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News archives for the week ending 21st May 2010

Reducing Trident could save £11 billion without compromising deterrent

The coalition government could make big savings on Britain's nuclear weapons system without compromising the credibility of the deterrent, according to a study from an independent security thinktank.

Ending the current "continuous-at-sea deterrence" practice – which ensures one nuclear missile submarine is always on patrol – could extend the life of the four Trident boats well beyond 2024, it says. It could also mean the existing fleet need not be replaced by as many submarines. These measures could save more than £11bn, say Nick Ritchie and Paul Ingram, authors of the report published by the Royal United Services Institute.

In the past, the Royal Navy has sometimes operated back-to-back consecutive patrols with just two operational submarines, the Rusi study says. A nuclear-armed submarine could remain in port on enhanced alert, ready to sail at short notice if intelligence suggested an imminent attack, it adds.

Guardian, 19/5/10

Japanese want PM to resign if he doesn't remove US bases

When running for office last year, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama raised hopes that the Futenma Marine airbase might be moved off Okinawa entirely despite a 2006 deal with Washington to move it from a crowded city to a less populous site on the island.

With his self-imposed deadline of settling the matter by the end of May approaching, Hatoyama has changed tack, saying he has come to realize some Marines must stay on the island to deter threats.

The result has been a political morass that has irritated the United States, Japan's closest ally, and eroded domestic support for Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan because of a belief among voters that he has mishandled the dispute.

Support for Hatoyama's government is languishing around 20 percent while disapproval has risen to two-thirds, according to recent public opinion polls. More than half of voters think he should resign if he does not settle the dispute this month.

The Marine base, which has been on the island since the end of World War II, is deeply unpopular in Japan because troops based there have a history of criminal misconduct, including rape. Aircraft safety is also a concern, following the August 2004 crash of a Marine transport helicopter.

Reuters, 19/5/10

Taliban Car Bomb Strikes U.S. Convoy in Kabul

The Taliban struck here at the heart of the Afghan capital Tuesday, with a suicide bomber steering his explosives-laden Toyota minibus into an American convoy as it moved through the thick of rush-hour traffic. The attack killed 18 people, including 5 American soldiers and an officer from Canada, and wounded at least 47 civilians.

The assault, which brought mayhem and carnage to one of the capital’s main thoroughfares, comes as Afghan leaders and NATO commanders are preparing to launch a major offensive in the southern city of Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual home. If nothing else, the attack seemed intended to remind American and Afghan leaders of what the next several months might hold in store as the offensive unfolds.

New York Times, 18/4/10

US spreads killer drones to Horn of Africa

Under a secret directive first issued by former President George W. Bush and continued by Barack Obama, the CIA has broadly expanded the "target set" for drone strikes.

As a result, what is still officially classified as a covert campaign on Pakistan's side of the border with Afghanistan has in many ways morphed into a parallel conventional war, several experts say.

Killing wanted militants is simply "easier" than capturing them, said an official, who like most interviewed for this story support the stepped-up program and asked not to be identified. Another official added: "It is increasingly the preferred option."

Back in Washington, the technology is considered such a success that the U.S. military has been positioning Reaper drones at a base in the Horn of Africa. The aircraft can be used against militants in Yemen and Somalia, and even potentially against pirates who attack commercial ships traversing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, officials said.

"Everyone has fallen in love with them," a former U.S. intelligence official said of the drone strikes.

Reuters, 18/5/10

NATO develops worldwide brief

NATO must be willing to fight and operate far from its borders to defend its members in a new world of terrorism, piracy and cyberattacks, according to a proposed strategy for the alliance released Monday.

The report, commissioned by NATO, is meant to provide the guidelines for a new strategic concept to replace the one NATO adopted in 1999. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the alliance’s secretary general, will refine the guidelines and present them to the 28 member governments for comments, with the aim of adopting a new strategy at the organization’s summit meeting in Lisbon in November.

In a post-1999 world of terrorism, nuclear proliferation and the spread of missiles to more aggressive countries and even nonstate actors, like Hezbollah and Hamas, and threats to the security of energy supplies and the Internet, the alliance must reform to remain relevant, the report said.

