Showing posts with label Military Industrial Complex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Military Industrial Complex. Show all posts

Monday, November 30, 2009

Base Building | We may be leaving Iraq, but we're not going far



ASK THIS

An American military building boom yet to be seriously scrutinized, analyzed, or assessed is underway in the Middle East, writes Nick Turse. Call it Operation Enduring Presence. more>>

Source:

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=00433

Saturday, November 28, 2009

UPI | International Security Industry Headlines - November 28, 2009

LIMA, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Peru, apparently undeterred by rejection of earlier proposals seeking to contain an arms race in Latin America, has proposed the creation of a South American peace force to avert a regional conflict amid rising tensions and increased arms buying.

COVINGTON, Ky., Nov. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. Air Force has awarded TiER1 Performance Solutions a phase II contract to continue development of insider threat recognition training methods.

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. company Goodrich Corp. announced plans to acquire mission-critical guidance technologies developer AIS Global Holdings.
"AIS' portfolio of inertial sensors is an excellent complement to Goodrich's guidance, control and navigation systems. Combining our engineering strengths and technology will enable us to further support United States and allied forces across the full spectrum of guidance and control systems."

LONDON, Ontario, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- General Dynamics has received an order to deliver its Light Armored Vehicles from the U.S. Army to support a foreign military sale.

BALTIMORE, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. company View Systems says its U.A.E. business partner Belcom has received additional orders from undisclosed government and private sector customers in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, India and the United Arab Emirates.

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. company Northrop Grumman says it has successfully completed the first of its MQ-8B Fire Scout deliveries. The three UAV technologies were delivered to the Navy as part of the Vertical Takeoff and Landing Tactical Unmanned Air Vehicle program.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Northrop Grumman has successfully completed development of the detail design phase for the Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) in the Product Model virtual environment, marking a milestone for the company.

LONDON, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- AgustaWestland has completed a test flight of its next-generation military helicopter in England marking a milestone in the development of the aircraft.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Cyberlux Corp. says its new lighting system developed for the U.S. Defense Department with Sacred Power Corp. has completed an evaluation. This product also meets the Department of Defense mandate for renewable energy technologies that support the needs of the warfighter.

BINGEN, Wash., Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Insitu Inc. has achieved a milestone with its ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system after its successful test flight aboard a Canadian defense vessel.

LAVAL, Quebec, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- The Canadian Air Transportation Security Authority has contracted Smiths Detection to deliver its X-ray technologies to support airport checkpoint security. Officials say the CATSA order is part of an effort to upgrade Canadian airport checkpoint security capabilities with Smith Detection's next-generation scanning technologies.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- An assault ship of NATO member France arrived Tuesday in St. Petersburg's harbor, but Russians need not fear: The helicopter carrier Mistral has sailed to Russia to convince the Kremlin to agree to what would be the largest arms deal ever signed with a Western country. Russia, has never purchased a foreign-made military vessel.

ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Turkey has warned Israeli defense contractors to deliver on 10 promised drone aircraft in 50 days or the deal may be canceled.

BHUBANESWAR, India, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- India has test fired a nuclear-capable, medium-range ballistic missile, Agni II.
The Agni II is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to targets of up to a range of 1,500 miles. With a launch weight of 16 tons, the 65-foot surface-to-surface missile can carry a nuclear payload of 1 ton. It takes only 15 minutes for the missile to be readied for firing.

The specific series are considered to be India's most sophisticated missiles. They are being developed by India's Defense Research Development Organization as part of the country's deterrent strategy against neighboring nations, including China and Pakistan, armed with nuclear weapons.

India has already tested a 3,000-kilometer range Agni-III missile, the longest in the series that can knock down targets as far off as Beijing and Shanghai, analysts say.

The launch also comes on the eve of a summit between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India and U.S. President Barack Obama.

India hopes the United States will stay engaged in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But India will also be looking to the U.S. president for greater clarity on nuclear technology transfer as the new administration in Washington is seen to be backpedaling on positions agreed to by the Bush administration in 2008.

The former U.S. president is highly regarded in India for bringing India back to the international fold after it tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 24 (UPI) -- British company BAE says it California, Texas and Pennsylvania facilities will support contract modifications from the Army Tank Automotive and Armaments Command.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Afghanistan Contractors Outnumber Troops Despite Surge in U.S. Deployments, More Civilians Are Posted in War Zone

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16230

November 22, 2009

Even as U.S. troops surge to new highs in Afghanistan they are outnumbered by military contractors working alongside them, according to a Defense Department census due to be distributed to Congress -- illustrating how hard it is for the U.S. to wean itself from the large numbers of war-zone contractors that proved controversial in Iraq.

The number of military contractors in Afghanistan rose to almost 74,000 by June 30, far outnumbering the roughly 58,000 U.S. soldiers on the ground at that point. As the military force in Afghanistan grows further, to a planned 68,000 by the end of the year, the Defense Department expects the ranks of contractors to increase more.

The ranks of military contractors in Afghanistan have been growing along with the surge in troops. Above, contractor barracks at the Kandahar airfield.

