Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Faxts.com
March 4, 2010

So far this year the United States has succeeded in inflaming tensions with China and indefinitely holding up a new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia through its relentless pursuit of global interceptor missile deployments.

On January 29 the White House confirmed the completion of a nearly $6.5 billion weapons transfer to Taiwan which includes 200 advanced Patriot anti-ballistic missiles. Earlier in the same month it was reported that Washington is also to provide Taiwan with eight frigates which Taipei intends to upgrade with the Aegis Combat System that includes the capacity for ship-based Standard Missile-3 interceptors. …

If the proposed placement of U.S. missile shield components in Poland, the Czech Republic, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Alaska and elsewhere were explained by alleged missile threats emanating from Iran and North Korea, the transfer of U.S. Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles to Taiwan – and, as was revealed in January, 35 miles from Russian territory in Poland – represents the crossing of a new threshold. The Patriots in Taiwan and Poland and the land- and sea-based missiles that will follow them are intended not against putative “rogue states” but against two major nuclear powers, China and Russia. …

In fact the current U.S. administration has by no means abandoned plans to surround Russia as well as China with a ring of interceptor missile installations and naval deployments. …

…the ring encircling China can also be expanded at any time in other directions….Washington is hoping to sell India and other Southeast Asian countries the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 missile defense system. …

Airborne laser anti-missile weapons will join the full spectrum of land, sea, air and space interceptor missile components to envelope the world with a system to neutralize other nations’ deterrence capacity and prepare the way for conventional and nuclear first strikes.

www.faxts.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=436:us-tightens-missile-shield-encirclement-of-china-and-russia&catid=72:politics

Global Security Newswire
March 4, 2010

The U.S. Defense Department has recently fielded its 22nd missile interceptor at the missile fields of Fort Greely, Alaska, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported today.

The February installation was in accordance to the Obama administration’s aim to deploy 26 interceptors at Fort Greely by October, according to Alaska Missile Defense Spokesman Ralph Scott. The plan was initiated by the Bush administration, which had intended to station 40 Ground-based Midcourse Defense weapons at the installation.

Another four interceptors are to be deployed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The weapons are intended to provide the United States with a defense against incoming long-range ballistic missiles. …

http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20100304_7861.php

novinite.com
March 4, 2010

Bulgarian Non-Government Organizations have united in their demand to hold a referendum about adopting elements of the planned US missile defense shield in the country.

The National Movement “Russophiles”, the Forum “Bulgaria – Russia,” and the Slavic Union in Bulgaria are all against the US defense shield, and say the issue is of prime importance for the national security and needs to be subject to a wide public and institutional debate with clearly stated pros and cons and full transparency.

“Bulgaria must be a foreseeable partner of the EU and NATO, but also of all countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East,” the declaration reads. …

Bulgaria’s Foreign and Defense Ministers further rejected reports that Bulgaria is holding official talks about adopting elements of the shield.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=113846

Jeju Naval Business Committee: Construction set to be at the end of march, and construction for the Harbor and Bay to be started around June.

‘No Base Stories Of Korea’
March 4, 2010

The license for the reclamation of the public sea for the [planned] Jeju naval base, was given by the Busan Regional Maritime Affairs and Port Office and it is prospected that the setting for business [on the naval base construction] is to be done in the fist half of the year.

The Jeju naval base business committee, visiting the Island Hall press interview room on March 4, and saying, “The license for the basic plan, was given by the Busan Regional Maritime Affairs and Port Office” [*on the same request day of March 3, according to Seogwipo newspaper], announced that, “We will enter the procedure for the approval of realization plan in time [*on March 4, according to Seogwipo newspaper].”

The business committee’s plan is that, because all the conditions for construction of the harbor and bay are completed once the realization plan comes out at the end of March, it can set to work at latest in June, after
the preparatory period including such as installing the makeshift office.

The business committee saying, “ The navy headquarter is foreseeing the setting period as from the end of March when the related procedures would be finished by then and the office construction is started at the
site of the ceremony for the starting to work on the construction of the naval base”, elucidated that “We mean the June would be the time when the active construction for harbor and bay would be started.”

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2010/03/translation-fwd-construction-for-jeju.html

ITAR-TASS
February 23

The Moldovan government has supported U.S. plans to base elements of its missile defence shield in Romania. The deployment of missile defence elements in Romania gives an opportunity to increase defence potential of Europe in conditions of a continuing proliferation of nuclear technologies and threats posed by short- and medium-range missiles, said a statement of the Moldovan government issued on Tuesday.

“The government has taken into consideration Romanian-American agreements concerning prospects to deploy in Romania elements of a missile defence system in Europe, as well as its openness for participation of other interested parties with an aim of strengthening general security,” the document said.

It stressed that “each state has the right to decide itself in accordance with its national interests as to the system and mechanisms for ensuring its own security,” it said.

At the same time, the decision of the Romanian authorities to deploy missile defence elements has caused concerns of some influential parties and politicians in Moldova. They believe the emergence of American missiles close to Moldovan borders threatens stability and security in the region, as well as will directly or indirectly influence the process of negotiations on the breakaway Dniester region.

www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14852608&PageNum=0

New York Times (Associated Press)
February 26, 2010

Russia has serious concerns about U.S. plans to deploy missile interceptors in Romania, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

The statement from ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko reflected Moscow’s irritation about the U.S. missile defense plans and signaled tensions in relations with Washington.

Nesterenko said that Russia has been annoyed to learn about the move from the media.

