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TechnoratiUS, Poland Reach Tentative Pact On Missile Shield
WASHINGTON - The United States and Poland reached a tentative pact Wednesday on a controversial missile defense shield, part of which Washington wants to site in the former communist country, a senior State Department official said.
"At this point, I am really happy that we made real good progress in the past few days," said the official who asked not to be named, adding that a "tentative agreement" had been reached after two days of talks between Polish and US officials.
The United States wants to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar facility in the neighboring Czech Republic to ward off potential attacks by so-called "rogue" states, notably Iran.
The agreement, of which no details were given, was the result of talks in Washington between US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Rood and two high-ranking officials from the Polish defense and foreign ministries.
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried, a former ambassador to Poland, said the talks had made real progress but refused to confirm that an agreement had been reached.
"We are satisfied with the way things are going but I don't yet have a bottom line," he said.
"I want to be very careful. We are very satisfied with the way we left things and we want to hear the next words, the next stages, from Warsaw," Fried said.
In the Polish capital, foreign ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski said the ministry could not confirm that the two sides had reached an accord, and said the decision on the Polish side rests with Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Washington and Warsaw began talks about Poland housing missiles for the defense shield in May last year, but the negotiations have been slowed by demands from Poland for substantial aid to modernize its armed forces.
A deal under which the Czech Republic would house the missile shield's radar base was concluded in April.
Russia is opposed to having the US missile shield on its doorstep, and public opinion in Poland and the Czech Republic is generally opposed to the defensive system.
The shield would complete a broader US system already in place in the United States, Greenland and Britain.
Designed as a defense against ballistic, or intercontinental, missiles that can fly more than 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers), the shield includes a ground component of 12 missile interceptors in Alaska and three others in California.
The Missile Defense Agency is developing an orbital surveillance system to track missiles and allow ground-based interceptors to shoot them down.
Outside the United States, radar bases have been set up in Fylingdales in Britain, and Thule in Greenland, which is Danish territory.
The interceptors, to be set up in an area the size of a football field, would destroy their targets at extremely high altitude through sheer speed and carry no explosive warhead, US experts have said.
Washington has said it expects the system up and running by 2013, with costs for the European extensions ranging from 1.6 billion to 2.5 billion dollars.
© 2008 Agence France Presse
17 Comments so far
Show AllCheney to clueless Poland:
Thank you for choosing the Dark Side!
Your allowing us to make Poland a target
in America's terrible struggle is surely
nothing we could ever repay you for.
Would be great if Poland left the European Union. Whatever it is, Poland is always a troublemaker. They only joined the European Union to get money from the wealthy Western EU countries.
Ever heard of Google Earth?
"global security" and tracking, lol...tchau! there's way too much effort and money going into tracking other countries, other people, OUR people...way too much government involvement in tracking...tracking! I really doubt that a lot of our sites around the world are exclusively set-up for keeping an eye on simple security against threatening rogues - rather some of it, if not much, is in preparation for keeping too many eyes and ears on how capable civilians in those areas might be in stopping a run-away government agenda...like ours, to name one.
within the next ten to twenty years, i also foresee our government implanting personal identity chips in our too-out-numbered bodies so they can keep a good eye on where we are, intuiting what me might be up to (one couple in florida has already submitted as volunteers for the chip); the forces growing in strength and numbers so their organization will become effectively impervious to scrutiny and accountability, the overall picture of which will lack any semblence to the ideal of a united states government for the people, by the people.
i have to sound like the raving lunatic, don't i? lol. unfortunately, we'll all get to see how far off the mark i am in this assumption...i think i'm pretty right-on.
THIS WILL MEANS THE TOTAL DESTUCTION OF WASHINGTON, THE WHITE HOUSE BUILDING AND PENTAGON.PUTIN CAN START BUILDING MORE MISSILES AND STOCK PILE TMEM, LONG RANGE MISSILES CAN REACH OVER THE ATLANTIC TO WASHINGTON AND PENTAGON. PUTIN SHOULD ALSO SEND MISSSILES UP TO IRAN AND IRAQ. CHINA WILL BACK UP PUTIN IN NO TIME. CHINA IS THE MOST POWERFULL NATION IN THE WORLD AND DWARF THE US ARMFORCES, WHICH IS MINISCUL TO CHINA. ASIA WILL CONQUER USA. USA WILL HAVE TO MANY WARS GOING AT ONE TIME, EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST AND CHINA FAR EAST. THE EAST WILL CONQUER THE WEST. I PUT MY CARDS ON ASIA. EU IS NOTHING BUT A BOYSCOUT CLUB FOR TODDLERS.
SO !
Let me say just this, when they leave the White House in January 09, I hope the door hits each and every traitor on the ass so hard that they will never see a day of comfort till the day they die.
Thank You NEW WORLD ORDER !!!!!!!
Now do us a favor, All of you so called oil kiss ass Patriots Drop Dead.
Agreeing to place such an attractive target in their country will lead to a new source of jokes. Of course it will not be the people in favor of this, just the leaders. The only ones who won't be laughing will be the US taxpayers.
Our dear leader is stupider than anybody else's dear leader. Bu$h the inferior wins the GOLD with a new world record in the MORON OLYMPICS.
This is odd. Here's what Russia Today reports:
Poland won't host U.S. anti-missile shield
Russia Today July 4, 2008
Poland has refused to station ten interceptor missiles on its soil as part of a U.S. plan to deploy an anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe. That's according to the Polish TVN24 channel.
The United States say, the system is to counter possible attacks from what it calls rogue states – like Iran and North Korea.
Russia's has been strongly opposing the move, insisting these countries don't have weapons that could reach Europe.
"The request from the Polish side, as far as I am informed, was $US 20 billion – in order to re-equip the Polish national defence system and the American side proposed $US 200 million – 100 times less than the Polish side requested. It is not enough for the Polish side so I believe it is more about the money rather than considerations how it will influence the global security climate in Europe," Konstantin Kosachev, the Head of Russia's State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, said.
--http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/27034
Poland seems like another Amerikanized "democracy" where the government doesn't give a damn about what the citizens want.
The Polish leader thought Cheney was offering him a "Miss Le Shield" and assumed it was a French prostitute.
ARE YOU SURE THE PICTURE IS OF CHENEY AND NOT LARRY THE "BATHROOM SEX-SEEKER?"
Meet the new boss... same as the old boss.
The only use the Czechs or Poles would have for these missiles is to thumb their noses at Moscow. Yes, the greivance is getting old. Wasteful yes, but Dubya's paying the bill.
What's all the BullShit about security???
Only country threatening every last thing on planet Earth at the moment is the USA Uber Alles.
The only thing Poland has to fear is PISSINOFF da Master.
PS - where's willybill's link to the Twilight Zone??
Poland's prime minister has rejected the latest terms offered by the US to host a missile defence shield.
Donald Tusk said any deal must increase Poland's own security, and he dismissed the latest offer as unsatisfactory.
(BBC)
Missles launched from "rogue states"???
The only "Rogue States" I am aware of are USA and Israel. Are we going to shoot down our own ballistic missles protecting ourselves from ourselves???
Anyone with a brain knows this is pure horseshit. The idea is to fully cordon off Russia from any retalitory strike. The US has had "first strike" senario vs Russia on the books forever - they are just trying to find a way to still be alive after it happens.
BTW - nice photo grandpa Cheney
When you see Cheney - think, Hitler on mood stabilizers.
Alas, this is one result of the failure of the European Union to come together around a constitution or a treaty among members that could address matters of foreign powers setting up military installations within the European Union.