"Russia's air defense - to balance the US space threat"

SOURCE-RT
By 2030, some nations, namely the USA, will have space-based weapon systems capable of delivering a strike anywhere in Russia, predicts Russian Air Forces Commander Aleksandr Zelin.

In 20 years, technologically advanced countries will have a new generation of military aircraft and spacecraft, the Colonel General told the media on Tuesday. They will be unmanned, capable of flying at hypersonic speeds and probably be armed with weapons working on different physical principles as compared to weapons used now.

The new armed forces will be able “to deliver synchronous precision strikes on a global scale almost at any target in Russia’s territory,” Zelin is cited as saying by Interfax news agency.



The senior officer says Russia will need a range of new weapon systems to deter this potential threat. The country’s plan for defense from space and aerial attacks is expected to be shaped out by 2020, he announced.

One weapon Zelin named specifically is the S-500, a long-range air defense system now in development, which will be able to hit targets in space as well as in the atmosphere. Hypersonic-speed missiles and aircraft will also be legitimate targets for the future system.

Another project hinted at by the top military is a strike drone with a cruise speed of about Mach-6, or 6 times the speed of sound. He said that “while there are no concrete orders for it, we have theoretical research in this area.”

Later, the Defense Ministry’s press service told ITAR-TASS that Zelin was referring to research into pulse detonation engines (PDE) as possible technology for a future Russian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). It’s a kind of jet engine where fuel is detonated in rapid pulses rather than simply burnt. This allows greater efficiency but poses a great challenge in controlling the vibration from detonation, which engineers are trying to solve by increasing the frequency of detonations. Current working prototypes have a frequency of dozens to a couple of hundred detonations per second, while for smooth operation, a pulse detonation engine will need to make thousands of detonations per second.

Russia is lagging behind in UAV technology, and has recently bought several drones from Israel to “test their tactical capabilities”, and as Zelin said, may purchase more. The Air Forces see UAVs as one of the prime areas of investment. Earlier in August, General Zelin said he expected up to 40% of Russia’s military fleet to unmanned craft in a matter of a decade.

Speaking on closer plans, the senior officer said Russia’s fifth-generation fighter jet will see its maiden flight later this year, “in November, or probably in December.” So far three prototypes of the PAK FA have been built for land tests, and a machine for aerial tests is on its way. PAK FA is a multipurpose super maneuverable stealth aircraft designed by Sukhoi

Spy bug takes flight, wins more Pentagon money

source-RT
A US company developing a tiny wing-flapping spy robot under a contract from the Pentagon’s research arm DARPA, has released a video of their prototype in action.

So far the California-based firm AeroVironment have reached a milestone, managing to fit in a power source and control system on their tiny drone, and making it take into the air. "It is capable of climbing and descending vertically, flying sideways left and right, as well as forward and backward, under remote control," says the company.

The breakthrough, reached sometime in December 2008, won it additional $2.1 million of defense money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cov7-XWUa18


The Nano Aerial Vehicle (NAV) uses a pair of wings for propulsion and maneuvering. The US Department of Defense wants the resulting machine to be 7cm long, weighing just 10g, and able to withstand gusts of wind of up to 2.5 meters per second.

The microdrone, meant for indoor missions, will be used for surveillance, and probably even as a stealth strike weapon, if armed with poison or explosives.

Producers now need to boost the NAV’s maneuverability and energy efficiency. So far it can hover only for less than half a minute.

Yemen targets northern fighters

SOURCE-ALJAZEERA
Yemeni troops, backed by tanks and fighter aircraft, have launched a major offensive on the stronghold of Shia fighters in northern Yemen.

A second day of clashes on Wednesday came a day after the government vowed it would strike at the north's Houthi fighters with an "iron fist".

Government forces fired missiles on the headquarters of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the fighter's leader, in mountainous Saada province, tribal sources and fighters said.

Tribal sources told Al Jazeera that the army had launched air, artillery and missile attacks on the Malaheedh, Mahadher, Khafji and Hasama districts.

A statement from the Yemen's Supreme Security Committee said: "The state will strike these elements ... with an iron fist until they surrender themselves to justice."

'All-out war'

Mohammed al-Qadhi, the foreign correspondent for Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper, said that hundreds had fled the fighting.
"They're launching an all-out war right now and we've heard reports from Sadaa that the military is using planes to attack the strongholds of the rebels and so many people are fleeing," he told Al Jazeera.

"The skirmishes and the clashes have been going on since last June, between the two sides.

"So many people have been fleeing to Sadaa town and this has put pressure on the camps of the refugees there."

The five-year-old battle between Yemen's Sunni-led government against the Shia Muslim Houthi fighters is one of a widening series of conflicts threatening to destabilise the country.

Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries, is also combating a wave of al-Qaeda attacks and rising secessionist sentiment in the south.

'Repeated attacks'

Officials say the Houthi fighters, who belong to the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam, want to restore a form of clerical rule prevalent until the 1960s in Yemen when it was overthrown in a military coup.

A government committee criticised the fighters for not abiding by an agreement to end hostilities announced by Ali Abdullah al-Saleh, the Yemeni president, in July 2008.

In comments published in the press on Monday, al-Saleh blamed the fighters for the flare-up of violence in the north, saying he was "pained by attacks undermining security, repeated attacks targeting civilians, vandalism".

