₦airaland Forum

Appleyard:
You ain't dreaming, comrade. If That's truly Vianna on that profile, then let it be known to thee this day that Russia has commenced operation Norman Jean--extreme beauty loaded with decisive sexual Bragado powered by the Borei class ballistic submarine underground in the Port city of Warri.

Vianna is meant to replace Missy89 (a minute of silence) who was KIA in Syria Aleppo after defecting to Langley.

Now you will have to pass on the new GLONASS coordinate to Lady Vianna, code-named Viannakulovski, and prepare for the Spezner Siberian strike force team at the 46th Topol M regiment located in Kalinigrad to heat up the Iskander missiles silos of Bonechamberlain to deliver a devastating nuclear strike at the Anglo zombie empire from the aiir2303 khinzal global strike nuclear missile ejected by fineguy11 out of the alienic craters of Siberia's Sambisa forest in Mexico.

With Vianna Viannakulovski, a new Sputnik has orbited Nairaland space, and as Nigeria and China undergo currency swap deal, Vianna's SVR's de-dollarisation process has commenced, with RT in Aso Rock reorienting the African view of western monentary perspective and reawakening of Muamor Gaddafi's dream for Africa.

It's death to the empire of chaos.

kuku kill me.

kingkuntaval:
Got an invite for the exam on 24th, but venue is in Lagos.Any chance of being rescheduled to Abuja?

DONT THINK SO...

Adegbem01:
When are they likely to give feedback after the exam. To those who already past the stage

2 TO 3 WEEKS

Ebogucp:
how was the exams??

practice hard,write easy!u just have to be very fast. verbal and abstract was ok.

noshiobec:
I think it is in batches....so let's chill. Moreover no one in Benin has received an invite.

wrote on may 10 applied from benin.

somito121:
Has anybody being able to upload his passport and print because mine is not going through.

I HAVE....U HAVE TO RESIZE UR PASSPORT TO 450 BY 450 BEFORE IT UPLOADS.

Jman06:
I thought as much!

Male siblings and their selfishness... Only a few care about their siblings. I'm sure it's because of one lady you want your siblings out! All these other excuses of needing your privacy and cleaning your house are just hogwash! I know that adults are supposed to cater for themselves and all that, but don't forget we are in Nigeria where the society works differently and wise siblings carry themselves along to achieve greatness together. That is how many great families achieved greatness! Through cooperative interaction (Those in sciences might understand that term better). What have you done to help your siblings get jobs or get good education or vocational training I'm sure you have done nothing in that regard! Don't worry! Very soon that lady would start showing you pepper and then you'll realize how important your siblings are.

nonsense post from a breastfed adult.

Jaymaxxy:
Ordinary Omo Agege dem no fit overpower. What if nah Omo Mushin?

THIS IS LIT.

punter9:
81547
GAME WON!

add up 08154705980

Jirate:
I Played 6 Different Tickets this Weekend, "Man U Win and over 1.5" Was on all of them, The Game was a "SureBanker" as far as I Concerned.
I Know Football is no Mathematics but You Cant Beat ManCity as good as they are Away then Go Home to Old Traford of all places and Lose to WBA who Bottom of the League, Guys, Na wetin dey Happen?.
This Loss will Affect Millions of People all over the World. Too Bad.

You're not a gud punter.why should u play man u in all ur tickets?is the idea of multiple tickets not to spread and mitigate risk?never repeat a game more than once on multiple tickets.pls pray madrid wins tonite

very infantile narrative.

Potus has consulted with his Generals.they have painted and outlined all possible likely scenarios and the consequence of going ahead with the planned strike and the result is simple...IF WE STRIKE ASSAD,THE RUSKIES WILL LIKELY STRIKE OUR INTEREST IN SYRIA.

President Donald Trump said an attack on Syria could come “very soon, or not soon at all,” just as Russian leaders urged calm and reined in their own war rhetoric.

The president said Thursday on Twitter that he “never said when an attack on Syria would take place.” The comment came roughly 24 hours after warning Russia to “get ready” for a missile attack on its ally.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday appealed for common sense in a world growing “more chaotic,” and a government spokesman said Thursday that the U.S. and Russia need to avoid steps in Syria that may have a destructive impact on efforts to resolve the conflict.

The escalating tensions have weighed on investors, with crude prices hovering the highest levels since 2014. Oil producers and insurance companies led gainers on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, helping blunt the more downbeat sentiment from Asia, where equity benchmarks from Tokyo to Sydney fell.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-12/trump-rows-back-on-syria-attack-timing-as-russia-urges-calm

[b]Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump

[b]Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our “Thank you America?”
3:15 AM - 12 Apr 2018.[/b]COWARDS ARE BACKING OUT...
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted early Thursday morning that the U.S. attack on Syria “could be very soon or not so soon at all.”

