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Communists in Congress? (1) Hansen Clarke (D) Michigan

Recently, Florida Rep. Allen West received considerable flak after claiming that there were up to eighty “communists” in the US Congress.

Rep. West was certainly correct in spirit. There are dozens of members of the US Congress who have strong ties to one or more of America’s several influential Marxist organizations.

This is the first of a series of profiles of Congress members with documentable connections to the US hard left.

Hansen Clarke (D) Michigan:

Michigan freshman Democratic Congressman Hansen Clarke represents the state’s 13th District and serves on the Homeland Security and Science, Space and Technology committees.

A former Chief of Staff to Michigan’s pro-Marxist Congressman John Conyers, Hansen Clarke seems to be following in his former mentor’s political footsteps.

Over many years, Congressman Clarke has openly aligned himself with the highly influential Detroit local of the US’ largest Marxist organization, Democratic Socialists of America.

Reaffirming a relationship that began several years ago, Congressman Clarke personally presented awards at Greater Detroit DSA’s 12th annual Frederick Douglass-Eugene V. Debs Dinner on October 1st at UAW Local 600 in Dearborn, Michigan.

Clarke presented Congressional citations to far leftist, the Reverend Ed Rowe and to the Restaurant Opportunities Center-Michigan.

Other speakers included an event regular, Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO President Saundra Williams and newly appointed DSA National Director Maria Svart.

Hansen Clarke’s relationship with DSA goes back to at least 2002.

In that year, Greater Detroit Democratic Socialists of America contributed to the primary campaign of Hansen Clarke, who ran against incumbent State Senator Ray Murphy in the 1st District. The local did some early fundraising and conducted a postcard campaign on Clarke’s behalf to its members in the 1st Senate District. Hansen Clarke achieved an upset victory, winning comfortably by thirteen points.

Greater Detroit DSA boasts a “simple but effective electoral strategy.”

We endorse progressive candidates in competitive races where the focused efforts of a small group such as ours can tip the balance in favor of the progressive candidate. This strategy has served us well in electing state representatives such as Steve Bieda, Alma Wheeler Smith, John Espinoza, Aldo Vagnozzi, and Fred Miller, and state senators such as Gilda Jacobs and Hansen Clarke.

Hansen Clarke also has a close working relationship with one of the US’ most extreme Marxist-Leninist organizations – the pro-North Korea/Cuban Workers World Party.

In 2008 Hansen Clarke worked closely with Detroit leaders of the Workers World Party on the house foreclosures issue. Clarke drafted and sponsored SB 1306 with long time WWP collaborator Reverend Ed Rowe of Central United Methodist Church, a co–initiator of the Moratorium NOW! organization. Rowe further pledged ongoing support to the coalition, whose office is in his church. Most key leaders and personnel in Moratorium NOW! are also Workers World Party activists. Writing in Workers World on Jan. 14, 2008, Detroit WWP leader Kris Hamel discussed the origins of Moratorium NOW!

“More than 400,000 jobs have been lost in the state since 2001. Now, that economic crisis has extended nationwide… According to a report issued on June 5 by the Mortgage Bankers Association, approximately one of every 11 mortgages in the U.S. was past due or in foreclosure at the end of March… Falling home values have left many homeowners with mortgages in excess of the value of their homes… The Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions is organizing around the state to win passage of SB 1306, a two-year moratorium introduced into the Michigan Legislature by state Sen. Hansen Clarke. In 2007, activists with the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice began to popularize the idea of a foreclosure moratorium based on the emergency powers invested in the governor by the state constitution during times of disaster. Demonstrations were held at the state capitol in Lansing demanding that Gov. Jennifer Granholm declare a state of economic emergency and impose a moratorium to stop foreclosures and evictions.

Hansen Clarke became heavily involved in the WWP campaign, in 2008, when a Detroit family, the Maxwells, were faced with losing their home. According to the Workers World, “the dumpster was returned to the Maxwell home on the morning of April 23, one week after “community activists” successfully emptied it and moved the family’s belongings back into their foreclosed home on Detroit’s near northwest side.” An emergency demonstration called by the WWP front Moratorium NOW!, convened at the home in the afternoon in solidarity with the Maxwells and “all those facing foreclosure in Detroit.”

