The European Union Times |
- Thousands Of Russian Troops Head To Turkish Border As US Planes Flee From Syrian Skies
- NATO Ceases All Airstrikes in Syria After Russia Deploys S-400 Missile Shield
- Volkswagen Finds New Fuel Consumption Fault
- Erdogan Pledges to Start War Over Russian Anti-aircraft System in Syria
- US deploys ground troops to Syria
- Turkish journalist arrested of “espionage and treason” over revealing weapons convoy to Syrian terrorists
Posted: 28 Nov 2015 07:35 AM PST
A stunning new Ministry of Defense (MoD) report circulating in the Kremlin states that President Putin, this morning, issued an order to the 58th Army Headquarters of the North-Caucasian Military District to immediately deploy “selected” regiments and brigades of Federation military electronic warfare, anti-aircraft, multiple rocket launcher, anti-tank, motorized rifle, and artillery forces to the Turkish-Armenia border—which in total comprises nearly 7,000 Russian troops now being put into full combat status. According to this report, the legal authorization for this massive combat deployment is due to the joint Russian-Armenian missile air defense system agreement ordered to be signed by President Putin on 11 November and which will be finalized this week by Prime Minister Medvedev. With Armenia now becoming a vital part of the Russian Joint Air Defense, this report continues, Federation military forces will now be able to counter threats from Turkey coming from that nations western border—which will mirror the air defense protections provided by Federation Aerospace and Naval forces on Turkey’s border with Syria that since being implemented this past week have seen both United States and Turkish aircraft completely cease flying missions against Islamic State terrorists in this war zone all together. Important to note too about this Federation military deployment to Armenia, this report says, are that these forces will be protected, like their counterparts operating in Syria, with S-400 Triumf (NATO designation: SA-21 Growler) medium/long-range mobile surface-to-air missile systems and Krasukha-4 jamming platforms giving them near total air defense superiority over 85 percent of Turkish territory. The Krasukha-4 broadband multifunctional jamming station is mounted on a BAZ-6910-022 four-axle-chassis and like the Krasukha-2, the Krasukha-4 counters NATO-Turkish AWACS and other air borne radar systems. The Krasukha-4, also, has the range for effectively disrupting low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and can cause permanent damage to targeted radio-electronic devices with ground based radars also being a viable target—which is, undoubtedly, MoD experts in this report state, the reason US and Turkish aircraft have fled from the skies over Syria. With the criminal Erdogan regime in Turkey continuing to support Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq, this report further notes, President Putin’s order today to begin the deployment of Federation military forces to Armenia will protect that nations peoples from their barbaric Turkish enemies who just a century ago (1915-1917) massacred an estimated 1.5 million men, women and children in what is known now as the Armenian Genocide. And to the great shame of the United States against these Armenia peoples too, this report grimly states, President Obama, this past August, and for the 7th year in row, broke his promise to them to acknowledge the genocide committed against them by Turkey. The Federation, however, this report continues, is not only one of the 25 nations that has acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, this past week a bill was introduced into the Russian parliament on holding to account anyone who denies that the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces was “genocide”. With Turkish President Erdogan having lashed out at Russia, Germany and France for recognizing the Armenian Genocide, this report warns, his actions against the Kurdish peoples in the Levant Region are even more troubling—especially since this past summer when he broke off all peace talks with them. But to the Federations greatest fears of the criminal Erdogan necessitating the deployment of thousands of Russian troops to Turkey’s border, this report concludes, is his using of Islamic State terrorists to create for himself a new empire—and which he and his Prime Minister this past May (2015) made no secret of when they declared to the entire Islamic world: “We Will Gather Together Kurds And Arabs, And All Of The Muslim World, And Invade Jerusalem, And Create A One World Islamic Empire.” Source |
Posted: 28 Nov 2015 04:51 AM PST
Both the American and Turkish air forces halted their strikes on Syrian territory around the time Russia deployed S-400 air defense complexes at the Khmeimim airbase, from which it stages its own incursions against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). A spokesperson of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) told Sputnik on Friday that the absence of anti-IS coalition airstrikes “has nothing to do with the S400 deployment” in Syria. “The fluctuation or absence of strikes in Syria reflects the ebb and flow of battle,” the spokesperson said, adding that CJTF-OIR deliver airstrikes when and where it needs to, dedicating a lot of time to researching targets to ensure maximum effect and minimizing civilian casualties. As CJTF-OIR reported on Friday, the US-led coalition had made no sorties against targets in Syria since Thursday, while airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq continued, with the coalition making 18 strikes on terrorist positions. On