1913 Intel
1 vote
Flush with billions from the sale of oil and gas, the Kremlin may calculate that it does not need allies in the West and would rather be respected and feared than befriended.
That too would be a serious mistake. For all its big-power bluster, Russia is weak and vulnerable. Russian tanks and aircraft may have smashed the fledgeling Georgian Army with ease, but most of the weaponry was Cold War-era and many of the troops conscripts. Anyone who has seen the Russian Army operating in the Caucasus knows that the military will need a generation to modernise. Meanwhile America, and its main Nato read more »
That too would be a serious mistake. For all its big-power bluster, Russia is weak and vulnerable. Russian tanks and aircraft may have smashed the fledgeling Georgian Army with ease, but most of the weaponry was Cold War-era and many of the troops conscripts. Anyone who has seen the Russian Army operating in the Caucasus knows that the military will need a generation to modernise. Meanwhile America, and its main Nato read more »
1 vote
It's true that there are parallels between Western and Middle Eastern societies. But even leaving aside important doctrinal religious issues, the crucial difference between the two is that phenomena the West has left far back in the past continue to exist in Muslim-majority counterparts.
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1 vote
It is the Olmert-Livni-Barak government's serial incompetence that ironically serves as the second reason that there has been no accounting for the failure of the Gaza withdrawal plan. Quite simply, the government has moved from failure to failure so quickly that there has been no opportunity to confront the results of the last failure before the next one is spun out of the government's policy chop-shop.
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1 vote
An Iranian news network IRNN showed footage of what it called a domestically-manufactured communications satellite named Safir-e Omid being launched in darkness, accompanied by patriotic hymns, Sunday, Aug. 17.
DEBKAfile's military sources stress that confirmation of Iranג€™s successful launch would represent a strategic breakthrough, testifying to Tehranג€™s ability to fire ballistic missiles possibly armed with nuclear warheads to distances of thousands of kilometers, against Israel and beyond; Europe and parts of Asia would also be in range. The launching would have paved the way for s read more »
DEBKAfile's military sources stress that confirmation of Iranג€™s successful launch would represent a strategic breakthrough, testifying to Tehranג€™s ability to fire ballistic missiles possibly armed with nuclear warheads to distances of thousands of kilometers, against Israel and beyond; Europe and parts of Asia would also be in range. The launching would have paved the way for s read more »
1 vote
DEBKAfile’s exclusive military sources reveal a Russian fleet of warships and marine forces massed opposite the semi-autonomous region of Ajaria on Georgia's southwestern border with Turkey, ready to punish what it regards as Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili’s further provocations.
The appearance of five former Warsaw pact rulers alongside Saakashvili at a huge national rally outside the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi Tuesday night, Aug. 12, may well be seen by the Kremlin as intolerable provocation.
More... read more »
The appearance of five former Warsaw pact rulers alongside Saakashvili at a huge national rally outside the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi Tuesday night, Aug. 12, may well be seen by the Kremlin as intolerable provocation.
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1 vote
He demanded that Russia open all routes to these deliveries and to civilian transit.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the strong military actions a furious US president George W. Bush ordered Wednesday, Aug. 13, after seven days of Russian-Georgian warfare, amount to a bid to break the sea, land and air blockade Russia still maintains against Georgia in violation of the EU-brokered ceasefire.
The first direct US-Russian military clashes in Georgia are now possible if the Russians fail to give way when challenged by US air transports and vessels heading for Georgia. For seven da read more »
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the strong military actions a furious US president George W. Bush ordered Wednesday, Aug. 13, after seven days of Russian-Georgian warfare, amount to a bid to break the sea, land and air blockade Russia still maintains against Georgia in violation of the EU-brokered ceasefire.
The first direct US-Russian military clashes in Georgia are now possible if the Russians fail to give way when challenged by US air transports and vessels heading for Georgia. For seven da read more »
1 vote
The fighting between Russian and Georgian troops that began last week is causing concern in the oil industry. BP has shut down a major strategic pipeline carrying Caspian oil from Azerbaijan to the Georgian Sea, citing concern about security in Georgia. Carola Hoyos, chief energy correspondent for the Financial Times, talks with Steve Inskeep about the conflict's impact on Europe's oil supply.
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1 vote
Lost amid all the controversies surrounding the Georgian tragedy is the sheer diabolic brilliance of the long-planned Russia invasion. Let us count the ways in which it is a win/win situation for Russia.
The Home Front
The long-suffering Russian people resent the loss of global influence and empire, but not necessarily the Soviet Union and its gulags that once ensured such stature. The invasion restores a sense of Russian nationalism and power to its populace without the stink of Stalinism, and is indeed cloaked as a sort of humanitarian intervention on behalf of beleaguered Ossetians.
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The Home Front
The long-suffering Russian people resent the loss of global influence and empire, but not necessarily the Soviet Union and its gulags that once ensured such stature. The invasion restores a sense of Russian nationalism and power to its populace without the stink of Stalinism, and is indeed cloaked as a sort of humanitarian intervention on behalf of beleaguered Ossetians.
read more »
1 vote
The west has been remarkably sanguine about this resurgence of authoritarianism, and one reason is that, this time, the comrades have money. Even as the Kremlin repeatedly confiscates the assets not just of its own businesspeople, but of foreign ones, too, investment bankers, and plain old investors, are flocking to a Moscow flush with petro-roubles. The same is true of the Gulf states. China, on a path to become the world’s largest economy, is the most attractive of all.
But the Age of Authoritarianism is bad news for all of us, not just the human rights campaigners that businesspeople an read more »
But the Age of Authoritarianism is bad news for all of us, not just the human rights campaigners that businesspeople an read more »
2 votes
New development on Iran,while everyone watching Russia - Georgia story.
