Free Republic

The strategic framework and the correlation of forces in the Gulf of Guinea — one of the most significant and growing energy resource regions of the world — is changing rapidly. A new era in security arrangements for the region is beginning. The region is moving from an area of low technology defense and security systems, and minimal command and control at national levels, to one of growing sophistication, higher mobility, and the potential for military confrontation. The five-year, $250-million Equatorial Guinea maritime security program - essentially the build-up of an integrated naval and air capability - announced on February...

The conflict that raged throughout the former Yugoslavia was met by a wall of silence when it came to important issues. These important issues apply to America and the United Kingdom supporting Islamists in a brutal civil war in Bosnia and then installing a new nation by ignoring international law in Kosovo. Also, is it credible to believe that the vast majority of major news agencies and national governments did not know about thousands of Islamists in Europe who were sent to slit the throats and behead Orthodox Christians? Shoeless Holbrooke sits with Muslim Albanian gunmen that ran the organ...

<p>BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) -- Serbia filed a lawsuit against Croatia at the International Court of Justice on Monday, accusing it of genocide during the 1991-1995 Balkan war, which killed or displaced thousands of people.</p> <p>Serbia was responding to a similar lawsuit that Croatia filed to the same Netherlands-based court in 1999, claiming that Serb attacks during the conflict also amounted to genocide. In 2008, the International Court of Justice granted Croatia the right to sue Serbia by deciding the court has the authority to rule in the case.</p>

THRILLED WITH OPERATION FLASH, PRESIDENT CLINTON GAVE THE GO AHEAD FOR OPERATION STORM The United States was actively involved in the preparation, monitoring and initiation of Operation Storm: the green light from President Clinton was passed on by the US military attache in Zagreb, and the operations were transmitted in real time to the Pentagon Considering that the US was much more interested in the situation in BiH than in Croatia, they asked Croatia to permit them to install a military base with unmanned aircraft. The United States not only monitored the complete Operation Storm, but they also actively participated...

In the negotiations that brought Macedonia’s 2001 war to an end, Albanian militants were amnestied and took up new jobs in the state administration - some even in the ministry of defense. With the farcical situation now unfolding in Kondovo, you have the lunacy of the same people who benefited in such a way going AWOL from their jobs, and now showing up in black uniforms in the hills and demanding to be amnestied again. Yes indeed, the Balkans is truly an exercise in pointless, futile cyclic idiocy. But the militant demands – if not met, the gunmen promise to...

Citing international aid workers, an October 3 article in the British Observer newspaper challenges the US government’s characterization of the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan as “genocide.” US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in testimony last month before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declared that “genocide has been committed in Darfur...and that genocide may still be continuing.” Powell made his speech after the US Congress had unanimously adopted a resolution labelling the events in Darfur as genocide. But in the Observer article, headlined “US ‘hyping’ Darfur genocide fear,” Peter Beaumont reports allegations made by international aid workers in...

Citizens face danger rebuilding IraqBy Sgt. 1st Class Marcia Triggs May 3, 2004 WASHINGTON (Army News Service, May 3, 2004) – The kidnapping and murdering of civilian contractors in Iraq has not deterred thousands of workers from providing aid to American troops and assisting with the build-up of Iraq and Afghanistan. Restoring fuel, water and power lines. Providing humanitarian aid. Maintaining military vehicles. There are umpteen jobs being performed by civilians in Iraq, and for most of the workers their actions will go unknown. “I have been part of several large incidents within Iraq where many people have lost...

As Rwandans begin the formal remembrance of the victims of the genocide that began 10 years ago today, President Paul Kagame has denounced the world's "deliberate failure" to stop the slaughter of ethnic Tutsis. "When genocide takes place, the international community should not shy away from its responsibilities ... How could the lives of one million Rwandese be considered so insignificant?" he asked, speaking for many of his countrymen who lived through the 100 days of terror.   "Do the powerful nations have a hidden agenda? I would hate to believe that this agenda is dictated by racist considerations or...

