29-07-2009, 04:01 AM
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/40763
Stop NATO
July 18, 2009
Germany And NATO's Nuclear Nexus
Rick Rozoff
The reunification of Germany and the start of NATO's post-Cold War expansion,
drive east and beginning of its transformation into a global military force
occurred on the same day, October 3, 1990.
On that date East Germany was absorbed into the Federal Republic and
simultaneously into NATO, the first of thirteen additions to the bloc from that
time to the present year.
United since 1990 within its pre-1938 borders, Germany has cast aside most all
post-Potsdam Agreement and Nuremberg Principles constraints and become a
military power engaged in wars on the European and Asian continents (Yugoslavia
in 1999, Afghanistan since 2001) and naval surveillance and interdiction
operations in the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
NATO membership was the gateway for Germany to send troops, warplanes and
warships outside its borders and overseas for the first time since the end of
World War II; to date to Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan,
Sudan and off the coast of Somalia as well as deploying AWACS, Tornado warplanes
and tanks to the US since the activation of NATO's Article 5 in 2001. The latter
also led to the participation of the German Navy in the nearly eight-year-old
Operation Active Endeavor monitoring and interdiction patrols throughout the
Mediterranean Sea.
The nation has the third largest military budget of all European states, only
surpassed by Britain and France. Germany's military spending is larger than
Russia's, for example, even after German spending dropped and Russian increased
last year. The numbers were $46.8 and $40 billion, respectively.
It also has the third largest army of any exclusively European state (Russia and
Turkey excluded from this category) with some quarter of a million troops.
Though not itself a nuclear power, Germany hosts an undisclosed (for apparent
reasons) number of the estimated 350-480 US nuclear warheads deployed in Europe
to this day under NATO arrangements.
According to one report of two years ago "At least 20 US atomic warheads are
reportedly still deployed underground at the German air base in the
southwestern town of Buechel, where they can be mounted on German Tornado
fighter planes...." [1]
According to a statement of the opposition Left Party, an additional 130 US
warheads may be stored at the Ramstein Air Base, headquarters for the United
States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) and also a North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) installation. The same report adds "German air force pilots
headquartered in Buechel will be ordered to drop nuclear bombs in case of a
military attack or war." [2]
Regarding Germany's unabashed housing of nuclear weapons, the Director of NATO's
Nuclear Policy Section Guy Roberts said in 2007 that "Each decision in this
field is up to national sovereignty. Each nation is free to decide whether or
not it wants to actively participate in the joint management of nuclear
devices." [3]
Last year German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm made a statement that
didn't receive much coverage in the international news, to wit "For the
foreseeable future ... we remain of the view that a deterring military capacity
includes not only conventional capacity but also nuclear components.
"There is a NATO policy framework for the presence of US nuclear weapons in
Europe. But the security details and the handling of those weapons are a matter
of bilateral arrangements." [4]
For bilateral, one is to understand the United States which placed the nuclear
weapons and Germany which stores them and would deliver them if ordered to by
the US and NATO. Among the American nuclear arms in Europe are 200-350
air-launched B-61 bombs stored in air bases in Germany, Turkey, Belgium, Italy
and the Netherlands. [5]
Last year an internal U.S. Air Force report, The Blue Ribbon Review of Nuclear
Weapons Policies and Procedures, "recommended that American nuclear assets in
Europe be 'consolidated,' which analysts interpret as a recommendation to move
the bombs to NATO bases under 'U.S. wings,' meaning American bases in Europe."
The news source cited above also revealed that "Although technically owned by
the U.S., nuclear bombs stored at NATO bases are designed to be delivered by
planes from the host country." [6] If the deployment of nuclear arms at US and
NATO air bases in Europe wasn't alarming enough, in January of 2006 former
German Defense Minister Rupert Scholz was quoted as stating "Germany needed to
ponder building its own nuclear deterrence system."
