9:12 AM 5/4/2016 - Headlines Review: It’s Donald Trump’s Party Now - The New York Times | How 'Stop Trump' failed to halt the Republican front-runner | Reuters | The White House’s Iraq delusion - The Washington Post | Dozens killed in Aleppo battle | Reuters | Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in United States - The Washington Post
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- It’s Donald Trump’s Party Now - The New York Times |
- How 'Stop Trump' failed to halt the Republican front-runner | Reuters |
- The White House’s Iraq delusion - The Washington Post |
- Dozens killed in Aleppo battle | Reuters |
- Researchers: Medical errors now third leading cause of death in United States - The Washington Post
- Donald Trump’s Victory Has Some in G.O.P. Agonizing — or Bolting - The New York Times
- Wildfire Empties Fort McMurray in Alberta’s Oil Sands Region - The New York Times
- On the Ground in Aleppo: Bloodshed, Misery and Hope - The New York Times
- A Strange, Sad, Surprising Reality of Syria at War - The New York Times
- Trump becomes de facto GOP nominee as Cruz exits after crushing Indiana loss - The Washington Post
- Indiana primary results: track the votes, county by county | US news | The Guardian
- America's Trump nightmare has arrived | Lucia Graves | Opinion | The Guardian
- Bernie Sanders isn't winning minority votes – and it's his own fault | Steven W Thrasher | Opinion | The Guardian
- More Political Turmoil Likely in Iraq as Iran Waits in the Wings
- Report: Iran Paying With Blood to Prop Up Syrian Regime
- Russia to boost troops levels along borders to counter NATO | Fox News
- FBI Nabs Man Suspected of Poisoning Produce at Grocery Store - ABC News
- Russia Says It Is Creating Three New Divisions to Counter NATO Moves - WSJ
- Russia's dirty money 'is being laundered through British banks' but UK authorities ignore | Daily Mail Online
- Russia boosts oil exports on higher crude prices — RT Business
- Killer airwaves: Russia starts trial of electromagnetic warfare system — RT News
- Russia's Overcrowded Prison Service Asks for Reduction in Arrests | News | The Moscow Times
- Alleged Mastermind of Syzran Mass Murder Detained | News | The Moscow Times
- Warrants Issued for Russian Officials Suspected of Mafia Ties in Spain | News | The Moscow Times
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- Рабочая встреча с Александром Галушкой и Юрием Трутневым • Президент России
- Today's Headlines and Commentary - Lawfare
- The Early Edition: May 4, 2016 | Just Security
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Republican leaders have for years failed to think about much of anything beyond winning the next election. Year after year, the party’s candidates promised help for middle-class people who lost their homes, jobs and savings to recession, who lost limbs and well-being to war, and then did next to nothing. That Mr. Trump was able to enthrall voters by promising simply to “Make America Great Again” — but offering only xenophobic, isolationist or fantastical ideas — is testimony to how thoroughly they reject the politicians who betrayed them.
The entire community of Fort McMurray was ordered to evacuate on Tuesday night as a fast-spreading wildfire cut off its only highway link to the south.
The New York Times’s Cairo bureau chief reported from Aleppo, Syria, where inhabitants try to carry on despite a civil war’s inescapable reality.
Declan Walsh, who recently reported from Syria, answers readers’ questions about life in a war zone.
Sanders wins an upset victory over Hillary Clinton.
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In its zeal to withdraw all U.S. troops in time for President Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012, the administration threw its weight behind then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, with disastrous consequences. Mr. Maliki’s Shiite sectarianism fractured the fragile political system and opened the way for the Islamic State. In 2014, having pushed for Mr. Maliki’s removal, the administration bet on Haider al-Abadi; now, in its impatience to reduce the Islamic State before Mr. Obama leaves office, it clings to a…
Nightmare stories of nurses giving potent drugs meant for one patient to another and surgeons removing the wrong body parts have dominated recent headlines about medical care. Lest you assume those cases are the exceptions, a new study by patient safety researchers provides some context. Their analysis, published in the BMJ on Tuesday, shows that “medical errors” in hospitals and other health care facilities are incredibly common and may now be the third leading cause of death in the United States — clai
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The Early Edition: May 4, 2016 by Nadia O'Mara
Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news.
