“Progressive” Senators to Pass START Treaty

Yup.  Months ago, I warned you all about a lame duck session gone wild.  Well, here it is.

The START treaty is yet another ploy by the Obama administration to reduce America’s strength and offer her up on the chopping block for Obama’s communist buddies.

U.S. Set to Approve Russia Nuclear Arms Pact
Published December 22, 2010 | FoxNews.com

The U.S. Senate was poised to approve a nuclear arms pact with Russia on Wednesday in what would be the latest in a string of legislative victories for President Obama after his party was soundly beaten in the midterm elections last month.

The Senate voted 67-28 to advance the legislation on Tuesday, easily exceeding the 60 votes required. Earlier, Republicans senators expressed outrage as Obama secured enough votes for ratification.

At least 10 Republicans publicly announced their support for the accord, including Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, putting it on a virtual glidepath to ratification by Wednesday night.

The Constitution requires two-thirds of those voting in the Senate to ratify the pact. Democrats needed at least nine Republican votes.

At a GOP news conference, Republicans who oppose the treaty warned of the consequences.

“Well this is a joke,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., adding that he believes the administration gave up too much to the Russians to negotiate the treaty.

“When you want zero nukes in the world, you’re not an effective negotiator,” he said.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said it’s clear the administration is checking the box on many issues without any substance behind the box.

“We join millions of Americans who are outraged,” he said, adding that it is being crammed under the cover of Christmas.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, also oppose the START agreement.

11 Russian Spies Arrested in the U.S.

Well…  There goes Obama’s entire Cabinet…

Commie Spy Anna Chapman

Yup, she’s pretty hot.  Back when I was in the military, we used to refer to Russian spies like her as “Honey Traps…”

Spy ring’s ‘femme fatale’

By BRUCE GOLDING, ANDY SOLTIS and CATHY BURKE
June 29, 2010 – NYPOST

A ring of 11 Russian moles right out of a Cold War spy novel was smashed yesterday — and among those busted was a flame-haired, 007-worthy beauty who flitted from high-profile parties to top-secret meetings around Manhattan.

Russian national Anna Chapman — a 28-year-old divorcee with a masters in economics, an online real-estate business, a fancy Financial District apartment and a Victoria’s Secret body — had been passing information to a Russian government official every Wednesday since January, authorities charged.

In one particularly slick spy exchange on St. Patrick’s Day, Chapman pulled a laptop out of a tote bag in a bookstore at Warren and Greenwich streets in the West Village while her handler lurked outside, receiving her message on his own computer, the feds said. A similar exchange occurred at a Midtown coffee shop at 47th Street and 8th Ave.

The FBI claimed the two were corresponding via a secret online network.

Last week, an undercover agent pretending to be a Russian official arranged a meeting to talk about the weekly laptop exchanges, pretending to be ready to send the sexy spy on a mission to deliver a fake passport to another female agent, according to the federal complaint.

“Are you ready for this step?” he asked. “S¤-¤-¤-, yes,” Chapman allegedly gushed.

The undercover instructed her on how she would recognize her fellow spy and how to report back on the handoff, the feds said.

“Haven’t we met in California last summer?” the spy expecting the fake passport was supposed to say. Chapman was to respond, “No, I think it was the Hamptons,” according to the FBI.

Chapman allegedly was also supposed to hold a magazine under her arm so her counterpart would recognize her, and plant a stamp on a wall map indicate the handoff was a success.

It never took place.

Another spy-movie-like maneuver took place in Brooklyn shortly after the meeting with the undercover agent when Chapman darted into a Verizon phone store to buy a cell using the name Irine Kutsov, and an address of “99 Fake Street,” the feds said. She only planned to use the phone to “avoid detection of her conversations,” the FBI alleged.

At her arraignment last night, she was held without bail as federal prosecutor Michael Farbiarz called her a “highly trained agent” and a “practiced deceiver.”

The other suspects, including four middle-aged couples living seemingly ordinary professional lives, were supplied with bogus names and documents and told by Moscow to become “Americanized,” infiltrate “policymaking circles” in the United States and send secrets back to the Kremlin, the feds said.

