Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Study Warns U.S. Nuclear Strategy is on Course for Disaster
Jun 24th, 2015
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Maintenance on US missile with nuclear warhead

A new study from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) warns of dire consequences if the US does not dramatically change its nuclear weapons policy in the coming years, reports the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday.

Lead author Clark Murdock, a strategic planning and defense expert, warned in the study entitled "Project Atom" that American foreign policy between 2025-2050 will be bogged down dealing with rampant global nuclear proliferation if dramatic changes are not made immediately.

"The value of nuclear weapons as a ‘trump card’ for negating US conventional power was enhanced by the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 to prevent Saddam Hussein from acquiring a nuclear weapon," Murdock writes. "If the United States apparently believes that it can be deterred by an adversary’s nuclear weapons, why wouldn’t a nonnuclear ‘regional rogue’ want one?"

According to the argument, "rogue" states estimate that they will be able to defeat the US's conventional military power by developing nuclear weapons, and therefore they will push forward on nuclear programs to gain international clout and power.

The warning is all the more relevant as North Korea has achieved a nuclear arsenal even after signing a nuclear deal with the US in the 1990s, and as a deal with Iran is set to be sealed by a June 30 deadline in the coming days.

Murdock calls on the US to modernize its nuclear arsenal and likewise obtain enhanced tactical nuclear capabilities so as to maintain an edge and deter rival or rogue states from pursuing the path of proliferation.

The expert warned that if the US does not make the policy changes, between 2025 and 2050 two major developments are likely to occur on the world scene. First, the US will lose its deterrence ability as nuclear proliferation abounds, and secondly more than 11 nuclear powers will emerge after 2030.

Surpassed by Russia and China?

Murdock noted that Russia currently has the upper hand in terms of non-strategic nuclear force, and called on the US to develop small-scale missiles and other tactical nuclear weapons to confront this threat.

"US nuclear forces were designed for a global conflict involving the exchange of thousands of high-yield weapons, not limited exchanges of low-yield weapons," writes the expert. "Since most US nuclear response options are large, ‘dirty,’ and inflict significant collateral damage, the United States might be ‘self-deterred’ and not respond ‘in kind’ to discriminate nuclear attacks."

Aside from Russia, co-authors of the study Barry Blechman and Russel Rumbaugh warned that China will also be a major threat in the coming years, a warning strengthened by recent Chinese tests of a hypersonic vehicle capable of defeating US defenses and delivering a nuclear strike.

The two wrote, "given its 20 years of investments in building a more modern military and continuing economic growth, China could plausibly threaten the United States’ ability to conduct specific military actions in regions near China’s coasts within the next several decades. If realized, such threats could jeopardize America’s ability to fulfill its commitments to defend certain allies."

Indicating the US's awareness of the increasing nuclear threats warned about in the new study, it was revealed in April that the Pentagon reopened the Cheyenne Mountain Air Defense facility, which was closed in 2006.

The move was seen as a response to the threat of a nuclear weapon being detonated over the US and causing an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) disabling America's ability to defend from secondary nuclear strikes, since the facility is built to withstand EMP strikes.

Pentagon: China Aims to Challenge U.S. Air Dominance
Jun 24th, 2015
Daily NewsThe Washington Free Beacon
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A Chinese J-11 fighter jet is seen flying near a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon east of China's Hainan Island

China is mounting a serious effort to challenge U.S. military superiority in air and space, forcing the Pentagon to seek new technologies and systems to stay ahead of its rapidly developing rival, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said on Monday.

The Pentagon’s chief operating officer, speaking to a group of military and civilian aerospace experts, said China was “quickly closing the technological gaps,” developing radar-evading aircraft, advanced reconnaissance planes, sophisticated missiles and top-notch electronic warfare equipment.

While hoping for a constructive relationship with China, the Pentagon “cannot overlook the competitive aspects of our relationship, especially in the realm of military capabilities, an area in which China continues to improve at a very impressive rate,” he said.

China’s state-run news agency Xinhua late on Monday cited Xu Qiliang, a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission, as saying China must innovate even more.

“Our military’s equipment construction is shifting from catch-up research to independent innovations,” Xu said.

