Watching the Warmakers is based in Brighton, England.
Our aim is to support activists in educating themselves in the issues
which confront those struggling for peace and justice.

Friday September 3, 2010

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We are on a break and will return on Sunday 19th September

Iraq will be one of biggest customers for US arms

Iraq is preparing to buy as much as $13 billion in American arms and military equipment, a huge order of tanks, ships and hardware that U.S. officials say shows Iraqi-U.S. military ties will be tight for years to come.

"It helps to build their capabilities, first and foremost; and second, it builds our strategic relationship for the future," said Army Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, the ranking U.S. officer responsible for training and advising Iraq forces.

The sales will make Iraq among the world's biggest customers for American military arms and equipment. The Iraq Defense Ministry intends to transform the country's degraded conventional forces into a state-of-the-art military.

USA Today, 2/9/10

China pressured on Iran sanctions

The European Union said Thursday it expects China to support tough sanctions against Iran over its suspect nuclear program and not let its companies move into the Middle Eastern country's market as European companies pull out.

Senior U.S. officials have been touring China, Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates to demand compliance with the new round of U.N. Security Council measures.

China has defended its business relationships with Iran after pressure from the United States to fully follow the new sanctions. Beijing says China's trade with Iran is a "normal business exchange" that will not harm the interests of the international community.

China's bilateral trade with Iran reached at least $36.5 billion last year. Iran meets 11 percent of China's energy needs and Chinese companies have major investments in Iranian energy extraction projects and the construction of roads, bridges and power plants.

Associated Press, 2/9/10

Blair: more military intervetions necessary

Globalisation has made military intervention in rogue regimes overseas more necessary than ever, Tony Blair argues in his memoirs.

Not toppling Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, is one regret voiced by the former prime minister. His belief that Iran needs to be confronted in its nuclear ambitions and as a last resort prevented by force shines through. The experience of Iraq and Afghanistan has not diminished his commitment to taking on opponents.

Gurdian, 1/9/10

Pakistan delegation 'mistaken for terrorists' in US

A delegation of Pakistani military officers has abandoned a trip to the US after being mistaken for terrorists and ordered off an airliner.

The eight officers, led by a two-star Navy rear admiral, were on their way to a meeting at US Central Command. They had boarded a United Airlines Flight from Washington to Tampa on Monday but were taken off the aircraft because of comments made by one of the men, according to an airline spokesman.

Pakistani officials said the officer, weary from the journey to the US, had said, "I hope this is the final plane to the destination" causing a female passenger, who believed he was threatening the aircraft, to panic.

Major General Athar Abbas, a spokesman for the Pakistan military, said the officers had been cleared by subsequent security inspections.

"However, as a result of these checks, military authorities in Pakistan decided to cancel the visit and called the delegation back," the army said in a statement.

The dispute appeared to be a sign of the mistrust between the US and Pakistani military, which claimed the delegation had been subjected to "unwarranted checks".

Daily Telegraph, 1/9/10

Clegg claims progress as insurgency spreads

Oxfam has been forced to suspend operations in a once-peaceful northern province of Afghanistan after three of its staff were killed and two injured by a roadside bomb on Monday.

The attack on one of the biggest British aid charities working in Afghanistan came as Nick Clegg claimed there was "discernible progress" in the restive southern Helmand province and told British forces they were "turning the corner".

The deputy prime minister, visiting Helmand and Kabul, said the "clock is ticking" down to the end of the UK's combat mission in the country in 2015 and that more urgency was needed to pursue a peace process with the Taliban.

But the murder of aid workers in Badakhshan in the north highlighted how insurgents have in the past year dramatically increased their presence in the region.

Gurdian, 31/8/10

NATO wants Poland to stay in Afghanistan

Poland needs to stay committed in Afghanistan until the job there is done, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Reuters on the eve of a meeting with the new Polish president.

Poland, which has 2,600 troops in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force, is one of a growing number of NATO nations that are setting target dates for withdrawal amid domestic unease over the war.

