Monthly Archives: January 2020

Ukraine plans to send 20 troops to Iraq to support the NATO training mission once the alliance resumes the work it put on hold as tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated in recent weeks.

Ukraines Defense Ministry announced the plans Wednesday after NATO and Ukrainian officials met in Brussels.

The invitation to become an operational partner of the Alliances mission in Iraq testifies to recognition of the value of Ukrainian military experience and professionalism, Ukraines deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, Dmytro Kulebo, said in an online statement.

The alliances noncombat training mission in Iraq comprises about 500 troops and is separate from a much larger U.S.-led coalition effort to train, advise and assist Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State group in the country.

Many of the Canada-led NATO missions troops were relocated to Kuwait amid safety concerns after tensions skyrocketed in Iraq following the killing in Baghdad by the U.S. of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, which drew threats of retaliation from Tehran.

Last week, as more than a dozen Iranian missiles fell on bases hosting U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, air defense forces outside Tehran shot down a Ukrainian airliner shortly after takeoff from the citys airport, killing all 176 people aboard.

garland.chad@stripes.comTwitter: @chadgarland

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Ukrainian troops to serve with NATO training mission in Iraq - Stars and Stripes

Daniel Carruth, associate director for advanced vehicle systems at MSUs Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, is helping to lead NATO research efforts focused on off-road autonomy. (Photo by Logan Kirkland)

Contact: James Carskadon

STARKVILLE, Miss.A Mississippi State research professor is helping lead international efforts to advance off-road autonomous vehicle capabilities.

Daniel Carruth, associate director for advanced vehicle systems at MSUs Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, is part of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization research task group examining autonomous vehicle modeling and simulation tools. The group will work through 2023 to determine standards for modeling and simulation tools, allowing military and research personnel to more effectively develop algorithms that will allow autonomous vehicles to navigate off-road and unknown terrain.

The research task group is part of the NATO Science and Technology Organizations applied vehicle technology panel. Carruth said the ongoing work with NATO brings together advances in virtual environment and mobility modeling.

With mobility modeling, it was mostly about dynamics between the tire/track and the terrain its driving on, Carruth said. With autonomy, you have more questions about the environment and need to account for things such as trees, people, animals and other obstacles. Were trying to take two domains that have advanced a lot over the last 10 or 15 years and bring them together to improve off-road vehicles.

At CAVS, researchers use the MSU Autonomous Vehicle Simulator to test navigation software in virtual environments. Recently, MSU acquired 50 acres adjacent to CAVS to also test autonomous vehicles in a variety of physical off-road environments. The center recently was awarded over $3 million from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center to support the Armys ground mobility research.

Off-road autonomy is a new space thats being created, and were right there at the forefront, said CAVS Executive Director Clay Walden. Its invaluable to have Dr. Carruth being involved with the NATO working group, which allows us to better see the vision for future military research and puts our work in mobility on the international stage.

Carruth led two NATO sub-groups in 2019one focused on virtual environments and sensors, and another focused on benchmarking modeling and simulation tools. He said the benchmarking group will help determine gaps in current simulation software. The group plans to test autonomous vehicles in the real world and compare their performance to the modeling tools. Starting this year, Carruth is leading the organization of a competition designed to compare performance of different autonomous vehicle modeling and simulation tools.

Once we can show that the modeling and simulation tools work, we can help set standards for them, Carruth said.

Paramsothy Jayakumar, co-chair of the NATO task group and U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center senior technical expert, said it is important for NATO to be able to reliably judge the performance and applicability of autonomous technologies in military contexts.

It is critical to set up standard methods and tools for assessing military autonomous vehicles and be able to confirm their ability to fulfill strategic maneuvers and wider operations in a quantitative manner, especially since the military context provides extremely challenging and rough situations, Jayakumar said.

Given that this activity is likely to result in a long-lasting methodology and/or tool similar to the current NATO Reference Mobility Model (NRMM), which is widely used in military acquisitions by NATO member nations, such development will be a valuable investment for the future. The leadership and contributions provided by MSUs Dr. Daniel Carruth areextremely critical to the success of the NATO Task Group.

Carruths research interests include modeling and simulation of human interaction with autonomous vehicles, as well as the study of human task performance in law enforcement, military and industrial work. He earned his doctorate in psychology from MSU, in addition to a bachelors in degree in computer science.

