Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik april 2005 / Timeline April, 2005
Version 3.0
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04/01/2005
Det er nu 23 måneder siden, at USAs præsident Bush
erklærede krigen i Irak for vundet.
04/01/2005
NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of
Defense
DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who
was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Warrant Officer Charles G. Wells Jr., 32, of Montgomery, Ala., died
March 30 as a result of hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
He was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 6th Motor Transport
Battalion, 4th Force Service Support Group, Orlando, Fla.
04/01/2005
Bulgarien vil trække sine tropper ud af
Irak, noterer Information.
04/01/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of
Defense
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory,
Lexington, Mass. is being awarded a $3,167,000,000 cost contract to
provide for research and development pertinent to national defense
with particular emphasis on advanced electronics programs. The
performance period will be March 30, 2005 thru March 31, 2010. The
location of performance is Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Mass. At this time, $10,298,000 of the funds has been
obligated. This work will be complete by March 2010. Solicitation
began November 2004 and negotiations were completed March 2005. The
Headquarters Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base,
Mass., is the contracting activity (FA8721-05-C-0002).
General Dynamics Decision Systems, Scottsdale, Ariz., is being
awarded a $5,258,847 cost-plus fixed-fee contract modification to
provide for enhanced fuze integrated bomb damage information
demonstration for Air Force Armament Laboratory under Advanced
Development Program, Program Research and Development, Munitions
Directorate, Ordnance Division. At this time, $1,473,000 of the
funds has been obligated. This work will be complete by January
2008. Solicitation began June 2003 and negotiations were completed
March 2005. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Eglin Air Force
Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08630-03-C-0120,
P00009).
Alliant Techsystems, Inc., Janesville, Wis., is being awarded a
$7,999,531 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price
contract (N00019-04-C-0133) to exercise an option for the
procurement of 9,164 FMU-139C/B electronic bomb fuzes. Work will be
performed in Rocket Center, W.V. (90 percent) and East Camden, Ark.
(10 percent), and is expected to be completed in May 2007. Contract
funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The
Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting
activity.
04/01/2005
L 133: Forslag til lov om ændring af våbenloven
(Våbenformidling mv.)
Lovforslaget er fremsat den 30. marts 2005.
Justitsministeriets Nyhedsbrev Nr. 1 - 1. april 2005
http://www.ft.dk/Samling/20042/lovforslag/L133/som_fremsat.htm
Lovforslaget har til formål at gennemføre EU’s
fælles holdning af 23. juni 2003 om
våbenmæglervirksomhed (2003/468/FUSP), som forpligter
medlemsstaterne til at indføre regler om kontrol med
våbenformidling, dvs. forhandling eller arrangering af
våbenoverførsler fra ét land til et andet.
Herudover har lovforslaget til formål at opdatere
våbenlovens definition af de våben mv., som er omfattet
af våbenlovens eksportkontrolregler, så definitionen
også efter en naturlig sproglig forståelse dækker
de lister over militære produkter, som Danmark i EU og andre
internationale fora har forpligtet sig til at underlægge
eksportkontrol, og fortsat tillige omfatter våben og
krigsmateriel uden for listerne.
Lovforslaget har endvidere til formål at sikre, at ikke kun
fysisk flytning af våben mv. ud fra dansk område, men
også ikke-fysisk overførsel af våbenrelateret
software og teknologi til udlandet ved hjælp af elektroniske
medier er omfattet af eksportkontrolreglerne.
Endelig har lovforslaget til formål at gennemføre den
del af EU’s fælles aktion af 22. juni 2000 om teknisk
bistand i forbindelse med visse former for militær endelig
anvendelse (2000/401/FUSP), som henhører under
Justitsministeriets ressort. Den fælles aktion
pålægger medlemsstaterne at føre kontrol med
teknisk bistand vedrørende
masseødelæggelsesvåben og
fremføringsmidler hertil, som ydes uden for EU.
Økonomi- og erhvervsministeren har den 23. februar 2005
fremsat lovforslag nr. L 41 med henblik på
gennemførelse af den del af den fælles aktion, som
hører under Økonomi- og Erhvervsministeriets ressort
(dual-use).
Lovforslaget bygger på en rapport af 14. december 2004 fra
Justitsministeriets arbejdsgruppe om reglerne for udførsel
af våben mv. Det foreslås, at de nye regler skal
træde i kraft den 1. juli 2005.
04/02/2005
Samarbejdskomiteen for
Fred og Sikkerhed nedlægges efter 31 års
virke
Samarbejdskomiteen blev stiftet den 25. februar 1974. Den kolde
krig, oprustning, videreudvikling af atomvåbnene og
væbnede konflikter var alarmerende, og ønsket om en
fredeligere verden drivkraften for initiativtagerne.
Samarbejdskomiteen organiserede fra start den progressive del af
fagbevægelsen, politiske partier og enkelt personer og var
fødselshjælper til en række lokale
fredsgrupper.
En fond af viden og erfaring blev igennem årene indsamlet og
videreformidlet gennem pjecer, blade og bøger.
Samarbejdskomiteens styrelse afspejlede bredden i
medlemssammensætningen som bestod af kommunister over
radikale til socialdemokrater. Til trods for den borgerlig hets der
beskyldte Samarbejdskomiteen for at være DKP`s
dækorganisation, Sovjetunionens talerør og nyttige
idioter, lykkedes det til det sidste at bevare denne bredde.
Sammen med andre landsdækkende fredsorganisationer har
Samarbejdskomiteen mobiliseret til et utal af
oplysningsmøder, debatpaneler, fredsdeputationer og
demonstrationer.
Når man i dag taler nedladende om ”Dansk
fodnotepolitik” skal man huske at det blandt andre var
Samarbejdskomiteen der var drivkraften mod oprustning og
atombevæbning af Danmark og hele Europa i NATO regi.
Atomprøvesprængningerne i atmosfæren, de
underjordiske og senere computersimulerede forsøg mente vi,
sammen med millioner over hele verden, var udtryk for en
perverteret magtarrogance der ville blive menneskehedens
udslettelse.
Protesterne overfor våbenproducenterne, handel og
transportering har også været en del af
Samarbejdskomiteens virke. Ikke mindst fordi danske virksomheder
som Therma og Mærsk har markeret sig stærkere og
stærkere gennem årene.
Gennem samarbejdet i Fredsbevægelsens Koordinerings gruppe
udvikledes en gensidig respekt for det fælles fredsarbejde og
resulterede, ud over det allerede nævnte, i
nedsættelsen af ”Fredskommissionen af 1998” der
barslede med et gennemarbejdet forslag som alternativ der kunne
diskuteres i forhold til ”Forsvarskommisionen”
anbefalinger til et nyt forsvarsforlig.
Under krigen mod Jugoslavien, Thule radarens opgradering til USA's
NMD projekt og nu sidst Koalitionens krige i Afghanistan og Irak,
har en række antikrigsgrupper markeret sig. Ikke mindst de
unge har engageret sig mod krigen og dens bagmænd.
Fagbevægelsen for Fred i en ny tid er etableret og en
række af ”de gamle” lokale fredsgrupper er
genopstået.
Information hentes på Internettet. Mobiltelefonen bruges i
netværkerne til mobilisering.
Det har betydet at tilgangen ikke har kunne holde trit med
”den naturlige afgang” i det organiserede fredsarbejde.
Man kan trøste sig med at mange af Samarbejdskomiteens
tidligere og nuværende medlemmer er med i denne fornyelse af
fredsbevægelsen og at ”de nye” i høj grad
benytter materialet der er samlet og lagt ud på nettet, som
Fred.dk og Fredsakademiet.
Tilbage står det faktum at nye organisations- og
arbejdsformer har overhalet Samarbejdskomiteen.
En erkendelse der har resulteret i at Samarbejdskomiteen for Fred
og Sikkerhed efter 31 års virke i dag den 2. april 2005
på sin ekstraordinære generalforsamling har besluttet
at nedlægge komiteen.
Fredsdemonstrationerne mod USA's krig mod Irak og kravet om at
trække danske tropper hjem, viser at fredskræfterne
fortsat er til stede. Vi vil som enkeltpersoner også fremover
være at træffe blandt de, der kæmper for fred og
sikkerhed.
På den ekstraordinære generalforsamlings vegne.
Finn Ekman
04/05/2005
QDR to Address Transformation of U.S. Nuclear Arsenal
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2005 - Today's U.S.
nuclear arsenal is too outdated and costly to maintain for use
in deterring threats in the post-Cold War era, a senior officer
told a Senate subcommittee April 4.
"It is our intent to have the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review
address nuclear issues and the associated infrastructure to
determine transformation requirements for our nuclear capabilities
in the 21st century," Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright explained to
members of the Senate Strategic Forces Subcommittee.
Cartwright heads the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force
Base, Neb., which oversees U.S. military global strategic planning,
including nuclear deterrence.
In the aftermath of the Cold War, President Bush and Russian
President Vladimir Putin pledged to substantially reduce nuclear
stockpiles over the next 10 years upon their signing of the Moscow
Treaty in May 2002. The U.S. is decommissioning its larger,
multi-nuclear-warhead-carrying Peacekeeper intercontinental
ballistic missiles as part of terms of the treaty.
However, nuclear weapons remain an important component of U.S.
national security policy, Cartwright observed, "particularly for
reassuring allies and friends of U.S. security commitments,
dissuading arms competition, deterring hostile leaders who are
willing to accept great risk and cost, and for holding at risk
those targets that cannot be addressed by other means."
By 2012, America's nuclear stockpile "will be reduced by nearly
one-half" since President Bush took office, Ambassador Linton F.
Brooks pointed out to committee members. Brooks, who accompanied
Cartwright to the hearing, is the administrator of the National
Nuclear Security Administration.
Brooks cited a recent Nuclear Posture Review that says America's
remaining nuclear weapons are rapidly aging, causing high
maintenance and security costs. He noted that Cold War-era nukes
were designed for maximum destructive power and therefore cause too
much collateral damage for some envisioned future uses.
The "legacy" stockpile, Brooks added, is also environmentally
unfriendly, ineffective against deeply buried targets, and
unsuitable for destroying chemical and biological weapons.
Older nuclear weapons systems do not have "new precision-guidance
technologies from which our conventional systems have fully
benefited," Brooks explained. Nor, he added, are older nuclear arms
"geared for small-scale strikes or flexibility in command, control
and delivery."
04/05/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of
Defense
Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded an $11,229,083
cost-plus-fixed-fee modification under previously awarded contract
(N00024-02-C-5421) to exercise options for technical and production
support for Evolved SEASPARROW Missiles (ESSM) and MK783 Mod 0
missile shipping container, including design agent tasks for the
ESSM and associated test and handling eq uipment supporting
production. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz. (38 percent),
Rocket Center, W.V. (8 percent), Camden, Ark. (5 percent),
Minneapolis, Minn. (1 percent); Germany (13 percent), Australia (8
percent), Canada (7 percent), The Netherlands (6 percent), Norway
(6 percent), Spain (4 percent), Turkey (2 percent), Denmark (1
percent), Greece (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by
October 2006. Contract funds in the amount of $117,000 will expire
at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems
Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded
a $41,684,110 cost-plus fixed-fee contract modification to provide
for eight-month stretch out to the transformational satellite
communications system definition/risk reduction phase due to a
reduction in funding for fiscal years 2005 and 2006. Fiscal Year
2005 funding was reduced by $90 million from $202 million to $112
million (45 percent). Fiscal Year 2006 funding was increased by $50
million (25 percent) from $200 million to $250 million. The replan
accommodates the funding reduction and also incorporates
development of information assurance products for transmission
security and telemetry tracking and command crypto. The
transformation communications satellite system will provide
unprecedented satellite communication with internet-like capability
that extends the Global Information to deployment/mobile users
worldwide and deliver an order of magnitude increase in capacity.
At this time, $4,000,000 of the funds have been obligated. This
work will be complete by December 2006. Solicitation began
September 2004, and negotiations were completed March 2005. The
Headquarters Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air
Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity (FA8808-04-C-0023,
P00009).
Jacobs Sverdrup, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., is being awarded a
$30,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract. The
objective of this statement of work is to describe the specialized
Scientific and Technical Assistance (S&TA) required by the
National Air and Space Intelligence Center to validated threat
representations of electronic warfare, information warfare,
information operations, space/counterspace, ballistic missile
threats and to provide conceptual modeling and testing support.
This S&TA involves coordinating activities to assure that
correct data and models are used, testing of threat representations
is performed, threat-to-simulator/simulation comparative analysis
is performed, and a validation report is prepared. At this time,
$100,000 of the funds have been obligated. This work will be
complete by September 2010. Solicitation began December 2004 and
negotiations were completed April 2005. The Headquarters
Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio,
is the contracting activity (FA8633-05-D-2059).
Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems, Clearfield, Utah, is
being awarded a $7,000,000 cost-plus award-fee contract
modification to provide for the upgrade purchase of the auxiliary
power supply test suite in support of the Intercontinental
Ballistic Missile Flight Controls and Propulsion Replacement
Program. At this time, $3,500,000 of the funds have been obligated.
This work will be complete by June 2007. The Headquarters Ogden Air
Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting
activity (F42610-98-C-0001).
04/05/2005
Boeing Team Completes
Sea-Based X-Band Radar Integration
April 5, 2005
The Boeing-led Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) industry team has
integrated the SBX radar onto its sea-going platform in Corpus
Christi, Texas, marking a major integration milestone in the
program.
"The integration of the massive Sea-Based X-Band Radar is a
critical step in further advancing the nation's defense against
ballistic missile threats by delivering to the government a
revolutionary sensor capability," said Boeing Vice President and
GMD Program Manager Paul Hoff. "The addition of such a large-scale
radar gives us increased confidence in the overall GMD system and
added flexibility for defense of the nation." SBX's floating
platform, a modified oil-drilling vessel, measures 240 feet wide
and 390 feet long. It includes a power plant, bridge and control
rooms, living quarters, storage areas and the infrastructure
necessary to support the massive X-band radar. The X-band radar,
sitting on top of the vessel, is the most sophisticated phased
array, electro-mechanically steered X-band radar in the world,
consisting of thousands of antennae driven by transmit/receive
modules, according to Boeing.
As prime contractor for the GMD program, Boeing is responsible for
the development and integration of the GMD system components,
including the SBX; ground-based interceptor; battle management,
command, control and communication systems; early warning radars;
and interfaces to the Defense Support Program early warning
satellite system. Raytheon built the SBX radar.
04/06/2005
'NO WAR IS NOT A BOOK BY NAOMI KLEIN!' Statement from Naomi
Klein on new book appearing to exploit her work
Scary stuff. Look at this link:
http://www.politicos.co.uk/item.jsp?ID=5120
By: Naomi Klein
A for-profit publisher in England has just released an anthology
titled 'No War' At first glance, it looks like an original new book
by me. It is not.
The book contains one previously published magazine article by me
that has been available free-of-charge on my website for eight
months. I encourage readers interested in this article, titled
'Baghdad Year Zero' to download it at www.nologo.org ;
http://www.nologo.org . I am very concerned that readers will
mistakenly believe that they are purchasing original writing,
despite my best efforts to convince the publisher to clearly label
the book what it is: an anthology of previously published articles
by multiple authors.
'No War' is not my book; I had no role in choosing the title, and
will accept no revenue from its sales.
