Moscow Issues Its First Nuclear Challenge to Trump

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Almost right out of the gate, the Trump administration is facing its first arms control challenge from Moscow.

Russia has reportedly deployed its new cruise missile in an apparent violation of the Reagan-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, in effect since 1988.

The treaty prohibits the possession of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Russia’s ground-launched SSC-8 cruise missile has been under development and testing for several years.

Russia initially violated the treaty by testing the missile during Barack Obama’s presidency. Despite becoming aware of this apparent violation, the Obama administration did not take any forceful action to bring Russia back into compliance with the treaty, merely sending President Vladimir Putin a letter of concern in July of 2014.

The Obama administration was less than forthcoming in discussing challenges that the treaty violation poses for the United States and its allies. The State Department’s annual compliance reports prior to July 2014 wrongly led Americans to believe there was no reason for concern over the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, even though the missile has reportedly been tested as early as 2008.

The Trump administration must do better.

The missile range limit of 500 kilometers is significant for U.S. allies in Europe situated close to the Russian borders and to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave that borders Poland and Lithuania. The presence of Russian intermediate-range missiles would considerably complicate any U.S. efforts to defend its allies in the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe should Russia decide to violate their territorial integrity.

Such a scenario is not as far-fetched as it might seem. Russia has a recent history of violating other nations’ sovereignty and territorial integrity. It also periodically issues nuclear threats against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies and conducts military exercises that simulate nuclear strikes against Poland.

Gen. Philip Breedlove, commander of Supreme Allied Command Europe and of U.S. European Command, said NATO allies are “concerned” over the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty issue and argued that violations “can’t go unanswered.”

For its part, Russia accuses the United States of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty violations. But Russian accusations are baseless. U.S. missile defense systems do not violate the treaty because the treaty itself contains an exception for them.

Neither do U.S. drones violate the treaty, as they are simply not mentioned by the treaty at all.

The Trump administration has a range of options to respond to the Russian treaty violations. Purely diplomatic measures to address the violation first begun during the Obama administration may not be sufficient.

Historically, arms control tends to limit how the United States learns about military systems and their interactions in a broader context. This is why terminating the treaty is a viable option.

Currently, Moscow is doing whatever it deems necessary to its strategic interest regardless of the treaty, while the United States continues to abide by it. The administration should not ponder any future arms control initiatives and nuclear weapons reduction agreements at least until this issue is resolved. (For more from the author of “Moscow Issues Its First Nuclear Challenge to Trump” please click HERE)

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Iran Defeats U.S. Navy in Defiant Animated Film

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A full-length animated film depicting an armed confrontation between Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the U.S. Navy is soon to open in Iranian cinemas, amid rising tensions over President Donald Trump’s hardening rhetoric against Tehran.

The director of the “Battle of Persian Gulf II”, Farhad Azima, said that it was a remarkable coincidence that the release of the film – four years in the making – coincided with a “warmongering” president sitting in the White House.

“I hope that the film shows Trump how American soldiers will face a humiliating defeat if they attack Iran,” Azima told Reuters in a telephone interview from the city of Mashhad in eastern Iran.

The 88-minute animation opens with the U.S. Army attacking an Iranian nuclear reactor, and the U.S. Navy in the Gulf hitting strategic locations across the county.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a powerful branch of the Iranian military, retaliates with full force, raining ballistic missiles on the U.S. warships. (Read more from “Iran Defeats U.S. Navy in Defiant Animated Film” HERE)

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North Korea Suspected Behind Murder of Leader’s Half-Brother: U.S. Sources

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The U.S. government strongly believes that North Korean agents murdered the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Malaysia, U.S. government sources said on Tuesday.

American authorities have not yet determined exactly how Kim Jong Nam was killed, according to two sources, who did not provide specific evidence to support the U.S. government’s view.

A South Korean government source also had said that Kim Jong Nam had been murdered in Malaysia. He did not provide further details.

South Korea’s foreign ministry said it could not confirm the reports, and the country’s intelligence agency could not immediately be reached for comment.

