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Missile Defense Watch: Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld Tours Alaska Missile Defense Center
Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, USAF, left, shows Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld one of the ground based interceptor missiles at the missile defense site at Ft. Greeley near Fairbanks, Alaska Sunday Aug. 27, 2006.
AP: Rumsfeld Cautions on Missile Shield
After his first look inside the nerve center of the U.S. missile defense system, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Sunday sounded a note of caution about expectations that interceptors poised in underground silos here would work in the event of a missile attack by North Korea.
Rumsfeld climbed down a steel ladder into one of 10 silos that house single 54-foot-long missile interceptors. If ordered by President Bush, or a successor, one or more of the rockets would blast into the sky and race at more than 18,000 mph to launch a small “kill vehicle” at an enemy warhead as it soared through space.
An 11th interceptor is to be installed at Greely on Monday, officials said.
Asked at a news conference later whether he believed the missile shield was ready for use against a North Korean missile like the one test-fired unsuccessfully on July 4, Rumsfeld said he would not be fully persuaded until the multibillion dollar defense system has undergone more complete and realistic testing.
***ALERT*** MSM spin on this story ***ALERT ***
Read the entire piece and see if Rumsfeld is cautioning or just being prudent on a missile defense system that is not fully tested and/or deployed.
The lefty influenced media has been biased against missile defense since the early days of President Reagan and the Strategic Defense Initiative.
Does the LEFT and their friends in the media want to denigrate the system the media derogatorily dubbed “Star Wars” in the 1980’s?
Sure seems like it……
Stay tuned…..
Missile interception by Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI)
Previous:
Missile Defense Watch: United States and Israel Collaborating on Missile Defense
Missile Defense Watch: “Concept of Operations†To Be Done by Fall
Missile Defense Watch: Vandenberg Launches Minuteman III
Missile Defense Watch: White Sands THAAD Test – †This Is Phenomenalâ€
Missile Defense Watch: THAAD Successfully Intercepts Live Target
Michael Ramirez on Missile Defense
Technorati Tags: MissileDefense, DonaldRumsfeld, FortGreelyAlaska
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California Election 2006 Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to Sign Industrial Hemp Bill?
Charles Meyer, who farms 2,600 acres south of Fresno, Calif., is among a growing number of people who advocate legalizing the cultivation of industrial hemp. “The fact we’re not growing it is asinine,†Mr. Meyer said.
New York Times: California Seeks to Clear Hemp of a Bad Name
Charles Meyer’s politics are as steady and unswerving as the rows of pima cotton on his Central Valley farm. With his work-shirt blue eyes and flinty Clint Eastwood demeanor, he is staunchly in favor of the war in Iraq, against gun control and believes people unwilling to recite the Pledge of Allegiance should be kicked out of America, and fast.
But what gets him excited is the crop he sees as a potential windfall for California farmers: industrial hemp, or Cannabis sativa. The rapidly growing plant with a seemingly infinite variety of uses is against federal law to grow because of its association with its evil twin, marijuana.
“Industrial hemp is a wholesome product,†said Mr. Meyer, 65, who says he has never worn tie-dye and professes a deep disdain for “dope.â€
“The fact we’re not growing it is asinine,†Mr. Meyer said.
Things could change if a measure passed by legislators in Sacramento and now on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk becomes law. [The bill reached Mr. Schwarzenegger last week; he has 30 days to sign or veto it.]
Seven states have passed bills supporting the farming of industrial hemp; their strategy has been to try to get permission from the Drug Enforcement Administration to proceed.
Of course, it is asinine and Governor Schwarzenegger will probably sign the bill. Flap uses a hemp based moisturizer for his feet and it works well. There are many non-illegal uses for this crop and should be permitted.
Domestic hemp production was promoted in World War II but later outlawed. Hemp twine was on sale this month at the 15th annual Hempfest in Seattle.
But, will Schwarzenegger pick a fight with the federal government over this issue?
Probably
It won’t be the first or the last time for Arnold.
In North Dakota, the state agricultural commissioner, Roger Johnson, has proposed allowing hemp farming, and has been working with federal drug regulators on stringent regulations that would include fingerprinting farmers and requiring G.P.S. coordinates of hemp fields.
“We’ve done our level best to convince them we’re not a bunch of wackos,†Mr. Johnson said.
Fifteen years ago, he noted, there was little market for canola, which is now a major crop produced for its cooking oil. He sees hemp in a similar vein and dismisses the fears that it would lead to criminality.
