Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

Whale in mystery harness harasses Norwegian boats – video (at source)

 

Fisherman raised alarm after white whale sporting unusual strapping began harassing their boats

Marine experts in Norway believe they have stumbled upon a white whale that was trained by the Russian navy as part of a programme to use underwater mammals as a special ops force.

Fishermen in waters near the small Norwegian fishing village of Inga reported last week that a white beluga whale wearing a strange harness had begun to harass their fishing boats.

Russia Cyberattacks Norway

Exterior of the satellite antenna in Longyearbyen, Norway (iStock.com/Dmitry_Chulov)

 

Increasing provocations from Moscow will have a worrying effect on the nations of Europe.

Russia has carried out repeated acts of “extensive electronic jamming” of satellite signals in Norway, the head of Norway’s foreign intelligence unit said during a national risk assessment report on February 11.

“This is not only a new challenge for Norwegian and Allied training operations,” Morten Haga Lunde said in the report. “Jamming is also a threat to, among others, civilian air traffic and police and health operations in peacetime.”

Even Closer to the Conflicts

BERLIN (Own report) – The German government has entered the new year with the announcement of new global policy ventures and a plea not to shy away from “difficult decisions” in international conflicts. Berlin must assume “responsibility” and seek “global solutions,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, sees Germany having been moved “even closer to the crises and conflicts” of the present day, by its two-year membership on the UN Security Council, which began January 1. Berlin seeks to use its seat on that body to impose a formulation of EU foreign policy and induce Paris to submit to joint activities described as “European.” In the meantime, there are appeals from within the Protestant Church for an expansion of Bundeswehr missions. Beginning January 1, the Bundeswehr, has assumed command, of NATO’s “Spearhead” intervention forces, which, within 72 hours, can be deployed anywhere on mission. Should NATO launch a mission this year, the Bundeswehr would be at the cutting edge.

Coalition of Those Willing to Go to War (II)

 

PARIS/BERLIN (Own report) – The European Intervention Initiative (Initiative européenne d’intervention, IEI) initiated by Paris and supported by Berlin, will begin work this week. Representatives of the ten participating states took this decision in the French capital, yesterday. France’s President Emmanuel Macron promoted the IEI, aimed at rapid deployment capability, in search of gaining support for his country’s over-stretched armed forces. So far, Berlin has been applying the brakes. The German government is focused on systematically merging European troops, for example, within the framework of the EU’s “PESCO” projects and integrating European arms industries with the help of subsidies from the EU Defense Fund. In the future EU budget, the EU Defense Fund is to be increased thirty-fold, to more than €17 billion. Despite all the dissention, Berlin (with PESCO) and Paris (with IEI) are both seeking to establish a European armed forces, which can be deployed on a global scale, independent of the USA.

NATO Set to Test Its Ability to Respond to Article V

(Photo Credit: Master Sgt. Chad McMeen/U.S. Marine Corps)

 

The Trident Juncture 2018 exercises will begin next week in Iceland, and get underway fully in Norway on Oct. 25.

Beginning later this month, NATO will be testing both its ability to respond to an Article V invasion on a member country—in this case Norway—as well as its new rapid deployment policy called the Four Thirties.

NATO exercise to be biggest since Cold War

 

NATO’s Trident Juncture 18 exercise will draw in 45,000 troops, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday, unveiling what officials confirmed would be the alliance’s biggest manoeuvres since the Cold War.

Britain sending commandos to Arctic to stop Russian land grab

British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson

 

Britain plans to send 800 troops to the Arctic in 2019 in an effort to stop Russia’s land grab in the region, the UK’s defense secretary said.

Kerry Meeting With Iran to Salvage Nuke Deal With Rogue Diplomacy

John Kerry and Javad Zarif / Getty Images

 

Shadow diplomacy aids Iran’s regional pursuits

Former Secretary of State John Kerry disclosed that he has been conducting rogue diplomacy with top Iranian officials to salvage the landmark nuclear deal and push the Islamic Republic to negotiate its contested missile program, according to recent remarks.

Kerry, in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt to promote his new book, said that he has met with Iranian Former Minister Javad Zarif—the former secretary’s onetime negotiating partner—three or four times in recent months behind the Trump administration’s back.