In Washington, there was no immediate response to a request for comment from the Trump administration, which faces a stiff challenge from a defiant North Korea over its nuclear arms program and the test of a ballistic missile last weekend. (Read more from “North Korea Suspected Behind Murder of Leader’s Half-Brother: U.S. Sources” HERE)

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Russia Sends Spy Ship Near US Coast, Deploys Banned Missiles at Home, Officials Say

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A Russian spy ship was spotted patrolling off the East Coast of the United States on Tuesday morning, the first such instance during the Trump administration — and the same day it was learned the Kremlin had secretly deployed controversial cruise missiles inside Russia and flew within 200 yards of a U.S. Navy destroyer, U.S. officials told Fox News.

The Russian ship was in international waters, 70 miles off the coast of Delaware and heading north at 10 knots, according to one official. The U.S. territory line is 12 nautical miles.

It was not immediately clear where the ship is headed.

Later Tuesday, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that Russia had deployed ground-launched cruise missiles to two locations inside the country in December. The New York Times first reported that the Obama administration had previously seen the missiles — then in a testing phase — as a violation of a 1987 treaty between the U.S. and Russia that banned ground-launched intermediate-range missiles.

But Russia has pressed ahead with its program, apparently testing a Trump administration which has sought better ties with Moscow — but is also fresh off the loss of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned Monday night in the wake of a scandal surrounding his communications with Russia. (Read more from “Russia Sends Spy Ship Near US Coast, Deploys Banned Missiles at Home, Officials Say” HERE)

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Shot Through the Heart: Pakistan Bans Valentine’s Day Because It’s Not Islamic

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Valentine’s Day has been banned from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The nation’s high court in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city, ruled Monday that the country’s citizens must refrain from celebrating the holiday “with immediate effect.”

A citizen petition made its way to the superior court one day before the holiday commences. Abdul Waheed, who drafted the document, claimed Valentine’s Day is “against the teachings of Islam and should be banned immediately,” CNN reports. The court concurred with Waheed, claiming the holiday clashes with Muslim life. The Islamabad High Court ruled that the festivities are actually a “cover” to spread “immorality, nudity, and indecency… which is against our rich traditions and values.”

Valentine’s Day has become increasingly popular among Pakistani youth and has acted as a boon for florists and business owners. However, Islamist leaders feel the society at large has been placed under direct attack with the embrace of the Western holiday, and print and electronic media in the country have been warned about promoting the holiday’s events and activities.

In February 2016, Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain added his voice to the masses calling for the ban. Hussain stated, “Valentine’s Day has no connection to our culture and it should be avoided.”

Jamaat-e-Islami, a hardline Islamist group with millions of followers, has led the effort to protect Pakistan against parts of the country that “wants to impose Western values and culture on our youth by celebrating Valentine’s day,” according to an anti-Valentine’s Day resolution passed last year in Peshawar. “There is no place in our culture and in our civilization for such an unnecessary and rude day, which aims to spread vulgarity and indecency amongst the youth,” the resolution continued.

Pakistan’s Islamic traditions have created an environment that is extremely hostile to religious freedom and basic human rights. For example, identifying or being revealed as a homosexual in Pakistan can result in long-term imprisonment, and the state is also notorious for discriminating against religious minorities.

Pakistan does not have anything remotely resembling free speech. Criticizing Islam or Muhammad can result in punishments ranging from a harsh fine to a death sentence. The majority of Pakistanis support the state’s blasphemy laws. (For more from the author of “Shot Through the Heart: Pakistan Bans Valentine’s Day Because It’s Not Islamic” please click HERE)

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North Korea Tests a Missile, and Donald Trump

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Pyongyang launched another ballistic missile on Saturday, raising tensions and pushing itself to the top of the Trump administration’s policy agenda.

Preliminary reports indicate the missile flew approximately 300 miles, but it is unclear what the missile type was or whether the launch was a success of failure. But, it doesn’t appear to have been the initial test flight of an intercontinental ballistic missile that Pyongyang had vowed to launch “anywhere, anytime.”