The military requires contractors for essential functions ranging from supplying food and laundry services to guarding convoys and even military bases -- functions that were once performed by military personnel but have been outsourced so a slimmed-down military can focus more on battle-related tasks.

The Obama administration has sought to reduce its reliance on military contractors, worried that the Pentagon was ceding too much power to outside companies, failing to rein in costs and not achieving desired results.

President Obama has repeatedly called defense contractors to task since taking office. "In Iraq, too much money has been paid out for services that were never performed, buildings that were never completed, companies that skimmed off the top," he said during a March speech.

In April, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced plans to hire 30,000 civilian officials during to cut the percentage of contractors in the Pentagon's own work force, and last month he told an audience of soldiers that contractor use overseas needed better controls.

The Pentagon's "Manhunting Agency" - by Tom Burghardt

2009-11-22 - When CIA Director Leon Panetta revealed that for eight years the Agency ran a secret program to hunt down and kill top leaders of the Afghan-Arab database of disposable Western intelligence assets known as al-Qaeda, it set off a political firestorm.

While congressional Democrats and Republicans diverted the public's attention with claims and counterclaims whether or not the Company had "misled" Congress by not disclosing the program's existence, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported months earlier that former Vice President Richard Cheney had stood up an "executive assassination ring."

According to Hersh, that fully-operational program was run, not by the CIA, but by the Pentagon's secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), a subunit attached to United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). During a "Great Conversations" event last March at the University of Minnesota, Hersh told the audience:
"Congress has no oversight of it. It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths.

"Under President Bush’s authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us." (Eric Black, "Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh describes 'executive assassination ring'," MinnPost.com, March 11, 2009)
Old news right? Well, not entirely. ........ FULL ARTICLE>>>>

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Veterans Today | Special Report: Retired military officers cash in as well-paid consultants

November 18, 2009

Six months after Marine Lt. Gen. Gary McKissock retired in 2002, he did what many other ex-military leaders do: He joined the board of directors of a defense contractor, a company doing business with his former service.

McKissock also had a second job. The Marines brought him back as an adviser, at double the rate of pay he made on active duty. Since 2005, the Marines have awarded McKissock contracts worth $1.2 million, in addition to his military pension of about $119,000 a year.

McKissock is one of at least 158 retired admirals and generals the Pentagon has hired to offer advice under an unusual arrangement. Most of the retired officers, one to four stars in rank, have been paid hundreds of dollars an hour by the military even as they worked for companies seeking Defense Department contracts, a USA TODAY investigation found. That's in addition to pensions of $100,000 to $200,000 a year for officers with 30 or more years of service.

MILITARY MENTORS: 158 retired generals consulting for the Pentagon

As "senior mentors," as the military calls them, the retired officers help run war games and offer advice to former colleagues. Some mentors make as much as $330 an hour as part-time government advisers, more than triple what their rate of pay was as high-level, active-duty officers. They earn more — far more, several mentors said in interviews — as consultants and board members to defense companies.

Retired generals have taken jobs with defense contractors for decades, reaping rewards for themselves and their companies through their contacts and insights. But the recent growth in the use of mentors has created a new class of individuals who enjoy even more access than a typical retired officer, and they get paid by the military services while doing so. Most are compensated both by taxpayers and industry, with little to prevent their private employers from using knowledge they obtain as mentors in seeking government work.

Nothing is illegal about the arrangements. In fact, there are no Pentagon-wide rules specific to the various mentor programs, which differ from service to service.

Based on interviews and a review of public records, USA TODAY found:

• Of the 158 retired generals and admirals identified as having worked for the military as senior mentors, 80% had financial ties to defense contractors, including 29 who were full-time executives of defense companies. Those with industry ties have earned salaries, fees or stock options as consultants, board members or full-time employees of defense firms.

Read more at USA Today

NANO CHEMTRAILS - Brought to you by the same military-corporate-banking complex that runs America's permanent wars, Raytheon Corp



If you did not enjoy “traditional” chemtrails raining down on you, you are not going to like the new version, which the United States Air Force promises will feature aerial dumps of programmable “smart” molecules tens of thousands of times smaller than the particles already landing people in emergency rooms with respiratory, heart and gastrointestinal complaints.

Under development since 1995, the military's goal is to install microprocessors incorporating gigaflops computer capability into “smart particles” the size of a single molecule.

Invisible except under the magnification of powerful microscopes, these nano-size radio-controlled chips are now being made out of mono-atomic gold particles. Networked together on the ground or assembling in the air, thousands of sensors will link into a single supercomputer no larger than a grain of sand.

Brought to you by the same military-corporate-banking complex that runs America's permanent wars, Raytheon Corp is already profiting from new weather warfare technologies. The world's fourth largest military weapons maker bought E-Systems in 1995, just one year after that military contractor bought APTI, holder of Bernard Eastlund's HAARP patents.