“It would take a joint the size of a telephone pole to have an impact,†he said.
Captain Ed has Time To Legalize Hemp? And Perhaps Marijuana?
Technorati Tags: Hemp, ArnoldSchwarzenegger
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Day By Day by Chris Muir August 28, 2006
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Bear Flag League Watch: Congratulations to XRLQ on the Birth of his SON
Congrats to Bear Flag League member Xrlq on the birth of his son.
Technorati Tags: XRLQ, BearFlagLeague -
Cox & Forkum on Disarming Hezbollah
Cox & Forkum: Militant Message
The Age: Disarming Hezbollah put on hold.
ISRAEL has dropped its demand for the immediate disarming of Hezbollah and begun to focus on persuading UN forces to stop the flow of weapons into Lebanon.Israel accepted that its goals must be realistic and the first step was to prevent Hezbollah from staging cross-border raids or acquiring long-range weapons, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
“It is not that we have given up on disarming Hezbollah in Lebanon, but we see it as a process and the most important thing is … to prevent their strategic rearmament,” he said.
The UN-brokered ceasefire says international forces must help the Lebanese army disarm militias, but it does not specify whether they should actively remove weapons from Hezbollah fighters.
And what are the U.N.’s plans for disarming Hezbollah? From AP: Israel seeks troops from Muslim nations. (via LGF)
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed Friday it was not the peacekeepers’ task to strip the guerrillas of their weapons, saying that was an issue for Lebanon’s government and “cannot be done by force.”“The troops are not going there to disarm Hezbollah. Let’s be clear about that,” he said.
Meanwhile in Iraq, from AP: Blasts in Iraq kill 31, injure dozens.
This cartoon is a take on Ben Franklin’s “Join, Or Die” cartoon (and not our first).
Technorati Tags: Cox&Forkum, Israel, Hezbollah
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Michael Ramirez on Saddam Hussein and the Iraq War
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CIA Leak Case Watch: Witch Hunt by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage pauses while meeting Russia’s Security Council chief Igor Ivanov in Moscow in this Oct. 28, 2004, file photo. Armitage’s official State Department calendars, provided to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show a one-hour meeting marked ‘private appointment’ with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward on June 13, 2003. The mid-June 2003 meeting occurred the same time the reporter has testified an administration official talked to him about CIA employee Valerie Plame.
Captain Ed has Just A Plame Waste Of Time
Michael Isikoff and David Corn have a new book coming out that reveals the inside details of the leak that allowed Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA agent to be uncovered. As widely speculated, the leak came from Richard Armitage, Colin Powell’s key deputy, and it came without malicious intent.
Read it all.
Like Flap said before here – this investigation by Patrick Fitzgerald was a waste of time. Now it turns out it was just an ordinary Washington witch hunt.
Tom Maguire has The ‘Hubris’ Of Richard Armitage
Flap asks when will the Scooter Libby prosecution be dropped?
Hopefully soon and the Wilson’s lawsuit?
Please…..
Previous:CIA Leak Case Watch: Was it Richard Armitage?
CIA Leak Case Watch: Karl Rove Won’t Be Charged in CIA Leak Case
Plamegate Watch: Valerie Plame Cashes IN
CIA Leak Case Watch: Bob Novak – “President Knows Leak Sourceâ€
Technorati Tags: RichardArmitage, BobWoodward, ValeriePlame, JosephWilson, CIA, CIALeakCase, PatrickFitzgerald, RobertNovak, ScooterLibby
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Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Tests Submarine to Surface Missile
Iran’s army naval forces fire a ground-to-sea missile during a large maneuver in the Sea of Oman, near Jask, southern Iran, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006.
AP: Iran tests submarine-to-surface missile
Iran test fired a new submarine-to-surface missile during war games in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, a show of military might amid a standoff with the West over its nuclear activities.
A brief video clip showed the long-range missile, called Thaqeb, or Saturn, exiting the water and hitting a target on the water’s surface within less than a mile. The test came as part of large-scale military exercises that began Aug. 19.
“The army successfully test fired a top speed long-range sub-to-surface missile off the Persian Gulf,” the navy commander, Gen. Sajjad Kouchaki, said on state-run television.
Iran in a blatant show of military force is demonstrating their missile prowess in order to scare the world (most notably the Europeans) that Iran WILL PLAY THE “OIL CARD.”
And now Iran adds submarine missiles to attack surface ships – oil tankers or warships.