IRAQ and SYRIA
Syria hospital strikes. A Syrian insurgent strike on government-controlled parts of Aleppo yesterday killed as many as 19 people, according to Syrian state media and activists. The attacks included a fatal attack on a maternity hospital. It was the sixth attack on a medical facility in the city in under a week. [New York Times’ Anne Barnard; Washington Post’s Erin Cunningham] The UN Security Council has condemned strikes on health workers in conflict zones, including Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, adopting a resolution to strengthen available protections. [New York Times’ Somini Sengupta]
“Both sides have shown increasing disregard for international law that says attacks on civilians and medical facilities are war crimes.” The New York Times editorial board comments on the ongoing situation in Syria, warning that President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry must be willing to put adequate pressure on Russia to “do what is needed to stop the bloodshed.”
Dozens have been killed during fighting between government and rebel forces in western Aleppo,with violence continuing into today, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. [Reuters]
Ceasefire agreement. Airstrikes hit a rebel-controlled part of eastern Damascus today, following the expiration of an agreement aimed at stopping fighting there at midnight, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. [Reuters] And the situation in Latakia, Aleppo and Damascus is still “partially tense” today, reported the RIA news agency quoting Russia’s General Sergei Kuralenko. [Reuters]
Assad’s strategy of seeking military gains will not bring the conflict in Syria to an end, warned Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday, adding that there would be “repercussions” if the regime continued to openly disregard the ceasefire agreement reached in February. [BBC]
The US is meeting with defense ministers from 11 nations today for talks on how to strengthen the global coalition against Islamic State, held at the European Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. [Reuters]
Turkey fired into an Islamic State-controlled region of Syria today in retaliation for a rocket attack which hit the border town of Kilis. [Reuters’ Seyhmus Cakan and Seda Sezer]
A US Navy SEAL killed during an ISIS attack yesterday has been identified; Charlie Keating IV, the grandson of Arizona financier Charles Keating, was killed after Islamic State militants north of Mosul fought through a front line of Kurdish peshmerga forces. Loveday Morris et al report. [Washington Post]
US-led airstrikes continue. US and coalition military forces carried out four airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria on May 2. Partner forces conducted a further 25 strikes against targets in Iraq. [Central Command]
“The internecine fighting among Shias requires a deal with Tehran and Ayatollah Sistani.” Zalmay Khalilzad explains why the US needs Iran to assist in solving the escalating political crisis in Iraq. [Politico Magazine]
The Washington Post editorial board comments on the Obama administration’s “Iraq delusion,”noting that “two persistent failings” of American foreign policy have been “an over-dependence on individual leaders, who frequently fail to deliver on American expectations and a reluctance to accept that an established status quo can’t hold.”
YEMEN
UN-backed peace talks aimed at ending the war in Yemen will resume today, following their suspension by the Yemeni government in protest of a Houthi attack on a military base in Sana’a this weekend. [Reuters]
The UK government’s suggestion that the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen has not violated international humanitarian law is “deeply disappointing,” and adds to an “anything goes” attitude from the two sides to the conflict, according to a parliamentary international development select committee. [The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour]
CYBERSECURITY, PRIVACY and TECHNOLOGY
The CIA and NSA doubled the number of searches conducted without warrants on US citizens’ data between 2013 and 2015, according to a new report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
“We are witnessing a compression of the timeframe in which unconstitutional activities can continue before they are exposed by acts of conscience.” Edward Snowden provides the foreword to The Assassination Complex, a new book about drone warfare from Jeremy Scahill. [The Guardian]
GUANTANAMO BAY
The pace of review boards for Guantánamo Bay prisoners has been “quietly” increased by the Obama administration since mid-April. Currently there are around two review boards each week, whereas earlier this year they were being convened at a rate of around two to three per month, reports Kristina Wong. [The Hill]
A Navy nurse who was discharged for refusing to force-feed protesting detainees at Guantánamo Bay has been reinstated. Discharged in the summer of 2014, his case was something of a “cause célèbre” at the time. He is currently serving at a Navy medical facility in New England. [Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg]
ISRAEL and PALESTINE
The Israeli man convicted of being the ringleader of a gang which abducted and murdered a Palestinian teenager in 2014 has been sentenced to life in prison with an additional 2 years, the judge rejecting his insanity plea. [Washington Post’s William Booth; New York Times’ Isabel Kershner]
