Monthly Archives: March 2017

A Scuffle and a Professor’s Injury Make Middlebury a Free-Speech Flashpoint – Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription)

Posted: March 6, 2017 at 2:57 pm

Lisa Rathke, AP Images

Protesters turned their backs and shouted as Charles Murray, the controversial political scientist best known for The Bell Curve, tried to speak at Middlebury College on Thursday. The confrontation became violent later as protesters swarmed Mr. Murray and the professor who moderated the event as they tried to leave.

In the wake of protests that disrupted a controversial speakers appearance and left a professor injured, Middlebury College has become the latest flashpoint in a national battle over campus speech and safety.

In a statement to the campus on Friday, Laurie L. Patton, the colleges president, described a violent incident with a lot of pushing and shoving as protesters swarmed Charles Murray, the speaker, and Allison Stanger, a professor who served as moderator, after the event. Ms. Patton apologized to Mr. Murray, Ms. Stanger, who was injured during the encounter, and everyone who came in good faith to participate in a serious discussion.

We believe that many of these protesters were outside agitators, but there are indications that Middlebury College students were involved as well.

Even before it happened, Mr. Murrays appearance had put those values on trial. Now the incident has stoked new debate about whether the protesters were suppressing or exercising free speech, and about who was responsible for escalating the disruption into a fracas that sent Ms. Stanger to the hospital for treatment of an injury to her neck.

At the center of the incident was a familiar figure: Mr. Murray, the polarizing political scientist best known for his 1994 book The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. The book, co-written with the psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein,argues that the gap in academic achievement between black and white students can be at least partially explained by genetics. The book has been widely criticized for both its sociological methods and its racial implications.

A conservative student organization invited Mr. Murray to Middlebury; the colleges political-science department then sponsored the invitation.

On Wednesday, a day before the event, the student newspaper published a letter from a group of nearly 500 alumni and students who condemned Mr. Murrays visit, calling it a decision that directly endangers members of the community and stains Middleburys reputation by jeopardizing the institutions claims to intellectual rigor and compassionate inclusivity.

The following day, The New York Times reported, most of the over 400 students at Mr. Murrays speech turned their backs to the speaker and shouted him down. Middlebury officials moved Mr. Murray to a new room, where Ms. Stanger, a professor of international politics and economics, completed an interview streamed on video despite further disruptions.

In an essay published Sunday, Mr. Murray no stranger to campus protests argued that, due to its length and intensity, the Middlebury disruption "could become an inflection point."

"Until last Thursday, all of the ones involving me have been as carefully scripted as kabuki: The college administration meets with the organizers of the protest and ground rules are agreed upon," he wrote. "If this becomes the new normal, the number of colleges willing to let themselves in for an experience like Middleburys will plunge to near zero."

After the event, as protests continued outside, a group including Mr. Murray and Ms. Stanger left the venue. There, according to Ms. Patton, a violent incident occurred, culminating in an attack on the car in which they were leaving campus.

Bill Burger, a college spokesman who was part of the group escorting Mr. Murray, told the Times that masked protesters accosted Ms. Stanger. Someone grabbed Allisons hair and twisted her neck, he told the newspaper.

Ms. Stanger was treated and fitted with a neck brace at a nearby hospital, according to the Addison Independent.

A group of student protesters published a conflicting account of the incident, arguing that Middlebury officials had exacerbated the incident and that Ms. Stangers hair was not intentionally pulled but was inadvertently caught in the chaos that Public Safety incited.

On Twitter, Mr. Murray applauded both Mr. Burger and Ms. Stanger:

We believe that many of these protesters were outside agitators, wrote Ms. Patton in her note to the campus, but there are indications that Middlebury College students were involved as well.

Whatever the mix of students and outsiders, many commentators from across the political spectrum were quick to portray the incident as an example of students intolerance of uncomfortable speech.

In an editorial assailing The Mob at Middlebury, The Wall Street Journal urged Ms. Patton to follow through with discipline to scare these students straight. And Suzanne Nossel, executive director of PEN America, an association of writers and editors, condemned a lawless and criminal attack that marks a new low in this challenged era for campus speech.

Amid the fiery off-campus response, Middlebury students and faculty took stock. Some expressed dismay at the disruption of Mr. Murrays speech and the chaos that ensued.

It is understandable why some students may find Murrays research findings offensive, wrote Matthew Dickinson, a professor of political science at Middlebury. It is less clear, however, why so many believe that the appropriate response was not to simply skip his talk, but instead to prevent others from hearing him and, in so doing, inadvertently give him the platform and national exposure they purportedly opposed.