I am currently writing an original non-fiction book that will be
published in 2006.
Please direct any inquiries to media@nologo.org
04/06/2005
Waffenembargo sollte zu generellem Rüstungsexportverbot
ausgeweitet werden
Pressemitteilungen der PDS
http://sozialisten.de/presse/presseerklaerungen/view_html?zid=26754
Zur Auseinandersetzung um die vom Bundeskanzler angestrebte
Aufhebung des EU-Waffenembargos gegen China erklärt Wolfgang
Gehrcke, außenpolitischer Sprecher der PDS:
Das EU-Waffenembargo gegen die Volksrepublik China sollte nicht
aufgehoben werden, sondern zu einem generellen Verbot von
Rüstungsexporten ausgeweitet werden. Die PDS tritt für
gute Beziehungen zur Volksrepublik China ein, deswegen sollten alle
diskriminierenden Maßnahmen rasch beendet werden. Das
heißt aber nicht, dass nach China Waffen verkauft werden
sollen, sondern das Verbot, das China derzeitig einseitig trifft,
muss auf alle Staaten ausgeweitet werden. Ein erster wichtiger
Schritt wäre es, endlich keine Rüstungsgüter in
Spannungsgebiete wie z.B. in den Nahen Osten zu exportieren. Die
Motive des Bundeskanzlers Schröder sind durchsichtig:
* Deutschland will mit Blick auf einen ständigen Sitz im
Weltsicherheitsrat unter Beweis stellen, dass es selbständig
Weltpolitik gestaltet. Dies auch gegen Widerspruch des
US-Präsidenten Bush.
* Alle letzten Auslandsreisen des Bundeskanzlers waren mit der
Anbahnung von Rüstungsgeschäften verbunden. Schröder
macht sich zum Lobbyisten der deutschen Rüstungsindustrie.
* Gleichzeitig will Bundeskanzler Schröder das alleinige
Entscheidungsrecht der Bundesregierung auch gegenüber dem
Bundestag unter Beweis stellen.
Mit Menschenrechten hat dies alles nichts zutun. Die Heuchelei von
Politikerinnen und Politikern, die sonst jeden Waffenexport
begrüßen und im Falle Chinas ihr Gewissen entdecken, ist
nicht überzeugend.
04/06/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of
Defense
Oceaneering International Inc., Chesapeake, Va., is being awarded a
$150,073,784 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity,
cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contract for technical services in
support of Submarine Safety (SUBSAFE) and Level I Material work
onboard SSN 21 Class (Seawolf), SSN 688 Class (Los Angeles), SSBN
Ohio Class Ballistic Missile, and Virginia Class Submarines. Work
will be performed in Portsmouth, N.H. (25 percent), Norfolk, Va.
(20 percent), Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (20 percent), Puget Sound, Wash.
(10 percent), San Diego, Calif. (10 percent), Kings Bay, Ga. (5
percent), Guam (5 percent), La Madalena, Italy (3 percent) and
Yokosuka, Japan (2 percent), and is expected to be completed by
April 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the
current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured and
synopsized in Fedbizopps, with two proposals received. The Naval
Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, Philadelphia, Pa., is
the contracting activity. (N65540-05-D-0012)
04/07/2005
Missile Defense Program and Fiscal Year 2006 Budget
Lieutenant General Henry A. Obering III, USAF
Director, Missile Defense Agency
Before the Strategic Forces Subcommittee Senate Armed Services
Committee
April 7, 2005
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee. It is an
honor to be here today to present the Department of Defense's
Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 Missile Defense Program and budget. The
Missile Defense Agency mission remains one of developing and
incrementally fielding a joint, integrated, and multilayered
Ballistic Missile Defense system to defend the United States, our
deployed forces, and our allies and friends against ballistic
missiles of all ranges by engaging them in the boost, midcourse,
and terminal phases of flight.
Our program, reflected in the FY 2006 budget submission, is
structured to balance the early fielding elements of this system
with its continued steady improvement through an evolutionary
development and test approach. The budget also balances our
capabilities across an evolving threat spectrum that includes rogue
nations with increasing ballistic missile expertise.
We are requesting $7.8 billion to support our program of work in
fiscal year 2006, which is approximately $1 billion less than the
fiscal year 2005 request. About $1.4 billion covers the continued
fielding and sustainment of our block increments of long-range
ground-based midcourse defense components; our short- to
intermediate-range defense involving Aegis ships with their
interceptors; as well as all of the supporting radars, command,
control, battle management and communication capabilities. About
$6.4 billion will be invested in the development foundation for
continued testing and evolution of the system.
Initial Fielding of Block 2004
Since my predecessor last appeared before this committee, we have
made tremendous progress and have had a number of accomplishments.
We also came up short of our expectations in a few areas.
We stated last year that, by the end of 2004, we would begin
fielding the initial elements of our integrated ballistic missile
defense system. We have met nearly all of our objectives. We have
installed six ground-based interceptors in silos at Fort Greely,
Alaska, and two at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. We
completed the upgrade of the Cobra Dane radar in Alaska and the
modification of six Aegis ships for long-range surveillance and
tracking support. These elements have been fully connected to the
fire control system and are supported by an extensive command,
control, battle management and communications infrastructure. In
addition, we have put in place the required logistics support
infrastructure and support centers.
Completing Block 2004
Today we remain basically on track with interceptor fielding for
the Test Bed. We have recovered from the 2003 propellant accident,
which last year affected the long-range ground-based interceptors
as well as the Aegis Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) and Terminal High
Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, booster production. We should have
ten more interceptors emplaced in Alaska by December of this year.
In October, we received the first Standard Missile-3 [SM-3] for
deployment aboard an Aegis ship. To date, we have five of these
interceptors with a total of eight scheduled to be delivered by the
end of the year. By then, we will also have outfitted two Aegis
cruisers with this engagement capability. So, in addition to
providing surveillance and tracking support to the integrated
ballistic missile defense [BMD] system, Aegis will soon provide a
flexible sea-mobile capability to defeat short- to
intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their midcourse phase.
Our sensor program is also on track. The Beale radar in California
is receiving final software upgrades this spring and will be fully
integrated into the system. We are now testing a transportable
X-band radar, which can be forward-deployed this year to enhance
our surveillance and tracking capabilities. Our most powerful
sensor capability, the Sea-Based X-band Radar (SBX) will be on
station, ported in Adak, Alaska, by December. This radar is so
capable that, if it were sitting in Chesapeake Bay, it could detect
a baseball-sized object in space over San Francisco. This
sea-mobile midcourse radar will allow us to increase the complexity
of our tests by enabling different intercept geometries. And when
we deploy it in the Pacific Ocean, it also will have an inherent
operational capability against threats from Asia. Finally, the RAF
Fylingdales early warning radar in the United Kingdom will be fully
integrated for missile defense purposes by early 2006 and will
provide the initial sensor coverage needed against Middle East
threats.
BMD elements will remain part of the system Test Bed even after we
field them for initial capability. However, the Missile Defense
Agency [MDA] does not operate the BMD system. Our job is to provide
a militarily useful capability to the warfighter. Because the BMD
system is integrated and involves different Services, the MDA will
continue to manage system configuration to ensure adequate
integration of new components and elements and the continued smooth
operation of the system.
For these reasons, Congress mandated the Agency to maintain
configuration control over PAC-3 and the Medium Extended Air
Defense System (MEADS) following their transfer to the Army.
Regarding the transition of the system elements, we use several
models. Each transition, to include time and method of transfer,
will be unique. In some cases, it may not be appropriate to
transfer a BMD system element to a Service. The Sea-Based X-band
Radar, for example, will likely remain a Missile Defense Agency
Test Bed asset and be made available for operational use as
appropriate. In other words, the Services and the Missile Defense
Agency will have shared responsibilities and will continue to work
with the Secretary of Defense, the Services, and the Component
Commanders to arrange appropriate element transfer on a
case-by-case basis.
Building Confidence through Spiral Testing
In FY 2006, we are adding new test objectives and using more
complex scenarios. Also, war fighter participation will grow. We
plan to execute four flight tests using the long-range interceptor
under a variety of flight conditions and, for the first time, use
tracking data from the sea-based X-band radar.
In terms of our sea-based midcourse defense element, this past
February, we successfully used a U.S. Navy Aegis cruiser to engage
a short-range target ballistic missile. This test marked the first
use of an operationally configured Aegis SM-3 interceptor. In the
last three Aegis ballistic missile defense intercept flight tests,
we incrementally ratcheted up the degree of realism and reduced
testing limitations to the point where we did not notify the
operational ship's crew of the target launch time and they were
forced to react to a dynamic situation. This year, we will conduct
two more tests using Aegis as the primary engagement platform. In
FY 2006, Aegis ballistic missile defense will use upgraded software
and an advanced version of the SM-3 interceptor to engage a variety
of short- and medium-range targets, including targets with
separating warheads. We also plan to work with Japan to test the
engagement performance of the SM-3 nosecone developed in the
U.S./Japan Cooperative Research project.
Four Missile Defense Integration Exercises involving warfighter
personnel will test hardware and software in the integrated system
configuration to demonstrate system interoperability. War games
also are an integral part of concept of operations development and
validation. Four integrated missile defense wargames in FY 2006
will collect data to support characterization, verification, and
assessment of the ballistic missile defense system with respect to
operator-in-the-loop planning and the exchange of information in
the system required for successful development and system
operation.
In addition to having laid out a very ambitious test plan, we are
working hand-in-hand with the warfighter community and the
independent testing community. We have more than one hundred people
from the test community embedded in our program activities, and
they are active in all phases of test planning, execution, and
post-test analysis. We meet with them at the senior level on a
weekly basis, and they help us develop and approve our test plans.
All data from testing is available to all parties through a Joint
Analysis Team and are used to conduct independent assessments of
the system.
The Missile Defense Agency and Director, Operational Test &
Evaluation have completed and jointly approved an Integrated Master
Test Plan, effective through 2007. The plan includes tests that
combine developmental and operational testing to reduce costs and
increase testing efficiency. Within our range safety constraints,
we are committed to increasing the operational aspects as I stated
earlier. This accumulated knowledge helps inform the assessment of
operational readiness.
Building the Next Increment -- Block 2006
In building the Ballistic Missile Defense program of work within
the top line budget reductions I mentioned earlier, we followed
several guiding principles. To keep ahead of the rogue nation
threats, we recognized the need to continue holding to our fielding
commitments to the President for Blocks 2004 and 2006, including
investment in the necessary logistics support. We also knew that we
must prepare for asymmetric (e.g., the threat from off-shore
launches) and emerging threat possibilities as well in our fielding
and development plans.
In executing our program we are following a strategy to retain
alternative development paths until capability is proven -- a
knowledge-based funding approach. This is a key concept in how we
are executing our development program. We have structured the
program to make decisions as to what we will and will not fund
based upon the proven success of each program element. The approach
involves tradeoffs to address sufficiency of defensive layers --
boost, midcourse, terminal; diversity of basing modes -- land, sea,
air and space; and considerations of technical, schedule and cost
performance.
The funding request for FY 2006 will develop and field the next
increment of missile defense capability to improve protection of
the United States from the Middle East, expand coverage to allies
and friends, improve our capability against short-range threats,
and increase the resistance of the integrated system to
countermeasures. We are beginning to lay in more mobile, flexible
interceptors and associated sensors to meet threats posed from
unanticipated launch locations, including threats launched off our
coasts.
For midcourse capability against the long-range threat, the
Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) element budget request is
about $2.3 billion for FY 2006 to cover continued development,
ground and flight testing, fielding and support. This request
includes up to ten additional ground-based interceptors, their
silos and associated support equipment and facilities as well as
the long-lead items for the next increment. It also continues the
upgrade of the Thule radar station in Greenland.
To address the short- to intermediate-range threat, we are
requesting approximately $1.9 billion to continue development and
testing of our sea-based midcourse capability, or Aegis BMD, and
our land-based THAAD element. We will continue purchases of the SM-
3 interceptor and the upgrading of Aegis ships to perform the BMD
mission. By the end of 2007 we should have up to 28 SM-3
interceptors on three Aegis cruisers and eight Aegis destroyers.
This engagement capability will improve our ability to defend our
deployed troops and our friends and allies. Six additional
destroyers, for a total of 17 Aegis ships, will be capable of
performing the surveillance and track mission.
THAAD flight testing begins this year with controlled flight tests
as well as radar and seeker characterization tests and will
continue into FY 2006, when we will conduct the first high
endo-atmospheric intercept test. We are working toward fielding the
first THAAD unit in the 2008-2009 timeframe with a second unit
available in 2011.
We will continue to roll out sensors that we will net together to
detect and track threat targets and improve discrimination of the
target suite in different phases of flight. In 2007, we will deploy
a second forward-based X-band radar. We are working towards a 2007
launch of two Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) test
bed satellites. These test bed satellites will demonstrate closing
the fire control loop and the value of STSS tracking data. We are
requesting approximately $521 million in FY 2006 to execute this
STSS and BMDS Radar work.
All of these system elements must be built on a solid command,
control, battle management and communications foundation that spans
thousands of miles, multiple time zones, hundreds of kilometers in
space and several Combatant Commands. This foundation allows us to
mix and match sensors, weapons and command centers to dramatically
expand our detection and engagement capabilities over that achieved
by the system's elements operating individually. In fact, without
this foundation we cannot execute our basic mission. That is why
the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communications program
is so vital to the success of our integrated capability.
Building a single integrated system of layered defenses has forced
us to transition our thinking to become more system-centric. We
established the Missile Defense National Team to solve the
demanding technical problems involved in this unprecedented
undertaking. No single contractor or government office has all the
expertise needed to design and engineer an integrated and properly
configured BMD system. The National Team brings together the best,
most experienced people from the military and civilian government
work forces, industry, and the federal laboratories to work
aggressively and collaboratively on one of the nation's top
priorities. However, integrating the existing elements of the
Ballistic Missile Defense System proved to be very challenging.
Today, we have streamlined the team's activities and realigned
their priorities to focus on providing the detailed systems
engineering needed for a truly integrated capability. The team has
now gained traction and is leading the way to building the system
this nation will need for the future.
Moving Toward the Future -- Block 2008 and Beyond
There is no silver bullet in missile defense, and strategic
uncertainty could surprise us tomorrow with a more capable
adversary. So it is important to continue our aggressive parallel
paths approach as we build this integrated, multilayered defensive
system. There are several important development efforts funded in
this budget.
We are preserving decision flexibility with respect to our boost
phase programs until we understand what engagement capabilities
they can offer. We have requested approximately $680 million for
these activities in FY 2006.
In FY 2006 we are beginning the integration of the high-power laser
component of the Airborne Laser (ABL) into the first ABL weapon
system test bed and will initiate ground-testing. Following that we
will integrate the high-power laser into the aircraft and conduct a
campaign of flight tests, including lethal shoot-down of a series
of targets. We still have many technical challenges with the
Airborne Laser, but with the recent achievements of first light and
first flight of the aircraft with its beam control/fire control
system, I am pleased with where we are today. We have proven again
that we can generate the power and photons necessary to have an
effective directed energy capability. An operational Airborne Laser
could provide a valuable boost phase defense capability against
missiles of all ranges. The revolutionary potential of this
technology is so significant, that it is worth both the investment
and our patience.
