The NATO umbrella that protects the Baltic States

Remarkable what happens in the sky over what we now have learned to call Europe. Air Force Link today tells us of the exploits of the brave Top Guns of the 493rd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron who are, says Capt. Andrew Carlson, a 493rd EFS pilot in a , " high standard of readiness and a constant vigil, ready to police the sovereign airspace of the Baltic nations at a moment's notice. "

To perform this NATO air defense mission,(started in 2004) the aircrews expect to be airborne within minutes after lights and sirens indicates an imminent threat; leaving the pilots and maintainers of the 493rd EFS little room for error.

Maintainers and aircrew are on 24-hour standby, awaiting an alert. Once the signal is given, separate crews, consisting of a pilot and three crew chiefs, sprint out to the jets and prepare to launch. The F-15 Eagles are normally in the air within five to 10 minutes. The 493rd deployed F-15s and 130 Airmen on October 2nd 2008.

At the time Lt. Col. Michael King, 493d Expeditionary Fighter Squadron commander said, "The United States is committed to the air sovereignty of its NATO allies and to ensuring the regional peace and stability for these countries. The 493d EFS is ready to do our part in demonstrating U.S. Air Forces in Europe's continued resolve to provide air defense for the Baltic region."

If weather permits, practice is undertaken daily, allowing them to sharpen their quick response skills.

During these exercises, they practice mock scrambles and one-on-one intercepts. They learn tactics and communication tools to intercept any bogey (sic) , whether a friendly aircraft or a hijacked commercial plane, in the airspace over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Several nations have taken over the duties since 2004.


NATO Air Force Q.R.A. detachments to Šiauliai (Zokniai) aerodrome -Lithuania. Map

30 March 2004 Belgium, Belgian Air Component F-16FA/M Fighting Falcon

1 July 2004 Denmark, Royal Danich Air Force F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

30 October 2004 United Kingdom, Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado F.3

1 January 2005 Norway, Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

30 March 2005 Netherlands, Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

30 June 2005 Germany, Luftwaffe F-4F Phantom 11

12 October 2005 United States Air Force F-16C/J Fighting Falcon

1 January 2006 Poland, Polish Air Force Mig-29A

31 March 2006 Turkey, Turkish Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcon

1 August 2006 Spain, Spanish Air Force Mirage F.1M

1 December 2006 Belgium, Belgian Air Component F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

1 April 2007 France, French Air Force Mirage 2000

1 August 2007 Romania, Romanian Air Force Mig-21 Lancer 'C'

1 November 2007 Portugal, Portugese Air Force F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

16 December 2007 Norway, Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16A/M Fighting Falcon

15 March 2008 Poland, Polish Air Force Mig-29A

30 June 2008 Germany, Luftwaffe F-4F Phantom 11

30 September 2008 United States Air Force F-15 Eagle

The German contingent were much embarassed when on September 19th 2005 a Russian Su-27 fighter aircraft that crashed in Lithuania. What began as a curious -- but by all accounts accidental -- air mishap has rapidly spiraled into a heated diplomatic imbroglio between Lithuania and Russia. A Russian Su-27 Flanker pilot en route from Russia proper to the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad reportedly experienced a navigational malfunction and became disoriented. The pilot expended his fuel and ejected safely, leaving the plane's remains smoldering outside the village of Veliouna, 35 miles northwest of the city of Kaunas. Local authorities detained the pilot while Vilnius investigates the incident.

The Su-27 Flanker is a high-performance long-range aircraft equipped with powerful avionics and engines. It has a maximum range of 2,312 miles -- more than enough to get from Russia's Northern Military District to Kaliningrad.

Initial Lithuanian reports suggested that the aircraft's navigational equipment failed, causing the pilot to burn off fuel while trying to get his bearings.

