Huge Scandal Erupts Inside NATO: Alliance Member Germany Slams NATO "Warmongering" Against Russia | Zero Hedge

Huge Scandal Erupts Inside NATO: Alliance Member Germany Slams NATO "Warmongering" Against Russia

As we reported in just the past week, not only has NATO accelerated its encirclement of Russia, with British soldiers deployed in Estonia, US soldiers operating in Latvia and Canadians in Poland, while combat units are being increased in the Mediterranean... 

... but even more troubling, was NATO's assessment that it may now have grounds to attack Russia when it announced that if a NATO member country becomes the victim of a cyber attack by persons in a non-NATO country such as Russia or China, then NATO’s Article V “collective defense” provision requires each NATO member country to join that NATO member country if it decides to strike back against the attacking country.

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Tensions Between US/NATO & Russia Are Flaring Dangerously | Zero Hedge

Tensions Between US/NATO & Russia Are Flaring Dangerously

Submitted by Chris Martenson via PeakProsperity.com,

As if there weren’t enough crises to worry about in the world already, from shooting rampages to accelerating species loss, the US and NATO continue to ‘poke the bear’ and risk an outbreak of war with Russia.

I wish this were idle speculation. But if you haven’t been paying close attention, you'll probably be shocked at just how much direct military and diplomatic provocation has been going on between NATO/US and Russia over the past several years -- and in recent weeks, in particular.

Even more shocking is that no one in power can provide us with a compelling reason for exactly why these tensions are flaring. It seems that Russia’s main sin is in not entirely, completely and immediately giving the US/NATO anything and everything they request.

In other words, it’s imperial hubris and petulance that seems to be driving the ship of state. That’s a dangerous thing.

I’ve written extensively on the dangers of war with Russia as my concerns have mounted ever since the situation in Ukraine devolved in 2014.

There have been plenty of chances to dial down the rhetoric and mend fences, but they've all come and gone without healing. In fact, as we detail below, quite the opposite has happened. 

The bottom line is this: If you're not already mentally and physically prepared for the prospect of a NATO/US war with Russia, you really should be.

Perhaps the chances of outright war are still low on a relative scale, but the costs would be catastrophically high -- making this worthy of your attention. A low risk of a catastrophic outcome is the very reason we all buy insurance – life, auto, and home.  Not because we wish things to go wrong in our lives, but because they sometimes do nonetheless.

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Tomgram: Andrew Cockburn, Victory Assured on the Military's Main Battlefield -- Washington | TomDispatch

Andrew Cockburn, Victory Assured on the Military's Main Battlefield -- Washington

When it comes to Pentagon weapons systems, have you ever heard of cost “underruns”? I think not. Cost overruns? They turn out to be the unbreachable norm, as they seem to have been from time immemorial. In 1982, for example, the Pentagon announced that the cumulative cost of its 44 major weapons programs had experienced a “record” increase of $114.5 billion. Three decades later, in the spring of 2014, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the military’s major programs to develop new weapons systems -- by then 80 of them -- were a cumulative half-trillion dollars over their initial estimated price tags and on average more than two years delayed. A year after, the GAO found that 47 of those programs had again increased in cost (to the cumulative tune of $27 billion) while the average time for delivering them had suffered another month’s delay (although the Pentagon itself swore otherwise).

And little seems to have changed since then -- not exactly a surprise given that this has long been standard operating procedure for a Pentagon that has proven adamantly incapable not just of passing an audit but even of doing one. What we’re talking about here is, in fact, more like a way of life. As TomDispatch regular William Hartung has written, the Pentagon regularly takes “active measures to disguise how it is spending the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars it receives every year -- from using the separate ‘war budget’ as a slush fund to pay for pet projects that have nothing to do with fighting wars to keeping the cost of its new nuclear bomber a secret.”

When it comes to those cost overruns, Exhibit A is incontestably the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a plane whose total acquisition costs were pegged at $233 billion back in 2001. That price now: an estimated $1.4 trillion for far fewer planes. (Even the F-35 pilot’s helmet costs$400,000 apiece.) In other words, though in test flights it has failed to outperform the F-16, a plane it is supposed to replace, it will be, hands down (or flaps up), the most expensive weapons system in history -- at least until the next Pentagon doozy comes along.

Today, Andrew Cockburn, whose recent book, Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins (just out in paperback), is a devastating account of how U.S. drone warfare really works, suggests that this is anything but a matter of Pentagon bungling. Quite the opposite, it’s strategy of the first order. Tom

The Pentagon’s Real $trategy
Keeping the Money Flowing
By Andrew Cockburn

These days, lamenting the apparently aimless character of Washington’s military operations in the Greater Middle East has become conventional wisdom among administration critics of every sort. Senator John McCainthunders that “this president has no strategy to successfully reverse the tide of slaughter and mayhem” in that region. Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies bemoans the “lack of a viable and public strategy.” Andrew Bacevich suggests that “there is no strategy. None. Zilch.”

