WAR 01-09-2016-to-01-15-2016_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

[Housecarl]

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http://www.breitbart.com/london/201...x-has-reached-us-so-far-says-german-minister/

Migrant Invasion Will Reach OVER 10 MILLION Warns German Minister

by Nick Hallett10 Jan 2016
Comments 4,281

Europe has barely even seen the start of the migrant influx, Germany’s Development Minister has warned.

Gerd Müller said only 10 per cent of Syrian and Iraqi migrants have reached Europe so far and “eight to ten million are still on the way”, with even more to come from Africa.

“The biggest movements are ahead: Africa’s population will double in the coming decades,” he told Bild am Sonntag, adding: “In the Sahara up to one million people have died trying to escape.”

The European Commission, he added, has lost a significant amount of authority thanks to the crisis. “The protection of external borders is not working. Schengen has collapsed. A fair distribution of refugees has not taken place,” he said.

He said that in the digital age we live in, more people than ever know about the prosperity of Western nations thus making it more likely they will try to travel here.

He also called for a 10 billion euro “Marshall Plan”, with European states paying to rebuild war torn countries such as Iraq, Syria and Libya. “All states must pay, especially those that receive no refugees,” he warned.

When asked about calls from Bavarian regional president Horst Seehofer to put a cap on the number of migrants admitted to Germany, Mr Müller responded: “We need a reduction. If we have a million again like last year, we cannot successfully integrate them at the same time.”

Mr Müller’s comments echo those of Heinz Buschkowsky, an MP from the Social Democratic Party who predicted the total number of migrants reaching Germany by 2020 would be between five and 10 million.

“The situation is irreversible,” he added. “The people who are here now, this society is challenged to integrate them and to offer them a perspective on life.”

He also blasted those who treat the migration debate with empty platitudes such as “refugees welcome”, saying: “This social romanticism, these beautiful speeches, for someone who comes from experience is very difficult to bear.”

 

[Housecarl]

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Posted for fair use.....
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/h...insurgents-after-bombing-iraqi-police-n494106

DEVELOPING
News
Jan 11 2016, 1:24 pm ET

Baghdad Mall Attack Leaves at Least 10 Civilians Dead: Iraqi Police

by NBC News, Reuters and The Associated Press

At least 10 people were killed and 22 were injured when insurgents attacked a shopping mall in Baghdad Monday with hand grenades and at least two nearby bombs, police told NBC News.

Iraqi security forces opened fire on the insurgents, who initially tried to take a money exchange office in Baghdad Al-Jadeedah before entering the Al Jawhara shopping mall, a major in the Baghdad Police Department and a master sergeant in the Iraqi Federal Police Division said.

Police said the attackers were throwing hand grenades at civilians inside the mall and held them hostage there. At least 10 civilians were killed and another 22 injured, according to police.

All six assailants were left dead by the end of the standoff, police said. The Iraqi government said four of the attackers were killed by Iraqi officers, while two blew themselves up.

Shiite militia were deployed to the crowded district, and the minister of interior and commander of Baghdad operation command traveled to the area, the major said. The area was blocked from all directions, the major added.

Also on Monday evening, a car bomb in southeast Baghdad in a crowded market area killed five and wounded 12, hospital and police officials told The Associated Press.

Reuters reported that ISIS claimed responsibility for the mall attack, according to a statement circulating online by ISIS supporters.

Iraq is gripped by a sectarian conflict mostly between Shi'ites and Sunnis that has been exacerbated by the rise of the ultra-hardline Sunni ISIS militants.

 

[Housecarl]

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Posted for fair use.....
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-citizen-kim-dong-chul-north-korea-accused-spying-espionage/

CBS/AP/ January 11, 2016, 8:36 AM

North Korea reportedly arrests U.S. citizen, alleges spying

Comments 7

WASHINGTON -- The government of North Korea has detained a U.S. citizen on suspicion of spying, CNN reported Monday.

It said a man identified as Kim Dong Chul was being held by the Pyongyang government and that authorities had accused him of engaging in spying and stealing state secrets.

In an interview with a CNN correspondent, Kim said he had traveled extensively in recent years between China and North Korea and had made some trips to South Korea as well.

In Washington, a State Department official refused to confirm the story.

The official said "speaking publicly about specific purported cases of detained Americans can complicate our tireless efforts to secure their freedom." The official spoke only on grounds of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

CNN displayed Kim's U.S. passport and said that he had lived in China for many years, but also had resided in Fairfax, Virginia.

The reported arrest comes amid heightened tension between North Korea and the rest of the world on the heels of Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test.

The regime of Kim Jong Un claimed earlier this month to have successfully tested its first miniaturized hydrogen bomb -- a purported leap forward for its weapons program that U.S. intelligence officials doubt.

Analysts suspect the north actually tested a much-less-powerful atomic device, and say it isn't even clear that the test was a success.

North Korea has in the past detained American and other foreign nationals and used them as leverage in its dealings with the West.

A powerful U.S. B-52 bomber flew low over South Korea on Sunday, a clear show of force from the United States as the Cold War-style standoff deepened between its ally Seoul and North Korea following Pyongyang's nuclear test.

North Korea will read the fly-over of a bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons -- seen by an Associated Press photographer at Osan Air Base near Seoul -- as a threat. Any hint of America's nuclear power enrages Pyongyang, which links its own pursuit of atomic weapons to what it sees as past nuclear-backed moves by the United States to topple its authoritarian government.

 

[Housecarl]

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Posted for fair use.....
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/0...bbed-by-teen-outside-synagogue-in-france.html

isis

Teen accused of stabbing Jewish teacher in France with machete invoked ISIS

Published January 11, 2016
· Associated Press

A teenager armed with a machete slashed a Jewish teacher in southern France on Monday, invoking the Islamic State group and saying he had also planned to go after police, a French prosecutor said.

The 15-year-old Turkish Kurd was arrested soon after wordlessly attacking the teacher, who was injured in the outdoor attack in central Marseille, said Brice Robin, the Marseille prosecutor. The teen invoked Allah and the extremist group only after he was detained, saying "the Muslims of France dishonor Islam and the French army protects Jews."

He attacked the teacher first from behind, slashing him in the shoulder, and then went after the man again as he tried to run away, Robin said.

The knife attack comes just days after a man armed with a butcher knife was shot to death after authorities said he went after police in central Paris. That man's identity has not yet been confirmed but German authorities say he had lived at a shelter for asylum-seekers in the western city of Recklinghausen.

Both incidents coincide with high tension in France, which last week marked a year since the January attacks against the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket that left 17 people dead.

Over the weekend, two churches were burned and a boar's head and racist inscriptions were found Friday at Perpignan's main mosque.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/h...insurgents-after-bombing-iraqi-police-n494106

DEVELOPING
News
Jan 11 2016, 1:24 pm ET

Baghdad Mall Attack Leaves at Least 10 Civilians Dead: Iraqi Police

by NBC News, Reuters and The Associated Press

At least 10 people were killed and 22 were injured when insurgents attacked a shopping mall in Baghdad Monday with hand grenades and at least two nearby bombs, police told NBC News.

Iraqi security forces opened fire on the insurgents, who initially tried to take a money exchange office in Baghdad Al-Jadeedah before entering the Al Jawhara shopping mall, a major in the Baghdad Police Department and a master sergeant in the Iraqi Federal Police Division said.

Police said the attackers were throwing hand grenades at civilians inside the mall and held them hostage there. At least 10 civilians were killed and another 22 injured, according to police.

All six assailants were left dead by the end of the standoff, police said. The Iraqi government said four of the attackers were killed by Iraqi officers, while two blew themselves up.

Shiite militia were deployed to the crowded district, and the minister of interior and commander of Baghdad operation command traveled to the area, the major said. The area was blocked from all directions, the major added.

Also on Monday evening, a car bomb in southeast Baghdad in a crowded market area killed five and wounded 12, hospital and police officials told The Associated Press.

Reuters reported that ISIS claimed responsibility for the mall attack, according to a statement circulating online by ISIS supporters.

Iraq is gripped by a sectarian conflict mostly between Shi'ites and Sunnis that has been exacerbated by the rise of the ultra-hardline Sunni ISIS militants.

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-violence-idUSKCN0UP1R420160111

World | Mon Jan 11, 2016 2:16pm EST
Related: World

At least 48 killed in attacks in Iraqi capital, eastern town

BAGHDAD


Gunmen detonated suicide vests inside a shopping complex in Baghdad on Monday and a car bomb exploded nearby in an attack claimed by Islamic State that killed at least 18 people and wounded 40 others.

Two bombs later went off in the eastern town of Muqdadiya, killing at least 20 people and wounding another 50, security and medical sources said. Another blast in a southeastern Baghdad suburb killed seven more.

Islamic State militants controlling swathes of Iraq's north and west claimed responsibility for the mall attacks, which it said had targeted a gathering of "rejectionist heathens", its derogatory term for Shi'ite Muslims.

The Iraqi government last month claimed victory against the hardline Sunni militants in the western city of Ramadi and have slowly pushed them back in other areas.

Monday's attacks left the biggest death toll in three months. Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan blamed "this terrorist group after they suffered heavy losses by the security forces", without naming Islamic State.

Seven people, including two policemen, were killed in the car bomb blast near the Jawaher mall in the predominately Shi'ite district of Baghdad Jadida, police and medical sources said.

Five more people were shot dead by the gunmen storming the mall, and six others were killed when those same assailants detonated their explosive vests, the sources said.

Police regained control of the mall, in the east of the city, and a senior security official told state television there were no hostages, rejecting reports that there had been people held.

"The security forces are at the scene and managed to recover the wounded. The situation is under control," Maan added.


CASINO BOMBING

As well as the violence meted out by Islamic State, Iraq is also gripped by a sectarian conflict mostly between Shi'ites and Sunnis that has been exacerbated by the rise of the militant group.

At least seven people were killed when a suicide bomber driving a car attacked a commercial street in a southeastern Baghdad suburb on Monday, police and medical sources said.

The blast in the Sunni district of Nahrawan left more than 15 people wounded, the sources added.

Earlier in the day, three people were killed and eight others wounded when a car bomb claimed by Islamic State went off near a restaurant in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, security and medical sources said.

Two bombs later exploded in an area frequented by Shi'ite militia fighters in the town of Muqdadiya, another 15 km (10 miles) further northeast, security sources said.

At least 20 people were killed and 50 wounded in those blasts. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-filled vest inside a casino in the town. A car bomb parked outside then went off as medics and civilians gathered at the site of the first blast.

Security officials said they had imposed a curfew for all of Diyala province, where Muqdadiya and Baquba are located.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in Muqdadiya and the Baghdad suburb.

(Reporting by Saif Hameed and Stephen Kalin; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Alison Williams)

 

[vestige]

The situation is under control," Maan added.

The situation will not be under control until ALL of these raghead SOBs are with their 72 Virginians.

I personally know many Virginians ready to meet them.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-assaults-idUSKCN0UP0Y220160111

World | Mon Jan 11, 2016 2:23pm EST
Related: World, Migrant Crisis

Merkel under pressure as German gangs lash out against foreigners

BERLIN | By Noah Barkin and Michael Nienaber


German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced growing pressure to harden her line on refugees on Monday as the first extensive police report on New Year's Eve violence in Cologne documented rampant sexual assaults on women by gangs of young migrant men.

Cologne police said at least 11 foreigners, including Pakistanis, Guineans and Syrians, had been injured on Sunday evening in attacks by hooligans bent on revenge for the assaults in the city.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere condemned those attacks and warned against a broader backlash against refugees following the events in Cologne, which have deepened scepticism toward Merkel's policy of welcoming migrants.

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party seized on the latest developments to attack the chancellor while members of her own conservative party warned that integrating the hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrived last year would fail if the influx were not stopped immediately.

"If the influx continues as it has, then integration can't work," said Carsten Linnemann, a lawmaker in Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU). "If we get another 800,000 or a million people arriving this year, then we won't be able to do this," he added, playing on Merkel's optimistic "we can do this" mantra.

A report from the Interior Ministry in the state of North Rhine-Wesphalia (NRW), where Cologne lies, said a total of 516 criminal complaints had been registered, 237 of which were of a sexual nature.

