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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

lunarchick - 10:34pm Sep 21, 2001 EST (#9588 of 9607)
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"check this -- these losses don't have to happen."
rshowalter 9/21/01 8:00pm

Where there is less than transparent government the checking won't get done!

lunarchick - 10:41pm Sep 21, 2001 EST (#9589 of 9607)
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Does the truth ever out?

Anger against the Chechens, who were blamed, enabled Vladimir Putin, a newly appointed and wholly obscure Prime Minister, to invade Chechnya, and six months later easily win an election for the presidency.

A simple metal memorial, heaped around with flowers and pictures of the dead, marks the spot where the apartment block once stood. A small, elderly woman with a black headscarf was sobbing in front of the memorial. She showed us the page of an old newspaper with photos of her son, his wife and her granddaughter who had all been killed by the bomb. Only two people who were inside the building survived.

I had been to Kashirskoye Shosse last year, just before the presidential election in which Mr Putin triumphed, to ask people who they were voting for and who they thought had planted the bomb. Only one out of 10 was certain it was the Chechens. "It was only at the beginning that we thought it was the Chechens," said a woman who worked in a kindergarten damaged by the blast

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/russia/story.jsp?story=94278 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/russia/

lunarchick - 10:48pm Sep 21, 2001 EST (#9590 of 9607)
lunarchick@www.com

1978: Australia was rocked in 1978 by the explosion of a massive bomb placed in a rubbish bin outside the Hilton Hotel
.. city waste disposal worker killed ..
.. a man did a long sentence
.. Later - ASIO the secret service was thought to be the perpertrator
.. ASIO brought under DIRECT control of parliament.

lunarchick - 10:56pm Sep 21, 2001 EST (#9591 of 9607)
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"In normal times, they keep the warheads separate from the missiles," he said, "and the fissile uranium – the core of the weapon – is not kept in the warhead, which consists of electronics and high explosives, but doesn't have the fissile core in it. It's all dressed up and nowhere to go."

Assuming this is still true, it would make it much harder for those unfamiliar with the system to assemble weapons and make them work. The fissile core, about the size of a melon and weighing up to 30kg, can be sub-divided into segments that can be stored separately.

This means the weapon can be split into components that are in themselves innocuous.

"What we have are a range of different components, with different groups controlling them," Mr Perkovich said. "Each part is well guarded and they have taken great care to assess the reliability and security of the storage."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,2909736%5E2703,00.html

lunarchick - 11:02pm Sep 21, 2001 EST (#9592 of 9607)
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A mosque locally was burnt down today - an insurance hike for all!

lunarchick - 11:20pm Sep 21, 2001 EST (#9593 of 9607)
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Incumbrents are re-elected when countries go on a war footing | forbid refugee entry:

"" ... So, yes, I surrender. I wave the white flag. I shall roll over and play dead. Magoo no more. Howard is Henry V, Montgomery of Alamein, MacArthur, Arnie Schwarzenegger and Schwarzkopf.

Moreover, our little Christian soldier is living up to his middle name. Winston. We shall fight them on the beaches. We shall fight them on the Norwegian tankers. We shall fight them in Port Moresby and Nauru.

It's like Maggie Thatcher and the Falklands. Like George Bush Sr and Desert Storm. And the great thing is that with the asylum-seekers we're waging war against an enemy who can't fight back. Bush Sr had to contend with a few body bags in his war against Saddam Hussein – albeit from friendly fire. And before the Iron Lady could shriek "Sink the Belgrano!" there were a few British casualties. But with boatpeople, it's game, set and match. What are they going to do? Thump the SAS with their Korans? ...more .. Adams ""

lunarchick - 11:41pm Sep 21, 2001 EST (#9594 of 9607)
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".... Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan -- impoverished nations ruled by heavy-handed secular regimes -- have all faced the threat of militant Islamic groups suspected of links with the Taliban, which controls much of Afghanistan and has been playing host to suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden. And while the downfall of the Taliban regime could defuse tensions by depriving local radicals of their nearby support base, experts warn that a hasty and short-sighted operation could plunge the region into crisis and further radicalization. ... " MAP http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001/09/21/002.html "The problem is, Russian policy in the region is not conducted by politicians, but by military people," Shukurov said. "And they unfortunately lack vision: They still see America as the main enemy and the repressive governments as their main allies."

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