All Posts Tagged With: "Russia"
U. S. Drops Idea of Diplomatic Outpost in Iran in Face of Increased Belligerence
Israel has decided on a policy of strategic independence wherein it will rely only on itself.
Today it was announced that the Bush administration quietly but, indefinitely shelved its plans to set up a diplomatic outpost in Iran. Tehran appears to have taken advantage of America’s financial crisis and weak moment to ditch informal understandings, step up its nuclear arms program and go back to pumping Shiite combatants into Iraq. Iran is heartened by North Korea thumbing its nose at the international community that remains impotent. There is speculation Iran desires to increase American deaths in Iraq on the eve of the U. S. presidential election to help elect what it sees as a naïve, and weak Barack Obama (D) Illinois and further isolate Israel. Joe Biden (D) Delaware, Obama’s VP pick, told Israel to get used to a nuclear armed Iran.
Iranian Republican Guard and Hezbollah trainers are reported to be training hundreds of Shiite fighters who have recently been infiltrated into Baghdad precincts.
Israel news sources say it has lost out all the way around: First by heeding the Bush administration’s demands to refrain from military action against Iran and rely on international diplomacy and sanctions. Now that this option is bankrupt, Israel is left alone with the prospect of an unstoppable nuclear-armed Iran absent a reliable U. S. ally in the face of increasing Russia presence.
Israel has decided on a policy of strategic independence wherein it will rely on itself.
Russian live fire air military exercise underway near Alaska
Russian military actions are clearly the prelude for Moscow’s presentation of demands and get or take what it wants.
Sarcastically entitled ‘Exercise Stability 2008′ the live fire operations will take place Oct.-6-12 over sub-Arctic Russia uncomfortably close to Alaska. This is the first time in almost a quarter century Russia has ventured dozens of nuclear bombers for an exercise in which live cruise missiles will be fired.
Russian air force spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik says Exercise Stability 2008 is “practicing the strategic deployment of the armed forces including the nuclear triad.” Triad refers to land, submarine and bomber launched nuclear weapons.
Last week on Oct. 1, Russian warships armed with nuclear missiles docked at Syrian ports and Oct. 8, on the eve of Yom Kippur, will continue into the Caribbean for joint maneuvers with Venezuela.
Col. Drik stressed that the Tu-95 and Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers will “carry their maximum combat payload and fire all the cruise missiles on board.” Also taking part in the air force exercise are Tu-22M3 Backfire strategic bombers, air superiority fighters, interceptors and aerial tankers.
The locations of the war games were deliberately chosen to underline three messages to America on the eve of its Presidential election.
- Russia is willing to brandish its nuclear strength in America’s face - to the north (Arctic) and south (Caribbean) - to challenge America’s position as the world’s No. 1 superpower.
- Russia is powerful and rich enough to rise above the shockwaves rocking the world’s financial markets while carrying on developing its military muscle and expanding its spheres of influence.
- By docking at the Syrian port of Tartus, the Peter the Great nuclear missile cruiser is Moscow’s marker on the Mediterranean to betoken the end of US Sixth Fleet’s sway.
Yesterday, Oct. 3, Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, announced that 20,000 kilometers of the Russian border passes through the Arctic. Moscow therefore claims 18 percent of its territory and is preparing a plan to implement this policy. That include taking out oil and natural gas that exist there in vast deposits.
On September 30th the Russian nuclear powered submarine Ryazan docked at the Kamchatka Peninsula opposite Northern Japan after completing a one-month voyage under the Arctic Ocean without surfacing. That Delta III class strategic nuclear submarine is armed with sixteen nuclear tipped ballistic missiles with a range of 8,000 km. Russian Navy Commander Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky welcoming the Ryazan’s arrival said: “The navy continues to play an important role in safeguarding Russia’s maritime economic and research activity throughout the world, including in the Arctic.”
Russia sees weakness in a self-absorbed America. It is encouraged by presidential candidate Obama’s promise to cut military budgets. When Clinton cut military budgets in the 1992-1999 Russia was emboldened to develop is oil and gas reserves and is now ready to exploit its oil and gas production and take what is wants.
Russia’s air and naval strength does not yet match America’s military might but it has more than doubled it military spending including: a 23% increase last year, more increases likely, and the possibility of American cut backs makes Putin feel the time has come to get what he wants - a new Russian empire. Although Russian president Dmitry Medvedev stated emphatically last week that there is no cold war or any other war with America, Moscow’s actions tell a different story.
Russia Increases Spying On Israel Giving Intelligence to Iran and Syria.
Russia believes America is about to be propelled into an extraordinary shift toward socialism-isolationism ideas it can exploit.
Russia has intensified its spying on Israel and transferring that intelligence on Israel’s strategic capabilities to Iran and Syria. “(I)f the Russians help the Syrians get information, and the Syrians constantly pass it on to Hezbollah, it is a reasonable supposition that the information gathered by the Russians also reaches Hezbollah’s hands,” Col. Ram Dor, chief of information security in the Israeli military, said.