In Scholz's own words, "We need a serious discussion over how we can react to a
nuclear threat by a terrorist ***state*** [emphasis added] in an appropriate
manner - and in extreme cases with our own nuclear weapons." [7]
Only hours after assuming the mantle of the French presidency in May of 2007
Nicolas Sarkozy spoke of a "holy" (his precise word) alliance with Germany and
"underscored...France's willingness to use its nuclear weapons to defend Germany
in case of a hostile attack." Sarkozy's Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie
was quoted as saying, "If Germany asked us for help, it is probable that
European solidarity would come into play. For us, nuclear weapons are the
ultimate protection against a threat from abroad." [8]
Later in the year a German news source wrote of a reiteration of the offer and
said that "President Nicolas Sarkozy has asked Germany to open talks about a
possible role the country could play in France's nuclear defence system" and
that "Sarkozy told German leaders that French nuclear weapons were also
protecting neighbouring Germany, which was one reason why they should think
about a closer cooperation in that area." [9]
NATO membership alone allows for - in fact necessitates - this policy but its
public mention at such a high level signifies a qualitatively new emphasis on
the use of nuclear weapons.
Another aspect of Sarkozy's proposed new Holy Alliance was detailed this past
February:
"German troops are to be posted in France for the first time in 60 years, in an
effort to uphold military cooperation between the ex-foes.
"Paris has agreed in principle to a proposal made by Germany earlier this year
to allow a German battalion to be stationed in eastern France." [10]
This February German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of NATO's collective defense
obligation and an account issued by her office summarized her position as
follows: "NATO has proved its worth as a defence alliance, which is why Article
5 of the North Atlantic Treaty (which lays out the right to individual and
collective self-defence) should in the Chancellor's view continue to embody the
substance of NATO. In future its main responsibility should continue to be to
ensure the defence of member states. But today we face new threats and new
conflicts. We must also prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons at all costs."
[11]
A year before five former military chiefs of staff of major NATO states -
General John Shalikashvili (former US chief of staff under Clinton and NATO's
ex-Supreme Allied Commander), General Klaus Naumann (Germany's former top
military commander and ex-Chairman of NATO's Military Committee), Lord Inge
(former British Chief of the General Staff), General Henk van den Breemen
(former Dutch chief of staff) and Admiral Jacques Lanxade (former French chief
of staff) - issued a joint 150-page document which affirmed that the option of a
nuclear first strike is indispensable, "since there is simply no realistic
prospect of a nuclear-free world." [12]
Germany's Naumann was Chairman of the NATO Military Committee during the war
against Yugoslavia in 1999.
On the eve of the 2008 NATO Summit in Bucharest, Romania - for which the
document discussed above was largely prepared - a German news source wrote that
"A French officer was quoted as saying that the document showed US determination
to hand NATO the task of fighting terrorism on all five continents" and that
"NATO will discuss the use of so-called mini-nukes behind closed doors at its
Bucharest summit...." [13]
This January a high-level task force appointed by Pentagon chief Robert Gates,
the Secretary of Defense Task Force on Defense Department Nuclear Weapons
Management chaired by former defense secretary James Schlesinger, released a
report advocating that the "United States should keep tactical nuclear bombs in
Europe and even consider modernizing older warheads on cruise missiles...." The
document states "The presence of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe remains a pillar
of NATO unity." [14]
A Washington Post report on the study mentions that "The Natural Resources
Defense Council, which specializes in nuclear matters, recently reported that
about 400 U.S. B-61 tactical nuclear bombs are stored at bases in several NATO
countries, including Germany, Italy, Turkey and the United Kingdom." [15]
The 1990 Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany (or the 2 + 4
Agreement) with the Federal Republic of Germany, The German Democratic Republic,
the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union in the final months of
its existence expressly prohibited the "manufacture, possession of, and control
over nuclear" weapons.
How faithfully Berlin, Brussels and Washington have abided by that pledge in
both letter and spirit has been seen. US nuclear weapons stored in Germany "can
be mounted on German Tornado fighter planes" because "nuclear bombs stored at
NATO bases are designed to be delivered by planes from the host country" and
"German air force pilots headquartered in Buechel will be ordered to drop
nuclear bombs in case of a military attack or war." And as a former German
defense minister urged "We need a serious discussion over how we can
react...with our own nuclear weapons."
