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In April 2014 the Japanese government finally lifted its postwar ban on the export of defense products. Tokyo approved its first arms export this summer — the supply of PAC-2 missile parts to the U.S., which will then sell the completed Patriot missiles to Qatar. It’s only a matter of time before Tokyo sells a major military platform rather than just parts. With a wealth of experience in manufacturing armor, ships, submarines and helicopters, there’s a lot for potential buyers to choose from. But Japan’s first sale will probably be a search-and-rescue amphibious aircraft — a seaplane — called the...

Donald Trump found himself briefly cornered during a call-in radio interview on Thursday. The presidential candidate was a guest on the The Hugh Hewitt Show when conservative host Hugh Hewitt began examining the real estate magnate’s foreign policy chops. Trump seemed to know something was coming, as Hewitt has a nose for generating news (most recently by asking Republican candidates if they would attend a gay wedding), but it was not a flattering exchange for Trump, who confessed to gaping holes in his foreign policy understanding. Trump managed to emerge only slightly bloodied from the interview and the damage was...

TAIPEI: China is building two aircraft carriers that will be the same size as its sole carrier, a 60,000-tonne refurbished Soviet-era ship, according to a new Taiwanese Defence Ministry report on the capabilities of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Little is known about China's aircraft carrier programme, which is a state secret, although Chinese state media have hinted new vessels are being built. The Pentagon, in a report earlier this year, said Beijing could build multiple aircraft carriers over the next 15 years. One of the new vessels is being built in Shanghai and the other in the northeastern city...

Putin’s Russia. Do traces of KGB, FSB and GRU lead to Islamic State? Marius Laurinavičius, Rytų Europos studijų centras ir DELFI Friday, January 9, 2015 This time I decided to draw attention to a significant role (which was a surprise for many experts) of Chechen terrorists in a battle of Islamic state that has become a main threat to the West. Based on this role, it is not only possible, but vital to examine the potential links between the Islamic state and Russian secret services. One of the inspiration sources was the article published in ‘The Huffington Post’ called ‘You...

While the tweeted images have no landmarks on the ground as reference points, the Iranian state-sponsored FARS news agency released a report that Syrian aircraft bombed opposition forces in Idlib, including al-Nusra fighters on Wednesday. The possible sighting of Russian aircraft in Syrian skies comes just two days after the Jerusalem-based newspaper YNET released a report indicating that Russian pilots and aircraft would be arriving in Syria in “the coming days” with the purported mission of flying airstrikes against the Islamic State and opposition forces that are threatening the Assad regime.

These great photos and statement out of HAL today on the LCH's progress, including hot & high tests in Ladakh. Here's what they sent out: HAL successfully carried out the hot and the high-altitude trials of indigenously designed, developed attack chopper Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) at Leh recently. “These seasonal trials - including cold weather trials carried out at Leh during February this year - have been completed as part of the certification process. The flight trials at Leh have established hover performance and low speed handling characteristics of the helicopter under extreme weather conditions at different altitudes (3200...

The U.S. government is offering families of American service members and diplomatic employees voluntary evacuation from Turkey in a sign of the increased threat caused by the start of U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria from a key Turkish air base. The Defense Department said about 900 dependents of American troops based at the Incirlik Air Base in southeastern Turkey will be able to fly home on commercial airliners at government expense. The State Department said roughly 100 families members of people stationed at the U.S. Consulate in nearby Adana, Turkey, are eligible to leave. “This decision was...

Six soldiers including four Americans were injured on Thursday in two blasts in northeast Sinai caused by improvised explosive devices, the Pentagon said. The Multinational Force and Observer peacekeepers were evacuated "by air to a medical facility where all are receiving treatment for non-life-threatening injuries," Captain Jeff Davis said in a statement. The four Americans were struck by the second blast as they were en route to help the soldiers hurt in the first, according to Major Roger Cabiness. The MFO was created as a result of the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and is based in Sinai,...

Clare Lopez is a former CIA officer, and she is risking her professional career to call out President Barack Obama in the biggest way possible. Lopez is well respected in the intelligence community and worked in the Reagan White House. After two decades in the field with the CIA, and as an instructor for special forces and intelligence students, Lopez is now with the Center for Security Policy managing the counter-jihad and Shariah programs. Now, she is claiming Obama is why America has completely “switched sides” during the war on terrorism. America is now supporting the enemy, especially through the...

