Palestinians: Preparing Their People for Statehood?
by Khaled Abu Toameh • May 3, 2016 at 5:00 am
§ The internecine strife in Fatah no longer appears restricted to the loyalists of Dahlan and Abbas. It is threatening to erupt into an all-out war between contesting camps. Some Palestinians see the internal strife as the most serious challenge to Abbas's rule over Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, especially in wake of growing criticism among Palestinians against Abbas's policies and autocratic regime.
§ The criticism has escalated following last week's humiliating defeat of Fatah to Hamas at the student council election of Bir Zeit University, near Ramallah.
§ Hamas is thriving on the mayhem among the top brass of Fatah and disgust with Abbas and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. Rather than striving to improve the lives of Palestinians, Fatah leaders spend their time playing at being gangsters, settling scores. Meanwhile Abbas continues his charade of lies with the international community that he and his Fatah faction are ready for a sovereign state.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (left) and Mohamed Dahlan (right), a former Fatah commander and minister, have, for the past five years, been at each other's throats. The two were once close allies and had worked together to undermine the former PA president, Yasser Arafat. (Image sources: U.S. State Dept., M. Dahlan Office)
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction is supposed to be preparing its people for statehood. But it seems to be busy with other business.
According to sources in the Gaza Strip, Hamas security forces recently uncovered a scheme to assassinate a number of senior Fatah officials living there.
The sources claimed that ousted Fatah operative Mohamed Dahlan, who has been living in the United Arab Emirates for the past five years, was the mastermind of the alleged scheme. Dahlan's men in the Gaza Strip were planning to assassinate Fatah officials closely associated with his rival, Abbas, the sources revealed.
Dahlan's hit list included Ahmed Abu Nasr, Jamal Kayed, Emad al-Agha and Mamoun Sweidan.
After the alleged plot was uncovered, Hamas summoned a number of top Fatah officials in the Gaza Strip and asked them to take precautionary measures to ensure their safety.
======================================
Palestinians: University Students Vote For Terror
by Khaled Abu Toameh
April 28, 2016
Palestinian political analysts said that the Hamas victory at the university is an indication of what would happen if general elections were held these days in the West Bank.
Both Hamas and the PFLP are strongly opposed to any peace process with Israel. They continue to call for terror attacks against Israelis. The results of the election mean that most of the students at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, not Gaza, support groups that have chosen terrorism over peace.
The Hamas victory at Bir Zeit University also shows that it does not matter how much money you pour on Fatah's campus supporters; a majority of students would still prefer to vote for terror groups that do not believe in Israel's right to exist.
Hamas leaders also called for holding long overdue presidential and parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories. They said they had no doubt that their movement would easily defeat Fatah
For the full article go to - http://tinyurl.com/zc9ej9c
===================================================
The Mixed Legacy of Nuremberg
by Alan M. Dershowitz • May 4, 2016 at 11:00 am
This year commemorates the 80th anniversary of the notorious Nuremberg Laws, the Nazi racist enactments that formed the legal basis for the Holocaust. Ironically, it also marks the 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, which provided the legal basis for prosecuting the Nazi war criminals who murdered millions of Jews and others following the enactment of the Nuremberg Laws.
There is little dispute about the evil of the Nuremberg Laws. As Justice Robert H. Jackson, who was America's chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, put it: "The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice."
================================================
How Many Molenbeeks in France?
by Yves Mamou • May 3, 2016 at 4:00 am
§ "There are today, we know, a hundred neighborhoods in France that present potential similarities with what's happened in Molenbeek." — Patrick Kanner, Minister for Urban Areas.
§ The Salafists, in fact, do not want to "take the power in these neighborhoods." In many, they already have it.
§ "The farther I walked between the buildings, the more I was stunned. A courtyard of Islamist miracles; an enclave that wants to live like during the times of Muhammad. Bakery, hairdresser... It's a mini Islamic Republic. During the sermons, they denounce, they criminalize. A woman who smokes? A degenerate. A woman who does not veil herself? A tease. A man that does not eat halal? He has an express ticket to hell." — Paris Match.
§ Remadna received a death threat over the phone: "We know where your kids go to school," and "your daughter is very pretty." The next day, a delegation of completely veiled Salafist "true Muslim mothers" came and told her, "We want mosques, not schools."
The Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels has become the epicenter of jihad in Europe. Abdelhamid Abaaoud (right), mastermind of the November 2015 attacks in Paris, lived in Molenbeek. Amedy Coulibaly (left), who in January 2015 murdered a policewoman and four Jews in Paris, spent time in Molenbeek.
Patrick Kanner, France's Minister for Urban Areas, was undoubtedly not planning to tell the truth on March 27.
He was on the set of Europe 1 TV to emphasize the left's credo: Islamist terrorism is rooted in poverty and unemployment. But they asked one question again and again: "How many Molenbeeks are in France?" Finally, he said: "There are today, we know, a hundred neighborhoods in France that present potential similarities with what has happened in Molenbeek."
Molenbeek, as the entire world knows today, is the neighborhood of Brussels that has become the epicenter of jihad in Europe. It is a neighborhood under Salafist control that sent three of its residents to assassinate hundreds of people in Paris on November 13, 2015. These are the residents of the same neighborhood that bombed the Brussels airport and the Maalbeek Metro station.
============================================================
Abbas confirms main charge of PMW's new report
- that the PA is still paying salaries to terrorists -
in meeting today with Norwegian Foreign Minister
Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Last week, during a debate in Norwegian parliament about the implications of Palestinian Media Watch's report "The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud," the Norwegian Foreign Minister promised to put pressure on Mahmoud Abbas at their meeting this week to stop paying salaries to terrorists. PMW's report shows that despite assurances that it had stopped paying salaries to terrorists, the PA continues to pay them, just by a circuitous route via the PLO.
In the Norwegian minister's meeting with Abbas today, according to the Norwegian daily Dagen, when Abbas was confronted with PMW's charge that the PA was still paying salaries to terrorists in prison, Abbas did not deny that the PA still funds salary payments to prisoners. Rather he confirmed that the salaries are still being paid, when he assured the Norwegian Foreign Minister that these salaries are just not paid with Norwegian money.
to read it all:
read also this:
PMW presents "PA's Billion Dollar Fraud" to Norwegian government
Norway's Foreign Ministry confirms PMW's findings:
The PA still pays salaries to terrorists
- and still receives foreign aid
Norwegian MPs demand to cut aid to the PA
n
Palestinian Media Watch director Itamar Marcus travelled to Norway and presented PMW's new report "The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud" to officials of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and Members of Parliament. The report exposes that the Palestinian Authority continues to pay salaries to terrorist prisoners, contrary to its claim to donor countries to have stopped funding these salaries already in 2014. The report sparked a debate among three Norwegian political parties - all from the coalition - about whether to continue funding the PA. It also led to a debate in parliament with the Foreign Minister. (Transcripts follow below)
Marcus met with Norwegian NRK TV investigative journalist, Tormod Strand, who asked Norwegian MPs and the Foreign Ministry to respond to PMW's findings in the report. Significantly, Norway's State Secretary of the Foreign Ministry immediately confirmed PMW's main charge, that the PA is still funding salaries to terrorist prisoners by transferring money to the PLO.
| |
Transcript of main parts of NRK TV news broadcasts:
PMW director Itamar Marcus:
"Not only do we have the [PA] leadership's statements that they were paying [salaries to terrorists], but we actually found the money transfers from the PA to the PLO, that would fit the exact amount they [the PLO] needed to pay the salaries to terrorists."
NRK TV reporter Tormod Strand:
"Surprisingly, [the Norwegian] Foreign Ministry confirms PMW's claim."
State Secretary Tore Hattrem (Conservative Party):
"We became aware that the PA was transferring money to the PLO... For us, it was just as unacceptable as if the money had come directly from the PA."
MPs from two coalition parties immediately demanded that Norway stop funding the PA:
Spokesperson on foreign aid, Progress Party, Jorund H. Rytman:
"It's news to me that the Palestinians did it this way. And this must have consequences in terms of cutting the aid money so that [Norway] does not just protest, but shows it will act."
Acting parliamentary leader, Christian Democrats, Hans Olav Syversen:
"If this is true, I believe there must be consequences. It would be subversive for us if money that is given to build up Palestinian society, in reality is used to pay salaries to prisoners who have carried out very extreme acts in many cases."