Raytheon also owns General Dynamics, the world's leading manufacturer of military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

Raytheon also reports the weather for NOAA through its Advanced Weather Information Processing System. According to researcher Brendan Bombaci of Durango, Colorado, these Raytheon computers are directy linked with their UAV weather modification drones. Bombaci reports that NOAA paid Raytheon more than $300 million for this “currently active, 10-year project.”

She goes on to describe the Joint Environmental Toolkit used by the U.S. Air Force in its Weather Weapons System. Just the thing for planet tinkerers.


GREEN LIGHT
For public consumption, nano-weather control jargon has been sanitized. “Microelectric Mechanical Sensors” (MMS) and “Global Environmental Mechanical Sensors” sound passively benign. But these ultra-tiny autonomous aerial vehicles are neither M&Ms nor gems. [Space.com Oct 31/05]

According to a U.S. military flier called Military Progress, “The green light has been given” to disperse swarms of wirelessly-networked nano-bots into the troposphere by remotely-controlled UAV drones for "global warming mitigation."

U.S. Army Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, as well as U.S. Air Force drones “are slated to deploy various payloads for weather warfare,” Military Progress asserts.

This dual mission - to slow global warming and use weather as a weapon - seems somewhat contradictory.

FIGHTING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
U.S. Military Inc. is already in the climate change business big time. The single biggest burner of petroleum on this planet, its high-flying aircraft routinely rend Earth's protective radiation shielding with nitrous oxide emissions, while depositing megatons of additional carbon, sulfur and water particles directly into the stratosphere - where they will do three-times more damage than CO2 alone.

Go figure. A single F-15 burns around 1,580 gallons an hour. An Apache gunship gets about one-half mile to the gallon. The 1,838 Abrams tanks in Iraq achieve five gallons to the mile, while firing dusty radioactive shells that will continue destroying human DNA until our sun goes supernova.

A single non-nuclear carrier steaming in support burns 5,600 gallons of bunker fuel in an hour - or two million gallons of bunker oil every 14 days. Every four days, each carrier at sea takes on another half- million gallons of fuel to supply its jets.

The U.S. Air Force consumed nearly half of the Department of Defense's entire fuel supply in 2006, burning 2.6 billion gallons of jet fuel aloft.

While flying two to five-hour chemtrails missions to reflect incoming sunlight and slow global warming, a single KC-10 tanker will burn 2,050 gallons of highly toxic jet fuel every hour. The larger and older KC-135 Stratotanker carries 31,275 gallons of chemtrails and burns 2,650 gallons of fuel per hour.

The EPA says that each gallon of gasoline produces 19.4 pounds of CO2. Each gallon of diesel produces 22.2 pounds of CO2.

Total it up and routine operations by a military bigger than all other world militaries combined puts more than 48 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. Nearly half that total could be eliminated by ending the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. [TomDispatch.com June 16/07; huffingtonpost.com Oct 29/07]

NANO RAIN
Meanwhile, the 60 year quest for weather warfare continues. Though a drone cannot carry a heavy payload, more sub-microscopic weather modification particles can be crammed into a UAV Predator than all the chemtrail slurry packed into a tanker the size of a DC-10. T

According to the air force's own weather modification study, Owning The Weather 2025, clouds of these extremely teeny machines will be dropped into hurricanes and other weather systems to blend with storms and report real time weather data to each other and a larger sensor network.

Then these smart particles will be used to increase or decrease the storm's size and intensity - and "steer" it to “specific targets”.

The air force report boasted that nano-chemtrails “will be able to adjust their size to optimal dimensions for a given seeding situation and make adjustments throughout the process.” Instead of being sprayed into the air at the mercy of the winds aloft, as is the fate of normal chemtrails, nano versions will be able to “enhance their dispersal” by “adjusting their atmospheric buoyancy” and “communicating with each other” as they steer themselves in a single coordinated flock within their own artificial cloud.

Nano-chemtrails will even “change their temperature and polarity to improve their seeding effects,” the air force noted. [Daily Texan July 30/07]

Rutgers University scientist J. Storrs Hall held out the military's hope that these new nano weather-warrior bots: “Interconnected, atmospherically buoyant, and having navigation capability in three dimensions - clouds of microscopic computer particles communicating with each other and with a control system, could provide tremendous capability.”

Sounds expensive.

“It is potentially relatively inexpensive to do,” Hall clarified. “About the same price per pound as potatoes.”

Why so cheap? Because nano particles can be potentially self-replicating. That is, they can be made to reproduce themselves until programmed to stop.

Hopefully.

Maybe.

Sometimes.

Owning The Weather goes on to say that the USAF will “manage and employ a weather-modification capability by the Weather Force Support Element.” These weather forces will use real-time updates from swarms of the nano-size “smart sensors” to model developing weather patterns with a super-duper computer.

Based on continually updated forecast, the weather warriors will fly follow-on missions as needed to tweak the storm. It's perfect, crows the air force. “The total weather-modification process becomes “a real-time loop of continuous, appropriate, measured interventions, and feedback capable of producing desired weather behavior.”

Really?

Weather modification did not work too well with Katrina.

