Free Republic

Actually that's not the title of yesterday's blockbuster report in the Wall Street Journal. Here's the WSJ title: "Missing U.S. Missile Shows Up in Cuba." "An inert U.S. Hellfire missile sent to Europe (Spain) for training purposes was wrongly shipped from there to Cuba in 2014," continues the WSJ, "a loss of sensitive military technology that ranks among the worst-known incidents of its kind. The unintended delivery of the missile to Cuba has confounded investigators and experts who work in a regulatory system designed to prevent precisely such equipment from falling into the wrong hands… Investigators are unclear if the...

While there has been no further military engagement between Russia and Turkey since a Russian bomber was shot down by the Turkish Air Force last month, the war of words in the most volatile region of the Middle East continues to escalate. In a roundtable interview with reporters on Wednesday, a senior Turkish official accused Russia of conducting an “ethnic cleansing” campaign in the northern part of Syria. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin was reminding the world in general, and Turkey in particular, that not only is Russia a nuclear power, but that the Kremlin has nuclear-capable...

The Obama administration began implementing its landmark nuclear agreement with Iran with an eye toward lifting expansive sanctions imposed on Tehran in the past decade. Concerns from opponents of the deal continued to grow, however, as senior administration officials during the weekend played down the importance of a United Nations probe into whether Tehran has attempted to secretly develop the technologies needed to build atomic weapons.The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is committed under the deal to release a report by year-end about the status of Iran’s alleged weaponization work. U.S. officials over the weekend said the...

The U.S. is moving forward with plans to remove its Patriot missile defense systems from Turkey despite recent escalations in the region, including Iran testing a new long-range ballistic missile over the weekend. Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan announced on Sunday the successful test of the newest Iran-made long-range missile, dubbed the "Emad," or Pillar, that could likely reach Turkey. In addition, the Russians are playing a greater role in the Syrian civil war, raging along Turkey's border. Despite that, the U.S. is continuing with plans made in August to remove all Patriot missile defense systems from Turkey,...

Several Gulf nations are currently in negotiations to purchase the Israeli-made Iron Dome missile defense system, Sky News reported on Tuesday. The report said that member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council want to defend themselves against a growing "Iranian arsenal of missiles." A senior Gulf government official was quoted as saying that "If Netanyahu were not making less of a mess of things and was more like [Egypt's] Anwar Sadat, then we would be happy to buy the missiles straight from Israel." The official was apparently referring to is the Gulf states' intention to buy the systems through American contractors...

WASHINGTON — Americans following this year's presidential campaign would never know it from mainstream media coverage, but the commander in chief we hired four years ago has set the United States on a course for unilateral disarmament. The following people hope you won't notice until after Nov. 6: Vladimir Putin, Liang Guanglie, Kim Jong-un, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, A.Q. Khan and of course, Barack Obama. The 10 individuals above share a common fascination: nuclear weapons. Vladimir Putin, Russia's modern czar; Liang Guanglie, minister of national defense for...

There are no sure things in politics, but Hillary Clinton is the closest thing to a sure thing to become the Democrats' candidate for president in 2016. This is one of the painful but inescapable signs of our time. There is nothing in her history that would qualify her for the presidency, and much that should disqualify her. What is even more painful is that none of that matters politically. Many people simply want "a woman" to be president, and Hillary is the best-known woman in politics, though by no means the best qualified. What is Hillary's history? In the...

The State Department isn’t being honest with Americans about Russia’s violations of arms control treaties and other politically binding commitments.Take the State Department’s annual compliance report, which was published earlier this month. The report outlines U.S. and international compliance with arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament agreements, both legally binding and political.The State Department’s report shows that Russia continues to violate its arms control obligations, but only offers a limited discussion of Moscow’s violations. The report also fails to account for other known violations of Russia’s arms control treaties and politically binding commitments.For instance, Russia continues to be in violation of...

Thrifty Lefties?: Media fret over missile defense waste by Daniel Clark In reaction to David Willman’s April 4th Los Angeles Times article, the media have expressed alarm over wasteful missile defense spending. The report, which the Pentagon disputes, says that several failed initiatives have cost the taxpayers $10 billion over ten years. Although this only represents about one-eighth of the Missile Defense Agency budget, liberals have seized upon it to claim that our entire missile defense system is a boondoggle. There are good reasons to be skeptical of the Times report. For one, it describes the Sea-Based X-Band Radar system...