A separate report from the Cologne police gave graphic descriptions of the crimes, listing case after case of women surrounded by gangs of men who put their hands in the victims' pants and skirts, grabbed them between the legs, on the buttocks and the breasts, often while stealing their wallets and cell phones.

A total of 19 suspects have been identified, all of them foreigners.

Ralf Jaeger, interior minister in NRW, spoke of "serious failures" by the police, who were significantly outnumbered but never called for reinforcements.


Related Coverage
› Merkel says Europe is vulnerable in refugee crisis
› Germany sends a few hundred migrants back to Austria daily: police

He also criticized them for refusing to communicate in the days after New Year's Eve that the vast majority of the perpetrators were people with migration backgrounds, blaming this on misguided "political correctness".

"More than 1,000 Arab and North African men gathered on New Year's Eve near Cologne cathedral and the main train station. Among them were many refugees that came to Germany in the past months," Jaeger told a special parliamentary committee in NRW.

"After alcohol and drug excesses came the excesses of violence, peaking with people who carried out fantasies of sexual power."

A survey conducted by polling group Forsa for RTL television showed that 60 percent of respondents saw no reason to change their attitude toward foreigners after the assaults. About 37 percent said they viewed foreigners more critically.


DANGEROUS

Jaeger said the sexual assaults had come mainly from North Africans who had traveled to Cologne from other cities, but he too warned against a broader backlash against migrants.

"To label certain groups, to stigmatize them as sexual criminals, would not only be wrong, it would be dangerous," he said. "Those people that make a direct link between immigration and violence are playing into the hands of right-wing extremists."

Police officer Norbert Wagner told a news conference that rocker and hooligan gangs had published an appeal on the Internet on Sunday to join them in "violence-free strolls" through Cologne, when in fact they were prowling for foreigners.

Among the victims were six Pakistanis, three Guinean citizens and two Syrians. Witnesses had also seen another man of African origin being attacked, but his identity was unclear because he had not contacted authorities, Wagner said.


Related Coverage
› EU's Mogherini warns against using Cologne attacks for politics
› German minister warns against general suspicion toward refugees
› Two Pakistanis, Syrian man injured in gang attacks in Cologne

No arrests have been made. Local police are beefing up their presence in downtown Cologne in the coming days to prevent further attacks on foreigners.

The Cologne police force has also set up a 100-strong team to investigate the New Year's Eve attacks. They are working with prosecutors and criminal investigators who are looking at exchanges on social media in the run-up to the night.

Merkel has repeatedly resisted pressure to introduce a cap on the number of migrants entering Germany, arguing that this could be enforced only by shutting German borders, a step that would doom Europe's Schengen free-travel zone.

She has talked tougher in recent months, vowing in December to "measurably reduce" arrivals and promising at the weekend to give authorities more powers to crack down on migrants who commit crimes, including deporting them.

But her opponents have been swift to blame her for the events in Cologne.

"Anyone who opens the borders wide must know that they are bringing Tahrir Square to Germany," leading AfD politician Dirk Driesang said, referring to the square in Cairo that was the scene of killings and sexual assaults in 2011.

"Cologne cathedral, when it was completed by Kaiser Wilhelm I, was a symbol of the inner unity of the German Reich after its founding in 1871. Will it now become a symbol of its collapse?"


(Additional reporting by Matthias Inverardi & Tina Bellon; Writing by Noah Barkin; editing by David Stamp)

 

[Housecarl]

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Posted for fair use.....
http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-iran-war-look-don-165834881.html

What Would a Saudi-Iran War Look Like? Don’t look now, but it is already here

Foreign Policy Magazine
By Thomas E. Ricks
Best Defense guest columnist
2 hours ago


When asked to address the question of what a Saudi-Iran war would look like, my first instinct is to ask the reader to look around because it is already happening. As the futurist William Gibson noted, “the future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.” Already, Saudi Arabia and Iran are killing each other’s proxies, and indirectly are killing each other’s advisors and troops, in Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia’s Shiite Eastern Province.

The future is likely to look similar. The existing pattern will intensify, eventually spill over in a short, sharp direct clash, and then sink back down again to the level of proxy wars in other people’s territories.

The preferred method of conflict between these states has for a long time been proxy warfare. Since its devastating eight-year war against Iraq, the leadership in Tehran has demonstrated a strong preference for acting through proxies like Lebanese Hezbollah, the Iraqi Shiite militias, and Hamas. Lacking a strong military for most of its existence, the state of Saudi Arabia has likewise used proxy warfare to strike painful blows against its enemies, notably against Egypt’s occupation forces in the 1962-1970 Yemeni civil war and against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Both these players try to get others to do most of their fighting and dying for them.

Iran’s powerful support for Shiite militias is well-documented. Lebanese Hezbollah has evolved into a central pillar of Iran’s retaliatory capability against Israel, and more recently has answered Iran’s call to provide reliable ground forces to prop up the Assad regime in Syria. Lebanese Hezbollah is no militia: it has Zelzal-1 missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv. Hezbollah has large stocks of advanced anti-tank guided missiles and Explosively-Formed Penetrator (EFP) roadside bombs capable of penetrating any Israeli tank. Iran as also supplied Hezbollah with advanced C-802 anti-shipping missiles, which crippled an Israeli warship in 2006, and most recently with even more advanced Yakhont anti-ship missiles.

Now Iran seems to have provided its Shiite Houthi allies with C-802 missiles, which have been used in a number of attacks on United Arab Emirates (UAE) warships in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The Houthis are inflicting heavy damage on the Saudi military, destroying scores of U.S.-supplied main battle tanks and other armoured vehicles using Iranian-provided anti-tank guided missiles. Iran’s proxies are seizing terrain in southern Saudi Arabia and lobbing Scud missiles at military bases deep within the kingdom.

In Iraq the Iranian-backed militias have been provided with Iranian air support, artillery, electronic warfare equipment and medical support. Badr, the main Shiite militia in Iraq, fought as a military division in the Iranian order of battle during the Iran-Iraq War. Badr now leads Iraq’s largest security institution, the half-million Ministry of Interior, and the Shia militias are being formed into a proto-ministry that resembles their patron, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC).

The “Hezbollah-ization” of two key regional states is well-underway.

Most worryingly for Saudi Arabia the Iranian bloc is demonstrating a disregard for long-lasting “red lines” over Bahrain and Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province, which has a majority Shiite population. In 2011 Saudi Arabia and the UAE deployed scores of main battle tanks and armoured personnel carriers to directly safeguard the Bahraini royal family in the face of Arab spring uprisings. This robust move seemed to deeply shake Tehran, triggering the hapless Iranian plot to assassinate Adel Jubeir, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States. In the last year Iran seems to have been acting increasoingly recklessly in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. Iraqi Shiite militias like Badr spin-off Kataib Hezbollah have worked with Iranian-backed cells in Bahrain and Eastern Province to import advanced EFP munitions in large numbers with the evident intent of giving Shia communities the ability to self-defend against future Saudi military crackdowns. This kind of game-changing behaviour by Tehran is undoubtedly one reason the Saudi government chose to recently execute Eastern Province Shia dissident Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Long before the current hullabaloo Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni Gulf States have been slowly cultivating their own network of military proxies. The first major recipient of Gulf military support was the Saudi-supported Lebanese government. The UAE sent nine fully-armed and crewed SA-342L Gazelle helicopters to help the Lebanese government crush Al-Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Islam at Tripoli’s Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in May 2007. In 2009, a year after Saudi’s King Abdullah called for the U.S. to “cut the head off the snake” by bombing Iran, Riyadh launched a nine-week military campaign against the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen, losing 137 troops. This triggered a major intensification of Saudi Arabian, Jordanian and UAE provision of training, salaries, armored vehicles, and weapons to anti-Houthi militias in northern Yemen. Now the Gulf States and other allies like Pakistan and Somalia are building up new proxy forces in Yemen to assist in the Saudi-led military campaign against the Houthis.

So what happens next? Saudi and Iran will want to test and hurt each other, signal limits, but not suffer mutual destruction.

Iran will begin to stir violence in Eastern Province and Bahrain, and it may try harder to fight supplies through to Yemen by sea by bolstering Houthi coastal missile batteries.

The next stage in the Saudi Arabian war with Iran will be an intensification of the proxy war in Syria. This is where Riyadh plans to fight its main battle against Iran. Then Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal signaled as far back as March 2012 that “the arming of the [Syrian] opposition is a duty.” Already Saudi, Qatari and Turkish support has allowed rebels in northwestern Syria to inflict severe armor losses on pro-Assad forces using anti-tank guided missiles. The provision of anti-aircraft missiles may be next. The U.S.-led coalition seems to be backing away from the morally-ambiguous war west of the Euphrates in Syria, where the main opposition to the Islamic State and Assad are radical Salafists that Western nations cannot engage. But Saudi Arabia and its allies have been doing exactly this in Yemen for half a decade and are now likely to take over the war west of the Euphrates in Syria. Riyadh now seems to view Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as a lesser evil to the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen: how soon before it views “moderate splinters” of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra the same way in western Syria?

Though neither Saudi Arabian nor Iran envisage an open conventional war between them — a result that Saudi Arabia’s crown price and defence minister Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently terms “a major catastrophe” — there is always the potential for frontier skirmishes on their shared littoral borders and in the neutral space of the Gulf. Shared gas fields and disputed islands are obvious touchpoints. Iran might test missiles closer and closer to Gulf sea-lanes and coasts. Aerial patrols might begin to test each other: this happened during the Iran-Iraq War along the so-called “Fahd Line” until a Saudi interceptor shot down two Iranian fighter aircraft in 1984. Iran (or the Gulf States) could undertake tit-for-tat harassment, boarding or even deniable use of naval mines against each other’s trade routes. (Iran also used this tactic in the 1980s). Cyberwarfare is a likely deniable weapon of choice for both sides also.

At some point in the coming years we are likely to see both sides miscalculate and unleash a very short, very sharp burst of military force against each other. This will be a wake-up call. Both Iran and the Gulf States are far more powerfully armed than they were during the Iran-Iraq War. The advanced air forces of the Saudis and their key ally the UAE are now capable of destroying practically all Iran’s port facilities, oil loading terminals and key industries using stand-off precision-guided munitions. Iran can shower the Gulf coastline with multitudinous unguided rockets and a higher concentration of guided long-range missiles than ever before. In 1988 the Iranian navy was destroyed by the United States in a single day of combat — Operation Praying Mantis. Even a day or two of such “push-button warfare” would serve as a reminder to both sides of their overriding imperative to avoid direct conflict and to keep their conflict limited to the territories of unfortunate third-parties.

Michael Knights is the Lafer Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He has worked on the military balance between Iran and the Gulf States for over twenty years.

 

[vestige]

Cologne police said at least 11 foreigners, including Pakistanis, Guineans and Syrians, had been injured on Sunday evening in attacks by hooligans bent on revenge for the assaults in the city.

hooligans=good Germans

"To label certain groups, to stigmatize them as sexual criminals, would not only be wrong, it would be dangerous," he said. "Those people that make a direct link between immigration and violence are playing into the hands of right-wing extremists".

at this point right-wing extremists look like patriots.... (sound familiar?)



No arrests have been made. Local police are beefing up their presence in downtown Cologne in the coming days to prevent further attacks on foreigners.

One would think the pig headed ( also Vogel Im Kopf) polizei would be trying to prevent further attacks on German citizens who pay their salaries.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://warontherocks.com/2016/01/artillery-returns-to-the-battlefield-in-the-war-against-isil/

Artillery Returns to the Battlefield in the War against ISIL

James T. Quinlivan
January 11, 2016

Amid Russian air and cruise missile strikes, civilian casualties, proposed no-fly zones, air-to-air shoot-downs, and new surface-to-air missiles in Syria, relatively few news stories have discussed the introduction of Russian artillery into the theater. Though the introduction of artillery may seem less significant than aerial attacks, remember that Napoleon observed: “With artillery, war is made.” By reintroducing artillery to Syria to support combined arms operations, the Russians may have revealed something about the war they and the Syrians envision. Together with increased air attacks, the Syrians and their Russian advisors seek to revitalize combined arms forces, and artillery is critical to their vision of such forces. Artillery is particularly important for offensive operations, providing a continuous presence that current Russian air deployments cannot sustain. The Syrian ground forces are now taking and holding ground, fighting urban and village battles where they must, but posing a threat of encirclement and maneuver where they can.

