Reviving Overseas Russian Bases?

Look, it's Pravda, so don't read too much into the 'facts', but even going public with plans to re-invigorate overseas bases has got to raise some eyebrows, huh?

The Russian government intends to restore the military-technical support of their ships at the former military base in Cam Ranh (Vietnam), Lourdes (Cuba) and the Seychelles. So far, this is not about plans for a military presence, but rather the restoration of the crew resources. However, a solid contractual basis should be developed for these plans.

The intentions were announced on July 27 by the Russian Navy Commander Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov. "At the international level, the creation of logistics points in Cuba, the Seychelles and Vietnam is being worked out," Chirkov was quoted by the media. The issue was specifically discussed at the meeting with the leaders of all countries. President of Vietnam Truong Tan Sang has recently held talks with Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev in Moscow and President Putin in Sochi. Cuban leader Raul Castro met with Putin in Moscow earlier this month. A little earlier the President of the Republic of Seychelles, James Michel made an unequivocal statement.

By: Brant

Lemme get this straight... you're complaining?!

Is it petulance? If so, there are worse places to be exiled than a dock at Waikiki Beach.

In a gesture of friendship and goodwill toward an obscure former ally, warships from New Zealand have been granted special, private berthing privileges for a major naval exercise now underway in Hawaii. And wouldn’t you know it: they’re complaining. It seems that while ships from a dozen friendly countries are berthed at crowded, attack-prone Pearl Harbor, two New Zealand warships have been assigned exclusive berthing spots at Honolulu’s lovely civilian harbor, several miles away. All by themselves.

This is the first time that New Zealand forces have been invited to take part in the biennial RIMPAC exercises since New Zealand banned U.S. Navy ships from making port calls there in the 1980s. U.S. warships are still not welcome. Sensitive Kiwis detect a deliberate snub in the separate berthing arrangements in Hawaii.

“Petty, petulant and pathetic,” says the New Zealand Herald. “What other conclusion is it possible to draw from the absurd, vindictive and ultimately short-sighted refusal by the United States to allow two New Zealand naval vessels to berth at the Pearl Harbor military base?”

A quarter of poll respondents said New Zealand should pull out of the exercise because of the “petty snub.”

Well, sure, but it could be worse. The Kiwis’ temporary home is at the foot of historic Aloha Tower, a short walk from shopping, restaurants, bars and the kind of nighttime, personal-service entertainment long favored by seagoing personnel. The beaches and discos of Waikiki are a quick bus ride away.

By: Brant

US Direct Support of Philippines in South China Sea?

Thus far, US aid has been limited to transferring some old Coast Guard cutters. But now the Philippines may ask for support from P3's over the disputed islands in the SCS.

The Philippines may ask the United States to deploy spy planes over the South China Sea to help monitor the disputed waters, President Benigno Aquino told Reuters on Monday, a move that could worsen tensions with its giant neighbor China.
The two countries only recently stepped back from a months-long standoff at the Scarborough Shoal, a horseshoe shaped reef near the Philippines in waters they both claim - the latest round of naval brinkmanship over the resource-rich sea.
The United States has stressed it is neutral in the long-running maritime dispute, despite offering to help boost the Philippines' decrepit military forces. China has warned that "external forces" should not get involved.
"We might be requesting overflights on that," Aquino told Reuters in an interview, referring to U.S. P3C Orion spy planes. "We don't have aircraft with those capabilities."
There was no immediate comment from Washington.
Last month, Aquino pulled out a lightly armed coast guard ship and a fisheries boat due to bad weather around the Scarborough Shoal, a group of rock formations about 140 miles west of the main Philippine island of Luzon.

View Larger Map

By: Brant

US-KIWI Defense Pact

The US and New Zealand have signed a Defense Cooperation Arrangement

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and New Zealand Minister of Defence Jonathan Coleman signed the “Washington Declaration” at the Pentagon today to expand the defense relationship between the United States and New Zealand.

The declaration provides a framework for cooperation to focus, strengthen and expand the bilateral defense relationship. It promotes a common vision for defense cooperation in order to strengthen and expand practical bilateral cooperation.

The “Washington Declaration” opens up defense dialogues that include the exchange of information and strategic perspectives and increase understanding of defense policies. It reflects a shared commitment to a stable and peaceful Asia-Pacific region and common approaches to address the region’s defense and security issues, including contemporary non-traditional security challenges.

