posted September 12, 2012 12:41 AM            

And while this retired Admiral was paying tribute to America's finest, there appeared on the giant video screen the image of 4 warships at sea.

Oh the demoscats had chorographed this event perfectly; except for one teeny, tiny problem. Those images on that giant video monitor were 4 RUSSIAN WARSHIPS.

Hey, it could happen to anyone! Right! Check!

What a heart warming tribute from demoscats to American military veterans!

Russian ships displayed at DNC tribute to vets
By Sam Fellman - Staff writer
Tuesday Sep 11, 2012
Navy Times

On the last night of the Democratic National Convention, a retired Navy four-star took the stage to pay tribute to veterans. Behind him, on a giant screen, the image of four hulking warships reinforced his patriotic message.

But there was a big mistake in the stirring backdrop: those are Russian warships.

While retired Adm. John Nathman, a former commander of Fleet Forces Command, honored vets as America’s best, the ships from the Russian Federation Navy were arrayed like sentinels on the big screen above.

These were the very Soviet-era combatants that Nathman and Cold Warriors like him had once squared off against.

“The ships are definitely Russian,” said noted naval author Norman Polmar after reviewing hi-resolution photos from the event. “There’s no question of that in my mind.”

Naval experts concluded the background was a photo composite of Russian ships that were overflown by what appear to be U.S. trainer jets. It remains unclear how or why the Democratic Party used what’s believed to be images of the Russian Black Sea Fleet at their convention.

A spokesman for the Democratic National Convention Committee was not able to immediately comment Tuesday, saying he had to track down personnel to find out what had happened.

The veteran who spotted the error and notified Navy Times said he was immediately taken aback.

“I was kind of in shock,” said Rob Barker, 38, a former electronics warfare technician who left the Navy in 2006. Having learned to visually identify foreign ships by their radars, Barker recognized the closest ship as the Kara-class cruiser Kerch.

“An immediate apology [from the committee] would be very nice,” Barker said. “Maybe acknowledge the fact that yes, they screwed up.”

The background — featured in the carefully choreographed hour leading up to the president’s Sept. 6 speech accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination — showed four ships with radar designs not used in the U.S. fleet.

For example, the ship in the foreground, on the far right, has a square radar antenna at the top of its masthead. That is the MR-700 Podberezovik 3-D early warning radar, commonly identified as “Flat Screen” for its appearance, a three-dimensional early warning radar mounted on the Kerch, said Eric Wertheim, editor of “Combat Fleets of the World.”

Similarly, the third ship has a MR-310 “Head Net” air search radar, shaped like two off-set bananas, at its masthead and is mostly likely the guided missile destroyer Smetlivyy. The first two ships seem to be Krivak-class frigates, but it’s hard to discern from the silhouette, experts said.

But the fact they are Russian ships is not in doubt. In addition to the ship’s radar arrays and hulls, which are dissimilar from U.S. warships, the photo features one more give-away: a large white flag with a blue ‘X’ at the ships’ sterns.

Polmar, who authored “The Naval Institute Guide to the Soviet Navy,” recognized the blue ‘X’-mark: “The X is the Cross of St. Andrew’s, which is a Russian Navy symbol,” Polmar said. (An anchored U.S. warship, by contrast, flies the American flag on its stern.)

Based on this specific group of these ship types, one naval expert concluded that this was most likely a photo of the Black Sea Fleet.

“Ships are all Black Sea Fleet,” A. D. Baker III, a retired Office of Naval Intelligence analyst, told Navy Times after looking at the image. “These four ships, at the time the photo was taken, constituted the entire major surface combatant component of the Black Sea Fleet,” Baker said, noting the photo was likely to be six years old or older. (The Kerch is now on the list to be scrapped, Baker said.)

posted September 18, 2012 02:18 PM            

Hell, they don't even know our own US warships and war planes from those of other nations.

It's just incredible demoscats would attempt to pay tribute to US military veterans with a giant video display of Soviet Union warships and Turkish military aircraft.

But, that's what they did...and in glorious living color for the whole nation to see!

