Monthly Archives: March 2017

FBI Director James Comey says the FBI and Justice Department have no information to substantiate President Donald Trump's claims that former President Barack Obama wiretapped him before the election. (March 20) AP

China's President Xi Jinping, left, meets Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Beijing on March 19.(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Secretary of State Rex Tillersonwill travel to Russia next month for a visit that comes as the FBI confirmed this week it is investigating whether there was any coordinationbetween the Kremlin and President Trump's 2016 election campaign.

The purpose of the visit is not clear.

Tillerson's expected itinerary means he will be in Russia at a time when Trumpassociates are being scrutinized for any links to alleged Kremlin-sponsored cyberattacks during the presidential campaign as well as alleged meetings between the Russian government and Trump campaign officials.

The State Department said late Monday Tillerson would hold "meetings"in Russia directly after attendingGroup of Seven talksin Italy in early April.

He isalso expected to beat Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida whenChinese President Xi Jinping visits on April 6-7.

Tillerson is liked by President Vladimir Putinand has years of experience working with the Russian government from his time workingas a top executive at ExxonMobil. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the U.S. intelligence committee that heard FBI Director James Comey's congressional testimony on Monday about alleged Russian ties was "confused."

"They (investigators) are trying to find confirmation of their own conclusions but cant find either proof or confirmation and are going round in circles," he said.

Tillerson's Russia visitalso means he will skip a NATO foreign ministers' summiton April 5-6. The NATO summit in Brussels would have been Tillerson's first as secretary of State. His decision to stay away could be interpreted as a snub to the international defense organization that Trump maintains U.S. allies are not doing enough, financially, to support and that Trumphas called "obsolete."

Following talks Fridaywith Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump said Germany "owes vast sums of money to NATO," an allegation the European power rejected.Only 5 out of 28 NATO nations meetthe alliance's goal of2% GDP defense spending. Germany spent1.19% last year, but has argued for a broader definition of spending.

"Defense spending also goes into our United Nationspeacekeeping missions, into our European missions and into our contribution to the fight against (Islamic State)terrorism," German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Sunday, adding that there "is no debt account at NATO."

It is common practice for the U.S. secretary of State to attend NATO summits.

The State Department said Tom Shannon, an undersecretary of state, would attend the meeting at NATO headquarters in Tillerson's absence.

NATO said that all allies are represented at ministerial meetings and that it was up to each NATO member to determine at what level they are represented. It also pointed out thatNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was due to meet with Tillerson in Washington on Wednesday as part of planned counter-Islamic Statetalks.

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Tillerson to visit Russia, skip NATO meeting - USA TODAY

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A plane carrying more than 50 French soldiers has arrived at the Amari Air Base in Estonia.

The arrival marks the beginning of the deployment of nearly 300 French troops to the British-led multinational NATO battalion.

France is contributing tanks, vehicles and artillery.

First, we are expecting to train our inter-operability with the British Army and the Estonian Army to improve our level, said Colonel Michel De Mesmay. It is the reason why we come here with a lot of equipment such as the Maiden battle tank and infantry fighting vehicles in order to carry out a robust training.

Welcomethe arrivalof British troopsin #Estonia Findout more about #NATOs strengtheneddeterrence& defencehttps://t.co/PlkylOBzx5 pic.twitter.com/dLm036yMg3

UK troopshave arrivedin Estonia, underscoringcommitment#NATO & collective defence& deterrencehttps://t.co/y1nTo3jO1Q #GlobalBritain pic.twitter.com/knpYs46Ugj

More than 200 UK troops arrived in the country on Friday.

A US-led battalion of more than 1,100 soldiers will be deployed in Poland from the start of April. The alliance is setting up a new force in response to Moscows 2014 annexation of Crimea.

This is a mission, not a cycle of training events, US Army Lt. Colonel Steven Gventer told a news conference. The purpose is to deter aggression in the Baltics and in Poland..we are fully ready to be lethal.

The plan is being implemented as Western powers try for a peace settlement in eastern Ukraine.

The battle group in northeastern Poland will be one of four multinational formations across the Baltic region.

It will consist of:

The UK, Canada and Germany are leading the other three battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are due to be operational by June.

They will have support from a host of NATO nations, including France.

In total, around 4,000 NATO troops will monitor for and defend against any potential Russian incursions.

