Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

China Daily
January 21, 2010

The United States and Russia are currently in discussion over the issue of global missile defense, said U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle here on Wednesday.

Beyrle told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that Washington and Moscow were discussing the possibility to involve Russia into a system of global missile defense, on which two rounds of negotiations have been held between experts from the two countries.

The diplomat also said the two sides are discussing measures to develop cooperation in this field, adding that their talks on strategic arms reduction were to conclude in the very near future.

In a late December visit to Russia’s Far East, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia must develop offensive weapons systems to counter the U.S. missile shield plans.

Putin said Russia would provide more information about its offensive weapons in exchange for more information on the U.S. missile defense systems, and would link such a demand with the new nuclear arms control treaty.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced on September 17, 2009 to abandon the Bush-era missile defense shield program while initiating a “phased, adaptive approach” of the plan in Eastern Europe.

The Bush administration planned to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic as part of its European missile shield to protect its European allies from missile threats from the so-called “rogue states.”

Russia strongly opposed the measure, saying it poses threat to its security.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev welcomed Obama’s announcement by officially declaring to scrap plans to install short-range Iskander missiles in its western Kaliningrad enclave.

However, Moscow’s urge for Washington to further expound the new approach merely received lukewarm response.

NATO, Russian chiefs of staff to meet next week

NATO and Russian chiefs of staff will meet in Brussels on January 26 for the first time since the outbreak of war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008, a spokesman for the NATO military committee said on Wednesday.

Colonel Massimo Panizzi told a press briefing that the Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, General Nikolai Makarov, was expected to attend the meeting with NATO military committee, which brings chiefs of staff from the 28 NATO nations.

“It will be the first time that the Russian chief of staff has taken part in such a meeting since the Georgian affair,” he said.

The two sides will discuss about furthering military cooperation, including Russia’s possible contribution to the NATO-led military efforts in Afghanistan and fight against terrorism, he said.

“Afghanistan will be one of the most important items on the agenda, given that these discussions will take place on the eve of the international conference on the country organized in London,” he said.

The relations between NATO and Russia were frozen after the August 2008 war. Though Georgia remains a source of tension, the relations between the two sides have improved in recent months.

In December 2009, NATO and Russian foreign ministers met in Brussels and agreed on enhancing military cooperation.

www.chinadaily.com.cn/2010-01/21/content_9351861.htm

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Defense Industry Daily
January 18, 2010

In January 2001, a commission headed by then US Defense Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld warned about a possible “space Pearl Harbor” in which a potential enemy would launch a surprise attack against US-based military space assets, disabling them. These assets include communications satellites and the GPS system, which is crucial for precision attack missiles and a host of military systems.

“The US is more dependent on space than any other nation. Yet the threat to the US and its allies in and from space does not command the attention it merits,” the commission warned.

One of the systems that grew out of the commission’s report was the Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) project, which is developing a constellation of satellites to provide the US military with space situational awareness using visible sensors. …

The SBSS system is intended to detect and track space objects, such as satellites, anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, and orbital debris, providing information to the US Department of Defense as well as NASA. The SBSS is a stepping stone toward a functional space-based space surveillance constellation. …

The initial SBSS satellite is expected to improve the US government’s ability to detect deep space objects by 80% over the MSX/SBV system.

The MSX/SBV system was a late 1990s missile defense test satellite; by 2002 most of its sensors had failed. However, 1 small package called the SBV sensor was able to search and track satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) using visible light. …

Building on the success of the MSX/SBV visible sensor, the SBSS Block 10 will further develop the technology and replace the SBV sensor. Block 10 will involve the development of 1 satellite as a pathfinder for a full-constellation of space-based sensors. …

Jan 15, 2010: Boeing in Seal Beach, CA received a $30.9 million contract exercising the option for CY2010 maintenance and operations services to provide the requirements for the development and delivery of the logistics infrastructure of the Space Based Space Surveillance Block 10 system. At this time, $7.8 million has been obligated.

www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Preventing-a-Space-Pearl-Harbor-SBSS-Program-to-Monitor-the-Heavens-06106/

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China View – Xinhua
January 17, 2010

Russia should firmly defend its security interests in talks with the United States over a new nuclear arsenal cut deal, Russian parliamentary leaders said Saturday.

“Our interests of national security must be our primary goal in signing the new treaty,” said Sergei Mironov, Federation Council Speaker and leader of the Fair Russia party, in a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev at Zavidovo of Tver region.

The new document to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty(START-1) that expired on Dec. 5, 2009, said Mironov, should be signed on an equal basis.

When Moscow engaged in negotiations with Washington over specific issues such as number of nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles, he said, no compromise shall be made at the cost of national interests.

