Israeli report claims Washington cut intelligence sharing on Iran with Israel over tensions, as controversial congressional address looms
By AFP and Marissa Newman March 2, 2015, 11:19 pm
US State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf (Photo credit: Youtube screen capture)
The State Department on Monday warned Israel’s prime minister against revealing details of an emerging Iran nuclear deal on the eve of the leader’s speech to the US Congress, a move it said would be tantamount to “betrayal.”
The statements came as Israel’s Channel 10 reported that the US cut off intelligence coordination with Israel on the Iranian nuclear program amid tensions over Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.
While he did not mention Netanyahu by name, US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Geneva earlier he was “concerned by reports” that “selective details” of the deal aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program would be revealed in the coming days.
His deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf went further, saying discussing the contents of classified briefings by US officials to Israelis would “betray” America’s trust.
“We’ve continuously provided detailed classified briefings to Israeli officials to keep them updated and to provide context for how we are approaching getting to a good deal,” she told reporters in Washington.
“Any release of any kind of information like that would, of course, betray that trust.”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest made similar statements Monday.
The comments came after an Israeli official said the Jewish state knew about the emerging agreement and that the prime minister would elaborate in his congressional address.
The Channel 10 report said the US had ceased to inform Israel on the Iranian nuclear program, though it was still coordinating its intelligence efforts with other countries.
It said the information gathered by these countries often helps the IAEA compile its reports on the Iranian nuclear program.
Last month, several US and European officials indicated some information on Iran was being kept from the Netanyahu administration over fears it could be politicized.
On Monday, Kerry launched a series of talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in the Swiss lakeside town of Montreux late Monday as they sought to pin down a deal by a March 31 deadline.
“The best way to deal with the question surrounding this nuclear program is to find a comprehensive deal, but not a deal which comes at any cost,” he told reporters.
“We have made some progress, but we still have a long way to go, and the clock is ticking.”
The P5+1 group of world powers that are negotiating with Iran have only a few more weeks to reach a political framework for a deal, with the final technical details to be arrived at by June 30.
But Israel is worried the deal will ease sanctions on Tehran — which is what Iran wants — without applying sufficiently stringent safeguards to stop Iran acquiring enough fissile material to develop an atomic bomb.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
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We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
The US has agreed to Kneecap Israel and allow the Mullahs to have nuclear reactors. All the mullahs have to do is promise to not use them against the US and to let our muslim sympathizer of a president prostrate himself before them to complete the humiliation of the USA.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
I just didn't want to be the one to say it and be targeted ;lol
No, I KNOW what it is/ I'm just so pissed off over this shit.
I sit in a fucking nuclear drop zone and these motherfuckers in DC are playing with the lives of my kids and grand kids. What kind of SHIT is that and why do*I* have to take it?
Libertatem Prius!
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The theorizing that Putin will go beyond Ukraine and directly confront a NATO ally is, for the moment, just that. Photographer: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images
(Bloomberg) -- As the Kremlin’s warplanes probe the edges of NATO airspace, the alliance says its forces are ready if the Russians come. Political leaders will need a little longer to issue the marching orders.
Whatever the scenario -- an overt Russian attack on eastern Europe, a proxy war fought by pro-Russian rebels, a Crimea-style infiltration -- the immediate suspicion will fall on Russian President Vladimir Putin as the man behind it.
Who will order the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to strike back is less clear. The 28 governments in the U.S.-led alliance will all want a say, potentially slowing the deployment of a 5,000-man rapid-reaction force being set up to defend eastern Europe.
NATO’s commander “does not have peacetime operational control and would have to wait for allied governments to make a decision,” said John R. Deni, a professor at the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The concern is “something less than a very clear attack, an obvious assault, tanks crossing the border. That would require time for the alliance to figure out what’s going to happen. Depending on the nature of the crisis, that delay could be substantial.”
Russia’s interference in Ukraine -- not a NATO member, thus unprotected by the alliance -- shows how what-if scenarios can become reality. As Russian-backed separatists fought on despite the eastern Ukraine truce, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the Kremlin’s “aggressive actions” force the alliance to upgrade its “defense posture.” Soviet Tanks
While the Cold War had its scary moments and madman theories, NATO felt reasonably sure of two things: any attack would be by Soviet tanks pouring into West Germany. And those armored columns would run into the vanguard of the more than 400,000 American troops stationed in Europe, triggering an immediate U.S. response.
Both of those certainties are gone. Putin carried out the occupation of Crimea by stealth, fomenting demonstrations among the ethnic Russians who make up 59 percent of the peninsula’s population and sending in camouflaged Russian troops to finish the job. Within days Crimea was in Russian hands and the phrase “hybrid warfare” was the new paradigm. Most of the 75,000 U.S. soldiers still in Europe are stationed in the west and the south -- far from the alliance’s potential eastern flashpoints. Crimea Variation
“A quasi-Crimea or variation of that has been on the table of defense planners for quite some time,” said Jaan Murumets, a former Estonian defense official now with the International Centre for Defence and Security in Tallinn. “What happened in Crimea is not necessarily top of their list but there could be similar types of events, the soft approach, Russia trying to do something nasty short of outright military assault.”
The theorizing that Putin will go beyond Ukraine and directly confront a NATO ally is, for the moment, just that. For the war gamers, concerns focus on the Baltic states -- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- which were part of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, then broke free to join the European Union and NATO. The extreme is the “Tallinn is burning” plotline -- imagined by Sydney Freedberg Jr. of BreakingDefense.com -- in which the Russian destruction of Estonia’s capital precipitates a wider war.
Subtler tactics would seek to mobilize the large Russian-speaking minorities in Estonia and Latvia. A destabilization campaign might target Narva, a town in northeast Estonia on the border with Russia. More than 90 percent of its people are native Russian speakers, and fewer than half have Estonian passports, offering Putin a pool of potential sympathizers. Real Danger
U.K. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon warned Feb. 18 of a “real and present danger” of undercover operations against the Baltics, the Telegraph newspaper reported. Latvia’s defense minister, Raimonds Vejonis, said while that probability is “very low,” Russia’s leaders “are quite unpredictable and we have to be ready to react to different scenarios.”
Dedicated by its founding treaty in 1949 to countering an “armed attack,” NATO is poorly equipped to fend off an invasion that doesn’t look like one. Military men openly wonder whether their political bosses would be caught napping. Speaking at Royal United Services Institute in London on Feb. 20, U.K. General Adrian Bradshaw, the alliance’s deputy supreme commander, said an “ambiguous” attack would make “collective decisions relating to the appropriate responses more difficult.”
Allied leaders sought to plug that hole at a summit in Wales in September. Driven by the Crimea precedent, but also by Russia’s earlier economic, psychological and propaganda campaigns against the Baltic states and Poland, the alliance decided to build the “tools and procedures required to deter and respond effectively to hybrid warfare threats.” Reaction Force
After years of American pressure on Europe to boost defense spending and do more for its security, European governments agreed in Wales to field the bulk of a rapid-reaction force that could send its first units to the front lines within 48 hours, complete the deployment within a week and eventually grow to 30,000 troops.
