Atlas Shrugs

Jihad in Russia: Muslim bomber kills 7 policemen

Jihad heating up in Russia. It is no coincidence that these attacks always coincide with Islamic demands, for instance, for more mosques (the Grand Mufti of Russia Rawil Gaynetdin has demanded that the number of mosques in Moscow should at least double), and things like TV and radio programs (for dawah)  to appease it. That and the Ramadan bombathon, of course.

"Suicide bomber kills 7 Russian policemen" Associated Press Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012 (thanks to David)

Investigators say a suicide bomber blew himself up at the funeral for a policeman in southern Russia, killing at least seven other policemen and badly wounding 12 others.

The funeral was being held at the home of an officer who had been shot dead the night before by militants in Ingushetia, one of the predominantly Muslim republics in Russia's restive North Caucasus region.

The attack took place Sunday morning as Muslims in Russia and around the world prepared for the feast that celebrates the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

An Islamic insurgency has spread throughout the North Caucasus, with militants staging near daily attacks on police and other authorities.

Even The NY Times noticed - and this was before the above attack: "Radical Islamic Attacks in a Moderate Region Unnerve the Kremlin" Aug, 25, 2012

A string of violent attacks by Islamic militants has shattered this city’s reputation as a citadel of religious tolerance and unnerved federal officials in Moscow, who have worked for decades to prevent the spread of radical Islam out of the southern borderlands and into places like this city 500 miles east of Moscow.

Officials have long sought to contain Islamic fervor in the Caucasus to the south while insisting that places like the republic of Tatarstan, where Kazan is the capital, were different, representing a moderate “Russian Islam,” said Aleksei Malashenko, the co-chairman of the Carnegie Moscow Center’s religion, society and security program.

But that comfortable assumption began to crumble just before the start of Ramadan in late July, when a senior cleric in charge of education was shot outside his apartment building on Zarya Street. Roughly an hour later, the city’s chief mufti survived a bomb attack that demolished his Toyota Land Cruiser. A previously unheard-of group, the mujahedeen of Tatarstan, claimed responsibility.

On Sunday, a car carrying three men, an automatic rifle and Islamic pamphlets blew up in Zelenodolsk, about a half-hour west of Kazan, in what the authorities described as the inadvertent detonation of a homemade explosive. “That radical direction exists in Tatarstan,” Mr. Malashenko said. “And it’s dangerous.”

Jihad in Russia: Jihad bombing in Chechen capital, 3 Russian servicemen killed, another 3 wounded

Today, Muslims are warring in Thailand, the Philippines and now Russia. And the day is still young.

At least 3 Russian servicemen killed, another 3 wounded by suicide bomber in Chechen capital Calgary Herald

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia - At least three Russian servicemen were killed and another three wounded when a suicide bomber detonated outside a Chechen department store on Monday, officials said.

The Investigative Committee said the attack took place in Chechnya's provincial capital, Grozny, and the attacker also died in the explosion.

Chechnya's branch of the Russian Interior Ministry said in a statement that it appeared that two suicide bombers took part in the attack and four Russian servicemen were killed. There was no explanation for the discrepancy in the two accounts.

The Chechen capital has been devastated by two separatist wars since 1994, but has become more stable under the steely grip of Kremlin-backed regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Kadyrov, a former rebel, has recruited many ex-militants into his feared paramilitary forces, which have been accused by rights activists of arbitrary arrests, torture and killings of suspects.

Suicide bombings and other attacks still periodically occur in Chechnya, but an Islamic insurgency has spread throughout the entire North Caucasus region.

Dagestan, which neighbours Chechnya to the east, has become the epicenter of violence in recent years, with militants staging daily attacks on police and other authorities. The local branch of Russia's Interior Ministry said two police officers were killed Monday in a rebel ambush on their vehicle and another one was wounded.

Muslim brother and sister homicide bombers in Dagestan, twin bombings --13 dead, hundred injured

Relentless holy war (jihad) on non-Muslims everywhere.

Brother and sister blamed for Dagestan suicide bombing Vancouver Sun (Hat tip Fern)

MOSCOW - A brother and sister are believed to have carried out dual suicide bombings in Russia's Dagestan that killed at least 13 people and injured more than a hundred, the regional president said Saturday.

"The names of the suicide bombers have been preliminarily established. They are the brother and sister Rizvan and Muslimat Aliyev," Magomedsalam Magomedov told the parliament, according to ITAR-TASS news agency, confirming reports.

"The special services who are investigating this case will give detailed information on the terrorists and their accomplices shortly," Magomedov was also quoted as saying by his press service.

Investigators were still in the process of identifying human remains at the scene of the two blasts as the region held a day of mourning for the victims on Saturday.

The Tvoi Den tabloid daily reported Thursday, ahead of the bombing, that Rizvan, 23, and his sister Muslimat, 19, had gone missing from their home in the regional capital of Makhachkala in March.

