Tag Archives: National Insecurity

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Cold War II: Naval Front Now Open

Soviet Union Russia says to send battleship to Caribbean Sea

First off – it ISN’T a battleship, except perhaps generically as a ship built to participate in battles. Nobody at present has any active battleships (BB types)… we still have a few that in a pinch COULD be reactivated, and there are some reasons why this would be a good idea…but that’s another story, and I digress.

What is being discussed here is effectively a guided missile battlecruser (BCG), and is a very impressive looking package, although it may be subject to some technical and maintenance issues. These ships are significantly larger than the current USN cruiser classes, and for that reason are very effective at “showing the flag” exercises and activities, if not combat.

kirov.jpg

Russia will send a nuclear-powered battleship to the Caribbean for a joint naval exercise with Venezuela, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The maneuvers later this year will be the first Russia has conducted in Washington’s traditional sphere of influence since the end of the Cold War.

So…Putin figures apparently that turn about is fair play, since the Black Sea has been as much of a Russian “lake” as the Caribbean has been for us.

Russia has heavily criticized the United States for sending a sophisticated command ship and two other naval vessels to Georgia, on its southern border, to deliver aid and show support for President Mikheil Saakashvili after Moscow sent troops into Georgia.

Nothing to be concerned about however, according to the Soviets Russians:

Russia denied that the move amounted to retaliation against the United States over its action Georgia. “We are talking about a planned event not linked with current political circumstances and not in any way connected to events in Georgia,” he told a news briefing. The exercises “will in no way be directed against the interests of a third country.”

You can believe as much of that as you want to, but the Chief isn’t buying it!

National Insecurity

Cold War II & Stalinist Revivalism

Ghost of Stalin strides the Caucasus

Knowing the origins of Stalin, and his later record, the current mess in Georgia, and the aggressiveness of the Soviets Russians is unfortunately part of the pattern of the new cold war, same as the old cold war.

AT the centre of Gori, Georgia, where every window has been shattered and Russian T-72 tanks patrol, the marble statue of the world’s most famous Georgian, Joseph Stalin, stands gleamingly, almost supernaturally unharmed. As this vicious colonial war turns into an international battle over spheres of influence, Stalin is Banquo at the feast, metaphorically present in the palaces of the Kremlin, the burning houses in the villages, the cabinets of Europe’s eastern capitals.

Today, as far as Moscow is concerned, the Georgian cobbler’s son and Marxist fanatic has been laundered of any traces of Georgia and Marx. He is now a Russian tsar, the inspiration for the authoritarian, nationalistic and imperial strains in today’s capitalistic, pragmatic, swaggering Russia.

In this crisis, and in who knows how many future ones, Stalin represents empire, prestige, victory.

Given the historical fact that Stalin’s USSR killed more of its own people than the Nazis did in their rightly despised death camps, where’s the outcry over Russia’s Stalinist revival?

What would the reaction be if Germany similarly launched a rejuvenation of Hitler’s rep?

National Insecurity

Iranians Sounding Like Nazis – Again

Ahmadinejad calls Israel ‘germ of corruption’ to be ‘removed soon’

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is calling Israel a “germ of corruption” that will be “removed soon.” The comments were posted Wednesday on his presidential Web site. They appear to be part of an effort to defuse criticism by hard-liners over recent remarks made by a high-level official.

Last week, Iranian media quoted Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai as saying Iranians were “friends of all people in the world – even Israelis.” The comments were rare from a government official in Iran. They sparked domestic criticism of Mashai, with some officials calling for his resignation.

…and these are the friendly fiendly folks that Donk candidate=apparent B.O. thinks he can negotiate with.

Sort of positioning himself for walking in the footsteps of Chamberlain, assuming of course that he gets elected…which is NOT something the Chief is ready to concede

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

More Cold War II – Leading to World War III (or is it IV?)

1 Comment

To one who is able and willing to recall 20th Century history, current events produce that same old deja vu all over again.

Remember? 3rd Reich Glee Club and Marching Society World Tour: 1938- Sudetenland / Czechoslovakia; 1939 – Poland; 1940 – Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, France; 1941 – Yugoslavia, Greece, Albania, North Africa, USSR. ’nuff said.

Russia: Poland risks attack because of US missiles

A top Russian general said Friday that Poland’s agreement to accept a U.S. missile interceptor base exposes the ex-communist nation to attack, possibly by nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported. The statement by Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn is the strongest threat that Russia has issued against the plans to put missile defense elements in former Soviet satellite nations….

“Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent,” Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff, was quoted as saying.

100%!!?? Is this REALLY a war warning? If so…see above note about 1939…

He added, in clear reference to the agreement, that Russia’s military doctrine sanctions the use of nuclear weapons “against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them.” Nogovitsyn said that would include elements of strategic deterrence systems, he said, according to Interfax.

Yikes! Even the Foggy Bottom Boyus at the State Department wouldn’t be able to ignore an attack on Poland…whether or not we were actually ready to act…which we aren’t, at least not much more (psychologically if not militarily) than were Britain and France in 1939.