We undertook the Kinetic Energy Interceptor boost-phase effort in
response to a 2002 Defense Science Board Summer Study
recommendation to develop a terrestrial-based boost phase
interceptor as an alternative to the high-risk Airborne Laser
development effort. We will not know for two or three years,
however, whether either of these programs will be technically
viable. With the recent successes we have had with ABL, we are now
able to fine-tune our boost-phase development work to better align
it with our longer-term missile defense strategy of building a
layered defense capability that has greater flexibility and
mobility.
We have established the Airborne Laser as the primary boost phase
defense element. We are reducing our FY 2006 funding request for
the KEI effort and have restructured that activity, building in a
one-year delay, in order to focus near-term efforts on
demonstrating key capabilities and reduce development risks. We
restructured the Kinetic Energy Interceptor activity as risk
mitigation for the Airborne Laser and focused it on development of
a land-based mobile, high-acceleration booster. It has always been
our view that the KEI booster, which is envisioned as a flexible
and high-performance booster capable of defending large areas,
could be used as part of an affordable, competitive next-generation
replacement for our midcourse or even terminal interceptors.
Decisions on sea-based capability and international participation
in this effort have been deferred until the basic KEI technologies
have been demonstrated. The restructured Kinetic Energy Interceptor
activity will emphasize critical technology demonstrations and
development of a mobile, flexible, land-based ascent and midcourse
engagement capability around 2011, with a potential sea-based
capability by 2013. A successful KEI mobile missile defense
capability also could improve protection of our allies and
friends.
We are requesting $82 million in FY 2006 to continue development of
the Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV). MKV is a generational upgrade to
ground-based midcourse interceptors to increase their effectiveness
in the presence of countermeasures. We look forward to the first
intercept attempt using MKV sometime in 2008.
International Participation
Interest in missile defense among foreign governments and industry
has continued to rise. We have been working closely with a number
of allies to forge international partnerships that will make
missile defense a key element of our security relationships around
the world.
The Government of Japan is proceeding with the acquisition of a
multilayered BMD system, basing its initial capability on upgrades
of its Aegis destroyers and acquisition of the Aegis SM-3 missile.
We have worked closely with Japan since 1999 to design and develop
advanced components for the SM-3 missile. This project will
culminate in flight tests in 2005 and 2006. In addition, Japan and
other allied nations are upgrading their Patriot fire units with
PAC-3 missiles and improved ground support equipment. This past
December we signed a BMD framework Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) with Japan to expand our cooperative missile defense
activities.
We have signed three agreements over the past two years with the
United Kingdom, a BMD framework MOU and two annexes. In addition to
the Fylingdales radar development and integration activities this
year, we also agreed to continue cooperation in technical areas of
mutual interest.
This past summer we signed a BMD framework MOU with our Australian
partners. This agreement will expand cooperative development work
on sensors and build on our long-standing defense relationship with
Australia. We also are negotiating a Research, Development, Test
and Evaluation annex to the MOU to enable collaborative work on
specific projects, including: high frequency over-the-horizon
radar, track fusion and filtering, distributed aperture radar
experiments, and modeling and simulation.
We have worked through negotiations with Denmark and the Greenland
Home Rule Government to upgrade the radar at Thule, which will play
an important role in the system by giving us an early track on
hostile missiles. We also have been in sensor discussions with
several allies located in or near regions where the threat of
ballistic missile use is high.
Our North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) partners have
initiated a feasibility study for protection of NATO territory and
population against ballistic missile attacks, which builds upon
ongoing work to define and develop a NATO capability for protection
of deployed forces.
We are continuing work with Israel to implement the Arrow System
Improvement Program and enhance its missile defense capability to
defeat the longer-range ballistic missile threats emerging in the
Middle East. We also have established a capability in the United
States to co-produce components of the Arrow interceptor missile,
which will help Israel meet its defense requirements more quickly
and maintain the U.S. industrial work share.
We are intent on continuing U.S.-Russian collaboration and are now
working on the development of software that will be used to support
the ongoing U.S.-Russian Theater Missile Defense exercise program.
A proposal for target missiles and radar cooperation is being
discussed within the U.S.-Russian Federation Missile Defense
Working Group.
04/07/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of
Defense
KCI Construction Inc., Afton, Mo., was awarded on March 31, 2005, a
$13,352,535 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a
chemical, biological, radiological, and
nuclear training building. Work will be performed at Fort
Leonard Wood, Mo., and is expected to be completed by March 31,
2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current
fiscal year. There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the
World Wide Web on Jan. 17, 2005, and four bids were received. The
U.S. Army Engineer District, Kansas City, Mo., is the contracting
activity (W912DQ-05-C-0011).
Electric Boat, Groton, Conn., is being awarded an $8,000,000
limitation of funds modification to previously awarded contract
(N00140-02-C-K009) for intermediate and depot level overhaul,
repair and modernization services to the Naval Submarine Support
Facility New London, Groton, Conn. Work will be performed in
Groton, Conn., and work is expected to be completed June 2005.
Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal
year. The Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Norfolk, Philadelphia
Detachment is the contracting activity.
MacAulay-Brown, Dayton, Ohio, is being awarded a $4,054,270
indefinite delivery/Indefinite quantity, cost-plus award-fee and
cost reimbursement contract modification to provide a wide range of
diverse non-engineering, technical and acquisition management
support required in the acquisition, development, production, and
support of various equipment and weapon systems within the Air
Armament Center and other organizations at Eglin Air Force Base,
Fla. This effort supports foreign military sales to Australia,
Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Israel, Korea, Netherlands,
Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, and United Arab Emirates. Total
funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by September
2005. The Headquarters Air Armament Center, Eglin Air Force Base,
Fla., is the contracting activity (F08635-00-C-0040, P00038).
04/08/2005
Coop Radio: Gail Davidson & Leuren Moret: Are Bush & Co.
War Criminals?
http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/peaceinspaceorg/2005/04/coop_radio_gail.html
When: Monday April 11, 2005 at Noon – 1 PM Pacific Time
Where: Coop Radio: CFRO 102.7 FM Vancouver, B.C.
LISTEN LIVE: http://www.coopradio.org
Host: Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, Med
GUESTS: Gail Davidson is Co-Chair of Lawyers Against the War (LAW)
is an international group of lawyers and others who:support the use
of national and international law to settle disputes, prosecute
offenders, and protect human rights; and,oppose the illegal use of
force between states, in particular the illegal US-led use of force
against Afghanistan and Iraq; and,support the rule of law and
adherence to international law. LAW is affiliated with: Lawyers
Against the War in the United Kingdom, Lawyers for Peace in the
Netherlands and the Transnational Foundation for Peace and
Future Research (TFF), based in Sweden. LAW members reside in:
Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Kenya, the
Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, Syria, the United Kingdom
and the United States.
http://www.lawyersagainstthewar.org/
Leuren Moret was an Expert Witness at the International Criminal
Tribunal For Afghanistan At Tokyo. She is an independent scientist
and international expert on radiation and public health issues. She
is on the organizing committee of the World Committee on Radiation
Risk, an organization of independent radiation specialists,
including members of the Radiation Committee in the EU parliament,
the European Committee on Radiation Risk. She is an environmental
commissioner for the City of Berkeley. Ms. Moret earned her BS in
geology at U.C. Davis in 1968 and her MA in Near Eastern studies
from U.C. Berkeley in 1978. She has completed all but her
dissertation for a PhD in the geosciences at U.C. Davis. She has
traveled and conducted scientific research in 42 countries. She
wrote a scientific report on depleted uranium for the United
Nations sub commission investigating the illegality of depleted
uranium munitions. Marian Falk, a former Manhattan Project
scientist and retired insider at the Livermore Lab, who is an
expert on radioactive fallout and rainout, has trained her on
radiation issues.
Leuren Moret Testimony:
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Leuren-Moret-ICT13dec03.htm
International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan:
Statement of Judges on December 14, 2003 The Third Session of the
Trial FACT-FINDINGS:
The Defendant Mr. George Walker Bush, President of the United
States is:
1) Guilty for crime of aggression
2) Guilty for war crimes in regard to military attacks against
civilians, including indiscriminate bombings, use of cluster bombs,
daisy cutter bombs, use of depleted uranium weaponry; guilty for
war crimes in regard to attacks against civilian objects; guilty
for war crimes in regard to treatments of prisoners of war and
civil detainees including abuses against prisoners of war in
Qara-i-Jhangi, inhuman and degrading treatments against prisoner of
war in transfer to Guantanamo Military Base, inhuman and degrading
treatments of prisoner of war as well as civil detainees in
Guantanamo Base, while charges of war crimes in terms with transfer
of prisoners of war and civil detainees in containers as well as
inhuman and degrading treatments in Sheberghan Prison Camp have not
been proved beyond reasonable doubt to a point that the Defendant
himself committed such crimes.
3) Guilty for crimes against humanity in regard to refugees, use of
depleted uranium weaponry, and inobservance of legal duty to
announce the noxious effects of depleted uranium weaponry as well
as negligence of safety measures for US military personnel.
http://afghan-tribunal.3005.net/english/2nd3rdjudgement.htm
International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan
http://afghan-tribunal.3005.net/english/
http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=9324
Are Bush & Co. War Criminals?
By Charlie Smith
Publish Date: 7-Apr-2005
Georgia Straight
Some lawyers claim the U.S. is guilty of crimes against
humanity
Serving tea in her kitchen in her home on Vancouver's West Side,
Gail Davidson seems more like a friendly neighbour than a wild-eyed
revolutionary. Davidson, a grandmother, laughs easily, enjoys
gardening, and speaks with a remarkable absence of egotism. In this
setting, it’s hard to comprehend that she is a key figure in
an international campaign to hold U.S. President George W. Bush
accountable for committing war crimes. But that has become her
central preoccupation.
Davidson, cochair of an international group called Lawyers Against
the War (LAW), says she is the only person in the world who has
ever laid criminal charges against Bush. On November 30, 2004,
Davidson walked into Vancouver Provincial Court and convinced a
justice of the peace to accept seven Criminal Code charges against
Bush while he was visiting Canada. She brought evidence to support
her contention that Bush should be held criminally responsible for
counselling, aiding, and abetting torture at the Abu Ghraib prison
in Iraq and at a U.S. military jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Each
offence carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
On December 6, Provincial Court Judge William Kitchen ruled in an
in-camera hearing that those charges were a “nullity”.
In law, this means they never occurred even though they had been
approved. Kitchen permitted Davidson to reveal outside the
courtroom that his decision was based on Bush’s
“diplomatic immunity”.
LAW cochair Michael Mandel, a law professor at Osgoode Hall law
school at York University, claimed in a December 6 news release
that Kitchen’s decision was “irregular in procedure and
wrong in substance”. However, Michael Byers, a UBC expert in
global politics and international law, told the Georgia Straight
that a sitting head of state always has diplomatic immunity.
Davidson told the Straight that she has a “personal
commitment” to ensure that Bush, U.S. Vice-President Dick
Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and others are
eventually held accountable. “They have obviously committed a
wide range of international crimes of the most serious
nature,” Davidson said. “So I can't see how members of
the United Nations such as Canada can avoid prosecution of those
people and still maintain the integrity of their own legal
systems.”
Davidson is one of dozens of lawyers in different countries who are
pursuing Bush and other top U.S. officials through the courts and
at citizens’ tribunals. On the same day that Davidson filed
her private prosecution against Bush in Vancouver, the New
York–based Center for Constitutional Rights laid war-crimes
charges in Germany against Rumsfeld and nine other U.S. military
and civilian personnel. LAW joined this action.
In February, a German court threw out the case, rejecting
CCR’s contention that the U.S. is unwilling to prosecute its
own senior officials.
CCR president Michael Ratner described the ruling in a news release
as “a purely political decision” to enable Rumsfeld to
attend a security conference in Germany. Wolfgang Kaleck, a German
human-rights lawyer who handled the case for CCR, e-mailed the
Straight on April 5 saying he is appealing the ruling.
In addition, CCR has launched civil suits for military detainees
against Bush and other top officials in U.S. courts. The U.S.
Supreme Court ruled last June that U.S. courts may review
detentions of foreigners at Guantanamo Bay. Last month, U.S.
officials revealed that at least 108 people have died in U.S.
custody in Iraq and Afghanistan; 26 are confirmed or suspected
criminal homicides.
CCR is also representing Maher Arar in his lawsuit against former
U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft. Arar, a Syrian-Canadian,
alleged that in September 2002, U.S. officials yanked him off a
plane during a stopover at JFK Airport in New York. Arar claimed he
was driven to Maine, put on a plane to Jordan in the Middle East,
and driven to Syria, where he was tortured for a year in a tiny
cell. Arar has denied any connection to al-Qaeda.
U.S. journalist Seymour Hersh, author of Chain of Command: The Road
From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib (HarperCollins, 2004), reported that Bush
signed a decree creating an unacknowledged “special-access
program”. Over a three-year period, Hersh wrote, suspected
terrorists were transported under this program to secret prisons in
allied countries for harsh interrogations. Hersh’s sources
claimed that these interrogation techniques were introduced into
the Abu Ghraib prison.
Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights
First, a New York–based group, filed a 77-page civil suit
against Rumsfeld on behalf of eight military detainees in Iraq and
Afghanistan. The plaintiffs allege that Rumsfeld “formulated,
approved, directed or ratified the torture or other cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment…as part of a policy, pattern or
practice”.
Hina Shamsi, a New York lawyer with Human Rights First, told the
Straight that a great deal of work went into preparing this case.
Lawyers worked with human-rights and humanitarian organizations in
Iraq and Afghanistan to identify people who had been mistreated in
U.S. detention centres. Then the clients had to be interviewed.
The civil complaint alleges that, among others, Arkan M. Ali, a
26-year-old Iraqi, “suffered severe beatings to the point of
unconsciousness, stabbing and mutilation, isolation while naked and
hooded in a coffin-like box, prolonged sleep deprivation enforced
by beatings, deprivation of adequate food and water, mock execution
and death threats”.
The same lawsuit alleges that another Iraqi plaintiff, Sherzad
Kamal Khalid, 34, was also subjected to torture, including sexual
abuse involving assaults and threats of anal rape. A third,
high-school student Ali H., was allegedly dragged from one location
to another after surgery, forcefully ripping away the dressing and
exposing him to infection. Mehboob Ahmad, a 35-year-old Afghanistan
citizen, was allegedly beaten, suspended from the ceiling to cause
pain, and intimidated by a vicious dog.
The case centres on Rumsfeld’s decision to personally sign
off on “unlawful” interrogation techniques in December
2002. According to the civil complaint, Rumsfeld “expressly
permitted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and
tolerated or authorized torture”.
The so-called December Rumsfeld Techniques included the use of
“stress positions”, 20-hour interrogations, the removal
of clothing, and playing upon a detainee’s phobias to induce
stress—none of which are permitted in U.S. army manuals.
On January 15, 2003, Rumsfeld rescinded his blanket authorization.
The following April, he personally approved 24 techniques, which
included “sleep adjustment”, “dietary
adjustment”, and the display of false flags during
interrogation to trick detainees. Rumsfeld allegedly ensured that
harsher techniques could be used with his personal authorization.
The civil complaint doesn’t mention the special-access
program.
