19 June 2009: Good morning America! On June 3, either an attempted attack on the economy of the U.S. on an unprecedented scale was narrowly averted–or a criminal conspiracy involving the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve that would legitimize the most radical of globalist conspiracies of all time–was exposed. In either event, a deliberate media blackout was employed in the U.S. When news of the event gained traction in the foreign media, the U.S. media was compelled to report it as well, but only after facts could be changed and damage control employed by the highest levels of the U.S. government, aided and abetted by faceless global powerbrokers.
The event involves the smuggling of $134.5 billion in U.S. government bearer bonds, which by no coincidence, happens to be the exact amount remaining in the U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program [TARP] as announced by the Department of the Treasury on March 30, 2009.
But the beginning of this story should go back to September 18, 2008, the day when a now, all but forgotten rare money market run nearly destroyed the entire US economy.
In the words of Paul Kanjorski, Democrat member of Congress from Pennsylvania, to C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on January 27, 2009:
“On Thursday at about 11 o’clock in the morning, the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous drawdown of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550 billion was being drawn out in a matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help. It pumped $105 billion in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn’t be further panic out there.”
Now, getting back to the smuggling of $134.5 billion in U.S. government bearer bonds:
Even as we report this, the story is continuing to evolve, not by erroneous first reports, but by the deliberate scrubbing and sanitizing of facts. Not only are the facts being scrubbed, but the perpetrators are disappearing just like a murderer who attempts to scrub clean the blood from the crime scene. But even the best attempts are never enough to rid all traces of the crime.
Since this crime was initially reported in the German and Japanese media exactly one week ago, professional investigators from the Northeast Intelligence Network and veteran journalists from Canada Free Press teamed up to uncover as many facts about this case as possible. During the course of our investigation, we quietly contacted and interviewed a number of law enforcement and intelligence sources from three countries on two continents. Exhaustive research into not only the facts of this case, but into related areas and historical events was also performed during our coordinated investigation.
The following represents our initial but very disturbing findings, with additional information promised to follow.
The Crime
On Wednesday, June 3 2009, Italian police arrested two “unidentified Japanese nationals” illegally crossing the border from Italy into Switzerland carrying $134.5 billion dollars in US government bearer bonds in a false-bottomed briefcase. The men were arrested in Chiasso, on the border between Italy and Switzerland by Italy’s financial police (Guardia Italiana di Finanza).
The securities confiscated by authorities were identified as follows: 249 certificates worth $500 million each, and ten certificates, further identified as “Kennedy Bonds” worth $1 billion each. A bearer bond is a debt security issued by governments or large corporations, and is much like cash because it does not require any ownership registration, thus providing anonymity to those possessing such an instrument. The large face amounts and the anonymity of ownership obviously make bearer bonds enviable to possess. In this case, the bonds were reportedly issued by the U.S. government.
It is relevant to note here, however, that such bearer bonds have not been legitimately issued by the U.S. Treasury Department since 1982, at least according to public reports by the U.S. Treasury. This is important to point out due to the reasonable speculation that there is not $134.5 billion of bearer bonds left in the market, thus bringing up the possibility that the bonds in the possession of the two men are counterfeit. This possibility, as it turns out, is extremely important to the U.S. for two reasons. First, it would mitigate the potential impact on the U.S. economy by asserting that the bonds are indeed counterfeit. Secondly, it would provide the U.S. Federal Reserve a vital alibi for a much larger crime being perpetrated on the American people. That crime would be the secret, “off-the-books” issuance of securities to other nations to finance deficits, among other purposes.
The latter would provide a great deal of legitimacy to the so-called conspiracy theorists who have suspected such illicit activity involving the U.S. money supply, the Federal Reserve, and the direct involvement or complicity of numerous U.S. administrations over the last 75-plus years. The ramifications of this scenario would be extreme.
To give the reader of this report an idea of the enormity of the amount of securities possessed by the two men, consider that the value of the bearer bonds would be equivalent to the Gross Domestic Product of New Zealand. Possession of the bonds would also make these men the fourth largest creditor of the U.S. Again, $134.5 billion happens to be the exact amount remaining in the U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program [TARP] announced by the Department of the Treasury on March 30, 2009.
The Perpetrators
Central to this aspect of the story are the two Japanese nationals who were caught “red handed” with the booty. According to official reports, they were caught as they traveled on a local train normally used by laborers traveling from Italy to Switzerland. They were well-dressed and carrying briefcases. Imagine, then, two well-dressed Japanese nationals carrying briefcases among a train load of Italian day laborers. Obviously, they were not attempting to avoid scrutiny by customs or border agents.