Part 1
New NATO: Germany Returns To World Military Stage
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/40658
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=14332
[URL="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/new-nato-germany-returns-to-world-military-stage-part-1-by-rick-rozoff/"]http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/new-nato-germany-returns-to-world\
-military-stage-part-1-by-rick-rozoff/[/URL]
Part 2
From WW II To WW III: Global NATO And Remilitarized Germany
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/40691
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=14377
[URL="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/from-ww-ii-to-ww-iii-global-nato-and-remilitarized-germany-part-ii-by-rick-rozoff/"]http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/from-ww-ii-to-ww-iii-global-nato-\
and-remilitarized-germany-part-ii-by-rick-rozoff/[/URL]
Part 3
Germany: First New Post-Cold War World Military Power
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/40717
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=14415
[URL="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/germany-first-new-post-cold-war-world-military-power-part-iii-by-rick-rozoff/"]http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/germany-first-new-post-cold-war-w\
orld-military-power-part-iii-by-rick-rozoff/[/URL]
For all three previous articles combined see:
The Bundeswehr is back to the World Military Stage
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/64608
Note on references: Germany's largest presswire, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, is
only available by subscription and the cost for individuals is prohibitively
expensive. Websites in Iran, Azerbaijan and China are among the best sources for
DPA material in English, so citations are sometimes secondary.
1) Islamic Republic News Agency, September 1, 2007
2) German party marks Hiroshima anniversary, calls for removal of
warheads
Islamic Republic News Agency, August 6, 2007
3) Rainews 24 (Italy), April 10, 2007
4) Agence France-Presse, June 23, 2008
5) Ibid
6) Time Magazine, June 19, 2008
7) Deutsche Press-Agentur, January 26, 2006
8) Islamic Republic News Agency, May 17, 2007
9) Der Spiegel from Agence France-Presse, September 15, 2007
10) Press TV, February 6, 2009
11) Federal Republic of Germany, The Federal Chancellor, February 7, 2009
12) Michel Chossudovsky, The US-NATO Preemptive Nuclear Doctrine:
Trigger A Middle East Nuclear Holocaust to Defend "The Western Way
of Life"
Global Research, February 11, 2008
13) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 2, 2008
14) Washington Post, January 9, 2009
15) Ibid
Stop NATO
July 18, 2009
Germany And NATO's Nuclear Nexus
Rick Rozoff
The reunification of Germany and the start of NATO's post-Cold War expansion,
drive east and beginning of its transformation into a global military force
occurred on the same day, October 3, 1990.
On that date East Germany was absorbed into the Federal Republic and
simultaneously into NATO, the first of thirteen additions to the bloc from that
time to the present year.
United since 1990 within its pre-1938 borders, Germany has cast aside most all
post-Potsdam Agreement and Nuremberg Principles constraints and become a
military power engaged in wars on the European and Asian continents (Yugoslavia
in 1999, Afghanistan since 2001) and naval surveillance and interdiction
operations in the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
NATO membership was the gateway for Germany to send troops, warplanes and
warships outside its borders and overseas for the first time since the end of
World War II; to date to Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan,
Sudan and off the coast of Somalia as well as deploying AWACS, Tornado warplanes
and tanks to the US since the activation of NATO's Article 5 in 2001. The latter
also led to the participation of the German Navy in the nearly eight-year-old
Operation Active Endeavor monitoring and interdiction patrols throughout the
Mediterranean Sea.
The nation has the third largest military budget of all European states, only
surpassed by Britain and France. Germany's military spending is larger than
Russia's, for example, even after German spending dropped and Russian increased
last year. The numbers were $46.8 and $40 billion, respectively.
It also has the third largest army of any exclusively European state (Russia and
Turkey excluded from this category) with some quarter of a million troops.
Though not itself a nuclear power, Germany hosts an undisclosed (for apparent
reasons) number of the estimated 350-480 US nuclear warheads deployed in Europe
to this day under NATO arrangements.
