Re: NBC: What's life really like for a Walmart employee?

On Sun, 8 Feb 2009 14:34:33 -0800 (PST), WJM <b.muldowney@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Here are some exact quotes and sources...

1. "As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United
States of America, where- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just
right over the border." --Sarah Palin, explaining why Alaska's
proximity to Russia gives her foreign policy experience, interview
with CBS's Katie Couric, Sept. 24, 2008

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example,
with the Russians?

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It's very
important when you consider even national security issues with Russia.
As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United
States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over
the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that
an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because
they are right there, they are right next to our state.

following excerpted from:
http://internetscofflaw.com/category/military/

Palin right, AP wrong on Russian aggressiveness
October 2, 2008

Here?s an AP story about a supposed mistake by Sarah Palin:

Gov. Sarah Palin cites vigilance against Russian warplanes coming
into U.S. airspace over Alaska as one of her foreign-policy
credentials. But the U.S. military command in charge says that hasn?t
happened in her 21 months in office. . .

The spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign, Maria Comella, said
in an e-mail trying to clarify Palin?s comments that when ?Russian
incursions near Alaskan airspace and inside the air-defense
identification zone have occurred ? U.S. Air Force fighters have been
scrambled repeatedly.?

Now the story comes to the point:

The air-defense identification zone, almost completely over water,
extends 12 miles past the perimeter of the United States. Most nations
have similar areas.

However, no Russian military planes have been flying into that
zone, said Maj. Allen Herritage, a spokesman for the Alaska region of
the North American Aerospace Defense Command, at Elmendorf Air Force
Base near Anchorage.

?To be very clear, there has not been any incursion in U.S.
airspace in recent years,? Herritage said.

Note that Major Herritage?s actual quote doesn?t support the indirect
quote the story attributes to him. Herritage says that there?s been no
incursion into US airspace, which does not mean that there?s been no
incursion into the air-defense identification zone (ADIZ). To the
contrary, the ADIZ is where the Air Force turns back intruders before
they get to US airspace.

So, have Russian planes been entering the ADIZ or not? Yes, they have,
according to the very same Major Allen Herritage. The Air Force Times
reports:

More and more American and Canadian fighter jets are scrambling
and intercepting Russian bombers flying off the Alaskan coast,
exacerbating tensions between the former Cold War foes.

There have been 16 such intercepts since July, Pacific Air Forces
Commander Gen. Howie Chandler told the Anchorage Daily News on March
27. That compares with just one in 2005, and none in the previous 10
years, Chandler said. . .

None of the Russian bombers has entered American airspace, which
extends 12 miles out from U.S. soil, said Maj. Allen Herritage, a
spokesman for NORAD?s Alaska region. Rather, the bombers have been
intercepted after entering the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone,
a buffer that extends even further out.

So Palin was right, Russian bombers have been intruding into the
Alaska ADIZ and have had to be turned back by American fighters.

ASIDE: One might claim that Palin erred by confusing US airspace with
the US ADIZ. Since Palin was using figurative language (?when Putin
rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States?),
it?s far from clear that she meant the term literally. But even if you
assume she did, it?s meaningless hair-splitting, and it doesn?t at all
damage her larger point.

But wait, there?s more. Returning to the AP story:

What Palin might have been referring to was a buffer zone of
airspace that extends beyond the 12-mile strip. Although not
recognized internationally as the United States? to protect, the
military watches it.

That zone is where there has been increased Russian bomber
exercises, about 20 in the past two years. When Russian bombers enter
that expanded area, sometimes called the outer air-defense
identification zone by the military, U.S. or Canadian fighter jets are
dispatched to check them, Herritage said.

The ?outer air-defense identification zone?? What is that? I?d never
heard of it so I looked it up. Wikipedia has an article on the ADIZ,
and it doesn?t mention an ?outer ADIZ.? Ah, but they have a second
article. It turns out there are actually two zones with that name: one
surrounds the United States and Canada, and the other, created after
9/11, surrounds Washington DC. The latter one turns out to have an
outer area called the outer air-defense identification zone. In fact,
if you google the term, you find three sorts of pages: (1) pages that
don?t actually use the term, (2) pages referring to the zone around
Washington DC, and (3) pages that refer to this very AP article.

So the outer ADIZ is around Washington, thousands of miles away from
Alaska, and I feel very safe in assuming that Russia has not been
conducting bomber exercises there!

To summarize, someone is confused, but it?s the AP, not Sarah Palin.
Russian bombers are indeed intruding into the Alaska ADIZ, exactly as
Palin says, despite the AP?s denial. On the other hand, the ?outer
ADIZ,? into which the AP says Russia is intruding, is thousands of
miles away and has nothing at all to do with it.

POSTSCRIPT: Can you imagine the ridicule if Palin, rather than the AP,
had inadvertently suggested that Russia was running bomber exercises
around Washington DC?

(end of excerpt)
.

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