Category Archives: NATO

President Trumps targeted killing of the worlds master of international terrorism, Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, highlighted Washingtons improved cooperation and concordance with Middle Eastern allies. But it also laid bare tensions between the United States and European allies, specifically France and Germany. Those tensions are a growing problem as Berlin and Paris undermine the Western security alliance, all while accusing the White House of doing the same.

After the Soleimani strike, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News: I spent the last day-and-a-half, two days, talking to partners in the region, sharing with them what we were doing, why we were doing it, seeking their assistance; they've all been fantastic. And then talking to our partners in other places that haven't been quite as good. Frankly, the Europeans havent been as helpful as I wish that they could be.

This is, unfortunately, a pattern. For all the accusations that Trump is weakening the NATO alliance, Germany and France are arguably the worst offenders.

Faced with decades of escalating, Iranian-sponsored terrorism against NATO members in Iraq, Lebanon, and Afghanistan, Trump neutralized Soleimani and other major terrorists from Iran and the Kataib Hezbollah Shiite militia. Violence directed and enabled by Tehran against Germany and France is nothing new. Its worth recalling that Irans regime, along with its Lebanon-based Hezbollah proxy, murdered 58 French paratroopers in Beirut in 1983. And a German court determined that the Iranian government ordered the assassination in 1992 of exiled Iranian Kurdish dissidents in a Berlin restaurant.

Yet both Germany and France vehemently oppose the European Union designating the entirety of Hezbollah a terrorist organization. This isnt true of all our European allies: The United Kingdom outlawed Hezbollahs entire movement in 2019.

Soleimani, whose chief proxy was Hezbollah, ordered a spy in Germany and France to surveil Jewish and Israeli institutions, with a view toward carrying out an assassination. His agents planned terrorist attacks against Jewish kindergartens in Germany.

Meanwhile, Berlins bizarre attachment to the regime in Tehran is starting to ruffle German feathers. In a rare commentary that cuts against the grain of that countrys conventional wisdom, Welt am Sonntag newspaper editor Antje Schippmann wrote: Instead of repeatedly holding on to the regions corrupt but often tyrannical rulers and instead of warning against destabilization and a conflagration, the federal government [in Berlin] could recognize the signs of the times and stand on the side of the secular, democratic protest movements against the Revolutionary Guards and their apocalyptic visions.

It took days for Chancellor Angela Merkel to condemn the Iran-sponsored militias that stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad at the end of December or to defend the American killing of Soleimani. She and French President Emmanuel Macron finally issued a joint statement with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, criticizing the negative role Iran has played in the region.

But Merkels foreign minister, Heiko Maas, decided instead to crack the whip at Pompeo, tweeting: This action has not made it easier to reduce tensions.

This is the same Maas who sent his diplomats to Tehrans embassy in Berlin last year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Republic of Irans founding revolution.

But its not just about Iran far from it. Macron on Oct. 21 described NATO as brain-dead. The alliance remains, despite its flaws, a significant bulwark against authoritarian regimes such as Russia, China, and Iran. Trump, this time defending the alliance, fired back that NATO serves a great purpose. I think thats very insulting, adding, Nobody needs NATO more than France. Its a very dangerous statement for them to make.

There seemed to be obvious irony in Trumps defense of NATO, as during the nascent phase of his presidency, he lambasted NATO as obsolete. The president, in contrast to his political counterparts, is capable of change.

The Washington Examiner learned that a worried Merkel brought up Macrons anti-NATO remark with the American government. U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell told the Washington Examiner: We made clear that NATO is a crucial organization and a very successful one. While it needs to constantly consider the current and relevant issues, it should also be fully supported by all members. We made clear this support also includes abiding by the Wales Pledge.

Both Germany and France are falling short of their NATO commitments to spend 2% of their GDP on defense, as outlined in the pledge.

