January 25th - On This Date - RN Submarine Service

1916	E45	Submarine HMS E45 launched
1917	E52	Submarine HMS E52 launched
1942	HMS Ultimatum	HMS Ultimatum torpedoes and sinks the Italian passenger ship Dalmatia L. south-west of Capo dell'Armi.
1943	Unruffled	HMS Unruffled torpedoes and sinks the Italian tanker Teodolinda off Hammamet, Tunisia.
1964	Tanganyika Rifles	45 Royal Marine Commando land at Dar-es-Salaam to suppress the mutiny in Tanganyika Rifles.

SAB

Bomb voyage: 600 Libyans ‘already fighting in Syria’

The Libyan government apparently wants to share its successful experience of overthrowing the Gaddafi regime with like-minded Syrians. It has sent 600 of its troops to support local militants against the Assad regime, according to media reports.

The fighters have joined the Free Syria Army, the militant group carrying out attacks on government forces in Syria, reports the Egyptian news website Al-Ray Al-Arabi citing its sources. The report says the troops entered Syria through Turkish territory.

The alleged incursion happened with the consent of the chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) Mustafa Abdul Jalil. The NTC allegedly welcomed volunteers to join the surge.

Last Friday British media reported a secret meeting between NTC envoys and Syrian rebels had been held in Istanbul. The Libyan governing body reportedly pledged to supply arms, money and fighters to the Syrians.

Bashar Assad’s government has repeatedly accused foreign forces of smuggling armed groups and weapons into Syria and thus fueling the ongoing violence.

In mid-October the Libyan NTC was the first government to recognize the rebel Syrian National Council as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people.

The Libyan population is in possession of many weapons, which they received during the civil war by plundering military depots, through smuggling or as aid from NATO members and countries like Qatar, which took part in the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. The NTC has difficulties in disarming the ex-rebels, who want to keep their firearms, either for personal protection or as means to make their living.

In November, the Libyan capital, Tripoli, saw a mass protest by the rebels, who demanded that the NTC pay their wages. Some even threatened to overthrow the new government the way they did with the previous one, unless their demands are met.

Funneling armed, underemployed and eager-to-fight youngsters to another country could be a convenient move for the NTC. The Syrian government, however, is likely to see them as mercenaries, which NATO member Turkey allowed into their country as an alternative to a full-scale military campaign, which is impossible without the sanction of the United Nations Security Council.

New submarines for Russia's nuclear force

 The Russian Strategic Nuclear Force is to get two new missile submarines this year. They are the “Yury Dolgoruky” and the “Alexander  Nevsky”.

By 2018, the SNF will receive 8 submarines, four for the North Fleet and four for the  Pacific Fleet. Thus, the Russian potential nuclear deterrent force, while already being very powerful, will be boosted even further. All the country’s potential enemies know full well that if an aggression is launched on Russia, the response will be quite devastating. The nuclear response may not be by sea, but by land, says Victor Litovkin, senior editor of  the  “Independent Military Review” journal.

“The Russian nuclear deterrent is fully operational and neither the U.S. nor NATO dares attack the country. The beefing up of  the Russian naval fleets will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent potential, the more so, that for the first time the new “Borei” class submarines are to carry 16  “Bulava” nuclear missiles with 6-10 warheads each. The remaining subs, including the  “Vladimir Monomakh” will be equipped with 20 such  missiles each. It should be said though that all the above mentioned missiles and warheads should conform to the signed START-3  Treaty”, Victor Litovkin said.

“START-3 enjoins Russia and the  U.S. to keep  700 means of delivery plus 100 in store, and 1,550 nuclear warheads each. By 2020, Russia will have in its northern regions, up  to 11 cruisers, the biggest anti-submarine concentration in history. The American anti-missile defense will not be in a position  to pose a threat  to the Russian Armada, no matter where it is deployed.”

The Arctic Sea is Russia’s most advantageous area, because it is very difficult to detect the country’s missile cruisers under the thick ice. The Russian designers of the missile systems all say that there is no anti-missile device that could prevent Russia’s strategic missiles and warheads, which fly at hyper-sonic speed, to hit their intended targets.

The increase in the number of submarines equipped with inter- continental ballistic  missiles  is an alarming factor to potential enemies- the  U.S., England, and France,  says Victor Baranets,  a commentator  at the “Komsomolskaya Pravda”.

