Articles: Obamism and Neo-fascist America | Germany's Top Prosecutor Drops Treason Probe of Netzpolitik Bloggers
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Germany’s top prosecutor has dropped a much disputed treason investigation of two prominent bloggers that had cost the country’s chief federal prosecutor his job, amid a furor over the limits of press freedom.
Silvio Berlusconi reportedly gave Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef a personal tour of the spectacular Villa Certosa last week
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NYPD expanding stun gun arsenal, training to give officers more nonlethal alternatives
Italian police seize cocaine hidden in container ship bringing frozen squid from Argentina
Russian insider's assessment of Moscow's Western relations
Minorities in Iraq's Kurdistan Push for Greater Political Voiceby webdesk@voanews.com (Sharon Behn)
Christian and Turkmen minority lawmakers threw their voices behind a proposal put to Kurdistan's Constitutional Committee Monday that would set up political councils to enshrine the rights of ethnic and religious minorities and ensure their participation in the Iraqi region’s governance. Christians are often treated as second class citizens by the Kurdish majority, explained Srood Maqdasy, a Christian Member of Parliament. “We can call it a feeling of superiority, we...
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Knife Attack at Sweden IKEA Store Leaves 2 Deadby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Two people were killed and one seriously injured in a knife attack at an IKEA store in the city of Vesteras, about an hour west of the Swedish capital Stockholm, police said on Monday. Police said they had received a call reporting injuries at the IKEA store at around 1300 CET (1100 GMT). "We found a man and a woman who had knife injuries and who later died of their wounds," Vastmanland police said in a statement. Another person was seriously injured. The police said...
Political Violence Rages as Turkish Snap Poll Looks Likelyby webdesk@voanews.com (Jamie Dettmer)
Talks to form a coalition government in Turkey appear to be making little progress and a snap parliamentary election looks increasingly likely amid claims by opposition politicians that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is determined to conduct a new poll against the backdrop of rising political violence. In the past two days, a series of attacks – including assailants opening fire on the U.S. consulate in Istanbul and an overnight car bombing Sunday a few districts away – have heightened...
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Former Accuser Testifies In Azerbaijani Journalist Ismayilova's Trial by support@pangea-cms.com (RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service)
The trial in Baku of Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova has continued in Baku with testimony from the man the authorities say she pushed to attempt suicide.
At Least 15 Killed In Uzbek Concert Tragedyby support@pangea-cms.com (RFE/RL's Uzbek Service)
At least 15 people have been reported killed in the western Uzbek city of Urgench after a bridge railing collapsed during a concert, sending spectators into the lake below, Uzbek officials say.
An Azerbaijani journalist who was attacked after criticizing a footballer has died of his wounds and been buried. The police have arrested a number of suspects.
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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - A Turkish soldier was killed when Kurdish militants opened fire on a military helicopter in the southeastern province of Sirnak, the military said in a statement on Monday.
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine accused pro-Russian rebels on Monday of carrying out the heaviest artillery attacks on government positions in six months and warned of signs the conflict was escalating despite a ceasefire deal.
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's AK Party has gained support in the last two months and could recover the absolute majority it lost in June, if a snap parliamentary election were held immediately, Turkish pollster MAK found in its latest survey.
The philosophical foundation of the American Left and the Democratic Party is a proprietary hybrid of Fascism. While in lockstep with the economic and political tenets of Fascism, the unique feature of the current American iteration is anti-nationalism as reflected in the belief that the United States is the locus of malevolence in the world as compared to militant nationalism of Italy and Germany in the 1920’s and 30’s.
Sheldon Richman in the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics describes Fascism as follows:
As an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalistic veneer.Where socialism abolished all market relations outright, fascism left the appearance of market relations while planning all economic activities. Where socialism abolished money and prices; fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically.Under fascism, the state, through official agencies, controlled all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. Licensing was ubiquitous; no economic activity could be undertaken without government permission. Levels of consumption were dictated by the state, and “excess” incomes had to be surrendered as taxes or “loans”.