Unsurprisingly, Merkel and Maas stayed silent when Bundestag deputy Nils Schmid, the Social Democratic Partys foreign policy spokesman in the German legislature, declared that a war between Iran and the United States would not trigger the NATO alliance.

Article 5 of NATO requires mutual defense if a member country is attacked. Schmids announcement makes the mutual-protection provision toothless and tells enemies that the West is divided. In the face of Tehrans naval terrorism in the vital Gulf region, his comment is exactly the sort of soggy appeasement that invites increased Iranian aggression.

Schmid's party is the junior partner in a governing coalition with Merkels Christian Democratic Party. Grenell told the Washington Examiner that I saw the unfortunate comment and have been assured by the Chancellery that this is not the governments view.

Grenell has, in many ways, served as a formidable check on misguided German foreign policy. Whenever he meets with German officials, he urges them to ban all of Hezbollah. The Bundestag recently passed a nonbinding resolution calling for a ban on Hezbollah activities.

NATO was, of course, founded to contain the former Soviet Unions imperialism. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said he would reverse the dissolution of the Soviet Union if he could, is working overtime to destroy NATOs potency.

Another salient example of Germany undercutting NATO is its complicity in Putins Nord Stream 2 energy project, 90% completed and scheduled to begin operations in mid-2020. The pipeline will run under the Baltic Sea and permit Russia to increase gas exports to Germany greatly. With the backing of Democrats and Republicans in Congress, the Trump administration levied sanctions on the firms building the pipeline. Having Europes largest economy, and a NATO member to boot, dependent on Moscow for its energy would be a monumental danger to international security.

Merkels desire to solidify the Nord Stream 2 project cannot be decoupled from her governments failure to crack down on Putins threat to NATO and on his assassinations across Europe (think of the nerve agent poisonings of Russian double agents Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the U.K. in 2018).

Then theres China. In October, Merkels government put together guidelines for the build-out of 5G networks in Germany. Those rules would probably permit Chinas state-owned telecommunications giant Huawei to build a 5G wireless network in the Federal Republic.

The U.S. views Huawei as a danger because the company will be able to penetrate sensitive communications and collect vast amounts of intelligence. Consequently, Washington announced it would downgrade intelligence-sharing with Germany if Merkel green-lights the rules.

Japan, Australia, and New Zealand have banned Huawei equipment from their 5G networks, and it looks as though the U.K. will follow suit. Meanwhile, Merkel and Germanys export-heavy economy are resisting a ban on Huawei. China is Berlins third-largest export market, worth roughly $100 billion a year.

The time is ripe to dispense with the narrative that Trump is undermining NATO and the global democratic alliance. France and Germany, two international powerhouses, are the ones emboldening NATOs enemies.

Benjamin Weinthal is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal.

Originally posted here:
The French and German threat to NATO - Washington Examiner

President Donald Trump took a stable though unpleasant Iranian status quo and turned it into a burgeoning crisis. After pushing the Middle East to the brink of war, he urged NATO to get more deeply involved: we can come home, or largely come home and use NATO. He even proposed the name: NATO-ME. What a beautiful name.

One can imagine European officials barely suppressing their urge to run screaming from whatever room they occupied when they heard his idea. Washingtons policies in the Mideast have been consistently disastrous. America should be getting out, not dragging its allies in.

During the 2016 campaign candidate Trump railed against unnecessary wars. The U.S. is now more deeply entangled than ever. President TrumpDonald John TrumpNational Archives says it altered Trump signs, other messages in Women's March photo Dems plan marathon prep for Senate trial, wary of Trump trying to 'game' the process Democratic lawmaker dismisses GOP lawsuit threat: 'Take your letter and shove it' MORE has increased the number of Americans in Afghanistan and tasks for the U.S. military in Syria.

Worse, the president has fixated on Iran. In January 2017 the Islamic republic was contained, living up to its nuclear commitments and facing internal political strife as its young hoped for greater contact with the West. Tehran was a regional troublemaker, but had the U.S. given full effect to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by easing Irans entry into the world economy further negotiations over regional issues could have ensued.