Activists with another WWP front, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice, theMichigan Welfare Rights OrganizationACORN, and other groups participated. An emergency motion was filed in Detroit’s 36th District Court to set aside the judgment for eviction entered by the court on Feb. 28. On April 25, community activists packed the courtroom with the Maxwell family as Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes heard arguments on why the family should be allowed to stay in their home. After the hearing, as supporters gathered in the corridor outside the courtroom, Maureen Taylor of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization stated: “This proves that poor people have no rights, that if you can’t afford an attorney, so be it. Poor people cannot get justice in a courtroom. We need to keep fighting.”

Detroit WWP leader Abayomi Azikiwe of Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice, told Workers World: “This is precisely why we need a moratorium. There are thousands of families like the Maxwells all throughout Metro Detroit. We need to step up the struggle to force the state legislature to enact the two-year foreclosure moratorium law. We can’t wait another day.”

MECAWI organizer and WWP leader Jerry Goldberg spoke at the Labor and Community Conference held at United Auto Workers Region 1A on April 26. Sponsored by the Labor Studies Center of the University of Michigan, the conference linked community issues such as health care and the environment to the labor struggle. Goldberg spoke on the foreclosure crisis and motivated the audience to support the two-year mortgage foreclosure moratorium introduced by State Sen. Hansen Clarke. Participants “signed up to support the bill and responded enthusiastically to the developing struggle.”

Abayomi Azikiwe and State Senator Hansen Clarke co-chaired a Town Hall Meeting on June 14, 2008 at UAW Local 7 in Detroit. The event, a statewide organizers’ conference, demanded the passage of Hansens’ SB 1306, imposing a two-year moratorium on foreclosures in Michigan.

Workers World Party leaders Jerry Goldberg and Abayomi Azikiwe, with Hansen Clarke, June 14, 2008

Later that year, 72 year-old Rubie Curl-Pinkins was threatened with eviction from her home behind the James Cole Funeral Home on West Grand Boulevard. Hundreds of neighbors, relatives, church members and activists from the Moratorium Now! Coalition, Call ‘em Out, ACORN and State Senator Hansen Clarke and his staff rallied against Countrywide Home Loans/Bank of America, which planned to evict her family July 25, 2008.

The rally went on from 4 PM until almost midnight and was given extensive coverage by Detroit’s Channel Seven, which also interviewed Clarke about his pending bill for a two-year moratorium on foreclosures, S.B. 1306.

Unlike many other Detroiters facing foreclosure, Ms. Pinkins had the money to pay what she owed on the home, obtained through a reverse mortgage. Her attorneys, WWP affiliate Vanessa Fluker and WWP member Jerry Goldberg together with Bruce Feaster of Clarke’s office said Countrywide earlier lured her into a predatory adjustable-rate second mortgage at a 10 percent interest rate.

Workers World Party leader Abayomi Azikiwe, Sen. Hansen Clarke, Rubie Curl-Pinkins, WWP member Alan Pollock, Debbie Williams, unidentified man and WWP member Sandra Hines on the porch of the Curl-Pinkins home in Detroit, Aug. 22, 2008

Hansen Clarke’s ties to the Workers World Party went beyond the anti-foreclosure campaign.

In 2009, Hansen Clarke was listed as an endorser of the Committee to Defend Diane Bukowski and Freedom of the Press.

Detroit radical journalist Diane Bukowski, was convicted May 1 2009, on two felony charges stemming from her involvement as a reporter on the scene of a deadly police chase in Detroit on November 4, 2008. Michigan radicals from several Marxist organizations, including Democratic Socialists of America,Communist Party USASolidarity and especially the Workers World Party formed the committee to defend their comrade.

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, Workers World Party leader David Sole, and Diane Bukowski

Other listed Committee endorsers included Hansen Clarke’s former boss John Conyers, Communist Party USA supporter John Woodford, Democratic Socialists of America members Phil Schloop and Al Benchich, Solidarity member Peter Solenberger and Workers World Party members David SoleSandra HinesCheryl LaBashBryan Pfeifer and WWP affiliated Detroit City Council member JoAnn Watson.

Clarke is also affiliated with Detroit’s Maurice & Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice – named after the late pro-communist labor lawyer Maurice Sugar and affiliated with the Communist Party initiated National Lawyers Guild.

On November 18, 2010, the Maurice & Jane Sugar Law Center presented “The Maurice Sugar Voice for Justice Award” to former Obama “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones, “a Human Rights Activist and Green-Jobs Advocate,” at the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, 660 Woodward Ave.