CAVS is an interdisciplinary research center that uses state-of-the-art technology to address engineering challenges facing U.S. mobility industries. The center also impacts Mississippi and the Southeast by supporting economic development and outreach activities. For more, visit http://www.cavs.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippis leading university, available online at http://www.msstate.edu.

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MSU research professor taking leadership role in NATO teams focused on off-road autonomy - Mississippi State Newsroom

In late September 1952, only months after a rash of flying saucer sightings over Washington, D.C. made headlines around the world, dozens of military officers participating in NATO exercises in the North Atlantic were struck by their own UFO fever.

Exercise Mainbrace was the largest peacetime military exercise since World War II. The war-game-style maneuvers simulated NATOs response to a mock attack on Europe, presumably by the Soviet Union. The Mainbrace operation involved 200 ships, 1,000 planes and 80,000 soldiers from multiple NATO countriesincluding large deployments from the United States and the United Kingdom.

In a year dominated by news reports of UFO sightings, Pentagon officials half-joked with Naval Intelligence that they should keep an eye out for aliens during the NATO exercises, said Edward Ruppelt, the U.S. Air Force captain in charge of the top-secret Project Blue Book UFO investigations.

As it turns out, they werent off base. [N]o one really expected the UFOs to show up, Ruppelt wrote in his 1956 book, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. Nevertheless, once again the UFOs were their old unpredictable selvesthey were there.

READ MORE: Interactive Map: UFO Sightings Taken Seriously by the U.S. Government

TheUSS Franklin D. Roosevelt, where one of the Mainbrace sightings was made.

The National Archives

The first Mainbrace encounter came on September 13 when the captain and crew of a Danish destroyer spotted a triangular-shaped object moving through the night sky at alarming speeds. The unidentified craft emitted a blue glow and was estimated by Lieutenant Commander Schmidt Jensen to be traveling upward of 900 miles per hour.

On September 20, an American newspaper reporter named Wallace Litwin was aboard the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier participating in the Mainbrace exercises, when he saw a commotion on deck: several pilots and flight-crew members pointing at a silver sphere in the sky that appeared to be following the fleet. Litwin quickly shot four color photos of the round object, which he assumed was a weather balloon.

In a letter to a UFO investigator years later, Litwin recounts that he went below deck and joked with fellow newspaper correspondents that he had just shot a flying saucer. This caught the attention of the ships executive officer, who informed Litwin that no weather balloons had been released that day. The officer then radioed the Midway, the only other ship in the vicinity, which also confirmed that no weather balloons were in the air or unaccounted for.

In other words, the skies above this NATO fleet were very carefully observed and nothing flew around overhead unobserved, wrote Litwin, But I knew that I had taken a picture (4) of what looked like a ping-pong ball 10 feet over my head.

Ruppelt and the Project Blue Book team followed up with the Navy and interviewed members of the flight-deck crew. Some dismissed it as a weather balloon, while others had their doubts.

It was traveling too fast, and although it resembled a balloon in some ways, wrote Ruppelt. And it was far from being identical to the hundreds of balloons that the crew had seen the aerologists launch.

READ MORE:Meet J. Allen Hynek, the Astronomer Who First Classified 'Close Encounters'

A British Meteor fighter jet circa 1950s, similar to the aircraft that the RAF's encountered the Topcliffe UFO.

SSPL/Getty Images

The most perplexing sightingthe one that may have single-handedly relaunched the British militarys interest in UFOswas reported by a half-dozen Royal Air Force (RAF) officers and air crew based in Topcliffe, Yorkshire, England.

It took place on September 19, as a British Meteor fighter jet was returning to the Topcliffe airfield from exercises over the North Sea. When the plane had descended to 5,000 feet, crew on the ground spotted a silvery, circular object traveling several thousand feet above the Meteor, but on its same trajectory.

In a report preserved in the National Archives, RAF Flight Lieutenant John Kilburn of 269 Squadron said the object then began to descend toward the Meteor, swinging in a pendular motionsimilar to a falling sycamore leaf. At first, Kilburn thought it was a parachute or engine cowling that had broken loose from the jet.

Then the object stopped suddenly in mid-air, rotated on its own axis and zipped off at incredible speeds over the horizon.

The acceleration was in excess of that of a shooting star, reported Kilburn. I have never seen such a phenomenon before. The movements of the object were not identifiable with anything I have seen in the air.

Unlike previous UFO sightings kept hush-hush by the RAF and Royal Navy, the Topcliffe sighting was leaked to the pressand splashed across the front page of Sunday newspapers. Saucer Chased RAF Jet Plane, reported the Sunday Dispatch with a photo of five of the airmen, including Kilburn.