If the plane had full fuel tanks when it left its base in Russia, however, the pilot would have had to have been lost for quite a while to burn off the Flanker's huge fuel reserve. It is possible, if the ferry flight occurred over the Baltic, that the pilot misjudged his left turn, thinking he was flying into Kaliningrad instead of Lithuania. More

Russian Bear increases it's energy hug on Italy / Europe - oil / gas and nuclear deals signed up

RIA Novosti are reporting that our old pal, Mr Vagit Alekperov , president LUKoil is prepared to slash their current projected investment programs from US$ 8 Bn. to US$ 4 Bn. if the price of oil falls to US$ 45 per barrel.

"We have worked out three pricing scenarios: at US$ 80 / 65 and a third, crisis price of US$ 45 per barrel." Investment would be reduced by USD 2 billion at each pricing stage, from US$ 8 Bn. to US 4 Bn. He told journalists the investment cuts could affect refining projects but investment in the development of new fields would not be reduced. He added that "We will not postpone launching new deposits."

Berlusconi signs big energy deal with Russia

LUKoil signed a 1.35 Bn Euro deal to purchase a stake in Italian refiner ERG which will allow them to enter into a joint venture to break into European markets.

The agreement between the two firms was signed as part of an Italian-Russian intergovernmental summit at which Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met in Moscow on November 6 in a deal to be finalised on December 1.

LUKoil will pay cash during the year,” LUKoil agreed in June to acquire the 49 % stake in the Isab refinery in Priolo, Sicily, but the global credit crunch and dropping oil prices threw the deal into question. Alekperov and ERG CEO Alessandro Garrone sealed the deal in Rome on June 23rd 2008. Under the deal, LUKoil will acquire a 49% stake in the Joint Venture for EUR 1.35 Bn. excluding inventory. ERG will retain 51%. The transaction provides LUKoil with an option to increase its stake in the future.

Alekperov said at the time that “The establishment of a refining joint venture in Italy is a cornerstone of LUKoil’s growth strategy in the area of developing its downstream operations in Western Europe. LUKoil’s overall refining capacities will increase by 13% and overseas refining capacities will increase by 60%. The refinery’s advantageous location and an opportunity to process Russian crude make this project very attractive.” According to Lukoil the ISAB refinery complex is one of the largest refineries in the region and is well positioned to meet the growing middle distillate demand in Europe.

The refinery includes two sites which are united by a pipeline system and integrated in a single refining unit with a total annual refining capacity of 16 million tons. The Russian oil company said that each partner will procure its share of crude and market its share of products in accordance with its JV equity stake. The ISAB refinery has the flexibility to process crude such as Urals, and LUKOIL intends to fully integrate its share of the refinery into its supply chain.

Alekperov said on November 6 LUKoil had applied to Vneshekonombank for a US$ 1.8 Bn. loan toward the purchase of new assets and to help refinance its debts, Interfax has reported.

If the purchase goes through it should increase LUKoil’s refining capacity and smooth its expansion into Europe, where it already manages refineries in Bulgaria and Romania.

Italy relies on Russia economically. Energy supplies dominate trade between the countries with Russia supplying almost 30 % of Italian energy needs (Currently - and this will grow).

With Russian gas monopoly Gazprom improving its ties with Italian energy company ENI this figure is set to go far beyond its current level.

Russia and Italy also reached electricity and nuclear deals. Russia’s electricity trading company Inter RAO UES will work with Italy’s Enel to develop Russia’s power industry. According to the memorandum, a working group will be established to handle appraisals of commercial and investment prospects in nuclear production.

Any production would be done jointly by Inter RAO and Enel. Inter RAO is also taking part in a project to build the Baltic Nuclear Power Plant and is looking for foreign investors. Enel has indicated it is interested in working on that project as well.

On the nuclear front, the Russian Atomic Energy Agency, Rosatom, intends to cooperate with Italian partners in creating nuclear reactors of the third and fourth generations. “This work may begin as early as next year,” Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko told reporters in Moscow on November 6 after signing an agreement on cooperation in nuclear power industry with Italy’s Economic Development Ministry.

