US Navy "Steller Daggers" Video

Closing Velocity always has the most incredible missle launch videos.
Rees

from Closing Velocity
by John McKittrick
April 17, 2009

Video: US Navy "Stellar Daggers" Missile Defense Test

New video from last month's first ever double intercept of a short-range ballistic missile and a cruise missile by the Aegis destroyer USS Benfold off the coast of Los Angeles:



Click to go to Closing Velocity to view more

North Korea Better Watch It or Obama Will, Well He'll, You know...

President Pantywaist - there is a new surrender monkey on the block…

from Don Surber
April 10, 2009

Gerald Warner of the Times of London: “Watch out, France and Co, there is a new surrender monkey on the block…”

Maybe it is just me, but I don’t think Warner is too impressed with President Obama’s performance in Europe.

In fact, Warner pointed out that the world leaders in public lavished praise on the young president — and then did nothing for him in private.

Help in Afghanistan?

Warner wrote: “The One retired triumphant, having secured a massive contribution of 5,000 extra troops — all of them non-combatant, of course — which must really have put the wind up the Taliban, at the prospect of 5,000 more infidel cooks and bottle-washers swarming into the less hazardous regions of Afghanistan.”

That does free our troops from having to pull KP duty, I suppose.

But Warner’s real point is our president’s reaction to the North Korean missile launch was decidedly wanting: “President Pantywaist is hopping mad and he has a strategy to cut Kim down to size: he is going to slice $1.4bn off America’s missile defence programme, presumably on the calculation that Kim would feel it unsporting to hit a sitting duck, so that will spoil his fun.”

I let Warner use the British newspaper stylebook.

I must agree that at a time when we are squandering trillions on stimulus packages that are spooking investors, cutting any spending in Washington is like emptying the ocean by the spoonful.

President Pantywaist.

Wrote Garner: “Watch out, France and Co, there is a new surrender monkey on the block and, over the next four years, he will spectacularly sell out the interests of the West with every kind of liberal-delusionist initiative on nuclear disarmament and sitting down to negotiate with any power freak who wants to buy time to get a good ICBM fix on San Francisco, or wherever. If you thought the world was a tad unsafe with Dubya around, just wait until President Pantywaist gets into his stride.”
His column is here.
Click to go to Don Surber article

Russia Test-fires ICBM - Mocks Obama Defense Cuts

Obama, nothing to see here. Move Along

from Reuters
Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman
editing by Mark Trevelyan
Fri Apr 10, 2009

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia successfully test-fired a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday as part of checks needed to extend its service life for up to 22 years, Russian media reported.

The Topol was fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, nestled among the forests of northern Russia, and successfully hit the test site on Russia's Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka, 6,000 km (3,700 miles) to the east.

"This launch confirmed the time extension for the Topol group of missiles for up to 22 years," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Colonel Alexander Vovk of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces as saying.

Test launches of new missiles have become routine in recent years, and the Kremlin says the financial crisis will not discourage it from spending as much money as needed on defense. The Topol, which entered service in 1985, was last test-fired last October.

Russia has extended the highly mobile Topol's use way past the 10-year guaranteed operational life set by the manufacturer. It is designed to pierce anti-missile defense systems such as those that the United States has said it wants to build in Eastern Europe.

The RS-12M Topol, called the SS-25 Sickle by NATO, has a maximum range of 10,000 km (6,125 miles) and can carry one 550-kiloton warhead.
Click to go to the article

57% Wanted a Military Response to North Korea Missile Launch

57% Wanted Military Response to North Korea Missile Launch - It's too bad 52% decided to elect a coward for Commander in Chief!

from Rasmussen Reports

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of U.S. voters nationwide favor a military response to eliminate North Korea’s missile launching capability. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 15% of voters oppose a military response while 28% are not sure.

North Korea defied international pressure and launched a missile last night. Officials from that country claim a satellite was placed in orbit. U.S. defense officials confirm that a missile was launched but that no object was placed in orbit.