But Mohammed Abdel-Salam, a spokesman for the fighters, was reported by The Associated Press as saying that the group is only fighting for improved living conditions and wants the Yemeni army out.

"We will continue the fight until the army is withdrawn from the province," he was quoted as saying.

"We are only defending ourselves."

Regional stability

Over the past few weeks, local officials say the fighters have taken control of more of Saada province from government forces.

Last week, they seized an important army post near Saada's provincial capital on a strategic highway linking the capital Sana with Saudi Arabia after 12 hours of intense combat.

They have also taken control of several more towns.

Local officials said on Tuesday that the fighters seized key army posts near al-Malahidh crossing, about 20km south of the Saudi border.

The stability of Yemen is a crucial concern for both Saudi Arabia, which shares a border with Yemen, and the US.

Riyadh fears the conflict could make the kingdom's own Shia tribes directly across the border more restive

Militia Groups Across US rising

SOURCE-ABC NEWS
Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends.

The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.

Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the most growth he's seen in more than a decade.

"All it's lacking is a spark," McEntire said in the report.

It's reminiscent of what was seen in the 1990s — right-wing militias, people ideologically against paying taxes and so-called "sovereign citizens" are popping up in large numbers, according to the report to be released Wednesday. The SPLC is a nonprofit civil rights group that, among other activities, investigates hate groups.

Last October, someone from the Ohio Militia posted a recruiting video on YouTube, billed as a "wake-up call" for America. It's been viewed more than 60,000 times.

"Things are bad, things are real bad, and it's going to be a lot worse," said the man on the video, who did not give his name. "Our country is in peril."
The man is holding an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, and he encourages viewers to buy one.( VIDEO IS POTED IN THE END OF THIS POST)

While anti-government sentiment has been on the rise over the last two years, there aren't as many threats and violent acts at this point as there were in the 1990s, according to the report. That movement bore the likes of Timothy McVeigh, who in 1995 blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 people.

But McEntire fears it's only a matter of time.

These militias are concentrated in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest and the Deep South, according to Mark Potok, an SPLC staff director who co-wrote the report. Recruiting videos and other outreach on the Internet are on the rise, he said, and researchers from his center found at least 50 new groups in the last few months.

The militia movement of the 1990s gained traction with growing concerns about gun control, environmental laws and anything perceived as liberal government meddling.

The spark for that movement came in 1992 with an FBI standoff with white separatist Randall Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Weaver's wife and son were killed by an FBI sniper. And in 1993, a 52-day standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, resulted in nearly 80 deaths. These events rallied more people who became convinced that the government would murder its own citizens to promote its liberal agenda.

Now officials are seeing a new generation of activists, according to the report. The law center spotlights Edward Koernke, a Michigan man who hosts an Internet radio show about militias. His father, Mark, was a major figure in the 1990s militia movement and served six years in prison for charges including assaulting police.

Last year, officials warned about an increase in activity from militias in a five-year threat projection by the Homeland Security Department.

"White supremacists and militias are more violent and thus more likely to conduct mass-casualty attacks on the scale of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing," the threat projection said.

A series of domestic terrorism incidents over the past year have not been directly tied to organized militias, but the rhetoric behind some of the crimes are similar with that of the militia movement. For instance, the man charged with the April killings of three Pittsburgh police officers posted some of his views online. Richard Andrew Poplawski wrote that U.S. troops could be used against American citizens, and he thinks a gun ban could be coming.

The FBI's assistant director for counterterrorism, Michael Heimbach, said that law enforcement officials need to identify people who go beyond hateful rhetoric and decide to commit violent acts and crimes. Heimbach said one of the bigger challenges is identifying the lone-wolf offenders.
One alleged example of a lone-wolf offender is the 88-year-old man charged in the June shooting death of a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington

Pakistan denies militants attacked nuclear sites

source -dawn.com
ISLAMABAD: A military spokesman denied a recent report that militants have attacked Pakistan's nuclear facilities three times in two years, saying Wednesday there is ‘absolutely no chance’ the country's atomic weapons could fall into terrorist hands.

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said an article written by a UK-based security expert was false because none of the bases named actually had any nuclear facilities.

‘It is factually incorrect,’ he said.

Taliban militants' brief takeover of areas some 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad, raised new fears about the security of Pakistan's atomic weapons being seized by extremists linked to al-Qaeda, although the country insists its arsenal is secure.

Shaun Gregory, a professor at Bradford University's Pakistan Security Research Unit, wrote that several militant attacks have already hit military bases where nuclear components are secretly stored. The article appeared in the July newsletter of the Combating Terrorism Center of the US Military Academy at West Point.

The most recent assault, he wrote, was the August 2008 coordinated suicide bombings of the Wah Cantonment ordnance factory, which he said is considered one of Pakistan's main nuclear weapons assembly sites.

The other two attacks were in late 2007 on the Sargodha air base, which Gregory identified as a nuclear missile storage facility and the nuclear air base at Kamra, the article said.

While all three suicide attacks appeared aimed at causing maximum carnage and not seizing weapons, Gregory said they highlighted the vulnerability of the nuclear storage facilities to assault.