All allegedly were on deep-cover assignments and schooled in spying tradecraft — from using high-tech methods like digital gadgets to traditional methods like invisible ink, sending encoded radio bursts of data and using innocent-looking “brush-by” encounters to pass documents.

Counterintelligence Officials in Shock as Our Dark Overlord Lowers Priority Placed on Intelligence Collection for China

Yup.  Like birds of a feather, Commies flock together:

China removed as top priority for spies
Intelligence chiefs object
Washington Times
By Bill Gertz

The White House National Security Council recently directed U.S. spy agencies to lower the priority placed on intelligence collection for China, amid opposition to the policy change from senior intelligence leaders who feared it would hamper efforts to obtain secrets about Beijing’s military and its cyber-attacks.

The downgrading of intelligence gathering on China was challenged by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair and CIA Director Leon E. Panetta after it was first proposed in interagency memorandums in October, current and former intelligence officials said.

The decision downgrades China from “Priority 1″ status, alongside Iran and North Korea, to “Priority 2,” which covers specific events such as the humanitarian crisis after the Haitian earthquake or tensions between India and Pakistan.

The National Security Council staff, in response, pressed ahead with the change and sought to assure Mr. Blair and other intelligence chiefs that the change would not affect the allocation of resources for spying on China or the urgency of focusing on Chinese spying targets, the officials told The Washington Times.

White House National Security Council officials declined to comment on the intelligence issue. Mike Birmingham, a spokesman for Mr. Blair, declined to comment. A CIA spokesman also declined to comment.

[Hmmm...  How's all that "change" and "transparency in government" working out for you? ]

But administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the new policy is part of the Obama administration’s larger effort to develop a more cooperative relationship with Beijing.

Chinese Cyberattack on Google Part of Espionage Campaign

Contrary to what Obama and the Lame Stream Media would have you to believe, Communist China is NOT a close ally.  They are a fascist-Commie regime with a litany of human rights abuses.

BTW – There is a really good editorial about Google and China in yesterday’s Investors Business Daily.  If you are interested, CLICK HERE to read it.

Google China cyberattack part of vast espionage campaign, experts say

By Ariana Eunjung Cha and Ellen Nakashima
Thursday, January 14, 2010 – WaPo

Computer attacks on Google that the search giant said originated in China were part of a concerted political and corporate espionage effort that exploited security flaws in e-mail attachments to sneak into the networks of major financial, defense and technology companies and research institutions in the United States, security experts said.

At least 34 companies — including Yahoo, Symantec, Adobe, Northrop Grumman and Dow Chemical — were attacked, according to congressional and industry sources. Google, which disclosed on Tuesday that hackers had penetrated the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights advocates in the United States, Europe and China, threatened to shutter its operations in the country as a result.

Human rights groups as well as Washington-based think tanks that have helped shape the debate in Congress about China were also hit.

Security experts say the attacks showed a new level of sophistication, exploiting multiple flaws in different software programs and underscoring what senior administration officials have said over the past year is an increasingly serious cyber threat to the nation’s critical industries.

“Usually it’s a group using one type of malicious code per target,” said Eli Jellenc, head of international cyber-intelligence for VeriSign’s iDefense Labs, a Silicon Valley company helping some firms investigate the attacks. “In this case, they’re using multiple types against multiple targets — but all in the same attack campaign. That’s a marked leap in coordination.”

[...]

The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming!!!

And, Lame Stream Media yawns…  Still too busy trying to figure out why so many Americans are so pissed off at their new commie-totalitarian leaders…  Must be astroturfing…  Yup, that’s got to be it…   Nope, couldn’t have anything to do with Americans finally fed up with all the asshats in Washington D.C. shoving commie legislation down our throats!

Russia confirms submarine patrols near US

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV,
Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov
Wed Aug 5, 2009 – via yahoonews

MOSCOW – A senior Russian military official said Wednesday that Russian nuclear-powered attack submarines spotted off the U.S. East Coast were on a legitimate training mission.