"With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations,” President Obama said. (But he did NOTHING!)

The telephone survey was conducted Friday and Saturday, April 3-4, the two days immediately prior to North Korea’s launch. The question asked about a military response if North Korea actually did launch a long-range missile.

Support for a military response comes from 66% of Republicans, 52% of Democrats and 54% of those not affiliated with either major political party. There is no gender gap on the issue as a military response is favored by 57% of men and 57% of women.

Overall, 75% of voters say they’ve been closely following news stories about the possible launch. That figure includes 40% who’ve followed the news Very Closely.

Seventy-three percent (73%) are at least somewhat concerned that North Korea will use nuclear weapons against the United States. That’s up just a few points from 69% who held that view in October 2006. Prior to that survey, North Korea had successfully conducted an underground nuclear test.

Currently, 39% are Very Concerned about a possible nuclear attack from North Korea.
Just three percent (3%) of voters view North Korea as an ally while 46% say it’s an enemy.

Click to read the article

Satellite launch sparks conflicting claims

By Wang Linyan (China Daily)

2009-04-06

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Sunday it launched a satellite into orbit which was circling the Earth transmitting songs - but the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK) said it had failed to enter orbit.

The "Taepodong-2" rocket was launched at 11:20 am local time (0220 GMT) from the East Sea Launch Ground in the east coast of the country, the DPRK's Korean Central News Agency said.

The "Kwangmyongsong-2" satellite was sent into orbit at 11:29 am local time (0229 GMT), the agency said.

But North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and US Northern Command officials issued a statement disputing any success.

"Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan," the statement said. "The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean. No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan."

ROK Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said that Seoul had judged that the DPRK had failed to put its satellite launched into orbit, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

"Based on our judgment made so far, all first, second and third (stage) rockets fell into the ocean, and thus nothing has been put into orbit," Kyodo quoted Lee as telling a parliamentary session in Seoul.

US, ROK and Japanese officials - who monitored the launch from nearby warships and high-resolution spy satellite cameras - have said they suspect the DPRK was testing long-range ballistic missile technology that could be used to carry a nuclear warhead to Alaska or beyond.

The US insisted it was a missile launch, but the ROK, in a U-turn, said it was a satellite. Japan used "flying object" to describe it.

Click to read the article

U.S.: North Korean 'satellite' did not make orbit

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- No object entered orbit, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said Sunday, after North Korea claimed it had launched a satellite.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket Sunday, and called it a successful, peaceful launch of a satellite. But U.S. and South Korean officials called it a provocative act, amid international fears that the launch could be a missile with a warhead attached.

International reaction to reports of the launch -- which took place at about 11:30 a.m. local time -- ranged from calls for an immediate U.N. Security Council meeting to calls for measured diplomacy.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, the U.S. and a Canadian organization that monitors space activity released a statement about the launch. What do you think about North Korean rocket launch?

"Officials acknowledged today that North Korea launched a Taepo Dong 2 missile at 10:30 p.m. EDT Saturday, which passed over the Sea of Japan and the nation of Japan," the statement said. "Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean. No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan."

Click to read the article

N.Korea Rocket Launch Likely to Fail: Rand

from The Korea Times
April 4, 2009

North Korea’s rocket launch is likely to be unsuccessful up to 80 to 90 percent, said a prominent analyst at the U.S.-based Rand Corporation.

“I estimate the possibility of North Korea’s rocket launch failure up to 80 to 90 percent,” said Hahm Chai-bong of Rand. He added, however, that in case it succeeds, it will pose a “serious security threat” to Japan, Yonhap reported Saturday.

Hahm believes that North Korea aims to strengthen its domestic power grip through the missile program and its development of nuclear weapons, while also trying to get the attention of Washington which has been preoccupied with other priorities, including the economic crisis, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Surrounding the debate on whether what North Korea plans to launch is a missile or satellite (as North Korea claims), Hahm said things will get worse anyway because, after all, the underlying technology for both is the same and North Korea will want to show off its military achievement with the thinking of selling the weapons to other countries.

