16 nov 2014 Marine & Océans (AFP)

Brisbane (Australie) - Le président François Hollande a souligné dimanche qu'il prendrait sa décision sur la livraison des navires de guerre Mistral à la Russie, reportée jusqu'au règlement de la crise en Ukraine, "en dehors de toute pression".

"Je prendrai ma décision en dehors de toute pression, d'où qu'elle vienne et en fonction de deux critères, les intérêts de la France et l'appréciation que j'ai de la situation", a-t-il déclaré lors d'une conférence de presse à l'issue du G20.

"Il n'y a pas de pression non plus du temps", a-t-il ajouté, assurant que la France était "pour l'instant dans les règles" fixées par le contrat et qu'il ne se posait "donc pas la question aujourd'hui de compensations" qui devraient être versées à Moscou si ces navires n'étaient finalement pas livrés.

"Cette question du Mistral n'a pas été posée du tout ici, ni par des partenaires au sein du G20 ni par le président (russe Vladimir) Poutine lors de notre entretien (samedi soir en marge du G20) parce que ce n'était pas le lieu", a confirmé le chef de l'Etat français.

Vivement interpellé par son prédécesseur, Nicolas Sarkozy, qui a jugé samedi que la France devait "honorer sa parole" et livrer les deux Mistral à la Russie et raillé son attitude "piteuse", François Hollande s'est refusé à "polémiquer" avec lui.

"Je ne vais pas polémiquer avec un candidat dans des élections partisanes (pour la présidence de l'UMP) et qui se laisse forcément aller à des facilités qui n'ont pas cours ici", a-t-il martelé.

A la veille de l'ouverture du G20 de Brisbane, une dépêche de l'agence russe Ria Novosti citant une source haut placée à Moscou, avait fait monter la pression d'un cran, la France se voyant sommée par cette source anonyme de livrer un premier Mistral avant fin novembre, sauf à s'exposer à de "sérieuses" demandes de compensation.

Les Mistral, des "bâtiments de projection et de commandement" (BPC) vendus par la France à la Russie en juin 2011 pour 1,2 milliard d'euros sous la présidence de Nicolas Sarkozy, sont au centre d'un imbroglio diplomatico-militaire depuis que François Hollande a décidé début septembre de lier leur livraison à un règlement politique de la crise en Ukraine.

François Hollande a répété à plusieurs reprises que le cessez-le-feu devait être "entièrement respecté" en Ukraine, avant que Paris ne procède à la livraison du premier navire, le Vladivostok, initialement prévue en octobre.

16.11.2014 BBC Afrique

Au Nigeria, la ville de Chiko a été récupérée des mains de Boko Haram, selon l'armée.

L’armée du Nigeria affirme qu’elle contrôle maintenant la ville de Chibok, dans le nord-est du pays. La localité était tombée vendredi aux mains des combattants du groupe islamiste armé Boko Haram.

Ces derniers détiennent en otage plus de 200 filles de cette ville depuis avril dernier.

L’armée nigériane assure maintenant la sécurité des habitants de cette localité, selon son porte-parole, le général Olajide Olaleye.

Il affirme que les "opérations de nettoyage" se poursuivent toutefois à Chibok.

Des combats opposant les militants de Boko Haram à des miliciens locaux ont duré plusieurs heures, jeudi après-midi. "L'armée a encore repris le contrôle de Chibok à 18h30 GMT, hier (samedi) soir", a déclaré à l'AFP le général Olaleye.

Pogu Bitrus, le chef des notables de la localité, a lui aussi annoncé que "depuis 17H00 GMT hier (samedi), il n'y a plus aucun combattant de Boko Haram à Chibok".

S'enfuir

Des habitants de la ville ont affirmé que l'armée avait fui jeudi à l'arrivée des assaillants dans la ville, laissant les miliciens combattre seuls.

"Les miliciens sont entrés dans Chibok et les soldats sont restés à l'extérieur de la ville pour capturer les insurgés qui essayaient de s'enfuir", a précisé Pogu Bitrus.

