Russia’s chief arms exporter said Friday that his company was shipping advanced defensive missile systems to Syria that could be used to shoot down airplanes or sink ships if the United States or other nations try to intervene to halt the country’s spiral of violence.
Mr. Isaykin, a powerful figure in Russia’s military industry, openly discussed the weapons being shipped to Syria: the Pantsyr-S1, a radar-guided missile and artillery system capable of hitting warplanes at altitudes well above those typically flown during bombing sorties, and up to 12 miles away; Buk-M2 antiaircraft missiles, capable of striking airplanes at even higher altitudes, up to 82,000 feet, and at longer ranges; and land-based Bastion antiship missiles that can fire at targets 180 miles from the coast.
Finally admitting the truth... but these systems can easily be taken out with B-2s and F-35s...
Elections in Egypt right now...
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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -- H.L. Mencken
"but these systems can easily be taken out with B-2s and F-35s..."
I'd be very interested in reading any information you might have on that.
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"Yep - and that ****er didn't want to light either. I had to soak it in gasoline for a full day before that rat bastard thing would combust." - Karl Denninger ""We could not be more ill served if we had some South American tribal witch doctor shaking monkey bones at us. " - Infidel
Kamath : well I don't have ``information``... but let's consider that when Israel bombed Syria nuclear site in 2007, the anti-air systems Syria had didn't even fired once... thanks to jamming.
So... if Israel easily defeated them I bet the US can do the same.
The only danger would be for a few to be hidden in the mountains and used against helicopters... but that's it.
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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -- H.L. Mencken
U.N. suspends Syria monitoring due to rising violence news just coming in over the wires...
United Nations monitors in Syria have suspended operations because of the increasing violence over the last 10 days by President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels seeking his overthrow, the head of the observer mission said on Saturday.
"The observers will not be conducting patrols and will stay in their locations until further notice," General Robert Mood said in a statement.
Mood said the intensification in violence was impeding the 300 unarmed U.N. monitors from carrying out their mandate to observe an April 12 ceasefire deal, which has failed to halt the violence. "This suspension will be reviewed on a daily basis. Operations will resume when we see the situation fit for us to carry out our mandated activities," Mood said.
Many hundreds of people, including civilians, rebels and government forces, have been killed in the two months since international mediator Kofi Annan's ceasefire deal was supposed to come into effect.
Last week shots were fired at a car carrying U.N. observers after they were turned away from the town of Haffeh by angry Assad supporters who threw stones and metal rods at their convoy, a spokeswoman for the monitors said.
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“Cognitive Co-Dependency” is when a normal rational person, internalizes irrational illogical presentations, and somehow reconciles them to fit their scripted indoctrination of logical analysis.
Quote:
Samuel L. Clemens:There is NO Native Criminal Class; EXCEPT for CONgress
US holds high-level talks with Syrian rebels seeking weapons in Washington Syrian rebels have held meetings with senior US government officials in Washington as pressure mounts on the US to authorise a shipment of heavy weapons, including surface-to-air missiles to combat the Assad regime, the Daily Telegraph has learned.
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#Syria UN: 100,000 refugees in #Jordan, 27,000 in #Lebanon, 24,000 in #Turkey, 4,800 in #Iraq
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CNN - #FSA advances close to some chemical weapons sites concerns the #USA
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FSA advances threatened to cut lines between #Russia’s Med naval & marine bases in #Tartus & #Latakia
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FSA advances in #Latakia moved close to the #Assad's mountain retreat in the #AlawiteMountains
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#Putin suspects #US hand in #FSA attacks in 3 districts in #Damascus districts; 1 hitting a bus transporting #Russia n*experts
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#US wants #Assad's exile from #Syria, #Moscow wants him to go to his mountain retreat in the #Alawite* Mountains- not abroad
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Assad is systematically burning down forrests at the Turkish-Syrian border in order to keep FSA & refugees away
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#Poll: Most of #Turks oppose #Ankara #war on #Syria
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UN Praises #Russia ’s Humanitarian Role in #Syria
Whaaaaaaaaaat???
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Former Syrian National Council chief urges deployment of UN peacekeepers.
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Russian Air Force on standby to evacuate Russians from Syria.
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Syrian Opposition calls for no fly zone & safe zones.
Russia may send warships and troops to Syria to protect its logistics base in Tartous, according to a Russian military source.