Members of the Honorary Host Committee included Hansen Clarke; David Elsila, Retired Editor, UAW Solidarity Magazine and a DSA member; Bob King, President, UAW International Vice President and a DSA supporter; Claudia Morcom, Retired Wayne County Circuit Court Judge and a DSA and Communist Party affiliate; Hasan Newash, Palestine Office of Michigan and a Communist Party affiliate; Saundra Williams, President, Metro Detroit AFL-CIO and a DSA affiliate and the Hon. JoAnn Watson, Detroit City Council and a long time Workers World Party affiliate.

Trevor Loudon blogs at TrevorLoudon.com, edits the KeyWiki website (an online encyclopedia of the US left) and is the author of a newly released book on the US President’s communist and Marxist ties Barack Obama and the Enemies Within.

Order Trevor Loudon's new book: 'Barack Obama and the Enemies Within'

 

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Club of Rome Still Pushing “Global Warning” Scam

New Zeal

While the world seems to be cooling, the appallingly dishonest Club of Rome is still shamelessly pushing “Global Warming” lies.

From Moscow propaganda channel Russia Today:

Rising carbon dioxide levels will most likely cause the global average temperature to rise two degrees by 2052, the Club of Rome think tank has said in a report.

Failure to come up with a coordinated solution to address the issue of global warming will lead to a dangerous warming of the Earth’s climate, the report published by Norwegian academic Jorgen Randers says. The paper, titled “2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years” even raises the possibility that humankind might not survive if it continues on its path of over-consumption and short-termism.

With the world population predicted to reach a peak level of 8.1 billion by 2042, global consumption and demand will only be growing, causing even more greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation.

Most of the population surge is set to take place in developing nations. In fact, Randers predicts that the economies of developing countries such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa will continue to grow, while those of the United States and Europe, on the other hand, will likely stagnate.

“This growth will improve living standards for many, but it will come at a cost for the global climate,” Randers noted, as quoted by Reuters.

And here is the real reason behind this propaganda

One of the main conclusions of the report was that governments would be unsuccessful in their attempts to mitigate or prevent global warming.

We need a system of governance that takes a more long-term view,” Randers said “It is unlikely that governments will pass necessary regulation to force the markets to allocate more money into climate friendly solutions, and must not assume that markets will work for the benefit of humankind.”

So what is clearly needed, according to comrade Randers, is some sort of super authority that can tell governments what to do. Some sort of authority to regulate and control world markets.

World government anyone?

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Climate Change, Green Jobs’ and Communism

New Zeal

 

 

The Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group is organizing a Climate Jobs Caravan in England and Scotland in May 2012.

Based on the Million Climate Jobs report, produced with the assistance of Public and Commercial Services Union, the University and College Union, the Communication Workers Union and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, the caravan will highlight how creating climate jobs can help tackle the twin crises of the economy and climate change.

If, even after Van Jones, you still had any doubts about the connection between “Climate Change,” “Green Jobs” and Communism, this video should dispel them.

The number of lies and economic myths spouted by straight faced people in the video below is incredible.

 

 Many environmentalists are “watermelons.” Green on the outside, red in the middle.

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PIVEN USES CLASS LECTURE TO LAY OUT STRATEGY TO ILLEGALLY OCCUPY FORECLOSED HOMES, DEFAULT ON STUDENT DEBT

Frances Fox Piven Offers Advice on Occupying Foreclosed Homes

Via: The Blaze

  •  CUNY Prof. Frances Fox Piven gave a recent talk laying out new, radical plans for the Occupy movement
  • According to her, the movement has to relocate, change tactics 
  • Public sociologists should help students “refuse to pay their debts” and avoid consequences when they default
  • Academia should also assist in the reoccupation of foreclosed homes
  • Occupy should exert “pressure” so that the illegal occupation of homes become legal ownership by occupiers
  • Occupy should even figure out how to get the “utilities running” in illegally occupied buildings

The radical organizers of the Occupy movement are becoming notably desperate in their strategies for disruption. And as the movement continues to try to remain relevant, longtime Occupy cheerleader and radical CUNY professor Frances Fox Piven has offered her advice for some of Occupy’s most radical tactics.  In a Skype interview with UC-Berkeley students recently, Piven seemed to offer a game plan by expanding on illegal, and possibly dangerous, actions the movement has toyed with before. Piven began by admitting to the classroom that Occupy should look beyond camping in city parks. “My vision of the Occupy movement is that– well, I think it should find some new spaces,” she conceded. “I think Occupy has to relocate, occupy some other spaces.  Maybe it’s — it doesn’t have to be in Wall Street – it could be a university building.” Piven proceeded to expand the idea of not paying back debt, an idea that’s been at the forefront of the movement since the beginning: “Here’s something public sociologists could do – I think we need to figure out exactly how students can protect themselves against reprisals if theyrefuse to pay their debts.  How can they protect themselves against having their wages garnished?”