“Violence that becomes part of the scenery is just as dangerous as when it first grabs headlines.”Jeremy Bowen reports on the “deadly atmosphere” between Israelis and Palestinians, spawning attacks with such regularity that they have come to seem “almost routine,” except for the people directly involved. [BBC]
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made improving Japan-Russia relations “a pillar of his diplomatic policy,” says Mitsuro Obe, citing the fact that he is due to make his 13th visit to Russia in recent years today, compared with only nine meetings between Abe and President Obama. [Wall Street Journal]
The meeting between the Japanese and Russian leaders is not likely to result in “imminent and serious progress” over the “sensitive” topic of the disputed Kurile Islands, the cause of strained relations between the two nations since World War Two. In fact, the dispute is so serious that Moscow and Tokyo have yet to sign a formal peace treaty. [Reuters’ Dmitry Solovyov]
Pakistan’s army chief has signed off on death sentences for 11 Taliban members convicted of terrorism, kidnappings and other offenses. Pakistan reintroduced the death penalty following an attack on a school in Peshawar in late 2014, which resulted in the deaths of over 150 people, mostly children. [AP’s Asif Shahzad]
A court in Albania has sentenced nine men for recruiting over 70 individuals to join Islamic extremist groups in Syria and Iraq. [AP]
It is dangerous to assume that Saudi Arabia and Iran think the same way as the US, write Henry A Crumpton and Allison Melia. Ascribing US values of tolerance, rule of law, freedom of speech and religion, and separation of church and state, masks the fact that, for Saudi Arabia and Iran, “religion is their political ideology – and a critical element of their foreign policy.” [Wall Street Journal]
The deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz to the US and its allies if they “threaten” the Islamic Republic, according to Iranian state media. [AP’s Amir Vahdat]
Russia is creating three new divisions to oppose NATO’s intended expansion along its eastern border, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said today. [Wall Street Journal’s Thomas Grove]
“As much as his neo-isolationism frightens our allies, it is Mr Trump’s anti-establishment stance that most threatens international security,” writes Evan Thomas, suggesting that a “foreign policy elite” – highly trained corps of diplomats, financiers and academics – is vital to navigate the US’ stance as a global power. [New York Times]
The FBI has still not contacted former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in relation to her use of a private email server while in office, Clinton has confirmed. The FBI formally announced it would be investigating Clinton’s email server in February. [The Hill’s Mark Hensch]
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Today's Headlines and Commentary by Alex R. McQuade
A United States Navy SEAL was killed today after Islamic State militants broke through the front line of Kurdish peshmerga forces in northern Iraq. The Washington Post writes that the incident highlights “the evolving nature of the Pentagon’s mission in Iraq and how American troops are serving closer than ever to the front lines.” Reuters tells us that the SEAL is the “third American to be killed in direct combat since a U.S.-led coalition launched a campaign in 2014 to ‘degrade and destroy’ Islamic State and is a measure of its deepening involvement in the conflict.” NBC News reports that the incident took place near Irbil, Iraq and that the serviceman was killed by direct enemy fire 2 to 3 miles behind the Peshmerga front lines.
U.S. forces are getting closer to the front lines of the fight against the Islamic State, and as another sign of this fact, the Washington Post highlights a U.S. outpost less than 10 miles from the front lines of the push towards Mosul. According to the Post, “the new firebase is part of a creeping U.S. buildup in Iraq since troops first returned to the country with a contingent of 275 advisers, described at the time by the Pentagon as a temporary measure to help get ‘eyes on the ground.’” However, two years later, those 275 troops have ballooned into 4,087 soldiers and they are moving closer and closer to the front lines. Read more from the Post here.
The dividend of that buildup? The United States is increasing the number of airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria as American military personnel on the ground are gathering better intelligence on what targets to hit. Secretary Carter vowed on Monday to step up strikes further as more targets become known. The Wall Street Journal reports that, according to Secretary Carter, “an increase in airstrikes already has begun and will continue, in part thanks to a recently announced increase in U.S. troops on the ground.”
Speaking of airstrikes, more than 35 airstrikes slammed the Islamic State’s de-facto capital of Raqqa last night. Reuters shares that the strikes killed at least 13 people and wounded many more around Raqqa. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, it was unclear if the planes were Russian or belonged to the U.S.-backed coalition, but at least five members of the Islamic State were killed.
Russia and the United States have agreed to coordinate new steps in the Syrian peace process aimed at ending the unrest in the country. The news comes as the Syrian military has agreed to an extended limited ceasefire around Damascus for another 48 hours. But the ceasefire does not include Aleppo, which has seen the resumption of full on war in recent weeks. Negotiations to apply the ceasefire to Aleppo remain ongoing. More on those talks from the New York Times here.