Trump wrote on Twitter, “Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our “Thank you America?”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Vice President Mike Pence chaired the meeting Wednesday afternoon.

She says there have been no decisions yet on whether to strike Syria despite the president’s tweet Wednesday morning threatening to fire “nice and new and ‘smart!’” missiles.

Sanders says the U.S. is confident in laying blame on the Syrian government and its Russian allies for Saturday’s deadly attack in Douma. Opposition activists and rescuers say at least 40 people were killed. https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/trump-tweets-syria-attack-could-be-very-soon-or-not-so-soon-at-all-1.5993397

RUSSIA has vowed to shoot down any US missiles fired in revenge to the alleged chemical attack in Syria.
Alexander Zasypkin, Russia's ambassador to Lebanon, said Vladimir Putin would strike back against any military action taken by US President Trump.
“If there is a strike by the Americans then ... the missiles will be downed and even the sources from which the missiles were fired,” he told Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV.

Meanwhile, RAF bombers were last night on standby to strike Syrian tyrant Bashar Al-Assad.

Major activity was reported at Britain’s Tornado base in Cyprus shortly before civilian planes were said to have been ordered to clear the airspace over Syria by the US.

It came as Britain told the UN that responsibility for the "diabolical" chemical attack lay with "Syria and its backers in Russia and Iran," and attacked Russia's attempts to portray itself as the victim.

Theresa May and Donald Trump vowed to stop Syria using chemical weapons as the US President cleared the way for military strikes against Bashar Al-Assad.

The Prime Minister rang both the US President and France’s Emmanuel Macron in a frantic round of diplomacy over the suspected chemical attack in Douma.

The White House said Mrs May agreed with Mr Trump that the alleged attack showed Syrian President Assad’s “vicious disregard for human life”.A statement added: “The President and Prime Minister agreed not to allow the use of chemical weapons to continue.”

Donald Trump and his Pentagon chief General Mattis both cancelled planned trips for the weekend to “oversee the American response to Syria”.

In the early hours of Tuesday, a heavy flight of US-led coalition warplanes were reportedly seen flying over the Iraqi border.

But Russia's Defence Committee have hit back, saying that they will respond immediately if its military is impacted by a possible US airstrike.Civilian planes were said to have been ordered to clear the airspace over Syria by the US military as flight radar showed aircraft diverting away.

European air traffic controllers issued a "rapid alert" for airlines in the Eastern Mediterranean over the possibility of air strikes into Syria within the next 72 hours.

The USS Donald missile destroyer was sailing towards Syria as the White House weighed up its options. Turkish media reported “remarkable” activity at an RAF Tornado base in Cyprus.

But sources accused Mrs May of trying to delay Donald Trump – as his deadline for a decision on strikes against the Assad regime edged closer.

A Downing Street read out of the same phone call with the US President was markedly more guarded than the White House’s version of events – saying Assad’s guilt had yet to be “confirmed”.

No.10 added: “They agreed they would continue working closely together and with international partners to ensure that those responsible were held to account.”Mrs May held a meeting with Cabinet Ministers and security chiefs yesterday and another was scheduled to take place.

One senior Tory said he had been disappointed by the PM’s response – saying “she should be all over this, and leading from the front”.

Last night the UK’s permanent representative to the UN said the use of chemical weapons was an “escalatory act”.

Speaking at a meeting of the Security Council, Karen Pierce also slammed Russia for trying to make a bitter row over the attack a dispute between East and West:

She said: “The responsibility for the cruelty in Syria belongs to Syria and its backers in Russia and Iran.

“The use of chemical weapons is an escalatory and a diabolical act.

“What Russia is trying to do, it strikes me, Mr President, is to turn the debate in this Council away from a discussion of the use of chemical weapons into a dispute between East and West, presenting itself as the victim.”

Donald Trump’s desire for rapid reprisals was complicated by the global chemicals watchdog announcing it was sending a fact-finding team to Douma to probe the alleged poison gas attack, where rebels claimed at least 40 people died on Saturday.On Monday the US President condemned the “heinous” chemical weapon attack and said he would decide within the next 24 to 48 hours whether to launch a military reprisal.

Military chiefs in the UK were instructed on Monday to draw up options for a joint strike. Eight GR4 Tornado jets based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus could be used.

The Tornados have Storm Shadow missiles which have a range of more than 150 miles – enabling pilots to keep out of the range of Syrian anti-air defences.

Speaking on a visit to Cambridge yesterday, Mrs May once more sidestepped questions over whether Britain would be involved in military action.She said: “This attack that took place in Douma is a barbaric attack.

“Obviously we are working urgently with our allies and partners to assess what has happened on the ground.