Last year, North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and 24 ballistic missile tests, its most extensive year of testing. Pyongyang had not tested a missile since October, leading to speculation that the regime’s restraint was to not give the advantage to conservative candidates during a forthcoming South Korean presidential election or to wait until the Trump administration had completed its North Korea policy review.

In 2009, North Korea conducted a long-range missile test and a nuclear test as the Obama administration was formulating its own policy toward Pyongyang.

During my meetings in Seoul this week, all senior U.S. and South Korean officials expected a missile launch wouldn’t occur for several more months. It is unclear why Pyongyang abandoned its testing hiatus or chose to do so while President Donald Trump was hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

In any case, the launch will undermine those in the U.S. and South Korea advocating resumption of long-stalled negotiations to curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

The increasing North Korean threat has aggravated long-standing allied concerns of U.S. abandonment exacerbated by perceptions of diminished U.S. military capabilities and resolve during the Obama administration and comments made by Trump during the campaign suggesting conditionality of U.S. troop presence in Asia.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ trip to Seoul and Tokyo last week assuaged much of the allied concerns, though as one senior South Korea official commented, “the concerns are gone, but anxiety remains.”

In recent months, there have been growing South Korean fears of a decoupled alliance in which the U.S. “wouldn’t trade Los Angeles for Seoul” once North Korea demonstrates an unambiguous capability to threaten the continental U.S. with nuclear ICBMs.

This has led to greater advocacy in South Korea for a range of military options, including the reintroduction of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons that were withdrawn in the 1990s, development of an indigenous South Korean nuclear program, and greater reliance on preemption strategies.

The Trump administration should build on the positive momentum generated from its recent affirmation of its “ironclad commitment” to defend South Korea and Japan by closely coordinating on an allied response.

The launch is yet another violation of United Nations resolutions prohibiting any North Korean launch using ballistic missile technology and the allies should press Beijing for further restrictions on North Korea financial activity, most notably coal exports to China.

Given Chinese foot-dragging on fully implementing required U.N. resolution sanctions, the Trump administration should go beyond the timid incrementalism of the Obama administration by more vigorously enforcing U.S. laws against North Korean transgressions.

While President Barack Obama talked a good game on sanctions, his administration pulled its punches, sanctioning a limited number of entities while holding other actions in abeyance until the next North Korean provocation. Obama’s most significant actions against the regime last year were the result of requirements contained in Congress’ North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act.

The Trump administration should use the extensive authorities already contained in existing legislation and executive orders to impose targeted financial measures against a broader array of North Korean entities. Just as importantly, the U.S. should end its self-imposed restraint against third-party sanctions against Chinese entities facilitating North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Washington should also consult with Seoul to accelerate the planned deployment of the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) ballistic missile defense system to South Korea.

Both governments have agreed to the deployment but it is not scheduled to occur until later this year. North Korea’s resumption of missile tests shows the need to more quickly augment allied defenses.

The U.S. and South Korea should continue the planned annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises which begin in early March. Washington should reassure our allies by including U.S. strategic assets, such as B-52 and B-2 bombers as well as dual-capable aircraft and nuclear naval vessels.

However, the allies should tone down public messaging about “decapitation attacks” and preemptive strikes that are potentially destabilizing and could lead either side to misinterpret the other’s intentions, fueling tension and raising the risk of miscalculation.

Responding to the growing North Korean nuclear and missile threats is like a military version of playing “whack-a-mole.” Unlike the arcade game, however, in the real world there is the very real danger that the mole will whack back. (For more from the author of “North Korea Tests a Missile, and Donald Trump” please click HERE)

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New Terror Sanctions Would Strike at the Heart of Iran’s War Machine

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President Donald Trump’s administration is mulling designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, Reuters reports.

The IRGC is one military force of the Islamic Republic of Iran which reports directly to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. The IRGC is charged with training and arming terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, and deploying troops to places like Syria or Iraq.

Trump’s order would not immediately designate the IRGC a terrorist organization, but would instead instruct the Department of State to review current policy. The Department of the Treasury in 2007 sanctioned elements of the IRGC “entities and individuals engaged in or supporting proliferation and terrorism.”