Fighter jets in Democratic convention’s military montage were Turkish, not American
09/17/2012
By Neil Munro

The Democratic Party’s national convention in Charlotte, N.C., may have doubled down on insulting the U.S. military community.

The Democratic National Committee has already apologized for using a photo of four Soviet-era Russian warships in a giant stage backdrop intended to illustrate the party’s support for military personnel and veterans.

That huge image, visible in the Time Warner Cable Arena during speeches by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and retired Admiral John B. Nathman, also depicted a synchronized formation of jet aircraft that convention-goers assumed were American fighter planes.

But the F-5 fighter planes in the photo are part of the air force of Turkey, a nation whose government is now jailing journalists and establishing Islam as a state religion.

Brad Woodhouse, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, did not respond when the The Daily Caller asked why the convention planners displayed Turkish-flown aircraft alongside Russian warships while seeking support from the American military community.

On Sept. 12, Democrats apologized for using the picture of Soviet-era, Russian-operated ships after the slip up was first reported by the Navy Times. The Navy Times also received a tip that the planes depicted may have been from the Turkish Air Force. (NAVAL EXPERT: Ships shown during Democratic convention tribute to veterans were Russian)

The vessels, with their distinct radars and blue-cross-motif Russian naval flags, occupied the center of the massive backdrop. The aircraft were depicted flying in a seven-plane formation on the upper right.

At least three of the ships in the image were designed and built by the Soviet totalitarian state that killed 20 million of its own citizens. Amid steady pressure from the U.S. military, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, marking its defeat in the four-decade Cold War. One of the warships may now be part of the Ukrainian Navy.

The Russian ships and Turkish aircraft were shown during the final night of the Charlotte convention on Sept. 6, shortly before President Barack Obama accepted his party’s nomination to serve a second term.

The image first appeared in the closing minutes of an address by Sen. Kerry.

Obama is “a commander-in-chief who gives our troops the tools and training they need in war,” Kerry said, reinforced by visuals of foreign ships and aircraft operated by foreign-trained military personnel. (SEE ALSO: TheDC’s complete coverage of the 2012 DNC)

Martin Rosenkranz, a military aircraft expert and editor-in-chief of a military aviation journal in Austria, revealed the fighter jets’ origin to The Daily Caller.

“The aircraft in this image displayed are not U.S. [operated] aircraft,” he told TheDC.

“The jets are most likely from the Turkish air force [because] the formation and the type (F-5) flown is very typical of the seven-ship formation flown by the Turkish Air Force Display Team known as the ‘Turkish Stars,’” said Rosenkranz.

“There is no other display team worldwide” that uses a similar seven-aircraft formation.

Rosenkranz’s argument is bolstered by two other factors.

The aircraft shown at the Democrats’ convention are old F-5 aircraft. They were were designed in the United States and sold to many countries, including Turkey — whose display team uses that same model.

Also, the planes depicted in the Democrats’ Sept. 6 photo montage display an unusual red and white striped pattern painted on the underside of their fuselages — most visible on the lowest and best-lit of the F-5s in the image.

During a June 2012 airshow in Norway, seven of the “Turkish Stars” F-5s flew in formation above a cheering crowd. They all featured that same striped paint job, which can be seen 45 seconds into an amateur video available online.

The latest Charlotte faux pas comes as Obama has called for help from Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Erdogan, to stem widespread Islamist riots against U.S. facilities and diplomatic personnel.

Obama and Islamist leaders agree the riots were spurred in part by an anti-Islamic video produced in California, although many regional experts say upsurge was caused by Islamist groups competing for support from anti-American voters.

posted September 18, 2012 05:01 PM            

I wonder if the rest of the world knows they're American colonies?

posted September 18, 2012 06:29 PM            

wasn't it you who pointed out to IQ how civilizing the effect of britain was on india? did you ever think that indians might not have wanted OUR/britain's brand of civilization? or that the egyptians equated mubarak with american power games?

posted September 18, 2012 06:35 PM            

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted September 19, 2012 12:49 PM            

All other nations are either American colonies or they aren't. Period

If they are...as you said, then we have the perfect right to "meddle in their affairs".

But, I've heard this same tired, shopworn argument before and it makes no more sense now than it did the first time it got spewed out by leftists.