“If this is the responsibility of Assad’s regime in Syria then it’s yet another example of the brutality and brazen disregard for their people that they show.”https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6022894/russia-vows-shoot-down-us-missiles-fired-at-syria-and-bomb-launch-sites-in-revenge-strikes-over-assads-chemical-attack/
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-diplomat/russian-ambassador-to-lebanon-any-u-s-missiles-fired-at-syria-will-be-shot-down-idUKKBN1HI0Q2?rpc=401&

A well-informed source said Syrian regime forces are on alert amid fears of an imminent U.S. strike, resulted in an immediate deploying for its advanced air defenses around the capital and near the Republican Palace.

Most advanced air defenses were deployed in Mezzeh military airport. The source said six defense systems were stationed, including Russian Pantsir-S2 defense system which is a combined short to medium range surface-to-air missile and anti- aircraft artillery weapon"
.

Syrian Air Force backed by Iran and Russia has been working on developing its air defence since shooting down the Israeli F-16 in February. President Donald Trump on Monday threatened a military strike against the Assad regime, declaring that Russia or any other nation found to share responsibility for Saturday's apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians in Douma town will "pay a price," AP reported.

The White House sharply rejected any suggestion that Trump's own words about pulling U.S. troops out of Syria had opened the door for the attack, which killed more than 40 people, including children.

Trump, asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin bore any responsibility, responded, "He may, yeah, he may. And if he does it's going to be very tough, very tough." He added, "Everybody's gonna pay a price. He will. Everybody will."
The United States, meanwhile, urged the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution that would condemn the continuing use of chemical weapons in Syria "in the strongest terms" and establish a new body to determine responsibility for chemical attacks. The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, was circulated ahead of an emergency Security Council meeting.

An American official said the U.S. was discussing with allies whether they would participate in a retaliatory strike. If Trump decides to proceed quickly, the most likely partner would be France rather than Britain, because of concerns about obtaining permission from Parliament, said the official, who wasn't authorized to discuss the planning publicly and requested anonymity.

The White House deliberations came as Russia and the regime military blamed Israel for a pre-dawn missile attack on a major air base in central Syria, saying Israeli fighter jets launched missiles from Lebanon's air space. A group that monitors Syria's civil war said the airstrikes killed 14 people, including Iranians active in Syria.

Regime-run news agency SANA initially said that attack on the T4 air base was likely "an American aggression," but Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood quickly denied the United States was behind the strike and the agency then dropped the accusation, blaming Israel instead.

In February, Israel hit the T4 military airport in the Syrian desert, killing seven Iranians, including pilots and experts interrelation to F-16 downing, sources told Zaman al-Wasl.

As U.S. officials consider whether and how to respond, they are looking at what type of chemical agent might have been used. When Trump ordered airstrikes last year after a chemical weapons attack, it was a response to the use of sarin gas, which is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention that Syria has signed. An attack with chlorine, which can be used as a weapon but is not outright banned by the treaty, could raise precedent issues, as there have been numerous recent allegations of chlorine attacks in Syria that have drawn no response from the Trump administration.



-Russia stores prohibited weapons near Damascus-


Russia has supplied the Syrian regime with high advanced weapons and ammunition, including toxic gases, during its deadly offensive on Eastern Ghouta suburbs, a military source told Zaman al-Wasl Sunday.

The weapons, which had been stored in Al-Dumayr and Al-Seen military airports in March, east of the capital, included (toxic gases, cluster bombs, white phosphorous, Incendiary bombs).

Al-Seen, or Sayqal airport, is the most important airport in Syria and one of the largest military airports in Asia.

Russia has restricted the use of its weapons to special attacks under its command.

More weapons have been transferred since March until now, according to the source, to depots under the supervision of a special technical group responsible for the receipt and storage and loading on aircraft and directly follow to General Bassam Haider, the commander of the Division 20 in Al-Dumayr town.

Russia has put their forces on high alert as the Ango-American axis are readying for potential military action against Bashar Al-Assad by maneuvering attack ships and fighter jets into position off the coast of Syria.

Following yet another chemical weapons hoax, this time in Douma on Saturday, the USS Donald Cook, a guided missile destroyer is in position for any military action within Syria, while the USS Laboon, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer which was previously deployed to Libya after the Benghazi attack, is also in close proximity as is the USS Georgia submarine.

Meanwhile, an RAF operated KC2 tanker, which is used to refuel fighter jets, is also lurking off the coast of Lebanon.

In a related story, Russia has reportedly put its armed forces on a heightened state of alert in response to increasing tensions over Syria and the ongoing fallout over the Skripal poisoning hoax perpetrated by British Intel.

“Starting to hear isolated reports from within #Russia that the nation has put her armed forces on a heightened stage of alert,” tweeted the Intel Crab account, which is an aggregator for Strategic Sentinel, a national security analysis group.