‘The risk of the transfer of nuclear weapons, weapons components or nuclear expertise to terrorists in Pakistan is genuine.’

Abbas said Wednesday that none of the military bases named were used to store atomic weapons. He said the Wah ordnance factory makes small arms ammunition, Kamra is an air force facility and Sargodha is an air force ammunition dump for conventional weapons.

‘These are nowhere close to any nuclear facility,’ he said.

He added that the Pentagon has recently expressed faith in Pakistan's security measures, which among other things keep weapons components and triggering devices separate.

Khalid Kidwai, head of the Strategic Plans Division which handles Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, told journalists last year that Pakistan uses 10,000 soldiers to keep the weapons safe and has received up to $10 million in US assistance to enhance security.

‘We are very confident that the security standards that we are following are world-standard,’ Abbas said. ‘There is absolutely no chance of them falling into the hands of any extremists or terrorists.’

US open to reconciling with Taliban: commander

source-dawn.com
WASHINGTON: The top commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan on Tuesday vowed coalition forces would prevail in the war and said he was open to reconciling with rank-and-file insurgents.‘We will win. The Taliban won’t win. But we will also have to deal through good and bad days, and good and bad months,’ General Stanley McChrystal told US National Public Radio.

The US commander’s comments came after he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Monday that the Taliban had momentum in the war and that Nato-led forces had to ‘stop their initiative.’ The insurgency has reached its most deadly level since the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime, with a record 76 coalition soldiers killed last month.McChrystal said he supported President Hamid Karzai’s view that many insurgents were motivated by money and not ideology.‘I would absolutely be comfortable with fighters and lower level commanders making the decision to reintegrate into the Afghan political process under the Afghan constitution,’ he said.



As for reconciling with higher level figures in the insurgent leadership, McChrystal said ‘that’s clearly up to him (Karzai).’ Karzai, who took office after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 and is favored to win in elections on August 20, has so far failed in his bid to persuade large numbers of insurgents to lay down their arms and accept the country’s constitution.Asked about security for the elections in the volatile Helmand province, where thousands of US forces have deployed, McChrystal said most Afghans would have the opportunity to vote.He said that ‘the vast percentage of voters in Helmand are going to have the option to vote’ but added it was possible some would choose to stay away from the polls.



Amid growing speculation McChrystal will ask President Barack Obama for more US troops, the general said he could not rule out such a request.And he said he would like to see more Afghan security forces though he said there was a misconception that Afghan troops were absent in southern provinces.‘The idea that there aren’t Afghan National Army in there is incorrect,’ he said.‘Are there as many Afghan National Army as we’d like? No there are not. The Afghan National Army is still something that’s growing in size,’ he said.

McChrystal, who is preparing a strategic assessment for Afghanistan due to be submitted by early September, is likely to urge a dramatic increase in Afghan security forces, analysts said.

Karzai said Monday he would double Afghanistan’s security forces and push plans for Saudi-mediated peace talks with insurgents if he is elected for a second term.There are more than 100,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan, with more than 60,000 from the US military

Are Taliban Leaders Fighting Among Themselves?

SOURCE-TIME
As far as the U.S. and Pakistan are concerned, there is now "credible evidence" that Baitullah Mehsud, the murderous head of the Pakistani Taliban, was killed in a CIA-operated drone strike last Wednesday, Aug. 5. Conclusive proof, said Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik, could come only from a DNA test on what remains of Mehsud (the drone strike reportedly severed his body in half). However, the remote village in South Waziristan where the attack took place is dominated by the Taliban and other militants, difficult to access
And that inaccessibility has made the details of the battle to become the successor to Mehsud equally hard to pin down. Through the weekend, speculation has been rife that Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman, two Taliban leaders tipped for the top slot, turned their guns on each other as the power struggle within turned bloody. Malik insisted that one of the men was dead. General James Jones, President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser, said that signs of internal dissension were encouraging. But on Sunday, Wali-ur-Rehman called a Reuters reporter familiar with his voice to assert that he was still among the living and to deny any rift, claiming that Baitullah was also alive. On Monday, Hakimullah, also speaking to reporters who said they recognized his voice, made the same assertion.
Baitullah Mehsud, however, has not surfaced to say he is alive, as he has done after previous claims of his death. Many analysts say it is only natural that the Taliban would deny Mehsud's death as they struggle among themselves to decide on a new leader. Replacing Mehsud will not be easy for the Taliban. Under his charismatic and fearsome leadership, at least 13 separate and disparate groups were able to forge a fractious but powerful alliance. If Mehsud is gone, that alliance is likely to fracture. His replacement will determine the new direction of the Pakistani Taliban: it may fall under the greater influence of al-Qaeda, concentrate on fighting in Afghanistan, continue fighting chiefly in Pakistan or break up into small, rival groups.
Interior Minister Malik warned on Monday, Aug. 10, that al-Qaeda is trying to install its own "chief terrorist" as the next leader while the Pakistani Taliban lies in disarray. "It will take some time for [the Pakistani Taliban] to regroup," he said. "The other thing which is a bit worrying is that al-Qaeda is getting grouped in the same place, and now they are trying to find out somebody to install him as the leader ..." Al-Qaeda has long wielded influence over Mehsud and the Pakistani Taliban, using the tribal areas along the Afghan border as a hiding place and trading funds and training for scores of suicide bombers prepared to carry out its attacks.

