent offensive and couldnt be seen as bullying others.

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Can atheism be a world religion? – Malay Mail Online

Posted: at 2:54 am

FEBRUARY 10 Humankind has been searching for the truth since time immemorial. Apart from looking for the best way to live and indeed what that way would constitute, they have also been asking what lies in The Great Beyond, past the threshold of death.

Various answers have emerged in the form of what we know as global religions. Each religion has its own postulation about what happens to us after we die.

And there are those who say nothing happens. When our bodies cease to function, so do our consciousness. It is then a total blackout forever.

That is what atheists postulate and this view is not something new. In The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, we find plenty of examples of atheism in history. However, they were very marginal back then, owing to the fact that Europe had a strong religious presence.

In recent times, however, atheism has exploded in terms of numbers.

What has brought about the rise in atheism? By some estimates, and I have noticed this on social media myself, even in the very conservative Saudi Arabia 15 per cent of its population are atheists.

This is possibly due to excessive religious authoritianism which has put many young people off religion. Not only that, the presence of social media has enabled the internet savvy to consolidate with one another and moreover, absorb ideas from abroad.

When the allegedly atheist Raif Badawi was jailed and sentenced to whipping, he received tremendous support from atheists all over the world, thanks to social media.

The question now is, can atheism become a world religion? For a start, it definitely has the rhetorical capacity to do so.

While some religions claim to be a personal relationship with God and others a complete way of life, atheisms slogan is that it is a non-belief.

In other words, it alleges that our primordial state, our psychological tabula rasa as it were, is one of non-belief. Atheists tell me that if one were to ask a baby if he or she believes in God, the answer would be no.

The problem is, if one were to ask a baby that, one would first have to explain the concept of God. In doing so, one would undoubtedly fertilise the babys mind with the idea of a deity.

Hence, the baby would no longer be able to retain the purity of innocence from that idea and lose his or her objectivity.

It is the same problem with the questions of ethics. In his book The Moral Landscape, Sam Harris sets forth a scientific methodology in determining ethics.

This is another one of atheisms proclivities, by the way, scientism. Scientism is not the same as being scientific. Being scientific is a methodology for deriving information.

Scientism is rather the ideology that science is a means of attaining truths. I am not saying that science cannot yield truths but that the truths it produces is subjective to the experiments it conducts.

This is why, there was a time when science was used to prove racial superiority! It all boils down on how an experiment is set up and more importantly, why it is set up to begin with.

Another issue which concerns me is New Atheism, a political movement which is very anti-theist and anti-religion. While I welcome their criticisms of the existence of God and religion, the language they employ is decidedly lacking in nuance.

The aforementioned Sam Harris, for example, called Islam the motherlode of bad ideas without deigning to acknowledge aspects of the religion which even the vilest of racists would find acceptable. This may appeal to his neo-colonialist masters but it is intellectually dishonest and moreover, only serves to deepen the conflicts between civilizations.

Can atheism be a world religion? Not yet, I surmise. Strong counter currents from religious movements will keep atheism on the side for the time being but maybe in the next generation, things will change. Atheism can perhaps stem the tide of religious fundamentalism.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

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NASA Hubble telescope captures ‘Rotten Egg’ nebula – WESH.com – WESH Orlando

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NASA and the European Space Agency's Hubble telescope captured a rare photo of the Calabash Nebula, a protoplanetary nebula formed from a dying star that's 1.4 light years long and approximately 5,000 light years from Earth.

"This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the star going through a rapid transformation from a red giant to a planetary nebula, during which it blows its outer layers of gas and dust out into the surrounding space," the ESA said last week. "The recently ejected material is spat out in opposite directions with immense speed the gas shown in yellow is moving close to a million kilometers an hour."

A protoplanetary nebula is an astronomical object that occurs during a star's transition between its late asymptotic giant branch phase and the planetary nebula phase.

The Calabash Nebula is also called the Rotten Egg Nebula due to its sulphur content, which smells like rotten eggs when it comes into contact with other elements.

The photo is especially rare because the phase occurs in an instant, at least by astronomical standards. Scientists predict the nebula will evolve into a planetary nebula over the next thousand years.

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with NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller and the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Volodymyr Groysman – NATO HQ (press release)

Posted: at 2:53 am

Thank you very much.

Prime Minister Groysman, welcome to NATO Headquarters. Its a real pleasure and honour to see you here today, sir.

The Secretary General regrets very much being unable unwell today and unable to meet with you today.

We just discussed the serious situation in eastern Ukraine and NATOs support for your country.