“Command and control systems have been deployed to major military installations,” a source told TASS, adding that the Russian Air Force is closely monitoring the presence of U.S. warships and submarines from the Russian naval facility in Tartus, Syria.

Meanwhile, Russia has launched massive combat drills across the country.

“Russia’s Defense Ministry said in an online statement Monday that it had launched drills stretching from Siberia to the Urals and the Volga region, as well as in Russian military bases in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan,” reports the Moscow Times.

According to the report, Russian soldiers will put their combat skills they learned in Syria to the test during the nationwide exercises.

President Trump commented on the tensions today when he told the press, “We are studying that situation extremely closely. We are meeting with our military and everyone else that will be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours.”http://www.eurasiareview.com/10042018-russia-puts-army-on-high-alert-as-anglo-american-axis-readies-to-attack-syria-oped/

What are the potential targets?

After the 2017 Khan Sheikhoun attack, Donald Trump ordered a strike on the airfield that launched the Syrian jets involved. The 59 cruise missiles launched from US warships in the Mediterranean damaged runways and hangars at al-Shayrat but they were quickly repaired. That attack was largely symbolic.

If Trump orders a second strike, it will probably be more comprehensive. The US president will be keen to assert himself as a strongman if he feels his own red line has been crossed (comparisons to Obama are too much for him). France too has previously said it would be prepared to act if the use of chemical weapons is proven.

Likely targets a second time round would be other Syrian airbases, and perhaps what remains of the air force itself. Whittled down and battered, the Syrian jet fleet has been heavily propped up by Russian fighters. Syria’s air defence system has been heavily damaged by Israeli attacks.
What are US/western capabilities?

The US maintains a naval battle group in the eastern Mediterranean, well stocked with over-the-horizon missiles. It has a large number of jet fighters in Qatar and on carriers in the Gulf, which are deployed to bomb Isis. The politics of flying over Iraq or Saudi Arabia to bomb the Syrian regime may prove tricky. Missiles are a more likely option. They’re harder to shoot down and it matters little if they are. Striking from the west poses fewer problems all around. French jets could hit Syrian targets after taking off from French airfields. If Britain joins the fray, it has a base on nearby Cyprus, a short hop from Syria.
What could the UK contribute to any retaliatory effort?

The RAF has a large contingent in the Middle East still engaged in action against Isis remnants and could easily divert planes and drones to Syrian military targets if required. It has Tornados posted in the region that have a reputation for flying low and precision bombing, and Typhoons armed with Paveway lV guided bombs. It also has Reaper drones equipped with Hellfire missiles. All were in action over the last few weeks in either eastern Syria or Iraq against Isis.

However, the main value of the UK to any military action by the US – which is not short of firepower or expertise – would be in allowing the US to say it isn’t acting unilaterally.
How might Russia and Syria react to military action?

Though the Syrian air defence system was heavily damaged by Israeli attacks in March, it remains a threat. Its ageing missiles still fly faster than modern jets – a 45-year-old SA 5 missile brought down an Israeli F-16, prompting the Israeli counter-strikes. However, the air defence battery offers little defence to ground-hugging missiles. And more than 100 Israeli strikes had previously been launched without a plane being hit.

The bigger question is whether Russia would activate its more formidable S-400 system, which has been in place in Syria for more than a year. This poses a lethal threat to the world’s most modern jets. During previous attacks, Russia has sometimes briefly turned the system on, but it has not yet used it. A warning by the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, to Trump not to attack could indicate a different approach a strike is ordered this time.
What does the Syrian opposition want?

What remains of the opposition is on its knees. It has no defence against air attacks and has lost most of its strongholds. Only Daraa in the south and Idlib in the north remain under its control, and the latter it shares with jihadis who have a very different view of what a postwar Syria should look like. For the past six years opposition leaders have been calling for no-fly zones or airstrikes to weaken the regime.

Russian and Syrian jets have battered anti-Assad forces into submission, eastern Ghouta being the latest example of that. With Russia dominating the skies across at least two-thirds of Syria, a no-fly zone is not an option. The opposition pipe dream remains the ousting of the regime. But with that not a consideration for even Assad’s foes these days, the best the opposition can hope for is a weakened Syrian air force.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/10/what-could-the-us-target-in-syria-and-how-might-russia-react

Four U.S. officials said Russia's signal scrambling has seriously affected military operations.
WASHINGTON — The Russian military has been jamming some U.S. military drones operating in the skies over Syria, seriously affecting American military operations, according to four U.S. officials.

The Russians began jamming some smaller U.S. drones several weeks ago, the officials said, after a series of suspected chemical weapons attacks on civilians in rebel-held eastern Ghouta. The effort began a few weeks ago with the GPS system on some smaller drones. Russia blocked or scrambled the reception signal to these drones causing them to crash or malfunction.The Russian military was concerned the U.S. military would retaliate for the attacks and began jamming the GPS systems of drones operating in the area, the officials explained.

