Russia Is Sending Attack Helicopters to Syria, U.S. Says

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 06/12/12 | Unattributed

[TonyInOhio]

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration says Russia is sending attack helicopters to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and is warning about a dramatic escalation in the Arab country's 15-month conflict.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was "concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria." She said the shipment "will escalate the conflict quite dramatically."

[Sequoyah101]

And so the point is that the rebels are more likely to kill the Christians than the Assad loyal forces?

Assad is B’aath are they not? I suppose they are more likely to live in some form of acceptance of the Christians than the radical islamist rebel faction.

As stated before, there is no winning is there? No right or wrong possible just losing less than another option.

[2harddrive]

Time for Obama to surrender now.

[Little Ray]

Didn’t work in Libya. Won’t work in Syria. Won’t work in Iran.

[ETL]

______________________________________________________________

Russia's Medvedev hails "comrade" Obama

Associated Foreign Press (AFP) ^ | April 2, 2009 | Anna Smolchenko

"Russia's Dmitry Medvedev hailed Barack Obama as "my new comrade" Thursday after their first face-to-face talks"

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gEo4B1heuBvO6KK7EiBHKigO1UrA

April 1, 2009:
"Obama, Medvedev pledge new era of relations":
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/specialreport/news/419496_88/1/.html

[ETL]

Open Mic Catches Obama Asking Medvedev for Space on Missile Defense
March 26, 2012

"In a private conversation about the planned U.S.-led NATO missile defense system in Europe, President Barack Obama asked outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for space on the issue.

“This is my last election,” Obama told Medvedev. “After my election I have more flexibility.”

“I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir,” Medvedev said, referring to incoming President Vladimir Putin."

http://fox8.com/2012/03/26/open-mic-catches-obama-asking-medvedev-for-space-on-missile-defense/
__________________________________________________

Obama was talking with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when neither of them realized that their conversation was being picked up by microphones. Here is what they said:

Obama: “On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved, but it’s important for him to give me space.”

Medvedev: “Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you ...”

Obama: “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”

Medvedev: “I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.”

“This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.” That statement tells us much about the president’s mindset.

The specific mention of missile defense is worrisome enough. Mr. Obama has retreated from the missile defense plan that was negotiated with European allies during the George W. Bush administration. Apparently, he is signaling Moscow that he intends to retreat further. The clear implication from the president’s comments is that he cannot tell the American people before the election what he plans to do after the election.

In addition, there is the phrase “on all these issues,” implying more is at stake than just missile defense.”

Article: Obama plans double cross on missile defense
When it comes to keeping America safe, we shouldn’t be too flexible:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/29/obama-plans-double-cross-on-missile-defense/print/

[Little Ray]

Let the Russians win.
We shouldn’t give a darn about the outcome in Syria. If the Assad regime can slaughter the Moslem Botherhood backed “rebels” that is a good outcome; if the “rebels” can beat the Assad regime, that’s fine.
As long as no American blood and treasure is involved, we’re a winner.

[ETL]

This is Russia administering a beat-down to the Sunni Arabs who have been financing the jihad in the Caucasus (Chechnya, Dagestan, et al), along with the associated terrorist attacks on Russian hospitals, schools and so on.

From Heritage.org, November 27, 2006:

The death of former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, last week from radioactive Polonium-210 poisoning is the latest in a series of politically motivated attacks on the outspoken opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed112706a.cfm
_____________________________________________________

Blowing up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror
by Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Felshtinsky, Geoffrey Andrews and Co (Translator)

Synopsis: Blowing Up Russia contains the allegations of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko against his former spymasters in Moscow which led to his being murdered in London in November 2006. In the book he and historian Yuri Felshtinsky detail how since 1999 the Russian secret service has been hatching a plot to return to the terror that was the hallmark of the KGB. Vividly written and based on Litvinenko's 20 years of insider knowledge of Russian spy campaigns, Blowing Up Russia describes how the successor of the KGB fabricated terrorist attacks and launched a war. Writing about Litvinenko, the surviving co-author recounts how the banning of the book in Russia led to three earlier deaths.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Blowing-up-Russia/Alexander-Litvinenko/e/9781594032011
_______________________________________________________

"Appearing alongside high-profile opponents of President Putin, he has continued to make allegations about his former bosses. Perhaps most notably, he alleged that al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri was trained by the FSB in Dagestan in the years before 9/11".

http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/litvinenko.html

[ETL]

From AP via FoxNews.com...

Last Living Beslan School Attacker Sentenced to Life in Prison
May 28, 2006

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia — AP
A southern Russian court on Friday sentenced the sole surviving Beslan school attacker to life in prison, capping a yearlong trial that survivors and victims' relatives say has left the most essential questions about the tragedy unanswered.

They demand to know just who bore the most responsibility: Nur-Pashi Kulayev and his 31 fellow militants, or the officials whose negligence or even alleged complicity allowed them to seize hundreds of children and parents on the first day of school in September 2004.

Countrywatch: Russia

"I did not go to court to become convinced of Kulayev's guilt, but to reconstruct all the circumstances of the terrorist attack and find the truth," said Aneta Gadiyeva, whose daughter was killed. "But I did not learn anything new and did not get any answers." ..."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197093,00.html

[Vendome]

This is a great economic expansion plan for Russia.

Putin! You magnificent Bastuhd!

So send them, we’ll shoot them and you can put desperate Ruskies to work building more.

Frickin AwhMazing!

[ETL]

Russia’s military spending soars
February, 2011

Russia has revealed details of its ambitious plan to upgrade its army over the next ten years, planning to spend US$650 billion on the project.