But the view that student protesters erred in shouting down Mr. Murray is far from unanimous. I am angry that free speech is conflated with civil discourse, wrote Linus Owens, an associate professor of sociology. Mr. Owens argued that Middlebury legitimized Mr. Murray by giving him a stage and deciding that only then we can ask smart and devastating questions in return.

Thats one model, sure, he wrote, but its not the only one.

In a Facebook post, Ms. Stanger described Thursday as "the saddest day of my life." By turning away from the stage during Mr. Murray's speech, the professor wrote, the protesting students had "effectively dehumanized me." Still, she argued against a common criticism of the disruption as an example of ivory-tower excess.

"To people who wish to spin this story as one about what's wrong with elite colleges and universities, you are wrong," she wrote. "Please instead consider this as a metaphor for what's wrong with our country, and on that, Charles Murray and I would agree."

Update (3/5/2017, 8:47 p.m.): This article has been updated to add statements from Mr. Murray and Ms. Stanger.

Brock Read is assistant managing editor for daily news at The Chronicle. He directs a team of editors and reporters who cover policy, research, labor, and academic trends, among other things. Follow him on Twitter @bhread, or drop him a line at brock.read@chronicle.com.

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A Scuffle and a Professor's Injury Make Middlebury a Free-Speech Flashpoint - Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription)

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Violent protesters beat pro-Trump demonstrators at Calif. rally, burn American flags & free speech signs – TheBlaze.com

Posted: at 2:57 pm

A small riot erupted Saturday afternoon in Berkeley, California, after violent protesters confronted pro-Trump demonstrators and allegedly began a confrontation that turned violent.

The confrontation occurred on a day when Americans across the country held peaceful demonstrations in support of President Donald Trump, free speech and America.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the pro-Trump demonstrators participating in the March 4 Trump rally began marching at 2 p.m. PST Saturday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. Just several blocks up the road, they were met by counter-protesters dressed in masks and black clothing who began the confrontation.

From the San Francisco Gate:

By 3 p.m., the self-proclaimed anarchists were dominating the crowd. Dressed all in black and wearing cloth bandannas over their faces, they stopped traffic as they marched from the park through downtown with the smaller mix of Trump supporters and counterprotesters. In the park, people opposed to Trump threw eggs and burned both American flags and the red Make America Great Again Trump campaign hats.

Photos and videos posted to Twitter and other social media showed fistfights, shouting matches, people being beat with sticks and signs, people pulling hair and some counter-protesters pepper-spraying the pro-Trump marchers, including an elderly man.

https://twitter.com/JasonBelich/status/838160510092619776

https://twitter.com/JasonBelich/status/838189629257895936

https://twitter.com/San___Frexit/status/838238465456234496

As a result of the violence, police in riot gear lined the streets and attempted to control the crowd and stop the violence.

Berkeley police said they arrested 10 people: five for battery, four for assault with a deadly weapon and one for resisting arrest. Seven people were evaluated for their injuries at the scene, but no one had to be taken to the hospital.

According to Matthai Chakko, a spokesman for the city of Berkeley, police confiscated items such as a dagger, metal pipes, baseball bats, two-by-four pieces of wood and bricks.

A group of people carrying bricks were detained and the bricks were confiscated, he told the Times.

Some reports also indicate that some of the counter-protesters responsible for the violence came from the militant activist group By Any Means Necessary and the so-called black bloc, two groups that many blame for the violence at UC-Berkeley last month.

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Violent protesters beat pro-Trump demonstrators at Calif. rally, burn American flags & free speech signs - TheBlaze.com

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Leni Robredo’s War on Trolls Is Just War on Free Speech. And It Is Dangerous. – Huffington Post

Posted: at 2:57 pm

In this day and age when being offended has become a perfectly acceptable justification to suppress someones freedom of speech, scarce are the people who advocate for the un-conditionality of the political right. I am one of these people. I strongly believe that freedom of expression can only be absolute. Otherwise, it is pointless. Irrelevant. As in the words of American philosopher Noam Chomsky:

So when Leni Robredothe person who holds the second-highest public office in the Philippineslaunched a campaign against free speech which she conveniently marketed as war on trolls, I was both appalled and fascinated by the sheer irony of it all. The declaration came from the same public official who, just last month, urged the Filipino public to fight for the right to speak dissent.

Luckily for her, even hypocrisy and double standards are protected by our political right to freedom of expression.

During her speech, Robredo quips:

I disagree. Such is an excuse of dictatorial regimes, not democracies. And history is rife with relevant footnotes.

