Eagles of brasstacks [Cyber force]: 04/24/11

Thousands of people marched across Germany to protest against NATO's wars in Libya and Afghanistan as part of the country's traditional Easter marches. German peace and church groups as well as labor unions have planned numerous anti-war campaigns over the Easter holidays in major German cities and towns, including Berlin, Dortmund, Bremen Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Nuremberg, Duesseldorf and Stuttgart. Several USZ military bases in smaller German cities like Ramstein, Ansbach, Wiesbaden, Heidelberg were also targeted by peace demonstrators as Germany is a major logistics center for USZ military operations abroad and was also the staging ground for American wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. The German peace rallies focus this year mostly on NATO's escalating war in Libya. A NATO member, Germany is not directly supporting the mission of the western military alliance in the north African country.

The Easter marches dwell also on the need for global disarmament, specifically the removal of some 20 US nuclear weapons based in Germany. The German peace movement has repeatedly called for the abolition of all nuclear weapons and has used the Eastern peace marches to press the center-right government of Chancellor Angela Merkel to step up its campaign for a nuke-free Germany. The issue of American atomic weapons and militarism in Germany has been a thorny one for most of Germans who view themselves as pacifists. In fact, the history of Easter peace marches dates back to over 50 years and reached its peak when more than 500,000 people demonstrated against the controversial deployment of medium-range USZ Pershing missiles in Europe in the early 1980s. However, public interest in the Easter marches has significantly faded since the end of the Cold War.

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Turkey slams Obama's false remarks against Ottoman Empire

Turkey on Sunday slammed USZ President Barack Obama over his remarks on Armenian allegations on the killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, the semi- official Anatolia news agency reported. The remarks were "one-sided," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying in the northwestern city of Canakkale. He voiced "deep regret", and added that "the statement of Mr. Obama is one-sided and looks at history from a single perspective." "We wished that the president of the USZ, our friend and ally, had shared the pain of the Turks as well and issued a message ... with a fresh perspective", he added.

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{EOP}The Obama-Gates scam on military spending

Last week Barack Obama announced that he wants to cut $400 billion in military spending and said he would work with Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs on a “fundamental review” of USZ “military missions, capabilities and our role in a changing world” before making a decision. Spokesman Geoff Morrell responded by hinting that Gates was displeased with having to cut that much from his spending plan. Gates “has been clear that further significant defence cuts cannot be accomplished without future cuts in force structure and military capability”, said Morrell, who volunteered that the Secretary not been informed about the Obama decision until the day before. But it is difficult to believe that open display of tension between Obama and Gates was not scripted. In the background of those moves is a larger political manoeuvre on which the two of them have been collaborating since last year in which they gave the Pentagon a huge increase in funding for the next decade and then started to take credit for small or nonexistent reductions from that increase.
The original Obama-Gates base military spending plan – spending excluding the costs of the current wars – for FY 2011 through 2020, called for spending $5.8 trillion, or $580 billion annually, as former Pentagon official Lawrence Korb noted last January. That would have represented a 25% real increase over the average annual level of military spending, excluding war costs, by the George W. Bush administration. Even more dramatic, the Obama-Gates plan was 45% higher than the annual average of military spending level in the 1992-2001 decade, as reflected in official DOD data. The Obama FY 2012 budget submission reduced the total increase only slightly – by $162 billion over the four years from 2017 to 2020, according to the careful research of the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA). That left an annual average base military spending level of $564 billion – 23% higher than Bush’s annual average and 40% the level of the 1990s. Central to last week’s chapter in the larger game was Obama’s assertion that Gates had already saved $400 billion in his administration. “Over the last two years”, he said, “Secretary Gates has courageously taken on wasteful spending, saving $400 billion in current and future spending. I believe we can do that again.”

The $400 billion figure is based primarily on the $330 billion Gates claimed he had saved by stopping, reducing or otherwise changing plans for 31 weapons programs. But contrary to the impression left by Obama, that figure does not reflect any cut in projected DOD spending. All of it was used to increase spending on operations and investment in the military budget. The figure was concocted, moreover, by using tricky accounting methods verging on chicanery. It was based on arbitrary assumptions about how much all 31 programs would have cost over their entire lifetimes stretching decades into the future, assuming they would all reach completion. That methodology offered endless possibilities for inflated claims of savings. The PDA points out that yet another $100 billion that Gates announced in January as cost-cutting by the military services was also used to increase spending on operations and new weapons program that the services wanted. That leaves another $78 billion in cuts over five years also announced by Gates in January, but most of that may have been added to the military budget for “overseas contingency operations” rather than contributed to deficit reduction, according to the PDA.