Jamming, which means blocking or scrambling a drone's reception of a signal from a GPS satellite, can be uncomplicated, according to Dr. Todd Humphreys, the director of the Radionavigation Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin."GPS receivers in most drones can be fairly easily jammed," he said

Humphreys, an expert on the spoofing and jamming of GPS, warns this could have a significant impact on U.S. drones, causing them to malfunction or even crash. "At the very least it could cause some serious confusion" for the drone operator on the ground if the drone reports an incorrect position or is lost, he said.

U.S. analysts first caught the Russian military jamming drones in eastern Ukraine four years ago, after the invasion of Crimea, according to Humphreys. He said the jammers were initially detected as faint signals from space, bouncing off the earth's surface. The jammers "had a pretty significant impact" on the United Nations surveillance drones that were attempting to monitor the area, grounding the fleet for days and halting intelligence gathering from the air.

The Defense Department will not say whether the jamming is causing drones to crash, citing operational security. "The U.S. military maintains sufficient countermeasures and protections to ensure the safety of our manned and unmanned aircraft, our forces and the missions they support," said Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon.But one official confirmed the tactic is having an operational impact on U.S. military operations in Syria.

The officials said the equipment being used was developed by the Russian military and is very sophisticated, proving effective even against some encrypted signals and anti-jamming receivers. The drones impacted so far are smaller surveillance aircraft, as opposed to the larger Predators and Reapers that often operate in combat environments and can be armed.

Dr. Humphreys says that though the attacks occur in cyberspace, the results are still serious.

"They are a little less hostile looking than a kinetic bullet but sometimes the effect can be just as damaging," he said. "It's like shooting at them with radio waves instead of bullets."https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/russia-has-figured-out-how-jam-u-s-drones-syria-n863931
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/apr/10/russia-jams-us-drones-over-syria-to-stop-airstrike/

76MILLION; that's staggering....the shareholders need to hold the management team accountable.

soleexx:
@ what rate

bought Dell latitude E6500,4GIG RAM,250HHD,2.5GHZ,2GIG VIDEO MEMORY for 60k.

Nelsmannnnnnnnn:
Aptitude test!!

Truth is, aptitude test is being used in this era now as a tool to send numerous job seekers packing. This is due to the fact that the economy now is so messy. In every job adverts, thousands are applying where probably ten are only needed.

In the early 90s, how many of this firms were dashing out aptitude test to candidates??, Even the CEOs and MDs currently in theses firms, how many of them went through such rigorous recruitment process during their time as we have it now??

It is even annoying when company who only want to pay #50,000 or less for a particular position will still conduct tests for their comer/applicants.

A time will come when our youths will stop searching for jobs and begin to be self reliant, it is these firms that will begging people to apply for their vacancies as it is predominant in the west.

@Op

No matter how one prepares for an aptitude test where thousands are applying, if one doesn't have luck or grace, one might still not get employed by the coy.

We humans take advantage of things we see around. So many will spend so much on tutorials and tutorial centres and still not get the job they crave for thereby enriching those behind those centres.

Our economy needs healing, so do our Government.

u said it all,THUMB'S UP

DELL has the best second hand value #TeamDell

nNEOo:
Where is our thinking caps for god sake!


This is a way of creating empløyement for our ABLED BODIED YOUNG MEN!

How?...

A lot of Mehn are picking interest in domestic violence ...i mean lots of men.

Any man that touches his wife should be taking to the square walls to fyt
these able bodied young mehn at the gym house,if he wins,they simply double no of these gym guys.
The idea is to give him a befitting fyt while paying these guys for the job.

It will nt only create employment it will encourage our citizence to keep fit reduce domestic violence while assuring our mothers that government is there to pay some1 to beat or even kill her husband if he dear lay hands on her!

Narldon:



What exactly is this country turning into?



A friend just told me that their father takes offering from them during morning devotion.

MOSCOW —

Current and former U.S. and British intelligence officers say the West's collective banishment this week of 115 Russian "diplomats" will be far less damaging to Russian espionage operations than British Prime Minister Theresa May and American officials have argued.

And they warn tit-for-tat expulsions the Kremlin is expected to order shortly will have much greater impact on Western intelligence missions in Russia.

They say the Cold War-era picture drawn by author John le Carré in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” with Russian espionage in the West depending mainly on spies based out of embassies under diplomatic cover, is anachronistic.

