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Pentagon is building cruise missile shield to defend US cities from Russia

Marcus Weisgerber
Defense One
Thu, 18 Jun 2015 00:00 UTC
blimp
© www.defenseone.com
Pentagon building cruise missile shield defense.
The military moves to set up an expensive sensor-and-shooter network, but is the threat real?

The Pentagon is quietly working to set up an elaborate network of defenses to protect American cities from a barrage of Russian cruise missiles.

The plan calls for buying radars that would enable National Guard F-16 fighter jets to spot and shoot down fast and low-flying missiles. Top generals want to network those radars with sensor-laden aerostat balloons hovering over U.S. cities and with coastal warships equipped with sensors and interceptor missiles of their own.

One of those generals is Adm. William Gortney, who leads U.S.Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, and North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. Earlier this year, Gortney submitted an "urgent need" request to put AESA radars on the F-16s that patrol the airspace around Washington. Such a request allows a project to circumvent the normal procurement process.
JLENS chart
© foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com

Comment: One day we can all give a heaving sigh of relief when ALL the bases are covered as to everlasting security and defense capability. We might find out we live inside Cheyenne Mountain or its prison equivalent. Pity the sunset watchers, star-gazers, flower-sniffing fools that buy into the idiocy that our world doesn't need layer-upon-layer of action-reaction-action-reaction nausea. It was perfect the way it WAS.

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Chess

The partition of 'Syraq'

Pepe Escobar
RT
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 16:12 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Atef Hassan
With less than two weeks before a possible nuclear deal being struck between Iran and the P5+1, the brinkmanship across the "wilderness of mirrors" of Middle Eastern intel is reaching fever pitch. Spin reigns supreme. And nothing is what it seems.

Of course a lot riding on the Iran nuclear deal has to do with Pipelineistan. Iran, assuming sanctions quickly collapse, will finally be able to sell natural gas to the EU - theoretically in competition with Gazprom; but that will take a long time, until Iranian (decaying) infrastructure is upgraded.
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Briefcase

Greek debt crisis: Tsipras makes new proposals to EU leaders


RT
Sun, 21 Jun 2015 15:33 UTC
Alexis Tsipras
© Reuters / Grigory Dukor
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has presented EU leaders new proposals on a "mutually beneficial deal" to solve the Greek debt crisis, according to his office.

"The prime minister has presented the three leaders the Greek proposals on a mutually beneficial deal, which will provide a definitive solution, rather than postponing the solution to the problem," the cabinet spokesman told media on Sunday.

Tsipras offered a new solution during a telephone conversation between Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, France's President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Comment: Greece: Truth Committee on Public Debt just declared all debt to the Troika "illegal, illegitimate, and odious"

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Stock Down

Signs of financial turmoil in Europe, China and the United States

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 15:01 UTC
Image
As we move toward the second half of 2015, signs of financial turmoil are appearing all over the globe. In Greece, a full blown bank run is happening right now. Approximately 2 billion euros were pulled out of Greek banks in just the past three days, Barclays says that capital controls are "imminent" unless a debt deal is struck, and there are reports that preparations are being made for a "bank holiday" in Greece.

Meanwhile, Chinese stocks are absolutely crashing. The Shanghai Composite Index was down more than 13 percent this week alone. That was the largest one week decline since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

In the U.S., stocks aren't crashing yet, but we just witnessed one of the largest one week outflows of capital from the bond markets that we have ever witnessed. Slowly but surely, we are starting to see the smart money head for the exits. As one Swedish fund manager put it recently, everyone wants "to avoid being caught on the wrong side of markets once the herd realizes stocks are over-valued".

Comment: If you have not done so already, better get prepared and fasten your seat belts.

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Stormtrooper

Understanding the absurdity of war: More than 10K cases of desertion in Ukrainian army since outbreak of Donbass war


Sputnik
Sun, 21 Jun 2015 11:41 UTC
ukrainian army desertions
Desertion galore: Ukrainian men understand the absurdity of the war their government is waging.

More than 10,000 cases of desertion have been registered in the Ukrainian Army since the outbreak of the Donbass war in April 2014, Ukrainian Vesti reported.

In 2014 the army suffered heavy desertion and nearly 30 percent of the servicemen called up in the first wave of mobilization (March 17) abandoned their positions, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.

Ukrainian parliament Verkhovna Rada has announced six waves of mobilization so far. By the end of 2014 the strength of Ukrainian Armed Forces grew from 130,000 t

Comment: See also: The demoralized Ukrainian Army

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USA

Russophobia: Pentagon building cruise missile shield across US cities


Sputnik
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 13:45 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/ US NAVY
As Baltic and Nordic countries continue to express unfounded fears about Russian aggression, paranoia fever appears to have its hold on the United States. The Pentagon is quietly installing a cruise missile defense shield in major US cities, despite the financial fiasco of previous attempts to install similar technology.

"A handful of senior military officials, including several current or past NORTHCOM commanders, have been among those quietly dinging the bell about cruise missile threats, and it's beginning to be heard," Thomas Karako, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told Defense One.

To counter that threat, the Pentagon is working to install a high-tech radar system that would track incoming, low-flying missiles. Installed in aerostat balloons over major cities, as well as onboard warships off the coast, the radar would transmit warning signals to F-16 fighter jets if an enemy missile were detected.