The circus-like publicity surrounding the Topcliffe incident put the British military intelligence in a difficult spot. They couldnt ignore questions from the press, but they also werent interested in a serious investigation into UFOs. Theyd already been down that road.

READ MORE: UFO Stories

A letter from Winston Churchill to the Secretary for Air, dated July 28, 1952, requesting an explanation on flying saucers.

The National Archives UK

While conducting research in the UK National Archives in 2001 for a book called Out of the Shadows: UFOs, the Establishment & the Official Cover-Up, British journalist and UFO investigator David Clarke made an incredible discovery. Despite officials repeated denials that they existed, he uncovered documents that referenced top-secret UK government UFO investigations.

The six-page report from the Ministry of Defences Directorate of Scientific Intelligence (the equivalent of the CIA in America), dated June 1951, was produced by a top-secret panel of military-intelligence experts known as the Flying Saucer Working Party.

According to the report, the five-member team had been meeting since 1950 to analyze reports of unexplained sightings from RAF and Royal Navy pilots. The Flying Saucer Working Party, much like the Air Force higher-ups overseeing the Project Blue Book investigations in America, dismissed all sightings by experienced military personnel as either mistaken identification of conventional aircraft, optical illusions and psychological delusions, known astronomical or meteorological phenomena or deliberate hoaxes.

The clandestine team concluded that the only way to get substantiated data on UFOs would be to establish a global network of radar stations and photographers continuously monitoring the sky for aberrations.

We should regard this, on the evidence so far available, as a singularly profitless enterprise, they wrote. We accordingly recommend very strongly that no further investigation of reported mysterious aerial phenomena be undertaken, unless and until some material evidence becomes available.

This was the conclusion shared with Winston Churchill when he fired off a memo in the summer of 1952 reading, What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth? Let me have a report at your convenience. Churchill was shown the top-secret report and the topic of UFO investigations was briefly laid to rest. That is, until Exercise Mainbrace.

READ MORE: The Time Winston Churchill Wrote About Aliens

In the wake of the Topcliffe sighting and resulting newspaper coverage, the British military intelligence was forced to officially recognize the UFO, according to Ruppelt of Project Blue Book. In 1953, the British Air Ministry established a UFO desk within the Deputy Directorate of Intelligence known cryptically as AI3. From then on, all unexplained sightings by British military personnel would be controlled internally, classified as restricted and not shared with the press.

A chart of various UFO sightings from the 1950s through the 70s in the U.S. and U.K.

The National Archives UK

Clarke, for one, isnt surprised that dozens of sailors and airmen spotted unidentified and unexplainable aerial phenomena during two weeks of high-stakes exercises.

You have all these military personnel on high alert looking for potential intruder aircraft, he says. Theres a good chance theyre going to see things that might have otherwise been ignored.

As to the seriousness of the British militarys investigations into Topcliffe and later UFO sightings, Clarke cites a newspaper clipping published months after the Mainbrace exercises where a reporter pressed an Air Ministry official for the results of their investigation. The official said he had no idea if the investigation was ongoing or if its conclusions would be shared with the public.

Was there any chance that it might turn out to be a flying saucer? wrote the reporter. One gathered from the low chuckle of the official that there was not the remotest chance. We take those stories with a large spoon of salt, old boy, he said.

Don't miss the return of Project Blue Book, Tuesday January 21 at 10/9c on HISTORY.

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The UFO Sightings that Pushed the UK to Take 'Flying Saucers' More Seriously - History

A Belgian pilot runs across an aircraft hanger to his F16 fighter and leaps into his cockpit for a practice drill of NATO interceptions of Russian aircraft in allied airspace.While bad weather over Lithuania eventuality kept him grounded, fellow pilots from Britain, France and Denmark took to the air for close encounters at speeds of 900 km/hour (560 mph).Violations of NATO airspace over the Baltics have fallen since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014, but air activity on allied borders remains constant as jets fly from the Russian mainland across the Baltic Sea to Kaliningrad."They are present more or less everyday," German air force Lieutenant General Klaus Habersetzer, who runs NATO's northern European air policing command, told Reuters on Tuesday while flying over the Baltics.During the simulations, NATO pilots carrying air-to-air missiles took turns to simulate the interception of a Belgian air force transporter - playing the role of a Russian plane - en route to Lithuania, performing visual inspections of the aircraft's status.With U.S. President Donald Trump regularly accusing Europe of not spending enough on defense, the air commanders hope such displays can highlight how NATO's planes are helping to protect the continent.