Boko Haram, dont l'insurrection a fait plus de 10 mille morts depuis 2009, a pris le contrôle de plus d'une vingtaine de villes et villages dans le nord-est du Nigeria, durant ces derniers mois.

11/15/2014 Strategy Page

The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team takes off for their performance Nov. 8, 2014, during an open house event at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The two-day open house featured performances from legacy aircraft such as the P-51 Mustang, and modern aircraft such as the F-22 Raptor. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Christian Clausen)

MOSCOU, 16 novembre - RIA Novosti

Les vols d'avions militaires russes représentent une menace pour l'aviation civile européenne, estime le secrétaire général de l'Otan Jens Stoltenberg.

"Les forces aériennes russe ont intensifié leurs vols le long des frontières de l'Otan. Le problème, c'est que les pilotes russes n'allument souvent pas leurs émetteurs, ne dévoilent pas leurs plans de vol et ne sont pas en contact avec les contrôleurs aériens civils", a déclaré M.Stoltenberg dans une interview accordée au journal Telegraph.

"Cela pose un risque pour l'aviation civile, et c'est un problème, compte tenu du fait que l'activité des forces aériennes russes s'est intensifiée", a-t-il indiqué.

Dans ce contexte, le SG de l'Alliance atlantique a exhorté la partie russe à respecter les normes réglementant les vols dans l'espace aérien européen.

BEYROUTH, 16 novembre - RIA Novosti

1153 personnes ont trouvé la mort depuis le début du siège de la ville syrienne de Kobané (nord) le 16 septembre, rapportent les médias occidentaux citant l'Observatoire syrien des droits de l'homme (OSDH) basé à Londres.

Selon l'OSDH, les hostilités ont fait 397 morts dans les rangs des combattants kurdes qui défendent la ville face aux djihadistes de l'Etat islamique (EI), ainsi que 27 morts parmi les civils. Côté islamistes, plus de 700 combattants ont été éliminés.

A l'heure actuelle, l'EI contrôle certaines banlieues de Kobané, grand centre de l'autonomie kurde en Syrie, ainsi que des dizaines de villages situés à ses alentours. Les combats les plus feroces se déroulent dans la partie est de la ville.

Le groupe sunnite terroriste Etat islamique, lié à Al-Qaïda, a gagné en puissance lors de ses opérations en Syrie, où il combat les troupes gouvernementales. L'EI a la réputation d'une des formations djihadistes les plus cruelles.

Il y a quelques mois, cette organisation a intensifié ses activités en Irak. Fin juillet, l'EI a proclamé un "califat islamique" sur les territoires irakiens et syriens tombés sous son contrôle.

Depuis le 8 août, l'aviation américaine effectue des frappes contre les positions des djihadistes en Irak. Le 23 septembre, les Etats-Unis ont commencé à bombarder les positions de l'EI en Syrie.

13/11/2014 Victor POULAIN - Armée de Terre

Du 3 au 8 novembre, près de 100 militaires réservistes et d’active de la 3e brigade légère blindée (3e BLB) et de la délégation militaire départementale du Puy-de-Dôme ont participé à l’exercice ABRUZZES, dans la région d’Issoire.

Cet exercice consistait à mobiliser des réservistes dans le cadre du Guépard Réserve.  Le principe de ce dispositif est de pouvoir disposer d’un vivier de volontaires issus des unités de réserve capables d’être engagés sous un préavis de 48 heures et durant 8 jours. Le Guépard Réserve est prévu pour porter assistance, notamment, à la population sur le territoire national, en cas de catastrophe naturelle. Dans les conditions les plus proches de celles rencontrées en cas de catastrophe, les réservistes d’astreinte de la 3e BLB ont été réquisitionnés par la préfecture du Puy-de-Dôme et prévenus par téléphone. Ils ont donc quitté leurs activités civiles pour constituer une unité d’environ 80 hommes et femmes et s’exercer à l’évacuation et à la protection de la population sur fond d’inondation et d’importants mouvements sociaux.

