Obama deal with Russia, missile defense, Iran, DPRK threats

April 10, 2013 | Filed underWar Footing | Posted by SUAadmin

Editor’s Note – In 2009, in an unprecedented sligh to former Eastern Bloc nations now aligned with the west, President Obama cancelled the Bush era plans to install permanent missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic in an attempt to ensure that future Iranian capabilities could be defended against. Why such appeasement to Putin – and no return on the deal?
The problem is, and is still short sighted in most calculations by pundits, Iran and North Korea are steadfast and loyal allies, and it is likely that the DPRK has been performing rocket and Nuke tests that could be of mutual use to both countries. is what the DPRK doing now part of a more global effort. “What if its not about North Korea” solely?
From the New York Times in September of 2009:

President Obama scrapped his predecessor’s proposed antiballistic missile shield in Eastern Europe on Thursday and ordered instead the development of a reconfigured system designed to shoot down short- and medium-range Iranian missiles.
In one of the biggest national security reversals of his young presidency, Mr. Obama canceled former President George W. Bush’s plans to station a radar facility in the Czech Republic and 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland. Instead, he plans to deploy smaller SM-3 interceptors by 2011, first aboard ships and later in Europe, possibly even in Poland or the Czech Republic.

Obama added:

“President Bush was right that Iran’s ballistic missile program poses a significant threat,” Mr. Obama said. But he said the new assessment of the Iranian threat required a different system using existing technology. “This new approach will provide capabilities sooner, build on proven systems and offer greater defenses against the threat of missile attack than the 2007 European missile defense program,” he said.

Buy now, with the North Korean threat looming, that phase has also been canceled, the mobile technology is now also nixed in favor of Pacific defenses (Also from the NY Times this March):

The United States has effectively canceled the final phase of a Europe-based missile defense system that was fiercely opposed by Russia and cited repeatedly by the Kremlin as a major obstacle to cooperation on nuclear arms reductions and other issues.
Russian officials here have so far declined to comment on the announcement, which was made in Washington on Friday by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel as part of a plan to deploy additional ballistic missile interceptors to counter North Korea. The cancellation of some European-based defenses will allow resources to be shifted to protect against North Korea.

Hagel announced that batteries would be placed elsewhere, upgraded, and/or renewed in Alaska and on Guam: (From Business Insider)

The placement of missiles in Guam is just one of many recent military mobilizations. An advanced radar rig and two Aegis-class destroyers have sailed to the western Pacific in response to missile movements on the west coast of North Korea.
Also, the Pentagon has plans to put missile batteries in Alaska to mitigate the extended range of North Korea’s newest rocket, semi-successfully launched in December. Though analysts doubt the rocket has adequate guidance systems, the notional range is enough to reach Alaska.

Stay tuned, today was the day the DPRK gave as the time for foreigners to leave the Korean Peninsula, and that missile tests were to be conducted, read on what may be behind a lot of these movements according to Congressman Mike Turner (R) Ohio:

Congressman: I was right, Obama made a secret missile deal with Putin

Posted By John Hudson – Front Page Magazine

Is the Obama administration’s new missile defense initiative a direct response to North Korean threats — or the culmination of a secretive deal between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin to scale back America’s defense apparatus?
According to Congressman Mike Turner, the administration’s cancellation of the final phase of a missile defense system in Europe on Friday is vindication of his warnings about Obama’s “secret deal with the Russians.”
“We watched the president state to Medvedev that he would have greater flexibility after the election,” Turner told Foreign Policy on Sunday night. “Putin later announced the terms of the agreement. You’d have to conclude that there was a deal.”
The Ohio Republican was referring to a “hot mic” exchange between Obama and then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a nuclear security summit in South Korea last March. “After my election I have more flexibility,” the president told Medvedev, referring to ongoing discussions about missile defense. “I understand,” replied Medvedev. “I transmit this information to Vladimir.”
Since the incident, the administration has steadfastly denied ever plotting a secret deal with Putin. Additionally, on Friday, when the Pentagon announced the cancellation of some Europe-based defenses as part of a reallocation of resources to protect against North Korea, Pentagon spokesman George Little rejected the notion that the plan had anything to do with Russia. “The missile defense decisions Secretary Hagel announced were in no way about Russia,” he said.
But Turner said his warnings had been vindicated, and went on to lament that the president’s “secret deal,” which he referred to matter-of-factly, elicited no apparent concessions from Russia.
“The problem with the president’s secret deal with the Russians is we never understood what we were going to get out of it,” Turner told FP. “The president clearly has abandoned the shield that the Russians opposed and we’re left with the U.S. having greater exposure to North Korea and Iran without any benefit.”
In the wake of the hot mic incident last March, a number of Republicans, including GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, joined Turner in criticizing the president. But after a spate of White House denials, the issue died down. On Sunday, Republicans even spoke favorably of the president’s realignment of missile defenses against North Korea. “I think it’s really good that we’re taking those precautionary measures to make sure that they cannot do damage,” Tennessee Senator Bob Corker said on Fox News Sunday. Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers told CNN that “this is something that we have to take seriously.”
But Turner has never lost sight of the so-called “secret deal” between Obama and Putin.
In June, he delivered an address on the House floor, saying “the issue of the president’s secret deal with the Russians is not one open to interpretation.” His office then issued a press release featuring a spreadsheet that documented the various events at which U.S. and Russian officials had met, suggesting the continuation of secret missile negotiations.

He also released a video that spliced together clips of himself repeating the words “secret deal” on the House floor:

On Sunday, Turner pledged to “call for hearings in the Armed Services Committee” to increase scrutiny of the “secret deal.” When asked if he believed the entire North Korea realignment was a White House red herring to implement the alleged deal, Turner said “it’s certainly possible.”
Rejecting Turner’s allegations, White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden reiterated that the president’s decisions on this matter had nothing to do with Russia. “They were made based on technological developments and an increased threat of ballistic missiles from North Korea,” she said.

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