“Western expulsions will have only a very marginal impact on ongoing Russian operations, given the fact the SVR [Russian foreign espionage] and the GRU [Russian military intelligence] run their best sources very well, and they will have back-up communications arrangements for their assets,” a retired senior intelligence officer told VOA.The officer, a 30-year CIA veteran in counter-espionage who was a member of the team that unmasked CIA employee Aldrich Ames as a KGB mole in 1994, says in the Internet era, with hard-to-breach encrypted communications, “human contact is less crucial than in the past, adding "they will easily be able to use traveling ‘illegals’ to make human contact, anyway” when needed.

Uncertain effect

Speaking in the House of Commons Monday about the wave of expulsions being announced across Europe and by the United States, which ordered 60 diplomats — most of them presumed to be spies — to pack up, Britain’s Theresa May said the mass ejections, along with the 23 expulsions Britain announced last week, would in effect “dismantle” Russia’s spy network in the West.

She hailed the mass expulsions — a collective reprisal for what the British government claims was a Kremlin-approved effort on March 4 to poison on British soil the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia. She added the banishments amounted to “the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history” — and May vowed never to allow Russian leader Vladimir Putin to rebuild an espionage machine in the West.

“Western expulsions have never crippled Russian intelligence collection,” says John Sipher, who retired in 2014 after a 28-year career in the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, which included a stint in Moscow and running the CIA’s Russia operations.Sipher told VOA: “The British expulsion of intelligence officers under Maggie Thatcher came the closest to hurting Russian espionage operations. The large number of Russian spies in the United States and Western countries has insured that losing a few doesn’t really do serious damage. If you have 150-200 intelligence officers in-country, losing 50 is painful, but hardly debilitating.”

The expulsions by Margaret Thatcher in 1985 came at the height of the Cold War.

Angry at the revelations about the extent of Soviet espionage activities in Britain that were revealed by KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky, Britain’s Iron Lady ordered out more than 30 Russian diplomats in a wave of tit-for-tat expulsions that only ended when the then British ambassador to Moscow Bryan Cartledge pleaded with her to stop because of the damage it was doing to his embassy.

“Never engage in a pissing match with a skunk, he possesses important natural advantages,” Cartledge advised in a telegram to London.

Previous Western expulsions

Cartledge’s advice is echoed by retired and current intelligence officers. Sipher says he doubts the West’s mass expulsions will alter Putin’s policies. “I’m not aware that previous diplomatic expulsions changed behavior,” he said.Sipher worries the West will come off worse when it comes to the impact on intelligence gathering and espionage, saying that is how it has worked with like-for-like expulsions in the past.

“I don’t think expulsions are as important as in the past but I do think they hurt the West more than Russia. The Russians are consistent and tough, and quickly toss out as many U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers. Since our numbers are much smaller, it has a disproportionately bigger impact on us. We in the CIA often argued that it made no sense to throw out 50 [for example] Russian diplomats since it would impact a small percentage of their capability, but would devastate our collection ability,” he says.

Russia’s SVR and GRU have great strength in depth outside Russian embassies, Western intelligence officers say, running far more sleeper agents and other spies under non-official cover than Western agencies, and using them to establish contacts with academics, industrialists, and policymakers to gain access to sensitive and classified information. They can also be used to run logistical errands for deep-cover moles.

“The Russian illegals program is meant to be a strategic reserve in case they lose capability in their ‘legal’ residencies. The Soviet Union created the illegals program when they were young and realized that countries could break diplomatic relations altogether. They wanted to maintain their espionage networks even if the embassies closed,” Sipher says.

In 2010, the FBI broke up an illegals program in the United States of 10 Russian agents, among them Anna Chapman, whose flame-haired good looks immediately attracted intense Western media interest. The 10 sleepers were swapped by the U.S. for Sergei Skripal and three other Russian nationals, who had been spying for the West.“The 2010 arrest of illegals in the United States was probably a blow to the SVR. I don’t know how successful they have been in rebuilding the capability,” says Sipher. If the Russians haven’t, then the “recent expulsions from the U.S. may be digging into bone” a bit, he adds.

A serving FBI counter-espionage officer recently told VOA there are concerns about Russian sleeper agents and "illegals" buried in the computer and contracting firms known as "Beltway Bandits" in the Washington DC area, mostly in northern Virginia, which have large government contracts.

Many covers

Another edge the Russian espionage agencies have over their Western rivals, especially when it comes to their rivals in the United States, is they have less restrictions placed on them when it comes to using traveling businessmen, academics, non-profit workers and journalists for spying activities and intelligence collection, say Western intelligence professionals.Britain and France, which expelled four Russian "diplomats" are exceptions to this general rule — famously British intelligence secured a job easily at the Observer newspaper for double-agent Kim Philby in the 1950s when his MI6 bosses were trying to work out finally whether he had been working for the KGB all along.