If the notion of inserting Autonomous Intelligence nanobots into weather systems to monitor, steer and mess with them seems risky, just wait. Around the next cloud corner are coming swarms of airborne nano-bots to optimize wind dispersal patterns for germ warfare. Or chemtrails.

But there's one small hitch. Nobody knows how Earth's atmosphere works. It is so big, so complex and so unpredictable, even real-time nano-snapshots are ancient history as soon as they are taken.

This is why the air force said, “Advances in the science of chaos are critical to this endeavor.”

Good luck. After a decade of trying, not even a 48-hour weather forecast can be made without constant surprises.

Because they cannot be graphed in a cause-and-effect straight line, chaotic “non-linear” weather processes can morph unexpectedly, defying predicted weather modification inputs. Just ask Beijing.

Then there's the matter of accidental genocide. I mean human health.

SICKOS
The chemtrails we are too familiar with after a decade-long dose continue to inflict eye infections, nosebleeds, skin sores, muscle pain, chronic exhaustion, weakened immunity, acute asthma and allergies, short-term memory loss and heart attacks on people in more than a dozen countries. [americanskywatch.com; Chemtrails Confirmed 2008 by William Thomas]

Small particulates like the aluminum oxide found in chemtrails also kill.

Dr. Dan Woodard calls aluminum oxide a “nuisance dust”. This MD says that prolonged exposures to very high concentrations of particulates that are visible in the air “can produce pulmonary fibrosis, somewhat like the silicosis formerly seen in miners.”

“At one time it was thought to precipitate Alzheimer's disease, but more recent research has shown it is almost certainly unrelated,” Dr. Woodward adds.

It's the tiny size of chemtrail fallout - one-tenth the width of the human hair - that make people very ill. The EPA warns that there is a strong link between all tiny particles and thousands of premature deaths each year.

Two key studies from the early 1990's by the Harvard School of Public Health and the American Cancer Society found strong links between high levels of small particles and a rise in death rates. In an article headlined, “Tiny Particles Can Kill” the August 5, 2000 issue of New Scientist pointed to findings in six cities over 16 years showing that “city-dwellers in Europe and the U.S. are dying young because of microscopic particles in the air.”

According to the New York Times, “microscopic motes… are able to infiltrate the tiniest compartments in the lungs and pass readily into the bloodstream.” Particles in the size range called for by the Welsbach Patent describing chemtrails are “most strongly tied to illness and early death, particularly in people who are already susceptible to respiratory problems.” [New York Times Oct 14/06]

The Welsbach Patent calls for megatons of 10 micron-size aluminum oxide particles to be spread in the atmosphere. The EPA calls particles this small “an extreme human health hazard” leading to 5% increased death rate within 24 hrs.

“Hearts as well as lungs can be damaged by ultra-fine particles small enough to get into the bloodstream and inflame tissues and cells,” reports the LA Times. “After they reach the heart, the particles are thought to cause a stress reaction in cells, producing inflammation that contributes to heart disease. The particles also may cause blood clots.” [Los Angeles Times Dec 29/03]

The Neurotoxicology (brain poisoning) division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that exposure to airborne Particulate Matter “is an environmental health risk of global proportions.” [Health Risks Of Aerosoled Particulates PubMed Abstract]

The EPA explains that by penetrating deep into the lungs and circulatory system, these dust-size particles “are implicated in tens of thousands of deaths annually from both respiratory and coronary disease.”

POP QUIZ: What do you think will happen when nano-size machines tens of thousands of times smaller than this are sprayed into the open air?

"SMART PARTICLES" IN YOUR BRAIN MAKE YOU DEAD - NOT SMARTER
Nanoparticles might better be called Nastyparticles because they make a beeline for the brain as soon as they are inhaled. Not surprisingly, they tend to accumulate and clump in the area of the brain that deals with smell. Too big to pass back through the blood-brain barrier, they become trapped there. [Nature.com Jan 5/04]

Dr. Celine Filippi also observed that nanoparticles inhaled into the lungs are so mall they easily cross the lung barrier and enter the blood. “Particles in the blood can reach the liver, amongst other organs.” [globalresearch.ca Oct 21/07]


NANO CHEMTRAILS
So are we being sprayed with nano-chemtrails?

Owning The Weather 2025 was published in 1995 and discussed only non-classified military weather modification projects. Hall's Overview of Nanotechnology also appeared in 1995, when nanotech was in its Frankenstein infancy. Since then, many sources tell us, nanotech has gone exponential. [nanotech-now.com]

HANK CALLS
The term “nano-chemtrails” on my homepage prompted my trusted military informant I've dubbed “Hank” to call.

“They have them,” he confirmed. The U.S. Air Force has occasionally added nanoparticles to the chemtrail mix to demonstrate proof of concept.

“We're way beyond science fiction,” Hank confirmed. “You can hide just about anything you want in a chemtrail - including nanotubes. Chemtrails are being altered for whatever spectrum of wavelength they're trying to bounce off of them.

MORGELLONS
What about Morgellons? Is there any connection between this bizarre and frightening malady and nano experiments?