Work made his remarks to the inaugural conference of the China Aerospace Studies Initiative, a partnership of the U.S. Air Force and the RAND Corporation think tank. The initiative aims to boost U.S. research on China’s aerospace ambitions.

The conference came as hundreds of Chinese officials were in Washington for the three-day U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, wide-ranging talks that look at areas of mutual cooperation and address points of friction.

Asked about the timing of the military conference, Work said U.S. and Chinese leaders both see the bilateral relationship as one in which there are “measures of cooperation and measures of competition.”

“We’re hoping over time that the cooperative aspects outweigh competitive aspects,” Work added. “As the Department of Defense, we’re the hedge force. … We say, ‘Look, here are capabilities that we see that the Chinese are developing and it’s important for us to be able to counter those.”

Work, citing a Harvard study on rising powers confronting established powers, told the conference that interactions between the two often result in war. As a result, the Defense Department must “hedge against this international competition turning more heated.”

The United States has generally felt the best hedge is a strong nuclear and conventional deterrence capable of overmatching any rival, he added.

Work said the United States has relied on technological superiority for the past 25 years, but now “the margin of technological superiority upon which we have become so accustomed … is steadily eroding.”

To adjust, he said, the Pentagon is working to develop new technologies to maintain its edge and lower the cost of responding to attacks. Directed energy weapons, for example, might be able to shoot down missiles that cost a hundred times the price of a jolt of energy.

NATO to Weigh Nuclear Threats from Russia
Jun 24th, 2015
Daily NewsThe Wall Street Journal
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

NATO defense ministers will gather Wednesday facing a challenge they have not confronted since the end of the Cold War: vocal nuclear threats from an assertive Kremlin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week he’s adding 40 inter-continental ballistic missiles to Russia’s arsenal. Moscow has incorporated nuclear components into its recent military exercises, and it has increased fights of nuclear-capable bombers… 

Let the Headlines Speak
Jun 24th, 2015
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Not yet categorized

US Seeks to Reassure France On Spying, Julian Assange Urges Action
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ISIS drowns prisoners inside cage
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The Queen hints at desire for Britain to remain in European Union
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Boston Marathon bomber apologises to victims
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Water level in reservoir formed by Hoover Dam dips to record low
The largest capacity reservoir in the United States has hit its lowest water level in history following years of severe drought that have dramatically reduced flows from the Colorado River, water managers said on Wednesday. Officials said Nevada’s Lake Mead, the 79-year-old reservoir created by the massive Hoover Dam, registered 1,074.98 feet (327.7 meters) above sea level late on Tuesday, but was able to rise above a critical mark by early on Wednesday morning.  

There’s a giant hole that’s draining a lake on the border of Oklahoma and Texas like it’s a bathtub
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Israel-Hating Professor Hired to Teach Class on Israel at U of Missouri
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Israel revokes entry permits for 500 Gazans after rocket
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Dawn zooms in on white spots, finds pyramid-like mountain on Ceres
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White House: “Assault Weapons” Not “Family Heritage,” Should Be Banned
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Uproar After Obama Uses the N-word
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Limbaugh: American Flag is Next in Left's Crosshairs
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Red sky at night, astronaut's delight: Three solar storms combine and crash into Earth's atmosphere - creating spectacular but dangerous displ
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Why Is NASA Working On A Way To Destroy Asteroids Using Nuclear Weapons?
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CDC tests for plague in Colorado after teen's death
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'No One is Surprised Anymore that Israel is Singled Out'
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Secret Document Reveals US to Give Iran Nuclear Equipment
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Nixing Terms for Nuclear Deal
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GEOMAGNETIC STORM WARNING
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Tsipras flies to Brussels to try to bridge gaps with Greece's creditors
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Magnitude 6.9 quake hits south of Tokyo
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LGBT Studies Course At San Francisco High School May Be 1st In Nation
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Manchin, Toomey both interested in reviving gun control push
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Pentagon Rushing to Open Space-War Center To Counter China, Russia
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Iran nuclear talks: Khamenei rejects key US demands
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Australia to join China-led AIIB as founding member
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How will Australia's citizenship changes work?
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Shocking UN Report Calls for Arrest of Israelis Around the World
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A Cancer across the Earth Called Globalism
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Obama Talks DNA-based Racism on Comedy Show
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Palestinians fire rocket at southern Israel: army
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Bombshell Report: U.S. Fighting for Iranian Militia in Iraq
Jun 24th, 2015
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

'Unbelievable betrayal of maimed and killed American troops'

WASHINGTON – “This is such an unbelievable betrayal of all those troops who were attacked, maimed and killed by these same Iran-backed Shi’ite terror militias in the 2000s.”

