November 13, 2008 (LPAC)--At a news conference in the Estonian capital of Tallinn today after a NATO meeting with Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the Russian threat to place tactical missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, if the U.S. places an anti-missile defense system in Poland, provocative and misguided. Gates said that such a Russian move was "hardly the welcome a new American administration deserved. Such provocative remarks are unnecessary and misguided." To the Medvedev offer in Le Figaro, that Moscow could cancel its deployment of the Iskander missiles if Obama scrapped plans for the missile defense system, Gates said "I don't think that is a credible offer. Quite frankly I am not clear what the missiles would be for in Kaliningrad. After all the only real emerging threat on Russia's periphery is Iran and I don't think the Iskander missile has the range to get there from Kaliningrad. So, this is an issue apparently between ourselves and the Russians. Why they would threaten to point missiles at European nations seems quite puzzling to me."

Lyndon LaRouche commented: Gates' reply is bullshit. The threat is coming from the British, who are using the placement of an anti-missile defense system in Poland as a threat to Russia. If Gates doesn't understand this, either there is something wrong with him or he is taking orders from an idiot.