The success of our democracy doesnt depend on safeguarding an arbitrarily defined regime of truth, it will depend on the health of our political discourse. It will depend on our capacity as a nation to dissect issues and opinions, regardless how grievously they offend us.

The success of our democracy will depend on our audacity to accept and use criticism in molding policies of compromise which are necessary to the governance of a society with a multitude of clashing ideals and opinions. All can be achieved through an unrestricted flow of ideas because no person, no political ideology, no religion has the monopoly of the truth.

We live in a country where free speech is enshrined in our Constitution. It is deemed so important to political liberty that even so-called trolls, no matter how obnoxious or offensive, are protected by it. Its the price we have to pay for all its wonders.

It is important to understand that just because someone doesnt agree with our opinion, it makes them a troll. I have seen a lot of cases where someone posts a belief contrary to what the majority espouses, they are flagged as a troll or their page is mass-reported, something the office of Robredo is guilty of.

Such strategy rarely works, nor does ignoring them. Silence is, in itself, a reaction. When a person tries to engage you in a discussion and you pull away, that person wins the argument. They get what they want.

Thats how lies, if theyre indeed lies, become the truth, Leni Robredo. (I believe you mentioned this in your speech.) If you want to keep lies from assuming the appearance of truth, discuss, do not ignore. Engage, do not censor.

Protect speech at all cost

When we censor speech, when we restrict expression, we do not only hurt those who are censored. We also hurt ourselves in the process. Any form of censorship retards the progress of political discourse. They also bestow unjustifiable overconfidence in unchallenged ideas.

Censorship curtails the possibility of radical change, which is why Irish playwright, critic and polemicist George Bernard Shaw thinks that the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships.

All opinions deserve the equal opportunity to be heard.

Opinions that are popular usually do not need protection. It is the unpopular ones, or those which are unpopular with the Establishment, that need to be protected. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte may have had this in mind when he told the Catholic Church, I may not agree with your statement but I will defend your right to say it.

If we silence those who criticize popular opinions, then we also deprive ourselves and society of the possible contribution that could have been made. Christopher Hitchens, an Anglo-American literary and social critic, believed:

There is simply no logical basis for censorship, regardless whether it is imposed by a government office or not. It is fundamentally irrational because it demands two tremendous leaps of faith.

That, first, we must trust that all our ideas are inherently, absolutely, immaculately perfect.

And second, that theres an entity capable of identifying which ideas adhere to this degree of perfection.

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Leni Robredo's War on Trolls Is Just War on Free Speech. And It Is Dangerous. - Huffington Post

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Report flags NATO’s naval shortfalls vis-a-vis Russia – Defense News – DefenseNews.com

Posted: at 2:54 pm

LONDON -- NATO has been urged to rethink its maritime strategy to address the re-emerging contest with Russia for supremacy in the North Atlantic, a paper by one of Europes top military think tanks says. If NATO does not have effective control of the North Atlantic, or at least the ability to deny Russia naval access to this maritime domain, Russia could block or disrupt U.S. reinforcement to Europe," the Royal United Services Institute said in the paper to be published in London on Monday. Titled, "NATO and the North Atlantic: Revitalising Collective Defence," the paper draws on views from leading experts, including Adm. James Stavridis, the Supreme Allied Commander between 2009 and 2013. Until now most of NATOs strategic response to Moscows aggression has been in the air and land sectors, but now senior ex-military officers writing in the survey are saying the alliance has to respond on the maritime front as well.

NATO must put the North Atlantic Ocean back on its agenda," retiredU.S.Gen. Philip M Breedlove, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe until last year, wrote in the survey's foreword.

Britain said mid-2016 it was buying nine of the jets and Norway later announced it too would become an operator of the aircraft with an order for five aircraft.

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EU ministers agree to create joint military command center in NATO footsteps – RT

Posted: at 2:54 pm

The European Union is to create a special military command center for operating foreign missions, the German defense minister announced amid criticism from some bloc members that the initiative is financially unreasonable and merely copies NATO's steps.

EU foreign ministers founded, or put in motion, today a European command center for foreign missions, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, according to AP.

Membership in the program is not obligatory, von der Leyen stressed, adding that EU members not wishing to take part could act as observers.

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For those who are not members of the European Union, like for example Norway or the British, there will be the possibility to join in selectively with certain projects or missions, she said.

The Norwegians have great interest in this, the British have great interest in this, the German minister noted.

Meanwhile, Britain has long criticized the blocs aspirations to launch its own army, saying the EU should not waste money on creating structures that match those set up by NATO. British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, who was also present at the meeting, called on other EU ministers to cooperate more closely with NATO to avoid unnecessary duplication and structures.

Nevertheless, von der Leyen called the move a very important step that was long overdue.