The Syrian military was once a large, well-equipped, Soviet-model Arab army capable of executing combined arms operations. While not often victorious, it was usually competent. The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) was not then the principal internal guarantor of Bashar al-Assad’s regime — that was the responsibility of other military and security organizations. Primarily oriented against Israel, the conscript-based SAA drew on all sects and functioned as a key secular institution of a largely secular state.

Under the stress of the Sunni insurgency, the Syrian military has gradually degenerated into a less effective force in which the separate services and branches continue to exist, but no longer operate together in a coherent way. Throughout the regular army formations, the loyalty of conscripts could not be relied on to fight insurgents. Defections, desertions, and draft avoidance whittled down the force. The remaining infantry were spread out into checkpoints and strongpoints and found themselves increasingly replaced by militia forces chosen for their reliability or motivation in spite of their poor training. Armor was left to race through rebel-held territory unaccompanied by infantry, contributing only large-caliber drive-by shootings to operations.

The Syrian Arab Air Force (SAAF) was left to defend its own large bases and stave off siege warfare by insurgents. Many SAAF aircraft were not equipped for precision weapon delivery and few such munitions were available. In the past, artillery was intended to carry out most of the functions of close air support so there was no large experience of using aircraft in this role. Instead of using precision weapons, helicopters dropped barrel bombs. Helicopters and fighters were incapable of interdicting insurgent tactical movements. Once-numerous Syrian artillery pieces saw usage either as direct-fire weapons at point-blank range or at such long ranges and with so little intelligence that they were effectively lashing out blindly from fixed bases. Despite a shrinking number of soldiers, the SAA remained saddled with so much infrastructure — ammunition depots, chemical weapons stores, warehouses, training bases, air defense sites, schools, and academies — all of which required protection, but contributed little to the fighting.

In time, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) transitioned to mobile warfare in Syria, using heavy automatic weapons mounted on Toyota trucks and the unique precision support weapon of the suicide bomber in a vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices carried by cars, trucks, and construction vehicles. In response, the SAA failed to either interdict ISIL movements or defend against the sudden appearance of the massed ISIL forces. By the end of July 2015, President Assad admitted that the army was struggling and that “it was necessary to specify critical areas for our armed forces to hang on to. Concern for our soldiers forces us to let go of some areas.”

The Russian deployment of forces into Syria in September 2014 responded to the dire situation of the Assad regime in multiple ways. Fighter aircraft, strategic bombers, and cruise missiles launched from numerous sources pounded opponents of the Syrian regime from Western-backed rebel forces to ISIL and everything in between. Within days of the aerial strikes, ground movements by the SAA prompted the headline “Russian Cruise Missiles Help Syrians Go on the Offensive” in the New York Times.

This new offensive required Syrian ground forces to drive forward as a conventional force supported by Russian fires. Syrian ambassador to Russia Riad Haddad expressed Syrian needs to Moscow:

At the moment this is artillery and precision-guided missiles. This is needed due to efforts to avoid casualties among the civilian population. We also need rockets that would destroy terrorist tunnels at a depth of 10 meters. We also need all kinds of ammunition.

While the Russian deployment came with Putin’s assurance that it would not involve Russian ground operations, it was clear from the start that the deployment included an airfield security element of roughly battalion size with tanks, armored fighting vehicles, and some supporting artillery. This small artillery battery set loose an interesting story. The battery was first identified as “6 towed howitzers” and later as “6 2A65 Msta-B,” a very ordinary 152mm towed howitzer roughly equivalent to the U.S. M198 155mm towed howitzer. This howitzer is much less destructive than the BM-30 Smerch Multiple Rocket System, but better-suited to directly support combat troops with indirect fires in combined arms operations.

This small battery was largely invisible to the outside world until a Russian military blogger recognized that Russian television coverage of Putin being briefed on the situation in Syria on Nov. 17 showed a map indicating a battery of six such guns of the 120th Artillery Brigade was located near Salad between Homs and Damascus. The story was picked up in a Reuters dispatch Nov. 18 that highlighted the appearance of the unit in a location quite distant from the airfields the Russians were using for fighter operations, along with denials from a Kremlin spokesman that Russians were involved in ground operations. Further coverage showing images of the map and its annotations indicated the unit had probably been in place since November 6 and may be the unidentified 2A65 Msta-B battery shown on Russian television on Nov. 11. As positioned, the unit’s fires could simultaneously cover the Al-Shayrat airfield that housed Russian helicopters and provide fire support to Syrian units. Of course, if the unit’s sole mission was to cover the Russian helicopters, its range is long enough that it could be based on the airfield itself rather than positioned forward in the direction of the adversary. The implication is that at least part of the battery’s mission was to support the Syrian ground forces rather than solely to defend the Russian helicopter base.

The U.S. Army’s Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth has been following and reporting on these events in its Operational Environment (OE) Watch web publication. In addition to noting the longstanding importance of artillery to the Russian military and its benefactors, OE Watch picked up the importance of an organizational announcement in early October by Chief of Staff of the SAA Gen. Ali Ayoub that the offensive initiated in cooperation with Russian air support would be led by newly formed units including “the 4th Assault Corps.”

Relying on multiple Arabic-language (including pro-Assad) sources from the region, OE Watch reported that the appearance of the 4th Assault Corps marks the move of the SAA toward a “Russian model” led by “Sukhois from above, and which also includes greater use of artillery batteries.” The “assault corps” title evokes a bit of the ethos of the Soviet “shock army,” such as the 3rd Shock Army that fought its way into Berlin in 1945. But the Syrian 4th Assault Corps is currently a miscellany of units: OE Watch noted the pro-Hizbullah al-Hadath News gave the composition of the corps as “several Syrian army formations intermixed with elite forces led by Col. Suhail Hassan, units from the Syrian infantry, and others from the National Defense Forces. The forward forces are supported by mortar cover and artillery regiments behind the support lines, as well as aerial cover from the Russian Sukhois.”

These regional sources are sensitive to the possibility that by moving toward a Russian model they are simultaneously drawn away from the “Iranian model.” The “Iranian model” refers to the many militias that were often mobilized and motivated by local, sectarian, and defensive principles without direct regime sponsorship. In many cases, members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps themselves may have organized and trained these units. A potent 4th Assault Corps that put these militias directly under SAA command would certainly have political overtones.

If the Syrian 4th Assault Corps is to realize the Russian model’s greater emphasis on artillery, it will require much more than simply acquiring new equipment. Bringing artillery units — batteries or the claimed “regiments” — to a standard of supporting their maneuver elements with indirect fire will require improvement in the skill of both Syrian artillerymen and the supported formations. Fire control is a crucial requirement for such indirect fires, and Russian observers had noted that even for the pre-war Syrian artillery “fire control at the battalion level was problematic.” The supported formations themselves will need to either be able to adjust fires themselves or acquire forward observers from the artillery unit. In either case, the supported formations must grow confident that artillery fires really can be brought close to their positions safely in order to effectively support their operations. None of this is easy, and it is not clear that the introduction of Russian advisors for these roles would be either welcome or effective.

Beyond the question of acquiring technical proficiency, there is the more profound issue of whether moving toward the “Russian model” would permit the SAA to regain battlefield maneuver and avoid the urban combat that slowed operations to a crawl and led to protracted attrition warfare. The recent ceasefires, negotiations, and subsequent evacuations of anti-Assad insurgents and their supporters from some Damascus suburbs indicate some success, and increasing the threat of encirclement by adhering to the Russian model may force even more such situations.

The Russian moves do not promise immediate victory, only improved warmaking. Whether the Syrian Arab Army itself can motivate more effective performance with this support or whether the militias are open to serving under a more effective army in offensive operations remain open questions as the battlefields move farther from their current locations. As an American general observed on the recent Iraqi rejection of helicopters: “It is kind of hard to inflict support on somebody.”


James T. Quinlivan is a senior operations research analyst at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

 

[Housecarl]

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http://thebulletin.org/north-korea-can-say-no9048

Opinion
11 January 2016

The North Korea that can say no

Bruce Cumings

Some years ago, I spoke with a former Soviet official who had worked in North Korea. He said that you could try to direct, cajole, or nudge the leadership to do something that, to a foreigner, looked to be in their best interests. They would smile, seem to nod assent, or might even say yes, then do the opposite—even when it directly contradicted their presumed interests. You can call it bloody-minded, self-centered, even pig-headed; they don’t care. But this dogged insistence on going their own way is as much a part of North Korea’s historic behavior pattern as it is a palpable obstacle to international cooperation—even with North Korea’s close allies.

This trait might explain one of the real oddities in US-North Korean relations, which occurred back in the early months of the Obama administration. In the only burst of activism toward engaging the North in the past seven years, Washington brought to the table a package of proposals to revive the Six-Party talks, in return for a moratorium from North Korea on testing nuclear weapons or launching long-range missiles. A short time later, on April 5, 2009, the North sent a Taepodong-2 rocket into the stratosphere, where it tried but failed to put a satellite up. No American official could explain this odd sequence of events—at least publicly. They treated it as a direct stab in the back, ending any attempts at engagement, while the North said it had informed the Americans of the coming launch.

After this week’s nuclear weapons test, it is China’s turn to wonder about a knife in the back. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is North Korea’s neighbor, and has for decades been its closest ally. Personal relationships among the top leaders of the two countries go back 80 years, when Kim Il Sung was part of a joint Korean-Chinese guerrilla war against Japan in Manchuria, and joined the Chinese Communist Party. China saved North Korea from oblivion when it intervened in the Korean War in 1950.

But at least since the North’s third nuclear test in February 2013, relations between the two countries have been unprecedentedly cold. After the tests, Chinese president Xi Jinping openly stated that Pyongyang’s actions threatened world peace. Mister Xi has subsequently met several times with South Korean president Park Keun Hye, with whom he apparently has a warm friendship—and in a fit of pique, Pyongyang responded by blowing off several short- and medium-range missiles on the eve of Xi’s visit to Seoul in July 2014.

In recent months, China has sought to warm up the relationship wih the North. Last October, it sent Politburo Standing Committee member Liu Yunshan to North Korea’s celebration in Pyongyang of the 70th anniversary of the founding of its Worker’s Party. Liu was the highest-ranking visitor from the PRC in several years; he was seen waving from a podium with Kim Jong Un high above the central square, where millions had gathered for the event. Some analysts thought that the quid pro quo for this visit was the North’s pledge not to test A-bombs or long-range missiles, as Javier C. Hernandez wrote in the New York Times. In an act that seemingly supported this view, in December Kim Jong Un sent his favorite singing group—the Moranbong Band, consisting of 20 pretty young women in stylish Western garb—to Beijing for several performances. When it became clear that no high officials would show up for the gala opening, the group was abruptly called home. It is likely that Beijing had picked up signs of the coming nuclear test; in any case, China condemned the test, and relations are back in a deep freeze.

On the surface, China’s actions would seem to be a big problem for Pyongyang. Most of the goods available in North Korea’s markets are made in China. Pyongyang earns huge amounts of foreign exchange from Chinese firms exploiting its coal, metal, and mineral reserves (which are seemingly inexhaustible). The North’s trade with China was estimated at more than $6 billion in 2015, not counting informal or black market trade which is also assumed to be quite substantial.

On the diplomatic front, North Korea has also suffered from the Chinese response to its nuclear tests. China has also joined the United States and other countries in slapping United Nations sanctions on the North, and no doubt will do so again in the coming days. This is a major turn-about—for more than a decade, high American officials (especially Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during the second Bush administration) have been hoping that Beijing would join with Washington to gang up on Pyongyang and maybe even end the Kim regime.