Afin de répondre à ses besoins opérationnels, l’armée de Terre place en permanence 800 réservistes en alerte, en complément des unités d’active.

16 novembre 2014 JDD

Le président français a souligné dimanche à l'issue du G20 australien qu'il prendrait sa décision sur la livraison des Mistral à la Russie "en dehors de toute pression".

"Pour l'instant, la Russie n'est pas un partenaire sur lequel on peut compter pour obtenir une désescalade en Ukraine." Le constat est signé d'une source diplomatique française interrogée samedi par le JDD et qui estime que "les conditions ne sont pas réunies" pour que la France livre enfin le premier des deux porte-hélicoptères Mistral à la marine russe. "La phase de tension et de refroidissement" n'est donc pas terminée, loin s'en faut, et cela explique en partie pourquoi le sujet de la livraison des Mistral n'a pas été évoqué lors de la rencontre Poutine-Hollande samedi, en marge du G20. D'autant que la veille, une source au Kremlin avait annoncé un délai de quinze jours pour que la France respecte les termes du contrat. Commentaire d'un officiel français : la France a "sa propre échéance". Selon nos informations, les autorités françaises estiment même possible, "après analyse juridique", d'interpréter certaines clauses du contrat donnant à la France "quelques semaines, voire quelques mois" pour autoriser la licence d'exportation des Mistral.

Suite de l'article

November 15, 2014: Strategy Page

Despite the continued fighting in the east and attacks on some oil fields, oil shipments have continued. There have been some interruptions recently, but the national oil company has managed to cope and is still on schedule to get oil shipments up to a million barrels a day by the end of the year. That goal is threated by undisciplined factions technically allied with the Tripoli government who continue to fight over control of oil facilities even though this is counterproductive (these factions have no way to selling any oil they seize). Oil shipments peaked at 800,000 barrels a day in September but have since dropped to 500,000 a day. Pre-2011 shipments were three time that.

The battle for Benghazi continues. For over a month there has been heavy fighting as some Islamic terror groups refuse to leave the city and fight to the death. The pro-government forces of general Hiftar are using artillery, air power and armored vehicles to methodically kill the remaining Islamic terrorists in the city. A month of this sort of thing has created several thousand casualties, including over 400 dead. One the major side effects of all this fighting was the disruption of the normal activities in the city. As the largest city in Eastern Libya, Benghazi contained essential administrative and logistical (warehouses with key items like medical supplies) operations. The disruption caused by the fighting created shortages of medical supplies and interrupted administrative support for many oil facilities in the east. Everyone concerned had to scramble to make alternate arrangements.

In the southeast the army has another problem with the growing number of Islamic terrorist camps being set up in southwest Libya (where the borders of Libya, Algeria and Niger meet). Algeria and Niger are hard pressed to prevent all illegal crossings. As many Islamic terrorists are caught doing so, many more make it through. Malian Islamic terrorists from bases in southern Libya are now regularly moving south to carry out operations in northern Mali. All this is possible because of the Libyan civil war. That conflict is mainly up north along the coast and no one bothers with Islamic terrorists who only kill across the border in Mali. There is a similar problem in Afghanistan with Islamic terrorists operations from several sanctuary areas in neighboring Pakistan and Iran. French and American intelligence know a lot about all the illegal activity in southern Libya. UAVs and satellites reveal details of Islamic terrorist camps and convoys sneaking across the southern borders. Local spies and informants are used to obtain more detailed information and from that it is known that most of the armed men in the south are more intent on making money (usually smuggling guns, drugs or people) than Islamic terrorism. The big problem in southern Libya is that there is no law, aside from what little local tribal elders will hand out concerning tribal matters. The Libyan government has some security forces down there, but they are largely confined to the few towns in the desert area. The Tobruk government says it will deal with the lawless south as soon as it deals with a rival Islamic terrorist backed government in Tripoli.