An interim force made up of German, Dutch and Norwegian troops force is in training. As of 2016, leadership of the brigade-size land force will rotate among Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. Backed by air, sea and special operations units, its capability will be gradually increased until reaching full readiness in 2017.
What happens if deterrence fails remains to be worked out. In the first hours of a conflict, the democratic notion that war is too important to be left to generals could put NATO at a tactical disadvantage. Ioan Mircea Pascu, a former Romanian defense minister now in the European Parliament, predicts that “real serious decisions would have to be taken, and will be taken, as they were in the EU on the sanctions.” Kremlin-Backed
EU deliberations over sanctions on Russia played out over months, however, reflecting the interests of 28 democracies with different geographies, histories and economic stakes. Russia annexed Crimea in March; the Kremlin-backed rebellion in eastern Ukraine started in April; the EU started with blacklists in March and didn’t impose economic penalties until July, after the downing of a passenger jet over eastern Ukraine killed 298 people, mostly European citizens.
NATO decision-making in a showdown with Russia may feature a number of European officials who during the Ukraine crisis have given Putin the benefit of the doubt. Among them are Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who hosted Putin in Budapest on Feb. 18. New Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with the Russian ambassador in his first contact with a foreign envoy after coming to power last month.
NATO’s militaries are run from a headquarters in southern Belgium, traditionally under the command of an American officer, currently U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove. As defense ministers debated alliance reinforcements on Feb. 5 in Brussels, a senior official told reporters that Breedlove’s forces will be under political control “at all times.”
What that means in practice will be discussed by defense ministers in June. One option is to give the military command the peacetime right to call snap exercises of the readiness force. Emergency powers are trickier, especially in case of a “hybrid” infiltration.
“It makes no sense to have a rapidly deployable brigade if you can’t take political decisions on a commensurate timeline,” U.S. Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute said Feb. 11 on a media conference call. “This too is an element of the readiness action plan which has not yet been decided.”
To contact the reporter on this story: James G. Neuger in Brussels at jneuger@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Leon Mangasarian
Last edited by American Patriot; March 4th, 2015 at 15:03.
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Russia KNOWS we won't ever hit them first. But you can bet we will hit back. Assuming Obama isn't in office.
Russia Ready To Repel A ‘Lightning-Speed’ Nuclear Strike
About 98% of Russia's nuclear deterrent forces will be armed with brand new weapons by 2020
Posted By: Vikas ShuklaPosted date: In: PoliticsNo Comments
Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) are fully prepared to repel any nuclear attack, including the “lightning speed” nuclear strikes. SMF Central Command Chief Andrei Burbin told RSN Radio that Russia would conduct a retaliatory strike in any circumstances “without hesitation.” Burbin said that if there was a challenge to repel a lightning speed nuclear attack, “it will be done in fixed time, that’s dead true.” Russia’s rearmament remains on track
Major General Andrei Burbin said that Russia’s strategic missile forces were positioned geographically such that they cannot be destroyed by “any global strike.” He added that Russian nuclear operators will act without any delay if given an order to carry out nuclear strikes. A retaliatory nuclear strike is guaranteed by “Dead Hand,” a fully automatic and modernized “Perimeter” system.
According to RT News, the Perimeter system collects data from different sources including seismic and radioactivity sensors spread across Russia. If collected data indicate that a nuclear attack has been conducted against Russia, the system launches special missiles that send launch signals to all surviving nuclear missile complexes. Subsequently, retaliatory nuclear missiles are launched even without human input.
Burbin emphasized that the rearmament of the SMF was going on as planned. He added that 98% of Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces will be armed with new weapons by 2020. Last month, Russia conducted nationwide war games involving 30 missile regiments. On any given day, more than 6,000 servicemen maintain the readiness of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces. Burbin’s statement aimed at NATO?
Burbin’s statement comes as NATO continues to boost its military presence near Russia borders. Last year, NATO conducted more than 200 military exercises, and a senior NATO official promised that such exercises would continue. Last week, U.S. forces and military combat vehicles paraded in the Estonian city of Narva, just 300 yards from Russia border.
Russia has repeatedly condemned NATO’s aggressive military buildup and exercises towards its borders. Relations between the U.S. and Russia touched the lowest point since Cold War after the annexation of Crimea into Russian Federation.
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A much-ignored huge news report from Reuters on Friday, February 27th, was headlined “Chinese diplomat tells West to consider Russia’s security concerns over Ukraine.”
China’s Ambassador to Belgium (which has the capital of the EU) said that the “nature and root cause” of the Ukrainian conflict is “the West,” and that “The West should abandon the zero-sum mentality, and take the real security concerns of Russia into consideration.”
By “real security concerns,” he is clearly referring to NATO’s expansion right up to Russia’s border, and America’s surrounding Russia with U.S. military bases, now inceasingly including the most strategic of Russia’s bordering countries: Ukraine.
In other words, this diplomat says: “the West” has a “zero-sum” attitude toward Russia, instead of seeking to move forward with an approach in which neither side among the nuclear superpowers benefits at the other’s expense — the entire world moves forward together.
This is a direct criticism of Barack Obama, and of all of the pro-Obama, anti-Putin, EU leaders.
It’s also an implicit repudiation of Obama’s having repeatedly referred to the U.S. as “the one indispensable nation.” (Another example of that phrase is here.) Obama keeps saying: every other nation, except the U.S., is “dispensable.” He clearly thinks that Russia is.
That’s not merely an insult: it’s an act of provocation; it is virtually asking for a fight. And all for what? For whose nuclear char?
This criticism of the aggressive nationalist Obama does not come from China’s top leadership, but it would not have come at all if they had not approved of it in advance.
China thus now tells Obama: Stop it. Stop it in word, and in deed.
Implicitly, China is also telling Obama: China is not dispensable, either. In fact, the entire mentality, which Obama embodies, is not just callous and insulting; it’s dangerous.
Like President G.W. Bush, Obama is increasingly an embarassment to his country.
Shortly before Obama’s coup in Ukraine, Gallup International issued, on 30 December 2013, a poll of 65 countries, which found that:
“The US was the overwhelming choice (24% of respondents) for the country that represents the greatest threat to peace in the world today. This was followed by Pakistan (8%), China (6%), North Korea, Israel and Iran (5%). Respondents in Russia (54%), China (49%) and Bosnia (49%) were the most fearful of the US as a threat.”
More details of that poll were reported here.
When the U.S. Government is hankering for a war with the only other nuclear superpower, such findings certainly make sense. And the 54% of Russians who cited the U.S. as the greatest threat to peace would probably be far higher today. But Gallup International didn’t publish any update on that poll-question, perhaps because the original financial backer (which was unnamed) wouldn’t fund it.
Already, the finding was bad enough. But Obama keeps calling the U.S. “the one indispensable nation in the world.” He keeps telling other nations: you are dispensable. He keeps rubbing it in — not the fact, but his own nationalism.
It reminds some people of Mussolini, and of Hitler. But Obama pretends to be a democrat, not a fascist.
Maybe he’s just a bigger liar than they were. Maybe that’s what he is so arrogant about: his terrific ability to deceive.