A few days after this was exposed, the MPs brought the PA salary issue up in parliament in a debate with the Foreign Minister. Foreign Minister Børge Brende again confirmed PMW's findings that the PA is still paying salaries to terrorists, but said that Norway would not cut off funding because the PA is not using Norwegian money to pay the terrorists. He added that he would be meeting PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas the following week and stated: "I promise you I will bring this up again and increase the pressure on the Palestinians" - to stop the salaries for prisoners program.
The following are longer excerpts from two broadcasts about PMW's report on PA salaries to terrorists on Norwegian TV and an excerpt from the debate in Norwegian Parliament:
Norwegian Parliament, April 27, 2016:
MP Hans Olav Syversen (Christian Democrats):
"My question is to the Foreign Minister.
In this room, we have previously debated that the Palestinian Authority rewards those who perpetrate terror against Israel [with salaries]...
What has been done from the Palestinian side? Well, they've just unscrewed a sign saying "Ministry [of Prisoners' Affairs]" and put up another saying "Commission of Prisoners' Affairs" - but it is the same money that goes to exactly the same people. (i.e., terrorists.)... So my question is: What consequences does the foreign minister believe this should have on Norwegian aid to the Palestinian Authority?"
Foreign Minister Brende (Conservative Party):
"Thanks to MP Syversen for bringing up an important question... There are many Palestinians who actually are imprisoned in Israel for no reason, and where you can seriously question the due process. These funds that MP Syversen referred to also go to these groups. But for Norway, it is of course totally unacceptable that Norwegian aid funds should go to the families of those who have carried out criminal acts against Israelis, meaning Palestinians who are in Israeli prison...
I promise you I will bring this up again and increase the pressure on the Palestinians because this is not something that serves the Palestinian Authority."
MP Hans Olav Syversen (Christian Democrats):
"It is safe to say that it does not serve them, because what happens is that they are working against what is really the goal with Norwegian aid money... In what way will the foreign minister follow up on this..."
Foreign Minister Brende (Conservatives):
"...Next week, I have a scheduled meeting with President Abbas, and I promise MP Syversen that not only will I once again have the guarantees repeated that Norwegian aid money does not go to this - which it doesn't - but I will also use the opportunity to say to President Abbas, that with all the challenges the Palestinians now face, not least because of the lack of opportunity for development in the West Bank, it is in their best interest to abolish this program for its [the PA's] own legitimacy's sake."
MP Astrid Aarhus Byrknes (Christian Democrats):
"It is very sad to hear about these cash rewards to imprisoned terrorists, convicted terrorists who receive payments higher than the salary of government officials. They are being glorified - at sports tournaments, at youth gatherings - and Fatah actively uses both its Facebook and Twitter accounts in this area. [PMW note: MP Byrknes also learned this at the PMW lecture to MPs] So I wonder: Does the foreign minister think that this is compatible with the main objective of the Norwegian Palestine-aid, which is to promote mutual trust and the basis for a peace process with Israel?"
Foreign Minister Brende:
"Norway has a good relationship with both Israel and the Palestinians. When I'm in a meeting with the Israeli authorities, there are many questions we need to address... there is no excuse for establishing a program in which money is given to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prison, which also includes those who have committed criminal offenses. The Palestinians should stop doing that now - we have requested that [of them]. But what is most crucial is that Norwegian aid money is not going there.
You may think that [Norway] should stop giving aid to Palestine and the Palestinians altogether, because of the existence of this program, and to ensure that Norwegian money will not fund this.
If we are to begin [thinking] this way, I think we will find that there are quite a few aid-receiving countries that have different programs with which we do not agree."
The following is the longer transcript of the NRK report on PMW and the MPs responses calling to cut off funding.
NRK TV newsreader, 7 p.m. news: "The PA, which is receiving aid from Norway, is still paying salaries to imprisoned Palestinian terrorists."
NRK TV newsreader, 7 p.m. news: "Norway and other donor countries protested against this several years ago, but the practice continues, the money is just going to the prisoners by a circuitous route."