Such thinking assumes a uniform view in Beijing about North Korea. In fact China’s leadership, and the general public, are quite split. Many hardliners in the military and the party like the North (and correspondingly hate the United States). Xi Jinping is really the first Chinese leader openly to denounce Pyongyang’s provocations, whereas his predecessor, Hu Jintao, gave a secret speech in September 2004 in which he lauded the North’s closed political system for its ability to keep out subversive Western ideas and practices. No Chinese leader wants South Korea, with 28,000 American troops on the ground, controlling the Yalu River border. President Obama’s consistent strategy toward South Korea and Japan has been to get them to jettison their historical grievances and unite with the United States in containing China’s growing power in the region. Tensions in the East and South China seas, mostly caused by Chinese expansionism, have tended to unite various countries behind American policy. In this milieu, China has many reasons not to make an open break with North Korea.

The key irritant in Sino-North Korean relations is that with every A-bomb or missile test, Washington ramps up its deterrent efforts in Northeast Asia, sending carrier task forces into the Yellow Sea, routing B-2 and B-52 bombers to the Korean theater, and deploying ever more anti-ballistic missile batteries, which China sees as a threat to its older missiles, including its antiquated ICBMs.

In the end, the likely Chinese response to the North’s so-called “H-bomb” test will be a lot of hot air, more toothless or ineffective sanctions, and no serious break in Sino-Korean relations. There will be a continuation of the status quo between the two countries, while Pyongyang builds an ever more effective arsenal of bombs and missiles. North Korea’s obstreperous behavior, so exasperating to foreign powers, might also be seen as a Game Theory 101 strategy by a small country surrounded by bigger powers who, when all is said and done, really don’t like their smaller neighbor. Roar loudly, beat your chest, threaten all manner of mayhem, and recall Muhammad Ali’s maxim: “I don’t have to be who you want me to be.”


Bruce Cumings

Bruce Cumings teaches in the history department of the University of Chicago, where he is the Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift distinguished service professor. He is the author of The Korean War, published by Random House in 2010. Cumings first became interested in the region while serving in the Peace Corps in South Korea in 1967. He was also the principal historical consultant for the Thames Television/PBS six-hour-long documentary Korea: The Unknown War.

 

[Housecarl]

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http://news.yahoo.com/air-strike-iraqs-mosul-targets-millions-cash-us-203832907.html

Air strike in Iraq's Mosul targets 'millions' in IS cash: US official

AFP
3 hours ago

Washington (AFP) - A US-led coalition air strike has destroyed a cash storage facility used by Islamic State jihadists in the Iraqi city of Mosul, a US defense official said Monday.

Two 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs struck the facility, destroying "millions" of dollars worth of cash, the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We estimate in the millions of dollars... from all their illicit stuff: oil, looting, extortion," the official said. The strike came early Monday.

CNN, which first reported the strike, said the US military believed between five and seven civilians had been killed.

The US-led coalition carrying out plane and drone strikes against the IS group in Iraq and Syria has been increasingly targeting the jihadists' money-making capabilities, including by bombing trucks that ferry illicit oil across Syria.

Under pressure from critics who say the campaign is moving too slowly, the Pentagon has indicated it would consider a wider array of targets even if these might cause civilian deaths, provided these attacks yield significant gains against the jihadists.

The defense official said the coalition had targeted cash-holding facilities once or twice in the past year, but the most recent action was "probably" the biggest to date.

It was not immediately clear if the money had been in US dollars, some other foreign currency, or local dinars, the official added.

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[Housecarl]

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http://news.yahoo.com/russia-says-create-three-divisions-western-flank-2016-092001552.html

Russia to deploy new divisions on Western flank, form nuclear regiments

8 hours ago

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will create three new military divisions on its Western flank in 2016 and bring five new strategic nuclear missile regiments into service, Sergei Shoigu, the country's defense minister, was quoted as saying by news agencies on Tuesday.

Shoigu's announcement was consistent with a multi-billion dollar overhaul of Russia's military, which is currently carrying out air strikes in Syria after helping annexe Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014.

Shoigu did not explain the motivation for forming the new divisions, but said it would be one of the most important tasks for the defense ministry this year. He said every military district should also expect to undergo spot checks in 2016.

"Our main effort should go into strengthening the potential of our strategic nuclear forces and of fulfilling the space defense program," the RIA Novosti agency quoted Shoigu as telling a meeting.

"Five rocket regiments, equipped with modern rocket complexes, will enter active service in 2016."

It was also necessary to steadily improve the infrastructure supporting the nuclear forces, he said, singling out the facilities where the country's nuclear-armed submarines and long-range nuclear bombers were based.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Polina Devitt; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christian Lowe)

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[Housecarl]

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http://news.yahoo.com/explosion-rocks-central-istanbul-square-casualties-dogan-news-083900392.html

Suicide bomber kills 10 people, mainly Germans, in Istanbul

Reuters
By Ayla Jean Yackley
2 hours ago

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber thought to have crossed recently from Syria killed at least 10 people, most of them German tourists, in Istanbul's historic heart on Tuesday, in an attack Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed on Islamic State.

All of those killed in Sultanahmet square, near the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia - major tourist sites in the center of one of the world's most visited cities - were foreigners, Davutoglu said. A senior Turkish official said nine were German, while Peru's foreign ministry said a Peruvian man also died.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the bomber was believed to have recently entered Turkey from Syria but was not on Turkey's watch list of suspected militants. He said earlier that the bomber had been identified from body parts at the scene and was thought to be a Syrian born in 1988.

Davutoglu said he had spoken by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to offer condolences and vowed Turkey's fight against Islamic State, at home and as part of the U.S.-led coalition, would continue.

"Until we wipe out Daesh, Turkey will continue its fight at home and with coalition forces," he said in comments broadcast live on television, using an Arabic name for Islamic State. He vowed to hunt down and punish those linked to the bomber.

Several bodies lay on the ground in the square, also known as the Hippodrome of Constantinople, in the immediate aftermath of the blast. It was not densely packed at the time of the explosion, according to a police officer working there, but small groups of tourists had been wandering around.

"This incident has once again shown that as a nation we should act as one heart, one body in the fight against terror. Turkey's determined and principled stance in the fight against terrorism will continue to the end," President Tayyip Erdogan told a lunch for Turkish ambassadors in Ankara.

Norway's foreign ministry said one Norwegian man was injured and was being treated in hospital.

Turkey, a NATO member and candidate for accession to the European Union, is part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State fighters who have seized territory in neighboring Syria and Iraq, some of it directly abutting Turkey.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Islamist, leftist and Kurdish militants, who are battling Ankara in southeast Turkey, have all carried out attacks in the past.

"We heard a loud sound and I looked at the sky to see if it was raining because I thought it was thunder but the sky was clear," said Kuwaiti tourist Farah Zamani, 24, who was shopping at one of the covered bazaars with her father and sister.

"UNIMAGINABLE" SCENE

The dull thud of the blast was heard in districts of Istanbul several kilometers away, residents said. Television footage showed a police car which appeared to have been overturned by the force of the blast.

Tourist sites including the Hagia Sophia and nearby Basilica Cistern were closed on the governor's orders, officials said.

"At first we thought it was percussion bomb, it was so loud. They attacked Sultanahmet to grab attention because this is what the world thinks of when it thinks of Turkey," said Kursat Yilmaz, who has operated tours for 25 years from an office by the square.

"We're not surprised this happened here, this has always been a possible target," he said.

Ambulances ferried away the wounded as police cordoned off streets. The sound of the call to prayer rang out from the Blue Mosque as forensic police officers worked at the scene.

"It was unimaginable," the police officer who had been working on the square said, describing an amateur video he had seen of the immediate aftermath, with six or seven bodies lying on the ground and other people seriously wounded.

Just over a year ago, a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a police station for tourists off the same square, killing one officer. That attack was initially claimed by a far-left group, the DHKP-C, but officials later said it had been carried out by a woman with suspected Islamist militant links.

"Ambulances started rushing in and I knew it was a bomb right away because the same thing happened here last year," said Ali Ibrahim Peltek, 40, who operates a kiosk selling snacks and drinks on the square. "This is not good for Turkey but everyone was expecting a terrorist attack."

TURKEY A TARGET

Turkey has become a target for Islamic State, with two bombings last year blamed on the radical Sunni Muslim group, in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border and in the capital Ankara, the latter killing more than 100 people.

Violence has also escalated in the mainly Kurdish southeast since a two-year ceasefire collapsed in July between the state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has been fighting for three decades for Kurdish autonomy.

The PKK has however generally avoided attacking civilian targets in urban centers outside the southeast in recent years.

Turkey also sees a threat from the PYD and YPG, Kurdish groups in Syria which are fighting Islamic State with U.S. backing, but which Ankara says have close links to the PKK.

"For us, there is no difference between the PKK, PYD, YPG, DHKP-C ... or whatever their abbreviation may be. One terrorist organization is no different than the other," Erdogan said, vowing that Turkey's military campaign against Kurdish militants in the southeast would continue.

Davutoglu's office imposed a broadcasting ban on the blast, invoking a law which allows for such steps when there is the potential for serious harm to national security or public order.

The attack raised fears of further damage to Turkey's vital tourism industry, already hit by a diplomatic row with Moscow which has seen Russian tour operators cancel trips.

But Yilmaz, the tour operator, said he had sold a package to a tourist from Colombia just an hour after the blast.

"The reality is the world has grown accustomed to terrorism. It's unfortunate, and I wish it weren't true, but terrorism now happens everywhere," he said.

"The agenda changes quickly in this age. If tourism is affected by this, it will be temporary. These things pass, but the Hagia Sophia and the Sultanahmet mosque are eternal."

(Additional reporting by Orhan Coskun and Ece Toksabay in Ankara, Humeyra Pamuk, Daren Butler and Melih Aslan in Istanbul, Madeline Chambers in Berlin and Joachim Dagenborg in Oslo; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and David Stamp)

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[vestige]

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http://news.yahoo.com/russia-says-create-three-divisions-western-flank-2016-092001552.html

Russia to deploy new divisions on Western flank, form nuclear regiments

8 hours ago

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will create three new military divisions on its Western flank in 2016 and bring five new strategic nuclear missile regiments into service, Sergei Shoigu, the country's defense minister, was quoted as saying by news agencies on Tuesday.

Shoigu's announcement was consistent with a multi-billion dollar overhaul of Russia's military, which is currently carrying out air strikes in Syria after helping annexe Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014.

Shoigu did not explain the motivation for forming the new divisions, but said it would be one of the most important tasks for the defense ministry this year. He said every military district should also expect to undergo spot checks in 2016.

"Our main effort should go into strengthening the potential of our strategic nuclear forces and of fulfilling the space defense program," the RIA Novosti agency quoted Shoigu as telling a meeting.

"Five rocket regiments, equipped with modern rocket complexes, will enter active service in 2016."

It was also necessary to steadily improve the infrastructure supporting the nuclear forces, he said, singling out the facilities where the country's nuclear-armed submarines and long-range nuclear bombers were based.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Polina Devitt; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christian Lowe)

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never fear... our faggot force is nearly here...

bump

 

[Housecarl]

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http://news.yahoo.com/iran-sell-40-tonnes-heavy-water-us-official-145525336.html

Iran to sell heavy water to US under nuclear deal

AFP
25 minutes ago

Tehran (AFP) - Iran will sell part of its stock of heavy water to the United States under its nuclear deal with world powers, its deputy atomic chief said Tuesday.


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Ali Asghar Zarean also denied reports Iran had dismantled the core of its Arak nuclear reactor, a key step in the deal that is to see sanctions lifted in exchange for limits on Tehran's nuclear programme.

"Iran will sell 40 tonnes of its excess heavy water to the United States through a third country," Zarean, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

"Six tonnes of the exported heavy water will be used in nuclear facilities and the rest in American research centres," he said.

Iran has a heavy water production plant in its Arak nuclear site, which has been operating for several years.

Under its July deal with the P5+1 group -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany -- Iran has agreed to replace the core of the Arak heavy water reactor and take other steps to ensure it cannot be used to make nuclear weapons.

Reports emerged on Monday that Iran had removed the core at Arak, but Zarean said this was not the case and that Tehran was still working on an agreement for a replacement being redesigned with the help of China and the United States.