“You're not going to like this,” Hank said. “Morgellons is one unintended manifestation of nano spray experiments.”

Morgellons manifests - or presents” - as intolerable itching in the skin followed by alien eruptions of thin hairs or tendrils through the skin. “It's basically the same as excreting something through a hair follicle,” Hank said.

He meant a toxin - something foreign to the body.

“If you manufacture a liquid super-cyrstalline structure, vibrate it a little and give it an electrical charge - it will form into a chain.”

These nanotubes will be invisible to the eye, of course. But their tendency to clump together could eventually make them big enough to be photographed and posted on the web.
chemtrail fallout
Morgellons

How much nanocrap has been sprayed so far?

“Tens of tons,” he replied.

Tens of tons of molecules?

“Much of it is still up there,” Hank went on to explain. This is because nanoparticles are so light and small they tend bind to bind with oxygen molecules. And piggybacking on oxygen particles makes them buoyant.

“It travels worldwide,” Hank continued. “Some of it comes down. Whatever it's exposed to up there it brings down here. We get exposed to it. We breathe it in, we ingest it. It accrues in the same spot every time. And attracts more of it… “

In the liver.

And brain.

“The fallout would look like a prion disease,” Hank said.

“Fallout from nanoparticles would eat holes in our brains?”

“Pretty much. Nano particles are ionized particles that go to what attracts them…. Because of their electro-chemical properties, they are attracted to the potassium-calcium channel in the brain.”

Think about it, he said. “If they are capable of withstanding the corrosive upper atmosphere - corrosive sunlight and all those (industrial) chemicals - what would they have to be manufactured out of? Does the body manufacture anything that can deal with that? Who will come forward and say these are good?

NUISANCE
A person shall not discharge from any source whatsoever such quantities of air contaminants or other material which cause injury, detriment, nuisance, or annoyance to any considerable number of persons or to the public, or which endanger the comfort, repose, health or safety of any such persons or the public, or which cause, or have a natural tendency to cause, injury or damage to business or property. -EPA Air Quality Management Rule 402.

FULL STORY>>>>

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Arabs go for air power to counter Iran - but also to arms suppliers - United States, Britain, France & Russia wanting a piece of the action

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2009/11/17/Arabs-go-for-air-power-to-counter-Iran/UPI-46241258504355/
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Arab states, particularly in the Gulf, are seeking to build up their air power and missile defenses to counter any challenger from Iran.

Mostly they're looking to their traditional arms suppliers in the West, the United States, Britain and France, but Russia is pushing hard for a piece of the action.

This year's biennial Dubai air show, which opened Sunday in the United Arab Emirates, provided a showcase for the latest technology on offer.

Air power has been the deciding factor in most Middle Eastern conflicts since the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, when Israeli warplanes annihilated the air forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, largely on the ground, in pre-emptive strikes at the outset.

And for the Gulf states that lie across the waterway from Iran, air power and their ability to counter the Islamic republic's ballistic missile arsenal will be crucial in any conflict that erupts.

"Acquisition of the best air assets as politically and economically feasible -- be these fighter aircraft, helicopters, transports or unmanned aerial vehicles -- has thus become a priority in the Middle East," an analysis by Germany's Defense Professionals group concluded.

It stressed that the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain -- have given top priority to building up their air power.

"Political decision-makers in the region are acutely aware of the importance of air assets and the need to upgrade them with better firepower and/or expanded numbers whenever required," it said.

The combined air strength of the Gulf Arab states greatly outnumber the Iranian air force, which has suffered tremendously from U.S.-led arms embargoes on the Islamic republic over the last 30 years.

However, air power is needed not only as a deterrent but as a critical element to counter Iran's overwhelming strength on the ground if hostilities erupt, with GCC energy industries a key target.

The GCC states, along with Egypt and Jordan, are the recipients of U.S. military systems worth more than $20 billion under a package unveiled by President George W. Bush in 2007 to bolster Arab capabilities against Iran's nuclear program and its expansionist policies.

Under this they will be able to acquire advanced systems, some of them long denied Arab states because of Israeli opposition, such as the Patriot air-defense missile, the over-the-horizon AMRAAM air-to-air missile as well as fighter upgrades and electronic systems that outclass anything Iran is known to have.

The United Arab Emirates, one of the world's major oil producers, has built up an impressive air strength that rivals the Saudi air force and is currently spending $3.3 billion of the Patriot system manufactured by the Raytheon company of Massachusetts.

U.S. government-to-government arms sales rose 4.7 percent in 2008 to a record $38.1 billion and are expected to total about the same this year, the Pentagon announced Nov. 7.

Among the top buyers were the United Arab Emirates with $7.9 billion, Saudi Arabia with $3.3 billion, Egypt with $2.1 billion and Iraq with $1.6 billion.

Leading U.S. arms manufacturers Lockheed Martin Corp., the Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon and the General Dynamics Corp are all seeking to boost sales in the Middle East to counter U.S. budget cuts that are likely to slow big-ticket purchases by the Pentagon.