The concept of a corporate state has been a staple of the American Left since Franklin Roosevelt. It was FDR that initiated the National Labor Relations Board to make the Government the final arbiter in labor issues. The National Recovery Act governed all aspects of manufacturing and commerce and the Agricultural Adjustment Act which introduced central planning to agriculture. It is generally acknowledged today that this approach by Roosevelt prolonged the Great Depression by another five years. (Jonah Goldberg’s masterpiece Liberal Fascism convincingly demonstrates the fascist roots of today’s liberalism.)
Beginning in the 1960’s the American Left, while nominally in favor of Marxism, had as their foundational tenets narcissism and rampant anti-Americanism. However, as the societal and economic seeds of Fascism were already planted and generally accepted by a sizable segment of the populace, it was a short logical leap, therefore, to become proponents of the economic and political precepts of Marxism’s closest cousin.
While the Fascism of Mussolini and Hitler incorporated extreme nationalism, the proponents of the American reincarnation believe that the United States, as founded, is malevolent and should surrender its position as the world’s economic and military superpower by showing deference to America’s enemies and casting aside any semblance of nationalism or uniqueness as penance for both domestic and international “sins” of the past.
Barack Obama, steeped in the stew that is the unique American version of Fascism since childhood, is the poster child for its success in becoming the dominate philosophy of the Democratic Party. He has, during his two terms as President, been so successful in advancing the tenets of this distinctive American political system that it should be named after him. Obamism is the confluence of the economic and political tenets of Fascism and the narcissistic anti-Americanism of the 1960’s.
The characteristics and current status of Obamism are as follows:
- Within Obamism ideology reigns supreme, and the state not the individual is paramount. Thus the mindset that produced the misanthropy of Planned Parenthood as well as the squalor rampant in the ghettos of the urban areas controlled by the Democratic Party. Totalitarianism in the form of thought and speech control through threats and intimidation has become epidemic and any lie or fabrication is allowable in order to destroy a political opponent. Additionally, as the United States is historically a racist and bigoted country, the society must be transformed through unfettered illegal immigration, de facto reparations through wealth redistribution, and re-education of the masses.
- ObamaCare is not about health care, per se; rather it is intended to dictate to individuals what insurance they must buy, what health care they are allowed to access, and ultimately what behavior is acceptable -- all at the whim of a centralized bureaucracy. The Dodd-Frank Bill, which has spawned 28,000 pages of regulations, firmly establishes the concept of “too big to fail” for certain financial institutions, thereby subjecting them to the absolute control of the state while allowing, and in many cases forcing, others to cease doing business, as well as instituting lending and operating policies determined by government regulators. The entire alphabet soup of federal agencies, particularly the EPA and the IRS, have become agents of the administration actively bypassing Congress and writing laws and regulations in order to either limit or to erode individual rights.
- The Obama regime willfully ignores what laws they deem to be inconvenient, all the while busily packing the courts with like-minded proponents of Obamism. They have set a precedent by throwing out the rule of law when it comes to the rights of private investors by their actions against the bondholders of Chrysler and General Motors. They have chosen which businesses will succeed or fail by the use of taxpayer financing and subsidies or the arbitrary waving of rules and regulations.
- A key characteristic of Fascist thinking is rampant cronyism and corruption. Myopic capitalists, forced to ingratiate themselves with the state, are coerced into underwriting the election of those in power in exchange for favorable government contracts and avoidance of regulatory wrath. Much of Wall Street, Hollywood, the Unions, major companies such as General Electric, and the super-wealthy such as Warren Buffet and various internet billionaires, are therefore willing to sleep with those in power and be used as props in any propaganda campaign initiated by the Democratic Party.
- The Obama administration has, through the Justice Department and other agencies, behaved exactly as many quasi-fascist regimes in the past -- almost all of whom have been governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect themselves and their friends from accountability.
