GrogNews Morning Headlines

I'm going to try for more timely loads from AUSA today. We'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, here's some headlines for your morning...

The US lost contact with about 50 missile launch silos but says they never lost control of the nukes. I'll bet the UFO conspiracists are already lining up to explain this one, eh?

One of the USS Cole bombers/planners was interrogated in Poland, and now that he's on trial in there, local authorities have granted him "victim" status because of his interrogations.

Western powers are taking a two-pronged approach to shutting down the Taliban: either lure them out of fighting with jobs and development, or shut them down with local militias. Or a third, I guess: kill them.
This as Gorby is telling NATO that they can't win in Afghanistan. No. You couldn't win. Doesn't mean we won't.

EADS is pointing to their success with the Lakota helicopter to bolster their case for the new KC-X tanker. This as Boeing runs a bunch of disingenuous radio ads around DC (and has for at least 6 months up here).

The FBI has linked the shootings at the Marine Corps Museum and the Pentagon, and is looking at linking a local recruiting station shooting, too.

By: Brant

Israeli Agent Arrested in Poland

An alleged Mossad agent is busted in connection with the slaying of a Hamas leader in Dubai.

Polish authorities have arrested an alleged Mossad spy from Israel wanted in connection with the slaying of a Hamas agent in Dubai, the German federal prosecutor's office said Saturday.

A man using the name of Uri Brodsky is suspected of working for a foreign spy agency in Germany and helping issue a fake German passport to a member of the Mossad hit squad allegedly behind the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January, the German spokesman told The Associated Press.

Brodsky was arrested in early June upon his arrival in Poland because of a European arrest warrant issued by Germany and Germany is now seeking his extradition, the spokesman said, declining to be named in line with department policy.

By: Brant

With Enemies Like This...

The Russians are charging several soldiers with stealing credit cards from the crash site of the Polish VIP plane.

Russian prosecutors say four soldiers have been charged with stealing the credit cards of a passenger killed when the Polish president's plane crashed in Russia in April.

About 6,000 Polish zloty (£2,000) was withdrawn on the cards, according to Polish investigators.

Russia initially denied both the theft and arrests had taken place.

Russia's defence ministry now says it will pay compensation if the suspects' guilt is confirmed.

The Russian prosecutor's investigations office said four Russian soldiers had been charged with "theft carried out by a group with premeditation", according to state media.

Three of the four soldiers had previous criminal convictions, including robbery and counterfeiting, the prosecutor's office said.

By: Brant

Russia Wants Answers? Gee... 1941-1991, maybe?

Russia is demanding an explanations on the deployment of U.S. Patriot missiles in Poland. We lah-ti-da...

Moscow expects an explanation on the deployment of U.S. Patriot missiles near the Polish-Russian border, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

“We have, so far, been told only one thing: do not worry, this is not aimed against you,” Lavrov told journalists in Moscow.

“We have already heard this in the past and we consider that the new nature of relations between Washington and Warsaw allows us to expect more detailed explanations on what is happening,” he added.

The statement came after the United States opened a temporary military base near the northern Polish town of Morag, 80 km (50 miles) from the Russian border under the Supplemental Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed in December 2009.

“We do not understand completely what the need is in taking steps of a military-technical nature to create some military facilities, an infrastructure in close proximity to Russian borders,” Lavrov said. “These are the questions that we ask our Polish colleagues and U.S. partners.”

Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich welcomed on Wednesday the stationing of U.S. Patriot complexes on Polish soil, describing it as an important step in strengthening Poland's security.

He said the deployment of U.S. missiles would also strengthen the “strategic nature of relations between the United States and Poland.”

Here's a thought - quit invading your neighbors, and maybe they'll feel less need to armor up.

By: Brant

Let the Polich Crash Conspiracy Theories Begin

The Poles are wondering if their military secrets are in Russian hands.

Rzeczpospolita reports Russian secret service agents have gained access to a number of documents as their ground crews continue to work the scene of Saturday morning's horrific crash.

Investigators working the forests around Smolensk continue to find bit of half-burned documents, remnants of cell phone and other electronic devices belonging to Poland's top financial, political and military officials.

Polish internal affairs officials wonder whether that means Russia has gained access to any state secrets. After all, a number of those killed in the plane crash had access to top secret Polish and NATO documents. Polish authorities wonder how much of that information made it aboard the doomed aircraft.

By: Brant

NEWS: Polish President, Army Chief, Die in Russia in Plane Crash

BBC News - Polish President Lech Kaczynski dies in plane crash

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and scores of others have been killed in a plane crash in Russia.

