Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Washington Post
By Karen DeYoung
September 17, 2011

The Obama administration has significantly increased the frequency of drone strikes and other air attacks against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen in recent months amid rising concern about political collapse there.

Some of the the strikes, carried out by the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have been focused in the southern part of the country, where insurgent forces have for the first time conquered and held territory as the Yemeni government continues to struggle against escalating opposition to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule.

Unlike in Pakistan, where the CIA has presidential authorization to launch drone strikes at will, each U.S. attack in Yemen — and those being conducted in nearby Somalia, most recently on Thursday near the southern port city of Kismayo — requires White House approval …

Read on: www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-increases-yemen-drone-strikes/2011/09/16/gIQAB2SXYK_story.html

RIA Novosti
September 13, 2011

The United States will sign on Tuesday an agreement with Romania on the deployment of elements of its missile shield, the U.S. Department of State said.

“On Tuesday, September 13, 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi will sign the Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Romania on the Deployment of the Ballistic Missile Defense System in Romania,” the statement said.

“This legally-binding agreement will allow for the establishment and operation of a U.S. land-based SM-3 ballistic missile defense system in Romania,” the statement added. …

Read on: http://en.rian.ru/world/20110913/166800153.html

NTNews.com.au
September 12, 2011

Federal Defence Minister Stephen Smith says a decision to let more US troops use Aussie defence bases is pending.

A plan for more US soldiers to use Australian bases will be the biggest change to the Australian-US alliance for decades, Defence Minister Stephen Smith says.

The proposals for more soldiers to use Australian facilities for training and visits are part of a plan to enhance the relationship between the countries.

Last year, Smith ruled out stationing US soldiers in Australia, although troops have had regular training at bases, mostly in Queensland and the Northern Territory, for some time. …

“… no decisions have been made.”

Mr Smith said the issue would be discussed at the 2011 AUSMIN meeting in the US next week.

Read more: www.ntnews.com.au/article/2011/09/12/259801_ntnews.html

Today’s Zaman
September 11, 2011

The United States is considering a request from Turkey to base a fleet of Predator drones on its soil for cross-border operations against terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq, a news report said on Sunday.

The Obama administration has not yet made a decision on the Turkish request, the report in Washington Post said. The Predators have been flying from Iraqi bases since 2007 and the US shares data from the planes’ surveillance with Turkey as part of the two NATO allies’ cooperation against the PKK. Now that the US forces are scheduled to withdraw from Iraq by end of the year, this cooperation may effectively come to an end unless new bases are found for the Predators. …

The report came after Turkey announced that it suspended all military agreements with Israel due to Israeli refusal to apologize for killing eight Turks and a Turkish-American on an aid ship trying to break the blockade of Gaza on May 31, 2010. …

Read on: www.todayszaman.com/news-256422-report-turkey-asks-us-to-base-predator-drone-on-turkish-soil.html

RIA Novost
September 1, 2011

The United States continues to refuse to guarantee that the European missile defense shield will not be directed at Russia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

“They don’t want to give us a guarantee that the U.S.-NATO [European] missile defense shield will not be directed at Russia,” Lavrov [Russian Foreighn Minister] said during an address to students and professors at the Moscow State University for International Relations.

Lavrov said that in July 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed on joint efforts in establishing an anti-missile defense system by first starting with a general analysis of challenges and threats.

“We added concrete proposals to the parameters for such a system and there were long consultations through bilateral talks and within the Russia-NATO Council. Unfortunately, we have not come to an agreement; however, a European missile defense shield is currently being created according to the parameters that Washington has defined and could create a threat to Russia’s strategic nuclear forces,” Lavrov said.

“Military experts understand completely that the unlimited expansion by one party’s anti-missile defense capabilities requires the other party to take equal actions in order to protect its strategic restraint potential,” he added. …

Read on: http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20110901/166347758.html

RIA Novosti
September 2, 2011

A modernized version of the SM-3 missile has failed to intercept a ballistic missile target during a test over the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said.

A Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) Block 1B interceptor missile was launched on Monday from the cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70) to intercept a short-range ballistic missile target launched from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai.

“This was the first flight test of the advanced SM-3 Block 1B interceptor missile,” the agency said in a statement. “Program officials will conduct an extensive investigation to determine the cause of the failure to intercept.”