- Barack Obama has traveled the world apologizing for the United States and, in his view, its innumerable failings of the past. He has gutted the Defense Department and reneged on agreements with various allies such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Israel. He has become an apologist for many of America’s adversaries such as China, Iran and Cuba. His recent agreement with Iran regarding nuclear weapons guarantees instability through an inevitable nuclear arms race and eventual conflict in the Middle East which will involve the United States. It is apparent, through his actions, that he is determined to recast America into being just another nation on the world stage subject to global governance.
There are many conservative and a few mainstream pundits that claim the Obama presidency is a failure. On the contrary, it is the most ideologically successful administration in the history of the United States. Far exceeding what Franklin Roosevelt was able to accomplish in his three full terms.
Within the army of Republican presidential candidates, the vast majority are either ignorant of or refuse to accept the reality of who the opponents are and the depth to which the nation has sunk. The ultimate Republican nominee must recognize who the enemy is, their tactics and philosophical underpinning as well as the true depth of how far the nation has fallen. That must be the primary criteria in choosing a nominee.
The philosophical foundation of the American Left and the Democratic Party is a proprietary hybrid of Fascism. While in lockstep with the economic and political tenets of Fascism, the unique feature of the current American iteration is anti-nationalism as reflected in the belief that the United States is the locus of malevolence in the world as compared to militant nationalism of Italy and Germany in the 1920’s and 30’s.
Sheldon Richman in the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics describes Fascism as follows:
As an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalistic veneer.Where socialism abolished all market relations outright, fascism left the appearance of market relations while planning all economic activities. Where socialism abolished money and prices; fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically.Under fascism, the state, through official agencies, controlled all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. Licensing was ubiquitous; no economic activity could be undertaken without government permission. Levels of consumption were dictated by the state, and “excess” incomes had to be surrendered as taxes or “loans”.
The concept of a corporate state has been a staple of the American Left since Franklin Roosevelt. It was FDR that initiated the National Labor Relations Board to make the Government the final arbiter in labor issues. The National Recovery Act governed all aspects of manufacturing and commerce and the Agricultural Adjustment Act which introduced central planning to agriculture. It is generally acknowledged today that this approach by Roosevelt prolonged the Great Depression by another five years. (Jonah Goldberg’s masterpiece Liberal Fascism convincingly demonstrates the fascist roots of today’s liberalism.)
Beginning in the 1960’s the American Left, while nominally in favor of Marxism, had as their foundational tenets narcissism and rampant anti-Americanism. However, as the societal and economic seeds of Fascism were already planted and generally accepted by a sizable segment of the populace, it was a short logical leap, therefore, to become proponents of the economic and political precepts of Marxism’s closest cousin.
While the Fascism of Mussolini and Hitler incorporated extreme nationalism, the proponents of the American reincarnation believe that the United States, as founded, is malevolent and should surrender its position as the world’s economic and military superpower by showing deference to America’s enemies and casting aside any semblance of nationalism or uniqueness as penance for both domestic and international “sins” of the past.
Barack Obama, steeped in the stew that is the unique American version of Fascism since childhood, is the poster child for its success in becoming the dominate philosophy of the Democratic Party. He has, during his two terms as President, been so successful in advancing the tenets of this distinctive American political system that it should be named after him. Obamism is the confluence of the economic and political tenets of Fascism and the narcissistic anti-Americanism of the 1960’s.
The characteristics and current status of Obamism are as follows:
- Within Obamism ideology reigns supreme, and the state not the individual is paramount. Thus the mindset that produced the misanthropy of Planned Parenthood as well as the squalor rampant in the ghettos of the urban areas controlled by the Democratic Party. Totalitarianism in the form of thought and speech control through threats and intimidation has become epidemic and any lie or fabrication is allowable in order to destroy a political opponent. Additionally, as the United States is historically a racist and bigoted country, the society must be transformed through unfettered illegal immigration, de facto reparations through wealth redistribution, and re-education of the masses.
