I rather think that Putin is taking Obama for a fool.
Posted on 02/28/2014 6:07:27 PM PST by kristinn
A day after U.S. intelligence said there would be no Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin’s troops started coming over the border.
On Thursday night, the best assessment from the U.S. intelligence community—and for that matter most experts observing events in Ukraine—was that Vladimir Putin’s military would not invade Ukraine. Less than 24 hours later, however, there are reports from the ground of Russian troops pushing into the Ukrainian province of Crimea. It’s hardly a full-blown invasion. But it’s not quite the picture U.S. analysts were painting just a day before.
There was good reason to think Putin wouldn’t do it. Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov told Secretary of State John Kerry that Russia respected the territorial integrity of the Ukraine. U.S. intelligence assessments concluded that the 150,000-man Russian military exercises announced by Putin on Wednesday were not preparations for an invasion of Ukraine because no medical units accompanied the troops. And Russian and U.S. diplomats were still working on Iran and Syrian diplomacy. All of this followed a successful Winter Olympic games for Putin’s Russia.
Yet private security contractors, working for the Russian military, seized control of two airports in Crimea on Friday. And Ukrainian border officials said that Russian cargo planes had landed inside the province, and that 10 military helicopters flew into Ukrainian airspace.
U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence on the fast moving situation in Ukraine tell The Daily Beast that analytic products from the intelligence community this week did not discount the prospect of Russian provocations and even light incursions in the Russian majority province of Crimea, the home of Russia’s fleet in the Black Sea.
Nonetheless, until Friday, no one anticipated a Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory."Nobody thought Putin was going to invade last night,” one Senate aide who works closely on the Ukraine crisis. “He has the G8 summit in Sochi coming up, no one really saw this kind of thing coming." This source also stressed that events are still moving quickly on the ground. “There is still a question about whether this is Russian troops coming across the border or Russian troops moving around the installations in Crimea.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast...
Sarah Palin More Intelligent Than 0bama's Intelligence!
“Putin’s aim is to show that he is in the catbird seat, and there is nothing we can do about it,” this former officer said. “He’s like a kid with a can of gasoline and a book of matches, and he laughs as Obama tries to deliver lectures on how fire is dangerous. Indeed, Putin throws banana peels on the ground, and Obama manages to slip on every one of them. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
How about that RESET Hillary Clinton and Obama celebrated!!!
/s
The world is loving the U.S. more now that Obama is in charge./s
At least with the military slashed to WW2 levels we can’t waste our soldiers lives on another war we’re not fully committed to win.
“”Nobody thought Putin was going to invade last night,” one Senate aide who works closely on the Ukraine crisis. “He has the G8 summit in Sochi coming up, no one really saw this kind of thing coming.”
Maybe Putin didn’t want to spend lots of money on the G8 thing, which is useless anyway.
Last year the G8 summit in Ireland cost $100 million.
"Appalling" is not a strong enough word.
America can ill-afford a President who isn't taken seriously on a strategic international level. And, after this performance, Obama made Jimmeh Cahtuh look like Theodore Roosevelt...
1865? By freeing the slaves? What are you talking about?
At the risk of being put on the Watch list, let me say that if the history of US Intelligence accuracy is any indication, we’re safe.
barry got his data from a amatuer YOUTUBE VIDEO!
Lol / Ouch.
I rather think that Putin is taking Obama for a fool.
It’s ridiculously simple: there is no power balance in the world today!
The too-clever-by-half infant in the White Hut is just above such old fashioned ideas.
And, as Hannity showed this afternoon, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and the Ukraine all falling ... just like Palin predicted in 2008.
We’ve got a Rodney King POTUS, folks, pleading to the evil in the world: Why can’t we just get along?
Geeze Louise ..NSA gets every bit of data in the world and they missed this ?
I said Wednesday morning about 9 a.m. on one of your threads kristinn if an entry was made it would be from the south. It was a natural thought process and an assessment of the lay of the field. I'm not an intelligence operator though. It was easy to see putin would move in from the south and it would be soon if putin decided to go.
Nothing to do with negro slaves.
Lincoln murdered the sons of the FOUNDERS of the Republic and birthed the federal apparatus that enslaves the working man this very day.
Idiots.
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