Seeking to avoid stationing troops permanently on Russias borders, the NATO force across the Baltics and Poland can rely on a network of eight small NATO outposts in the region, regular training exercises and a much larger force of 40,000 alliance troops in the event of an attack.

We are not the entirety of NATOs response, said US Army Major Paul Rothlisberger, part of the US-led battalion based in Orzyz, 220 kilometres northeast of Warsaw.

The alliance wants to show the ex-Soviet countries in NATO that they are protected from being annexed like the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

It also wants to avoid a return to the Cold War, when the US had an estimated 300,000 service personnel stationed in Europe and also stick to a 1997 agreement with Moscow not to permanently station forces on the Russian border.

Moscow, which denies having any expansionist or aggressive agenda, accuses NATO of trying to destabilise central Europe.

It has responded by forming four new military divisions to strengthen its western and central regions and stepping up exercises.

Moscow has plans for large-scale war games near its western borders this year, but has not said how many troops will take part.

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NATO troops arrive in Estonia to deter "Russian aggression" - euronews

German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke during a joint press conference with President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House.

BERLIN (AP) Chancellor Angela Merkel is underlining Germanys rejection of a claim by President Donald Trump that it owes NATO large sums for underspending on defense. She is also pointing to a history of decades of post-World War II military restraint.

Trump tweeted Saturday that Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO. Germany is short of a NATO target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense, with the figure currently at 1.23 percent.

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Merkel said Monday defense spending is not just about contributions to NATO, but also about European contributions in Africa for example, U.N. missions. She added: Not a single NATO member state pays its entire defense budget into NATO.

Merkel said that defense spending cant be uncoupled from historical developments from one day to the next.

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Merkel disputes Trump's NATO debt claim - The Boston Globe

Updated | Russia has warned NATO that increased activity near its borders could spiral into a new arms race.

The move comes despite Russias speaker of the upper house of parliament vowing Moscow would not participate in such a military contest earlier this month.

Speaking to state news agency RIA Novosti, Moscows envoy to NATO Alexander Grushko renewed the alliances reinforcement of its eastern flanka strategy announced in response to Russias annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014bordering four NATO members.

Although NATOs deployment of 4,000 troops across four countries is rotational, and pales in comparison to Russias western reinforcement, the Kremlin has criticized the move as aggressive. Moscows policy on any deployments in its former Soviet sphere of influence is to view them as offensive, not defensive, in intention.

In general, this whole host of activities, coupled with the heightened activityby which I mean the exercises and other training that NATO carries out almost daily near our bordersall of this creates a new reality, Grushko said. We know from the history of the Cold War that such a mixture of military planning and politics largely leads to a spiral of an arms race, to a spiral of confrontation, from which it is difficult to exit.

Grushko voiced concern about the eight coordination centerssmall communication points in NATOs easternmost countriesand its Baltic Air Policing mission, which consists of eight jets across three Baltic countries, making up for their lack of numerousair forces.

NATO maintains that its deployments come at the behest of any country hosting them; Poland, Lithuania and Romania have been among the countries requesting stronger NATO presence near their territory.Oana Lungescu, a NATO spokesperson, told Newsweek that the alliance did not intend to threaten Russia or seek confrontation, but that it "cannot ignore the security challenge Russia poses."

"Every country has the right to exercise its forces, and this is what NATO allies do, fully in line with our international commitments. Our exercises are conducted across the territory of NATO allies, not specifically on the border with any country," she says. "NATO is a defensive alliance and our exercises are not directed against any nation. We are transparent about our exercisesthe schedule of NATO and national exercises can be found on the NATO websiteand NATO allies regularly invite international observers, including thosefrom Russia. We invite Russia to be just as transparent."

"Russia has consistently refused NATO offers for reciprocal, mandatoryand predictable military transparency," she adds, noting that Russia is circumventing an international agreement on transparency in military drills by performing large-scale snap drills. "It is Russias pattern of military manoeuvres and deliberate avoidance of transparency and predictability that are increasing tensions, rather than helping to de-escalate them. "

U.S. President Donald Trump recently seemed to break with pro-Russian statements in the past, boasting that the U.S. could outlast anyone in a renewed arms race, while also suggesting a $56 billion increase to the Pentagons defense budget last week.

This article has been updated with acomment from NATO spokespersonOana Lungescu.