Russia has been monitoring Israel’s military and vital facilities via land, air and sea assets Russian warships are now routinely basing and staging out of Syrian’s Mediterranean naval base at Tartus that has now been converted 
to a permanent Russian naval base.
Officials said Russia has increased espionage operations inside Israel. They said Russian agents have been directed to identify and target young officers in the Israeli military and intelligence community. That is particularly insidious because there are more than 1 million Russian speakers linked to the former Soviet Union in Israel. Officials said Russian intelligence tracks emigrants who work in the Israeli military and defense industry and traces family inside Russia the purpose is to bludgeon their support by threatening family members still inside Russia.
The Russian intelligence on Israel is being relayed to the Lebanese-based Hezbollah militia via Damascus. The Syrians share the intelligence that they gather with Hezbollah, and the other way around,” Dor said. “This we know, because we know how to build a mirror-image that shows us what enemy intelligence knows about us.”
At the same time it was disclosed that Syrian President Bashar Assad has ordered the formation of an Iranian-trained praetorian guard to protect him from assassination which would unravel the Syria-Iranian-Russian triumvirate.
Russia’s expansionist agenda is driven by Putin’s Czarist-like personal ambitions funded by surging oil and natural gas income enabling a 23% increase in military spending, and accelerated by his view that America is about to be propelled into an extraordinary shift toward socialist-isolationist ideas that Russia can exploit.
17 Planes Airlift Anti-missile Radar for Installation Near Beersheba, Israel
Seventeen huge US Air Force C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III transports have ferried the high-powered FBX-T anti-missile radar to Israel’s Nevatim Air Base south of Beersheba it was announced Saturday, September 27, 2008. Military sources report that the transportable radar surveillance/forward-based X-band radar was accompanied by some 120 American European Command personnel. The area of its deployment at the Negev base has been fenced off and made off-limits to non-American personnel.
The radars can detect, track and provide command and control for anti-missile interceptors with a very high probability of destroying the missiles before they strike their targets. The systems are said to already be operating. Or soon will be.
In 2006 an earlier version of the system was installed in Japan and has operated there since. Fixed site radars are cited in Greenland, Massachusetts and Florida and interceptors are also sited in Alaska and California, and seaborne versions are operated in the Pacific from an Alaskan base. It is this system of radars and interceptors that Poland and the Czech Republic have agreed to emplace systems to the chagrin of Russia.
Beersheba (Hebrew: בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, Be’er Sheva, Arabic: بئر السبع, is located on the northern edge of the Negev desert 115 kilometres (71 mi) south-east of Tel Aviv and 120 kilometres (75 mi) south-west of Jerusalem. Obviously it is remotely cited because it is a strategic target that would likely be attacked in any missile exchange.
Beersheba is an ancient site, occupied sine the 4th millennium BC it is mentioned in the Book of Genesis in connection with Abraham the Patriarch and his pact with Abimelech. Isaac built an altar in Beersheba (Genesis 26:23-33). Jacob had his dream about a stairway to heaven in the area of Beersheba. (Genesis 28:10-15 and 46:1-7). The prophet Elijah took refuge in Beersheba when Jezebel ordered him killed (I Kings 19:3).
In contemporary history it is famous on October 31, 1917, when 800 soldiers of the Australian 4th and Light Horse Brigade charged the Turkish trenches, overran them on horseback with sabers and captured the wells of Beersheba. It was the last successful cavalry charge in British military history. In 1948, during the Israeli War of Independence it was the site of a fierce battle when Egy[tian forces were surrounded and forced to surrender. Now it is the site of the spearpoint of Israel’s defense against missile attack.
Russia Arming To Teeth As Obama Promises Defense Cuts
Russia military budget increased by 23% over last year
On Friday Russia said it would build a space defense system and a new fleet of nuclear submarines by 2020, beefing up its nuclear deterrent at a time of heightened tensions with Washington, according to a story in the UK Telegraph. “Large-scale construction of new types of warships is planned, primarily of nuclear submarines armed with cruise missiles, and multi-purpose submarines. A system of air and space defense will be created,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.
An early Saturday, September 27 announcement in Pakistan’s DAWN newspaper reports Medvedev said this summer’s war with Georgia - which opened up new rifts between Moscow and the West - showed the need for Russia to have a strong military. Medvedev was speaking at what one military commander said were Russia’s largest combined arms live fire exercises in 20 years.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an ardent foe of Washington who has aligned himself with Moscow, met Medvedev 75 km from the site of the exercises earlier on Friday.
It is unclear if this a resurrection of the SPACE TRIAD built around CHARGED-PARTICLE BEAM and NEUTRON PARTICLE BEAM WEAPONS original proposed in February 1992, by then Russian President Boris Yeltsin. It is known Russia has continued development of the Star Wars-like system and has haad breakthroughs.
