Russia and Poland have released an incomplete report may have beenintended by both sides to show their determination to be candid andcooperative.
Alexei Morozov, womens sunglassesheadof the technical commission of Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee,told reporters that among the questions that need further investigationis whether the rolling terrain around the Smolensk military airportdistorted instrument readings.The plane went down in a ravine 15 meters (50 feet) below the level ofthe runway, just a kilometer away.
"The presence of this ravine can have a natural influence on thereadings of the radio altimeter," Morozov said. "This is one of thesubjects the technical commission is working on."He also said the commission was probing whether the use of cell phonesaboard the Tu-154 affected its navigation.The most tantalizing detail was that two voices not belonging to crewmembers showed up on the cockpit flight recorders. Officials said itwas not clear to whom one of the voices belonged, declined to identifythe other person and didn't report what either person said.
The information Tiffany Braceletcouldfeed speculation in Poland that Kaczynski or someone in his entouragepressured the crew to land despite visibility that had shrunk to about200 meters (660 feet).Edmund Klich, Poland's envoy to the investigation, said only that"certain suggestions" were made by the passengers that he believed hadno influence on the plane's fate, though he acknowledged he had notheard the recordings. The voices were heard no later than 16 minutesbefore the crash.
Poland's PAP agency said it learned from a source close to theinvestigation in Moscow that one of the two voices in the cockpit thatdid not belong to a crew member was that of the Air Force Commander,Gen. Andrzej Blasik.Morozov said the Polish air force crew piloting the plane had beenassembled only a few days before the flight and that they had notreceived regular training that could have helped them cope with unusualconditions.About five seconds before the plane hit a tree in the ravine, thecaptain switched off the autopilot and started to bank around for asecond landing attempt, Morozov said. An automated voice warned "pullup" about 18 seconds before the crash, and before that the crew twiceheard the phrase "terrain ahead," Morozov said.
The pilot appeared Ghd Straightenerstohave ignored advice to land elsewhere. About 11 minutes before thecrash the crew of a Russian plane informed the Polish crew that it hadmade two attempts to land before changing course for another airport.Seven minutes later the crew of a Polish Defense Ministry plane thathad landed in Smolensk 90 minutes earlier informed the presidentialplane that visibility had deteriorated.
At least 945 members of the US military have died in Afghanistan,Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the US invasion of Afghanistanin late 2001, according to an Associated Press count. The number of UStroops killed in Afghanistan has roughly doubled in the first threemonths of 2010 compared with the same period last year as Washingtonhas added tens of thousands of additional soldiers to reverse theTaliban's momentum.
"The United States is authentic designer sunglassesapartner but our intent is to make sure that the Afghans have thecapacity to provide for their own security, that is core to ourmission," Obama told the troops at Bagram, where he was greeted withthunderous applause. The president, having changed from a suit coat toa leather Air Force One flight jacket, said he would never sendAmericans abroad to fight unless there was a compelling threat. He saida Taliban takeover of Afghanistan would put more Americans in danger."The Afghans have suffered for decades," he said, "decades of war butwe are here to help the Afghans forge a hard-won peace."Obama's speech to the troops, delivered in a cavernous tent known asthe "clam shell," was the final event on his brief, only hours-longtrip that occurred entirely at night.The trip, its secrecy forced by security concerns, was an extraordinarycapstone to a momentous week in Obama's presidency. He achieved themost ambitious domestic policy initiative in decades with a historichealth care overhaul and scored first major foreign policy achievementwith a significant new arms control treaty with Russia.Obama's aides did not try to hide US impatience about Afghanistan'shalting efforts to battle corruption and cronyism in government.
"The president (Karzai)ghdneeds to be seized with how important that is," said Jim Jones, Obama'snational security adviser.In public remarks at the presidential palace, Obama told Karzai and hiscabinet that he was pleased with progress made since his lastdiscussion with Karzai, by secure videoconference on March 15. Obamainvited him to visit Washington on May 12. He also praised recent stepsin the military campaign against insurgents. But he stressed thatAfghans need to see conditions on the ground get better."Progress will continue to be made ... but we also want to continuemake progress on the civilian front," Obama said, referring toanti-corruption efforts, good governance and adherence to the rule oflaw. "All of these things end up resulting in an Afghanistan that ismore prosperous and more secure," he said after a brief meeting withKarzai.
Karzai promised thatwigshis country "would move forward into the future" to eventually takeover its own security, and he thanked Obama for the Americanintervention in his country.He told Obama he has begun to establish more credible nationalinstitutions on corruption and made clear he intends to makeministerial appointments more representative of the multiple ethnic andgeographic regions of the country, according to a US account of themeeting.The US also wants Karzai to cut the flow of money from poppy productionand drug trafficking that is sustaining the insurgency. Moreover, theUS is pressing him to create an effective, credible judicial system andto halt cronyism and rewards for warlords in government hiring. Both ofKarzai's vice presidents are former warlords whose forces allegedlykilled thousands of people in the civil war of the 1990s that paved theway for the rise of the Taliban.The White House insisted that Karzai's Cabinet participate in most ofthe meetings with Obama. The Cabinet includes a number of ministersfavored by the US, including the heads of finance, interior anddefense, whom the Obama administration wants to empower as a way ofreducing the influence of presidential cronies. Some talented Afghanadministrators have complained that Karzai marginalized them in anattempt to solidify his powers.
"This is something ghd purplethatsimply has to be done.," Jones said. "We have to have the strategicrapport with President Karzai and his cabinet to understand how we aregoing to succeed his year in reversing the momentum the Taliban and theopposition forces have been able to establish since 2006."
Yin Zhuo, an ghd straightenersadmiraland senior researcher at the navy's equipment research center, said thesuspending of military exchanges doesn't just apply to high levelexchanges, but also includes middle-and-low-level programs.
"The move has ghd curlsstoppedthem (US officers) from obtaining important military information fromChina, which has always been something America wants and is crucial interms of their strategic decisions," Yin said. Actually sometimescommunication with Chinese officers of lower levels is even moreimportant, he added.Yin said the recovery of China-US relations would take longer than thelast time, when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit in early2009 thawed the frozen military ties hurt by the proposed US arms salesto Taiwan in the autumn of 2008.
"Now the weaponsghdstobe sold are more powerful and advanced. Besides the package alsoenables Taiwan to enjoy some technologies of the North Atlantic TreatyOrganization and Japan." Therefore America's attitude and effort arecrucial to repairing the relationship, he said. "Last time it was Chinaand the US both making efforts, but this time it depends solely onAmerica."
Huang Thursday alsourged the Pentagon to be "cautious" in commenting on Taiwan's fighterjets capacity. A document, released by the US Defense IntelligenceAgency recently, said that many of Taiwan's roughly 400 combat aircraftwould not work in action due to age and maintenance problems, andupgrades are needed as the mainland's military gets stronger.Experts have said the US Congress is highly likely to use the report topressure the Pentagon to sell F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan.
Huang said China "requests the US to be cautious in its wording andactions", and "avoid causing further harm" to cross-Strait relations.
