Pepsi to march in, as foreign troops leave Afghanistan

May 20, 2013

Source: Yahoo PepsiCo will open its first plant in Afghanistan in 2014, its Afghan partner said on Monday, the same year foreign troops complete their withdrawal from the country after 13 years of war. “It will go on stream in 2014,” Hamed Kakar, head of marketing for Dubai-based Alokozay, which has an exclusive bottling agreement with PepsiCo [...]

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Russia to arm Turkey with new military arsenal

May 20, 2013
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Source:RBTH As a NATO member, Turkey depends on the supplies of American and European weapons. Moscow has repeatedly tried to get a piece of the action and fascinate the Turkish military with its advanced technology. The first attempt was made at a mid-1990s tender to supply 145 attack helicopters worth $5 billion, when Moscow offered [...]

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Syria’s Low-Intensity Conflict | Hybrid War: A military-strategic assessment

May 18, 2013
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Source: JP The overall geostrategic characteristic of the Syrian military picture is a robust armed struggle for supply routes, lines of communication, major highways and key choke points that is somewhat similar to the initial phase of the first Arab-Israeli War in 1947 – a battle for the roads. As a component of the Battle [...]

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Hezbollah fighters head to strategic Aleppo town as fighting rages

May 18, 2013

Source: Al Arabiya Battles raged in Qusayr between fighters from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah and the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), as activists reported the killing of at least 10 Hezbollah members. Sources told Al Arabiya early Sunday morning that Hezbollah fighters are reportedly heading to Qusayr, located in the central Homs province. [...]

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Energy Weapons: The Next Gunpowder?

May 18, 2013
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Source: NDM Lasers powerful enough for use in war were once a fantastical weapons technology reserved for the sinister and unrealistically complex plots of James Bond villains. In reality, the U.S. military has been investigating and investing in solid-state lasers and other directed energy weapons for half a century. All that work has finally paid [...]

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Expert: Withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan may become pretext for U.S. to establish bases in Caspian region

May 18, 2013
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Source: Trends.AZ Withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan could become the pretext for the Americans to establish long-term bases in the Caspian region, Director General of the Caspian Cooperation Institute, Sergei Mikheev believes. “Per se, the withdrawal of troops could become the pretext for the Americans create long-term bases, and for consolidation in the region [...]

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The time has come to consider enabling Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to attack enemy bases

May 18, 2013
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Source: Japan News It is essential to reexamine the division of roles between the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military, in order to boost the deterrence of the Japan-U.S. alliance. The Liberal Democratic Party has put together a report containing proposals related to the new National Defense Program Guidelines to be compiled by the government [...]

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After Fighting Over Mountains, India and China Lock Horns in the Indian Ocean

May 17, 2013

Editor’s Note: China and India strategic positioning in eastern Ladakh is over mineral resources. The next strategic battle for raw materials and hydrocarbons whether it be diplomacy or conflict will  be West/ East Africa, Horn of Africa, Bay of Bengal, south china sea.  The powers[Government-Corporations] at play who control the Indo-Pacific sea lines of communication and chokepoints through [...]

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China fires ‘anti-satellite rocket’

May 17, 2013

Source: Australian  CHINA has test-fired a new long-range rocket capable of destroying orbiting satellites, according to US intelligence assessments. The launch of the interceptor, which reached an altitude of 10,000km, could pose a serious threat to the US’s military communications in the Asia-Pacific region. Communications and the navigation of carrier strike groups, surveillance aircraft and long-range [...]

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How Qatar seized control of the Syrian revolution

May 17, 2013

Source: FT Related : Qatar bankrolls Syrian revolt with cash and arms A short drive from the rising skyscrapers of Doha’s West Bay, emblems of the once-sleepy Qatari capital’s frenetic growth, the three-starred flag of the Syrian revolution can be seen fluttering over a modern villa guarded by police cars. The villa is the new [...]

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Fearing Afghan instability, Russia mulls border troops

May 17, 2013

Source: Reuters Russia, predicting instability once NATO-led troops withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year, is considering deploying border guards on the Tajik-Afghan border, Moscow’s envoy to Kabul told Reuters in an interview. Moscow, still sore from its disastrous, decade-long war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, is increasingly concerned by what it describes as the combined threat [...]

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‘Expect Israeli strikes on Russian arms shipment to Syria-Hezbollah’

May 17, 2013
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Source: israel hayom U.S. officials tell The Wall Street Journal: Another round of Israeli airstrikes could target a new Russian transfer of Yakhont advanced anti-ship missiles in the near future • Russia moving more quickly than previously thought to deliver S-300 surface-to-air defense systems to Syria.• CIA Director John Brennan in Israel to coordinate policy. U.S. [...]

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U.S. could use cyberattack on Syrian air defenses

May 16, 2013
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Editor’s Note: Electronic Warfare : IDF’s teleprocessing corps C4i , Israel’s high-tech whiz kids, Unit 8200, and W32.Flame and Israel invests millions in drive for elite ‘cyber warriors’: Unit 8200 Source: USA Today The Pentagon has cyberattack capabilities that allow the U.S. military to help blind Syrian air defenses without firing a shot, according to military analysts. “One [...]

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The greatest Game of Thrones is on

May 16, 2013
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Source: ODT Australia recently released its ”Defence White Paper 2013” highlighting its role in the Indo-Pacific region, ascertaining its security and mercantile interests. This white paper comes at an important time, with the United States pivoting to the Asia-Pacific region, and the geopolitical scenario rapidly changing with the rise of China. Because Australia is a [...]

