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11 December 2010 By Rick Rozoff This week plans for U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty
Organization military intervention in the Baltic Sea
region gained attention after information from
American State Department cables released by WikiLeaks
were published in Britain's Guardian newspaper. Details include the alleged military defense of new
NATO members Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
against Russia by nine NATO divisions composed of
troops from the U.S., Britain, Germany and Poland – as
many as 100,000-200,000 or more depending on the size
of the divisions – U.S. and British warships and
assault forces, and warplanes from the U.S. and other
NATO nations. A determination on the contingency plan, codenamed
Operation Eagle Guardian, was, according to The
Guardian, "taken secretly earlier this year at the
urging of the US and Germany at Nato headquarters in
Belgium." The British daily further revealed that "The
decision, according to a secret cable signed by
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, marks the
start of a major revamp of Nato defence planning in
Europe. "The strategy has not been made public, in line
with Nato's customary refusal to divulge details of
its ‘contingency planning' – blueprints for the
defence of a Nato member state by the alliance as a
whole. "These are believed to be held in safes at Nato's
planning headquarters in Mons, Belgium," Supreme
Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). [2] An article in this series from February of 2009
warned that the Baltic Sea region is one "where most
any spark could ignite a powder keg that would draw in
and pit against each other the world's two major
nuclear powers and immediately and ipso facto develop
into a world conflict." [2] According to a classified dispatch from the
American mission to NATO Headquarters in Brussels, the
top military commander of SHAPE, U.S. Admiral James
Stavridis, proposed adding Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania to an already existing plan to intervene on
behalf of Poland, and the plan was authorized by
NATO's Military Committee (rather than the bloc's top
civilian governing body, the North Atlantic Council)
last January 22 "under a silence procedure." Cables published by the Guardian included these
excerpts: "On January 22, NATO's Military Committee agreed to
expand EAGLE GUARDIAN, the Alliance's contingency plan
for the reinforcement and defense of Poland, to also
include the defense and reinforcement of Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania." "[U.S.] Ambassador [to NATO Ivo] Daalder
acknowledged in…meetings that Germany had initiated
the proposal for expanding EAGLE GUARDIAN to include
the Baltic states. The German PermRep [permanent
representative: ambassador] noted that the German
Chancellery and Ministry of Defense had signed off on
this approach, and MFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
approval should come after FM [Foreign Minister Guido]
Westerwelle's full briefing on this issue." [3] Washington also "offered to beef up Polish security
against Russia" by deploying naval special forces to
the Baltic Sea ports of Gdansk and Gdynia. As the
British newspaper stated, "The diplomatic traffic seen
by the Guardian is from US state department and US
embassies worldwide, but not from Pentagon or CIA
communications, meaning that the cables reveal the
policy and political decision-making processes but
contain little on the specifics of hard military
planning." [4] NATO "quietly endorsed" the strategy at its
recently concluded summit in Lisbon, Portugal last
month along with extending the Alliance's
participation in the war in Afghanistan to 2014 and
beyond, placing all of Europe under a U.S.-NATO
interceptor missile shield, maintaining American
tactical nuclear weapons in bases in five European
nations, and subordinating the continent to the new
U.S. cyber warfare system. On December 3 Estonian Defense Minister Jaak
Aaviksoo visited NATO's Allied Command Transformation
in Norfolk, Virginia and U.S Cyber Command
headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland, and met at the
Pentagon with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, "who
announced the US decision to join the NATO Cooperative
Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn," the
capital of Estonia. [5] One didn't have to wait for WikiLeaks or the
Guardian to learn the above facts. And more. On November 4 the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza
reported extensively on Eagle Guardian. The paper has
a history of breaking crucial, and accurate,
information earlier than other sources. In February of this year it featured an article by
Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich in which he spoke
of arranging for NATO Response Force exercises in his
country, employing a "scenario [which] would involve
the allies in a defense exercise against attack from
the east." The Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area, used
by NATO since 1996 – three years before Poland became
a member of the military bloc – was suggested as a
site for the war games by Klich. The NATO Response Force is a 25,000-troop "highly
ready and technologically advanced multinational force
made up of land, air, maritime and special forces
components that the Alliance can deploy quickly to
wherever it is needed." [6] In the summer of 2009 Gazeta Wyborcza disclosed,
three weeks before announcements by President Barack
Obama and Defense Secretary Gates on the subject [7]
and "citing officials and lobbyists in Washington,"
that Washington was expanding interceptor missile
plans from new NATO member states in Eastern Europe to
