Russia gives US spies a headache, page 1

www.russiatoday.com...

US intelligence has put Russia on the list of states able to challenge American interests due its military force, espionage, cyber operations and other capabilities.

The document presented on Tuesday by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair puts Russia and China in the same category as what Washington used to call “Axis of Evil” countries – Iran and North Korea.

It says that, although Russia is a partner in securing fissile material and combating nuclear terrorism, it “may continue to seek avenues for reasserting power in ways that complicate US interests.”

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Among threats, which the intelligence community is to repel, are: violent extremists; international crime lords; competition for resources; and pandemic diseases.

The document lists the priorities for 16 US intelligence agencies over the next four years. Those include combating terrorists and WMD proliferation, integrating intelligence efforts and enhancing cyber security.

Interestingly, unlike the previous national intelligence strategy issued in 2005, the new paper doesn’t single out promoting democracy as a goal.

Political analyst Aleksandr Pikaev says this was a mistake by the Obama administration and will complicate Russian-US cooperation.

“It’s difficult to understand why the Bush Administration, which was universally accused of unilateralism, issued a much more balanced and politically correct intelligence report than this first report of the Obama administration,” he noted.

He went on to say that the “Obama administration claims its desire is to go into multilateralism and pragmatism.”

According to Pikaev, the decision to put Russia and China into same category with North Korea and Iran is not very pragmatic. The US, said Pikaev, needs “cooperation from China in order to stabilize the economy”, and “support from Russia to stabilize Afghanistan or to have non-proliferation and disarmament.”

“This is difficult to understand. I believe this is a mistake of the Obama administration,” he added.

Here's the report: www.dni.gov...

Obama's foreign policies have been a complete flop so far. The US intelligence agencies don't even agree with his policies of engaging with extremists, or even the Russian's. But the Chinese basically own the US, and are their biggest bankers. The Chinese investments are depreciating, and I'm sure alone this is enough to annoy China.

Maybe the Chinese communist party are extreme in a way, but I'm not sure how labelling them so will help. In time, when the younger generations have more of a say, things will change their, Russia maybe being similar. But I doubt they'll adopt a democratic capitalist approach because of its failures in the west, but maybe something similar though that's more effective that also includes state control remaining within the system.

India also see China as a threat: India's Big China Worry

"Publicly, the Indian government has denied reports of rising Chinese assertiveness against India. But NDTV has learnt that the government's highest policy making group on China is meeting on Thursday to take stock of the situation.

The tension has been building since the 6th of August, when, for the first time in several years, two Chinese Sukhoi planes intruded into Indian air space in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The timing was significant - just a day before India-China talks on the boundary issue were being held in New Delhi.

In mid-August, Chinese soldiers crossed 40 kilometres inside Indian territory, in eastern Arunachal Pradesh.

And on the 7th of this month, Chinese soldiers on horseback crossed into Uttarakhand, 3 kilometres inside Indian territory.

Alarmed by increasing border violations and aggressive signal, National Security Advisor, MK Narayanan has convened a meeting of the China Study Group on Thursday. Narayanan will meet the Cabinet Secretary and secretaries of the defence, home and external affairs ministries. The chiefs of the three armed forces and the Intelligence Bureau will also help draft India's response."

Using Russian planes as well,

I wonder if one day China will get mad as hell and just try and take over the world completely.

We all know of the usual Iran, Syrian, North Korea, Venezuela, Israel, Lebanon (Hezbollah), Georgia, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan threats that are all building up in the media at least, whether they're legitimate threats or not..... but this India-China threat of war less publicised. I remember some analyst last year from the region reporting that by 2013 both India and China will be at war.

[edit on 16-9-2009 by john124]