Trump’s order would likely rile Iran’s current ruling elite, further increasing tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Increased sanctions on Iran could even lead to Iran pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Trump also sanctioned Iran Friday for conducting missile tests in violation of United Nations sanctions in late January. Trump has repeatedly blamed the Obama administration for failing to curb Iran’s increasingly aggressive ballistic missile tests and nefarious activity after the signing of the 2015 nuclear deal. IRGC terrorist designation would also fit with National Security Advisor Mike Flynn’s warning that Iran is “on notice.” (Read more from “New Terror Sanctions Would Strike at the Heart of Iran’s War Machine” HERE)

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Another Putin Critic Mysteriously Poisoned — When Will Trump Speak Out?

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Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., a high-profile Russian critic of President Vladimir Putin, has fallen extremely ill for the second time in two years under mysterious circumstances. He appears to have been poisoned by an unknown substance, his wife said this week, per Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

This is the second time that an advanced toxin has allegedly entered his system. In 2015, Kara-Murza was rushed to the hospital with major organ failure. He recovered enough to be discharged, but with permanent nerve damage. However, this time, he has again suffered sudden organ failure and has been placed in a medically induced coma.

Only 35 years old, Kara-Murzo has been active in reformist politics in Russia as a member of the People’s Freedom Party. In the past few years, he has become an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin’s policies.

In 2014, he highlighted the Kremlin’s return, under Putin, to the “Soviet practice” of taking away citizenship from political dissidents. That same year, in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, he exposed Putin’s post-Olympics crackdown on political opposition groups.

Kara-Murzo is known for his close ties to members of the U.S. Congress, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Russian opposition leader has lobbied for sanctions against Russian state-media and senior officials under Putin. He was also a strong proponent of the Magnitsky Act sanctions, a 2012 bipartisan bill that sought to punish Russian leaders who were deemed responsible for the killing of Russian lawyer and whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky.

Vladimir Kara-Murza is far from the first Kremlin critic to fall ill under mysterious circumstances. Numerous opponents of Vladimir Putin have suddenly become extremely ill and/or were killed by rare forms of poison. Many suspect that Putin has tasked the FSB, the successor spy agency to the Soviet-era KGB, with carrying out the assassinations.

Kara-Murza was also a long-time adviser and friend to Boris Nemtsov, another prominent Putin critic who was assassinated in February 2015.

The news of another prominent Putin critic falling extremely ill under mysterious circumstances comes on the heels of President Donald Trump refusing to condemn the authoritarian Russian president. In a recent interview with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, which aired on Super Bowl Sunday, Trump refused to label Putin as a “killer.”

“There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think — our country’s so innocent?” Trump said.

Throughout his presidential campaign and subsequent move to the nation’s highest office, Pres. Trump has time and time again refused to condemn Putin’s barbarity. Will Vladimir Kara-Murza’s case force Trump to finally speak out and condemn the human rights abuses perpetrated by Putin? Or, will the president again remain silent on the Russian leader’s tyrannical behavior? (For more from the author of “Another Putin Critic Mysteriously Poisoned — When Will Trump Speak Out?” please click HERE)

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Liberal MSM Stoops to New Low, Using Persecuted Syrian Christians as Political Props

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This week, a Syrian Christian family was united with its loved ones in New York City after initially being denied entry to the U.S. due to President Donald Trump’s travel moratorium.

Tuesday morning, mainstream media outlets and liberal social justice organizations reported on the heartfelt family reunion, gleefully and conveniently overlooking the sheer hypocrisy of their past failure to cover the plight of persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

According to CNN, members of the Asali family had been waiting nearly 15 years to join their relatives in America. But when they finally made it to their initial destination of Philadelphia, one day after Trump issued a completely legal executive order temporarily barring immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, the Asalis were sent back to Doha, Qatar.

Sarmad Assali, a U.S. citizen (who spells her surname differently than her Syrian family members), filed a lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union in protest. And after a federal judge issued a temporary injunction against Trump’s executive order, the Asalis were able to return to the United States.