Libya continues to come apart as a nation. The Tripoli and Tobruk governments have agreed to not interfere with oil operations, but the Tripoli government does not control all the Islamic terrorist groups that are technically under its command. Despite that there is a general understanding that the oil income, which the Tobruk government largely controls, buys essentials (like food) that will continue to be distributed to all Libyans. So far that seems to be working. This is what always mattered most because the oil money pays for everything. The cash from oil sales is going into the Central Bank, which tends to answer to the Tobruk parliament because that is the one with international recognition and that provides access to the international banking system. The various factions are pressuring the Central Bank and courts to favor them but it is the international community that controls the ability of Libya to buy essential (most of the food and everything else) needed to keep Libyans alive recognizes the Tobruck officials. That internationally recognized government set up shop in the small port city of Tobruk (1,600 kilometers east of Tripoli) after encountering hostility from militias loyal to the pre-June government. Many other government offices moved as well and are finding space where they can. The rebel governments in Tripoli and the Tobruk are fighting over who controls more than $100 billion held by the Central Bank. A lot of that cash is overseas and since Tobruk has international and UN support the Tripoli rebels are having a hard time maintaining control of any oil income. If the Tripoli government tries to sell oil on the black market they will have most of the world going after them with bank account shutdowns and seizure of the tankers they use (either in port or on the high seas). In the end, it’s the oil money that will bring peace, or abject poverty for all. The government is running out of cash and credit. Another year or two of this and life gets very miserable for Libyans. The UN speaks of Libya has sliding into a state of anarchy. No one is willing to intervene militarily and the UN has constant problems with gangsters and Islamic terrorists attacking air efforts. This could end very badly.

The Tripoli government has support from Turkey, Sudan and Qatar while the Tobruk government has most of the world recognizing it, along with most of the Islamic world. This is especially true with neighboring Egypt and most of the Arab oil states. Egypt has proclaimed that it will not intervene militarily. While that is the official position Egypt is apparently providing substantial, and secret, support to the Hiftar forces. This comes in the form of air support, weapons and other military supplies and even some Egyptian special operations troops. A major concern of the Egyptians is the movement of weapons and Islamic terrorists into Egypt and there are a lot more Egyptian troops and police on the Libyan border in the past few months. What the Egyptians need is pro-Egypt forces controlling the Libyan side of the frontier. Thus the support for the Hiftar coalition, which arose in Eastern Libya as a coalition of Libyan Army units, tribal militias and anti-Islamic terrorist groups. Hiftar is now officially part of the Tobruk government armed forces.

Most Libyans are fed up with the continuing violence. The 2011 rebellion against Kadaffi left over 30,000 dead but the infighting since then has killed nearly as many. Most major factions agree on peace but Islamic terrorist groups in Tripoli and Benghazi, aided by tribal factions that want more power and money, continue to fight.

November 14, 2014: Hiftar forces in Benghazi handed over nine Turks they had arrested in Benghazi two weeks ago. The Hiftar forces determined that the Turks were innocent of any crimes and were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Tobruk government was in the process of turning the Turks over to the Turkish government via the UN.

November 13, 2014: In Tripoli two car bombs went off near Egyptian and United Arab Emirates embassies. There were apparently no casualties. The embassies were boarded up and closed earlier this year.

November 12, 2014: In Tobruk two car bombs went off near the Oil Institute, killing three and wounding more than twenty. Another large explosion occurred at an air base near the eastern city of Bayda (controlled by the Tobruk government). This has disrupted commercial flights that now operate from that air base.

November 9, 2014: In the east (Shahat) a bomb went off in the town near where the UN was hosting talks with officials from the Tobruk government. There were no injuries. In the west (Tripoli) a group of gunmen attacked a bank and stole $1.3 million.

November 6, 2014: In Tripoli the constitutional court declared invalid the June 25th vote that elected the parliament that currently operates in Tobruk. The Tobruk government rejected this and accused the judges of succumbing to pressure from Islamic terrorist militias that control Tripoli and often use intimidation to get their way.

