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Washington to drop anti-missile system plans? 27.08.2009 08:51 Polish press reports suggest that Washington has decided to abandon its plans to set up the anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Riki Ellison, head of the Washington-based Missile Defence Advocacy Alliance, has told Gazeta Wyborcza that generals from the Pentagon didn’t even discuss the original plan, agreed between the Bush administration and the Polish government last year to place 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic, at a conference on missile defence last week. Minds at the US defence ministry have moved on...

Is this Pres. Obama’s new approach to diplomacy: sending his spokesman out to mock foreign leaders who dare to question his profligate spending, even when those leaders have sacrificed to support US national security policy? Apparently so . . . Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs made the rounds of the morning shows today, and interestingly it was GMA’s Diane Sawyer who asked the toughest questions. She displayed the chart shown in the screencap which demonstrates that PBO is spending, as a percentage of GDP, about 5x as much on his stimulus package as our European allies. When Sawyer quoted Czech Prime...

Missile defense critics welcome Czech govt's fall March 25, 2009 - 12:16pm By KAREL JANICEK Associated Press Writer PRAGUE (AP) - Czechs opposed to hosting part of a U.S. missile shield hailed the collapse of their government as the latest setback for a defense system whose fate was already in doubt. A 101-96 no-confidence vote that saw four ruling coalition lawmakers side with the opposition Tuesday embarrassed Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, a staunch shield supporter, days before a visit by President Barack Obama and midway through the country's European Union presidency. The Obama administration has already signaled it may reconsider...

Poland says hopes U.S. will not let it down on shield Sun Mar 22, 2009 7:43pm IST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Poland said on Sunday it hoped the new U.S. administration would not abandon plans to station a missile defence system on its territory. President Barack Obama's administration is reviewing U.S. security policy, including the missile shield plan. This has prompted speculation he might shelve a project that has angered Moscow, with which Washington wants to mend ties. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Poland had taken "something of a political risk" in signing an agreement with the Bush adminstration to...

On missile defense, Obama has a new view By BYRON ASHER PRAGUE | The Obama administration has begun to indicate that it’s willing to reconsider the Bush administration’s push to deploy a ballistic missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland — if Russia helps curb Iran’s push to develop nuclear weapons. Echoing Vice President Joe Biden, who said the new administration wants to push a “reset button” on U.S.-Russia relations, Undersecretary of State William Burns told the Interfax news agency in Moscow that “the United States is quite open to the possibility of new forms of cooperation” with...

Poland should not be afraid of Russophobia jibes, says president Created: 11.01.2009 11:00 A strong alliance with the US is the only way to protect Poland from threats from the east, says President Lech Kaczynski. As president-elect Barack Obama prepares to take over the White House the President of Poland appealed for a continuation of the anti-missile shield agreement, which would see 10 interceptor rockets being placed in northern Poland. Obama is known to have reservations about the system. But though the anti-missile shield is important, President Kaczynski, in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza, warned that Russia, which he sees...

Obama should press forward with missile defense By E. THOMAS MCCLANAHAN The Kansas City Star Barack Obama’s first test came pretty quickly. But we still don’t know how he will respond. The day after the election, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reiterated Moscow’s threat to place short-range missiles near Poland if the U.S. builds a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. NATO has endorsed missile defense for Europe. The U.S. and Poland have agreed that missile interceptors will be placed on Polish soil. The question is whether Obama will back away from that in the face of Russian threats....

Russia's Gambit By Vasko Kohlmayer FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, November 17, 2008 On November 5th – less than 24 hours after the victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential race – Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced that his country would install short-range semiballistic missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. The deployment is part of Russia’s bid to halt the construction of the Ballistic Missile Defense Shield in Europe, a project virulently opposed by the Kremlin. Medvedev’s statement is a clear indication that after months of threats and intimidation, the Russian leadership has finally settled on a definitive course of...

Russia sees hope of missile progress with Obama Sun Nov 9, 2008 8:04am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia hopes for constructive talks with the next U.S. administration on Washington's planned missile defense system in Europe, Russian media quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Sunday. A Russian deputy foreign minister said separately, in an interview with Interfax news agency, that Moscow would not carry out a threat to deploy tactical missiles near Poland if Washington scrapped its plans to deploy its missile system in Europe. Washington says the missile defense shield, which would consist of 10 interceptor missiles in...

Russia threatens military response to US missiles MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is warning his country may respond to a U.S. missile shield in Europe through military means. Medvedev says that the deployment of an anti-missile system close to Russian borders "will of course create additional tensions." "We will have to react somehow, to react, of course, in a military way," Medvedev was quoted as saying Tuesday by the RIA-Novosti news agency. Russian officials have already warned of a military response to the U.S. plans, but the statement by the Russian leader was likely to further aggravate already...

Text of US-Polish declaration By The Associated Press 2008-08-21 03:01 AM Text of the "Declaration on Strategic Cooperation Between the United States of America and the Republic of Poland" agreed by the two countries alongside a deal to place a U.S. missile defense base in Poland. The text was provided to the media by the U.S. State Department. "In Warsaw on August 20, 2008, the Secretary of State and the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Poland agreed to issue the following Declaration: The United States of America (the United States) and the Republic of Poland (Poland) share...