Since Russias aggressive actions began three years ago, NATO has stood by Ukraine. This will not change. Last night, I chaired a special meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission where we discussed the latest facts on the ground. Every single Ally took the floor to express strong support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity.

NATO does not, and will not, recognise the illegal annexation of Crimea and we condemn Russias continuing destabilisation of eastern Ukraine.

We are deeply concerned by the recent spike in violence. The ceasefire has been violated almost every day for the last two years. But last week, the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, registered over 10,000 ceasefire violations in a single day. Including with heavy equipment banned under the Minsk Agreements. We have seen the heaviest fighting in the past two years. We must not accept this as the new normal. It is essential that OSCE monitorsare granted free access to all of Ukraine. Up to the border with Russia, as required by the Minsk Agreements. So I call on all parties to honour their commitments.

Russia has a special responsibility in this regard. Ukraine is continuing on the path of reform and anti-corruption despite these very difficult circumstances. And the Prime Minister and I just had a very serious discussion about the continuation of the reform process in Ukraine. I commend you on your efforts.

I encourage Ukraine to continue to press ahead with such reforms. NATO will continue to provide political and practical support to Ukraine. Through our Comprehensive Assistance Package, and through Trust Funds.

Overall, we are also helping Ukraine reform its security and defence institutions.

To enable Ukraine to better defend itself.

And resist the threat of hybrid warfare.

Prime Minister Groysman, again, welcome to NATO, a very warm welcome.

We look forward to continuing to work closely with you and your colleagues.

Please sir, you have the floor.

DYLAN WHITE [Acting Deputy Spokesperson]: Thank you, well go to Unian please.

Q: Good afternoon here, my name is Irina Somer, Ukrainian News Agency Unian. I have a follow up question for Deputy Secretary General. Because you got invitation from Ukrainian Prime Minister to visit Ukraine together with the North Atlantic Council because last time it was hundreds years ago, when do you think this visit can take place? And another question on yesterday NATO Ukraine Commission I saw in the news that it was written that NATO will increase political pressure on Russia. So how exactly you see it to happen? And question for Prime Minister.

[Interpreted]: Prime Minister did you, did you achieve any results in the headquarters? These results that you have expected?

ROSE GOTTEMOELLER (NATO Deputy Secretary General): In terms of our upcoming visit, I support an effort by the North Atlantic Council to visit, to visit Ukraine. It is a matter of scheduling, its something that has to be worked out but I am recommending the visit and it hasnt been a hundred years since I visited Ukraine, its just been actually I think two years ago which is too long, I need to come back again. So Im very much looking forward to a near term visit and I was honoured and pleased to hear an invitation from the Prime Minister not only for the North Atlantic Council which I think is a terrific idea but also for me personally to visit Ukraine and Im looking forward to that opportunity soon. In terms of our support for Ukraine you heard how the, the group around the table yesterday when we had our extraordinary meeting of the NUC, the commission that is the NATO Ukraine special body, we heard unanimity around the table. So at a very high level there is strong support from all the allies to Ukraine and to, to the efforts Ukraine has underway to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty. I can also say from the point of view of this institution, this institution also supports Ukraine very, very strongly and prominently with the Secretary General himself frequently speaking out in support of Ukraine and Ukraines territorial integrity and sovereignty but also in terms of the many programs that we have underway which I outlined in my remarks. So I think we have not only a kind of moral strength in our support for Ukraine but were backing it up with concrete programs as well.

VOLODYMYR GROYSMAN (Prime Minister of Ukraine): [Interpreted]: I am satisfied with this working meeting. I would like to underline that what we have heard today is that the unanimous full scale support of Ukraine in this difficult times. We appreciate very highly our common cooperation, joint cooperation with NATO in all these spheres and we are grateful for this all around support. I would like to underline that we have an action plan and the government has approved it, the President will sign it soon, it means that we will enhance our cooperation through using different tools including trust funds which are been created today and that have to get support from the allies. Its in the education, education of our military and many others spheres which include our cooperation, we have talked separately today that we will enhance our cooperation in the direction of our emergency services in Ukraine. That I would like to underline that those events that took place in Adviivka, we managed to control, to take control of the situation due to the professionality and competence of the workers of our emergency service. But if we manage to strengthen their technical equipment possibilities, equipment capacity that will help us to resist Russian aggression. And I would like to express again my personal gratitude for this very resultative talk for the fact that Ukraine is constantly in the radar and in the focus of the General Secretary, of you personally, of the North Atlantic Council and we think that after such contacts our task is to enhance our cooperation. We have a very precise plan of action which will allow us to implement reforms and they will be on the NATO standards, according to the NATO standards. So we are going on and our interaction is helping us to provide reforms.