Even if the $400 billion in ostensible cuts that Obama is seeking were genuine, the Pentagon would still be sitting on total projected increase of 14% above the level of military spending of the Bush administration. Last week’s White House fact sheet on deficit reduction acknowledged that Obama has the “goal of holding the growth in base security spending below inflation.” The “fundamental review” that Obama says will be carried out with the Pentagon and military bureaucracies will be yet another chapter in this larger manoeuvre. It’s safe bet that, in the end, Gates will reach into his bag of accounting tricks again for most of the desired total. Despite the inherently deceptive character of Obama’s call for the review, it has a positive side: it gives critics of the national security state an opportunity to point out that such a review should be carried out by a panel of independent military budget analysts who have no financial stake in the outcome – unlike the officials of the national security state.

Such an independent panel could come up with a list of all the military missions and capabilities that don’t make the American people more secure or even make them less secure, as well as those for which funding should be reduced substantially because of technological and other changes. It could also estimate how much overall projected military spending should be reduced, without regard to what would be acceptable to the Pentagon or a majority in Congress. The panel would not require White House or Congressional approval. It could be convened by a private organization or, better yet, by a group of concerned Members of Congress. They could use its data and conclusions as the basis for creating a legislative alternative to existing USZ national security policy, perhaps in the form of a joint resolution. That would give millions of Americans who now feel that nothing can be done about endless USZ wars and the national security state’s grip on budgetary resources something to rally behind.

Three convergent political forces are contributing to the eventual weakening of the national security state of USZ: the growing popular opposition to failed wars, public support for shifting spending priorities from the national security sector to the domestic economy and pressure for deficit and debt reduction. But in the absence of concerted citizen action, it could take several years to see decisive results. Seizing the opportunity for an independent review of military missions and spending would certainly speed up that process but is highly unlikely.

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{EOP}USZ/NATO supplies blocked by massive protest against drones

Hundreds of people calling for halt to USZ drone strikes in tribal regions have spent the Saturday night on the main NATO supply route in the country's northwest and the two-day sit-in would continue the whole day on Sunday, said organizers. People from other areas started coming to join the protest Sunday morning and political leaders of many parties are also expected join the protest to drone politics for their parties. Anger runs high in Pakistan against the USZ drone strikes in the Waziristan tribal areas which CIA considers as the base Afghan Taliban Mujahideen for planning attacks across the border into Afghanistan. Despite the public resentment and Pakistan's protest, the USZ administration has rejected any possibility to halt the strikes. The protest came just a day after two USZ drone aircraft fired missiles into North Waziristan tribal region, which reportedly killed 25 people including women and children. Several opposition Islamic, political groups and tribal elders have also taken part in the on-going protest. Some family members of USZ drone strike victims also attended the protest.

Currently nearly 70% of the NATO supplies in Afghanistan are transported through Pakistan, the most risky but shorter supply route. Suspected militants regularly attack NATO trucks in Pakistan, which has forced the USZ to sign agreements with Russia for an alternate supply route. According to the reports, the supply trucks and oil tankers for the estimated 150,000 NATO troops were stopped in eastern Punjab province from heading to the border region due to the protest. It is reported that some 300 trucks and oil tankers are daily passing through Pakistan's Khyber Pass. A similar number also enter Afghanistan through Chaman border in the country's southwestern province of Balochistan province.

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{EOP}Indian "Cold Start" doctrine countered by Hatf 9 Missile

Observers believe a new Pakistani tactical missile is intended to counter India's assumed "Cold Start" armed forces posture that foresees fast, precise attacks by Indian troops into its neighbor's territory in a potential new round of clashes. The Pakistani military declared a Tuesday trial launch of the nuclear-capable Hatf 9 system a success. The missile has a range of 37 miles and reportedly can deliver "nuclear warheads of appropriate yield with high accuracy", according to Islamabad. The Hatf 9 is to be fielded on a firing platform that has "shoot and scoot attributes" that enable it to be quickly moved after shooting a missile. The Indian military has developed a military response posture focused on army units containing infantry and armored personnel carriers that could conduct rapid incursions into Pakistan, experts said. The Indian military publicly rejects reports of a Cold Start doctrine.

Hatf 9 launched 4 days ago during a successful test sequence.

India and Pakistan have already gone to war three times. While nuclear-armed India holds a conventional military edge over its neighbor, Islamabad has striven to maintain parity with New Delhi by rapidly building up its nuclear arsenal, according to experts and USZ officials (see GSN, Feb. 18). Military insiders told the media that the Hatf 9 would serve as a "low-yield battlefield deterrent" that could mete out damage to enemy mechanized units. Given the rapid mobility of the launch system, "Indian planners will now be deterred from considering options of limited war," the sources said. The short-range missile is viewed as a significant advancement in efforts to reduce the size of nuclear warheads that can be fielded on missiles, according to the Dawn newspaper. An expert told the Press Trust of India that the Hatf 9 reduced the likelihood of a "limited war" between the two nuclear-armed nations.