November 5, 2014: Britain has begun flying home nearly 300 Libyan officer trainees before their 24 week training was completed. Five of the Libyans did not leave as they are being held on rape charges. Three of these Libyans are charged with raping women and two of raping a man. The Libyans had arrived in June and within a month locals were complaining of Libyans coming into nearby communities and behaving badly. This was not supposed to happen as the Libyans were selected to receive combat and leadership training so they could better train and command troops back in Libya. British authorities were surprised by the bad behavior and responded by ordering the Libyans restricted to the 80 hectare (200 acre) base where they lived and trained. In August this led to a mutiny among some of the Libyans after British officers in charge of the training put three of the trainees under guard after police picked them up for being off base without permission. Then twenty other trainees went and threatened the British soldier guarding the three Libyan trainees. The British guard let the three go free rather than risk violence. Senior officers were uncertain about how to handle this insubordination. The situation went downhill from there. The Libyans were not only undisciplined but also unreliable. They would agree to certain conditions (as in how they behaved towards civilians on and off the base, especially women) and then ignore those agreements. When confronted they would plead ignorance of British customs and refused to accept responsibility. The Libyans also constantly fought among themselves. Although depicting themselves as devout Moslems many of them would go to the village, get drunk and commit crimes. Some blamed the British for making alcohol too easy to obtain. The British tried to cope with all this by stationing hundreds of armed soldiers in nearby communities and on the base to prevent the Libyans from getting out of hand. This did not work either. At least twenty of the Libyans tried to apply for political asylum. This was denied after the rape incidents in late October and the decision was made to send all the Libyans home. The five in jail will face trial early next year. Not all the trainees misbehaved and some of them were hastily given a graduation ceremony even though the training was a few weeks short of completion. This group of Libyans, selected from many pro-government factions, gave Britons an up-close exposure to the kind of thinking and behavior that is tearing Libya apart.

November 3, 2014: In Benghazi an RPG fired from a high rise building (apparently by an Islamic terrorist) hit a ship in the government controlled port area and caused a fire on board.                                                     

November 1, 2014:  The pro-government Labraq airport east of Benghazi has been temporarily closed until security forces can shut down the groups who have been firing rockets into the airport area.

The Hiftar forces also say they have proof that Qatar was sending weapons and military equipment to Islamic terrorist groups in Libya. The proof comes in the form of an aircraft from Qatar that landed in an airport controlled by Hiftar forces and was seized and searched.        

October 31, 2014: Pro-government forces claim to control 80 percent of Benghazi but the remaining Islamic terrorists are fighting to the death and will require another few weeks of effort to clear out. Meanwhile many of the Islamic terrorists who quickly got out of the city when the offensive began over a month ago have set up operations outside the city and throughout eastern Libya. These groups will have to be taken down one at a time.

October 25, 2014: Libya has asked for foreign assistance in destroying its remaining stockpile of raw materials for making nerve gas. Although facilities for the destruction of this stuff have been built in Libya and Libyans trained to do it, the chaos in Libya since the Kaddafi government was overthrown in 2011 have prevented the work from being done. So the Libyans are asking for the 850 tons of chemicals to be shipped out and destroyed overseas as was recently done with a similar Syrian stockpile.

October 24, 2014: In the east (Benghazi) pro-government forces seized the largest Islamic terrorist base in the city.

11/14/2014 Strategy Page

The F-35C completes catapults and arrestments aboard the USS Nimitz during Developmental Testing I (DT-I), which is the first of three at-sea test phases planned for the U.S. Navy's F-35C carrier variant. Lockheed-Martin Photo

Nov. 15, 2014 - By AARON MEHTA – Defense News

WASHINGTON — After a relatively quiet summer, the battle for the future of the A-10 Warthog exploded in the last two weeks, reopening deep fissures between Congress and the US Air Force that seem to show the two sides at a total stalemate.