“The anti-missile system is meant to bring down land based rockets. Russia faces a problem here because of the proposed American system in Europe”, he said.

New missiles are  replacing old ones. The new rockets fly at higher altitudes, are faster and can avoid flying objects. The Russian government has allocated  20 trillion rubles, about 700 billion dollars for that  purpose up to 2020, a hefty  chunk of which will be  spent to develop the nuclear missile force.

Georgian President Saakashvili 'eyeing Iran war to hold power'

To keep his post, Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili may draw the country into a war against Iran, former Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze believes.

“I don’t rule out that to retain the [presidential] chair Saakashvili may join a military campaign against Iran, which would become a catastrophe for our country,” Shevardnadze said, as cited by ‘Georgia on-line’ news portal.

The issue may be discussed at the upcoming meeting between Saakashvili and US President Barack Obama in the White House on January 30, Shevardnadze noted.

“Any anti-Iranian campaign on Georgian territory shouldn’t be accepted,” the former Georgian president stressed.

Georgian expert on the Caucasus Mamuka Areshidze says that if a military operation against the Islamic Republic begins, Georgia would face extreme difficulties, Regnum agency reports.

“According to some estimates, in this conflict Georgia would be responsible for providing combat service support with the use of its aerodromes and hospitals,” he said. The expert added that such a scenario would lead to certain threats for Georgia. “There would only be negative consequences. But all that is secondary compared to the measures that Russia might take,” Areshidze stated.

For many analysts the beginning of a war against Iran is just a question of time, rather than a hypothetical possibility.

Elizbar Javelidze from the Georgian opposition movement Public Assembly says Washington is gearing up for attack. In Georgia, the US is sponsoring the construction of hospitals and other facilities that could be used, if war is launched.

“A big war between the US and Iran is beginning in the Persian Gulf. $5 billion was allocated for the construction of these 20-bed military hospitals,” Javelidze said.

From Tripoli to Damascus: Arab wild geese take wing

Libya’s former rebels are urging Syrians to follow their revolutionary path. Hundreds of mercenaries, some of them former terrorists, are ready to take up arms again to help overthrow President Assad.

In less than three months, Libyan rebels have gone from being hailed as liberators to being condemned as occupiers, reports RT’s Oksana Boyko. People in the capital, Tripoli, rally almost every week, calling on the armed militia to leave.

For some of Libya’s young men, hooked on adrenaline and unwilling to part with their rifles, Syria seems like the next logical destination.

“We’re all ready to join the Syrian revolution and, with the help of Allah, we’ll make sure that what happened in Libya repeats itself,” one young rebel told SW.

Portraits of Che Guevara are now ubiquitous on the streets of Tripoli, with some rebels even styling themselves to resemble the famous revolutionary. 

“With the help of Allah, we can all be like Che Guevara, fighting for peace and freedom around the world,” another rebel said.

And it seems that Che Guevara’s idea of exporting revolutions is being reborn in the Middle East. The Arab Spring has created a buoyant market for soldiers of fortune, who now appear to be moving from one revolution to another. Some are motivated by personal gain, some by conviction, but for others it's about the adventure. They fight for their own version of freedom, and for now at least, it’s the freedom to live by the gun.

One man’s terrorist could easily be another man’s freedom fighter but, for the United States, it’s now two in one. Abdelhakim Belhadj, one of the leaders of the Tripoli militia, was once on the CIA’s most-wanted list. Today, he is the face of democratic Libya who, according to SW sources, led a group of several hundred Libyan rebels to Syria just last month.

The new Libyan authorities are all too eager to wave goodbye to the unruly gunmen who helped them get into power. And it seems the new ruling authority in the North African country is encouraging the export of its warrior heroes to another battle front.

“We want to help to support the Syrian people, because they are facing the same situation as we faced before,” explains Mohamed Alhuraizi of the Libyan National Transitional Council. “We appreciated the help that came to the Libyan people, and if we could provide the Syrian people with any help to get their freedom, I think we should do it,” he says.

The use of soldiers of fortune is hardly new in this troubled region. Middle Eastern rulers used them for centuries as safeguards against their own populations. Now it now looks like the story of the region’s mercenaries is continuing in a new – and no less bloody – chapter.