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MISSILE DEFENSE Russia Developing New Generation Of Super Missiles By Martin Sieff UPI Senior News Analyst Washington (UPI) Dec 05, 2005 Almost ignored by the mainstream U.S. media, the strategic nuclear arms race between the United States and Russia has revived -- with spending and weapons development at an intensity unseen since the days of the SS-18 and Pershing II deployments a quarter of a century ago. On Nov. 17, as reported by United Press International, the U.S. Navy successfully carried out its most ambitious and successful test yet of an anti-ballistic missile interceptor launched from an Aegis class cruiser...

The Big Four Alliance The New Bush Strategy By Thomas Donnelly Posted: Friday, December 2, 2005 NATIONAL SECURITY OUTLOOK AEI Online   Publication Date: December 2, 2005   December 2005Over the past six months, the Bush administration has upgraded its budding “strategic partnerships” with India and Japan. Along with the steady "special relationship” with Great Britain, what is beginning to emerge is a global coalition system--it is too soon to call it a true alliance--for the post-Cold War world. Much work remains to be done to translate the expressions of similar political interests and values into usable military strength. Still,...

U.S. Presence in Asia Concerns Moscow By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press Writer December 1, 2005, 4:39 PM EST MOSCOW -- The chief of the Russian military general staff said Thursday that Moscow was concerned about U.S. interference in the political affairs of other ex-Soviet nations. Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky also said that Russia's relations with the United States and other NATO nations were clouded by Western efforts to expand their military presence on ex-Soviet territory.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday responded to worries of a looming crackdown on nongovernmental organizations by insisting that foreign funding of any political activity in Russia must come under state control. But Putin, making his first public remarks about a contentious NGO bill that the State Duma approved in a first reading Wednesday, also stressed that the legislation must not damage civil society. The bill in its current version would, among other things, require NGOs to reregister with the Justice Ministry and empower authorities to check that NGOs do not use foreign grants to finance political activities. Foreign NGOs have...

East Asia allies comment on potential US ground war with China, compare it to Iraq war

China's Stealth War on the U.S. July 20, 2005 Los Angeles Times Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu of the Chinese People's Liberation Army caused quite a stir last week when he threatened to nuke "hundreds" of American cities if the U.S. dared to interfere with a Chinese attempt to conquer Taiwan. In 1998, an official People's Liberation Army publishing house brought out a treatise called "Unrestricted Warfare," written by two senior army colonels, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. This book, which is available in English translation, is well known to the U.S. national security establishment but remains practically unheard of among...

Excerpt 1: "Inside a dank warehouse in the working-class Buenos Aires neighborhood of La Boca last week, young Argentines were standing cheek to cheek and swaying to the danceable rhythms of a live band. But the violins and bandoneones of a tango orchestra had been replaced by the acoustic guitars and percussion instruments of a Venezuelan folk group called Mestizo. The sweat shirts and windbreakers worn by the musicians featured the logo of Venezuela's Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, and the warehouse walls were festooned with fliers that read, toward the construction of 21st-century socialism. Mestizo was in the final...

New Russian rockets are capable to overcome American ABOUT The Russian militarians approve, that have received the nuclear warhead, capable to overcome antimissile defense of the USA. Results of the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile lead yesterday "Poplar-th" testify to it with a new head part, informs a today's issue of the edition "Businessman". Yesterday's rocket firing ?N-12I1 "Poplar-th" from a mobile launcher was already the sixth within the limits of test of the system created for overcoming of the American antimissile defense. However for the first time start-up has been made not from Plesetsk, and from proving...

Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed international criticism of his call for Israel's annihilation, saying, "They [Israelis] are cheeky humans and they think that the entire world should obey them. They destroy Palestinian families and expect nobody to object to them," Ahmadinejad said, asserting his comments "are the exact words of the Iranian people". It was the first time since early in the days of the Islamic Revolution that such a high-ranking Iranian official has openly called for the destruction of Israel. Ahmadinejad made his comments during Iran's annual hatefest called 'Jerusalem Day.' Iran's 'Jerusalem Day' is a carnival-like event during...

The decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer Iran's nuclear programme to the UN Security Council has thrown into sharp focus relations between Iran and Russia. Moscow may soon have to choose whether to back Iran or align itself with the US and the European Union (EU) in reining in Iran's nuclear intentions. Russia appears ready to co-operate with both the USA and Iran in order to boost its trade relations with the two countries. Although Russia is also a leading oil exporter and therefore unlikely to be intimidated by Iranian threats to reduce oil sales, the...

Arms Proliferation: Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, who recently visited Iran, reportedly is seeking nuclear weapons. Will they come from Russia with love?Maybe — if Russia continues to run a weapons bazaar where rogue nations are given special-shopper privileges.Already, it appears Russia has acted as a broker by greasing the way for North Korea to transfer technology that will let Iran build missiles with a 2,200-mile reach. That puts several European capitals, including Athens, Rome and Berlin, within Tehran's range.Russia also is supporting Iran's "nuclear power" program, having sold it a reactor. Which is to say Russia supports Iran's nuclear-weapons program.All...

The idea of a Russia-India-China military bloc is outdated, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov has said. "As for military alliances or blocs, in the 21st century such alliances or blocs are becoming a thing of the past," he told reporters today in an interview at the end of the airborne stage of a Russian-Indian military exercise. "India and China are our strategic partners, with whom we are cooperating on a very wide range of issues, including military as well as military technology, and who, so far as I am aware, are quite satisfied with this level of cooperation," he added....

KIEV, Ukraine — Thousands of aging Red Army veterans and their supporters clashed Saturday in downtown Kiev with partisans who fought the Soviets and Nazis during World War II and now want pensions and official recognition as veterans. Hundreds of nationalists from western Ukraine gathered in the capital to demand formal recognition for the partisans, a move that would also entitle them to social and financial benefits. "They died for Ukraine, and we must recognize it and honor them as heroes," said protester Vasil Kokoyda, 55. Thousands of Red Army veterans and their supporters, waving red flags and chanting "Get...

For the past several years, the United States has stationed forces in the central Asian countries of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Marshall Goldman, a long time-expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union, says the United States planned to send troops there following the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. "After September 11th and the United States' decision to go after the Taleban and Osama bin Laden, who was then in Afghanistan, the United States was looking for places to establish air bases, so that it could supply what became the invasion force in Afghanistan," said Mr....