“It is quite possible that warships of the [Russian] Black Sea Fleet may go to the Mediterranean Sea in case it is necessary to protect the Russian logistics base in Tartous, Syria, since is a zone of the Fleet’s responsibility,” a source in the Russian General Staff told the Itar-Tass government news agency.
“Several warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, including large landing ships with marines aboard, are fully prepared to take to the sea,” the source added.
This morning, Interfax reports that two Russian warships with Russian marines are to be deployed to the Russian naval base near Tartus.
According to Interfax, they are supposed to carry out special operations. No mention of what that means, from the info I have at this point.
Source according to Interfax is an anonymous person in the Russian navy.
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"Yep - and that ****er didn't want to light either. I had to soak it in gasoline for a full day before that rat bastard thing would combust." - Karl Denninger ""We could not be more ill served if we had some South American tribal witch doctor shaking monkey bones at us. " - Infidel
Vitchilo: I disagree on some points in what I hope comes of in gentlemanly fashion :).
First off, the systems used in 2007 were outdated even then, and we do not know the reason for them not being used. Maybe there was nothing there to protect, and maybe it was all set up to gather intelligence.
Secondly, many Russian exports are so called "monkey models", cheaper and less capable versions of what they use back at home. Please note that "monkey models" is even a semi-official term in the Russian military industrial complex. That does not mean that all exports are such. We do not know, or at least I do not know, what quality level the Syrian stuff had.
Thirdly, the Pantsyr S-1 is a very different animal than Tor M-1. Modern detection and shoot-down of stealth aircraft is largely a function of proper signal processing, making stealth aircraft less and less stealthy. And the real nasty part about the Pantsyr S-1 is that it does not need any radar lock for the missiles. It also uses thermal and laser guidance for its missiles, if within range. It can fire 4 missiles simultaneously at one target. They are very fast, and very accurate. The missiles themselves are at least in some editions equipped with 3 modes of achieving a lock, independently of the launch station. The system also has a 30mm autocannon with a range of roughly 4 kilometers.
I'd personally be very careful about making too many assumptions regarding how "easily" the systems can be bypassed and defeated. But maybe you're right, I do not have detailed access to the exact capabilites of either side.
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"Yep - and that ****er didn't want to light either. I had to soak it in gasoline for a full day before that rat bastard thing would combust." - Karl Denninger ""We could not be more ill served if we had some South American tribal witch doctor shaking monkey bones at us. " - Infidel
An informed source has announced that Iran, Russia, China, and Syria plan to stage a joint war game in Syria in the near future, the Persian service of the Fars News Agency reported on Monday.
According Shamlayf, this exercise is scheduled to be held less than a month, ie, early July.
This exercise is said to include ground forces, air and sea and air and missile defense and China has been successful in Egypt for official approval of the Suez Canal must pass through 12 Chinese ship carrying sea and air military equipment will be up to two weeks Trtvs Lazqyh coast and reached Syria.
The move coincided with China's nuclear ships and submarines and aircraft carriers of Russia and Russian Mynrvb "Nbrdnav" into Iranian waters and submarines will be Syria.
According to the report, the Syrian air defense missiles, coastal defense and be tested in this exercise.
Known, 90-thousand troops from the four countries involved in this exercise and 400 aircraft and 1,000 tanks and hundreds of missiles will be used in this exercise.
The source emphasized that this exercise will be done after cleaning Syria;
Frankly, I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't track down the original source myself. It could still be false, but it is originating with Farsnews.
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"Until we look beyond the throne where the power structure lies, we'll fight amongst ourselves as freedom dies. The only hope for human kind lies in solidarity. The strength in our numbers sets us free."
"Until we look beyond the throne where the power structure lies, we'll fight amongst ourselves as freedom dies. The only hope for human kind lies in solidarity. The strength in our numbers sets us free."
Russian and Syrian officials dismissed as provocation on Tuesday Iranian media reports that Iran, Russia, China and Syria are to conduct joint military exercises in Syria next month.
Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported late Tuesday afternoon that a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman also dismissed reports of the Syrian war games as attempts to "further escalate the situation in Syria."
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UN calls for evacuation of women, children, elderly, sick in Syrian combat zones
More war preparations for Israel Long-range strike practice, refueling drills spotted
For the past few weeks, U.S. indications and warnings have picked up Israeli long-range strike practice and refueling, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin
While they’re occurring with one or two aircraft at a time, sources report that such practice “seems to be a constant now.”