We took a very important step toward a European security and defense union, because we have become very concrete, she said.

Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign affairs chief, shared her opinion, saying that the command center will provide a more efficient approach to the existing military training missions we have.

Reports on the EU establishing a so-called Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC) center aimed at stepping up security and defense cooperation among the bloc's military missions first appeared in media outlets on Friday, March 3.

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The MPCC is expected to manage the blocs non-executive military missions, including the three missions currently in progress in Mali, Somalia, and the Central African Republic.

The idea of tightening cooperation among EU states on defense matters had long been off the table inside the bloc. However, the topic has again emerged on the agenda after Crimea joined Russia following a referendum in 2014. The EU described it as an annexation while the growing threat from Islamic militants also created additional pressure.

Britain opposed the idea for years, although after the UK voted to leave the EU in June last year, Germany and France, joined by Spain, were quick to try to revive the plan.

In November, von der Leyen urged the EU to modernize its military defense and security to match NATO, which has been beefing up its security forces most of them located along Russias borders.

We have seen an enormous modernization drive by NATO over the past three years because of the Kremlins behavior," von der Leyen said at a press conference, Reuters reported.

That was correct and important, but I believe that we must invest at the least same energy into a modernization of the European security and defense union, she said.

In June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia will have to adequately respond to NATOs military activities along its borders.

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EU ministers agree to create joint military command center in NATO footsteps - RT

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Trump, NATO, and the Burden of the Past – American Thinker

Posted: at 2:54 pm

In his first speech to members of NATO, American Secretary of Defense Mattis said, Americans cannot care more for your childrens future security than you do. This echoes his boss Donald Trumps campaign statement,"Number one it (NATO) was obsolete, because it was designed many, many years ago.Normally, a new president can count on the backing of his own party, but on this issue there is a rare consensus on both sides of the aisle in support of the existing policies.

The core divergence of geopolitical views is this:

TheNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, is a case in point. Established in April 1949, NATO was designed to serve three objectives:

At that moment in time Europe was in ruins and facing a formidable threat from the Red Army, and later from the combined forces of the Warsaw Pact. Givenstrategic and political realities, the United States emerged as the principal guarantor of peace. With the demise of the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact disintegrated as well. So, if you are Vladimir Putin, you would ask the United States about NATO, Against whom are you maintaining this beautiful friendship?

And if you are Donald Trump, you realize that seventyyears later the kids have grown up and the geostrategic reality is fundamentally different. Today, the European Union is a massive economic power, with a population of 500 million and a combined GDP akin to the United States. Russias GDP is comparable to South Korea or Australia. The EUis sufficiently strong to maintain the regional order.

However, despite economic strength and manpower, Western democracies, having downgraded their military capabilities, continue to rely on the United States for maintaining their security.The absurdity is that while Europeans are enjoying a 35-hour work week, generous benefits and extended vacations, American workers have to put in 40 to 50 hours per week to support Europes defense.

And it gets better! With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact, NATO found itself without a mission. Mission accomplished is not good news for a military alliance it needs enemies for self-preservation.

Hence, the concept of an alliance was quietly converted into a doctrine of collective security. The significance is that while alliances identify potential adversaries and serve clearly defined objectives, the doctrine of collective security carries much broader implications. It may oppose any aggressive conduct anywhere in the world that may be interpreted as a threat to the peaceful international order. In this spirit NATO, paraphrasing John Quincy Adams, has gone around the world in search of monsters to destroy -- often pursuing not strategic but moral goals in an attempt to promote Western values.

But the most troublesome aspect of this conversion is that in a violation of the verbal agreement between Secretary of State James Baker and Russian Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, NATO launched a massive expansion to the east, growing from 16 countries before the reunification of Germany to 28 today. This expansion can be seen from Moscow only as a strategy to encircle Russia and turn its neighbors into hostile countries. It provokes Russias paranoia and couldlead to a direct confrontation with the United States reminiscent of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

As George Kennan,American diplomat and author of the concepts of Cold War and containment, prophetically wrote in theNew York Timeson February 5, 1997:

..expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold war era.... Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking.

President Clinton, who was an architect of the expansion, ignored George Kennans warning and subsequently created a destabilizing environment in Europe, which was further exacerbated by the Obama administration. Idealism and affinity have led to the over-extension of American commitments and resulted in financial burdens that, according to Trump, America can no longer afford.

As Lord Salisbury observed,The commonest error in politics is sticking to the carcass of dead policies.