President Bronislaw Komorowski vowed during his election campaign to bring Polish troops home by 2012 regardless of what other NATO countries decided.

Reuters, 31/8/10

Pakistan air strikes kill scores

A Pakistani air strike targeting fighters believed to have been preparing for imminent suicide attacks has killed between 40 to 45 people in a northwestern the country.

"Security forces today carried out a successful operation against militants in the Tirah valley of Khyber Agency," a senior Pakistani security official told AFP news agency on Tuesday.

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder said that, according to reports from the area, the military has confirmed that the attacks involved aircrafts and some helicopter gunships of the military. A local government official said that civilians including women and children had also been hit.

"Many civilians, including women and children, have been killed in air strikes," the official told AFP, asking not to be named.

Al Jazeera, 31/8/10

CIA has several Karzai government members on payroll

While the U.S. publicly criticizes corruption in the Afghan government... privately the CIA is making secret payments to "multiple members" of President Karzai's administration.

The Washington Post has an explosive report on these payments, which in some cases have been going on for a long time. They're meant to help the agency keep many allies within the presidential palace... and to provide a flow of information, since Karzai doesn't always know what members of his own government are doing.

These revelations surface at a time when one of Karzai's top national security advisers - also allegedly on the CIA's payroll - is under investigation for corruption, as first reported by the New York Times.

Yet, some defend the payments, even if they're going to corrupt officials, saying they help achieve U.S. goals there. As one American official says, "If you want intelligence in a war zone, you're not going to get it from Mother Teresa or Mary Poppins."

Meanwhile - as public support here at home for the war in Afghanistan weakens, the U.S. is trying to show progress there before December - when the White House will re-evaluate its mission. Corruption is one of the biggest problems U.S. officials cite with the Afghan government; but it's tough to be critical if some Afghan officials are being bought by the CIA.

CNN, 30/8/10

Karzai attacks 'ineffective' US strategy

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has again harshly criticized coalition strategy for fighting Afghanistan's stubborn insurgency.

President Karzai said in a meeting Sunday with the visiting German Parliament speaker Norbert Lammer the current strategy has been "ineffective" and has not achieved anything other than "killing civilians."

Mr. Karzai also said rethinking counter-insurgency strategies in Afghanistan is the war-torn country's most pressing need.

The president made similar comments last week when he said NATO and Afghan forces are faltering in their battle against terrorism. He blamed the lack of progress on civilian casualties during NATO military operations and the presence of militant sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan. He said that Washington's July 2011 deadline for the start of a troop pullout in Afghanistan has given insurgents a "morale boost."

Voice of America, 30/8/10

Violence on rise in Afghanistan

Seven US soldiers were killed Saturday and Sunday in Afghanistan, in a violent weekend that deepened concerns about security ahead of September elections. Forty-two US soldiers have now died in Afghanistan this month.

A candidate for parliament was also killed by insurgents and the bodies of five campaign workers for a female parliamentary candidate were found. About eight civilians also died.

Violence has risen as more US troops arrive in Afghanistan, bringing the number to about 100,000. The troop increase is part of an attempt to bring the Taliban insurgency under control before July 2011, when President Obama has pledged US troops will begin to withdraw.

NATO troops are also attempting to bring about stability before parliamentary elections are held on Sept. 18.

Christian Science Monitor, 29/8/10

US's flood aid 'not enough' to win over Pakistan

US aid pouring into Pakistan's flood-hit regions is helping reverse widespread anti-American sentiment but will not be enough to win hearts and minds in the long term, experts say.

Victims are grateful for the help but many Pakistanis think it ironic that while the United States is sending tonnes of aid, it is also sending drones to bomb Islamist militant hideouts in the border areas with Afghanistan.

And the gratitude may be short-lived, just as it was after a swell of support from America following Pakistan's 2005 earthquake that left 73,000 dead, said Pakistan analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai.