It is also known that Russia has increased its military budget by 23% over last year while one U. S. Presidential nominee is promising sharp cuts in America’s defense spending even though it has not fully recovered from cuts in the 1990s.
Russian Bear Waging New COLD WAR- like Threats
Putin in clearly banking on the election of an inexperienced U. S. President in Obama he sees as impotent and indecisive.
Russia keeps upping the ante in its retaliatory moves for the greatly expanded U.S. and NATO presence in the Baltic, Eastern Europe, .and Black Sea to support the former Soviet republic of Georgia. On Monday, the two Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack (White Swan) nuclear bombers it sent to Venezuela Sept. 10 carried out a six-hour patrol over the Caribbean Sea.
Putin in clearly banking on the election of an inexperienced U. S. President in Obama he sees as impotent and indecisive.
The fiercely anti-American communist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was so pleased to host the Tu-160s that he scheduled a personal audience with their crews Tuesday.
RIA Novosti also announced the two bombers would fly back to their home air base in southern Russia from Venezuela’s Libertador Air Base on Wednesday, three days later than their originally announced departure date.
The symbolism was obvious. The United States had infuriated the Russians by sending warships in support of Georgia to the Black Sea, which has been a virtual Russian lake for the past 250 years. So the Russians sent two of their most formidable nuclear bombers over the Caribbean Sea, which has been an American preserve for well over a century.
But the Tu-160 deployments and flights carry a far more ominous message to the U. S. A.: If Russia permanently deploys its Tu-160s in Venezuela, the United States could be at a greater risk than at any time since the darkest days of the Cold War.
The Blackjack is a Mach-2, 1,380 mph, super-long-range Tu-160s can carry stand-off X-555 cruise missiles with a range of 2,000 miles. That means that from a base in Venezuela, they could “loiter” over the Caribbean for 10 or more hours at a time with a capability of firing their Mach 2.8 cruise missiles that are capable of flying around 1,800 mph at sea level and hugging ground contours so their exact flight path could not be intercepted in advance with a range that could hit almost any target in the entire United States.
Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has let virtually all its domestic defenses against manned bomber attacks vanish. The Blackjacks would fly well “under the umbrella” of even Patriot PAC-3 and U.S. Navy Standard Missile-3 anti-ballistic missiles, none of which are designed for manned aircraft interception. The cold fact is that the United States currently has no missile defense system capable of knocking down a Blackjack missile attack or of preventing a cruise missile launch unless combat fighter aircraft — which are only a few hundred miles per hour faster than the Mach-2 Blackjacks — can intercept them.
RIA Novosti described the Tu-160 Blackjack as “a supersonic, variable-geometry heavy bomber designed to strike strategic targets with nuclear and conventional weapons deep in continental theaters of operation.”
The Russian news agency cited a Russian air force spokesman as saying the two Tu-160s were equipped only with dummy missiles without warheads.
But, of course, if Tu-160s were to be based permanently at Libertador Air Base, or elsewhere in Venezuela in the future, the missiles they carried might not always be dummy ones. Unspoken is that those airbases are vulnerable to nuclear and conventional weapons attacks by U. S. Airforce and naval aircraft that could render the threat moot.
Russia is playing for time. High oil prices has allowed it to bank a half trillion dollars but its tock market has collapsed losing 51% in value since May. If a flaccid U. S. president is not elected Putin has a whole new kettle of fish to contend with.
Hungary Pokes Putin Voting To Add Albania and Croatia To NATO
28 nation mutual defense organization pointed at Russian aggression.
The next time you see a photograph of Russian Prime Minister he maybe wearing an eye patch after Hungary stuck its finger in his eye. The Hungarian parliament voted unanimously in favor of the ratification of the NATO accession protocols of Albania and Croatia in Budapest on Monday September 15th.
It is of primary interest that the Balkan countries integrate into NATO and the European Union,” Foreign Minister Kinga Goncz said after Hungary became the first NATO member to ratify the accession documents. Goncz underlined Hungary’s role in the preparation of the two countries for NATO membership.
In July, the 26 countries of the North Atlantic Council signed the accession protocols of Albania and Croatia. Following the ratification by the 26 parliaments, the two Balkan countries will join the alliance at its next summit in April next year.
Russia stridently opposes its former vassal states or even their neighboring countries from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Its recent attack on Georgia has convinced many that their best defense against a newly prowling former Soviet bear is to join in mutual defense pacts like NATO.
NATO is headquartered in Brussels has 26 member nations all pledged to safeguard the freedom of its members by political and military means. Hungary’s action further irritates Russia already agitated over U. S. agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic to place anti-missile radar and missiles there.