Meanwhile, Hahm said that with the rocket launch Pyongyang will put China, its staunch ideological ally and also the main economic benefactor, in a dilemma by further scaling down Beijing’s room to advocate Pyongyang in international community.

He, however, was less hopeful about what the international community can do about North Korea’s belligerence. “The U.N. Security Council sanctions will be the ‘least and at the same time the maximum’ response the international community can take,” and that the sanctions will eventually turn to be a mere symbolic political gesture.
Click to go to the article

OOPS! - Japan issues wrong info on N. Korean rocket launch

from Kyodo News
April 4, 2009
TOKYO, Japan

The Japanese government provided erroneous information that North Korea had launched a rocket Saturday, mostly because the Air Self-Defense Force was confused about radar information, a Defense Ministry official said.

''We caused a great deal of trouble to the Japanese people. This was a mistake in the transmission of information by the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces,'' Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters. ''I want to apologize to the people from my heart.''

The government released information that ''North Korea appears to have launched a projectile'' at 12:16 p.m. via its e-mail-based Em-Net emergency information system, but retracted it five minutes later, saying it was a ''detection failure.''

By then, media organizations at home and abroad had reported the rocket launch as breaking news based on the false information.

The confusion occurred after the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported earlier in the day that the rocket ''will be launched soon.'' North Korea has said the launch is for a communications satellite but Japan, South Korea and the United States suspect the launch is a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test.

According to the Defense Ministry, the ground-based FPS-5 radar at the ministry's Iioka research and development site in Asahi, Chiba Prefecture, picked up a trace over the Sea of Japan on the radar screen.

The information was immediately conveyed to the ASDF's Air Defense Command in the suburbs of Tokyo, but the person who received it mistook the information for satellite early warning information provided by the U.S. military.

The satellite early warning information is based on data sent by the U.S. Air Force's Defense Support Program satellite orbiting the Earth. Equipped with an infrared telescope, it is normally the quickest means to detect ballistic missile launches.

The erroneous information then got passed onto the SDF's Central Command Post at the Defense Ministry headquarters, from which it was conveyed to the crisis management center at the prime minister's office, according to the ministry.

The prime minister's office sent an emergency e-mail message to local governments across the country and media organizations based on the false information.

One minute after the Central Command Post received the launch information, it was notified that the trace had disappeared from the radar screen and that no satellite early warning information had actually been received, the ministry said.

''They should have confirmed on computer terminals that satellite early warning information had been received. The mistake could have been avoided if they had done so,'' a ministry official said.

The official said he does not know why the airman at the Air Defense Command mixed up the radar and satellite early warning information.

A misstep was also reported at the local level in Japan's northern areas, over which part of the rocket is set to pass if it flies according to the plan announced by North Korea.

Before the central government's false report, the Akita prefectural government issued an erroneous report to all municipal governments in the prefecture that North Korea had ''fired a missile,'' and one of the municipal offices communicated the report to all households through a radio transmission for disaster management.

According to prefectural officials, a SDF member at the prefectural government's disaster preparedness headquarters received a communication from the Defense Ministry that the rocket was ''launched at 10:48 a.m.''

The SDF member verbally communicated the message to a prefectural government official, who then passed on the information to relevant officials of all the municipalities through mobile phone text messages six minutes later, the officials said.

Sixteen of the 25 municipalities in the prefecture conveyed the central government-issued information to their residents via a community wireless system and other means, and corrected the information later.

Tottori Prefecture, also on the Sea of Japan, issued faxes to its municipalities soon after the central government issued the wrong information and had to hastily correct the content.
Click to read the article

N. Korea Threatens to Retaliate With 'Thunderbolt of Fire'

from Fox News.com
Thursday, April 02, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea's military on Thursday threatened immediate retaliation if "even the slightest effort" is made to intercept a long-range rocket it has begun fueling and that it plans to launch in the next few days.

