Poland – praag.org

Poland slams new Russian-German pipeline

Poland’s conservative president on Tuesday slammed a deal between Russia’s Gazprom energy giant and several leading Western firms to build a second gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, saying it ignores Polish interests.

“Considering that an agreement was concluded on building Nord Stream-2, which completely ignores Polish interests, one must seriously question unity” in the 28-member European Union, President Andrzej Duda told delegates to an economic forum in the southern Polish mountain resort of Krynica, dubbed Central Europe’s “Davos”.

In June, Gazprom agreed with Anglo-Dutch Shell, Germany’s E.ON and Austria’s OMV to build the new gas pipeline – dubbed Nord Stream-2 – to Germany, bypassing conflict-torn Ukraine but also EU neighbour Poland.

The route under the Baltic Sea from Russia would have a capacity of 55 billion cubic metres per year and would double the flow of the existing Nord Stream pipeline currently linking the two countries.

No timeframe was given for the deal that will boost Germany as a distribution hub for Russian gas in Western Europe but undermines Poland’s role as a transit state.

Polish politicians from across the political spectrum have long opposed Nord Stream, claiming it undermines Poland’s energy security stemming from its role as a transit country for Russian gas via the Yamal-Europe pipeline.

The Nord Stream-2 announcement comes as Moscow seeks more gas delivery routes to the EU that bypass Ukraine, despite the EU’s insistence that it wants to cut its dependence on Russia.

Russia and the West are locked in a bitter standoff over the Kremlin’s role in Ukraine and a gas dispute between Kiev and Moscow has threatened energy supplies to the EU.

Source: AFP

US missiles stay in Poland despite Iran deal

US anti-missile systems will be placed in Poland despite world powers reaching an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, John A. Heffern, US Deputy Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, said.

“The deal with Tehran doesn’t include missiles, therefore the threat remains,” Heffern told Polish Rzeczpospolita newspaper Tuesday, adding that he was speaking about Iranian rockets without nuclear warheads.

According to the US diplomat, the construction of AMD components in the village of Redzikowo near the northern Polish town of Slupsk starts next year – as scheduled – and will be completed in 2018.

Washington’s plans to install anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe have been one of the biggest stumbling blocks in US-Russia relations.

Moscow refused to believe American explanations that the shield is needed to counter a possible attack from nuclear-capable Iran, considering it a threat to Russia’s national security.

After Tehran agreed to curb its controversial nuclear program in exchange of easing of international sanction, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said that Washington’s AMD plans had no justification anymore.

“We all probably remember that in April 2009 in Prague [US] President [Barack] Obama said that if the Iran nuclear program issue is sorted out, then the task of creating the European segment of the missile defense system would disappear,” Lavrov stated at a press conference in Vienna.

Meanwhile rearmament of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) with the newest Yars mobile missile system is planned to be completed by 2021. Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman for RVSN Dmitry Andreyev told TASS on Thursday that a division of the Yoshkar-Ola RVSN formation will be transferred to the Yars system in 2016.

In the next few years, the Topol mobile missile systems will remain at the heart of Russia’s “nuclear shield.”

About a hundred mobile missile carriers are now on combat duty across the country. The Topol mobile missile system, which has no analogues in the foreign missile industry, is designed to engage all types of strategic targets. Ove the past 30 years, about 100 missile launches have been carried out without a single abortive launch.

Yars is the result of modernization of the Topol system to destroy enemy’s stationary strategic targets with the RS-24 missile. It has increased total power of multiple warheads, equivalent to 45 US atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima.

Poland’s president admits he knew of CIA prison

Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski has acknowledged his country let the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) run a secret prison on its territory following 9/11.

Mr Kwasniewski had previously denied that Poland hosted a secret CIA prison.

A US Senate report into the CIA’s activities did not name the countries that hosted the prisons.

Mr Kwasniewski insisted he had not known about the harsh treatment used by the CIA interrogators.

But the European Court of Human Rights ruled in July that Poland had allowed the CIA to torture two al-Qaeda suspects at a secret detention centre in 2002 and 2003, when Mr Kwasniewski was president.

‘Secretive’
In an interview following the publication of the US Senate report, Mr Kwasniewski said Poland had agreed to strengthen intelligence co-operation with the US following the September 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

He said the Americans had been very secretive about the way they conducted their activities, which aroused suspicions among Polish officials.