Citing sources in the security forces, it said that Islamist [sic] militants were suspected to be training the Aliyevs as suicide bombers to carry out attacks in central Russia over public holidays in May.

It published black-and-white photographs of Rizvan and Muslimat, a dark-haired woman with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, not wearing an Islamic headscarf.

A regional health official told AFP earlier that the authorities found one severed female foot and two male feet at the scene of the two blasts, suggesting that two suicide bombers were involved.

The first blast went off Thursday evening on the outskirts of Makhachkala when a car laden with explosives was detonated near a traffic police checkpoint, causing no fatalities.

A second car bomb went off 15 minutes later, hitting policemen, rescue workers and passersby who had gathered at the scene.

A representative of the regional health ministry told AFP that 13 people died on the spot and another died later in hospital, while Magomedov's press service on Saturday gave the total as 13 victims and 101 injured.

Fifteen of those injured were in a serious condition, the Russian health ministry said Saturday.

The FSB security service's national anti-terrorism committee said in a statement Friday that the first bomb was equivalent to around 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of TNT, while the second contained 50 kilograms.

Both were packed with metal dowels to cause maximum injuries, it said.

The twin attacks appeared to bear the hallmarks of bombings conducted by radical militants fighting the Kremlin in the Caucasus, where they are seeking to establish an Islamist state.

Read the rest.

Putin's Pathetic Puppy -- Obama

Great piece at To The Point News by Dr. Jack Wheeler. More of Obama's betrayal and incomprehensible foreign policy failures that the enemedia scrubs and washes clean away.

IS OBAMA ON PUTIN’S PAYROLL? 

Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler "The campaign to stop shale gas proving its case in the market is political, not scientific. Behind it lies vested interests. The Russian gas industry, which is alarmed at losing its impending near-monopoly on European gas supplies, has been vocal in its criticism of shale gas."

This is Matt Ridley's observation yesterday (4/25) in Can We Get Over Fear of Fracking Now? He's a brilliant science writer who fully understands the fraudulent arguments against fracking. Last year, he won the Hayek Prize , awarded for upholding "Friedrich Hayek's vision of economic and individual liberty." (He is also now a British Lord - upon the passing of his father last month, he became the 5^th Viscount Ridley.)

Science is Ridley's forte, however, not the geopolitical underworld. The "Russian gas industry" has been vastly more than simply "vocal in its criticism." It is run by Putin's mafia, and operates as do all mafias: through threats, extortion, and bribery. Their focus is primarily upon journalists and politicians.

Just like the Saudis, the KGB has journalists all over the world on their payroll. There's hardly a major newspaper or newsmagazine in Europe, for example, that doesn't have one or more of their prominent writers and editors being paid on the sly by the Saudis to say nice things about them and nothing critical.

It's not quite as extensive throughout the US media, but you'd be surprised what US pundits and media stars are on the Saudi take. The Saudis particularly like to see if they can rope in one of them on the right. Well-known conservative columnist and television commentator Robert Novak (1931-2009) was one of their prize catches. For years they paid him a fortune to be pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel.

The KGB - since 1991, it was supposedly renamed and divided up into the FSB (Federal Security Service internal to Russia) and the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service), but it's still the same outfit of Russian thugs - does the same, and a lot more. Putin has tasked it with demonizing natural gas fracking with life-or-death importance.

The "Russian gas industry" is one company, Gazprom , the largest single producer of gas on earth (17% of worldwide production). It is Putin's principal cash cow, with revenues well in excess of $100 billion - billion - a year over which he has personal control. Much of Europe, especially Germany and Eastern Europe, would freeze in the winter without Russian gas, for which Gazprom charges extortionate prices.

60% of Gazprom's 550 billion cubic meters of yearly gas production is sold domestically at a huge loss to keep Russians from freezing and rioting due to too-high prices. It costs $132 to produce and distribute 1 tcm (thousand cubic meters), yet Russians pay on average only $80. At a loss of $52 per tcm, this puts Gazprom in a $17 billion hole. It makes it up by charging monopolistic extortionate prices to Europe, averaging $415 per tcm.

Thanks to shale gas fracking, US natural gas prices (at the Louisiana Henry Hub) are now under $70 per tcm. Thanks to shale gas fracking, the US has overtaken Russia and is now the largest gas producing country in the world, with over 600 billion cubic meters last year. So it's easy to see how Putin's cash cow will go belly-up if Europeans are free to frack their gas reserves.

Fracking technology can liberate countries like Poland and Bulgaria from Russian extortion. Since it also dooms the "renewable energy" industry with its wind and solar scams, as well as the dream of the eco-wackos to deindustrialize Western Civilization, the KGB happily shovels money into enviro groups producing studies "proving" fracking will kill us all, then organizing street protests with useful idiots whipped into hysteria.

Heavily bribed politicians then propose legislation to ban fracking, pointing to the street demos and the local media frenzy created by bribed journalists citing the phony studies.

