Thursday, September 17, 2009

Obama Backs Away From Missile Shield in Europe


Apparently Iran and its newly approved hard line cabinet, obtaining nuclear weapons is of no concern to Obama. This is not unexpected though, as he has bowing down to our enemies since he took office.


U.S. backs away from missile shield in Europe
Thu Sep 17, 2009
By Jana Mlcochova and Gabriela Baczynska

PRAGUE/WARSAW (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has told east European states he is backing away from plans for an anti-missile shield there, in a move that may ease Russian-U.S. ties but fuel fears of resurgent Kremlin influence.

Russia said it would welcome abandonment of the plans, which have been a major source of Russian-U.S. tensions.

Poland said Obama would announce a final decision later on Thursday (1400 GMT) on a project that has raised the prospect of multi-billion dollar contracts for U.S. defense giants.

The shield, involving interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar complex in the Czech republic, was promoted by Obama's predecessor George W. Bush to defend against any missile launches from "rogue" states such as Iran and North Korea.

"Today, shortly after midnight, Barack Obama telephoned me to announce that his government is backing away from the intention of building a missile defense radar on Czech territory," Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer told reporters.

"The Czech Republic acknowledges the decision."

A senior Polish source close to the negotiations told Reuters Warsaw had received a similar message. "We will not have the interceptors for now."

A U.S. defense official said Washington was now examining an alternative to the "large, fixed system" of the shield. This would target short- and medium-range missiles rather than the long-range rockets seen until now as the threat.

He gave no details.



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