U.S. defense officials said Tuesday that two Russian submarines had been patrolling in international waters for several days. While the activity was reminiscent of the Cold War, the U.S. officials said the submarines had done nothing to provoke concern.

[Uhm, excuse me???  Just the fact that they are testing us is enough to provoke concern!  Reagan would never stand for the BS!!!  Obama, on the other hand, well...  As we speak, he's probably suiting up to personally swim out there with some vodka in tow just so he can get his face on tv as he sings Kumbaya with the sub's crew!]

[...]

The submarine patrols coincided with angry words from Moscow about U.S. military assistance to Georgia a year after the Russian-Georgian war.

[...]

Violent Protests in Russia Call for Putin’s Resignation

Gee…  I see that our Russian friends have been taking our advice [link here] seriously.

However, I find it tragic that it took an economic meltdown before they realized that their rights had been stripped away by Putin and his thugs.

Let that be a lesson for the rest of us…

Violent clashes in Russia as angry protesters call for Putin to resign over economy
By Daily Mail Reporter
31 January 2009

Russia was rocked today by some of its strongest protests yet as thousands rallied across the vast country to attack the Kremlin’s response to the global economic crisis.

The marches, complete with Soviet-style red flags and banners, pose a challenge to a government which has faced little threat from the fragmented opposition and politically apathetic population during the boom years fuelled by oil.

Pro-government thugs beat up some of the protesters.

About 2,500 people marched across the far eastern port of Vladivostok to denounce the Cabinet’s decision to increase car import tariffs, shouting slogans urging Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to resign. Many there make their living by importing cars.

Meanwhile in Moscow arrests were made as about 1,000 diehard Communists rallied in a central square hemmed in by heavy police cordons.

Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov told them the Kremlin must throw out Western capitalism and impose sweeping nationalisation.

[Yeah, 'cause Communism worked out so well for ya' all in the past...  LOL!  And, Commies getting their butts kicked by totalitarians is heck-a-funny!]

Eduard Limonov, leader of the banned National Bolshevik Party – and one of the Kremlin’s most radical critics – was arrested at another Moscow square.

Police dispersed demonstrators from the United Civil Front, comprising several radical opposition groups, who launched an illegal rally on a street near the Kremlin.

[Gee, that didn't use to be illegal.  But, that was before Putin decided to close that little loophole...]

Protesters gathered near an Metro station but then sidestepped police by taking a train across the city to another location.

Some of the protesters were later arrested. Others were brutally beaten up by activists from pro-Kremlin youth groups.

Newspaper Editor and a Human-Rights Lawyer for Anna Politkovskaya Assassinated in Moscow

Getting back to our Stalinist roots are we, Mr. Putin?

Russian journalist wounded in Moscow dies

Jan 19 2009
via – Breitbart

MOSCOW (AP) – A newspaper editor says a journalist who was shot along with a human-rights lawyer on a Moscow street has died in the hospital.

Novaya Gazeta editor Sergei Sokolov says Anastasia Baburova died on the operating table hours after Monday’s shooting.

A deputy editor at the newspaper, Andrei Lipsky, said earlier that Baburova was shot when she tried to intervene after a gunman fatally shot lawyer Stanislav Markelov. Baburova was a freelance journalist who had worked for the paper.

Markelov was fighting against the early release of a Russian colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen woman in 2000. He had also represented slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya as well as Chechens and others who reported abuse at the hands of the authorities.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

Communist China Supplying Hamas With Weapons and Cash

But…  Gee, wasn’t that opening ceremony for the Olympics ever so beautiful?  Surely that makes up for any deaths caused by China…

(sarcasm, of course)

H/T – Israel Matzav

Ukraine Rejects Kremlin’s Demands for Sharp Increase in Gas Prices; Russia Responsd by Cutting Off Gas Supplies

Why is this a concern?

Well, besides the obvious, which is that Russia is becoming increasingly strapped for cash due to falling oil prices, it is of concern because Russia now controls about 1/4 of the gas supplies to Europe.

Despite Putin’s denials to the contrary, it is impossible to separate Kremlin strategy from Gazprom’s activities, now and in the future.