Who are these men and where are they now? Perhaps we might never know as both men are (surprise) reportedly MISSING.
Since we began our investigation, news reports have been published that provide many of the details and offer interesting possibilities. On June 17, 2009, an article by William Pesek titled Suitcase With $134 Billion Puts Dollar on Edge appeared on Bloomberg.com at this link. Joe Weisenthal of The Business Insider has published various reports and appeared on The Glenn Beck Program.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government has assured the media and the world that the bonds were indeed forgeries and that the Italian Mafia did it. That, of course, should be the end of it. It was all just a botched forgery attempt. There is nothing more to see here – move along, folks. And right on cue, the mainstream media is indeed, moving along.
Like no other time in America, before the truth gets swallowed up in time, the burning demand of We the People should be: “Show us the money!”
Credit to Hagmann and Hagmann
Several months after it was revealed that Germany was able to only recover a miserable 5 tons of its gold in all of 2013 (under 10% of the 84 tons it wasscheduled to repatriate), Germany appears to have given up entirely in its attempt to recover gold which simply is not there, and as Michael Krieger reports, citing Bloomberg, has decided to keep "it" (by "it" we don't mean the gold since that clearly has not been at the Fed for decades, but merely the paper promises of ownership: for more see China's gold rehypothecation scandal andhow the unwind works) at the NY Fed after all. That is to say, in the "safe hands" of former Goldmanite Bill Dudley.
Via Mike Krieger's Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Just last week, I published a post titled, Video of the Day – “End the Fed” Rallies are Exploding Throughout Germany, which subsequently went viral. Interestingly, only a few days later we find out that Germany’s very own criminal political class has decided it will continue to store the nation’s gold in New York rather than bring it back home as had been the intention. It’s quite ironic that just as protests against the fascist Federal Reserve are spreading throughout the land, the political class officially decides to keep Germany’s treasure across the Atlantic,in care of none other than The Fed itself.
To be fair, this merely seems like a way for Angela Merkel and the rest of her German cronies to save face. After all, it was very clear that the Federal Reserve had already told them “no” when they asked for the gold back in the first place. Why else would it take almost a decade to transport the gold from the U.S. to Germany, which was the latest repatriation schedule.
We learn from Bloomberg that:
Germany has decided its gold is safe in American hands.
Surging mistrust of the euro during Europe’s debt crisis fed a campaign to bring Germany’s entire $141 billion gold reserve home from New York and London. Now, after politics shifted in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition, the government has concluded that stashing half its bullion abroad is prudent after all.
“The Americans are taking good care of our gold,” Norbert Barthle, the budget spokesman for Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc in parliament, said in an interview. “Objectively, there’s absolutely no reason for mistrust.”
Ending talk of repatriating the world’s second-biggest gold reserves removes a potential irritant in U.S.-German relations. It’s also a rebuff to critics including the anti-euro Alternative for Germany party, which says all the gold should return to Frankfurt so it can’t be impounded to blackmail Germany into keeping the currency union together.
The Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, sent a delegation to the New York Fed’s vault in 2012 for spot checks on the hoard. As the gold’s guardian, the Frankfurt-based Bundesbank is obliged to ensure its safety. It says it’s sensible to store part of the reserves outside the country so they can be swapped more easily for foreign currency in an emergency.
This last sentence is absolutely incredible in its Orwellian irrationality. Swap gold easily for foreign currency? Foreign currency can be conjured up in infinite amounts at will by crooked bankers in suits with phony smiles and calming words filled with complex economic jargon. So Germany needs to be able to swap its gold for that? Well, it seems many nations are falling for this simple, yet effective scam, as I outlined in my post: Ecuador to Transfer More Than Half its Gold Reserves to Goldman Sachs in Exchange for “Liquidity.”
German gold reserves, the second-biggest in the world after those of the U.S., totaled 3,386.4 tons on March 31, according to World Gold Council data. Due to German postwar history, the biggest part is stored at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; the rest is in London, Paris and Frankfurt.
“Right now, our campaign is on hold,” Peter Boehringer, a Munich-based euro critic who co-founded an initiative to bring home all of Germany’s gold in 2012, said in an interview.
Right now and forever. Sorry suckers. This guy promises everything is just fine:
Credit to Zero Hedge
The following is an excerpt from ALL THE PRESIDENTS’ BANKERS: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power by Nomi Prins (on sale April 8, 2014). Reprinted with permission from Nation Books. Nomi Prins is a former managing director at Goldman Sachs.