The partnership will include security cooperation in areas such as maritime security cooperation, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and peacekeeping support operations.

The “Washington Declaration” was signed a week after commemorative events took place in cities across New Zealand celebrating the 70th Anniversary of U.S. forces coming to the aid of New Zealand in World War II.

A copy of the “Washington Declaration” is available at http://www.defense.gov/news/WashingtonDeclaration.pdf .

By:

Who's On First: Afghan Edition

The National Interest tries to make sense of who's on which side in Afghanistan.

There are no constant friends in international politics—only interests formed by shifting sands and temporary alliances subject to rapid change. Nowhere is this truer than in Southwest Asia. Pakistan, a U.S. ally and sole conduit for aid to the Afghan resistance during the 1980s, is now the primary supporter of the Taliban and other insurgents targeting Western forces in Afghanistan.

India, which leaned towards the USSR during the latter part of the Cold War and voiced no opposition to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, is now a U.S. strategic partner and staunch supporter of the international effort in Afghanistan. In today’s Afghan army, Soviet-trained officers have joined with former Afghan resistance commanders to defeat the Taliban and its allies.

During the late 1990s, Washington leaned toward the Taliban to counter Iranian influence and secure pipelines from Central Asia. After 2001, the United States and Iran worked together to create a stable anti-Taliban government in Kabul. As Washington established a permanent presence in southwest Afghanistan close to the Iranian border, Iran began supporting elements of the Taliban—despite the movement’s long history of oppressing Afghanistan’s Shia minority and its role in the 1998 murder of Iranian diplomats.

The Taliban banned the opium trade when it controlled southern Afghanistan, but now it has joined with narcotics traffickers to target Western troops and undermine the Afghan government. Notorious drug lord and former governor of Helmand province Sher Muhammad Akhundzada, was instrumental in helping the United States defeat the Taliban in 2002. When he was ousted as governor in 2005, he told his fighters to join the Taliban.

As the insurgents grew in strength and Washington’s withdrawal drew nearer, the Karzai government began leaning toward the Taliban—so much so that leaders among the non-Pashtun minorities worry he may welcome Mullah Omar into Kabul. Senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials have visited Kabul, attempting to persuade Karzai to resist U.S. pressure.

By: Brant

More Border Disputes in Southern Sudan

With 1800km of wide open desert to mark, it's no wonder that Sudan and South Sudan keep straying over the border.

Sudan's army accused South Sudan on Saturday of having troops on its territory, a sign tensions between the former civil war foes were unlikely to cool despite an international ultimatum to end fighting.
Sudanese army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid said the military would abide by a U.N.-backed African Union call to halt hostilities, in an effort to end weeks of border fighting that has threatened to escalate into a full-blown war.
But Khalid said the army had a right to defend its territory from foreign troops.
"We have committed to (the decision). And no shot has been fired from our side and no attacks or raids have been launched ... towards South Sudan," Khalid told Reuters.
"But we have to point out that we are still affected by the presence of the South Sudanese army inside our territories in some areas," he said, naming Kafen Debbi and Samaha in south and east Darfur.
South Sudan's army, the SPLA, denied the allegation.
"(Kafen Debbi) was used by ... militia to attack us. And these are inside western Bahr al-Ghazal, which is part of our territory," SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer said.

View Larger Map

By: Brant

Karzai Claims He Schooled US on Recent Security Deal

Political posturing for internal audiences is fine, but when you sound like a tool to your primary benefactor, the citizens of that country aren't interested in helping you out too much.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai struck a nationalistic tone Thursday in explaining his signing of a strategic pact with the United States, saying that Washington had bowed to many of his demands.

Mr. Karzai said the Strategic Partnership Agreement signed Tuesday evening in Kabul met several of Afghanistan's tough conditions, and highlighted that it forbids the U.S. from attacking other countries from the bases it may retain here after the bulk of foreign troops withdraw in 2014.

So what did the US agree to?

Mr. Karzai presented himself as a tough negotiator who had laid out essential "preconditions" for the signing of the strategic agreement. He said the U.S. yielded ground in negotiations on hot-button issues such as the detention Afghan citizens and night raids by U.S. special operations forces.

"Our fundamental conditions were that the U.S. forces must not have the permission to run prisons...they must not be allowed to arrest Afghans, they must not be allowed to enter Afghan homes," he said. "These were our preconditions in order to enter into this strategic agreement."

I guess that's fine until the first time an Afghan brigade gets their ass handed to them in an independent operation.