other "locations including in the Balkans, Israel and
Turkey." [8] Just that has transpired in the interim
as, in addition to stationing a missile radar site in
the Negev Desert, the U.S. conducted the largest-ever
missile interception exercises with Israel in October
and November of last year [9], announced plans to
deploy Standard Missile-3 and anti-missile radar
installations in Romania and Bulgaria, and is
currently pressuring Turkey to also host missile
shield facilities. Over a month ago, more than two weeks before the
NATO summit in Portugal, the Polish newspaper
revealed: "NATO already has new plans ready for the defense
of Poland and the Baltic countries….The Alliance has
identified the specific divisions and ports which
would serve in a potential operation. "Such contingency plans guarantee a country not
only armed assistance from the Allies. They also
constitute an outline of the combat operation that
could be carried out on that country's territory in
the event of an attack." The paper quoted Defense Minister Klich, who
refused to disclose details, "which are NATO secrets": "After two years, contingency plans have been
successfully prepared for Poland." An unnamed source at NATO's Military Command was
also quoted as saying: "Plans for Poland were prepared this September,
after consultations with the defense ministers of the
Baltic countries and Poland. They encompass actions
during the first phase of an operation. The plans for
Poland are already quite detailed, for the Baltic
countries this is a preliminary version." Operations to intervene not only in Poland but also
in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which "NATO member
states are [expected] to approve…at the Lisbon summit
two weeks from now," will be under the command of the
NATO Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum in the
Netherlands, "which is responsible for the security of
Central and Eastern Europe. "Brunssum will establish what is known as a
high-readiness headquarters to directly run the
operation in Poland." The plans will be overseen from
NATO's main military headquarters in Europe, Supreme
Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. Providing the details that the Guardian stated were
unavailable, the Polish source added: "In the event of aggression against Poland, NATO
plans to deploy as many as nine divisions into battle.
Four of them Polish, the remainder from Western
countries, including British, German, and American
ones. They will be transported by all possible routes:
by land, by rail, by airplane, and by sea. "The ports meant to receive large assault units
have already been named. The most important among them
is Swinoujscie. This port is currently carrying out a
thorough modernization using NATO money, so that it
can receive large warships longer than 200 m and
submerged more than 10 m. "The port in Gdynia was also modernized with NATO
assistance. Poland was very anxious for Allied troops
to be able to land not just on the country's western
border. "NATO also anticipates that Western forces will be
deployed to the German ports in Rostock, Wismar,
Stralsund, and as a last resort, if not possible
further to the east, to the port in Hamburg." The aforementioned anonymous NATO source was also
cited affirming: "The naval units that will defend the Polish coast
have been named. They are British and US warships." Poland's air defense system "is already integrated
with the NATO system" and "the Alliance has expanded
the radar stations on Polish territory." The NATO Baltic Air Policing operation launched
immediately after Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined
the military bloc in 2004 "is also included into the
NATO system." [10] The Baltic patrols are currently being conducted by
four U.S. F-15 C Eagle jet fighters, capable of being
armed with four types of air-to-air weapons including
Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles, and American 120
military personnel are assigned to the mission. [11]
The year before the three Baltic states' incorporation
into NATO, then-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov
warned that the patrols would entail the deployment of
NATO, including American, warplanes "a three-minute
flight away from St. Petersburg," Russia's second
largest city. This May Lithuanian Defense Minister Rasa
Jukneviciene met with defense chief Gates at the
Pentagon and said the U.S. intends to extend NATO air
patrols in the area "till 2018 and beyond." The American military aircraft are based at the
Siauliai International Airport in Lithuania which
contains what is effectively a U.S. and NATO strategic
air base. Two years ago President George W. Bush
pronounced: "It's important for the people of
Lithuania to know that when the United States makes a
commitment through, for example, Article 5 of the
[NATO] treaty, we mean it." On September 25 the government of Estonia completed
a three-year project to upgrade the Amari Air Base to
accommodate NATO warplanes. According to an Estonian
government official, the base can now host "16 NATO
fighters, 20 transport planes [and] up to 2,000 people
per day." [12] NATO financed 35 percent of the air
base's expansion and modernization. At the expanded base's opening ceremony, Estonian
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, an American expatriate
and former Radio Free Europe employee, stated, "NATO
will have one of the most modern air force bases in
the region at its disposal" and expatiated on its
purpose: "It is obvious that a small country like Estonia
would need the help of its allies in the event of a
serious military crisis. Likewise, it is obvious that
no matter how willing someone is to provide this help,
they cannot do so without the proper infrastructure.