DYLAN WHITE: Danish Media please.

Q: Mina Skau of the Danish News Agency Ritzau. Question for the Prime Minister. After the recent change at the top in Washington and the different political signals from the president and some of his top officials, are you still confident that, and I would say also what President Trump has said about President Putin and Russia, are you still confident that the U.S. stands by Ukraine and you have the unwavering support of the United States?

VOLODYMYR GROYSMAN: [Interpreted]: I am sure that the new president, newly elected President Trump, he is a leader, he will always fight for democracy and democratic values. And I am also certain that he will continue to be a world leader. This is my personal opinion, I believe in that and Im sure it will happen. You know that recently there was a telephone conversation between the President of Ukraine, President Poroshenko with the President of United States, and they have agreed that there will be, the visit from our president to America will take place very soon and I hope it will be very resultative. And I really reiterate that I do believe that the United States of America will always support justice and I think justice is now on the side of Ukraine.

DYLAN WHITE: Thank you. Lady in the front please.

Q: Allana Bromovich (sp?), 112 Ukraine. [Interpreted]: I have a question to both speakers, talking about the changes of the, establishment in USA. Well there are some programs from NATO supporting Ukraine in the context of what Trump said about doubting about NATO and diminishing their financing, would it influence the programs that run with Ukraine? And did you discuss whether the new diminished funding of NATO from United States will diminish support for Ukraine? Did you discuss it today?

ROSE GOTTEMOELLER: President Trump has not been supporting diminished funds for NATO, he has been supporting that all allies step forward and increase defence burden sharing. Meaning that allies who are not at this moment spending two per cent of their gross domestic product or GDP on defence need to up their game as we say. They need to increase their investments in defence and provide additional resources to this alliance. So this is a goal that has been shared by a number of U.S. presidents for as long as I can remember. George W. Bush, President Obama, they all supported this goal and the Secretary General and I, Jens Stoltenberg and I definitely have been pushing this goal as a very, very important one. It was also inscribed in two important summit documents starting in Wales and then again reemphasised at Warsaw just this past summer that this is an area where a number of allies have to pay attention and have to plan for more defence spending. So in answer to your question I think that and I expect and hope that there will be more resources available for the NATO alliance, I cant say what proportion of those would be devoted to programs or projects with Ukraine but I do and I think I laid out the vigorous already agenda of cooperation that we have. So I think that enhanced resources for this alliance can only be helpful to our joint programs and projects with Ukraine.

DYLAN WHITE: If thats, thank you very much thats all we have time for. Thank you.

ROSE GOTTEMOELLER: Thank you.

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with NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller and the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Volodymyr Groysman - NATO HQ (press release)

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NATO backs stable, secure and neutral Moldova – NATO HQ (press release)

Posted: at 2:53 am

NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller welcomed the Moldovan President Igor Dodon to NATO headquarters on Tuesday (7 February 2017) for talks on the partnership between the Alliance and the Republic of Moldova. Ms Gottemoeller thanked Moldova for its contribution to NATOs KFOR peacekeeping mission, which also gives Moldovan troops valuable practical experience. She explained how the partnership between NATO and the Republic of Moldova helps improve peoples lives, for instance with training for almost 2,000 Moldovans in areas such as fighting corruption in the defence sector, border security and civil emergency planning.

The Alliance has spent 4.5 million euros on destroying pesticides, anti-personnel mines, surplus munitions and rocket fuel. The Deputy Secretary General said that NATO will open a new civilian Liaison Office in Chisinau this year to facilitate NATO support for the countrys reforms, as requested by the Moldovan government. She stressed that NATO fully respects Moldovas constitutional neutrality, as recognised in the Individual Partnership Action Plan.

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Russian foreign ministry says ready to cooperate with NATO in … – Reuters

Posted: at 2:53 am

MOSCOW Moscow is ready to renew cooperation with the United States and other NATO powers to reach mutual goals in Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, a Russian Foreign Ministry official, said in an interview with the state TASS agency published on Thursday.

Kabulov said Russia was concerned about insurgents' activity in Afghanistan and it was not the best time for Washington to withdraw troops from there.

"The situation with security in this country is deteriorating, while Afghan national security forces are unable to stand against armed opposition due to a number of reasons," Kabulov said.

"In such circumstances a hasty departure of foreign military servicemen could have unpredictable consequences and destroy those minimal positive results that were achieved in recent years."

(Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

WASHINGTON President Donald Trumps wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct, based on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal report seen by Reuters on Thursday.