After 15 years of grinding war with no obvious end in sight, U.S. military operations certainly deserve such obloquy. But the pundit outrage may be misplaced. Focusing on Washington rather than on distant war zones, it becomes clear that the military establishment does indeed have a strategy, a highly successful one, which is to protect and enhance its own prosperity.

Given this focus, creating and maintaining an effective fighting force becomes a secondary consideration, reflecting a relative disinterest -- remarkable to outsiders -- in the actual business of war, as opposed to the business of raking in dollars for the Pentagon and its industrial and political partners. A key element of the strategy involves seeding the military budget with “development” projects that require little initial outlay but which, down the line, grow irreversibly into massive, immensely profitable production contracts for our weapons-making cartels.

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NATO Begins Encirclement Of Russia | Zero Hedge

NATO Begins Encirclement Of Russia

Via German Economic News, translated by Eric Zuesse,

NATO prepares a veritable military buildup in Eastern Europe: German soldiers are operating in Lithuania, the British take over Estonia, and US soldiers move in to protect Latvia. The Canadians will be in Poland. Also in the Mediterranean, combat units are being increased. Russia perceives the activity as a threat, but hasn’t yet announced any countermeasures.

Source: RiskAdvisory

At the NATO summit during July 8th-9th in Warsaw, the Alliance will adopt a massive military presence along Russia’s border. Russia is classified by NATO as a threat. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recently said in Washington that the US and the EU have the right in the form of NATO to defend its territories on foreign soil. Critics of this strategy believe that it’s possible this upgrade will increase significantly the danger of a conflict between the superpowers. Wednesday in Brussels, the defense ministers want the military alliance to take decisions which will then be sealed by the leaders in Poland. NATO wants to strengthen its military presence on its eastern borders significantly, and to position foreign combat troops battalions in Poland and the three Baltic states. Germany is the core of the Association in Lithuania, the British in Estonia, and the United States is expected to be that in Latvia. What remains unclear, however, is who will be sending troops to Poland.

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An Inconvenient Truth: How The Obama Administration Became Earth's Largest Arms Dealer | Zero Hedge

An Inconvenient Truth: How The Obama Administration Became Earth's Largest Arms Dealer

With the Obama presidency in its final year, there is one central element of his foreign policy that has received little attention –the dramatic acceleration of lethal weapons exports by the U.S. military and defense contractors. As Ammo.com details,the Obama administration has approved more lethal weapon sales to more foreign countries than any U.S. administration since World War II. Many billions more than G.W. Bush's administration, in fact. And some of these sales will likely result in unintended consequences i.e. "blowback" – especially as more than 60 percent of them have gone to the Middle East and Persian Gulf.

(After all, U.S. weapons supplied to the mujaheddin in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets were then used to help launch Al-Qaeda. Arms supplied to Iraqi security forces and Syrian rebels have been captured by ISIS. And “allies” from Bahrain to Egypt to Saudi Arabia have used U.S.-supplied weapons to defeat homegrown democracy movements.)

On May 23rd, President Obama announced at a press conference in Hanoi that the U.S. would be lifting its decades-long embargo on sales of lethal weapons to Vietnam. Such a reversal in U.S. foreign policy raises questions: How does the U.S. arms export market actually work? Which companies in the military-industrial complex profit from these sales? Who really ends up with U.S. weapons? And most importantly, how many of those weapons could eventually be used against us?

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Gartman: "The World Is Finally Awakening To The Fact That World War III Has Begun In Earnest" | Zero Hedge

Gartman: "The World Is Finally Awakening To The Fact That World War III Has Begun In Earnest"

We have no idea how to even comment on this latest observation by "world-renowned", if allegedly dead now that oil is again well above $44, commodity expert Dennis Gartman, who in his latest letter writes that World War III "has begun in earnest:"

SHARE PRICES, GLOBALLY, HAVE FALLEN PRECIPITOUSLY as all ten of the markets comprising our International Index have fallen and as one can see from the “red” in the price matrix below, 7 of the 10 markets in our Index have fallen by more than 1% and 5 of those 7 have fallen by more than 2% and 2 of those 5 have fallen by more than 3%. We have not seen a day such as this in more than a year and as our good, and very wise, friend, Mr. Doug Kass, reminds us, “Risk happens fast.”

Why now? Perhaps the markets are indeed concerned that the Federal Reserve Bank may pass on raising rates at its meetings this week, but will be moved to raise rates at a later time.

Or perhaps the markets are concerned that global economic growth does indeed seem to be waning and that a global recession lurks around the economic corner?

Or perhaps the world is concerned about the vote in the UK next week which is swiftly moving toward the UK leaving the European Union and thus the likelihood of other members of the Union at the periphery choosing to follow London’s lead.

