Open Skies!!

This is coolbert:

Open Skies the treaty now in jeopardy?

Either in abeyance or now made null and void by the crisis in Ukraine?

At least for American and NATO aircraft no more over-flights of Russia.

BUT the Russians still allowed to continue with surveillance of the United States?

This is so?

Thanks to a variety of sources including Bill Gertz.

1. "Russian Spy Planes in U.S. Skies"

"The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. military and American intelligence agencies have quietly pushed the White House in recent weeks to deny a new Russian surveillance plane the right to fly over U.S. territory. This week, the White House finally began consideration of the decision whether to certify the new Russian aircraft under the so-called 'Open Skies Treaty.' And now the question becomes: Will the spies and generals get their way?"

. . . .

"At issue is the Open Skies Treaty. First signed in 1992 and finally ratified in 2002, the treaty adopted by 34 nations allows the safe passage of planes equipped with advanced cameras and sensors that give governments the imagery and data they use to assess everything from compliance with arms control treaties to troop movements."

2. "Flying Blind, Russia Blocks U.S. from Treaty-Approved Spy Flights"

"The Russian government this week canceled a planned U.S. surveillance flight over Russian territory in a bid to limit spying on massed troops facing off against Ukraine and Eastern Europe, according to U.S. officials."

. . . .

"The Russian cancellation of the flight comes amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West over the crisis in Ukraine, where Russian troops militarily annexed the Crimean peninsula last month and continue to foment pro-Russian unrest in the eastern part of the country."

Open Skies as originally proposed during the Eisenhower Administration and not becoming a done-deal for four decades subsequent now apparently in a time of crisis yet more victim of international machinations and we are all the worse for it too.

coolbert.