President Barack Obama warned the liftoff would be a "provocative act" that would generate a U.N. Security Council response, but North Korea's military threatened those who opposed the launch with a "thunderbolt of fire" if they interfered.

A Korean Central News Agency report made a veiled threat against the U.S. In an apparent reference to American warships that have reportedly set sail to monitor the launch, the Korean-language version of the report said: "The United States should immediately withdraw armed forces deployed if it does not want to receive damage."

An unidentified senior U.S. military official said Pyongyang has started to fuel the rocket, a move that indicates final preparations for the launch. Experts say the missile can be fired about three to four days after fueling begins.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted unidentified officials as saying the North had moved a squadron of MiG-23 fighter jets to a base near the launch site in what appeared to be a response to Japan's deployment. Seoul's Defense Ministry declined to confirm the reports.

An English version said the U.S. forces could be hit in a retaliatory strike against Japan.

North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit on a multistage rocket sometime from Saturday to Wednesday. The U.S., South Korea and Japan think the reclusive country is using the launch to test long-range missile technology; they've warned the move would violate a Security Council resolution banning the North from ballistic activity.

Regional powers have also begun to deploy ships to monitor the launch, and Japan is preparing to intercept any debris that might fall if the launch goes awry — moves that have prompted several threats of retaliation from Pyongyang, including one Thursday.

The North countered with its own warnings against any efforts to intercept the rocket, take the issue to the Security Council or even monitor the launch. It says its armed forces are at a high level of combat-readiness.

The North has said debris from the rocket could fall off Japan's northern coast, so Tokyo has deployed battleships with anti-missile systems to the area and set up Patriot missile interceptors. It says it has no intention of trying to shoot down the rocket itself.

"If Japan imprudently carries out an act of intercepting our peaceful satellite, our people's army will hand a thunderbolt of fire to not only interceptor means already deployed, but also key targets," said a report Thursday by the North's official Korean Central News Agency that quoted the general staff of its military.

Click to read the rest of the article

Obama Should Shoot Down North Korea’s Missile

photo of Aegis missile firing

The danger to America will multiply if Obama is perceived as weak and indecisive early on.

April 2, 2009
by Nicholas Guariglia

Vice President Biden once warned that the world would “test” Barack Obama. According to a multitude of reports, that slimy toad Kim Jong Il will be the first to take up the challenge. North Korea is preparing a launch of its Taepodong-2 long-range missile, which would constitute an unjustified provocation from North Korea, although it would be entirely consistent with Kim’s previous patterns of behavior.

Victor D. Cha, the former director for Asian affairs in Bush’s White House, describes these North Korean escalations as “coercive bargaining” in his 2003 book Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies. Cha explains:

These provocations are deliberate pinpricks — i.e., they fall short of all-out war but are serious enough to rattle the allies and raise concerns about escalation. Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo are thus manipulated into the awkward position of wanting to respond punitively to DPRK misbehavior, but are constrained by fears of provoking an unnecessary and costly larger conflict.

As a result, the allies usually issue a denouncement of the DPRK act, but still come to the negotiating table to reduce tensions. From Pyongyang’s perspective, the purpose of these provocations is not to win some military advantage but to create a crisis, disrupting the status quo and initiating a coercive bargaining process that eventuates in a new status quo on current or new negotiations more favorable to the North.

It is high time we stop playing Kim’s game. There is no better person than a new president — and no better time than an economic crisis — to take serious and swift action against such a tyrannical despot hell bent on nuclear proliferation.

In short, we should blow the North Korean missile out of the sky. Here’s why:

Struggling through an economic downturn, Americans are more worried and anxious about domestic issues. The world’s tyrants sense this and look on advantageously. Additionally, President Obama is perceived around the world as a borderline pacifist. His is not only a new, untested administration, but he himself is a new, inexperienced face on the international scene. (In case you’re wondering, the tyrants like that, too.)

