IN CONFLICTING REPORTS, BOTH TASS AND THE BBC REPORTED A CONFRONTATION IN THE SKIES OVER THE BALTIC SEA, WITHIN 25 MILES OF KALININGRAD, RUSSIA, YESTERDAY.
TASS NEWS AGENCY REPORTED THAT
Russian Su-27 fighter jets consecutively intercepted two US RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, with one of them making a provocative turn towards the Russian plane, the Russian defense ministry said on Tuesday.
"On June 19, Russian airspace control means over neutral waters of the Baltic Sea spotted an aerial target flying towards the Russian state border. A Su-27 fighter jet of the Baltic Fleet air defense alert unit was scrambled to intercept the target. After approaching it, the Russian plane identified it as a US RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft. When being escorted, the RC-135 plane made an attempt at approaching the Russian fighter jet making a provocative turn towards it," the ministry said.
Russian Su-27 fighter jets consecutively intercepted two US RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, with one of them making a provocative turn towards the Russian plane, the Russian defense ministry said on Tuesday.
"On June 19, Russian airspace control means over neutral waters of the Baltic Sea spotted an aerial target flying towards the Russian state border. A Su-27 fighter jet of the Baltic Fleet air defense alert unit was scrambled to intercept the target. After approaching it, the Russian plane identified it as a US RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft. When being escorted, the RC-135 plane made an attempt at approaching the Russian fighter jet making a provocative turn towards it," the ministry said.
The Russian pilot offered a reaction to the RC-135’s maneuver, after which continued to escort the U.S. reconnaissance plane until it changed its route off the Russian border," the ministry said.
Over that past week, U.S. and NATO reconnaissance planes have performed more than 15 flights over the Baltic Sea in the exact proximity to the Russian border, the ministry said and stressed that Russian fighter jets are flying over neutral waters of the Baltic Sea in strict compliance with international rules.
"As for the alleged ‘provocative’ nature of the flight, we would like to stress that ten minutes later another RC-135 plane entered this zone to be also intercepted by the Russia Su-27," the Russian defense ministry added.
THE BBC PAINTS ANOTHER PICTURE OF WHAT HAPPENED, OF COURSE:
A Russian jet flew within 5ft (1.5m) of a U.S. reconnaissance plane's wing tip over the Baltic Sea on Monday, US officials say.
The encounter was deemed "unsafe" due to the Russian pilot's "high rate of closure speed and poor control of the aircraft", officials said.
But Russia disputes the American account, saying the US plane made a "provocative" move towards their jet.
The intercept on Monday occurred 25 miles (40 km) from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, over international waters.
Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters: "We were flying in international airspace and did nothing to provoke this behaviour."
There have been more than 30 interactions between U.S. and Russian planes and ships in the Baltic Sea since the beginning of June, US officials tell CNN.
The majority have been deemed safe, US officials say.
The US RC-135 reconnaissance plane is roughly the size of a civilian commercial aircraft
WHO'S RUNNING THE AMERICAN SHOW?
DOES TRUMP REALIZE WHAT THE MILITARY IS DOING OVER THERE?
IS HE IN AGREEMENT WITH ALL THE PROVOCATION, THE PUSHING RUSSIA'S BACK AGAINST THE WALL?
DOES HE READ THE 'NEWS', ONE WONDERS.
"The growing risk of a direct confrontation between the US and Russia follows a decision by Trump to grant his military chiefs untrammelled control of military strategy in Syria. But the Pentagon insists it is not seeking to escalate the conflict."
I HAVE TO CALL B.S. ON THAT STATEMENT!
THE U.S. MILITARY 'CHIEFS' HAVE BEEN ITCHING FOR A FIGHT WITH RUSSIA SINCE BEFORE THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS!
BUT DOES THE WHITE HOUSE AND CONGRESS WANT AN ALL-OUT WAR WITH RUSSIA?
On all fronts, it just seems that the U.S. MILITARY, whether through NATO or SYRIA, is shoving as hard as it can to push Putin's buttons, and is doing all it can to provoke a negative Russian respinse.
These are dangerous "games".
All it will take is ONE pilot on either side losing his temper at the wrong moment, making a snap-judgment wrong call and we will all see what World War 3 looks like.
ESCALATION OF TENSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE U.S.IN SYRIA
Also on Monday, as the Guardian U.K. reported, Russia warned that U.S. jets flying in Syria would now be targeted.
The announcement came in response to the U.S. downing of a Syrian jet after it targeted American-allied rebels.
On Tuesday, the US military shot down an armed Iranian-made drone in Syria, adding to tensions between the Washington and Moscow, which is allied with the Syrian regime.
The U.S. shooting down of a Syrian jet is seen as ‘act of aggression’ by Russia, which will track coalition warplanes west of the Euphrates.
It was the first such US attack on a Syrian warplane since the start of the country’s civil war six years ago.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said the U.S. strike “has to be seen as a continuation of America’s line to disregard the norms of international law.
“What is this if not an act of aggression? It is, if you like, help to those terrorists that the U.S. is fighting against, declaring they are carrying out an anti-terrorism policy.”