Frances Fox Piven Offers Advice on Occupying Foreclosed Homes

But defaulting on student debt was just the start. Piven also offered advice (by asking strategic questions) on the recent practice of occupying private residences: “How can we defend if thereoccupation of foreclosed homes grows in scale? How can we defend those houses that are occupied?  How can we exert enough pressure so that the occupations become legal ownership?  I think– there are real, big strategy questions.” Piven went into detail on the subject, and the complications associated with squatting on private property”

“In the occupation of homes, we have to figure out how to provide services, how to reconnect utilities often.  Or if what we’re doing is we are defending people who are occupying multi-family apartments in big cities, we have to figure out how to get the services running in those buildings.  And they, if the landlords, the new predatory equity landlords, had not succeeded in forcing them out — but once that stage is reached, the tenants have to figure out alternate ways of providing services to the building — heat and hot water, things like that.”

Watch the comments to the classroom below:

The Blaze’s Erica Ritz contributed to this report.
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Behind the mystery of Barack Obama

On March 29, 2007, CPUSA writer Gerald Horne gave a speech, “Rethinking the History and Future of the Communist Party,” upon the acceptance of the Communist Party USA archives at the Tamiment Library at New York University. He wrote about black CPUSA member Frank Marshall Davis going to Hawaii in 1948 “at the suggestion of his good friend Paul Robeson” and becoming friends with a “Euro-American family” that included a child “who goes by the name of Barack Obama…” Notice the use of the phrase “who goes by the name of Barack Obama.” Why not just “Barack Obama” or “the name of Barack Obama?” Why use the phrase “who goes by the name of?” Was Barack Obama his real name?

Robeson was a secret CPUSA member and supporter of mass murderer Joseph Stalin. Davis was a CPUSA member under survillance by the FBI. Horne said, “In his best-selling memoir ‘Dreams of my Father’, the author [Barack Obama] speaks warmly of an older black poet, he identifies simply as ‘Frank,’ as being a decisive influence in helping him to find his present identity as an African-American, a people who have been the least anticommunist and the most left-leaning of any constituency in this nation — though you would never know it from reading so-called left journals of opinion.” That “Frank” was Frank Marshall Davis.Obama didn’t want people to know who “Frank” really was. We confirmed his identity and released his 560-page FBI file. Gerald Horne went on, “At some point in the future, a teacher will add to her syllabus Barack’s memoir and instruct her students to read it alongside Frank Marshall Davis’ equally affecting memoir, ‘Living the Blues’…” That is significant. Remember this was delivered in 2007, before anybody could reasonably anticipate that Obama would become the Democratic presidential candidate in 2008. What did Gerald Horne know that other people did not? Why was his speech about the history and “future” of the CPUSA? Was he saying something about Obama that only he and other CPUSA insiders knew? Did Horne know something special about Obama’s relationship with Davis? Indeed, had information about Obama been provided by Davis to other CPUSA members? For whatever reason — and perhaps Horne thought he was only taking to other members of the CPUSA — he blew the whistle on Barack Obama. But the future of Obama is in our hands. Horne also knew something that Hillary Clinton — Obama’s opponent in the 2008 Democratic primaries — did not. That is that the blacks –  “the least anticommunist and the most left-leaning of any constituency in this nation” — would back Obama and help carry him to victory. Of course, it took a carefully planned financial collapse in September 2008 to help this along.