It is unlikely that al-Qaeda will install one of its own members in the leadership slot. "All Taliban groups have links with al-Qaeda," says Amir Rana, an expert on Islamist militancy. "But at the same time, they want to keep their identity independent. They don't mix in the structure of the Taliban. They want to avoid any confrontation with them. They want to stay there, use their facilities for training while providing ideological leadership." The Pashtun-dominated Taliban are also unlikely to accept an Arab jihadist as their leader.

Another possible direction is for the group's new leadership to concentrate its fire west of the border, in Afghanistan. "Baitullah was the one person who was focusing [most] of his attention on Pakistan and trying to create a disturbance here rather than Afghanistan," says Shaukat Qadir, a retired army brigadier turned analyst. "His followers will probably shift focus back to Afghanistan. This is one of the reasons why he lost support among his own tribesmen."

That shift could come about if rival Waziri militant groups isolate the Taliban's Mehsud group and seize control for themselves. Mehsud had notoriously clashed with Waziri commanders Maulvi Nazir in South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan, who, unlike Mehsud, have focused on mounting crossborder attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. When Mehsud assumed the leadership of the Pakistan Taliban in late 2007, Bahadur had been one of his closest rivals. "This will be an opportunity for the Wazir tribe to take back its position in the Taliban," says Rana.

A focus on Afghanistan may also suit another powerful commander in the region, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has influence with the Pakistani Taliban. As the head of the Haqqani network, the son of mujahedin leader Jalaluddin Haqqani has used his madrassas in Waziristan to mount vicious attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Similarly, Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, may intervene to back one of the men in contention. Aftab Sherpao, Pakistan's former Interior Minister, says Omar's support was crucial to Mehsud's ambitions when the Pakistani Taliban was formed.

A third option is for the Pakistani Taliban's leadership to pass to one of its leaders farther north in the tribal belt. Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, who had been leading the Taliban in the Bajaur tribal agency, has been named as a possible, albeit unlikely, successor. Like Bahadur, he was a contender when Mehsud assumed the leadership of the group. In 2008, after his cohorts faced a steamrolling military offensive, he became the beneficiary of a peace deal with Islamabad.

But for the moment, the apparent death of Mehsud and the infighting among his loyalists has opened a small window of opportunity for Pakistan. "It has to be more proactive and not let the new leader establish himself," says Sherpao, the former Interior Minister. "The government will have to try and win over some of the tribes who were too afraid to challenge the militants." Over the weekend, elders from the Mehsud tribe announced they were prepared to fight the Taliban if they received government backing. That challenge, in the form of a local tribal militia, is already paying off against other Taliban militants to the north of the Swat valley. In Waziristan, it may succeed where previous military operations have failed.

MEDIA WARS- SECOND REPORT IN TWO DAYS BY RUSSIAN MEDIA TARGETING WESTERN MEDIA.

Its the second time Russian media made a repost about western medias biased reporting . first report was about biased western reporting about 2008 osettian war( u can watch that report on this blog in archives of 10th august) wich was aired on RT on 10th august . below is the new report aired today by the same Russian news channel RT.

SOURCE-RT

On the first anniversary of the war in South Ossetia, many in the region are taking time to reflect. In the US, however, there’s almost no mention of the conflict, so heavily covered just a year ago.



It dominated the front pages of newspapers for weeks, playing a pivotal role in the presidential election.

Back then, candidate Obama and his opponent John McCain flexed their foreign policy muscles defending Georgia.

Never mind the fuzzy facts, Russia was seen as the aggressor in the court of public opinion, while Georgia was the little democracy that could.

One year later, the blanket reporting has halted. In Manhattan, the epicenter of the message and media capital of the country, there is no mention of South Ossetia on news tickers or plasma screens.

Health care, finance and Obama dictate the current news cycle, and the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict is just old news in the US.

And while the Caucasian country struggles to be rebuilt following Georgia’s invasion last August, the Americans are left in the dark about the anniversary.

Meanwhile, South Ossetia is not the only news story that the American media has dropped once it’s gone off the boil. The coup in Honduras and the conflict in Gaza have also slipped below the radar.

So the Americans shouldn’t be surprised that the domestic media has divorced itself from last year’s global story.

US Secretary of State Clinton hits the roof about comment on her husband

SOURCE-RIA-NOVOSTI
Clinton bristled on Monday when - as she heard it - a Congolese university student asked what her husband thought about an international financial matter.
Clinton arrived in the Congolese capital Kinshasa on part of her 11-day journey through Africa to promote development and good governance and underscore the Obama administration's commitment to the world's poorest continent.
VIDEO BELOW SHOWS WHAT HAPPENED

Hezbollah chief becomes Facebook star

SOURCE-DAWN.COM
BEIRUT: Love him or loathe him, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has earned himself celebrity status — at least on Facebook, where a good 20 forums are dedicated to the Lebanese Shia militant leader.

Many are favourable to Nasrallah but others are extremely hostile to the controversial figure, whose organisation is claimed by Israel to have a stockpile of 40,000 rockets.