The A-10 issue — the Air Force wants to scrap it, Congress wants to keep it — has aroused a passionate array of protectors in a way the Air Force seemed unprepared to deal with. At this point, neither side in the debate is willing to trust the other’s ideas or facts.

Deborah Lee James, service secretary, acknowledged in July that the service needs to do a better job of showing “consistency” to members of Congress, and the drive to better relations with the Hill was highlighted as a key part in the service’s newest 30-year strategy document.

While that is a noble goal, those in the trenches indicate trust is still a hard concept for the two sides, particularly when the A-10 is involved.

The relations between the Hill and the Air Force have been degrading since the middle of the last decade, said Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute.

“There is no doubt that is an issue, and this current crop of leadership has tried hard to steer the vessel in a new direction and to slowly move the organization back to a place of mutual trust with the Hill,” Eaglen said.

The current A-10 fight “just goes to show how deep the damage has been and how lasting the effects are,” she added.

Emotions are running high on both sides, creating a winner-take-all culture that is unlikely to result in any sort of compromise.

One Hill staffer who has been engaged with the service on the A-10 issue said there is a feeling the service plays with facts and figures to force its argument down the throat of Congress.

“Their arguments come up, don’t stand up to facts, we push back, we don’t get satisfying responses, and my assessment is the Air Force wants to retire the A-10 and they don’t want to find a solution to make it work,” the staffer said.

Rep. Ron Barber, an Arizona Democrat who made saving the A-10 a key part of his re-election campaign, expressed frustration with the service during a Nov. 13 rally in support of the plane.

“We’ve seen several attempts by the Air Force to go around our decisions, to make moves to divest even though we told them not to,” Barber added, his voice rising in anger. “We will continue to tell them to listen to the will of Congress.

“The Air Force, they are persistent. But so are we. We’re not going to give up this fight until we prevail.”

On the other side, two Air Force officials complained that the Hill ignores the service’s analysis supporting the need to retire the Warthog.

Those officials singled out Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., as particularly dug in on the issue, and complained that her office doesn’t offer any alternatives when it rejects options brought forth from the Air Force.

“The options, we’ve [explained] — in exquisite detail — why those aren’t feasible options,” one official said, “it comes down to, she just doesn’t believe us.”

“If they had something to offer, believe me, we would go take a look at it,” the second official said.

Maintenance Battle Lines

The latest fight over maintainers is a perfect summary of the situation.

The Air Force is claiming that its planned Aug. 16 initial operating capability (IOC) date for its fleet of F-35A joint strike fighters is now in peril because the A-10 cannot be retired, as a large chunk of the 1,100 maintainers needed for IOC on the stealthy jet were to be moved from the stood-down fleet of Warthogs.

Members of Congress who appeared at a Nov. 13 event supporting the A-10, including Ayotte, expressed skepticism over the sudden use of the F-35 as a talking point.

“The Air Force has continued to make this a false choice between the F-35 and the A-10,” Ayotte said, noting the argument has just appeared on the scene after previous talking points failed to retire the Warthog. “How many different arguments has the Air Force made along the way?”

“I’m not trying to impugn their motives,” the senator later told Defense News. “I just think they have been of the mindset from the beginning to retire this airframe, and that mindset doesn’t seem to have shifted despite the Congress weighing in pretty clearly on this.”

The service officials countered by saying they looked at 11 choices for how to handle this issue, and while it weighed them all, the A-10 retirement remains the best choice.

Take two of those 11 choices as examples of the “he said, she said” nature of the discussion.

One option would involve finding Air National Guard volunteers to come online and take over some F-35 maintenance work. The Air Force officials said that plan has many flaws, including requiring pulling Guardsmen from their units and the fact their civilian jobs would not be guaranteed without a full mobilization order from the president.

The staffer disagreed with that assessment, concluding that the service could find a way to make it work. “After interviews and exchanges I’ve had with the Air Force, I was left with the impression they have not fully explored the mobilization option,” the staffer said.

What about turning to contract maintainers? Could Lockheed Martin workers, already familiar with the F-35, chip in?

