Thread: While Iran Baits The US — Russia's Beefing Up Its Nukes

While Iran Baits The US — Russia's Beefing Up Its Nukes

Robert Johnson|Dec. 28, 2011, 9:06 PM

Image: ap

While the world watches Iran and the U.S. go back and forth over the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions, and Iran's nuclear program — Russia has been busy.

After pointing out to the world how much it opposes the European Missile Defense Shield, Moscow has been beefing up its nuclear arsenal, and putting the finishing touches on a new class of submarine.

Both weapons groups passed major milestones this week.

Having seen its share of problems over the years, the Bulava ICBM finally saw a successful dual launch Friday.

From the White Sea, the new submarine Yury Dolgoruky handily sent joint Bulava's more than 3,700 miles to Kamchatka where they nailed both their designated targets. The Bulava Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) can carry up to 10 multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs).

Each warhead can be set for a different target, and can drastically negate any missile defense shield that relies on targeting each warhead — much like the U.S. Aegis system installed as part of the Euro Missile Shield.

The Yury Dolgorukiy is a new Borei class Russian submarine almost 558 feet long and capable of carrying 16 Bulavas, or 160 nuclear warheads. The vessel was expected to be commissioned in 2011, and this test may be a final part of its sea trials.

Four days after the sub trial, Russia successfully launched an RS-18 Stiletto ICBM from a base in Kazakhstan that carried a brand new warhead also made to cut through missile defenses. The Stiletto can carry up to six of these warheads.

Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told The Moscow Times he is not happy with the U.S. lip service being given to Russia over the Euro Defense Shield and will take appropriate actions to secure his country's defense.

Despite assurances to the contrary, Russia maintains concerns that the U.S. missiles will be used against Moscow.

The U.S. has already said it plans to build a radar station in Turkey, missile bases in Romania and Poland, and send Aegis missile defense ships to Rota, Spain.
Russia will do everything it can to prevent the U.S. plan from falling in to place.

These new developments are in addition to Russia's continued threat that it will deploy Iskander missiles to the Baltic Sea if the U.S. keeps up plans for the Euro shield.

http://www.businessinsider.com/russi...s-subs-2011-12

Conflict between Iran and West ‘the greatest danger’ of 2012 – Russia’s UN envoy

http://rt.com/news/iran-syria-libya-...interview-859/

Naval thrills: Iran flexes muscles at world’s key oil transit channel

Published: 24 December, 2011, 20:29
Edited: 25 December, 2011, 11:29


AFP Photo / Hamed Jafarnejad / Fars News / Fars News

TAGS:Military, Iran

Iran is starting ten-day naval exercises in one of the world’s busiest oil passageways – the Strait of Hormuz. These actions have raised fears that the Strait might shut down, disrupting oil transit worldwide.

­The exercises, dubbed “Velayat-e 90”, will take place over a wide area from the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Aden and will involve new ground-to-sea missile systems and different classes of submarines, such as the Tareq and the Ghander.

Iranian Navy commander Habibollah Sayyari said the drill would not cause the Strait of Hormuz to shut down or the disruption of oil transit. However, he was also quoted by the semi-official ILNA news agency as saying: “The enforcement of the decision to close off the Strait of Hormuz is certainly within Iran’s armed forces’ capability, but such a decision should be made by the country’s top authorities”.

Earlier this month, Iranian MP Parviz Sorouri said Iran was planning to practice its ability to close the Strait of Hormuz. However, the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Ministry later denied that shutting down the Strait was on the agenda.
The somewhat ambiguous statements have raised fears of a possible shutdown of the Strait – an option the West suspects Iran may exercise if the US and its allies were to attack the country over suspicions of developing nuclear military capabilities.

Last month the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada announced a new series of sanctions against Iran’s energy and financial sectors. The EU is also considering a ban on Iranian oil imports. The United States also hasn’t ruled out the possibility of military force against Iran if diplomacy and sanctions fail to curb its alleged nuclear program.

About eight Middle Eastern oil-exporting countries use the Strait of Hormuz. It handled some 33% of all seaborne traded oil in 2009, and 17% of all oil traded worldwide. An average, 15.5 million barrels of oil passed through the strait in 2009, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz could therefore bring about a global disruption of oil transit, causing a hike in oil prices that could potentially exacerbate the economic woes of oil consumers worldwide.

http://rt.com/news/iran-hormuz-naval-exercise-601/

Syria Update: US Government Gives Green Light to MSM

Thursday, 29. December 2011

MSM News, 6 Months Late: “Obama Secretly Preparing for Syria Intervention”

This morning I woke up to the following news headlines. Let me correct myself: This morning I found the US media and their quasi extension reporting on stale, at least 6-month old US operations on Syria. Now, that’s much better. I think it is safe to assume that the media has been given a ‘green light’ by the White House and Pentagon to report on long-ongoing war preparations, aka ‘intervention’ plans, on Syria while making it sound as fresh-new-recent. Let’s read together:

Obama Administration Secretly Preparing Options for Aiding the Syrian Opposition

As the violence in Syria spirals out of control,

top officials in President Barack Obama‘s administration are quietly preparing options for how to assist the Syrian opposition, including gaming out the unlikely option of setting up a no-fly zone in Syria and preparing for another major diplomatic initiative.

And here is the almost comical egregious part:

After several weeks of having no top-level administration meetings to discuss the Syria crisis, the National Security Council (NSC) has begun an informal, quiet interagency process to create and collect options for aiding the Syrian opposition, two administration officials confirmed to The Cable.