Why did Horne think Obama would go down in history? It is because, as he implied, the CPUSA had been working in the black community for decades, laying the groundwork for Obama’s candidacy. The CPUSA did this by targeting black intellectuals, entertainers, and politicians, and using a journal known as Freedomways to manipulate and influence them. Freedomways was CPUSA-controlled and Soviet-funded. We have just released a major new report that explains all of this. It begins: “Newly declassified documents from Operation SOLO, an FBI program to infiltrate the Communist Party of the United States, reveal that a journal called Freedomways, which was influential in the black community for decades, was subsidized by the Soviet and Chinese Communist Parties.” Read the entire report at www.usasurvival.org It is titled Soviets Funded Black “Freedom” Journal.Here are some of our findings: During the 25 years it served as a propaganda organ for the CPUSA and Soviet front organizations such as the World Peace Council, Freedomways published articles by such figures as:

  • Derrick Bell, one of Barack Obama’s academic mentors and a Harvard professor;
  • Martin Luther King, Jr., the slain civil rights leader who turned against the Vietnam War and has been honored with a national memorial in Washington, D.C.;
  • John Lewis, a Democratic member of Congress from Georgia and critic of the conservative Tea Party movement; and
  • Jesse Jackson, a former aide to King and Democratic candidate for president who has recently been stirring up racial resentment over the killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin.

Freedomways grew out of a Soviet campaign, launched after the Russian revolution, to exploit the “Negro question” in the U.S. and manipulate blacks and members of other minority groups for Communist purposes. The goal was a “Soviet America.” We have a lot more to report, based on the revelations in these FBI documents, and other information we have developed. We are on the trail of Obama. The truth is coming out.  We  are already coming inder attack by the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center for daring to speak the truth — and raising the tough questions — about Obama and his mentor, Frank Marshall Davis. We will not rest. Will you support us with a contribution? Send me your thoughts at Kincaid@comcast.net For America’s Survival,  Cliff Kincaid, President

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Sean Hannity Interview Geert Wilders About Radical Islam (FOX NEWS)

 

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New Obama Campaign Slogan “Forward” Has Deep Ties To Marxism And Socialism…

Coincidence? I think not.

(The Washington Times) — The Obama campaign apparently didn’t look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan, “Forward” — a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism.

Many Communist and radical publications and entities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries had the name “Forward!” or its foreign cognates. Wikipedia has an entire section called “Forward (generic name of socialist publications).”

“The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other left-wing newspapers and publications,” the online encyclopedia explains.

The slogan “Forward!” reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism.

The Obama campaign released its new campaign slogan Monday in a 7-minute video. The title card has simply the word “Forward” with the “O” having the familiar Obama logo from 2008. It will be played at rallies this weekend that mark the Obama re-election campaign’s official beginning.

There have been at least two radical-left publications named “Vorwaerts” (the German word for “Forward”). One was the daily newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany whose writers included Friedrich Engels and Leon Trotsky. It still publishes as the organ of Germany’s SDP, though that party has changed considerably since World War II. Another was the 1844 biweekly reader of the Communist League. Karl Marx, Engels and Mikhail Bakunin are among the names associated with that publication.

East Germany named its Army soccer club ASK Vorwaerts Berlin (later FC Vorwaerts Frankfort).

Vladimir Lenin founded the publication “Vpered” (the Russian word for “forward”) in 1905. Soviet propaganda film-maker Dziga Vertov made a documentary whose title is sometimes translated as “Forward, Soviet” (though also and more literally as “Stride, Soviet”).

Conservative critics of the Obama administration have noted numerous ties to radicalism and socialists throughout Mr. Obama’s history, from his first political campaign being launched from the living room of two former Weather Underground members, to appointing as green jobs czar Van Jones, a self-described communist.

Keep reading…

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REPORT: RUSSIAN TROOPS TO ‘SEIZE’ CIA FACILITY IN ELABORATE WAR GAME… ON U.S. SOIL

Report: U.S. and Russian Military to Engage in Anti Terrorism Exercise on U.S. Soil

(Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation)

Via: The Blaze

According to reports, the U.S. and Russian military will be engaging in an anti-terrorism exercise that will involve Russian paratroopers using U.S. weapons to “take and hold” the main facilities of the CIA and Denver International Airport in Colorado and the National Security Agency in Utah.

(Related: Learn about the hypothetical ‘war games’ the U.S. and China have been playing)

The European Union Times has more on the report announcing this exercise from the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation:

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Alexander Kucherenko publically announced this 24-21 May “anti-terror drill” this Friday past noting that this will be the first time Russian airborne forces have held exercises with the US airborne forces on US territory. Colonel Kucherenko stated, “According to the exercise scenario, soldiers of the two countries will hold a tactical airborne operation, including the reconnaissance of imaginary terrorists’ camp and a raid. After the operation, a helicopter will evacuate the soldiers.” He further added that Russian airborne troops would be training with US special service weapons in these drills in Fort Carson, Colorado.