This leads to a REALLY ugly, bad conclusion… and the Chief at least can’t see a good ending if the Russia keeps its vows.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Cold War II Update

Georgia on my Mind… (to quote Ray Charles)

Quoted in an e-mail bulletin, but without specifics as to date:

“Russia’s attack on neighboring Georgia over two tiny separatist provinces is really about something much bigger—Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s desire to restore the former USSR’s might. Russia’s ill intentions clearly are on display in Georgia. In a fit of nationalist fury, it wants to teach Georgia and other former satellite countries that once made up the Soviet Bloc that its pro-Western rapprochement days are over. What better way than to invade a former republic, humiliate its leaders and then taunt the West for failing to come to its aid? As if that wasn’t enough, Russia immediately began threatening its other neighbors. A top Russian diplomat ominously warned Monday that Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland would ‘pay’ for criticizing Russia’s ‘imperialist’ policy toward Georgia. Russia’s claim to support independence from Georgia of tiny South Ossetia and even tinier Abkhazia is simply phony. Georgia, with its strategically important oil pipeline, has grown close to the U.S. —even sending troops to Iraq. Putin, furious at growing U.S. and NATO ties with Eastern Europe, wanted to emasculate Georgia’s military while deposing its pro-American President Mikheil Saakashvili. With his attack, it looks like he’s succeeding. The symbolism of the invasion, coming at the start of the Beijing Olympics, is unmistakable. This is Russia’s wake-up call to all of us. Communism may be dead, Putin is saying, but Russia isn’t.” —Investor’s Business Daily

toon081408.gif

Thid did encourage the Chief to look at I.B.D. to try to find the specifics, without success. There WERE however, a couple of other relevant op-eds there on the topic:

A Pipeline Runs Through It

Geopolitics: Russia’s aggression is not only about toppling a pro-Western democracy and potential NATO member. It’s about the only pipeline bringing Caspian Sea oil to the West not controlled by Moscow or Iran.

Georgia is only the latest instance of Russia’s plans to reassemble the “evil empire” and neuter NATO expansion, using energy as both a weapon and a means of financing its rapid military expansion. Russia has doubled its military in the past five years, thanks in large part to the “windfall profits” it has reaped from skyrocketing energy prices.

One of the Russian targets in Georgia is a pipeline carrying oil from the Caspian to the West. Georgia was a target of renewed Russian imperialism because it was a democracy, a future NATO member and an energy supplier to the West. Its use would accelerate declining oil prices worldwide and put a serious crimp in Moscow’s plans.

This makes FAR too much sense…is anyone in Washington besides Sen. McCain noticing this? B.O. the Annointed continues to demonstrate his nearly total lack of situational awareness concerning national security issues.

Answering Russia

Energy: Russia’s bloody invasion of a smaller neighbor whose territory includes a vital oil pipeline has left many people wondering: What can we do? Plenty, it turns out — including some things right here at home.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced he was halting Russia’s air and ground attack on Georgia, but someone forgot to tell Russia’s military.

It has continued its brutal assault, with news reports that Russian troops have started looting, raping and savagely attacking Georgian civilians.

It’s clear former President Vladimir Putin, not his handpicked successor Medvedev, is calling the shots. Putin’s made no secret of the fact that he wants to depose Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and set up a pliant puppet regime, giving him de facto control of Georgia’s oil pipeline — the main conduit to Europe from the oil-rich Caspian Sea that’s not on Russian soil.

What to do? Some ideas from I.D.B.:

Start with President Bush’s pledge Wednesday to support Georgia, an ally in the war on terror, and send it aid. Bush warned Russia the U.S. might not support its “aspirations” to join diplomatic, economic and security groups. We’ve already canceled joint NATO-Russia naval exercises, scheduled for this weekend. And we can turn the G-8 nations back into the G-7. Russia has shown that it doesn’t deserve to be counted among democratic, economically free nations.

But there’s more we can do:
• Russia wants badly to join the World Trade Organization. Put that on a back burner until it starts behaving.
• Russia is scheduled to hold the 2014 Winter Olympics at the resort of Sochi, 15 miles from Abkhazia, the other Georgian province that Russia just invaded. Cancel it, and give it to a more deserving host.
• We’re building a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. We should accelerate our plans, and broaden participation.
• Russia took in about $27 billion in foreign investment last year. We should limit capital flows to make sure Western capital and technology aren’t used to build Russia’s military.

In short, if Russia wants a Cold War, we can give them one.

Hoo-rah! The Chief heartily concurs.

National Insecurity

Marching through Georgia – Update

“…wars, and rumors of wars.”:

Russian strikes hit civilians

Hmmm. Restoring the old Russian traditions of not troubling over trivialities like collateral damage”. Sort of like Afghanistan in the 70’s and 80’s, to say nothing of Hungary in ’56.

Georgia conflict: Screams of the injured rise from residential streets

georgian-woman-460_788473c.jpg

The ground shook and a series of explosions rippled through the air. From the middle of a housing estate in the Georgian town of Gori a huge fireball rose into the sky, twisting and mushrooming as if in slow motion. Choking dust swirled above the debris, darkening the sky. A brief silence followed and then the screaming started.

For two days, Georgia has been convulsed by a Russian air and ground assault in a conflict that has escalated rapidly from a localised war against separatist rebels in South Ossetia into a full-scale military confrontation.

But this was the first time that Russian bombs had struck a residential area.

The fighter jets responsible for the devastation had been targeting a military barracks in the built-up outskirts of Gori, a Georgian town 15 miles from the Ossetian frontier. They missed.

Unfortunately there is a lot more harrowing description of the results of the Glorious Soviet Russian Air Force in the Telegraph piece.

Of course, all is sweetness and light from Moscow:

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, and insists that the offensive in Georgia is not war but a “peacekeeping mission”.

Yeah, right. So’s a cemetery peaceful. In other words: “Ignore the picture above and the accompanying descriptions. Move along folks, nothing to be concered about. Watch the ChiCom Olympics. Nothing happening here. The Soviet Union Russia is a peace-loving nation, quietly maintaining its sovereignty over a formerly Soviet land. I mean, wasn’t everything peaceful back in the USSR? Da! It’s that pesky independence that Georgia seems to think is important that’s the problem. Nyet?

