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UK deceit in hostage situation acknowledged after 3 decades
24 Nov, 2021 08:07
The British government failed to tip British Airways about the ongoing Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, leading to one of its planes falling into a trap. The Foreign Office has been deceiving the public about it for three decades.
A call made at night by the British ambassador to Kuwait, in which he informed London about the August 1990 attack by Saddam Hussein’s troops, was confirmed on Tuesday by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. Previously, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) insisted that the envoy, Sir Michael Weston, and the government were unaware of the invasion on the night it happened.
British Airways flight 149 was scheduled to go from London to Kuala Lumpur, with a stop in Kuwait’s Madras International Airport. Less than an hour after landing there, the airport was closed, and the crew and over 300 passengers were captured by Iraqi troops. Many of them were held hostage for up to five months, some facing mistreatment and abuse by their captors.
On the night of the invasion, the British ambassador made a phone call to report that Iraqi troops had crossed the Kuwaiti border. The information was relayed to various branches of the government, but not to the airline, which had no reason to believe that landing in Kuwait could be dangerous. The plane touched down more than an hour after the ambassador delivered his report.
Documents pertaining to the call were released on Tuesday by the National Archives as part of the British policy of publishing older government documents. While they confirm the effort by the government to suppress the call’s existence, they shed no light on a theory that the flight was involved in a British intelligence operation.
BA flight 149 took off from Heathrow two hours late. Some members of the crew said they saw a group of around 10 people escorted by someone in a military uniform onto the plane. There has long been speculation that the plane carried British military spotters to Kuwait in expectation of the invasion.
In a written statement to Parliament, Secretary Truss reiterated that the delayed take-off was due to technical problems, and pointed out that the documents released were consistent with assurances made to Parliament in 2007, that “the Government at the time did not attempt in any way to exploit the flight by any means whatever.”
The failure to inform British Airways was due to the lack of information about the scale of the Iraqi invasion, and the lack of a formal mechanism for sharing the information, an oversight that has since been fixed, Truss said. She called the government’s obfuscation about the ambassador’s call until now “unacceptable,” and apologised to the lawmaker for it. “I express my deepest sympathy to those who were detained and mistreated,” she wrote.
If the plane had taken off in time, it might well have avoided the attack on the airport. Was the plane delayed by the military to get their people onboard? Was the military responsible for holding up the plane and not informing BA of the dangers in Kuwait? If not, why the efforts to keep the whole thing secret for 30 years?
She also said the sole responsibility for the hostage crisis remains with Saddam Hussein’s government, seemingly indicating that the newly released documents are not an admission of liability for the purpose of potential lawsuits.
Truss, it appears, is not interested in the truth, only liability.
NATO is having a field day selling all sorts of weapons to Europeans whom they are terrifying with their hyperbolic rhetoric of Russia. The latest push is trying to scare Germany into buying a new fleet of American-made aircraft capable of delivering atomic bombs.
The risks of ramping up the weaponry doesn't seem the least bit concerning to NATO, as long as the inventory of war keeps rolling. NATO is making the world a far less safer place than it has to be - the very opposite of its intended purpose.
Poland wants NATO to move more troops closer to Russia
Is the Polish Gov't paranoid, or is there money changing hands somewhere?
25 Nov, 2021 17:45
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, has suggested NATO should expand its presence in Eastern Europe to defend friendly states outside the US-led military bloc.
Speaking with the organisation's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday, Duda cited the alleged recent “relocation of Russian forces around the Ukrainian border.” He said that the group should make its presence felt to a greater degree on its eastern flank to “show all potential aggressors that NATO is ready.” He went on to describe Kiev as an important external partner, whose security is at stake.
Stoltenberg echoed the Polish president’s concerns over Ukraine and called on Russia to “be transparent, reduce tensions and de-escalate the situation.” The NATO chief, however, stopped short of commenting on any military expansion near Russia’s borders, adding that the foreign ministers of NATO member states will convene in Latvia next week to discuss the situation with their counterparts from Ukraine and Georgia, another country which the bloc is trying to pull into its orbit.
On Sunday, the Kremlin dismissed reports in Western media about Moscow’s alleged plans to invade Ukraine as “artificially fomented hysteria.” The Russian Foreign Ministry accused NATO of creating tensions along the country’s Western border.
Among other hot-button topics that dominated the talks between Duda and Stoltenberg on Thursday was the migrant crisis on the frontier with Belarus. The Polish leader claimed that Minsk was continuing its “hybrid attack,” by which he meant "weaponizing" migrants. He asserted that it enjoyed the full support of Moscow in doing so, but noted, however, that the tactics allegedly used by Belarusian authorities at the border have somewhat changed. Now smaller groups of asylum seekers are trying to cross, to the EU, under the cover of darkness, Duda reported, as opposed to previous large pushes in broad daylight.
Stoltenberg, in turn, noted that Warsaw has so far been able to successfully tackle the migrant crisis on its own, without the bloc’s direct intervention. Stoltenberg added that NATO stands in solidarity with Poland and is ready to consider any requests for assistance.