Puzzling to Russian military analysts about this exercise, this report says, are that according to the American plans, Russian airborne troops (using US weapons that they had previously trained with at Fort Carson) will fly to and then parachute from their planes having the objectives of seizing the CIA’s main computer facility in Denver, the NSA’s main computer facility in Bluffdale, Utah, and taking control of main runways and terminals of the Denver International Airport.

The purpose of seizing the Denver International Airport, this report continues, is for the evacuation of the key personal and equipment previously “freed” from the CIA’s Denver base, and the NSA’s base in Utah, who were, supposedly, under “imminent threat” from an unspecified enemy, according, that is, to the American scenario for this war game.

[...]

Also interesting to note, this report says, is that this entire exercise will be overseen by the “drone army” owned and operated by the University of Colorado who have over the past few years has applied for and obtained over 100 Certificate of Authorization’s (COA) from the US government to fly their pilotless surveillance aircraft for reasons still as yet unknown.

(Related: Where are the 63 drone sites approved by the FAA in the U.S.?)

Business Insider notes this is the first time the Russian military will have been invited onto U.S. soil for a military drill.

Report: U.S. and Russian Military to Engage in Anti Terrorism Exercise on U.S. SoilRussian military engaging in an anti-terrorism drill. (Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation)

Worth noting is Russia earlier this week launched military exercises in collaboration with the Chinese navy. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the six days of drills, which began Sunday, feature simulated anti-aircraft, anti-submarine and search-and-rescue operations, including electronic countermeasures and other sensitive technologies.

Retired major general Yin Zhuo said it shows a high degree of trust between the sides.

“It’s an excellent exchange for China to be able to drill jointly in such sensitive areas,” Yin told CCTV.

China’s Defense Ministry said China was sending two submarines and 16 ships to take part, including destroyers, escort vessels and hospital ships. The deputy chiefs of the countries’ navies oversaw the start of drills in the northeastern Chinese port of Qingdao, the home of China’s northern fleet.

The U.S. and the Philippines are also engaging in war games, a drill which Reuters reports China saying last week would raise potential confrontation.

The Blaze has reached out to the CIA and the University of Colorado to confirm the reports and gain more insight into the potential exercise. We will update this story with any response we receive.

Update: A spokesperson with the University of Colorado-Denver has responded to The Blaze saying they have not heard of such an exercise where drone technology operated by the university would be used. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Media buzz as US confirms Russian troops to train on American soil

(AFP Photo / Mikhail Mordasov)

(AFP Photo / Mikhail Mordasov)

Via: RT

The US has confirmed that Russian troops will carry out joint anti-terror drills on American soil in May. Reports of the unprecedented initiative had triggered hysteria in American public debate, with claims of the US fraternizing with “the enemy.”

Commander Wendy L. Snyder, US Defense Press Officer for policy told The New American in an e-mail the Russian soldiers will be invited by the US government.

This is part of a “formal bilateral exchange program between the US and Russia that seeks to develop transparency and promote defense reform,” she wrote.

Around twenty airborne Russian troops with arrive in Fort Carson, Colorado to take part in the training program targeting “terrorists”. It will be the first time Russian soldiers have conducted military training on American territory.

However, the landmark news of the Russian troops’ arrival was not greeted with enthusiasm by everyone. Fear-mongering reports in US media called the exercise “a front” for the Russians to turn US weapons against the Americans and “take and hold Denver airport.”

Citing an erroneous report that it said came from the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, US website theblaze.com claimed just that.

“Russian airborne troops (using US weapons that they had previously trained with at Fort Carson) will fly to and then parachute from their planes having the objectives of seizing the CIA’s main computer facility in Denver, the NSA’s main computer facility in Bluffdale, Utah, and taking control of main runways and terminals of the Denver International Airport,” the publication wrote.

The report goes on to say the exercise is for the “evacuation of the key personnel and equipment previously ‘freed’ from the CIA’s Denver base.”
There is currently no information either in English or in Russian that describes such a drill on the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation website.

It is unclear where these reports originated, as RT verified with Russian Airborne Forces spokesperson Col. Aleksandr Kucherenko that he had said nothing pertaining to the capture of Denver airport.

RT reported on the story on Wednesday, citing Kucherenko who announced that “Airborne troops from Russia and the United States will hold joint anti-terror drills in the US state of Colorado between May 24 and 31.”

