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News archives for the week ending 12th February 2010

US accuses Iran of regional arms race

US Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons as well as destabilizing the Middle East by fuelling a regional arms race.

"If they continue on the path of nuclear weapons and were able to gain even a modicum of the capability, then I worry what that does... what pressure that puts on Saudi Arabia, on Egypt, on Turkey, etc. to acquire nuclear weapons," Biden said

Iran says its program is aimed at the civilian applications of the technology. The West, however, accuses the country of seeking to develop nuclear weaponry. The UN nuclear watchdog is yet to find evidence to back the Western allegation.

Biden, the latest US official to raise the alarm over Iran, also accused the country of destabilizing the region. He, however, said Iran's nuclear program was "not an immediate concern in the sense that something could happen tomorrow or in the very near term."

The White House has stepped up pressure on Iran since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad decided to enrich uranium up to 20 percent to supply fuel for Tehran's research reactor — which produces isotopes to treat some 850,000 patients, according to Iranian officials

Press TV 11/2/10

Germany calls for removal of US missiles from Europe

Germany's new coalition government is calling for U.S. nuclear missiles to be removed from Europe.

The U.S. administration will make its nuclear policy clear with a paper known as the Nuclear Posture Review expected to be reported to the U.S. Congress this month. In the meantime, the German government has called for the removal of U.S. tactical weapons on its soil and from Europe altogether.

Voice of America, 9/2/10

FBI officials directed Pakistan torture...

Five US citizens held in Pakistan on suspicion of plotting attacks have alleged that US officials directed their torture to extract confessions.

"The boys told me that FBI agents were present and were directing their interrogations," Khalid Khawaja, a human rights activist handling the case told the BBC.

"I have a written statement which says the Americans were asking them to which militant organisation they belonged. Pakistanis were beating them up and Americans kept asking them questions."

Mr Khawaja said it was only because of US pressure that the men had been arrested.

"There is no real evidence against them," he said.

BBC News, 10/2/10

...as British lose case to keep Guantanamo torture secret

The British government Wednesday disclosed once-secret details of the United States' harsh treatment of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee after losing a lengthy legal battle to suppress the information.

According to the information, from a judge's summary of a classified CIA report to British authorities, Binyam Mohamed was subjected to "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment during interrogations in Pakistan in 2002, including being shackled and deprived of sleep while interrogators played upon "his fears of being removed from United States custody and 'disappearing.'"

Seven paragraphs of information were read in court and posted on the Foreign Office's Web site. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the House of Commons that he had fought to keep the seven paragraphs secret, not because of their content but because of the "principle of their disclosure by an English court against U.S. wishes."

Washington Post, 11/2/10

Lebanon fears Israel attack

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri says he is concerned about "escalating" threats posed to the Middle East by Israel. Mr Hariri told the BBC that Israeli planes were entering Lebanese airspace every day, and he feared the prospect of another war with Israel.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Hariri said: "We hear a lot of Israeli threats day in and day out, and not only threats."

"We see what's happening on the ground and in our airspace and what's happening all the time during the past two months - every day we have Israeli war planes entering Lebanese airspace."

"This is something that is escalating, and this is something that is really dangerous."

His comments come just days after the foreign ministers of Syria and Israel exchanged aggressive accusations, which fuelled both media speculation and public fear about what many in the region describe as the "imminent next war".

BBC News, 9/2/10

Afghan civilians flee NATO offensive

NATO commanders in Afghanistan say a planned military offensive in a southern Taliban stronghold is meant to defeat the militants and win the support of the population.

U.S and British troops are set to launch what has been described as one of the biggest anti-Taliban offensives of the eight-year-old war.

The assault will target the Afghan town of Marjah in southern Helmand province. Hundreds of civilians have fled the town to safer areas in anticipation of the planned offensive, which will include Afghan and NATO troops.