By: Brant

China Provoking the Philippines?

The Chinese are sending more ships to the disputed Scarborough shoal.

The Philippine military on Thursday accused China of sending more ships to a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, describing the move as an insult that would further inflame tensions.
Four Chinese surveillance ships and 10 fishing boats have anchored off the disputed Scarborough Shoal, with the fishermen taking giant clams and corals that are protected under Philippine law, a regional military spokesman said.
It is the largest number of Chinese vessels seen at the shoal since the two countries began a sovereignty standoff there almost a month ago, according to Major Loel Egos, whose northern command covers the area.
"They are just worsening the insult, bringing in all these fishing boats and all we can do is resort to diplomacy," Egos told AFP.
"They really want to test what a little country like the Philippines can do against a giant."
Egos said the Philippines, which has one of the weakest militaries in the region, has just two coast guard ships and a fisheries bureau vessel at the shoal that are unable to do anything about the Chinese fishing.

By: Brant

US-Afghan Night Raid Deal

The US and Afghanistan have cut a deal on controversial night raids.

Afghanistan and the United States reached a deal on Sunday to curb night raids on Afghan homes, giving Kabul a veto over the operations despised by most local people and clearing the way for a wider pact securing a U.S. presence.
Night raids on suspected militants have helped fan rising anti-Western sentiment ahead of a withdrawal by most Western combat troops to be completed by 2014, but are backed by NATO commanders as a key anti-insurgent tactic.
Their conduct had been one of the biggest hurdles in negotiations on a broader strategic pact governing a future U.S. role in the country, including advisers and special forces soldiers to help safeguard stability for at least a decade.
The deal, which has taken months of negotiation, was signed by Afghan Defense Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak and NATO's top commander in the country, U.S. Marine General John Allen.
"Today we are one step closer to the establishment of the U.S.-Afghan strategic partnership. Most importantly, today we are one step closer to our shared goal and vision of a secure and sovereign Afghanistan," Allen said at the deal's signing.

By: Brant

A Royal Mess Over the Falklands

You gotta love it when the Argies - who invaded sovereign British territory - call someone else a "conquistador".

Argentina said it doesn't seek another war over the Falkland Islands, and accused Britain of militarizing their sovereignty dispute by announcing Tuesday that it is sending an advanced warship to the islands along with Prince William "in the uniform of a conquistador."
The assignment of Prince William, a Royal Air Force helicopter pilot, for a six-week military mission in the Falklands in February and March has been a sore point for Argentina. It has sought to reclaim the South Atlantic archipelago that it calls the Malvinas Islands ever since Britain seized the islands some 180 years ago.
Both countries have engaged in a war of words in recent weeks ahead of the 30th anniversary of Argentina's failed attempt to take the islands back. Its invasion ended with more than 600 Argentine soldiers killed and 200 British dead in an international humiliation for Argentina's military junta.

You know, I always wondered why the Argies Spanish instead of some local native dialect. Oh yeah, that's right - because their country was, y'know, organized by Conquistadors. Those bastards.

By: Brant

Taliban Planning Victory Parades

OK, maybe not just yet, but after years of missing opportunities to do something worthwhile about Afghanistan - like leveling it with a bulldozer - NATO is ready to pull pitch, and the Taliban may be "poised to retake Afghanistan" when that happens.

The U.S. military said in a secret report the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, raising the prospect of a major failure of western policy after a costly war.
Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, confirmed the existence of the document, reported by Britain's Times newspaper and the BBC. But he said it was not a strategic study.
"The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions," he said. "It's not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis."
Nevertheless, it could be interpreted as a damning assessment of the war, now dragging into its eleventh year and aimed at blocking a Taliban return to power.
It could also be seen as an admission of defeat and could reinforce the view of Taliban hardliners that they should not negotiate with the United States and President Hamid Karzai's unpopular government while in a position of strength.
The U.S. military said in the document Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) security agency was assisting the Taliban in directing attacks against foreign forces.
The allegation drew a strong response from Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit. "This is frivolous, to put it mildly," he told Reuters. "We are committed to non-interference in Afghanistan."

I love the line of bullshit from the Paks. "Non-interference" eh, ass-clown? We've known for years that the Paks were undercutting efforts in Afghanistan. They ambushed a US/Afghan delegation to peace talks. And the ISI has claimed for years to be the protectors of the Taliban.