According to one report of two years ago "At least 20 US atomic warheads are
reportedly still deployed underground at the German air base in the
southwestern town of Buechel, where they can be mounted on German Tornado
fighter planes...." [1]
According to a statement of the opposition Left Party, an additional 130 US
warheads may be stored at the Ramstein Air Base, headquarters for the United
States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) and also a North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) installation. The same report adds "German air force pilots
headquartered in Buechel will be ordered to drop nuclear bombs in case of a
military attack or war." [2]
Regarding Germany's unabashed housing of nuclear weapons, the Director of NATO's
Nuclear Policy Section Guy Roberts said in 2007 that "Each decision in this
field is up to national sovereignty. Each nation is free to decide whether or
not it wants to actively participate in the joint management of nuclear
devices." [3]
Last year German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm made a statement that
didn't receive much coverage in the international news, to wit "For the
foreseeable future ... we remain of the view that a deterring military capacity
includes not only conventional capacity but also nuclear components.
"There is a NATO policy framework for the presence of US nuclear weapons in
Europe. But the security details and the handling of those weapons are a matter
of bilateral arrangements." [4]
For bilateral, one is to understand the United States which placed the nuclear
weapons and Germany which stores them and would deliver them if ordered to by
the US and NATO. Among the American nuclear arms in Europe are 200-350
air-launched B-61 bombs stored in air bases in Germany, Turkey, Belgium, Italy
and the Netherlands. [5]
Last year an internal U.S. Air Force report, The Blue Ribbon Review of Nuclear
Weapons Policies and Procedures, "recommended that American nuclear assets in
Europe be 'consolidated,' which analysts interpret as a recommendation to move
the bombs to NATO bases under 'U.S. wings,' meaning American bases in Europe."
The news source cited above also revealed that "Although technically owned by
the U.S., nuclear bombs stored at NATO bases are designed to be delivered by
planes from the host country." [6] If the deployment of nuclear arms at US and
NATO air bases in Europe wasn't alarming enough, in January of 2006 former
German Defense Minister Rupert Scholz was quoted as stating "Germany needed to
ponder building its own nuclear deterrence system."
In Scholz's own words, "We need a serious discussion over how we can react to a
nuclear threat by a terrorist ***state*** [emphasis added] in an appropriate
manner - and in extreme cases with our own nuclear weapons." [7]
Only hours after assuming the mantle of the French presidency in May of 2007
Nicolas Sarkozy spoke of a "holy" (his precise word) alliance with Germany and
"underscored...France's willingness to use its nuclear weapons to defend Germany
in case of a hostile attack." Sarkozy's Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie
was quoted as saying, "If Germany asked us for help, it is probable that
European solidarity would come into play. For us, nuclear weapons are the
ultimate protection against a threat from abroad." [8]
Later in the year a German news source wrote of a reiteration of the offer and
said that "President Nicolas Sarkozy has asked Germany to open talks about a
possible role the country could play in France's nuclear defence system" and
that "Sarkozy told German leaders that French nuclear weapons were also
protecting neighbouring Germany, which was one reason why they should think
about a closer cooperation in that area." [9]
NATO membership alone allows for - in fact necessitates - this policy but its
public mention at such a high level signifies a qualitatively new emphasis on
the use of nuclear weapons.
Another aspect of Sarkozy's proposed new Holy Alliance was detailed this past
February:
"German troops are to be posted in France for the first time in 60 years, in an
effort to uphold military cooperation between the ex-foes.
"Paris has agreed in principle to a proposal made by Germany earlier this year
to allow a German battalion to be stationed in eastern France." [10]
This February German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of NATO's collective defense
obligation and an account issued by her office summarized her position as
follows: "NATO has proved its worth as a defence alliance, which is why Article
5 of the North Atlantic Treaty (which lays out the right to individual and
collective self-defence) should in the Chancellor's view continue to embody the
substance of NATO. In future its main responsibility should continue to be to
ensure the defence of member states. But today we face new threats and new
conflicts. We must also prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons at all costs."
[11]
A year before five former military chiefs of staff of major NATO states -
General John Shalikashvili (former US chief of staff under Clinton and NATO's
ex-Supreme Allied Commander), General Klaus Naumann (Germany's former top
military commander and ex-Chairman of NATO's Military Committee), Lord Inge
(former British Chief of the General Staff), General Henk van den Breemen
(former Dutch chief of staff) and Admiral Jacques Lanxade (former French chief
of staff) - issued a joint 150-page document which affirmed that the option of a
nuclear first strike is indispensable, "since there is simply no realistic
prospect of a nuclear-free world." [12]
Germany's Naumann was Chairman of the NATO Military Committee during the war
against Yugoslavia in 1999.