"We must have a solid agreement with the foreign side, including China... The documents of the agreement will be officially exchanged at the end of next week or this week," Zarean said.

"As long as the agreement is not finalised, we will not take any physical measures to remove the core of the Arak reactor."

Under the deal Tehran has reduced the number of its centrifuges and transferred the bulk of its low-enriched uranium stockpile to Russia.

The International Atomic Energy Agency must verify that Iran has fulfilled all of its obligations before sanctions can be lifted.

The spokesman for Iran's atomic agency Behrouz Kamalvandi later said that "several" IAEA inspectors were present in Iran "and we hope to finalise things in the next few days".

"It is a matter of days, not weeks," he added, declining to give a specific date.

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[Housecarl]

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http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-army-enters-rebel-bastion-latakia-province-monitor-110734427.html

Syria army 'seizes' key rebel stronghold in Latakia

AFP
By Rouba El Husseini
2 hours ago

Beirut (AFP) - Syria's army and allied forces on Tuesday took full control from rebel groups of the strategic town of Salma, in the northwestern province of Latakia, state television reported.


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In a breaking news flash, the channel said the army, backed by the pro-government National Defence Forces militia, had also seized hilltops surrounding the town.

Government forces were combing the area for mines and explosive devices "left behind by terrorist groups in the buildings, streets, and squares of the town," it said.

The town's recapture is a major boost for Syria's beleaguered army, which had been mostly locked in a stalemate with rebel factions in the province.

Since 2012, Salma had been the main bastion for opposition groups in hilly Latakia, which remains largely controlled by government forces.

- Assad thanks 'friendly nations' -


.. View gallery
Map of Syria locating the rebel bastion of Salma in …
Map of Syria locating the rebel bastion of Salma in Latakia province. 45 x 47 mm (AFP Photo/Valentin …

Opposition forces in Latakia province -- including the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front -- are largely based in the northern and northeastern areas of Jabal Akrad and Jabal Turkman.

Regime forces have fought fierce battles in recent months to retake those areas with help from Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters and from Russian air strikes.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Russia conducted more than 120 air strikes over 48 hours in support of the army's Salma offensive.

Syrian troops have since September 30 been backed by an intense air campaign by Russia, a staunch ally of President Bashar al-Assad.

On Tuesday, Russian strikes killed 35 civilians in the provinces of Idlib, in Syria's northwest, and Aleppo, in the north, the Observatory said.

.. View gallery
Russia conducted more than 120 air strikes over 48 …
Russia conducted more than 120 air strikes over 48 hours in support of the Syrian regime's Salma …

Twenty-one civilians were killed in Russian raids on Maaret al-Numan, an opposition-held town in Idlib province, it said.

The toll included two paramedics, two media activists and one child.

Another 14 civilians, including three children, were killed in Russian raids on Manbij, a town in Aleppo province held by the Islamic State jihadist group, the monitor said.

Rights groups have condemned Russia for killing civilians in its air war, but Moscow insists it is fighting extremist groups.

In comments carried by state news agency SANA on Tuesday, Assad said the support of "friendly nations" like Iran and Russia had allowed Syria to fight off "terrorism".

Speaking after meeting with Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, Assad said he "appreciated the positions of Iran, which supported Syria in the face of terrorism".

"Friendly nations, chiefly Iran and Russia, have played an important role in supporting Syrians over the past five years to score victories in their war against takfiri (extremist Sunni) terrorism," Assad said.

Since the country's uprising broke out nearly five years ago, Syria's government has regularly referred to all its opponents as "terrorists".

On Tuesday, Fazli said Iran had "robustly" supported the Syrian people, who are engaged "in a global war against terrorism and takfiri extremist ideas," SANA reported.

He said on Monday that Iran was equipping and training Syrian government forces but not providing direct aid.

Last year, a US official said as many as 2,000 fighters from Iran and its regional allies were supporting Syria's army in offensives against rebels.

Iran denies having fighters on the ground in Syria.

The conflict in Syria erupted in March 2011 with anti-regime protests, which spiralled into a full-fledged war that has left more than 260,000 people dead and forced millions from their homes.

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[Housecarl]

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http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-ruling-may-jeopardize-case-missing-students-181217472.html

Mexico ruling may jeopardize case of missing students

Associated Press
By MARIA VERZA
8 minutes ago

MEXICO CITY (AP) — An appeals court ruling is threatening to derail Mexico's effort to prosecute suspects in one of its most notorious crimes of recent years: the disappearance and presumed murder of 43 students in Guerrero state.

The injunction, issued late last year but not yet publicized, orders the state judge overseeing the case to correct flaws in its case against 22 police officers who are accused of killing four people on the night the students vanished.

The case of the 43 teachers' college students is one of the most widely protested and troubling examples of human rights abuses in Mexico's recent history — one that has shaken faith in all levels of government.

Federal prosecutors say the local police killed several people, rounded up the students and handed them over to a drug cartel, which killed them, possibly suspecting they were linked to rivals.

But the bodies have not been found, the motives are in dispute and outside investigators have suggested that state and perhaps even federal agents may have played a role in the disappearances.

The injunction, which came in response to an appeal of the charges by lawyers for the 22 police officers, found prosecutorial errors including inconsistent testimony and scant evidence. If those can't be fixed, the case would be thrown out.

The appellate ruling shows the entire case was built on "foundations of mud," said Sayuri Herrera, the lawyer for the family of Julio Cesar Mondragon, a 22-year-old student who was found dead in the city of Iguala on Sept. 27, 2014, the morning after the disappearances. There were signs of torture on his body and the skin was flayed from his face.

"Nearly all the prosecutions underway could fall apart," Herrera said, "because nearly all were carried out, at least at the beginning, by the same people" — Guerrero state prosecutors.

The case involves four of the six confirmed killings that night: Mondragon; Blanca Montiel, 40, who was cut down by gunfire as she rode in a taxi; David Jose Garcia Evangelista, a 15-year old boy traveling on a bus with his soccer team; and Victor Manuel Lugo Ortiz, the driver of the bus.

The ruling, to which The Associated Press gained access, argues that state prosecutors "did not carry out an ample and diligent analysis" of the events — echoing criticism by a team of international experts authorized by the government to review federal officials' investigation of the disappearances.

The injunction complains that the case against the officers relies on testimony implicating the same people in different attacks in different places at roughly the same time. It says there's no explanation of exactly who did what, and no proof linking individual suspects to specific crimes.

Guerrero state prosecutors did not respond to multiple phone calls and messages seeking comment. The state-level appellate decision is being reviewed by a higher, federal court as is allowed under Mexican law.

While the killings are the province of local courts, investigation of the 43 students' disappearance is being carried out by federal prosecutors.

The federal prosecutor's office told the AP that it believes the appellate ruling "will not affect" its case because the decision doesn't involve federal statutes involved in the disappearances: kidnapping and organized crime.

But an investigator involved in the case, who was not authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the federal investigation has "the same problems."

The 22 suspects are also linked to the students' disappearances, and the warrants for most of the rest of those detained in the federal case — more than 100 suspects — were issued by the same authorities whose work was called into question by the appeals judge.

The investigator doubted that the local court in Iguala will be able to produce the kind of evidence demanded by the appeals judge, given mistakes in gathering evidence from an incident that took place 15 months ago. He also noted that some suspects in the disappearances claim to have been tortured, and that could invalidate prosecutions if confirmed.

A group of experts reviewing the case for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights declined to discuss the recent injunction. But in September, they said the federal case was plagued by fundamental errors such as confusion over the time and place of events and the mishandling of ballistic evidence.

In a scathing report, they picked apart the official account of events, arguing it was impossible for the 43 students to have been incinerated in a trash dump as prosecutors contended, and alleged obstruction of justice by officials at various levels of government.

Federal prosecutors promised to take the experts' recommendations into account and install a new investigative team.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch, said the appellate ruling was the result "chronic incompetence of agents of justice who do not respect minimum standards for a professional legal investigation."

"If the negligent conduct by these officials goes unpunished and there are no sanctions, it will be difficult for Mexico to show improvement on human rights," Vivanco said.

Herrera, the Mondragon family lawyer, said the state has three options: the original judge could rework the case with better evidence, step aside in favor of federal courts or exonerate the defendants — though they would not immediately walk free because they are also suspects in the federal probe.

In any case, Herrera said, it's like "starting from zero."

View Comments (0) .

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://news.yahoo.com/marseille-jews-urged-not-wear-skullcaps-teacher-attack-173153898.html

Marseille Jews urged not to wear skullcaps after teacher attack

AFP
21 minutes ago

Marseille (AFP) - The leader of Marseille's Jewish community on Tuesday urged Jews in the southern French port city to refrain from wearing skullcaps after a teacher was hurt in an attack by a Turkish teenager.


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"Remove the kippah during this troubled time until better days," said Zvi Ammar, head of Marseille's Israelite Consistory, a day after the youth attacked the 35-year-old Jewish teacher with a machete in broad daylight, leaving him injured in the shoulder and one hand.

"Unfortunately for us, we are targeted. As soon as we are identified as Jewish we can be assaulted and even risk death," he told AFP.

"For me, life is more sacred than any other criterion," Ammar said, while adding that making such an appeal made him "sick to the stomach".

The chief rabbi of France, Haim Korsia, rejected the call to stop wearing skullcaps.

"We should not give an inch, we should continue wearing the kippah," Korsia said.

The 15-year-old ethnic Kurd who attacked the teacher on Monday told police he was acting in the name of the Islamic State group.

The attack was the third on Jews in recent months in Marseille, which has the second-largest population of Jews in France after the capital Paris.

Three Jews were assaulted in October, one with a knife near a synagogue by a drunken assailant.

In November, another Jewish teacher was stabbed by youths shouting anti-Semitic obscenities and expressing support for the Islamic State group.

View Comments (16)

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Se...s-in-Baltics-rise/3031452534461/?spt=hts&or=2

NATO interception of Russian planes in Baltics rise

Lithuania says Russian incursions into the airspace of countries in the Baltics has increased 14 percent.

By Richard Tomkins | Jan. 11, 2016 at 1:17 PM

VILNIUS, Lithuania, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- NATO fighters scrambled 160 times last year to intercept Russian aircraft violating the airspace of alliance members in the Baltics, which used to be part of the Soviet Union.

The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense said the number of interceptions in 2015 were a 14 percent rise from the previous year.

"The number of times jets were scrambled last year was up on the 140 occasions in 2014," the ministry said. "Russian military aircraft activity over the Baltic Sea has significantly increased since 2014 amid a heightening of tensions between Moscow and Western countries over Russia's annexation of the Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine."

NATO's Baltic members -- Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia -- have no air forces of their own. Other NATO countries fill the defense vacuum by sending aircraft in rotating four-month deployments to the region. Aircraft from Spain and Belgium take up station in the Baltics this week, relieving those from Hungary and Germany.

Like Us on Facebook for more stories from UPI.com



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[Housecarl]

Good luck, she's really going to need it.....

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://in.reuters.com/article/myanmar-suukyi-peace-talks-idINKCN0UQ0BR20160112

Tue Jan 12, 2016 3:38pm IST
Related: Top News, World

Myanmar's Suu Kyi calls for all insurgents to take part in talks

NAYPYITAW | By Hnin Yadana Zaw and Antoni Slodkowski

More of Myanmar's ethnic minority rebel groups should be brought into peace talks and the effort to end conflict should not divide groups that are involved in negotiations and those that have shunned the process, Aung San Suu Kyi said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of representatives of guerrilla groups, the military and members of parliament, gathered in the capital, Naypyitaw, for the second stage of talks aimed at ending insurgencies that have plagued the country for decades.

The outgoing semi-civilian government of President Thein Sein signed what it called a nationwide ceasefire agreement in October, but seven of 15 rebel groups invited to participate declined to sign, including some of the most powerful.

Other groups were not invited to take part or showed little interest in the process.

Since the signing, fighting has erupted between the military and groups that did not sign the ceasefire and groups that did not take part in the negotiations, as well as between groups that signed and others that did not, further complicating the already daunting task of reaching sustainable peace.

"We need to work for all the ethnic armed groups to be participate in the NCA," Suu Kyi said referring to the nationwide ceasefire agreement.