“Although there has been other lawsuits filed on behalf of
detainees for abuse suffered in U.S. detention facilities, none of
those have focused on the policy-making role of a top U.S.
official,” Shamsi said. “What we have done here is
connect the dots. We connect the creation of interrogation policies
and the beginning of abuse in Afghanistan with the migration of
those policies to Iraq.”
The plaintiffs’ 17-member legal team includes retired U.S.
rear admiral John Huston and retired U.S. brigadier-general James
Cullen, who are both lawyers. By press time, Rumsfeld had not filed
a response. The ACLU also filed civil suits last month against
three senior military officials beneath Rumsfeld, including
Lieut.-Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former commander of U.S. military
forces in Iraq. The U.S. Department of Defense issued a news
release last month “vigorously” disputing the
plaintiffs’ allegations in all four cases against U.S.
officials: “No policies or procedures approved by the
Secretary of Defense were intended as, or could conceivably have
been interpreted as, a policy of abuse or condoning
abuse.”
UBC’s Byers said that this type of human-rights litigation in
national courts usually has little chance of success. “This
is a way of attracting media attention for the entirely noble
purpose of informing the public, and achieving change as a result
of public opinion,” he said.
The recent lawsuits did not target Bush, who enjoys extra
protection under the U.S. Constitution as that country’s
commander-in-chief. On December 21, 2004, the ACLU released a
Federal Bureau of Investigation e-mail suggesting that Bush issued
an executive order allowing interrogators to use military dogs and
permit “sensory deprivation through the use of
hoods”.
Meanwhile, citizens’ tribunals have issued their own rulings,
according to a recent LAW newsletter. Following two days of
hearings at the London School of Economics in November 2003, a
panel of eight international law professors decided there was
“sufficient evidence” for the International Criminal
Court prosecutor to investigate senior U.K. officials for crimes
against humanity committed in Iraq.
On December 12, 2004, a citizens’ tribunal comprising judges
from Korea, Japan, and Indonesia concluded that British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi
Jun’ichiro, and Philippines President Gloria Arroyo
“could be appropriately prosecuted”. The tribunal found
Bush guilty of “torture and maltreatment of Iraqi
detainees”.
“They came to the conclusion that Bush and the other people
indicted were guilty of a variety of crimes, number one, of course,
waging a war of aggression against Afghanistan,” Davidson
said. “Also, they were guilty of using weapons that were
prohibited by the laws of war. Some of the weapons that they cited
in their judgment were the use of depleted uranium, use of fuel-air
explosives such as daisy cutters, cluster bombs, and antipersonnel
mines.”
In a January 2005 article in Energy Bulletin, Dr. Chris Busby, the
U.K. representative on the European Committee on Radiation Risk,
claimed that thousands of children all over the world will die from
the use of depleted uranium in modern weapons. He noted that
radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear-reactor accident reached
Wales.
Last October, the prestigious British medical journal the Lancet
published an epidemiological study that estimated anywhere between
8,000 and 194,000 Iraqis have died because of the war. The leader
of the study, Dr. Les Roberts, made a “conservative”
estimate of 100,000 war-related deaths, according to a BBC report.
Iraq Body Count, a British nongovernmental group that tabulates
media reports of civilian deaths in Iraq, stated that its number
approached 20,000 on the second-year anniversary of the
invasion.
Iraqi lawyers have demanded that Bush and Blair be charged as war
criminals. According to a March 23 story on www.islam-online.net/,
Fallujah bar association chairman Kamal Hamdoun claimed that U.S.
attacks on his city “are a blatant violation of the Geneva
Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which ban
the killing of the wounded, captives and civilians”.
The Nuremburg Tribunal that prosecuted Nazi leaders described a war
of aggression as the “supreme international crime differing
only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the
accumulated evil of the whole”. LAW cochair Mandel, author of
How America Gets Away With Murder: Illegal Wars, Collateral Damage
and Crimes Against Humanity (UBC Press, 2004), claimed in his book
that the U.S. bore ultimate responsibility for all war-related
deaths in Iraq, including those caused by suicide bombers.
“Every death was a crime for which the leaders of the
invading coalition were personally, criminally responsible,”
Mandel wrote. “When General [Vince] Brooks said the soldiers
at the Karbala checkpoint were exercising their ‘inherent
right to self-defense’ he was talking nonsense: an aggressor
has no right to self-defense. If you break into someone’s
house and hold them at gunpoint and they try to kill you but you
kill them first, they’re guilty of nothing and you’re
guilty of murder.”
Human Rights Watch alleged in a 2004 report, The Road to Abu
Ghraib, that the Bush administration has “effectively sought
to re-write the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to eviscerate their most
important protections”. Those include freedom from
humiliating and degrading treatment, as well as from torture.
“The Pentagon and the Justice Department developed the
breathtaking legal argument that the president, as
commander-in-chief of the armed forces, was not bound by U.S. or
international laws prohibiting torture when acting to protect
national security, and that such laws might even be
unconstitutional if they hampered the war on terror,” it
stated.
U.S. law professor John Yoo, a former Bush administration Justice
Department lawyer, wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street
Journal last year claiming that the war with al-Qaeda is not
governed by the Geneva Conventions for two reasons: al-Qaeda is not
a state, and its members violate the laws of war by targeting
civilians. “While Taliban fighters had an initial claim to
protection under the conventions (since Afghanistan signed the
treaties), they lost POW status by failing to obey the standards of
combat for legal combatants: wearing uniforms, a responsible
command structure, and obeying the laws of war,” Yoo
wrote.
Charles Gittings, a Washington state computer programmer, has filed
three “amicus curaie” (friend of the courts) briefs in
U.S. courts opposing this legal interpretation. During a recent
visit to Vancouver, Gittings told the Straight that he thinks the
Bush administration deliberately set out to do an end run around
the Geneva Conventions following the September 11 attacks. He cited
a November 13, 2001, presidential military order, which gave
Rumsfeld wide latitude in dealing with detainees.
Gittings has alleged that the treatment of detainees violates a
1996 U.S. federal statute banning war crimes. The law carries the
death penalty. When Gittings was asked what his goal is in pursuing
these cases, he replied: “George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald
Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, and everybody down the line in prison,
serving probably life sentences for their crimes,
actually.”
The ACLU and other groups have urged U.S. Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales to appoint an outside special counsel to investigate.
Gonzales, as the former White House counsel, wrote a memo in
January 2002 advising Bush that the Geneva Conventions didn’t
apply to enemy combatants in Afghanistan.
Gail Davidson isn’t holding out much hope that Bush
administration officials will ever be punished in the United
States, but she doesn’t rule out the possibility of it
occurring elsewhere. She said there is certainly enough latitude
under Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act to
prosecute senior Bush administration officials if they visit Canada
after leaving office. However, charges under this act must be
approved by the attorney general of Canada, Irwin Cotler.
“I think we still have a great reluctance to see our kings
decrowned and prosecuted,” Davidson said. “How many
years after the Magna Carta are we? That was 1215. And we still
aren’t absolutely comfortable with somebody crying that the
king is naked.”
According to the Canada’s War Crimes Program annual report,
the policy is unequivocal: “Canada will not be a safe haven
for persons involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity or
other reprehensible acts.”
The annual report states that 2,608 persons complicit in war crimes
or crimes against humanity have been prevented from entering
Canada. Another 325 were deported.
So far, none of them have been high-ranking officials in the Bush
administration.
04/08/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of Defense
Northrop Grumman Information Technology Inc., is being awarded a
$48,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to
provide for Target Exploitation Development and Support. The effort
will include making changes to improve performance and be more
responsive to operational needs; upgrade the current suite of
applications with new versions of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf and
newly developed Government-Off-The-Shelf software; support
integration testing with various operating environments Department
of Defense Intelligence Information System, Theater Battle
Management Core Systems, Joint Digital Intelligence Support System,
Global Command and Control System-Joint (GCCS-J), GCCS-Maritime,
GCCS Integrated Intelligence and Imagery, GCCS-Air Force (GCC-AF),
etc., and respond to user mission needs concerning the
initialization, operation, and management of the supported suite of
applications. The location of performance is Northrop Grumman
Defense, Bellevue, N.Y. No funds have been obligated. This work
will be complete by February 2011. Solicitation began August 2004
and negotiations were completed December 2004. The Air Force
Research Laboratory, Rome, N.Y., is the contracting activity
(FA8750-05-D-0037).
DynPort Vaccine Co., Frederick, Md., was awarded on April 6, 2005,
a $2,600,000 increment as part of a $19,621,828 cost-plus-fixed-fee
contract for Development of Plasma-Derived Human
Butyrylcholinesterase. Work will be performed in Los Angeles,
Calif. (54 percent), Frederick, Md. (37 percent), Charlotte, Va. (6
percent), and Richmond, Va. (3 percent), and is expected to be
completed by May 1, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end
of the current fiscal year. There were four bids solicited on Dec.
17, 2004, and three bids were received. The U.S. Army Space and
Missile Defense Command, Frederick, Md., is the contracting
activity (W9113M-05-C-0131).
04/08/2005
U.S. Establishing Limited Defense Against Long-Range
Missiles
Documents & Texts from the Washington File
U.S. Embassy, London
08 April 2005
The director of the Missile Defense Agency says the United States
is in the process of establishing a limited ability to defend
against long-range ballistic missiles.
Air Force Lieutenant General Henry Obering told the Senate Armed
Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee April 7 that the missile
defense program is “on the right track to deliver
multi-layered, integrated [defensive] capabilities to counter
current and emerging ballistic missile threats.”
Even though two recent flight tests produced a disappointing
result, he said “they were not, by any measure, serious
[technical] setbacks.” Despite these aborted tests, Obering
said agency officials still have confidence in “the
system’s basic design, its hit-to-kill effectiveness, and in
its inherent operational capability.”
Missile defense tests are gradually increasing in their degree of
complexity, the agency director said. “Missile defense
testing has evolved,” he said, “and will continue to
evolve based on results.” This evolving approach requires
continual testing and system improvements, Obering added.
The official said two more long-range interceptor tests would be
conducted in 2005. Obering made his comments during a hearing on
the Defense Department’s Fiscal Year 2006 budget request for
missile defenses. The $7.8 billion request for fiscal year 2006 is
about $1 billion less than fiscal year 2005; some of the additional
funding would be used to continue the upgrade of the radar station
in Thule, Greenland.
Reviewing accomplishments of the past year, Obering pointed to the
installation of six silo-based ground interceptors in Alaska and
another two in California. He also pointed to the now-completed
upgrade of the Cobra Dane radar in Alaska and the modification of
six Aegis ships for long-range surveillance and tracking support.
Another 10 interceptors are planned for Alaska by the end of this
year.
The missile defense system’s sensor program is also on track,
according to Obering. The powerful sea-based X-band radar will be
in place in Adak, Alaska, by December, he said, and the early
warning radar at the British Royal Air Force base in Fylingdales,
United Kingdom, will be ready by early next year so that it can
detect potential threats from the Middle East. Another
forward-based X-band radar will be deployed in 2007.
The United States is working with a range of allies on the missile
defense program, including Australia, Denmark, Japan, Israel, the
United Kingdom and Russia. “We are intent on continuing
U.S.-Russian collaboration and are now working on the development
of software that will be used to support the ongoing U.S.-Russian
Theater Missile Defense exercise program,” Obering said.
“A proposal for target missiles and radar cooperation is
being discussed within the U.S.-Russian Federation Missile Defense
Working Group,” he added.
04/11/2005
Defense homeland security industries rack up lobbying
dollars
By Alice Lipowicz
Staff Writer
Washington Technology
Defense firms spent $277 million to lobby the federal government
from 1998 through June 2004, including $44 million in 2003 alone,
according to a new report.
Northrop Grumman Corp. led the list with $93 million spent on
lobbying over the five and a half years, followed by Lockheed
Martin Corp., $88.9 million; Raytheon Co., $30.6 million; United
Defense Industries Inc., $16.8 million; Alliant Techsystems Inc.,
$4.8 million; and Thales Inc., $4 million, said the Center for
Public Integrity, a non-profit think tank in Washington.
In 2003, 1,615 lobbyists represented 108 defense companies or
organizations, the report said. The top lobbying firms representing
the industry were Piper Rudnick, the PMA Group, Interpublic Group
of Companies Inc.; WPP Group PLC and Van Scoyoc Associates Inc.
...
04/11/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of Defense
Del-Jen International Corp., Rolling Hills Estate, Calif., is being
awarded an estimated $8,057,822 combination firm-fixed-price,
indefinite-quantity award fee type contract for base support
services at the U.S. Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The work to
be performed under this contract is to provide family housing
maintenance and repair, bachelor housing operations, sustainment
restoration and modernization consisting of maintenance and repair
of air conditioning and refrigeration, maintenance and repair of
elevators, maintenance and repair of fire protection systems,
maintenance of buildings and structures, operation and maintenance
of base support vehicles and equipment, janitorial services, pest
control services, refuse collection/disposal services, grounds
maintenance services and Joint Task Force services. This contract
contains options, which if exercised, will bring the total
cumulative value of this contract to $41,927,814. Work will be
performed at the U.S. Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and is
expected to be completed by June 2010. Contract funds will expire
at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was
competitively procured via the NAVFAC e-solicitation website with
five offers received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command,
Atlantic, Norfolk, Va. is the contracting activity
(N62470-03-D-4200).
04/11/2005
NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of
Defense
Department of Defense Releases Selected Acquisition Reports
The Department of Defense has released details on major defense
acquisition program cost and schedule changes since the September
2004 reporting period. This information is based on the Selected
Acquisition Reports (SARs) submitted to the Congress for the
December 31, 2004 reporting period.
SARs summarize the latest estimates of cost, schedule, and
technical status. These reports are prepared annually in
conjunction with the President's budget. Subsequent quarterly
exception reports are required only for those programs experiencing
unit cost increases of at least 15 percent or schedule delays of at
least six months. Quarterly SARs are also submitted for initial
reports,
The total program cost estimates provided in the SARs include
research and development, procurement, military construction, and
acquisition-related operation and maintenance (except for
pre-Milestone B programs which are limited to development costs
pursuant to 10 USC 2432). Total program costs reflect actual costs
to date as well as future anticipated costs. All estimates include
anticipated inflation allowances.
The current estimate of program acquisition costs for programs
covered by SARs for the prior reporting period (September 2004) was
$1,370,943.2 million.
After adding the costs for four new programs (Aerial Common Sensor
(ACS), Patriot/Medium Extended Air Defense System Combined
Aggregate Program (PATRIOT/MEADS CAP), Standard Missile-6 (SM-6),
and B-2 Radar Modernization Program (RMP)) from the September 2004
reporting period, the adjusted current estimate of program
acquisition costs was $1,412,567.9 million.
For the December 2004 reporting period, there was a net cost
increase of $59,616.4 million or +4.2 percent for programs that
have reported previously, resulting in a new current estimate of
$1,472,184.3 million. The net cost increase was due primarily to
additional engineering changes (hardware/software) (+$35,203.8
million), the application of higher escalation rates (+$32,127.1
million), a net stretch-out of development and procurement
schedules (+$20,112.9 million). These increases were partially
offset by a net decrease of planned quantities to be purchased
(-$24,478.7 million) and lower program cost estimates (-$6,603.4
million).
Further details of the most significant changes are summarized
below by program.
[Web Version:
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/nr20050411-2481.html]
04/12/2005
Den polske regering meddeler, at Polens soldater i Irak
trækkes hjem.