Comment: The military industrial complex must keep 'feeding' off of humanity.

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Better Earth

SPIEF: St. Petersburg in the heart of the action

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Sun, 21 Jun 2015 13:18 UTC
Image
© SPIEF
The dogs of western fear and sanctions bark, while the Eurasian caravan passes.

And no caravanserai could possibly compete with the 19th edition of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Thousands of global business leaders - including Europeans, but not Americans; after all, President Putin is "the new Hitler" - representing over 1,000 international companies/corporations, including the CEOs of BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Total, hit town in style.

Fascinating panels all around - including discussions on the BRICs; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO); the New Silk Road(s); the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU); and of course the theme of all themes, "The Making of the Asia-Pacific Century: Rebalancing East," with former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
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Arrow Up

South Carolina church shooting: Were photos of Dylann Storm Roof digitally altered? Disturbing forensic evidence

James Tracy
Global Research
Sat, 20 Jun 2015 20:53 UTC
FingerPrint
© Global Research
An open-access website called fotoforensics.com analyzes digital images to detect potential alteration. One of the techniques offered at the site is Error Level Analysis.

According to the site's tutorial on ELA:

Error Level Analysis (ELA) permits identifying areas within an image that are at different compression levels. With JPEG images, the entire picture should be at roughly the same level. If a section of the image is at a significantly different error level, then it likely indicates a digital modification ...

ELA highlights differences in the JPEG compression rate. Regions with uniform coloring, like a solid blue sky or a white wall, will likely have a lower ELA result (darker color) than high-contrast edges. The things to look for:

Edges. Similar edges should have similar brightness in the ELA result. All high-contrast edges should look similar to each other, and all low-contrast edges should look similar. With an original photo, low-contrast edges should be almost as bright as high-contrast edges.

Textures. Similar textures should have similar coloring under ELA. Areas with more surface detail, such as a close-up of a basketball, will likely have a higher ELA result than a smooth surface.

Surfaces. Regardless of the actual color of the surface, all flat surfaces should have about the same coloring under ELA.

Look around [a] picture and identify the different high-contrast edges, low-contrast edges, surfaces, and textures. Compare those areas with the ELA results. If there are significant differences, then it identifies suspicious areas that may have been digitally altered. (emphases added)

As the author emphasizes, "[s]imilar textures should have similar coloring under ELA," and "all flat surfaces should have about the same coloring under ELA."
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Dollar Gold

Tsipras may seek assistance from Moscow as looming EU debt repayment deadline stirs Greeks to withdraw $4.7B from accounts in five days


The BRICS Post
Sat, 20 Jun 2015 04:34 UTC
Grexit
© Xinhua
The shadow of a Greek exit from the eurozone looms as some begin withdrawing monies from local banks
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras described his country's impasse with its European creditors ahead of a debt repayment deadline as "the center of a storm" as many of his compatriots began to withdraw money from national banks.

According to Reuters quoting banking sources, Greeks have withdrawn some $4.7 billion in the past five days, with $1.4 billon taken out of accounts on Friday alone.


Comment: Just FYI, dear Sott readers, when the financial papers say 'Greeks' are withdrawing cash from Greece, what they're not clarifying is that ordinary Greeks are not doing this (though they might if panic spreads)... the elite foreign investors/owners of Greek debt are doing this. Kind of an important distinction, no?


Greeks, and their European counterparts, are nervous 10 days ahead of a deadline for Athens to repay over $1.75 billion to the International Monetary Fund.

Athens says it does not have the monies to do that and wants the European Central Bank (ECB) to release some $8 billion in emergency funds.

On Friday, the ECB said it would provide the Greek Central Bank with more than $2 billion in emergency funding. Two days earlier, it increased the overall total emergency liquidity fund available for Greece from $94.3 to $95.4 billion.

Analysts say that the ECB wants a way out of the impasse for Greece.

Comment: Grexit plan: The next great European financial crisis has begun

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Robot

America's escalating race war: Who benefits from a mind-controlled Charleston shooter?

Niall Bradley & Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Sat, 20 Jun 2015 10:36 UTC
Image

Screenshot from the alleged shooter's first court hearing
On Wednesday June 17th, nine African-Americans were shot to death in a church in South Carolina, allegedly by a 21-year-old white man named Dylann Storm Roof. The attack took place during evening prayers in one of the country's oldest churches, at Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church. The church has one of the largest black congregations in the US South.

On the same night as the Charleston shooting, persons unknown shot up another church in Memphis, Tennessee. No one was killed and wounded that attack, but this could be the start of a new 'trend' in the area of mass shootings in the USA.

South Carolina's governor said: "If this can happen in a church, then we've got more praying to do." Her statements are typical of government and media vacuous platitudes in the aftermath of such horrific events, the real message being: 'this was done to all of us by all of us, we must stay strong, stay together, and you the people must believe even harder in what your leaders are telling you.'

Was the alleged shooter motivated by hatred for Blacks? On the face of it, that would appear to be the case. He is reported to have said he wanted to 'start a race war'. But it is not everyday that white supremacists cross the line from just being mouthy racists to calmly executing people.
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