readiness”, it has been claimed.
The defense readiness condition, dubbed DEFCON, is an alert system used by the US military to indicate the risk of nuclear war. The system has five levels of readiness, or states of alert, increasing in severity from DEFCON 5 – the least severe – to DEFCON 1 – the most severe.he current DEFCON level is understood to be 5 – the lowest state of readiness.
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The CIA is prepping for possible cyber strike against Russia (NBC News)
The Obama administration is contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia in retaliation for alleged Russian interference in the American presidential election, U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.
If its covert, why are they telling us?
Current and former officials with direct knowledge of the situation say the CIA has been asked to deliver options to the White House for a wide-ranging “clandestine” cyber operation designed to harass and “embarrass” the Kremlin leadership.
The sources did not elaborate on the exact measures the CIA was considering, but said the agency had already begun opening cyber doors, selecting targets and making other preparations for an operation. Former intelligence officers told NBC News that the agency had gathered reams of documents that could expose unsavory tactics by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Moscow Prepares for War (ABC News)
With tensions between Russia and the United States at their highest since the Cold War, there have been alarming signs coming out of Moscow that suggest the country is ready for war.
There are some unsettling things Russia has done, however, to give the impression that war is looming:
Beware the ‘Nuclear Dimensions’
As the confrontation between the United and Russia has worsened over Syria, and amid speculation Washington might launch airstrikes against Syrian government forces, Russian state-controlled media has gone into high gear, asking Russians whether they are prepared for nuclear war.
“If that should one day happen, each of you must know where the nearest bomb shelter is,” a report on the state-controlled network, NTV, noted, before taking viewers on a tour of a nuclear bunker in Moscow.
PHOTO: Novosibirsk Region Governor Vladimir Gorodetsky ,center, attends shooting exercises at Shilovsky range, Oct. 14, 2016.Kirill Kukhmar/TASS Photo via Newscom
Novosibirsk Region Governor Vladimir Gorodetsky ,center, attends shooting exercises at Shilovsky range, Oct. 14, 2016.
State outlets, already solidly anti-American in their coverage, have unleashed themselves further, indulging in bitter denunciations of America duplicity, bombastic promises of merciless defenses and freely bandying the nuclear card. Russia’s main current affairs show, hosted by a man known by critics as the country’s “propagandist-in-chief,” warned American “impudence” could take on “nuclear dimensions,” then spending 40 minutes taking viewers through a panoply of potential nuclear options Russia possesses if the United States were to intervene too strongly in Syria. The host, Evgeny Kiselyov, described how three Russian missile frigates this week had sailed toward Syria to head off potential U.S. airstrikes against Syrian military targets.
“Incidentally,” Kiselyov told his audience, the ships missiles “also [come] in a nuclear version. Which version is aboard our missile frigates right now isn’t known.”
Check Your Gas Masks
This month Russia held a large-scale civil defense drill across the country, meant to prepare people for disasters, among them nuclear catastrophe. The drill, which Russian authorities claimed affected 40 million people, and particularly the way it was presented on state television, resembled Soviet-era exercises, with scenes of schoolchildren flooding out in evacuations and being taught to hurriedly pull on gas masks.
Who’s in Charge Here?
Russia’s defense ministry has announced how the country would function in time of war, clarifying which government bodies would take command. The answer was largely it would, taking control of governor’s offices, local administrations and the police. The military simulated that scenario during a huge exercise in southern Russia.
The Sound of Saber-Rattling
The maneuvers took on harder forms as well. This week, Russia deployed nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad, its northern European enclave between Poland and Lithuania that put the weapons within striking distance of Western capitals. Moscow has threatened before to deploy the Iskander-M missiles to Kaliningrad, in response, it says, to the establishment of the U.S. anti-missile shield being erected in Eastern Europe. But this week’s deployment came sooner than expected, with analysts suggesting that indicated the Kremlin wanted to play it as part of the broader saber-rattling display in the confrontation around Syria.
From Land or Sea
PHOTO: A man looks at a Russian Topol intercontinental ballistic missile la