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Wednesday, September 11, 2013
9/11 Bikers Send Strong Message to Muslims: Can You Hear US Now?
Is Russia toying with US? Missile sale to Iran raises question...
Potential delivery of Russia's S-300 missile system to Iran has been floated in a Moscow paper as the Kremlin seeks leverage in its dispute with the US over Syria.
By Fred Weir, Correspondent, Mike Eckel, Correspondent / September 11, 2013
The Russian missile system, S-300 VM, is on display at the opening of the MAKS Air Show in Zhukovsky outside Moscow on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
Ivan Sekretarev/AP
MOSCOW
Russia and the United States may have found common ground on Syria’s chemical weapons, giving President Barack Obama a way to avoid threatened missile strikes and President Vladimir Putin a way to support longtime ally Syria.
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But the Russians may be playing a more complicated game than the Americans realize, possibly reviving talk of the arms deal with Iran to create added leverage in their ongoing dispute with the US over what to do about Syria.
The respected Russian daily Kommersant reported Wednesday that the Kremlin has decided to go ahead with the sale of a package of its advanced S-300 antiaircraft missile system to Iran, reversing a decisionmade three years ago by then-President Dmitry Medvedev. The Kremlin issued a terse denial, saying that Mr. Putin did not give orders to prepare a new S-300 deal with Iran.
One of the most sophisticated missile defense systems in the world, the S-300 would give Iran a major capability to defend against air strikes, something that alarms Israel, where leaders have frequently mused about an air mission to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The newspaper cited sources close to the Kremlin as saying that Putin is considering a proposal to Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, that could undermine the new spirit of US-Russian cooperation over Syria. Putin and Mr. Rouhani will meet Friday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Kyrgyzstan.
According to the story, Russia is worried about a $4 billion lawsuit that Iran filed in a Geneva arbitration court after Russia canceled an $800-million contract to supply five batteries of long-range S-300 systems to Tehran. The paper says the new deal would involve five batteries of an upgraded version of the S-300, known as S-300VM. The new deal would be offered on condition that Iran withdraws its lawsuit against Rosoboronexport, the Russian state-run arms exporting company.
Another reactor?
The newspaper also said Russia would offer to construct a second reactor for Iran's Russian-built civilian nuclear power plant at Bushehr, the first of which went online about two years ago. Bushehr’s construction was highly controversial, with the US, Israel and others worrying that the plant would give Iran a way to divert uranium for weapons.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the Kommersant report, telling Ekho Moskvi radio Wednesday "Vladimir Putin did not give instructions for the question of supplying modified S-300 complexes to be studied."
The Russian missile system, which is comparable to the US Patriot antimissile defense system, has been a regular source of controversy, in large part because of its long range -- up to 120 miles -- and ability to track multiple targets. Before Mr. Medvedev cancelled the S-300 deal with Iran in 2010, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu made repeated visits to Moscow in an effort to persuade the Kremlin not to go ahead with the sale.
Similarly, the US and Israel staged a diplomatic full court press to persuade Putin to cancel a contract to supply S-300s to Syria earlier this year. It was unclear whether that sale had gone through until Putin explained in an interview last week "we have a contract for the supply of S-300s [to Syria], and we have already supplied some of its components. But the delivery has not been completed, and we have suspended it for now."
In the same interview, Putin implied that Russia had agreed to halt sales of the S-300 to Syria and Iran in order to support international efforts to promote peace negotiations. He said Russian policy could change if the West embarks on military-backed campaigns for regime change.
"If we see that steps are being taken that violate current international norms, we shall think how we should act in the future, including with regard to supplies of such sensitive weapons to certain parts of the world," Putin was quoted as saying.
That thought was expressed more bluntly on Wednesday by the hawkish chair of the State Duma's international affairs committee, Alexei Pushkov, who told parliament that if the US turns away from the path of diplomacy in Syria in favor of military action, Russia should think of ways to retaliate. "If the war party prevails in the US. . . I would consider it absolutely justified to (take) more serious measures, including increasing the supply of defensive weapons to Iran and changing the terms of our cooperation with the US on Afghanistan, particularly transit conditions," Mr. Pushkov was quoted as saying.
Leverage
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan confirmed Wednesday that Iran is pressing Russia to fulfill the S-300 contract, using the lawsuit as a prod. "It comes to me as a question how is it that a former world power and one of the current powers of the world doesn’t implement an inked legal international contract. " Dehquan was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying. “[The Russians] have signed a contract and they should come and implement it.”
Vladimir Yevseyev, an analyst at the official Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow, says that Medvedev went beyond the terms of the 2010 UN Security Council resolution placing sanctions on Iran, which Russia supported, when he canceled the S-300 deal. "Russia has no choice here. We either supply the S-300s, or pay them $4 billion. It's not a matter for discussion. Moscow doesn't really care what Washington or Tel Aviv thinks about it," he says.
Fiona Hill, a former top Russia and Eurasia official at the US National Intelligence Council, said the sale, or the threat of the sale, would act as leverage for Moscow in dealing with Washington. In other words, Moscow may not actually seek to follow through with the delivery, but just have that option to negotiate with the Americans, or the Iranians.
“This is how they always play on these sort of issues,” she says. “Just because they appear to be cooperative on this issue… does not change their overall activity on all the Middle East issues... Mr. Putin is perfectly capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time,” she says.