- ObamaCare is not about health care, per se; rather it is intended to dictate to individuals what insurance they must buy, what health care they are allowed to access, and ultimately what behavior is acceptable -- all at the whim of a centralized bureaucracy. The Dodd-Frank Bill, which has spawned 28,000 pages of regulations, firmly establishes the concept of “too big to fail” for certain financial institutions, thereby subjecting them to the absolute control of the state while allowing, and in many cases forcing, others to cease doing business, as well as instituting lending and operating policies determined by government regulators. The entire alphabet soup of federal agencies, particularly the EPA and the IRS, have become agents of the administration actively bypassing Congress and writing laws and regulations in order to either limit or to erode individual rights.
- The Obama regime willfully ignores what laws they deem to be inconvenient, all the while busily packing the courts with like-minded proponents of Obamism. They have set a precedent by throwing out the rule of law when it comes to the rights of private investors by their actions against the bondholders of Chrysler and General Motors. They have chosen which businesses will succeed or fail by the use of taxpayer financing and subsidies or the arbitrary waving of rules and regulations.
- A key characteristic of Fascist thinking is rampant cronyism and corruption. Myopic capitalists, forced to ingratiate themselves with the state, are coerced into underwriting the election of those in power in exchange for favorable government contracts and avoidance of regulatory wrath. Much of Wall Street, Hollywood, the Unions, major companies such as General Electric, and the super-wealthy such as Warren Buffet and various internet billionaires, are therefore willing to sleep with those in power and be used as props in any propaganda campaign initiated by the Democratic Party.
- The Obama administration has, through the Justice Department and other agencies, behaved exactly as many quasi-fascist regimes in the past -- almost all of whom have been governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect themselves and their friends from accountability.
- Barack Obama has traveled the world apologizing for the United States and, in his view, its innumerable failings of the past. He has gutted the Defense Department and reneged on agreements with various allies such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Israel. He has become an apologist for many of America’s adversaries such as China, Iran and Cuba. His recent agreement with Iran regarding nuclear weapons guarantees instability through an inevitable nuclear arms race and eventual conflict in the Middle East which will involve the United States. It is apparent, through his actions, that he is determined to recast America into being just another nation on the world stage subject to global governance.
There are many conservative and a few mainstream pundits that claim the Obama presidency is a failure. On the contrary, it is the most ideologically successful administration in the history of the United States. Far exceeding what Franklin Roosevelt was able to accomplish in his three full terms.
Within the army of Republican presidential candidates, the vast majority are either ignorant of or refuse to accept the reality of who the opponents are and the depth to which the nation has sunk. The ultimate Republican nominee must recognize who the enemy is, their tactics and philosophical underpinning as well as the true depth of how far the nation has fallen. That must be the primary criteria in choosing a nominee.
Read the whole story
· · · · · · · · ·
Tyler S. Drumheller, a former senior American intelligence official who publicly asserted that President George W. Bush’s administration had knowingly hyped fabricated evidence of Iraq’s arsenal of biological weapons to justify the 2003 invasion, died on Aug. 2 in Falls Church, Va. He was 63.
The cause was complications of pancreatic cancer, his wife, Linda Drumheller, said.
Three years after the invasion and after his retirement from the Central Intelligence Agency, where he had been chief of the European division, Mr. Drumheller took the unusual step of publicly sayingthat he had warned his superiors that an Iraqi defector who claimed Iraq was equipped with mobile, lethal germ factories was mentally unstable.
Mr. Drumheller also said that before the war, one of Saddam Hussein’s own ministers had confided to American intelligence that the Iraqis had not stockpiled weapons of mass destruction.
“So in the fall of 2002, before going to war, we had it on good authority from a source within Saddam’s inner circle that he didn’t have an active program for weapons of mass destruction?” Ed Bradley asked Mr. Drumheller on the CBS News program “60 Minutes” in 2006.