NRK TV reporter Tormod Strand: "Malki [Roth] only reached the age of 15 because a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at this pizza shop in Jerusalem in 2001. 15 civilians were murdered. The person responsible for making the bomb, Abdallah Barghouti, is imprisoned in an Israeli jail. Palestine honors hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, among them many terrorists, with a monthly salary. Every month, Abdallah Barghouti receives about ten thousand Norwegian kroner from Palestine. The worse the terror, the higher salary the prisoners receive. NRK TV reported on [PMW's report] about this [PA] program in 2013, and that the money was being paid by the PA. Norway gives 200 million kroner to Palestine annually, and demanded along with other donor countries that the program be stopped. In 2014, Palestine's President Mahmoud Abbas gave in to the pressure, and said that the program would be stopped. Now it was the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, that would be paying money to prisoners, with the help of Arab donors. He [Itamar Marcus] heads Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli organization on the right that monitors Palestinian media. Palestinian Media Watch claims in a report that the PLO is only a cover to appease Norway and other donor countries and that the PA continues to pay money to terrorists in prison."
PMW director Itamar Marcus: "We found - not only do we have the [PA] leadership statements that they were paying, but we actually found the money transfers from the PA to the PLO, that would fit the exact amount they [the PLO] needed to pay the salaries to terrorists."
NRK TV reporter Tormod Strand: "Surprisingly, [the Norwegian] Foreign Ministry confirms PMW's claim."
State Secretary Tore Hattrem (Conservative Party): "In 2014, we became aware that the PA was transferring money to the PLO, which then funded this support program for prisoners. For us, it was just as unacceptable as if the money had come directly from the PA."
NRK TV reporter Tormod Strand: "The Foreign Ministry will not do anything but protest. It is not relevant to cut Norwegian aid to Palestine. One of the government parties [the Progressive Party] disagrees."
Spokesperson on foreign aid, Jorund H. Rytman (Progress Party): "It's news to me that the Palestinians did it this way. And this must have consequences in terms of cutting the aid money so that [Norway] does not just protest, but shows it will act."
NRK TV newsreader, 7 p.m. news: "NRK TV has given the Palestinian embassy in Norway access to the [PMW] report and asked for a comment. The [PA] ambassador replied that he did not want to comment now."
NRK TV newsreader, 11 p.m. news: "The Christian Democratic Party (KrF) is very surprised that the [Norwegian] Foreign Ministry has known that the PA has continued the program in which prisoners convicted of terror offenses receive salaries from Palestine. Norwegian aid to the Palestinians must be reconsidered if this is not stopped, says the Christian Democratic Party..."
NRK TV reporter Tormod Strand: "NRK TV reported on [PMW's report] about this [PA] program in 2013, and that the money was being paid by the PA. Then, Norway demanded that the program be stopped... But this evening, the [Norwegian] Foreign Ministry confirms that it is still the PA that continue to make the payments..."
Hans Olav Syversen, acting Parliamentary leader, Christian Democrats: "It is very surprising information for me that the Norwegian Foreign Ministry has been completely aware of this and even has let this practice continue..."
NRK TV reporter Tormod Strand: "The Progress Party wants to stop [Norwegian] aid [to the PA], the Christian Democrats agree in that direction."
Hans Olav Syversen, acting Parliamentary leader, Christian Democrats: "If this is true, I believe there must be consequences. It would be subversive for us if money that is given to build up Palestinian society, in reality is used to pay salaries to prisoners who have carried out very extreme acts in many cases."
State Secretary Tore Hattrem (Conservative Party): "Norwegian aid funds have not gone to this [salary] program. We have received written assurances of that from the PA."
[NRK TV (Norway), April 24, 2016]
Abdallah Barghouti - serving 67 life sentences for preparing explosives for terror attacks in which 67 people were murdered: Sbarro restaurant (15 killed, Aug. 9, 2001, Jerusalem), Sheffield Club (15 killed, May 7, 2002, Rishon LeZion), Moment Café (11 killed, March 9, 2002, Jerusalem), triple attack at Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall (11 killed, Dec. 1, 2001, Jerusalem), Hebrew University (9 killed, July 31, 2002, Jerusalem), and Bus 4 in Tel Aviv (6 killed, Sept. 19, 2002).
Having been imprisoned for 13 years (2003-2016), Barghouti should be receiving 6,000 shekels/month (1,600 USD) according to PA law.
===============================================
Honest Reporting
Today's Top Stories
• Israel, NATO upgrade ties.
• Mohammed Khdeir's killer sentenced to life plus 20 years.
• Refusing to fly Israelis, Kuwait Airways drops European routes.