"There will be goodwill created, it's already happening for America and it also happened in October 2005 during the earthquake... but that was for a short while and this is again the fear that it may not last long," said Yusufzai.

"(Aid) must happen on a long-term basis," he said. "There's a changing perception about America but not on such a big scale right now because at the same time America's helping out they are also bombing Pakistan territory."

AFP, 29/8/10

Karzai blocks corruption investigations

Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar, the former deputy attorney general, said investigations of more than two dozen senior Afghan officials — including cabinet ministers, ambassadors and provincial governors — were being held up or blocked outright by Mr. Karzai, Attorney General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko and others.

Mr. Faqiryar’s account of the troubles plaguing the anticorruption investigations, which Mr. Karzai’s office disputed, has been largely corroborated in interviews with five Western officials familiar with the cases. They say Mr. Karzai and others in his government have repeatedly thwarted prosecutions against senior Afghan government figures.

An American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Afghan prosecutors had prepared several cases against officials suspected of corruption, but that Mr. Karzai was “stalling and stalling and stalling.”

New York Times, 28/8/10

Marines prepare for the long haul

According to the Los Angeles Times, a year since the U.S. troop build-up in Afghanistan began with battalions of Marines descending on the Helmand River Valley, optimism about a quick defeat of the insurgents after early small-scale routs has given way to more sober assessments.

Top Marine commanders warn that it could take as long as five years to defeat the Taliban and help the Afghan government establish a credible presence.

Two battalions of Marines are still assigned to protect Marja, but Taliban fighters spread messages of terror at night and plant bombs, killing both Marines and villagers.

Marine Commandant General James Conway has told Marines of all ranks in a series of meetings that he expects themto be here until 2014 or 2015. Be prepared for a second or third tour, he said.

"We're still going to have to convince these people who are fighting us that we are the strongest tribe," Conway told several hundred Marines.

Sify, India, 28/8/10

Arms manufacturers worried about Trident cash...

Defence manufacturers have asked David Cameron to clear up confusion over how the replacement for Britain's nuclear deterrent will be funded.

The chairman of the industry body ADS, Ian Godden, said uncertainty over the Trident missile system was unsettling both investors and the UK's allies. There are concerns as to what way the successor to Trident would impact on wider defence spending.

The previous government promised that the estimated £20bn needed to build Britain's next nuclear deterrent would come from a separate budget. But the Chancellor, George Osborne, has insisted the money must be taken from the already over-stretched defence budget - currently about £37bn a year, or 2.2% of GDP.

BBC News, 27/8/10

...as BAE aims to export more weapons

BAE shares have fallen 10 percent to a five-year low in the last six months on fears cuts in UK and U.S. defence programmes will hit sales. BAE, however, is confident growing defence services sales, cost controls and demand from emerging markets will fuel growth.

Analysts believe BAE could double its revenue from Saudi Arabia by 2011 (to around 3.5 billion pounds per year) as the Kingdom's air force continues its rapid expansion.

Its newest "home market" India also looks promising, while key roles on the largest combat aircraft programmes -- the F-35 and Eurofighter jets -- should also stand it in good stead.

Reuters, 27/8/10

Karzai: pullout timetable is boost to Taliban

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has criticized a plan by U.S. President Barack Obama to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan next July.

Mr. Karzai told a visiting U.S. congressional delegation Thursday that Mr. Obama's July 2011 deadline for the start of a troop pullout has given insurgents a "morale boost."

The chief of the U.S. Marine Corps, General James Conway, made a similar comment earlier this week, telling a news conference Mr. Obama's pullout date "is probably giving our enemy sustenance," as he put it. But, Conway also said Taliban militants in Afghanistan will be in for a surprise when they realize American troops will continue fighting them.

President Karzai also told the U.S. lawmakers that NATO and Afghan forces are faltering in their battle against terrorism. He blamed the lack of progress on civilian casualties in NATO operations and the continued existence of militant sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan.

Voice of America, 27/8/10

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