Free Republic

Monday, Rush Limbaugh interviewed me on Epicenter for the November issue of The Limbaugh Letter. For about 45 minutes, we discused how since taking office in 2000, former KGB chief-turned Russian President Vladimir Putin has built strong personal, political and military ties to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. Putin has sold Iran and North Korea billions of dollars worth of arms and even nuclear technology. He is arming America's worst enemies for war, and in so doing, Russia has joined the "Axis of Evil." Yet on this critical issue, official Washington seems to be...

During 2001 alone, according to Jane's Defense International, Belarus secretly delivered weapons worth more than $500 million, including Katyusha rockets, 120mm mortars, antitank rockets and mines, to Palestinian militants and countries including Syria and Iran. Even after Sept. 11, 2001, Belarus not only continued to sell its impressive stockpile of weapons inherited from the breakup of the Soviet Union to almost all of the countries on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism - including North Korea, Sudan, Iran and Syria - but has defied Washington in doing so. Belarus's president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has not even attempted to conceal...

The UK underestimates the threat to its future security posed by Russia, shadow defence secretary Liam Fox has warned. Addressing a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference, Dr Fox claimed Russia was increasing its defence spending this year by 25%. It was also testing more long range missiles and pouring money into two naval bases in Syria, he added. That, together with Iran's military build-up, justified replacing Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system. Dr Fox said the Tories were committed to replacing Trident nuclear weapons and, with so much uncertainty in the world, he warned against embarking on a "potentially...

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russia handed over to China a destroyer equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry on Thursday, finalising a $1.5 billion deal analysts say boosts Beijing's clout in its stand-off with Taiwan. "The handover act was signed today, and a Chinese flag was hoisted on the ship," a Russian defence industry source told Reuters, requesting anonymity. The warship was the fourth Project 956E 'Sovremenny' (Modern) class destroyer built at the Northern Shipyard in Russia's second city St Petersburg and sold to China under a 2002 deal through Russia's state arms trader Rosoboronexport. In the late 1990s China bought two...

If this is true, it shows that Russia is continuing its short-sighted and ultimately self-defeating policy of accommodation with Iran. From MosNews, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm: Russia, pledging to complete the Bushehr reactor, has offered to sell a range of surface-to-air missile systems to protect Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Middle East Newsline reports. Russian diplomatic and industry sources said Moscow has been negotiating to sell Iran a range of anti-aircraft systems to protect Bushehr from Israeli or U.S. air strikes. The sources said contracts could be signed when Bushehr was ready to begin operations in a move expected to...

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced further purchases of Russian weapons, saying his country is to become 'an impregnable fortress.' Venezuela has ordered Antonov airplanes and 14 gunship helicopters, the nationalist-leftist told the air force academy in a speech Tuesday night in the central city of Maracay. 'If you want peace, prepare for war, and that is what we are doing,' he said, adding that he wanted to significantly raise the level of the entire 'anti-imperialist armed forces.' 'We have to safeguard our national sovereignty against the aggressors of always,' said the president who has had an antagonistic relationship...

Instead of sending unconventional weapons by sea as in the past, North Korea now is shipping missiles and missile components on planes that fly via Russia, landing at Russian airports for refueling and possible transshipment to Mideast clients. The missiles are sent in kits from which recipients, with North Korean technical expertise, put together the final versions, according to a new report by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies. One reason for sending the missiles in kits is to avoid detection by informants at airports who would recognize a finished missile but not a missile broken down into dozens of parts,...

The Rising Sea Dragon in Asia 2006 Update I have been keeping a major web site up regarding the growth of the Chinese NAvy for the last four years. This is the 2006 Update. Throughout 2005 and 2006 the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has continued its unprecedented modernization and buildup, working on and procuring twelve seperate classes of major combatants. Increasing numbers of new guided missile destroyers, guided missile frigates, fast attack craft, very modern and quiet diesel/electric attack submarines, nuclear attack submarines, nuclear ballistic missile submarines, logisitic support craft, amphibious assault craft, and the infrastructure and aircraft...

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union embarked on the most massive military buildups in history. Part of President Reagan's strategy for winning was to entice the Soviets into a competition it could never even hope to win. A communist economy by its very nature is ill-equipped to compete with a free-market, capitalist system whether it's foreign trade or weapons technology. And so, slowly the Soviet economy became a basket case due to the communists desire to exceed America in an enormously expensive arms race. After the Cold War, with the Soviet threat gone and with...

Even if one rejects Golitsyn's overall thesis -- viz., that Gorbachev's changes comprised a long-term strategic deception -- one must still acknowledge that Golitsyn was the only analyst whose crystal ball was functioning during the key period of the late 20th century. When the Soviet Empire collapsed in 1989, the CIA was chastised for failing to foresee the change. "For a generation, the Central Intelligence Agency told successive presidents everything they needed to know about the Soviet Union," said Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "except that it was about to fall apart." Sovietologists both inside and outside CIA were indeed baffled,...