This worked like a charm in Bulgaria last January, when its KGB-bribed parliament banned fracking. Bulgaria has conservatively 500 billion cubic meters of shale gas which fracking could extract, and consumes only four billion a year: fracking could liberate Bulgaria from Russian gas for over 100 years.

The good news here is that the ban is so obviously masochistic that sanity is making itself heard - and Bulgarians realize they can make a lot more money via fracking prosperity than bribes from the Kremlin. Thus the ban may soon be lifted.

The shale gas reserves in Poland dwarf those of Bulgaria - in excess of five trillion cubic meters - enough to keep Poles toasty warm for centuries while screwing Russia by selling gas across Europe at prices Gazprom can't match. That's a Dream Twofer for Poland.

Polish hatred for Russia makes their pols more impermeable to KGB bribery. So Putin sent his folks to Brussels to bribe the Eurocrats into passing anti-shale gas restrictive rules and regulations. The Polish government subsequently announced  that it would refuse to obey them if passed.

So Putin, in tandem with the EU enviro lobbies, have currently settled for delaying tactics, bribing the EU parliamentarians into approving rules designed to slow down the approval process, such as requiring complex "environmental impact studies" before fracking commences. Sound familiar?

Earlier this month (4/13), Zero issued an Executive Order to regulate fracking. Zero's Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, has done everything bureaucratically possible to stymie increased oil production, but hasn't had the regulatory firepower to do the same with fracking. This EO may provide what he needs.

Salazar is so anti-oil and anti-US energy independence that this week (4/24), he speculated that gasoline could go to $9 a gallonas it is now in Greece, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Today (4/26), Zero's head of the EPA, Lisa Jackson, issued the first EPA rules for fracking- of which you can be confident there will be many more.

We know this because the day before (4/25), one of EPA's punk fascists was revealed to say his agency's policy was to "crucify" oil and gas companies like the Romans did to villagers, making them obedient to EPA edicts and "easy to manage."

As noted by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) who broke the story, soon after the punk announced this (in 2010), the EPA began targeting gas producers in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming. The punk, Al Armendariz, promptly issued an apology, but Inhofe wasn't buying it. The EPA's threats to crucify American oil & gas companies are "all a part of Obama's war on domestic energy," he told Fox News.

Jim Inhofe put his finger right on it, warning on national television that Zero is conducting a war on our country's energy production and energy independence. So you might ask, is he being paid to do so, by Putin or others equally nefarious?

Certainly, many in the US media are, and many within the US government. But Zero himself?

There is a remarkable 4 minute-39 second video issued on "Earth Day" (April 22, Lenin's birthday) last Sunday denouncing the environmental agenda as an "economic suicide pact." It is entitled "If I Wanted America To Fail" -- (link to video):
http://www.youtube.com/v/CZ-4gnNz0vc&hl

Please watch it first before I continue - for I'm going say how it ends.

After, with excruciating poignancy, describing all that Zero is doing to ensure the failure of our blessed nation, the narrator concludes with the last thing he would do "if I wanted America to fail... I wouldn't change a thing."

The answer to our question, is Zero on Putin's payroll?, is: given his behavior, given his actions as president, it makes no difference whether he is or is not. He could be a full-blown Manchurian Candidate. He could be bought and paid for by the KGB. He could be a brain-damaged black racist moonbat consumed with hatred for America. He could be a megalomaniacal narcissistic sociopath.

It doesn't matter if he actually is any or all of these. What matters is that his actions are such that he could be-for those actions are what he would do if he were. So we need not make accusations for which we do not have solid proof. It suffices to know that, whatever the cause, whatever his motivation, this man means us and our country mortal harm. And he has the capacity, as President of the United States, to do so. His every day in the Oval Office is dedicated to doing so.

What matters is: Nobama 2012. Our country's life depends on it.

Russia: Islamic Attacks foiled for Easter Holiday, 9 Jihadists Killed

If it's an infidel religious holiday, it's time for jihad.

Russia: Islamic 'militant plots foiled' after suspects killed BBC (hat tip David W)

Russian officials say militant attacks planned for the holiday period have been foiled after nine suspects were killed in the south of the country.

Four men travelling in a car were killed after they opened fire in response to demands to stop and show their papers, the Interfax agency said.

Elsewhere, five suspects were killed in a gun battle in Mineralnye Vody.

A spokesman told Ria Novosti the militants had been plotting attacks for the Orthodox Easter and May holidays.

After the first incident, in the Neftekumsk area, the authorities said a large number of weapons and explosive devices were found in the men's Lada car. All four men were local residents, described as in their early twenties.

The shooting in Mineralnye Vody took place some hours after reports that a number of militants had been holed up in a flat in the centre of the city, Interfax reported.

Special forces raided the flat in the early hours of Tuesday morning, killing the five people inside it.

Violence from an Islamist insurgency in the nearby northern Caucasus has regularly affected neighbouring areas, including the Stavropol region.