Now, the same media outlets and social justice groups that called Trump’s executive order a “Muslim ban,” and lamented the “discriminatory” nature of prioritizing persecuted religious minorities, are celebrating these Christian immigrants. Why, exactly, are they doing this now?

Not because they really care about the Asalis, but because the family serves as the perfect way for them to push their anti-Trump agenda.

See? This family got screwed over, too. And they’re Christians! Not the even anti-Muslim conservative bigots can support Trump now.

“The thrust is, the low influx of persecuted minorities facing genocide was one of the media’s best-kept secrets during the Obama administration,” said Conservative Review’s Nate Madden, who has written extensively on the plight of religious minorities in the Middle East. “Now that Trump has instituted a travel suspension that has provisions for them, they manage to find the compassion button.”

Indeed, religious leaders like Archbishop Bashar Warda, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Erbil in Iraq, have long begged the U.S. government and media to shed light and assist on the deadly struggles their people face.

In an interview with Crux magazine earlier this month, Archbishop Warda shared his thoughts on President Trump’s highly contested travel moratorium.

“Christians and other minorities have been largely ignored by the American government before now, so even if this step had a bumpy start and required clarification, we in Iraq appreciate that an American administration understands that we are here and wants to help the minorities here who have suffered so much,” Warda said.

“I do not understand why some Americans are now upset that the many minority communities that faced a horrible genocide will finally get a degree of priority in some manner,” he added.

For many Middle Eastern Christians, Trump’s executive order wasn’t a punishment imposed by a racist foreign tyrant, but a much-welcomed policy change that, in the long run, would benefit the truly destitute.

But of course, we have yet to hear this perspective from the liberal mainstream media, and we’re not likely to any time soon. (For more from the author of “Liberal MSM Stoops to New Low, Using Persecuted Syrian Christians as Political Props” please click HERE)

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This Muslim Country Has Had Its Very Own ‘Muslim Ban’ Since 2011

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The Middle East country of Kuwait issued its own “Muslim ban” in 2011, citing the “instability” from several terror hotbeds in the Middle East.

The revelation follows President Donald Trump’s executive order that placed a temporary suspension on visa issuances from the countries of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and Sudan. The presidential decision has faced extremely heavy scrutiny from across the political spectrum, with opponents claiming it to be inhumane, unconstitutional, and un-American.

The executive order’s proponents say the temporary ban is necessary to protect the country from national security threats, reminding it only affects a tiny portion of Muslim-majority nations.

Kuwait — where Islam is the state religion and 80 percent of the population is Muslim — has had a supposed “Muslim ban” in place since 2011 to stop visa issuances to citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. According to a report in Al Alaraby, individuals from these countries “will not be [AK1] able to obtain visit, tourism or trade” visas. Additionally, “Passport holders from the countries will no lot be allowed to enter the Gulf state while the blanket ban is in place and have been told not to apply to visas,” the report adds.

Kuwait has seen several incidents where foreigners attempted, and succeeded, at executing terrorist attacks. The most deadly occurred in June 2015, when an Islamic State suicide bomber detonated his vest at a Shia mosque in Kuwait City, killing 27 and injuring 227 people.

The five countries listed in the Kuwait visa ban are known breeding grounds for Islamic militants.

War-ravaged Syria and Iraq are home to ISIS, al Qaeda, and several Iran-backed jihadi militia groups. In 2011, when the civil war in Syria first erupted, Kuwait issued a visa ban for all Syrians.

Afghanistan and Pakistan is home to al Qaeda, ISIS,Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and dozens more Sunni terror groups.

And Iran is the world’s foremost state sponsor of terror, according to a 2016 report by the Obama State Department.

After this so-called “Muslim ban,” will Kuwait face international blowback of its own from prioritizing its national security? Will this have any effect on the perception of Pres. Trump’s executive order? (For more from the author of “This Muslim Country Has Had Its Very Own ‘Muslim Ban’ Since 2011” please click HERE)

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