This excerpt from Nomi Prins’s recent book, ALL THE PRESIDENTS’ BANKERS, which discusses Woodrow Wilson and Jack Morgan’s collaboration to finance the Allies in the early days of the war. Aside from its timeliness, it provides one of the strongest examples of the intimate cooperation between the presidency and the highest levels of banking to drive American interests
The Mid-1910s: Bankers Go to War
“The war should be a tremendous opportunity for America.”
—Jack Morgan, personal letter to President Woodrow Wilson, September 4, 1914
On June 28, 1914, a Slavic nationalist in Sarajevo murdered Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne. The battle lines were drawn. Austria positioned itself against Serbia. Russia announced support of Serbia against Austria, Germany backed Austria, and France backed Russia. Military mobilization orders traversed Europe. The national and private finances that had helped build up shipping and weapons arsenals in the last years of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth would spill into deadly battle.
Wilson knew exactly whose help he needed. He invited Jack Morgan to a luncheon at the White House. The media erupted with rumors about the encounter. Was this a sign of tighter ties to the money trust titans? Was Wilson closer to the bankers than he had appeared? With whispers of such queries hanging in the hot summer air, at 12:30 in the afternoon of July 2, 1914, Morgan emerged from the meeting to face a flock of buzzing reporters. Genetically predisposed to shun attention, he merely explained that the meeting was “cordial” and suggested that further questions be directed to the president.
At the follow-up press conference, Wilson was equally coy. “I have known Mr. Morgan for a good many years; and his visit was lengthened out chiefly by my provocation, I imagine. Just a general talk about things that were transpiring.”Though Wilson explained this did not signify the start of a series of talks with “men high in the world of finance,” rumors of a closer alliance between the president and Wall Street financiers persisted.
Wilson’s needs and Morgan’s intentions would soon become clear. For on July 28, Austria formally declared war against Serbia. The Central Powers (Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria) were at war with the Triple Entente (France, Britain, and Russia). While Wilson tried to juggle conveying America’s position of neutrality with the tragic death of his wife, domestic and foreign exchange markets were gripped by fear and paralysis. Another panic seemed a distinct possibility so soon after the Federal Reserve was established to prevent such outcomes in the midst of Wilson’s first term. The president had to assuage the markets and prepare the country’s finances for any outcome of the European battles.
Not wanting to leave war financing to chance, Wilson and Morgan kicked their power alliance into gear. At the request of high-ranking State Department officials, Morgan immediately immersed himself in war financing issues. On August 10, 1914, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan wrote Wilson that Morgan had asked whether there would be any objection if his bank made loans to the French government and the Rothschilds’ Bank (also intended for the French government). Bryan was concerned that approving such an extension of capital might detract from the neutrality position that Wilson had adopted and, worse, invite other requests for loans from nations less allied with the United States than France, such as Germany or Austria. The Morgan Bank was only interested in assisting the Allies.
Bryan was due to speak with Morgan senior partner Henry Davison later that day. Though Morgan had made it clear that any money his firm lent would be spent in the United States, Bryan worried that “if foreign loans absorb our loanable money it might affect our getting government loans if we need.” Thus, private banks’ lending decisions could affect not just the course of international governments’ participation in the war but also that of the US government’s financial health during the war. Not much had changed since the turn of the century, when government functions depended on the availability of private bank loans.
Wilson wasn’t going to deny Morgan’s request. He approved the $100 million loan to finance the French Republic’s war needs. The decision reflected the past, but it also had implications for the future of political-financial alliances and their applications to wars. During the Franco-German war of 1870, Jack’s grandfather, J. S. Morgan, had raised $50 million of French bonds through his London office after the French government failed to sell its securities to London bankers to raise funds. Not only was the transaction profitable; it also endeared Morgan and his firm to the French government.
Private banking notwithstanding, on August 19, 1914, President Wilson urged Americans to remain neutral regarding the combat. But Morgan and his partners never embraced the policy of impartiality. As Morgan partner Thomas Lamont wrote later, “From the very start, we did everything we could to contribute to the cause of the Allies.”
Aside from Jack Morgan’s personal views against Germany and the legacy of his grandfather’s decisions, the Morgan Bank enjoyed close relations with the British and French governments by virtue of its sister firms—Morgan, Grenfell & Company, the prestigious merchant bank in London; and Morgan, Harjes & Company in Paris. The bank, like a country, followed the war along the lines of its past financial alliances, even to the point of antagonizing firms that desired to participate in French loans during periods of bitter fighting.
