President Nicolas Sarkozy has said France will reduce its number of airborne nuclear weapons by one third.

Mr Sarkozy said the reduction to fewer than 300 missiles would leave France with “half the maximum number of warheads we had during the Cold War”.

But he also insisted he was committed to France’s nuclear deterrent, saying it was its “life-insurance policy”.

He made the comments in a major defence policy speech after inaugurating a new nuclear-armed submarine, the Terrible.

France is believed to have 348 deployed nuclear weapons, including 288 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, 50 air-launched cruise missiles and 10 airborne bombs, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

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In May 2007 Estonia was victim of a massive DDoS Cyber attack (blocking the internet in Estonia). Estonian officials claimed that their country is the first to fall victim to cyberwarfare. This happened after the Estonian government decided to remove a monument to commemorate the soviet soldiers who died in World War 2. The Estonia’s defense minister, Jaak Aaviksoo, even wanted to get the E.U. and NATO involved.

The Estonian government and the western media blamed Russia. Blaming Russia, especially Vladimir Putin, for everything, without a shred of evidence, has become a well established habit of western propaganda. This was the case for the poisoning of 1999 Russian apartment bombings, Alexander Litvinenko, the muder of Anna Politkovskaya and more recently the Cyber attack against Estonia.

The culprit, Dmitri Galushkevich, a 20-year-old Estonian student, who is a native Estonian, has been arrested, it becomes clear that the Russian government, who denied its involvement, was telling the truth. Western propaganda media failed to mention this information since it exonerates Russia!

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MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran’s borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday.

“The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran,” the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.
He said the Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran “that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost.”

He also said the U.S. Naval presence in the Persian Gulf has for the first time in the past four years reached the level that existed shortly before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

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How many times have we read some variation on the following lede?

“Israeli armored forces backed by aircraft thrust into the southern Gaza Strip today, killing four Palestinians a day before Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were to begin laying the groundwork for peace talks.”

The Israelis don’t want to negotiate, but they’re willing to go through the motions – after all, why not? It’s just another way for them to thumb their noses at everyone, including their American benefactors. They’ll never make meaningful concessions: there’s no reason to as long as there are no constraints on their behavior. As long as a steady stream of American aid and arms keeps the Israeli ship of state afloat, Israel is the regional superpower, with none of its neighbors a match for its nuclear-armed military might.

Why should the Israelis be interested in peace, when war has been so good to them? War gave them their country to begin with: first against the British, then against the indigenous Arabs, then against the entire Arab world – all of whom they beat handily.

The Iraq war has been very good for them, if not for us. Israel’s sphere of influence, which never extended much beyond Lebanon, now reaches into Kurdistan – giving them easy access to Iran.

We stood by while the Israelis bombed Lebanon, killing mostly civilians and targeting factories, waterworks, and other non-military, non-Hezbollah facilities, such as churches. Aid to Israel has been increased, and Congress recently passed, with bipartisan support, a resolution naming a military arm of Israel’s number one enemy in the region as an officially-designated “terrorist” group, paving the way for a shooting war.

http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2626

The United States has asked Israel to check the possibility of pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa. The request came in a telegram last week from a senior Pentagon official to a top Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem.

The Prime Minister’s Office, which views the pipeline to Haifa as a “bonus” the U.S. could give to Israel in return for its unequivocal support for the American-led campaign in Iraq, had asked the Americans for the official telegram.

The new pipeline would take oil from the Kirkuk area, where some 40 percent of Iraqi oil is produced, and transport it via Mosul, and then across Jordan to Israel. The U.S. telegram included a request for a cost estimate for repairing the Mosul-Haifa pipeline that was in use prior to 1948. During the War of Independence, the Iraqis stopped the flow of oil to Haifa and the pipeline fell into disrepair over the years.

The National Infrastructure Ministry has recently conducted research indicating that construction of a 42-inch diameter pipeline between Kirkuk and Haifa would cost about $400,000 per kilometer. The old Mosul-Haifa pipeline was only 8 inches in diameter.

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From the early hours of the morning, 14 Russian jet bombers carried out strategic exersices in international airspace off the Norwegian coast.

- It is the first time since the end of the cold war that the Russian military activity in the North has been at this high a level, says Bodoe Wing Commander Per Egil Rygg to NRK.

Also on Friday, President Vladimir Putin announced that the Russians have resumed their strategic long-distance flights on a permanent basis.

Putin said this at a press briefing during a joint Russian-Chinese military exersice in the Ural mountains.

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Would it surprise you to learn that according to official Pentagon figures, at least 118 U.S. military personnel in Iraq have committed suicide since April 2003? That number does not include many unconfirmed reports, or those who served in the war and then killed themselves at home (a sizable, if uncharted, number).

While troops who have died in “hostile action” — and those gravely injured and rehabbing at Walter Reed and other hospitals — have gained much wider media attention in recent years, the suicides (about 3% of our overall Iraq death toll) remain in the shadows.

For whatever reason, I have always found soldiers who take their own lives especially tragic, though some might argue the opposite. Since the beginning of the war, I have written numerous columns on self-inflicted deaths, from average grunts to Col. Ted Westhusing (angry about contractor abuses), Alyssa Peterson (appalled by interrogation techniques) and Linda Michel (denied medication after returning home). But generally, the suicides get very little local or national attention.

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Dozens of loudspeakers have been installed around Sydney’s CBD to tell people what to do in the event of a major emergency like a terrorist attack.

New South Wales Police Minister David Campbell says the system is part of the Government’s counter-terrorism initiatives announced two years ago and should be operational for next month’s APEC summit.

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Iraq faces the distinct possibility of collapse and fragmentation, UK foreign policy think tank Chatham House says.

Its report says the Iraqi government is now largely powerless and irrelevant in many parts of the country.

It warns there is not one war but many local civil wars, and urges a major change in US and British strategy, such as consulting Iraq’s neighbours more.

The report comes as Iran said Iranian and US diplomats would hold talks on 28 May on the security situation in Iraq.

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