'Advanced missile poses substantial new threat for U.S. Navy'

Report: Chinese Develop Special "Kill Weapon" to Destroy U.S. Aircraft Carriers

U. S. Naval Institute
March 31, 2009

With tensions already rising due to the Chinese navy becoming more aggressive in asserting its territorial claims in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy seems to have yet another reason to be deeply concerned.

After years of conjecture, details have begun to emerge of a "kill weapon" developed by the Chinese to target and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers.

First posted on a Chinese blog viewed as credible by military analysts and then translated by the naval affairs blog Information Dissemination, a recent report provides a description of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that can strike carriers and other U.S. vessels at a range of 2000km.

The range of the modified Dong Feng 21 missile is significant in that it covers the areas that are likely hot zones for future confrontations between U.S. and Chinese surface forces.

The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of destroying a U.S. supercarrier in one strike.

Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.

~ more... ~

The multi-trillion question - how long must we wait?

Tony Kinsella writes in the Irish Times :

In January, the US navy commissioned its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George H Bush . A week ago the Tata corporation commercially launched its Nano, the world's cheapest car. Both are marvels of engineering. One is 333m long and cost €4.6 billion, the other is just three metres and retails for around €1,500. The carrier represents a familiar, if failing, past – the Nano our unfamiliar and challenging future.

Contributing editor of Car Magazine Ben Oliver described the Nano as “a staggeringly important, clever, exciting new thing”. In the face of threatened global economic meltdown, with the ILO predicting 51 million job losses in 2009, it at least offers hope.

The conservative economic guru Hernando de Soto Polar straddles our global rich-poor divide having spent nearly half his life in Switzerland before returning to his native Peru. He estimates there is something of the order of €10 trillion worth of cash in circulation on our planet. This is amplified by around €125 trillion of classic debt. Two highly regulated, and clearly recorded categories, neither of which poses significant problems. There is, however, a third element of wealth in circulation, and one that threatens our economic survival – derivatives and other loans.

De Soto Polar estimates these as having a paper value of between €450 trillion and €750 trillion. In the words of another leading economist, Paul Krugman of Princeton University, they resulted from a process where “Loans no longer stayed with the lender. Instead, they were sold on to others, who sliced, diced and puréed individual debts to synthesise new assets. Subprime mortgages, credit card debts, car loans – all went into the financial system's juicer.”

~ more... ~

A difference of perpsective regarding the arms industry

From the 'players'

Views from a Top Contractor: David Melcher, president of Defense Electronics and Services at ITT



David Melcher, president of Defense Electronics and Services at ITT, talks about the impact of the financial crisis on his company, the major challenges facing the industry under the new administration, how his company manages innovation and differentiates itself from competitors, and how it handles the challenges of managing across a global organization. Melcher offered his views in an interview during the sixth annual Wharton Aerospace Conference held recently in Philadelphia.
View the site


From those who get 'played'

Space Symposium 2009



This is an annual meeting of all the propeller heads from the "defense" contractors like Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Blackwater, Triple Canopy, Bechtel, etc. who sell death and destruction to the govenment and buy legislation, access and endless war with the massive profits.

This was Monday, March 30, 2009.

No one was assaulted like last year.

American Express suspends operation in Greece

From the 16 March, 2009 issue of the business daily Express :

American Express bank decided to proceed to suspension of its operation in Greece. However, this decision does not affect the usage of American Express credit cards. The bank's employees stressed that the withdrawal of American Express from the Greek financial credit system will create a domino of rapid reactions in all sectors of economy. Working trade unions protest intensely; OTOE and GSEE as well as American Express Working Union plan to give a press interview today.

Greek Federation of Bank Employee Unions Announcement

Greek Federation of Bank Employee Unions (OTOE) in its announcement stressed:

"OTOE executive secretariat in its immediate meeting today on American Expresses' decision to withdraw definitely from Greece leading that way the country in unemployment and insecurity:

Calls the government to undertake its responsibilities and to intervene directly and effectively in order:

1. To secure employment for working people that are to loose their jobs
2. To secure the pension rights of the bank's employees and pensioners
3. To apply all the contracts and agreements that have to do with the preservation of the Organization and working rights as well as with the banks' obligations regarding the employees' pension funds.

OTOE considers that the difficult financial conjunction our country faces, the closure of the bank irrespectively of the reasons, will create chain reactions with multiple consequences that will affect not only the banks but also several sectors of economy. These consequences must be avoided by immediate political intervention initiated by the government. OTE also stated that it also wishes to stress American Expresses' serious responsibilities a bank that that chooses to withdraw from a country that it has in fact contributed to its development.

Z: 'Any resemblance of real events, to persons living or dead, is not accidental. It is DELIBERATE'

From Costa-Gavras' politically charged 'Z' by Susan King :

In the late 1960s, Costa-Gavras couldn't persuade any French producer or distributor to make his political thriller "Z," which went on to win the Oscar for the best foreign language film of 1969.

"It was an unusual movie," says the 76-year-old filmmaker, born in Greece as Konstantinos Gavras. "There was no love story and there were several characters going through it. It was difficult to explain. I remember even an important producer said to me, 'I will film the telephone book, but not that story.' "

"Z," which opens today at the Nuart with a new print and a new translation for its 40th anniversary, is a thinly veiled, dramatized account of the assassination of liberal Greek politician Gregoris Lambrakis in 1963. The opening credits of the film, which is based on a book by Vassilis Vassilikos, even feature a most unusual disclaimer: "Any resemblance of real events, to persons living or dead, is not accidental. It is DELIBERATE."

The closing credits, meanwhile, list everything that had been banned in Greece after a 1967 military coup, including long hair on men, the Beatles, Mark Twain, modern and popular music and the letter "Z," which was a symbolic reminder that the spirit of Lambrakis and resistance still lived in the country.

Yves Montand, who appeared in Costa-Gavras' first feature film, 1965's "The Sleeping Car Murders," plays the politician, Irene Papas is his wife and Jean-Louis Trintignant is the magistrate assigned to investigate the death.

[ ... ]

The success of the film took Costa-Gavras by surprise. "Especially the American success," he says. "French movies had a small audience [in the U.S], but when the movie opened here it very quickly started to have a huge success. It was extraordinary for us."

Since then, Costa-Gavras has continued to challenge and provoke movie audiences with his politically themed films, including "State of Siege" and his first American movie, "Missing," for which he won an Oscar for adapted screenplay.

Costa-Gavras will also be honored April 23 at the City of Lights City of Angels film festival at the Directors Guild of America building. "The Sleeping Car Murders" will be screened in the afternoon, followed by a one-hour discussion with the director, capped off with the West Coast premiere of his latest film, "Eden Is West," about a young man emigrating from an undisclosed country in the Mediterranean to Paris.

~ more... ~