Two weeks after Wilson’s August 19 speech, armed with more leverage because of the war, Jack Morgan took it upon himself to approach Wilson about his domestic concerns. “This war . . . has thrown a tremendous and sudden strain on American money markets,” Morgan wrote. “It has increased the already pronounced tendency of European holders of American securities to sell them for whatever prices they could obtain for them, and the American investor has got to relieve the European investors of these securities by degrees and as he can.” Market tensions were exacerbated by the fact that European investors were selling securities to raise money. That was a problem whose only solution required the provision of more loans. But there was something else, with more lasting domestic repercussions echoing the trustbusting of the Morgan interest in US Steel.
Morgan argued that rather than encouraging investors to feel safe, the government’s Interstate Commerce Commission, formed to regulate national industry in 1887, was doing the opposite by restricting eastern railroad freight rates and investigating railroad companies. In Morgan’s mind, war was definitely not a time for enhanced regulations against business. And if railroad securities fell in value relative to the loans secured by them, banks would not be able to lend enough to make up the difference. The whole credit system could freeze.
As Morgan further warned, “Great depreciation in the value of these securities” would “throw back to the bank loans secured by them” and lead to a “great tieing up of bank funds, which will interfere with the starting of the new Federal Reserve System, and produce panic conditions.” He concluded that the war “should be a tremendous opportunity for America,” but not “as long as the business of the country is under the impression of fear in which it now labors.” Levying such serious threats, Morgan became the first banker to reveal that credit, the Federal Reserve, the big banks, the US economy, and the war were inextricably linked. Wilson knew this too.
Morgan was especially concerned about the Clayton Antitrust Act, which Congress was considering to strengthen the restrictions against monopolies and anticompetitive practices laid out in the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act. Having passed the Senate, the bill was headed to a conference committee. Should it pass in its current form, libertarian Morgan believed, it would demonstrate that “the United States Government does not propose to allow enterprises to conduct normal business without interference.”
Wilson took Morgan’s concerns seriously. He knew the last thing the United States needed was a credit meltdown. To avoid such a crisis and placate the bankers, he was already rewriting the Clayton Antitrust Act, but he didn’t admit it to Morgan. Wilson calculated that there had to remain some areas of negotiation to better one’s hand. Though the two argued over interpretation of the bill, a white flag flew between Wall Street and Washington for the time being. Such periods of strife called for allied, not adversarial, relationships between the president and the bankers, and friendly relations would also promote the global power positioning of both parties.
In general, the war meant that the goodwill extended to bankers and business from the president continued, lending protocols included. An October 15, 1914, news report proclaimed, “American Bankers May Make Loans to War Nations.” It was a government decision pushed by the banking contingent that would reverberate throughout the war and afterward, drawing clearer lines of competition among the various Wall Street powerhouses. Though the pro-Allies Morgan Bank sought cooperation with the British, for instance, National City Bank set up international branches around Europe and Russia to compete for future financial power, causing a rift between two of the three biggest New York banks that financed the war. Partly, that rift had to do with the change of leadership at these firms.
Jack Morgan’s friend James Stillman, head of National City Bank, had ideas about the war that closely reflected Morgan’s own: though the war presented numerous expansion opportunities, old ties to the British and French banks had to be respected in the process, their countries supported unequivocally. Stillman’s number-two man—midwestern-born Frank Vanderlip, who harbored a grudge against the eastern banking establishment and Wilson for cold-shouldering him during his presidential campaign—didn’t share the same loyalties. He was less concerned than his upper-crust boss and the Morgan partners about the war’s outcome and openly opposed American intervention until 1916, by which point German-American relations were more obviously battered. Nor did he support British demands that National City Bank terminate dealings with German banks, to which Stillman had responded that in victory the British would remember the banks that helped them.
Thus, at the end of 1914, it was National City Bank that opened a $5 million credit line for Russia in return for the designation of Russian purchasing agent for war supplies in the United States. The Morgan Bank remained true to its pro-Allies position and chose not to be involved in such dealings, while Vanderlip was more detached and sought to strengthen National City’s position for whatever the postwar world would bring.