After all, he won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for it: for lying. For misrepresenting himself as being progressive, instead of regressive.
Well, now: anyone who doesn’t know the reality is deluded by propaganda — and it’s not coming from Russia, nor from China. It’s coming from their own nation’s ‘news’ media.
Which heads-of-state want to be publicly associated with a foreign leader like that, one who tells the given leader’s public: your nation is dispensable. Fools. Only fools.
Obama is encouraging other countries to oppose the United States.
Wow. He’s the black George W. Bush.
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A senior Ukrainian official is urging the West to risk a nuclear conflagration in support of a “full-scale war” with Russia that he says authorities in Kiev are now seeking, another sign of the extremism that pervades the year-old, U.S.-backed regime in Kiev.
In a recent interview with Canada’s CBC Radio, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said, “Everybody is afraid of fighting with a nuclear state. We are not anymore, in Ukraine — we’ve lost so many people of ours, we’ve lost so much of our territory.”
Prystaiko added, “However dangerous it sounds, we have to stop [Russian President Vladimir Putin] somehow. For the sake of the Russian nation as well, not just for the Ukrainians and Europe.” The deputy foreign minister announced that Kiev is preparing for “full-scale war” against Russia and wants the West to supply lethal weapons and training so the fight can be taken to Russia.
“What we expect from the world is that the world will stiffen up in the spine a little,” Prystaiko said. Image: Peter Sellers playing Dr. Strangelove as he struggles to control his right arm from making a Nazi salute.
Yet, what is perhaps most remarkable about Prystaiko’s “Dr. Strangelove” moment is that it produced almost no reaction in the West. You have a senior Ukrainian official saying that the world should risk nuclear war over a civil conflict in Ukraine between its west, which favors closer ties to Europe, and its east, which wants to maintain its historic relationship with Russia.
Why should such a pedestrian dispute justify the possibility of vaporizing millions of human beings and conceivably ending life on the planet? Yet, instead of working out a plan for a federalized structure in Ukraine or even allowing people in the east to vote on whether they want to remain under the control of the Kiev regime, the world is supposed to risk nuclear annihilation.
But therein lies one of the under-reported stories of the Ukraine crisis: There is a madness to the Kiev regime that the West doesn’t want to recognize because to do so would upend the dominant narrative of “our” good guys vs. Russia’s bad guys. If we begin to notice that the right-wing regime in Kiev is crazy and brutal, we might also start questioning the “Russian aggression” mantra.
According to the Western “group think,” the post-coup Ukrainian government “shares our values” by favoring democracy and modernity, while the rebellious ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine are “Moscow’s minions” representing dark forces of backwardness and violence, personified by Russia’s “irrational” President Putin. In this view, the conflict is a clash between the forces of good and evil where there is no space for compromise.
Yet, there is a craziness to this “group think” that is highlighted by Prystaiko’s comments. Not only does the Kiev regime display a cavalier attitude about dragging the world into a nuclear catastrophe but it also has deployed armed neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists to wage a dirty war in the east that has involved torture and death-squad activities. Not Since Adolf Hitler
No European government, since Adolf Hitler’s Germany, has seen fit to dispatch Nazi storm troopers to wage war on a domestic population, but the Kiev regime has and has done so knowingly. Yet, across the West’s media/political spectrum, there has been a studious effort to cover up this reality, even to the point of ignoring facts that have been well established.
The New York Times and the Washington Post have spearheaded this journalistic malfeasance by putting on blinders so as not to see Ukraine’s neo-Nazis, such as when describing the key role played by the Azov battalion in the war against ethnic Russians in the east.
On Feb. 20, in a report from Mariupol, the Post cited the Azov battalion’s importance in defending the port city against a possible rebel offensive. Correspondent Karoun Demirjian wrote:
“Petro Guk, the commander of the Azov battalion’s reinforcement operations in Mariupol, said in an interview that the battalion is ‘getting ready for’ street-to-street combat in the city. The Azov battalion, now a regiment in the Ukrainian army, is known as one of the fiercest fighting forces* in the pro-Kiev operation.
“But … it has pulled away from the front lines on a scheduled rest-and-retraining rotation, Guk said, leaving the Ukrainian army — a less capable force, in his opinion — in its place. His advice to residents of Mariupol is to get ready for the worst.
“‘If it is your home, you should be ready to fight for it, and accept that if the fight is for your home, you must defend it,’ he said, when asked whether residents should prepare to leave. Some are ready to heed that call, as a matter of patriotic duty.”
The Post’s stirring words fit with the Western media’s insistent narrative and its refusal to include meaningful background about the Azov battalion, which is known for marching under Nazi banners, displaying the Swastika and painting SS symbols on its helmets.
The New York Times filed a similarly disingenuous article from Mariupol on Feb. 11, depicting the ethnic Russian rebels as barbarians at the gate with the Azov battalion defending civilization. Though providing much color and detail – and quoting an Azov leader prominently – the Times left out the salient and well-known fact that the Azov battalion is composed of neo-Nazis.
But this inconvenient truth – that neo-Nazis have been central to Kiev’s “self-defense forces” from last February’s coup to the present – would disrupt the desired propaganda message to American readers. So the New York Times just ignores the Nazism and refers to Azov as a “volunteer unit.”
Yet, this glaring omission is prima facie proof of journalistic bias. There’s no way that the editors of the Post and Times don’t know that the presence of neo-Nazis is newsworthy. Indeed, there’s a powerful irony in this portrayal of Nazis as the bulwark of Western civilization against the Russian hordes from the East. It was, after all, the Russians who broke the back of Nazism in World War II as Hitler sought to subjugate Europe and destroy Western civilization as we know it.
That the Nazis are now being depicted as defenders of Western ideals has to be the ultimate man-bites-dog story. But it goes essentially unreported in the New York Times and Washington Post as does the inconvenient presence of other Nazis holding prominent positions in the post-coup regime, including Andriy Parubiy, who was the military commander of the Maidan protests and served as the first national security chief of the Kiev regime. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Ukraine, Through the US Looking Glass.”] The Nazi Reality
Regarding the Azov battalion, the Post and Times have sought to bury the Nazi reality, but both have also acknowledged it in passing. For instance, on Aug. 10, 2014, a Times’ article mentioned the neo-Nazi nature of the Azov battalion in the last three paragraphs of a lengthy story on another topic.
“The fighting for Donetsk has taken on a lethal pattern: The regular army bombards separatist positions from afar, followed by chaotic, violent assaults by some of the half-dozen or so paramilitary groups surrounding Donetsk who are willing to plunge into urban combat,” the Times reported.
“Officials in Kiev say the militias and the army coordinate their actions, but the militias, which count about 7,000 fighters, are angry and, at times, uncontrollable. One known as Azov, which took over the village of Marinka, flies a neo-Nazi symbol resembling a Swastika as its flag.” [See Consortiumnews.com’s “NYT Whites Out Ukraine’s Brownshirts.”]