“Yes,” he replied.
When Colin L. Powell, then the secretary of state, repeated the claim before the United Nations Security Council, Mr. Drumheller recalled in a 2007 interview with the English-language website of the German news weekly Der Spiegel, “the first thing I thought, having worked in the government all my life, was that we probably gave Powell the wrong speech. We checked our files and found that they had just ignored it.
“The policy was set,” he said in the interview. “The war in Iraq was coming and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy.”
“The agency is not blameless and no president on my watch has had a spotless record when it comes to the C.I.A.,” he said. “But never before have I seen the manipulation of intelligence that has played out since Bush took office. As chief of Europe, I had a front-row seat from which to observe the unprecedented drive for intelligence justifying the Iraq war.”
An Iraqi chemical engineer who defected to Germany in the late 1990s — appropriately code-named Curveball — later admitted that he fabricated the story while seeking asylum. No mobile laboratories were ever discovered.
A presidential commission on intelligence lapses concluded in 2005 that warnings about his reliability had been expressed to senior C.I.A. officials, but had not been conveyed to Mr. Powell.
In his 2007 book, “At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the C.I.A.,” George J. Tenet, the agency’s former director, denied that Mr. Drumheller had personally warned him that the Iraqi defector was not credible.
But Mr. Tenet did not address Mr. Drumheller’s other assertion: that the Iraqi foreign minister, Naji Sabri, had secretly reported that Iraq was not pursuing any mass-destruction weaponry programs.
Tyler Scott Drumheller was born in Biloxi, Miss., on April 12, 1952. His father, Paul, was an Air Force chaplain. His mother, the former Jean Ryan, was a nurse.
He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in history and studied Chinese at Georgetown University. In 1979, he was hired by the C.I.A. While working there he met and married Linda Blocher, who was working as a secretary.
In addition to his wife, survivors include their daughter, Livia Phillips; his sister, Alecia Ball; and a grandson.
In his 26 years with the agency in Africa and Europe, nobody would have mistaken Mr. Drumheller, who was roly-poly and rumpled, for James Bond. After operating under cover for most of his career, his public profile rose with his retirement.
He wrote a book, “On the Brink: An Insider’s Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence,” in 2006 with Elaine Monaghan.
He also figured more recently in congressional inquiries into emails between Hillary Rodham Clinton, when she was secretary of state, and Sidney Blumenthal, an adviser. Mr. Blumenthal was also advising a group of businessmen, including Mr. Drumheller, who were exploring profit-making ventures in Libya.
In the Der Spiegel interview, Mr. Drumheller, who led the European division while the agency was abducting suspected terrorists, did not pretend that even American spies always kept their white hats clean.
“From the perspective of the White House, it was smart to blur the lines about what was acceptable and what was not in the war on terrorism,” he said. “It meant that whenever someone was overzealous in some dark interrogation cell, President Bush and his entourage could blame someone else.
“The rendition teams are drawn from paramilitary officers who are brave and colorful,” he continued. “They are the men who went into Baghdad before the bombs and into Afghanistan before the army. If they didn’t do paramilitary actions for a living, they would probably be robbing banks.”
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By Jaroslaw Adamowski 11:30 a.m. EDT August 9, 2015
The deckhouse for the Aegis Ashore system at the Pacific Missile Range facility. This is the test asset for the Aegis Ashore system that will be emplaced in Romania and Poland.(Photo: Missile Defense Agency)
WARSAW — Poland and Romania are leading Eastern European efforts to boost allied air and anti-missile defense capabilities. The two countries have been closely cooperating with NATO and are set to host US-made interceptors on their soil largely as a response to Russia’s military intervention in neighboring Ukraine.
Meanwhile, local analysts said that while Poland has accelerated efforts to enhance its missile defense capability following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Warsaw is far from acquiring sufficient capacities in this field.