Polish and Russian officials said no-one had survived after the plane apparently hit trees as it approached Smolensk's airport in thick fog.

Poland's army chief, central bank governor, MPs and leading historians were among more than 80 passengers.

They were flying in from Warsaw to mark 70 years since the Katyn massacre of thousands of Poles by Soviet forces.

The BBC's Adam Easton, in Warsaw, says the crash is a catastrophe for the Polish people.

He says Prime Minister Donald Tusk was reportedly in tears when he was told.

Mr Tusk, who runs the day-to-day business of government, has called an emergency meeting of ministers.

A government spokesman said that according to the constitution there would be an early presidential election, and the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, would become acting president.

The Russian emergencies ministry told Itar-Tass news agency the plane crashed at 1056 Moscow time (0656 GMT).

Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufiev told Russian TV that no-one had survived.

"As it was preparing for landing, the Polish president's aircraft did not make it to the landing strip," he said.

"According to preliminary reports, it got caught up in the tops of trees, fell to the ground and broke up into pieces. There are no survivors in that crash."

Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski said it could be assumed with "great certainty" that no-one had survived.

"We still cannot fully understand the scope of this tragedy and what it means for us in the future. Nothing like this has ever happened in Poland," Mr Paszkowski said.

It is unclear how many people were on board. Polish officials said the delegation was 88-strong, while local officials said 96 people had been killed.

Russian investigators had earlier said there were 132 people on the plane.

Russian media carried claims that the plane's crew were at fault for the crash.

"The pilot was advised to land in Minsk, but decided to land in Smolensk," said Andrei Yevseyenkov, a Smolensk regional government spokesman .

Here's the challenge: Even if it was completely accidental, you know there's someone out there who will believe that the Russians did this on purpose.

SENIOR FIGURES KILLED
National leader: President Lech Kaczynski and wife Maria
Other politicians: Wladyslaw Stasiak chief of the president's chancellery; Aleksander Szczyglo chief of the National Security Office; Slawomir Skrzypek National Bank of Poland chairman; Jerzy Szmajdzinski deputy speaker of the lower house; Andrzej Kremer Foreign Ministry's undersecretary of state; Stanislaw Komorowski deputy minister of national defence; Przemyslaw Gosiewski Law and Justice party deputy chair;
Military chief: Franciszek Gagor chief of the General Staff
Cultural figures: Andrzej Przewoznik head of Poland's Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites; Tomasz Merta chief historical conservator

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By: Brant

Surge In Afghanistan? Don't send in NATO!

The point of the article is to cast doubt on the necessity of NATO in a post-COld War world. We can argue about the 'end of the Cold War' later, but for now, check out the rundown on the numbers of troops in Afghanistan, and what's been promised for the surge.

Afghanistan has become increasingly important to NATO. Special envoy Richard Holbrooke says Afghanistan is "the ultimate test" for the alliance.
Secretary Hillary Clinton would have us believe NATO has passed the test. She announced in December that she had won NATO commitments for another 7,000 troops for Afghanistan. She said, "I am just extremely heartened by the level of positive response we've received," and explained: "This is a significant commitment by our" alliance partners.
Yet 1,500 of the supposed extra personnel are already on station and simply won't be withdrawn while 900 (from non-NATO member Georgia) were promised before the Obama administration decided to increase troop levels. Many of the new troops detachments are small (80 from Macedonia, 85 from Albania) and are from nations that refuse to let their soldiers fight; thousands of the new personnel will be deployed to train Afghan forces rather than battle Taliban insurgents.
After the international conference held in London in late January, Paris announced that it would add no more combat troops. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner explained: "We don't want to send more troops to fight."
Germany offered only 850 -- 500 directly and another 350 as part of a "flexible reserve" for periodic deployment -- about a third of what Washington hoped for. Romania promised 600.
Unfortunately, Canada and the Netherlands plan to withdraw their roughly 5,000 troops over the next two years, effectively wiping out most of the European "surge." The British government is likely to rethink its participation in the Afghan mission after the coming election. The Royal United Services Institute has proposed "a radical scaling back" of Britain's contribution.
Observes Daniel Korski of the European Council on Foreign Relations, "Every nation fibs a little, and when you aggregate all the small fibs, it's hard not to come up with a big fib."
As a result, NATO is rife with recriminations. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini charged that "some European countries," such as France, were shirking their responsibilities. A British official complained: "Frankly, France's current deployment is too small for a country with that big an army." Toby Archer of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, noted: "Particular ire was aimed at Germany and France and the word 'cowardice' crept into the public debate."
In any case, while the Aussies, British, Canadians, Danes, and Dutch are noteworthy for their combat efforts, most of the allied contributions are limited in geography and restricted by national "caveats," making them of only modest security value to the mission. Yet nation-building in Afghanistan is diverting European resources from the defense of Europe.

poll by twiigs.com

By: Brant

BUB: Missile Defense

Updating the world of missile defense and deployments.