Let's be honest: until today our ability to accept the
airborne help of our allies has been extremely
limited." [13] On December 7 Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza reported
that Deputy Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow
confirmed the U.S., in addition to NATO commitments,
will initiate three other operations: It will rotate
F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole jet fighters to Polish
air bases, will station C-130 Hercules military
transport planes with U.S. support staff, and will
deploy American special forces from Special Operations
Command Europe in Stuttgart, Germany to Poland. U.S. ambassador to Poland Lee Feinstein stated that
"Poland wants to implement all three projects and that
it is particularly interested in the presence of
F-16s. A similar declaration [was made by] by Foreign
Minister Radoslaw Sikorski." [14] 48 F-16s were sold to Poland and delivered between
2006-2008, the first deployment of the American
warplanes to Eastern Europe and the largest military
purchase in Poland's history. In August of 2008 the U.S. signed an agreement with
Poland which includes a "commitment for both states to
come to each other's assistance in case of military
threats." [15] In April of 2009 the Polish press announced that
NATO had allotted over one billion euros for the
development of military infrastructure in Poland. "The
modernisation of seven military airports, two sea
ports, five large fuel bases (12 are planned) and six
strategic long-range aerial radars has already been
completed." Additionally, NATO will equip "military airfields
in Powidz, Lask and Minsk Mazowiecki with new
installations to improve the logistical and defence
capacity of these bases. "Air defence headquarters are to be set up in
Poznan, Warsaw and Bydgoszcz; a radio communications
centre will be located in Wladyslawowo on the Baltic
coast. "A newly built training centre in Bydgoszcz should
be fully equipped [with] computer devices by the end
of the year (total cost EUR 40 million)." [16] In June of 2009 Polish Defense Minister Klich
disclosed that NATO would inaugurate a Joint Battle
Command Centre in the northern city of Bydgoszcz where
NATO has run a Joint Force Training Centre since 2004. The defense chief said, "The Alliance has made the
decision to open a new NATO cell, a new joint regiment
within NATO. According to the decision, commanders
from three regiments will be located in Bydgoszcz. "In Bydgoszcz, we will have the permanent
commanders of [a] battalion and other components: one
of six joint mobile modules, a security component and
logistics and support operators," which include
approximately 200 NATO troops. Klich added "that NATO
has decided to heavily invest in Poland by modernizing
military infrastructure including air and sea bases."
[17] This February 27 (the now deceased) Polish
President Lech Kaczynski ratified a Status of Forces
Agreement (SOFA) with the U.S. for the stationing of
American troops on his nation's territory. In May
approximately 100 U.S. troops and six Patriot Advanced
Capability-3 missiles arrived in the city of Morag on
the Baltic Sea. On the same day U.S. and Russian presidents Barack
Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed a Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty (START) II agreement – April 8 – the
prime minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, said that "From
the perspective of [President Obama] and the U.S. the
signing of the START 2 treaty has no influence on the
work on the SM3 anti-missile shield." [18] He was
referring to longer-range Standard Missile-3
deployments scheduled for Poland and on ships in the
Baltic Sea, the main component of what Washington
calls its Phased Adaptive Approach to cover all of
Europe with interceptor missiles by 2018. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE)
of 1990 has not been ratified by the U.S. or any of
its NATO allies twenty years on. Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania are not signatories to the treaty and as
such the U.S. and NATO could feel free to move any
military equipment they choose to the three nations.
