Free Republic

Leading Republicans appealed to President Obama this week to reject Russia’s request to fly surveillance planes with high-powered digital cameras during overflights, warning that the new technology would enable the Kremlin to collect intelligence more effectively. Russia’s failure to comply with some provisions of the Open Skies Treaty, which allows member countries to conduct unarmed aerial observation flights over one another, should preclude Vladimir Putin from using planes with high-tech sensors for the overflights, Reps. Ed Royce (Calif.), Mac Thornberry (Texas), and Devin Nunes (Calif.), all of whom are committee chairs, wrote in a letter to the president. “Given the...

The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a document signaling his administration's intent to withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies, the latest in a series of major arms control and disarmament accords that are on the verge of collapse. Signed by 34 nations, including Russia, the treaty aims to increase international stability by allowing signatory nations to conduct surveillance flights over one another’s territories, to observe military installations and other areas. Some U.S. lawmakers and military officials have voiced allegations that Russia was conducting overflights of U.S. territory using advanced camera technology that were...