“The decision to purchase an air and anti-missile defense system should result from a comprehensive national defense strategy, and a risk assessment process focused on potential threats and the countries they might originate from,” said Łukasz Kister, an independent security analyst who cooperates with the Jagiellonian Institute, a Warsaw-based think tank.
“Russia is currently making efforts to upgrade its missile capabilities in Kaliningrad, but Poland could obtain Patriot missiles not earlier than in 2022,” Kister said.
In 2013, Russian newspaper Izvestia quoted an unnamed senior Russian Defense Ministry official as saying that the Russian military had deployed Iskander-M tactical ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave that borders Poland and Lithuania.
With Moscow reportedly upgrading its long-range strike capacity so close to the Polish border, Warsaw in response aims to improve its missile defense capabilities as part of the country’s ongoing 139 billion zloty (US $36 billion) 2013-2022 military modernization program.
Negotiating a Patriot Deal
In April, the Polish Ministry of Defense said it had chosen Raytheon’s Patriot over the Aster 30 interceptor manufactured by the consortium of MBDA and Thales. The procurement is being negotiated as an inter-governmental agreement, according to the Defense Ministry.
Warsaw plans to acquire two batteries within the next three years and eight batteries from 2018 to 2025. In addition, Poland is carrying out two separate procurements to acquire short-range missile systems.
“To ensure a temporary capacity in the field of air and anti-missile defense, there is a plan to acquire two [Patriot] batteries within three years following the signing of the deal,” said Col. Jacek Sonta, the spokesperson for the Polish Ministry of Defense.
In total, the acquisitions are estimated to be worth some 26.6 billion zloty, according to the information obtained by local business daily Rzeczpospolita.
Hosting Aegis Ashore
Meanwhile, both Poland and Romania are set to host elements of the Aegis Ashore program, the land-based component of the Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) system.
“The land-based system is designed to be removable to support worldwide deployment. In addition to Aegis BMD at sea, Aegis Ashore is part of Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) Phases II and III,” according to the US Missile Defense Agency's website.
Aegis Ashore is to be deployed in Poland in 2018 as part of the PAA Phase III. This installed capability will use Aegis BMD 5.1 and SM-3 Block IB and IIA to support defense of northern Europe, the Missile Defense Agency said.
Meanwhile, local analysts said that while Poland has accelerated efforts to enhance its missile defense capability following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Warsaw is far from acquiring sufficient capacities in this field.
“The decision to purchase an air and anti-missile defense system should result from a comprehensive national defense strategy, and a risk assessment process focused on potential threats and the countries they might originate from,” said Łukasz Kister, an independent security analyst who cooperates with the Jagiellonian Institute, a Warsaw-based think tank.
“Russia is currently making efforts to upgrade its missile capabilities in Kaliningrad, but Poland could obtain Patriot missiles not earlier than in 2022,” Kister said.
In 2013, Russian newspaper Izvestia quoted an unnamed senior Russian Defense Ministry official as saying that the Russian military had deployed Iskander-M tactical ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave that borders Poland and Lithuania.
With Moscow reportedly upgrading its long-range strike capacity so close to the Polish border, Warsaw in response aims to improve its missile defense capabilities as part of the country’s ongoing 139 billion zloty (US $36 billion) 2013-2022 military modernization program.
Negotiating a Patriot Deal
In April, the Polish Ministry of Defense said it had chosen Raytheon’s Patriot over the Aster 30 interceptor manufactured by the consortium of MBDA and Thales. The procurement is being negotiated as an inter-governmental agreement, according to the Defense Ministry.
Warsaw plans to acquire two batteries within the next three years and eight batteries from 2018 to 2025. In addition, Poland is carrying out two separate procurements to acquire short-range missile systems.
“To ensure a temporary capacity in the field of air and anti-missile defense, there is a plan to acquire two [Patriot] batteries within three years following the signing of the deal,” said Col. Jacek Sonta, the spokesperson for the Polish Ministry of Defense.
