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China, Russia Planning Space Attacks on U.S. Satellites

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China and Russia are preparing to attack and disrupt critical U.S. military and intelligence satellites in a future conflict with crippling space missile, maneuvering satellite, and laser attacks, senior Pentagon and intelligence officials told Congress on Tuesday.

Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of the Air Force Space Command, said the threat to U.S. space systems has reached a new tipping point, and after years of post-Cold War stagnation foreign states are focused on curbing U.S. space systems.

“Adversaries are developing kinetic, directed-energy, and cyber tools to deny, degrade, and destroy our space capabilities,” Hyten said in a prepared statement for a hearing of the House Armed Service strategic forces subcommittee.

“They understand our reliance on space, and they understand the competitive advantage we derive from space. The need for vigilance has never been greater,” the four-star general said.

Hyten said U.S. Global Positioning System satellites remain vulnerable to attack or jamming. The satellites’ extremely accurate time-keeping feature is even more critical to U.S. guided weapons than their ability to provide navigation guidance, he said. (Read more from “China, Russia Planning Space Attacks on U.S. Satellites” HERE)

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Putin Orders Surprise Syria Withdrawal

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By BBC. In a surprise move, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to start withdrawing the “main part” of its forces in Syria from Tuesday.

He said the Russian intervention had largely achieved its objectives.

The comments come amid fresh peace talks in Geneva aimed at resolving the five-year Syrian conflict.

Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose office said in a statement he had agreed to the move.

The pullout was “in accordance with the situation on the ground”, the statement said. (Read more from “Putin Orders Surprise Syria Withdrawal” HERE)

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Putin’s Shock Plan to Pull Troops From Syria Puts Pressure on Assad

By Jake Rudnitsky, Ilya Arkhipov and Henry Meyer. Russia said it will start withdrawing forces from Syria in a surprise move that puts pressure on its ally President Bashar Al-Assad, as well as opposition groups, to reach a deal at the peace talks that got under way hours earlier in Geneva.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose military intervention last year in support of Assad turned the tide in Syria’s five-year civil war, said the partial pullout should begin on Tuesday. A Russian air base and a naval facility will continue to function, he said in Moscow. Assad didn’t request the withdrawal, said Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

Russia has urged the Syrian leader to be “constructive” in the latest peace talks, aimed at ending a conflict that’s killed a quarter-million people, sparked a refugee exodus to Europe and allowed Islamic State a foothold. For Putin, who’s worked with the U.S. to promote diplomacy in Syria even though the two powers backed opposite sides in the war, it’s an opportunity to display peacemaking credentials while preserving the gains Assad’s army made under Russian air cover.

“Putin is a wily guy. He is showing he’s a statesman,” said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East studies at the University of Oklahoma. “Russia is also sending a message to Assad who has been sounding too confident.” (Read more from “Putin’s Shock Plan to Pull Troops From Syria Puts Pressure on Assad” HERE)

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Storm Clouds Gathering: Turkey Viciously Attacks Only Syrian Group Backed by Both Putin and U.S., Risking Direct Conflict With Russia

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By Selcan Hacaoglu. There’s only one major group of combatants in the Syrian war that’s backed by both Russia and the U.S. — and now Turkey is attacking it.

Since the weekend, Turkey has unleashed its 155-millimeter heavy guns across the border with Syria. The targets are Kurdish forces, whose recent advance is a key part of the Russian plan to extend President Bashar al-Assad’s control over Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday refused to stop the shelling and said Turkey was acting in self-defense.

Syria’s five-year war has turned into a tangled web of proxy conflicts between global and regional powers, with a growing risk that some of them could clash directly. Right now the most dangerous flashpoint is between Russia and NATO member Turkey, which shot down a Russian plane in November. Since then tensions have steadily built as the Assad-Russia alliance — with help from the Kurds — threatens to surround Turkish-backed rebels in Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city.

“Both Russia and Turkey are looking to position for strategic advantage,” Tim Ash, head of emerging-market strategy at Nomura in London, said by e-mail on Monday. “The risk is of an actual Russo-Turkish military clash, which would then threaten to draw in NATO.” (Read more from “Storm Clouds Gathering: Turkey Viciously Attacks Only Syrian Group Backed by Both Putin and U.S., Risking Direct Conflict With Russia” HERE)

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Kurds’ Advance in Syria Divides U.S. And Turkey as Russia Bombs

By Daren Butler. The rapid advance of U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, taking advantage of Russian air strikes to seize territory near the Turkish border, has infuriated Ankara and threatened to drive a wedge between NATO allies.