Another hospital in Aleppo was attacked today. The Washington Post reports that “a Syrian rebel assault on government-held parts of Aleppo killed as many as 19 people, in attacks that included a deadly rocket strike on a hospital even as diplomats struggled to find ways to quell the fighting.” TheAssociated Press has more on how Aleppo is being dragged deeper and deeper into chaos.
A tale of two cities: “Damascus is shielded from the worst of Syria’s turmoil and violence, yet filled with those who have suffered from it - the displaced, the bereaved, those seeking to flee - and so everything, even the candy, is laced with a layer of skepticism.” Declan Walsh, of the New York Times, describes life in Damascus amid the conflict. Read more on his account on the streets of Syria’s capital here.
Following the news of protesters storming the Iraqi parliament over the weekend, Foreign Policy asks if Baghdad is where Iraq’s most important battle is taking place. Foreign Policy writes that the “most consequential fight for the country’s future may be playing out in Baghdad’s Green Zone, not with bullets and bombs, but amid an unanswered cry for political reform to a deeply dysfunctional and sectarian state.” Michael Weiss and Abdulla Hawez of the Daily Beast feature a story on how Moqtada al Sadr could take down Iraq’s government here.
According to the Daily Beast, a French national who is suspected of coordinating that November Paris terrorist attacks has been promoted to a top position in the Islamic State’s foreign intelligence wing. The Beast writes that “Abu Suleyman al Firansi, the nom de guerre of this rising star in terrorist ranks, is believed to be the first West European ever to attain such an elite rank in ISIS - an indication of the emphasis the group is putting on attacks in the West and its reliance on people with European backgrounds to spearhead them.”
In other European counterterrorism news, British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to announce new anti-extremism powers, including powers to ban organizations, close down premises, and gag individuals. The Guardian reports that “the legislation follows publication of the government’s counter-extremism strategy which also promised a full investigation into the application of Sharia law in the U.K.” Britain’s Home Office is set to appoint a chair for the new program shortly.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) attacked a military outpost in southeastern Turkey yesterday.According to Reuters, “the attack was launched in the Semdinli district of Hakkari province, which borders Iraq and Iran.” The clash between PKK militants and Turkish soldiers left two soldiers and five PKK militants dead.
Meanwhile, as Turkey continues to fend off PKK terrorists, Ankara battles another group in the country that is increasingly labeled as terrorists: journalists. Read more on the crackdown in Turkey’s Kurdish southeast that turned journalists into terrorist fighters from the Guardian here.
Afghan security forces are attempting to break the Taliban’s hold on a highway through Afghanistan's Oruzgan province. The New York Times writes that the capture of the crucial highway will “ease the insurgents’ intensifying siege of an important provincial capital.” The Times also tells us that “while most of the public and urgent security concerns in the south have been focused on the fighting in Helmand Province in recent months, the insurgency has also been slowly choking the city of Tirin Kot, the provincial capital of Oruzgan.” The Taliban’s highway closure has raised food prices in the city and other surrounding districts and has increased fears that the militant group may take control of the city.
The United States has told Pakistan that it will have to finance the purchase of American F-16 fighter jets itself. Reuters tells us that last February, the U.S. government “approved the sale to Pakistan of up to eight F-16 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp, as well as radar and other equipment in a deal valued at $699 million.” However, some members of Congress have changed their minds. Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker (R-TN) said he would use his power as chairman “to bar use of any U.S. funds for the deal to send a message to Pakistan that it needed to do more in the war against militants.”
Meanwhile in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a warning to the United States military to stay out of the Persian Gulf. Yesterday, the supreme leader warned, “What are you doing here? Go back to the Bay of Pigs. Go and hold exercises there. What are you doing in the Persian Gulf? The Persian Gulf is our home.” According to the Hill, “the comments came as the U.S. Navy extended the deployment of an aircraft carrier to the region in support of the war against the Islamic State.” The Hill has moreon the latest Iran warning.
North Korea is set to hold its first congress in 36 years later this week. Leader Kim Jong Un will preside over the meeting, but what exactly the congress will entail remains shrouded in secrecy. However, the Associated Press shares that “North Korea’s advances toward becoming a truly credible nuclear power are sure to be touted along with claims of economic advances in the face of the toughest global sanctions it has been hit with in decades.” Also, the Hermit Kingdom undoubtedly wants to steal headlines around the world. South Korea fears that its northern neighbor could conduct a nuclear test before or even during the rare congress.