Or perhaps the world is finally awakening to the fact that World War III has begun in earnest; that the Islamic World and the Judeo-Christian world are now truly at war in the aftermath of the murders in Orlando over the weekend. We are of the latter school of thought. We are convinced now that even the Obama Administration can no longer avoid the facts of the age; that Islam and the West are at enmity one with the other and in this light equity investment is wholly ill-advised. Add to that the concerns about the Fed. Add to that the concerns about global recession. Add to that the concerns about the UK and the European Union and one has the makings of serious equity market weakness.

We do know what to say about Gartman's next statement however: it may explain the early ramp in stocks as algos read that Dennis is now once again "net short."

We ended last week in our retirement account here at TGL modestly net short of the market in general, for we exited our long position in energy soon after the opening on Friday while we added to our short position via a derivatives position at precisely the same time.

For some it takes days to rotate their entire portfolio. Others, like Gartman, continue to manage it instantly.

China Says The US "Deliberately Hyping Up" Latest Spy Plane Intercept | Zero Hedge

China Says The US "Deliberately Hyping Up" Latest Spy Plane Intercept

In what is becoming a routine event, a US Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane was again intercepted by two Chinese J-10 fighter planes during a routine patrol in international airspace over the East China Sea on Tuesday, the US Pacific Commandsaid.

Stock photo of a RC-135U

The US is saying that the intercept was done in an unsafe manner - "One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft. Initial assessment is that this seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred" Pacific Command said, without saying how close the Chinese fighter came to the US plane. One official told CNN that the jet was never closer than 100 feet however.

"The Department of Defense is addressing the issue with China in appropriate diplomatic and military channels" the Pacific Command statement added.

China's Defense Ministry said that it had noted the report and was looking into it. Additionally, China's Defense Ministry toldReuters "judging by the report, the US side is again deliberately hyping up the issue of the close surveillance of China by US military aircraft. Chinese military pilots consistently carry out operations in accordance with the law and the rules, and are professional and responsible."

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a much more harsh point of view on the subject however...

"Frequent close-up surveillance activities by US military threaten China's air and maritime safety." Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei said according to Bloomberg.

Hong also added that "China has the right to take defensive measures", and when asked if the incident had been timed to coincide with the high-level China-US talks in Beijing, Hong responded "Ask the Americans."

The intercept comes just days after US Defense Secretary Ash carter and other top military officials attended a security meeting in Singapore, during which Carter said that China was building a "Great Wall of self-isolation" due to China's activities in the South China Sea, as well as reminding China that US intends to remain the main underwriter of security in the region. Carter reinforcedthat nothing would deter "America's determination to, and resolve to, fly, sail, or operate wherever international law allows." - something that has already led China to brand the US as being "The greatest threat to peace and stability"

With the US flat out stating that it wouldn't withdraw from the region due to the trillions in trade that passes through the South China Sea, we expect to continue to see more of these games being played between the two nations.

The Pentagon’s Great Wall of Impotence — RT Op-Edge

The Pentagon’s Great Wall of Impotence

Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst. He writes for RT, Sputnik and TomDispatch, and is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online. Born in Brazil, he's been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of "Globalistan" (2007), "Red Zone Blues" (2007), "Obama does Globalistan" (2009) and "Empire of Chaos" (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is "2030", also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.

Published time: 7 Jun, 2016 15:57

© AFP

No one ever lost money betting on the Pentagon refraining from exceptionalist rhetoric.

Once again the current Pentagon supremo, certified neocon Ash Carter, did not disappoint at the Shangri-La Dialogue – the annual, must-go regional security forum in Singapore attended by top defense ministers, scholars and business executives from across Asia.

Context is key. The Shangri-La Dialogue is organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which is essentially a pro-Anglo-American think tank. And it takes place in the privileged aircraft carrier of imperial geostrategic interests in South East Asia: Singapore.  

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Tomgram: Rebecca Gordon, Justice for Torturers? | TomDispatch

Rebecca Gordon, Justice for Torturers?

If you happen to be a potential American war criminal, you've had a few banner weeks.  On May 9th, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter presented former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger with the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award, that institution's “highest honorary award for private citizens.”  In bestowing it on the 92-year-old who is evidently still consulting for the Pentagon, he offered this praise: “While his contributions are far from complete, we are now beginning to appreciate what his service has provided our country, how it has changed the way we think about strategy, and how he has helped provide greater security for our citizens and people around the world.”

Certainly people “around the world” will remember the “greater security” offered by the man who, relaying an order from President Richard Nixon for a “massive” secret bombing campaign in Cambodia, used a line that may almost be the definition of a war crime: “Anything that flies on anything that moves.”  The result: half a million tons of bombs dropped on that country between 1969 and 1973 and at least 100,000 dead civilians.  And that’s just to start down the well-cratered road to the millions of dead he undoubtedly has some responsibility for.  Public service indeed.