Kim Jong Il no doubt feels more comfortable provoking Obama than he would have, say, John McCain. It should be President Obama’s mission, then, to force Kim out of his comfort zone by taking a hard line against Pyongyang. Standing up to North Korea in a brazen fashion would be unexpected at this time and would be unexpected from this administration. It would come as a surprise to Kim’s inner circle — and to dictators all over the globe — which is all the more reason why Obama should consider doing it.

But we shouldn’t hold our breath. Secretary of State Clinton has talked about a “response” to the looming missile launch and the “range of options available … in the wake” of such a provocation. Secretary of Defense Gates has said, “I would say we’re not prepared to do anything about it.”

Nonsense. Admiral Timothy J. Keating, commander of PACOM, has explained in great detail the military’s capacities and capabilities. There are 18 U.S. Navy ships off the Korean peninsula with the Aegis missile defense system; Japanese and South Korean warships have the system, as well. Navy vessels with interceptor missiles are prepared to fire “on a moment’s notice,” according to Admiral Keating. “Should it look like something other than a satellite launch, we will be fully prepared to respond as the president directs. … Odds are very high that we’ll hit what we’re aiming at. This should be a source of great confidence and reassurance for our allies.”

Keating’s right. And have no doubt this is not a mere benign “satellite launch” — despite what Pyongyang claims. Missile experts from the Iranian theocracy are present at the launch site to “help” the North Koreans. Ahmadinejad has sent a letter to Kim, stressing the importance of cooperation in nuclear and missile technology. And remember, Pyongyang was caught red-handed in the A.Q. Khan black-market network and was also caught helping the Syrians with their nuclear program. Kim’s is a cash-strapped nation and his nuclear program is for export — in other words, for cash.

Even if the Obama administration, by some divine miracle, convinces Tehran to forgo its pursuit of atomic bombs and to embrace values derived from the Enlightenment, the mullahs can still ascertain a nuclear arsenal on a moment’s notice — with the appropriate intercontinental ballistic missile technology to go along with it — should the North Koreans make the price right. Therefore, stopping North Korea’s export business should be atop the list of our concerns.

In July 2006, the North Korean regime fired two Taepodong-2 missiles, both of which fell into the Sea of Japan minutes after their launch. Although it remained unclear at the time whether or not the test launch was a “success” for the regime, it still allowed Kim’s hermit enclave to perfect intercontinental ballistic missile capability. At the time, Bill Clinton’s former Pentagon chief William Perry and his assistant Ashton Carter actually recommended destroying North Korea’s missiles at their launch site.

Of course, no such action was taken. The result was an unpredictable dictatorship armed with nuclear weapons and capable of testing an ICBM, thereby violating international accords and threatening regional peace. The previous administration took no adequate measures to prevent the launch or to punish thereafter.

President Obama should not repeat this mistake. Unlike President Bush, he should shoot North Korea’s missile down — or, if he truly wants to send a message, blast the ICBM off the launch site before Kim is able to conduct the test.

Yes, risks are involved. A war on the peninsula would be disastrous. But I’m convinced action can be taken to stop North Korea’s proliferation racket and we can still walk back from the precipice of full-scale conflict with Pyongyang. It has been our inaction and inability to confront Kim Jong Il that has emboldened him to this extent and has brought us to this point.

Mr. Obama has made it known that he wants to champion diplomacy during his presidency. He can do that cause a great long-term service if he draws a line in the sand now. Future diplomacy with the North Koreans, with the Iranians, with the Palestinians — with whomever — will carry a lot more credibility in 2010, 2011, and 2012 should Obama prove himself to be no pushover in 2009.

This is a perfect opportunity. Obama should seize it.
Click to read the article

World War III or World War 3 - whichever way you prefer it...

As always, telling it like it really is...with an attitude to get your attention!

Kim Jong-il - Watch The Evening News!

