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‘Sending a Message’: Russian Bear Bombers Caught Circling Guam Before Obama Delivered the State of the Union

Feb. 16, 2013 4:13pm Erica Ritz

Report: Russian Bear Bombers Were Circling Guam as President Obama Gave State of the Union

US President Barack Obama (R) speaks as Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on after their bilateral meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico on June 18, 2012 on the sidelines of the G20 summit. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

NBC News has confirmed with U.S. military officials that two Russian Bear bombers were circling the U.S. territory of Guam last week at roughly the same time President Obama delivered his State of the Union address. The planes were capable of carrying nuclear cruise missiles, the report adds, and while they stayed in international airspace, the United States scrambled F-15 jets from the Andersen Air Force Base to intercept them.

The exchange “stayed professional,” one source said, despite the unusual encounter.

“It wasn’t provocative but it certainly got our attention,” another source elaborated.

The Washington Free Beacon, which broke the story, notes that this isn’t the first time that Russian jets have been caught poking around U.S. territories. Over the summer, they were caught simulating attacks on on “enemy” air defenses and strategic facilities near Alaska.

The U.S. has stated its hope of “pressing the reset button” with Russia, and President Obama signed a strategic arms reduction treaty with Russian President Medvedev in February 2011.

The Washington Free Beacon has more on how experts are weighing in:

John Bolton, former U.N. ambassador and former State Department international security undersecretary, said the Russian bomber flights appear to be part of an increasingly threatening strategic posture in response to Obama administration anti-nuclear policies.

“Every day brings new evidence that Obama’s ideological obsession with dismantling our nuclear deterrent is dangerous,” Bolton said. “Our national security is in danger of slipping off the national agenda even as the threats grow.”

Defense officials said the bombers tracked over Guam were likely equipped with six Kh-55 or Kh-55SM cruise missiles that can hit targets up to 1,800 miles away with either a high-explosive warhead or a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead.

[...]

Defense officials disclosed the incident to the Free Beacon and said the Russian bomber flights appeared to be a strategic message from Moscow timed to the president’s state of the union speech.

“They were sending a message to Washington during the state of the union speech,” one official said. [Emphasis added]

Former State Department security official Mark Groombridge had a similar response, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

“One could argue the Russians were poking a bit of fun at the Obama Administration, seeing how they flew these long-range bombers close to Guam on the same day as the state of the union address,” he began. “But the broader implications are more profound…The Russians are clearly sending a signal that they consider the Pacific an area of vital national strategic interest and that they still have at least some power projection capabilities to counterbalance against any possible increase in U.S. military assets in the region.”

Read the entire Washington Free Beacon report here.

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Comments (197)

christhefanatic
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 7:59pm
Alexander Putin’s biography compared to President Zippy’s …Very, very unnerving.

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Dustoff
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 7:34pm
Come on lib’s…. Tell us how O-dumber is doing such a great job with Putin.

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Dustoff
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 7:33pm
LOL, Poor O-dumber, hows that “reset” working out.
What a fool.

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Stelex
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 7:32pm
Lets see, Russia, China, NKorea, Brazil and other various south American countries, Mexico…..Gee, what could ever go wrong………………You do realize that the entire world sees us as the enemy now, no????? Less a few like the UK, and what not. Now that Obama is “More Flexible” we are in deep sht.

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Fitzzz
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 7:25pm
I think Russia has Obama by the balls
and he will sing any tune they tell him to
I believe that Obama’s secret files that he had sealed, were already known to the Russians,
that’s why they detained and questioned him in 2005, as long as Obama keeps his files secret, this country is in danger

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Soundstorm
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 7:16pm
Obama’s overheard promise to Medvedev of ‘flexibility’ in his second term has become an invitation for Putin to walk all over him.

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BlackCrow
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 7:00pm
Putin is doing this more to prove his manhood to the Russian people than to threaten the U.S. The Russian bomber force is not capable of making deep penetration into U.S. airspace and never was. They have been hanging their hat on their ICBM force since Sputnik. What worries them is the missile defense system in Europe that would be capable of shooting those ICBMs down during their boost phase Problem is how to defend Europe against an Iranian missile without building an ABM system in close proximity to Russia.

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Southernsoul
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:58pm
This is nothing new. My brother in law was on the Enterprise jjust before it got refitted. He has pics of Russian planes cruising by the ship so close that you can make out features on the pilot’s face. That was back in the 80″s. He said that we do the same thing to them.

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- OlefromMN
  Posted on February 16, 2013 at 7:12pm
  I have a former roommate that was on the Enterprise during that era and he shared the same sentiments. This is nothing new.
  
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- BostonHarold
  Posted on February 16, 2013 at 11:45pm
  A hot dogging Russian Bison bomber buzzing the Big ‘E’ lost it and cartwheeled into the ocean. Ooops. It’s on You Tube. In Russia you no fly bomber…bomber fly you.
  
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1911a1
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:54pm
People had better wake up and figure out what is going on , as we (America) dumbs down our people , teach them to be deathly afraid of guns, or to speak out , and not to have identity , Our enemies are growing stronger and better equipped . we will be overtaken and exterminated if we don’t get ourselves out of this trance !

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OlefromMN
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:43pm
The Ruskies have been dipping toes in our pools for decades. They fly near/into our territory to see how far they can go, we chase them out, and the game starts anew. Unless Guam is a new pool they are testing, I really don’t see a smoking gun here.