The U.S commander of the international force in Afghanistan, General Stanley McCrystal, says the offensive is meant to send a strong signal to the local population that the Afghan government is expanding its security control.

Voice of America. 8/2/10

Pakistanis and US at odds over Taliban bases

If Afghan Taliban fighters and their top leaders are roaming around this remote part of Pakistan as the U.S. alleges, the police chief here says he hasn't seen them.

"Point them out to me," Abid Hussain Notkani says. "I will arrest them."

Interviews with residents and officials in and around Quetta, a dusty frontier city of 1.2 million, reveal widespread skepticism that Pakistan's vast Baluchistan province harbors Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Omar, his aides or their foot soldiers.

Washington is so convinced that Afghan Taliban traverse this province that it has debated firing missiles in the area, a move that would certainly infuriate residents.

The U.S. hasn't helped its case, offering virtually no public proof to back its allegations that Omar and his aides operate here.

Washington Post, 7/2/10

US spreads missile shield to Romania...

Romania’s supreme defence council has agreed to the country taking part in US president Barack Obama’s revised plan for a missile defence shield system, president Traian Basescu said in Bucharest on February 4.

US vice president Joe Biden scored a hat trick at the close of his European tour in October 2009 when the Czech Republic joined Poland and Romania in expressing approval of the Obama administration’s new anti-missile shield plan.

In September 2009, US president Obama scrapped a Bush-era missile shield plan for Europe in favour of a revised scheme presented as mobile, flexible and intended as a defence against Iranian missiles. The Bush-era scheme was seen by Moscow as directed against Russia.

Sofia Echo, 4/2/10

...and puts Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty at risk

Russian officials reacted coolly on Friday to the news that Romania had agreed to host American missile interceptors starting in 2015, with a top envoy saying that the announcement could directly affect Moscow’s position as negotiations to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, reach their conclusion.

Dmitri O. Rogozin, Russia’s permanent representative to NATO, said the United States had not fulfilled its promise to consult Russia on developments in the missile defense system. He suggested that the interceptors could pose a threat to Russia’s security.

With the Start renegotiation, a central project in the “reset” between the countries, in its final stages, Russian leaders have repeatedly said missile defense remains a stumbling block.

NewYork Times, 5/2/10

Obama steps up cash for Pakistan and Yemen

The Obama administration is seeking billions in budget increases to target terror threats from abroad, especially Pakistan and Yemen, with boosts for surveillance and attack drones, special operations forces and a new military cyber command.

The focus is on regions that have served as insurgent sanctuaries, where U.S. counterterror officials say the next attack against America is likely being planned. Pentagon aid to Pakistan would balloon to $1.2 billion in 2011, aimed at bolstering its war on internal militants.

And military funding to target al-Qaida could double in Yemen, where the U.S. spent more than $6 million last year just on aerial surveillance provided by drones.

Washington Post, 4/1/10

Maliki challenges overturning of election ban

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she is "heartened" by an Iraqi decision to reinstate Sunni candidates and urged all parties to do nothing to undermine the legitimacy of elections.

An appeals panel ruled Wednesday in Baghdad that more than 500 candidates barred from Iraq's March 7 general election could stand after all. They were allegedly linked to former dictator Saddam Hussein.

But Iraq's premier Nuri al-Maliki convened parliament for Sunday to debate what his government branded an "illegal" decision to reinstate candidates with alleged links to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

AFP, 5/2/10

Anger in Pakistan over doctor's conviction

There has been an angry reaction in Pakistan to the conviction in a US court of a Pakistani doctor for the attempted killing of US agents. Aafia Siddiqui tried to carry out the shootings while in detention in Afghanistan in 2008.

Pakistan's media has closely followed every twist and turn of her case. Most people here firmly believe that she is innocent, that she is the victim of torture and that she has been unfairly treated by the US courts.

The case seems to have confirmed many Pakistanis' belief that innocent Muslims have been wrongly caught up in America's counterterrorism operations.

BBC News, 4/2/10