Few of the people of Gori believe that. So powerful were the bombs aimed at the barracks that they shattered windows in a half-mile radius. Even if all had hit their intended target, the chances of collateral damage would have been high.

No precision bombing here!

Directly related is this:

Georgia: Crisis deepens as Russia snubs George W Bush’s call to pull troops out

Western nations have sent a high-level diplomatic mission to Georgia in a bid to broker a truce in the country’s conflict with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Yada, yada, yada. Like former KGB thug Putin gives a rip about diplospeak. If he DID care, the Red Russian Army wouldn’t be on the march.

National Insecurity

Marching through Georgia

Georgia: Russia enters into ‘war’ in South Ossetia

If there is anyplace on the planet with as intricate a set of blood-feuds, ethno-political complications, and a potential for generating mayhem on a massive scale as the Balkans, it’s the Caucasus. This is where Russia, Iran, Turkey, and numerous smaller nations and ethnic identities all are cheek-by-jowl, and many dislike if not hate each other, and have done so for centuries.

georgia-map_787491a.gif

The current events there are the latest manifiestation of this…although the situation is greatly complicated a Cold War II geopolitical calculus that has Georgia, which had been aligned to seek NATO membership musch to Russias displeasure, and which has a pipeline terminus that allows central Asian gas to by-pass Russia on its way to Europe, under attack by Russia for seeking to assert sovereignty over part of its own recognized territory opposed to an ethnic minority that looks to Russia for protection.

This is also taking place in the context of Russian threatened “bomber rattling” – floating ideas to place supersonic nuke bombers in Cuba and Venezuela, to threaten…guess who…as possible paybacks for preceding with missile defense against possible Iranian ballistic missiles. Phew! That’s a LOT on the geopolitical platter at one time.

Over 1,300 people are reported dead after Russian forces responded to a Georgian attack on rebels in the breakaway province of South Ossetia by mounting a full scale invasion. Columns of Russian tanks plunged the two neighbours into war as they filed into South Ossetia, marking the Kremlin’s first military assault on foreign soil since the Soviet Union’s Afghanistan intevention, which ended in 1989.

Russian tanks rolled towards the capital of South Ossetia and fighters bombed Georgian air bases after Georgia launched attacks on rebels in the breakaway region. South Ossetia won de-facto independence in a war which ended in 1992 but has been a source of tension ever since, along with Abkhazia, another separatist region.

The only light note in the situation, is the assurance that Atlanta will be safe…unless we learn that the Russians have a general named Sherman.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

More Notes on Cold War-II

Putin says Russia needs to go back to Cuba

This goes along with previous posting here, talking about Soviet…er…Russian talk about moving nuclear bombers to Cuba and Venezuela.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday said it was time for Russia to rebuild links with former Cold War ally Cuba, news agencies reported.

The Kremlin is angry at U.S. plans for a missile defence system in Eastern Europe, and last month a news report suggested Russia might use Cuba, a thorn in America’s side for half a century, as a refueling stop for nuclear-capable bombers.

Keep your powder dry.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Betting on Blackjack: Not a Good Gamble!

Cold War II Taking Off with Rus Bombers, Carriers, arms to Venezuela?

This sure makes the decision to keep the B-1 base at Ellsworth AFB open look better and better.

Russia is betting on Blackjack and upping the odds: It may be a bluff, or Kremlin policymakers may believe they already are holding an inside straight.

Russian policymakers Thursday boosted their threat to deploy supersonic Tupolev Tu-160 “White Swan” — NATO designation Blackjack — nuclear bombers in Cuba to say they might put them in Venezuela and Algeria, too.

tu160_7.jpg

Like the original threat, floated three days earlier on July 21, to deploy the Blackjacks in Cuba, this one was reported Thursday in the newspaper Izvestia and was also attributed to unidentified sources in the Russian Defense Ministry.

Q. How close would the proposed single B-1 base be to the enemy – in EITHER Cuba or Venezuela at 2000 km/h?
A. A LOT closer than either is to South Dakota’s Ellsworth AFB!

How much is bluff, and how much is reality? Hard to say…but very much the sort of strategic “great game” played by the Soviets through Cold War I.

The Tu-160 Blackjacks and the more than a half-century old but still very much operational Tu-95MS Bears have gone through extensive refits in recent years. Both aircraft now carry new X-555 cruise missiles that can fly more than 2,200 miles, so that they do not have to fly out of bases close to the United States, or ever risk entering U.S. air space, to fire their nuclear-capable supersonic cruise missiles at almost any city or military target in the entire domestic United States, the report said.

RIA Novosti also noted the bombers could loiter in the air outside Russian territory, equipped with extensive electronic signals intelligence — SIGINT — and replace the capabilities of Russian military intelligence’s SIGINT station at Lourdes outside Havana, which was shut down six years ago.

The proposed policy of opening forward bases for the strategic bombers is not without its skeptics in Russia. RIA Novosti noted that the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta argued Thursday that Russia could not afford the infrastructure costs of building the new bases.

The answer to that is: Even if the idea of an entire network of bases around the world remains an unachievable dream in the immediate future, the Russian treasury, bursting with the windfall profits of being the world’s largest combined oil and gas exporter when oil prices remain at unprecedented high levels of well over $120 a barrel, can easily afford to build two or three of them, at least in countries like Cuba and Venezuela.