Iran has sought to counter the air and missile threat, not just from the United States and Israel but the GCC states as well, with Russian air-defense systems.

The Saudis, apparently with the encouragement of Washington, have offered Moscow an arms-buying package worth more than $2 billion if it tears up a 2007 contract to supply Iran with the advanced S-300PMU air-defense system, considered one of the most effective in operation.

So far, the Russians have held up deliveries, much to Tehran's annoyance. The Saudis are offering to buy the S-400 air-defense system, successor to the S-300 and far more dangerous, along with tanks and other systems if Moscow plays ball.

That would crack open the lucrative Gulf arms market for the Russians. If the Americans have indeed agreed to Riyadh's offer to Moscow, it demonstrates just how far they are prepared to go to ensure that Iran is contained.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Cost of Keeping One U.S. Soldier in Afghanistan Per Year: One Million Dollars

November 15th, 2009

The U.S. doesn’t have to “win” the war for a handful of diabolical corporations to make a killing. The trick is to keep the war going for as long as possible.

And, day after day, the shakedown continues.

Bogus contracts, drugs and energy. That’s all, folks.

Plus a little change we can believe in.

Via: New York Times:

While President Obama’s decision about sending more troops to Afghanistan is primarily a military one, it also has substantial budget implications that are adding pressure to limit the commitment, senior administration officials say.

The latest internal government estimates place the cost of adding 40,000 American troops and sharply expanding the Afghan security forces, as favored by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American and allied commander in Afghanistan, at $40 billion to $54 billion a year, the officials said.

Even if fewer troops are sent, or their mission is modified, the rough formula used by the White House, of about $1 million per soldier a year, appears almost constant.

So even if Mr. Obama opts for a lower troop commitment, Afghanistan’s new costs could wash out the projected $26 billion expected to be saved in 2010 from withdrawing troops from Iraq. And the overall military budget could rise to as much as $734 billion, or 10 percent more than the peak of $667 billion under the Bush administration.

Such an escalation in military spending would be a politically volatile issue for Mr. Obama at a time when the government budget deficit is soaring, the economy is weak and he is trying to pass a costly health care plan. FULL STORY

Sunday, November 15, 2009

ZeroHedge.com | Would Our Government Really Start a War to Try to Stimulate the Economy?

November 14, 2009 - I've written two essays attempting to disprove "military Keynesianism" - the idea that military spending is the best stimulus. See this and this.

In response, a reader challenged me to prove that anyone would advocate military spending or war as a fiscal stimulus.

In fact, the concept of military Keynesianism is so widespread that there are some half million web pages discussing the topic.

And many leading economists and political pundits sing its praises.

For example, Martin Feldstein - chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Reagan, an economics professor at Harvard, and a member of The Wall Street Journal's board of contributors - wrote an op-ed in the Journal last December entitled "Defense Spending Would Be Great Stimulus".

And as the Cato Institute notes:

FULL STORY

Sunday, November 8, 2009

McClatchyDC.com | Obama leaning toward 34,000 more troops for Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to send more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year, but he may not announce it until after he consults with key allies and completes a trip to Asia later this month, administration and military officials have told McClatchy.

As it now stands, the administration's plan calls for sending three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. and a Marine brigade, for a total of as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops.......

BBC.co.uk | Thousands of Japanese protest against US base on southern Japanese Okinawa Island

Thousands of people have protested on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa demanding the removal of a US military base there

November 8, 2009 - The local mayor called on new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama "to put an end to Okinawa's burden and ordeal".

Japan and the US agreed in 2006 to relocate the Futenma base from an urban area to reclaimed land but the PM's election has rekindled opposition.

The protest comes ahead of this week's visit by US President Barack Obama.

The BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says the row over the relocation of the base threatens to sour relations between Japan's new government and the country's key security ally.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada warned it was unlikely to be resolved before Mr Obama arrives in Japan on Friday.

Japan's new government has expressed a determination to have a less subservient relationship with the US.

FULL STORY

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Straits Time | Friendly fire kills 7 Afghanistan Security Personnel with mis-targeted NATO air strike in remote NW

KABUL - November 8, 2009 - SEVEN Afghan security personnel were killed in a mis-targeted Nato air strike in the remote northwest, the defence ministry said on Saturday, signalling further trouble for a fraying Western military effort.

The 'friendly fire' incident occurred when Nato and Afghan forces searching for two missing American paratroopers in the barren, rugged area clashed with the Taleban.

'Due to a Nato forces air strike on November 6 in Badghis province, seven Afghan security personnel (both army and national police) were martyred and also some were wounded,' the ministry said in a statement.

Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said that more than 25 ISAF and Afghan security personnel were killed or wounded during the joint operation.

It said it was investigating whether some of those casualties resulted from friendly fire. However, one Western military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to AFP that it appeared to be a 'blue-on-blue incident' - a military term for friendly fire - with 'a huge number of casualties'.

Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP there was no doubt Afghan personnel had been killed and injured by their international partners. 'It was an erroneous air strike which caused casualties to friendly forces,' he said. -- AFP

Friday, November 6, 2009

Kyodo.co.jp | U.S. agrees to mull base-related environment pact with Japan

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 2009 (AP)

The United States has agreed to discuss with Japan a possible special bilateral pact that would address environmental pollution or destruction at U.S. military bases in Japan, the governor of Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture said Friday.

The agreement emerged when Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa and Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima held separate talks with senior U.S. Defense and State department officials, Matsuzawa told a joint news conference with Nakaima in Washington.

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

IslamOnline.net | US Offers Taliban 6 Provinces for 8 Bases

By Aamir Latif, IOL Correspondent


Mullah Zaeef, a former envoy to Pakistan, reportedly represented the Taliban side in the recent talks.

ISLAMABAD – Mon. Nov. 2, 2009 - The emboldened Taliban movement in Afghanistan turned down an American offer of power-sharing in exchange for accepting the presence of foreign troops, Afghan government sources confirmed.

"US negotiators had offered the Taliban leadership through Mullah Wakil Ahmed Mutawakkil (former Taliban foreign minister) that if they accept the presence of NATO troops in Afghanistan, they would be given the governorship of six provinces in the south and northeast," a senior Afghan Foreign Ministry official told IslamOnline.net requesting anonymity for not being authorized to talk about the sensitive issue with the media.

He said the talks, brokered by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, continued for weeks at different locations including the Afghan capital Kabul.

Saudi Arabia, along with Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, were the only states to recognize the Taliban regime which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Turkish Prime Minister Reccap Erodgan has reportedly been active in brokering talks between the two sides.

His emissaries are in contact with Hizb-e-Islami (of former prime minister Gulbadin Hikmatyar) too because he is an important factor in northeastern Afghanistan."

A Taliban spokesman admitted indirect talks with the US.

"Yes, there were some indirect talks, but they did not work," Yousaf Ahmedi, the Taliban spokesman in southern Afghanistan, told IOL from an unknown location via satellite phone.

"There are some people who are conveying each others’ (Taliban and US) messages. But there were no direct talks between us and America," he explained.

Afghan and Taliban sources said Mutawakkil and Mullah Mohammad Zaeef, a former envoy to Pakistan who had taken part in previous talks, represented the Taliban side in the recent talks.

The US Embassy in Kabul denied any such talks.

"No, we are not holding any talks with Taliban," embassy spokeswoman Cathaline Haydan told IOL from Kabul.

Asked whether the US has offered any power-sharing formula to Taliban, she said she was not aware of any such offer.

"I don't know about any specific talks and the case you are reporting is not true."

Provinces for Bases

Source say that for the first time the American negotiators did not insist on the "minus-Mullah Omer" formula, which had been the main hurdle in previous talks between the two sides.

The Americans reportedly offered Taliban a form of power-sharing in return for accepting the presence of foreign troops.

"America wants 8 army and air force bases in different parts of Afghanistan in order to tackle the possible regrouping of Al-Qaeda network," the senior official said.

He named the possible hosts of the bases as Mazar-e-Sharif and Badakshan in north, Kandahar in south, Kabul, Herat in west, Jalalabad in northeast and Ghazni and Faryab in central Afghanistan.

In exchange, the US offered Taliban the governorship of the southern provinces of Kandahar, Zabul, Hilmand and Orazgan as well as the northeastern provinces of Nooristan and Kunar.

These provinces are the epicenter of resistance against the US-led foreign forces and are considered the strongholds of Taliban.

Orazgan and Hilmand are the home provinces of Taliban Supreme Commander Mullah Omer and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"But Taliban did not agree on that," said the senior official.

"Their demand was that America must give a deadline for its pull out if it wants negotiations to go on."

Ahmedi, the Taliban spokesman in southern Afghanistan, confirmed their principal position.

"Our point of view is very clear that until and unless foreign forces do not leave Afghanistan, no talks will turn out to be successful."

The ruling Taliban were ousted by the United States, which invaded Afghanistan shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Since then, the Taliban have engaged in protracted guerrilla warfare against the US-led foreign troops and the Karzai government.

Monday, November 2, 2009

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force Commander eyes future in space, air - to face challenges in its militarization and protect its peace

Xu Qiliang, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force Commander, gestures during an interview with Xinhua. (Xinhuanet Photo)

Calling militarization in the space and in air "a threat to the mankind," Xu said China must develop a strong force in the two arenas in order to face challenges of that threat.

"Only power could protect peace," the 59-year-old air force commander said in an interview with Xinhua, 10 days ahead of 60th anniversary of the founding of the PLA air force.

Superiority in space and in air would mean, to a certain extent, superiority over the land and the oceans, Xu said.

"As the air force of a peace-loving country, we must forge our swords and shields in order to protect peace," he said.

According to Xu, not only major air force powers in the world were currently eyeing space and air superiority, some developing countries were also changing their military strategies to gain upper ground in the two arenas.

A country without adequate power would have no say when faced with challenges posed by the militarization in the space and air, he said.