04/12/2005
East Africa Standby Brigade for Peacekeeping Force
Formed
By Cathy Majtenyi
Nairobi
12 April 2005
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-04-12-voa27.cfm
Seven African countries have agreed to contribute personnel to an
East African brigade that is to be part of a larger African Union
peacekeeping force. The East African Standby Brigade, which is
expected to be fully operational by June of next year, is to have a
minimum of 5,500 troops and civilians from 11 African
countries.
The regional Inter-governmental Authority on Development, known as
IGAD - the same body that coordinated the recently concluded
Sudanese and Somali peace talks - is overseeing the brigade's
formation.
IGAD's chief of Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution,
Peter Marwa, says the East African Standby Brigade is one of five
regional brigades that will form the African Union's African
Standby Force, which will have at least 15,000 personnel.
Mr. Marwa says the African Union could ask the brigade to perform a
number of peacekeeping and peace enforcement activities in
conflicts around the continent. "The region could be tasked by the
African Union to go for peacekeeping operations in their own
region, or they could be used in another place," he said. "Also, in
an event of gross violation of human rights, it could actually be
used in peace enforcement."
On Monday in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, an agreement to
contribute to the East African Standby Brigade was signed by
Djibouti, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, and Ethiopia. Mr.
Marwa says he expects the remaining countries - Comoros, Eritrea,
Madagascar, and the Seychelles to pledge their support for the
brigade soon.
The countries are also expected to fund the brigade, which is to
have an annual administrative budget of $2.5 million.
04/12/2005
The State of New York today dismantled its death penalty apparatus
by declining to correct problems that had caused its law to be
declared unconstitutional.
04/12/2005
Independent Commission of Historians Liechtenstein –
Second World War
Details Vaduz, 13 April (pafl) – After nearly four years of
work, the Independent Commission of Historians Liechtenstein
– Second World War has presented its Final Report on its
research concerning Liechtenstein's role in the Second World War.
The Final Report is supplemented by individual studies on special
topics. On 22 May 2001, the Government appointed an Independent
Commission of Historians, pursuant to various initiatives and
questions raised in public, and mandated it to investigate
questions concerning the role of Liechtenstein in the Second World
War in depth. The Independent Commission of Historians, under the
presidency of Peter Geiger, consisted of historians from
Liechtenstein, Israel, Austria, and Switzerland. Financial
resources in the amount of 3.5 million Swiss francs were available
for the research work.
"Never has a chapter in the history of the Principality of
Liechtenstein been illuminated so meticulously, thoroughly, and
unsparingly as the era of the Second World War in the submitted
study," Liechtenstein Foreign Minister Ernst Walch stated at the
press conference on 13 April 2005 in Vaduz, in which the Government
and the Independent Commission of Historians presented the Final
Report and conclusions to the public. "Both the State and business
circles had a particular interest in a complete analysis of this
era in history. Confronting the past strengthens a country for
coming to terms with future problems," Dr. Walch continued. An
approximately 40-page summary of the Final Report and the
Government's conclusions are available as of today and can be
accessed online at the Internet Portal www.liechtenstein.li. A
complete print version of the Final Report, encompassing several
hundred pages, and the individual studies of the Independent
Commission of Historians will be published in the summer of
2005.
Peter Geiger, President of the Independent Commission of
Historians, noted with satisfaction that free and unimpeded access
to all archives and documents made an in-depth and detailed
analysis possible. "All archives were open to us. We were able to
work undisturbed and entirely without interference," the historian
confirmed.
Most important research results
The two Liechtenstein banks existing during the Nazi era, the
Liechtensteinische Landesbank (LLB) and the Bank in Liechtenstein
(BiL) did not serve as a capital haven or currency hub for the
German Reich or for major Nazi figures. They did not trade in gold
with the Reich. To a limited extent, they maintained business
relationships with partners in the territory of the Reich. They
administered assets of persons persecuted by the Nazis.
A single dormant account belonging to a victim of Nazi persecution,
who had fled to New York in 1938 and died in Jerusalem in 1949, was
found at the Bank in Liechtenstein. In the meantime, the bank has
paid out the account balance, recalculated to its present value, to
the identified beneficiary. In the case of six other dormant
accounts since 1945, there is no indication of Nazi persecution.
The banks acted correctly.
Liechtenstein domiciliary and holding companies generally kept
their assets with Swiss banks. Many companies were closed beginning
in 1938. The owners, often Jews or other victims of Nazi
persecution, had to register their assets and deliver them to the
German Reich. There is evidence that companies formed during the
war years for the purpose of trading with German partners were able
to help conceal ownership status, finance problematic transactions,
avoid listing by the Allies, or move Nazi capital; there is no
unambiguous proof. Numerous company formations beginning in 1940
served to avoid the Swiss war profit tax. As in Switzerland, German
assets in Liechtenstein were blocked and made subject to the
Washington Agreement in 1945 and afterwards. The Swiss Clearing
Office did not discover any movements of Nazi assets. There have
been no restitution claims or proceedings in Liechtenstein.
Forcible seizure of Jewish assets, "Aryanization", and forced labor
did not take place in Liechtenstein or through Liechtenstein
enterprises. However, the Princely House bought individual
operations or shares from Jewish properties in annexed Austria and
German-occupied Czechoslovakia beginning in 1938, such as to round
off the Elbemühl paper factory, which was owned by the
Princely House. Also, Jewish concentration camp inmates from
Hungary, whom the SS rented out from the Strasshof camp near
Vienna, were used as forced labor on three Princely agricultural
estates in Austria from July 1944 to the end of the war.
No looted art assets were identified in Liechtenstein collections.
There is no evidence that looted art was transferred through
Liechtenstein. A few Jewish refugees and new citizens were able to
rescue art assets. The Princely Collections, which were being kept
in Vienna at the time, purchased about 270 art objects in the
period from 1938 to the end of the war; almost all were household
furnishings. They include a number of objects of problematic
origin, since they were purchased from institutions or dealers who
also dealt in looted assets. One valuable desk was shown to have
originated in "Aryanized property", but the dealer had indicated an
incorrect, unproblematic origin to the Reigning Prince.
Liechtenstein's refugee policy was largely determined by and
coordinated with that of Switzerland. Between 1933 and 1945 (not
counting the surge of refugees in the last days of the war), about
400 refugees, the large majority of whom were Jews, found shelter
in Liechtenstein; 250 of these stayed for a shorter or longer
period, and about 150 were officially passed through to
Switzerland. In addition, a total of 144 Jewish persons between
1933 and 1945 received Liechtenstein citizenship, in return for
high fees. Especially in 1938/39, however, an unknown number of
refugees were turned away at the border; some were also deported
from Liechtenstein across the border. In the last weeks and days of
the war in April and May 1945, about 8,000 refugees were able to
reach Switzerland through Liechtenstein. On 3 May 1945, just under
500 persons of a Russian unit of the German Armed Forces crossing
the border were interned.
Three Liechtenstein industrial operations, all formed in the late
autumn of 1941, delivered armament goods or strategic goods of
importance to the war: The Press- und Stanzwerke AG produced 20mm
shells for Oerlikon Bührle anti-aircraft artillery; the Hilti
oHG machine company delivered parts for engines and vehicles; the
Präzisions-Apparatebau AG manufactured measurement
instruments.
Liechtenstein – very different then and now
In his presentation, Geiger drew attention to the special situation
of Liechtenstein at that time. "The focuses on Liechtenstein then
and now are very different. Current perceptions of Liechtenstein
– as a rich country overall and as a financial center –
are often too easily projected back to the period from 1930 to
1945. The Liechtenstein of the 1930's and 1940's cannot be compared
with the Liechtenstein of today. In addition, the special context
in which Liechtenstein existed played a role, both at the side of
Switzerland – with which it was very closely linked –
and in the vicinity of Austria and, beginning in 1938, of the Third
Reich."
As a State, Liechtenstein was in a special position; it was
sovereign but not independent, instead partially dependent on
Switzerland. With respect to foreign economic policy, Liechtenstein
was completely integrated into the Swiss system through the Customs
Treaty. At the Liechtenstein border to Austria, Swiss border
authorities controlled the border. After the annexation of Austria,
Liechtenstein was situated at the border to the Third Reich and was
constantly under threat. Persecuted individuals were also living in
Liechtenstein, and Liechtenstein had to face this situation. A
political factor was the small size of the country; it carried no
political weight. The question therefore had to be asked how the
inhabitants and the authorities acted in this special
situation.
Conclusions of the Government
The Government has taken note of the results of the investigation
of the Independent Commission of Historians and has drawn its
conclusions. "Liechtenstein is conscious of its responsibility for
this chapter of its history. We will not only look back, however,
but also forward, and will do everything in our power to ensure
that the events during the Second World War and in particular the
Holocaust cannot be repeated in any way. For this purpose, it is
indispensable to inform the population, and especially our young
people, about what happened and to raise awareness against racism
and anti-Semitism," Prime Minister Otmar Hasler stated, summarizing
the political assessment by the Government. In its conclusions, the
Government therefore also draws attention to the diverse measures
that have already been initiated and taken in recent years to
effectively combat racism and anti-Semitism. The Government
believes it to be useful for the future to initiate new measures
for appropriate projects with long-term effects. These various
projects should primarily serve ongoing awareness-raising.
Consideration by Parliament
The Government has received the results of the investigation with
great respect and in the spirit of common responsibility, as it did
with regard to the entire investigation process and the underlying
concerns. The Government has forwarded the reports to the
Liechtenstein Parliament, so that the representatives of the People
can consider the results of the investigation as soon as
possible.
All documents and detailed information on the Independent
Commission of Historians can be found on the Internet at
www.liechtenstein.li.
04/13/2005
Deutscher Bundestag Drucksache
15/5257
15. Wahlperiode 13. 04. 2005
Antrag der Abgeordneten Dr. Werner Hoyer, Harald Leibrecht, Rainer
Brüderle, Ernst Burgbacher, Helga Daub, Jörg van Essen,
Ulrike Flach, Horst Friedrich (Bayreuth), Rainer Funke,
Hans-Michael Goldmann, Ulrich Heinrich, Birgit Homburger, Michael
Kauch, Dr. Heinrich L. Kolb, Jürgen Koppelin, Ina Lenke,
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Dirk Niebel, Günther
Friedrich Nolting, Eberhard Otto (Godern), Detlef Parr, Gisela
Piltz, Dr. Rainer Stinner, Carl-Ludwig Thiele, Jürgen
Türk, Dr. Claudia Winterstein, Dr. Volker Wissing, Dr.
Wolfgang Gerhardt und der Fraktion der FDP
Glaubwürdigkeit des nuklearen Nichtverbreitungsregimes
stärken – US-Nuklearwaffen aus Deutschland abziehen
Der Bundestag wolle beschließen...
04/13/2005
US study finds H-bomb tests still causing cancer in Marshalls 50
years on
A US study has found that the number of cancers caused by hydrogen
bomb testing in the Marshall Islands is set to double, more than
half a century after the tests were conducted in the tiny Pacific
nation.
The study by the US government^1s National Cancer Institute (NCI)
estimated 530 cancers had already been caused by the tests,
particularly the explosion of a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb codenamed
Bravo on March 1, 1954.
It said another 500 cancers were likely to develop among Marshall
Islanders who were exposed to radiation more than 50 years ago.
"We estimate that the nuclear testing program in the Marshall
Islands will cause about 500 additional cancer cases among
Marshallese exposed during the years 1946-1958, about a nine
percent increase over the number of cancers expected in the absence
of exposure to regional fallout," the NCI study said.
04/14/2005
RWANDA: Government destroys 6,000 small arms
KIGALI, 14 April (IRIN) - Rwanda has, for the first time, destroyed
6,000 small arms as part of a regional initiative to check the flow
of illicit guns that have fuelled conflict in Africa's Great Lakes
region, an official told IRIN on Thursday.
"We set them on fire," Maj Rwakabi Kakira, the coordinator of the
Rwandan effort, said.
The guns - ranging from 5.2 mm to 82 mm in calibre and ammunition -
were taken from former combatants and armed robbers. Others were
part of an obsolete stock left behind by the country's pre-1994
genocide administration...
04/14/2005
DRC: Militia group dismantled as 416 fighters surrender
guns
BUNIA, 14 April (IRIN) - The remaining 416 militiamen of the Forces
armees du peuple congolais (FAPC) surrendered their guns to UN
troops on Wednesday, effectively dismantling the movement and
boosting efforts to pacify the troubled Ituri District in
northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
"The FAPC no longer exists. This movement is now history," Kwaje
Duku, a Congolese army colonel heading the government-run National
Disarmament Commission in Ituri, said...
04/14/2005
A New Call to Arms: Military Health Care
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/business/14retire.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print&position
=
By TIM WEINER
The battle over the Pentagon's billions has traditionally been
fought between two forces - those who want more new planes and
ships and tanks, and those who want more money for troops. Now
there is a third: military health care.
The cost of the main military health care plan, Tricare, has
doubled since 2001 and will soon reach $50 billion a year, more
than a tenth of the Pentagon's budget. At least 75 percent of the
benefits will go to veterans and retirees.
Over the next decade, a new plan for military retirees, Tricare for
Life, will cost at least $100 billion, according to confidential
budget documents, rivaling the costs of the biggest weapons systems
the Pentagon is building. The surge in military spending since the
9/11 attacks is slowing, and Pentagon officials say they may be
forced to choose between the costs of new weapons and old soldiers.
The Pentagon, said William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant
secretary of defense for health affairs, faces "a growing, serious,
long-term problem."
04/14/2005
UK: Big rise in deserters 'fuelled by Iraq war'
The number of soldiers to desert the army or go absent without
leave has more than doubled over the past year, the Ministry of
Defence has revealed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1458283,00.html
04/14/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of Defense
Raytheon Co., Missile Systems Div., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded
a $6,100,000 firm fixed price contract for non-recurring
engineering services associated with establishment of a production
line for High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) Command Launch
Computers for the F/A-18E/F. Work will be performed in Tucson,
Ariz., and is expected to be completed in March 2007. Contract
funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This
contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Warfare
Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting
activity (N00421-05-C-0048).
04/15/2005
The ethics and responsibility of science should be an integral
part of the education and training of all scientists. It is
important to instil in the students a positive attitude towards
reflection, alertness and awareness of the ethical dilemmas they
may encounter in their professional lives. Young scientists should
be appropriately encouraged to respect and adhere to the basic
ethical principles and responsibilities of science. (Recommendation
from the UNESCO’s World Conference on Science, Budapest
1999).
Follow-up Symposium to the 1999 UNESCO World Conference on
Science
Public lectures:
Teaching Ethics to Science and Engineering Students
COPENHAGEN 15 & 16 APRIL 2005
Ethics and University Science Education
Saturday, April 16, 10.00 – 12.30
Alexandersalen, Bispetorvet 1, DK-1167 Copenhagen
Dr. Henk ten Have: UNESCO's activities in the area of ethics and
ethics education.
Director of UNESCO’s Division of Ethics of Science and
Technology.
Dr. Valery S. Petrosyan: Ethics in Teaching Chemistry and Chemical
Safety.
Full professor of chemistry at M.V. Lomonosov University, Moscow,
Russia; Full member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.