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Russia Warns NATO of New 'Arms Race' Danger - Newsweek

Among NATOs most serious problems is Recip Erdogan, the president of Turkey. He is more than a political nuisance, because he threatens both the commitment of NATOs members to defend each other and the Westernized composition of the nation he leads.

In the last half of the 19th century, under the Ottoman Empires last caliph Abdulmejid, Turkey was known as the sick man of Europe. Abdulmejids government was corrupt, dissolute, and entirely vulnerable. That third element led to the Gallipoli Campaign, which, in 1915-1916, saw troops from Australia and New Zealand under British command thwarted in their attempt to land and seize control of the Dardanelles.

One Turkish officer, Mustafa Kemal, found himself at the center of the invasion force. His counterattacks and ability to hold ground were the reasons the invasion failed.

After the war, when the Ottoman Empire fell and Abdulmejids reign ended, Mustafa Kemal became the leader of Turkey who was not as much followed as worshiped. In 1934, Mustafa Kemal became known as Ataturk, father of Turks. He remade the Islamic Ottoman state into a secular, non-Islamic nation aimed at joining the Western world.

Eighty-three years later, Turkey is led by a man whose principal goal is the re-creation of the Turkish Islamic state, Recip Erdogan.

Erdogan is not a dictator imposed by a military coup (though Turkey has had its share of them). He is highly popular, despite his many despotic actions, primarily because the Turks seem to have forgotten the reason for Ataturks success.

If you examine Erdogans past, it is no surprise that he is an Islamist. Erdogan is the product of a Turkish imam-hatip school. These are Islamic religious schools that arent quite the madrassas weve heard so much about since 9/11, but they are much like them. The imam-hatip schools reserve 30 percent of their students time for religious instruction. They teach Sunni Islamic law Sharia law as the exclusive legitimate source of authority. Those schools teach the political ideology we refer to as radical Islam.

Erdogan repeatedly has made clear his allegiance to radical Islam again and again throughout his presidency. He became prime minister in 2002 and has ruled the country ever since. His presidency, which began in 2014, is about to be converted into a pseudo-caliphate by a constitutional referendum that will be voted on next month.

Since Ataturk, the Turkish army has had the duty of maintaining the secularism of the Turkish state. It has had its successes and failures, but as Ataturk recognized, Turkey cannot be an Islamic state and a Western ally. For decades, many (if not most) Turkish officers have been trained in the U.S. and England and have been assigned to officer exchange programs that enabled them to serve with American forces.

From Korea to Afghanistan, Turkish troops have been a strong presence in NATO deployments. Gradually, since 2002, Erdogan has been weeding out non-Islamists from the Turkish armed forces. Graduates of the imam-hatip schools werent permitted to become officers in the Turkish army, but that may soon change. Erdogan has said those schools are the hope of Turkey and the entire Muslim nation.

Last Julys attempted coup against Erdogan sealed the Turkish armys fate. Hundreds of non-Islamist senior officers were purged from the military. They and the journalists taken prisoner are among the more than 200,000 people arrested and (or) fired from their jobs in Erdogans response to the coup attempt.

Erdogans hopes lie in the referendum that will be voted on in April. Its likely to be approved by the voters. In sum, the constitutional amendments it contains concentrate all executive power in the president and extend his legal term in office for at least another decade.

The referendum has been the source of Turkeys recent conflict with Germany and Holland. About 1.5 million Turkish citizens live in Germany, but that doesnt count the numbers who have come as refugees in the past two years. Turks make up the largest alien population in Germany.

At least 400,000 Turks live in Holland. Again, that number doesnt reflect how many entered in the refugee floods of 2015-2016. All told, about four million ethnic Turks live in the EU nations.

Because those Turkish citizens can vote in the Turkish referendum, Erdogan is eager to get their votes. When he sent Turkish government representatives to hold rallies in Germany, several German cities wouldnt allow the rallies to be held. Erdogan said the Germans were behaving like Nazis.

Holland went further, banning two Turkish government ministers from entering the country to hold such rallies. Erdogan accused the Dutch of Nazi-like behavior.

Relations are worsening by the day between the EU nations almost all of which are NATO members and Turkey. Last year, the EU entered into an agreement with Turkey to stop the flow of refugees from the Middle East and Africa. The EU promised to grant visa-free travel to Turkish citizens, which it hasnt done based on Turkeys poor human rights record. Now, Erdogan is threatening to open the floodgates to another million or more refugees to enter the EU. He has threatened to send Europe 15,000 refugees every month.