It added, “Although NATO is busier than it has ever been, its value is less obvious to many than in the past.”

New York Times, 17/5/10

US running illegal spy network in Pakistan

Despite an official ban, top US military officials continue to hire the secret services of private spies for information regarding militants movement and other strategic inputs from deep inside the troubled tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials have revealed.

The US Army has been not allowed to carry out ground operations inside Pakistan, and more importantly according to Pentagon rules, the military is not allowed to hire contractors for spying.

However, reports suggest that not only the secret network is still operating in the region, daily inputs regarding movement of militants and working of the Taliban in Pakistan are submitted to US commanders.

Citing some Pentagon officials, The New York Times reported that the supervisor who set up this secret contractor network, Michael D. Furlong, was now under investigation.

However, The New York Times claimed that Furlong's operatives were still providing information using the same intelligence gathering methods as before.

The contractors were still being paid under a 22 million dollar contract. The contract is being managed by Lockheed Martin and supervised by the Pentagon office in charge of special operations policy, the newspaper claimed.

OneIndia, 16/5/10

UN: Aid Program In Pakistan Under Threat

Last year, more than three million people fled fighting in South Waziristan and other areas in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The United Nations estimates more than one million people remain displaced.

U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan Martin Mogwanja says people are continuing to flee their homes because of ongoing military operations by the Pakistani government against Taliban militants in different parts of Northwestern Pakistan and he says U.N. aid agencies will need additional money.

"These are new IDPs who need, of course, new tents, new non-food item kits, new hygiene kits and indeed, the health care and so on has to be addressed. We are supporting wherever possible and where it can be done on a voluntary and sustainable basis the return of IDPs," he said.

"And, we hope that, particularly in the Bajaur and Mohmand areas these IDPs will be able to return home in the coming days. But, all this is predicated upon the increased availability of resources, which is absolutely essential," said Mogwanja.

The United Nations appealed for $537 million for humanitarian operations from February through July and only 26 percent of that amount has been received. U.N. Coordinator Mogwanja says this will have serious consequences for the aid operation.

Voice of America, 17/5/10

US troops cannot protect civilians

Farmers from the district of Marja, which since February has been the focus of the largest American-led military operation in Afghanistan, are fleeing the area, saying that the Taliban are terrorizing the population and that American troops cannot protect the civilians.

The departure of the farmers is one of the most telling indications that Taliban fighters have found a way to resume their insurgency, three months after thousands of troops invaded this Taliban stronghold in the opening foray of a campaign to take control of southern Afghanistan.

Militants have been infiltrating back into the area and the prospect of months of more fighting is undermining public morale, residents and officials said.

New York Times, 16/5/10

Growing number of attacks on British troops

British troops in Afghanistan are coming under the fiercest and most sustained assault since the start of the conflict nine years ago, with coalition forces subjected to more than 40 attacks each day in March: double the rate of a year ago.

Attacks by the Taliban between September 2009 and March 2010 leapt by 83 per cent compared with the same period last year, according to a new report released this month by the US Government Accountability Office. This in turn is greater than the 75 per cent increase between 2008 and 2009, when the Taliban launched 21,000 attacks.

Worse, the violence is expected to grow even more ferocious in the coming months as US and British forces fight to retake Taliban-held territory in the south of the country. Ineffective governance and money from the opium trade are cited as factors behind the continuing resilience of the insurgency.

Independent, 16/5/10

US pushes for share of China clean energy market

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke urged China on Sunday to remain open to U.S. and other foreign technology as it ramps up investment in clean energy to fight global warming and secure its economy.

"China, given the incredible challenges that is has, should in my view be taking the best technology from wherever -- whether it's China, the United States, Europe, Japan, anywhere else," Locke said at the start of a trade mission to open doors for U.S. clean energy firms.

Beijing is pouring tens of billions of dollars into solar, wind, biomass and nuclear power projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming and to replace depleting oil and natural gas supplies.