Rector of the Open Ecological University in Moscow. Member of the
INES council.
Dr. Peter Kemp: Cosmopolitanism in Ethics and Law.
Full Professor and head of Department of Philosophy of Education at
the Danish University of Education. Head of Centre of Ethics and
Law in Nature and Society.
CENTER FOR THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE AND SCIENCE STUDIES
The Danish UNESCO Commission
Centre for Ethics and Law in Nature and Society
International Network of Engineers and Scientists for global
responsibility
http://www.teachingethics.dk
Literature: Avery, John: Developing
the social responsibility of scientists and engineers. 
04/15/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of Defense
Titan Corp. Unidyne Group, Norfolk, Va., is being awarded a
$26,401,635 firm-fixed-price contract for five Service Life
Extension Program (SLEP) Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) craft.
The LCAC is an essential element within the current and future
United States Navy/Marine Corp amphibious warfare triad that
provides heavy lift capability. The LCAC SLEP will extend service
life from twenty to thirty years. Modifications include
repair/refurbishment of the hull, main engine upgrades,
installation of a new skirt system and upgrades to the
communication navigation systems. Work will be performed in Camp
Pendleton, Calif. (80 percent) and Norfolk, Va.(20 percent), and is
expected to be completed by August 2007. Contract funds will not
expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contact was
competitively awarded and advertised via the Navy Electronic
Commerce on Line website, with three offers received. The Naval Sea
Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
Magneto Inductive Systems Limited USA (MISL USA), San Bernadino,
Calif., is being awarded a ceiling cost $8,758,010
cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for highly specialized engineering and
design efforts in the performance of technology development and
risk reduction phases of the Magneto-Inductive Signaling Device
System (MISDS). The MISDS is a new system of hardware that will
improve current capability to conduct precision demolition through
all types of medium, from the very shallow water region to and
including beach zones, where acoustic or radio signals cannot
permeate. Work will be performed in Head Jeddore, Nova Scotia,
Canada (60 percent) and San Bernardino, Calif. (40 percent), and is
expected to be completed in April 2008. Contract funds in the
amount of $3,000,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal
year. The contract was not competitively procured. The Naval
Surface Warfare Center, Panama City, Fla., is the contracting
activity (N61331-05-C-0027).
Southampton Photonics, Los Gatos, Calif., is being awarded a
$25,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to
provide for the necessary materials, including any hardware,
facilities, supplies, travel, labor, supplies, and services to
perform/develop high power fiber master oscillator power amplifiers
for directed energy applications research in accordance with the
contractor's statement of work for the Air Force Research
Laboratory, Phillips Research Site, Directed Energy Directorate,
Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. At this time, $911,411 of the funds
has been obligated. This work will be complete by April 2010.
Solicitation began January 2005 and negotiations were completed
March 2005. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force
Base, N.M., is the contracting activity (FA9451-04-D-0179).
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc., Cambridge, Mass., is
being awarded a $8,875,000 cost-plus fixed-fee contract. The
company responded to the Broad Agency Announcement VS-04-01, topic
area 14, entitled "Advanced Ballistic Missile Technologies." The
contractor's proposal is entitled "Flexured Mass Accelerometer
(FMA) Technology Development and demonstration", which seeks
research to advance the state-of-the-art for strategic
accelerometer technology. The objective of this acquisition is to
develop a pre-System Development and Demonstration prototype of the
Draper FMA with microwave readout that demonstrates strategic grade
performance in relevant benign and hostile environments by the
first quarters of FY08. In addition, the contractor will determine
the feasibility of an optical readout as an alternative to the
microwave readout that enables overall sizes reduction and benefits
from compatibility with optical gyro technology. At this time,
$3,000,000 of the funds has been obligated. This work will be
complete by July 2008. Solicitation began December 2003 and
negotiations were completed March 2005. The Air Force Research
Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., is the contracting
activity (FA9453-05-C-0171).
04/15/2005
Myers Challenges Editors to Tell Full Story in War
Coverage
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 15, 2005 - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff encouraged newspaper editors today to tell America the full
story of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It's particularly important today . because the American people
need to know the full story," said Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers
to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, "because it is going
to be their resolve that is so critical to our ability to confront
the extremist threat." ...
04/16/2005
Bombspotting XL: international citizens inspection of NATO
nuclear weapons
By Hans Lammerant
Forum voor Vredesactie
www.vredesactie.be - www.bomspotting.be
Today the Bombspotting XL action takes place at three NATO nuclear
weapons-related sites: NATO headquarters in Brussels, SHAPE (NATO
military HQ) in Mons, and the military base at Kleine Brogel
(Belgian airforce base where nuclear weapons are stored). Citizens
from all over Europe inspect these places for nuclear weapons and
evidence about their involvement in nuclear weapons policy, and try
to stop this preparation of war crimes.
Two weeks before the NPT Review Conference (May 2005) in New York,
we give the signal that NATO nuclear weapons have to disappear as a
first step towards the nuclear disarmament obligations contained in
the Non Proliferation Treaty.
Bombspotting XL: war crime prevention by citizens
Nuclear weapons are a hot topic again. At least, when so-called
rogue states are supposed to have them. But there are also weapons
of mass destruction in Belgium: US nuclear weapons deployed for
NATO. And they as illegal here as elsewhere. Nuclear weapons can
not be used without violating the basic principles of international
humanitarian law. By deploying nuclear weapons, and training and
planning for the actual use, NATO prepares war crimes. This law is
valid not only for so-called rogue states, but for NATO countries
as well.
NATO nuclear policy is not acceptable, and we can not leave it
undisturbed. We want to stop these crimes and make sure that the
demand for nuclear disarmament can not be ignored by the NATO
governments. The Nuremberg-principles, drawn up after the nazi war
crimes trials at the end the second world war, give us legal ground
and even a duty to stop the preparation of war crimes. As citizens
we have a duty to act when our government commits an offence of
this nature.
In analogy with the UN weapon inspectors in Iraq, we inspect NATO,
SHAPE and the nuclear weapons base in Kleine Brogel. We go in
serach of the plans for the use of weapons of mass destruction, and
we will try to end this illegal activity. Several hundred citizen
inspectors from all over Europe will try to enter these sites,
question the personnel and search for evidence about the nuclear
planning, storage and training. If the NATO governments refuses to
act, and justice stays blind, then we have to act ourselves with
this action of civil disobedience. Nonviolently of course.
Time for nuclear disarmament: nuclear weapons out of
NATO
The Non-Proliferation Treaty is under high pressure. More states
seem willing to acquire nuclear weapons and none of the nuclear
weapon states seems to take nuclear disarmament seriously. The
Non-Proliferation Treaty contained an exchange of promises: the
non-nuclear weapon states promised not to acquire nuclear weapons,
while the nuclear weapon states promised to achieve total nuclear
disarmament. This last promise has not been kept.The nuclear weapon
states are clearly in violation of the NPT. Instead of nuclear
disarmament, we see military intervention in an attempt to secure
the nuclear monopoly.
The military intervention policy of the US and NATO, in combination
with the non-compliance with the NPT of the nuclear weapon states,
incited several non-nuclear weapon states to think about acquiring
nuclear weapons themselves. El Baradei, head of the IAEA, put it
clearly: "In my view, we have come to a fork in the road. Either
there must be a demonstrated commitment to move toward nuclear
disarmament, or we should resign ourselves to the fact that other
countries will pursue a more dangerous parity through
proliferation."
We choose nuclear disarmament! A necessary step towards nuclear
disarmament is the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons out of NATO
countries, and an end to the role of nuclear weapons in NATO
policy.
500 Bombspotters arrested during massive citizens inspection of
NATO nuclear weapons
Brussels, 16th April 2005: 500 bomspotters were arrested by police
today after a thousand gathered in Belgium to carry out a citizens
nuclear weapons inspection.
A massive police presence greeted inspectors from Greenpeace and
Bombspotting at NATO- HQ: SHAPE and Kleine Brogel airbase.
Greenpeace activists from the six NATO countries currently hosting
the 480 nuclear weapons based in Europe: Italy, Germany, Belgium,
UK, Turkey and the Netherlands.
Greenpeace and Bombspotting are demanding that NATO
become a nuclear free alliance. In two weeks the 184 member
countries of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will meet. "They
have a clear choice. Either disarmament or a new arms race", said
Hans Lammerant, from Bombspotting.
"We choose nuclear disarmament! And a necessary step towards
nuclear disarmament is the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from
NATO countries, and an end to the role of nuclear weapons in NATO
policy."
"At a time when key NATO countries are doing so much to encourage
Iran to give up its nuclear aspirations, it would be hypocritical
for NATO not to do the same", said Nicky Davies,
Greenpeace International.
"We are part of a growing movement of people who will continue to
conduct these inspections of nuclear sites, to bear witness and
draw attention to these crimes until the world is free of nuclear
weapons."
In the year that marks the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the
bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, European citizens are demanding
disarmament.
04/17/2005
Securitashjemmeværnet er
blevet nedlagt med udgangen af 2004, noterer
Hjemmeværnsbladet.
04/18/2005
Noted activist for war victims killed in car bomb
attack
Californian Marla Ruzicka championed humanitarian aid in
Iraq
By: Charles Burress, Tanya Schevitz, Chronicle Staff Writers
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/18/MNGMFCALUC1.DTL
Monday, April 18, 2005
A car bomb attack near Baghdad has killed a well-known activist
from Northern California who entered war zones to record civilian
deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and secure aid for those caught in
the cross fire.
Marla Ruzicka, 28, of Lakeport (Lake County), founder of
CIVIC -- Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict -- died with her
driver on the Baghdad Airport road Saturday when a suicide bomber
attacked a convoy of security contractors that was passing next to
her vehicle, according to her family and news reports quoting U.S.
Embassy officials in Iraq.
Sarah Haynes from Friendraiser For CIVIC has sent you a
message!
Friends,
I am sorry to be delivering very sad news. Our friend Marla
Ruzicka, founder of CIVIC, was killed yesterday by a car bomb
in Baghdad. If you are getting this e mail, you likely know her, or
met her at a fundraiser I did for her at my home about a year ago.
She was an amazing girl, had dedicated her life to campaign for
innocent civilians in conflict (civic). I first met her here in SF
when she worked at Global Exchange years ago, but became especially
close when I stayed with her in Kabul Afghanistan during the war.
She was one of the most alive, friendly, compassionate and
dedicated people I have ever known. The last e mail conversation I
had with her was focused on her risk being in Iraq, as I was trying
to convince her to come home. She said she knew she could be
killed, but that this is what she loved, and couldn't imagine
anything more gratifying then helping innocent victims. She made it
very clear that it was worth the risk. The last thing I said to her
was that I was proud of her, and that I would rather see her live a
short life doing what she loves, then a long life trapped behind a
desk. She wrote back and said these words meant more to her than I
could ever know, and that's the last time we spoke.
The military is flying her body home and the services are planned
for this Sat in her hometown of Lakeport CA at St. Mary's Catholic
Church, 11am. If you'd like to make a donation to CIVIC, you can go
to www.civicworldwide.org. You can also see a photo of her &
the orphaned child she was headed to visit when she was killed,
which she sent in to her website just a few hours before her
death.
Stay safe...Sarah
An American activist who dared to help Iraqi victims
By Jill Carroll
Christian Science Monitor
Intrepid humanitarian aid worker Marla Ruzicka died in Baghdad
Saturday when her car was caught in an insurgent attack.
Californian Marla Ruzicka was the head of an NGO whose blend of
tenacity and optimism kept her in Iraq long after almost every
other humanitarian aid organization had left...
Young Activist's Life Cut Short in Iraq Blast
By Doug Smith
Times Staff Writer
April 18, 2005
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-marla19apr18,1,7596769.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Cocburn, Patric: Forkæmper for Iraks glemte ofre.
I: Information, 04/20/2005.
04/18/2005
Comprehenisve Conservation Plannning Nearing Completion
http://www.fws.gov/rockyflats/
A Record of Decision (ROD) for the Final Rocky Flats National
Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) was published
in the Federal Register on April 18, 2005. The ROD confirms that
the CCP has been prepared along with an Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) in compliance with the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA). The ROD also verifies that the CCP addresses the
issues identified during the public process, and is consistent with
Service policies, the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Act of 2001,
and sound wildlife and habitat management principles.
The final CCP has been sent to the printer and the Service
anticipates that it will be available for distribution in June
2005. The final CCP or a summary of the document will be made
available to interested parties. The Service will continue to keep
the public informed throughout the remainder of the planning
process. A subsequent Planning Update, number 7, will also be
released this summer and will provide information on the final
CCP.
04/18/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of
Defense
Science Applications International Corp., San Diego, Calif., is
being awarded a $184,748,113 indefinite delivery/indefinite
quantity contract. The System Engineering Integration Contract
(SEIC) will design, develop, integrate, test and deliver with the
Mission Planning Enterprise Contract (MPEC) team, all required
Mission Planning capabilities. The SEIC will develop and build upon
the tools and solutions from the Joint Mission Planning System
(JMPS) and converge the different Department of Defense Mission
Planning systems into a common DoD Mission Planning Environment.
The SEIC will be the systems integrator across all platforms and
services and evolve JMPS as it adds capability and users. The SEIC
strategy utilizes a single award cost plus award fee contract with
a 12-year period of performance. This allows the government to
retain effective systems engineering and integration stability
during the migration of all 40 plus weapons systems from legacy
systems to JMPS. Also, the SEIC overlaps the MPEC five-year
contract and its follow on contract. The Air Force can issue
delivery orders totaling up to the maximum amount indicated above,
although actual requirements may necessitate less than the amount
above. The location of performance is Science Applications
International Corp., Orlando, Fla. At this time, $8,694,669 of the
funds has been obligated. This work will be complete by September
2016. Solicitation began December 2004 and negotiations were
completed March 2005. The Headquarters Electronic Systems Center,
Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity
(FA8720-05-C-0004, 0005).
Orbital Sciences Corp., Chandler, Ariz, and Space Exploration
Technologies, El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a $100,000,000
indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract. These are basic
contractors with five-year ordering periods for Responsive Small
Spacelift Launch Vehicles and targeted/low inclination orbit launch
vehicles and launch services. In addition, three firm fixed price
delivery orders for Responsive Small Spaceflight (RSS) User's
Guides (Raptor I, Raptor II, and Falcon I configurations). The Air
Force can issue delivery orders totaling up to the maximum
indicated above, although requirements may necessitate less than
the amount indicated above. At this time, $90,000 of the funds has
been obligated. This work will be complete by April 2010.
Solicitation began January 2005 and negotiations were completed
April 2005. The Headquarters Space and Missile Systems Center, Los
Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity
(FA8818-05-D-0006, 0007).
04/19/2005
Australia Deploys More Troops to Iraq
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 19, 2005 - Coalition forces in Iraq are welcoming
the deployment of 450 more Australian military personnel. "These
are great soldiers," said a U.S. official in Baghdad, Iraq.
The new Australian contingent will bring the number of "Aussies" in
country up to 1,370, officials at the Australian embassy here
said.
The added military presence will provide a task group to support
the Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group. The Aussies
will also train Iraqi forces.
