American Forces Press Service

By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service

BRUSSELS, Oct. 5, 2011 – As it nears the end of a successful campaign in Libya and deliberately accomplishes shared goals in Afghanistan, NATO faces several difficult challenges, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said here today.

The secretary addressed a gathering hosted by the Carnegie Europe Center, part of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"The international security environment is complex, and it's rapidly changing. Our nations are grappling with significant budget challenges, putting new pressure on defense spending that has already been in decline here on this continent," Panetta said.

"But that cannot be an excuse for walking away from our national security responsibilities," he added. "This fiscal environment means that the United States and all nations in NATO must depend on their fellow members even more to share the burden of protecting common interests."

To do so, he said, requires a strong alliance whose members must address growing gaps in military capabilities despite fiscal austerity.

Panetta noted that former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates used his last policy address here to deliver a strong message to Europe about the need to boost its commitment to defense and to more equitably share the security burden with the United States. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, he added, has warned that Europe risks becoming weak and divided if it does not invest in its own security.

"We do not have to choose between fiscal security and national security," Panetta said. "But achieving that goal will test the very future of leadership throughout NATO."

President Barack Obama has called NATO the most successful alliance in human history, Panetta said. "We depend on it every day to provide capacity that we cannot find anyplace else," he added.

Operation Unified Protector, now winding down in Libya, is the latest example of NATO's importance, the secretary said. Because of the quick action of 28 nations, he told the audience, the alliance has given that nation "a real chance at a better and more prosperous future free from the tyranny of the Gadhafi regime."

The mission had greater leadership from Europe and achieved more burden-sharing between the United States and Europe than in the past, Panetta said. "After the United States employed its unique assets in the first week of the conflict to destroy key regime military targets and air defense capabilities," he added, "Europeans took on the brunt of operations."

France and the United Kingdom engaged on a large scale, flying one-third of the overall sorties and attacking 40 percent of the targets, and they exercised leadership roles politically and diplomatically, Panetta said. Canada was a substantial contributor, he noted, Italy contributed to the air-ground mission and Denmark, Norway and Belgium together destroyed as many targets as France. Romania and Bulgaria deployed ships as part of the Libyan arms embargo, the secretary added.

"This was truly a collective action," Panetta said, "not only among NATO allies, but with non-NATO partners like Qatar, the [United Arab Emirates] and Sweden."

The operation demonstrated the alliance's effective integrated command structure and the contributors' ability to work effectively and communicate with each other quickly in a complex mission, he said.

"NATO is very simply the only alliance that is capable of executing this kind of responsibility," Panetta said.

The largest effort and a focus of NATO talks among the alliance's defense ministers here this week is the war in Afghanistan, the secretary added, where non-NATO allies and partners contribute close to 40,000 troops to the mission.

As the United States begins drawing down its forces there, the secretary said, "[we] will make sure that … we do not deprive our NATO partners of the critical enablers and support their troops depend on."

The alliance must continue "to send a strong signal to the people of Afghanistan and the Taliban that we are committed to the long-term security of their country," Panetta added.

But NATO successes also illustrate growing gaps in alliance capabilities, he said.

In Libya, the secretary said, NATO had significant shortages of well-trained targeting specialists, supplies and munitions, aerial refueling tankers, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms such as Global Hawk and Predator drones. Without such capabilities, provided by the United States, said he added, "the Libya operation would not have gotten off the ground or been sustained."

In Afghanistan, Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force, still lacks trainers and continues to seek contributions to trust funds established to sustain the Afghan national security forces. As in Libya, Panetta said, the shortage of ISR capabilities and enablers, especially airlift, has plagued the mission since the beginning.

"These capability gaps are being exposed at precisely the time when every defense minister in NATO, including myself, is dealing with great fiscal challenges at home," the secretary added. "There are legitimate questions about whether, if present trends continue, NATO will again be able to sustain the kind of operations we have seen in Libya and Afghanistan without the United States taking on even more of a burden."

The Defense Department already is required to reduce spending by $450 billion over the next 10 years, and that total could jump to $1 trillion if Congress fails to address larger deficit issues this year, he said.

"Recognizing the financial and political realities we face, … we need at a minimum to coordinate additional cuts, avoid surprises and ensure that our limited resources are being put into the most efficient and effective defense programs," Panetta said.

Going forward, he added, NATO must fundamentally review how the alliance organizes itself to fight, identify and protect the core alliance military capabilities it needs to meet the next decade's challenges.

Before May's NATO summit in Chicago, Panetta said, the alliance should look for innovative ways to enhance partnerships with countries outside NATO that are exceptionally capable militarily and those that strive to be more capable.