Meanwhile, speaking of American crimes in the Vietnam era, former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey, who ran for president of the U.S. and then became the president of the New School in New York City, was just appointed to “lead” Fulbright University Vietnam, the first private American-backed school there.  Its opening was announced by President Obama on his recent visit to that country.  Only one small problem: we already know of some children who won’t be able to apply for admission.  I’m thinking of the progeny-who-never-were of the 13 children killed by a team of U.S. SEALs under Kerrey’s command and on his orders in South Vietnam in 1969 (along with a pregnant woman, and an elderly couple whose three grandchildren were stabbed to death by the raiders) -- all of whom were reported at the time as dead Vietcong guerillas.

It seems that if you are a distinguished citizen of the most exceptional country on the planet, even war crimes have their rewards.  Consider, for instance, the millions of dollars that were paid for memoirs by top Bush administration officials responsible for creating an American offshore torture regime at CIA “black sites” around the world.  Must-reads all!  With that in mind, turn to TomDispatch regular Rebecca Gordon, author most recently of American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes, to consider what “justice” for such figures might look like in a different and better world. Tom 

Crimes of the War on Terror 
Should George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Others Be Jailed? 
By Rebecca Gordon

"The cold was terrible but the screams were worse," Sara Mendez told the BBC. "The screams of those who were being tortured were the first thing you heard and they made you shiver. That's why there was a radio blasting day and night."

In the 1970s, Mendez was a young Uruguayan teacher with leftist leanings. In 1973, when the military seized power in her country (a few months before General Augusto Pinochet’s more famous coup in Chile), Mendez fled to Argentina. She lived there in safety until that country suffered its own coup in 1976. That July, a joint Uruguayan-Argentine military commando group kidnapped her in Buenos Aires and deposited her at Automotores Orletti, a former auto repair shop that would become infamous as a torture site and paramilitary command center. There she was indeed tortured, and there, too, her torturers stole her 20-day-old baby, Simón, giving him to a policeman’s family to raise.

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US Says China Is Building A "Great Wall Of Self-Isolation" | Zero Hedge

US Says China Is Building A "Great Wall Of Self-Isolation"

The back and forth between the US and China continues, as US defense secretary Ash Carter said today at the 15th Asia Security Summit in Singapore that China risks isolating itself with its actions in the South China Sea.

"The United States welcomes the emergence of a peaceful, stable, and prosperous China that plays a responsible role in the principled security network. We know China's inclusion makes for a stronger network, and a more stable, secure, and prosperous region. Unfortunately there's growing anxiety in this region, and in this room, about China's activities on the seas, in cyberspace, and in the regions air space. Indeed in the South China Sea, China has taken some expansive and unprecedented actions that have generated concerns about China's strategic intentions. Countries across the region have been taking action and voicing concerns, publicly and privately at the highest levels of regional meetings. As a result China's actions in the South China Sea are isolating it, at a time when the entire region is coming together and networking. Unfortunately if these actions continue, China could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation"

Although Carter said the US would welcome China's participation in a "principled security network" for Asia, the defense secretary went on to say very directly that China might as well play ball, because the US is going to continue to trot out warships and spy planes as it plays top cop in the region.

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Why Conscripting Women Into Combat Will Result In Cultural Disaster | Zero Hedge

Why Conscripting Women Into Combat Will Result In Cultural Disaster

Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

Each Memorial Day 2016, there are numerous articles published which examine the achievements and sacrifices of American veterans killed in action. With that subject thoroughly covered, I thought I might instead confront a topic that many people out there would rather not discuss. Get ready for the discomfort levels to increase dramatically, because we are going to tackle the problems surrounding women in combat.

Now, it has been incredibly trendy the past five years or so to ride the warrior woman bandwagon, and to speak against it is to automatically earn accusations of “misogyny.”  With the third-wave feminist and social-justice agenda increasingly out in the open rather than remaining subtly subversive, you really can’t walk anywhere without stepping in a big steaming pile of propaganda.

A large number of films and television shows released today, from Mad Max and Star Wars remakes to comic book movies and TV miniseries galore, all seem to be designed to promote the feminist ideology and the image of women "kicken' ass".  An important part of this ideology is the idea that men and women are "exactly"  the same in every capacity except genitals. That is to say, everything a man can do, a woman can do just as well or better, including fight and kill.

I have to say, I find the spread of this delusion rather disturbing for several reasons. As a mixed martial arts instructor for over 14 years, I have worked with many men and women in combat training and combat mindset. I have never refused to train a woman based on her gender. That said, as training progresses and they reach a certain level of proficiency, I will always have every woman face off with a man for moderate sparring. From my observations, the experience for some of them can be rather shocking.

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