Timely BMD Test: Aegis Downs 2 Missiles Off California

As North Korea nears the brink with the scheduled launch of its longest range ballistic missile, the Aegis destroyer USS Benfold achieved another first for US missile defense --- successful simultaneous intercepts of a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) and a cruise missile:

During the event, Benfold's Aegis Weapons System successfully detected and intercepted a cruise missile target with a SM-2 BLK IIIA, while simultaneously detecting and intercepting an incoming short range ballistic missile (SRBM) target with a modified SM-2 BLK IV. This is the first time the fleet has successfully tested the Aegis system's ability to intercept both an SRBM in terminal phase and a low-altitude cruise missile target at the same time.

While this SM-2 test did not demonstrate the capability to intercept an ICBM (that's the job of larger SM-3's), it once again showed the Navy's skill at fleet protection against Scuds and cruise missiles, the original mission of Aegis.

Combine North Korea's historical tendency to salvo multiple shorter range missiles in tandem with its long range Taepodong tests (as it did in both 1998 and 2006) with the very busy naval action in the Sea of Japan (South Korean, Japanese and US Aegis fleets moving into position) and this successful test could not be more timely.
Click to read the rest of the article

North Korea Warns The World

North Korea readies missile, makes new threat

from Reuters
By Jonathan Thatcher
March 27, 2009

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday that if the international community punishes it for next month's planned missile launch it will restart a nuclear plant that makes weapons grade plutonium.

The secretive state this week put a long-range missile in place for a launch the United States warned would violate U.N. sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for past weapons tests.

The planned launch, seen by some countries as a disguised military exercise, is the first big test for U.S. President Barack Obama in dealing with the prickly North, whose efforts to build a nuclear arsenal have long plagued ties with Washington.

North Korea warned that any action by the U.N. Security Council to punish it would be a "hostile act."

"... All the processes for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula ... will be brought back to what used to be before their start and necessary strong measures will be taken, "the North's foreign ministry spokesman said in comments carried by the official KCNA news agency.
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The Stench of Incompetence

Hillary Clinton: "US Has No Plans To Intercept North Korean Missile"

from Closing Velocity
March 27, 2009

Well, that's that:

The United States has no plans to shoot down the North Korean rocket, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday in an interview with CNN’s Jill Dougherty, but will raise the issue with the U.N. Security Council if Pyongyang carries out a launch.

It's rare I get to say this, but I told you so.

Perhaps it never dawned on Hillary and Obama that the very threat of intercepting the North Korean missile may have very well kept the thing on the ground. And perhaps she could have played coy with CNN and just silently left a menacing arrow in her diplomatic quiver. But she didn't.

Excellent work, Hillary.

Cick to go to the article

Will Obama Authorize Pre-Emptive Strike On The North Korea Missile Site?

from The National Review
Thursday, March 26, 2009
[Mario Loyola]

Obama and the Imminent North Korea Missile Launch

Now that the Dems are in charge of the national defense, North Korea's planned missile launch, which could occur sometime in the next several weeks, is a good time to recall what some leading Democrats said about this a few years ago. The very last time we were in this situation was in the summer of 2006. Just as North Korea was fueling the missiles for test-launch, William Perry and Ashton Carter, respectively secretary of defense and assistant secretary of defense under Clinton, advocated preemptive strikes on the platforms in a striking op-ed in the Washington Post. "Intervening before mortal threats to U.S. security can develop is surely a prudent policy they wrote:

Therefore, if North Korea persists in its launch preparations, the United
States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the
North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched. This could be
accomplished, for example, by a cruise missile launched from a submarine
carrying a high-explosive warhead. The blast would be similar to the one that
killed terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq.