By: Brant

Japan Join JSF Ranks

The Japanese have decided on Lockheeds F-35 fighter as their new aerial toy.

Japan picked Lockheed Martin's F-35 jet as its next mainstay fighter Tuesday, choosing the aircraft over combat-proven but less stealthy rivals, as concern simmers over North Korea and as China introduces its own stealth fighters.
The decision came as Japan and the United States stressed that their security alliance was tight in the face of worry about an unstable North Korea after the death of its leader, Kim Jong-il.
Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa said the decision to buy 42 of the stealth aircraft, valued by analysts at more than $7 billion, would help Japan adjust to a changing security environment after Monday's announcement of the death of the 69-year-old North Korean leader.
"The security environment surrounding future fighter jets is transforming. The F-35 has capabilities that can firmly respond to the changes," Ichikawa told reporters.

By: Brant

China Naval Base Abroad?

Are the Chinese going to establish their first naval base abroad?

China said Tuesday it is considering an offer from the Seychelles to host Chinese naval ships in the Indian Ocean island nation, highlighting the increasing global reach of a navy that recently launched its first aircraft carrier.
State-run media gave prominent coverage to the Seychelles offer to allow rest and resupply for Chinese ships in the multinational force conducting anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia, which China has joined since late 2008.
But the reports were careful to reaffirm China's firm policy of not establishing permanent military bases overseas, a cornerstone of Beijing's claim not to be seeking regional hegemony or military alliances with other nations.
"China's position is clear. China has never set up military bases in other countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters at a daily news briefing.
Chinese ships assigned to the anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden have visited several ports to allow their crews to rest and to take on supplies, including in Yemen and Oman on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.

View Larger Map

By: Brant

Pakistan is Playing Both Sides of the Fence... And It's Inarguable

They're refusing to launch any action aimed at the Haqqani network.

Pakistan will not launch an offensive against Haqqani extremists despite Washington ramping up the pressure after a series of attacks on US targets in Afghanistan, an official said on Monday.
The US and Pakistan are key allies in the war against Islamist militants in Afghanistan, but their relationship is often troubled and hit new depths after the killing of Osama bin Laden in a covert US raid in Pakistan in May.
Pakistan's army chief of staff gathered together his top generals in an extraordinary meeting at the weekend after a series of stinging rebukes from the Americans blaming the Haqqanis and Pakistani intelligence for recent attacks.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is now expected to call a rare cross-party conference, although he has dismissed the American allegations as little more than finding a scapegoat for US "disarray" in the 10-year war in Afghanistan.
"I don't think the indicators are as such," a senior Pakistani security official told AFP when asked if the army was going to launch an operation in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, where the Haqqani leadership is based.
Instead, he said, the military needs to "consolidate gains" made against local militants who pose a security threat elsewhere in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt that Washington has branded an Al-Qaeda headquarters.
Pakistan has around 140,000 troops based in its troubled northwest and says more than 3,000 soldiers have been killed since 2001 -- more than the 2,735 Western soldiers to have died fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But their duplicity has being going on a while. Back in 2007, they ambushed a US/Afghan delegation they'd just hosted for a meeting.

A group of American military officers and Afghan officials had just finished a five-hour meeting with their Pakistani hosts in a village schoolhouse settling a border dispute when they were ambushed — by the Pakistanis.
An American major was killed and three American officers were wounded, along with their Afghan interpreter, in what fresh accounts from the Afghan and American officers who were there reveal was a complex, calculated assault by a nominal ally. The Pakistanis opened fire on the Americans, who returned fire before escaping in a blood-soaked Black Hawk helicopter.
The attack, in Teri Mangal on May 14, 2007, was kept quiet by Washington, which for much of a decade has seemed to play down or ignore signals that Pakistan would pursue its own interests, or even sometimes behave as an enemy.

They had tailed bin Laden's couriers to Abbotabad and decided it wasn't worth detailed investigation.

They shut down Afghan peace talks because they weren't at the table and claimed that they "protect" the Taliban.

Is it any wonder that you've got a US Senator calling for military action against Pakistan?

A Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday that the U.S. should consider military action against Pakistan if it continues to support terrorist attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.
"The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in hostile acts against the United States and our ally Afghanistan that must cease, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told "Fox News Sunday."
He said if experts decided that the U.S. needs to "elevate its response," he was confident there would be strong bipartisan support in Congress for such action.
Graham did not call for military action but said "all options" should be considered. He said assistance to Pakistan should be reconfigured and that the U.S. should no longer designate an amount of aid for Pakistan but have a more "transactional relationship" with the country.
"They're killing American soldiers," he said. "If they continue to embrace terrorism as a part of their national strategy, we're going to have to put all options on the table, including defending our troops."