The Russian foreign ministry also said it would respond to the attack by suspending its communications channel with US forces, which is designed to prevent collisions and dangerous incidents in Syrian airspace.
The Russian military threatened to close the hotline, known as the “deconfliction channel”, in April after President Trump ordered a missile strike against a Syrian air base allegedly involved in a chemical weapons attack. However, Moscow did not fulfill the threat and the channel remained open.
Russia stressed it will in future be tracking the coalition’s jets, not shooting them down, but added that “a threat for those jets may appear only if they take action that poses a threat to Russian aircraft”. Moscow’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “All kinds of airborne vehicles, including aircraft and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] of the international coalition, detected to the west of the Euphrates river will be tracked by the Russian SAM systems as air targets.”
The top U.S. general, Joseph Dunford, sought to play down the repercussions of the incident, insisting the hotline established eight months ago between U.S. central command in Qatar and its Russian equivalent in Syria was still open and functioning on Monday morning and would be used to try to defuse the situation.
“I’m confident that we are still communicating between the coalition operations centre and the Russian operations centre,” Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff told the National Press Club in Washington. “I think the worst thing any of us could do would be to address this with hyperbole.”
He added: “I’m also confident that our forces have the capability to take care of themselves.”
“We made every effort to warn those individuals not to come any closer and then the commander made a judgment that it was a threat to the forces that we are supporting and took action. The only actions that we have taken against pro-regime forces in Syria, and there have been two specific incidents, have been in self-defence and we have communicated that clearly.”
It is not clear what other incident Dunford was referring to. Apart from the April missile strike, US forces have fired on pro-regime forces, thought to include Iranian-backed Shia militia, three times in the past month in Syria’s eastern desert near the Iraqi border.
Asked about the legal basis for a US plane shooting down a Syrian aircraft in Syrian airspace, Dunford referred to the Authorisation for the Use of Military Force Act passed by Congress in 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attack, which has been used as a blanket mandate by U.S. administrations ever since for counter-terrorist operations abroad.
OBAMA PROMISED TO GET US OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST.
THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN.
TRUMP BASICALLY SAID HE WAS FED UP WITH THE U.S. PLAYING POLICEMAN TO THE WORLD AND THAT WE SHOULD SPEND OUR TRILLIONS ELSEWHERE.
WE SEE HOW THAT'S PLAYING OUT.
IT'S JUST AS EISENHOWER WARNED IN HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS TO THE NATION:
...Eisenhower warned the American people to keep a careful eye on what he called the “military-industrial complex” that had developed in the post-World War II years.
Eisenhower had been concerned about the growing size and cost of the American defense establishment since he became president in 1953. In his last presidential address to the American people, he expressed those concerns in terms that frankly shocked some of his listeners.
Eisenhower began by describing the changing nature of the American defense establishment since World War II.
No longer could the U.S. afford the “emergency improvisation” that characterized its preparations for war against Germany and Japan. Instead, the United States was “compelled to create a permanent armaments industry” and a huge military force. He admitted that the Cold War made clear the “imperative need for this development,” but he was gravely concerned about “the acquisition of unwarranted influence…by the military-industrial complex.” In particular, he asked the American people to guard against the “danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”
Necessary though that development might be, Eisenhower warned, this new military-industrial complex could weaken or destroy the very institutions and principles it was designed to protect.
Eisenhower’s blunt language stunned some of his supporters."
THE PENTAGON CAN'T, AS IN IT WON'T, ACCOUNT FOR TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN EXPENDITURES, AND SINCE RUMSFELD ANNOUNCED THAT OVER 2 TRILLION WAS MISSING FROM PENTAGON 'BOOKS' THE DAY BEFORE 9-11, THE MONEY LEAK HAS MERELY GROWN.
WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THE BOYS IN THE PENTAGON ARE SPENDING THOSE TRILLIONS ON.
BUT WE HAVE SEEN, HISTORICALLY, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A MILITARY POWER DECIDES TO RUN A COUNTRY.
TRUMP NEEDS TO GET A HANDLE ON THIS, SLAP A FEW HANDS AND BACK SOME OF HIS MILITARY CHIEFS OFF THIS HEADLONG DASH TO WORLD WAR 3.
I ALSO THINK THE LEADERS OF BOTH NATIONS NEED TO POLL THEIR POPULACE TO SEE HOW MANY "AVERAGE CITIZENS" BELIEVE THAT ANYTHING WE MAY FIND IN THE MIDDLE EAST OR EUROPE IS WORTH GOING TO NUCLEAR WAR FOR.
SO FAR, PRESIDENT PUTIN SEEMS TO HAVE USED MORE COMMON SENSE THAN EITHER PRESIDENT OBAMA OR PRESIDENT TRUMP, BUT WHO KNOWS WHEN THAT CAN CHANGE OR WHAT MIGHT PUSH MR. PUTIN OR OUR POWER-HUNGRY MILITARY HEADS TO JUST SAY TO HELL WITH IT AND ON TO ALL-OUT WAR?
//WW
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