Free Republic

MOSCOW (Reuters) - NATO's secretary-general mounted a stout defence of Washington's missile shield plan on Monday, the day before meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin when the issue is likely to top the agenda. Russia has described United States's plan to place part of its missile shield in eastern Europe as a threat and the issue has divided European politicians with some saying it is vital for defence and others saying it is misguided. "You don't have to be Einstein to understand that 10 interceptor rockets don't pose any threat to Russia and the Russian people," NATO's Jaap de Hoop Scheffer...

The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is recommending Congress cut the boost-phase Airborne Laser missile defense effort by $400 million, re-evaluate nuclear weapons policy while slowing the Reliable Replacement Warhead, (RRW) and bar the Pentagon from deploying Trident nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles as converted, conventional prompt global strike weapons. The panel, which marked up a still-changeable portion of the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill May 2, also proposes an undetermined funding cut for the proposed European site under the U.S. ballistic missile defense system (BMDS). But the panel did not require NATO participation in the ongoing bilateral negotiations between...

The U.S. anti-missile shield project, which is strongly opposed by Russia, risks creating “new lines of division in Europe,” French President Jacques Chirac warned March 9. ”The project raises numerous questions which require consideration before they are answered,” the French leader told a press conference following a summit of EU heads of state and government in Brussels. ”We have to be very careful not to encourage new lines of division in Europe,” said Chirac, attending his last formal European summit. The United States wants to build a bank of 10 interceptors in Poland from next year to shoot down missiles...

MOSCOW: The first air defense regiment equipped with new S-400 Triumf ground-to-air missile systems will be put on combat duty in the Moscow Region in the middle of 2007, a manufacturer said Tuesday. The Military-Industrial Commission, which answers directly to the Russian president, meets Tuesday to consider prospects for a fifth-generation air-defense system and building aerospace defenses in the country. "The [new] regiment will have more [missile] batteries than regiments currently equipped with S-300 air defense systems," said Alexander Lemansky, chief designer at the Almaz Science and Production Association. Lemansky said new S-400 systems considerably differ from S-300 systems by...

US Mulls Missile Defense Systems Expansion To Poland-Official 06-22-06 06:58 AM EST WARSAW (AP)--Signs that North Korea is preparing to test-fire a long-range missile have given greater urgency to U.S. proposals to expand its missile defense system with a base in Europe, a U.S. official said Thursday. "North Korea today has a missile on the launch pad and we're all wondering when or if it's going to launch. I think if there ever was a demonstration and a requirement for missile defense, that's kind of it," said Robert Joseph, the U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security....

Report: Poland tops Pentagon list for US missile defence site Mar 4, 2006, 13:58 GMT Warsaw - Pentagon experts favour NATO member Poland as a potential location for the overseas portion of the United States National Missile Defence (NMD) project, Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported Saturday quoting sources in Washington. The US-based NMD plan is designed to protect it and fellow NATO defence alliance members plus Japan from a potential nuclear missile attack by rogue states. Washington is now expected to make a political decision on the location of a large anti-missile base in Europe to serve as the overseas...

Dec 21 2005 9:47AM Russia successfully launches new ballistic missile MOSCOW. Dec 21 (Interfax) - The strategic submarine Dmitry Donskoy incorporated in Russia's Northern Fleet successfully launched a latest ballistic missile Bulava from the White Sea on Wednesday morning, a Russian Defense Ministry source told Interfax. "It was an underwater launch," the source said. Russian Navy commander's aide Cap. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo later told Interfax that the missile's reentry vehicle hit a target at the Kura range on the Kamchatka Peninsula at a calculated time. "This was the first underwater launch of a Bulava missile and the second launch...

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. and Polish officials are discussing building a base in Poland from which U.S. interceptors could shoot down long-range missiles as part of a global defence network, a Pentagon official said Wednesday. It would be the first American strategic missile defence site outside U.S. territory, and would be designed to defend all of Europe against intercontinental-range missiles - primarily those launched from the Middle East. No decision has been made to proceed with a missile defence base in Poland and alternative sites in Europe are a possibility. But the Pentagon official said Poland appears to be the...

WASHINGTON, Aug 12: The US State Department has said that America’s rapidly growing relationship with India is no cause of alarm for New Delhi’s neighbours. Department’s Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli told a briefing in Washington that instead of being alarmed, India’s neighbours should look at the Indo-US relationship as holding the “promise of greater stability (and) greater prosperity for the entire region”. “We certainly do not see any cause for concern on the part of India’s neighbours for the relationship that is developing between the United States and India,” said Mr Ereli when asked whether the tie-up might cause concern...

Well fellow travellers it appears there be be a scandal on the horizon. CTV news actually used a blog originating out of the U.S. as a source for a story that is not supposed to told here in Canada. The Gomery Inquiry has a gag order to prevent the publishing of testimony from said Inquiry. That is not unusual for courts and judicial proceedings. However, what is new is that certain American websites are publishing day to day testimony, and EXPLOSIVE testimony it is. In a nutshell it appears our leaders are crooks. Surprise, surprise. Since 1867 we have been...