Bombing civlians from the air is addictive ... once you start you can't stop

As EU,US,NATO top Brass scramble to shout at Mr Putin and Mr Dmitry Medvedev for having the chutzpah to bomb civilians in another country's sovereign territory - coalition aircraft flew 47 close-air-support missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In Afghanistan a total of 60 close-air-support missions were flown as part of the ISAF and Afghan security forces, reconstruction activities and route patrols. In following Air Link Daily reports for a long time this looks like a record daily number of missions.

For example a B-1B Lancer dropped a GBU-31 1,000 lb bomb onto enemy militants near Qalat. A JTAC declared the mission successful.

Under the banners of Iraqi Freedom, Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons dropped GBU-12s and 38s onto House-Borne improvised explosive devices near Khan Bani Sad. The mission was declared successful by a JTAC.

Near Samarra, a Navy F/A-18A Hornet dropped a GBU-51 onto a building with enemy combatants. A JTAC confirmed the mission successful, etc., etc.,

" ...the balance of power in Europe has fundamentally changed and Russia has, through the use of force against Georgia, seized the power to veto Nato's future membership. " says David Blair, Diplomatic Editor in todays Daily Telegraph

Kosovo - another swamp to get mired in to meet US colonial and imperial ambitions - this time in the Balkans - AGAIN

UK's last 1,000 soldiers rushed out to Balkans Sunday Telegraph

Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent reports that 1,000 troops of the 1st Bn Welsh Guards are off to what will tomorrow be the newly independent state of Kosovo .

This unexpected deployment has been ordered (he reports) in response to fears that the celebrations of the event could so easily "slide" into "ethnic cleansing".

A bit rich when the Prime Minister of the state is a war criminal like Hashim Thaci (his nom de guerre "Gjarpëri" [the Snake]) whose KLA thugs ethnically cleansed 250,000 Serbs under the umbrella of US and RAF bombing.


Hashim Thaci had / has enormous power in the "Drenica-Group" a shadowy criminal organization that controlled/ controls between 10% and 15% of all criminal activities in Kosovo (smuggling arms, stolen cars, oil, cigarettes and prostitution, people trafficking). The Group can rely on exterior links with close connections to the Albanian, Czech and Macedonian mafias locally and throughout Europe; Thaci's sister is married to Sejdija Bajrush, one of the most notorious Albanian mafia leaders

This is plainly insane.

This is a stretch too far, and unsustainable.

On top of this it has been slyly leaked that the "turkey" Chinooks which are being re-furbed so they can fly in cloud, will not be operational for at least 12 months . Which we all know actually means 18 months.DV.

So we are to be mired yet again in a war we can avoid, at a cost we cannot estimate, under equipped, as ever, ill equipped.

The Serbians are told they must forget their national aspirations.

The Kosovo Albanians are allowed to foster their absurd national aspirations . Their claim in Kosovo to statehood is legally dubious, and nonsensical as the Albanian state already exists in Europe. There is no ned for another one.

There is however a massive US military facility. Camp Bondsteel [CBS] is enormous : 955 acres or 360,000 square meters. It has a perimeter of 7 miles. Bondsteel is located on rolling hills and farmland near the city of Ferizaj/Urosevac near the border with Macedonia where other US military facilities exist. It's location was not an accident of geography. Who renteed / sold the land ? Nobody, they just plonked it down where they wanted to and had been planning for several years.





Built by Brown & Root Services Corp., part of Halliburton the camp also includes a prison which was visited by Alvaro Gil Robles, Human Rights Commissioner for the Council of Europe, who in 2005...

""What I saw there, the prisoners' situation, was one which you would
absolutely recognize from the photographs of Guantanamo. The prisoners were
housed in little wooden huts, some alone, others in pairs or threes. Each hut
was surrounded with barbed wire, and guards were patrolling between them. Around
all of this was a high wall with watchtowers. Because these people had been
arrested directly by the army, they had not had any recourse to the judicial
system. They had no lawyers. There was no appeals process. There weren't even
exact orders about how long they were to be kept prisoner."

(There is also a Texas College; two cappuccino bars, a Burger King, Taco Bell, and an Anthony's Pizza pizzeria). In building the camp Brown & Root paid Kosovan workers between $1 and $3 per hour. The local manager said wages were so low because, “We can’t inflate the wages because we don’t want to over inflate the local economy.”