“Poland took steps to end the activity at this site and the activity was stopped at some point,” Mr Kwasniewski told Radio TOK FM in Warsaw.

He said he had been unaware of the methods the CIA had used.

“These methods which are repulsive, which I do not accept, which are not justifiable, did not bring anything good. And that is the real catastrophe of the US, that is the real catastrophe of the CIA, that is the real catastrophe of George Bush.”

Prosecutors opened an investigation into the claims in 2008, three years after Mr Kwasniewski left office. The investigation continues and has yet to publish any findings.

The CIA has defended its actions in the years after the 9/11 attacks on the US, saying they saved lives.

Key findings are:

None of 20 cases of counterterrorism “successes” attributed to the techniques led to unique or otherwise unavailable intelligence
The CIA misled politicians and public
At least 26 of 119 known detainees in custody during the life of the programme were wrongfully held, and many held for months longer than they should have been
Methods included sleep deprivation for up to 180 hours, often standing or in painful positions
Saudi al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah was kept confined in a coffin-sized box for hours on end
Waterboarding and “rectal hydration” were physically harmful to prisoners, causing convulsions and vomiting

Source: BBC

Open letter to Angela Merkel from Otto von Bismarck

My dearest Angela:

You know, I have always disagreed with ladies’ presence in public affairs and to this day have not changed my view on this. I’ve been lucky twice in life: First, I lived when ladies were absolutely barred from politics. Second, I was born on April Fools’ Day, and did justice to that fact by becoming a diplomat.

So, mein beliebt Frau Bundeskanzlerin, I have been watching you rule the country from the family vault and my patience is finally exhausted. You have to listen to what I tell you from my estate in Friedrichsruh. A pity you never visit my grave to seek my counsel. It does seem as though I did the right thing sending the grenadiers to give the Poles a rough ride because no one else in Europe deserved a good thrashing more than they. Yes, you got it right, I mean your grandfather, a Pole by origin. He inherited the national traits of his tribe and made you inherit them too.

Now I’d like to make you remember the rules I introduced for German diplomats a century and a half ago. Breaking them boded ill for the nation.

This is the first rule, Angela: Stupidity is a gift of God that should not be used.

To put it bluntly, a stateswoman should not be more stupid than her loving citizens. The most serious form of stupidity is to believe that you are smarter than they. Think then say—how many Germans endorse your alliance with the Anglo-Saxons? How many of our people approve of your enmity to Russia? Are you sure you see the difference between a big political game and a woman’s intrigue?

Let me remind you the second rule of German politics so that you would not get confused: The only sound basis for a large state is its self respect, not fiction.

Where is our country’s pride in your policy? Is it in your commitment to kneel to the US President? What hope against hope. Whatever you sacrifice to placate Obama, it will bring bad luck to Germans. Americans have a reason to stir up trouble in Europe, do not help them. Do not forget the third rule of German politics: Whatever is at rest should not be set in motion. A government must not waver once it has chosen its course. It must not look to the left or right but proceed straight ahead.

Germany has once chosen Ostpolitik and that was the best choice. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union you fell victim to greed. You wanted Russia to be pushed furtherand further. Now you and the Americans are turning Europe into an armed camp.

Germany’s dear soldiers stepped on inoffensive Serbia. You forgot what I said: “The whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier. One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.”

You spent billions on Kosovo. The first thing I would do being in your shoes is to hang those Albanian murderers that you brought to power. There is nothing to expect from them but deceit and plunder.

Finally, you messed with the Russians having forgotten the main secret of German politics: Keep the peace with Russia.

You should read my memoirs and learn by heart what I said in my time: “Never fight the Russians. All your cunning will be answered with their unpredictable stupidity. This inviolable state of the Russian nation is strong in its climate, its spaces and the scarcity of its needs.”

You should also take into account, Angela, that a Russian harnesses his horse slowly but drives fast. Putin’s patience has its limits. If he does react you’ll be in a deep trouble. Cease colluding with Anglo-Saxons. Nothing could be more stupid.

Those dangerous fools cannot grasp that Yeltsin’s Russia is gone. A new Russia has appeared headed by Putin. It’s not weak and pliant any more. Today’s Russia is strong again and ready to stand up for itself. You should realize who you deal with. Read once again what I wrote: “Do not expect that once we have taken advantage of Russia’s weakness, we will profit forever. Russians always come for their money.” And when they come—do not rely on agreements signed by you, trusting girl. They are not worththeir paper. Therefore, with Russians you play fair or do not play.