Russia Threatens To Include Cuba And Venezuela In Its Missile Targeting Sytem
Russia has boosted military cooperation with Venezuela and Cuba in recent months
Moscow (AFP) Sept 17, 2008 on the day before Russia nuclear bombers are set to depart Venezuela and Russia warships are still in nearby waters Russia says it could include Cuba and Venezuela into a satellite navigation system originally designed for missile targeting by the Soviet military.
“We discussed the theme of joint use of the Glonass satellite navigation system,” Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying, referring to talks with the authorities in Venezuela.
Perminov said similar negotiations had been held with Cuban authorities and that Moscow and Havana had talked “in a preliminary way about the possibility of building a space centre in Cuba with our assistance,” RIA Novosti reported.
Glonass was developed for missile targeting by the Soviet army in the 1980s to compete with the GPS system used by the United States. The project is expected to be completed, with 24 satellites in orbit, by 2009.
Glonass is currently administered by the Russian defense ministry.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week boosted financing for the long-delayed project by 1.85 billion euros (2.61 billion dollars). Glonass also aims to compete with the European Union’s Galileo system.
Russia has boosted military cooperation with Venezuela in recent months, reviving memories of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War in the Caribbean region.
In a move seen as a direct response to US plans to set up missile defense installations in the Czech Republic and Poland, Russia this month announced it was dispatching warships and long-range bombers to Venezuela for exercises, and did so.
U. S. Adversaries Being Crippled By Falling Oil Prices
Collapsing Oil Prices More Important That Sanction On Iran and Others
Just two months ago, spiking petroleum prices were emboldening confrontational oil exporters such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran. The oil price collapse is stressing their plans and forcing reconsiderations. Some analyst, for instance, estimate that Russia is spending at a rate only supportable by oil prices of at least $110 a barrel dimming their financing prospects.
Congress belatedly sensitive to voters’ unhappiness, passed an energy bill that would allow oil drilling in new offshore areas- albeit the wrong ones, trim oil company tax breaks, ease the way for oil shale development and help finance alternative energy sources.
The world’s total energy costs have dropped by more than $4 billion a day. That will hurt government budgets from Tehran to Texas, but it will ease burdens for countless others. The United States, which spent $51.4 billion on oil imports in July, accounting for most of its trade deficit, is on track to spend much less than that this month, reducing pressure on the dollar, the trade deficit and inflation.
Long range economic forecast had projected $94 a barrel by 2009 - it stood at $91.15 a barrel Tuesday. ENI, the Italian oil giant thinks prices could fall as low as what it costs to produce the world’s most expensive oil, citing the $65- to $70-a-barrel cost of developing Canadian tar sands.
OPEC hardliners advocated a new $100 floor on prices, but Saudi Arabia last week resisted a call to trim its output to comply with official OPEC quotas. Now the Saudis may be reconsidering. Sky high oil prices helped President Hugo Chávez pay for nationalizations of banks, the Caracas electric utility, a portion of foreign oil interests, radio stations and the local plant of an international cement firm. Other analysts said high prices may have emboldened Russia to invade Georgia, and Iran to continue to defy international calls to abandon its nuclear program.
America’s adversaries including Russia, Iran, Venezuela and the other usual suspects are backing and filling with both hands. Falling gasoline prices are driving optimism among American voters buoyed by the price board at the corner gasoline station will impact the November U. S. Presidential election and Iran’s June 2009 Presidential election too. In the former to help McCain be elected whom Iran disfavors and in the latter to forment trouble for anti-U. S. interests in Iran and elsewhere.
But, falling oil prices are also a whip saw; for instance: T. Boone Pickens has lost a bundle and altering his alternative energy ideas; can companies are worried lower fuel costs will be a disincentive for consumers to pay premums for fuel efficient vehicles, and development of tax sands and shale will be pushed back.
Of course airlines and trucking companies are happy, as are cos=nsumers depending on fuel oil to heat their homes this winter.
Long term forecasters are talking about $65 per barrel oil in 2012 effectively below $60 now
Russian Nuclear Bombers Now In Venezuela.
The U. S. is said to have tracked the bombers but did not disclose exactly how that surveillance took place
Two Russian “Blackjack” bombers have landed in Venezuela on Wednesday apparently as part of an upcoming joint military exercise in the Caribbean Sea between Venezuela and Russia.
The Tu-160 supersonic strategic bomber was manufactured by the Tupolev Aircraft Research and Engineering Complex Joint Stock Company in Moscow and the Kazan based Gorbunov Aircraft Production Association in Tatarstan from 1980 to 1992. Production has been restarted on an updated model. Eleven (11) of the aircraft are in active service in Russia. The “Blackjack” is often compared with the U. S. built B1-B and is conventional in appearance. It does not have the stealth characteristics of the U. S. built B-2 “flying wing.”
The purpose of the “Blackjack” is the delivery of nuclear and conventional weapons deep in continental theatres of operation. The aircraft has all-weather, day-and-night capability and can operate at all geographical latitudes. The “Blackjack” can air launch long range nuclear tipped missiles.