==================
|
| |
The Palestinian Martyr of World Press Freedom Day | |
|
If you work for newspapers, web sites, or TV or radio stations affiliated with terror groups, you're practicing propaganda, not journalism. Read more... |
Trailer: 3 Terror Victims. Israel's Untold Stories. |
|
Miri's 8-year-old sister, uncle and she herself, all touched by terror. And all before she even reached the age of 25. On Israel's Memorial Day we will share her story, because the media won't. Watch now... |
| | | | |
Julie Hazan to Launch HonestReporting's NYC Hub | |||
|
Julie Hazan has joined HR as East Coast Development and Community Engagement Director responsible for establishing our NYC area hub, resource planning, and community outreach, including Israel Mission alumni engagement. Read more... |
| | | | |
Freedom House's Flawed Ranking of Israel's 'National Sport' | |||
|
Freedom House should hold Israel to the same standards it applies to every other country on Earth. Read more... |
| | | | |
IDF Vindicated as US Admits That More Civilians Must Die to Defeat ISIL | |||
|
While Israel is held to impossibly high standards for avoiding civilian casualties, the US admits that killing civilians is sometimes necessary in order to get high-value targets. Read more... |
| | | | |
Anti-Israel Rant or Anti-Semitic Smear? | |||
|
Whether or not she crossed the line of anti-Semitism herself, Rachel Smalley's sleight-of-hand attempt to cloak her misleading accusations in the mantle of "legitimate criticism" is disingenuous. Read more... |
The Great Western Retreat
by Giulio Meotti • May 4, 2016 at 5:00 am
§ Of all French soldiers currently engaged in military operations, half of them are deployed inside France. And half of those are assigned to protect 717 Jewish schools.
§ This massive deployment of armed forces in our own cities is a departure from history. It is a moral disarmament, before a military one.
§ Why does anyone choose to fight in a war? Civilized nations go to war so that members of today's generation may sacrifice themselves to protect future generations. But if there are no future generations, there is no reason whatever for today's young men to die in war. It is "demography, stupid."
French soldiers guard a Jewish school in Strasbourg, February 2015. (Image source: Claude Truong-Ngoc/Wikimedia Commons)
On March 11, 2004, 192 people were killed and 1,400 wounded in a series of terrorist attacks in Madrid. Three days later, Spain's Socialist leader, José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero, was elected prime minister. Just 24 hours after being sworn in, Zapatero ordered Spanish troops to leave Iraq "as soon as possible."
The directive was a monumental political victory for extremist Islam. Since then, Europe's boots on the ground have not been dispatched outside Europe to fight jihadism; instead, they have been deployed inside the European countries to protect monuments and civilians.
====================================================
Anti-Semitism in the UK Labour Party
by Denis MacEoin • May 4, 2016 at 4:30 am
§ At least this time, the Jews know the signs of danger and have somewhere to run to, somewhere they are welcome. But many members of the Labour Party, including Labour Members of Parliament, would prefer them not to have such a haven, wishing instead for the land to be "returned" in virtually its entirety to the Palestinians.
§ The "Left" repeatedly calls for boycotts of Israel because it is, they claim, "an apartheid state." Israel is so totally free of apartheid that anyone who has spent ten minutes there knows the accusation to be an outright lie. So why keep on saying something untrue? That is anti-Semitism.
§ Two of the Labour Party's senior members were suspended as a result of their anti-Semitic remarks, and there is talk that 50 secret suspensions have been made.
§ It is worth adding that existing anti-Semitism within the British establishment, not least the pro-Arab Foreign Office, means that little is done even by conservatives to tackle this Jew hatred on the left.
Labour Party MP Naz Shah (left), recently suspended from the party, was voted into her seat by the large Islamic community in Bradford; the remarks that got her into trouble were anti-Israel with a lavish helping of anti-Jewish sentiment. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (right), is a lifelong supporter of Palestinian "resistance" and a self-declared "friend" of the terror outfits Hamas and Hezbollah.
After the truth about the Holocaust came out in the late 1940s and 50s, being an anti-Semite was the biggest dishonour of all. No mainstream politician, whatever his or her personal views about Jews, would ever declare anything that hinted at anti-Semitism. The "far right" had gone (for a time) into oblivion. Israel was admired.
Germany paid reparations (wiedergutmachung, "making good again") to Holocaust survivors, as did France, an equally anti-Semitic country[1] out of which came the first ideologue of a "master race," Joseph Arthur, Comte de Gobineau (d.1882), whose books spread the message of Aryan supremacy. Oddly enough, Arthur was not anti-Semitic: Hitler and his acolytes embraced his Aryan supremacism and edited out Arthur's philo-Semitism.
