Military exercises showcase Russian power, and its limits

The Russian government may not yet describe itself as a superpower, but its latest military exercise, "Stability 2008," clearly aims to affirm Russia's global military reach. The exercise's hypothetical scenario posited a local conflict (e.g., over Georgia) that escalates into a world war, pitting Russia and its ally, Belarus, in a conflict with the West in which both sides employ land, air, maritime, and eventually nuclear forces. All three components of Russia's strategic nuclear deterrent (bombers, submarines, and land forces) participated in the maneuvers, which were the largest conducted on Russian territory since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. One Russian commentary on the month-long exercise, which began on Sept. 21, described it as an opportunity for Russia to "prove its Major League status."

Although the Georgia War has brought the issue to the forefront, Russia's military activities expanded well before this summer's conflict. For several years, Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) have engaged in an enlarged testing program of the country's land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The launches aim both to confirm existing missiles' reliability, and to develop new missile and warhead technologies. In August, for instance, the SMF test-launched Russia's main intercontinental ballistic missile, the RS-12M Topol ICBM (NATO codenamed SS-25 Sickle), with a new warhead designed to overcome U.S. missile defenses. Spokesperson Alexander Vovk declared, "An experimental warhead hit a target at a testing range on the Kamchatka peninsula with high precision, demonstrating its capability to deliver pinpoint strikes on well-defended targets."

In addition to its ICBM deterrent, Russia has been reinvigorating its air-based deterrent recently as well. Since last year, Russian strategic bombers have resumed global patrols, simulating nuclear attacks against the United States and its allies.

During the Stability 2008 exercises, Russian strategic bombers conducted their first live-fire exercises since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In northern Russia, the Tu-160 White Swan (NATO codename Blackjack) and Tu-95MS Bear-H strategic bombers deployed and launched their maximum combat payload of cruise missiles. Additional Russian combat and support warplanes also participated in the exercise.

And on Sept. 10, two Russian Tu-160 Blackjack supersonic strategic bombers flew to Venezuela, where they conducted a week of highly publicized exercises before returning to their home base of Engels in central Russia on Sept. 19. Their 16-hour flights were the longest in the history of Russian strategic aviation. The planes carried only dummy warheads on this deployment, as Russian warplanes usually do on exercises.

Perhaps the most interesting component of Russia's military resurgence, though, is the return of the Russian Navy, which in recent months has conducted exercises in maritime regions unvisited by Russian sailors since Soviet times. During the Georgia War, warships from Russia's Black Sea fleet, based at the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, deployed along the coast of Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia to support Russian ground and air operations. After NATO warships entered the Black Sea to provide humanitarian assistance to the Georgian government, Russian Adm. Eduard Baltin boasted that the Russian Navy could destroy the NATO naval contingent within 20 minutes. President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and other Russian leaders expressed concerns that the NATO ships were actually delivering weapons to Georgia under the guise of providing humanitarian assistance.

 

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Chile jails death squad officers

Chile's supreme court has jailed five retired senior military officers over the killing of dozens of government opponents under military rule.

The officers were all members of a military committee known as the Caravan of Death, which criss-crossed the country killing suspected leftists.

Their crimes date back to shortly after the late Gen Augusto Pinochet took power in a military coup in 1973.

The head of the committee, Gen Sergio Arellano Stark, is now 88.

He was jailed for six years for ordering the murder of four men at a military prison in Linares, southern Chile.

One of the other officers was also sentenced to six years, and the other three received four-year terms.

~ BBC News ~

 

War resisters gather to commemorate 40th anniversary of "Presidio 27 Mutiny"

by Jeff Paterson

 

Vietnam War resisters were joined by Gulf War and Iraq War resisters to commemorate the anniversary of the "Presidio 27 Mutiny," a 1968 protest and sit-in conducted by imprisoned Vietnam War resisters.