Alexander G. Markovsky is a Soviet migr. He holds degrees in economics and political science from the University of Marxism-Leninism and an MS in structural engineering from Moscow University. He resides in Houston, Texas, with his wife and daughter, where he owns a consulting company specializing in the management of large international projects. Mr. Markovskyhas also written for the The Hill, Israpundit, New York Daily News, RedState, and WorldNetDaily.He can be contacted atalex.g.markovsky@gmail.com

In his first speech to members of NATO, American Secretary of Defense Mattis said, Americans cannot care more for your childrens future security than you do. This echoes his boss Donald Trumps campaign statement,"Number one it (NATO) was obsolete, because it was designed many, many years ago.Normally, a new president can count on the backing of his own party, but on this issue there is a rare consensus on both sides of the aisle in support of the existing policies.

The core divergence of geopolitical views is this:

TheNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, is a case in point. Established in April 1949, NATO was designed to serve three objectives:

At that moment in time Europe was in ruins and facing a formidable threat from the Red Army, and later from the combined forces of the Warsaw Pact. Givenstrategic and political realities, the United States emerged as the principal guarantor of peace. With the demise of the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact disintegrated as well. So, if you are Vladimir Putin, you would ask the United States about NATO, Against whom are you maintaining this beautiful friendship?

And if you are Donald Trump, you realize that seventyyears later the kids have grown up and the geostrategic reality is fundamentally different. Today, the European Union is a massive economic power, with a population of 500 million and a combined GDP akin to the United States. Russias GDP is comparable to South Korea or Australia. The EUis sufficiently strong to maintain the regional order.

However, despite economic strength and manpower, Western democracies, having downgraded their military capabilities, continue to rely on the United States for maintaining their security.The absurdity is that while Europeans are enjoying a 35-hour work week, generous benefits and extended vacations, American workers have to put in 40 to 50 hours per week to support Europes defense.

And it gets better! With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact, NATO found itself without a mission. Mission accomplished is not good news for a military alliance it needs enemies for self-preservation.

Hence, the concept of an alliance was quietly converted into a doctrine of collective security. The significance is that while alliances identify potential adversaries and serve clearly defined objectives, the doctrine of collective security carries much broader implications. It may oppose any aggressive conduct anywhere in the world that may be interpreted as a threat to the peaceful international order. In this spirit NATO, paraphrasing John Quincy Adams, has gone around the world in search of monsters to destroy -- often pursuing not strategic but moral goals in an attempt to promote Western values.

But the most troublesome aspect of this conversion is that in a violation of the verbal agreement between Secretary of State James Baker and Russian Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, NATO launched a massive expansion to the east, growing from 16 countries before the reunification of Germany to 28 today. This expansion can be seen from Moscow only as a strategy to encircle Russia and turn its neighbors into hostile countries. It provokes Russias paranoia and couldlead to a direct confrontation with the United States reminiscent of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

As George Kennan,American diplomat and author of the concepts of Cold War and containment, prophetically wrote in theNew York Timeson February 5, 1997:

..expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold war era.... Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking.

President Clinton, who was an architect of the expansion, ignored George Kennans warning and subsequently created a destabilizing environment in Europe, which was further exacerbated by the Obama administration. Idealism and affinity have led to the over-extension of American commitments and resulted in financial burdens that, according to Trump, America can no longer afford.

As Lord Salisbury observed,The commonest error in politics is sticking to the carcass of dead policies.

Alexander G. Markovsky is a Soviet migr. He holds degrees in economics and political science from the University of Marxism-Leninism and an MS in structural engineering from Moscow University. He resides in Houston, Texas, with his wife and daughter, where he owns a consulting company specializing in the management of large international projects. Mr. Markovskyhas also written for the The Hill, Israpundit, New York Daily News, RedState, and WorldNetDaily.He can be contacted atalex.g.markovsky@gmail.com

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Trump, NATO, and the Burden of the Past - American Thinker

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Aircraft based in San Antonio take part in major NATO operation along Russian border – mySanAntonio.com

Posted: at 2:54 pm

Photo: JERRY LARA, San Antonio Express-News

Aircraft based in San Antonio take part in major NATO operation along Russian border

RIGA, Lativa The 22 soldiers in a chilly, darkened seating area toward the rear of the C-5M Super Galaxy bounced and jerked as its rear wheels hit a rain-slicked runway in this small Baltic country bordering Russia.

Air Force Reserve Capt. Mike Raggio of San Antonio adjusted the rudder to align the 28-wheel landing gear with the center line. Thrust reversers slowed the aircraft to an approach speed, then it rolled to a stop and the soldiers began unloading three UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.