==============================================
"
But he said Russia seeks to "erode" the peaceful order Europe and the rest of the West have enjoyed since the end of the Cold War.
Carter, in vowing the U.S. would defend its allies, warned Russia is increasing its submarine patrols to the North Atlantic. He did not specifically mention the recent "barrel rolls" by Russian jets over U.S. military aircraft in the past few weeks but accused Russia's leaders of "nuclear saber-rattling" and putting the world at risk in the process. "
Carter sends message to Moscow: US ready to 'defend our allies'
STUTTGART, Germany – Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in Germany to usher in a new U.S. military commander for Europe, used the opportunity Tuesday to send a blunt warning to Moscow not to provoke the NATO alliance – after recent encounters in the air and on the high seas.
"We do not seek to make Russia an enemy. But make no mistake – we will defend our allies, the rules-based international order, and the positive future it affords us," Carter said at the U.S. military's European Command in Stuttgart, Germany.
Carter expressed a desire not to start a new Cold War with Russia – or a "hot" one.
But he said Russia seeks to "erode" the peaceful order Europe and the rest of the West have enjoyed since the end of the Cold War.
Carter, in vowing the U.S. would defend its allies, warned Russia is increasing its submarine patrols to the North Atlantic. He did not specifically mention the recent "barrel rolls" by Russian jets over U.S. military aircraft in the past few weeks but accused Russia's leaders of "nuclear saber-rattling" and putting the world at risk in the process.
The Obama administration's resolve to take on Russia remains a matter of dispute. President Obama was caught on an open microphone in 2012 assuring then-President Dmitry Medvedev he'd have more "flexibility" on the issue of missile defense after the election. Russia, under Vladimir Putin, later defied U.S. warnings with its takeover of Crimea and military involvement in Eastern Ukraine – and has complicated U.S. efforts in Syria with its intervention there.
Carter this week traveled to Germany for the installation of Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti at the helm of U.S. European Command. There are more than 60,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe, significantly less than during the Cold War, when more than 200,000 soldiers were stationed mostly in Germany.
Carter said Tuesday the Pentagon has pledged $3.4 billion in next year's budget, quadruple the spending from last year, to beef up NATO's eastern flank with its allies. Carter said a new armored brigade would be heading to Europe, though officials told Fox News it would not arrive until the end of 2017.
Carter said the increase in funds would support an additional U.S. Air Force F-15 squadron, more U.S. special operations forces to train in Europe, and more submarine-hunting aircraft to counter increased Russian submarine activity.
"Russia's aggressive actions only serve to further its isolation, and unite our alliance," he said.
Russia does not see it that way. Officials in Moscow believe the United States has violated a 1997 treaty that says NATO cannot amass forces along the border with Russia. The treaty does not specify how many forces are permissible.
En route to Germany on Monday, Carter told reporters the United States is considering putting more forces in Eastern Europe, but is waiting to consult with NATO officials before any final decisions are made. Carter said up to four battalions, or some 4,000 soldiers, could be added to Eastern Europe.
A handful of NATO defense officials will be on hand for a counter-Islamic State meeting Wednesday with Carter in Stuttgart.
Despite some tough talk about Russia, Carter indicated he's willing to work together in the future: "We'll keep the door open for Russia. But it's up to the Kremlin to decide."
One example Carter used about past U.S.-Russian cooperation was Moscow's willingness to allow the United States and NATO to use a supply corridor in northern Afghanistan in the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the start of combat operations against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
That corridor has since been closed by Russia.
In his remarks, the outgoing U.S. commander of European Command, Gen. Philip Breedlove, a career fighter pilot, said his career is ending where it began, with Russia in his sights.
"My career started here in a Cold War trying to keep the peace. I think my career is now ending here trying to prevent a Cold War and continue to keep the peace," he said.
His replacement, Scaparrotti, was asked about Russian jets buzzing U.S. Navy ships and aircraft, when he was on Capitol Hill a few weeks ago before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"Should we make an announcement to the Russians, that if they place the lives of our men and women on board Navy ships in danger, that we will take appropriate action?" committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., asked.
"I believe that should be known, yes," Scaparrotti said.
No comments:
Post a Comment