Washington has long seen the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its YPG military wing as its best chance in the battle against Islamic State in Syria – to the chagrin of fellow NATO member Turkey, which sees the group as terrorists and fears it will stir up greater unrest among its own Kurdish minority.

Russian bombing has transformed the five-year-old Syrian civil war in recent weeks, turning the momentum decisively in favor of Moscow’s ally President Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian army has come within 25 km (15 miles) of the Turkish border and says it aims to seal it off altogether, closing the main lifeline into rebel territory for years and recapturing Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war. (Read more from “Kurds’ Advance in Syria Divides U.S. And Turkey as Russia Bombs” HERE)

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Russia’s Prime Minister: We Are in a New Cold War

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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said his country is in a new Cold War with the U.S. and its allies, underscoring the tenuous level of trust that’s putting a day-old plan for a truce in Syria at risk.

The clash, with echoes of superpower rhetoric during the 20th century, played out at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday even as Russia, Europe and the U.S. say they’re seeking cooperation to end Syria’s civil war, resolve the armed standoff in eastern Ukraine and make progress toward lifting European economic sanctions against Russia.

Fresh from helping craft the accord for Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that the U.S. is reneging on the agreement and put the chances of success at less than 50 percent. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, addressing the meeting separately, demanded an end to Russian bombing of groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“This is a hinge point,” Kerry told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. “We hope this week can be a week of change. It is critical for all of us to take advantage of this moment to make this cessation of hostilities work.”

On stage at the international gathering of diplomats and defense officials, Medvedev set a different tone, blaming the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization for stoking conflict. Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance’s secretary general, said Russia is using its nuclear arsenal to intimidate Europe. (Read more from “Russia’s Prime Minister: We Are in a New Cold War” HERE)

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Russia Makes Major Claim About the Pentagon’s Fight Against ISIS

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The Pentagon, refusing to transfer the data on terrorist targets in Syria to the Russian military, continues to fight against the Islamic State terrorist group “in word only”, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters on Monday.

He thus commented on a recent statement by the Pentagon spokesperson Michelle Baldanza who confirmed that the US military did not intend to share with Moscow the information on IS targets until Russia changes its policy towards Syrian President Bashar Assad. “We are not going to cooperate with Russia on Syria until they change their strategy of supporting Assad and instead focus on ISIL (IS),” Baldanza said.

“The hackneyed thesis has once again confirmed that the Pentagon will fight against IS in word only, instead of taking real action,” Konashenkov said. “The statement by the US Defense Department spokesperson Michelle Baldanza about the [US side’s] refusal from any cooperation in the fight against Islamic State is a broken record, and it’s high time to change it,” he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said that at last week’s news briefing of the chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian General Staff, General Sergey Rudskoy, the military presented data on changes in the routes of illegal transportation of oil by the Islamic State militants.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the new routes run through the north-western regions of Iraq, which “are in the focus of constant attention of the United States.” “We publicly told our American colleagues that it is necessary not to discuss the IS activities in Iraq, but to take real action to block the terrorists’ sources of income in the region,” Konashenkov said. (Read more from “Russia Makes Major Claim About the Pentagon’s Fight Against ISIS” HERE)

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Russia Launches New Airstrikes in Syria

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Photo Credit: APRussia has unleashed another barrage of airstrikes against targets in Syria, including the first combat launch of a new cruise missile from a Russian submarine in the Mediterranean Sea, the country’s defense minister said Tuesday.

The Kalibr cruise missiles launched by the Rostov-on-Don submarine successfully hit the designated targets in Raqqa, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin. The submarine was in a submerged position during the launch, he added.

Putin noted that the new cruise missile can be equipped with both conventional and nuclear warheads, adding he hopes that the latter “will never be needed.” (Read more from “Russia Launches New Airstrikes in Syria” HERE)

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State Department ‘Troubled’ by Moscow’s Move Against Soros Groups

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The U.S. State Department says it is “troubled” by Russia’s decision to ban two of liberal billionaire George Soros’ pro-democracy charities and label the organizations a threat to national security.

“Today’s designation of the Open Society Foundations and the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation as so-called ‘undesirable’ organizations will only further restrict the work of civil society in Russia for the benefit of the Russian people,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday. “This action is yet another example of the Russian Government’s growing crackdown on independent voices and a deliberate step to further isolate the Russian people from the world.”

A spokesperson from Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office said the activities of the fund are threats to state security and the Russian constitution, Radio Free Europe reports.

The Open Society Foundations said in a statement on its website that it was “dismayed” by the decision . . .