Hungary’s Prime Minister has told German news outlets that he does not want large numbers of Muslims in his country. The news follows his comments that the hundreds of migrants at Hungarian train stations are “Germany’s problem”. Large numbers continue to gather in Hungary with some of the European migrant crisis’s most distressing scenes emerging from the country.In an opinion piece authored for Germany’s Allgemeine Zeitung, Viktor Orban revealed that the country’s total number of immigrants has risen by more than 70 per cent compared to the first half of last year.He said that Europe needs to “come to their...

Faced with a surge in migration from the Middle East and North Africa, two European countries are exploring the possibility of erecting towering steel security fences along parts of their borders, similar to Israel's barrier with Egypt. Hungary and Bulgaria have made preliminary inquiries about buying the Israeli-designed fences, according to an Israeli business source who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the discussions. Both EU countries are beefing up their borders to deter migrants, many of them refugees from wars, who are seeking to use them as gateways to richer countries further north and west, particularly...

Even as President Obama was securing the Senate support necessary to assure passage of the nuclear deal with Iran, Tehran's top defense officials were scoffing at U.S. claims the pact will restrict the Islamic Republic's military ambitions. The president has been twisting arms and Secretary of State John Kerry reassuring lawmakers that the deal between Iran and the P5 +1 - members of the UN Security Council plus Germany - will ensure international inspections and bar Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons. This week, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., became the 34th member of the Senate to back the controversial and...

The IT specialist who set up Hillary Clinton's controversial private email was paid with taxpayer dollars after he helped the former Secretary of State skirt the law. And Bryan Pagliano is finding his own words could be coming back to bite him. 'Some things that look like good ideas…may actually have bad consequences,' he told an IT webinar last year. Pagliano, 39, was taken on by the State Department when Clinton was appointed the nation's top diplomat in 2009. He had previously worked for her presidential campaign. Now the married father of two, says he will plead the Fifth Amendment...

During his press conference in New York on Thursday, Donald Trump reiterated his dedication to building a massive wall along the entire southern border of the United States with Mexico. Univision anchor Jorge Ramos thinks this idea is not merely absurd but also a “complete waste of time and money.” “As you can imagine, for the last few days, I’ve been thinking a lot about Donald Trump and his plan to deport more than 11 million undocumented immigrants from the United States,” Ramos said in a segment for his Fusion show America, following his confrontation with the GOP frontrunner a...

7 on the Fence 37 stand with Iran 56 stand with America

Savage Enemy: How ISIS Wants to Start Armageddon CBNNews.com Wednesday, September 02, 2015 ISIS, or the Islamic State, is in the news every day. The brutal terrorist army burst on the scene in 2014 when it gobbled up huge swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria. Today, ISIS controls a land area the size of Great Britain and is the wealthiest jihadist organization in the world. As ISIS expands, it brings with it chaos and savagery everywhere it goes, beheading its enemies, destroying cultural artifacts and treasures, and displacing millions of Christians and other non-Muslims. Despite all that we do...

Unseen by most of the world, the once tranquil port of Aden is being steadily infiltrated by jihadists from both al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) and the so-called Islamic State (IS). They are not in charge of the city, the military forces of the UAE are. But in the last few days disturbing reports have emerged of the summary executions of prisoners by the jihadists, along with their black flags hoisted onto public buildings.

"If Israel attacks Iran according to that deal, I believe... that we have to fight with Iran against Israel," Republican presidential candidate tells CNN. In a telephone interview with CNN Tuesday, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump said that under the auspices of the Iran nuclear agreement, if Israel were to attack the Islamic Republic, the United States would have to come to the Tehran's aid.

The distraught father of two Syrian toddlers who drowned with their mother and several other migrants as they tried to reach Greece identified their bodies on Thursday and prepared to take them back to their home town of Kobani. Abdullah Kurdi collapsed in tears after emerging from a morgue in the city of Mugla near Bodrum, where the body of his three-year old son Aylan washed up on Wednesday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday he would cut troop levels by 300,000 as China held its biggest display of military might in a parade to commemorate victory over Japan in World War Two, an event shunned by most Western leaders. China's confidence in its armed forces and growing military assertiveness, especially in the disputed South China Sea, has rattled the region and drawn criticism from Washington. Xi, speaking on a rostrum overlooking Beijing's Tiananmen Square before the parade began, said China would cut by 13 percent one of the world's biggest militaries, currently 2.3-million strong. He...