The consternation over Poland's hosting of US patriot batteries continues.

Poland's decision to deploy a battery of U.S. Patriot missiles just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Russian border is neither political nor strategic, the Polish defense minister said Wednesday.
Bogdan Klich stressed that the base's proximity to Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad had nothing to do with the decision to station the missiles near the town of Morag rather than outside Warsaw.
"It did not have any significance — neither political nor strategic. The only reason was the good infrastructure," Klich told journalists on Wednesday evening.
Polish media reported earlier Wednesday that Defense Ministry experts came to the conclusion that Morag was the best place for the deployment of the Patriot missiles.
"In Morag we could offer the best conditions for American soldiers and the best technical base for the equipment," Klich said on Polish Radio.

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Dueling media campaigns are starting over US missile defense deployments, along predictable partisan lines.

The conservative Heritage Foundation, for instance, has modernized its message, producing the new film “33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age,” which warns of the looming threats posed by missiles, terrorists and nuclear weapons and stresses the need to counter threats with massive missile defense systems.

Taking a lesson from liberal MoveOn.org, Heritage offers to set up private screenings of its film and discussions around the country. But already some of the think tank’s opponents have snared a copy and will screen it with their own discussion Thursday evening at the Center for American Progress.

Arms control advocates are mobilizing to make sure the Obama administration follows through on its pledge to bring to Congress this year two potential treaties — the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. According to the Foreign Policy blog The Cable, 50 advocates from numerous think tanks converged at the Ploughshares Fund to coordinate their messages and maximize exposure for the issue.

In general, the issue of missiles and nukes is as deadly serious as it often is deathly dull. Because there hasn’t been a high-stakes political fight on the issue in recent years, creative messages are key and both sides are branching out.

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None of this is stopping the US-Russian talks over missile defense treaties, though.

The United States and Russia are currently in discussion over the issue of global missile defense, said U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle here on Wednesday.

Beyrle told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that Washington and Moscow were discussing the possibility to involve Russia into a system of global missile defense, on which two rounds of negotiations have been held between experts from the two countries.

The diplomat also said the two sides are discussing measures to develop cooperation in this field, adding that their talks on strategic arms reduction were to conclude in the very near future.

By: Brant

US, Poland, agree on a SOFA; floor lamp next

The status of forces agreement with Poland, has been signedpaving the way for US troop deployments, is now signed.

Poland and the United States on Friday signed an agreement on the status of US troops in the eastern European country ahead of the deployment of US Patriot missiles.
'This agreement allows the stationing of US soldiers and materiel in Poland,' Polish Defence Minister Bogdan Klich told the press. 'For Poland it means that its security will be strengthened.'
The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) is a pre-requisite to setting up a US ground-to-air missile base in Poland. US officials say deployment should start in 2010.
Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Ellen Tauscher, who signed the accord, hailed the agreement as 'the latest example of the very strong and enduring relationship that we only want to make deeper between the United States of America and Poland'.

By: Brant

Missile defense by other means?

The US and Poland have agreed on a Patriot Missile deployment.

Poland and the United States have finished negotiating an agreement that would address the legal status of U.S. military personnel to be deployed on Polish territory with a Patriot missile defense system, Reuters reported last week.
Under the Status of Forces Agreement, crimes committed in Poland by U.S. military personnel would be subject to Polish jurisprudence if they are conducted off base and outside the course of their duties. Taxation of U.S. troops is also addressed in the deal.
'(Polish) Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accepted the result of the negotiations I conducted with the Americans,' Polish Deputy Defense Minister Stanislaw Komorowski said Friday.
The sides plan to ink the deal on Dec. 10.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has encouraged Tusk to acquire French-built MBDA missile defenses instead of the Patriot system, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna reported, according to the Polish Press Agency.
Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich warned that the proposal had not yet been formalized.
The French system would cost roughly 30 percent less than its U.S. counterpart, unofficial sources indicated.
Meanwhile, NATO could pursue missile defenses for its member nations if Iran acquired nuclear weapons, the alliance's secretary general said last week.

By: Brant

Poland cuts off the draft

Poland has ended their draft, presumably not by padding the gap in their door.