Belarus has maintained all along that sweeping Western sanctions are stifling its ability to effectively manage migrant flows headed for the EU. Russia, for its part, has consistently claimed it has nothing to do with the crisis on the EU border.
Belarus may invite Russian nuclear weapons into country
30 Nov, 2021 17:44
By Layla Guest
Belarus’ leader has said Russia should deploy atomic warheads inside his country’s borders if NATO’s nuclear weapons are advanced eastwards through Poland, amid a growing row with the West.
Speaking in an interview with RIA Novosti on Tuesday, Alexander Lukashenko threatened to increase the amount of deadly hardware facing off across the frontier if American-made nukes are moved further into Eastern Europe.
In that case, Lukashenko said, “I will suggest that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin return nuclear weapons to Belarus.” According to him, the restoration of a Soviet-era nuclear deterrent over the territory using “those atomic armaments would be the most effective in such a case.”
“I am not saying this for no reason,” he went on, “we are ready for this on the territory of Belarus.” Lukashenko, however, did not specify which type of system he wanted to be used, and claimed that this would be “agreed” by the two sides.
The bombshell remarks from Belarus’ long-time leader came after the US-led military bloc’s head, Jens Stoltenberg, expressed concern earlier this month that Germany’s new government could decline to purchase a new fleet of aircraft capable of launching nuclear weapons once chancellor Angela Merkel leaves her post.
And, after all, that's what this hyperbole is all about - selling arms to Europe. Stoltenberg is the Salesman and Chief of NATO.
Stoltenberg said that NATO’s nukes “provide European Allies with an effective nuclear umbrella. This, of course, also includes our eastern Allies and they are an important signal of Allied unity against any nuclear-armed adversary.” The bloc’s chief said that the plans to shuttle armaments was necessary because of the alleged threat posed by Russia.
There's the hyperbole!
Stoltenberg’s proposals drew ire in the Kremlin, with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko proclaiming that the NATO head’s remarks threaten the peace accords signed between the two parties. The Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security, inked between Russia and the US-led bloc, was signed in May 1997. Under the agreement, Moscow and NATO do not consider each other as opponents. The document separately promised not to station nuclear weapons on the territory of new members of the bloc from that date onwards.
The military bloc’s potential deployment of atomic warheads even closer to Russia has long been a point of contention in relations between the two powers. Last year, Lavrov’s deputy, Sergey Ryabkov, said that Moscow hopes the US will stop “‘sharing’ nuclear weapons with its allies.”
Not if there is money to be made!!!
Belarus has been locked into a worsening row with neighboring Poland in recent weeks amid a sharp rise in the number of migrants attempting to cross the border. The EU accuses Minsk of putting on flights from troubled countries like Iraq and Syria, before forcing desperate people to assault the fence in a bid to put pressure on the bloc over sanctions against the country.
Speaking earlier this month, Lukashenko admitted it was possible some of his officials had helped the would-be asylum seekers to cross over, but said it wasn’t worth looking into. Minsk accuses the bloc of orchestrating a “hybrid war” by hosting exiled opposition figures and media outlets banned within Belarus.
NATO shipping weaponry to Russian border – Moscow
30 Nov, 2021 15:45
By Layla Guest
Alarming quantities of weapons are being shuttled by NATO towards the border with Russia, Moscow's top diplomat has warned, adding that Western states are engaging in provocations that could lead to an actual armed conflict.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed that “significant units and armaments from NATO countries, including American and British, are being moved closer to our borders.”
He said that, in neighboring Ukraine, “more and more forces and equipment are being accumulated on the line of contact in the Donbas, supported by an increasing number of Western instructors.”
According to the veteran diplomat, these nations also encourage officials in Kiev to take anti-Russian actions, which he said can easily “turn into military adventures.”
Lavrov warned that “if the West cannot hold back Ukraine – and actually encourages it – of course we will take all necessary steps to ensure our security.”
He also blasted the West’s long-term pushing of other states into anti-Russian ventures, noting that the incorporation of former Soviet republics into the military bloc is the “brightest example” of this – a move which Russia has openly denounced.
Lavrov’s remarks come amid reignited tensions between the US-led alliance and Moscow. In a recent interview with CNN, its chief, (Salesman and Chief) Jens Stoltenberg, said NATO had tripled the size of its resource force and bulked up its presence in both the Black and Baltic seas to counter Russian presence.
A US Navy guided-missile destroyer, the ‘Arleigh Burke’, was shipped off to the Black Sea some days ago not long after two other American warships were spotted cruising in the same waters near Russia.
Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador in Washington, also warned against underestimating Moscow’s will to respond to what he described as NATO’s threats in Ukraine, stating in an interview on Saturday that doing so “is a very dangerous delusion.”
Lavrov also slammed the alleged use of US-made rockets by Ukrainian forces fighting separatists in the east of the country, which he warned is increasing the prospect of a full-blown conflict in the war-torn region.
Earlier in November, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, blasted Stoltenberg’s plans to deploy American warheads around Eastern European nations due to alleged threats posed by Moscow’s “aggressive actions,” insisting this endangered existing peace accords inked between the two sides.