04/19/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of Defense
J. Walter Thompson Co., USA, Atlanta, Ga., is being awarded a
$7,725,585 modification to previously awarded GSA Task Order
(M00264-02-F-0213) for marketing and advertising services in
support of the Marine Corps recruitment programs. Work will be
performed in Atlanta, Ga., and is expected to be completed by
September 2005. Contract funds in the amount of $7,725,585 will
expire at the end of the current Fiscal Year. The Regional
Contracting Office Northeast, Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Va., is
the contracting activity.
04/20/2005
2005 Alan Cranston Peace Award
Honoring Ted Turner
On April 20th, at the United Nations in New York City, the
Global Security Institute will honor Ted Turner with the 2005
Alan Cranston Peace Award.
The award honors leaders who, through their actions, demonstrate
the principles for which Senator Cranston devoted his life.
Appropriately, the Peace Award will be presented by President
Mikhail Gorbachev.
Kilde:Avery, John: Ted
Turner Protests Against the Death of Democracy.
04/20/2005
Aid worker uncovered America's secret tally of Iraqi civilian
deaths
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=631173&host=3&dir=75
A week before she was
killed by a suicide bomber, humanitarian worker
Marla Ruzicka forced military commanders to admit they did
keep records of Iraqi civilians killed by US forces.
Tommy Franks, the former head of US Central Command, famously said
the US army "don't do body counts", despite a requirement to do so
by the Geneva Conventions.
But in an essay Ms Ruzicka wrote a week before her death on
Saturday and published yesterday, the 28-year-old revealed that a
Brigadier General told her it was "standard operating procedure"
for US troops to file a report when they shoot a non-combatant.
She obtained figures for the number of civilians killed in Baghdad
between 28 February and 5 April, and discovered that 29 had been
killed in firefights involving US forces and insurgents. This was
four times the number of Iraqi police killed.
"These statistics demonstrate that the US military can and does
track civilian casualties," she wrote. "Troops on the ground keep
these records because they recognise they have a responsibility to
review each action taken and that it is in their interest to
minimise mistakes, especially since winning the hearts and minds of
Iraqis is a key component of their strategy."
Sam Zia-Zarifi, deputy director of the Asia division of Human
Rights Watch, the group for which Ms Ruzicka wrote the report, said
her discovery "was very important because it allows the victims to
start demanding compensation". He added: "At a policy level they
have never admitted they keep these figures..."
04/21/2005
Nobelfredspristageres
Fredrik Bajer fødes, 1837.
04/21/2005
Jan Oberg receives the Swedish Peace Council's "2005 Small Peace
Prize"
Lund, Sweden - April 21, 2005
We want to share with you the happy news that Jan Oberg, TFF
co-founder and director, has been awarded the "2005 Small Peace
Prize" of the Swedish Peace Council. The Prize is instituted as
"complimentary to the 'big' Nobel Peace Prize."
The Council is an umbrella organisation for the following members:
Artists for Peace, the Iraqi Democratic Association, Association of
Christian Humanism and Social Perspective, Women for Peace,
Psychologists Against Nuclear Weapons, the Swedish Peace Committee,
Swedish Women's Left Association, and the Society of Friends
(Quakers) plus 5 other associated NGOs.
The Prize - which comes with 25.000 Swedish kronor - rewards an
individual's "courage and idealism in promoting reconciliation
among groups in conflicts outside Sweden."
In its motivation, the Council emphasises the energy and creativity
by which TFF's international work is carried out; its integrated
approach to research and activism based on about 100 highly
competent people, all voluntarily working for global peace.
It further highlights TFF's website for making "a substantial
contribution to a better understanding of the world, its problems
and possibilities."
- "I receive this with much gratitude and happiness and - naturally
- on behalf of TFF and all those wonderful people who make it what
it is," says Jan Oberg. "TFF's work is for, by and to the people.
We are people-financed and now also rewarded by the finest people's
organsations in Sweden."
- "It's particularly stimulating that the Council emphasises our
work for reconciliation."
- "I am very happy since this is the third peace prize in three
years and the first recognition of this kind from a Nordic country.
We have always wanted to be globally oriented but this Award
stimulates us a lot to make an extra effort in terms of public
education work useful to Scandinavians."
04/21/2005
Belgian Senate Resolution
A. considering the upcoming NPT Review Conference on 2-27 May
2005;
B. considering the adoption by consensus of the Final Document at
the 2000 NPT Review Conference
04/21/2005
Former general Baril hired for landmine effort
Canadian Press
From CTV
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/print/CTVNews/1114031214288_133/?hub=Canada&subhub=PrintStory
OTTAWA - A former chief of defence staff is set to get an
untendered government contract to persuade China, the United States
and others countries into signing the Ottawa Convention that bans
landmines.
His primary role will be to talk "hard" countries like China and
the United States into signing the convention banning landmines.
Since 1997, 152 countries have signed, though only 144 have
actually ratified the document.
Baril will help raise money for Canada's multimillion-dollar mine
action program, which includes demining, victim assistance and
stockpile destruction. He will also serve as advisor to Canada's
ambassador on landmines, Ross Hynes.
04/23/2005
U.S. missile company scouts Labrador
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/04/22/missile-labrador050422.html
ST. JOHN'S, NFLD. - An American missile contractor has been
secretly scouting locations for a radar installation in Labrador,
despite Prime Minister Paul Martin's decision to keep Canada out of
the U.S. missile defence shield program.
In late February, Martin made it clear that Canada won't be part of
Washington's controversial program to shoot down incoming missiles
aimed at North America.
"We took the decision on ballistic missile defence in terms of
where Canada's interests lay," he said.
A little more than a month later, CBC News has learned, senior
officials from the Raytheon Company travelled to Happy Valley-Goose
Bay, Labrador, on a scouting trip.
The Massachusetts-based corporation builds missiles for the
American military and is a major player in the design of the North
American ballistic missile defence shield.
One visitor was the principal mechanical engineer of national
missile defence with Raytheon. The other was the manager of X-band
sensor systems, a finely tuned type of imaging radar used in
early-warning systems...
04/24/2005
Den 24. april markerer mindet om en af de største tragedier
i Armeniens historie:
tvangseksil og folkemord på 1.500.000 armeniere ved
afslutningen af Det Ottomanske Rige. Disse brutale myrderier plager
armenierne den dag i dag, skriver Armensk Kultur Forening.
Litteratur: Hertoft, Mikael: Et folkemord fylder 90.
I: Information, 04/20/2005.
Leder: Tyrkisk tabu. I: Information, 04/25/2005.
04/25/2005
NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense:
Vietnam War Missing in Action Servicemen Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)
announced today that the remains of four U.S. servicemen, missing
in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and are being
returned to their families for burial with full military
honors.
Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from all conflicts, 1,835
are from the Vietnam War, with 1,398 of those within the country of
Vietnam. Another 748 Americans have been accounted for since the
end of the Vietnam War.
04/25/2005
Costs of war quietly surpass $300 billion : Congress
approves requests from the president and the Pentagon with little
resistance and adds a few unrelated projects to boot.
By Lawrence M. O'Rourke -- Bee Washington Bureau
Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, April 25, 2005
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/v-print/story/12785625p-13636521c.html
WASHINGTON - The cost of war continues to climb, but despite
growing unease, Congress is giving President Bush and the Pentagon
whatever they say is needed.
Besides, the legislation to pay for the war also gives some in
Congress a chance to toss in a few items that are not linked to the
combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the continued U.S. troop
presence also is costing money.
04/25/2005
Army Hospital Gets Civilian Aid : Filling Military Gap,
Neurosurgeons Tend Wounded From Iraq
By Craig Whitlock, Washington Post Foreign Service
Washington Post
April 25, 2005
LANDSTUHL, Germany -- Faced with a shortage of neurosurgeons, the
U.S. military's largest overseas hospital is becoming increasingly
dependent on civilian doctors volunteering their time to treat
troops who suffered severe brain and spinal injuries in Iraq.
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, an Army-run hospital in
southwestern Germany, began recruiting civilian neurosurgeons from
the United States late last year after a rotation of active-duty
physicians became stretched so thin that the hospital was left
without coverage at times...
04/26/2005
BURUNDI: Thousands disarmed since December, UN official
says
BUJUMBURA, 26 April (IRIN) - Burundi has disarmed and demobilised
7,282 former combatants since December 2004 under an ongoing
programme that includes their reintegration into society, a
military spokesman for the UN Mission in Burundi (ONUB) has
said.
The spokesman, Maj Adama Diop, told IRIN on Saturday that of this
figure, 6,315 were men, 328 women and 639 children.
04/26/2005
Memorandum of Understanding on the Joint Theatre Movement Staff
(JTMS) Multinational Integrated Logistic Unit (MILU) Signed
Today
On 26 April 2005, a Memorandum of Understanding for the formation
and sustainment of a JTMS MILU to perform theatre movement
co-ordination duties in support of a NATO operation or exercise was
signed at a formal ceremony that took place in conjunction with the
meeting of the Senior NATO Logisticians' Conference (SNLC).
The Official Representatives from the six signatory countries
(Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Lithuania, Romania and the Slovak
Republic) attended the ceremony presided by the SNLC Co-Chairmen,
Mr. John Colston, Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy
and Planning, and Lt.Gen. Tom Baptiste, Deputy Chairman of the
Military Committee.
Under this MOU, the six NATO and Partner nations agree to form and
sustain a standing JTMS MILU, whose mission will be to develop
movement and transportation plans and prioritise movement
requirements in theatre, as well as to operate a Joint Theatre
Movement Coordination Centre as part of a Combined Joint Task Force
Headquarters. The JTMS MILU has a proven capability as demonstrated
during the STEADFAST MOVE 04 and 05 exercises.
04/26/2005
US Treasury Designates Viktor Bout's International Arms
Trafficking Network
http://www.treas.gov/
The U.S. Department of the Treasury today identified 30 companies
and four individuals linked to Viktor Bout, an international arms
dealer and war profiteer. Today's action took place pursuant to
Executive Order 13348, which targets family members and associates
of former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor. Bout himself
was designated under the same authority in July 2004 because of his
association with Taylor.
"Our targeted sanctions are exposing and isolating the core
elements of the Bout financial empire and illicit arms pipeline,"
said Juan Zarate, the Treasury's Assistant Secretary for Terrorist
Financing and Financial Crimes. "The Treasury remains committed to
fulfilling our international obligations to sanction the former
Charles Taylor regime by taking aggressive action against Bout
front companies and agents."
The U.S. is submitting the 30 companies and four individuals to a
Sanctions Committee established by United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1521, which will consider adding them to the
consolidated list of individuals and entities tied to Taylor...
04/27/2005
Pentagon proposes sale of 100 bunker-busting bombs to
Israel
Reuters 27/4/05
The Pentagon notified Congress on Tuesday of a proposed sale to
Israel of 100 guided bunker-busting bombs, a move that analysts
said could prompt concerns about a unilateral Israel strike against
Iran.
Israel has requested the sale of the Lockheed Martin Corp. GBU-28s
worth as much as $30 million, the Pentagon's Defense Security
Cooperation Agency said in a notice required by law for
government-to-government military sales.
The GBU-28 was developed for penetrating hardened command centers
located deep underground and would be used by the Israeli Air Force
on their U.S.-built F-15 aircraft, the agency said...
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of
Defense
BAE Systems Applied Technologies Inc., Rockville, Md., is being
awarded a $17,959,754 not-to-exceed modification to a previously
awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00421-04-C-0069) for
engineering and technical services for Communication-Electronic
(C-E) Platforms, Systems, and Subsystems. The estimated level of
effort for this option is 270,400 man-hours. Work will be performed
in St. Inigoes, Md. (57 percent); Chesapeake, Va. (38 percent); San
Diego, Calif. (1 percent); Fayetteville, N.C. (1 percent); Ft.
Walton Beach, Fla. (1 percent); Tampa, Fla. (1 percent); and Panzer
Kaserne, Germany (1 percent), and is expected to be completed in
April 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the
current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft
Division, St. Inigoes, Md., is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., is being
awarded an $11,421,796 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to support the
FY06 award for the United Kingdom Technical Services in support of
the TRIDENT Strategic Weapons System. Work will be performed in
Sunnyvale, Calif., and is expected to be completed March 2006.
Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal
year. The contract was not competitively procured. The Navy's
Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting
activity (N00030-05-C-0039).
Engineering Services Network Inc., Arlington, Va., is being awarded
a $5,904,510 cost-plus-fixed fee,
indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide combat
systems engineering and C4I design evaluation, installation
coordination, maintenance, training, program coordination,
logistics, testing, and the development of combat system
documentation to support the Port Hueneme Division Naval Surface
Warfare Center (PHD NSWC), Port Hueneme, Calif. This contract
includes options, which if exercised, would bring the cumulative
value of the contract to $67,551,659. Work will be performed aboard
U.S. Navy ships (80 percent) and at government facilities in
Washington, D.C. (15 percent), and Port Hueneme, Calif. (5
percent), and the base year work is expected to be completed by
April 2006. Contract funds in the amount of $2,000,000 will expire
at the end of the current fiscal year. The requirement was
synopsized via Federal Business Opportunities website. The
solicitation was issued competitively, via the PHD NSWC Portal web
page and was limited to firms certified for participation in the
Small Business Administration's 8(a) Business Development Program,
with one offer received. The Port Hueneme Division Naval Surface
Warfare Center, Port Hueneme, Calif., is the contracting activity
(N63394-05-D-1269).
04/27/2005
Signature of the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS)
contract
On Thursday, 28th April, 2005, a contract will be signed between
the NATO C3 Agency and the Transatlantic Industrial Proposed
Solution (TIPS) consortium, taking forward the Alliance Ground
Surveillance (AGS) project. This contract, valued at over 20
million euros, will address a number of key issues leading to the
design and development phase of the AGS programme (valued at around
4 billion euros). At the centre of this programme is a development
of a new, cutting-edge radar that will be a joint effort by six
countries and ultimately integrated onto manned aircraft and
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
04/28/2005
Nuclear Weapons Abolition Day grundlagt af Mayors
for Peace 2003.
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04/28/2005
RETURN OF THE FALLEN
PENTAGON RELEASES HUNDREDS MORE WAR CASUALTY HOMECOMING IMAGES
:
Freedom of Information Act Forces Opening of 360 New Photos
Confirms War Casualty Honor Ceremony Images Belong In Public
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 152
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB152/index.htm
Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005 - In response to Freedom of
Information Act requests and a lawsuit, the Pentagon this week
released hundreds of previously secret images of casualties
returning to honor guard ceremonies from the Afghanistan and Iraq
wars and other conflicts, confirming that images of their
flag-draped coffins are rightfully part of the public record,
despite its earlier insistence that such images should be kept
secret.
One year after the start of a series of Freedom of Information Act
requests filed by University of Delaware Professor Ralph Begleiter
with the assistance of the National Security Archive, and six
months after a lawsuit charging the Pentagon with failing to comply
with the Act, the Pentagon made public more than 700 images of the
return of American casualties to Dover Air Force Base and other
U.S. military facilities, where the fallen troops received honor
guard ceremonies. The Pentagon officially refers to the photos as
"images of the memorial and arrival ceremonies for deceased
military personnel arriving from overseas." Many of the images show
evidence of censorship, which the Pentagon says is intended to
conceal identifiable personal information of military personnel
involved in the homecoming ceremonies.
04/28/2005
US National Academy of Sciences releases a
Congressionally-requested report on the effects of nuclear
earth-penetrator weapons (Public Law 107-314, Sec. 1033)
(tentative).