Similarly, the Post published a lead story last Sept. 12 describing the Azov battalion in flattering terms, saving for the last three paragraphs the problematic reality that the fighters are fond of displaying the Swastika:
“In one room, a recruit had emblazoned a swastika above his bed. But Kirt [a platoon leader] … dismissed questions of ideology, saying that the volunteers — many of them still teenagers — embrace symbols and espouse extremist notions as part of some kind of ‘romantic’ idea.”
Other news organizations have been more forthright about this Nazi reality. For instance, the conservative London Telegraph published an article by correspondent Tom Parfitt, who wrote: “Kiev’s use of volunteer paramilitaries to stamp out the Russian-backed Donetsk and Luhansk ‘people’s republics’… should send a shiver down Europe’s spine.
“Recently formed battalions such as Donbas, Dnipro and Azov, with several thousand men under their command, are officially under the control of the interior ministry but their financing is murky, their training inadequate and their ideology often alarming. The Azov men use the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel (Wolf’s Hook) symbol on their banner and members of the battalion are openly white supremacists, or anti-Semites.”
Based on interviews with militia members, the Telegraph reported that some of the fighters doubted the Holocaust, expressed admiration for Hitler and acknowledged that they are indeed Nazis.
Andriy Biletsky, the Azov commander, “is also head of an extremist Ukrainian group called the Social National Assembly,” according to the Telegraph article which quoted a commentary by Biletsky as declaring: “The historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival. A crusade against the Semite-led Untermenschen.”
The Telegraph questioned Ukrainian authorities in Kiev who acknowledged that they were aware of the extremist ideologies of some militias but insisted that the higher priority was having troops who were strongly motivated to fight.
Azov fighters even emblazon the Swastika and the SS insignia on their helmets. NBC News reported: “Germans were confronted with images of their country’s dark past … when German public broadcaster ZDF showed video of Ukrainian soldiers with Nazi symbols on their helmets in its evening newscast.” Image: Nazi symbols on helmets worn by members of Ukraine’s Azov battalion. (As filmed by a Norwegian film crew and shown on German TV.)
But it’s now clear that far-right extremism is not limited to the militias sent to kill ethnic Russians in the east or to the presence of a few neo-Nazi officials who were rewarded for their roles in last February’s coup. The fanaticism is present at the center of the Kiev regime, including its deputy foreign minister who speaks casually about a “full-scale war” with nuclear-armed Russia. An Orwellian World
In a “normal world,” U.S. and European journalists would explain to their readers how insane all this is; how a dispute over the pace for implementing a European association agreement while also maintaining some economic ties with Russia could have been worked out within the Ukrainian political system, that it was not grounds for a U.S.-backed “regime change” last February, let alone a civil war, and surely not nuclear war.
But these are clearly not normal times. To a degree that I have not seen in my 37 years covering Washington, there is a totalitarian quality to the West’s current “group think” about Ukraine with virtually no one who “matters” deviating from the black-and-white depiction of good guys in Kiev vs. bad guys in Donetsk and Moscow.
And, if you want to see how the “objective” New York Times dealt with demonstrations in Moscow and other Russian cities protesting last year’s coup against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, read Sunday’s dispatch by the Times’ neocon national security correspondent Michael R. Gordon, best known as the lead writer with Judith Miller on the infamous “aluminum tube” story in 2002, helping to set the stage for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Here’s how Gordon explained the weekend’s anti-coup protests:
“The official narrative as reported by state-run television in Russia, and thus accepted by most Russians, is that the uprising in Ukraine last year was an American-engineered coup, aided by Ukrainian Nazis, and fomented to overthrow Mr. Yanukovych, a pro-Russian president.”
In other words, the Russians are being brainwashed while the readers of the New York Times are getting their information from an independent news source that would never be caught uncritically distributing government propaganda, another example of the upside-down Orwellian world that Americans now live in. [See, for example, “NYT Retracts Russian Photo Scoop.”]
In our land of the free, there is no “official narrative” and the U.S. government would never stoop to propaganda. Everyone just happily marches in lockstep behind the conventional wisdom of a faultless Kiev regime that “shares our values” and can do no wrong — while ignoring the brutality and madness of coup leaders who deploy Nazis and invite a nuclear holocaust for the world. Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
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By Stephen Ennis BBC Monitoring Some Russians say the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks were not as destructive as the Dresden bombing
Nuclear war is the ultimate, unthinkable catastrophe. But in some sections of the Russian media it is being viewed as a realistic possibility and even something to be embraced.
As the crisis in Ukraine has deepened over recent months and Moscow's relations with the West have become ever more strained, talk of nuclear war has been looming large in the Russian media.
In fact, as liberal journalist Yuriy Saprykin recently noted, it has almost become "commonplace".
Saprykin was struck by how presenters and listeners on independent radio station Ekho Moskvy now speak about nuclear war "more or less in the same way as if they were discussing increases in parking fines".
On other radio stations, the tone of the nuclear debate can be much more alarming.
"Why are you all so afraid of nuclear war? Why are you afraid of nuclear war?" presenter Aleksey Gudoshnikov asked listeners to the pro-Kremlin station Govorit Moskva last month.
He went on to say that people had survived the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, and that these were actually not as destructive as the bombing of Dresden some six months earlier.
"This fear of nuclear war is exaggerated, in my view," the 26-year-old Gudoshnikov concluded.
Radioactive ash The starting-point of this disturbing trend was the boast made on 16 March last year (the day of the so-called referendum in Crimea) by controversial TV host and media executive Dmitriy Kiselev that Russia had the weapons to turn the United States into "radioactive ash".
In a later interview with the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, Kiselev said he had merely been making a "technical" observation, and that people should not accuse him of "dreaming" of such a thing.
He has returned to the theme of nuclear war on his weekly show on state channel Rossiya 1 on more than one occasion since. Well-known TV host Dmitriy Kiselev claimed that Russia could turn the US into "radioactive ash"
On 8 February, he quoted an extract from Russia's military doctrine setting out the criteria for its use of nuclear weapons.
Kiselev stressed that this could happen not just in response to a nuclear attack on Russia, but against any military aggression that "threatens the very existence" of the Russian state.
He also stressed that the decision to push the nuclear button would be taken personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who "enjoys the unconditional support of the Russian people".
Once again, a nuclear attack was presented not as something to be shied away from, but as a necessary measure to preserve the nation.
'Existential threat' Before the current version of Russia's military doctrine was published at the end of last year, there had been talk that the section on nuclear war would be updated to allow for the use of pre-emptive strikes.
In the event, that section was left unchanged. Writing in the Moscow Times, Kremlin critic and military analyst Aleksandr Golts described it as a "wholly reasonable formulation regarding the use of nuclear weapons". Russian commentators say President Putin has the power and the support to use nuclear weapons
Meanwhile, pro-Kremlin media regularly talk up the idea that Russia is indeed facing an existential threat, of the sort that could potentially permit a nuclear strike.
TV news is full of stories about Nato's military build-up around Russia's borders, while commentators portray the West as being hell-bent on the country's destruction.
In a talkshow on Gazprom-Media's NTV on 25 January, pro-Putin pundit Sergey Markov said the West was preparing the ground for the "elimination of the Russian people as an entity in world history". A week later, Kiselev was telling viewers of his weekly show that the "very existence of Russia is not part of America's plan".