In January 2020 Washington was increasing U.S. troop levels as it and Tehran teetered on the brink of war. Iran had resumed its nuclear activities, seized Gulf shipping, and attacked Saudi oil facilities. The administration even risked pulling Iraq into the abyss, refusing to withdraw troops as requested and threatening to revive sanctions from the Saddam Hussein era, only worse.

Now the president wants Europe to join America in the mess that he created.

The alliances Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, described by the president as excited about the prospect of involvement, mixed flattery with meaningless ambiguity, stating that NATO has the potential to contribute more to regional stability and the fight against international terrorism, and we are looking into what more we can do. Trump preened with pleasure: My biggest fan in the whole world is Secretary General Stoltenberg.

Look into the issue the alliance will do, but not much more. Stoltenberg noted that while NATO had to deploy troops to fight terrorism, the best way is to enable local forces to fight terrorism themselves. The Europeans have trained Iraqis and otherwise contributed to the fight against ISIS, but are not looking to become military props for the administrations anti-Iran crusade.

The Europeans know the president will move on to the next issue shortly. The key is to wait after telling him yes. Given his limited attention span and tendency to call everything a victory, he is likely to be satisfied with whatever NATO says or does.

The alliance is unlikely to offer troops. After the U.S. turned Iraq into a battleground and, it seems, occupied territory, Canada, Croatia, and Germany began removing their forces. No NATO member wants to be caught in the crossfire or tied to a coercive American occupation. Popular anger is likely to well up across Iraq even without Tehrans help.

Moreover, with good reason the Europeans abhor what passes for Trumps leadership. Although he is right to criticize their persistent free-riding, his impulsive behavior and ignorant narcissism cannot help but drive them away. On Iran the president arbitrarily wrecked an agreement which they helped negotiate and which was working to contain the Islamist regime. He then demanded that they back his position and launched a commercial and financial offensive against Tehran, conscripting their economies. That aggressive campaign, traditionally seen as an act of war, encouraged Iran to respond provocatively. One diplomat told the Washington Post: The notion that the Americans are calling this a de-escalating, defensive move is frankly surreal. Its Soviet. After bringing the region close to war Trump now insists that the Europeans bail him out.

It wont happen. After the assassination of Qassem Soleimani the president again called on European governments to abandon the JCPOA and submit to administration policy. European foreign ministers met two days later and turned him down. They chose Tehran over Washington. Reported Politico: so far, the European response has focused on trying to placate Iran instead of displaying solidarity with the U.S. Who can blame them for not taking responsibility for peace in the Middle East when the president is creating further mayhem?

Nor should Washington want Europeans to focus on the Mideast. They disagree significantly over outside threats and defensive policies in their own continent. They disagree even more about the Middle East. Only France and the United Kingdom have much interest in the region, growing out of their colonial pasts; Germany, Italy, Spain and the herd of smaller European states wont commit serious military forces. Pushing reluctant governments and their recalcitrant populations to entangle themselves in issues of at best tangential interest would complicate, not expedite, U.S. policy.

It would be even worse if they agreed to devote significant resources to the Middle East. Pressure from a succession of American presidents and concern over Russias ambitions after its assault on Ukraine in 2014 led several European governments to slowly hike military outlays, a trend for which the president has taken credit. Despite the welcome increase, most Europeans perceive few threats and are unlikely to raise outlays substantially. It is in Americas as well as Europes interest that governments not divert money and manpower from the continents defense to the Mideast.

Instead of fixating even more on that ever-unstable region, the U.S. should back away. America no longer need worry about the Middle East as an energy source. Conflicts such as Libya and Syria raise humanitarian, not security concerns.