Schwartz’s tough comments to the Senate Armed Services Committee on July 22 confirmed how seriously the U.S. Air Force takes the threat of a forward deployment of Tu-160s in Cuba. Schwartz knows that U.S. military planners cannot afford to bet against Blackjack.

Meanwhile, our southern flank isn’t being neglected in other ways also:

Oil-rich Venezuela may have signed off already on another huge arms deal with Russia during President Hugo Chavez’s visit to Moscow last week.

RIA Novosti said Thursday it had received what it called “unofficial reports” that the fiercely anti-American Chavez had closed the deal with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last Wednesday. The news agency said the agreement could include modern T-90 Main Battle Tanks, Ilyushin Il-76 military transport aircraft and man-held surface-to-air missiles — MANPADS in current U.S. parlance.

No doubt Chavez is seeking to protect himself from a feared blitzkrieg attack from Guyana. Yeah, sure.

And finally, our Russian “friends” aren’t neglecting the Naval side, either.

Russia has plans to start constructing at least five to six new aircraft carriers equipped with space-linked communications systems to operate in the Arctic and Pacific oceans, but work on the ambitious new carriers will not even start for at least another four years, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday.

The news agency cited Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky as saying the navy command had decided to build complete systems for the new carriers and not just the ships themselves.

“Everything must work in a system, including aircraft carriers. We have called them sea-borne aircraft carrier systems, which will be based in the Northern and Pacific Fleets. The construction of such systems will begin after 2012,” Vysotsky said in a speech on the Russian holiday known as Navy Day.

All of this recent activity is yet more evidence that Donk Candidate B.O.’s situational awareness concerning national security is virtually non-existent, with his stated intention to gut US defense development and procurement.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Cold War II?

US general warns Russia on nuclear bombers in Cuba

The Chief has been on the road for about the last 10 days for a summer teachers’ institute for a program called Teaching American History. As part of the program, the group had the chance to visit a number of SD historic sites. One of these was a Minuteman Missile site in western South Dakota, which is preserved (without a live missile, of course) as a site and artifact of historical significance in the context of the Cold War.

Very interesting to see, and contemplate the destructive energy that was (and still is to a lesser degree) ready to be unleased if required by the US and USSR if there was a REALLY bad day.

Now comes this little reminder that those sorts of concerns are, or certainly should be, still part of the international landscape.

Russia would cross “a red line for the United States of America” if it were to base nuclear capable bombers in Cuba, a top US air force officer warned on Tuesday. “If they did I think we should stand strong and indicate that is something that crosses a threshold, crosses a red line for the United States of America,” said General Norton Schwartz, nominated to be the air force’s chief of staff.

He was referring to a Russian news report that said the military is thinking of flying long-range bombers to Cuba on a regular basis. It was unclear from the report whether that would involve permanent basing of nuclear bombers in Cuba, or just use of the island as a refueling stop. In his confirmation hearing to become the air force’s chief of staff, Schwartz was asked what he would recommend if Russia were to base nuclear capable bombers in Cuba.

“I would certainly offer the best military advice that we engage the Russians not to pursue that approach,” he said.

The newspaper Iszvestia on Monday cited an unnamed senior Russian air force official in Moscow as saying that Russia may start regular flights by long-range bombers to Cuba in response to US plans to install a missile defense system in eastern Europe.

A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on the Russian report because there had been no “official response from the Russian government.”

National Insecurity

How Our Ally Thinks…er…Ally? Come again?

The Saudi Guide To Piety

Because they are so clearly designed for the convenience of large testing companies, I had always assumed that multiple-choice exams, the bane of any fourth-grader’s existence, were a quintessentially American phenomenon. But apparently I was wrong. According to a report last week by the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, it seems that the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education finds them useful, too.

Here, for example, is a multiple-choice question from a recent edition of a Saudi fourth-grade textbook, “Monotheism and Jurisprudence,” in a section that attempts to teach children to distinguish between “true” and “false” belief in God:
Q. “Is belief true in the following instances:
(a) A man prays but hates those who are virtuous.
(b) A man professes that there is no deity other than God but loves the unbelievers.
(c) A man worships God alone, loves the believers, and hates the unbelievers.”

The correct answer, of course, is (c): According to the Wahhabi imams who wrote this textbook, it isn’t enough to simply worship God or just to love other believers; it is important to hate unbelievers, too. By the same token, (b) is wrong as well: Even a man who worships God cannot be said to have “true belief” if he also loves unbelievers. “Unbelievers,” in this context, are Christians and Jews.

In fact, any child who attends Saudi schools until ninth grade will eventually be taught outright that “Jews and Christians are enemies of believers.” They will also be taught that Jews conspire to “gain sole control over the world,” that the Christian crusades never ended…

The way things are going, we should be so lucky that the Crusades never ended.

…and that on Judgment Day “the rocks or the trees” will call out to Muslims to kill Jews.

If you go to the article, there’s unfortunately more. We’re supposed to be friends with these guys?

National Insecurity, Space Patrol

Space Race with ChiComs?

Uh…not unless we start to run! Otherwise it’ll be a default loss for us, and we’ll be on a slide down towards Eurotrash style mediocrity.

Buzz Aldrin: Invest in Nasa to beat the Chinese to Mars

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon, has issued a stark warning that America must invest now in the space agency Nasa, or surrender leadership of space exploration to Russia and China. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Aldrin revealed that he intends to lobby Barack Obama and John McCain, the two US presidential candidates, in an effort to ensure they find sufficient funds for Nasa’s goal to establish a permanent base on the Moon and then send a manned mission to Mars.

This would be really BAD in so many ways…Russia and China literally holding the high ground?