"It is important not to have conflicts between the ethnic armed groups which have signed the NCA and the groups which are still not involved in the agreement."

Ethnic minority guerrillas have been fighting the central government for greater autonomy and rights since shortly after the country gained independence from Britain in 1948.

The military, which still wields huge influence under a constitution it drafted in 2008, has long portrayed itself as the sole power holding the ethnically diverse country together and it is widely seen as loath to give ground on minority demands for autonomy under a federal system.


'HIGH EXPECTATIONS"

Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy (NLD) swept a November election, said in an Independence Day speech last week that the peace process would be the first priority of her new government, which is due to take power in March.

But she and the NLD have said little publicly about how they intend to push the process forward.

Groups that chose not to sign the ceasefire have been invited to attend the latest talks, which could lay the groundwork for further negotiations once the NLD takes power.

Several of the insurgent groups are hoping that Suu Kyi's standing and mandate will help her in bridging differences with the military.

"We have high expectations for Aung San Suu Kyi and her government to negotiate with the army chief - without the military's involvement it will be impossible to end the fighting across the country," said Saw Thamein Tun, a leader of the Karen National Union.

The gathering in Naypyitaw was also attended by President Thein Sein and the powerful army chief Min Aung Hlaing. The appearance of the two alongside Suu Kyi reflected what has been a smooth transfer of power.

Myanmar's generals ran the country for 49 years, until 2011, when a hybrid civilian-military government was installed.


(Writing by Timothy Mclaughlin; Editing by Robert Birsel)

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm........

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-nuclear-nato-idUSKCN0UQ29K20160112

Business | Tue Jan 12, 2016 1:52pm EST
Related: World, Russia, North Korea, Aerospace & Defense

NATO cannot limit missile defenses to please Russia, U.S. says

NATO allies cannot agree to Russian demands to limit their missile defenses because of the threat posed by North Korea, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday.

North Korea's claim last week to have tested a hydrogen bomb, which would represent an advance in its capability to strike Japan and the United States, has underscored Washington's determination to enhance the defenses that Russia opposes.

"We are not going to agree to limitations on our systems because we need to have the flexibility to deal with the dynamic and evolving threat," Frank Rose, deputy assistant secretary of state for arms control, told reporters at NATO in Brussels.

"North Korea has large numbers of ballistic missiles and they test them often," Rose said, adding North Korea could already reach South Korea and most of Japan and potentially the United States.

While there is considerable doubt over the veracity of Pyongyang's assertion that last week's explosion was a full-fledged test of a hydrogen device, Washington already warned last February that North Korea is seeking a long-range, nuclear-armed ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg last week called on North Korea to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

NATO's ballistic missile defense, in place since 2010, has been a source of tension between Russia and the U.S.-led alliance even before Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, although NATO says it is not designed against Moscow.

Russia threatened last year to aim nuclear missiles at Danish warships if Denmark joins NATO's missile defense system, arguing that it could reduce the effectiveness of its own nuclear arsenal.

"The key Russian concern ... is that in the future, absent legally binding constraints, we will develop systems that could potentially negate their strategic deterrent," Rose said.

While the United States provides much of NATO's missile shield, the alliance in 2012 agreed to develop its capabilities in Europe.

Romania has agreed to host a defense system, while Turkey already has a missile defense radar in place. The United States sent a destroyer to Spain in September, one of four ships that make up part of the shield. Poland is also due to host defenses from 2018, with construction on a site starting this year.

"These capabilities are designed to defend NATO Europe against threats from outside the Euro-Atlantic area. They are not directed against Russia," Rose said.

Rose said Russian officials had voiced concern about the kind of technology that the United States did not have, such as a sea-based missile defense interceptor capable of speeds of 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) a second.


(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

 

[vestige]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Se...s-in-Baltics-rise/3031452534461/?spt=hts&or=2

NATO interception of Russian planes in Baltics rise

Lithuania says Russian incursions into the airspace of countries in the Baltics has increased 14 percent.

By Richard Tomkins | Jan. 11, 2016 at 1:17 PM

VILNIUS, Lithuania, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- NATO fighters scrambled 160 times last year to intercept Russian aircraft violating the airspace of alliance members in the Baltics, which used to be part of the Soviet Union.

The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense said the number of interceptions in 2015 were a 14 percent rise from the previous year.

"The number of times jets were scrambled last year was up on the 140 occasions in 2014," the ministry said. "Russian military aircraft activity over the Baltic Sea has significantly increased since 2014 amid a heightening of tensions between Moscow and Western countries over Russia's annexation of the Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine."

NATO's Baltic members -- Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia -- have no air forces of their own. Other NATO countries fill the defense vacuum by sending aircraft in rotating four-month deployments to the region. Aircraft from Spain and Belgium take up station in the Baltics this week, relieving those from Hungary and Germany.

Like Us on Facebook for more stories from UPI.com



Related UPI Stories
•NATO awards Latvian construction contracts
•Work underway on F-35 for Israel
•Indian Army likely to get K9 Vajra-T howitzers
•General Dynamics receives U.S. Navy electronic warfare contract

The above was a hummer for me.

 

[Housecarl]

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-some-people-happy-–-including-the-wrong-ones

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ateral-nuclear-disarmament-wrong-people-happy

Nuclear weapons
Opinion

Unilateral disarmament will make some people happy – including the wrong ones

At its most basic level, the argument that unilaterally eliminating America’s nuclear arsenal will automatically make the country safer is illogical

Dr Blake McMahon and Dr Adam B Lowther
Monday 11 January 2016 10.30 EST

When the former secretary of defense William Perry commented on 6 January that “The probability of nuclear calamity is higher today, I believe, than it was during the cold war,” he was technically correct. Unfortunately, he was correct for the wrong reasons and offered the wrong solutions.

Opponents of nuclear weapons like Perry often argue – as he did last week – that the risks of accident and miscalculation trump the benefits that a robust nuclear deterrent can provide. But there has never been an accidental launch or detonation of a nuclear warhead and, while there have been three dozen American mishaps in which nuclear weapons were present, no accident has ever resulted in a nuclear blast. Our nuclear weapons are designed specifically for safety during such accidents. The last US mishap involving nuclear weapons occurred more than 30 years ago – meaning that the military’s safety record has been perfect for longer than most of the airmen and sailors operating the weapon systems have been alive.

And new nuclear powers are not starting from scratch in preventing accidental detonation or misuse of their nuclear weapons. They actually have an even better track record of nuclear safety than the United States and Russia because they have learned from our mistakes and they have been aided by both nuclear powers in securing their own weapons.

The United States, for instance, has spent more than $100m to improve the safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. Russia similarly seeks to provide surety and security assistance to nuclear states with which it has close diplomatic ties. China has a rather complex system of ensuring security, which includes preventing the mating of delivery vehicles and warheads. And we all use a range of intelligence methods for determining when accidents occur.

Besides, eliminating the United States’ nuclear arsenal would have little impact on the safety and security of other’s nuclear arsenals – and it’s unlikely that other nations would simply follow our lead if we unilaterally disarm.

Perry, like other abolitionists, also argued that the prospect of a nuclear “miscalculation” leading to war is so high that it justifies the elimination of America’s nuclear arsenal. Their claims illustrate how poorly many of these former officials understand modern nuclear doctrine, operations plans, command and control systems and the military’s ongoing effort to prepare for a wide range of scenarios through exercises and war games.

The cyber threat mentioned by Perry is certainly greater than it was during the cold war, but when nuclear abolitionists insinuate that because we do not know if systems are penetrated, therefore they must be penetrated, they are taking a leap in logic. Claiming that compromise of nuclear command and control systems is bound to occur ignores the successful history of these systems as well as the benefits associated with incorporating new technology.

Perry’s comments, though, should be viewed in the context of his larger belief – which he has outlined in articles and speeches since 2008 – that the United States must continue to shrink the size and capability of its nuclear arsenal because we will achieve greater security and stability by decreasing America’s ability to destroy an adversary. But nuclear deterrence has had a seven-decade record of success in preventing large international wars that were common before these weapons were invented; nuclear weapons have created a safer world.

Any abolitionist argument generally relies on the dubious belief that nuclear weapons are no longer, if they ever were, necessary. A casual reading of the news reveals the precarious nature of this claim; our adversaries understand the enduring relevance of nuclear weapons and have sought to increase their own capabilities.

The Russian military is modernizing its entire nuclear force – warheads, aircraft, and missiles. President Putin reportedly aims to replace at least 70% of Russia’s Soviet-era intercontinental ballistic missiles by 2020. The new Kh-102 nuclear cruise missile can already strike the western US from launch points in eastern Russia; we have no way to stop those missiles.

China is developing the ability to launch ballistic missiles from submarines; once operational, these submarines will give Beijing a true “nuclear triad” along with the country’s strategic bomber and ground-based missile force. They are also developing new road-mobile missiles, which are already difficult to track and destroy during a conflict.

Just last week, North Korea conducted a nuclear test of what it claims was a thermonuclear weapon. If true, this would represent a major leap forward in the country’s nuclear program because thermonuclear devices are more powerful and difficult to build.

At its most basic level, the abolitionist argument – that unilaterally eliminating our nuclear arsenal will automatically make Americans safer – is illogical. When burglaries in a neighborhood increase, few people reason that the best way to reduce them is to remove the locks on their doors. Rather, they seek to preserve security against growing threats by increasing their vigilance and their ability to deny or defeat criminals.

While we agree with Perry that there is growing instability in the world and among states with nuclear capabilities, we prefer to follow the same course of action as most Americans would take in preventing burglaries in their neighborhood. Maintaining a nuclear arsenal of unrivaled capability is central to providing the security the nation requires; unilaterally eliminating them or allowing them to obsolesce will simply leave us vulnerable.


The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the air force, the Department of Defense, or the US government.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.defensenews.com/story/de...entary-nuclear-bait-and-switch-lrso/78311948/

Commentary: A Nuclear Bait-and-Switch With LRSO

By Matthew Costlow 4:01 p.m. EST January 11, 2016
Comments 2

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and right now opponents of US nuclear modernization plans are more desperate than ever. The year 2015 was not kind to them as President Obama, whom they hoped would usher in a new era of nuclear disarmament, has proposed and supported plans to modernize the nuclear triad of bombers, submarines and missiles.

Russian nuclear threats against US allies in NATO, newly aggressive nuclear build-up operations and a major treaty violation further demonstrate that nuclear issues are not going away.

In a last-ditch effort to make some sort of progress on nuclear disarmament before Obama leaves office, anti-nuclear activists are calling for cancellation of the Long-Range Stand Off (LRSO) weapon, a planned program for a nuclear-armed cruise missile that would begin replacing the current system around 2030. Their main arguments against the LRSO are that it will be redundant and unnecessarily expensive.

Leaving aside the fact that in peak funding years the LRSO will make up about three-tenths of 1 percent of the defense budget annually, the claim that the LRSO will be redundant deserves more scrutiny.

The new cruise missile will be designed to penetrate enemy air defense systems after being launched by the B-52 bomber or the planned Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B). Yet, as critics Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, and Tom Collina, policy director at Ploughshares Fund, both point out, the new bomber will also be designed to penetrate enemy air defenses, and if needed, drop the B-61 nuclear gravity bomb. Consequently, they say the US can eliminate the planned procurement of the LRSO.

This argument might carry more weight except that the same people making this claim now are in many cases the same people who supported reducing or retiring the B-61 gravity bombs only a few years ago. So which is it? Do they support cutting the B-61 in favor of the LRSO, or cutting the LRSO in favor of the B-61? The answer: both.

This is simply an example of the old bait-and-switch maneuver. Once one program is cut, they will call for the other to be cut as well, effectively reducing the US nuclear triad to a dyad of only missiles and submarines.

In either case, they are wrong to argue that redundancy, per se, is a bad thing. In fact, redundancy is a necessary component of any important system, be it extra GPS satellites for navigation or backup generators for hospitals.

Critics of the LRSO can have no confidence that a nuclear stand-off capability will be unnecessary to deter future threats. In fact, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said recently, “Today, there are roughly 10 integrated air defense systems in the world that you would have a difficult time operating in or around in aircraft. ... By 10 years from now, there will probably be 25 or so.”