Two things are different today: First of all, we no longer have a president whose low approval ratings create severe limitations on his freedom of action. Obama has much greater political elbow-room (at home and abroad) when it comes to foreign-policy options. Second, we have missile defenses available today that hadn't been fielded in 2006 which create a new and far less risky alternative to pre-emptive strikes on the platforms, namely that of shooting the North Korean missiles down after they launch. Earlier this month, Admiral Keating, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, made it clear that the missiles North Korean planned to launch could be shot down
Click to read the rest of the article

Clinton says North Korean launch would come at a cost

from Reuters Newsby Arshad Mohammed
editing by Chris Wilson
Wed Mar 25, 2009

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday a potential missile launch by North Korea would be a provocative act that would have consequences for talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

Clinton's comments came as a U.S. official said North Korea had positioned what is believed to be a long-range ballistic missile on a launch pad in what could be a preparation for a launch.

"We have made it very clear that the North Koreans pursue this pathway at a cost and with consequences to the six-party talks which we would like to see revived and moving forward as quickly as possible," she told reporters on a visit to Mexico City.

"This provocative action ... will not go unnoticed and there will be consequences," she said.
Click to read the article

Japan readies N.Korean rocket launch response

from Reuters

March 25, 2009

TOKYO (AFP) — The Japanese government's powerful security council will meet this week to prepare for the shooting down of a North Korean rocket if it threatens to hit the country, the premier said on Wednesday.

The isolated Pyongyang regime has said it will launch a communications satellite over Japanese territory in early April, but the United States and its Asian allies suspect the launch is a ballistic missile test.

Tokyo, which has developed a missile defence system with the United States in recent years, has warned it will attempt to shoot down any missile or debris that threatens to hit its territory.

North Korea, which has announced a launch window of April 4 to 8, says it would regard a rocket intercept as an act of war.

To prepare for the launch, "the government will summon the security council this week," said Prime Minister Taro Aso. "It is the government's obvious duty to prepare to the best standard so people don't have to worry."

Japan's security council includes the premier, chief cabinet secretary, defence and foreign ministers as well as other cabinet ministers.

It will decide how to respond to a North Korean launch -- either the cabinet would make an instant decision after any missile lifts off or it could give the military approval in advance to shoot it down.

The government will likely choose the latter option, said Kyodo News and Asahi Shimbun daily reports, which added that Tokyo will likely issue an order Friday for its armed forces to prepare to intercept the rocket.

Click to read the rest of the article

Soon-To-Be Diplomat Tauscher: Dismisses Iranian Threat, Polish Allies

from Closing Velocity

by John McKittrick

March 24, 2009

photo edit by Rees

After yesterday's Missile Defense Conference in DC, the corridors of the Hill, the Pentagon and every defense contractor are abuzz with talk about which parts of the US ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) face President Obama's swinging axe. While many focus on the expected elimination of the Airborne Laser (ABL) --- the only gee-whiz Star Wars-y vestige from Reagan's original SDI left in our current system --- a much larger issue appeared, one that strikes at the heart of American security interests and credibility.

During the early, winsome days of the Office of the President-Elect, I gave a heads-up on the unmistakable signal that European-based missile defense against the growing Iranian missile threat was doomed. Chair of the subcommittee which oversees missile defense, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) made her stance on the planned Polish interceptor base crystal clear:

“I am unwilling to dig holes in Poland and fill them up with untested
rockets."

Tauscher made this strident declaration right before she met with our Polish and Czech allies last December. Guess what? Tauscher is leaving the bloviating world of Capitol Hill behind and moving on to a new endeavor, one where carefully chosen words and delicate phrases actually mean something --- the State Department. Indeed, words are the only thing State produces.

As she awaits confirmation as the new undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, the agency's top arms control negotiator, Tauscher wastes no time in practicing her persuasive diplomatic skills. Don't believe me? Here, let the Iranians themselves gleefully fill you in with a report from the mullah news agency:.

A US lawmaker says an Iranian missile 'threat' has been exaggerated as the White House moves to reconsider a defense shield in Europe.

The White House, under the rule of former President George W. Bush, used the 'threat' from Iran's long-range missile program to push its agenda and deploy a missile defense system in Europe.