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NATO jets practice interceptions of Russian jets over Baltics - The Jerusalem Post

23:50, 15 January 2020

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With U.S. President Donald Trump regularly accusing Europe of not spending enough on defense, the air commanders hope such displays can highlight how NATO's planes are helping to protect the continent.

REUTERS

Violations of NATO airspace over the Baltics have fallen since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014, but air activity on allied borders remains constant as jets fly from the Russian mainland across the Baltic Sea to Kaliningrad, Reuters reports.

"They are present more or less everyday,"German air force Lieutenant General Klaus Habersetzer, who runs NATO's northern European air policing command, told Reuters on Tuesday while flying over the Baltics.

Read alsoU.S. Army General Milley calls Ukraine 'key partner to NATO'

During the simulations, NATO pilots fromBritain, France, Belgium, and Denmark carrying air-to-air missiles took turns to simulate the interception of a Belgian air force transporter - playing the role of a Russian plane - en route to Lithuania, performing visual inspections of the aircraft's status.

With U.S. President Donald Trump regularly accusing Europe of not spending enough on defense, the air commanders hope such displays can highlight how NATO's planes are helping to protect the continent.

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NATO showcases flight interceptions over Baltics (Photo) - UNIAN

SIR - Yesterday I went to see the film 1917. It is essentially about the horrors of the First World War. The message of the madness of war, the inhumanity, destruction and suffering came brilliantly and shockingly across from the cinema screen.

Between 1870 and 1945 Germany and France were on three occasions at each others' throats - and on the last two occasions we had world-wide conflict.

After 1945 statesmen in France and Germany looked for ways of preventing war in future. Hence the setting up of the European Coal and Steel Community (the forerunner of the European Union). One of its main architects, the French Foreign Minster, Robert Schuman, expressed the hope that economic integration of France, Germany and four other nations would: make war not only unthinkable but materially impossible".

Over time the Common Market has grown into the European Union but what has been constant has been the peace dividend.

My grandfather fought in the First World War, my father in the Second. But I have not been called up to fight and neither have my two sons.

Those who would glory at the dismemberment of the European Union do so at their and our - peril.

John Cole, Oakroyd Terrace, Baildon

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LETTER: We should thank the EU for keeping the peace, not Nato - Bradford Telegraph and Argus

Donald Trump once called a room full of Americas top generals a bunch of dopes and babies, according to a new report.

The 2017 meeting took place in the Pentagons secure vault known as the Tank a secure, windowless room apparently viewed within the American military apparatus as sacred amid concerns among the militarys top brass of gaping holes in Trumps knowledge of history, especially the key alliances forged following World War II, according to an excerpt from a new book due out by two Washington Post reporters.

But, after a lengthy crash course on the rationale behind Americas military presence abroad, and the importance of alliances like Nato, Mr Trump reportedly became frustrated, and snapped at the group that included the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general Joseph Dunford.

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"You're all losers. You don't know how to win anymore," Mr Trump said after complaining that the US hadn't won the war in Afghanistan after 16 years.

Mr Trump then continued to muse about the people in charge of America's military, and suggested that they no longer knew how to win wars.

World leaders gather for Nato family photo

Getty Images

British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives

EPA

President Donald Trump talks to British Prime Minister Theresa May

EPA

AP

US President Donald Trump and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attend a bilateral breakfast ahead of the Nato Summit in Brussels

Reuters

President Donald Trump, right, gestures as he speaks to the media prior to his bilateral breakfast with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left

AP

President Donald Trump, US Secretary of Defence James Mattis and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the bilateral breakfast with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

REUTERS

President Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo, left, are reflected in a mirror as they attend at a breakfast meeting

AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trump speaks during the bilateral breakfast

EPA

President Donald Trump gestures during the bilateral breakfast

EPA

World leaders gather for Nato family photo

Getty Images

British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives

EPA

President Donald Trump talks to British Prime Minister Theresa May

EPA

AP

US President Donald Trump and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attend a bilateral breakfast ahead of the Nato Summit in Brussels

Reuters

President Donald Trump, right, gestures as he speaks to the media prior to his bilateral breakfast with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left

AP

President Donald Trump, US Secretary of Defence James Mattis and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the bilateral breakfast with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

REUTERS

President Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo, left, are reflected in a mirror as they attend at a breakfast meeting

AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trump speaks during the bilateral breakfast

EPA

President Donald Trump gestures during the bilateral breakfast

EPA

I wouldnt go to war with you people, Mr Trump reportedly said.