The Air Force claims it will take a year to spin up those contractors and establish a contract vehicle to get them on board. But the staffer believes there is a contracting vehicle in place through existing agreements with Lockheed.

Eaglen believes both sides have an argument, but are simply talking past each other at this point.

“The Hill is right the Air Force has lots of options, and the Air Force is right they probably chose the best one,” she said. “Just because there is another option doesn’t make it the best option that hurts the [least].”

Perhaps most telling, the Air Force is talking with members of the Hill about a partial retirement — shutting down three A-10 squadrons, or about 72 planes, which the service officials said would free up enough maintainers to handle F-35A IOC.

On the face, that would seem like a compromise. The Air Force gets enough planes retired for its requirement, while keeping the Warthog around to protect troops on the ground. But the Hill staffer derided that idea, calling it “just another version of the same plan to divest the A-10, and that is not a compromise.

“There is a pattern here of ‘give me what I’m asking for,’ but framing it as a compromise,” the staffer said. “This is not the first time they’ve done this. They tried to send some to the boneyard and called it a ‘compromise.’ That’s not a compromise. That’s how you divest things.”

Both Barber and Ayotte have rejected that option, leaving the service and Congress once again at loggerheads — and growing increasingly frustrated with each other.

“The Air Force doesn’t want to find a creative solution of fully [maintaining] the F-35A, which is a requirement they’ve known about for years and should not have been surprised by,” the staffer said. “The question is whether they want to.”

“We’ve gone through it and they haven’t been able to provide us with a viable option,” the first Air Force official countered.

At the start of the summer, Eaglen expected the A-10 fight to end as these things usually do — with the Air Force getting its way, even if it had to wait a year or two. Now, she’s not certain that is true.

“I’m surprised at the ferocity of the A-10 community,” she said. “They punch above their weight class. I’ve seen this fight play out a million times before and it doesn’t turn out this way normally. Eventually the services get their way. But there are always exceptions, and this may prove to be one of them.

15-11-2014 Par RFI

Les frappes aériennes de la coalition internationale se poursuivent en Irak et dans le nord de la Syrie contre l'organisation Etat islamique. L'armée irakienne a par ailleurs remporté une grande victoire en reprenant le contrôle du barrage d'Adhaïm. Mais le groupe EI entend prouver qu'il n'est pas affaibli. Après la diffusion d'un message audio de son chef Abou Bakr al-Baghdadi censé démontrer qu'il n'a pas été tué, l'organisation terroriste a annoncé coup sur coup son intention de battre monnaie ainsi que l'exécution d'un de ses chefs, accusé de vol.

L'organisation a annoncé vendredi la décapitation et la crucifixion d'un de ses chefs, près de Deir Ezzor dans l'est syrien. Le supplicié, un commandant jihadiste syrien accusé de « détournement de fonds » aurait été exécuté sur ordre d'Abou Bakr al-Baghdadi, « pour avoir volé l'argent des musulmans », selon l'écriteau manuscrit déposé sur sa dépouille exposée à la population. Une façon pour le groupe EI de prouver que sa justice s'applique à tous sans distinction.

Suite de l’article

November 14, 2014. Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D - lexingtoninstitute.org

The A-10 Thunderbolt II, affectionately known as the Warthog, has become a drag on American air power.  Conceived during the Vietnam War to provide close air support to ground forces, the 40-year-old tank killer is outdated — too slow to survive in contested air space, too focused on a single mission to give the joint force the flexibility it needs.  And yet a handful of legislators are seeking to block retirement of the aging Warthog, even though that means depriving the next-generation F-35A fighter of the experienced maintainers it needs to become operational in 2016.  Rather than letting fond memories of the Warthog’s former glory impede progress, Congress should give the Air Force the flexibility it needs to manage its fleet.  Failing in that, Congress should loosen spending caps legislated in 2011 so that keeping A-10 in the force doesn’t harm other facets of U.S. air power.  I have written a commentary for Forbes here.