Bosnia Gets NATO Roadmap

The NATO leviathan wants more prey, and the elites in Bosnia are offering their fractured, internationally supervised state, on the military tray.  At a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Tallinn, Bosnia had the honor of being issued the dazzlingly named Membership Action Plan, or MAP, which spells out the dos and don'ts to joining the globe's preeminent war machine.  Amid a period of warming relations with Russia, NATO is doing its darnedest to piqued Russian paranoia.  Croatia and Albania were lassoed into NATO last year.  Montenegro got its own MAP back in December.  If the statelet of Montenegro and the basket case of Bosnia join, NATO jumps to 30 members. 

Pentagon Plans To 'Cover' Europe With Missile Shield By 2018

Thought U.S. anti-missile shield mumbo jumbo was jettisoned under the Nobel laureate, Barrack Obama?  Think again.  Far from trashed, U.S. missile plans are stronger than ever under the left-wing Obama.  A Pentagon official has said the U.S. anti-missile shield system will 'cover' the entire of Europe by 2018.  And another Pentagon official says the new START treaty on reducing U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear missiles actually "reduces the constraints" on building such a system.  That is a huge sticking point between the Russians and Americans.  The Russians insist a link between START and anti-missile defense.  U.S. officials, not surprisingly, don't see it that way.

Could Polish Air Tragedy Lead To Better Russian Polish Ties?

In the fog and trees of western Russia, Poland lost many of those who moved and shook that eastern European country.  The Saturday crash in Smolensk took the lives of President Lech Kaczynski, and dozens of other Polish political, military and religious leaders.  Poles are shocked and numbed, noting the bitter irony of the disaster.  Poland's who's who were on their way to commemorate victims of the Katyn massacre.  In 1940, Soviet secret police gunned down more than 20,000 Polish officers and other elites, effectively decapitating the ruling class.  And while completely at different ends of the scale spectrum, the target was the same: Polish elite.  And although one appears to be an accident, the other coldblooded mass murder, the two tragedies took place a stone's throw from the other.  But there is one other big difference.  Katyn painted the Russians as murderers and liars, just another seed of distrust, fear and hatred in these countries' stormy 500 years of ties.  However, the Smolensk plane tragedy has brought the two countries together if briefly, to share their grief and condolences.

Ukraine Officially Ends NATO Bid

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You can stick a fork in Ukraine's bid to join the world's most powerful military pact, NATO, dashing Washington's dream, at least for now, of transforming the Black Sea into one big American lake. Viktor Yanukovich, the newly elected president, who has stated clearly he will steer a more easterly course than his predecessor, Viktor Yanukovich,abolished a few committee's working toward NATO membership.    Although these groups were insignificant, the symbolism of shutting them down is powerful: Moscow can breathe a bit easier, NATO will not deploy in this country of 46 million any time soon.  Yanukovich speaks of Ukraine being a 'bridge' between Europe and Russia, and NATO is not a building block in pursuit of that goal.

Germany To Hunt Down Another Ukrainian Octogenarian

Not satisfied with putting on trial one infirm ethnic Ukrainian octogenarian for alleged Nazi-era war crimes, Germany wants to put another one in the dock.  Germany, which razed much of the country and killed wantonly there during World War II, has opened a formal criminal investigation against an 88-year-old Ukrainian-born man living in the United States on suspicion that he committed murder while serving the Nazis, a prosecutor in Munich confirmed on March 27.  The man, whose name has not been divulged, would join another Ukrainian-born man, John Demjanjuk, 89, accused of being an accessory to 27,900 Nazi death camp murders while working as a guard for the Nazi SS.

China Flashes The Cash In Belarus

The economic juggernaut that is China is rolling into eastern Europe.  Belarus, Europe's great dictatorial backwater under President Alexander Lukashenko, is the unlikely target of the latest Chinese largesse.   The amounts are filled with lots of zeros.  A billion dollar loan, on favorable terms.  Ten billion in potential projects, spanning several industrial sectors, including cars, electricity and sugar.  It's the latest proof China is sniffing out economic opportunities in other former Soviet republics after conquering with its bulging checkpoint Central Asia.    