Contrast with USSR The matter-of-factness or even levity with which the Russian media now discuss nuclear weapons is new.
The Soviet Union took pride in its nuclear arsenal. But it also viewed the actual use of nuclear weapons with abhorrence. Nuclear war was to be avoided at all costs - witness Khrushchev's climb-down in the Cuban missile crisis.
By contrast, says Saprykin, some are losing their fear of nuclear weapons in today's Russia "where talk of when and how they might be used is a standard subject of public debate".
Nuclear war - at least in the rhetoric heard in parts of the Russian media - is no longer unthinkable. BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.
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As a follow-up to my previous article “What to Expect from Russia’s Pacific Fleet in 2014,” I would like to take a closer look at Russia’s new backbone of its maritime nuclear deterrence - the Borei-class (aka Dolgorukiy-class), Project 955, fourth generation SSBN (Ship, Submersible, Ballistic, Nuclear) submarine. RT (somewhat predictably)called this new SSBN class, “the planet’s most advanced nuclear deterrent tool.”
Designed by Rubin Marine Equipment Design Bureau and built by Northern Machine Building Enterprise (Sevmash shipyard), the Borei-class (“North Wind”) is intended to replace the Project 941 Typhoon-class and Project 667 BDRM Delta IV-class vessels. This constitutes the first time that Russia has added new SSBNs to its navy since the end of the Cold War. “In a way, the Borei represents a literal rebirth of the Soviet submarine fleet; several boats in the class are being constructed partially from the hulls of scrapped or unfinished Akulas and Akula IIIs,” a U.S. naval officer writing for the U.S. Naval Institute notes.
The new Borei-class SSBN is 580 feet (170 meters) long, has a hull diameter of 42 feet (13 meters), and a crew of 107, including 55 officers. It can dive to a maximum depth of about 1,500 feet (450 meters) and yields a submerged speed of roughly 30 knots. The sub has a compact, hydro-dynamically efficient hull for reduced broadband noise and uses pump-jet propulsion. Pump-jet propulsion reduces noise and provides the submarine with a higher tactical ‘silent speed’ and increased maneuverability. This makes the submarine more difficult to detect.
According to naval-technology.com, the total cost of the first Borei-class SSBN was $713 million, including the $280m research and development effort. In comparison, the cost of a U.S. Ohio-class SSBN was around $2 billion per vessel.
Borei-class strategic submarines carry between 12 to 16 Bulava (RSM-56) ballistic missiles with with 6-10 warheads per missile – each warhead yielding 100-150 kilotons – for a total of 72 to 196 warheads per submarine. The Bulava ballistic missile has a range of over 8300km. Analyzing the Bulava inter-continental missile Lieutenant Commander Tom Spahn, a U.S. naval reserve officer, concludes:
Like its launch platform, the Bulava missile also represents a dramatic leap forward in technology. Similar to its land-based variant, the Topol-M SS-27, to thwart evolving Western ballistic-missile-defense shields, the Bulava can conduct evasive post-launch maneuvers and deploy a variety of countermeasures and decoys to defend against interception. Its ten hypersonic, independently maneuverable warheads are protected against both physical and electromagnetic-pulse damage to ensure that they can reach their targets intact.
The ship’s antisubmarine warfare capabilities are also impressive. The SSBN boasts six torpedo tubes for launching six RPK-2 Viyuga (SS-N-15) missiles. “Each SS-N-15 is capable of carrying a payload of a Type 40 torpedo or 90R nuclear depth charge. The missile can strike enemy submarines within a range of 45 km, while travelling at a subsonic speed of Mach 0.9,”according to naval-technology.com.
The Russian Navy is currently operating three Borei-class SSBNs. The first, K-535 Yuriy Dolgorukiy, was commissioned in January 2013 and currently serves in Russia’s Northern Fleet. Another Borei-class SSBN, the Vladimir Monomakh, commissioned in December 2014, is expected to enter the service of the Pacific Fleet this year. The Borei-class SSBN Alexander Nevsky, commissioned in December 2013, recently conducted a successful single test-launch of the Bulava inter-continental ballistic missile in the Kamchatka Peninsula.
All in all, the Russian Navy plans to build eight SSBN’s of this class (with an option to construct two more) by 2020. The next vessel in the class, the Knyaz Vladimir, is designated as a Project 955A Borei II. It could field four more additional missile tubes (bringing the total number of missiles potentially up to 20) and is currently under construction. According to RT, it will boast smaller hulls and cons, improved acoustics and lower sound levels. A fifth Borei-class sub, the Knyaz Oleg, was laid down at the Sevmash shipyard in July 2014.
The Borei-class submarines are envisioned to remain in service at least until 2040. Tom Spahn, writing for Proceedings Magazine, calls the Borei-class SSBN an “impressive platform.” He further notes that “the Borei contains the best of modern submarine technology, including advanced sound-silencing and pump jet propulsion similar to that found on the U.S. Virginia class.”
War is Boringquotes an expert in anti-submarine warfare, noting that Russia is the only country in the world that can build a nuclear submarine capable of evading U.S. detection. However, the expert also notes that the “Russian navy right now [in 2013] is just a complete disaster, and on the margins they can get better, but to really get our attention they have to build 10, 20 of these things. And there are no signs they’re going to do that. I don’t think they have the money for it.”
For a more nuanced analysis on the state of Russia’s Navy, I highly recommend, Dmitry Gorenburg’s analyses here and here. Perhaps we will be lucky and a Russian sub commander will soon dispatch a letter to a Russian admiral, announcing his intention to defect. Then the world shall definitely know more about Russia’s deadliest nuclear submarine.
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A Russian intelligence-gathering ship is again plying the waters off the southern United States in operations aimed at spying on U.S. ballistic missile submarines based in the area, defense officials said.
The intelligence collection ship, Viktor Leonov, has been closely watched by U.S. Navy ships and aircraft for the past several days near Jacksonville, Fla., close to the Naval Submarine Base at Kings Bay, Ga. The ship also conducted operations there in April.
The spying comes amid heightened U.S.-Russia tensions over the crisis in Ukraine, where Russian forces annexed the Crimea last year and are continuing to arm pro-Moscow rebels in the eastern part of the country.
The Kings Bay base is homeport for the Navy’s Submarine Group 10, with six nuclear-armed missile submarines and two conventionally armed missile submarines.
“It’s been all in international waters and all perfectly legal,” said a defense official familiar with efforts to monitor the ship. “But it’s interesting that it is operating, collecting on us where it is.”
This week, the Leonov was spotted anchored about 22 miles off the Florida coast, southeast of Kings Bay.
It reportedly left Cuba on Jan. 22, and its movements since then have not been made public.
The ship, known as an AGI in military parlance, is equipped with high technology gear designed to pick up electronic communications and underwater signals. It is also armed with 30-millimeter cannon and anti-aircraft guns.
The Leonov recently made headlines by making a port visit to Havana, Cuba, in late January that coincided with the Obama administration’s initiative to normalize relations with the communist regime in Cuba.