France accused of genocide role Kagame denies ordering the shooting down of the Rwandan president's plane in 1994 Rwandan President Paul Kagame has accused French people of "direct involvement" in the 1994 genocide. He told the French state-owned RFI radio that they provided weapons and training, and gave orders to those who killed some 800,000 people. He said the "French elements" were acting on government orders. The president was speaking a week after a French daily reported a police report that blamed him for a rocket attack that precipitated the massacre. "Sooner or later they will have to account for...

Monday, January 26th, 2004 Democracy Now! Exclusive: Wesley Clark Admits Targeting Civilians In Yugoslavia In a Democracy Now! exclusive, General Wesley Clark responds for the first time to in-depth questions about his targeting of civilian infrastructure in Yugoslavia, his bombing of Radio Television Serbia, the use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium, the speeding-up of the cockpit video of a bombing of a passenger train to make it appear as though it was an accident and other decisions he made and orders he gave as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander. Since the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, General Wesley Clark has not...

  The secret world of corporate mercenariesCorporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry by Peter W Singer Reviewed by David Isenberg It is rare in the field of international security to find a new book dealing with a subject that hasn't already been covered to death. It is even more rare when that book makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the subject and promises to be the gold standard of analysis for years to come, a-la Samuel Huntington's The Soldier and the States. And, most unusual of all, is when said book was formerly a PhD...

Posted on Tue, Sep. 02, 2003 Macedonian Troops, Rebels in Standoff GARENTINA KRAJA Associated Press SKOPJE, Macedonia - Macedonian authorities say they will not withdraw troops encircling a northern village until they capture a fugitive rebel leader - ignoring demands by a shadowy ethnic Albanian militant group to end the siege. Hundreds of ethnic Albanian villagers have fled from their homes in Vaksince since the operation began Sunday, fearing clashes similar to those that shook the tiny Balkan nation in 2001. The clashes between government forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents ended in a Western-brokered peace plan, but tensions persist. Troops...

Was the US behind the single greatest act of ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia? By Stephen Gowans It was one of those peeks into what really happened that are occasionally glimpsed long after anyone cares, like finding out after the invasion of Iraq that the US and Britain had already begun aerial operations to pick apart Iraq's defenses long before the invasion had begun, at a time both countries were denying they had already made a decision to go to war ("U.S. Moved Early for Air Supremacy: Airstrips on Iraqi Defenses Began Long Before Invasion, General Says," The Washington Post, July...

Analysis: Private armies - IBy Sam Vaknin UPI Senior Business Correspondent From the Business & Economics Desk Published 7/17/2002 9:52 AM SKOPJE, Macedonia, July 17 (UPI) -- Dutch Radio, based on reports leaked by a Dutch military analysis firm, had accused the United States government of aiding and abetting terrorists in Macedonia.Not for the first time, the Americans were rumored to have hired the services of MPRI -- Military Professional Resources Inc. -- to train and assist the rebels of the NLA, the Albanian National Liberation Army, which skirmished for months with the Macedonian police and military throughout last year.MPRI...

The US government was accused today of subsidizing and training Albanian paramilitaries in Macedonia, in a secret European report leaked to Dutch National Radio. The furor over a clandestine connection- frequently alleged, but never proven- further worsens transatlantic relations that have already been strained by an ongoing trade war. The Dutch report comes at a particularly sensitive time for President Bush, who is currently seeking to solidify international support for a wider war on terror. The US Embassy in Skopje was not aware of the charges by late Friday evening, and could not yet make an official statement.Because specific...

U.S. Companies Hired to Train Foreign Armies By ESTHER SCHRADER, TIMES STAFF WRITER WASHINGTON -- When the Pentagon talks about training the new Afghan National Army, it doesn't mean with its own soldiers. The Green Berets and other elite U. S. troops are needed elsewhere. Instead, the Defense Department is drawing up plans to use its commandos to jump-start the Afghan force, then hire private military contractors to finish the job. It would be the most vital role yet taken on by a somewhat clandestine industry accustomed to operating on the fringe of U. S. foreign policy by training foreign...