About 4,000 US service members were stationed at Camp Bondsteel in about 2004 in the farm fields near Urosevac, and another 2,000 were at Camp Montieth, near Gnjilane.(The names derive from Army Staff Sgt. James L. Bondsteel, honored for heroism in Vietnam, and Army 1st Lt. Jimmie W. Montieth Jr, honored for heroism in France during World War II.) The camp also serves as the NATO headquarters for KFOR's Multinational Task Force East (MNTF-E).

The military redesigned the SEAhuts specifically for Kosovo. Each wooden structure has a male and a female latrine and six rooms housing six service members each. The huts have heat, hot water, air conditioning, plumbing, electricity and telephones.

The US have no iontention of leaving any time soon - they have even built the only sewage treatment works in the whole of Kosovo.

In sectors controlled by other Western powers, KFOR soldiers who are living in bombed out apartment blocks and old factories joke, “What are the two things that can be seen from space? One is the Great Wall of China, the other is Camp Bondsteel.”

European politicians have now awoken to the fact that the US used the 79 days of bombing of Yugoslavia specifically in order to establish Camp Bondsteel. Before the start of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the Washington Post (28 Feb 99) declared, “With the Middle-East increasingly fragile, we will need bases and fly over rights in the Balkans to protect Caspian Sea oil.”

The reasons for the Kosovo War, which were based on exaggerated and totally false claims of "humanitarian" crises, must be seen as a (necessary) prelude to establishing a masssive US presence in the Balkans. If the US have to rely on supporting corrupt crooks like Thaci, so be it.. as the saying goes ,"he may be a sonofabitch ...."

With the recent Russian / Putin / Bulgarian / Serbian agreements and start of work on South Stream (see previous posts) and the foundering of the US backed Rebecca pipeline, things have just begun to become very, very serious.

Naturally when Uncle Sam calls, John Bull snaps to attention.

EG : Ruairi OConnell our Man in Pristina - from his Blog.

"It is clear that the Serbs have suffered too since the start of the 1990s.
My Serb friends often tell me that the Serbs were Milosevic's biggest victims. I
don't buy this. But I would agree that no-one has done more harm to the Serbs -
whether in Serbia or elsewhere - than Milosevic and the people who carried out
his policies. In any case, I am clear about what our (UK, Europe, my) long-term
goal is - it's to get the whole of the region ready for EU membership."

1. Everything is down to Milosevic,.

2. Fuck the natives. This is what we want. EU policy must prevail - it seems with the need for even more of the ill equipped, ill led, ill trained UK stretched military might.

In a symbolic speech today Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica marked Serbia's National Day, which commemorates the birth of the Serbian state.

"All of our state institutions and citizens should be united today," Kostunica told the crowd in Orasac, site of the first Serbian uprising against the Turks in 1804.

"There should be no differences between us. This is why, as you know, the government of Serbia reached the historic decision yesterday to annul, ahead of time and for all time, the declaration of a fake state on Serbian territory."

Keep your eyes on Mitrovica in the news bulletins.

Curious Footnote :Bill Gertz Washington Post Published May 9, 2007

6 foreign-born Muslims accused of planning a shooting attack at the U.S. military base of Fort Dix included four ethnic Albanians, and U.S. officials say their arrests highlight how Islamist groups are using the Balkans region to help in recruiting and financing terrorism.

Prosecutors described the men as "radical Islamists," with four coming from the province of Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia, where the ethnic Albanian population of Muslims fought one of the several wars that grew out of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Suspect Agron Abdullahu, 24 who faces only weapons violations in the case, was described in court papers as a "sniper in Kosovo."

The US authorities said that Abdulahu was a sharp shooter in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) before fleeing to the US. Fort Dix is a training ground for American soldiers and reservists before they are sent to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in 1999 it served as a shelter for thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo.

How many Iraqi refuges have fled to US ? Zero ?

Now what were all those Albanians doing at Fort Dix - 4 of whom are claimed to have plotted something nasty with an FBI agent provocateur ?.