Mr Aldrin, 78, said: “To me it’s abysmal that it has come to this: after 50 years of Nasa, and after putting about $100 billion into the space station, we can’t get our own astronauts to our space station without relying on the Russians.”

Really!

He said his message to the next president is this: “Retain the vision for space exploration. If we turn our backs on the vision again, we’re going to have to live in a secondary position in human space flight for the rest of the century.”

Any bets on this getting the attention of either of the major presidential candidates? No?

Didn’t think so. How sad.

National Insecurity

A Positive Note!

McCain attacks Guantánamo ruling

A good one from McCain…after all too many instances of moonbattery lately from him on oil drilliing, glowbull warming, etc.

John McCain on Friday described the decision by the Supreme Court to allow Guantánamo Bay prisoners to challenge their detention in US courts as “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country”. The Republican presidential candidate said he agreed with the four dissenting justices on the nine-member court that foreign fighters held at the detention camp were not entitled to the rights of US citizens.

He criticised Barack Obama, his Democratic opponent, for supporting the decision and said it highlighted the importance of nominating conservative judges to the Supreme Court. His remarks represented a hardening of his position from his more moderate initial response to the ruling on Thursday, signalling a strategic decision by the McCain campaign to make it an election issue.

As noted in a previous posting…stuff like this only re-emphasizes the critical nature of the judicial appointment process.

National Insecurity

Lib SCOTUS Judges Do Thier Own Thing

1 Comment

Court says detainees have rights, bucking Bush

Logic? We don’t need no stinkin’ logic!

In a stinging rebuke to President Bush’s anti-terror policies, a deeply divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign detainees held for years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges.

The Chief likes the statement made by Jon over at SD Politics about this:

I think the dissenters are likely correct. This is an example of the courts stepping in to superimpose their policy preference for that of the president and Congress. While granting habeas corpus rights and access to civilian courts to enemy combatants might be good policy (emphasis on “might”), that doesn’t mean that the Constitution demands it.

Why might these people not have such rights? First, terrorists have no legal rights, not even under the Geneva Accords. Why? First, they are not soldiers. They do not fight for a nation, therefore they are not signatories to the Geneva Accords and cannot claim protection. Their very method of action, not wearing uniforms and targeting civilians, violates international law. By not fighting for a nation and not wearing a uniform they do not even have the rights of POWs, rights granted to legitimate soldiers, which terrorists are not.

Remember all the depictions in old war movies, with partisans, spies, infiltrators, etc. were subject to summary execution?
This actually happened frequently…with both sides.

The precedent for this for the United States goes all the way back to the hanging of British Major Andros, who was involved in carrying communications while in civilian clothes in the Benedict Arnold case of treason.

The rule has been: no uniform, no legal rights – life, and death is tough! The GITMO crew is getting off easy!

G-d help us from more liberal SCOTUS Judges…which brings us back again to the matter of the upcoming Presidential election: Obamanation, Abomination; same difference!

National Insecurity

Obamanation Abomination: A Continuing Story!

1 Comment

Obama Adviser Leads Delegation to Damascus

A foreign policy adviser to Senator Obama is scheduled to arrive in Syria today as the leader of a RAND Corp. delegation.

Zbigniew Brzezinski will travel to Damascus for meetings as part of a trip Syria’s official Cham News agency described as an “important sign that the end of official dialogue between Washington and Damascus has not prevented dialogue with important American intellectuals and politicians.”

This CANNOT be a good thing for the U.S.

Mr. Brzezinski’s visit to Syria, a country President Bush has accused of arming terrorists and ordering political assassinations in Lebanon, is in many ways in keeping with a theme of the Obama campaign. The Illinois senator in August said during a Democratic debate that he would be willing to meet with foreign adversaries, earning a rebuke from Senator Clinton, a Democrat of New York, who said such an approach would be “naïve.” On August 24, Mr. Brzezinski, a one-time national security adviser to President Carter, announced in an interview on Bloomberg’s satellite news channel that he was endorsing Mr. Obama, and he has been an adviser to the campaign since.

Apparently B.O.’s foreign policy attitudes will be just what he said they would be…talk to anyone, anywhere, and “We don’t need no stinkin’ preconditions!”

A spokesman for the senator’s presidential campaign, Tommy Vietor, said the campaign did not know Mr. Brzezinski was leading the delegation. “The first we heard of this trip was from you,” he said. He added: “Brzezinski is not a day-to-day adviser for the campaign, he is someone whose guidance Senator Obama seeks on Iraq.”

OF COURSE NOT! (At least not to be recognized while there’s a campaign to worry about.)

A supporter of Mrs. Clinton, Rep. Eliot Engel, a Democrat from New York, said he found it hard to believe that one of the Illinois senator’s main advisers would not know that his visit to Syria would appear to have the tacit consent of the Obama campaign. “People are going to say if you are advising Obama, you are representing Obama,” Mr. Engel said. “At this time when we are in the middle of an election, I can’t believe that for him to go to Syria at this moment would not appear he was going with at least some tacit approval of the candidate he is advising. I would think he would realize that,” Mr. Engel said.

D’ya think?

He ONLY used to be a National Security Advisor, why would he expect anything like that? Of course, he WAS in the Carter administration…with the absolute worst foriegn policy and national security record in the nation’s history.

B.O. promises more of the same

China Watch, National Insecurity

ChiCom Notes

1 Comment

A couple of relevant items pertaining to recent doings of the Comrades of Beijing.

Lawmaker says Chinese hacked Capitol computers

A Virginia congressman says the FBI has found that four of his government computers have been hacked by sources working out of China. In remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Frank Wolf says he has been told by the FBI that four computers in his personal office were compromised.