Last month, in a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Erdogan held a joint press conference in which Merkel referred to Islamic terrorism. Erdogan, furious at her statement, insisted that Islam is peace.

Turkey has been in strategic and literal terms a cornerstone of NATO. But Erdogans actions have been entirely inconsistent with that role. He negotiated an agreement with Russias President Putin to build a gas pipeline to and through Turkey to reach back into Europe. Thats not nearly the worst of it.

For more than a year, Turkey has reportedly been quietly supporting ISIS. It may have supplied money, arms, and troops. Erdogan has sided with Russia and may have a pseudo-alliance with Putin to help keep Bashar al-Assad in power in Syria. Turkish forces have made attacks against ISIS, but they have concentrated their firepower more on the Kurdish forces with which we are allied.

Last week, Erdogan blocked military exercises with NATO partner nations. He is evidently willing to continue to escalate his conflicts with NATO, believing there will be no response, because he has the EU over a barrel on the refugee issue.

Also last week, the Turkish foreign minister, reacting to the Dutch election, said that holy wars will soon begin in Europe. Shortly after that, Erdogan gave a speech in which he discussed the EU court ruling that allows EU nations to ban the wearing of the Muslim hijab by women. He said, Shame on the EU. Down with your European principles, values and justice. They started a clash between the cross and the crescent, there is no other explanation.

The cross and the crescent reference was nothing less than an accusation that the EU was reviving the Crusades.

There is no provision in the NATO treaty that permits throwing a member nation out of NATO. Turkey no longer makes a pretense of being a democratic state. As the Islamic state it has become, it cannot coexist with democracies.

Erdogans Turkey has been, for decades, trying to join the EU. It has apparently given up trying and is now more an ally of Russia than part of NATO. That was made most clear, after the July coup when Erdogan cut off electricity to our Incirlik Air Force Base in Turkey. Two months ago, Erdogans government hinted that he would shut the base down after we refused to support Turkish attacks in Syria.

Incirlik has been our key to the Middle East. Aircraft operating from there can quickly reach Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and pretty much the whole region. If Erdogan tried to shut the base down, it would be very tough to find another base location in the area, and it would cost billions to set it up to function as Incirlik does.

Threatening to cut off our foreign aid wont be effective because Turkey gets only about $200,000 a year from us. Its a trifle. Threatening Turkey could bring about a closer Turkish-Russian alliance.

What to do? President Trump has to make it clear to Erdogan that any further interference with Incirliks operations will not be tolerated.

Our leverage is not entirely limited. Mr. Trump can begin by turning up the rhetorical heat on Erdogan, saying that NATO cannot tolerate his failure to cooperate and urging the EU to keep the door closed to refugees. Erdogans threats to use the refugees as a weapon against NATO nations should be viewed as a breach of the NATO treaty.

At some point, Erdogans actions will be a clear breach of the EU treaty. Were not there yet, but Mr. Trump can and should hint that were thinking in those terms.

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Erdogan's Caliphate Threatens NATO - American Spectator

FBI Director James Comey also said the FBI has "no information" that supports Trumps unsubstantiated claims that President Obama tapped Trumps phones in Trump Tower during the election.

James Comey: "With respect to the presidents tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI. The Department of Justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the Department of Justice and all its components: The department has no information that supports those tweets."

During the hearing, the director of the National Security Agency, Michael Rogers, also refuted President Trumps claims that President Obama asked the British intelligence agency GCHQ to carry out the wiretap on Trump Tower. This is Rogers being questioned by California Democratic Congressmember Adam Schiff.

Rep. Adam Schiff: "Now, the British allies, our British allies, have called the presidents suggestion that they wiretapped him for Obama 'nonsense' and 'utterly ridiculous.' Would you agree?"

Michael Rogers: "Yes, sir."

President Trump appears to have issued the unfounded claims that the British intelligence agency GCHQ carried out the alleged wiretap after watching a Fox News report last week. Fox has pulled its senior legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, who made the claims last week, off the air. Following the hearing, President Trump refused to heed mounting calls for him to apologize for his unsubstantiated claims that Obama tapped his phones. Instead, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the White House was still looking into the possibility of surveillance.

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Reuters: Tillerson to Skip April NATO Meeting, Then Head to Russia - Democracy Now!