Text of Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia February 17, 2008 11:11 AM

UK energy security - FCUKED even more as Gazprom moves unchecked

Gazprom has announced a deal with Gaz de France today to supply French domestic users directly from next July with 1.5BN cubic metres of gas a year , this is part of a larger deal agreed to extend a long-term supply contract from 2012 to 2030, under which GdF will buy 12 Bn. cubic metres of gas per year. In another announcement LUKoil have taken over from Philips Conoco 376 petrol stations across western Europe - Conoco Philips are majpor shareholders (17.9%) in LUKoil..

EU debutante, Bulgaria agreed a Gazprom deal (very reluctantly) on Monday, that means Bulgarians will pay up to 45% more for its gas imports over the next five years. Initially prices will rise 20% by the middle of next year and increase further by 2012.

In Belarus, talks are stalled as Putin (who met President Lukashenko on Friday) insists on re-pricing gas from US$50 per to US$200 if agreement cannot be made on Gazprom buying up the Belarussian pipeline and distribution networks for US$4Bn - which Lukashenko cliams is worth 4 times that.

Bigger deals have however been cooking - the Shtokman gas field was discovered in 1988 to the east of Murmansk 555km from land, in 350m of water that sees 1 million ton ucebergs drifting at up to 0.25m/s, and 1.2m drift ice moving at up to 1m/s.

Development costs of an estimated US$20BN involved 4 main platforms with a staggering four 42in x 565 Km pipelines to be laid to onshore facilities at Teriberka, 565km away. From here it will progress via ten pumping stations to Vyborg on the Baltic. Gazprom hopes to put Shtokman on stream as early as 2010.

The licensee is Sevmorneftegaz, jointly owned by Russian state owned Rosneft and state controlled Gazprom . In late 2004 and early 2005, preliminary agreements (as part of a so called beauty parade) were signed with ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Statoil and Norsk Hydro. At this stage there were plans for export of LNG to the US but this has been shelved for the moment and most of the gas is destined for Europe through the Nord Stream pipeline from Vyborg on the Baltic to Greifswald in Germany.

This pipeline is a joint project of Nord Stream AG, jointly owned by Gazprom (51% ), German BASF and E.ON (both 24.5%). Ex Chancellor gerhard Schroeder is the chairman and was instrumental in developing the pipeline with President Putin whilst Chancellor. N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie now also have a shareholding , after taking 9% as a direct exchange for the 9% of shares in the BBL Company - Bacton / Balgzand pipeline on October 9th 2006.

Simultaneously in October Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller , in a move that emphasised Moscow's efforts to consolidate ownership of Russia's oil and gas resources by state-controlled energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft said,"The foreign companies could not offer assets that compare to the volume and quality of Shtokman's reserves," (Ho.Ho.)and announced they would develop the field alone.

It is against this backdrop that the massive merger of Norway's - Statoil and Norsk Hydro's oil and gas interests by a share swap, announced today must be judged.

This new (and as yet un-named company) will jointly produce 1.9 million barrels of oil per day, and its oil and gas reserves should be in the region of 6.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

In a small but significant announcement for the UK Statoil and Norsk Hydro have detailed plans for developing the oil reserves in the North Sea Gjoa fields, which are said to be 60 million barrels, which will be piped to a connection in the Troll II trunkline to Norway’s Mongstad refinery. The field’s 35 billion cubic metres of gas will be exported via the Flags pipeline to St Fergus, Scotland to augment UK gas supplies.

Drilling will commence spring 2009, with production is scheduled for 2010, at which time Gaz de France will take over operations from Statoil and expect to reach 50,000 barrels per day. Production from Gjoa is expected to last until 2020-2025, though additional adjacent fields may be susceptibel to further development.

Unlike the UK where oil and gas revenues have been sadly pissed up against the wall by successive Chancellors (not least the latest) Norway have since 1966 been prudently squirreling away reserves in the State run Government Pension Fund - which has grown to NOK 1.71 trillion (US$ 266 billion); equivalent to pensions savings of some 300,000 NOK (US$48K £26K) for every man, woman and child in Norway (4.6 Mn at last count).