Even at its strongest, Iran is of no threat to the U.S. Washingtons fixation on the Islamic Republic mostly reflects the concerns of allied states, particularly Saudi Arabia, a wealthy and well-armed monarchy, which is more repressive politically and radical theologically than Iran, and Israel, a nuclear power and regional superpower, which is well able to defend itself. Tehran shouldnt be Americas problem.

The president was rightly skeptical of Washingtons seemingly endless wars in the Middle East. Instead of dragging Europe in he should be pulling America out.

Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He is a former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and author of several books, including Foreign Follies: Americas New Global Empire.

See original here:
Why NATO to the Middle East is a really bad idea | TheHill - The Hill

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a flurry of phone calls over the weekend in support of President Donald Trumps call to turn the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into NATOME, adding two letters for the Middle East.

Trump has been a longtime critic of NATO, a Cold War-era pact that commits the United States and Canada to defend Europe from Russian aggression. He has previously complained that NATO is an unfair arrangement for the United States, and reportedly considered pulling out of the alliance several times in 2018, as he saw it as pointless. But despite his critiques, he now seems to support an expanded role for the alliance as his administration struggles to balance deteriorating relations with Iraq and the threat of war with Iran.

Fractures in the trans-Atlantic relationship, however, make a joint mission in the Middle East a tough sell.

Trumps call for a NATO with a Middle East focus during a January 8 press conference came on the heels of the U.S. assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in Iraq, which occurred on January 3 and heightened tensions. In the aftermath of the drone-strike assassination, NATO suspended its training mission for counter-ISIS forces in Iraq, a decision that coincided with the Iraqi parliaments push to expel foreign forces. Iranian leaders promised hard revenge and fired over a dozen ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq on January 7, but no one was killed.

NATO, right, and then you have ME, Middle East. They would call it NATOME, the President told reporters on January 9. Im good at names, right? What a beautiful name, NATOME.

The State Department rushed to turn Trumps words into action over the weekend. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Pompeo agreed NATO could contribute more to regional security and the fight against international terrorism during a January 9 phone call, according to readouts published by both the U.S. State Department and NATO headquarters.

Pompeo made seven more calls to European or NATO countries related to the Middle East and Iran, from January 9 to January 12, according to U.S. State Department statements.

He told his Canadian counterpart, Foreign Minister FranoisPhilippe Champagne, that an expanded NATO force in Iraq could be a way to contain the aggressive and destabilizing influence of Iran, according to a U.S. statement on January 10. Champagne emphasized the need for a de-escalation in tensions, according to a Canadian statement, which did not mention the NATO proposal.

Pompeo also called the foreign ministers of Britain, the European Union, Estonia, and France to discuss Iran and Iraq that weekend.

EU High Representative and Vice President Josep Borrell talked with Pompeo about Irans destabilizing role in the Middle East, according to a U.S. statement on the call, but the EU readout of the call did not mention Iran.

French Embassy press counselor Mlanie Rosselet told the National Interest that she was not aware of any public readouts published by the French side, and the British Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.

Estonia, however, seemed supportive.

Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu affirmed his colleague Mike Pompeo that Estonia supported the United States, and underscored the United States had a right to self-defence according to the UN Charter, a statement by the Foreign Ministry of Estonia stated. According to Reinsalu, it was crucial to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power and stop the development of its missile programme. The cooperation of Atlantic allies is vital in this issue.

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale also joined the EU Political Directors conference on January 10 by video call to discuss global issues, including the situation in Iraq and Iran.

Jordans King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, one of Americas key partners along the border of Iraq, is attending a whirlwind of meetings across Europe this week.

Instability in our part of the world affects Europe and the rest of the globe, and so I think that a lot of our discussions will be centered on Iran, but mainly around Iraq, the king told France24 on January 13. This trip to Europe comes at the right time, where we need to talk about how do we talk to each other with maturity and respect, as opposed to rhetoric that could create a problem that takes us to the brink.

He plans to visit NATO headquarters on January 14.

