Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Kansas City Star
By Jon Stephenson
March 9, 2012

More than 3,000 detainees held by the U.S. military will be transferred to Afghan control within six months under an agreement signed Friday between the United States and Afghanistan.

While the United States will retain the power to veto any detainee’s release, the prisoner agreement meets a key demand of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government as the two sides try to hammer out the details of U.S. engagement in Afghanistan following the expected end of American combat operations by 2014.

The first batch of about 500 detainees is likely to be transferred within 45 days from the U.S.-run detention center at the Bagram military complex, north of Kabul.

The agreement would apply only to Afghan detainees, said a senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. About 50 non-Afghans — primarily al Qaida suspects from Pakistan, Arab countries and elsewhere — will remain in U.S. custody at Bagram. …

Read on: www.kansascity.com/2012/03/09/3480328/us-agrees-to-hand-over-prisoners.html

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News 10NBC
By Kimberly Dozier
March 11, 2012

Despite the Obama administration’s predictions that the Syrian government’s days are numbered, recent U.S. intelligence reports suggest President Bashar Assad commands a formidable army that is unlikely to turn on him, an inner circle that has stayed loyal and an elite class that still supports his rule.

The assessment hinted at a continuing campaign lasting several months, if not longer, with more Syrians dying. For the past year, Assad’s government has tried to crush a popular uprising inspired by the Arab Spring movements. The U.N. says more than 7,500 people have died.

Over time, worsening economic conditions could threaten Assad’s hold on power. Food prices recently doubled, unemployment is rising and refined fuel products are running out.

But no mass protests over food or fuel shortages have broken out, and there hasn’t been any discernible slowing in military activity because of a lack of supplies, three senior intelligence officials said Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity to provide a snapshot of recent intelligence reports and analysis of the crisis.

Satellite imagery shows a new ferociousness to the government’s attacks, including artillery shelling of mosques, schools, playgrounds and a hospital, in the Sunni neighborhood of Homs, the officials said.

Assad’s forces mounted a new assault Saturday on the northern region of Idlib, one of the centers of the uprising against the president. The military operation has raised fears of a new all-out offensive like the siege last month that captured Homs.

The army’s campaigns have driven 2,000 refugees over the Lebanese border, displaced up to 200,000 more Syrians and spurred some, including the deputy oil minister, to defect, while two army generals are reported to have departed.

But none of the defectors thus far is regarded as belonging to Assad’s inner circle, not all who have abandoned him have joined the opposition, and there are no indications of a broader pattern of elites pulling their support for him. That includes not just Assad’s Allawite clan, but the minority Christians, Kurds and Druze, who all fear persecution under a possible Sunni Islamic rule.

President Barack Obama said this past week that the bloodshed was heartbreaking and inexcusable, but he made clear that he does not favor military action now against Assad.

“The notion that the way to solve every one of these problems is to deploy our military, that hasn’t been true in the past and it won’t be true now,” Obama said. He suggested Assad will leave without an outside military shove, but he gave no indication when. …

Read on: www.whec.com/news/stories/S2532792.shtml?cat=10065

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Philippine Star
By Dennis Carcamo
March 8, 2012

MANILA, Philippines – Fisherfolk group Pamalakaya accused the US government of turning Palawan province into de facto naval base for US troops who will be redeployed to the country once they leave their naval base in Okinawa, Japan.

“The US government wants its 6,000 mercenaries to familiarize with the terrain of the island province and convince Palawan folks that US soldiers are kind, generous and they are their knights in shining armor in vain attempt to make the island as US new Okinawa naval base in the Southeast,” Pamalakaya said in a statement. …

Read on: www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=200&articleid=785052

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MSN Health & Fitness
By Steven Reinberg
March 7, 2012

Service in Iraq and Afghanistan appears to be the cause of increasing mental-health problems

Suicides among U.S. soldiers rose 80 percent from 2004 to 2008, an Army study found.

As many as 40 percent of these suicides may have been linked to combat experience in Iraq, yet nearly a third of the soldiers who committed suicide saw no combat at all, said the researchers, from the U.S. Army Public Health Command.