Prosecutors started investigating the charity fund in July after Russian senators flagged a list of 12 groups that required a closer look over their supposed anti-Russian activities, RT reports. (Read more from “State Department ‘Troubled’ by Moscow’s Move Against Soros Groups” HERE)

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Russia Beefs up Military Assets in Syria in Response to Turkey’s Downing of Jet

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Russia ramped up the threat of a military confrontation between Turkey and Moscow Wednesday – a day after a Russian warplane was shot down by Turkey – by announcing that a state-of-the-art air defense missile system will be deployed at a Russian air base in Syria and that all its bombers will now be escorted by fighter jets on their missions.

Russian President Vladmir Putin ordered the S-400 missiles sent to the Hemeimeem air base in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia, just 30 miles away from the border with Turkey, are capable of striking targets within a 250-mile range with deadly precision. The military also moved the navy missile cruiser Moskva closer to the shore to help protect Russian warplanes with its long-range Fort air defense system.

“It will be ready to destroy any aerial target posing a potential danger to our aircraft,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting with military officials. He also announced the severance of all military ties with Turkey and said that from now on, Russian bombers will always be escorted by fighters on combat missions over Syria.

Tuesday’s incident was the first time in half a century that a NATO member shot down a Russian plane. If Russia responds by downing a Turkish plane, NATO member Turkey could proclaim itself under attack and ask the alliance for military assistance.

Most observers believe that a direct military confrontation is unlikely, but that the shooting down of the plane will further fuel the Syrian conflict and complicate international peace efforts. (Read more from “Russia Beefs up Military Assets in Syria in Response to Turkey’s Downing of Jet” HERE)

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Obama Just Responded to Downed Russian Plane With Startling Message to Putin; Russia: Video “Proves” Jet Never Entered Turkish Airspace [+video]

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By Randy DeSoto. President Obama blamed Russia on Tuesday for its warplane being shot down by the Turkish air force.

Speaking alongside French President Francois Hollande, Obama said that officials are still gathering facts and urged the two sides to avoid escalating the situation.

“Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend its territory and its airspace,” the president said.

“I do think that this points to an ongoing problem with the Russian operations,” he added. “In the sense that they are operating very close to a Turkish border, and they are going after moderate opposition that are supported by not only Turkey but a wide range of countries.”

He said that if Russia directed its efforts toward the Islamic State, “some of those conflicts, or potentials for mistakes or escalation, are less likely to occur,” according to Fox News . . .

As reported by Western Journalism, earlier today Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced Turkey’s actions as a “stab in the back by the terrorists’ accomplices.” He warned of “significant consequences” for relations with the nation. (Read more from “Obama Just Responded to Downed Russian Plane With Startling Message to Putin” HERE)

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Russian Defense Ministry Video Proves Su-24 Never Entered Turkish Airspace

By Sputnik News [this is a “news” agency funded by the Russian government]. While authorities in Ankara have insisted that it shot down the Russian Su-24 bomber after the aircraft entered Turkish airspace, the Russian Defense Ministry has released video proving that the plane never left Syrian airspace.

According to a leaked letter written to the UN Security Council by the Turkish Ambassador, Turkey’s military justified the shooting down of a Russian bomber by claiming that the aircraft had entered Turkish airspace for 17 seconds.

(Read more from “Russian Defense Ministry Video Proves Su-24 Never Entered Turkish Airspace” HERE)

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Turkmen Forces in Syria Admit to War Crimes by Claiming They Killed Parachuting Russian Pilot

By Reuters. Turkmen forces in Syria shot dead the two pilots of a Russian jet downed by Turkish warplanes near the border with Turkey on Tuesday as they descended with parachutes, a deputy commander of a Turkmen brigade told reporters.

(Read more HERE about the illegal killing of the pilot of the downed Russian plane)

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Turkey Shoots Down Russian Jet, Tensions Escalate in Volatile Region

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One of the world’s most volatile regions was roiled further Tuesday when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkey said it hit the plane after it repeatedly violated Turkey’s airspace and ignored 10 warnings.

One of the two pilots was killed in the air by fire from the ground, according to Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti. The fate of the second pilot wasn’t disclosed.

Meanwhile, a Russian marine was killed on Tuesday during an operation to rescue the two pilots, who were flying an Su-24 warplane, according to RIA Novosti.

Turkey and Russia exchanged bellicose language after the downing of the plane, raising fears in the international community that the brutal Syrian conflict could spiral into something much wider.

The Russian plane was warned numerous times beforehand and was subsequently dealt with because it “did not answer our warning,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday. (Read more from “Turkey Shoots Down Russian Jet” HERE)