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News archives for the week ending 27th August 2010

G4S secure after £15m Iraq mine deal

G4S, which tags Britain's criminals and runs prisoner transfers to courts, said it was profiting from a slew of contracts to remove landmines in Iraq as oil and gas companies return to the country.

The security company described the 'de-mining' contracts as phase one of a project bonanza in the war-torn country after the government granted licenses to overseas companies to extract oil.

Phase two will see G4S and rival firms building secure compounds to house the geologists and researchers who will be sent over to prepare the ground for oil extraction, and for the protection of these employees.

G4S also said it hoped to benefit from UK public spending cuts, for example by operating more custodial cells for the police.

The firm has already won a £15m contract to de-mine a large oilfield in southern Iraq, and a deal to provide guards at Baghdad airport.

Daily Mai,27/8/10

Iraq war inquiry 'ignoring 100,000 civilian deaths'

The official inquiry into the Iraq war has been accused of ignoring the deaths of the estimated 100,000 Iraqi civilians who have been killed since the 2003 invasion.

Iraq Body Count, a research group which has recorded between 97,000 and 106,000 civilian deaths since 2003, said the equivalent of an "Iraq war inquest" was needed because the Chilcot inquiry set up by Gordon Brown had failed to address this central issue.

The group has been pressing Sir John Chilcot, the inquiry chairman, to look into civilian casualties for a year but has now run out of patience. The amount of time devoted to Iraqi casualties has been "derisory" and the inquiry is "flawed", its report today said.

There has been no official attempt by the British Government to put a precise or approximate figure on Iraqi casualties. IBC said:"Throughout the inquiry most of the attention has remained firmly fixed, fixated even, upon the interplay between political and military actors here and in the USA, and the ramifications of the war as felt by them, while the subject that is of greatest concern to the greatest number of people, here as in Iraq, gets only brief mentions."

Independent, 27/8/10

UK military in Yemen & Pakistan

Teams of British military personnel are now stationed in terrorist hotspots Yemen and Pakistan, official figures show.

About 20 members of the Royal Navy are based in Yemen, and a similar number of Navy personnel and Army officers are serving in Pakistan.

Last year, there were no members of UK forces stationed in the two countries, according to statistics released by the Defence Analytical Services Agency (Dasa).

The figures do not include troops deployed on operations and temporary assignments, so the real numbers could be higher.

Yemen and Pakistan have frequently been accused of harbouring extremists and exporting terrorism around the world. Two of the July 7 2005 London bombers trained in Pakistan, and the suspect in the failed Detroit airliner bombing on Christmas Day 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is believed to have been radicalised by al Qaida in Yemen.

No members of the UK's regular Armed Forces were stationed in Yemen, Pakistan, Qatar or the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in October 2009, according to Dasa figures. But British troops were based in the countries from January this year, including about 20 in Qatar and 10 in the UAE.

The numbers are not precise because they are rounded to the nearest 10. The assistance British forces are giving to Pakistan is politically sensitive.

Former defence secretary John Hutton confirmed in a Parliamentary answer in April 2009 that there were 24 UK military personnel based in Pakistan carrying out roles including training, liaison and diplomatic duties. He said Britain was working with the US and the Pakistani Frontier Corps to improve security on the border with Afghanistan but refused to give more details, citing "security reasons".

Press Association, 26/8/10

Deadly battles continue in Somalia

Heavy fighting in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, has flared for the third consecutive day, leaving six people dead. Battles between government forces, backed by African Union troops, and al-Shabab fighters continued on several fronts in the north and south of the capital.

The latest clashes follow Tuesday's deadly attack on a hotel in Mogadishu in which 38 people, including eight members of parliament, died. Al-Shabab said that its special forces carried out the attack.

The assault came after the group declared a "decisive" war against African Union peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi deployed in the city.

Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Rage, al-Shabab's spokesman, said fighters were starting a new war against "invaders" - an apparent reference to the 6,000 African Union peacekeepers deployed in the country to support government forces.