"We live in a world of growing danger and growing uncertainty where we face threats from violent extremism, from nuclear proliferation, from rising powers and from cyber attack," the secretary said. "We cannot predict where the next crisis will occur, but we know we are stronger when we confront these threats together."

In confronting the budget challenges he faces at home, Panetta said, he will make the tough decisions needed to avoid hollowing out the U.S. military. NATO, he added, must send a strong signal of its determination not to hollow out the alliance, but to keep it strong and vital.

"It has been a tough decade of war, but our alliance has emerged stronger," the secretary said. "Just as we met the challenges of the Cold War and 9/11,"I am confident we can confront the challenges that await us in the next decade."


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US {United States} and
NATO {North Atlantic Treaty Organization} create social and ethnic divisions by
supporting liberation armies/separatist groups to collapse national structure
thus, destabilize governments. To sustain its covert programs,
Washington increases its support to the rebels. CIA {Central
Intelligence Agency} funded Libyan Rebels with cash and weapons.
 
The agency recruited over 1,500 men from
Mazar-e-Sharif [Afghanistan] for fighting against the Qaddafi forces in Libya.
Most of the men have been recruited from Afghanistan. They are Uzbeks, Persians
and Hazaras. (Azhar Masood, The Nation, August 2011).
 
From Washington's viewpoint, Afghanistan and
Pakistan are hubs, politically and geographically - they have been using the
hubs for secret intelligence operations; there are several US military bases in
these countries.
 
In Balochistan
(Pakistan), British intelligence (Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)/MI6) is
blamed for providing support to liberation army. "In June 2006, Pakistan's
Senate Committee on Defense questioned British intelligence about their
involvement in abetting the insurgency in the province (Balochistan) bordering
Iran" (Press Trust of India, August 09, 2006). Same kind of intelligence
operations by the West have been carried out in other countries they named,
developing world.
 
From the activities of
West, it seems the idea is to politically fracture Pakistan and Iran (through
province Sistan-va-Baluchestan) using Baloch nationalism. "Tehran charges that US Special Forces units
are using bases in Pakistan for undercover operations inside Iran designed to
foment Baluch opposition to the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" (Selig
S Harrison, Pakistan's Baluch insurgency, October 2006).
 
In late March [2011], NATO started air strikes -
an intervention to aid rebels. To overthrow Qaddafi's regime, UK and France led
the campaign.
 
Sources in Quetta [Pakistan] said: "Some Uzbeks
and Hazaras from Afghanistan were arrested in Balochistan for illegally
traveling into Pakistan en route to Libya through Iran. According to Aljazeera most of the men who intruded inside Pakistan from Afghanistan were recruits
for Libyan Rebels' Force. More than 100 illegal immigrants were discovered 20km
from the border town of Quetta [Pakistan] last week inside the container, which
had been locked from the outside (Azhar Masood, The
Nation, August 2011).
 
In a report the New York Mayor's TV Channel
Bloomberg said, Leaders of the Libyan rebels' TNC {Transitional National
Council} flew to Istanbul [Turkey] seeking legitimacy and money. They will
leave with the official recognition of the US and 31 other nations, as
for the cash, they will have to wait.
 
The decision to treat the council as the
"legitimate governing authority" in Libya is a key step to freeing up some of
the government's frozen assets for rebels seeking the ouster of Muammar
Qaddafi. Still, obstacles such as existing United Nations sanctions won't
disappear overnight (Azhar Masood, The Nation, August 2011).
 
According to a Treasury official who was not
authorized to discuss the matter publicly, US officials will consult with the
TNC and international partners on the most effective and appropriate method of
making additional significant financial assistance available.
 
Western powers are dominant in global financial system and for
collective strategic interests - they stimulate political and socio-ethnic
conflicts to bring the economy of a country to the ground. An environment is
created to portray that for economic stability the country requires assistance
from international financial community.
 
US Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton) said,
"We still have to work through various legal issues, but we expect this
recognition will allow the TNC to access various forms of funding…"
 
By the global intervention, (democratic)
principles are ruined and institutions destroyed – resulting in weak
(autonomous) processes. Hence, country's development strategy is determined by
the bureaucratic global institutions; different regimes make several policies,
which are actually based on the framework set by those institutions.
 
Recognition may lawfully allow nations to buy
state-owned oil from the TNC, which controls the oil-rich eastern part of the
country. Italy's Eni SpA and France's Total SA are the top oil companies
operating in Libya, a former Italian colony (Azhar Masood,
The Nation, August 2011).
 
In Muslim countries, West intervene in their
state affairs because of their interest in natural resources of the region. By
keeping the local government in dark, multinationals conduct operations to
grasp potentially valuable areas of a country.
 