The spy ship’s presence also comes as Russia is increasing the number of strategic bomber flights near U.S. and allied coasts. One recent air defense zone incursion took place near eastern Canada that U.S. officials said simulated a nuclear cruise missile attack on the United States.
The Tu-95 flights appear to have subsided in recent weeks, defense officials said.
The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Vincent R. Stewart, told Congress last week that Russia is building up nuclear forces and increasing out-of-area operations, including in the Caribbean.
“Russian forces have conducted exercises and … record numbers of out-of-area air and naval operations,” Stewart said in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee.
“ We expect this to continue this year to include greater activity in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas.”
On Moscow’s nuclear buildup, Stewart said: “Moscow has made significant progress in modernizing its nuclear and conventional forces, improving its training and joint operational proficiency, modernizing its military doctrine to integrate new methods of warfare, and developing long range precision strike capabilities.”
“We anticipate continued high levels of Russian military activity in 2015,” he added.
New Russian strategic forces include additional deployments of an advanced version of the road-mobile SS-27 missile with multiple warheads, the new RS-26 missile, and the SS-N-32 submarine launched ballistic missile.
In April, the Washington Free Beacon revealed that the Leonov, along with the Nikolay Chiker, a naval tug capable of serving Russian submarines, were conducting operations off the East Coast.
The Pentagon played down the vessels’ presence as outside U.S. territorial waters, but near Cuba.
Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, has shown a revival of Cold War rhetoric and nuclear activities, including large-scale strategic nuclear exercises and a build up of nuclear forces.
In 2012, the Navy detected a Russian Akula attack submarine near the East Coast. In a conflict, Akula submarines would be tasked to find and sink U.S. missile submarines.
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I posted it in Venezuela Preparing for war thread, but this is bigger than just Venezuela at this point. This is made up shit against US citizens.... Pretty obvious since our President is already a damned Marxist, and isn't going to do SHIT to "topple" another Marxist. This is a load of crap.
HOWEVER, these guys are in cahoots with Russia. China is walking through South America like they own it now.
Maduro says Venezuela detains U.S. citizens; announces moves against U.S.
By Diego Ore and Brian Ellsworth February 28, 2015 10:32 PM
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Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro addresses the audience at the Diplomatic Centre in Port-of-Spain, …
By Diego Ore and Brian Ellsworth
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Saturday his government had detained U.S. citizens, including a pilot, on suspicion of espionage, in a move likely to strain already tense relations between Washington and Caracas.
Maduro also said his government would order a reduction in the number of U.S. embassy staff in Caracas and prohibit some U.S. officials from entering Venezuela in retaliation for a similar U.S. measure last year. Venezuela would also require U.S. citizens to obtain visas before visiting, he told a rally.
The Venezuelan president, long at odds with Washington, has renewed accusations in recent weeks that the United States is seeking to topple him.
Maduro's political opponents at home call this a smokescreen aimed at distracting from an increasingly severe economic crisis in the oil-exporting nation. Venezuela has been hard hit by the collapse of oil prices over the last nine months.
"We have captured some U.S. citizens in undercover activities, espionage, trying to win over people in towns along the Venezuelan coast," Maduro said at a rally in Caracas adding one was a U.S. pilot detained in the volatile border state of Tachira.
"In Tachira we captured a pilot of a U.S. plane (who is) of Latin origin (carrying) all kinds of documentation," Maduro said, without offering details.
He said U.S. politicians including former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Senator Bob Menendez would be blocked from entering Venezuela.
Menendez in response said: "Being sanctioned by the Maduro regime will never deter me from speaking out against the ruin caused by his government."
A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Caracas said he was unable to comment, citing a lack of any official diplomatic communication with the Venezuelan government.
An official in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration broadly dismissed the accusations from Caracas.
"The continued allegations that the United States is involved in efforts to destabilize the Venezuelan government are baseless and false," the senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
EVANGELICALS QUESTIONED
The head of a Venezuelan evangelical organization said on Friday a group of four missionaries had been called in for questioning after taking part in a medical assistance campaign in the coastal town of Ocumare de la Costa.
That pastor, Abdy Pereira, said on Saturday in a telephone interview that the four had left the country for Aruba after having been questioned for several days about alleged involvement in espionage.
"The government attempted to link them to (espionage activities) but there was no evidence that this was the case," said Pereira.
The Communication Ministry did not answer calls seeking details about the identities of the missionaries or their whereabouts.
On the move to reduce the U.S. mission in Caracas, Maduro said he had ordered Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez to proceed immediately, based on Vienna convention rules, "to revise, reduce ... and limit the number of officials in the U.S. embassy in Venezuela."
It was not clear when embassy officials would have to leave.
Maduro added that Americans will now need visas to enter Venezuela and will have to pay the same visa fees that Venezuelans pay to get into the United States.
The president's moves followed the arrest this month of Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma on conspiracy charges, a move Maduro said would stymie a U.S.-backed coup effort.
Maduro's adversaries said the plot was a charade meant to distract from consumer goods shortages, soaring prices and Maduro's tumbling popularity ratings.
Caracas and Washington have had tense diplomatic relations since the era of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, who was briefly toppled in a 2002 coup that he said was orchestrated by the State Department.
The government of then U.S. President George W. Bush endorsed that coup before backtracking when Chavez returned to power.
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Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro gestures during a meeting with supporters at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, February 19, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
(Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it would respond through diplomatic channels to Venezuela's demand for a cut in U.S. Embassy staff in Caracas, but added that Caracas had drastically underestimated its own diplomatic presence in the United States.
Venezuela on Monday ordered the U.S. Embassy in Caracas to come up with a plan within 15 days to reduce staff to 17 from 100 amid the worst diplomatic flare-up between the two ideological foes since socialist President Nicolas Maduro was elected in 2013.
Maduro said there were 17 staffers at his country's embassy in Washington, a figure disputed by the United States during a brief meeting on Monday between Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez and U.S. Charge d'Affaires Lee McClenny.
During the meeting, "we noted that the numbers the Venezuelan government has offered regarding its mission in the United States dramatically understate the number of Venezuelan diplomats in the United States," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
"We will respond to the Venezuelan government via diplomatic channels after due consideration of their request," Harf said, declining to say how many Venezuelan diplomats there were in the United States.
In addition to its embassy, Venezuela has eight consulates in the United States, as well as missions at the United Nations and Organization of American States, Harf said.
Venezuela had argued publicly and privately that the United States was trying to undermine the Maduro government, Harf added, a charge Washington has dismissed as "completely baseless."
In an over four-hour broadcast on Tuesday night, Maduro did not shed light on developments with Washington and reiterated accusations the U.S. was conspiring to topple him.
He played an audio recording of an alleged New York-based coup-plotter, which he called "proof" there had been a putsch attempt earlier this year.
"Obama...: Abandon your interventionist plans in Venezuela," Maduro boomed, demanding President Barack Obama hand over alleged subversives.
Maduro said he also has a video that directly implicates Washington but had decided to hold off from showing it for now.
Although the United States did endorse a short-lived coup against Chavez in 2002, opposition leaders say the new accusations are a ludicrous smokescreen designed to hide a recession, shortages of goods ranging from toilet paper to medicines, and the region's steepest inflation.
