Word: nato
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...relationship has officially soured. On Oct. 9, Turkey decided to exclude Israel's air force from participating in a routine NATO war-games exercise, code-named Anatolian Eagle, to be held just days later in the Turkish city of Konya. War games involving multiple countries take months to organize, and the last-minute decision was clearly unexpected. The U.S. and Italy pulled out shortly after they heard about the snub, with Washington calling the move by Ankara "inappropriate." Turkey's reason for barring Israel? Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country "was showing its sensitivity." "We hope that the situation...
...NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen "I warmly congratulate President Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. President Obama has made extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples...
...main supply arteries into Afghanistan are through mountain passes along the Pakistan border, through the fabled Khyber Pass, near Peshawar, and Spin Boldak in the south. The Khyber Pass was closed down by the Taliban seven times this year, and convoys were unable to get through, according to NATO. Currently, the Pakistani army, under pressure from Washington, is mounting a military operation to sweep Taliban fighters out of the Khyber Pass. On Aug. 30, near Spin Boldak, the Taliban attacked a major NATO convoy and destroyed 25 trucks and military vehicles. Contractors say that Taliban attacks have made vital supplies...
...What was true 2,000 years ago is still true today," says the contractor as he finishes the joke. "If you want to get through the mountain passes, you fight or you pay." Like most contractors interviewed for this article, he preferred to remain anonymous because the U.S. and NATO have understandably strict rules about paying bribes to the Taliban, since that cash can in turn be used to buy more arms for fighting U.S. and NATO forces. NATO observes a "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on such payments. "We know that sometimes the contractors pay bribes...
Taliban spokesman Qari Yusef Ahmadi tells TIME in a telephone interview, "We don't deal with the infidel; we want to destroy them." But he admits that it's possible "low-level Taliban" are taking protection money from NATO's suppliers. Protection money is a major source of revenue for the Taliban, along with their rake-off from drug-trafficking.(Read about how crime pays for the Taliban...