Since we are all pretty busy hating each others candidates many may not have noticed this. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian navy squadron set off for Venezuela Monday, an official said, in a deployment of Russian military power to the Western Hemisphere unprecedented since the Cold War.

The Kremlin recently has moved to intensify contacts with Venezuela, Cuba and other Latin American nations amid increasingly strained relations with Washington after last month's war between Russia and Georgia. During the Cold War, Latin America became an ideological battleground between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said the nuclear-powered Peter the Great cruiser accompanied by three other ships sailed from the Northern Fleet's base of Severomorsk on Monday. The ships will cover about 15,000 nautical miles to conduct joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan navy, he told The Associated Press.

The deployment follows a week-long visit to Venezuela by a pair of Russian strategic bombers comes amid increasing tensions with the United States over the Russia-Georgia war.

The intensifying contacts with Venezuela appear to be a response to the U.S. dispatch of warships to deliver aid to Georgia which angered the Kremlin. Russian officials harshly criticized the U.S. deployment to Georgia's Black Sea coast.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in an interview broadcast Sunday that Latin America needs strong friendship with Russia to help reduce U.S. influence and keep peace in the region.

I did, I could have sworn I posted something about this...

Who knows, I've been awful busy with the Fed running off with American assets.

This is just blowback from our big sale of weapons, like bunker busters, to Israel, which are expected to be used in a Iranain first strike.

I've been telling people for months that Russia has been so hands on with the Iranian Nuclear power program that they aren't just going sit idly by while we wreak mini apocalypse on the Persians.

contemplating my own navel movements

One curious thing...

They have chosen November to conduct 'exercises' in the waters off our southeastren coasts.

Attempt to influence our election process perhaps?

Or making sure that any more arms they ship to Latin American countries wont be subjected to a Cuban Missle crisis type intervention on our behalf?

and yes wardude you and I both mentioned this in other posts and were largely ignored.

life is.

Oh, good, I'm glad I'm not just going further insane!

Russia to equip Iran with ‘game changer’?

Press TV
Monday, Sept 22, 2008

Russia plans to equip Iran with advanced antiaircraft defense systems amid reports that Israel will soon acquire advanced smart bombs.

Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport has disclosed that despite US opposition, Moscow intends to empower Iran by supplying the country additional air defense systems.

Moscow has already delivered 29 Tor-M1 missile systems to Iran under a $700 million (£386 million) contract signed in 2005.

Reports, however, began to surface as early as 2005 on the possibility of another deal - the delivery to Iran of S-300 surface-to-air missile systems that can complicate any aerial strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

“If Tehran obtained the S-300, it would be a game-changer in military thinking for tackling Iran. That could be a catalyst for Israeli air attacks before it is operational,” said Dan Goure, a long-time Pentagon advisor, in late August.

“This is a system that scares every Western air force,” he continued.

Israeli officials themselves have also commented on the issue, confirming that the system, once acquired by Iran, would complicate a potential attack on the ‘numerous, distant, and fortified’ nuclear sites in the country.

Tel Aviv and its ally, the United States, have threatened to launch air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities under the pretext that Tehran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has plans to develop nuclear weapons.

This is while the UN nuclear watchdog in its latest report on Iran announced that it could not find any ‘components of a nuclear weapon’ or ‘related nuclear physics studies’ in Iran.

According to the September 15 report, Iran enriches uranium-235 to a level of below 5 percent - a rate consistent with the construction of a nuclear power plant. Nuclear arms production requires an enrichment level of above 90 percent.

News of the possible Tehran-Moscow S-300 deal came just days after the Pentagon notified Congress of plans to sell 1,000 GBU-39 smart bombs to Israel.

The ‘bunker-buster’ bombs, the Guided Bomb Unit-39 (GBU-39), have been developed to penetrate fortified facilities located deep underground - such as Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Despite US and Israeli threats, however, Iran has declared that it will not halt uranium enrichment and has begun intense defense preparations.

On Monday, dozens of Iranian fighter jets, surveillance planes, interceptor aircraft and radar drones took to the skies in a joint three-day military exercise.

The maneuvers also involved testing a surveillance network equipped with state-of-the-art systems for identifying enemy aircraft.

In mid-August, Iran’s Air Force chief, Brigadier General Ahmad Miqani, announced that the country had revamped its fighter jet fleet to fly distances of 3,000 kilometers without refueling.

The upgrade allows Iranian aircraft to fly to Israel and back without needing to refuel.

Iranian military officials have also warned that Iran would not hesitate in taking the necessary measures to protect its sovereignty - including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz - in case the country comes under attack.

The strategically vital waterway, between Iran and Oman, connects the oil-rich region to high seas. As much as 40 percent of the world’s sea-transited crude oil passes through the strait.

In further preparations, the IRGC has recently equipped its navy fleet with high-tech weapons systems capable of targeting any vessel within a range of 300 km (185 miles) from its shores.

Should the S-300 system become operational in Iran, it would effectively rule out Israeli air raids and seriously complicate any US aerial bombings, according to George Friedman - the director of leading US private intelligence agency Stratfor.

“Back Georgia and Ukraine for NATO membership and you’ll see the S-300 to Iran. It is a very powerful bargaining chip and a major deterrent to US actions in the region. Moscow is playing very strategically on America’s obsession with Iran,” he said in late August.

S-300 is highly influenced by wild weasle tactics.

so the most this would do would be to increase the needed size of an inbound strike group to include aircraft capable of neutralizing the air defense threat.

Make an attack cost more but would not seriously degrade Israels ability to hit the necessary targets.

Of course the whole concept is an excerse in STUPIDITY since the emotional fallout of such an action would destablize most of the know world.

Are all world leaders insane?

Well, 2 things to this. 1st is( Psychiatrists have done many papers about what kind of megalomaniac personality you have to have to seek power, more and more power, throughout your life.


2nd( Isreal just "elected" a top Mossad agent to run their country.
Quiz time folks: What is the Mossads mission statement, their catch phrase?