Russia and the U.S. “must undoubtedly have equal rights and duties under the new treaty,” which first and foremost applies to mutual inspections, said Boris Gryzlov, Russian State Duma Speaker, as cited by the Interfax news agency.

He also voiced support on the linkage between the issues of strategic weapons cut and missile defense, while downplaying U.S. edge on the missile defense.

Equal reductions of warheads would be detrimental to Russia and lead to Moscow’s “geographical lose-out,” said Liberal Democratic leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, as Russia is surrounded by multiple U.S. missile bases.

Zhirinovsky insisted Russia must not slash its deployment of multiple independent reentry vehicles, and ensure equal rights on mutual inspections.

The strategic arms reduction shall not pose threat to Russia’s basis security, said Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov.

If Russia cannot retain its current nuclear power, he said, its security will be intimidated and it will not become U.S. equal.

“There can be no parity with the Americans anyway because they have 30-fold superiority over us in terms of conventional armaments. We can’t make a minimum concession,” he said.

Insisting Russia and the United States ratify the new START treaty simultaneously, Medvedev also stressed its significance to Russia.

“This is a foreign policy issue, but it is of extreme importance and will, in the final analysis, determine the face of Russia for years to come,” he said.

Moscow and Washington have exerted intense efforts trying to clinch a deal on the new START treaty.

The talks are expected to resume in the second half of this month, said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier.

The START-1, signed in 1991 between the then Soviet Union and the United States, obliged both sides to reduce the number of their nuclear warheads to 6,000 and delivery vehicles to 1,600.

The new treaty’s outline agreed by the two presidents at a July summit in Moscow included slashing nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/17/content_12822678.htm

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The New York Times
By Andrew Jacobs and Jonathan Ansfield
January 12, 2009

China said late Monday that it had successfully tested the nation’s first land-based missile defense system, announcing the news in a brief dispatch by Xinhua, the official news agency. “The test is defensive in nature and is not targeted at any country,” the item said.

Even if news accounts on Tuesday did not provide details about the test — and whether it destroyed its intended target — Chinese and Western analysts say there is no mistaking that the timing of the test, coming amid Beijing’s fury over American arms sales to Taiwan, was largely aimed at the White House.

In recent days, state media have been producing a torrent of articles condemning the sale of Patriot air defense equipment to Taiwan. China views the self-ruled island as a breakaway province, separated since the civil war of the 1940s, and sees arms sales as interference in an internal matter.

The Defense and Foreign Ministries have released a half-dozen warnings over the weapons deal, saying it would have grave consequences for United States-China relations. …

www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/world/asia/13china.html

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BBC News
December 29, 2009

US plans for a missile defence shield are holding up a new nuclear disarmament treaty, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said.

Russia and the US are yet to find a successor to the Cold War-era Start I treaty, which expired on 5 December.

Analysts say Moscow wants a clause in the new treaty that would limit the scale of any US defence shield.

The US has shelved plans for missile defence stations in Central Europe, but intends to use a sea-based system.

Asked by a reporter what was the biggest problem blocking a new treaty, Mr Putin said: “What is the problem? The problem is that our American partners are building an anti-missile shield and we are not building one.”

“By building such an umbrella over themselves, our [US] partners could feel themselves fully secure and will do whatever they want, which upsets the balance,” the Russian premier added.

He said that “to preserve the balance, we must develop offensive weapons systems”, but did not specify what kinds he had in mind.

Earlier this month, President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia would continue to develop new warheads, delivery vehicles and launchers despite the disarmament talks, describing this as “routine practice”.

Russia and the US are negotiating in Geneva on the details of a new treaty. Last week, the Russian foreign minister said a deal was very close. …

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8433352.stm

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Time Magazine
By Mark Thompson
December 17, 2009

Fake “North Korean” missiles have been hurtling over the Pacific toward the U.S. for years, providing test fodder for the Pentagon’s missile-defense systems. But next month, the fake enemy missiles flying over the same ocean are going to be “Iranian.” The timing of the test, however, has nothing to do with a missile test-fired by Iran on Tuesday. That was a medium-range Sajjil-2 missile capable of targeting Israel or U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf. Next month’s U.S. interceptor test will, instead, be aimed at the as-yet-hypothetical threat of an Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), even though such a threat has been deemed by the Obama Administration to be unlikely in the immediate future. …

The U.S. currently has 23 ground-based interceptors based in Alaska and California, and they could be used against missiles launched — for real — from either North Korea or Iran.

Read more: www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1948070,00.html#ixzz0aV8vCTNj

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Christian Science Monitor
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
December 11, 2009

The US, Poland status of forces pact signed Friday allows deployment of a missile defense system to go forward. An earlier proposal for a more robust missile system had drawn the ire of Russia.