The Virginia Republican says that similar incidents – also originating from China – have taken place on computers of other members of Congress and at least one House committee.

Why would they be so uncollegial as to do this?

A spokesman for Wolf says the four computers were being used by staff members working on human rights issues. Wolf is a longtime critic of the Chinese government’s human rights record.

Dang! That pesky old “human rights” again. Unlike the ACLU’s version of human rights issues, like being offended by someone peacefully praying, for example, ChiCom human rights problems often involve the injection of a 9 mm bullet to the back of the head…with the cost of said bullet being billed to the victim’s family.

…meanwhile, on a different note highlighting something that’s more of a problem with Washington than Beijing:

China’s Drilling for Oil in America’s Backyard

House Republicans want the American people to know that right now — around 60 miles off the coast of Key West, Fla. — China is drilling for oil, thanks to a lease issued by Cuba.

But 1,200 miles north of Key West, Democrats in Washington are blocking the United States from conducting its own environmentally-safe oil and gas exploration in similar U.S. coastal areas, said a news release from House Republican leader John Boehner’s office.

Democrat Congresscritters, wooden rail, hot tar, feathers. Some assembly required.

National Insecurity

Iran Nuke Watch

A couple of items relating to this:

Iran says it will not discuss suspending uranium enrichment

Iran on Saturday reiterated that it will not discuss halting uranium enrichment ahead of the arrival of a top international envoy expected to propose new incentives aimed at encouraging Iran to do so.

“The issue of suspension cannot be discussed any more, we have passed this point and it is not relevant. Iran’s position is clear on this point,” government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

“The government view is that the issue is over,” he added in reaction to a new report by UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA on Monday expressed “serious concern” that Tehran was still hiding information about alleged studies into making nuclear warheads, as well as defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment.

Based on past performance, would any rational person expect anything else from them? Not!

Not to fear…according to our good buddy in the Kremlin, this is no problemo:

Iran not seeking to build nuclear weapons: Putin

Iran is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons but Tehran should avoid “irritating” its neighbours, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Saturday in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde.

Putin, who was in Paris for two days of meetings with President Nicolas Sarkozy and other French leaders, said there was no indication Iran was building its own nuclear arsenal, but he admitted that Iran’s compliance with investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was still a “point to be resolved.”

D’ya think?

Asked if Iran was trying to acquire nuclear weapons, Putin replied: “I don’t believe so. Nothing indicates it.”

Of course, there’s nothing to indicate that they aren’t going to try to score a little nukie, either. Considering the source here, the Chief is NOT reassured at all.

National Insecurity

UN Agency Shows Signs of Life!

IAEA: Iran may be withholding info in nuke probe

Iran may be withholding information needed to establish whether it tried to make nuclear arms, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday in an unusually strongly worded report.

DUH! D’ya think?

The tone of the language suggesting Tehran continues to stonewall the U.N. nuclear monitor revealed a glimpse of the frustration felt by agency investigators stymied in their attempts to gain full answers to suspicious aspects of Iran’s past nuclear activities. A senior U.N. official familiar with the investigation into Iran’s nuclear program said none of the dozens of agency reports issued in that context had ever been as plain spoken in calling Tehran to task for not being forthright. He agreed to discuss the report only if granted anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to the media.

Wonder if someone accidently used regular coffee there instead of the de-caf for them to admit there’s a problem.

National Insecurity

Food Spot Shortages…in the U.S.? Huh?

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World

Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.

The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious trouble to come.

ANY food shortages, even limited spot shortages of specific items in the US is one heck of a LONG way from what it should be.

Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of a new contract for foreign rice sales. “I’m surprised the Bush administration hasn’t slapped export controls on wheat,” Mr. Rawles said. “The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat.”

Mr. Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product. “There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don’t realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short,” Mr. Rawles, a former Army intelligence officer, said. “Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out.”

“It ain’t that pretty at all.” – Warren Zevon

National Insecurity

Iranian Nuke Efforts Continue

Diplomats: Iran Assembling Centrifuges

Iran has assembled hundreds of advanced machines reflecting a possible intention to speed up uranium enrichment, diplomats have told The Associated Press.

One diplomat said more than 300 of the centrifuges have been linked up in two separate units in Iran’s underground enrichment plant and a third was being assembled. He said the machines apparently are more advanced than the thousands already running underground, suggesting they could be the sophisticated IR-2 centrifuge that Tehran recently acknowledged testing.

Meanwhile, business as usual in Washington: ignore the threat, and voila! It disappears!

Right? Wrong!

National Insecurity

A New Holy League with a Gondor Strategy?

Resurrecting Christendom: A Blueprint

Historically the Holy League was an alliance of the 16th Century’s Christian powers (Spain, Venice, various other Italian states, to oppose the serious threat of the Ottoman Empire to continue to expand to the west, and dominate the entire Mediterranean.

Although the League did not achieve all of its immediate political and military objectives (which included the relief and liberation of Cyprus), it did gather a large fleet (still outnumbered by the Ottoman fleet) and decisively defeat the Islamic force at the battle of Lepanto (1571). Lest you think the threat to Europe at the time was overblown, Vienna itself was repeatedly attacked and besieged by the Ottomans…the final time as late as 1683, when the timely intervention and assistance of Jan Sobieski’s Poland was all that saved the day.