Exclusive: U.S. offers secret data for Russia missile shield approval

Expect the enemedia to gloss over this executive act of sabotage.

Has there ever been a more dangerous threat in the White House? Giving Russia our secret data on missile defense in order to enlist Russia in the missile defense effort. In August 2009, Obama made the decision to abandon our anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic in a craven capitulation to Putin.

Exclusive: U.S. dangles secret data for Russia missile shield approval Reuters (hat tip Choi)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is leaving open the possibility of giving Moscow certain secret data on U.S. interceptor missiles due to help protect Europe from any Iranian missile strike.

A deal is being sought by Washington that could include classified data exchange because it is in the U.S. interest to enlist Russia and its radar stations in the missile-defense effort, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Tuesday in written replies to Reuters.

No decision has been made yet on whether the United States would offer data about the interceptors' "velocity at burnout," or VBO, said Air Force Lieutenant Colonel April Cunningham, the spokeswoman, but it is not being ruled out.

VBO is at the heart of what Russia wants as the price for its cooperation, said Riki Ellison, head of the private Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, who has close ties to missile defense and military officials.

VBO tells how fast an interceptor is going when its rocket-booster motor fuel is spent and the motor burns out.

With VBO and certain other technical data, Moscow could more readily develop countermeasures and strategies to defeat the system and transfer the information to others, Ellison said.

Ellen Tauscher, the administration's special envoy for strategic stability and missile defense, held talks in Moscow Tuesday with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, including on missile defense, a State Department spokesman said.

The Defense Department, in its response to Reuters, ruled out giving Russia information on either "telemetry" or U.S. "hit-to-kill" technology.

Telemetry involves the automatic transmission and measurement of data from remote sources to monitor a missile flight. Hit-to-kill is the way in which modern U.S. interceptors, such as Raytheon Co's Standard Missile-3, destroy targets by slamming into them.

The department emphasized the Obama administration was following in the footsteps of the George W. Bush administration in seeking missile defense cooperation with Moscow, a process formally begun in 2004.

In keeping open the possibility of sharing VBO information with Moscow, Obama is at odds with Republicans in Congress who have said they will seek to legislate a prohibition on such data-sharing.

Republican Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the House of Representatives' Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces, faulted the administration for what he described as "caving" to Russian concerns at the expense of U.S. interests.

[...]

The Defense Department, in its reply to Reuters, said the sharing of classified U.S. data is subject to an interagency group known as the National Disclosure Policy Committee, which evaluates requests for dealing with other governments.

Bradley Roberts, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, told Turner's committee last week the United States had been making "no progress" toward persuading Russia to drop its opposition to the shield despite its willingness to consider sharing certain classified data.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 'Congratulates' Putin and Russia on 'Decisive Victory'

Axis of evil. Truly. You have to love the "decisive victory" remarks, considering how both men stole their elections.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 'Congratulates' Putin and Russia on 'Decisive Victory'

Mar 5, 2012, Weekly Standard 

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "congratulated" Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Russian people for the strongman's "decisive victory" Sunday night. The message was posted on the Iranian foreign ministry website (and translated using Google Translate).

"[B]e aware of the new responsibilities and authorities in collaboration with neighboring countries based on justice, compassion, and the establishment of control over the growing regional and international peace and stability, discrimination and a dual encounters Janbhgrayy and the international system and develop the existing good relations between Iran and the Republic of the Russian Federation to be," the Iranian strongman tells his Russian counterpart. 

"The message is clear: God, Your Excellency continued good health and success and prosperity and happiness bless the great nation of Russia."

Speaking on behalf of his government and people, Ahmadinejad also said: "[T]he country's government and people sincerely congratulate you."

The Russian election over the weekend was reportedly riddled with fraud. "International monitors say the March 4 presidential election that swept Vladimir Putin back into the Kremlin was unfair, while Russian volunteer monitors denounce widespread voting fraud. Most of the alleged irregularities reported are time-tested tactics observed in previous elections," RFE/RL reported.

Russia and China veto resolution on Syria at UN

What is the goal of Obama's State Department whose mission is statecraft and crafting policy, not for today, but for 20 to 20 years from now? If you can't overthrow them all, why Mubarak and not Ahmadinejad? Why Qaddafi and not Assad? What is the strategy? What is the statecraft objective?

Here again is further proof of the uselessness (and worse) of the United Nations. Whatever sway or swagger American had in that collective negation of humanity has withered under the effete Obama. This is further proof of Iran's growing influence (Syria is a vassal state, a proxy of Iran).

"When an institution reaches the degree of corruption, brazen cynicism and dishonor demonstrated by the U.N. in its shameful history, to discuss it at length is to imply that its members and supporters may possibly be making an innocent error about its nature—which is no longer possible. There is no margin for error about a monstrosity that was created for the alleged purpose of preventing wars by uniting the world against any aggressor, but proceeded to unite it against any victim of aggression. The expulsion of a charter member, the Republic of China—an action forbidden by the U.N.'s own charter—was a 'moment of truth,' a naked display of the United Nation’s soul.