South Korea issued a warning that North Korea may be planning to capture South Korean citizens abroad or conduct “terrorist acts.” According to the South’s Unification Ministry, which handles issues related to North Korea, “all measures of precaution were in place for the safety of South Koreans abroad including an order to beef up security at diplomatic missions.”
Islamic State-linked hackers have threatened members of the U.S. military once again. This time, the hackers alleged that they intend to release the photographs and addresses of drone pilots linked to Islamic State missions. The Air Force Times tells us that “over the weekend, hackers with the ‘Islamic State Hacking Division’ published a list of about 70 names they say are U.S. military personnel tied to the death of their once-famed leader, Junaid Hussain, also known as Abu Hussain al Britani.”
The United States’ Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court did not deny a single government request in 2015, according to the Justice Department. Reuters reports that “the court received 1,457 requests last year on behalf of the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for authority to intercept communications, including email and phone calls, according to a Justice Department memo sent to leaders of relevant congressional committees.” Read more from Reutershere.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will have a new supreme commander later this week. Today, United States Army General Curtis Scaparrotti was installed as the head of U.S. European Command and will become NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe during a separate ceremony tomorrow in Belgium. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter described General Scaparrotti as a “proven warrior-diplomat and a soldiers’ general.” The Associated Press has more.
Looks like some Senators are not inclined to adopt a House of Representatives proposal that would subject the president’s national security advisor to Senate confirmation. According to the Washington Post, “Senate Republicans and Democrats are concerned about the size of the NSC staff and what they argue is the outsize clout wielded by the powerful team inside the White House. But neither they nor Senate Democrats want to change the way the national security advisor is picked.” Some GOP members of Congress and several former Defense secretaries have complained that the National Security Council, headed by the national security advisor, has “ballooned out of control.”
Down in Florida, a man appeared before a federal judge in Miami yesterday on charges that he attempted to use weapons of mass destruction at a synagogue in the town of Aventura. Reutersshares that “James Medina, 40, of Hollywood, Florida, was arrested on Friday as a result of an undercover operation after he tried to use an explosive that law enforcement had made inoperable. The Federal Bureau of Investigation began watching Medina after he began expressing anti-Semitic views and a wish to attack a synagogue in conversation. They launched an investigation in late March.” Originally, Medina planned a shooting spree in the synagogue and intended to die during the attack. Investigators said that he also wanted to leave a clue at the attack scene so that it would be attributed to the Islamic State.
According to Bloomberg, WhatsApp has been “blocked in Brazil for the second time in less than six months for failing to turn over data in a criminal investigation.” A Brazilian judge issued an order to block the app for 72 hours. WhatsApp issued a statement saying, “after cooperating to the full extent of our ability with the local courts, we are disappointed a judge in Sergipe decided yet again to order the block of WhatsApp in Brazil. This decision punishes more than 100 million Brazilians who rely on our service to communicate, run their businesses, and more, in order to force us to turn over information we repeatedly said we don’t have.”
Yesterday, a federal judge in California issued a blow to Twitter’s drive to release more details on the surveillance orders it receives from the U.S. government. Politico reports that “U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Rogers said the government has the power to prohibit the release of classified information, barring claims Twitter made in a lawsuit filed two years ago challenging as unconstitutional the limits federal officials have placed on publication of some statistics about surveillance demands.” Yet Twitter’s fight is not over. The judge’s order essentially invited Twitter to re-file its case, “incorporating a claim that the government has not ‘properly classified’ the statistics issue.”
During an exclusive interview with CNN last night, President Obama defended his approach to fighting terrorism and said that “the next president would most likely follow his lead rather than his predecessor’s.” President Obama told Peter Bergen during the interview that “the kinds of Special Forces and intelligence-gathering that we saw in the bin Laden raid is going to be, more often than not, the tool of choice for a president in dealing with that kind of threat.” Read more on President Obama’s interview on the future of counterterrorism from CNN here.
Army Colonel Judge James Pohl said that he will lift his order banning female guards from having physical contact with the five defendants in the 9/11 case being held at Guantanamo Bay. The Associated Press reports that Judge Pohl “also said he would keep the ban in place for six more months” due to what he calls “‘inappropriate’ public criticism of his ban by Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during an October appearance before Congress.” The AP has more here.
Parting Shot: Remember the iconic photo taken at Iwo Jima of the United States Marines raising the American flag? Well, one of the Marines may have been misidentified. USA Today tells us that the Marine Corps is investigating whether one of the men in the photo was mistakenly identified. Some amateur historians allege that “the man identified as Franklin Sousley, was actually Harold Henry Schultz of Detroit, who passed away in 1995.” The historians “maintain that Sousley was in the photo, but was incorrectly identified as John Bradley, a Navy corpsman. If true, the mix up could prove Bradley was not actually present for the photo.” Read more from USA Today.
ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare
Cody Poplin shared The Week That Will Be, highlighting events in DC and job announcements that may be of interest to Lawfare readers
Peter Margulies commented on CENTCOM’s report on the Kunduz hospital attack, which he says “painstakingly detailed a parade of errors.”
Benjamin Wittes linked to the April 14th lunch event “Using Data to Secure Networks: Optimizing Individual Privacy While Achieving Security.”
Jack Goldsmith and Ben Wittes invited us to the next Hoover Book Soiree featuring H. Jefferson Powell on his new book Targeting Americans: The Constitutionality of the U.S. Drone War.
Jack also flagged a report of an “Internet of things-style surveillance network.”
Email the Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us onTwitter and Facebook for additional commentary on these issues. Sign up to receive Lawfare in your inbox. Visit our Events Calendar to learn about upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings on our Job Board.
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MOSCOW—Russia is creating three new divisions to counter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s planned expansion along its eastern flank, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.
Moscow has threatened it will respond to NATO plans to boost its troops’ presence along its border with Russia. Western officials have said the alliance will send four battalions—about 4,000 troops—to Poland and the ex-Soviet Baltic countries.
“The Defense Ministry is taking a series of measures in order to counter the expansion of NATO forces in direct proximity to the Russian border,” Mr. Shoigu said at a ministry meeting shown on state television.
“By the end of the year two new divisions will be formed in the western military district and one in the southern military district,” he said.
The Pentagon has said new NATO troop deployments are in response to Russia’s “provocative” military exercises along its borders with alliance members. Russia, in turn, says its war games—more than 1,000 since December—are partly a result of increased NATO presence along its Western borders.
Mr. Shoigu said work had already been started to build up the units’ new headquarters.
One divisions in the Russian armed forces is usually comprised of around 10,000 troops, but military analysts said it was unclear whether or not the three new divisions would be created from scratch or on the basis of existing units.
President Vladimir Putin has promised to spend more than 21 trillion rubles, or more than $300 billion, to revamp Russia’s fighting forces by the end of the decade.
Russia has spent billions of dollars already to reform its military and modernize its arms industry, though an economic crisis brought about by lower oil prices and U.S. and EU sanctions have slowed some plans.
Alexander Golts, a Russian military analyst and visiting researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden, said Moscow plans to increase the number of its armed forces by 10,000 this year as the military pushes to turn the armed forces into a one-million-man fighting force. He said, however, that Russia’s demographic decline since the end of the Soviet Union have slowed plans.
The two divisions in the western military district are likely meant to counter increased NATO troop numbers in the Baltics and Poland while the additional division in the southern division will increase Russia’s presence along its border with Ukraine, he said.
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Ted Cruz Suspends Presidential Campaign by Morgan Chalfant
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) suspended his presidential campaign Tuesday evening following disappointing results out of Indiana.
The news first broke on social media Tuesday ahead of Cruz’s remarks from Indianapolis.
“From the beginning, I’ve said that I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory,” Cruz said. “Tonight, I’m sorry to say, it appears that path has been foreclosed. Together, we left it all on the field in Indiana.”
While he suspended his campaign, Cruz emphasized that he was not “suspending our fight for liberty.”
Cruz’s announcement came less than two hours after Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner, was declared the winner in the Indiana primary in a landslide.
Cruz has sought to gain momentum following disappointing results out of the “Acela primary” one week ago, naming Carly Fiorina as his prospective running mate and insisting that Trump would not make it to the 1,237 delegate count he needs to capture the nomination outright.
He thanked his family, Carly Fiorina, and his supporters during his speech Tuesday night.
The decision to exit by Cruz, Trump’s chief rival for the nomination, will all but clear the way for Trump to capture the Republican nomination for president. The campaign for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has won only his home state, said Tuesday that he would remain in the race.
The post Ted Cruz Suspends Presidential Campaign appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ended his presidential campaign Tuesday, eliminating the biggest impediment to Donald Trump's march to the Republican nomination.
Ted Cruz ends his bid for Republican presidential nominationby By SCOTT BAUER and STEVE PEOPLES
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ended his presidential campaign Tuesday, eliminating the biggest impediment to Donald Trump's march to the Republican nomination....
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