The Father of All Bombs, Israeli Spy Flights, Pax Amerafrica, Apartheid Nuke Smugglers

There has been a great deal of speculation about how Russia will respond to the Eastern European missile defense system the U.S. is planning. This "defense" system is being widely interpreted in Russia as an offense system, not a means of preventing a Russian first strike, but of disabling a Russian retaliatory strike in the event of a U.S. first strike. This is exactly how the testing of a Chinese missile defense system was interpreted in the U.S. media last summer, although mainstream commentators wouldn't dream of applying the same standards to US we apply to THEM.

Anyway, now we know. According to Reuters:
"Russia has tested the world's most powerful vacuum bomb, which unleashes a destructive shockwave with the power of a nuclear blast, the military said on Tuesday, dubbing it the "father of all bombs". The bomb is the latest in a series of new Russian weapons and policy moves as President Vladimir Putin tries to reassert Moscow's role on the international stage."

The article goes on to say that:

"The main destruction is inflicted by an ultrasonic shockwave and an incredibly high temperature," the reports said. "All that is alive merely evaporates."
[Deputy Armed Forces Chief of Staff Alexander] Rukshin said: "At the same time, I want to stress that the action of this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a nuclear one."

Good to know that it evaporates flesh in an eco-friendly way.

Meanwhile, Israel is playing with fire again. A few weeks ago, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak announced that Israeli troops would be withdrawing from the Golan border. Since July, the Israeli government has deployed thousands of IDF reservists to the border of the Golan Heights, a piece of Syrian territory Israel siezed during the 1967 war, for military exercises. Rumors of war with Syria have been heating up in recent months, and it appeared that Barak's announcement was a sign of eased tensions. Then, on September 6th, four Israeli warplanes, travelling faster than the speed of sound, invaded Syrian airspace after midnight. They reportedly entered from the south and reached the vicinity of Tal Abyad, on the northern Syria-Turkey border. There are conflicting accounts of what happened next. Syrian officials at the U.N. on Tuesday said that the craft engaged in an airstrike against an unspecified target, while Israeli officials said they were on a reconnaissance mission, but were forced to drop their munitions in order to increase speed and altitude after being fired on by Syrian troops.

So what were they doing? According to Sami Boubayed at Asia Times, Syria recently purchased ballistic missiles from Russia. He quotes Israeli "counter-terrorism expert" Boaz Ganor's statement that Israel was "collecting intelligence" for long-range missile installations in the north. If a Lebanon-style conflagration erupts, Israel may find itself simultaneously at war with Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinans in Gaza and the West Bank.

U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops continued their offensive inside Somalia on Tuesday, bombing the Mogadishu international airport and siezing towns all through southern and central Somalia. The U.S. is participating in many of these operations, and is even carrying out airstrikes inside Somalia. The perception that the U.S. is extending its sphere of occupation from Afghanistan and Iraq to the Horn of Africa is, inevitably, leading to an extension of the resistance it provokes. General John Abizaid recently made a visit to Addis Ababa, and there are other visitors. According to McClatchy, "Hundreds of foreign fighters, primarily from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Asian peninsula, reportedly have arrived in recent days to bolster the CIC [Council of Islamic Courts]."

Oh, and the South African government has uncovered evidence of a nuclear smuggling ring operating in 30 countries. Members include engineers involved in the apartheid regime's nuclear weapons program, which was dismantled in 1994.