The imposition of their (economic) reforms is
interlinked with their covert operations - from organizing military coups to
supporting paramilitary armies for civil wars sponsored by US and NATO. Their
goal is to create social divisions, weaken the ability to resist the invasion
by splitting national structure and initiate civil war. Through war, they manage
ownership over the oil and gas resources of the region.
 
A number of actions by the
rebels convinced the US to offer recognition, including a commitment to
pursue a reform process, and to seek more inclusive
representation of Libyans, politically, geographically and tribally, according
to a State Department officially.
 
Through legal framework they implement
the reforms and takes a country to industrial decline; their
programs play significant role in creating foundation for puppet leadership and
in determining the shape of a society and its class structure.

__._,_.___
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ECOSAI Assembly approves an effective working strategy for ECO

      ISLAMABAD, Oct 6 (APP): The ECOSAI Assembly has approved an effective working strategy for the Economic Cooperation Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions, the Regional Group of Supreme Audit Institute (ECOSAI) so that it becomes a professional, active and scientific organization in the ECO region.
      This Assembly provided an opportunity to the member countries to strengthen cooperation in all fields, including raising the professional standards of state audit and to make ECOSAI a dynamic and vibrant organization through collective efforts and endeavors, says a message received here from Turkey here today.
      The 16th Governing Board (GB) Meeting and the Extraordinary session of the Assembly of the Economic Cooperation  Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ECOSAI)  the Regional Group of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs') of which the Auditor General of Pakistan is the Secretary General  since its inception, were held in Ankara, Turkey from 4 to 5th October, 2011. 
      Muhammad Akhtar Buland Rana, Auditor General of Pakistan participated the two meetings in his capacity as the Secretary General and very important issues were discussed concerning mutual cooperation amongst member SAIs', furthering the capacity building activities under ECOSAI Charter. 
      The Governing Board has outlined the contours of the 1st ECOSAI Strategic Plan to further the cooperation amongst member SAIs. 
      The 16th GB Meeting was followed with an extraordinary session of the ECOSAI Assembly.  
      The ECOSAI Assembly has approved an effective working strategy for the ECOSAI so that it becomes a professional, active and scientific organization in the ECO region. 
      This Assembly provided an opportunity to the member countries to strengthen cooperation in all fields, including raising the professional standards of state audit and to make ECOSAI a dynamic and vibrant organization through collective efforts and endeavors.


--
--
Tariq Khattak,

Columnist, Feature Writer,
Editor Pakistan Media Group &
Editor
Commerce, Pakistan Observer,
Ali Akbar House, G-8 Markaz, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Cells: 0300/0333-9599007, Ph. 051-2852027/8. Fax 2262258



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Dear Media Colleagues.

 

Please find below a Media Advisory for a press briefing this Saturday. Interested media may please send names of their Reporter, Cameraman and DSNG van number to zeeshan.tahir@undp.org cell: 0333 5145 896 for advanced sharing with NDMA for security clearance. Please provide these details by 5 pm today.

 

Also attached is a press release announcing the objectives of the mission of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Disaster Risk Reduction. Looking forward to extensive media coverage of the attached press release and your presence at the joint briefing.

 

MEDIA ADVISORY

UN-logo-high resNDMA

 

 

What:      NDMA & UN Joint Press Briefing on Disaster Awareness Day

Where:        0 level PM Secretariat, Islamabad

When:     Saturday, 8th October 2011  

Time:     1230-1300- Please arrive at least 20 minutes in advance to allow for security clearance

Who:       Ms. Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the Secretary General on Disaster Risk Reduction

                        Mr. Zafar Iqbal Qadir, Chairman National Disaster Management Authority

 

Jointly organized by: National Disaster Management Authority & United Nations Development Programme

 

For further information and media assistance, please contact,

 

UNDP: Mehreen Saeed, Tel +0300 535 8225, mehreen.saeed@undp.org

Website: http://www.undp.org.pk

NDMA: Reema Zuberi, Tel + 03215014131reemazubari@gmail.com       

 

 

 

UNDP_Logo_Tagline

Mehreen Saeed
Communications Analyst
Head Communications Unit
United Nations Development Programme

4rth Floor, Serena Office Complex

Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel.: (92-51) 8355650

Fax: (92-51) 2655014-15

URL: http://undp.org.pk/  

 cid:image008.jpg@01CC194A.D706C080      cid:image009.jpg@01CC194A.D706C080     cid:image010.jpg@01CC194A.D706C080     cid:image011.jpg@01CC194A.D706C080     

 

 

__._,_.___
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