“Given the minuscule numbers of U.S. intelligence officers in Russia compared to their presence in the United States, we always lose disproportionately in tit-for-tat,” said the CIA veteran who worked on the Aldrich Ames case. He believes, though, that the 60 expulsions announced by Washington Monday in the short term “should have some impact on the Russians’ developmental operations as there simply will be fewer of them out there hustling Americans.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/western-spies-russia-expulsions/4320449.html

heendrix:
oh yeah but Russia cant still defeat the US with that

its called mutual destruction you analytical rookie,there will be no clear cut victor in the advent of war...just chaos and destruction....

U.S. and NATO forces would be without air support for “several weeks” in the event of a European war with Russia, as Moscow’s advanced anti-aircraft systems could close European airspace to NATO warplanes.

Army officials and defense experts told the Association of the United States Army's Global Force Symposium that the U.S. must therefore upgrade its artillery forces in order to degrade Russia’s cutting-edge anti-aircraft capabilities, Military.com reported.

Russia has one of the most sophisticated anti-aircraft defense networks. The key to its power is the S-400 Triumf missile system. Each S-400 battery has four missiles, each designed for use at different ranges, and can engage targets 250 miles away and an altitude of just over 98,000 feet. Its fastest missiles flies at Mach 15, or 11,509 miles per hour.U.S. aircraft would be taking a huge risk operating over Eastern Europe in the event of war. The range and lethality of Russian anti-air systems would limit close-air support and surveillance missions, leaving U.S. and NATO ground troops with severely limited air coverage and intelligence-gathering options.John Gordon IV, a senior policy researcher at Rand Corp, concluded that Russia would have a “very significant advantage in terms of numbers and all aspects of ground combat” in the first seven to 10 days of a potential conflict.

The way around this problem, Gordon explained, is to improve American artillery weapons to compensate for limited air reach should war break out. “It's certainly going to put a premium on U.S. Army field artillery,” he said.Gordon believes that the U.S. and NATO have some catching up to do in artillery. “The Russians take this stuff seriously; artillery has been the strong suit of the Russian Army since the days of the czars,” he said. “They've got a range advantage over us in a number of different areas, particularly cannons. Typically, modern Russian cannons have got 50 percent to 100 percent greater range than the current generation of U.S. cannons.”

This mismatch is driving the Army to increase the range and sophistication of its artillery. The Army has named the Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) program its top modernization goal.General Robert Brown, commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific Command, told the symposium, “We've got to push the maximum range of all systems under development for close, deep and strategic, and we have got to outgun the enemy. We don’t do that right now; it’s a huge gap.”General Brown continued, “We need cannons that fire as far as rockets today. We need rockets that fire as far as today's missiles, and we need missiles out to 499 kilometers,” or 310 miles—the missile range limit set by the the 1988 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty.

One of the central elements of the LRPF project is the Precision Missile System, which will have a range of 310 miles and will replace the Army Tactical Missile System. Prototypes will be ready for testing next year and the Army hopes the weapon will be introduced by 2023.

The Extended Range Cannon Artillery project will upgrade its 155 milimeter artillery weapons with rocket-assisted projectiles and an upgraded breech to extend its range to 43 miles. It will also create an improved auto-loading mechanism to increase rate of fire to six to 10 rounds per minute. These are expected to be ready by 2023.In the long-term, the Army is researching the feasibility of futuristic hypervelocity and electromagnetic weapons, which others branches of the military have already had some success with.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-war-russia-leave-american-154659544.html

SSGN:
Behind the walls of the Pentagon lies the most powerful military machine the world has ever known since the days of Imperial Rome. In terms of raw combat power the U.S is unmatched. And its not even close. There is literally no other military on the planet that has the power to actually project threat to every other nation on the globe in the conventional sense.

Now I do not wish to sound melodramatic but I do wish to impress upon you that the United States military has an unprecedented and unparalleled ability to destroy. Numerical superiority, quality of weapon systems, rapid deployability of troops, superior logistical operations, recent and relevant combat experience, and the level of training of individual soldiers and combat units all contribute to the reason why the US military is the most powerful in the world.

But sometimes the world is quick to forget this. We look at the America’s 15 year battle with the Taliban, ISIS, etc and are quick to draw parallel. The truth is most conventional armies are not built and trained to fight urban guerrilla fighters who don’t play fair, and who have the media behind them. If al-Queada wore a uniform, and ISIS didn’t hold citizens as human shields, they will be swiped out in minutes.

Unfortunately some countries are pron to look at the insane political correct way the U.S conducts most of its wars and make make judgements based on that and do stupid things. ,until that is, someone gets hurt.

Unfortunately the Russians found out the hard way. A very costly way to learn a lesson sadly.

Recordings have emerged in which Russian mercenaries subjected to a joint U.S. strike that killed dozens of their comrades describe the incident as “a total fuckup.”

