North Korea Says “Completed State Nuclear Program”; Warns “The Whole US Is In Range”

 

North Korea claims its “new ICBM can put whole U.S. mainland within range,” says it has “realized great historic cause of completing state nuclear force”

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Following the successful test-firing of its longest range ICBM yet today, Yonhap News reports, citing North Korean media, that North Korea will make an important announcement at noon Seoul time (10:30pm ET).

Concern over Matttis plan to appoint Anne Patterson to high Pentagon post

US Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis’ plan to appoint former US ambassador to Cairo Anne Patterson as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, the third top Pentagon position, is causing disquiet in American Jewish circles and Jerusalem.

‘Missiles will fall on their HEADS’ Iran threatens Donald Trump in ‘showcase of POWER’

IRAN has performed a series of missile and radar tests in a bid to “showcase its power” to Donald Trump.

In a bullish retaliation to Trump’s decision to impose sanctions on the country yesterday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the aim of the drill in the Semnan province was to “showcase the power of Iran’s revolution and to dismiss the sanctions”.

Iranian state media reported the drill would test tech military equipment including homemade missile systems, radars, command and control centres and cyber warfare systems.

Gertz: U.S. Must Go on the ‘Offensive’ During the Information Age

 

Washington Free Beacon senior editor Bill Gertz discussed his new book, iWar: War and Peace in the Information Age, on Friday with Rush Limbaugh on his radio show.

“As somebody who knows about cyber wars and cyber security, how do you, Bill Gertz …? How do you process this stuff? How do you react to it?” Limbaugh asked. “Because you know whether some of this stuff is true, legitimate or not. So how do you deal with it yourself?”

Gertz responded by calling developments in the cyber domain an “amazing phenomenon” and discussed how cyber will dominate the current “information age” society, where people are under assault from all quarters.

Ralph Peters: Iranian Leadership ‘Should Be Very Afraid’ of Mattis

 

Retired. Lt. Col. Ralph Peters appeared Monday on the Fox Business Network to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of Marine Gen. James Mattis (ret.) for secretary of defense and how he would respond to Iran threatening action against the United States if it extends sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Host Connell McShane asked Peters what he thought of the Iranians threatening the United States government with “strong action.”

China Flight-Tests 10 DF-21 Missiles

DF-21 salvo launch

Show of force comes amid transition to Trump

China’s military conducted a salvo of 10 missile flight tests late last month in a show of force during the transition to the Donald Trump administration.

Chinese state media reported Thursday that the simultaneous flight tests of 10 DF-21 intermediate-range ballistic missiles were carried out in China.

Obama pushes military frustration to highest level in decades

President’s overly cautious, centralized style irking Pentagon

Key lawmakers from both parties say frustration with the White House among the top military officers is at its highest level in decades, the product of President Obama’s cautious approach to the wars in Syria and Iraq and an indecisive inner circle of White House advisers who, critics say, have iced the Pentagon out of the policymaking process.

“There’s a level of dissatisfaction among the uniformed military that I’ve never seen in my time here,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain in an interview. “For some of us who are a little older, let’s go back and read the Pentagon Papers — what the administration is doing is the kind of incrementalism that defined much of the Vietnam conflict.”