In total, the acquisitions are estimated to be worth some 26.6 billion zloty, according to the information obtained by local business daily Rzeczpospolita.
Hosting Aegis Ashore
Meanwhile, both Poland and Romania are set to host elements of the Aegis Ashore program, the land-based component of the Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) system.
“The land-based system is designed to be removable to support worldwide deployment. In addition to Aegis BMD at sea, Aegis Ashore is part of Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) Phases II and III,” according to the US Missile Defense Agency's website.
Aegis Ashore is to be deployed in Poland in 2018 as part of the PAA Phase III. This installed capability will use Aegis BMD 5.1 and SM-3 Block IB and IIA to support defense of northern Europe, the Missile Defense Agency said.
In Romania, Aegis Ashore will be deployed this year as part of the Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) Phase I, using Aegis BMD 5.0 CU (capability upgrade) and SM-3 Block IB to provide ballistic missile coverage for southern Europe. The Romanian government has decided to host elements of the Aegis Ashore program at the air base in Deveselu in southwestern Romania. Construction work was launched in 2013 and the facility will become operational this year.
The Kremlin has accused NATO of hostile intentions. But Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said that the project is "defensive, as it is designed to defend national and European soil."
Moreover, he said, the Romanian government sees the missile facility as a safeguard against potential Russian aggression.
The resulting "long-term presence of the US in Romania will guarantee that Romania will not be transferred into a different zone of influence," Aurescu said Aug. 2, as quoted by local news agency Mediafax.
Meanwhile, according to Kister, Eastern European countries should aim to improve regional cooperation with other allies interested in improving their air defense capabilities. These include the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, whose governments are discussing establishment of a joint midrange air defense system.
The resulting "long-term presence of the US in Romania will guarantee that Romania will not be transferred into a different zone of influence," Aurescu said Aug. 2, as quoted by local news agency Mediafax.
Meanwhile, according to Kister, Eastern European countries should aim to improve regional cooperation with other allies interested in improving their air defense capabilities. These include the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, whose governments are discussing establishment of a joint midrange air defense system.
Latvia’s top military chief, Lt. Gen. Raimonds Graube, also recently announced that the Latvian military plans to acquire Stinger anti-aircraft missiles from the US to boost the country's air defenses.
“Poland should work closely with the Baltic states, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, because only merging the region’s air defense capacities will ensure a reliable and efficient system capable of protecting these countries’ air spaces,” Kister said. “Potential threats could originate from Kaliningrad, Belarus, central Russia, but also from the eastern parts of Ukraine, which are currently controlled by Russia-backed insurgents. As a result, a missile intended to hit Warsaw could be detected over Lithuanian soil.”
“Poland should work closely with the Baltic states, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, because only merging the region’s air defense capacities will ensure a reliable and efficient system capable of protecting these countries’ air spaces,” Kister said. “Potential threats could originate from Kaliningrad, Belarus, central Russia, but also from the eastern parts of Ukraine, which are currently controlled by Russia-backed insurgents. As a result, a missile intended to hit Warsaw could be detected over Lithuanian soil.”
Email: jadamowski@defensenews.com
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Iran Press TV
Sun Aug 9, 2015 12:16PM
Some 400 fighters belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have reportedly been killed in Turkey's airstrikes in northern Iraq over the past two weeks.
Turkey's official Anadolu news agency said on Sunday that 'so far 390 terrorists have been rendered incapable of causing harm and another 400 have been injured, with 150 suffering serious injuries," AFP reported.
The report further noted that at least four PKK leaders and 30 female fighters were among those killed in Turkey's airstrikes.
According to the report, at least 20 Turkish security forces have been killed in the latest cycle of violence.
Turkey recently launched airstrikes against purported ISIL targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq, after a deadly bomb attack attributed to ISIL Takfiris left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc, across the border from the northern Syrian town of Kobani.