 

During the Vietnam War era, the Presidio Stockade was a military prison notorious for its poor conditions and overcrowding with many troops imprisoned for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War. When Richard Bunch, a mentally disturbed prisoner, was shot and killed on October 11th, 1968, Presidio inmates began organizing. Three days later, 27 Stockade prisoners broke formation and walked over to a corner of the lawn, where they read a list of grievances about their prison conditions and the larger war effort and sang "We Shall Overcome." The prisoners were charged and tried for "mutiny," and several got 14 to 16 years of confinement. Meanwhile, disillusionment about the Vietnam War continued to grow inside and outside of the military.

The mutiny's anniversary today comes at a time when military resistance against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is climbing. U.S. Army soldiers are resisting service at the highest rate since 1980, with an 80 percent increase in desertions, defined as absence for more than 30 days, since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the Associated Press.

"This was for real. We laid it down, and the response by the commanding general changed our lives," recalls Keith Mather, Presidio "mutineer" who escaped to Canada before his trial came up and lived there for 11 years, only to be arrested upon his return to the United States. Mather is currently a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of Veterans for Peace.

Other "mutineers" who attended the commemoration today include: John Colip of Mesa, Arizona; Randy Roland of Seattle, Washington; and Mike "The Mole" Marino of Vacaville, California. They were joined by Roger Broomfield, a stockade guard who later became a defense witness, and former San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan who helped kickoff his career by defending "The Presidio 27."

"This was one of the first major acts of GI resistance against the Vietnam War. Forty years later we again have growing resistance within the military in opposition to a long, brutal occupation war-complete with prisoners of conscience and resisters seeking refuge in Canada," explained Gulf War GI resister Jeff Paterson, Project Director of Courage to Resist, an organization established to support Iraq War era military objectors.

Among the dozens of folks who gathered to listen to the "mutineers" was a class of high school students from the Presidio Bay School. Iraq War resister Stephen Funk explained to the students that this was not simply a question of history, but that GI resisters are locked up today for refusing this generation's unjust wars.

 

http://www.couragetoresist.org

 

~ San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center ~

 

Reward offered for equipment stolen at West Point

The U.S. Army is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to whoever stole more than $400,000 worth of equipment at West Point, including hundreds of portable radios.

The Army Criminal Investigation Command says the equipment was stolen in mid-September from a warehouse on the grounds of the U.S. Military Academy.

Investigators say the stolen items included more than 300 portable digital radios, worth $1,142 each, and about 600 batteries worth $87 each.

Investigators didn't release information on the theft and reward until this week.

~ Staten Island Advance ~

 

Thought Police Version 2.0

In George Orwell's novel, 1984, the government attempts to control the speech and the thoughts of its citizens, cataloging incorrect thoughts as "thought crimes". While this story was first published in 1949 as fiction, now in 2008, in a world affected by terrorism, it may become prophetic. Predicting malicious intent from mere observations is becoming a government skill.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) already uses human agents and surveillance cameras to search airport passengers for their bodys' non-verbal clues to predict whether they intend harm to their fellow passengers. And the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is updating this skill using a mobile laboratory with its Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) program (formerly known as "Project Hostile Intent") to detect harmful intentions from its citizens.

The premise is to reconfigure large trailers to become mobile screening modules that can be set-up at major events, border crossings or even airports that consist of an array of sensors that can measure breathing patterns, pulse rates, facial expressions and skin temperatures as persons answer a series of controlled questions. These questions are akin to those asked by polygraph examiners, such as, "Are you attempting to detonate an explosive device in this airport today?"

The benefit of this approach is that unlike a polygraph examination there is no baseline questioning or wires connected to an individual, so it takes less time. It is being described by DHS and its technology partners as an, "X-ray for bad intentions". The system, known as "Malintent," uses multiple sensors - everything from cameras to infrared sensors to laser radars to collect and collate data to determine if people are displaying certain behavioral, biological or psychological markers that can be classified as malicious.

 

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