Free Republic

the Bad guys always lose.

"Russia's air force chief on Saturday accused NATO fighters escorting Russian bombers on patrol flights over neutral waters of violating safety rules. Air Force chief Col.-Gen. Alexander Zelin said NATO aircraft were approaching Russian bombers too closely and too often, creating risky situations."

Russia’s G5 system of missile defense leaves far behind the S-400 systems that are coming into operation today. It is able to counter space attacks, said Russia’s Air Force Commander-in-Chief Col.-Gen. Alexander Zelin.

Grand Old Flag

"The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs yesterday began notifying 1.8 million veterans and doctors whose personal information may have been on a hard drive lost Jan. 22 that their data could be at risk. When the agency first reported the drive missing on Feb. 2, it said just 50,000 identities were involved. In a weekend update, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said that an investigation led by the department's inspector general had concluded information on 535,000 veterans might have been kept on the drive, along with data on 1.3 million physicians not associated with the VA."

"Kuwait's First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior, and Minister of Defense Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah said Wednesday the security agreement signed with Germany yesterday took bilateral cooperation to an international level. In a statement prior to his departure from Berlin headed to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, he said guaranteeing Kuwait's security and that of its people was the focal point of all efforts made recently." Moreover, he said the agreement would further boost performance of Kuwait's security bodies, noting that tours to defense locations were of benefit.

"Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov inspected the Northern Nuclear Testing Site on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. " Ivanov visited the town of Belushya, where experts responsible for testing nuclear weapons live. News agencies covering his trip noted some major changes there.

Border guards seized a British lorry on its way to make a delivery to the Iranian military - after discovering it was packed with radioactive material that could be used to build a dirty bomb. The lorry set off from Kent on its way to Tehran but was stopped by officials at a checkpoint on Bulgaria's northernborder with Romania after a scanner indicated radiation levels 200 times above normal. The lorry was impounded and the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NPA) was called out. On board they found ten lead-lined boxes addressed to the Iranian Ministry of Defence. Inside each box...

A former U.S. Navy intelligence officer who illegally exported military aircraft parts, including nozzles for the engine that powers the "Chinook" helicopter, was sentenced today to a year in federal prison. .....

"A British man was indicted Wednesday on charges he helped run terrorism fundraising websites, set up terrorists with temporary housing in England and possessed a classified U.S. navy document revealing troop movements. Syed Talha Ahsan, 26, was arrested at his home in London on a federal indictment in Connecticut charging him with conspiracy to support terrorists and conspiracy to kill or injure people abroad...."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the ISNA students news agency reported on Wednesday, but the contents of his letter were not immediately clear.

Unit Alpha of the National Security Service ran a special operation in Jalalabad, a city in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan. Five armed extremists were killed in the operation. Interim reports indicate that some of them were ringleaders of extremist organizations secret services of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan had been after for years. .......... "Today, we destroyed the group whose members practically ran the network of terrorist organizations in the country," Tabaldiyev said. "These people maintained contacts with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran and received finances, weapons, and trained gunmen from there. We've decapitated the terrorist network in the southern part of...

"The United States has agreed to sell Taiwan 66 advanced fighter jets to counter China's continued arms build-up..."

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Syrian officials discussed the confrontation between Hizbollah and Israel on Monday, the official news agency SANA said. Mottaki, who arrived in Syria on a brief visit, delivered a letter to President Bashar al-Assad from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressing support for Syria against any threat, SANA said, in reference to Israel, which is bombarding Lebanon. Syria and Iran are the main backers of Hizbollah

The Federal Security Service will soon have the power to fight terrorists in foreign countries. A State Duma bill, set to be passed in a second reading this month, gives the security service, known as the FSB, the authority to go beyond information-sharing with its foreign counterparts and dispatch commandos to strike terrorist groups and bases. "The amendments provide for special-operations units of the FSB to be used at the discretion of the president against terrorists and bases that are located outside the Russian Federation for the purpose of interdicting threats to the Russian Federation," Mikhail Grishankov, deputy chairman of...

The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln has departed its home port at Everett for a six-month deployment in the western Pacific." ....

Spanish police have arrested a Tunisian man on suspicion of having links to al-Qaida. The Interior Ministry in Madrid says they arrested 44-year-old Chafik Jalal in Malaga, as part of an investigation into the activities of an Islamic terrorist cell believed to have recruited for al-Qaida. They gave few other details. Spanish police arrested most of the cell's members in December. They say Jalal was not in Spain at that time. Interior Ministry officials say he is suspected of helping the group supply false passports and other documents.

<p>Several Marines from Camp Pendleton have been arrested in San Diego on charges of providing stolen body armor — intended for troops in Iraq — that was later sold on the Internet.</p> <p>U.S. Customs officials teamed with the Navy's Criminal Investigative Service to break the ring.</p>

The trial of a man suspected of being the al-Qaeda number two in Yemen has begun in the capital, Sanaa. Saudi-born Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal is accused of killing 19 Yemeni security officers as well as financing al-Qaeda and helping an armed group. The trial comes shortly after 23 convicts, including members of al-Qaeda, escaped from prison in Sanaa. Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal was captured in 2003 by Yemeni security forces and his arrest was hailed by Yemeni and US officials as a major blow to al-Qaeda's operational capacity in Yemen. Yemeni security officials believe that al-Ahdal was working directly for the...

Albuquerque, NM (AHN) - Special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recovered about 400 pounds of explosives stolen from an ATF licensee after arresting three men in connection with the theft. All the explosives and explosives materials, reported stolen on December 18, were found, including 150 pounds of commercial plastic explosives known commonly as C-4 and 250 pounds of sheet explosives. The suspects, Leslie Brown, 44, David Kendrick Brown, 49, and Eric Wayne Armstrong, 32, have been transported to Albuquerque and Denver, Colorado, for appearances scheduled on Tuesday before U.S. magistrates. ATF and the Federal...