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...