RELATED:The U.S. is putting tanks and troops right in Russia's backyard

The arrival here of the 10th Mountain Division's 2-10 Assault Helicopter Battalion last week was mostly unnoticed in the United States. But it was a major event in Latvia , a member of NATO and a former Soviet republic whose Russian border neighborhood has grown increasingly tense in recent years.

The battalion, ferried from Fort Drum, New York by the giant transport planes based at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, is part of a brigade that has sent 2,200 soldiers to Latvia, Germany and Romania for a nine-month training tour.

That deployment is part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, a multinational mission whose American footprint throughout Europe is 5,800 soldiers so far, including a 400-strong 1st Armored Division aviation regiment from Fort Bliss.

Added to the 70,000 U.S. troops permanently assigned to Europe, Atlantic Resolve is NATO's biggest military buildup along Russia's borders since the Cold War, military observers say.

Its a message to Moscow in the wake of a resurgent Russias annexation of the Crimea in 2014, combat clashes within Ukraine and support for other pro-Russian separatists in nations once part of the Soviet Union.

RELATED:Trump wary of Russian deal; new advisers urge tougher stand

Estonia, a neighbor of Latvia, accused Russians of kidnapping a senior security official in 2014; Russia said it detained him on the Russian side of the border. Russian President Vladimir Putin has positioned nuclear-capable missiles in Kaliningrad, a piece of Russia that borders Poland and Lithuania, and has sent warships armed with cruise missiles to the Baltic Sea. And Russian warplanes have buzzed NATO aircraft this year.

So the arriving Super Galaxies and the Blackhawks they unloaded were a welcome sight to Latvians unnerved by President Trump's criticism of NATO, particularly its member nations that aren't paying their share to support the alliance. In a pre-inauguration interview with the Times of London and Bild, a German newspaper, Trump stunned some observers by saying NATO was obsolete, because it was designed many, many years ago.

Trump also hinted during last years campaign that he might not honor the alliances Article V, which treats an attack on one member nation as an attack on all. But Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary James Mattis, at a recent conference in Europe, tried to reassure NATO of Americas commitment while making it clear its nations had to meet their financial obligations.

Soldiers in the 10th Mountain Division wouldnt address Trumps comments but said their deployment should be a clear signal to Russia and its worried neighbors.

Messaging is very important. And that's our goal, to reassure in the Baltic region our NATO and our partner forces and allies of the commitment, said Capt. Lewis Hudson, 28, of Silver Spring, Maryland, a pilot and commander of an assault helicopter company now based in Latvia.

Weve thought about the message, added the battalions commander, Lt. Col. Joshua Ruisanchez, 40, of Ro Piedras, Puerto Rico. And its simple: Its truly our commitment and resolve to the NATO countries.

Part of the reassurance, he said, comes from the size and power of the training force, by sending an entire combat aviation brigade over to Eastern Europe to demonstrate what NATO commanders call interoperability among member nations armed forces.

You've got the British, the French, the Germans, the Canadians, so we'll be operating with them, with much of the 10th Mountain brigade, joined by the Fort Bliss contingent,based in Germany and working with the partner nations, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary and Poland, Ruisanchez said. We'll be a task force the moment we hit ground.

As his soldiers waited in an adjacent room at Fort Drum to board their Riga-bound flights, Hudson spoke of them as helicopter air assault professionals.

We want to be able to help (the Latvians) be able to work alongside us to the same level of proficiency that our forces are, he said.

Its a relationship and a message that doesnt ring hollow when you show up and you're a capable force and then train them to become their own capable forces, said Sgt. Maj. Ronnie Littler, 42, of Tucson, Arizona.

Different kind of mission

Something else was being demonstrated speed of assembly, a byword of the integration of Army and Air Force operations, exemplified by the battalions airlift, Hudson said.

That's what the Air Force really provides, for the Army to be able to go into (Europe) expeditiously, Hudson said. In less than eight hours we can go from the East Coast to anywhere in Europe and start setting up our forces to support any NATO country that needs the support and reassurance, and to help deter any aggression, regardless of where it comes from.

The battalions 1,800 troops were moved to Riga in a combination of military and civilian contract aircraft. The Lackland-based transports moved the heavy stuff three Blackhawks per C-5 flight.

The missions high geopolitical profile is unusual for the Air Force Reserve's 433rd Airlift Wing, which spans the globe in any given month without fanfare, supplying the military from South Korea to Afghanistan.

Raggio, 30, became a command pilot at the unusually young age of 26. Starting Tuesday, his C-5 twice flew the 8.5 hours from Fort Drum to Riga weighing 720,000 pounds at each takeoff and was to stop at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on the way home.

By the time theyre done, the planes 14 crew members will have crossed the Atlantic four times and burned 120,000 gallons of jet fuel over 20,080 miles.