But U.S. officials say the barriers to China's fast-growing clean energy market can be as big as the opportunities. While foreign companies have made sales for smaller wind projects, their share of China's total wind power equipment market has plummeted from 75 percent in 2004 to 24 percent in 2008 and could fall as low as 5 percent this year.

Reuters, 16/5/10

'The most successful and credible elections in the history of any Arab country'

The U.S. government is coming around to the realization that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, or at least his political bloc, will come out on top and form the next Iraqi government.

It's true that the more secular "Iraqi" alliance led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi won more seats in the parliamentary elections. But since Maliki's State of Law coalition formally joined with the Iraqi National Alliance, which includes radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, administration and embassy officials are anticipating that Allawi will not be able to take a shot at forming a government, and the Maliki-Sadr alliance will come out on top.

Embassy officials in Baghdad have been heavily engaged with all the political leaders since the election ended and the wrangling for power began. U.S. Ambassador Chris Hill and his team have been holding more than two dozen meetings per week with Iraqi leaders, pressing them to abide by agreed-upon political processes and move forward with the formation of the government before everyone gets too restless.

Although the elections are still in dispute and both sides are still playing games, the embassy is praising the elections and is prepared to endorse the result, no matter who comes out on top.

"These were the most successful and credible elections in the history of any Arab country. That's an amazing story," Gary Grappo, the top political official at the embassy, told The Cable.

The Cable, United States, 15/5/10

Police kill protester against civilian deaths

Police shot dead a an Afghan protester in eastern Afghanistan on Friday after hundreds of villagers demonstrated against NATO raids which they said killed 11 civilians overnight, a local official said.

Crowds of men marched through the streets of Surkhrod district in Nangahar province, with chants like "Death to Americans, Long Live the Taliban" and pelted stones at government buildings before they were fired on by police.

Haji Jamal, head of the local provincial council, told Reuters that one of the protesters had been shot dead by police gunfire. The interior ministry was not immediately available for comment.

The protest erupted after a NATO-led raid overnight in a village in Surkhrod district angered residents who said the raid killed innocent civilians.

Reuters, 14/5/10

US making little progress in Kandahar

Although it is just beginning, the U.S.-led effort to pacify the Taliban's spiritual capital appears to be faltering. Key military operations have been delayed until the fall, and a Taliban assassination campaign is undermining efforts to improve local government in Kandahar.

NATO officials once spoke of demonstrating major progress by mid-August, but U.S. commanders now say the turning point may not be reached until November, and perhaps later.

Dallas Morning News, 14/5/10

No fraud in Iraq election

More than two months after Iraq's parliamentary polls, the electoral commission says it has ended a partial recount and found no cases of fraud.

The recount was requested by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, whose coalition came second in the poll, according to provisional results.

The announcement marks an important stage on the road towards ending a long period of political deadlock.

BBC News, 14/5/10

Hague and Clinton affirm 'unbreakable alliance'

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and new British Foreign Minister William Hague met on Friday in Washington, vowing to strengthen the U.S.-Britain strategic alliance on addressing common challenges.

At a joint press conference following a meeting in U.S. State Department, Clinton and Hague told reporters that the relationship between the two countries is "an unbreakable alliance" based on common values, common aspirations and common concerns.

Hague chose Washington as the destination of his first overseas visit in the new position, sending a clear signal to the Obama administration that the new British government led by David Cameron would continue "work solidly alongside the United States."

Xinhua, China, 15/5/10

US pushes for Iran sanctions

The United States doubts Iran will provide any "serious response" to concerns about its nuclear program until the United Nations moves on sanctions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday.

"I believe we will not get any serious response out of the Iranians until after the Security Council acts," the top US diplomat said during a press conference with Britain's new Foreign Secretary William Hague.

The United States is working to craft consensus on a new round of UN sanctions to punish Iran for its failure to halt uranium production under its nuclear program, which the West fears masks a drive for weapons of mass destruction.

China, one of the five permanent veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, has been the main holdout to new sanctions on the 15-member council, along with current but non-permanent members Brazil, Turkey and Lebanon.

AFP, 14/5/10