…
Right! According to these ‘reporters’, up until now our imperialistic hawks have been sitting on their butts and doing absolutely nothing on Syria’s months-long prewar crisis! Just read the following by MSM’s favorite source WINEP, and please try not to laugh:

Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that the administration was caught off-guard by how the opposition became militarized so quickly. The administration’s message had been to urge the opposition to remain peaceful, but that ship has now sailed, he said.
…

All right; I’ll forgive you for laughing out loud. I admit; I laughed so hard I ended up with the hiccups. Now, let’s look at the casual introduction of Washington’s main artery, front, in executing their next takeover [All Emphasis Mine]:

The options that are under consideration include establishing a humanitarian corridor or safe zone for civilians in Syria along the Turkish border, extending humanitarian aid to the Syrian rebels, providing medical aid to Syrian clinics, engaging more with the external and internal opposition, forming an international contact group, or appointing a special coordinator for working with the Syrian opposition (as was done in Libya), according to the two officials, both of whom are familiar with the discussions but not in attendance at the meetings.
…

Basically, the Washington Bosses are telling their ‘boys’ what they’ve been doing since last May in Turkey, inside the Incirlik base, but tweaking the time-line, changing it to soon-to-come action plans.
A few months ago these same MSM dudes were given all the documents and witnesses on the operations mentioned above which began in May 2011. I broke the story (since the MSM and their quasi buddies refused to run it) in November. And let me provide you with every single plan-operation quoted by the media as ‘soon-to-come,’ and show you how every single one was already reported here at Boiling Frogs Post based on our military sources in Turkey and the US:

On November 21, we reported that:

The joint US-NATO secret training camp in the US air force base in Incirlik, Turkey, began operations in April- May 2011 to organize and expand the dissident base in Syria.
Col. Riad al-Assad has been in Turkey, working with U.S. & NATO, right inside the US Incirlik Base in Turkey, to do exactly what he vehemently denies: smuggle US weapons into Syria, participate in US psychological and information warfare inside Syria as the middle-man whom Syrian protesters tend to trust, and help with funneling intelligence and military operators across the border and night-time drop offs by air.

The HQ also includes an information warfare division where US-NATO crafted communications are directed to dissidents in Syria via the core group of Syrian military and Intelligence defectors.

Continued Below

Just compare the facts we reported on November 21 to the Washington ‘plans’ quoted by the Media as ‘soon-to-come’:

The options that are under consideration include establishing a humanitarian corridor or safe zone for civilians in Syria along the Turkish border, extending humanitarian aid to the Syrian rebels, providing medical aid to Syrian clinics, engaging more with the external and internal opposition, forming an international contact group, or appointing a special coordinator for working with the Syrian opposition (as was done in Libya), according to the two officials, both of whom are familiar with the discussions but not in attendance at the meetings.

Next, on December 3rd, we reported the following on the intentional censorship of these facts by the US media:

The story above only goes as far as ‘France’ and the French factor. It stops short of France and other NATO member nations led by the United States in NATO member country-Turkey.

I immediately started checking our infamous US mainstream media sites- still nothing on this significant information. I then contacted one of my high-level sources and asked why he had come to me with his documented report instead of going directly to the big guys. With several credible insiders as his corroborators and a high-level official in Turkey, he would have no problem getting their attention. And his response? Well here it is minus a few expletives:

Who said we didn’t go to MSM first? We got them the info back in October. First they were interested and drooling. At least the reporters. Then, they disappeared. We sat and waited for a few weeks, and no one followed up. It is Turkey. It is NATO. It is our CIA guys. The media hot shots would not touch those cases without State Department sanction attached…

By the way, our report, these confirmed facts, were reported by major international news outlets, and several major Turkish newspapers ran further confirmation reports. Here is my interview with Russia Today on the story:



Well, ladies and gentlemen, here we are: the US mainstream media has begun reporting on the real operations albeit with dictated time-line adjustments, twisted facts and a highly-adjusted tone. I am going to correct myself one more time:

The controlled reporting and propaganda by the Washington war machine has not been limited to the US mainstream media. Many popular quasi alternative channels have followed the exact same trend, the most troubling one being AntiWar.Com. For several months they refused to run any of these confirmed reports while they ran every single bit of propaganda coverage by the US mainstream media on Syria. Today, with the green light from Washington, and with the US MSM in the forefront, they ran the neocon-produced and widely neocon-quoted article on Obama’s not-so-secret plans on Syria. Check it out here.

I published a brief commentary on the very troubling switch of position and changes at AntiWar.Com, a site that I used to support and consider one of my favorites. Since their management change they have been banning not only me but other well-respected true alternatives. And they have been losing many supporters while gaining mystery-undisclosed funders. But the most troubling change is their consistent coverage of the New York Times, Washington Post and the rest of the US government and corporate propaganda machine. I have researchers who are compiling data on their recent changes, and running background checks on their new team members who have successfully altered this once truly valuable source of information.

I despise hypocrisy, and hypocrisy appears to be one of their newly gained characteristics. On one hand, they trash the US mainstream media and Soros-Funded quasi alternatives for smearing Ron Paul, and they pound us with the unreliability and falsehood of the MSM. And I completely agree with those positions. Yet, on the other hand, every single day they fill their entire website with the same exact MSM produced war propaganda and falsehoods. As I have said before, I hope it is not too late to put them back on track during this war-filled period when real AntiWar information sources are badly needed. And I hope you will all help with getting this accomplished. We have more than enough war propaganda machines, and cannot afford to lose the very few who were once on our side.

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2011...-light-to-msm/