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1 vote
The head of Hamas's politburo in Damascus, Khalid Mash'al, recently telephoned Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and denounced the International Criminal Court's accusations against him, according to an article that appeared on the Palestinian Maan News Agency website. The "armed wing" of Hamas also proclaimed Bashir's innocence on their website.
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1 vote
Militant Islam, or what US President George W Bush once called "Islamo-fascism", may look back on the last months of the Bush administration as its moment in the sun. Iran's nuclear program soon may cross the point of no return; Pakistan's ruling coalition may have become the instrument of Muslim revanchism against India; and Turkey may return to Islamist rule in a "silent revolution" that will dismantle the secular institutions that have prevailed for three generations. In the first two cases, the US State Department played Dr Frankenstein to the creation of an Islamist monster, and I believ
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1 vote
Tehran's efforts to intimidate the United States and Israel from using military force against its nuclear program, combined with yet another diplomatic charm offensive with the Europeans, are two sides of the same policy coin. The regime is buying the short additional period of time it needs to produce deliverable nuclear weapons, the strategic objective it has been pursuing clandestinely for 20 years.
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1 vote
On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney told Georgia's pro-American president that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States," Cheney's office reported.
While Georgia said its troops have retreated from South Ossetia and are honoring a cease-fire, Russia disputed the claim, and U.S. officials said Moscow was only expanding its blitz into new areas. read more »
While Georgia said its troops have retreated from South Ossetia and are honoring a cease-fire, Russia disputed the claim, and U.S. officials said Moscow was only expanding its blitz into new areas. read more »
1 vote
The fact that Georgia is seemingly undaunted in its military pursuit of South Ossetia despite insurmountable odds with Russian forces I fear speaks to a possible preplanned contingency whereby NATO and or other major players will enter the fray when escalations can justify their military intervention. How else can we understand or explain Georgias continued pursuit of this seemingly unattainable military victory over South Ossetia? How will this proxy war play out? What escalations are planned or created by conditions dictation on the near horizon, and how this may play into other standoffs w
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1 vote
guardian.co.uk,
Saturday August 09 2008 10:50 BST
Russia said today it had pushed Georgian forces from the capital of South Ossetia in fierce fighting that Moscow said had killed 1,500 people.On the second day of fighting that started with a Georgian military attempt to retake the separatist region, Russian planes widened the conflict, attacking targets deep inside Georgia. read more »
Saturday August 09 2008 10:50 BST
Russia said today it had pushed Georgian forces from the capital of South Ossetia in fierce fighting that Moscow said had killed 1,500 people.On the second day of fighting that started with a Georgian military attempt to retake the separatist region, Russian planes widened the conflict, attacking targets deep inside Georgia. read more »
1 vote
(AP:BRUSSELS, Belgium) The European Union tightened trade sanctions against Iran Friday for defying a long-standing international demand to freeze uranium enrichment. France, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said European governments would also carefully watch financial groups doing business with Iranian banks and step up checks on ships and airplanes traveling to Iran. The measures would be in addition to _ not in place of _ a fourth set of tougher U.N. Security Council penalties, which Britain expects to be considered in New York in October or November, and the newly tightened EU tra
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1 vote
By Joshua Gleis
Boston Globe www.boston.com/bostonglobe
August 9, 2008
TALKS WITH Iran have reached another impasse. The Islamic regime recently rejected yet another package of incentives that the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany put together in an effort to coax Tehran from ending its nuclear enrichment program. Intelligence agencies fear the Iranians will soon reach the critical "point of no return" when they will have the technological know-how to develop a nuclear weapon. That apprehension has set off a flurry of rumors that Israel or the United States will read more »
Boston Globe www.boston.com/bostonglobe
August 9, 2008
TALKS WITH Iran have reached another impasse. The Islamic regime recently rejected yet another package of incentives that the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany put together in an effort to coax Tehran from ending its nuclear enrichment program. Intelligence agencies fear the Iranians will soon reach the critical "point of no return" when they will have the technological know-how to develop a nuclear weapon. That apprehension has set off a flurry of rumors that Israel or the United States will read more »
1 vote
Georgian offensive blunted by Russian Armor?
Stalemate to resume after war with Georgia/South Ossetia? Will Georgia continue pursuing its military objectives despite strong action and support from Russia of the besieged caucus? Will Russia attempt to reclaim South Ossetia for itself? A lot of questions arise from latest incursions, especially with Russia's answer coming in the form of a column of 150 state of the art battle tanks. Tense times when you think of the differing Geopolitical situations in Russia, USA, NATO, Israel, then when these border disputes originated, vs now after y read more »
Stalemate to resume after war with Georgia/South Ossetia? Will Georgia continue pursuing its military objectives despite strong action and support from Russia of the besieged caucus? Will Russia attempt to reclaim South Ossetia for itself? A lot of questions arise from latest incursions, especially with Russia's answer coming in the form of a column of 150 state of the art battle tanks. Tense times when you think of the differing Geopolitical situations in Russia, USA, NATO, Israel, then when these border disputes originated, vs now after y read more »
1 vote
South Ossetia will not be lost to Georgia as far as Russia is concerned, as battles rage to try to push the Georgian offensive back. Major world powers and military blocs call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and specifically a withdrawal of Russian reinforcements which is likely the only thing stopping Georgia from claiming a military victory over South Ossetia; however Russia seems unshakably determined to assert its military might and repel the Georgians. How far either Russia or Georgia is willing to go is unclear, or what will become of South Ossetia, however at this juncture it
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