He continued: Youre a bunch of dopes and babies.

While the meeting had been previously reported, the outburst had not. And, those newest details show a surprising level of vitriol even for a man known for his penchant for tossing aside the norms of respect and admiration normally associated with the presidency.

In attendance were Gen Dunford andseveral officials who have now left the federal government, including former Defense secretary Jim Mattis, former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn and former secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Stephen Bannon, the former chief strategist in the White House, was also there, and described his thinking at the time to the Washington Post.

Oh baby, this is going ot be f*****g wild, Mr Biden said he thought after Mr Mattis gave a 20-minute briefing on the power of Nato and Americas postwar rules-based international order, as one slide was labelled. Mr Trump has frequently bashed Nato as president, complaining that he does not believe Americas foreign allies are paying enough into the system.

If you stood up and threatened to shoot [Trump], he couldnt say postwar rules-based international order. Its just not the way he thinks, Mr Bannon said.

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In the years since, Mr Trump has continued to slam Nato during international trips, and in December made headlines after abruptly leaving a gathering of leaders in London when a video showing Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson mocking the American president.

The month before that, the Trump administration moved to substantially cut its contribution to the collective budget of Nato, US and Nato officials said.

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'You're a bunch of dopes and babies': Trump called America's top military leaders 'losers' in off the rails Pentagon meeting, report says - The...

Due to the public opinion survey published by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), reflecting public sentiment regarding Georgias EU and NATO membership, 82% of respondents consider the stated goal of the Georgian government to become a member of the EU acceptable, while 10% deem it undesirable.

As for the question concerning NATO membership: "Is the stated goal of the Georgian government- to become a NATO member- acceptable for Georgia?", 74% of the respondents give a positive answer, while 14% consider it unacceptable. 11% say they do not know.

The survey reveals that Georgias accession to NATO and the European Union is supported by more people now than in previous years. A similar study published last year by the same organization showed that the goal of Georgia to become a member of the EU was deemed positive by 77% of respondents, negative by 13%, while 10% gave no concrete answer.

The fieldwork of the survey was performed between November 19 and December 13 of 2019, through 2,180 face-to-face interviews with a nationwide representative sample (excluding occupied territories).

By Elene Dzebisashvili

16 January 2020 14:19

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NDI: NATO and EU Membership Supporters on the Rise in Georgia - Georgia Today

Nordic Monitor

Lt. Col. zcan Kurt, who was assigned as commander of Turkeys Security and Protection Battalion for Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, was jailed and convictedon fabricated charges of coup plotting by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoan.

Kurt had no involvement in any mobilization during a failed coup in Turkey in July 15, 2016 and was preparing to fly to Afghanistan to report for duty. He was selected for overseas deployment by the Turkish General Staff and vetted and cleared by NATO for the crucial post of providing security at the Kabul airport. He was given high-level access to secret NATO intelligence documents and given a NATO travel order.

Yet he was caught up in events unfolding at the General Staff headquarters on July 15, when he dropped by to meet with his superiors and complete the final paperwork before flying to Afghanistan.

NATO travel order for Afghanistan mission for Lt. Col. zcan Kurt:

Months after he was put in pre-trial detention, Kurt was indicted on both coup plotting and terrorism charges on dubious evidence, although his case file indicated no evidence of any wrongdoing whatsoever. He vigorously defended himself in what appears to have been a kangaroo court whose verdict was already rendered by the Erdoan government, which controls the judges and prosecutors in Turkey. In May 2018 prosecutor Blent Karaku demanded 13 consecutive life sentences for him in his closing argument at the final hearing. The panel of judges convicted and sentenced him to seven years, six months in prison on June 20, 2019.

Lt. Col. Kurt was in charge of the General Staff Training Department before his assignment to Afghanistan under an appointment certificate dated May 24, 2016. He had completed the battalion command course between May 9 and May 13, 2016 before joining the mission. Then he went on holiday with his family from June 30 to July 3 and organized a circumcision celebration for his son on July 8, before going to Afghanistan, and returned to Ankara on July 10. His actions do not suggest he was plotting a coup when he had been busy with holiday and family affairs. He maintained that he had no relation to the events that took place on the night of the coup.