For deterrence, current and future adversaries should not feel safe against US bombers behind their air defense systems. The LRSO would introduce great uncertainty in their planning.

If the United States cuts LRSO plans now, a future president would be left without a potentially important option during an international crisis. The US nuclear infrastructure is unable to respond at the same pace that international security events change; this is why some redundancy has been built into the nuclear triad for decades, with each leg able to substitute for another in the case of technical failure or advanced adversary defenses.

Nuclear disarmament advocates may dare to dream that unilateral US cuts to the LRSO program will enlighten foreign leaders as to the error of their ways and lead to a global ban on nuclear-armed cruise missiles; but reality dares to intrude. Vladimir Putin recently helpfully reminded the world that the cruise missiles successfully launched from a Russian submarine against ISIS targets in Syria were, “new, modern and highly effective high-precision weapons that can be equipped either with conventional or special nuclear warheads.”

Russian officials seem to subscribe to a “nuclear first use” strategy and Putin’s firm nyet to further arms control negotiations with the United States shows he is in no mood for Western “enlightenment.”

Congress should fully fund the LRSO program and send Mr. Putin a useful message that the US is investing in the capabilities that will disabuse him of the notion he can escalate his way out of a crisis or intimidate NATO allies without consequence.

Matthew Costlow is policy analyst at the National Institute for Public Policy.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2016/01/13/0200000000AEN20160113000400315.html

S. Korea could face dilemma of whether to bring back U.S. nuclear weapons: U.S. expert

2016/01/13 04:05

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will face a strategic choice of whether it should seek to bring U.S. nuclear weapons back into the country, pursue its own nuclear armament or accept a nuclear North Korea if Pyongyang's nuclear threat reaches a serious level, a U.S. expert said Tuesday.

That situation, in turn, would force a strategic choice upon the United States as well, namely whether to forward deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of its non-nuclear allies, said Clark Murdock, a senior adviser with the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"North Korea's fourth nuclear test challenges again the U.S. extended nuclear deterrence to South Korea," Murdock said in an email to Yonhap News Agency. "If, or perhaps 'once,' North Korea achieves that level of nuclear capability, the credibility of the U.S.' nuclear umbrella in Northeast Asia will be directly tested."

After the North's fourth nuclear test last week, some members of South Korea's ruling party called for deployment of nuclear weapons in the country. But the government dismissed the idea, saying it runs counter to the principle of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

"If the nuclear threat posed by North Korea ... should reach that level of seriousness, South Korea ... will face a critical strategic choice: seek the re-introduction of U.S. nuclear weapons, pursue its own independent nuclear force or accept the necessity of accommodating its nuclear-armed adversaries, often-called 'Finlandization,'" Murdock said.

jschang@yna.co.kr

(END)

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm.....

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://thediplomat.com/2016/01/is-chinas-pla-now-xis-army/

Is China's PLA Now Xi's Army?

In China’s most sweeping military reshuffle since the 1950s, Xi Jinping is creating an army that is loyal only to him.

By Bo Zhiyue
January 12, 2016

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2 Comments

In the most sweeping military reshuffle since the 1950s, Central Military Commission Chairman Xi Jinping is creating an army that is loyal to no one but himself.

In the old structure, the four general departments — the General Staff Department (GSD), General Political Department (GPD), General Logistics Department (GLD), and General Armament Department (GAD) — were the most powerful organizations. GSD and GPD were particularly important; GSD was the executive organization of the military and GPD controlled personnel issues. For many years, two former CMC vice chairmen, Guo Boxiong (now under investigation for corruption) and Xu Caihou (who was expelled from the party for corruption), controlled these two organizations. By downgrading these general departments, the CMC will have more power over military issues.

In the new structure, these four general departments have been renamed and become four of 15 “functional departments” directly under the leadership of the Central Military Commission (CMC). In the new lineup, the CMC General Office is ranked first, followed by the four renamed departments (the CMC Joint Staff Department, the CMC Political Work Department, the CMC Logistic Support Department, and the CMC Equipment Development Department). These organs are followed by two new departments (the CMC Training and Administration Department and the CMC National Defense Mobilization Department), making a total of seven departments.

It is significant that the CMC General Office is placed ahead of the four general departments. It is likely that the CMC chairman will control the military through the General Office and that the head of the General Office will likely become a member of the CMC.

In the same structure, three commissions have been created. The military’s disciplinary inspection organ, which used to work under the GPD, has been upgraded into an independent organization with the same rank as the former GPD: the CMC Discipline Inspection Commission. The CMC Politics and Law Commission has been created anew. The final commission, the CMC Science and Technology Commission, however, is not entirely new. The Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense (CSTIND) was established on May 10, 1982 by merging three relevant institutions. This commission was replaced by two organizations in the government restructuring in 1998: one was the GAD and one was the CSTIND of the PRC under the State Council. On March 15, 2008, the 11th National People’s Congress decided to abolish the CSTIND of the PRC.

In the same rank, there are five new organs directly under the leadership of the CMC. They are the CMC Office for Strategic Planning, the CMC Office for Reform and Organizational Structure, the CMC Office for International Military Cooperation, the CMC Audit Office, and the CMC Agency for Offices Administration.

If heads of these functional departments are all members of the newly structured CMC, along with the commanders of three new military institutions (the general command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Army, PLA Rocket Force, and PLA Strategic Support Force) and those of the PLA Navy and PLA Air Force, the membership of the CMC would be more than doubled, from 10 currently to 23.

As Xi is the architect of this reorganization, no doubt the new commanders will all be personally loyal to him. Through the restructuring, Xi is effectively creating an army of his own.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://thediplomat.com/2016/01/japan-eyes-bigger-south-china-sea-presence-in-2016/

Japan Eyes Bigger South China Sea Presence in 2016

Patrol aircraft set to make transits in key locations along the South China Sea.

By Prashanth Parameswaran
January 12, 2016

19 Shares
12 Comments

Japan has decided to boost its presence in the South China Sea in 2016 with patrol aircraft making transits in key locations along those waters, sources have told The Yomiuri Shimbun.

According to the newspaper, the defense ministry and the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) have decided that Japanese P-3C patrol aircraft returning home from anti-piracy activities off the coast of Somalia will make transit points along the way at bases in countries involved in the South China Sea disputes, including the Philippines and Vietnam.

Though the P-3C aircraft have long been involved in anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia, they usually refuel at bases farther away from the South China Sea, including Thailand. Now, while outward journeys would remain the same, return trips will prioritize refueling in countries like Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia – all rival claimants in the ongoing South China Sea disputes with China.

Though the step may seem small, if it occurs it will no doubt be significant. Since the P-3Cs have advanced monitoring capabilities, their presence at these new locations will mean that they will cover a greater portion of the South China Sea, where Chinese behavior continues to be a concern for not just Southeast Asian claimant states, but major powers like the United States and Japan as well.

More broadly, as the newspaper noted, it would effectively constitute one way that Japan is contributing to the protection of freedom of navigation and overflight in its own way following U.S. patrols around the artificial islands built by China last year. While joint U.S.-Japan patrols in the South China Sea have yet to occur, the two countries have been increasingly coordinating their activities in the area, including by holding their first-ever bilateral naval exercise in the South China Sea in October last year (See: “US-Japan Joint Patrols in the South China Sea?”).

In addition, the aircraft, the newspaper reported, could also be part of broader bilateral defense exchanges in those locations. For instance, arrangements are being made for a February stop in Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam along with goodwill exercises. As I reported for The Diplomat last November, during Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani’s visit to Vietnam, the two sides had agreed that Japanese vessels would be able to make port calls in Cam Ranh Bay. However, Vietnamese officials were careful to clarify thereafter that it would be in the international harbor portion under construction rather than the naval base itself (See: “Japan Warships Could Visit Vietnam Naval Base Near South China Sea in 2016”).

The other locations mentioned were Palawan in the Philippines and Labuan in Malaysia, both of which are also significant in their own right. For instance, as I have noted previously, the Philippines is constructing a base in Oyster Bay in Palawan – located around 100 miles from the Spratly Islands – which could hold large naval vessels and house operational command posts with radar systems to monitor the situation in the South China Sea (See: “Philippines Moves Toward New Naval Base in the South China Sea”). The Philippines and Japan also just carried out their first joint naval exercises last year and the verdict on the Philippine case against China on the South China Sea is expected later this year (See: “Japan, Philippines Hold First South China Sea Naval Exercises”).

As for Labuan, which lies off the coast of Borneo, the United States and Malaysia had been in talks for Kuala Lumpur to host U.S. navy aircraft – P-8 Poseidon and P-3 Orion maritime surveillance planes – at the Royal Malaysian Air Force base there. Malaysia has been increasingly worried about Chinese encroachments into its waters (See: “How is Malaysia Responding to China’s South China Sea Intrusion?”). As I reported in December, Washington recently reached an agreement with neighboring Singapore to deploy U.S. P-8 Poseidon aircraft there rotationally (See: “US, Singapore Agree Spy Plane Deployment Amid South China Sea Tensions”).

 

[mzkitty]

WHAT???


2m
Pentagon: 2 US Navy boats in Iranian custody, but Iran tells US that crew will be returned 'promptly' - @AP
End of alert

 

[Housecarl]

WHAT???


2m
Pentagon: 2 US Navy boats in Iranian custody, but Iran tells US that crew will be returned 'promptly' - @AP
End of alert

Pentagon says two Navy boats in Iranian custody -AP
Started by Housecarlý, Today 01:13 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...gon-says-two-Navy-boats-in-Iranian-custody-AP

Fox News now reporting that USN sailors have been returned.

NBC reporting that the personnel and boats still being held.....

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http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pentagon-2-u-s-navy-boats-held-iran-military-n495031

BREAKING
News
Jan 12 2016, 4:15 pm ET

Pentagon: 2 U.S. Navy Boats Held by Iran Military

by Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube

Iranian military forces seized two U.S. Navy boats and are holding them on the Irans Farsi Island in the middle of the Persian Gulf in custody, U.S. officials told NBC News.

Officials said it's unclear whether the 10 American sailors who were aboard one of the small riverine boat had strayed into Iranian territorial waters before they were captured. But

The officials said the Americans were on a training mission when their boat experienced mechanical difficulty and drifted into Iranian-claimed waters and were seized by Iranian Coast guard.

Secretary of State John Kerry has been on the phone with Iranian officials in Tehran attempting to gain the release.

One senior official told NBC News the Iranians understand it was a mistake and have agreed to release the Americans in international waters within hours.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told The Associated Press that the boats were moving between Kuwait and Bahrain when the US lost contact with them.

Cook says, "We have been in contact with Iran and have received assurances that the crew and the vessels will be returned promptly."

 

[mzkitty]

Thanks, Carl.

 

[Housecarl]

Thanks, Carl.

You're welcome...BTW I credited you with the initial find on the dedicated thread.

 

[mzkitty]

You're welcome...BTW I credited you with the initial find on the dedicated thread.

Thanks. I was busy with the Snow/Accident thread and didn't think to start a new thread. Thought I was seeing things.........

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
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http://news.yahoo.com/israel-gets-fifth-german-submarine-191451625.html

Israel gets fifth German submarine

AFP
2 hours ago

Haifa (Israel) (AFP) - Israel on Tuesday took delivery of its fifth German-built submarine, an advanced Dolphin-class vessel said to be capable of remaining submerged for up to a week.

Speaking at an official welcome ceremony at the northern port city of Haifa, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the undersea fleet allows Israel "to deter enemies who seek to destroy us."

"They should know that Israel can strike very hard indeed at anyone who tries to harm it," he said.

The new arrival is named "Rahav" after a biblical sea monster.

"Rahav will take an active part in defending the state of Israel and its territorial waters, operating deeper, further, and for longer from the very depths -- with a watchful eye," President Reuven Rivlin said at the ceremony.

Foreign military sources say the Dolphins can be equipped with missiles armed with nuclear warheads.

They say Israel has between 100 and 200 warheads and missiles capable of delivering them.

Israel is the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, refusing to confirm or deny it has such weapons.