The PLA air force would improve its detection and early warning, air striking, anti-missile air defense, strategic delivery capabilities in order to effectively protect China's interests and help maintain regional and world peace, Xu said.

Xu meanwhile stressed that the PLA air force was peace-oriented.

"The Chinese people is a peace-loving people, and China is a responsible developing country which upholds a national defense policy that is defensive in nature," he said.

A powerful PLA air force would protect China's sovereignty, safety and territorial integrity, and would play a major part in maintaining regional stability and world peace, he said.

"The PLA air force will pose no threat to any other country," Xu said.

This year marks the 60th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Its naval force was founded on April 23, 1949, and its air force on Nov. 11 that year.

Previous report said the PLA air force would put its most advanced warplanes on display in the suburbs of Beijing in November, to mark its 60th founding anniversary.

All the aircraft to be exhibited, including Kongjing-2000 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEWC) aircraft, J-11 fighters,H-6 bomber jets, and HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles, were made by China.

Most of them were already included in the aircraft fly past during the National Day military parade on Oct. 1 this year in Beijing.

In addition to aircraft display, an international military forum themed "harmonious skies" would also be held in Beijing later this month.

More than 300 senior air force officers from China and more than 30 other countries are expected to attend the forum to mark the PLA air force's 60th anniversary

"The PLA air force will continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation with its foreign counterparts on an opener, more transparent, confident and practical basis," said Xu Qiliang.


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Thursday, October 15, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: Obama loosens missile technology controls to China

President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department -- a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development.

The president issued a little-noticed "presidential determination" Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.


Xinhua | Incompetent U.S. policies create "volatile triangle" - Iraq, Afghanistan and its neighbor Pakistan, being bedeviled by daily bombing attacks

2009-11-02 12:45:40
By Yu Zhixiao

BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- The two wars the United States carried out years ago in its so-called preemptive offensive and its not-so-successful post-war policies have created a "volatile triangle" on the world map containing Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, analysts say.

Iraq, Afghanistan and its neighbor Pakistan, which are being bedeviled by daily bombing attacks and conflicts, now substantially form a "volatile triangle," Fu Mengzi, director of the Institute of American Studies under the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told Xinhua.

Yang Yi, a professor and director of the strategic studies institute under the Chinese People's Liberation Army National Defense University, also agrees to the "triangle" concept.

The U.S. military launched the War in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001 and swiftly toppled down the Taliban regime, and the Saddam regime experienced the same fate very soon after U.S. troops kicked off the Iraq War on March 20, 2003.

"The current chaos in Afghanistan and Iraq can be seen as sequelae of the two wars. The U.S. policies toward the two countries are proved to be not so effective," Fu said.

Eight years after the War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan and its people are being plagued by rising Taliban violence and insurgency, although the number of foreign troops deployed there has been step by step lifted from several thousand in the beginning to 100,000 currently.

On Oct. 28, a band of Taliban militants broke into a UN guesthouse in the Afghan capital Kabul and killed six foreign UN staff members. Just one hour later, Taliban rebels fired several rockets into the city from unknown locations.

Six years after the Iraq War, the United States just shrugged off its earlier "firm" and "long-term" commitment to Iraq, and plans to withdraw all its troops from the country by the end of 2011.

On Oct. 25, two suicide car bombings nearly simultaneously ripped off the main buildings of the Iraqi Justice Ministry and the Baghdad provincial government, killing at least 155 people and injuring 500.

The situation in Pakistan is not better at all.

On Oct. 28, a car bombing killed at least 90 people and injured over 200 in Peshawar of northwestern Pakistan.

On Oct. 11, some Taliban insurgents even boldly launched attacks against the headquarters of the Pakistani army. The militants, who kidnapped 33 hostages after fleeing the headquarters, killed three pawns before Pakistani soldiers shot them dead and freed the other 30 people.

In an apparent response to the attacks, the Pakistani army initiated an offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan of western Pakistan on Oct. 17, and has killed some 300insurgents so far.

"In Afghanistan, the Taliban and its ally al-Qaeda are showing a strong trend of resurgence, and they are unceasingly expanding their orbit," Fu said, adding one important reason for this is the complacent Bush administration rashly shifted its focus and resources from Afghanistan to Iraq soon after the War in Afghanistan.

"In Iraq, we should wait and see whether the U.S. troops there would be pulled out as scheduled since the situation is deteriorating there," he said.

The Obama administration's new strategy of enforcing troops in Afghanistan has yet to yield tangible and convincing results, Fu said.

"Afghanistan and Pakistan are closely interrelated as many Taliban militants hole up in Pakistani tribal areas and carry out attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan," he added.

Yu Wanli, an associate professor of the School of International Studies of Beijing University, told Xinhua that the recent bombings in the "volatile triangle" were aimed at causing fear and chaos in the three countries, and have also posed a grave challenge to the United States.

The two wars masterminded by the United States and its incompetent post-war policies have stirred up insurgent activities and violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, Yu said.

"The United States is facing really tough tests in the volatile triangle." he noted.

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