Russia and US To Sign New Arms Control Deal

To much fanfare, the United States and Russia have announced they have hammered out all the details of what is being billed as the most comprehensive nuclear arms treaty in nearly two decades.  The "New START Treaty" demands each side cut their strategic nuclear arsenals by about a third.  The agreement is due to be signed in Prague on April 8th, just days before U.S. President gathers powerbrokers in Washington to talk nuclear disarmament, a 'cause' of his outlined in a Prague speech last April.  However, the treaty still must be ratified by both countries' legislatures, and the Russian State Duma will likely be skeptical if the treaty is not linked to U.S. pledges not to expand its 'missile defense' program, something Washington categorically rejects.  And as the two sides were backslapping over the no-nuke pact, reports leaked of fresh Pentagon plans to boost 'military assistance' to several former Soviet republics.Yes, START is a step forward, but just one in a race whose finishing line at times seems to fade further into the distance.   

US General Blames Dutch Gay Soldiers for Srebrenica

Blame it on the gays.  That's the way at least one retired U.S. general sees it.  Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander John Sheehan says the fall of Srebrenica in 1995 was partly due to gays in the ranks of the Dutch military, which was tasked with guarding the so-called 'safe haven.'   Sheehan wasn't gabbing to close friends in some dank drinking hole after whiskey unlocked his lips.  Sheehan was speaking under oath before a dour Congressional committee.  The Dutch, gay and other sundry groups were left mouths agape, reacting with outrage.  Beyond that, however, the scandal opens a tiny window to again ask what really happened at Srebrenica some fifteen years ago. The author, Diana Johnstone, tells the Informant the Dutch were in a no-win situation. 

Kosovo Police To 'Guard' Serb Monument

The humiliations never seem to stop for what remains of the Serbs in Kosovo.  In the latest blow to the national solar plexus, NATO has handed over to Kosovo's mainly ethnic Albanian police force security at one of Serbia's most sacred sites: Kosovo Pole.   The handover came a day after another grim anniversary for Kosovo's Serbs: the sixth anniversary of the ethnic Albanian community's ransacking of churches and killing of a dozen or so Serbs.  As this travesty unfolded, Slovenia was scrabbling to stop a much ballyhooed confab of Balkan and EU leaders from imploding.  All the while, Serbia thanked the majority of the world's community that have not recognized Kosovo as an independent state.

NATO Head Says Missile Shield Essential

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NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen just can't understand why Russia doesn't see NATO action the same way NATO does.  At an international conference in Warsaw, the capital of one of Europe's more accomplished Russophobe nations, Rasmussen said Russian thinking was "outdated."  NATO is not Russia's enemy he said, and had no plans to invade its great land mass.  In fact, Rasmussen said, NATO seeks "partnership" with the Kremlin.  In the next breath, Rasmussen said NATO will keep nuclear weapons in Europe, keep its doors open to new members, (hint hint Georgia and Ukraine) expand its "mission", and support US "missile defense" in Europe.  But, Rasmussen continued, if any nation was stirring things up in Europe, it is, you got it, Russia. 

Romania And US Start Talks On Missile Deployment

The more things change......  Well, you know the rest of it.  Nobel peace prize winner Barack Obama promises peace and pie in the sky.  On the foreign policy front, hardliners in the U.S. worried the 'liberal' Obama would sell out the U.S. to all its enemies.  As proof, they pointed warily at his 'reset' intentions with Russia.  But reality is often at odds with rhetoric.  In eastern Europe, the Obama administration continues to pursue an essentially expansionist policy not much different than the bumbling, footloose cowboy Bush Junior.  Despite the flowery rhetoric, however, the essentials of the two U.S. leaders are almost indistinguishable.  The latest proof?  Romania has announced talks are now underway with Washington on deploying some 20 interceptor rockets on that eastern European country's territory. 

CIA Black Site Update: Records Confirm CIA Flights

It's a story the media would seem to want to get its clacking fingers into.  Spies, secret torture bases, alleged terrorists.  Very sexy stuff.  There's only one problem.  The side alleged to have been engaged in this cloak-and-dagger stuff is the United States.  Exposure of such inconvenient facts would belie the United States reputation as an upholder of law and order.  That's why you won't find the Western press digging into the stories and rumors of CIA black sites in eastern Europe.  It just doesn't jive with the accepted narrative.  Despite that, bits and pieces of information do get out there, adding pieces to the puzzle.  The latest being official records confirming that CIA flights did land in Poland, despite previous government denials in Warsaw.