A month ago Russia threatened to base bombers on Cuban soil triggering the discussion of the second “Cuban missile” crisis but as far as is public that has not happened.
Venezuela’s communist President Hugh Chavez fancies himself as a latter-day Simon Bolivar and has aspirations of building a Latin American empire, and sees Russia ever more belligerent Prime Minister Putin as an ally. Russian naval vessels are in route to the area.
The U. S. is said to have tracked the bombers but did not disclose exactly how that surveillance took place.
Poll Shows Russians Back Putin’s Anti-West; Anti-U.S. Efforts
Russian paranoia high - 47% believe major Western countries are Russia’s enemies and will cause it harm.
A poll of Russians by the Levada Center (see below) immediately after the Russo-Georgian war found 75% saying Russian-American relations are “not good,” 39% “chilly”; 28% say “strained,” and 8 % say “hostile.”
Forty-seven percent believe that major Western countries are Russia’s enemies and will cause harm to Russian interests if they can. Half said the U.S. was trying to “spread its influence over Russia’s neighbors,” and nearly three-quarters said the West’s support of Georgia is an attempt “to weaken Russia and force it out of the Caucasus.”
The Russian people were demoralized after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and most have welcomed the push for a new nationalist spirit and renewed Russian pride championed by Vladimir Putin over the past five years. High energy prices have increased the quality of life for the average Russian, and Putin’s push for a stronger Russia on the international stage has been enthusiastically embraced at home.
Putin has worked feverishly to reverse the few democratic gains that were made in the 1990s, has used energy as a diplomatic weapon, has invested heavily in the Russian military, and has worked to counter the United States on virtually every significant international issue.
The war with Georgia was just Putin’s latest jab at the west. Medvedev may be president, but few actually believe he is calling the shots, and Russians are buying what Putin is selling. With the Russian people on Putin’s side, he is likely to continue his adversarial relationship with the West, knowing that Europe has no stomach for a fight with Russia and that the United States is too occupied in Afghanistan and Iraq to do much to stop him. Putin is watching the November presidential election and believe if Obama is elected that will provide an opportunity for Russian nationalism and territorialism to be advanced.
Yuri Levada Analytical Center was formed in 1988-1989 as the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) and it was part of the USSR Ministry of Labour and the Trade Unions Council (VTsSPS). Specifics of its polling can not be examined, and it has been a propaganda tool in the past.
Czechs Warn of Second Crimean War
Crimea peninsula could become a target as it was in 1854 when Russia fought with the UK, France and Ottoman Empire.
A second charge of the Light brigade – a Czech leader said Friday that a resurgent Russia is testing the West. He warned that Ukraine’s strategic Crimea peninsula could become a target as it was in 1854 in the Crimean War where Russia fought with the UK, France and Ottoman Empire.
Today Russia’s strongly objects to U.S. missile defense bases in Czech Republic and Poland and recent events in Georgia shows clearly Moscow opposed Western influence in the former Soviet Union’s sphere of influence.
Russia drew harsh criticism from the U.S. and Europe for recognizing two separatist Georgian territories as independent states following a short but devastating war that left Russian troops in control of a key Georgian Black Sea port and other locations deep inside Georgia.
The conflict followed an escalation of incidents by pro-Russian separatists from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It was sparked by Georgia’s attempt to use force to retake control of South Ossetia.
Pojar raised the possibility of confrontations with Moscow elsewhere.
“I think that we would not be surprised if in the future similar events, for example, develop in Crimea,” the official said. “We hope that it is not going to happen, but we think that the situation there is not very stable, and to provoke more instability would probably not be that difficult.”
The Crimea peninsula on the Black Sea, once a jewel of Russia’s empire, was a beloved tourist destination in the Soviet era and home to the proud Soviet naval base in the port of Sevastopol. But in 1954, control of the Crimea was handed to the then Soviet republic of Ukraine. After the 1991 Soviet breakup, it remained part of independent Ukraine, with an agreement allowing Russia to keep it’s naval base there.
Pojar said the Crimea could become “some new frozen or unfrozen conflict because of the situation on the ground, because of the political demographic and (Russian) military presence in Crimea.”
The United States and the European Union should realize “the strategic importance of stability and prosperity in Ukraine and in the whole of Caucuses,” he said.
The Czech statement came as U. S. Vice president Dick Cheney started a tour of three ex-Soviet republics - Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Georgia - that are wary of Russia’s intentions.
The Czech government signed a bilateral treaty in July allowing the U.S. to build a radar base near Prague as part of a proposed U.S. missile defense system that has been harshly criticized by Russia.
There is “significant opposition” to the treaty in the Czech parliament but it is expected it to be ratified by the end of the year.
You call this foreign policy experience?