Historically, as noted by Baron Bodissy’s GATES of VIENNA blog, our current situation with regards to the 21st Century’s militant Islamofascism, is merely the latest chapter in a 1300 year struggle of Christianity to maintain its independence if not its existence in the face of Islamic aggressive and violent proselytizing. (The Baron notes it thus: “At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war.” The Chief concurs!)

This piece by Dr. Timothy Furnish (Ph.D in Islamic and World History, is a former U.S. Army veteran and college professor, now working as an editor for Praeger Publishing) suggests the possibility of a sort of revived Holy League…and models its policies on what is described as a “Gondor Strategy”…taken from J.R.R. Tolkien’s LOTR Trilogy.

Again, as Pinkerton points out, the purpose of the majority-Christian parts of the planet uniting against the Muslim world would NOT be to impose democracy or in any way to change that civilization—much less to wage a new “Crusade” (although we’d better inure ourselves to that inevitable charge): “not conquest, not occupation, not ‘liberation’” but rather “feasible strategies of containment, even quarantine.” A cordon sanitaire would be created around the Islamic sandbox until Muslims learn to play nice and stop inflicting both their near and far neighbors with anti-democratic, anti-women, anti-tolerance, and anti-modernist ideology—not to mention IEDs, assassinations and plane-bombs. And until that violent minority of Muslims obsessed with creating a global caliphate is eliminated, or at least convinced of the fruitlessness of their quest—hopefully by their own co-religionists, backed up by the resolve and non-interventionist support of the larger Christian world.

Pinkerton calls this the “Shire Strategy”—but there’s a better analogy from Tolkien. Other than four hobbits who rode off to help in the war against the arch-expansionist Sauron, the Shire folk stayed home—fat, happy and clueless about the serious and deadly conflict being fought to protect them. Even Frodo, the hobbit who eventually destroyed the Ring of Power, would never have been able to do so had not Men—dedicated survivors of the destroyed Kingdom of Arnor (called, fortuitously by Tolkien, Rangers!) and committed soldiers from the extant kingdom of Gondor—engaged Sauron’s legions in both covert and overt ops. As Boromir put it at the Council of Elrond: “it is by the blood of our people that your lands are kept safe.” Rather than Pinkerton’s Shire Strategy, we should envision the rather more muscular Gondor Strategy, which would entail setting a “Watchful Peace” upon the bloody borders of Islam, as in Tolkien the most poweful human kingdom did against Sauron’s land of Mordor.

The Chief isn’t totally sure that the approach WOULD work…but it probably COULD. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting concept, and one that ultimately may become much more of a necessity that it seems to be at present. Well worth checking it out further and giving it some thought!

H/T on this one to the above noted GATES of VIENNA.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Former Navy secretary says industrial base needs rebuilding

U.S. sea power in crisis

The future of U.S. sea power is threatened by the erosion of the country’s industrial base and its ability to build warships – even if the political will to do so is revived, says former Navy Secretary James, H. Webb Jr., now a Democratic senator from Virginia, according to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The Chief doesn’t agree with Webb on lots of stuff…but the Virginia Senator / former SECNAV is spot-on here.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

Fallon Falls Out

Fallon Resigns As Mideast Military Chief

The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East resigned Tuesday amid speculation about a rift over U.S. policy in Iran.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that Adm. William J. Fallon had asked for permission to retire and that Gates agreed. Gates said the decision, effective March 31, was entirely Fallon’s and that Gates believed it was “the right thing to do.”

Let’s see…the Chief IMHO is strongly inclined to urge ADM Fallon not to let the doorknob hit him in the butt on the way out.

This is the same ADM Fallon, who as CINCPAC was incessantly engaged in a game of footsie with the ChiComs, to the extent of inviting them aboard to observe, up close and personal, how we prepped and trained for war in the Pacific. Of course there’s no one in the Pacific with any possible inclination to fight the US except those same ChiComs’ PLAN (Peples’ Liberation Army Navy – Hey! That’s what they call it…maybe it loses something in translation.).

Apparently he has had a pattern of undercutting the Iraq “surge”, and General Petraeus, in a not very well concealed effort to channel the administrations policies.

Good riddance. The Fleet, and the nation will be better without Fallon’s sort of accommodationist and contrarian policy games.

National Insecurity

Chavez in bed with NarcoFARC Terrs

3 Comments

Colombia Files Show Chavez Funded FARC, Rebels Sought Uranium

Colombia’s police chief Oscar Naranjo said documents from the computer of a guerrilla leader killed last weekend in Ecuador show links to Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez.

The documents on the computer of Raul Reyes, the second in command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, indicate that Venezuela provided the guerrillas with at least $300 million and would help Chavez in the event of a U.S. attack on Venezuela.

Naranjo said the FARC, as the group is known, was seeking to buy 50 kilos of uranium for bomb making with aim of getting involved in international terrorism.

If memory serves, we took out Noriega in Panama for a heck of a lot less than this!

We could REALLY use Reagan now.

Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

State of the War: More (or Less) than Meets the Eye

A couple of long, specifically detailed, and clearly stated proposition that the situation with the US military is NOT all it’s cracked up to be these days.

US MILITARY BREAKS RANKS, Part 1 – A salvo at the White House

US MILITARY BREAKS RANKS, Part 2 – Troops felled by a ‘trust gap’

The Chief has heard it stated that “the difference between the US Navy (and also the rest of the military apparently) and the Boy Scouts, is that the Scouts operate under adult supervision.

This two-part series of articles (unfortunately) would seem to confirm this proposition.

China Watch, Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

WSJ: The importance of a strong Navy

Why T.R. Claimed the Sea

This relates to our current and future circumstances, as well as to an earlier posting concerning the sad decline of the Royal Navy.