Officials at the US State Department and the White House could not be immediately reached for comment.
Sergei Strokan, a foreign affairs columnist with Kommersant, says that there has been conflict inside Russia's establishment over the wisdom of canceling the S-300 contract with Iran from the very beginning. "I recall a flurry of discussions at the time over whether that deal violated the Security Council resolution that we had supported, so this is not a particularly new question," he says.
Mr. Strokan says the missile deal, if it goes through, would solve two Russian problems with one decision.
“First, it would remove the biggest irritant in our relations with Iran. The cancellation of that S-300 sale angered Tehran a lot, and led to that lawsuit in Geneva. Second, it would send a message to the US that we are still capable of making things much more complicated, if they decide not to keep up their side of understandings we thought we had."
Colorado Lawmakers Ousted in Recall Vote Over Gun Law
- NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/us/colorado-lawmaker-concedes-defeat-in-recall-over-gun-law.html?hp&_r=0
A Benghazi memorial will soon rise from the corrupt soil of Washington, D.C.
Sept 11 is no longer just about the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Sept 11 is now the anniversary of the death of 4 American citizens who believed their government would protect them, but didn't. The statue "While DC Slept" is a tribute to these men, especially the two Navy SEALS who fought against all odds for over 20 hours, as Barack Obama flew to parties, and Hillary Clinton slept through the "3 AM" phone call. Obama and Clinton will have no choice but to come face-to-face with their treachery. More importantly, this monument will stand as a reminder of Democrat corruption to future generations. Greg Marra, the artist who created the statue for fallen Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle, has already begun working on the memorial to commemorate the 4 fallen in Benghazi. The statue depicts the artist's vision of the incident: One man praying, another behind the two fallen Navy SEALS—men who fought for over 20 hours against impossible odds. | |
| We're asking all patriotic Americans to sponsor this larger-than-life statue. We want citizens of all ages to walk around the figures and remember the deadly decisions made by evil politicians. The statue will help Americans understand what happened to these men, while D.C. slept. | |
| Don't let the memory of American patriots who died at Benghazi fade into re-written history books! We will never forget what happened WHILE D.C. SLEPT. —Thank you for your support! | |
2 Million Hogs: Libtardian D.C. Throws up Roadblock for Patriotic Bikers
Now, the bikers will be stopping at every stop sign or stop light, yielding to pedestrians wherever appropriate, and otherwise observing all traffic regulations.
These are the plans being confirmed today on Facebook and other social media mediums for the bikers who decided to rally at the same time the American Muslim Political Action Committee proposed what originally was billed as a “Million Muslim March,” which was given a permit.
The Muslim organization later changed the name to “Million American March Against Fear,” and where promoters initially said their march was to protest “anti-Islamic bigotry in the years that ensued the al-Qaida terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil,” it later was changed.
Now the group says its goal is to “ask all individuals and organizations working for peace to attend this collective action to tell our government leaders we want transparency and policies of peace. In the past 12 years since 9/11 the United States government as failed to protect and promote constitutional liberties and human life, here and abroad. We feel that accountability in government has been ignored and the time has arrived to collectively speak truth to power.”
That was after an early statement from promoters that said, “On 9.11.01 our country was forever changed by the horrific events in New York. The entire country was victimized by the acts done on that day. Muslim and non Muslim alike were traumatized but we as Muslims continue 12 years later to be victimized by being made the villains. To this day every media outlet and anti Islamic organization has committed slanderous and libel statements against us as Muslims and our religion of Islam.”
The issue of the denial of a permit for special accommodations for the bikers seem of little consequence to those attending.
At BizPacReview, writer Joe Saunders reported, “Denied a permit by the nation’s capital for a special ‘non-stop’ ride through town with a waiver for red lights, stop signs and other traffic controls, organizers of the ’2 Million Bikers to DC’ ride to remember 9/11 are undeterred.
“Just riding on a public street doesn’t take any special permission after all, even if you have a million people doing it. They just sought the permit to make life easier on the city’s residents and businesses.
…
On the Facebook page, the community purpose is described as: “To honor those who were killed on 911 and our armed forces who fought those who precipitated this attack!”
Volunteers were coordinating travel for groups from various states.
…
Bryan Short said: “How appropriate. A million muslims surrounded by 2 million hogs!”
ACT for America founder Brigitte Gabriel blasted the Muslim organization for setting an agenda, and then modifying it to make it appear more inclusive.
“It is amazing how fast they changed the original language on their website claiming victimhood, bigotry, and unfair treatment since Sept. 11th 2001,” Gabriel said. “Once they were confronted and debated by people like me who pointed out to them that in the last four years alone we have arrested on American soil 226 home grown terrorists. One-hundred eighty six of them were Muslims. Not Jews. Not Hindus, not Buddhist. But Muslims.”
Gabriel says the facts are that Muslim immigrants to the U. S. are responsible for a disproportionally large number of domestic terrorism cases.
Bikers Up!!! Muslims go back to @$'hbfcs&$$)(;;:/;
No permit, but bikers plan D.C. ride to protest Muslim 9/11 march - Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/10/no-permit-but-bikers-plan-dc-ride-to-protest-musli/
Syria Tells You Everything You Need to Know About Barack Obama
- NationalJournal.com
http://www.nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/syria-tells-you-everything-you-need-to-know-about-barack-obama-20130910?mrefid=site_search
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