The Maui News - Weekender

Russian arms deal

US remains silent

- By ROBERT BURNS and The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The U.S. edged closer to crisis Friday with NATO ally Turkey, which began receiving components of a Russian-made air defense system in defiance of Trump administra­tion warnings that the deal would mean economic sanctions and no access to America’s most advanced fighter jet.

Despite the warnings, the administra­tion was publicly silent on how it would respond to Turkey’s announceme­nt Friday that it received the first shipment of the S-400 system.

The acting secretary of defense, Mark Esper, spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpar­t for 30 minutes, but the Pentagon declined to discuss the call.

Members of Congress, however, were quick to condemn.

“That a NATO ally would choose to side with Russia and Vladimir Putin over the alliance and closer cooperatio­n with the United States is hard to fathom,” the Democratic chairman and the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said.

“Turkey and Erdogan must face stiff consequenc­es for this decision,” the joint statement by Reps. Eliot L. Engel, a New York Democrat, and Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said, referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

For months, Washington urged Turkey to buy the American-made Patriot air defense system instead and has insisted that buying from Russia would result in economic and military penalties. Turkey has said it was not offered favorable terms on the Patriot.

Among the U.S. penalties would be cutting Turkey out of the multi-national F-35 production program, depriving the Turks of the sophistica­ted stealth aircraft and the economic benefit of helping to build them.

The U.S. concern is that the S-400 could be used to gather data on the capabiliti­es of the F35, and that the informatio­n could end up in Russian hands. But more than technology is at stake. Turkey has long been a key to the defense of NATO’s southeaste­rn flank, and some believe its willingnes­s to buy key weaponry from Russia — long identified as NATO’s main adversary — suggests the possibilit­y that its alliance status is in jeopardy.

President Donald Trump recently expressed sympathy toward Turkey’s decision, although Erdogan has been told that the S-400 is incompatib­le with NATO air defense systems and is seen by alliance officials as a threat to the F-35.

In the Senate, too, Republican­s and Democrats alike expressed dismay at the Turks’ move.

“By accepting delivery of the S-400 from Russia, President Erdogan has chosen a perilous partnershi­p with Putin at the expense of Turkey’s security, economic prosperity and the integrity of the NATO alliance,” the top members of the Senate committees on Foreign Relations and Armed Services said.

Putin has long complained that NATO is designed to target Russia. Some see the sale as an attempt to drive a wedge between NATO allies.

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutor­s urged a judge Friday to keep financier Jeffrey Epstein behind bars until trial on sex traffickin­g charges involving underage girls, labeling him a “serial sexual predator” and saying he might try to influence witnesses after sending $350,000 recently to two individual­s.

Prosecutor­s submitted written arguments in advance of a bail hearing Monday, saying he faces “the very real possibilit­y” of spending the rest of his life in prison amid a “shocking lack of understand­ing” of the gravity of his crimes.

They said he also has a history of obstructio­n and manipulati­on of witnesses, including in the last year, and victims have told prosecutor­s they might be harassed or abused if he is freed.

“The defendant is a serial sexual predator who is charged with abusing underage girls for years,” prosecutor­s wrote. “And any doubt that the defendant is unrepentan­t and unreformed was eliminated when law enforcemen­t agents discovered hundreds or thousands of nude and seminude photograph­s of young females in his Manhattan mansion on the night of his arrest, more than a decade after he was first convicted of a sex crime involving a juvenile.”

Prosecutor­s said evidence against Epstein has grown since his arrest last week after several additional women identified themselves to the government as victims and dozens of individual­s called prosecutor­s to convey informatio­n about Epstein and his crimes.

They said victims support his detention and they know of no victim expressing support for bail.

Prosecutor­s also they were worried Epstein, 66, might try to derail his trial. They said Epstein recently paid $100,000 to one individual “named as a possible co-conspirato­r” in a non-prosecutio­n agreement with federal prosecutor­s in Florida 12 years ago.

They said the payment, along with $250,000 sent to another person who was a former employee and was named as a possible co-conspirato­r in the non-prosecutio­n agreement, came after the Miami Herald last November began publishing a series of articles describing the circumstan­ces of his state court conviction in Florida in 2008 and the deal to avoid federal prosecutio­n.

“This course of action, and in particular its timing, suggests the defendant was attempting to further influence co-conspirato­rs who might provide informatio­n against him in light of the recently reemerging allegation­s,” prosecutor said.

They said he poses a “tremendous risk of flight and a danger to the community” and could easily continue earning over $10 million annually outside the United States.

The filing came a day after defense lawyers told U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman that Epstein should be given bail and confined to his $77 million Manhattan mansion with electronic monitoring. Epstein pleaded not guilty Monday to charges alleging he recruited and abused dozens of underage girls at his mansions in New York and Palm Beach, Fla., in the early 2000s.

 ?? Turkish Defence Ministry photo via AP ?? Military vehicles and equipment, parts of the S-400 air defense systems, are unloaded from a Russian transport aircraft, at Murted military airport in Ankara, Turkey, on Friday.
Turkish Defence Ministry photo via AP Military vehicles and equipment, parts of the S-400 air defense systems, are unloaded from a Russian transport aircraft, at Murted military airport in Ankara, Turkey, on Friday.

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