Hizbullah will receive shipments of surface-to-air missile systems in the coming months from Iran, enhancing the terror organization's ability to shoot at Israel Air Force crafts, according a Jane's Defense Weekly report released on Friday. During a July meeting, Hizbullah called on Tehran to "accelerate and extend the scope of weapon shipments from Iran to the Islamic Resistance, particularly advanced missiles against ground and air targets." The magazine added that Hizbullah sought "an array of more advanced weaponry, including more advanced SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems." "Iranian authorities conveyed a message to the Hezbollah leadership that their forces would continue to...

The Russians have allegedly sold weapons to countries such as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and other terrorist-supporting nations. After the US-led invasion of Iraq, Russian-made weapons were found. As a result, the US government placed sanctions against American business dealings with two Russian companies selling arms and weapons systems to Iran. Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted the United States on Friday for imposing such sanctions on two Russian corporations. Putin called the sanctions an “illegitimate attempt to make foreign companies work by internal American rules,” after the US banned all American companies from dealing with two Russian firms that sold hardware...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela will install an advanced air-defense system with anti-aircraft missiles capable of shooting down approaching enemy warplanes, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday. Chavez, who has repeatedly accused the United States of plotting to overthrow him, said the missiles would help defend the oil-rich country against any "aggression." "We're going to acquire the most modern anti-aircraft defense system," Chavez said during a televised speech in the coastal state of Falcon, where military planes and newly purchased Russian helicopters swooped overhead during a military parade. "We're going to armor Venezuela." He said the air defense system would protect...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, on a world tour during which he signed a $3 billion arms deal with Russia, has begun talking about combining several of South America's largest armies to counter U.S. influence. "We must form a defensive military pact between the armies of the region with a common doctrine and organization," Mr. Chavez said July 5 in Caracas during a military parade, which Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and Bolivian President Evo Morales attended. In another speech before he left for Moscow last week, Mr. Chavez said: "We must form the armed forces of Mercosur, merging warfare capabilities of...

Moscow's $1 billion sale of top-flight military aircraft to Venezuela's erratic dictator isn't just business. It's unfriendly to the U.S. and a sign of a revived Cold War. ... His latest recruit was Belarus, where he signed an "anti-U.S. pact" Monday with this Russian satellite, praising Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who admits to having a soft spot for Stalin. "Our countries must keep their hands at the ready on the sword," Chavez said. ... There isn't any doubt Russia's $1 billion contract to sell Venezuela 30 Sukhoi jet aircraft and 33 helicopters will be trouble. ... All are perfect for...

HUGO CHÁVEZ, the ardently anti-American President of Venezuela, arrives in Russia today to sign a billion-dollar arms deal that has infuriated and alarmed the US. The self-styled leftist revolutionary will sign an agreement with President Putin to buy 30 Sukhoi Su30 fighter jets and 30 military helicopters worth $1 billion (£540 million). The two leaders will also discuss plans to build two Kalashnikov factories in Venezuela — to add to the 100,000 Kalashnikov AK103 assault rifles that Venezuela has bought from Russia in the past year. The arms deals — and the visit by Señor Chávez — are the latest...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the San Francisco Bay area and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are competing to design the nation's first new nuclear bomb in two decades. Scientists at both facilities are working around the clock on plans that will be presented to the Nuclear Weapons Council, a federal panel that oversees the nation's nuclear weapons. The council will choose a winner later this year. "I have had people working nights and weekends," said Joseph Martz, the head of the Los Alamos design team. "I have to tell them to...

Today’s Russia is a strange political animal. It emerged from decades-long Soviet isolation in 1991 with the prospect of beginning a new era. Many hoped that Russia would finally join the ranks of the G8 as a Western-style democracy. The yoke of authoritarianism, however, is not easily broken. Democracies are not created overnight, and the Russian Federation is no exception. Over the past fifteen years, both Boris Yeltsin and his successor Vladimir Putin have made a great show of some democratic reforms, and the world has seen Russia undergo considerable changes. But the Russia that is emerging is not a...

In May, 2006, China announced that it will buy the world’s largest amphibious jet airplane for use as a maritime patrol aircraft. China is buying an anti-submarine warfare version of Russia's Be-200. Russia's main arms exporter, Rosobornexport, is reported to be about to sign a $600 million deal with China toward the end of 2006 for an unnamed number of IRKUT Corporation Be-200s aircraft equipped with Sea Dragon tactical suite. Sea Dragon is designed to detect, localize, and track both surface and sub-surface targets, as well as mines. It advertises the ability to track more than 30 targets at one...

US sets up £215m deal for Afghan arms - from Russia By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 22/05/2006) American defence officials have secretly requested a "prodigious quantity" of ammunition from Russia to supply the Afghan army in case a Democrat president takes over in Washington and pulls out US troops. The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Pentagon chiefs have asked arms suppliers for a quote on a vast amount of ordnance, including more than 78 million rounds of AK47 ammunition, 100,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 12,000 tank shells - equivalent to about 15 times the British Army's annual requirements. The Bush...