Hundreds of new troops, mostly Ugandan, have arrived in recent days to help the government in its battle against al-Shabab.

The AU force has so far been able to do little more than guard the airport and port and shield Sharif Ahmed, the president.

Al-Shabab, which has been fighting Somalia's government since 2007, recently claimed responsibility for a twin bombing attack in Uganda, which killed more than 70 people who were watching the football World Cup.

Somalia has not had an effective central government for nearly 20 years and al-Shabab controls significant portions of the country's south. More than 21,000 Somalis have been killed in fighting since the start of the uprising, 1.5 million have been uprooted from their homes and nearly half a million are sheltering in other countries in the region.

Al Jazeera, 25/8/10

Amnesty links British jets to Saudi attacks in Yemen

Tornado fighter-bombers supplied by the UK to Saudi Arabia are "extremely likely" to have been used in attacks on civilians in Yemen, human rights campaigners said today.

Amnesty International UK called for the government to suspend all arms supplies to Saudi Arabia pending a full investigation.

Amnesty's report, Yemen: Cracking Down Under Pressure, found it was "extremely likely that the Saudi air force deployed UK-supplied Tornado fighter-bombers in the strikes" over northern Yemen in early November 2009.

Oliver Sprague, Amnesty's arms programme director, said: "Our report points to the Saudis using UK-supplied and UK-maintained arms in secret attacks that have left scores of Yemeni civilians dead.

Its report said: "Foreign governments, especially the UK and US governments, have supplied jet fighter aircraft associated weaponry, upgrades and related technical assistance to Saudi Arabia.

"These governments will now be aware of the allegations that Saudi Arabian aircraft carried out indiscriminate attacks and other violations of international humanitarian law that resulted in deaths of Yemeni civilians."

Amnesty said "months of attacks saw heavy aerial bombardments, including from Saudi Arabian forces" last year as the Yemeni authorities, under pressure to confront threats from al-Qaida and Huthi Shia rebels, targeted Sa'dah in the north of the country last year.

"Amnesty has gained information pointing to hundreds – possibly thousands – of civilians being killed in the bombing," the charity said.

Guardian, 25/8/10

U.S. Weighs Expanded Strikes in Yemen

U.S. officials believe al Qaeda in Yemen is now collaborating more closely with allies in Pakistan and Somalia to plot attacks against the U.S., spurring the prospect that the administration will mount a more intense targeted killing program in Yemen.

Such a move would give the Central Intelligence Agency a far larger role in what has until now been mainly a secret U.S. military campaign against militant targets in Yemen and across the Horn of Africa. It would likely be modeled after the CIA's covert drone campaign in Pakistan.

The U.S. military's Special Operation Forces and the CIA have been positioning surveillance equipment, drones and personnel in Yemen, Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia to step up targeting of al Qaeda's Yemen affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP, and Somalia's al Shabaab—Arabic for The Youth.

U.S. counterterrorism officials believe the two groups are working more closely together than ever. "The trajectory is pointing in that direction," a U.S. counterterrorism official said of a growing nexus between the Islamist groups.

He said the close proximity between Yemen and Somalia "allows for exchanges, training." But he said the extent to which AQAP and al Shabaab are working together is "hard to measure in an absolute way."

Authorizing covert CIA operations would further consolidate control of future strikes in the hands of the White House, which has enthusiastically embraced the agency's covert drone program in Pakistan's tribal areas.

The military's Central Command under Gen. David Petraeus had lobbied aggressively to sharply increase military assistance to Yemen. The military has carried out several strikes against al Qaeda militants in coordination with Yemen's government. One in May killed a deputy governor, angering Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Wall Street Journal, 25/8/10

Nato supplies to Afghanistan hit by Pakistan floods

Nato supplies to Afghanistan have been disrupted by flooding in Pakistan that has damaged bridges and closed major roads while relief supplies are competing with military convoys for space elsewhere.