Informant Exclusive: The Mysterious US WW II Bombing Of Prague

On February 14, 1945,the bomb raid sirens pierced the air of Prague, then the capital of the Nazi protectorate of Bohemia.  Few paid any attention on that afternoon.  After all, allied warplanes had flown over the city numerous times in the past on their way to drop their bombs in Germany.  This time, however, things would be different.  The first warning was the humming of the warplanes close over the city.  Then the bombs began to drop, some 700 in total.  Destruction was slashed across a good swathe of the city.  Under the rumble of homes, churches and businesses, lay the corpses of 700.  Oddly, 65 years after that tragic day, no one has explained why American bombers unloaded their payload on one of Europe's most beautiful cities.

Kosovo 'Celebrates' Two Years Of Independence

February 17 marked two years to the day when Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.  Since then, 65 countries, including the U.S. and most of its EU allies, have recognized Kosovo.  Serbia, obviously, and a majority of the world's countries have not, including UN Security Council members, Russia and China, keeping Kosovo out of the UN.  Regardless, Kosovo's Albanian majority partied Wednesday on the anniversary.  But a closer look at the state of Kosovo begs the question what exactly were they celebrating?

Bulgaria and Transdniester Want In On Missile Shield Sweepstakes

Seems everyone in eastern Europe wants a piece of the anti-missile shield pie.  Bulgaria is the latest former Warsaw Pact nation to voice its eagerness to President Barack Obama's slimmed-down, vague plan.  But it's not only the Americans who are in demands.  Now the Russians are finding eager parties as well to house their military hardware.  Yes, it is only the sliver of a territory, the Moldovan breakaway region of Transdniester.  But the news shows this U.S. project is stirring things up in the region, and could possibly lead to a new arms race.

Washington In Reality Denial

If only the world worked the way Washington wished it would.  The United States could then do whatever it wanted and then spin it as either benign, or inconsequential.  In that fantasy world, what Washington did would comport with what it said it was doing.  Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.  Though more and more of the world's countries are voluntarily entangling themselves in Washington's mega-military pact, NATO, there are still a few holdouts, among them, Russia.  Moscow has been incorrectly interpreting U.S. actions, prompting Washington to set the record straight.   

Romania Eager To 'Host' U.S. Missile Shield

Another piece in Washington's global military puzzle has been placed in a forgotten, poor country on Europe's eastern edges, Romania. That country's president, Traian Basescu has announced his country will host Washington's leaner, and meaner, missile 'defense shield.' Moscow, naturally, is angered by the move, which comes as Russia's military establishment has labeled NATO enlargement as one of the country's main threats. Astonishingly, NATO, which has expanded up to Russia's borders, can't understand why.

Houston Oil Firm Frontera Drilling In Georgia

The standard boilerplate on Georgia is that the Caucasus country may be small but strategically important.  Straddling the Black and Caspian Seas, Georgia is seen by Washington and Brussels as a key fossil fuel transit country.  The Baku-Ceyhan pipeline attests to that.  It's all part of the grand strategy to tug the region out of Moscow's orbit.  Less know is the fact that Georgia has a little oil of its own and a Houston-based drilling firm is doing its darnedest to suck it out of the ground. 

Yushchenko Honors Ukrainian Hero, Or Nazi Collaborator?

With his days as Ukrainian president quickly coming to a close, Viktor Yushchenko has made one of his most controversial decisions yet.  Yushchenko has awarded posthumously the "Hero of Ukraine" title to Stepan Bandera, a Ukranian nationalist leader.  Bandera is a hot-button issue for sure.  For many Ukrainians, he was a brave fighter who struggled for their country's independence during World War Two and years after until he was assassinated by the KGB in Munich in 1959.  For others, Bandera was a Nazi collaborator and murderer, and needs to be pilloried not praised.  Beyond that debate is another issue rarely examined in the West.  Many of those within the Soviet Union who fought Soviet troops also had embarrassing ties to the Nazis.

Russia Going Loonie

It's was the type of story that flies under the radar of most world media, but has global impact potential.  On January 20, Russia's central bank announced it had started buying Canadian dollars and securities in a bid to diversify its foreign exchange reserves.  Anticipating the move months in advance, a respected analyst said the Russian action could spell the start of a global trend to diversify.  That's good news for some of the world's other currencies, like, in this case, the Canadian dollar, but bad news, for the world's uber currency, the U.S. dollar.