 

What was Red China's qualification for membership in the U.N.? The fact that her government seized power by force, and has maintained it for twenty-two years by terror. What disqualified Nationalist China? The fact that she was a friend of the United States."

 

Ayn Rand (1972) ["The Shanghai Gesture—Part II," The Ayn Rand Letter, Vol 1, No. 14]

Asked in a 1964 interview for Playboy magazine if she would "favor U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations," Ayn Rand answered:

 

"Yes. I do not sanction the grotesque pretense of an organization allegedly devoted to world peace and human rights, which includes Soviet Russia, the worst aggressor and bloodiest butcher in history, as one of its members. The notion of protecting rights, with Soviet Russia among the protectors, is an insult to the concept of rights and to the intelligence of any man who is asked to endorse or sanction such an organization. I do not believe that an individual should cooperate with criminals, and, for all the same reasons, I do not believe that free countries should cooperate with dictatorships."

Here are the Drudge headlines today. Funny, although no one in media speaks of it (including Drudge), it's all jihad. All of it.

China, Russia veto UN resolution on Syria...
Clinton and Lavrov square off...
400+ SLAUGHTERED...
'I saw bodies of women and children lying on roads, beheaded'...
12 dead in latest Egypt clashes...
Iran begins new military exercises...
Ayatollah Khamenei threatens Israel...
Libyan militia pull toenails off diplomat...

Russia and China veto resolution on Syria at UN Report by the pro-Islamic BBC

An Arab and Western-backed resolution condemning the violent crackdown in Syria has been vetoed at the UN Security Council by Russia and China.

The two permanent council members rejected the draft resolution, which came hours after activists accused Syrian security forces of killing at least 55 people at Homs.

The US ambassador said the vetoes were "shameful", Britain was "appalled".

China and Russia defended their move, saying the draft was "unbalanced".

Russia says the draft resolution had singled out the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and did not containing measures against armed opposition groups.

But proposed Russian amendments to the text were described as "unacceptable" by the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to have talks with Mr Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.

'Craven tyrant'

The draft resolution, supported by all 13 other members of the Security Council, had adopted an Arab League call for a "Syrian-led political transition to a democratic, plural political system".

Ms Rice condemned the joint veto as "shameful". It showed, she said, how Russia and China aimed to "sell out the Syrian people and shield a craven tyrant".

"Any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands," Ms Rice added.

Britain was "appalled" by the veto, said its UN envoy, Mark Lyall Grant.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud said: "It is a sad day for this council, a sad day for all Syrians, and a sad day for democracy."

Mohammed Loulichki, Morocco's ambassador to the UN and the sole Arab member of the current council, voiced "great regret and disappointment" that Moscow and Beijing had struck it down.

But Russia's ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, insisted the draft resolution had lacked balance.

"Some influential members of the international community unfortunately... have been undermining the opportunity for political settlement, calling for a regime change, pushing the oppositionists to power," he said.

Beijing's ambassador to the UN, Li Baodong, said the resolution would have been counter-productive.

US Ambassador Susan Rice: "For months this council has been held hostage by a couple of members"

"China maintains that, under the current circumstances, to put undue emphasis on pressuring the Syrian government... or impose any solution will not help resolve the Syrian issue," he said.

Pro-Assad residents in the Syrian capital Damascus welcomed the Sino-Russian stance.

"I believe there are more important issues for the Security Council to take care of... such as the starvation in Somalia, and Gaza," one told BBC News.

"Isn't there anything else apart from us for the Security Council to deal with?"

Early accounts of the casualties in Homs talked of as many as 200 deaths, but one of the main activist groups later revised its confirmed toll down to 55.

Homs appears to have come under a "pretty relentless" bombardment, which targeted areas outside government control, the BBC's Paul Woods reported from just outside the city, where he was travelling with fighters from the Free Syria Army.

Homs was one of the first cities to join anti-Assad protests, and became one of the focal points of dissent after government forces fired on crowds in April last year. Many army defectors have sought refuge in the city.

State media dismissed the Homs casualty reports as a "hysterical campaign of incitement" by armed gangs designed to influence the UN.

International media outlets are restricted in Syria, making it difficult to verify the claims of either side.

Tunisia moved to sever relations with the Assad government following the Homs violence

Activists have been attacking Syrian embassies around the world in response to the violence in Homs.

Syria has been gripped by nationwide protests against Mr Assad's government for almost a year, in a struggle that has claimed at least 5,400 lives, according to the UN.

Russia Steamrolling over Omerica -- Medvedev: Russia to target missile defense sites

O-bowing to our enemies, time and time again: The Post American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America

And the hits just keep on coming for President Reset. Obama is disrespected, laughed at. And the free world is taking hit after hit for our fatal folly with this President.