Here’s the latest spin from the Land of Conservatives: Sarah Palin has foreign policy experience! Why? Because Alaska is close to Russia (see map). I’ve been in public relations for nearly 35 years. This little tidbit was offered up on, you guessed it, Fox News…otherwise known as the White House’s personal propaganda machine. Name one other credible news outlet whose mouthpiece would make that assertion. CNN is close, but they aren’t quite at the Fox level yet. Now, of course I can’t be positive, but I’m pretty sure there hasn’t been any contact between Sarah Palin and anyone in Russia. If all it takes to be credited with having foreign policy experience is to live in close proximity of Russia or another foreign nation, then Barack Obama IS MORE THAN QUALIFIED, PEOPLE. I vote that the Republicans continue to let Fox justify McCain’s ill-thought-out decision. It can only help Obama in the long run.
What? Fox doesn’t have enough credibility for you? No worry. Cindy (Barbie) McCain agreed that Palin has foreign policy experience. Yes, that’s right, our potential First Lady has shown how much gray matter she has. Don’t take my word for it, watch the video embedded in the link I provided. Mrs. McCain took it a step further, pointing out that Palin started her political career in the PTA “like everybody else.” Now, for those politicos who don’t know what the PTA is, it’s the Parent-Teacher Association. Got that? The PTA. Let that be a lesson to those who want to get into politics: Start with the PTA. It all seems so clear now.
To Fox, Barbie and John McCain and the rest of the conservatives who are trying to put the spin on this one, guess what? The selection of Sarah Palin is a national joke. It would be funny if it wasn’t such a damned dangerous choice for America. Let’s call it for what it is: It’s pandering at its best. John McCain needs the Christian conservative vote to win this election and he’s determined to win whatever way he must, even if it means selecting someone ill-qualified for the job.
Her own mother-in-law has stated that she doesn’t know what Palin brings to the ticket except that she’s a woman and a conservative. Let’s hope that Americans use their brains because you can bet your life that we’ll all be at risk if she’s forced to take command before McCain’s term is up. I’m not done with Sarah Palin yet. There’s more coming.
Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf Says Iran About to be attacked.
Dutch intelligence sources say the US [or Israel] would decide within weeks to attack nuclear plants with unmanned aircraft to avoid endangering air crews.
Dutch AIVD Secret Service ultra-secret operation underway in Iran in recent years has been halted and an agent recalled in view of “impending US plans to attack Iran,” within weeks, writes Joost de Haas in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. According to intelligence sources in the Netherlands, the US [or Israel] would decide within weeks to attack Iran’s nuclear plants with unmanned aircraft to avoid endangering air crews. The Israeli Air Force would be held back to defend Israel against retaliation.
Dep. Chief of Iran’s General Staff Masus Jazairi said Saturday, Aug. 30, that any attack on Iran would mean the beginning of a new world war. Iran sources report that Jazairi’s attack aimed at confirming his credentials in Tehran during a major shakeup of the Iranian high command. Such speculation and recent polls that show support for Israel to defend itself against an Iran determined to get nuclear weapons as quickly as possible are believed to be behind the recent spate of threats by Iran.
In addition The Georgia quarrel has all but derailed US-Russian cooperation on the Iran issue. Moscow is not only pulling out of the diplomatic and sanctions front against Iran’s nuclear program; according to Russian sources, Moscow has decided to finally finish building Iran’s nuclear reactor in the southern town of Bushehr before the end of the year, after holding back for five years at Washington’s insistence. Saturday the Kremlin provocatively said it could “wipe-out” NATO’s Black Sea fleet in 20-minutes. That is seen as a threat against NATOs recognition of Ukraine or an offer for it to join the alliance that Russia adamantly opposes.
The presense of Russia workers in Iran finishing the nuclear reactor complicates an Israeli attack since Russian technicians could be killed or injured. Last Fall’s Israeli attacks on the North Korea build, Iranian financed nuclear reactor in Syria is believed to have killed or wounded North Korean, Iranian and perhaps Russian technicians and advisers.
If attacked Iran will likely try to block the Straits’s of Hormuz and that could easily lead to a confrontation with the U. S. Navy carrier task forces in the Persian Gulf. The U. S. has said it will not allow the straits to be blocked.
Russia’s Putin Picked Biden As Obama’s VP
Biden Not On Short List Until Russia Attacked Georgia.
Joe Biden wasn’t even on Barack Obama’s short list until August 7, when Russia suddenly invaded the neighboring country of Georgia. That’s the word from key Democrats meeting here in Denver who say the Obama campaign’s need to shore up its foreign policy bona fides helped push the Delaware senator to the top of the pack. ‘We didn’t pick our nominee. Vladimir Putin did,’ is how one Democrat, who professes to be pleased with the Biden choice, put it.” - John Fund, Political Diary, 8/25/08
Russian Threats Fueled By High Oil And Gas Revenues
America’s adversaries are generally buoyed by the possibility of an untested, inexperienced White House and an internally focused liberal Congress.