­The unveiled large-scale plans of the Russian defense ministry propose the spending of vast sums of money up to 2020.

First and foremost, Russian defense will focus on the development of strategic nuclear weapons, construction of over 100 military vessels for Russian Navy, including construction of four originally French-made Mistral-class amphibious assault ships, and the introduction into the Air Force of over 1,000 helicopters and 600 military planes, including fifth generation PAK-FA fighter.

Most of the military hardware will be equipped with next-generation weaponry.

http://rt.com/news/military-budget-russia-2020/
______________________________________________________________

China and Russia Launch Military Exercises
April 22nd, 2012

China and Russia launched joint naval exercises Sunday in the Yellow Sea between the east coast of mainland China and the Korean peninsula.

Sixteen Chinese surface vessels and two submarines as well as four Russian warships will take part in the six days of drills. ...

China and Russia have conducted four bilateral and multilateral military exercises since 2005.

http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/04/22/china-and-russia-launch-military-exercises/

China and Russia Launch Military Exercises
April 22nd, 2012

[katana]

the rebels are more likely to kill the Christians than the Assad loyal forces?

Absolutely. I have twice ridden a transport bus through what is left of the town of Hama where there was a Muslim Brotherhood uprising against the government in the late 70's. The only part of town that was left intact by the Syrian army shelling and disposal of its population was the Christian quarter. The rest was open ground and neat piles of rubble as far as the eye could see.

The ruling clique is itself a religious, albeit Muslim, minority. They have left the other minorities (Syrian and Armenian Christians, Druze, Kurds, etc.) largely unharmed to quietly run their lives (no politics allowed, however!) and focused their boot heel on the major threat, the majority Sunni Muslims and the leading radical element of that group the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Christians in Syria are the business class of the country so they have money and some influence and are envied and hated by the majority Sunni. If the Muslim Brotherhood comes to power you will have a majority tyranny in place of a minority one and all those minorities, especially the Christians, will pay a deep price in blood.

[ETL]

Obama To Betray Missile Defense Secrets To Moscow
Investor's Business Daily ^ | January 9, 2012 | IBD staff

Appeasement: From ObamaCare to recess appointments, honoring the Constitution has not been an administration hallmark. But when it comes to betraying secrets to mollify the Russians, it becomes a document the president hides behind.

It was bad enough that the 2012 defense authorization bill signed by President Obama set America on a downward spiral of military mediocrity.

He also issued a signing statement, something he once opposed, saying that language in the bill aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on the U.S. Standard Missile-3 — linchpin of our missile defense — might impinge on his constitutional foreign-policy authority.

Section 1227 of the defense law prohibits spending any funds that would be used to give Russian officials access to sensitive missile-defense technology as part of a cooperation agreement without first sending Congress a report identifying the specific secrets, how they'd be used and steps to protect the data from compromise.

The president is required to certify that any technology shared will not be passed on to third parties such as China, North Korea or Iran, that the Russians will not use transferred secrets to develop countermeasures and that the Russians are reciprocating in sharing missile-defense technology.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...

[ETL]

Putin praises Cold War moles for stealing U.S. nuclear secrets
Reuters ^ | Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:04pm EST | Steve Gutterman

Vladimir Putin praised Cold War-era scientists on Thursday for stealing U.S. nuclear secrets so that United States would not be the world's sole atomic power, in comments reflecting his vision of Russia as a counterweight to U.S. power.

Spies with suitcases full of data helped the Soviet Union build its atomic bomb, he told military commanders.

"You know, when the States already had nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union was only building them, we got a significant amount of information through Soviet foreign intelligence channels," Putin said, according to state-run Itar-Tass.

"The were carrying the information away not on microfilm but literally in suitcases. Suitcases!"

Putin's remarks referred to the dawn of the Cold War more than half a century ago, but they echoed a message he has made loud and clear more recently: that the United States needs to be restrained, and Russia is the country to do it. …

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...

[Licensed-To-Carry]

Actually, I support the Russians on this, the last thing we need is another Muslim Brotherhood government in the Middle East.

[bert]

your assumption is baseless.

[Uncle Chip]

Yep —

[Zhang Fei]

"Appearing alongside high-profile opponents of President Putin, he has continued to make allegations about his former bosses. Perhaps most notably, he alleged that al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri was trained by the FSB in Dagestan in the years before 9/11".

We, too, have disgruntled ex-agents makings all kinds of allegations. Putin wants to return to an era when Russia spoke and nations trembled. However, no Soviet leader has ever done anything this reprehensible. Even the so-called toys as mines in Afghanistan turned out to be a fabrication by the Afghan mujahideen. Disinformation, they'll do. Atrocities against their own nationals - people who are not suspected of being opponents of the Russian government? That's a bridge too far.

[dljordan]

“Actually, launching a wag-the-dog war against Syria is exactly what I would expect this administration to do.”

You have to ask yourself who would push it. It sure as hell ain’t Obama because we all know he’s not in charge.

[PGR88]

I’m actually hoping for a stalemate. The choices must be bad when all we have is on one hand, a known, secular Baathist, and the other hand, some unknown Islamists. I prefer a weakened Assad staying in power.

And compared to these two, Qaddafi was a great guy - and Obama and Hillary had him killed.

So I am not optimistic they will will do any better in Syria if they get involved.

[sergeantdave]

Sure.....whenever I want to find out what’s going on in the Middle East, I look to Hillary, obuma and the commie traitors at the State Department for the answer.