According to the statement, the MDA has conducted 22 successful intercepts in 27 at-sea test launches of interceptor missiles under Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System flight testing program since 2002.

The SM-3 missile is expected to become a key part of the Obama administration’s European Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) for defending the continent against ballistic missile attacks. …

Read on: http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20110902/166365622.html

The Independent
By David Usborne
August 31, 2011

The US has lost 66 military personnel this month, including the 30 who were killed when a Chinook was shot down.

The cost of war is coming into painful focus for Americans as the month of August closes as the deadliest so far in the decade-long war in Afghanistan, and as a Congressional watchdog releases research showing that tens of billions of dollars meant for contractors in both the Afghan and Iraq conflicts have been squandered.

As of last night, the US military had lost 66 personnel in Afghanistan since the start of the month, topping by one the death toll for July 2010, which was previously the deadliest single month since the invasion was first ordered by President George W Bush in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

While a disturbing statistic by any measure, particularly at a time when President Barack Obama has ordered the withdrawal by September 2012 of all 33,000 of the extra troops he sent in as part of a surge strategy in Afghanistan, it was skewed by a single attack on a Chinook helicopter on 6 August which killed 30 US service personnel, including 17 Navy Seals. It marked the single-largest loss of life since the start of the war. …

Read on: www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/us-forces-suffer-their-deadliest-month-yet-in-afghan-campaign-2346562.html

The Raw News
By Stephen C. Webster
August 24th, 2011

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) promised to help former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi obtain U.S. military hardware as one of the United States’ partners in the war on terror, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released Wednesday by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

The meeting, which took place just over a year ago on Aug. 14, 2009, included other influential Americans, such as Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. Susan Collins (R-SC) and Senate Armed Services Committee staffer Richard Fontaine, the document explains.

McCain opened the meeting by characterizing Libya’s relationship with the U.S. as “excellent,” to which Liebermann added: “We never would have guessed ten years ago that we would be sitting in Tripoli, being welcomed by a son of Muammar al-Qadhafi.”

“Lieberman called Libya an important ally in the war on terrorism, noting that common enemies sometimes make better friends,” the cable continues. “The Senators recognized Libya’s cooperation on counterterrorism and conveyed that it was in the interest of both countries to make the relationship stronger.”

Part and parcel to that relationship: military hardware, including helicopters and non-lethal weaponry, meant to ensure the security of Tripoli. In exchange for this and assisting the nation in rehabilitating its image with other lawmakers, Gaddafi pledged to send Libya’s highly enriched uranium supplies to Russia for proper disposal. …

Read on: www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/24/leaked-cable-sen-mccain-promised-to-help-gaddafi-obtain-u-s-military-hardware/

Associated Press
August 23 2011

As of Tuesday, August 23, 2011, at least 4,474 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes nine military civilians killed in action.

At least 3,524 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The AP count is three fewer than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 32,175 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally. …

www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9811412

The numbers of people killed refer to members of the US military – please see Iraq Body Count (at right hand side of this page) for civilian deaths.

ABC News Blog
By Luis Martinez
August 22, 2011

The cost of U.S. military intervention in Libya has cost American taxpayers an estimated $896 million through July 31, the Pentagon said today.

The price tag includes the amounts for daily military operations, munitions used in the operation and humanitarian assistance for the Libyan people.

The U.S. has also promised $25 million in non-lethal aid to the Libyan Transitional National Council, half of which the Defense Department has already on MRE’s (military lingo for Meals, Ready to Eat).

The military delivered 120,000 Halal MRE’s to Benghazi in May and a second shipment that included medical supplies, boots, tents, uniforms, and personal protective gear in June.

While Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appears on the way out, NATO says flight missions over Tripoli will continue, with the U.S. playing a role in helping to keep a tight window over the area that’s been in effect for weeks.

Over the past 12 days, U.S. planes have flown 391 sorties for a total of 5,316 since April 1, according to figures provided by the Defense Department. That total includes 1,210 airstrike missions over the same three and a half month period. The U.S. has also conducted 101 Predator drone strike missions in Libya. …

Read on: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/08/us-military-intervention-in-libya-cost-at-least-896-million-.html