The Russia President, aka Putin’s Parrot threatened today to pull away from NATO with all that implies including a slide into another “cold war.” Russian natural gas and oil flowing from the Caspian basin through Georgia and to a Mediterranean Sea terminus and port in southern Turkey is funding its global mischief.
Russia has threatened a renewed “Cuban Missile Crisis” by using the island to refuel nuclear capable bombers that could prowl the Caribbean encouraging America’s enemies like Venezuela and Cuba.
Russian ire is provoked in part by its former slave states Poland and the Czech Republic asserting independence and increasing support for NATO neighbors by installing U. S. supplied anti-missile radars and anti-missile missiles.
Russia’s bluster is funded by high natural gas and oil prices. For each dollar oil prices fall Russia loses millions. The recent pullback from $147 a barrel to $115 has cost Russia billions. Economist point our Russia is spending at a rate of $100 a barrel of oil so a further decline would have profound impacts.
If the U. S. throws the switch on more oil production that would put even more downward pressure on oil prices and Russia while moving America toward oil independence. America’s adversaries are generally buoyed by the possibility of an untested, inexperienced White House and an internally focused liberal Congress.
Israel and Poland Join Anti-Missile Shield Network
An unintended consequence of Russian aggression in Georgia is 
solidarity on missile defense network.
Israel announced that its early warning radar system, part of its anti-missile-missile array has already detected Syrian missile tests. “It was the kind of test that Iran conducted earlier this year and meant to show that Syria could fire missiles simultaneously from a range of batteries in the southern and central parts of the country,” an official said. The Syrian tests were detected by Israel’s Arrow-2 missile defense system. The Arrow’s Green Pine early-warning radar was said to have a range of more than 800 kilometers, which covers most of Syria. Sources say that the U. S. is rushing to install and a more advanced system in Israel that could monitor Iran and deeper into Russian space.
Sources say North Korea has helped Syria develop a two-stage Scud D meant to frustrate Israel’s missile defense system. They said the launches appeared to test Syria’s command and control network required to sustain a missile attack on Israel and that justifies a more sophisticated early warning system and anti-missile missiles. Syria was also said to have fired the Soviet-origin SS-21 rocket with a 70 kilometer range during the exercise.
Russia objects to Israeli getting the more capable radar and anti-missile systems and is very angry at the U. S. - Polish agreement for anti-missile radars and anti-missile missiles that was announced Tuesday night.
Washington Post Tries to Blame Georgia
An ensuing uproar in the West, accusing Russia of using excessive force, has clouded details of how the war began…”
TSKHINVALI, Georgia, Aug. 16 — Nine days ago, late in the afternoon of Aug. 7, Georgian tanks, artillery and infantry began moving out of bases in Georgia and toward South Ossetia, a zone long held by separatists who are backed by Moscow says Sunday under the headline A Two-Sided Descent Into Full-Scale War. With a huge air, land and sea campaign, Russian forces routed the Georgians in the following days and advanced far into Georgian territory, overrunning major cities, military bases, sorting its Black Sea flee to destroy Georgia’s feeble coastal defense fleet. “An ensuing uproar in the West, accusing Russia of using excessive force, has clouded details of how the war began,” the article by the Post’s Peter Finn entoned.
“The Georgians,” Finn reports on Sunday’s Post front page, “said they staged their offensive only after Russian troops began streaming into South Ossetia and the Russians saying they advanced only after the Georgians began attacking South Ossetia’s capital, Tskhinvali.”
Most Western sources say that is less true, and it Is unclear if Georgian forces ever moved across the border in force. What is clear that Russian forces had massed on the border and its air force was on alert and waiting to attack, and those preparations took several weeks.
Tensions have been growing as Georgia has become increasingly pro-western, and more ethnic Russians were located in Ossetia which, after a brief war in the early 1990s signed a peace agreement with Georgia. Then Georgia applied for NATO membership angering Russia who strenuously objected. Georgia’s application was rejected — for now - in April. It was then Russia decided to act and began to prepare to punish Georgia and end its hopes for a military alliance with the West.
Six Georgian policemen were killed on August 1st; over the next two days, a series of shootings killed six Ossetians and five Georgians, and overnight August 6-7 Ossettian artillery opened fire. By August 10-11 Russian “peacekeepers” were inside Ossettia. The trap was set, baited and sprung when the Georgian “military mouse” with 35,000 troops tried to shove the 1,000,000 man Russian army back.
But, for Finn and the Washington Post to try to accuse Georgia of being the aggressor is absurd and rings of major eastern U. S. newspaper coverage of the Sudeten Crisis and Hitler’s invasion on the pretext of protecting ethnic Germans there. Even the language of “unification” then and now is almost identical.