Angela, perhaps you opted to provoke them into the Ukraine mire because you remember my words that in order to deprive Russia of its power, you need to separate it from Ukraine? Please! You cannot formulate a concrete goal if it is based on flawed speculation. Many European politicians say that without Bavaria Germany will become a weedy castrate, but nobody is going to try it, no matter how many idiots are dreaming of secession from Germany.

You follow Anglo-Saxons who don’t think about depriving Russia of its imperial status. They want to destroy it. Do you really believe Germany would benefit if there were no Russia in Europe? Do not buy the baloney about European values and common interests. Remember I was rebuked for not forming coalitions. A French newspaper said I had nightmares over Germany becoming part of a coalition. True, I was afraid of coalitions because I could not sleep at nights scared my partners would steal our possessions. I was also accused of creating a secret fund to bribe the press and of calling journalists semi-literate alcoholics and poisoners of wells. You know what I thought of them. A journalist is someone who has mistaken his calling. They persecute people because of inferiority complex. I bribed them to make German wells safe for drinking. These creatures have poisoned German minds, as well as yours I’m afraid.

No need to take seriously those diplomatic dumbbells trying to reshape the world so it would look like a Christmas tree in a Prussian barracks. Believe me, the world wants no reshaping, and there is no need to do so. Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable—the art of the next best no matter how abhorrent it may seem. In Russia I learned the word nichevo, “it is nothing”, used when they face really hard times. This word connotes with great wisdom and patience the qualities you yourself should acquire, Frau Reichskanzler, and that would be my last advice to you.

Love always,

Your Otto

Source: The Strategic Culture Foundation

Merkel warns UK could exit EU over immigration policy

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has signaled she would rather see the UK leave the EU than compromise the free movement of immigrants, German magazine Der Spiegel reported.

The UK is nearing a “point of no return,” as British Prime Minister David Cameron attempts to renegotiate the terms of the country’s EU membership targeting the freedom of movement, Merkel reportedly said.

According to the 2011 census, 579,000 Poles reside in the UK, making up under 1% of the UK population.

This tiny white minority receive enormous attention from British rightwing media and politicians, who prefer black immigrants from Africa, Muslim immigrants from Pakistan and worship the legacy of Nelson Mandela.

David Cameron’s comments that Polish migrants are taking advantage of UK benefits has sparked much anger in Poland. Poles became the target of violence and political attacks.

The prime minister, Donald Tusk, and the opposition leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski (whose party sits alongside UK Conservatives in a European parliamentary group) immediately announced that they would veto any changes in EU migration rules.

The large numbers of Polish and Czech immigrants that arrived throughout the last decade did not run the British economy into the ground.

A 2013 report from the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration found that European Union immigrants contributed more to the economy than they collected in benefits, contrary to native-born citizens.

On the whole, Polish immigrants were younger and more highly skilled than average citizens, and the majority found work in the UK.

Britain’s reaction to the Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants has been particularly strong for a number of historical and political reasons.

This was Merkel’s first hint that the UK’s exit from the union is a possibility, according to German media.

Cameron earlier said he wants to renegotiate the country’s EU membership before going through with a referendum on the subject, with the European principle of freedom of movement “at the very heart of my renegotiation strategy for Europe.”

Merkel has stressed that her support for UK membership could be reversed, if Cameron pursues migration reform.

Cameron has extended the EU laws “to their limits,” trying to turn away unemployed migrants and seeking deportation of those unable to make ends meet after three months, according to the report.

Earlier in October, the former European Commission (EC) president Jose Manuel Barroso stated that freedom of movement is an essential principle of the EU, and any plan by Britain to cap the number of migrants through the limitation of national insurance numbers would be illegal under EU law.

With next year’s general election on the horizon, British politicians are talking tougher on the issue of migrant workers. It will be the first election since the anti-immigration Independence Party (UKIP) emerged as a serious political player.

The latest opinion poll revealed that support for UKIP has reached a record high following Brussels’ recent effort to levy a mammoth £1.7 billion ($2.7 billion) extra charge on Britain. Cameron has been forced to adjust his policies to win back public support.

Cameron announced plans to reduce the number of low skilled migrant workers coming to the UK from other EU countries by limiting the number of national insurance numbers given to them.