PARIS Seven out of 10 French voters want conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon to step down, an opinion poll by Odoxa for France Info radio said on Friday as a scandal over alleged "fake work" by his wife continued to weigh on his campaign.

KABUL The Afghan Defence Ministry welcomed on Friday suggestions by the commander of international forces in Afghanistan that more troops were needed to train Afghan security forces, who are battling to hold back a growing Taliban-led insurgency.

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Is NATO Really Ready for a War? – The National Interest Online

Posted: at 2:53 am

When Jrgen Bornemann was a junior army officer in West Germanys Bundeswehr, he spent many months of every year practicing getting his unit from its base to likely conflict zones near West Germanys border with East Germany. His unit was not alone. Entire divisions were moved within West Germany, Bornemann, who went on to become a lieutenant general and director general of NATOs international staff, told me. (A division consists of some fifteen thousand soldiers.)

Practicing movements involving tens of thousands of troops towards potential hot spots was, in fact, a main component of NATOs Cold War defense planning. NATO was constantly practicing, fine-tuning deploying fifty thousand troops across the Atlantic and moving them across Europe, said Ian Brzezinski, an assistant secretary of defense under George W. Bush. It was a demonstration, but it was also a way of making sure the wheels were always greased.

By comparison, todays NATO troop movements look rather modest. Exercises are less frequent and typically involve brigade-size forces, around five thousand troops each. In 2015 we had an exercise [Trident Juncture] that involved thirty-six thousand troops, but it took a long time to plan and only took place in Italy, Portugal and Spain, Brzezinski pointed out. And as Bornemann notes, with many years having passed without large regular exercises, officers lack the knowledge of how to do it. They often lack the equipment, too. During the Cold War, Germanys Deutsche Bahn kept thousands of rail cars available for Bundeswehr transportation. Thats no longer the case.

Equally worrisome is the speed at which the exercising troops advance. Referring to NATOs Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, which consists of five thousand troops, a senior NATO official told me, Sometimes we have ten nations participating. Its not just a matter of the number of troops and vehicles moving. We have to be able to go from anywhere to anywhere. Its extremely complex, whereas during the Cold War everyone knew which route they would be taking.

With battle zones so much harder to predict than during the Cold War, its difficult to know where to pre-position equipment. We dont know where well need it, whereas during the Cold War we knew exactly where wed need it, the NATO official said.

Cold War NATO commanders also knew the specifics of every bridge, railroad, road, tunnel, airport and seaport on NATO territory. They could easily access the information in the alliances Capability Catalogues, a meticulously maintained encyclopedia that detailed every piece of infrastructure that could be used by the military. But we let the Capability Catalogues go, the NATO official told me. As a result, commanders have incomplete information about the infrastructure they need to use in order to move their troops. Though bridges and railroads may seem secondary, logistics is the pillar of any military exerciseand any military engagement.

Newer NATO member states capabilities never added Capability Catalogues, and were also left with Communist-era infrastructure. Some of them have rebuilt their infrastructure in a lot of places where some of the older Allies havent, but some of the bridges in some of the former [Warsaw Pact] nations will probably need upgrading at some stage, the NATO official said. Were talking sometimes seventy or eighty tons of armor, so you put that on top of a flatbed and then youve got the issues of going across a bridge. Since the 2014 Wales Summit, NATO has again been collecting capability entries from its member states, and the official says the alliance is making progress towards a complete set of catalogues.

And troops need to regularly use the infrastructure. We used to move armor up from Greece into Kosovo and the Balkans, for example, the NATO official pointed out. Its not new for NATO to be able to do that, we just need to get to where we were before in terms of being up to speed and having that situational awareness.

In recent months, the alliance has made crucial progress in another area: border crossings. Until last year, many NATO member states didnt issue automatic clearance to alliance troops entering their territory. Now that issue has been resolved.

Still, NATO is decidedly less swift than Russia, which can deploy tens of thousands of soldiers on several days noticeand has the advantage of large military bases not far from three NATO member states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. By contrast, NATOs best and largest armed forces units are based in western Europe, where the United States still maintains a respectable military presence.

Thats where NATOs decisionmaking speed plays a crucial role. After the Cold War, decisionmaking power for NATOs exercises shifted from commanders to the civilian North Atlantic Council, which operates at distinctly unmilitary speed. Military commanders have been aware of the problem caused by slow decisionmaking for a long time, but political decisionmakers have had their heads in the sand. Brzezinski said, Its changing now, but is it changing fast enough?

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Is NATO Really Ready for a War? - The National Interest Online

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