“Our study confirmed earlier studies by other military researchers that found increased risk of suicide among those who experience mental-health diagnoses associated with the stresses of war,” said lead researcher Michelle Canham-Chervak, a senior epidemiologist with the command.

“This study suggests that an army engaged in prolonged combat operations is a population under stress, and that mental-health conditions and suicide can be expected to increase under these circumstances,” Canham-Chervak said. “By establishing that soldiers who are diagnosed with a mental-health disorder or substance abuse are at greater risk of suicide, we then have a place to target our prevention strategies.”

The report was published in the March 7 online edition of the journal Injury Prevention.

The findings are based on analysis of data from the U.S. Army Behavioral Health Integrated Data Environment, a registry containing information — including consultations, diagnoses and treatment — on suicides from many military sources.

This analysis found that the rates of suicide among Army personnel from 1977 to 2003 were mostly in keeping with trends in the general population, and were actually slightly lower than expected in that 27-year period, the researchers said.

In 2004, however, suicides started to increase. By 2008 they had risen by more than 80 percent, to a rate higher than in the civilian population. …

Read on: http://health.msn.com/health-topics/anxiety/us-army-suicides-rising-sharply-study-finds

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Reuters
By Jim Wolf
March 8, 2012

Chinese cyberwarfare would pose a “genuine risk” to the U.S. military in a conflict, for instance over Taiwan or disputes in the South China Sea, according to a report prepared for the U.S. Congress.

Operations against computer networks have become fundamental to Beijing’s military and national development strategies over the past decade, said the 136-page analysis by Northrop Grumman Corp released on Thursday by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Chinese commercial firms, bolstered by foreign partners, are giving the military access to cutting-edge research and technology, the analysis said.

The Chinese military’s close ties to large Chinese telecommunications firms create a path for state-sponsored penetrations of supply networks for electronics used by the U.S. military, government and private industry, it added.

That has the potential to cause a “catastrophic failure of systems and networks supporting critical infrastructure for national security or public safety,” according to the report.

On the military side, “Chinese capabilities in computer network operations have advanced sufficiently to pose genuine risk to U.S. military operations in the event of a conflict,” the report said. …

Read on: www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/08/us-china-usa-cyberwar-idUSBRE8270AF20120308

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Space.com
by Mike Wall
February 28, 2012

The rise of China’s space program may pose a potentially serious military threat to the United States down the road, top American intelligence officials contend.

China continues to develop technology designed to destroy or disable satellites, which makes the United States and other nations with considerable on-orbit assets nervous. Even Beijing’s ambitious human spaceflight plans are cause for some concern, since most space-technology advances could have military applications, officials say.

“The space program, including ostensible civil projects, supports China’s growing ability to deny or degrade the space assets of potential adversaries and enhances China’s conventional military capabilities,” Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, wrote in testimony presented before the U.S. Senate’s Armed Services Committee Feb. 16. …

Read on: www.space.com/14697-china-space-program-military-threat.html

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Firstpost
February 29, 2012

US President Barack Obama issued a policy directive on Tuesday making clear that not all al Qaeda suspects would be held in US military custody, fleshing out exceptions allowed under a sweeping defence bill that sought to have the Pentagon prosecute most suspects.

Under the directive, al Qaeda suspects arrested by US law enforcement for waging attacks against American interests would not necessarily be held by the Pentagon under several scenarios, including if foreign governments refuse to hand them over to US military control.

Other exceptions would include if the person were a US permanent legal resident or if transferring them to military custody would hurt the chances of obtaining a confession or cooperation from the terrorism suspect.

“A rigid, inflexible requirement to place suspected terrorists into military custody would undermine the national security interests of the United States, compromising our ability to collect intelligence and to incapacitate dangerous individuals,” Obama said in the directive. …

Read on: www.firstpost.com/world/not-all-al-qaeda-suspects-will-be-held-by-us-military-obama-228725.html

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“Royal Air Force” Lakenheath
by Larry Walker
48th Fighter Wing Treaty Compliance Office
February 27, 2012

The 48th Fighter Wing and tenant units on base are currently preparing for the upcoming Conventional Armed Forces in Europe treaty inspection exercise scheduled for March 1, 2012.