The joint company will employ 58,000 in over 40 countries, with revenues of over US$90Bn. It is expected that the merger will be completed in second half of 2007. Mr Lund of Statoil is destined to become the chief executive of the new company, while Hydro's chief executive, Eivind Reiten, will become chairman - he will also remain as CEO of Norsk Hydro's aluminium smelting interests.

Morgan Stanley advised Statoil, Goldman Sachs advised Hydro, and Lehman Brothers advised the Norwegian government who will no doubt all be carrying home large bags of money after arranging the 3rd biggest oil merger deal this decade.

It migth be noticed that the winners in this are the Dutch / Norwegian / German / companies and citizens. The possible losers are the US through less control over Arctic LNG supplies - cf Sakhalin where Shell have formally announced being shafted by Gazprom today.

We now wait for the move on Centrica - as the wholly fucking Blairite foreign policy displays the underbelly of the state and the rampant financiers (yet again the London end of US based gangs) waltz off with the loot ...... and fuck the UK citizen.

This my children is called UK energy security

UK Gas price rise Shock !

Scottish & Southern Energy the UK's third largest gas supplier, pledged no further increases in 2006 when they raised energy prices twice this year. SS&E (which includes Scottish Hydro Electric) announced today that its 600,000 customers north of the Border would face increases of 12.2 per cent for gas and 9.4 per cent for electricity on New Year's Day.

Scottish Gas (part of British Gas AKA Centrica) simultaneously announced that they will be cutting prices for their 1 million gas customers and 1/2 Mn electricity customers in the spring - but provide no details ( delayed until spring says Times) . They are renowned as the most expensive energy suppliers North of the Border.

Centrica (who buy in 2/3 rds of the gas they supply) with 29,000 staff overall,(and approx 16 Mn. domestic consumers) has also announced 1,310 job cuts with the closing of their Stockley Park HQ in Middlesex - a response to the loss of 1 mn customers in 2006 throughout the UK after losing 670,000 gas customers in 2005.

Centrica claim British Gas had a 52 % share of the residential gas market and a 23 % of the household electricity market as of the end of June 2006 but has since seen it's domestic share drop to lower than 50%.

Centrica sees the Morecambe Bay gas field (pic) generate half the profits (£900 Mn) - expected to halve this year as the field is declining massively (15% in Q1 2006). The board has invested in North Sea exploration but the City patiently wait for a takeover at £4/5 a share (say £20Bn) from Norsk Hydro, Gaz de France or Lord Patel's friend at the gaming tables Vagit Alekperov and LUKoil. Goldman Sachs had them as a BUY (again) on Friday 15/12 @ 340p up from 250p over the year.

All this news of domestic energy prices follows the energy regulator Ofgem on December 4th authorising funding for more than £5 billion of investment in Britain’s gas and electricity transmission systems over the next five years which will allow energy suppliers to raise their prices to pay for new networks for LNG gas supplies and wind farms which have hitherto not been factored in to the costs of future energy supplies.

£1 Bn of this will be spent in the next 12 months by Scottish & Southern Energy, National Grid and United Utilities, to improve the gas network compared with a total of £864 million on improving their networks during the last five years. Much of this work is part of a 30 year plan to replaced ageing cast iron pipes.

This was explained by Ofgem as an agreement to increase overall transmission charges by 8% to consumers over 2006-2007 charges and 2% above inflation for each year thereafter, while gas transmission revenues will increase in line with inflation. The effect on domestic customers it was said will "be relatively small as transmission makes up only 3% of household energy bills." Ho.Ho.

Ofgem say that in the first three quarters of 2006, 2.9 Mn. customers switched gas suppliers, and 3.52 Mn. their electricity provider. Which keeps those busy bees drones in the call centres busy. (1,000 in British Gas in Cardiff alone)

This my child is all part of UK energy security.

Lord Patel's advice is buya forest, a wood stove and lay in some candles.