Poland: once bitten, twice shy Poles have suddenly changed their minds about the US missile shield. Georgia has reawakened their fear of Russian aggression Kamil Tchorek Surveys show Polish public opinion has rapidly shifted from wariness about hosting the US missile shield to outright enthusiasm. The reason is simple. Russia conducted a devastating counterattack against Georgia this month, and Poles are convinced the time for treading softly around the Russian bear has passed. Every Polish family has a compelling story about its role in history: stories of war, rebellion and defiance. By comparison to the average Brit, the average Pole...

Poles in favour of locating missile defence elements in Poland 18.08.2008 The shift in public opinion may be attributed to the Russia-Georgia conflict, writes Rzeczpospolita. Daily "Rzeczpospolita" has published the findings of a recent survey on public sentiments towards the deployment of the anti-missile shield in Poland. The survey reveals that around 60 percent of Poles are in favour of hosting the missile defence elements in their country, whereas 37 percent are against it. What is more, the majority of those surveyed support the stationing of US contingents in Poland, yet 41 percent continue to firmly oppose it. A sociologist...

Russia to move rockets to EU border if Poland hosts US missile shield Russia threatened to deploy bombers and short-range missiles on the Polish border if Warsaw agrees to host elements of a US missile defence shield on its territory. By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow Last Updated: 6:41PM BST 06 Aug 2008 The warning marks a further escalation in the diplomatic crisis between Russia and the United States. Russian military hardware has not been stationed on the border of what is now the European Union since the Cold War. Russia's ambassador to Minsk, Alexander Surikov, said that bombers and short-range...

Poland says U.S. shield deal hinges on Patriots Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:17pm BST WARSAW/VILNIUS (Reuters) - Poland is insisting on the permanent stationing of a U.S. Patriot battery on its soil as a condition for hosting part of a anti-missile defence shield, its defence minister was quoted as saying on Friday. Washington wants to install 10 interceptor missiles in Poland, a NATO ally, as part of the shield project, which aims to protect the United States and its allies from attack by so-called "rogue states" and terrorist groups. In return, Warsaw wants hefty U.S. investments to upgrade its air...

WASHINGTON — The order by President Bush for the Navy to launch an antimissile interceptor to destroy a disabled satellite before it falls from orbit carries opportunity, but also potential embarrassment, for the administration and advocates of its missile defense program. The decision was described by senior officials as designed solely to protect populated areas from space debris, and not to showcase how the emerging missile defense arsenal could be reprogrammed to counter an unexpected threat: in this case hazardous rocket fuel aboard the dead satellite. Even so, the attempt, expected within the next two weeks, will again throw into...

Missile Defense Based in Poland Might Stop Attack Aimed at U.S. By KEITH J. WINSTEIN September 26, 2007 11:44 p.m. A proposed missile defense system in Poland would be able to intercept Russian missiles launched at the U.S., according to an analysis by a prominent missile-defense critic. The Missile Defense Agency, a part of the Department of Defense, strongly disputes the calculations, by Theodore A. Postol, a professor of national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Postol is best known for his criticism of the efficacy of the Patriot antimissile system's performance in the 1991 Gulf War....

Russian radar in Azerbaijan is unacceptable, missile defense chief says By Thom Shanker Published: September 18, 2007 WASHINGTON: American technical experts spent Tuesday inspecting a Russian radar station in Azerbaijan, but the director of the Pentagon's missile defense program emphatically stated that the Soviet-era early warning system was incapable of replacing an antimissile tracking radar proposed for the Czech Republic. The director of the Missile Defense Agency, Lieutenant General Henry Obering, pressed the Kremlin to drop its objections to American proposals for 10 antimissile interceptors in Poland and for a radar in the Czech Republic. In a speech here, the...

Polls Show More Support for Missile Defense in Poland Than Czech Republic Elena Nikleva Correspondent Prague (CNSNews.com) - Opinion polls indicate a marked difference in levels of support for Washington's planned ballistic missile defense (BMD) shield between the citizens of the two Central European countries where the proposed system would be located. While 58 percent of Pole respondents in a recent poll supported the BMD plan, in the neighboring Czech Republic, 51 percent of the poll's respondents said they were against it. The poll was conducted by the U.S. Opinion Research Corporation and sponsored by the non-profit Missile Defense Advocacy...

U.S. criticizes Austrian official's comments on U.S. missile defense plans By DESMOND BUTLER, AP Posted: 2007-08-23 14:40:36 WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States said Thursday that comments by Austria's defense minister accusing Washington of provoking Russia with U.S. missile defense plans were unhelpful and reflected Cold War thinking. In an interview in the Austrian newspaper Die Presse, the defense minister, Norbert Darabos said he did not believe there was a credible threat that would justify building the anti-missile system. He urged U.S. officials to seek a compromise with Russia, which fiercely opposes the plan. The United States says the system,...