The US and Poland have reached an agreement to station an American antimissile defense system on Polish soil two months after plans to install a more robust missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic were scrapped in the face of intense Russian opposition. But the close military cooperation between the US and Poland, including US troops in the country, means the deal is likely to remain a major concern for Russia.

The deployment, under a new Status of Forces Agreement reached between Poland and the US, calls for US troops to install and operate a mobile, land-based set of short- and medium-range missiles to defend against incoming attacks.

The equipment includes SM-3 IA missiles and a MIM-104 Patriot mobile missile battery. Both types of missile are designed to shoot down short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. The missiles could arrive in Poland as soon as the first quarter of 2010.

Though Russia is unhappy about the growing military ties between the US and former Warsaw Pact nations, the current plan is more modest than the earlier one, which included long-range missile interceptors. The missiles to be stationed in Poland will not have the capacity to be used offensively against Russia and aren’t capable of shooting down the long-range missiles in the Russian arsenal. …

www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2009/1211/US-Poland-status-of-forces-pact-deepens-military-cooperation

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Media-Newswire.com

The United States and Russia have agreed to maintain a critical nuclear arms control agreement past its expiration date until a new agreement is reached, saying that strategic stability is very important.

In April, when President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held their first face-to-face meeting in London, the two leaders pledged to work for a world free of nuclear arms, and said every effort would be made before the end of this year to reduce their nuclear arsenals with the long-term goal of reducing global nuclear tensions.

In a joint statement December 4 issued in Washington and Moscow, they said that it’s too important to let the terms of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ( START ) expire on December 5 while negotiators continue working on a successor treaty. …

At the Moscow Summit in July, Obama and Medvedev agreed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads each possesses to a range of 1,500 to 1,675 over seven years. The treaty would also limit the means of delivery, which include nuclear-powered submarines, long-range bombers, and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The missiles can be used to deliver non-nuclear warheads over the same distance, and that has been one of several highly technical areas of discussion.

START was signed July 31, 1991, by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President George H.W. Bush; President Ronald Reagan originally proposed the treaty in 1982. It was designed to limit nuclear warheads to about 6,000 in each arsenal.

In 2002, the United States and Russia agreed to the Moscow Treaty that sought to reduce nuclear arsenals to between 1,700 and 2,200 operationally deployed warheads by 2012.

In Prague earlier this year, Obama called for a nuclear-weapons-free world and pledged to work for greater arms control and nonproliferation goals. It comes at a time when Washington is enlisting Moscow’s support in curbing the nuclear ambitions of both North Korea and Iran. The United States and Russia participate in talks aimed at convincing the two regimes to give up weapons and long-range missile development programs in return for economic and political incentives.

START negotiations are being held in Geneva and are led by Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller and Russian negotiator Anatoly Antonov. They have been working quickly to resolve remaining differences in areas of offensive weapons levels and missile defense issues.

http://media-newswire.com/release_1107449.html

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Reuters
November 27, 2009

Poland and the United States have agreed the legal details of deploying U.S. troops in Poland after lengthy negotiations, Deputy Defense Minister Stanislaw Komorowski said on Friday.

The “status of forces” agreement (SOFA) opens the way for deployments of a U.S. Patriot missile battery in Poland next year as part of plans to upgrade the NATO member’s air defenses. …

Under the accord, due to be signed by the two sides on December 10, U.S. troops who commit any crime outside their base and outside their regular work would fall under Polish jurisdiction, Komorowski said. The deal also covers taxation of U.S. forces.

Poland, perturbed by Russia’s more assertive foreign policy, has long complained that it hosts no U.S. troops or major military installations despite a strong track record of sending troops to help in U.S.-led missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. …

Polish forces would use the battery to upgrade their defense systems. Komorowski told Reuters earlier this year that a U.S. battery would be permanently based in Poland from 2012 and that Warsaw would also aim to buy its own anti-missile systems. …

www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5AQ3IP20091127

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Vandenberg Air Force Base, in violation of Article 6 of the NPT, will launch a Minuteman III test ICBM hair trigger solid fuel long distance nuclear warhead (with dummy warheads) delivery system on November 18th 2009. There will be a peace protest sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom DISARM at 11:55 pm, Tuesday, Nov 17 at the base front gate (six miles north of Lompoc, California, on Highway One, Santa Barbara County).

The test missile will carry dummy warheads, but it is a missile test for nuclear delivery systems. This violates the good faith disarmament component of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.

http://vandenbergwitness.org/

The Public Affairs department at Vandenberg Air Force Base were contacted by our friends Macgregor in the US who informed her that next week’s Minuteman launch is cancelled. They did not provide a reason for the cancellation.

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