South American bloc Unasur will send a delegation to Caracas on Friday, Maduro added. A trip by Brazilian, Colombian and Ecuadorian foreign ministers to meet with Maduro had been previously announced.
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The governing strategy of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela increasingly relies on blaming and punishing scapegoats for his own failings. He took that approach to a ludicrous level over the weekend, announcing that the United States Embassy in Caracas would have to shrink its staff from more than 100 to 17 and that American citizens would henceforth need visas to travel to Venezuela.
In an apparent response to the Obama administration’s recent decision to ban certain Venezuelan officials suspected of human rights violations from traveling to the United States, Mr. Maduro unveiled a no-fly list of his own, declaring former President George W. Bush; former Vice President Dick Cheney; and George Tenet, a former director of the C.I.A., personae non gratae.
For good measure, Mr. Maduro warned that the American diplomats who remained in Venezuela must clear any meetings, presumably with anyone, with his government. The moves are meant to combat “imperialist aggression,” he told a throng of supporters on Saturday during a rambling, effusive speech.
Mr. Maduro’s theatrics came as antigovernment demonstrators took to the streets in the western city of San Cristóbal to denounce the death of a 14-year-old who was fatally shot last week during a protest. Vilifying Americans during a time of growing unrest and a deepening economic crisis might galvanize his base in the short term, but over the long haul it can only damage his government. And history is likely to record it as yet another self-inflicted wound by a leader whose relatively short time in power has been characterized by impulsive, erratic and vengeful behavior.
Requiring that Americans obtain visas to enter Venezuela would become yet another disincentive for citizens of Venezuela’s largest trading partner to do business there. Gutting the diplomatic staff at the American Embassy in Caracas, the capital, would likewise make it more laborious for Venezuelans to travel to, and do business in, the United States.
As Mr. Maduro locks up and expels more scapegoats, his own shortcomings will inevitably come into sharper focus.
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A top U.S. admiral told lawmakers on Wednesday that China’s submarines, both diesel and nuclear powered, outnumber the United States’ undersea fleet, although they are of lesser quality than American boats.
Vice Admiral Joseph Mulloy, who is deputy chief of naval operations for capabilities and resources, spoke before the House Armed Services Committee’s seapower subcommittee, describing China’s fleet as “fairly amazing submarines,” according to Reuters. Noting three recent Chinese deployments into the Indian Ocean, which lasted up to 95 days, he explained that China was expanding both the length and reach of its submarine deployments.
“We know they are out experimenting and looking at operating and clearly want to be in this world of advanced submarines,” Mulloy said.
Although he warranted that the submarines were of lower quality than those produced by the United States, Mulloy asserted that China’s undersea fleet had now grown larger than America’s. The United States Navy has 71 commissioned submarines in service, according to a spokeswoman, which are constructed by both Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. and General Dynamics Corp.
Though China has been exploring the technology, the U.S. military does not believe that their submarines can yet carry nuclear missiles. When the Pentagon last reported to Congress on China’s military strength, they noted that the country operated a fleet of over 60 submarines, as well as 77 surface combat ships, 55 amphibious ships, and 85 missile-equipped small ships, according to Newsmax.
U.S. defense officials have been increasingly vocal about China’s military buildup in recent months and the extent of its reach. As the Inquisitr previously noted, China began construction last year on a series of outposts in the South China Sea, located on the disputed Spratly Islands. The installations, described by some as island fortresses, are the result of a massive land reclamation program, essentially creating man-made islands on the shallow reef.
Western diplomats noted the strategic nature of the outposts, which lie just 220 miles from the Philippines, yet over 660 miles from China’s mainland.
“On many different levels it’s going to be exceptionally difficult to counter China in the South China Sea as this develops,” one noted.
Last year, unknown submarines were spotted near Sweden and also in the English channel. Though the mysterious submarines remain unidentified, widespread suspicion fell upon Russia as the country responsible for their deployment. The country’s defense ministry repeatedly denied any involvement in the incident.
Both Russia and China have shown recent advancements in submarine technology, as the Inquisitr has noted.
[Image via Twitter/ @PhillipCMead]
WASHINGTON -- Between the emergence of ISIS and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move on Ukraine, many experts wonder if we are heading for another major global conflict. Some have been so bold as to call it what they believe it really is; World War III.
Islamic State "cohorts" seem to be emerging at frightening rates, giving the sense of an expanding terror network with its tentacles scattered worldwide.
A “jayvee team” as President Barack Obama called ISIS last year, seems to be gaining recruits; and more importantly -- land.
ISIS and its sympathizers have turned up in more than a dozen nations; from northern Africa to the Philippines.
In 1933 the Nazi’s like ISIS, were the minority bullies with the bullhorns. But because little was done -- Adolf Hitler went down in history as the epitome of evil.
ISIS’ methods have proved just as malicious and horrifying.
“I think the mission of the enemy is to precipitate World War III,” says Frank Gaffney from the Center for Security policy. “The path we’re on at the moment unfortunately, I think, suggests they’re more likely to achieve their goal than we will be in preventing them from spreading a global wide conflagration.”
One American University professor of history is not so sure. It’s not ISIS insomuch as it is Russia with its volatile economy, low oil prices and Russian troops in Ukraine.
“Russia is the thing if you’re talking about World War III people are focusing on today, says history Professor Eric Lohr. “Its actions are quite dangerous.”
A former CIA agent who spent more than 20 years in the Near East tells us he has a solution to avert World War III. Although he admits it’s not likely to occur anytime soon.
“I think the removal of all American and western forces from Muslim nations is the beginning of rebuilding some kind of new institutions,” he says. “They just aren’t compatible.”
Both World Wars in the 20-century unfolded when Americans least expected it. Like September 11, 2001, it came as an overwhelming shock.
If there is a World War III, many experts agree it’s likely to happen under the same circumstances.
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North Korea launches two short-range missiles into the sea
Two days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly told his army to prepare for war with the United States and its allies, the country fired two short-range missiles off its east coast.
In a defiant response to military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. set to begin Monday, North Korea fired the missiles about 305 miles into the sea, Reuters reported, citing South Korea’s defense ministry.
North Korea fired the missiles without designating any no-sail zones, South Korean Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said.
"If North Korea takes provocative actions, our military will react firmly and strongly so North Korea will regret it in its bones," Kim told a news briefing.
Monday’s offensive move followed threatening statements Kim made Saturday, AFP reported, citing Korean state media.
"The prevailing situation where a great war for national reunification is at hand requires all the KPA (Korean People's Army) units to become (elite) Guard Units fully prepared for war politically and ideologically, in military technique and materially," he said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
Kim reportedly told the army to train to "tear to pieces the Stars Stripes," while speaking at an opening for a new hall at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang, KCNA said.
Kim's comments came after ongoing naval drills between South Korea and the U.S., and ahead of this week’s large-scale military exercises.
North Korea condemns the drills as rehearsals for invasion, the report said.
Pyongyang has harshly criticized the drills, with a spokesman for its army general staff saying Washington and Seoul "should be dealt with only by merciless strikes."