Pakistan is the major supply route for equipment destined for 141,000 Nato forces in Afghanistan, with some 5000 lorries a month travelling through the Khyber pass on their way to the border and Kabul beyond.

However, hauliers say they are struggling to get their vehicles through. “Supply to the Nato forces via the border at Torkham has decreased by 80% due to the floodwaters,” said Ashraf Khalil, vice president of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Transporters Association.

A second route, through Balochistan, to Kandahar Air Base in southern Afghanistan has also been badly affected.

A spokesman for the American embassy in Islamabad said supplies were still getting through and that the floods would not affect the safety of service personnel in Afghanistan. “There’s no disruption that would influence any of our operations at that sort of level,” he said.

Telegraph, 25/8/10

Blackwater fined $42m for breaking US export laws

Private defence company Blackwater has been fined $42m (£27m) for violating US export and arms traffic laws.

The nearly 300 breaches include the export of illegal weapons to Afghanistan and the unauthorised training of foreign nationals.

The alleged violations were revealed in US State Department documents.

The multi-million dollar settlement means that Blackwater, now known as XE Services, will be able to bid for government contracts.

Under the terms of the settlement, XE will pay a penalty of $42m of which $12m will be suspended to help XE strengthen the company's compliance programme.

The department said it was satisfied that XE had taken the necessary steps to resolve these violations. XE has replaced senior management and put in place effective compliance measures which will mean that it will not be barred from bidding for government contracts.

BBC News, 24/8/10

US to stay in Afghanistan for years

The head of the US Marine Corps has dashed hopes of a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by July 2011, saying US forces are likely to stay in the war-battered country for years to come.

General James Conway argued that Afghan forces were not ready to take over security in southern provinces, saying, "I honestly think it will be a few years before conditions on the ground are such that turnover will be possible for us."

Conway criticized President Barack Obama's proposed timeline to start a withdrawal by July 2011, saying the plan will be "giving the enemy sustenance."

The US general acknowledged the declining public support for the unpopular war in Afghanistan, pointing to a recent opinion poll which said 60 percent of Americans are against the war.

The skeptical comments come as the security situation is believed to be deteriorating in Afghanistan with US-led forces falling victim to Taliban attacks on a near-daily basis

Press TV, 24/8/10

BAE Systems wined and dined MoD top brass

The close ties between the upper echelons of the Ministry of Defence and BAE Systems, Britain's biggest arms company, have come under the spotlight after new documents showed how the multinational firm has regularly wined and dined mandarins and senior military officers.

The firm is billed as the most assiduous in courting the MoD by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a not-for-profit organisation based at City University, London. Using records disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, the bureau calculated that BAE took out the ministry's top people nearly five times more than its commercial competitors, Thales and Boeing, between January 2007 and December 2009.

BAE took top defence officials and military officers out to eat and drink 52 times over a three-year period, according to the documents.

The relationship between the ministry and BAE has frequently been criticised for being too cosy, allowing the corporate giant to wield influence over the government through its privileged access.

It has been disclosed that the ministry has given security passes to many BAE employees, including its chief lobbyist, permitting them to go in and out of the department's headquarters as they wish.

The firm also frequently gives jobs to politicians and civil servants in a "revolving door" after they have left public service, including officials who negotiated multi-million pound deals with the company.

The firm is given the most lucrative contracts by the MoD by some way, while government ministers often press foreign governments to award export orders to the company.

In 2006, the Blair government provoked international uproar when it abruptly halted the Serious Fraud Office's investigation into bribery allegations in Saudi arms deals.

Guardian, 23/8/10

Foreign Office to cut annual human rights report

The Foreign Office has rejected concerns that its annual human rights report could be downgraded as part of cost-cutting measures.

While the Foreign Office admitted it was looking at alternatives to the “expensive glossy colour publications of the past”, it said that human rights and poverty reduction would remain the “irreducible core” of British foreign policy.

“It is not in our character as a nation to have a foreign policy without a conscience or to repudiate our obligation to help those less fortunate.”