Russia has gone on the offensive in the Baltic, warning Denmark that if it joins Nato’s missile defence shield, its navy will be a legitimate target for a Russian nuclear attack. “I don’t think that Danes fully understand the consequence if Denmark joins the American-led missile defence shield. If they do, then Danish warships will be targets for Russian nuclear missiles,” said Mikhail Vanin, the Russian ambassador to Denmark, to the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

National Security: It won't generate the buzz that torture allegations do, but a provision in the defense spending bill requires the White House to explain why Russia developed a cruise missile in breach of a 1987 treaty. President Ronald Reagan coined the phrase "trust but verify" regarding dealing with the Russians for good reason. American security was to be guaranteed through the strength of our will and the genius of our technology, not through pieces of parchment, handshakes, clinking glasses at conferences, or reset buttons. Enter President Obama and the age of flexibility, back-stabbing our allies on things like missile...

With the recent nomination of Ashton Carter to head the Department of Defense many observers are not only wondering how Mr. Carter will differ in style from his predecessor, outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, but also how they will differ in substance. One area in particular is the vocal commitment to which Mr. Carter, assuming his nomination successfully navigates U.S. Senate confirmation, will give toward missile defense as a significant element of the nation's broad national security apparatus. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA), responsible for conducting "research, development, and acquisition" of ballistic missile defense systems for the Department of...

Defense Threat: China conducts its third test in a year of a hypersonic glide vehicle designed to evade our missile and other defense systems, including the Aegis defense system guarding our carrier battle groups. As we downsize our military, scale back weapons procurement and development, China proceeds at top speed towards weapons designed to counter our once-huge technical advantage and qualitative superiority. Case in point is the third flight test of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), dubbed the WU-14 by the Pentagon, following earlier tests on Jan. 9 and Aug. 7 of this year. The U.S. Navy is particularly concerned,...

Defense: Members of Congress warn that the State Department is working on arms accords to demilitarize space and ban anti-satellite weapons, leaving Russia and China with a huge lead in military space capabilities. On Jan. 17, 2012, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement announcing the Obama administration's intention to work with the European Union on an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. It was supposed to be sort of a "rules of the road" for space-faring nations to deal with issues such as the accumulating space junk jeopardizing satellites and manned space activities such as the...

National Security: Beijing is moving fast on a maneuverable, hypersonic glide vehicle designed to evade America's defenses, including the Aegis ballistic missile system guarding our carrier battle groups. On Aug. 7, China conducted a second test of its hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), known as the WU-14, yet another example of its relentless pursuit of high-tech weaponry as the United States abandons what the administration dismisses as Cold War weaponry. The first test, conducted in January, saw China's HGV reach speeds in the vicinity of Mach 10, about 10 times the speed of sound. In the latest test, according to Internet...

Your first mistake is that you didn’t bring a MAN with you. The second is that you didn’t come in the dark and bring your masks to hide behind.-- Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn Jimmy Carter made me do it. I couldn’t help myself, and neither could you. The peacenik Democrat, (1st) Nobel Prize winner, Nuclear Know-Nothing and general Know-it-All reminded me today why I became a conservative in the first place. “Former president Jimmy Carter called on the West to recognize the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas as a legitimate ‘political actor’, that represents the bulk of the Palestinian population,” said...

Between the fall of the Jewish Commonwealth to the Romans in the first century A.D. and the founding of Israel in 1948, Jews were remarkably easy to kill. Not anymore. Today, thanks to an innovative missile-defense system called Iron Dome (in Hebrew Kipat Barzel), it’s harder than ever. Yet when it was first proposed, many Israeli defense experts (and one way or another most Israelis consider themselves defense experts) were reluctant to support the idea of a defensive response to rocket attacks from Gaza and Lebanon. Throughout the history of warfare there has been conflict between those who believe in...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday announced the first live-fire test of a Raytheon Co SM-3 missile from the land-based version of Lockheed Martin Corp's Aegis missile defense system, which will be operational in Romania next year. Lockheed said it was the first test of the Aegis system using a land-based missile launcher. The test at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Hawaii late on Tuesday marks a significant milestone for the Aegis Ashore weapon system, which is designed to protect U.S. and NATO forces in Europe from a ballistic missile attack. The Obama administration's...

AbstractOn February 28, Russian troops, aided by pro-Russian local militia, occupied important sites across the Crimean Peninsula under the pretext of “protecting Russian people.” Now Crimea is under Moscow’s de facto control and the Russian parliament has voted to annex the region into the Russian Federation. The failure of the Obama Administration’s Russian “reset,” the unilateral disarming of Europe, and the U.S. reduction of forces and disengagement from Europe have led Russia to calculate that the West will not respond in any significant way. The Administration can demonstrate America’s commitment to its NATO allies and support for the Ukrainian...

Mao Zedong said of the United States, “In appearance it is very powerful, but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of; it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe that is nothing but a paper tiger.” Osama bin Laden said, “We have religion, we have Islam. The American soldier may have the best weapons in the world, but on the inside, he is spiritually empty – a paper tiger.” Both were wrong. Mao found out by being held in check, and bin Laden...