November 24, a Turkish F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber, which had been bombing IS positions. Moscow says the bomber was in Syrian airspace which the F-16 violated, while Turkey claims the Russian jet crossed the Turkish border and was repeatedly warned before the attack. Both the pilot and the navigator of the Su-24 ejected. The pilot was killed by a militant group while parachuting to the ground, while the rescue operation for the Russian navigator was successful to a certain extent: a Marine died providing covering fire in the rescue team drop zone and a helicopter was lost after it was hit with an American-made anti-tank TOW missile the terrorists are armed with. After the incident, Russia’s Joint Staff took the decision to enhance air defenses at the Khmeimim airbase south of the Syrian port of Latakia. The following day, on November 25, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced the immediate deployment of S-400 missiles to Syria. S-400 Triumph system missile launchers were airlifted to Syria by Antonov An-124 Ruslan super-jumbo aircraft 24 hours after the decision was announced on Wednesday. According to open sources, the S-400 is capable of shooting down any existing aircraft, helicopter or missile traveling at speeds of up to 4.8 kilometer per second (over 17,000 km/h) The only target the system would have problems with is a nuclear warhead of intercontinental ballistic missile, which flies at speeds of up to 6-7 kilometer per second. The S-400 engages targets at distances as far as 400 kilometers and heights of up to 27 kilometers (or higher with newer missiles). This is enough to cover at least 75 percent of Syrian territory, along with the airspaces of Lebanon, Cyprus, half of Israel and a vast part of Turkey. S-400 radar is also capable of discriminating moving objects on the ground, such as cars or military vehicles at a distance of 600 kilometers. S-400 radar covers Syria, western regions of Iraq and Saudi Arabia, nearly all of Israel and Jordan, Egypt’s northern Sinai, a large part of the eastern Mediterranean and Turkish airspace as far as the capital Ankara. Source |
Posted: 28 Nov 2015 04:29 AM PST
Volkswagen has uncovered yet another software problem affecting its vehicles’ fuel consumption.
Volkswagen has uncovered yet another software problem affecting its vehicles’ fuel consumption, German media reported Thursday, adding to a massive pollution cheating scandal that has engulfed the auto giant.“Volkswagen has new software problems, including one that has a direct impact on the consumption” of the vehicles, AFP has quoted Die Welt daily as announcing in a report. The faulty software manages the recovery of energy, which can be used to recharge car batteries, an essential component that keeps the vehicle’s lights and air-conditioning or heating running. A problematic energy recovery system means that the car would have to use more fuel. A Volkswagen spokesman quoted by the newspaper confirmed the problem, but said it affected “certain vehicles rather than all the vehicles of this or that series”. Die Welt said the car company had first revealed the problem during a meeting with German investigators on the emissions cheating scandal that erupted at the end of September. Volkswagen stunned the world with its admission then that it had fitted 11 million diesel vehicles with software “defeat devices” designed to cheat in nitrogen oxide emissions tests. But Volkswagen subsequently revealed that beyond the nitrogen oxide scam, it had also understated carbon dioxide emissions of 800,000 vehicles, including petrol cars. The scandal prompted the recalling of thousands of cars worldwide. In the latest instance of this South Korea announced on Thursday that it has ordered the recall of 125,522 Volkswagen cars after revealing that its own testing showed that the carmaker deliberately manipulated a diesel emissions device in vehicles with an older engine. Source |
Posted: 28 Nov 2015 04:02 AM PST
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told CNN International his country will consider it an act of aggression if Russia takes down a Turkish plane violating Syrian airspace. “In this case Turkey will be forced to take measures that will certainly not be discussed. And of course it would be an aggression against our rights of sovereignty and it’s the natural right of the state to protect those rights. We do not want to see any escalation of the situation in the region. We do not want to become a party to that. But those who side with Syria and escalate the tension, I think, are the responsible parties to this,” Erdogan said. On Thursday Moscow deployed its advanced S-400 air defense system in Syria. The weapon will be used to protect the Russian Hmeimim airbase in Latakia. The Russian defense ministry posted a video of the deployment on its Facebook page. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said his government was “sure that Russian planes destroying IS targets [were] guaranteed not to be attacked from the US-led so-called anti-IS coalition.” The downing of a Russian SU-24 on Tuesday by NATO member Turkey changed this and “now the safety of Russian fleet’s planes… will be ensured by more secure means,” he said. “We have pretty good connectivity with the Russians,” Lt. Gen. Charles Brown Jr. told Air Force Times on Wednesday. “With our MOU [Memorandum of Understanding], there are things that are in there that talk about … how we’re not going to show hostile acts or hostile intent from the coalition toward the Russians or from the Russians toward the coalition.” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday during a news conference the United States knew the flight path of the aircraft shot down by Turkey. “The American side, which leads the coalition that Turkey belongs to, knew about the location and time of our planes’ flights, and we were hit exactly there and at that time,” he said. He said Russia’s military had passed on flight details to the Americans. Putin then indirectly accused the US of colluding with Turkey to shoot down the plane. “Why did we pass this information to the Americans? Either they were not controlling what their allies were doing, or they are leaking this information all over the place,” he said. “And we proceed from the position that there will be no repeat of this, otherwise we’ll have no need of cooperation with anybody, any coalition, any country.” Source |