‘May God bless you Nasrallah,’ ‘Nasrallah deserves to burn in hell,’ ‘God is with you, oh symbol of dignity and the resistance,’ and ‘Nasrallah is a goddamned Nazi’ are just some of the comments posted on forums dedicated to the charismatic 49-year-old, who has headed Hezbollah since 1992.

He has not appeared in public for over a year and resides in an undisclosed location in Beirut but his visibility on the social networking site could hardly be higher.

The Facebook groups have titles ranging from ‘Fans of Hassan Nasrallah’ to ‘Support the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah,’ and they are loaded with fervent comments in English, French, Hebrew, and Arabic, many from subscribers identifying themselves as Lebanese or Israelis.

In July 2006, Israel launched a devastating 34-day war against Hezbollah after the militant group kidnapped Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in a cross-border raid. Three years on, the ‘July War’ remains a hot topic for the online forums.

A French-language forum entitled ‘For the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah,’ demands the Israeli government get rid of Nasrallah ‘to avenge the blood of Ehud and Eldad,’ whose remains Israel reclaimed in 2008 in a comprehensive prisoner swap with Hezbollah.

Visuals, too, send strong messages: some groups show a softer side of the Shia leader, posting pictures of the child Nasrallah smiling in a garden by a bowl of fruit, or carrying a little girl in his arms. Others display cartoons of Nasrallah dressed in a bikini, portrayed as a cockroach or at the centre of a target.

People are ‘free to express what they want’

Hezbollah maintains that people are ‘free to express what they want. If they want to express their love for Sayyed Nasrallah, the party will not forbid them to do that.’

The Lebanese themselves are divided on how they feel about Nasrallah.

For some Facebook members, the Hezbollah leader is ‘fighting to protect the fatherland against Americanisation, Zionism.

‘He is the cedar in our Lebanese flag, the master of all,’ reads one post, in a reference to the symbolic tree of Lebanon.

But on a forum called ‘Hezbollah out of Lebanon right now!’ members using screen names openly express their hostility towards the pro-Iranian group, which they say is ‘a major threat to Lebanon.’

Israelis, too, have much to say on Hezbollah, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the Jewish state and Washington though its political wing forms a bloc of 13 MPs in Lebanon’s 128-seat parliament following elections in June.

‘Take the advice: Kick Nasrallah out and you can have living standards like we have in Israel,’ writes one subscriber, who identifies himself as an Israeli soldier.

‘Look, before 2006, Lebanon was booming,’ writes Avi. ‘Your economy was good, many tourists came and so on. After 2006 Lebanon was wasteland because of Nasrallah.’

A rush of heated reactions flowed in moments after Avi’s post surfaced, accusing his country of having ‘destroyed Lebanon’ and slamming Israel as Lebanon’s ‘first enemy.’

‘Avi, shut up and find yourself a hole where you can hide! May God protect Nasrallah!’ writes Nihal.

The 34-day July War killed some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, and destroyed much of Lebanon’s major infrastructure.

STORY OF A PAKISTANI REPORTER WHO ESCAPED TALIBAN DEATH SENTENCE.

SOURCE-CNN
Zarghon Shah is a man who knows just how lucky he is to be aliveHe came face-to-face with the feared Taliban fighters of Pakistan's Swat Valley, was ordered to be executed and gained a chilling insight into the mind of a fearsome militant who has waged a campaign of terror.

"I saw two Taliban standing there then I realized the danger, that we were in a wrong place," Zarghon said.

It was May this year when the TV reporter and his crew, reporting on the Taliban's uprising, strayed too far.

Zarghon, his cameraman and driver were captured in Buner, taken to an empty room and put on trial by a Taliban commander.

"He said you are telling lies; you are spies. It is because of you hell has been unleashed on us ... and it is you, the media, who is responsible for this war. I'm not going to spare you, I will slit your throat."
Then with a death sentence on his head, Zarghon and his crew were left alone for five hours -- an agonizing wait.

"We were just counting our moments to death." Zarghon told me.

And he knew it would be a most gruesome, horrible death
He pictured his body, beheaded and hanging from Swat Valley's notorious "slaughter square" -- the town center of Mingora city, where the Taliban would display the bodies of their victims.

Zarghon said he just paced the floor unable to even look at his colleagues.

He wondered who would be first to be killed and he thought of the most precious thing in his life -- his daughter Noor.

It is now that Zarghon broke down in tears, remembering how he thought he would never see her again.

Zarghon's fate rested in the hands of a man known for his campaign of terror, Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah. Fazlullah had captured the Swat Valley and moved his fighters into territory ever closer to Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

Zarghon was handed a walkie-talkie. On the other end the very man who held Zarghon's life in his hand -- Fazlullah.

Zarghon's cameraman filmed the conversation all the while under the watch of a heavily armed Taliban fighter.
Fazlullah's voice was clearly heard: agitated and with a message of defiance to Pakistan's army.

"Our women and children have been displaced." He said. "There has been bloodshed. It is an insult to our nation. If they want to fight us then come to our mountains and see our strength and power."

The footage shows Zarghon clearly under pressure, gulping heavily, but with the presence of mind to question the Taliban leader. "What will end the fighting?" he asked.

Fazlullah demanded nothing less than the implementation of strict shariah or Islamic law. If not, the Taliban would fight to the death, he said.