On Dec. 16, 1907, the 16 battleships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet sailed from Hampton Roads, Va., on a 43,000-mile journey around the world. The occasion was immediately understood as Teddy Roosevelt’s way of declaring that the United States, already an economic superpower, was also a military one. Unnoticed by most Americans, this past Sunday marked its centennial.

There is an enduring, bipartisan strain in American politics (think Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich) that wishes to forgo the military role. As wonderfully recounted by Jim Rasenberger in “America 1908,” the voyage of the Great White Fleet, as it was popularly known, was energetically opposed by members of Congress, who sought to cut off its funding when it was halfway around the world. Sound familiar?

Even as many in Congress (and elsewhere) would like to repeal the need for us to be actively engaged and capable of militarily maintaining our proper interests in the world, nothing in our history has repealed the truths noted by Adm. A.T. Mahan and which were known to T.R. as we built and deployed the White Fleet.

Whatever the procurement problems or tactical issues, a supremely powerful Navy is not a luxury the U.S. can safely dispense with. In September, ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy made their first-ever port calls in Germany, France, Britain and Italy, and Chinese admirals are frequent guests on American warships. “The Chinese Great White Fleet is not too far off on the horizon,” says a senior Navy official in a recent conversation.

China’s current rise, like America’s a century ago, is not something anyone can stop. It can be steered. Making sure our vision for the Navy stays true to Teddy Roosevelt’s is one way of ensuring the Chinese don’t make the mistake of steering it our way.

We ignore our history and current situation at our mortal peril.

National Insecurity

Intel Report Status

2 Comments

Iran says U.S. report a “declaration of surrender”

Washington’s bureaucratic establishment contradicted iteself with the much ballyhooed N.I.E. (National Intel. Estimate) concerning Iran’s nuclear status. The Chief was, and is of the opinion that said report constituted prima facie evidence of treason within a bureaucracy out to politically emasculate the administration policies at all cost – including that of harm to the national security of the United States, by rendering aid and comfort to a self-proclaimed enemy of the United States: the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Now comes said Ahmadinejad giving HIS evaluation of the report.

Iran’s president said on Sunday the publication of a U.S. intelligence report saying Iran had halted a nuclear weapons program in 2003 amounted to a “declaration of surrender” by Washington in its row with Tehran.

Now, what part of “aid and comfort” is so hard to understand?

Meanwhile, the validity of the N.I.E. itself may well have minimal credibility.

An exiled opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), last week said Iran shut down its nuclear weapons program in 2003 but said restarted it a year later, dispersing equipment to thwart international inspectors.

This does NOT give the Chief a warm glow, other than heartburn.

China Watch, Defense Matters!, National Insecurity

ChiComs Going for new Rope-a-Dope

Pentagon eyes China nuke talks

The Pentagon this week proposed holding a strategic nuclear “dialogue” with China, as Chinese military officials asked that Congress lift its guidelines banning military exchanges with Beijing on nuclear operations.

Defense officials said yesterday that the Chinese military’s request to end the 1999 “Smith guidelines” was made during the two days of meetings between U.S. and Chinese defense and military officials that ended Tuesday.

Hmmmm. Let’s see. maybe we should do this…after all, haven’t the ChiComs been nice lately?

Officials familiar with the talks said they also included a discussion of China’s refusal to permit the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk from docking in Hong Kong for a long-planned Thanksgiving port call.

Oh. Never mind.

If we go for this one, it’ll only prove that something in the Pentagon water turns brains to mush, and we’ll once again take on the role of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football being held by Lucy.

China Watch, National Insecurity

Extension of Corporate Ability to Sell-out US Sought by Admin.

Justice, DHS ‘still object’ to CFIUS order

National security and trade officials are deadlocked over provisions of a draft White House order aimed at bolstering the security aspects of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, The Washington Times has learned.

The interagency dispute over a draft executive order on the Treasury Department-led committee, known as CFIUS, took place during several interagency meetings over the past two months, but differences on the wording and authority remain unresolved, according to officials close to the debate who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

So what’s the argument about, really?

However, the official said that the National Security Council staff are ready to push ahead with the current order despite the objections from security officials and members of Congress from both parties.

Additionally, several members of Congress have asked for briefings on the executive order but have been put off by the White House, the officials said.

At issue are the law’s implementing regulations, which critics in the administration say will limit the authority that national security agencies had to order “mitigation agreements” designed to curtail national-security threats from proposed foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies. Under the draft order, the Treasury secretary will have more power to resolve disputes when before the committee, while the White House National Security Council staff gets more authority in the appeals process.

In other words, these administration moonbat internationalist corporate lackeys want to smooth the path for a continuing program of literally and figuratively sellling out the US to the ChiComs, with minimal regard to the US’s own national security.

What’s the solution?

Rope. Tree. Traitors. Some assembly required.

China Watch, National Insecurity

Report: Nix on 3Com + ChiCom Funny Business

Intelligence report hits China deal

More blowback via Bill Gertz in the D.C. Times to the proposed merger of 3Com into a ChiCom “business”:

U.S. intelligence agencies informed a Treasury Department-led review committee recently that a merger between 3Com and a Chinese company would threaten U.S. national security, The Washington Times has learned.

Bush administration intelligence officials said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) recently submitted a required threat assessment to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, which is conducting a 30-day investigation of the proposed deal between 3Com and China’s Huawei Technologies.

The assessment, which is classified, described the deal as posing a “threat” to U.S. national security, according to officials familiar with the document.

Another maladroit attempt, with even more of a problem than the late, unlamented Dubai ports deal.