Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Monday that the U.S. will send weapons, aircraft and troops as needed to NATO’s new rapid reaction force. The force will defend Europe in the event of an aggressive move by Russia or ISIS.
President Obama made the commitment last year during a NATO summit but Carter is revealing the details of the plan.
“We do not seek a cold, let alone a hot war with Russia,” Carter said at Atlantik Brucke, a Berlin think tank that focuses on the German-U.S. relationship. “We do not seek to make Russia an enemy. But make no mistake: we will defend our allies, the rules-based international order, and the positive future it affords us. We will stand up to Russia’s actions and their attempts to re-establish a Soviet-era sphere of influence.”
The U.S. will provide intelligence and surveillance capabilities, special operations forces, transport aircraft and a range of weapons from bombers and fighters to ship-based missiles. A large ground force is not part of the U.S. commitment.
Carter is attending his first NATO meeting as Defense Secretary and plans to bring a two-pronged approach to NATO’s needs: the first is a strong defense against Russia in an attempt to stop them from establishing a Soviet-era influence on the region while partnering with Russia to fight Islamic terrorism.
A new report from the United Nations says that ISIS has stored enough weapons to continue their fight for at least two more years.
The report says that the supply estimate is taking U.S. airstrikes into account.
“According to different sources, the amounts of Iraqi small arms and ammunition captured by ISIL are sufficient to allow ISIL to continuing fighting at current levels for six months to two years,” the report states. “ISIL should have few problems maintaining state-of-the-art materials seized from the Iraqi Government, as most were unused.”
The terrorists have seized Iraqi and Syrian weapon caches from cities in the Anbar, Diyala and Salah al-Din provinces.
“Both ISIL and [Al Nursa Front] have seized military assets from conventional armies,” the report says. “The scale of these seizures can be grasped by noting that ISIL, in June of 2014, captured vehicles, weapons, and ammunition sufficient to arm and equip more than three Iraqi conventional army divisions.”
The report says that in addition to the weapons, ISIS makes about a million dollars a day from oil sales and over $45 million in the last year from kidnapping ransoms.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is soliciting bids for submachine guns and body armor.
Initial reports showed that the USDA is seeking guns that have an “ambidextrous safety, semiautomatic or 2 round [bursts] trigger group, Tritium night sights front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore group) and scope (top rear), stock collapsible or folding,” and a “30 rd. capacity” magazine.
The agency’s paper said that they wanted interested vendors to submit their name and contact information “in a timely manner.”
The document was later revised to say the USDA also wants to obtain a “”tactical vest, undergarment (white), identification patches, accessories (6 pouches), body armor carry bag, and professional measurements.”
There was no explanation why the USDA is seeking to obtain military level weapons and body armor.
The Obama administration has suspended the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt in their most visible response to the military removal of President Mohammed Morsi.
A Pentagon spokesman said the delay was a cautionary measure. Continue reading →
A North Korean ship has been seized trying to pass through the Panama Canal containing a large cache of hidden weapons which may violate U.N. prohibitions against sending weapons to the unstable Asian nation.
Missiles reportedly “being sent for repair” from Cuba were found buried under large sacks of sugar. None of the weapons were listed on the ship’s manifest which is a violation of maritime law. Continue reading →
Two New York men appeared in court facing charges related to providing support to terrorists.
Glendon Scott Crawford and Eric Feight claimed they could build an X-ray weapon that would be mounted on the back of a truck and “kill Israel’s enemies while they slept.” Continue reading →
The French army has found a workshop in the northern part of Mali that is a factory for making homicide bomber vests.
Troops reported finding 11,000 pounds of fertilizer that could be used in explosives. A sample homicide vest and 18 sewing machines were found. According to a French army spokesman, local women said they were employed in the factory. Continue reading →
As UN workers comb through the ruins of various mausoleums and museums assessing damage left by Islamic terrorists driven out of the city, they made a very disturbing discovery.
Photocopies of a terrorist training manual appeared to show that al-Qaeda has a feared weapon called “The Grail”, a surface-to-air missile that is capable of taking down a commercial airliner. The weapon is also called a MANPADS, or Man-Portable Air-Defense System. Continue reading →
Nigeria’s army and spy agency have announced the discovery of a weapon cache of the terrorist group Hezbollah.
The Nigerian State Security Service said that weapons were intended for use against “Israeli and Western interests”. Continue reading →
The head of the terrorist group Hezbollah told a gathering in Beirut that Syria is going to be providing their group with “game-changing weapons” less than a week after alleged Israeli airstrikes destroyed a shipment of Iranian missiles that were being transported out of Syria.
Israel has not admitted being behind the strikes but did say that they would strike against any shipment of missiles bound for the terrorist group. Continue reading →