"If the army has the ability to fight us: come to the mountains. The Taliban is in the mountains, we are committed to our cause. Nobody can defeat us," he said.

Yet the hardline Fazlullah did something that still puzzles Zarghon. He freed the TV crew, effectively commuting the execution order -- but there was a catch.

The Taliban instructed them to film destruction they say was caused by the Pakistan army.

On the footage you can hear gunfire and mortar rounds. Taliban fighters are clearly visible. Zarghon reports to camera, taking shelter behind a building.

The footage was meant to be propaganda for the Taliban. Not long after it was shot, Pakistan's army launched an offensive driving the Taliban from their stronghold.

Fazlullah escaped. Despite rumors he was wounded he continues to command his troops from the mountains.
For Zarghon, doing the Taliban's bidding was the price of freedom. It saved his life and gave him back to his wife, son and daughter.

"The most beautiful gift of my life was this, when I returned home and I saw my family, my wife and children again," he said before retreating into a silence and remembering the moment when he faced death and survived
VIDEO

Medvedev proposes bill on troop deployment outside Russia

SOURCE-RIA-NOVOSTI
SOCHI, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's president said on Monday he had submitted a bill to parliament on the procedure for sending troops to fight outside the country's borders.
"This is linked to the events that took place a year ago," Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting with the leaders of Russia's largest political parties.

August 7 was the first anniversary of a five-day war between Russia and Georgia over breakaway South Ossetia.




"Such issues must be clearly regulated," Medvedev said speaking in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, which borders on Abkhazia, another former Georgian republic.

Russia's current 2006 legislation only allows the president to send troops to fight terrorism on foreign soil. Experts say the law lacks clearly defined terms of "wartime" and a "combat situation," which complicates the deployment of army units outside the country.

Russia sent in troops last summer to repel Georgia's offensive on South Ossetia, where Moscow had maintained peacekeepers since a bloody post-Soviet conflict in the early 1990s. Russia was condemned internationally over its "excessive" use of force and subsequent recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Georgia severed diplomatic ties with Russia after the war and declared the regions occupied territories. Russian officials said some 162 civilians and 67 Russian service personnel were killed in the conflict.

RUSSIAN MEDIA ACCUSES WESTERN MEDIA OF BIASED REPORTING.

A year ago a story on Georgia’s war against S.Ossetia filmed by a Russian cameraman was silenced on Polish TV because it was out of tune with the politicized official media line in the country
Russian media blamed western media of biasness during the osettian war. here is the report by RUSSIA TODAY a Russian english news chennel.

US to target 'Afghan drug lords'

SOURCE-BBC
The US has put 50 Afghans suspected to be drug traffickers with Taliban links on a list of people to be "captured or killed", the New York Times reports.Two American generals have told the US Congress that the policy is legal under the military's rules of engagement and international law, the paper says. In a report, yet to be released, it was described as a key strategy to disrupt the flow of drug money to the Taliban. The move is a major shift in America's counter-narcotics drive in Afghanistan.

In interviews with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is due to release the report later this week, two American generals serving in Afghanistan said that major traffickers with proven links to the insurgency have been put on the "joint integrated prioritised target list", the New York Times reported. That means they have been given the same target status as insurgent leaders, and can be captured or killed at any time.

It quoted one of the generals as telling the committee: "We have a list of 367 'kill or capture' targets, including 50 nexus targets who link drugs and the insurgency." The generals were not identified in the Senate report, the paper said.

Poppy destruction

For many years, US policy in Afghanistan had focused on destroying poppy crops. But in March Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to the region, said that US efforts to eradicate opium poppy crops in Afghanistan have been "wasteful and ineffective".

He said efforts to eradicate poppy cultivation had failed to make an impact on the Taliban insurgents' ability to raise money from the drugs trade. The southern Afghan province of Helmand is the main producer of Afghan opium, which accounts for more than 90% of the global supply.

Sanctions Unlikely to Stop Iran's Nuclear Quest

SOURCE-TIME
Unless Iran responds positively to President Obama's offer of talks on its nuclear program by next month, it could face what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls "crippling sanctions." That was the message from Administration officials touring the Middle East in recent weeks. And it's backed by congressional moves to pass legislation aimed at choking off the gasoline imports on which Iran relies for almost a third of its consumption, by punishing third-country suppliers. It sounds impressive and, for an undiversified economy like Iran's, potentially calamitous. But a number of Iran analysts are skeptical that new sanctions will break the stalemate.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government has promised to present a new package of proposals on the nuclear issue to Western negotiators in the coming weeks. But that package is unlikely to reflect any shift in Tehran's rejection of the U.S. demand that it forgo the right to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear-energy program. "If the U.S. position remains unchanged," says Farideh Farhi, an Iran expert at the University of Hawaii, "Iran may well come to the table, but only in order to demonstrate to its own people that its regime has been recognized, not to seriously engage with U.S. proposals or give ground."



Iran's postelection turmoil has left Ahmadinejad politically weakened, and his focus in the coming weeks will be on assembling a government and stabilizing a divided regime, rather than on seeking a compromise with the Western powers he blames for the election debacle. "Iranians have never responded well to deadlines and red lines," says Farhi, "and there's no reason to believe they will do so now."