Medvedev: Russia may target missile defense sites (hat tip Van)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will deploy new missiles aimed at U.S. missile defense sites in Europe if Washington goes ahead with the planned shield despite Russia's concerns, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday.

Russia will station missiles in its westernmost Kaliningrad region and other areas if Russia and NATO fail to reach a deal on the U.S.-led missile defense plans, he said in a tough statement that seemed to be aimed at rallying domestic support.

Russia considers the plans for missile shields in Europe, including in Romania and Poland, to be a threat to its nuclear forces, but the Obama administration insists they are meant to fend off a potential threat from Iran.

Moscow has agreed to consider NATO's proposal last fall to cooperate on the missile shield, but the talks have been deadlocked over how the system should operate. Russia has insisted that the system should be run jointly, which NATO has rejected.

PUTIN DECLARES: MORE POWER NEEDED...

Hey Obama, How's That Reset Button Working Out for Ya?

Russian media teased Obama over "reset" button

First Russia gave Obama the middle finger, literally.

And now, we hear Russia has been giving Omerica the middle finger for years.

Ratcheting up the Cold War. Well, better late than never. We should have done this years ago.

US to cease observing arms treaty with Russia: State Dept (hat tip van)

The United States said Tuesday it would no longer provide data to Russia on conventional weapons and troops in Europe, citing non-compliance by Moscow with a two-decade old treaty that governed the information exchange.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters the United States will cease to observe the provisions of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE).

Adopted in November 1990, it was seen as a groundbreaking accord credited with greatly advancing global security. But Russia suspended its observance of the treaty in 2007.

"This is an issue that we've been working on ever since the Russians withdrew," Nuland told reporters.

"After four years of Russian non-implementation and after repeated efforts... to save the treaty, we think it's important to take some counter-measures vis-a-vis Russia," she said.

The US will now no longer accept Russian inspection of its bases.

Despite Moscow's non-compliance, the United States and allies had also continued to meet the treaty's obligations by giving Moscow data on their forces over the past four years, but that will also stop.

Obama's Legacy: The One-Finger Salute

Once again, we see the kind of respect Obama engenders throughout the world. How is that reset button working out for ya, O?

Russian broadcasting is state approved -- that finger was official. That, Mr O, is what Putin thinks of you -- so just imagine how our allies in Eastern Europe that were abandoned by Obama feel.

Post-America: Russia Flexes Its Muscles, Sends Warships to Syrian waters to Stop Foreign Intervention

The global balance of power continues to shift under the post American president whose signature foreign policy theme is the abandoment of American hegemony. Read the The Post American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America.

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles. -- Ayn Rand

Report: Russia warships to enter Syria waters in bid to stem foreign intervention Haaretz (hat tip van)

Russian warships are due to arrive at Syrian territorial waters, a Syrian news agency said on Thursday, indicating that the move represented a clear message to the West that Moscow would resist any foreign intervention in the country's civil unrest.

But the official said Friday that Syria was still studying the details. The official asked not to be named because the issue is so sensitive.

The Arab League suspended Syria earlier this week over its deadly crackdown on an eight-month-old uprising. The 22-member body has proposed sending hundreds of observers to the country to try to help end the bloodshed.

The report came a day after a draft resolution backed by Arab and European countries and the United States was submitted to the United Nations General Assembly, seeking to condemn human rights violations in the on-going violence in Syria.

Bah, blah, blah ......... what a joke.

Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia were among Arab states that joined Germany, Britain, and France to sponsor the draft submitted to the assembly's human rights committee. In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. would sign on as a co-sponsor of the resolution.

The draft demanded an end to violence, respect of human rights and implementation by Damascus of a plan of action of the Arab League.

The move comes as clashes escalated in Syria and after Russia and China used their veto in October to block a Security Council resolution that would have condemned the Syrian government of President Bashir for the violence.

Such a veto is not applicable in the 193-nation assembly, which will consider the issue after the human rights committee reports back to it.

The UN says more than 3,500 people have been killed since unrest erupted in spring against Assad.

How's that Arab spring working out for ya?

 

John Bolton Exposes Obama's Failure in South Caucasus

This is the stuff of a great American presdient, I tell ya. Out with the old guard, in with the pro-Americans. Bolton, Bachmann, Palin, Cain.........

John Bolton advised U.S. President to attribute more attention to South Caucasus News AM

Possible candidate for upcoming U.S. presidential elections John Bolton advised Barack Obama administration to attribute more attention to South Caucasus region. Bolton stressed that Russia persistently tries to restore its influence on the region. He reminded of Russian PM Vladimir Putin’s estimations of the collapse of Soviet Union, attributing it to the current processes in South Caucasus, reports Caucasus Online. 

“We have to remember the statement of then-president Vladimir Putin, that the collapse of the USSR is the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of 20th century,” said Bolton, adding that these words fully reflect Russia’s current policy in South Caucasus.