In addition to long-range strike practice runs, sources say there also has been a recall of “key personnel” and further movement of U.S.-supplied anti-ballistic Patriot missiles.
The Israelis also have been doing intelligence collection flights, as well as early warning practice, which has been under way for more than a month.
IDF deploys tanks near Egypt border, in violation of peace treaty
Following Monday morning's cross-border attack, army deploys tanks to site of incident; according to Camp David Accords, both sides obligated to keep area demilitarized.
Israel already thinks the camp david accords are dead apparently.
The Syrian rebels confirmed that the 11 Lebanese affiliated with Hezbollah oversaw the massacres in Syria. The arrested men belonged to the intelligence section of Hezbollah.
The secret behind the wrath of the supreme leader is that Israel conveyed a message to Iran through Russia that the virus that hit Iran’s computers and the sets of control was indeed manufactured by Tel Aviv. Israel confessed.
The problem of Hassan Nasrallah is that information taken from the arrested 11 Lebanese indicates that there was a secret decision to transfer newly made Scud missiles.
These missiles were to be transferred from Iran through Iraq to be deployed in southern Lebanon. It transpired that the Hezbollah was instructed by Tehran to open a front with Israel in case Syria is attacked or if Israel strikes at Iran’s nuclear facilities. For this reason, Israel was given a green light from Washington to do what it takes to bring down Assad’s regime. According to this plan, Israel is to hit hard Syrian Special Forces while leaving some units in the army to stage an internal coup. This time Hezbollah will not be taken off the hook as it happened during the last confrontation with Israel in 2006.
Oh boy... if true some big stuff is about to happen.
Labott: Do you think the military threat is credible enough?
Peres: If the Iranians will understand seriously that this is an option, maybe we shall not need it. If they think this is a bluff, then it may lead to a war . For that reason, the warning must must be credible, the sanctions must be credible. So let’s first of all use the non-military means, indicating to the Iranians, "Gentlemen, better you agree with a non-military confrontation than look for other options."
Labott: How long do they have?
Peres: I think time is out because they continue to build the bomb. They continue to do things which are contrary to the UN provisions, to the atomic center of Geneva. They build, the provoke. The continue to enrage the Iranians. You cannot provoke the world assuming the world is made of fools only.
Labott: So time is out you are saying, this is it?
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) statement called for a "peaceful resolution of the Syrian problem through political dialogue", adding the use of force against Iran was "unacceptable”.
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Maan news Agency: Ehud Barack meets leaders of Israeli army to discuss escalation on #Gaza.
CBS reports that when Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin met with the press after their long private discussion, "The two men barely looked at each other. You could just feel, sort of, the tension between them. And the body language really represented how far apart the two leaders remain on the issue of Syria."
37 Israeli aircraft (fighters, tankers, EW) in night rehearsal war ...
Huge night A.Mesogeio air exercise in the south of Cyprus performed in Israel last night between 21.30 and 00.15. A total of 37 aircraft of the Israeli Air Force stood up a mobilization that even by the standards of the Israeli Air Force has significant difficulties.
It involved 30 F-16I fighter Sufa F-15I and Ra'am, 5 air tankers and electronic warfare aircraft 2.
The exercise was performed in the area that extends near the land of Cyprus, but sources estimate that the Air Force "Especially this exercise does not seem to be directly related to bad relations between Turkey and Israel. My knowledge on the scenario and judging by the volume and mission aircraft, probably has to do with what is happening in Syria.
Greek officials note that it is "by far the largest Israeli air exercise since we closely monitor their exercises for about four years. About 10% of modern aircraft and approximately 15% of the Israeli Air Force warily, very rarely comes out in an exercise" .
Bullish for war.
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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -- H.L. Mencken
Syria’s Assad offered immunity if he relinquishes power
Bashar Al-Assad would be offered safe passage to Switzerland to take part in peace talks, under plans being drawn up by Britain and America to end the crisis in Syria.
British officials believe that it is now “worth having a go” at attempting to negotiate a “transitional process” for Syria that would involve the president relinquishing power.
The idea was discussed by David Cameron and Barack Obama at the G20 summit in Mexico this week.
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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -- H.L. Mencken
Videopro
Posts: 1896
Incept: 2007-08-03
L.A. Area
Online
Quote:
Jordan grants asylum to defecting Syrian air force pilot
By Douglas Stanglin, USA TODAY
"The jet fighter landed at 10:45 a.m. (local time) and the government is currently considering the pilot's request," Jordanian Minister of State for Information Samih al-Maaytah told The Jordan Times Thursday without elaborating further.