In a TV interview two weeks ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Iran, "You have a right to pursue the peaceful use of civil nuclear power. You do not have a right to obtain a nuclear weapon. You do not have the right to have the full enrichment and reprocessing cycle under your control." But both the Iranian government and its opposition believe that Iran is due the same rights as any other signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which includes the right to enrich uranium to the levels necessary for reactor fuel, under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "There is no disagreement among political leaders in Iran on proclaiming Iran's right to enrich uranium," says Farhi. Iran's previous government had shown flexibility on the pace of an enrichment program, but not on the principle. Explains Farhi: "It is simply not feasible for any political leader in Iran to accept an arrangement that denies Iran the rights enjoyed by others, that treats Iran as a special case."


Iran's current enrichment efforts are monitored by IAEA inspectors and certified as within permissible limits. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, recently wrote to Congress that "it is unlikely that Iran will have the technical capability to produce [weapons-grade uranium] before 2013". Blair added that U.S. intelligence believes Iran has not yet decided whether to produce weapons-grade materiel, and would be unlikely to do so while its nuclear effort remains under international scrutiny. But with hawks painting Iran's nuclear program as a grave and gathering danger and the Israelis threatening to take preemptive military action, the Obama Administration is under pressure to produce results from its efforts to engage Iran.

Effective sanctions, say Administration officials, require participation by Iran's key trading partners. That's a problem, since neither Russia nor China is convinced that there's an imminent danger of Iran producing nuclear weapons. Coalition of the willing–style sanctions of the sort envisaged by the congressional legislation may have limited impact because they're unlikely to be implemented by neighbors such as Turkey and Iraq. And the use of naval power to enforce a blockade could easily provoke a war that the U.S. military is eager to avoid.

But even if "crippling sanctions" were somehow imposed, Tehran still might not back down. "If it were possible to choke off the gasoline supply into Iran, the likelihood is that Iran's existing refinery capacity would be used first and foremost to ensure that the needs of the security forces and the regime are taken care of," says Dr. Gary Sick, a Columbia University professor and former National Security Council Iran specialist. "Those who are going to suffer most will be the ordinary Iranians with whom we sympathize. You can argue that this might spur them to revolt, but more likely is that if their fuel rations are suddenly cut in half, ordinary Iranians will be very upset with the West."

"The economic well-being of the Iranian people has never been a first-tier priority for the Iranian regime," says Carnegie Endowment Iran analyst Karim Sadjadpour. "The last three decades have shown us that this regime is willing to endure tremendous hardship rather than compromise for reasons of economic or political expediency."

Farhi points out that Iran's regime began making preparations for U.S. petroleum sanctions as early as 2007, diversifying its sources of supply, moving to upgrade its refineries and implementing a comprehensive rationing system, all of which can help the regime manage the impact of a fall in gasoline imports.

So what can the West possibly do? A number of Iran watchers recommend that in the postelection turmoil the Obama Administration should simply reset its clock. "We should continue to allow the rifts between political élites, and the rift between the people and regime, to widen on their own," suggests Sadjadpour. "As Napoleon once said, 'If your enemy is destroying himself, don't interfere.' The truth is, we don't know how sanctions on refined petroleum could play out, and our bottom line should be to do no harm to the prospects for political change in Iran."

Easy enough for policy analysts to say, but not for a President. "A lot of people are going to be putting immense pressure on President Obama to set a deadline and take firm action," says Sick. The Administration may have no good options beyond continuing to explore diplomacy, he warns, but "it's extraordinarily difficult to sell that to a chorus of people shouting 'Do something!'"

Chavez Urges Military to Be Prepared for Conflict

SOURCE-TIME
Chavez Urges Military to Be Prepared for Conflict
By AP / CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Monday, Aug. 10, ..
(CARACAS) — President Hugo Chavez told his military to be prepared for a possible confrontation with Colombia, warning that Bogota's plans to increase the U.S. military presence at its bases poses a threat to Venezuela.

"The threat against us is growing," Chavez said Sunday. "I call on the people and the armed forces, let's go, ready for combat!"

The former paratroop commander said Colombian soldiers were recently spotted crossing the porous 1,400-mile (2,300-kilometer) border that separates the two countries and suggested that Colombia may have been trying to provoke Venezuela's military.

"They crossed the Orinoco River in a boat and entered Venezuelan territory," Chavez said. "When our troops arrived, they'd already left."


In Bogota, Colombia's foreign ministry issued a news release denying reports that soldiers crossed into Venezuela, after a revision of troop movements by the Colombian military.

Chavez said Venezuela's foreign ministry would file a formal complaint and warned Colombia that "Venezuela's military will respond if there's an attack against Venezuela."

Chavez said he would attend this week's summit of the Union of South American Nations in Quito, Ecuador, to urge his Latin American allies to pressure Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to reconsider plans to increase the U.S. military presence.

"We cannot ignore this threat," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, "Hello President."

Chavez also halted shipments of subsidized fuel to Colombia, saying Venezuela should not be sending cheap gasoline to an antagonistic neighbor.

"Let them buy it at the real price. How are we going to favor Uribe's government in this manner?" he said.