Its five German-made submarines will be used to protect its shores and carry out spying missions against its arch-foe Iran, Israeli media say.

Netanyahu tried in vain to block a July deal with world powers on scaling down Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, arguing it would not stop Tehran from developing an atomic weapon.

The incoming head of Israel's Mossad spy agency said last week that the Islamic republic and its nuclear ambitions constitute "the principle challenge" for his organisation.

A sixth submarine is to be delivered in two to three years although defence analyst Yossi Melman, writing in Maariv newspaper, has said it is likely to be cancelled for budgetary reasons.

The current model costs about 500 million euros ($540 million) to build, Israeli media say. Berlin is paying one third of the cost itself.

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[Housecarl]

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http://news.yahoo.com/philippine-court-oks-pact-allowing-us-troops-local-070949524.html

Philippine court OKs pact allowing US troops in local camps

Associated Press
By TERESA CEROJANO
5 hours ago

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday declared as constitutional a defense pact that allows American forces, warships and planes to temporarily base in local military camps, in a boost to U.S. efforts to reassert its presence in Asia as China rises to regional dominance.


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Ten of the 15 members of the high court also ruled that the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which was signed by U.S. and Philippine officials in 2014 and has a 10-year lifespan, is an executive agreement that does not need Senate approval, court spokesman Theodore Te said.

"EDCA is not constitutionally infirm as an executive agreement," Te said at a news conference after the justices' long-awaited vote.

The ruling will bolster U.S. efforts to reassert its presence in Asia and dovetails with Philippine efforts to harness America's help in addressing China's aggressive acts in the disputed South China Sea.

Washington immediately welcomed the court's decision, saying the defense pact is a mutually beneficial accord that will bolster both countries' ability to respond to disasters and strengthen the Philippines' military.

Left-wing activists said they would consider filing an appeal, adding that U.S. military presence won't solve the country's worries over China in the disputed waters.


.. View gallery
A local marching band welcomes the arrival of sailors …
A local marching band welcomes the arrival of sailors aboard the USS Topeka (SSN-754), a Los Angeles …


"This is another sad day for Philippine sovereignty," said left-wing activist Renato Reyes, who was one of those who challenged the legality of the defense accord before the high court. "We maintain that the EDCA is not the solution to the problems of China's incursions."

The Department of Foreign Affairs said that with the court's decision, the Philippines and the U.S. can finalize the full implementation of an agreement that is a critical component of efforts to strengthen national security and disaster relief capabilities.

"This decision bodes well for deepening our defense cooperation with a key ally," and will "redound to improving our capability to perform our mandate to protect our people and secure the state," said armed forces chief Gen. Hernando Iriberri.

The court decision came ahead of high-level U.S.-Philippine talks Tuesday in Washington on defense, security and economic cooperation. Speaking ahead of the talks, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario welcomed the ruling.

"Both the United States and the Philippines recognize the importance of the EDCA as an important security component in our treaty alliance," del Rosario told The Associated Press.


.. View gallery
Philippine Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te briefs …
Philippine Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te briefs the media on the highest court's decision …


The Philippines has turned to Washington as it scrambles to strengthen its military, one of the most ill-equipped in Asia, to deal with an increasingly assertive China in the South China Sea.

Presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma said the court's ruling boosts the ongoing military modernization program, and will introduce the armed forces to the "most modern equipment," which will allow "a generational leap in our abilities."

The long-simmering disputes involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei have escalated in recent years. Tensions have been especially high since Beijing transformed seven disputed reefs into islands on which it is now constructing runways and facilities that rival claimants say can be used militarily in an already very tense region.

Nearly a century of U.S. military presence in the Philippines ended in 1992 when Americans shut their bases, including the largest military facilities outside the U.S. mainland, after Filipino senators voted a year earlier not to renew the lease on the bases amid a tide of nationalism.

A resurgent territorial dispute with China in the mid-1990s, however, prompted Manila to reach out to Washington. In 1998, the U.S. and the Philippines signed the Visiting Forces Agreement, allowing large numbers of American forces to return to the country for joint military exercises each year.

The 2014 defense pact allows the Americans to stay in facilities within Philippine military camps, where they can also station warships and fighter jets in a presence that Filipino officials hope will serve as a deterrent against Chinese aggression in disputed territories.

At least eight local camps have been designated as harboring areas for the Americans, including some located near the South China Sea and in areas prone to natural disasters, according to the Philippine military.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Gomez in Manila and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

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[mzkitty]

2m
More: US House approves, 418-2, legislation that would block North Korea's access to hard currency, sanction financial institutions and individuals that aid country's missile proliferation - @cimarcos

http://thehill.com/policy/national-...-stricter-sanctions-on-north-korea-after-bomb


5m
US House of Representatives approves legislation to broaden sanctions against North Korea - @Reuters
End of alert

 

[mzkitty]

3m
North Korea's Kim Jong-un calls for expansion of nuclear arsenal, state news agency reports - @Reuters

 

[Housecarl]

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http://www.voanews.com/content/allure-aid-explains-sudan-shift-toward-saudis/3142761.html

Allure of Aid Explains Sudan's Shift Toward Saudis

Reuters
January 12, 2016 7:04 PM

KHARTOUM, SUDAN— When Saudi Arabia executed a leading Shi'ite cleric and protesters responded by torching the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, Sudan was one of only three countries to sever ties with Iran in solidarity with Riyadh.

The January 4 move cemented a dramatic political shift: In the past two years, Sudan has turned its back on a quarter-century alliance with Iran in favor of the Saudis, who have proved more willing to provide the financial support it sorely needs.

Saudi Arabia has already invested more than any other country in Sudan — about $11 billion, mostly in agriculture. In the past year, it has deposited $1 billion in Sudan's central bank, signed deals to finance the construction of power-generating dams on the Nile and pledged even more investment in farming.

Such largesse explains why Sudan, struggling with a collapsing currency and soaring unemployment, has chosen to favor economic ties with Saudi Arabia over a relationship with Iran that was largely based on arms.

"The government decided to distance itself from the alliance with Iran after it evaluated the relationship and found it economically and politically damaging," said Al Tayeb Zeinalaidine, politics professor at Khartoum University. "Iran didn't offer any economic aid to Sudan, and this left the government thinking its relations ... had become a burden."

New Bashir move

The swing toward Riyadh marks a new tack for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has maintained power for over 25 years in a volatile neighborhood by navigating shifting alliances. At different times he has drawn close to Osama bin Laden, the United States and Tehran.

Last year he joined a Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen who are allied with Shi'ite Iran, showing Sunni Gulf Arab powers that he could be an asset in their fight to limit the influence of the Islamic Republic.

Sudan's defense ministry says it has deployed three military jets as well as ground troops to secure facilities in the southern port of Aden and elsewhere, though they have been involved in little active combat so far. Sudan has also trained thousands of Yemeni troops.

Tense relations

For much of the period since Bashir seized power in 1989, ties with Saudi Arabia had been tense. Bashir backed Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, a Saudi neighbor, and protesters took to the streets of Sudan to support Iraq's Saddam Hussein and condemn the Saudi royals.

As recently as 2013, relations reached a nadir when Saudi Arabia banned Bashir's plane from passing through its airspace to Iran.

By contrast, Bashir fostered warm relations with Tehran, crowned with the 1991 visit of then-President Hashemi Rafsanjani. The two countries, both listed as state sponsors of terrorism and subjected to U.S. sanctions, saw mutual benefit in teaming up against Western attempts to isolate them.

Sudan helped Iran project its influence by serving as the key entry point for Iranian weapons exports to Africa, according to sources who monitor the arms trade. Khartoum denies taking part in these activities.

In exchange, Sudan benefited from Iranian military technology that has helped it become a major African weapons producer.

But the calculus has shifted as Sudan's economic problems have mounted — especially since it lost three-quarters of its oil revenues when South Sudan seceded in 2011.

Military spokesman Ahmed al-Khalifa al-Shami said the army backed the policy shift, and military cooperation with Iran had been more limited than media reports would suggest.

Army unaffected

"The army has not been harmed by the severing of relations with Iran because all the military production is being done with Sudanese labor and expertise," Shami said.

Sudan has said its support for the Yemen campaign was a turning point in the Saudi relationship, but was not linked to more investment. Nor did it cut ties with Iran in return for Saudi aid.

Ali al-Sadeq, Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Sudan saw much more in the new relationship.

"We are looking to a strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia," he said. "We are neighbors on the Red Sea coast and work together to secure these coastlines against challenges. ... We expect in the coming period more progress in cooperation."

 

[Housecarl]

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http://www.voanews.com/content/fears-renewed-islamic-state-attacks-europe-united-states/3142315.html

Fears Renewed of Islamic State Attacks in Europe, US

Jeff Seldin
January 12, 2016 6:23 PM

Western intelligence agencies are increasingly worried that Islamic State militants will soon find ways to carry out more and increasingly sophisticated attacks on Europe and the United States, using November's terror attack on Paris as a blueprint.

"2016 is going to be the year where we wish we could get back to 2015," said Patrick Skinner, a former U.S. intelligence officer now with The Soufan Group, a strategic security intelligence consultancy.

"It's far too easy for a fighter to go from Raqqa to Europe, and you would think that would be really hard to do," he said.

Analysts have long warned that the Islamic State had the ability to direct attacks on Western targets from its home base in Syria and Iraq. But they say the Paris attack showed the group was capable of putting that ability into action, using both former foreign fighters and radicalized individuals to kill 130 people in a coordinated fashion.

Already, French and British officials have warned that the group is actively planning new mass casualty attacks in Europe. One unnamed French senior counterterrorism official told the French news agency that the Islamic State is aiming for a "European 9/11."

Growing emphasis on external ops

U.S. officials are equally concerned, pointing to the Islamic State's growing emphasis on external operations as it devotes more people and resources to those missions. The FBI says online calls for attacks against American targets, especially against soldiers and law enforcement, have also continued unabated.

"ISIL's opportunistic nature goes beyond Iraq and Syria," a U.S. counterterrorism official told VOA, using an acronym for the terror group. "It's no surprise that it used its foothold to plot against the West."

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell warned U.S. lawmakers Tuesday not to underestimate the Islamic State.

"Sometimes it's really important to listen to what your adversary tells you," he told the House Armed Services Committee.

"ISIS has told us they're going to attack us here," he said, referring to the group by one of its other acronyms. "Unless they are degraded, they will succeed."

Military defeat not enough

To date, U.S. and coalition forces have launched almost 10,000 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria, destroying more than 18,000 targets and killing more than 20,000 fighters.

U.S. military officials also say the group has lost 20 to 30 percent of the territory it once held.

Yet lost fighters have been replaced, counterattacks have been launched and new terror plots are being hatched, leading some to wonder if degrading the Islamic State will be enough.

"A lot of our assumptions are based on that if we defeat them militarily — which is a categorical imperative, we have to do that — that it will result in defeat on the other battlefields of social media and lone wolves and small cells," Skinner said. "I don't think that's accurate. I think the lag time, if they are connected, is going to be a lot longer than we're going to tolerate."

Some current U.S. officials are also cautious, saying that even once the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate is destroyed, it will take an additional effort — a "second war" — to destroy the Islamic State terror group.

"We're just getting started," former CIA director James Woolsey told VOA during an interview in November. "We will be seeing ISIS one way or another in Europe, and perhaps in North America, for a long time to come."


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Report: US Split on Balancing Freedoms, Safety

 

[Housecarl]

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http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20160113000648

Park urges more aggressive role from China on North Korea’s nuclear problem

Published : 2016-01-13 11:52
Updated : 2016-01-13 11:52

South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday urged China to play a more aggressive role in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear problem.

Park also said that the deployment of U.S. THAAD missile defense system to South Korea will be reviewed based on the security and national interest by taking into consideration the nuclear and missile threat from the North.

Speaking in her New Year address followed by a question and answer session, Park also addressed some calls for South Korea to bring U.S. nuclear weapons as a deterrent to the threat of Pyongyang. “But I have always emphasized in the international community that the nuclear-free world must begin from the Korean Peninsula, adding that it would otherwise be breaking its international pledge.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)