By: Brant

"Kaliningrad"? Where the hell is Kaliningrad?

In another back-to-the-Cold-War moment, the US and Russia are still arguing over missiles and interceptors:

The Bush administration Thursday dismissed as not credible a Russian offer to forego deployment of missiles near Poland, if the United States drops its European missile defense plan. But U.S. officials said they still want dialogue with Moscow on a looming missile threat from Iran. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.
Officials here said the Russian proposal to nullify missile deployments on both sides is not a serious approach to the issue, but they said they remain interested in talks with Moscow to ease Russian concerns about missile defense.
Russia has opposed, as a threat to its strategic deterrence, a U.S. plan for a central European missile defense system to counter an anticipated threat from Iran.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has threatened to respond by putting short-range missiles in Russia's Kaliningrad enclave bordering Poland, where U.S. interceptor missiles are to be based.

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Track these articles...

GrogNews: Put on a Bulletproof Vest... So I Can Fire Bullets at You!
GrogNews: Welcome to the Jungle
GrogNews: Updating Missile Defense Treaties
GrogNews: Ballistic Missile Test Fire More or Less Aggressive Than Missile Defense Shield
GrogNews: US-Japan Future Defense Planing
GrogNews: US Missile Shields Proliferating


By: Brant

Welcome to the Jungle

As the old Guns n Roses song goes, welcome to the jungle. Joe Biden, according to a number of ads I've seen on the net, has an IQ of 146, which puts him in pretty good company as far as intellectual horsepower goes. A couple of weeks ago he predicted that within the first six months of an Obama Administration someone would concoct a challenge to test his leadership. Fast forward a few hours after Obama became President-Elect, and here's confirmation of the Veep-Elect's prognosticative powers.

Yup, those pesky Ruskies are already trying to toss some weight around and see whether Obama has the right stuff to stand up to them.

Haven't they heard that oil prices are down and they're fast running out of cash to fuel future mischief?

UPDATE: Just in case the Obama-Elect Administration missed the memo, Russia also announced a plan to park a bunch of missiles off Poland's border just for giggles or

"To neutralize -- if necessary -- the (U.S.) anti-missile system, an Iskander missile system will be deployed in the Kaliningrad region," Medvedev said, referring to a Russian enclave bordering European Union members Poland and Lithuania.

Source of quote: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081105/wl_nm/us_russia_medvedev1_2

By: GladiusMagnus

Ballistic Missile Test Fire More or Less Aggressive Than Missile Defense Shield

The Russians are getting frisky again, test-firing ICBMs:

In response to the United States’ recent plans to implement a missile defense system in eastern Europe, Russia has test-fired three intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Russia expressed outrage following the U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield in Poland, calling the decision an act of aggression that would result in their own expansion of military defense.
The missile tests were conducted in three separate areas; one from the Barents Sea just east of Norway, a second from just north of Japan, and a third from northwest Russia.

Only in Russia could a missile defense shield be seen as aggressive... What say you, dear readers?

poll by twiigs.com

By: Brant

Sons of Iraq becoming Sons of Iraq's Government

There are positive political signs coming in Iraq as the government shows a willingness to absorb the Sons of Iraq.

Iraq's Shiite-led government will assume responsibility for paying 54,000 mainly Sunni militiamen in Baghdad starting next week, in an important test of its commitment to reconciliation, a top general said Monday.

The Christian Science Monitor paints a slightly bleaker picture, though.

While the group called the Sons of Iraq (SOI) has been critically important in improving security, the US military and many leaders within the SOI worry that their foot soldiers – many of them ex-insurgents – will simply return to their old ways if they are not paid or brought into Iraq's official security forces.
'If the government doesn't accept them, most will join [insurgent] groups, and they will restart their activities stronger than before,' says Khalid Jamal, an SOI leader in Baghdad. 'That will make Iraq return to zero.'

Middle East Online, though, has some positive quotes coming out of the Sons of Iraq themselves.

Gun-toting Sunni Arabs battling Al-Qaeda cautiously embraced Iraq's Shiite-led government on Wednesday as the US military transferred the responsibility of paying them to Baghdad without major hiccoughs.
On Wednesday, Omar Samir, 36, a leader of one such group known as Sahwas in Arabic, said the 63 members under his command in Baghdad's Sunni district of Adhamiyah were happy to be paid by Baghdad.
'We're really happy; we feel that from today we'll be representing Iraqi law 100 percent. From now on we'll receive our orders from the Iraqi government,' Samir said.

Good thing they're joining the fight, too, since the Polish military is pulling out of Iraq now.

By: Brant