The fuel economy? Six gallons per mile.

Nothing ever goes quite as planned for the Alamo Wing, a unit with a long history of flying the C-5, whose cargo bay is longer than the Wright Brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The Super Galaxy can be as temperamental as it is big.

Given the potential for mechanical issues and revised orders, airmen tell their families never to count on them returning on time. The make frequent grocery runs while en route to buy more food than theyll likely need. And they have rituals and superstitions.

Master Sgt. Eric Mungia, 33, stops at the Little Taco Factory in Kirby before a mission and always orders huevos rancheros, a side of bacon and black coffee.

And the crew wont jinx things by putting on flight suits at the hotel until the alert order has been given to head to the air base unless were in Hawaii and I want to stay longer, said Master Sgt. Will Jalomo, 45, of Lytle, the primary C-5 loadmaster on this trip.

This time the five pilots, five loadmasters, two engineers and two flying crew chiefs fell behind schedule on the first day, thanks to a faulty electrical circuit and the idiosyncrasies of international air travel a 15-minute diplomatic clearance window over southern Norway.

One of the three Black Hawks brought to the plane wasnt on Mungias original plan. As loadmaster, he had to determine its weight and compute its center of gravity, as he does for each item. It ensures a safe flight and saves fuel.

A mistake can be disastrous. A 2013 crash of a Boeing 747-400 cargo aircraft carrying a load of improperly secured Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles killed all seven crew members at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

They blamed it on a load shift, said Maj. Jeremy Hooper, a veteran pilot with the wing who began flying in the ninth grade and took the next load of MRAPs out of Bagram following the incident. After seeing that, I wanted to hold Loadmaster Appreciation Week because if they dont do their job correctly, were all dead.

C-5 history in San Antonio

Motorists on Texas 151 or fans at a San Antonio Missions home game who see a lumbering C-5 taking off or landing at Lackland might know its one of eight M model planes assigned to the 433rd. More powerful and fuel efficient versions of the old C-5A, they arrived last June.

The wing came to the now-closed Brooks AFB in 1955, moved to Kelly AFB five years later and became part of Lackland after Kellys closure.

A lot of people in San Antonio think we do touch-and-goes, and nothing else, said one loadmaster, Tech. Sgt. Bryan Stone, referring to takeoff and landing runs done by the wings 733rd Training Squadron. Stone, 34, is a firefighter and paramedic in civilian life.

The 356th Airlift Squadron logged 220 sorties last year, while the 68th Airlift Squadron flew nearly twice as many, flying anywhere American troops may be posted.

Hooper, 37, flies Boeing 767 jets for Delta Air Lines and has 5,500 hours in civilian and military aircraft. He can tell you how long the C-5 has been flying in San Antonio because his dad, then-Maj. Victor Hooper, flew one of the first A models into Kelly in 1984.

Raggio, a Dallas native who flew in Afghanistan and Iraq, now flies for American Airlines in civilian life, manages every facet of the C-5 mission, from mapping out each legs flight plan and fuel requirements to contingency planning and caring for the crew.

Mungia takes pride in helping carry out national policy, and not just here in Latvia. He is due to fly to Kuwait later in the month, and after that to Afghanistan.

We have some pilots and some loadmasters who say, I remember when I used to fly with your dad, and now some fly with their own kids, who are loadmasters, engineers or pilots, Mungia said. So its a family affair.

sigc@express-news.net

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EU’s Alternative to NATO – WhoWhatWhy / RealNewsProject (blog)

Posted: at 2:54 pm

Ubers Greyball ; A Tax on Robots? ... and more Picks In the News: In one of his first acts as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt withdrew a requirement for the oil and gas industry to report about methane emitted during operations. About this photo. Flaring from start-up operations on the deepwater Atlantis oil and gas platform.Photo credit: USGS

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Former FBI agent, and private investigator Robert A. Levinson went missing on March 7, 2007 while on a rogue CIA recruiting mission on an Iranian island. Many believe his disappearance was related to the defection of a top Iranian spy, who, months earlier, possibly leaked secrets to the West about Irans nuclear program.

Under Bush and Cheney, media institutions cheered us into Iraq. Under Obama, they ignored drone warfare and Middle East conflict. What will happen under Trump?

Uber has a contentious reputation throughout the world, even being banned in some places. Its greyball tool has been able to subvert authorities in areas of the world that do not welcome Ubers service.

A comprehensive rundown on the ever expanding Russia-gate scandal.

Economist Yanis Varoufakis discusses the good and bad of Bill Gatess ideas on a robot tax and universal basic income.