In the recent policy shift, he said EU migrants could now only claim benefits for a maximum of three months, down from six.

These legislative changes, which apply to child tax credit, child benefits and job seeker’s allowance, will be implemented in November.

Cameron is likely to make a speech on immigration policies before Christmas, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, the EC says it endorses the principle of free movement within the EU, where citizens have the right to work and live in all member states.

Polish arms flood into Ukraine with media looking the other way

Western governments have flooded the media with false reports of Russian troops in Ukraine. By contrast, reports of Polish troops and mercenaries in Ukraine’s civil war have been ignored.

A protest action against the participation of Polish soldiers and mercenaries in combat actions in Ukraine occurred on October 4 near the parliament building in Warsaw. Participants held flags of Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. They carried placards with slogans: “Stop Bandera, “Stop supporting Banderites. We remember Volyn!”, “No to Polish soldiers participation in NATO military operation in Ukraine”.

The participation of Poles in the Ukrainian crisis has many aspects, including the training of nationalist militants, the participation of mercenaries hired by Polish private contractors in the combat actions in Donbass, the weapons supplies to the Ukraine’s regime and the formation of a joint Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian brigade – LITPOLUKRBRIG.

Polish involvement in training Ukrainian militants is now admitted. For instance, in the spring 2014 Nie magazine published an article describing the training course of 86 Pravy Sector (an ultra-right radical organization in Ukraine) militants in Warsaw at the expense of the Polish government. The month-long course included the organization of mass protests, and the tactics of street fighting and sharp shooting, including a sniper course. “The terrorists trained in Poland killed people during the Maidan events,” according to Janusz Korwin-Mikke, a MEP from Silesia.

On June 16, the self-defence servicemen hit an IL-76 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force. They found in the wreckage many burnt Polish documents which belonged to about 40 mercenaries from Poland and Lithuania who were being hastefully transported to Luhansk. On June 26, a Polish female sniper was killed near Saur-Mogila (Savur-Mohyla). She used the newest American 12,5 mm caliber rifle. Late at night on July 12, a Ukrainian block post was eliminated near Ilovaisk; some of the dead wore Polish insignia. On September 2, acting Security Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic Leonid Baranov said the self-defence forces took a group of Polish mercenaries as prisoners. According to the same source, some Polish militants surrendered to self-defence forces as fighting was raging for the Donetsk airport on September 3. According to witnesses, American Poles have the reputation of being the most merciless among Polish mercenaries.

“From the start of the events that led to the coup in Ukraine, the role of Poland has been neglected for one very good reason: it has been murky”, wrote Deana Stryker in her page of OpEdNews in a June edition 2014 edition. She went on to write:

As the war in the southeast of Ukraine rages on, there is increasing proof of Poland’s involvement. Though indirect (i.e. no official Polish military units on the ground), it is no less lethal. Not only was Poland complicit in training urban terrorists in the run-up to the EuroMaidan chaos, it has also sent mercenaries to put down the anti-coup protesters in the east, and now there is photographic proof. Jerzy Dziewulski, security advisor to former Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, was photographed last week with former interim Ukrainian president Alexander Turchynov in Slavyansk.

Dziewulski was a security adviser to then Polish President Alexander Kwaśniewski who is now a board member of Burisma Holding – the largest private gas producer in Ukraine. In April before the punitive operation in Donbass started Robert Hunter Biden, the son of US Vice President and Devon Archer, a close friend of the US State Secretary John Kerry’s family, joined the company’s board of directors. Burisma Holdings plans to launch energy supplies to Europe from the Dneprovsko-Donetsk basin, a region allegedly awash with shale gas reserves. For instance, the Yuzov shale gas field (total territory – 7885 square km) includes Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Krasny Luch, and Svyatogorsk of the Donetsk region, as well as Balaklea and Isyum of the Kharkiv region. The contract has gone to Royal Dutch Shell.

By the end of summer the Kiev regime formally asked Poland to start arms supplies, but the information on weapons deliveries taking place in practice had leaked out before. A secret operation conducted in Odessa on June 16 came into the open. Ships unloaded 12 self-propelled auto-loading 152 mm VZ-77 Dana guns produced in the Czech Republic and taken from the Polish inventory, as well as staff buses and trucks. Military equipment and soldier’s uniforms with Polish flags and insignia pointed to the 1-st Mazur Artillery Brigade from Poland. Howitzers, buses, and support vehicles were taken to the rail terminal Razdelnaya for loading. On September 13, people in West Ukraine saw with their own eyes 34 German Leopard tanks entering the territory of Ukraine from Poland and then moving east.