”We are worried that we find out about important decisions regarding the U.S. missile defense in Europe from the media rather than our official counterparts in Washington or Bucharest,” Nesterenko told a briefing. …

… other Russian officials, including the nation’s top military officer, recently said the U.S. missile defense plans threaten Russia and have slowed down negotiations on a successor deal to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Russia and the U.S. had hoped to reach agreement before START expired on Dec. 5, but differences persisted. Still, Sergei Prikhodko, President Dmitry Medvedev’s foreign policy adviser, said Friday that the Kremlin believes the treaty could be signed in March or April, Russian news agencies reported.

www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/26/world/AP-EU-Russia-US-Missile-Defense.html

Washington Post
February 19, 2010
By Bill Gertz

The Obama administration will move ahead with Senate ratification of a treaty banning nuclear tests that was voted down by Republicans more than a decade ago, Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. said Thursday.

In a speech setting out the administration’s arms-control agenda, Mr. Biden also said the United States will continue to pursue President Obama’s call for the elimination of all U.S. nuclear arms, but defended spending $7 billion in the coming year to repair an aging arsenal.

The administration is close to reaching a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia, and is nearing completion of a review of U.S. nuclear weapons forces, Mr. Biden said at the National Defense University.

“Our agenda is based on a clear-eyed assessment of our national interest,” Mr. Biden said. “We have long relied on nuclear weapons to deter potential adversaries. Now, as our technology improves, we are developing non-nuclear ways to accomplish that same objective.”

Non-nuclear weapons development includes the administration’s plan for an “adaptive” missile-defense shield and conventional warheads “with worldwide reach,” he said. …

www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/19/biden-seeks-test-ban-and-end-to-all-us-nukes/

Wired
By Noah Shachtman
February 12, 2010

The American military has been working since 1996 on a tricked-out 747 that could blast ballistic missiles out of the sky with a ultra-powerful laser. After 14 years of promising “the American people their first light saber,” the Missile Defense Agency finally pulled it off Thursday night at 8:44 p.m

It’s one of a number of steps forward for real-life ray guns in the past year or so. “Solid state” electric lasers finally hit what’s commonly considered battlefield strength. A laser-equipped Air Force gunship disabled a truck with its energy beam. A ground-mounted ray gun blasted drones out of the sky. But all of those energy weapons were weak — and the engineering challenges limited — compared to last night’s shoot-down.

A short-range, Scud-like ballistic missile was launched from an at-sea mobile launch platform near the Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center, off of the central California coast. “Within seconds, the Airborne Laser Test Bed [ALTB] used on-board sensors to detect the boosting missile and used a low-energy laser to track the target. The ALTB then fired a second low-energy laser to measure and compensate for atmospheric disturbance. Finally, the ALTB fired its megawatt-class High Energy Laser, heating the boosting ballistic missile to critical structural failure. The entire engagement occurred within two minutes of the target missile launch, while its rocket motors were still thrusting,” according to a statement from the Missile Defense Agency.

Read More (with video coverage of laser blasting ballistic misile): www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/laser-jet-blasts-ballistic-missile-in-landmark-test/#ixzz0fnKfcKKC

Aviation Week
Feb 11, 2010
By Amy Butler

The Obama administration’s proposed 2011 spending plan includes some changes to major missile defense and space programs that emphasize a focus on space situational awareness and ballistic missile tracking capabilities. The proposal also underpins the aging nuclear weapons infrastructure, while adhering to the aim of eventually scrapping nuclear forces altogether and securing so-called nuclear loose material worldwide.

Few new expensive programs are being started in Fiscal 2011, and the most dramatic shift in the funding request is the termination of the joint Defense-Commerce Dept. National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System …

By contrast, the Air Force is setting aside funding for a follow-on Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) procurement. The first SBSS, a Ball Aerospace/Boeing project that features a two-axis gimballed visible-light sensor to surveil satellites in geosynchronous orbit, is complete and slated for launch this summer.

www.aviationweek.com

ITAR-TASS
February 2, 2010

The United States seeks to interact with Russia in the missile defence sphere, it is said in the US Ballistic Missile Defence Review (BMDR) released Monday. Such a document has been prepared by the Pentagon for the first time.

The review says that the US administration seeks to interact with Russia in the ballistic missile defence sphere. Together with Russia it is working on a wide agenda focused on the mutual early warning about missile launches, possible technical and operational cooperation.

It is admitted in the review that as of today only Russia and China have the potential for launching a large-scale attack on the US territory with the use of ballistic missiles. However, according to American specialists, such a scenario is very low probable and is not in the focus of the US missile defence plans.

Regarding Russia as an important partner, the document stresses further, the Barack Obama administration is working on the agenda aimed at bringing the two countries’ strategic military doctrines in line with the relations formed between them after the end of the Cold War. It is explained in the document that the United States and Russia are not enemies any longer and that there is no serious threat of war between them. …

Key areas of focus for the BMDR include:

Implementing a phased, adaptive approach for missile defence in Europe, as outlined in the Fact Sheet on US Missile Defence Policy: A “Phased, Adaptive Approach” for Missile Defence in Europe; Providing effective regional missile defences for US forces and allies against short-, medium-, intermediate-range missiles; Providing effective defence of the United States against longer-range missiles; Balancing ballistic missile defence capabilities and investments, accounting for near and long-term threats to the US, allies, and deployed forces; Determining requirements for ballistic missile defence capabilities, as well as the execution and oversight of the US ballistic missile defence program; and The objectives, requirements, and standards for ballistic missile defence program testing and evaluation …

www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14779096&PageNum=0