On August 6, Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), accused the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of using the so-called anti-ISIL fight as a cover to pursue its main goal of targeting the PKK and undermining the HDP.
He also called on the international community to censure Ankara's new "unjust war" on Kurds.
Also on August 7, the HDP in a statement dismissed Ankara's claims that its attacks earlier this month targeted positions of the PKK in northern Iraq, saying unarmed civilians have fallen victim to the raids.
"Those who lost their lives due to the bombing were civilians and unarmed people. The responsibility of the airstrike that resulted in the massacre of civilians rests with Ankara," the statement noted.
A shaky ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was declared as null by PKK following the Turkish airstrikes against the group.
The PKK had been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.
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The attack was one of several violent episodes across the country, which some attributed to an uptick in clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants.
HOUSTON (AP) -- A family of six children and two parents were fatally shot in the head at a Houston home by a man with a violent criminal history who had previously been in a contentious relationship with the mother, authorities said Sunday....
Even as support for ending marijuana prohibition is building around the country, Congress and the Obama administration remain far too timid about the need for change.
Last year, residents in Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia voted to join Colorado and Washington State in making recreational use of marijuana legal. Later this year, residents of Ohio areexpected to vote on a ballot measure that would legalize it. Nevadans will vote on a legalization proposal next year. And Californians could vote on several similar measures next year.
Instead of standing by as change sweeps the country, federal lawmakers should be more actively debating and changing the nation’s absurd marijuana policies, policies that have ruined millions of lives and wasted billions of dollars. Their inaction is putting businesses and individuals in states that have legalized medical and recreational marijuana in dubious legal territory — doing something that is legal in their state but is considered a federal crime. Many growers, retailers and dispensaries also have to operate using only cash because many banks will not serve them, citing the federal prohibition. Recently, the Federal Reserve denied a master account to a credit union in Colorado seeking to provide financial services to marijuana businesses.
Lawmakers who hope their colleagues in Congress will act face an uphill struggle. For example, a bill introduced in the Senate by Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrats of New Jersey and New York, respectively, and Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, would allow states to legalize marijuana for medical use. It would also allow banks and credit unions to provide financial services to cannabis-based businesses in states that have legalized the drug. The bill has 16 sponsors, including two Republicans, but the Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, has not scheduled it for a hearing or a vote. An identical bill in the House with 17 sponsors, eight of them Republican, is also languishing in committee.
Congress has taken a few positive steps, like approving a provision that would prevent the Justice Department from using federal funds to keep states from carrying out their own medical marijuana laws. And some senior Republicans, including Mr. Grassley and Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, have expressed support for the medical use of a compound known as cannabidiol, which is found in the cannabis plant but is not psychoactive. The Obama administration recently made it easier for scientists to study marijuana by removing a requirement that studies not funded by the federal government go through an additional review process, beyond what is required for researchers working with other drugs.
But both Congress and the White House should be doing more. Specifically, marijuana should be removed from the Controlled Substances Act, where it is classified as a Schedule I drug like heroin and LSD, and considered to have no medical value. Removing marijuana from the act would not make it legal everywhere, but it would make it easier for states to decide how they want to regulate it.
Even as Washington demurs, efforts to legalize marijuana continue in the states. In California, several activist groups are trying to get legalization measures on the 2016 ballot. The state was thefirst in the country to legalize medical marijuana, in 1996, and a majority of residents favor legalizing recreational marijuana, according to a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.
State legalization efforts are not uniformly well thought out, which is another reason for Congress and the president to act. For example, activists in Ohio are trying to legalize marijuana with aconstitutional amendment that would allow commercial cultivation of the plant on just 10 dedicated sites listed in the measure. This would grant a lucrative monopoly to a few businesses. Ohio officials will soon decide whether organizers have collected enough signatures to put the proposal on the ballot.
Direct democracy can sometimes produce good results. But it would be far better for Congress and the president to repeal failed laws and enact sensible drug policies.
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