On September 19, 2014 in Warsaw Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine signed an agreement to form a joint brigade. The LITPOLUKRBRIG will be headquartered in Poland’s eastern city of Lublin. Poland is to play the major role in forming the unit. Polish media call it a mini-NATO against Russia (Mini NATO przeciwko Rosji). The brigade is to serve as a cover to legalize the activities of Polish mercenaries fighting the armed forces of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics. At the same time it will prepare the ground for getting the people of Malorossiya (little Russia, an administrative-territorial region of the Russian Empire that encompasses most of modern North Eastern Ukraine) to return to Polish-Lithuanian rule.

Source: Russia Insider

Former Solidarity leader warns that arming Ukraine is a bad idea

European military assistance to Ukraine could lead to a nuclear conflict between Russia and NATO, according to Poland’s iconic cold warrior and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa.

“It could lead to a nuclear war,” the anti-Communist legend told reporters when asked whether the EU should send weapons to Ukraine to help it fights off separatist rebels and Russian aggression.

“The EU is well aware that Russia has nuclear weapons. NATO has them too. Must we then destroy each other?” said the former Solidarity trade union leader famous for negotiating a bloodless end to communism in Poland in 1989.

“This is why the EU keeps on repeating: stop being silly (…) This is why it isn’t getting involved too much!” he added, at an annual regional economic in Krynica, southern Poland.

The EU on Saturday agreed to impose fresh sanctions on Russia should Moscow failed to change its behaviour in Ukraine, after Kiev said Russian soldiers were fighting along side pro-Moscow rebels.

Source: AFP

‘Negro slaves giving America a blowjob’

A Polish news magazine has obtained a secret recording of Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski saying that Poland’s relationship with the United States was worthless.

The Wprost news magazine said the recording was of a private conversation between Sikorski and Jacek Rostowski, finance minister.

Headlines appeared, blaring: “You know that the Polish-US alliance isn’t worth anything”, also describing Warsaw’s attitude towards the United States using the Polish word “murzynskosc”.

This roughly translates as “Negro slave”.

The leak went on: “It is downright harmful, because it creates a false sense of security … Complete bullshit. We’ll get in conflict with the Germans, Russians and we’ll think that everything is super, because we gave the Americans a b***j** Losers. Complete losers.”

As The Guardian reports:

The word “murzyn,” denotes a dark-skinned person and someone who does the work for somebody else, according to the PWN Polish language dictionary.

Asked by Reuters to comment on the transcript of Sikorski’s conversation with Rostowski, foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski said: “We do not comment on media speculation”.

Gazprom calls an European energy union foolish, irrational

The idea of a single European body that would be in charge of purchasing gas for the whole union is simply foolish and irrational, Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev said, suggesting the Polish PM must’ve been out of his mind proposing it.

Speaking at the “Export and reliability of gas supplies to Europe” conference in Moscow, Gazprom Deputy CEO Aleksander Medvedev said that earlier calls by the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to create a type of EU Gas Union for centralization of purchases of gas in Europe is irrational.

“Mr. Tusk is a politician who did quite a lot for the development of our relations,” Medvedev said. “And suddenly, as they say, he just falls out of an oak tree and says: ‘Why don’t we introduce the purchase of gas based on the example of some kind of atomic agency, where Europe at some point purchased enriched uranium?’”

Even the EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger believes that Tusk’s approach has no economic rationale behind it, Medvedev added.

“Gas is a special essence,” he said. “And even Mr. Oettinger agreed that the idea is far from being economically rational. I can say a lot about why this idea is foolish,” Gazprom executive added.

In the Financial Times editorial dated April 21, Tusk called for measures to tackle Russia’s monopoly in gas supplies to EU.

“Europe should confront Russia’s monopolistic position with a single European body charged with buying its gas,” Tusk wrote, adding, “I therefore propose an energy union.”

Russia is set to provide roughly 30 percent of growing European natural-gas demand by 2020. Even by conservative estimates, Europe by 2025 will require an additional 170 billion cubic meters of gas, and by 2035, Medvedev said that figure might constitute 225 billion cubic meters, creating an urgency for the investors to address the growing European demand for Russian gas.