That was the reaction of Iran expert Clare Lopez to the news that U.S. forces in Iraq are now supporting Iranian militias.

The headline of a Bloomberg article Monday blared: “Iran’s Forces and U.S. Share a Base in Iraq.”

But buried within the story was an item that Lopez found significantly more alarming.

According to the report, U.S. troops are not just cohabitating with Iran’s Shiite militia units, “But the U.S. is flying close air support missions for those forces.”

“Fighting on the same side of anything that includes this jihadist Iranian regime ought to be unthinkable,” Lopez told WND.

“I guess not for this White House,” added the woman who manages the counter-jihad and Shariah programs at the Center for Security Policy, run by former Assistant Secretary of Defense Frank Gaffney.

“I’ve been to Bethesda to visit soldiers maimed for life, missing arms & legs, thanks to EFPs (explosively formed projectiles) and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) in Iraq that came from Iranian factories & were set by these Iranian terror proxies,” Lopez told WND.

“And now we’re co-locating (based at the same facility) with them, helping them fight ISIS, which is every bit as bad as the mullahs, but the only credible Sunni force fighting against them,” she added incredulously.

Lopez recently appeared on a Capitol Hill panel on Iran and was introduced by former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and Pentagon spokeswoman KT McFarland as “a career CIA operations officer. You know that movie, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’? The woman who was the hero? Think Clare Lopez.”

Her insights are backed by an impressive array of credentials. In addition to spending two decades in the field as a CIA operations officer, Lopez was an instructor for military intelligence and special forces students; has been a consultant, intelligence analyst and researcher within the defense sector; and has published two books on Iran.

“We’ve really got no business getting in the middle of what is in fact an intra-Islamic sectarian struggle between Shiite jihadis who hate us and Sunni jihadis who hate us,” Lopez told WND.

But the American-Iranian cooperation in Iraq fits in perfectly with what Lopez told WND more than a year ago, that America has switched sides in the war on terror under President Obama.

An that Obama seeks to ally with Iran.

Lopez had told WND the Obama administration “consistently has engaged with this Iranian regime, pleaded with it to engage, and continue to engage, in obviously fruitless negotiations over their nuclear weapons program. The administration extended deadlines repeatedly, refused to hold Iran to account meaningfully for its terror support, including involvement in Sept. 11, lethal support to Iraqi militias in the 2000s and continuing harboring al-Qaida operations cell on its soil.”

In another interview with WND, Lopez explained what she thought was Obama’s real goal: Far from seeking the defeat of jihadism in the Mideast or globally, Obama preferred to let Sunni and Shiite jihadists each have their own spheres of influence in the Muslim world.

“The administration’s plan, I believe, is to remove American power and influence, including military forces, from Islamic lands,” Lopez asserted.

When WND remarked that was just what Osama bin Laden had demanded, Lopez pointed out that is the aim of all jihadis, “Because that is what Islam demands, that foreign forces be kicked out of Islamic lands.”

Does Obama think if we leave the Mideast the jihadis will then leave us alone?

“I don’t know,” she said. “I can just see the pattern that is enabling the rise of Islam, empowering the Muslim Brotherhood domestically and abroad, alienating and distancing ourselves from our friends and allies and debilitating America military.

Lopez doesn’t just think Obama wants to withdraw entirely from the Mideast.

She believes he wants to turn most of it over to Iran.

“I am convinced that this administration intends Iran to become the nuclear power hegemon of the entire Persian Gulf region – and that includes especially the oil-rich areas. This includes the east coast of Saudi Arabia as well as southern Iraq and Iran itself.”