Alienating Washington - and for what? National Post Monday, February 28, 2005, Page: A16 Byline: Lorne Gunter If Prime Minister Paul Martin feels obliged to warn the Americans not to invade Canadian airspace with their anti-ballistic missiles in case they're attacked, isn't he also obliged to warn the North Koreans, the Iranians, the Chinese and whomever else might someday fire a ballistic missile through our airspace in the other direction? I mean, it is our airspace, after all. Surely, the PM's warning applies to all nations alike. He can't be worried just about an American breach, can he? Or is...

President George W. Bush asked for only one thing during his visit: That Canada participate in continental defence. It is no secret North Korea is developing inter-continental ballistic missiles, and has sold them to other rogue states like Iran. Combine that with North Korea's professed arsenal of nuclear warheads, and the world has a new and unique risk: A nuclear threat from an unstable, erratic regime. Those adjectives did not apply to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Paranoid it was; but stable, at least in so far as its nuclear options were kept in check by America's nuclear...

OTTAWA - Canada should work with the United States in the controversial missile defence program for political reasons, not just security concerns, Defence Minister Bill Graham says. "We are talking about the nature of the relationship we want with the United States and that's why I'm a strong proponent," Graham said in an interview. "My view is, on continental defence matters, we should be really accommodating of the Americans and work with them as closely as we possibly can." Both Canadian and U.S. officials have argued the defence shield, costing an estimated $53 billion (U.S.), is needed to protect North...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Monday a U.S. deal with Denmark to upgrade a radar in northwestern Greenland had raised fresh security concerns over Washington's planned missile defense shield. The deal signed on Friday allows Washington to upgrade the Thule radar to use it in a chain of similar U.S. installations stretching from Alaska to Britain designed to avert potential missile attacks against North America. In 2001, Moscow bowed to a U.S. decision to abandon the bilateral 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and develop a missile defense system after Washington said it wanted to defend itself against strikes from states...

As the United States intensifies its search here and in Poland and Hungary for a site to host a "son of Star Wars" missile-defense system, get ready for a barrage of "here come the foreign invaders" chatter in the Czech media. You know, the Soviets had bases here and they were the bad guys. So anyone else who wants to have a military base here will clearly a) destroy the country's sovereignty, b) exploit the Czech Republic for its own evil plan of world domination and c) enslave the population. Now, when the base builder happens to be the United...

The United States is considering deploying a land-based missile defence system in an emergency before Japan completes its network against ballistic missile attacks in four years, a daily said on Monday. Washington has informally sounded out Tokyo on the plan aimed at protecting US military bases and other facilities in Japan from such attacks, the major Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported. Citing Japanese and US sources, Yomiuri said Tokyo intended to discuss the plan promptly. The US military is considering deploying the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3), a US army surface-to-air guided missile that is capable of intercepting such missiles...

Israel Aircraft Industries’ (IAI) Flight Guard anti-missile system for civilian airliners has passed the development stage and is currently being installed on El Al passenger jets according to a report by Globes. El Al purchased the first systems from IAI subsidiary Elta Electronic Industries in recent weeks according to the Globes report and the system is expected to be installed on El Al’s Boeing 767s within two months. The Defense Ministry, which is paying for the purchase of the new systems, has budgeted 6 million shekels for El Al’s initial purchase of the systems. The estimated cost of one system...

NDP leader Jack Layton is a man of great energy and high purpose. To him, Canada is a nation without enemies, a nation whose security is threatened only by climate change, global disparities, abuses of human rights -- and the United States government of George W. Bush. Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) -- or Star Wars, as Layton inaccurately describes it -- threatens Canada's independence, will never work, and will cost Canada millions and millions. Worse, as Layton said in a large newspaper advertisement on Jan. 22, "Star Wars is un-Canadian," undermining "Canada's proud tradition of peacekeeping." Layton's advertisement listed six...

CHINA has condemned Australia's decision to join the US's "son of Star Wars" missile defence project, warning that the move threatens to undermine security in the Asia-Pacific region. A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Canberra said yesterday that Beijing had expressed longstanding opposition to Washington's missile defence plans. "Our position on this is clear and has been stated many times," the spokesman, Feng Tie, said. Senior Chinese Foreign Ministry officials have over the past year repeatedly condemned the missile interception system, which it regards as damaging to global non-proliferation efforts. China also fears the involvement in the system of...

Canada is about to grit its teeth and begin discussions on a U.S. plan to create a missile defence grid covering North America. The plan to build one or two sites comprising long-range surface-to-air anti-ballistic missiles and radars was conceived in the 1990s by the Clinton administration, albeit at the behest of a Republican-controlled Congress. The justification was, and is, ostensibly, to defend the continental United States (and Canada) from missiles fired by "rogue" states which cannot be deterred from gross misbehaviour by America's nuclear arsenal. The countries most often cited as potential threats to the United States include North...