NATO clearance for Lt. Col. Kurts access to secret NATO intelligence documents:

The reason for his return to Ankara on July 10 was to attend a course on security and counterintelligence from July 11 to 15 in preparation for the Afghanistan posting. He visited General Staff headquarters every day after the conclusion of the course to complete the termination of his current assignment in Ankara and to hand over his responsibilities his replacement. He was there on July 15 for the same purpose. He also received his uniforms for the Afghanistan mission around 17:00-17:30.

His superior, Col. Nuri Gayr, asked him to make sure that everything was in order in his paperwork, which required signatures for clearance from about half a dozen units, including 28 signatures from various sections and departments on the termination papers. He had completed most but not all and was trying to finish everything by evening. He managed to complete all documentation late on July 15.

What is more, senior officers such as the heads of personnel, intelligence and operations were still at General Staff headquarters, and Kurt was unable toleave because his supervisorshad continued to work after hours. He had to wait until all senior officers left the building.On that day, July 15, the chief of general staff was at headquarters throughout the day, and National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan was also there between 18:00 and 19:00.

As part of the established protocol at headquarters, he simply could not depart before his superior officers gave him permission to do so. This rule applied to all officers working there.

After 20:00, a security alarm was sounded at the headquarters about an imminent terror attack, and Kurt left the room along with everyone else and went to the courtyard. Outside there was a feeling of panic. At 20:40, gunfire came from the south entrance on the Air Force Command side of the building. He thought like many others in the General Staff that they were under attack but could not figure out who was attacking them. Then, he heard the sounds ofhelicopter and aircraft flying in the vicinity.

Turkish military report confirming the account provided by Lt. Col. Kurt:

Kurt later heard about the attempted coup on television and realized that the events were unlawful and immediately went back to his office. There was a ban on all entries and exits at the building.Even if he could get out somehow, there was a high probability of being shot by the police or lynched by a mob that had gathered outside the headquarters.

Immediately after returning to his office, Kurt called his wife on the military line since mobile phones were prohibited in the headquarters building. He spoke with his wife for a while. Considering that military phone lines were all monitored and recorded, Kurts conversation with his wife was presented during his trial by his lawyer as clear evidence of his innocence. Kurt was explaining to his wife what he thought was happening in the building, a conversationthat was in line with his testimony.

Kurt spent the night of July 15 in his office for safety andwas detained by police on the morning of July 16 along with other officers in the General Staff headquarters. Camera footage and the military administrative investigation report as well as the statements of persons present at the time indicate that Kurt had not committed any criminal acts and did not have a gun because officers were not allowed to carry weapons at headquarters, but that he also wanted to leave and was unable to because of the gunfire outside.

Following Kurts arrest, his home, workplace, telephone and CCTV securitycamera recordings were searched and investigated, but no criminal element was found. Nevertheless, he was discharged from the servicewithout any evidence. His repeated legal motions challenging his pre-trial detention were rejected by the court without any reasonable explanation.

He was alleged to have been affiliated with the Glen movement, a civic group that is highly critical of the Erdoan government on issues ranging from pervasive corruption to Erdoans arming and funding of jihadist groups in Syria and elsewhere. Yet no evidence was presented by the prosecutor linking him to the group, either.

Termination papers that require numerous signatures clearing Lt. Col. Kurt for departure from Turkey:

He appeared to have been a highly motivated officer with unquestioned integrity, greatly admired by his superiors, with no disciplinary offense in his record and no question about his loyalty to his family, country or nation. However, he was held in pre-trial detention for three years on totally fabricated evidence. His imprisonment took a heavy toll on his family as well as inflicting separation, financial and emotional problems.

The Land Forces Command had even issued a ticket for his flight to Kabul on July 11, and he was scheduled to leave Turkey on July 20.

Orders for the Afghanistan mission for Lt. Col. Kurt:

The Erdoan government accused 78-year-old Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Glen, leader of the eponymous movement, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999, of attempting to overthrow the government in 2016. Glen has repeatedly and strongly denied the accusations, and the Erdoan government has failed to present any evidence linking Glen to the abortive putsch. The US Justice Department said the evidence presented by Turkey to secure his extradition would not stand up to US court scrutiny.

One of the many legal briefs filed by Lt. Col. Kurt challenging his unlawful pre-trial detention. All were rejected with no reasonable explanation:

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Turkey jailed and convicted officer who had access to NATO intel, was set to run security at Kabul airport - Nordic Research and Monitoring Network