Medvedev said Gazprom is willing to expand its supplies to Europe, but the process is being hindered by European partners.

“The problem with OPAL is still not solved, which, of course, is very, very strange,” said Medvedev, noting that agreements have already been signed. Under EU regulations Gazprom is only allowed to use 50 percent of capacity of the pipelines connecting the Nord Stream pipeline with the pipeline grid in Middle and Western Europe. Yet despite this, the European partners have repeatedly postponed a decision on the allocation of the remaining 50 percent capacity load.

“Calling this a policy would be a compliment to the politicians. This politicking, I can openly say,” said Medvedev .

Gas giant’s executive said that the same is true for the ‘Yamal – Europe-2’ gas pipeline which will allow increasing transit capacities of gas to central Europe.

“There is no doubt that the project is economically efficient. But then again, based on some political issues, we have not moved forward. They do not know what they are doing. But we’ll find another way to provide for our needs. You can’t win love by force,” he told reporters.

As far as the EU calls for the South Stream project to be halted, Gazprom says it is ready for the worst case scenario and can complete the project without outside investment.

“If you ask me if I’m ready for the worst case scenario, I’d say ‘Yes, we are ready,” Medvedev told journalists in Moscow.

Medvedev also said that US efforts to stop Russian energy supplies to Europe to increase American market share in the region are “impossible.”

“We understand that the US, sitting high on a hill and independent of economic cooperation with us, is pushing Europe to take wild steps,” Medvedev said. “I think that logic of European business cooperation won’t allow dementia to set in. Russian export restrictions are impossible.”

Source: RT

‘War with Russia the only solution’

The United States needs to “write Crimea off” after the invasion of Russian troops following last month’s Ukrainian uprising, retired Maj. Gen. Bob Scales said.

“They are now part of Russia. Paint them red. They have been reintegrated into the Russian republic. And there is absolutely nothing that we can do about it,” Scales, a retired Army major general, told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday, referring to the peninsula in Ukraine.

The important thing at this point was to anticipate what Russian President Vladimir Putin will do next, Scales said.

“From a military perspective, what’s important is what happens next, because of what’s at risk now. You have Russian minorities in Eastern Ukraine. You’ve got Russian minorities in Moldova, in Estonia. And all of those central European leaders are nervous,” he said.

There are numerous options for the United States from a military perspective, but Scales said he did not think President Barack Obama had plans to use forces in the conflict.

“The essence of any type of military activity in this region is to have a viable contingency plan, to have it worked out with your NATO allies. And frankly, that simply hasn’t happened,” Scales said.

Speaking on the crisis in Ukraine, Scales argued that “there should be a military option on the table.”

“Everyone I’ve seen on the news media this whole last few days talks about, ‘well, the first thing we are going to do is we’re gonna take the military option off the table,’” Scales, a former commandant of the U.S. Army War College, said: ”Oh, really? That’s our greatest advantage right now. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin doesn’t care about economic sanctions. He doesn’t care about what the E.U. thinks. The only thing he respects is power and he knows that America still is more powerful than he is.”

“I think we can commit as a demonstration,” Scales elaborated. “For example, let’s start that AMB initiative with the Czech Republic and Poland tomorrow. We have a perfect right to put ships in the Black Sea. Let’s put some ships in the Black Sea. Poland is one of the best maneuver areas in Central Europe. The U.S. military, the U.S. Army, maybe even the Marine Corps, ought to move into Poland to do maneuvers, perhaps stay awhile. We should move tier 1 and tier 2 Special Forces into the Ukraine — if the Ukraine asks for our support — so we can train their troops. Remember October ’73 when we kept Israel from collapsing by flying in high tech gear and high tech weapons? We could do that in the Ukraine.”

Source: Daily Caller/Newsmax

Solidarity hero shocks world with anti-gay words

Lech Walesa, the Polish democracy icon from Solidarity and Nobel peace prize winner, has sparked outrage in Poland by saying that gays have no right to a prominent role in politics and that as a minority they need to “adjust to smaller things.”

Some commentators are now suggesting that Walesa, the leading figure in Poland’s successful democracy struggle against communism, has irreparably harmed his legacy.

Walesa said in a television interview on Friday that he believes gays have no right to sit on the front benches in Parliament and, if represented at all, should sit in the back, “and even behind a wall.”