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dodgedart1966
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:32pm
Don’t tell Hank Johnson (D) geargia, he’s still worried the place will capsize.
But yea, any evil leader who wants to take a shot at us will try something like this first. Just to test the waters in the pres’s veins, which is luke warm.

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Carlinpa
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:21pm
RE“pressing the reset button” with Russia” He did!, right back to the cold war… you see he can get things done..

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Outlaw_Josey_Wales
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:15pm
Obama can quit worrying about global warming, the presidents foreign policies will cause a nuclear winter.

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bankerpapaw
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:09pm
Putin knows a weak president when he sees one.

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MrKnowItAll
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:07pm
Make EVERYONE Hate Us. Then Try and be their Friend. Doesn’t Work!!!!!

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Zeke48
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:03pm
President Obeyme is still a card carrying member of the Man’s Club in Chicago along with Ralm the mayor of Chicago and his first Chief of Staff, two dirt bags! And some folks why he is Queering our Country and allowing Gays to get married when we have already passed a law saying that marriage is between one man and one woman. Laws do not matter to this President and our spineless GOP let’s this fruit cake change what ever he wants to to.

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noslave
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 5:57pm
PUTIN WILL NEVER HURT HIS “FLEXIBLE” COMRADE??till he acheives his MISSION?? selling out america and leaveing it defenseless takes a lot longer than they anticipated??

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- Outlaw_Josey_Wales
  Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:25pm
  America will never be defenseless as long as the civilian population has guns and bullets.
  
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denkat56
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 5:55pm
I thought those two were the best of friends, Putin wouldn’t lie to get ahead would he? Didn’t our boy king Obama make nuke cuts, lessen our defences in Europe. Didn’t he accept Obama’s apologies. No fool like one in the white house. I guess it’s true Obama is only good at planning a party.

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Arpia
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 5:52pm
Plato in the Euthyphro, already warned against those who are on the good side only by tradition and habit, without reinvigorate their beliefs by active search for truth, and thus become collaborators unconscious evil. After two and a half millennia, it seems nobody learned the lesson, at least in the U.S.. What more can easily destroy a country is the blind trust that citizens place in the automatic operation of the system, without doing anything to ensure that it survives to new and unforeseen challenges. Chatting with a friend – who is no longer my friend why – I informed her that the life of Barack Hussein Obama remained a mystery since no one in higher circles wanted to investigate it and many had the same interest in keeping it secret. The woman reacted as if I was a graduate of Pinel. “Impossible!” She screamed into the phone. “Imagine if they will accept a presidential candidate without investigating it! Do you think you are in Zimbabwe? Here is America, democracy, transparency kingdom!” Well, the problem is exactly that. A window is transparent because you can see through it, because not only imagines that others see. A former IBM research already shows that it is possible to take anyone to a state of near paranoia by simply controlling the flow of information she receives: just keep it on constant alert against the danger of an imminent humiliation.

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Zeke48
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 5:49pm
Can’t we have a recall on Ovomit. they can do it with a Governor, why not a President. I think most black folks now know what a fool he is, and now that we know he let four Americans die because he did nothing to help them.Plus all kins of people have said that they voted twice for him. the GOP never Vetted him back in 2007, and the Birth Certificate he posted on his web site is a fraud which we all know now. o let kick this POS out of our White House and fumigate that place for starts.

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LakeHartwellSailor
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 5:46pm
Russian Bear aircraft would approach our carrier battlegroup quite often. I was a radar operator (OS) in the Navy, and it wasn’t unusual for the crypto guys (CT’s) to call down to CIC and tell us to expect a bear penetration attempt 24 hours in advance.

I would always ask these guys (and not expect to get an answer) how they know. They always responded “Can’t tell ya”…CLICK! Sure enough, those Bears would be right on time.

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crusaderx9
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 5:42pm
If you were Putin YOU would challenge a shrinking United States too. The difference is that Putin actually cares about his country, obama doesn’t. If Putin is a noble warrior for his people, then he would have disdain for another leader who cowardly sells out his own people. Putin knows the US is vulnerable.

Medvedev had a front row seat to a US President selling out all of his American citizens and their security. Once Putin received Medvedev’s first hand account (as well as the KGB and US MSM coverage) of obama’s not-so-secret message – Putin knew he could open up many new fronts on the new Cold War.

The Bear is back on the prowl…

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Jake Dog2
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 5:31pm
But wait didn’t Hillary hit the red restart button after they said Bush caused such bad relations with Russia. Everything is fine just move on people.

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- barber2
  Posted on February 16, 2013 at 6:54pm
  Jake: Yeah. This is the same arrogant Democrat crew who was convinced that North Korea and Iran just hated us because of Bush – whom the Democrats also hated ! Trouble is the Islamic jihadis hate us because we are Christian, believe in tolerance and democracy and are Westerners . And the Democrats still haven’t figured it out , but they sure have made America much more vulnerable. Witness Benghazi. Can only imagine what ” surprises” the Islamic fanatics will have for us next 9/11…..will the Democrats have to create a video to take the heat off of their weakness ?!
  
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BehindBlueEyes
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 5:30pm
Putin and Obama are two diabolical commies cut from the same cloth.

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gyro
Posted on February 16, 2013 at 5:15pm
Am I alowed to just type LOL

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- GuruMeditation
  Posted on February 17, 2013 at 8:55am
  Doubtful.
  
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