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EU's Alternative to NATO - WhoWhatWhy / RealNewsProject (blog)

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Judge Nap: Obama Wiretap Order Would Be ‘Profoundly Unconstitutional But Legal’ – Fox News Insider

Posted: at 2:53 pm

Judge Andrew Napolitano broke down the legal issues at play following the explosive allegation by President Donald Trumpthat President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower during the presidential campaign.

Napolitano said much of the analysis in the last few days is "mixing apples and oranges," emphasizing that the FBI can obtain search warrants to look for evidence of crimes, while the NSA can obtain a warrant to investigate national security matters.

The Fox News senior judicial analyst said the NSA is allowed by law to capture "all digital information" within the United States and the president can obtain transcribed copies of those intercepted communications.

He added that the FISA statute states "the President of the United States can order surveillance on any person in the United States in conjunction with a certification filed by the attorney general."

"It's profoundly unconstitutional but it is legal because the statute says it," said Napolitano. "Think about this: if you're Barack Obama and you have the ability by making a phone call to hear what Donald Trump is saying, would you bother getting a warrant? Why would you get a warrant?"

Obama's spokesman said Saturday that no such order was ever given.

"A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice. As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false," the statement read.

Shannon Bream asked whether Trump could access a surveillance order from the previous administration if it exists.

"I don't know that FISA would give him the orders, but he could get them from NSA," the judge explained.

Watch the judge's full analysis on "America's Newsroom."

Mark Levin: 'Donald Trump Is the Victim' in Alleged Obama Wiretapping Scandal

Former DOJ Lawyer: Lynch, Comey Could Have 'Intimate Knowledge' of Alleged Wiretapping

'You're Being Disingenuous!': Tucker Battles Dem Calling for Sessions Probe

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Trump Administration Wants A Clean Reauthorization For NSA Surveillance – Techdirt

Posted: at 2:53 pm

Considering the new administration has stepped up its ousting of immigrants, expressed its disinterest in pursuing civil rights investigations of the nation's law enforcement agencies, applauded asset forfeiture, and declared war on leakers, it comes as no surprise the White House supports a clean reauthorization of Section 702 surveillance.

The Trump administration does not want to reform an internet surveillance law to address privacy concerns, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday, saying it is needed to protect national security.

The announcement could put President Donald Trump on a collision course with Congress, where some Republicans and Democrats have advocated curtailing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, parts of which are due to expire at the end of the year.

Section 702 has dodged reform efforts, thanks in part to the intelligence community's unwillingness to discuss anything about it. Repeated requests by representatives for the NSA to come up with an estimate of how many US persons' communications are swept up "inadvertently" have been met with shrugs and stalling. Five years after he was first asked, James Clapper promised to have something put together "soon." We're still waiting.

Not helping the matter is the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board's evaluation of the program. After finding the Section 215 phone metadata program both useless and illegal, it had very little to say about the NSA's internet backbone dragnet. The best it could offer was that it was likely legal and any collection of US persons' communications was probably "inadvertent." It agreed the massive collection program ran right up against the edges of the Fourth Amendment, but didn't cross it -- at least as far as it was willing to examine.

Unfortunately, there will be no follow-up arriving before the reauthorization period closes. The PCLOB is mostly dead and unlikely to be revived by an administration looking for a no-questions-asked rubber stamping of Section 702's five-year renewal. Given that the unanswered questions about domestic surveillance weren't answered in time for the 2012 renewal debate, it's highly probable the Director of National Intelligence's office won't be providing these numbers to Congressional representatives ahead of the December deadline.

Hopefully, there will be a more organized push back against a clean reauthorization. Thanks to multiple leaks, Congressional representatives should actually have some idea how much domestic surveillance occurs under this statute. It's more critical than ever that the program receive a detailed examination before the vote, considering the outgoing president gave more than a dozen federal agencies access to unminimized data/communications collected by the NSA.

And Trump himself has seen no reason to roll that sharing back, despite his antipathy towards much of Obama's orders and legislation. Ironically, his Saturday morning tweetstorm griping about the Trump Tower being "wire tapped" by Obama ahead of the November election. Once again, Trump has offered no proof of this claim, but even if taken at face value, it would be the byproduct of the Section 702 program he has stated he wants renewed with no changes. Communications with foreign persons is fair game under Section 702, even if the communications originate in the US. The FBI's acquisition of these communications (if that's what has happened) is specifically approved by the recent data-sharing program. Perhaps Trump might want to take a closer look at the program before attempting to shove it past inquistive legislators.

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Trump Administration Wants A Clean Reauthorization For NSA Surveillance - Techdirt

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