04/28/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of
Defense
Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., was
awarded on April 26, 2005, a $262,397,900 modification to a
firm-fixed-price contract for Arrowhead Units with Accompanying
Initial Spares. Work will be performed in Orlando, Fla., and is
expected to be completed by Oct. 31, 2007. Contract funds will not
expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole
source contract initiated on June 8, 2004. The Army Aviation and
Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting
activity (W58RGZ-04-C-0302).
BAE Systems Applied Technologies Inc., Rockville, Md., is being
awarded a $16,331,665 modification to a previously awarded
cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00421-02-C-3058) to exercise an
option for the procurement of an estimated quantity of 279,000
man-hours of engineering and technical services to support C4I
Communication-Electronic equipment and systems. Work will be
performed in California, Md., and is expected to be completed in
April 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the
current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft
Division, St. Inigoes, Md., is the contracting activity.
Airborne Tactical Advantage Co., Newport News, Va., is being
awarded a $9,690,791 ceiling-priced modification to a previously
awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity
contract (N00019-02-D-3158) to exercise an option for airborne
threat simulation capabilities to train shipboard and aircraft
squadron weapon systems operators and aircrew how to counter
potential enemy Electronic Warfare (EW) and Electronic Attack (EA)
operations in today's Electronic Combat (EC) environment by
utilizing super and subsonic aircraft. Work will be performed in
San Diego, Calif. (45 percent); Norfolk, Va. (45 percent), and at
various locations across the United States (10 percent); and is
expected to be completed in April 2006. Contract funds will not
expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems
Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, Sudbury, Mass., is being
awarded a $6,446,134 modification under previously awarded contract
(N00024-03-C-5117) to exercise an option for engineering technical
services relative to production of the SPY-1D (V) AEGIS Weapon
System (AWS) Transmitter Group and MK99 Fire Control System.
Specifically, these requirements include Engineering Technical
Services for: the AWS Transmitter Group (AN/SPY-1, AN/SPY-1D (V)
and AWS MK 99 Fire Control System), Microwave Tube, Theater
Ballistic Missile Defense (TDMD), Engineering Support Center
Support, Configuration Control, Engineering Support Services,
Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) (Provisioning/Supply Support,
Planned Maintenance, Support and Test equipment, Technical Data,
PHS&T) and Data. The AWS is the primary anti-air warfare
defensive weapons system onboard Ticonderoga Class Cruisers (CG)
and Arleigh Burke Class Destroyers (DDG). The heart of the AWS is
the AN/SPY-1 Radar System, a three-dimensional, air/surface search
and tracking radar. This high-powered radar is able to perform
search, track and missile guidance functions simultaneously, with
capability of over 100 targets. Work will be performed in Sudbury
(90 percent) and Andover (10 percent), Mass., and is expected to be
completed by May 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of
the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington,
D.C., is the contracting activity.
ITT Industries Systems Division, Cape Canaveral, Fla., is being
awarded a $5,701,325 contract modification that consists of two
projects. The first project provides the Eastern Launch and Test
Range System (LTRS) with metric optics subsystems that have the
capability to verify and quantitatively validate the focus quality
of large aperture, optical telescope instruments equipped with film
and Charge-Couple Device based camera sensors. The second project
is for the Automated Meteorological Profiling System Software
Upgrade. The location of performance is ITT Industries Inc.,
Systems Division, Patrick AFB, Fla., (75 percent) and 13th Street
and New Mexico Bldg 9320, Vandenberg AFB, Calif.(25 percent). Total
funds have been obligated. This work will be complete October 2007.
The Space and Missile Systems Center, Peterson Air Force Base,
Colo., is the contracting activity (04701-01-0001, P00229).
04/29/2005
The Plunder of Iraq's Treasures
http://www.monabaker.com/pMachine/articles.php?id=P2637
CARACAS - One million books, 10 million documents and 14,000
archaeological artifacts have been lost in the US-led invasion and
subsequent occupation of Iraq - the biggest cultural disaster since
the descendants of Genghis Khan destroyed Baghdad in 1258,
Venezuelan writer Fernando Baez told Inter Press Service (IPS)
"US and Polish soldiers are still stealing treasures today and
selling them across the borders with Jordan and Kuwait, where art
merchants pay up to $57,000 for a Sumerian tablet," said Baez, who
was interviewed during a brief visit to Caracas. (A Sumerian tablet
is pictured at right.)
The expert on the destruction of libraries has helped document the
devastation of cultural and religious objects in Iraq, where the
ancient Mesopotamian kingdoms of Sumer, Akkad and Babylon emerged,
giving it a reputation as the birthplace of civilization.
His inventory of the destruction and his denunciations that the
coalition forces are violating the Hague Convention of 1954 on the
protection of cultural heritage in times of war have earned him the
enmity of Washington. Baez said he was refused a visa to enter the
US to take part in conferences.
In addition, he has been barred from returning to Iraq "to carry
out further investigations", he added. "But it's too late, because
we already have documents, footage and photos that in time will
serve as evidence of the atrocities committed," said Baez, the
author of The Cultural Destruction of Iraq and A Universal History
of the Destruction of Books, which were published in Spanish.
IPS: What do you accuse the United States of doing?
FB: In first place, of violating the Hague Convention, which states
that cultural property must be protected in the event of armed
conflict. That is a criminally punishable offence, which is why
Washington has not signed the convention, or the 1999 protocol
attached to it. And perhaps it is one reason the administration of
George W Bush is seeking immunity for its soldiers. But it is not
only the United States; the rest of the coalition forces are also
guilty.
IPS: But according to the reports, it was Iraqi civilians and not
US soldiers who looted libraries and museums.
FB: But the US Army was criminally negligent, failing to protect
libraries, museums and archaeological sites despite clear warnings
from UNESCO [the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization], the UN, the University of Chicago's Oriental
Institute and the former head of the US president's Advisory
Committee on Cultural Property, Martin Sullivan. The Iraqis who
went out to loot interpreted the negligence as a green light to act
without restraint.
IPS: So the sin committed by the US was one of omission?
FB: Not only that. There was also direct destruction and looting.
In Nassiria in May 2004, a year after the formal end of
hostilities, during fighting with [Shi'ite cleric] Muqtada
al-Sadr's militants, 40,000 religious manuscripts were destroyed in
a fire [set by the coalition forces]. And when soldiers found out
that the Sumerian city of Ur [in southern Iraq] was the birthplace
of the prophet Abraham, they took ancient bricks as souvenirs.
IPS: You also accuse soldiers from other countries, besides US
troops.
FB: That's right. In late May 2004, the Italian Carabinieri were
caught trying to smuggle looted cultural artifacts over the border
into Kuwait. And the British Museum reported that Polish forces
destroyed part of Babylon's ancient ruins, to the south of
Baghdad.
IPS: Can we suppose that these events are part of phases of the
conflict that have already been left behind?
FB: No. More recently it was found that Polish troops drove heavy
vehicles near the Nebuchadnezzar Palace, which dates back to the
sixth century BC, and then covered large areas of the site with
asphalt, doing irreparable damage. There were also attempts to
gouge out bricks at the Gate of Ishtar. To that is added the
collapse of ancient walls due to the continuous passage of US
trucks and helicopters, and walls spraypainted with graffiti, like
"I was here" or "I love Mary".
IPS: Can we expect the situation to improve with time?
FB: Another accusation that can be made against the United States
is that it has created a less safe country overall, by generating
the conditions for cultural destruction, which will be even worse
in future years, due to the situation of legal insecurity. In the
days of the looting of Baghdad, US Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld went so far as to say that looting "isn't something that
someone allows or doesn't allow. It's something that happens."
Today Iraq is like a golf course for the world's terrorists, and
its cultural treasures will not be safe in the future.
IPS: What impact has there been on the United States?
IPS: One of its reactions was to rejoin UNESCO, which the US had
withdrawn from during the era of [Ronald] Reagan [1981-1989] on the
pretext that the UN agency served as "a communist front". Experts
at the US State and Defense departments are trying to mitigate the
damages. US military police helped Iraqi police track down the Lady
of Warka, dubbed the "Mona Lisa of Mesopotamia", (pictured at
right) a 5,200-year-old marble sculpture that is one of the
earliest known representations of the human face in the history of
art.
IPS: How significant are the losses?
IPS: The Lady of Warka may be worth $100 or $150 million. A
Sumerian cuneiform tablet or an Assyrian stela can fetch $57,000 at
the border. Some Iraqis have been purchasing books at used-book
markets in Baghdad to return them to the libraries. But the damage
is incalculable. In the Baghdad National Library, around one
million books were burnt, including early editions of Arabian
Nights, mathematical treatises by Omar Khayyam, and tracts by
philosophers Avicena and Averroes.
IPS: Thousands of relics were also lost from the National
Archaeological Museum.
FB: The initial reports spoke of 170,000 objects, but 25 major
artifacts as well as 14,000 less important ones actually
disappeared. An amnesty for the looters led to the recovery of
around 3,500, according to the US colonel who led the
investigations, Matthew Bogdanos. But besides the national museum
and library, the al-Awqaf library, which held over 5,000 Islamic
manuscripts, university libraries and the library of Bayt al-Hikma
also suffered. At least 10 million documents have been lost in Iraq
altogether.
IPS: Do you believe military forces have been the worst enemy of
books?
FB: No, actually I don't. I believe intellectuals are the worst
enemies. Intellectuals have burnt books in the name of the Bible or
the Koran. Vladimir Nabokov [1899-1977] burnt El Quixote in front
of his students. Destroyers like Adolph Hitler or Slobodan
Milosevic were bibliophiles. Saddam Hussein himself, an
archaeologist and philologist, published three novels. Joseph
Goebbels, the genius of Nazi propaganda, was a philologist. And
many of those who have led the US to war in Iraq are academics. It
is a paradox: the inventors of the electronic book returned to
Mesopotamia, where books, history and civilization were born, to
destroy it.
Baez has said his research into the destruction of libraries and
archives was first motivated by his painful childhood memories of a
flash flood that wiped away the library in his hometown, San Felix
in southeastern Venezuela. He cherished the municipal library
because since his parents worked, he had often been left with
relatives who worked there, and spent his days reading.
His research culminated in A Universal History of the Destruction
of Books, which documents the catastrophic loss of books during
wars, like the Library of Alexandria, which burnt down in 48 BC, or
the burning of millions of books by the Nazis.
04/29/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of Defense
Northrop Grumman PRB Systems, Hollywood, Md., is being awarded a
$24,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract. This
objective of the Joint Air Space Management and Deconfliction
program is to design, develop, test, and field a single joint
service airspace management and Deconfliction network centric
information service/system, to be included in the force employment
(Air and Space Operations Center Weapon System (AOC WS)) and/or be
included in the mission capability package in the Joint Command and
Control Capability resident on the global information grid. The Air
Force can issue delivery orders totaling up to maximum amount
indicated above, although actual requirements may necessitate less
than the amount above. At this time, $1,113,837 of the funds have
been obligated. This work will be complete by April 2011.
Solicitation began February 2005 and negotiations were completed
April 2005.
04/29/2005
Alcatel and Finmeccanica receive approval from the European
Commission
Paris/Rome, April 29, 2005
- Alcatel and Finmeccanica are delighted with the decision of the
European Commission which has given its approval for the creation
of the two companies, Alcatel Alenia Space and Telespazio.
Obtaining this agreement is linked to licence granting commitments
in areas which the European Commission considers that both
companies have strong competitive positions. This refers to
Telemetry, Tracking and Control (TTC) and radar altimeters.
Now that this major step has been concluded, the legal and
financial activities relating to the creation of both companies can
be completed. This creation should occur on 1st July 2005. Senior
manager nominations and the detailed organization of the company
will occur following implementation of the new organization.
This major project will allow Alcatel Alenia Space to become one of
the leading international companies in the field of satellites and
Telespazio to play a preeminent role in space services
activities.
About Finmeccanica, S.p.A.: Finmeccanica is Italy's leading
high-tech company, operating in the design and manufacture of
helicopters, civil and military aircraft, aerostructures, space
satellites and infrastructure, satellite services, command and
control systems, defence electronics and systems, communications,
security and IT. Finmeccanica participates in some of the largest
international programmes in the sector through well-established
alliances with European and American partners. Finmeccanica also
boasts significant manufacturing assets and skills in the transport
and energy sectors. With operations in Italy and abroad, it employs
around 51,000 staff in total. Finmeccanica spends 16 % of its
revenues on research and development. For more information, please
visit http://www.finmeccanica.it About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication
carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery
of voice, data and video applications to their customers or
employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile
broadband networks; applications and services, to help its partners
and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of
EURO 12.3 billion in 2004, Alcatel operates in more than 130
countries.
04/30/2005
The US Native American Holocaust Memorial Day.
04/30/2005
USA taber Vietnamkrigen, 1975.
04/30/2005
Danmarks Fredsråds generalforsamling
På Danmarks Fredsråds generalforsamling i
Vanløse er der i weekenden vedtaget følgende
udtalelse:
"Irak skal bestemme i eget hus - med støtte fra det
internationale samfund".
Irak-krigen var klart i strid med folkeretten.
FN's medlemslande er bundet af FN-pagten, som forbyder
krigshandlinger, undtagen i to veldefinerede tilfælde, nemlig
når Sikkerhedsrådet beslutter militære skridt for
at opretholde eller genoprette fred og sikkerhed, eller når
der tale om selvforsvarshandlinger.
Den omstændighed, at enkelte lande forbeholdt sig ret til at
starte krigen uden om Sikkerhedsrådet, er ikke alene i strid
med folkeretten. Det har også betydet en splittelse og
svækkelse af FN-systemet. Medlemmerne af koalitionen,
heriblandt Danmark, har ansvaret for dette brud på
folkeretten og for de skader, det har påført
FN-systemet.
Den måde, Irak-krigen er blevet ført på, har
også vist sig at være forfejlet. Den fredsskabende
proces har været dårligt forberedt, og
koalitionsstyrkernes forsøg på at nedkæmpe
modstanden har kostet, og koster fortsat, mange menneskeliv.
Det er Danmarks Fredsråds opfattelse, at en stærkere
rolle for FN vil være en forudsætning for
fredsopbygning, for genopbygning af landet og indførelse af
demokrati. Vi anbefaler derfor, at Danmark i FN's
Sikkerhedsråd arbejder for, at der indgås en aftale
mellem koalitionen og FN om en udfasning af koalitionens rolle i
takt med, at FN i tæt samarbejde med landets myndigheder
overtager kontrollen over både det militære og det
civile område.
Danmarks Fredsråd foreslår, at Danmark i FN går i
spidsen med at give tilsagn om betydelige økonomiske og
humanitære bidrag til en kommende FN fredsmission til Irak,
men det bør være udelukket, at Danmark eller andre
medlemmer af koalitionen deltager med soldater i en sådan
mission. Den danske regering bør derfor snarest trække
sine soldater hjem fra Irak. Danmarks Fredsråd foreslår
endvidere, at det irakiske civilsamfund støttes gennem et
folk-til-folk- og NGO-samarbejde, og at Danmark arbejder aktivt for
en gennemførelse af FN's Sikkerhedsråds resolution
1325 (kvinder, fred og sikkerhed) i Irak.
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