Democratic congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, a candidate for a top nonproliferation post in the Obama administration, said that the threat has been blown out of proportion.

“The argument that the U.S. would be naked against an Iranian threat unless we deploy the GMD [Ground-based Midcourse Defense] system in Europe is simply not right,” Tauscher told a conference on missile defense.

After bringing smiles to many faces in Tehran, Tauscher continued:

Tauscher, who has been asked by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to serve as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said that advocates of the European plans "have been running around with their hair on fire," the Associated Press reported.

And who are some of these mysterious advocates with the blazing hair? None other than the NATO allies Obama tossed under the bus with his "secret letter" to the Russians, the Poles:

Click to read the rest of the article

Poland Fears Betrayal by Obama

Read the official news release of the latest intercept

Watch the video of the latest intercept

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted Monday, March 23, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Alliances: The U.S. has expressed a willingness to barter away missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. Now the Polish foreign minister says he hopes his country doesn't regret trusting the United States.

The Brussels Forum is a privately organized high-level meeting of the most influential North American and European political, corporate and intellectual leaders to address pressing challenges currently facing both sides of the Atlantic.

One of the pressing issues discussed at this year's conference was whether the U.S. is serious about bartering away plans for missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic in exchange for vague Russian promises of using its influence on Iran regarding its move toward developing nuclear warheads to put on its long-range missiles.

On Sunday, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski noted that Poland had taken "something of a political risk" in agreeing to the deployment of 10 ground-based interceptors on its territory. "When we started discussing this with the United States," he said, "the U.S. assured us they would persuade the Russians that it was purely defensive and it would be a noncontroversial decision."

Now we are wishing the Iranians, whose missiles our ground-based interceptors are designed to intercept, a Happy New Year and suggesting to the Russians that if they can do something about Iran's nuclear and missile programs, we would reconsider our missile defense plans and saw off the limb our Czech and Polish allies have climbed out on.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates did not ease our allies' fears when he said at a NATO meeting in Krakow, Poland, on Feb. 20, "I told the Russians a year ago that if there were no Iranian missile program, there would be no need for the missile sites."

This comment came not long after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to deploy SS-26 Iskander missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, situated between our NATO allies Poland and Lithuania, targeting the Polish site.

The Poles and the Czechs, who have known true freedom for only a short time after enduring both Nazi and Communist oppression, have experienced the consequences of diplomatic betrayal — first at Munich and later at Yalta.

They sense another betrayal coming in a deal with a belligerent Russian aggressor willing to wage war with the former Soviet state of Georgia, as well as threaten the Ukraine and use the Ukrainian pipeline to starve energy-dependent Europeans of natural gas.

"We hope we don't regret our trust in the United States," Sikorski said to an audience of senior world politicians and other leaders.

At the same event, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who is expected to be named the new U.S. undersecretary for arms control and international security, repeated the administration line that a missile system would not be deployed until it was "proven" to work. It is easier to give away an "unproven" system.

Missile defense has already proved to be eminently workable and successful. According to the Missile Defense Agency, since 2001 there have been 37 successful hit-to-kill intercepts out of 47 attempts, an astounding 80% success rate. We've even shot a decaying and dangerous spy satellite out of the sky.

Former Missile Defense Agency Chief Gen. Trey Obering III has said that after dozens of successful missile intercepts, "Our testing has shown not only can we hit a bullet with a bullet, we can hit a spot on a bullet with a bullet."

Unilaterally scrapping European missile defense could shatter the NATO alliance as we retreat to a Fortress America behind our own ground-based interceptors and Aegis-equipped missile defense destroyers and cruisers.

The basis of NATO's purpose and existence — collective security — would be shredded as we showed a willingness to sacrifice allies for diplomatic convenience. Either we all hang together or we all hang separately.

Our Polish and Czech friends have to wonder: Are we the next Georgia? Are we about to trade away the trust of our allies and our collective security for another empty promise of peace in our time?
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