Stillman was less interested in war-related financing than Vanderlip, who believed it would augment the bank’s position as well as America’s global status. To him, it was important to forge ahead in Latin America and other underdeveloped countries while the European financial powers were busy with their war. That Stillman took some of this advice to heart enabled National City Bank to cover much ground postwar, not just relative to the European banks but also to the Morgan Bank. As Vanderlip wrote Stillman in December 1915, “We are really becoming a world bank in a very broad sense, and I am perfectly confident that the way is open to us to become the most powerful, the most far-reaching world financial institution that there has ever been.” Vanderlip’s views ruffled Stillman’s feathers because of Stillman’s past collaboration agreements with the Morgan Bank. But they also ruffled the feathers of Morgan and Lamont in a way that would have huge repercussion for postwar peace.
Credit to Zero Hedge
Physical currency to "disappear within 20 years"
A shopping street in Manchester has banned cash as part of an experiment to see if Brits will accept a cashless society, while all London buses will stop accepting cash payments from next month onwards.
The purpose behind the experiment, which will take place in Chorlton, South Manchester, is to “test customers and business reaction to the idea” and is being overseen by credit card processor Handepay.
According to the Manchester Evening News, the experiment is being conducted with the expectation that, “physical currency will disappear inside 20 years.”
Meanwhile in London, the city’s network of buses will stop accepting cash payments from July 6, with customers needing to use an Oyster card, pre-paid ticket or contactless payment cards in order to travel.
“This is a major effort to move in preparation for the cashless society,” writes economist Martin Armstrong, adding, “While the goldbugs have been touting that gold will rise and the dollar will collapse because of fiat money, technology has passed them by making their arguments barbaric relics of the past.”
While the whole idea is being marketed as an inevitable consequence of the decline in cash payments and the rise of credit cards and contactless payment technology, many in the privacy community see the elimination of cash as another means of abolishing anonymity.
Following the Edward Snowden revelations last year, it emerged that the NSA was “sweeping up the entire haystack” of credit card transactions for analysis while, “obtaining purchase information from credit card companies.”
Alternatives to cash that could still provide anonymity, such as crypto-currencies like Bitcoin, are slowly being adopted by more stores and chains, but at nowhere near the rate required to provide a viable competitor to the likes of Google Wallet and Paypal.
by PAUL JOSEPH WATSON
Credit to Infowars
Look what Daniel said about the Antichrist:
Daniel 7:25
New King James Version (NKJV)
25 He shall speak pompous words against the Most High,
Shall persecute[a] the saints of the Most High,
And shall intend to change times and law.
Then the saints shall be given into his hand
For a time and times and half a time.
Baghdad (AFP) - In the two weeks since it was seized by Sunni militants, some residents of the northern Iraq city of Mosul feel the clock has been turned back hundreds of years.
The militants, led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group, have begun imposing an extreme interpretation of Islamic law in the days since they took the city, residents reached by telephone told AFP.
"These militants will return us and our country hundreds of years backwards, and their laws are the opposite of the laws of human rights and international laws," said Umm Mohammed, a 35-year-old teacher.
"We live in continuous fear of being subjected to new pressures," she said. "We are afraid of being prevented from working and contributing to building the community."
The city, known before 2003 for its historic sites and parks and in later years as a hub for deadly violence, fell on June 10 to the militants, who subsequently overran surrounding Nineveh province and swathes of other territory.
Security forces in Mosul, a city of some two million people before the offensive, wilted in the face of the onslaught, in some cases abandoning uniforms and even vehicles in their haste to flee.
Iraqi families fleeing violence in the northern Nineveh province gather at a Kurdish checkpoint in A …
After seizing control, gunmen declared Nineveh a part of their Islamic state and issued a document outlining new rules.
The 16-point document announced the prohibition of the selling and consumption of alcohol and drugs as well as smoking, and forbade gatherings and carrying weapons.
Women are to wear non-revealing clothes and keep to their homes, while "shrines" are to be destroyed.
All depictions of people are considered idolatrous under the militants' extreme interpretation of Islam, and gunmen have removed various statues from the city in recent days, including some depicting famous poets.
Iraqi military kit litters the ground close to the Kukjali Iraqi Army checkpoint, some 10km of east …
Abu Ramzi, one of Mosul's Christians who did not flee the city, said militants destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary in front of a church.
"We have not received any threat from any side yet," Abu Ramzi said. "We will not leave our houses and city even if they slaughter us."
The militants also distributed a document to mosques in the city ordering that they not make or publish any statement not approved by ISIL, and designated a specific mosque for the acceptance of the "repentance of apostates".
ISIL has also appointed representatives for different areas of the city who are to conduct a survey of its residents.
One resident who fled said a neighbour told him that gunmen came to check empty houses in the area and find out who owns them.