“They have to know that they are a minority and must adjust to smaller things. And not rise to the greatest heights, the greatest hours, the greatest provocations, spoiling things for the others and taking (what they want) from the majority,” he told the private broadcaster TVN during a discussion of gay rights. “I don’t agree to this and I will never agree to it.”

“A minority should not impose itself on the majority,” Walesa said.

The words have enraged many.

“From a human point of view his language was appalling. It was the statement of a troglodyte,” said Jerzy Wenderlich, a deputy speaker of Parliament with the Democratic Left Alliance.

Walesa, Poland’s first democratic-era president, is a deeply conservative Roman Catholic and a father of eight. But, the democracy he helped create in 1989 from the turmoil of strikes and other protests has had a profound social transformation in recent years.

Poland is a traditionally conservative and Catholic society that long suppressed discussions of gay rights. The topic was essentially taboo under communism, and in the early years of democracy. The Polish church, which has a strong role in political life, still holds that homosexuality is deviant, while gays and lesbians say they face discrimination and even violence.

However, much has changed. A watershed moment came in 2011 when a new progressive and anti-clerical party – Palikot’s Movement – entered Parliament for the first time. Taking seats for the party were Anna Grodzka, a transsexual, and Robert Biedron, who is openly gay. These were all historic firsts.

Some predicted the consequences for Walesa could be serious.

“Now nobody in their right mind will invite Lech Walesa as a moral authority, knowing what he said,” Wenderlich said.

Monika Olejnik, a leading television journalist, said Walesa “disgraced the Nobel prize.”

EU debt relief for North African states?

European governments have opened the door to a radical offer of “debt relief” for Arab north African neighbours such as Egypt, EU and governmental sources told AFP Wednesday.

“Member states will examine possibilities of using debt relief as a signal of change” along the southern Mediterranean rim, conclusions drawn up for European Union leaders to endorse at a March 1-2 summit revealed.

The plan emerged barely 24 hours after eurozone governments backed an unprecedented write-down of Greek sovereign debt held by private investors, one expected to reduce Athens’ debt burden by nearly one third, some 107 billion euros ($141 million).

It is being driven primarily by the French government, diplomats said on the eve of first talks on the proposal among ambassadors from the 27 EU states in Brussels on Thursday morning.

“Expect a vigorous discussion,” said one senior EU official on the possible terms for debt relief that could be awarded in exchange for democratic reforms and preferential trade terms.

The idea is gaining currency one year on from the start of the ‘Arab Spring,’ with “rapid progress” demanded by EU leaders, the summit declaration was to say, on negotiations over Free Trade Agreements between the EU and the countries of its “southern neighbourhood.”

“We need to see who else shows a determination here, who is neutral at this stage and who will put up opposition,” the EU official said.

“No-one’s really talking about numbers yet, the European Commission won’t come up with finished proposals until April,” said another official with a national government.

However, this source said “billions of dollars” could eventually be at stake.

The EU executive has drafted detailed proposals on relations with countries from Morocco to Egypt that EU leaders want to integrate into the world’s biggest barrier-free market for goods and services.

The draft summit declaration, if endorsed, would turn debt relief into an incentive alongside threats to withdraw support for states accused of oppression or grave human rights violations.

The biggest of the ‘Arab Spring’ revolts one year ago, Egypt is struggling with sharply dwindling foreign reserves and transitional authorities are weighing up a much-delayed aid package worth some $3.0 billion from the International Monetary Fund.

Credit rating giant Standard & Poor’s raised its risk assessment for Egypt earlier this month, citing political instability as Cairo moves towards the election of a new president, expected in June after ousted ex-leader Hosni Mubarak’s murder and corruption trial wraps up.

Egyptian press reports in recent days have said the EU could lend the country 500 million euros alongside money from Washington.

Thursday’s discussion on who might benefit from what terms on which debts is sensitive, with EU trio Greece, Portugal and Ireland having to repay mainly eurozone partners for their bailouts for years to come.

Fears remain about the long-term prospects of full repayment from Athens.

Hungary can be expected to protest. Only on Wednesday, economy commissioner Olli Rehn asked EU governments to suspend almost 500 million euros in grants due to Budapest next year.

The governments of Hungary, Poland and Romania last week expressed mounting fears that incentives for southern EU neighbours would come at their expense, the EU source also said. – AFP