By: Brant

What If...? A Change in WWI History

Looking for something else entirely online, I stumbled across an old discussion board thread asking what would've happened if the US had sided with Germany in WWI. Now keep in mind we're talking about WWI here, not WWII, so leave any discussions of the Nazis out of it - they weren't present in 1915 in any significant numbers.

Anyhow, some other folks were talking about the military ramifications, like Britain having to spread their fleet around the world. I threw out the following comments:

Forgetting the Western front for a second:

What happens on the Eastern Front if the Germans don't have as many forces committed to the Western front? What happens to the Balkans if the Austro-Hungarian Empire isn't hacked up after the war?

Assuming a German victory in the west, coupled with the same Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and Austria likely takes significant chunks of Italian/Yugoslavian coast, from Venice to Dubrovnik, at least. The Ottoman Empire still falls apart. Iraq/Palestine are under German influence rather than British, and the Suez Canal may change hands. Similarly, the German colonies in Africa aren't parceled out among other nations.

More importantly, while the Brits and French likely plot their revenge on Germany - and the US - the Nazi party never rises in Germany. A WWII is still likely, given the unresolved state of armistices at the time, and imminent rise of Japanese militarism. But the Holocaust doesn't happen, Israel is perhaps founded, but treated much differently because the Jews aren't scarred by the memories of the Holocaust. German domination of the Middle East from the Suez to Hormuz results in an efficient bureaucratic system layered on top of Islam that may have suppressed more radical sects like Wahhabism. Our German allies would've maintained the flow of oil from the Arabian peninsula, without the US having to guarantee the continuation of the Saudi monarchy.

What happens to the Austrian Empire is still up in the air - given the mishmash of ethnicities within the empire, it might have looked like 1990s Yugoslavia, only (a) bigger, and (b) sooner. But given the connections with Germany (such as language) it's likely that some of it would've been absorbed into a greater German co-operation sphere. Poland and Czechoslovakia never know independence, but the Baltic states don't fall under Communist domination because of the proximity of Germany's borders.

I'd love for people smarter than me about this era of history to chime in and sound off about this. What do you think? How would it develop? What circumstances would you need for the US to enter the war on the German side? What would be the endgame? How does the peace treaty look?

By: Brant

Deal Coming in Libya?

The AU is trying to broker a truce.

South African President Jacob Zuma says the Libyan government has accepted an African Union peace proposal to end the eight-week-old conflict.

Mr Zuma's AU delegation met Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli on Sunday. An AU team is going to the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

But rebel spokesmen said there could be no truce unless Col Gaddafi stepped down and his forces withdrew.

In Ajdabiya, pro-Gaddafi forces have pushed back rebels in fierce fighting.

Nato says its planes destroyed 25 government tanks on Sunday alone.

The alliance said it had "taken note" of the AU initiative and welcomed efforts to save Libyan civilians.

The AU deal's main points are:

• An immediate ceasefire
  
• The unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid
  
• Protection of foreign nationals
  
• A dialogue between the government and rebels on a political settlement
  
• The suspension of Nato airstrikes

"The brother leader [Col Gaddafi] delegation has accepted the roadmap as presented by us," Mr Zuma declared. "We have to give the ceasefire a chance," he said, after several hours of talks.

By: Brant

New START Treaty in Effect

BBC News - US-Russia New Start nuclear treaty comes into effect

The New Start nuclear arms treaty limiting the number of atomic warheads the US and Russia are allowed to possess, has come into effect.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exchanged ratification documents at a conference in Munich.

The treaty replaces the 1991 Start treaty which expired in December 2009.

It was approved by the US Senate in December and by the Russian parliament last month.

The papers exchanged in Munich had been signed by US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev following an agreement made last April.

Before the ceremony at the Munich Conference on Security Policy, Mrs Clinton said the treaty was "another example of the kind of clear-eyed co-operation that is in everyone's interests".

What's actually in the treaty? The State Department has a press release that details some of the key milestones.

Entry into Force (EIF)

No later than (NLT) 5 days after EIF: Exchange Inspection Airplane Information

Parties will exchange lists of the types of airplanes they intend to use for transportation of inspectors to the points of entry.