Iraqi families fleeing violence in the northern Nineveh province gather at a Kurdish checkpoint in A …
"They asked about my house, my (religious) sect and my phone number," he said.
The gunmen left a message that he had two days to return and renounce his Shiite faith, or the house would be burned.
Militants are deployed in most areas of Mosul, some on foot and others moving either in civilian vehicles or those captured from security forces when they withdrew, one resident said.
Some wear civilian clothes, while others dress in military uniforms or black.
The militants, some of whom mask their faces, are armed with a variety of weapons, including Kalashnikov assault rifles and pistols.
There is a major electricity shortage in the city, and fuel is also in short supply, with hundreds of people waiting for hours at petrol stations to fuel their cars and trucks.
But not all residents of Mosul view the militants in a negative light.
"The gunmen in Mosul are decent people, they are treating the residents well," said Umm Abdullah, a woman who was among half a million people who fled the city in the wake of the militant takeover.
"We're not leaving because of them, we're leaving because the government is bombing and has cut the electricity and water in Mosul," she said.
"To be honest, I'm happy they took control of Mosul. I see them as rebels, not gunmen, and I think they will make the city better."
But another resident, Abu Ali, 40, said that the city has just moved from restrictions by Iraqi security forces to others by the militants, who are imposing "a new style of life on us".
Credit to Yahoo News
© Photo: Vesti.ru
The Russian Air Force has stared large-scale airlifting of personnel and materiel in a combat readiness check for troops in the Central Military District, the Defense Ministry press service report. The combat readiness test will last from June 21 to 28. The task set by the president is to assess the military's ability to perform their duties within existing time standards over the first 24 hours, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu said.
"The transfer of troops involves over 40 Antonov An-124 Ruslan, Ilyushin Il-76, Antonov An-22 and Antonov An-26 from the military aviation transport unit in Tver, Pskov, Taganrog and Orenburg air bases, which today alone will fly over 50 missions to transfer personnel and military hardware to various destinations," a ministry report says.
Personnel and equipment from detachments of the 98th air-borne division and the 31st assault brigade of Air-Borne Troops are loaded at airdromes for subsequent transfer to the Chelyabinsk region where they will take part in an exercise with combined-arms units of the Central Military District, the press service says, Interfax reports.
Putin orders Russia's Central Military personnel to prepare for combat readiness
Russian President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin has ordered a comprehensive surprise combat readiness test of the entire personnel of the Central Military District, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced at a conference at the Defense Ministry on Saturday. "In line with [Putin's] orders, the Central Military District's troops and also units and garrisons deployed on its territory have been put on full combat alert since 11:00 am today," he said.
The troops will then be deployed at ranges and conduct exercises in line with their intended purpose, he said, Interfax reports.
The maneuvers will test the planning of the use of a group of forces, the movement of forces for long distances using combined transport means, and the deployment of command and logistic support systems.
Shoigu instructed Airborne Forces Commander Vladimir Shamanov to redeploy the Airborne Forces. 98th Division for 1,500 kilometers from Ivanovo to the Chelyabinsk region using military transport planes with an air drop at the Chebarkul range.
The defense minister also ordered that foreign military attaches be informed of the surprise combat readiness test.
"The return of the forces to their permanent stationing bases must be completed by July 1," he said.
"The Air Forces commander [must] establish control over actions of the Air Forces and Air Defense Forces 2nd command during their redeployment to operational airfields and performance of combat training tasks, including the practicing of bomb-dropping and aerial refueling," the defense minister said.
Shoigu ordered that reports on the course of the maneuvers be presented to him on a daily basis. He stressed particularly that proper safety precautions be taken and safekeeping of weapons and ammunition be ensured.
Over 65,000 troops, 5,500 combat vehicles to participate in Russian combat readiness test
Over 65,000 military servicemen and about 5,500 items of weapons and military hardware will be involved in an ongoing comprehensive surprise combat readiness test of the Russian Central Military District forces, says Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces.
"Over 65,000 troops, about 5,500 weapon units and vehicles, over 180 planes, and about 60 helicopters will be involved in the test," Gerasimov said at a conference with the Russian Defense Ministry command staff on Saturday.
The maneuvers are designed to test the training level of the troops in performing their duties through shooting practice, control exercises, the use of aircraft and airborne drops, Gerasimov said, Interfax reports
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_06_22/Russias-Air-Force-starts-large-scale-transfer-of-forces-as-part-of-check-of-combat-readiness-Defense-Ministry-9830/
Credit to Voice of Russia