According to the politician, Obama’s administration must openly support Azerbaijan in the context to Karabakh conflict settlement, since except Armenian and Azerbaijani sides it involves Russia as well.

“We must not forget Russia’s assault of Georgia of August 2008. Russia aims at restoring its influence over the region and the U.S. must give due attention to that fact,” said Bolton.

Related: Russian President Medvedev Says He Wants Obama To Be Re-elected To Avoid America’s “Conservative Wing”

Russian President Medvedev Says He Wants Obama To Be Re-elected To Avoid America’s “Conservative Wing”

Why wouldn't the Russians want their advocate in the White House? They know Obama is out of his league, not negotiating in America's self interest, and giving away the store. They have outplayed Obama (at the expense of our allies) more than once. Of course they want that quisling in the White House.

Russian President Medvedev Says He Wants Obama To Be Re-elected To Avoid America’s “Conservative Wing” (thanks to Weasel Zippers)

 

 

Along with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, Hugo Chavez, ChiComs etc.

(AFP) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday he wanted his US counterpart Barack Obama to win re-election next year, fearing that the two men’s efforts to improve ties may lose steam under a new administration.

“I can tell you directly — I would like Barack Obama to be re-elected president of the United States maybe more than someone else,” Medvedev said in an interview with the Financial Times whose full transcript was released by the Kremlin early Monday.

“If another person becomes US president then he may have another course,” he said.

“We understand that there are representatives of a rather conservative wing there who are trying to achieve their political goals at the expense of inflaming passions in relation to Russia, among other things.

“But what use is criticising them? This is simply a way of achieving political goals.”

UPDATE: Zilla has more here.

Islamic Supremacist Says He Ordered Russian Bombing

It is the same motive, the same ideology the world over.

Islamist rebel says he ordered Russian bombing Reuters (hat tip Harry)

Islamist rebel leader Doku Umarov said on Monday he had ordered a suicide bombing that killed 36 people at Russia's busiest airport last month.

Umarov, 46, speaking in a video carried by the Islamist website www.Kavkazcenter.com, said there would be further such attacks in pursuit of an independent Muslim state governed by Sharia law in Russia's Caucasus region -- a territory embracing Chechnya, Dagestan and other nearby territories.

Umarov appeared in the video, apparently made on the day of the January 24 attack on Moscow's Domodedovo airport, wearing combat fatigues, talking quietly and hesitantly.

"The special operation today in Moscow ... was carried out on my orders," said Umarov, who styles himself the Emir of the Caucasus.

"These special operations will continue ... to show the chauvinist regime of (Russian Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin in Moscow ... that we can carry out these operations where we want and when we want," he said, pointing a finger toward the camera.

The attack bore the hallmark of Caucasus rebels but Monday's video was the first time Umarov had claimed direct responsibility for it.

[...]

The attack on Moscow's Domodedovo airport took place in a crowded terminal building on a busy late afternoon. Russian officials say the suicide bomber was a 20-year-old native of the North Caucasus.

Umarov appeared in a separate video on February 5 declaring that Russia faced a year of 'blood and tears' if it refused to abandon its North Caucasus territories. He appeared with a young man he described as a 'brother' being dispatched to Moscow to carry out an unspecified operation.

He said he was visiting the Riyadus-Salikhiyn battalion, which took responsibility for the 2004 Beslan school massacre, where more than 320 people died, as well as more recent actions such as a September market bombing in Vladikavkaz in the North Caucasus.

Russian Bomber A Muslim Convert

Islam just, well, inspires people. Another convert goes homicide bomber, in an act of righteous piety.

Russians name Muslim convert as prime suspect for airport bombing Independent hat tip Armaros

Security sources have named an ethnic Russian Christian who converted to Islam as the prime suspect in Monday's deadly suicide bombing at a Moscow airport.

Notice the pathetic Independent inclusion of the word "Christian" when the homicide bomber was a Muslim convert shaheed.

Sources close to the investigation said that Vitaly Razdobudko, a 32-year-old from the southern Russian city of Stavropol, was being sought in connection with the attack, the Kommersant newspaper reported yesterday. It is not known whether Razdobudko is suspected of being the actual suicide bomber or an accomplice.

Razdobudko went missing in October last year, with his wife, according to police sources in Stavropol. He is believed to have been an Orthodox Christian, of Slavic appearance, who later converted to Islam.

The bomb, which ripped through the arrivals hall of Domodedovo Airport on Monday afternoon, killed 35 people including one Briton and left 180 injured. Russian authorities have released little information, and eyewitness accounts diverge wildly. Some speak of a male suicide bomber, some of a female bomber; in some testimonies, the bomber detonated a suicide vest, while in others the bomb was in a suitcase.