The Post should be careful to get the fact and use them while straining out its biases. Certainly even in these time when Newspapers are barely keeping their financial heads above water as subscribers and advertisers are reevaluating their participation the Post best watch its foot.
Ukraine OKs Linking Its Anri-Missile System With Europe
Ukraine Limits Russian Warship Movements in Black Sea
The BBC reported Saturday that the Ukraine is ready to make its missile early warning systems available to European nations following Russia’s conflict with Georgia. This might include “the integration of Ukrainian elements of missile early warning and space control systems with those of foreign countries that are interested in gathering space data”, Ukraine said. It was not immediately clear if such linkage would include networking with the proposed U. S. supplied systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Last week, Kiev limited the freedom of movement of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet after Several Russian warships, based at Sevastopol in Ukraine’s Crimea’s peninsula, were deployed along the Georgian coastline.
In a related but rather odd pernouncement Moscow denounced the restrictions as anti-Russian and said its military commanders would answer only to the Russian president.
The BBC says the decision is evidence Ukraine is now more desperate to embrace the West as its fear of Russia intensifies and Moscow seemingly becomes more determined to prevent any neighboring states from joining Nato, and its attack on Georgia.
Increasingly, the events of the past 10 days demonstrate Russia has gone back to arm-wrestling with its neighbors and the West after the immediate post-Soviet years, when it felt too weak, and sensing a possible coming weakness in Washington D. C.
In April NATO decided it would not yet offer membership to Georgia or Ukraine after the 26-member alliance was split amid strong objections from Russia.
The BBC also implied the Georgia invasion was partly due to Poland and Czech Republics OK to site U. S. anti-missile missiles and radars in those countries. Last week Russia said it could mean it would use nuclear weapons against Poland. The BBC opined the Russo-Georgian War was the fault of the U. S.
Gorbachev Blames Russia
Mikhail Gorbahev blames his own country for starting the Ossetian war, and the US for providing Georgia with the means to fight. This was stated last night to Russian news agency Novosti. Unlike 40% of Russians who were polled, he does not suggest integration of the region, but then he is responsible along with President Reagan for tearing down the Berlin wall of shame that Putin would resurrect. In related news, elements of the Russian general staff have openly threatened Poland–saying it will be punished–for allowing anti missile radar in their country. The US has offered to incorporate the Russian military into the project designed to protect Europe from middle astern terror via missiles. This is the link to the Gorbachev statement.
Poland Crosses the Rubicon - Russia Throws Conniption Fit
Poland and the U. S. have decided on a mutual defense alliance.
“We have crossed the Rubicon,” said Poland Prime Minister about the agreement reached with he United States to base American missile interceptors in Poland sending Russia into Low Earth Orbit. The US and Poland says the anti-missile missile system will guard Europe from Iranian missile attack. Russia say it is aimed at it.
“Crossing the Rubicon” is a popular idiom meaning to go past a point of no return and refers to Julius Caesar crossing the river in 49 BC deliberately as an act of war.
Regardless of the historic reference Poland and the U. S. have decided on a mutual defense alliance.
Plus it was an obvious reference to the force and ferocity with which Russia rolled into Georgia in recent days, taking the key city of Gori and apparently burning and destroying Georgian military outposts and airfields. Poland and other former Soviet satellites and republics in eastern Europe have been unsettled by Russia’s powerful and Brutal military attacks on Georgia.
In addition the United States has also reached an agreement with the Czech Republic’s government to place a radar component of the missile defense system in that country. That deal still needs approval from the Czech and Polish parliaments.
Tusk said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would be too slow in coming to Poland’s defense if Poland were threatened and that the bloc would take “days, weeks to start that machinery.”
“Poland and the Poles do not want to be in alliances in which assistance comes at some point later - it is no good when assistance comes to dead people. Poland wants to be in alliances where assistance comes in the very first hours of - knock on wood - any possible conflict,” Tusk said.
Where the Hell and What is Georgia Anyhow?
Since Russia’s attack an estimated 3,000 have been killed or wounded and more than 20,000 displaced. The fighting continues at this writing.
Georgia is a South Carolina sized Republic strategically located east of the Black Sea; Georgia controls much of the Caucasus Mountains and the routes through them, and separates Turkey from Russia. It is populated by 4.6 million people including: Georgian 83.8%, Azeri 6.5%, Armenian 5.7%, Russian 1.5%, other 2.5%.
Religiously it is Orthodox Christian 83.9%, Muslim 9.9%, Armenian-Gregorian 3.9%, Catholic 0.8%, other 0.8%, none 0.7%. Languages spoken there include: Georgian 71% (official), Russian 9%, Armenian 7%, Azeri 6%, other 7%. Well educated almost everyone over aged 15 read and write.
It gained its independence 9 April 1991 (from Soviet Union) having been forced into the Soviet orbit in 1921 following a brief period of independence following the end of Tsarist Russia in the communist takeover in 1918.
Following democratic elections in 2004 the government