Reuters quotes al-Maaytah as saying the pilot "is being debriefed at the moment."
Reuters says Syrian state television identified the pilot as Col. Hassan Hamada, reporting that he was on a training mission near the border when communications with the plane were lost.
Quote:
Jordan has granted political asylum to a Syrian air force pilot who flew his MiG-21 fighter jet to a Jordanian military base near the border today.
Update at 11:38 a.m. ET: The Syrian defense ministry calls the pilot a "traitor to his country and his military honor" and says Syria is in touch with Jordanian authorities to retrieve the aircraft, Reuters reports.
"The Spinning Cyclone Of Deflation Is Fueled By Deficit Spending. An efficient asset destroying storm powered by the printing press". - Me
When the Nazi's broke every law when coming to power, people in later years were asked, how were they allowed to do it? The answer was easy: They Simply Did It.
Obseedian
Posts: 11872
Incept: 2007-07-26
BBRY Central
FWIW
Quote:
Foreign terrorist groups thwarted all efforts to remove the wounded and civilians from Homs
"These groups opened fire on the delegation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent announced its rejection of the exit of any citizen wounded or sick"
Accused the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Balinkot armed terrorist groups on its promises in the introduction of aid and directed that the citizens and by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, noting that these groups opened fire on the delegations of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies...
Asimov
Posts: 104040
Incept: 2007-08-26
East Tennessee Eastern Time
Online
Quote:
Just when the geopolitical tensions in the middle east appeared to be abating, and Brent was on a gentle glideslope to whatever price will greenlight the NEW QE now that fears of an Iran war have been very much silnced, things change. Reuters reports that Syria shot down a Turkish warplane on Friday, according to Lebanon's al-Manar television reported, "risking a new crisis between Middle Eastern neighbours already at bitter odds over a 16-month-old revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad." "Syrian security sources confirmed to a Manar correspondent in Damascus that Syrian defence forces shot down the Turkish fighter jet," the Hezbollah-owned channel said."
Here is the rub: Turkey is a NATO member, and by definition the alliance will have to come to Turkey's aid if requested. Syria, however is not just any country as has been made quite clear over the past several months of UN impotence: it is a critical staging ground for both Russia (which has a very critical regional naval base in the city of Tartus) and China, and according to the Jerusalem Post, the three countries are in preparation to conduct the "largest ever" war game. As such Syria, already gripped by fierce local fighting, where just like in Egypt and Libya the presence of US-based flipflop on the ground can be smelt from across the Atlantic, is merely a symbol. The real implication is how far can little escalations push until finally the showdown begins, with NATO on one side and Russia and China on the other?
It's justifiably immoral to deal morally with an immoral entity. If you trade based on what other people say, you will lose money. Especially what I say. I won't be held responsible. Festina lente.
Lack of solid reporting consensus on this. Some sources merely say "near the border", others report that it was over Syria when shot down.
If it was in Syrian airspace, there is no justification to use this as an excuse for NATO to get involved from a treaty obligation POV, even if Turkey "requests" it to, contrary to what the ZH statement claims.
(Not saying that the US won't use it as a pretext, only that it is an invalid justification.)
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". . . the Constitution has died, the economy welters in irreversible decline, we have perpetual war, all power lies in the hands of the executive, the police are supreme, and a surveillance beyond Orwell’s imaginings falls into place." - Fred Reed
Videopro
Posts: 1896
Incept: 2007-08-03
L.A. Area
Online
Al Jazeera now reporting on Turkish responses to shootdown to fighter jet; Al Jazeera commentator referring to Turkish acknowledgment of the incident quotes the Government of Turkey as saying 'we will take all necessary action'.
Commentator: 'If that sounds ominous, it's because it is'
no links: taken from on air commentary'
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"The Spinning Cyclone Of Deflation Is Fueled By Deficit Spending. An efficient asset destroying storm powered by the printing press". - Me
When the Nazi's broke every law when coming to power, people in later years were asked, how were they allowed to do it? The answer was easy: They Simply Did It.
Greg Palkot's report on Fox of the Syrian's statement sure doesn't sound like an apology.. The quote was "That the situation was handled according to the laws governing the situation"...
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"Until we look beyond the throne where the power structure lies, we'll fight amongst ourselves as freedom dies. The only hope for human kind lies in solidarity. The strength in our numbers sets us free."
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