On the eve of the 2008 NATO Summit in Bucharest, Romania - for which the
document discussed above was largely prepared - a German news source wrote that
"A French officer was quoted as saying that the document showed US determination
to hand NATO the task of fighting terrorism on all five continents" and that
"NATO will discuss the use of so-called mini-nukes behind closed doors at its
Bucharest summit...." [13]
This January a high-level task force appointed by Pentagon chief Robert Gates,
the Secretary of Defense Task Force on Defense Department Nuclear Weapons
Management chaired by former defense secretary James Schlesinger, released a
report advocating that the "United States should keep tactical nuclear bombs in
Europe and even consider modernizing older warheads on cruise missiles...." The
document states "The presence of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe remains a pillar
of NATO unity." [14]
A Washington Post report on the study mentions that "The Natural Resources
Defense Council, which specializes in nuclear matters, recently reported that
about 400 U.S. B-61 tactical nuclear bombs are stored at bases in several NATO
countries, including Germany, Italy, Turkey and the United Kingdom." [15]
The 1990 Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany (or the 2 + 4
Agreement) with the Federal Republic of Germany, The German Democratic Republic,
the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union in the final months of
its existence expressly prohibited the "manufacture, possession of, and control
over nuclear" weapons.
How faithfully Berlin, Brussels and Washington have abided by that pledge in
both letter and spirit has been seen. US nuclear weapons stored in Germany "can
be mounted on German Tornado fighter planes" because "nuclear bombs stored at
NATO bases are designed to be delivered by planes from the host country" and
"German air force pilots headquartered in Buechel will be ordered to drop
nuclear bombs in case of a military attack or war." And as a former German
defense minister urged "We need a serious discussion over how we can
react...with our own nuclear weapons."
Part 1
New NATO: Germany Returns To World Military Stage
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/40658
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=14332
[URL="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/new-nato-germany-returns-to-world-military-stage-part-1-by-rick-rozoff/"]http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/new-nato-germany-returns-to-world\
-military-stage-part-1-by-rick-rozoff/[/URL]
Part 2
From WW II To WW III: Global NATO And Remilitarized Germany
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/40691
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=14377
[URL="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/from-ww-ii-to-ww-iii-global-nato-and-remilitarized-germany-part-ii-by-rick-rozoff/"]http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/from-ww-ii-to-ww-iii-global-nato-\
and-remilitarized-germany-part-ii-by-rick-rozoff/[/URL]
Part 3
Germany: First New Post-Cold War World Military Power
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/40717
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=14415
[URL="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/germany-first-new-post-cold-war-world-military-power-part-iii-by-rick-rozoff/"]http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/germany-first-new-post-cold-war-w\
orld-military-power-part-iii-by-rick-rozoff/[/URL]
For all three previous articles combined see:
The Bundeswehr is back to the World Military Stage
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/64608
Note on references: Germany's largest presswire, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, is
only available by subscription and the cost for individuals is prohibitively
expensive. Websites in Iran, Azerbaijan and China are among the best sources for
DPA material in English, so citations are sometimes secondary.
1) Islamic Republic News Agency, September 1, 2007
2) German party marks Hiroshima anniversary, calls for removal of
warheads
Islamic Republic News Agency, August 6, 2007
3) Rainews 24 (Italy), April 10, 2007
4) Agence France-Presse, June 23, 2008
5) Ibid
6) Time Magazine, June 19, 2008
7) Deutsche Press-Agentur, January 26, 2006
8) Islamic Republic News Agency, May 17, 2007
9) Der Spiegel from Agence France-Presse, September 15, 2007
10) Press TV, February 6, 2009
11) Federal Republic of Germany, The Federal Chancellor, February 7, 2009
12) Michel Chossudovsky, The US-NATO Preemptive Nuclear Doctrine:
Trigger A Middle East Nuclear Holocaust to Defend "The Western Way
of Life"
Global Research, February 11, 2008
13) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 2, 2008
14) Washington Post, January 9, 2009
15) Ibid
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.