Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

spacewar.com
October 9, 2009

Amid smoldering tension with Iran, U.S. forces are deploying in Israel for a strategically important ballistic missile defense exercise, considered one of the most complex ever conducted by the two allies.

Juniper Cobra 2009, the latest in a biennial series that began in 2001, will focus on how well U.S. and Israeli forces can integrate and operate together in any future confrontation with the Islamic Republic.

U.S. officials insist that the exercise, due to commence Monday and end next Friday, is routine. “This exercise is not related to or in response to any world events,” the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv stressed.

But the maneuvers have taken on added importance since the U.S. administration scrapped plans to deploy land-based ballistic missile defense systems in Eastern Europe in August. The focus will now be on U.S. naval forces in the Mediterranean and the North Sea.

“Military exercises like Juniper Cobra do not take place in a vacuum,” according to the Texas-based security consultancy Strategic Forecasting. …

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_forces_in_Israel_for_missile_drill_999.html

Associated Press
By CHRIS BRUMMITT and PAMELA HESS
October 12, 2009

An audacious weekend assault by Islamic militants on Pakistan’s army headquarters is again raising fears of an insurgent attack on the country’s nuclear weapons installation. Pakistan has sought to protect its nuclear weapons from attack by the Taliban or other militants by storing the warheads, detonators and missiles separately in facilities patrolled by elite troops.

Analysts are divided on how secure these weapons are. Some say the weapons are less secure than they were five years ago, and Saturday’s attack would show a “worrisome” overconfidence by the Pakistanis. …

Security at Pakistan’s isolated nuclear installations is believed to be significantly higher than at the army headquarters, which was relatively relaxed by the standards of other nations. Thousands of people and vehicles enter the headquarters compound in Rawalpindi daily, and the 10 attackers, while able to take dozens of hostages Saturday and kill 14 people before a commando raid ended the siege, never penetrated to the heart of the complex. …

No action or decision involving a nuclear weapon can be undertaken by fewer than two persons. But Gregory acknowledged the possibility of collusion between cleared officers and extremists.

The personnel assigned to sensitive nuclear posts go through regular background checks conducted by Pakistan’s intelligence services, according to a 2007 article in the journal Arms Control, co-written by Naeem Salik, a former top official at Pakistan’s National Command Authority, which oversees the nuclear arsenal.

“It is being acknowledged by the world powers that the system has no loopholes,” Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, a military spokesman, said Monday. “The system is foolproof, as good and bad as their own systems.” …

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hhyr4wXmqD0Z8hIRPe_1NvWOcRMQD9B9QG300

Open Democracy
by Geraint Rees
October 6, 2009

North Korea could agree to return to multilateral talks on ending its nuclear weapons programme, depending on the outcome of planned bilateral talks with the United States.

Following a three-day visit by Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to North Korea, Kim Jong-il indicated he would be willing to resume the six-party talks on disarmament that were abandoned in April. Quoted in state media, Kim insisted that returning to the talks was dependent on the outcome of his planned bilateral talks with the US, which he hoped would convert ‘hostile relations’ between the two countries into ‘peaceful ties’. …

Today’s remarks by Kim Jong-il are the strongest indication yet that North Korea is willing to return to the negotiating table over its nuclear ambitions. …

www.opendemocracy.net/terrorism/article/security_briefings/061009

Korea Times
September 27, 2009
By Jung Sung-ki

A broader joint air operations command of South Korean and U.S. Air Forces is being set up here in tandem with the planned transition of wartime operational control (OPCON) in 2012, a military source said Sunday.

The Hardened Theater of Air Control Center (HTACC), the Korea-U.S. combined air operations command led by a three-star American general at Osan Air Base, has been working to expand its roles and missions after being renamed the Korea Air and Space Operations Center (KAOC), the source said on condition of anonymity.

The Master Control and Reporting Center (MCRC), a computer system to monitor and track aircraft on a real-time basis, at the KAOC is also receiving upgrades, he said.

“KAOC will be developed further to serve as an integrated joint air force command of the two allies on the peninsula by 2012, effectively orchestrating all operations of the two air forces in the case of an emergency,” the source said.

The U.S.-led Combined Forces Command (CFC) is to hand over almost all operations authority on the peninsula to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in 2012 before being deactivated.

But the U.S. military will still lead air operations after the transformation to take advantage of its dominant aerial assets against North Korea in time of war. …

www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/09/205_52552.html

We (Lindis Percy represented CAAB) joined a demonstration at Osan US Air base during the Global Network Against Weapons and Power in Space internattional conference in Seoul (May 2009).

rssnewsonline.com
(Associated Press)
September 26th, 2009

… at least 769 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. …

Of those, the military reports 589 were killed by hostile action. …

Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 70 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, three were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen. …

www.rssnewsonline.com/rssnews/us-military-deaths-in-afghanistan-region-at-769-ap-2.html

War causes death and injury – there is no estimate of how many civilians have died in this conflict. All life is precious.

Julian Borger
Guardian.co.uk
September 20, 2009

Pentagon told to map out radical cuts as president prepares to chair UN talks.

Barack Obama has demanded the Pentagon conduct a radical review of US nuclear weapons doctrine to prepare the way for deep cuts in the country’s arsenal …

Obama has rejected the Pentagon’s first draft of the “nuclear posture review” as being too timid, and has called for a range of more far-reaching options consistent with his goal of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons altogether, according to European officials.