“The CFE treaty contains a very demanding and intrusive verification regime that allows foreign inspection teams to conduct on-site inspections of U. S. forces located in Europe,” said Tim Jachowski, U.S. Air Forces in Europe Arms Control Threat Reduction branch chief. “Each inspectable base must annually test their ability to host one of these inspections.”

There are 30 state parties (nations) that participate in the CFE treaty, and each of these parties can send a nine-person inspection team to the other 29 state parties’ declared sites to conduct on-site inspections. Each year the treaty members report the number of military personnel and the numbers and types of Treaty Limited Equipment (TLE) assigned by location during the Annual Exchange of Information.

There are five major categories of TLE that are inspectable under the treaty:

• Battle Tanks
• Armored Combat Vehicles
• Artillery
• Combat Aircraft
• Attack Helicopters

“It is the base’s responsibility to properly prepare all assigned TLE, CFE treaty inspectable facilities and containers to allow ‘immediate access’ to the foreign inspection teams,” said Jachowski.

This is one of the most critical aspects of the CFE inspection, because providing immediate access to inspectable locations clearly demonstrates the U.S. government’s compliance with international laws and mandatory treaty requirements.

“A CFE inspection is a huge and [intensive] challenge to the 48 FW and all base organizations must use this exercise as a chance to prepare,” said Col. William Lewis, 48th FW vice commander. “Any unit on base with a facility that has an external door measuring greater than two meters could be inspected and must be ready.”

In accordance with the CFE treaty, these facilities are considered inspectable locations because they could store TLE items. Additionally, all containers greater than two meters in all dimensions are inspectable.

CFE inspection teams are not allowed to enter facility locations that contain doorways that are less than two meters in width. Even if they can initially enter a facility door measuring two meters or greater in width, once they reach a section in the facility that doesn’t have a two meter or greater entrance, they must stop.

Units that control facilities or own containers that meet the inspectable CFE treaty criteria must be able provide immediate access during the inspection window. If possible doors and containers should be left open on inspection day.

If this is not possible, personnel must be standing by with the keys or combinations in-hand. Inspection teams are authorized to return to the same inspectable location multiple times, so these locations must be accessible until the inspection has been terminated by the 48th FW Command Post. The inspection window for the exercise on March 1 will be from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The 48th FW has appointed group and squadron-level CFE points of contact who have received specific CFE training and will work with facility managers to prepare for CFE inspections. The 48th FW Treaty Compliance Office will work directly with the other RAF Lakenheath tenant units concerning their CFE inspection support responsibilities. CFE inspections of RAF Lakenheath only affect those organizations that are physically located within RAF Lakenheath.

“Treaty compliance inspections are no-fail missions with Defense and State Department strategic importance and I expect all 48th FW personnel to approach this exercise with that mindset,” said Col. John Quintas, 48th FW commander. “My measure of our success is accurate accounting of our aircraft and immediate inspector access to all inspectable facilities.”

Units are encouraged to contact the 48th FW Treaty Compliance office at 226-6121, with any questions concerning CFE inspections in general or specifically about the exercise.

www.lakenheath.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123291540

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Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
February 28, 2012

The U.S. and Japan might be moving forward with plans to relocate thousands of Marines off of Okinawa, but it will be years before those troops could be stationed on Guam, according to the Navy and the territorial government there.

At a minimum, the U.S. military will take about two years to decide where on Guam to build needed training ranges for the Marines, and construction work would take longer, the Navy’s Joint Guam Program Office said.

Meanwhile, big questions remain on how and when the territory’s sewage treatment facilities will be upgraded to support about 4,700 more servicemembers and a possible increase in military families.

The U.S. and Japan began hashing out a new agreement on the military realignment earlier this month in an attempt to jump start the redeployment of Okinawa Marines to Guam. The effort was held up for years because of Okinawan opposition to building a new Marine Corps air station on the island as a replacement for the Futenma air station.

Now, both countries say they will not wait for a solution before relocating Marine forces to the U.S. territory, which sits about 1,400 miles to the southeast Okinawa. …

Read on: www.stripes.com/news/pacific/okinawa/guam-not-ready-for-okinawa-s-marines-officials-say-1.170092

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