Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Defense News: 19 Feb 2009
By JOHN T. BENNETT

The Obama administration has directed defense officials to sign a pledge stating they will not share 2010 budget data with individuals outside the federal government. …

The Pentagon and Office of Management and Budget have agreed on a fiscal 2010 defense budget top line figure of $537 billion. That level is nearly $50 billion lower than the $585 billion defense plan created during the final months of the Bush administration, and $24 billion higher than the already enacted $513 billion 2009 defense budget. …

www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3956514

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Reuters – USA
Wed Feb 11, 2009

The Philippines’ highest court has ruled an American soldier convicted of raping a Filipina in 2006 must be placed in government custody, scrapping a deal between the two countries that allowed detention inside the U.S. embassy.

The Supreme Court, in a majority vote taken on Tuesday but announced only on Wednesday, upheld a decade-old security treaty between Manila and Washington. It also said the treaty was clear on the detention “by Philippine authorities” of any U.S. personnel serving sentences. …

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE51A2AY20090211

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NOTE: In the UK the court has no jurisdiction to hear the case if the person charged was on duty, in uniform and a member of a Visiting Force (US) – under the Visiting Forces Act 1952 – refer to CAAB Report – a case of doing what they like.

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Reuters
Fri Feb 13, 2009
By Jim Wolf

The White House has asked the Pentagon to cut nearly $2 billion, or up to roughly 20 percent, from missile defense in its fiscal 2010 budget, a prominent advocate of the costliest U.S. weapons development effort said on Friday.

Boeing Co’s Airborne Laser, a modified 747 being designed to zap ballistic missiles moments after liftoff, was in “very serious jeopardy of being taken out,” said Riki Ellison, head of the industry-supported Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. …

Another possible missile-defense cut would slow the projected installation of 10 two-stage interceptor missiles in Poland and a related radar site in the Czech Republic. …

http://uk.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKTRE51C74720090213

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CNN Washington
February 10 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signaled Tuesday that the United States might rethink plans for a missile defense shield in Europe if Iran decides against pursuing nuclear weapons.

“If we are able to see a change in behavior on the part of the Iranians, then we will reconsider where we stand …

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/02/10/iran.clinton/

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Speaker: Biden, Joseph R.
Vice President of the United States
February 7 2009

… we must recognize new forces shaping this young century:

• The spread of mass destruction weapons and dangerous diseases;
• A growing gap between rich and poor;
• Ethnic animosities and failed states;
• A rapidly warming planet and uncertain supplies of energy, food, water;
• The challenge to freedom and security from radical fundamentalism.

In meeting these challenges, the United States will be guided by this basic principle:

There is no conflict between our security and our ideals. They are mutually reinforcing. The force of arms won our independence, and throughout our history, the force of arms has protected our freedom. That will not change. But the very moment we declared our independence, we laid before the world the values behind our revolution and the conviction that our policies must be informed by a “decent respect for the opinions of mankind.” Our Founders understood then and the United States believes now – that the example of our power must be matched by the power of our example. That is why we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. America will vigorously defend our security and our values, and in doing so we will all be more secure. As hard as we try, I know that we are likely to fall short of our ideals in the future, just as we have in the past. But I commit to you now: we will strive, every day, to honor the values that animate America’s democracy …

We will continue to develop missile defenses to counter a growing Iranian capability, provided the technology is proven to work and cost effective. …

We also support the further strengthening of European defense…

Read/hear the speech at
www.securityconference.de/konferenzen/rede.php?menu_2009=&menu_konferenzen=&sprache=en&id=238

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Directive Expands Makeup and Role Of Security Body
Karen DeYoung
Washington Post
February 8, 2009

President Obama plans to order a sweeping overhaul of the National Security Council, expanding its membership and increasing its authority to set strategy across a wide spectrum of international and domestic issues. …

The new structure, to be outlined in a presidential directive and a detailed implementation document by Jones, will expand the NSC’s reach far beyond the range of traditional foreign policy issues and turn it into a much more elastic body, with Cabinet and departmental seats at the table — historically occupied only by the secretaries of defense and state — determined on an issue-by-issue basis.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/07/AR2009020702076.html

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Directive Expands Makeup and Role Of Security Body
Karen DeYoung
Washington Post
February 8, 2009

President Obama plans to order a sweeping overhaul of the National Security Council, expanding its membership and increasing its authority to set strategy across a wide spectrum of international and domestic issues. …

The new structure, to be outlined in a presidential directive and a detailed implementation document by Jones, will expand the NSC’s reach far beyond the range of traditional foreign policy issues and turn it into a much more elastic body, with Cabinet and departmental seats at the table — historically occupied only by the secretaries of defense and state — determined on an issue-by-issue basis.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/07/AR2009020702076.html

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Global Security Newswire – Washington, DC, USA
Feb. 5, 2009

The lower house of the Czech Republic’s parliament will vote no earlier than mid-March on making the nation host to a U.S. missile defense radar base …

Lawmakers in the chamber voted 100-73 in favor of removing the matter from consideration in this session, which is scheduled to end on March 15. The upper house of parliament has already signed off on the radar proposal.

http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20090205_6060.php

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New York Times – United States
February 5, 2009

The Obama administration is facing its first big international test this weekend as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. heads to a conference in Europe in the face of a confrontational stance from an old cold war adversary.

Administration officials have concluded that Russia pressed Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, to close the American base in that country, which they interpret as a shot across the bow. The base is crucial to the American-led fight in Afghanistan that Mr. Obama has identified as his central national security objective. Mr. Obama plans to deploy as many as 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan over the next two years …

…will Mr. Biden seek to reassure Russia that the Obama administration will ease up on western forays into the former Soviet sphere?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/washington/06policy.html?_r=1&ref=world

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Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign)

5 FEBRUARY 2009

A Ministry of Defence (MoD) byelaw banning camping outside the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston was quashed by the court of appeal today. The case, heard on 26th November 2008, was an appeal in the Judicial Review of the Secretary of State for Defence’s decision to introduce byelaws which would have criminalised camping as a form of peaceful protest.

The case brought by Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign) hinged on whether the government’s ban on camping violated their rights to freedom of expression and assembly guaranteed by Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign) have been camping outside the Atomic Weapons Establishment every month for the last 24 years, in opposition to the manufacture of UK’s nuclear weapons. Following the original hearing on 1st February 2008, the court quashed a byelaw outlawing the attaching of banners to the perimeter fence. The MoD chose not to appeal. Today’s judgement reverses the original ruling that the ban on camping was justified.

In a unanimous verdict, the Court of Appeal today rejected the Secretary of State for Defence’s arguments saying, “Rights worth having are unruly things”. The byelaw prohibiting camping was quashed and the women’s peace camp is no longer criminalised. This ruling has an impact beyond AWPC and the Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory. It strengthens the right to protest and legitimises camping as a form of protest.

Speaking outside the court after today’s judgement, a representative from the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp said “We welcome today’s outcome, which is not only a victory for the women’s peace camp but an important judgement on the right to protest. Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp will continue to hold our lawful camp to protest against the government’s unlawful nuclear weapons”.

The judges unanimously determined that our camp – as a form of protest – should not be criminalised.

http://aldermaston.net

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