Those options include:

• Reconfiguring the US nuclear force to allow for an arsenal measured in hundreds rather than thousands of deployed strategic warheads.

• Redrafting nuclear doctrine to narrow the range of conditions under which the US would use nuclear weapons.

• Exploring ways of guaranteeing the future reliability of nuclear weapons without testing or producing a new generation of warheads.

The review is due to be completed by the end of this year, and European officials say the outcome is not yet clear. But one official said: “Obama is now driving this process. He is saying these are the president’s weapons, and he wants to look again at the doctrine and their role.” …

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/20/barack-obama-us-nuclear-weapons

September 22, 2009
Wall Street Journal – Asia
By Yuka Hayashi

As Japan’s new ruling party begins to question its military alliance with the U.S., one freshman lawmaker whose personal history reflects the longstanding ties between the two nations is already pressing the issue.

Denny Tamaki, a newly elected member of the Democratic Party of Japan, is the son of a local woman and a U.S. serviceman. His main goal is to sharply shrink the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, a remote southern island that hosts roughly half of some 45,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan.

“It’s about time the Japanese government let Okinawa go back to its original self,” says the former radio talk-show host, 49 years old. Despite his fondness for American music and movies, Mr. Tamaki argues it is time the two grew more distant. “I am an embodiment of Okinawa’s postwar history,” he says. “No one is more qualified to tackle the base issues.” …

The U.S. has used Japan as a primary host for its military presence in East Asia. The Japanese government spends roughly $2 billion a year to help cover the costs. The presence of U.S. forces let Japan keep its own military small and focused on self-defense, freeing up resources to help fuel its postwar boom. …

Mr. Tamaki was raised by his mother in Okinawa and knows little about his father. …

As he grew more involved in politics, he became increasingly aware of the hard feelings caused by the bases. Okinawa’s main island hosts 34 U.S. facilities that together take up about 20% of its land, leading to occasional clashes. A military helicopter crashed on a college campus near Futenma in 2004, and a series of attacks on local women by American soldiers caused an uproar. …

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125348661429226233.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Eurasianet.org
Deirdre Tynan
September 17, 2009

The US military is preparing for a worst-case scenario in Central Asia. The Pentagon is presently developing plans covering the potential deployment of elite Special Forces to Central Asian states other than Afghanistan.

In each of the Central Asian states, US Special Forces 3rd Group are preparing to conduct “foreign internal defense” missions — military shorthand for counter-insurgency operations fought by host nation troops with training and other forms of assistance provided by Washington.

The 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, currently consists of four operational battalions. At least one battalion will be deployed to Central Asia on every rotation of troops serving in Afghanistan.

According to a military handbook, Joint Tactics, Techniques and Procedures for Foreign Internal Defense (FID), published under the auspices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2004, “the United States will normally consider FID support only if the following three conditions exist: the existing or threatened internal disorder threatens US national strategic goals; the threatened nation is capable of effectively using US assistance; and the threatened nation requests US assistance.”

It adds: “assistance will normally focus on civil-military operations (primarily, the provision of services to the local populace), psychological operations, communications and intelligence sharing, and logistic support.” …

The prospect of US forces carrying out foreign internal defense operations in Central Asia is generating mixed views. Some analysts described it as routine, while others call it risky. All agree, however, that Russia will be agitated by any deployment.

www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav091709.shtml

philstar.com
September 19, 2009

The United States formally left the Manta military base in Ecuador yesterday via a 9.00 a.m. local time ceremony in which Ecuador took full control of the Pacific Coast facilities.

The Ecuador government formally resumed control of Manta, a military base on its Pacific coast, 10 years after was leased, rent-free, to the US military for anti-drug operations.

During the handover ceremony, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Fander Falconi said that the exit of US soldiers was “a triumph for national sovereignty.”

He also said that the lease agreement, signed in 1999, had not been properly legalized because it had only been approved by then foreign minister Heinz Muller and the legislature’s foreign affairs committee, not by the full legislature nor all Ecuadorians.

He also made a call for nations to avoid relations “based on subordination” and foreign military bases. …

The 1999 agreement was slammed by Ecuadorian social and political organizations, who also denounced US personnel and the base for violating Ecuadorians’ human rights.

www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=506676&publicationSubCategoryId=200

Stars and Stripes
September 18, 2009
By Geoff Ziezulewicz,

RAF MILDENHALL, England — A day before the Obama administration announced its intent to scrap the controversial European missile defense shield, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report calling for better Pentagon stewardship overall for missile defense programs worldwide.

In its Sept. 16 report for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee, the GAO found that the Pentagon had not taken a big-picture look at the technical and manning needs of various costly missile defense efforts around the world that collectively fall under the Ballistic Missile Defense System.

As such, the report notes, the Defense Department is missing a foundation for making sound decisions about what will be required for the various missile defense initiatives.

“Without a full assessment of its overall requirements, DOD lacks the information it needs to make the best possible policy, strategy and budgetary decisions for ballistic missile defense,” the report states.

While combatant commands have analyzed missile defense needs by region, as have certain service branches, no overall analysis has been conducted, according to the GAO.

In some cases, the Pentagon put missile defense elements into use before first ensuring that the military services had created units and trained troops to operate the systems, according to the GAO, even though the DOD typically requires that major weapons systems be fielded with a full array of organized and trained personnel. …

www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=64847