NLT 25 days after EIF: Exchange Lists of Inspectors and Aircrew Members

Parties will exchange their initial lists of inspectors and aircrew members.

NLT 45 days after EIF: Exchange Databases

The databases will include information as of the date of entry into force of the Treaty on numbers, locations, and technical characteristics of weapons systems and facilities that are subject to the Treaty.

NLT 60 days after EIF: Exhibition: Strategic Offensive Arms

If a Party declares a type, variant, or version of a strategic offensive arm (SOA) that was not exhibited in connection with the START Treaty, that Party will conduct an exhibition of that SOA. These exhibitions will demonstrate and confirm the features and technical characteristics of these new SOAs. Examples of SOAs that must be exhibited are the B-2A heavy bomber for the United States and the RS-24 ICBM for Russia.


60 days after EIF: Right to Conduct Inspection Activities Begins

The Treaty provides for 18 on-site inspections per year. There are two basic types of inspections. Type One inspections focus on sites with deployed and non-deployed strategic offensive arms. Permitted inspection activities include confirming the accuracy of declared data on deployed and non-deployed strategic offensive arms, the number of warheads located on designated deployed ICBMs and deployed SLBMs, and confirming the number of nuclear armaments declared to be on designated deployed heavy bombers. Type Two inspections focus on sites with non-deployed strategic offensive arms. Type Two inspections can also involve confirming the conversion or elimination of strategic offensive arms, and confirming that certain facilities have been eliminated. Each side is allowed to conduct ten Type One inspections and eight Type Two inspections annually.


NLT 120 days after EIF: Exhibition: Heavy Bombers at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

The United States will conduct a one-time exhibition of each type of environmentally-sealed deployed heavy bombers located at the storage facility at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.

NLT 180 days after EIF: Initial Demonstration of Telemetry Playback Equipment

Each Party will conduct an initial demonstration of recording media and playback equipment for telemetric information from such media. Telemetric information is information that originates on a missile during its initial motion and subsequent flight that is broadcast.


NLT 225 days after EIF: Exchange Updated Databases

Parties will exchange updated databases. Parties will then exchange updated databases every six months for the duration of the Treaty.

NLT 1 year after EIF: Exhibition: B-1B Heavy Bomber

The United States will conduct a one-time exhibition of a B-1B heavy bomber equipped with non-nuclear armaments to demonstrate that the B-1B heavy bomber is no longer capable of employing nuclear armaments.

NLT 3 years after EIF: Exhibition: Previously Converted Missile Launchers

The United States will conduct a one-time exhibition of four submarines known as “SSGNs,” which are equipped with launchers of cruise missiles and converted from nuclear ballistic missile submarines, in order to provide assurances that these SSGNs are incapable of launching SLBMs.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

US to WikiLeaks: WTF! Yes, the WikiLeaks Task Force is now in effect, yo.

Good to that US intelligence is keeping an eye on developments in London (or not...)

The Norks are vowing a "sacred war" if they are provoked by the South. Uh, OK.

China wants to speed up the launch of their aircraft carrier.

Will the Russians ratify START before the US?

A nice story about a wedding dress going on display at the Airborne & Special Ops Museum in Fayetteville, NC. Yes, a wedding dress. Go read it. (h/t Guardian)

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

Apparently the Brits caved to "economic warfare" in fast-tracking the release of the Lockerbie bomber to Libya.

DADT
President Obama is planning to sign the repeal of DADT on Wednesday. The DoD has released statements from Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, regarding the repeal of DADT.

Korea
The Southies are preparing for a possible Nork attack and the Chinese are pushing the Norks to accept nuclear inspectors. Bill Richardson somehow claims it's all some sort of progress.

Is the US pushing NATO for raids into Pakistan? NATO says "no" but c'mon...

The Senate seems more and more likely to pass START II.

Palestinians lob rockets. Israeli strikes back by air. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

By: Brant

GrogNews Insomniac Headlines

Yes, they're late. Sorry. It's been a loooooong day.

The Southies are pretty sure the Norks have more uranium sites. Hey, if they've got one, then it's one more than the number of army chiefs the Southies have right now.

Richard Holbrooke, who brokered the Bosnian peace accords in Dayton, has died.

The Army birther who refused to deploy is having his day in court.

Another bomb threat in Sweden as we learn that the bomber was hoping for bigger targets.

Assange is hoping for bail.

By: Brant