Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Xinhua
August 8, 2009

The Bolivian government will never allow the establishment of a U.S. military base on its territory, President Evo Morales said Friday.

“Bolivia has its own dignity even though it is a small country, and we will never allow any foreign military base on our territory,” Morales said during the celebration of the country’s Army Day in Oruro, a city in southwest Bolivia.

Morales said most of the South American leaders rejected President Alvaro Uribe’s plan to expand U.S. military presence in Colombia, which violates national sovereignty and poses a possible threat to regional security.

In recent years, with more and more Latin American left-wing parties coming into power, U.S. military bases in Latin America have shrank continuously.

Washington started to seek the establishment of U.S. military bases in other countries such as Colombia since Ecuador refused last year to renew its contract with the United States on the use of Manta military base.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/08/content_11846896.htm

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Cedrapaz: August 4, 2009

The Brazilian Centre of Solidarity to the Peoples and Struggle for Peace (Cebrapaz), a Brazilian social movement that is in charge of the WPC – World Peace Council Presidency, makes public its repudiation to the newest military wage in South America – through the military agreement between USA and Colombia.

The US’s utilization of the military bases of Palanquero, Apiay, Malambo, Cartagena and Malaga located in Colombian territory constitutes a serious menace to security and peace in our region. These new bases aim transform Colombia in a US tactical operational center in Latin America.

The agreement signed for ten years long will allow US to have 1.400 men in Colombia, among civil and military ones and will have an investment about US$ 5 billion. Today, Colombia is the fifth country in the score of the biggest countries with those the USA has military cooperation, behind only Israel, Iraq, Egypt and Afghanistan.

We emphasize that as the influence US policy in the region decreases, the Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) of that country, directed to Latin America and the Caribbean, increasingly expands its presence on the continent, either through the installation of military bases and radar or initiatives to scale even greater, as the recent reactivation of the Fourth Fleet of the US navy.

These new bases complete the formation of a real military belt around the border with Brazil. Among their real goals are to intimidate the political processes of change that are underway, and gain strategic position in a region with vast natural wealth.

Cebrapaz welcomes the initiative of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Michelle Bachellet to call for the next day on August 10 the Council of South American Defense to address the issue.

We call on all progressive and national forces and social movements to be alert to this new military escalation of US imperialism in our region

According to the resolution of the 2nd National Assembly of Cebrapaz held in last July, we reinforce our struggle for the dismantling of all foreign military bases around the world, especially those that are in our continent

We repudiate the intent of making Colombia a center of operations and tactics against the peoples and countries of the region and democratic and anti-imperialist governments. To reject the US military escalation in Colombia means defending Latin America as a region of peace.

São Paulo, August 3rd 2009, Socorro Gomes, President of CEBRAPAZ

Original article: ‘Cebrapaz repudia presença militar dos EUA na América Latina’
http://cebrapaz.org.br/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=10

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WEBWIRE – August 3, 2009

The Boeing Company played a key role yesterday in the U.S. Navy’s successful test of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) weapon system, which intercepted a ballistic missile target with a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3).

Fired from the USS Hopper, the SM-3 Block IA missile, guided by the Aegis BMD weapon system and a Boeing-built kinetic warhead sensor, engaged and destroyed the short-range ballistic missile target launched from the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai. The test marked the 15th hit-to-kill intercept for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system’s SM-3 since flight tests began in 2002.

“This successful test further validates the maturity and reliability of the SM-3 Block IA kinetic warhead” said Debra Rub, vice president of Boeing Weapons Programs. “Through rigorous, realistic testing, the system continues on a path to provide increased capability and expand the umbrella of protection against evolving ballistic missile threats” …

www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=100552

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United Press International (UPI): Aug. 3, 2009

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has awarded MicroTech a contracted extension to continue providing telecommunications support services.

U.S. company MicroTech was awarded a more than $25 million contract extension from the Missile Defense Agency, which is responsible for directing the U.S. ballistic missile defense program. …

www.upi.com/Security_Industry/2009/08/03/Missile-Defense-awards-MicroTech-follow-on/UPI-60201249320981/

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Reuters: Aug 3, 2009
By Andrea Shalal-Esa

A joint U.S.-Japanese missile defense program being built by Raytheon Co (RTN.N) is now slated to cost $3.1 billion, $700 million more than expected, mainly due to a Pentagon decision to cancel a separate program, a top military official said on Monday.

U.S. Rear Admiral Brad Hicks, program director of the Aegis sea-based leg of an emerging U.S. anti-missile shield, said the Standard Missile 3 Block IIA ballistic missile interceptor being developed by Raytheon jointly with Japan would be a “game-changer” for the military.

Sailors had nicknamed the missile “the Beast,” he said.

North Korea’s test-firing of a ballistic missile over Japan in August 1998 spurred Tokyo to become the most active U.S. ally in building a layered shield against missiles that could be tipped with chemical, biological or nuclear warheads.

Hicks said the new SM-3 IIA missile, slated to fly in 2014, would make it possible for one ship — instead of three — to protect Japan from enemy missile attacks. The missile could even be placed on land, if needed. …

www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN0352811220090803

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