Monday’s North Korean missile firing also drew swift protest from the Japanese, who said the launches posed a serious threat to safety at sea and in the sky, Reuters reported.
"The ballistic missile launches by North Korea are extremely problematic conduct in terms of aviation and navigation safety," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
"We swiftly lodged a stern protest with North Korea."
Japan eased some sanctions on North Korea in July, in return for the North reopening its investigation into the fate of Japanese abductees. Progress on any deal has been slow.
North Korea frequently tests short-range missiles off its coast as part of military drills.
The United Nations has imposed sanctions restricting North Korea from using ballistic missile technologies.
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Vladimir Putin wants to destroy Nato, says US commander in Europe Ben Hodges
Lt-Gen Frederick “Ben” Hodges says the UK is still a leader within Nato and warns that Europe must "raise the cost" for Vladimir Putin
"Ben" Hodges accused Vladimir Putin of seeking to destroy Nato Photo: REUTERS
By Justin Huggler in Berlin
12:38PM GMT 04 Mar 2015
The commander of the US army in Europe has spoken out in support of the military relationship with Britain, amid concerns it could be damaged by defence cuts.
“The US-UK relationship is as important as ever,” Lt-Gen Frederick “Ben” Hodges said. “The UK is our oldest ally and still a leader in Nato. I think the UK will live up to its leadership position.”
"Ben" Hodges warned that Mr Putin could try to destabilise a Nato member (AFP/Getty)
He accused Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, of seeking to destroy Nato, and warned that Russia could seek to use the sort of “hybrid warfare” seen in eastern Ukraine against a Nato member to test the alliance.
“I am sure Putin wants to destroy our alliance, not by attacking it but by splintering it,” he said in a speech to military and political leaders in Berlin.
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He warned that Mr Putin could try to destabilise a Nato member by using a rebel militia as in eastern Ukraine, or other forms of “ambiguous” warfare.
In the absence of an overt Russian attack, some Nato members could be reluctant to invoke Article 5 of the Washington treaty, under which an attack on one member is an attack on all.
“Once Article 5 is gone, our alliance is over,” Gen Hodges said.
He called for American tanks to be positioned in countries along Nato’s eastern flank, as a deterrent to Mr Putin.
Just months after moving its last tanks out of Europe, the US has decided to send some 220 Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles back in response to the Ukraine crisis.
And the US has already agreed to send troops to Poland and the three Baltic states.
Gen Hodges called for Nato countries to maintain defence spending in the face of the Ukraine crisis.
The chief of staff of the US army, Gen Raymond Odierno, said he was “very concerned” earlier this week after David Cameron refused to commit to maintaining defence spending at Nato’s agreed target of 2 per cent of GDP.
But Gen Hodges said he was “sure” the UK would continue to meet the 2 per cent target.
“The UK is one of only four Nato members that currently meets its 2 per cent target,” he said. “There are 24 that are already below, and many of them are well below.” He described German military equipment shortages as “unacceptable”.
“For the most powerful nation in Europe, which takes a leadership role in the EU, it is unacceptable to have helicopters that don’t fly, or aircraft you can’t use,” he said Only 42 of Germany’s 109 Typhoon fighters are available because of maintenance issues, alongside 38 of its 89 Tornado bombers.
In Ukraine, the US strategy is to “raise the cost for President Putin” by supporting Ukrainian government forces, Gen Hodges said.
Europe and the US have been divided over American proposals to arm Ukrainian troops.
“We could give Ukraine 1,000 tanks and they would never invade Russia. No one expects Ukraine to defeat Russia, that’s not the point,” Gen Hodges said.
“We have to raise the cost for Putin. Right now he has 85 per cent domestic support. But when mothers start seeing their sons come home dead, when the price goes up, domestic support goes down.” A planned American mission to train Ukrainian troops has been put on hold to give the current peace process a chance to succeed.
Gen Hodges accused Russia of having 12,000 troops inside eastern Ukraine.
“If you don’t believe Russia is directly involved in Ukraine now, you’ll never believe it. You don’t want to believe it,” he said.
He accused Russia of seeking to establish control of the mouth of the river Danube, which would give it a stranglehold over the economies of south-eastern Europe.
On Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil), Gen Hodges said he believed the extremists were being funded from within the Arab Gulf states.
“Isil are getting money, for sure, from some of our friends in the Gulf states. We need to find out who is supporting them, who is allowing the money through,” he said.
On a strategy for dealing with Isil, he was blunt.
“There are some people that need to be killed,” he said.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 3, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Gary Cameron
(Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and other senior Republican and Democratic House members urged U.S. President Barack Obama to quickly authorize lethal weapons for Ukraine as it battles Russian-backed separatists, according to a letter released on Thursday.
"We urge you to quickly approve additional efforts to support Ukraine’s efforts to defend its sovereign territory, including through the transfer of lethal, defensive weapons systems to the Ukrainian military," they wrote in a letter, dated Wednesday and signed by eight Republicans and three Democrats.
The letter followed up on a meeting between Boehner, other members of Congress and Ukrainian lawmakers last week.
Obama along with European leaders are weighing their next steps in dealing with the conflict in eastern Ukraine, including possibly providing weapons as well as additional sanctions against Moscow over its role in supporting rebels.
U.S. officials have said they are concerned about the risk of escalating the level of fighting and getting sucked into a proxy war with Russia. (Too LATE, Dumbasses)
Victoria Nuland, U.S. assistant secretary of state for European affairs, told a congressional hearing on Wednesday that the United States had provided $118 million in security aid in the past 14 months. Last month, the State Department pledged nearly $17 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed frustration with what many see as the Obama administration's resistance to providing weapons despite what they see as increased Russian aggression.
"In the face of Russian aggression, the lack of clarity on our overall strategy thus far has done little to reassure our friends and allies in the region who, understandably, feel vulnerable. This needs to change," the lawmakers wrote in the letter.
The House and U.S. Senate voted unanimously late last year for a bill authorizing Obama to provide weapons to Kiev but he has yet to decide whether to send any.
Wednesday's letter was signed by Boehner, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and top Republicans and Democrats from the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, as well as the Republican chairs of the House Appropriations Committee and Defense and State and Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittees.
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Originally Posted by vector7
no joke: Pelosi says she was so outraged with netanyahu’s “condescending” speech that she “near tears”…
Re: World War Three Thread....
Image: Peter Sellers playing Dr. Strangelove as he struggles to control his right arm from making a Nazi salute.
Image: Nazi symbols on helmets worn by members of Ukraine’s Azov battalion. (As filmed by a Norwegian film crew and shown on German TV.)
Some Russians say the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks were not as destructive as the Dresden bombing
Well-known TV host Dmitriy Kiselev claimed that Russia could turn the US into "radioactive ash"
Russian commentators say President Putin has the power and the support to use nuclear weapons
Men fish near the Russian warship Viktor Leonov CCB-175, docked in Havana's harbor, Cuba, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015 / AP
. View photo
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro gestures during a meeting with supporters at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, February 19, 2015.
"Ben" Hodges accused Vladimir Putin of seeking to destroy Nato Photo: REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 3, 2015.
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