And, she believes the Obama administration is, in fact, following a plan to let Iran become the dominant power in the Middle East, with the intention of turning the state that sponsors more terrorism than any other, into a security partner of the U.S.

“We pull all our forces out, which has been done, and we let them take over,” Lopez explained. “I think that’s already underway.”

“Its not in the United States’ best interests, but it is one way of getting us out of Muslim lands, which is what this administration wants done. They are trying to be even-handed between the Shiites and the Sunni, especially with the Muslim Brotherhood clamoring in their ear,” she said.

“So, what happens? Arab Spring. North Africa goes to the Sunnis: al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood. They should be happy with that: They get Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. The Persian Gulf region goes to Iran.”

And Iran is permitted to be a nuclear power.

“I think it already is a nuclear power,” Lopez asserted.

“I think they have functioning warheads. They obviously have functioning missiles, including ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles). The Pentagon has published openly its estimate by next year, 2015, Iranian ICBMs will be capable of reaching the continental U.S. from Iran. This is open, unclassified, open-source publication.”

“So, the plan of this administration is to pull out of the Middle East, allow it to revert to Islamic control, as in the caliphates of old, or imamates, in the case of the Shiites. And to allow Islam to resurge, which is exactly what’s happening.”

WND asked, Obama’s plan is to take us back 1,300 years?

“Well, not us, but to let the Middle East do that,” she clarified.

Lopez noted a distinct peculiarity to keep in mind when negotiating with Iran: “Islamic law obligates Muslims to lie to non-Muslims. Why on earth would anyone expect Iran, a jihad and Shariah state, to negotiate with Westerners in good faith?”

Lopez does see “a tremendous naivete about what jihad and Shariah really mean” on the part of the Obama administration.

She detects “an apparent trust that if the U.S. adopts a more accommodating attitude, well, then so will the Iranians. I’m not sure how Ivy League graduates could be so ignorant of world history. I cannot imagine they’d want to inflict the legacy of Islamic jihad on anyone if they knew what it has meant historically.”

Lopez cited the reasons Obama has decided to remove U.S. power and influence from the Middle East and North Africa:

• He has a worldview that sees America as influence for ill in the world; therefore, he must diminish that influence wherever and however possible.

• He has a worldview that sees Islam as suppressed and oppressed by Western (colonial) powers and the U.S. as the inheritor of that oppressive role.

• He has a desire to “rectify” what is viewed as “injustice” suffered by Islam at the hands of the West and has decided that best way to do that is for the U.S. to withdraw and allow and empower Islam to rise back up again to what is seen as its “rightful” place in the world.

The former CIA operative said, “as Israel fought enemies on all sides to remain free, secure and Jewish, America began to move away from Israel and toward its Muslim enemies. And, as Iran moved inexorably toward a deliverable nuclear weapons capability, America helped.”

Lopez reiterated many of those themes, and added some fresh insights, during her Capitol Hill appearance Friday on a panel of national security experts discussing the dangers of negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran.“I don’t lose sleep because Britain has nukes or France has nukes,” Lopez told the audience.

Iran?

“That’s worrisome.”

She noted Iran is a signatory of the Cairo Declaration which was essentially a withdrawal from the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a pledge of allegiance to Islamic law, which allows amputations, beheadings and crucifixions.

Lopez said 500 Iranians have been executed just this year.

“Women are second-class citizens. They are literally unequal to men. They (morality police) roam the streets looking for people who are not wearing the right clothing.”

A mainstay of the Iranian regime’s ideology, she said, was “Jew hatred.”

“Jew hatred is intrinsic to the Quran but the genocidal threats have been nonstop. There is no way that Israel can look at this regime and listen to its daily threats of genocide, its dehumanization of Jewish people, calling them bacteria and cockroaches and other insects” and not feel its survival is at stake.

Lopez recalled how just in March, the commander of the Iranian forces said, during the middle of negotiations between Iranian diplomats and the U.S., that the “annihilation of Israel is non-negotiable.”

“That (Israel) is our number one ally and partner in the Middle East, standing between the barbarism of (Islamist) regimes and Western Civilization.”

“Why are we talking to these people?”