The first official statement about the attack came yesterday afternoon, when a representative of Russia's Anti-Terror Committee denied that security services had learnt of a possible attack before Monday, and attacked journalists for speculating on who might have been behind the blast. "Only the Investigative Committee can say what and how things happened, and everyone else should be silent," a spokesman for the committee said.

The Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, who in the aftermath of the attack said that "revenge is inevitable", has already said that the attack had no links to Chechnya. Russia's Islamic insurgency has in recent years spread across the North Caucasus region to neighbouring republics. It is nominally controlled by Doku Umarov, the self-styled "Emir of the Caucasus", but experts believe that different groups function autonomously in different regions.

Another emir, another slaughter.

In this case, suspicion has fallen on a cell called the Nogai Brigade, which is thought to operate around Stavropol and in the northern part of neighbouring Dagestan. Police said they were looking for 10 members of the group, which is also suspected of being behind a failed attack on New Year's Eve, when a female suicide bomber was believed to be preparing to attack crowds of Russians celebrating the New Year on Manezh Square near the Kremlin.

Instead she blew herself up during the day in a Moscow suburb. Police think the bomb was detonated accidentally, probably by a mobile phone.

Obama's War on America: China and Russia Quit the US Dollar

This is no accident. Obama is presiding over, aiding and abetting the decline of America. He is destroying this country. Read this: The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America

China and Russia Quit the Dollar China Daily

St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.
 
Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.

"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.

The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.

The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.

"That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries," he said.

Putin made his remarks after a meeting with Wen. They also officiated at a signing ceremony for 12 documents, including energy cooperation.

The documents covered cooperation on aviation, railroad construction, customs, protecting intellectual property, culture and a joint communiqu. Details of the documents have yet to be released.

Putin said one of the pacts between the two countries is about the purchase of two nuclear reactors from Russia by China's Tianwan nuclear power plant, the most advanced nuclear power complex in China.

[..]
Wen said at the press conference that the partnership between Beijing and Moscow has "reached an unprecedented level" and pledged the two countries will "never become each other's enemy".

Russia: Muslims Set Three Churches Ablaze

How many stories do we have to run? It's the jihad. Period

Russia: Three churches set ablaze, Christians reluctantly acknowledge that jihadists did it

"It was a well-orchestrated provocation, but we can not talk about inter-religious enmity, especially between Orthodox Christians and Muslims." Meanwhile, an imam has been killed as well, so it looks as if this "inter-religious enmity" is upon them regardless of their wishes. And while Feofan's sentiment, "We can not blame Muslims, we can not judge people by individual incidents," is a common one, it is a bit out of focus, just as it is when the Islamic supremacist proponents of the Ground Zero mosque hotly insist that Muslims as a whole cannot and must not be made to bear "collective responsibility" for the 9/11 jihad attacks. In reality, no one with any sense is blaming all Muslims for anything that any individual Muslim has done; the problem lies in the Islamic texts and teachings that are used to justify such acts of violence. There is ample justification in the Qur'an, which calls upon Muslims to fight Christians until they "feel themselves subdued" (9:29), and the Sunnah, in which Muhammad tells his followers to offer non-Muslims conversion or subjugation, and to go to war with them if they refuse both, for attacks such as this one. Muslims who oppose such attacks need ultimately to confront the existence of these Islamic teachings and work honestly to blunt their force, but non-Muslims need immediately to recognize that this is not being done within the Muslim community now, and to make a realistic appraisal accordingly, and take what steps must be taken to defend themselves and their way of life.

"Attack on Christians in Russian Caucasus," by Nina Achmatova for Asia News, November 3 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The North Caucasus is till burning and this time the target of violence are religious. Attacks on Christian churches and against Muslim leaders have taken place between 1 and 2 November in different parts of the region.

Local Christian leaders have been trying now not to foment tension and avoid pointing the finger at religious extremism, but the eyes of investigators and public opinion are all pointing in that direction.

At dawn on Nov. 1, three fires have occurred in as many churches in the Autonomous Republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia. According to preliminary reports, the attackers set fire to an Orthodox church in Orjonikidzevsky, almost destroyed, then continued on to another Orthodox and a Baptist church. In all cases, the buildings wee [sic] saved by the immediate intervention of pastors and faithful, who, after calling the fire department, started to put out the flames on their own....

Christian leaders have taken steps to curb possible tensions with the Muslim community. Press and investigators immediately indicated the track of religious extremism, which infests the Russian Caucasus. According to statements by the Archbishop of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz, Feofan, there are no preconditions for talking about religious hatred in the region: "It was a well-orchestrated provocation, but we can not talk about inter-religious enmity, especially between Orthodox Christians and Muslims." "We can not blame Muslims, we can not judge people by individual incidents. Even policemen and muftis are killed and the attack has the same matrix: the intention is to destabilize inter-religious harmony, but they will not succeed", added the Orthodox bishop.

Almost to prove his words, news of the assassination of the imam of a mosque in Khasavyurt, in the Republic of Dagestan, with a gunshot to the head, authorities are investigating.