All of these political and military manuevers are to intimidate the UNSC into delaying economic/trade/travel sanctions after the August 31 deadline for Iran to halt uranium enrichment?
But, the United Security Council will NEVER vote for meaningful sanctions anyway.
Tehran has expressed worry about Israeli threats to destroy its nuclear facilities, which the West contends could be used to make a bomb but which Iran insists are for the peaceful purpose of generating electricity. The Islamic country also is concerned about the U.S. military presence in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan.
In an advance for Iran’s weapons industry, the Thaqeb is the country’s first missile fired from underwater that flies above the surface to strike its target, adding to the country’s repertoire of weapons that can hit ships in the Gulf.
Iran’s current arsenal includes several types of torpedoes — including the “Hoot,” Farsi for “whale,” which was tested for the first time in April and is capable of moving at some 223 mph, up to four times faster than a normal torpedo.
Kouchaki said the Thaqeb could be fired from any vessel and could escape enemy radar. He said it was built based on domestic know-how, although outside experts say much of the country’s missile technology originated from other countries like Russia and China.
He did not give the weapon’s range. It did not appear capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
During the April war games, Iran also tested a new land-to-sea missile, the Kowsar, with remote-control and searching systems that cannot be scrambled, as well as a high-speed missile boat that skims above the water and is undetectable by radar.
The progress in naval technology has raised concerns in the West that Iran has obtained a greater array of weapons that could hit oil shipments in the Gulf, through which about two-fifths of the world’s oil supplies pass.
When the “POINT OF NO RETURN” is reached the United States and Israel will ACT against Iran’s nuclear targets regardless of Iran’s display of force. Will world oil supplies be disrupted?
Probably
Is it a price to pay to assure Iran’s mullahs NOT obtain nuclear weapons?
YOU BET……
Stay tuned……
Previous:
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Launches a New Phase in the Arak Heavy-Water Reactor Project
Iran Nuclear Watch: Russia Rejects United Nations Sanctions Against Iran
Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Sending a “CLEAR†Message to Iran
The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.
Technorati Tags: Iran, Ahmadinejad
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Day By Day by Chris Muir August 27, 2006
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Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Launches a New Phase in the Arak Heavy-Water Reactor Project
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (C) inaugurates the Arak heavy-water project 190 km (120 miles) southwest of Tehran August 26, 2006. Iran’s president launched a new phase in the Arak heavy-water reactor project on Saturday, despite Western fears it is aimed at producing a bomb.
Reuters: Iran launches new nuclear project
Iran’s president launched a new phase in the Arak heavy-water reactor project on Saturday, saying Tehran would not give up its right to nuclear technology despite Western fears it is aimed at producing a bomb.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was speaking just days ahead of a United Nations deadline for Iran to halt uranium enrichment or face possible sanctions.
“No one can deprive a nation of its rights based on its capabilities,” Ahmadinejad said in his speech to inaugurate the project. The plant’s plutonium by-product could be used to make atomic warheads.
Flap previously reported that Iran will announce a “nuclear breakthrough” and I suppose this is one of them prior to the United Nations Security Council deadline on August 31. The UNSCR demanded Iran halt uranium enrichment.
So, what is the significance of this project?
PLUTONIUM
An Iranian official said the project is not a proliferation risk because heavy water had no military use but a Western diplomat said it was not a constructive step.
The ceremony at the heavy water site at Khondab, near Arak, was attended by foreign and Iranian journalists.
The complex was protected by dozens of anti-aircraft guns and surrounded by a four-meter high barbed wire fence. Photographers and TV journalists were asked not to take any images except in areas where they were specifically permitted.
Another target another this reactor has not been completed. Israel loves to bomb unfinished nuclear reactors – remember Saddam’s?
But, Iran President Ahmadinejad says there is nothing to fear.
“Iran is not a threat to anybody, not even to the Zionist regime,” Ahmadinejad said, using Iran’s term for its arch-enemy Israel, which the Islamic Republic does not recognize.
Flap does not think Israel will view this development is quite this way.
An aerial view of a heavy-water production plant, which went into operation despite U.N. demands that Iran roll back its nuclear program, in the central Iranian town of Arak, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Saturday, after the inauguration of the plant, that his nation’s controversial nuclear program poses no threat to any other country, even Israel ‘which is a definite enemy.’
In the meantime, the United States is preparing to further isolate Iran.
Los Angeles Times: U.S. May Curb Iran
If the U.N. Security Council won’t penalize Tehran for its nuclear program, the White House may forge an alliance to do so.