By allowing an increasingly totalitarian Russian government control of European resources, countries such as France and Italy—who have extensive contracts with Gazprom— have become beholden to the Kremlin. As such, they are becoming nothing more than just political sock puppets for Russia.

The following article highlights what the Kremlin does to those who won’t play ball:

Russia cuts off gas deliveries to Ukraine
By Andrew E. Kramer – International Herald Tribune
Published: January 2, 2009

MOSCOW: In the face of mounting economic troubles, Russia cut off deliveries of natural gas to Ukraine on Thursday after Ukraine rejected the Kremlin’s demands for a sharp increase in gas prices.

A similar reduction in supplies to Ukraine in 2006 caused a drop in pressure throughout Europe’s integrated natural gas pipeline system and led to shortages in countries as far away as Italy and France.

But with a recessionary drop in demand, ample supplies and assurances from both countries that gas would flow westward without interruption, there were few signs of the near hysteria in Europe that accompanied the 2006 cutoff.

The authorities in Poland and Italy issued soothing statements on Thursday, noting the existence of high reserves and the distant likelihood of an immediate effect on gas supplies.

Even Ukraine, which says it has enough gas in reserve to last through the winter, took Russia’s action in stride, underscoring how the political potency of the Kremlin’s energy card has plunged along with the price of oil and gas. Its normally fractious political leadership rallied together in the face of the supply cutoff, united in their demand that the Kremlin pay more for the right to transship gas through Ukraine.

Gazprom, the Russian natural gas monopoly, likened its actions to a utility cutting off service to a deadbeat customer. “The message is very simple,” Ilya Kochevrin, the executive director of Gazprom’s export arm, Gazexport, said in a telephone interview. “If you receive a product, you have to pay for it. If you don’t pay, you don’t receive it.”

But energy experts said that the Kremlin’s decision to employ the gambit again in a pricing dispute with Ukraine was an indication as well of Russia’s deepening economic woes.

Plagued by the sharp fall in oil prices, Russia has been scrambling to make up the revenue shortfall as prices have slipped below $40 a barrel. Gazprom, too, is heavily in debt and sinking along with the energy market.

“They do need the money,” Chris Weafer, the chief equity analyst at UralSib bank in Moscow, said in a telephone interview, speaking of Gazprom. “That is the bottom line.”

Russian Riot Police Assault Protesters

If you still think Russia is a democracy, you’re sadly mistaken. In just 9 years, Putin and his thugs  have completely destroyed any semblance of a democracy in Russia.

Of course, if America keeps heading down the current path it is on, we too can kiss our democracy goodbye…

CLICK HERE to watch the video from the BBC

Update:  Gateway Pundit has posted the following video:

Police break up Russian protests
BBC

Russian riot police have forcibly broken up a rally being held in the eastern city of Vladivostok.

About 500 people had gathered in the city’s central square to demonstrate against a new tax on imported cars.

Witnesses said police officers kicked protesters, damaged journalists’ equipment and made dozens of arrests.

Vladivostok, one of several cities holding protests, depends heavily on car imports from Japan and critics say the tax could push prices up by 50%.

The tax is intended to help prop up Russia’s domestic car industry and prevent people buying cheaper, imported products.

Protests against it began a week ago and have also been held in at least nine other cities in far eastern Russia, local Russian media report.

Most of the demonstrations were dispersed by police, said the independent Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy.

More are planned for Moscow and other cities.

Economy fears

Witnesses said the several hundred people who had gathered in central Vladivostok were singing and dancing but that the rally was peaceful with no sign of political placards.

Some of the protesters were reported to have been shouting slogans against the Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin.

The protesters were ordered to disperse by police who told them the rally was unauthorised, before members of the Omon riot police began to arrest people, hauling them into waiting vans, said witnesses.

Several journalists were detained and there were reports that others were injured or had their cameras and recording equipment damaged by the police.

“They ran into the crowd, grabbed people and started pushing them to the ground, taking them into cars,” protester Yevgeniy Makarov told Russian media.

“If someone started struggling … they started twisting their arms, kicking them in the back. Very many people were taken into vans, just thrown there.”