Besides the military drills, the Russian soldiers are expected to get a taste of local life at a baseball game in Colorado Springs.

Foreign troops operating and training in the United States have been a continuous bone of contention in American public debate.

Paul Watson, writing for prisonplanet.com says that their presence touches upon latent fears of “global UN peacekeeping troops being used to quell unrest inside America.”

Drills involving outside troops also raise worries that the US would have to “rely on foreign mercenaries to restore order, confiscate weapons or even incarcerate citizens during a national emergency, because of the likelihood that Americans would refuse to carry out such orders against other Americans,” Watson writes.

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China, Russia Team Up at Sea

Russian and Chinese flags near Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, China, in 2005. Photo: Flickr/Camphor

Via: Wired

Don’t freak out. But the Russian and Chinese militaries just joined forces — at least for a week, for a major exercise at sea. At least two dozen warships from both nations spent the last week conducting anti-piracy and “joint escort” operations, search and rescue and “firing hundreds of shells at surface, underwater and air targets,” according to local press reports.

The cooperation between Russia and China’s sailors could be a foreboding sign for the U.S. Navy, which is turning its sights to the Pacific. Or it could be a relatively isolated event — a very temporary alliance between two second-tier powers that still have all sorts of reasons to mistrust one another. And that’s if the ships are even capable of holding up over the stress of prolonged exposure at sea.

The exercise, variously named Naval Interaction or Maritime Cooperation 2012, took place in the Yellow Sea near the eastern Chinese coastal city of Qindao. On the Chinese side: two submarines and 16 surface warships, among them destroyers like the DDG-112 Harbin and five frigates like theChzhoushan and Suyzhow, among auxiliary and support vessels. On the Russian side: the Pacific Fleet flagship cruiser Varyag (not to be confused with a defenseless ex-Russian aircraft carrier that was sold to China and renamed the Shi Lang) along with destroyers Admiral VinogradovMarshal Shaposhnikovand the Admiral Tributs.

That’s a considerable amount of firepower. But it’s peanuts compared to the 2005 “Peace Mission” exercise — the first time Russia and China ever held a joint military exercise at sea. That one included five times as many ships, plus scary force-projecting amphibious assault operations. This exercise involves more anti-submarine operations, which are notable on their own, particularly for the U.S. Navy. But it’s difficult to compare the two.

 

“To date China has not used its navy the way we think of it,” Jim Holmes, an associate professor of strategy at the Navy War College, tells Danger Room. “In a sense the U.S. Navy is at sea, and at war, all the time. The only real difference between wartime and peacetime conditions is whether live or exercise rounds come out of the barrel when we fire our weapons during exercises.”

China is different. Sure, they’ve built a whole slew of new “ship-killer” missile boats and diesel-powered submarines.  But there’s a big difference between building a Navy — and using it. “If China wants to be a serious naval power,” Holmes adds, “it has to take ships to sea, both to test out its shiny new hardware and to let PLA Navy mariners hone their skills and build up some esprit de corps.”

What’s undeniable are the short-term and provocative political implications. The exercises also take place with heightened anxiety over a North Korea rocket test — which dunked into the Yellow Sea earlier this month — and a possible impending nuclear test. Joint U.S. and South Korean exercises, and the U.S. sending the George Washington into that same Yellow Sea, raised hackles in Beijing. Now these joint operations might be tit-for-tat.

“This exercise is a political message,” e-mails Abe Denmark, with the National Bureau of Asian Research. “China in recent years has expressed disapproval of [U.S.-South Korean] joint exercises in the Yellow Sea, especially those that involve an aircraft carrier. Chinese officials object to the proximity of American air and naval power to their economic and political centers, and want to make the case (especially to Seoul) that these exercises are uncomfortable when they’re just off your shores.”

Of course, these are shores that the U.S. Navy wants to spend more time around. The President and the Pentagon have declared that American forces are pivoting to the Pacific, in part to counter a rising China. That job could get a lot tougher, if Beijing and Moscow start to collaborate more often.

For the moment, though, that doesn’t seem to be happening. “In political terms, I don’t see this exercise as a harbinger of things to come in the Western Pacific,” says Holmes. “It’s a lot easier to list things keeping Beijing and Moscow apart than it is to list things tending to unite them in some sort of seagoing entente or alliance.”

– with Robert Beckhusen

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