Amnesty Director Kate Allen earlier said: “The report is not perfect, but it offers an annual assessment of the UK’s activities on human rights. Without it there will be a big hole.”

Daily Telegraph, 23/8/10

"Security sucks. Development? Nothing substantial."

As Lt. Col. Peter N. Benchoff prepares for an assault next month into the birthplace of the Taliban, he doesn't sugarcoat the hurdles his troops face in this crucial swath of southern Afghanistan.

"Security sucks. Development? Nothing substantial. Information campaign? Nobody believes us. Governance? We've had one, hour-long visit by a government official in the last 2 1/2 months," the battalion commander says. "Taliban is the home team here."

"Here" is 116 square miles of Zhari, a district just west of Kandahar through which the insurgents funnel fighters, drugs, explosives and stage attacks into the city. Senior commanders call the fight for Zhari the next step — Phase 3 — of a wider campaign to pacify Kandahar, the country's second largest city, and surrounding countryside. They argue success in Kandahar could lead to overall victory, given that the Taliban's power base is rooted in this region.

Zhari itself remains insurgent territory despite five major NATO operations in recent years. In September 2006, a Canadian-led force launched a major operation in Zhari and nearby Panjwai district, pushing out the Taliban but at a cost of 28 coalition lives. Months later, the Taliban were back.

Associated Press, 22/8/10

US threatens to end arms sales to Turkey

Under the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey is carving out a greater role for itself in Middle Eastern affairs. Since 2008, Turkey has sought the role of Middle East intermediary in trying to broker a peace agreement between Israel and Syria and to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis.

This more independent and assertive foreign policy has put Turkey increasingly at odds with two of its long-standing allies, Israel and the United States.

A crucial ally for the US in its war on Iraq, Turkey now refuses to comply with US policy on Iran. The Turkish government also has become more outspoken against Israeli violations of Palestinian rights in the West Bank and Gaza, placing it on a diplomatic collision course with Israel.

Three months after the Israeli assault on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid vessel, the Obama administration is reportedly warning Turkey that if its relations with Israel do not improve, and if Turkey does not temper its opposition to US policy on Iran, Congress may halt arms sales to Turkey

Middle East Report, 21/8/10

21 killed in Afghanistan attacks

Scattered violence ranging from airstrikes to roadside bombings killed at least 21 people over a 48-hour span, including U.S. troops, Afghan children and members of the Afghan security forces, officials said Saturday.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan has failed to provide a respite from the deaths and injuries of civilians and soldiers across Afghanistan, although U.S. military fatalities are climbing at a slower rate this month than in July, the deadliest month of the war for American forces.

This year has seen a sharp increase in civilian casualties. The United Nations reported a 31% jump in noncombatant deaths and injuries in the first half of 2010, three-quarters of which were blamed on the Taliban and other insurgents.

The NATO force accepted responsibility, however, for some of the deaths Friday and Saturday.

Los Angeles Times, 22/8/10

Taliban attack kills 30 security guards

Taliban on Thursday attacked a security company in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, killing 30 people and wounding 17 others, local police said Friday.

Kamaludin Khan, deputy police chief of Helmand province, told Xinhua that around 100 Taliban insurgents launched an attack on a local private security company in Sungin district of the province early on Thursday.

The gun battle lasted for several hours, claiming lives of 30 Afghan security guards and injuring 17 others, said the police chief.

Xinhua, China, 20/8/10

Six out of ten Americans oppose the war

The longer it goes on, the less popular it gets. Nearly six in 10 Americans are against the nine-year-old war in Afghanistan, according to a new poll.

The Associated Press-GfK poll finds that only 38% of respondents support President Obama's decision to expand the war effort, lower than the 46% who said they did in March.

Only 19% believe the situation will improve in Afghanistan over the next year, while 29% think it will get worse. And 49% believe the conditions will remain the same.

The good news for Obama is that the majority of Americans – 68% – approve of the President's decision to end combat operations in Iraq. That percentage remains unchanged from earlier this year.

New York Daily News, 20/8/10