Colombian officials say Venezuela has no reason to be concerned, and that the U.S. forces would help fight drug trafficking. The proposed 10-year agreement, they claim, would not push the number of American troops and civilian military contractors beyond 1,400 — the maximum currently permitted by U.S. law.

Tensions between the neighboring South American nations also have been heightened over Colombia's disclosure that three Swedish-made anti-tank weapons found at a rebel camp last year had been purchased by Venezuela's military.

Chavez has accused Colombia of acting irresponsibly in its accusation that the anti-tank rocket launchers sold to Venezuela in 1988 were obtained by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Sweden confirmed the weapons were originally sold to Venezuela's military.

Chavez denies aiding the FARC. He claims the United States is using Colombia as part of a broader plan to portray him as a supporter of terrorist groups to provide justification for U.S. military intervention in Venezuela.

Chavez said Sunday that diplomatic relations with Uribe's government "remain frozen" even though he ordered Venezuela's ambassador to return to Colombia more than a week after he was recalled.

INTERVIEW SHOWS SPLIT IN PAKISTANI TALIBAN-TALIBAN INTERVIEW

SOURCE-CNN
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The car in front of me is carrying a man at the heart of the Taliban uprising in Pakistan
This has been a carefully orchestrated rendezvous: Secrecy is everything.We arranged for our cars to pass at a designated spot at a turnoff on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.We slow down, and the other car positions in front of us.We are led down a narrow alleyway and into a non-descript house for a face-to-face interview.This has all been patiently organized by our intermediary, a man known to the militant and trusted by us.But there are always nagging concerns. Some in our car are a little nervous, and that is perfectly understandable, but I am comfortable we have taken every safeguard.The man I finally meet is tall, probably in his mid-to-late 30’s with a heavy black beard. He is wearing a white shawal kameez (traditional Pakistani dress), and he ties a white turban around his head.He is wanted by Pakistani police for terrorism.This is a man who has fought on the front lines both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was a leader of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, the scene of a siege by Pakistan military in 2007 which left more than 100 people dead.We can’t film his face, and we can’t identify him. He tells us we can refer to him only as “Mullah Wajid.”As we begin the interview, at first he won’t meet my eye. When we shake hands he looks slightly away.My cameraman can only film him from behind, and he won’t allow us even to film his hands.Two men stand behind our camera watching every shot. When the interview is over they command us to stop filming immediately.But the interview itself is a surprise. Interviews with Taliban are rare. To have the chance to put questions directly to a man so heavily involved in the insurgency shines a light into a world often closed from us.I expect the usual anti-America diatribe, and there is. He says the U.S and coalition forces must leave Afghanistan, and he wants a return to Taliban rule there.He also criticizes some in Pakistan for being pro-U.S and implementing U.S. foreign policy.

What I wasn’t expecting was his denunciation of other Taliban.He says some in Pakistan have gone too far and are inflicting suffering on ordinary civilians. He says the supreme Taliban leader, Mohammed_Omar" rel=wikipedia>Mullah Omar, has rejected these militants and says they are not “real Taliban.”This is a twist, and it comes after the release of a new Taliban code of conduct. The code says civilian suffering and casualties are to be avoided, urging Taliban to go after “high value” targets like coalition troops and government officials.The Taliban is bogged down in heavy fighting both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Like any insurgency, if it loses the people, it loses the war.

And now the U.S. and others are seeking out what they call “good Taliban:” moderate militants they can negotiate with.

The Taliban leadership wants to cleanse itself of the rogue elements. It wants to present a disciplined, cohesive force that can’t easily be divided and conquered.

“Mullah Wajid” may be rejecting some hard-liners, but he hasn’t gone soft. He wants nothing less than the U.S. out of all Muslim land.

I ask him if he is prepared to kill and die for his beliefs.“Yes. Inshallah (God willing).”In that he is not so different from other Taliban after all.

Posted by: CNN Correspondent, Stan Grant

ISRAEL AND US TRYING TO STOP RUSSIA FROM SELLIN S300 SAM TO IRAN

SOURCE ALJAZERA
As mutual fear, mistrust and polarisation increases between Iran and Israel, an arms race between the two sworn enemies is gathering momentum.

Central to this is the Russian-made S-300 missile system.

It is one of the most advanced multi-target anti-aircraft missile systems in the world today and air power experts say it represents a formidable defence against conventional aircraft.

In 2005, Iran sought to buy five batteries of the S-300 from Russia in a deal believed to be worth around $800 million.

The S-300 would significantly boost Iran's defence capability at a time when it is concerned about the US military's presence in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan and Israeli threats to target its nuclear facilities.

But the S-300 deal has yet to go through and Israel has been engaging in some diplomatic wrangling in an attempt to ensure that it does not.

In early June 2009, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's Russian-speaking foreign minister, visited Moscow.

He was on a mission to convince Russia to put an end to its arms deals with Iran and Syria and, in particular, to halt the sale and delivery of Russia's S-300 missile system to Iran.

Lieberman had a bargaining chip: If Russia went ahead with the sale to Iran, Israel might continue to provide hi-tec weapons to neighbouring Georgia, which engaged Russia in a war last year.

Filmmaker Abdallah el-Binni investigates this high-stakes game of brinkmanship as it threatens to spread to other countries in the region.BELOW IS THE FOUR PART REPORT .