Posted: 28 Nov 2015 03:38 AM PST
The United States has deployed dozens of ground troops to Syria claiming they will assist Kurdish forces in their battle against ISIS terrorists, sources say. The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that 30 US soldiers arrived in the northern city of Kobani over the past two days, AFP reported. The troops will allegedly help plan attacks against the Takfiris in the two Syrian cities of Jarablus and Raqqah. Kurdish sources also announced that some 20 US soldiers arrived in Hasakeh province in eastern Syria. On October 30, senior Obama administration officials said that Washington would send some 50 special forces to Syria to “train, advise and assist” militants fighting against the Daesh (IS/ISIS/ISIL), in an apparent breach of Obama’s promise not to put US “boots on the ground” there. A top official told the BBC that this does not indicate a change in US strategy, but an “intensification” of the military campaign. The presence of US troops on the ground in Syria lacks any mandate from the Syrian government. Damascus says it is a violation of its sovereignty. The US is escalating its involvement in Syria amid Russia’s intensifying campaign in the country to assist President Bashar al-Assad in fighting against ISIL terrorists. The US forces will remain in Syria for the foreseeable future. On September 30, Russia began its military campaign against Daesh terrorists and militants fighting against the Syrian government. Moscow has carried out scores of airstrikes, killing hundreds of terrorists. US officials have told The Associated Press that Russia has directed parts of its military campaign against US-backed militants and other extremist groups in an effort to weaken them. They say the CIA-trained militants are under Russian strikes with little prospect of rescue by their American supporters. Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The crisis has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people so far and displaced millions of others. Source |
Posted: 28 Nov 2015 02:57 AM PST
A Turkish prosecutor asked a court to imprison the editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper pending trial for espionage and treason. In May, the outlet published photos of weapons it said were then transferred to Syria by Turkey’s intelligence agency. Besides the editor, Can Dündar, the prosecution said it is seeking the same pre-trial restrictions for Cumhuriyet’s representative in Ankara, Erdem Gül. Dündar arrived at an Istanbul court on Thursday, saying that he and his colleague “came here to defend journalism.” “We came here to defend the right of the public to obtain the news and their right to know if their government is feeding them lies. We came here to show and to prove that governments cannot engage in illegal activity and defend this,” Dündar was cited by Today’s Zaman. The articles, published on Cumhuriyet’s front page in May, claimed that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) is smuggling weapons in trucks into Syria and was caught doing so twice in 2014. The trucks were allegedly stopped and searched by police, with photos and videos of their contents obtained by Cumhuriyet. According to the paper, the trucks were carrying six steel containers, with 1,000 artillery shells, 50,000 machine gun rounds, 30,000 heavy machine gun rounds and 1,000 mortar shells. The arms were reportedly delivered to extremist groups fighting against the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, whom Ankara wants ousted from power. The Turkish authorities denied the allegations, saying that the trucks were carrying aid to Syrian ethnic Turkmen tribespeople and labeled their interception an act of “treason” and “espionage.” Pelin Batu, Ba Turkish TV presenter who worked alongside those who were detained, said that all they had done “was done in the interests of the country … because our involvement in Syria needed to be brought into question.” “I don’t think this could be judged as treacherous in any way,” Batu told RT, adding that Dundar was always a “pacifist.” Batu says the editor-in-chief fought for freedom of speech which has been under threat in Turkey since Erdogan took power. “For the last year or so the freedom of press has been axed in so many ways,” she told RT. A 2014 report by Human Rights Watch warned that under Erdogan’s rule Turkey has seen the erosion of human rights via a crackdown on media freedom, dissent and a weakening of the rule of law. Many journalists in the country are facing harsh prison terms for exposing corruption in the government and surveillance by the Turkish state. Egdogan’s regime has also attempted to silence social media by blocking YouTube and Twitter on a number of occasions. Prior to November’s general election, Turkish police stormed the offices of opposition media group Koza Ipek. Source |