Russia is looking for nuclear missile that went missing, US sources claim

 

Russia is preparing to carry out an extensive search for a nuclear-powered missile that went missing during a test several months ago, according to American intelligence sources. The missing missile appears to be part of a new Russian-made weapon system that President Vladimir Putin boasted about earlier this year. During his annual state-of-the-union speech in Moscow on March 1, Putin said that Russia had developed a new type of nuclear-powered missile with a virtually unlimited range. This new type of weapon, said the Russian president, could fly indefinitely and thus deliver nuclear warheads to any target around the world. Additionally, the new system was designed in such a way that it could evade every known missile defense system and was thus “invulnerable to interception”, he claimed.

Coalition of Those Willing to Go to War

PARIS/BERLIN (Own report) – Germany is participating in a new European military formation that was launched yesterday. Originally a French proposal, the European Intervention Initiative (EII) will be open to EU and Non-EU member countries to join. Expanding the existing EU military cooperation (“PESCO”) with a new operational component, the EII should facilitate rapid decisions on joint military interventions. A first meeting of military commanders from the hitherto nine participant states is set for September. The EII includes Great Britain, which plans to continue its military cooperation with the continent, even after Brexit, as well as Denmark. Since the coordination of military interventions is now officially set outside of the EU framework, Denmark can sidestep the opt-out from EU military policy, it had once granted its population. Referred to by experts as a European “coalition of the willing,” it goes hand in hand with the EU Commission’s militarization plans worth billions and the high-cost German-French arms projects.

Russia argues the Marine Corps’ beefed-up presence in Norway is an attack

A Marine with Marine Rotational Force-Europe 18.1 sends live rounds down range while conducting a squad attack during winter warfare training at Haltdalen Training Center, Norway, April 18, 2018. (Gunnery Sgt. Clinton Firstbrook/Marine Corps)

 

Last week, the Russian Embassy in Norway warned of consequences and on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed the Corps’ presence in the Arctic country may, in fact, be an attack.

Norway recently agreed to boost the number of Marines in the country from 330 to 700 and opened a second training area closer to the Russian border in the Troms region.

A Central Banker’s Plan for Your Money

[Shutterstock]

 

Jim Rickards calls them “silent dog whistles.”

Through these signals, in the frequencies beyond normal human hearing… elites communicate with each other.

Their communications are public.

But their language can be so thick, so technical — so innocuous — not one in a hundred can crack it open.

Only the intended audience can penetrate the deeper message within… and that audience is their fellow elites.

The New German Political Hawk?

 

The German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen was being touted as a possible successor to Merkel. She has spoken at the Munich Security Conference stating that there must be “the common will to actually use the military weight when circumstances require it.” Leyen has come out saying that Germany should no longer hide behind its history, but must accept that soldiers must fight for the security of the nation and the freedom of the people. Leyen’s French colleague, Florence Parly, has also called for closer European military cooperation.

Cold War: U.S., Russia, China in Polar Race

 

Experts Believe As Much As $35 Trillion In Untapped Oil And Natural Gas Lurks In The Arctic Circle.

In what is being described as the “New Cold War,” the U.S., Russia, and China are all angling for the greatest share of influence and control in a part of the world few can even access.

NATO’s Northern Expansion (II)

 

BERLIN/BRUSSELS/STOCKHOLM(Own report) – Officially neutral Sweden can be considered a “de facto member” of NATO, a Swedish foreign policy expert confirmed in a new German foreign policy periodical. Last fall’s large maneuver in Sweden sent a clear “message” that the country’s neutrality has “de facto been suspended,” completely changing the entire military “map” of the Baltic region “to NATO’s advantage.” In fact, back already in the 1990s, Sweden had begun to build links to the western war alliance; crucial decisions had been taken already before the Ukraine conflict’s escalation and Crimea’s integration into the Russian Federation. The Bundeswehr is heavily involved in integrating the Swedish armed forces into NATO’s structures, focusing on naval cooperation. This cooperation is aiming at including the Swedish military into NATO’s naval operations. The cooperation of the naval forces is not limited to NATO’s framework, but may also be within that of the EU.