U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton said in an interview late this week that the United States planned to introduce a resolution imposing penalties such as a travel ban and asset freeze for key Iranian leaders soon after the Aug. 31 deadline, and seemed optimistic that China and Russia would agree to it once they saw the text. “Everybody’s been on board,” he said.
But in case Russia and China do not accept it, the U.S. is working a parallel diplomatic track outside the U.N., Bolton said.
Under U.S. terrorism laws, Washington could ramp up its own sanctions, including financial constraints on Tehran and interception of missile and nuclear materials en route to Iran, Bolton said, and the U.S. is encouraging other countries to follow suit. “You don’t need Security Council authority to impose sanctions, just as we have,” he said.
The Los Angeles Times blathers on about a weak United States position on Iran. Blah Blah….
It only makes sense that the United States develop a parallel diplomatic track because it is not a “WEAK” United States that is failing in the United Nations. Russia and China are feckless in their economic and business deals with Iran. They will NEVER support economic or any meaningful sanctions.
And who is to say that sanctions will work in the first place?
United Nations and P-5-Plus-1 negotiations and diplomatic engagement have been a failure and are WORTHLESS.
The United States has entered a new “IRAN COLD WAR” and will have to go it alone.
Israel is already prepared to go it alone against Iran.
When the “POINT OF NO RETURN” arrives Israel and the United States will have a choice.
No more talks – PREPARE THE MILITARY DETERRENCE AND MISSILE DEFENSE.
Iran near the Arak nuclear research reactor. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted that Iran is no threat to Israel as he inaugurated a heavy water production plant just five days before a UN Security Council deadline to suspend sensitive nuclear fuel cycle work.
Stay tuned…..
Captain Ed has Surprise!
The Germans tried using heavy water for its own atomic-weapons program during World War II, and for a solid technical reason: it eliminates the need for uranium enrichment to fuel reactors, which can then yield weapons-grade fissile material. It seems as though the Iranians want to cover all their bases in creating the fuel for nuclear weapons; they continue to pursue enrichment in parallel.
Ahmadinejad’s construction of the heavy-water plant puts a stake in the heart of the argument that Iran only wants peaceful nuclear energy. Their multiple-tracked efforts to achieve plutonium production shows quite clearly that they have spent more effort than necessary to get simple civil nuclear power production. The incentive package offered by the West would have given it to them in any case.
Yes, it appears Iran is going for a duel track in order to generate nuclear material to make weapons. Flap will link up to future posts when the nuclear scientists start to weigh into the analysis of Iran’s new conduct and strategy.
We need to recognize that few Western nations have the stomach to oppose Ahmadinejad and the mullahcracy. The UN will not act; Russia and China have made that impossible, and in any case, we have seem what the UN does with sanctions regimes. We need to gather as many nations together who understand the nature of Iran and the threat a nuclear-armed mullahcracy presents, and act to stop it. That doesn’t necessarily mean war, but it does mean putting massive resources into whatever means we have to undermine the mullahcracy from within. Otherwise, if we continue to dither, war will be the only choice left open to us, and at some point, Iran will take that choice away from us as well.
Sanctions are meaningless.
The United States and Israel are alone in opposing Iran’s nuclear intentions.
Previous:
Iran Nuclear Watch: Russia Rejects United Nations Sanctions Against Iran
Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Sending a “CLEAR†Message to Iran
Iran Nuclear Watch: Germany – Iran’s Response to P-5-Plus-1 Proposal is Unsatisfactory
Iran Nuclear Watch: P-5-Plus-1 – Will Likely Reject Tehran’s Terms for Talks
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran to Announce Nuclear “Breakthroughâ€
Iran Nuclear Watch: Showdown at United Nations Next Week?
Iran Nuclear Watch: Carrot and Stick?
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Responds to the P-5-Plus-1
Michael Ramirez on Nuclear Iran and the United Nations
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Blocks United Nations Nuclear Inspections
Iran Nuclear Watch: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – Iran Will Continue Nuclear Program
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Says It Will NOT Halt Uranium Enrichment
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Military Exercises to Test Asymmetrical Warfare Combat Doctrine
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Information Blackout – Police Destroying Satellite Dishes in Tehran
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Ready to Discuss Suspension of Uranium Enrichment?
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Cleric Ahmad Khatami Warns Israel of Missile Attack
The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.
Technorati Tags: Iran, Ahmadinejad