There is nothing to prevent the transfer of American
B61 nuclear gravity bombs from air bases in Germany to
ones in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. In July Secretary of State Clinton was in Poland
and signed an agreement with her counterpart, Foreign
Minister Sikorski, on the stationing of U.S.
interceptor missiles in the country. The two
formalized a pact superseding one signed two years
earlier by Sikorski and then-Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice. "According to new missile defence plans, mobile
launchers incorporating SM-3 interceptors will be
placed in Europe. Poland will probably station the
system between 2015 and 2018." The day before Polish Defense Ministry spokesman
Janusz Sejmej made the same point, revealing that
"Defense Minister Bogdan Klich said the Americans
promised to bring the SM-3s here after 2015 but
definitely before 2018." In Clinton's words, "We're….NATO allies, and the
United States is deeply committed to Poland's security
and sovereignty. Today, by signing an amendment to the
ballistic missile defense agreement, we are
reinforcing this commitment. The amendment will allow
us to move forward with Polish participation in
hosting elements of the phased adaptive approach to
missile defense in Europe." [19] Since U.S. warplanes took over the current
four-month rotation of the NATO Baltic air patrol on
September 1, America has continued military exercises
in the area. On September 13 thirteen NATO member states and
partners began this year's annual Northern Coasts
naval exercise in the Baltic Sea. Over 4,000 military
personnel, more than 60 ships, and planes and
helicopters from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany,
Italy, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden
participated in the largest exercise ever staged in
Finnish waters, where last year's Loyal Arrow 2 NATO
war games included "the biggest air force drill ever
in the Finnish-Swedish Bothnia Bay." A week after Northern Coasts 2010 began, U.S.
Special Operations Command Europe, from where American
special forces personnel are to be deployed to Poland,
launched the Jackal Stone 10 multinational special
forces exercise at the 21st Tactical Airbase in
Swidwin, Poland, then moved to two other locations in
Lithuania. 1,300 special operations troops from the
U.S., Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia, Romania and
Ukraine participated, the first time that special
operations units of the seven countries have engaged
in joint maneuvers. [20] The Guardian announced on December 6 that the first
military exercises under the rubric of Operation Eagle
Guardian are to be held next year in the Baltic sea
region. Nine NATO divisions, the 25,000-troop NATO
Response Force, U.S. special forces, U.S. and British
warships, squadrons of American F-16s transferred from
the Aviano Air Base in Italy, and Patriot Advanced
Capability-3 and Standard Missile-3 interceptors are
in the Baltic region or soon will be. It's not difficult to determine in relation to what
contingencies – and against which country – the
Pentagon and NATO are preparing armed intervention on
a major scale. 1) The Guardian, December 6, 2010 http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/../
baltic-sea-flash-point-for-nato- russia-conflict 3) The Guardian, December 6, 2010 http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_49755.htm 7) U.S. Expands Global Missile Shield Into
Middle East, Balkans http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/../
u-s-expands-global-missile-shield- into-middle-east-balkans 8) Agence France-Presse, August 27, 2009 http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/../
israel-forging-nato-missile-
shield-rehearsing-war-with-iran 10) Published in English at: http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/2010/11/18 /
nine-possible-divisions-for-
defence-of-baltic-states-and-poland 11) Baltic States: Pentagon's Training Grounds
For Afghan and Future Wars http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/../
baltic-states-pentagons-training-grounds-for-afghan-
and-future-wars 12) U.S. Consolidates New Military Outposts In
Eastern Europe http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/../
u-s-consolidates-new-military- outposts-in-eastern-europe 13) Ibid http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/../
poland-u-s-moves-first-missiles-troops- near-russian-border 17) Ibid http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/../ nato-pentagons-gateway-into-former-
warsaw-pact-soviet-nations 19) Clinton Renews U.S. Claims On Former Soviet
Space http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/../
clinton-renews-u-s-claims-on-former-soviet-space 20) U.S. Consolidates New Military Outposts In
Eastern Europe http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/../
u-s-consolidates-new-military-outposts-in-eastern-europe |
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