Polygraph.info, a Voice of America project, published three recordings, which it received from a source close to the Kremlin. The source said that the recorded phone calls were made by personnel from CHVK Wagner, a Russian private military company.

7 February 2018.

On the night of 7 February 2018, Syrian government forces, backed by Russian Special Forces troops attempted to capture an oil refinery near the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor. Now ordinarily this will seem an irrational and risky move, but the Russian President Vladimir Putin has for months unend been proclaiming the invincibility of the Russian military showcasing its latest missile technologies..and hey, Russian military power did roll back ISIS advance and practically save the Assad Regime after all.

So with confidence and bravado the Russians decided to carry out its suicidal move. Now, either out of ignorance, incompetence or both, they failed to take into account U.S military doctrine. Like i said earlier, the U.S cares a great deal about defenses. American troops coming home in body bags is terrible PR, so a lot is invested in defending its forces. Whether out at sea with its Carrier Battle Groups, or in the dunes of the Middle East, U.S forces are saturated with active and passive defenses for defeating threats.

On land the most prominent of its array of early warning systems is its fleet of Reaper and predator drones that can detect approaching threats over vast distances. These drones and integrated together with forces on the ground for coordinated action against adversaries. As such the Russians and Syrians were unaware the Americans have seen their advance from miles out.

After Russian personnel came into contact with American troops stationed there, the U.S. forces responded with a simultaneous artillery and airstrikes.

Polygraph.info transcribed and translated the conversations recorded.

In the first audio clip, a man says, “One squadron fucking lost 200 people…right away, another one lost 10 people…and I don’t know about the third squadron but it got torn up pretty badly, too…. So three squadrons took a beating.”

The man explains that American forced used artillery and helicopter gunships to repel the assault.

“They were all shelling the holy Bleep out of it, and our guys didn’t have anything besides the assault rifles…. Nothing at all, I’m not even talking about shoulder-fired SAMs or anything like that…. They tore us to pieces, put us through hell,” he says.

The speaker is also critical of the Russian government’s response to the incident, saying :

“They beat our asses like we were little pieces of shit…but our fucking government will go in reverse now, and nobody will respond or anything and nobody will punish anyone for this.”

“My guys just called me, they are sitting there drinking, many are MIA, it’s a total fuckup, another humiliation…. Nobody gives a Bleep about us.”

In a second clip, a man explains that the battle quickly descended into a massacre as the Russians lost all armored support.

“Out of all vehicles only one tank survived and one BRDM (Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle) after the attack, all other BRDMs and tanks were destroyed in the first minutes of the fight, right away.”

gettyimages-847679880.jpg
A Russian military personnel in a military helicopter in Syria.
In the third clip, a man can be heard explaining the Russian convoy was a few hundred meters away from target when the American forces raised their flag and hit the Russians with a heavy artillery barrage, wiping out the first column instantly. “We got our fucking asses beat rough, the Yankees made their point,” he said. “What were they hoping for, that the Yankees are just going to Bleep off?… It’s bullshit, some people can’t even be fucking ID’ed, too many people there.”

In another of the clips, a man claims, “There are about 215 fucking killed” on the Russian side.

It has been reported that up to 300 Russians may have died in the strikes. The Kremlin initially denied all reports of Russians being involved in the incident. However, in recent days, Russia’s foreign ministry has acknowledged that “several dozen” Russians were killed or wounded.

A foreign ministry report said, “Russian service members did not take part in any capacity, and Russian equipment was not used.” It said those involved were “Russian citizens” who were in Syria “of their own free will and for different reasons.”

https://defensenigeria.com/2018/03/24/hidden-facts-the-day-u-s-forces-massacred-300-russian-soldiers-in-syria/

You dont know the fact of that story.Those Russian personnel killed were actually mercenaries,fighting for pure monetary gains and not Russian special forces..they took a big gamble and it failed woefully....it it were a Russian operation,they wont have gone in blind(without air cover).

EVarn:
France has considerable military capabilities,and can carry out air and naval strikes on key Syrian positions. Russian SAMs are not omnipotent.

FORGET THE THOUGH TALK,MACRON KNOWS BETTER NOT TO TAKE MILITARY ACTION IN SYRIA DIRECTLY.

EVarn:
Emmanuel Macron has threatened that "France will strike" if it is confirmed that Assad gased Ghouta. We shouldn't forget that something similar happened in 2013, and the U.S. even resolved to take military action against the Syrian government, it was Russian diplomatic intervention and Assad's timely decision to disarm Syria of all its chemical munitions that stayed Obama's hand.

what will France strike with? Don't take the word of a teenager who was assaulted by his teacher(wife)too seriously...the last thing the world wants to see is french jets been brought down by Russian Sam's..it Wld be pathetic..