Pompeo ended the weekend with a Sunday night call to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlt avuolu and reiterated the need for NATO to play a greater role in the region and stressed the U.S. commitment to the UN-facilitated peace process in Syria.

Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO and borders Iran and Iraq as well as Syria.

U.S. relations with Turkey have been strained over U.S. support for Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria, which the Turkish government sees as an extension of the Kurdish separatist movement inside Turkey. Trump allowed Turkish forces to invade Syria in October 2019 as his State Department pushed for a closer relationship with Turkish-backed Islamist rebels in the country in order to counter Iranian influence.

The U.S. readout of the call did not make it clear how Turkey reacted to Pompeos proposals, or what was discussed during Special Envoy Amb. James Jeffreys visit to Turkey that same weekend. But a video of Jeffrey speaking on the phone while waiting in stanbuls airport, captured by Turkish state television news reporter Adnan Nawaz, hints at a deeper Turkish involvement in U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Across the board, they are seeing as we are much hardening [unintelligible] line on Syria, Jeffrey said. Our situation with them in the northeast has dramatically improved. Our situation with the Russians in the northeast has dramatically disimproved.

The State Departments Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs refused to confirm or deny purported telephone conversations in an airport, and the Turkish Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump is also asking European countries to join a U.S. campaign of maximum pressure against Iranbut that may be an even harder sell.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) removes international economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for the ability to inspect and regulate the Iranian nuclear program. Iran signed the deal with six world powers in 2015, but Trump withdrew the United States and began to impose harsh sanctions on the Iranian economy in 2018.

European countries are working on a mechanism called INSTEX that would allow Iran to avoid U.S. sanctions for humanitarian trade. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin threatened to put secondary sanctions on INSTEX during a January 10 press conference.

Iran has responded by removing all operational limits on its nuclear program. European countries have been reluctant to exit the deal and lose access for international inspectors.

Pompeo issued a twelve-point ultimatum to Iran in May 2018 that included an end to Iranian support for militias across the region and the Iranian ballistic missile program. Stoltenberg echoed his rhetoric in a press conference this week.

For years, all allies have expressed concern about Irans destabilizing activities in the wider Middle East region, Stoltenberg told reporters on January 13. We agree Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon, we share concern about Irans missile tests, and we are united in condemning Irans support for a variety of different terrorist groups.

But actually leaving the nuclear deal would be a harder sell.

The very defective JCPOA expires shortly anyway, and gives Iran a clear and quick path to nuclear breakout, Trump said on January 8. The time has come for the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and China to recognize this reality.

The president proposed that the six world powers all work together toward making a deal with Iran that makes the world a safer and more peaceful place.

France, Britain, and Germany disagreed. All three countries released a joint statement on January 12 reaffirming their commitment to upholding the nuclear non-proliferation regime.

We reserve recourse to all the provisions of the JCPoA to preserve it and to resolve the issues related to Irans implementation of its JCPoA commitments within its framework, the statement said. Despite increasingly difficult circumstances, we have worked hard to preserve the agreement.

French president Emmanuel Macron drove the point home the next day when he repeated Frances commitment in a phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Matthew Petti is a national security reporter at the National Interest and a former Foreign Language Area Studies Fellow at Columbia University. His work has appeared in The Armenian Weekly, Reason and America Magazine.

Image: Reuters

Read the original post:
Trying to Turn NATO Into NATOME: A Trump Administration Adventure - The National Interest Online

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

Go here to read the rest:
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.

DISTRIBUTION A. Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. OPSEC #3559.

View post:
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.

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

23:50, 15 January 2020

639

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.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter

Link:
NATO showcases flight interceptions over Baltics (Photo) - UNIAN

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.

See more here:
NATO jets practice interceptions of Russian jets over Baltics - The Jerusalem Post

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

Read the rest here:
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.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

"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.

Only the best news in your inbox

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.

See more here:
'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...