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US Sens: Pentagon Attempting to ‘Rewrite the Constitution’

May 16, 2013
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Editor’s Note: Pentagon is ‘Rewriting the Constitution’  U.S. Military ‘Power Grab’ Goes Into Effect: Pentagon Unilaterally Grants Itself Authority Over ‘Civil Disturbances’ Source: Defense News US senators blasted senior Pentagon legal officials Thursday for suggesting the 2001-passed measure authorizing the war on al-Qaida would justify American ground operations anywhere in the world. The Obama administration’s armed [...]

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US Instructors [Special Operation Forces] to Train African Troops for Mali in Niger

May 16, 2013
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Source: TDL U.S. military instructors in Niger will train African forces participating in a U.N.-backed offensive against al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in neighbouring Mali, senior military officers said on Thursday. The United States and several European nations have backed a French-led military intervention which since January 11 has driven militant insurgents out of the towns [...]

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US smuggling weapons to Syrian rebels: The real Benghazi story

May 15, 2013
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Source: Asia Tribune There is a ‘side story’ going on in the American media – both the electronic and print about the Islamist jihadists lethal attack on the American ‘post’ in Benghazi, Libya last September 11 which killed American ambassador Christopher Steven and three others; The emphasis and the debate is on why the event [...]

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Chinese army general says Okinawa not Japan’s

May 15, 2013
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Source: CNA A senior Chinese military officer has said the Ryukyu Islands — which include Okinawa and its US military bases — “do not belong to Japan”, as a territorial row mounts between the Asian powers. The comments by People’s Liberation Army Major General Luo Yuan were published by the China News Service website Tuesday, [...]

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Would A New ‘Bretton Woods’ Save The Global Economy or is it the Making of a New World Order

May 15, 2013
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Source: NPR Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, center right, at the start of the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting on Friday, May 10 in Aylesbury, England. The role of central banks in shoring up the global economic recovery is set to be a key point of discussion among top financial [...]

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CIS Security Services to track Syria mercenaries – FSB

May 15, 2013

Source: Indrus The security services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member states will be closely monitoring the movement of mercenaries from CIS nations fighting in Syria, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) head Alexander Bortnikov said on Wednesday. According to the FSB, some 200 mercenaries from Russia, as well as from CIS member states [...]

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Afghan Special Operation Forces to Start Conducting Spy Flights

May 15, 2013
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Source: USN Afghan special operations will start conducting their own spy missions with new fixed wing aircraft, a top U.S. commando in Afghanistan said Wednesday, adding another critical stepping stone to allow the U.S. to withdraw by 2014. The U.S. has begun supplying Afghan forces with Swiss-made PC-12 planes, and training local forces to conduct [...]

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6,000 Algerian troops on the Tunisian border

May 15, 2013

Source: Libya TV The Algerian army is reported to have deployed 8 brigades and special forces, made up of more than 6,000 troops on the Tunisian border to counter the possible infiltration by armed Salafist groups. Ground troops and air monitoring on the eastern border with Tunisia are working with Tunisian troops who are hunting [...]

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Marine rapid reaction unit moved to Italy amid escalating crisis in Libya

May 15, 2013
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Source: Stars and Stripes Just weeks after arriving in Spain, a “small element” from a new 550-Marine-strong rapid reaction force has repositioned to southern Italy amid deteriorating security conditions in nearby Libya, where there have been a series of recent evacuations by western diplomats, defense officials said Wednesday. “The unit, which is temporarily deployed to [...]

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‘Minority Report’ policing comes to the UK

May 15, 2013

Source: Telegraph Kent Police is using computer software to analyse historic offending and criminal behaviour to try and pinpoint where crimes will happen next. It is an echo of the Tom Cruise science fiction film Minority Report in which “pre-crime” units use psychics to predict future criminals and arrest them before they have even offended. [...]

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U.S. Military ‘Power Grab’ Goes Into Effect: Pentagon Unilaterally Grants Itself Authority Over ‘Civil Disturbances’

May 14, 2013
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Source: Long Island Press The manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects offered the nation a window into the stunning military-style capabilities of our local law enforcement agencies. For the past 30 years, police departments throughout the United States have benefitted from the government’s largesse in the form of military weaponry and training, incentives offered in the ongoing [...]

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Orchestrated destabilization of Libya: Killer militias hike security crisis

May 14, 2013

Source: UPI Eighteen months after the downfall of Moammar Gadhafi, Libya remains a powder keg with a government unable to control dozens of armed groups whose lawless marauding has created a security crisis that’s driving off desperately needed foreign investment. The energy-rich North African state is in a constant state of uproar and anxiety, riven by [...]

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Hezbollah Fighters reach Syrian-Jordanian border

May 14, 2013
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Source: Ammon News Hezbollah forces fighting in Syria are advancing southwards towards the border town of Deraa on the Syrian-Jordanian borders, a source affiliated with Hezbollah said. Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah fighting forces are sent to Syria to fight alongside the Syrian regime’s military, including a comprehensive logistics team from Hezbollah’s Military chiefs of staff [...]

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Energy security, power and technology

May 14, 2013

Editor’s Note: Major U.S. military operations/actions to protect oil Source: Fuel Fix A team of journalism graduate students has published a detailed project on energy security, geopolitics and technology that debunks several national myths about oil. The team of nine graduate students at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism spent three months investigating “vulnerabilities in U.S. [...]

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Asia Is Becoming Israel’s New Frontier

May 14, 2013

Source: Forbes When we think of Israel, we usually think of the Middle East (its neighborhood), North America (its close ally the United States) and Europe (the long history of Ashkenazi Jews). Rarely do we think about Israel and Asia, even less about Asia as Israel’s new frontier. We don’t think of Asia as playing [...]

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