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SNIP In fact, on January 29, 2010 (only 7 days after the celebrity riddled telethon) Clinton friend Laura Silsby was arrested at the Haitian border with 9 other co conspirators for attempting to smuggle 33 children out of the country without documentation. CNN later reported this was not the first time Silsby attempted to traffic children out of Haiti. The Clintons intervened immediately. Bill Clinton brokered a deal to get 8 of the other traffickers released. Silsby received a lessened sentence of 6 months jail time. Once she returned to the states Laura Silsby changed her name to Laura Gayler...

© Bogdan Rudenko/Russian Defense Ministry MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. The first prototype of the Mikoyan MiG-29 multirole frontline fighter jet took to the skies forty years ago, on October 6, 1977. History, designing The development of fourth-generation fighter jets started in the Soviet Union and in the United States in the late 1960s. As compared to their predecessors, the Soviet MiG-23, the US F-5 Tiger and the French Mirage F.1, the new-generation planes were intended to become multifunctional (i.e. to be able to destroy targets both in the air and on the ground), show increased maneuverability and spend less fuel,...

When the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, the newly independent states within its former domain inherited enormous stockpiles of weapons the Red Army left behind. One of the most interesting cases involved the air force of the tiny former Soviet republic of Moldova. The new republic’s inventory consisted of 34 MiG-29 Fulcrums, eight Mi-8 Hip helicopters and a handful of transport aircraft — a sizeable force for such a small state. To put Moldova’s size into perspective, the country’s population is smaller than the metro area of Portland, Oregon. Moldova couldn’t afford to maintain the fleet and, to make...

See the movie of the Polish pilots from the 22 Tactical Air Base (22 BLT) in Malbork flying Mig 29 Fulcrum. Really cool in my opinion. When I see such movies - I wish I was a pilot :-) Fulcrum Drivers 22BLT

(CNN) -- Syria's embattled government will get at least 10 fighter jets from Russia -- and they want more, Russian state media reports -- moves that come amid rocky diplomatic efforts to peacefully end the Middle East nation's bloody civil war. A source involved in Russia's defense complex told the official Itar-Tass news agency Friday that Russia will sell Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government MiG-29 fighter jets to fulfill a "contract ... concluded long ago."A Syrian delegation in Moscow is pressing for even more jets, with MiG executive Sergei Korotkov telling Russia's state-run RIA Novosti's news that his company and...

Navy tones up muscle with MiG-29K fighters Rahul Singh , Hindustan Times Dabolim (Goa), May 11, 2013 Defence minister AK Antony on Saturday commissioned the navy’s first squadron of Russia-built MiG-29K maritime fighters, laying the groundwork for the induction of aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (formerly Gorshkov) in December this year. The 16 fighters in the newly-raised Black Panthers squadron will operate from ashore till such time as the 45,000-tonne carrier - currently being refurbished at Sevmash shipyard in Russia - arrives. The navy also plans to deploy these maritime fighters - 29 more have been ordered - on the indigenous...

Those in the market for a used, fourth-generation, Soviet, air-superiority jet fighter need look no further than Hungary. The Central European country is putting up eight of its 24 remaining MiG-29 Fulcrums for tender. The Hungarian government has declared a minimum bid for the package of fighters at no less than 3.46 billion forints ($18.3 million). All bids must be in by September 15, and the deal has to be wrapped up by October. The announced sale is the final chapter in Hungary’s experience with the MiG-29. The Hungarian air force flew a MiG-29 on air patrol for the last...

For pilot, Russian MiG-29 is $6 million dream come true It's 5 a.m. on a Sunday and John Sessions is up before the alarm clock goes off. He slips out of bed, pulls on his running clothes in the dark and patters to the kitchen to fix his morning espresso. In a few minutes, he's out the door of his Seattle home, striding through the still neighborhoods of Capitol Hill. The police have done their job for the night. The bars are dark. The streets are empty. In the quiet, Sessions, 57, thinks about something incredible that's set to happen...

The Royal Malaysian Air Force's (RMAF) MiG-29N aircraft will fly for at least another five years, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said. He said the government had decided to continue operating the Russian-made aircraft although there was a proposal to retire and sell them to third world countries. "The decision was based on the capability of the aircraft (MIG-29N) in executing the tasks given," he told reporters after visiting the RMAF base here today. Zahid said factors considered include the country's economy which had yet to fully recover from the economic slowdown. "We plan to buy more multi-role...

Nearly three miles above the turquoise waters of the South China Sea last July, U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Dan Shipley eyed the dim outline of a fast-approaching Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 Fulcrum. Flying with the Royal Malaysian Air Force on a training mission, Shipley had been tracking the MiG by radar from the cockpit of his Boeing F/A-18D Hornet. While Shipley and Captain Justin Archibald, the Hor-net’s weapons and sensors officer, could have tried to simulate firing an air-to-air missile at the MiG from a distance, the war game required that the two confirm with their eyes that the MiG really was...

Malaysia admitted that it is getting rid of its MiG-29 fighters because the aircraft are too expensive to maintain. It costs about $5 million a year, per aircraft, to keep them in flying condition. Three years ago, Malaysia bought two more MiG-29s, in addition to the 18 it got in the 1990s. Two of those were lost due to accidents. Malaysia has since ordered 18 Su-30 fighters, and will apparently order more to replace the MiG-29s. Malaysia also bought eight F-18Ds in the 1990s, and is getting rid of those as well. Russia has offered better prices on maintenance contracts...

PICTURE: Bulgaria's first refurbished MiG-29 fighter re-enters service By Alexander Mladenov The Bulgarian air force's first of 16 refurbished RSK MiG-29 fighters re-entered service on 29 November, following a successful check flight conducted at Graf Ignatievo air base. Bulgaria's 12 single-seat MiG-29s and four two-seat trainers will have their service lives extended to 4,000 flight hours or 40 years under a $48 million refurbishment and life-extension project awarded to prime contractor RSK MiG in March 2006. Bulgaria's Terem also assists in the work, which is performed at Graf Ignatievo. Six more aircraft will enter service by March 2008, with the...