MDAA Breaking Video: Mystery “Missile” Launch off California Coast

The U.S. military is working to determine the exact nature of this missile launch.  They can confirm that there is no threat to our nation, and from all indications this was not a launch by a foreign military.

 

Turkey to host Iran talks ‘soon’

The Turkish president has said his country expects to host talks between Iran and six major powers on Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme “some time soon”.

Abdullah Gul’s announcement on Monday comes after Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran’s foreign minister said on Sunday that it was ready to hold talks with the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, known as the “P5+1″, and that Turkey might be the best venue.

“As a result of more recent developments, you have also heard that Turkey will host the P5+1 meeting with Iran in Turkey and that is going to happen some time soon,” Gul said at an event in England.

The P5+1 has previously offered talks beginning on November 15 in Vienna, the Austrian capital – an approach welcomed by Iran but not formally agreed to.

MDA Space Tracking and Surveillance System Advanced Technology Risk Reduction Satellite transfers to Air Force Space Command

Advanced Technology Risk Reduction (STSS ATRR) satellite has successfully demonstrated required on-orbit system performance parameters for a prototype sensor technology. Additionally, STSS ATRR has been conducting Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and related operations on an as-capable basis. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is coordinating the transfer of STSS ATRR operational control to Air Force Space Command to continue support for the SSA mission area.

STSS ATRR was launched May 5, 2009 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. STSS ATRR is a small experimental satellite that serves as a pathfinder for prototype sensor technology and future MDA space missions. 

Israel delays anti-rocket system

Israel is to delay deploying its “Iron Dome” multi-million-dollar missile defence system until next year, a military source said on Monday.

The defence ministry had said in July that the Iron Dome interceptor, designed to combat rocket threats from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, would become operational in November.

But the source told AFP the military had now decided to put back its deployment until sometime in the first quarter of 2011, to allow more time to train those operating the highly complex system.

“This system is unbelievable,” one officer told the Jerusalem Post. “It is, however, sometimes a complicated process to take in such a system and turn it into a fully functioning weapons system.”

In the meantime, the system will be stored at an air force base in central Israel from where it can be deployed immediately in case of an emergency, the source told AFP.

On New START, What Is Heritage Really Afraid Of?

In a burst of fear-mongering that is surprising even by its own diminished standards, the Heritage Foundation — through its offshoot Heritage Action for America — has been distributing misleading propaganda to constituents of key Republican Senators whose support is needed for ratification of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia (New START). As Josh Rogin has reported in The Cable, the Heritage literature has gone to potential voters in Maine, Tennessee, Utah, Montana, Georgia, Arizona, and Massachusetts as a way to influence their Senators to oppose New START.

The version of the flyer used to target Tennessee Republican Bob Corker — who supported New START when it was voted on in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September — is particularly egregious. The front page is marked “URGENT: Who Will Defend Us? . . . Our National Security Is at Stake — WILL YOU ACT?” The visuals include a picture of President Obama shaking hands with Vladimir Putin (oh my heavens!), along with head shots of Obama, Putin, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad all in a row. It only gets better on the inside, where Heritage asks, “Why did Senator Bob Corker vote in committee to put Russia’s military interests ahead of our own?” After lobbing its perpetual (and inaccurate) charge that New START will limit U.S. missile defenses, the flyer goes on to claim that “START . . . will only lead to more nuclear weapons in the hands of rogue states like Iran and North Korea?” Huh?

Pentagon Openings Give Obama Options

With critical decisions ahead on the war in Afghanistan, President Obama is about to receive an unusual opportunity to reshape the Pentagon’s leadership, naming a new defense secretary as well as several top generals and admirals in the next several months.

It is a rare confluence of tenure calendars and personal calculations, coming midway through Mr. Obama’s first term and on the heels of an election that challenged his domestic policies. His choices could have lasting consequences for his national security agenda, perhaps strengthening his hand over a military with which he has often clashed, and are likely to have an effect beyond the next election, whether he wins or loses.

That is all the more reason that Mr. Obama’s choices are certain to face scrutiny in a narrowly divided Senate, whose Republican leadership has declared itself intent on defeating him.

Russia’s Duma Decision to Delay Consideration of New START: Now the Senate Can Take Its Time to Review the Treaty

 

Last week, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee, proposed that members of the committee consider delaying New START, a strategic nuclear arms reductions treaty with the United States. Subsequently, the International Affairs Committee decided to delay its consideration of the legislation that would authorize the ratification of New START by the full Duma.

According to leading Russian analysts, the action, taken without a formal vote, does not amount to the annulment of the earlier treaty endorsement by the committee. However, the equivalent on the U.S. side would be a recommendation by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to the full Senate that it suspend action. The Duma committee’s recommendation necessarily raises a number of questions for the U.S. Senate that the Obama Administration must answer before it considers the treaty.

U.S. Vote Could Derail Russia Ties

The Republican election victory last week was fueled by opposition to President Obama’s economic and domestic initiatives, but it could undo his central foreign policy achievement, his new partnership with Russia, and embolden anti-American hawks in Moscow.

In forging a friendlier relationship with the Kremlin after years of tension, Mr. Obama needs Congress to sign off on three major policy changes: an arms control treaty to reduce nuclear arsenals and resume inspections; a civilian nuclear agreement to permit greater cooperation; and a repeal of cold war-era trade restrictions so Russia can join the World Trade Organization.

White House seeks deal with GOP to ensure ratification of New START treaty

The White House is scrambling to strike a last-minute deal with congressional Republicans to save its new nuclear arms treaty with Russia from a lingering death.

Obama administration officials are trying to win the support of the GOP point man, Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, to schedule a ratification vote in the upcoming lame-duck session rather than next year, when Republicans will hold six more Senate seats.

The treaty, which also awaits ratification in Russia, would lower each country’s maximum number of long-range active nuclear warheads and set procedures for them to inspect each other’s strategic nuclear bases.

A failure by the Senate to approve the treaty would deny the United States any on-the-ground means of inspecting Russia’s huge nuclear arsenal and would probably set back improved relations between the countries.