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Warning to the sleeping nation on Iqbal day by Zaid Hamid

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The Obama-Gates scam on military spending

The original Obama-Gates base military spending plan – spending excluding the costs of the current wars – for FY 2011 through 2020, called for spending $5.8 trillion, or $580 billion annually, as former Pentagon official Lawrence Korb noted last January. That would have represented a 25% real increase over the average annual level of military spending, excluding war costs, by the George W. Bush administration. Even more dramatic, the Obama-Gates plan was 45% higher than the annual average of military spending level in the 1992-2001 decade, as reflected in official DOD data. The Obama FY 2012 budget submission reduced the total increase only slightly – by $162 billion over the four years from 2017 to 2020, according to the careful research of the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA). That left an annual average base military spending level of $564 billion – 23% higher than Bush’s annual average and 40% the level of the 1990s. Central to last week’s chapter in the larger game was Obama’s assertion that Gates had already saved $400 billion in his administration. “Over the last two years”, he said, “Secretary Gates has courageously taken on wasteful spending, saving $400 billion in current and future spending. I believe we can do that again.”

The $400 billion figure is based primarily on the $330 billion Gates claimed he had saved by stopping, reducing or otherwise changing plans for 31 weapons programs. But contrary to the impression left by Obama, that figure does not reflect any cut in projected DOD spending. All of it was used to increase spending on operations and investment in the military budget. The figure was concocted, moreover, by using tricky accounting methods verging on chicanery. It was based on arbitrary assumptions about how much all 31 programs would have cost over their entire lifetimes stretching decades into the future, assuming they would all reach completion. That methodology offered endless possibilities for inflated claims of savings. The PDA points out that yet another $100 billion that Gates announced in January as cost-cutting by the military services was also used to increase spending on operations and new weapons program that the services wanted. That leaves another $78 billion in cuts over five years also announced by Gates in January, but most of that may have been added to the military budget for “overseas contingency operations” rather than contributed to deficit reduction, according to the PDA.

Such an independent panel could come up with a list of all the military missions and capabilities that don’t make the American people more secure or even make them less secure, as well as those for which funding should be reduced substantially because of technological and other changes. It could also estimate how much overall projected military spending should be reduced, without regard to what would be acceptable to the Pentagon or a majority in Congress. The panel would not require White House or Congressional approval. It could be convened by a private organization or, better yet, by a group of concerned Members of Congress. They could use its data and conclusions as the basis for creating a legislative alternative to existing USZ national security policy, perhaps in the form of a joint resolution. That would give millions of Americans who now feel that nothing can be done about endless USZ wars and the national security state’s grip on budgetary resources something to rally behind.

Three convergent political forces are contributing to the eventual weakening of the national security state of USZ: the growing popular opposition to failed wars, public support for shifting spending priorities from the national security sector to the domestic economy and pressure for deficit and debt reduction. But in the absence of concerted citizen action, it could take several years to see decisive results. Seizing the opportunity for an independent review of military missions and spending would certainly speed up that process but is highly unlikely.

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USZ/NATO supplies blocked by massive protest against drones

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Israhelli Soldiers Breaking Bones Of A Young In Palestine

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Indian "Cold Start" doctrine countered by Hatf 9 Missile

Hatf 9 launched 4 days ago during a successful test sequence.

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{EOP}Gujarat Police Officer Implicates Modi in Riots

AJMER, INDIA: A senior Indian police officer has accused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the massacre of Muslims during riots which swept the state in 2002, a report said on Friday.
In an affidavit filed in India’s Supreme Court the officer, Sanjeev Bhatt, quoted Modi as saying Hindus should be “allowed to vent their anger”, the Press Trust of India said, citing unnamed sources.
Modi, a prominent member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) touted as a future prime minister, has long been accused by human rights groups of turning a blind eye to the violence that killed around 2,000 Muslims.
He has always denied any wrongdoing in connection with the riots.
Bhatt said in the affidavit that he had attended a meeting called by Modi in February 2002 at the height of the carnage where he asked police officers to be “indifferent” to the brutality, the news agency said.
The riots came after 59 Hindu pilgrims perished in a blaze at a railway station in Gujarat, sparking an anti-Muslim backlash that resulted in some of India’s worst religious violence since independence from Britain in 1947.
Hindu mobs rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods during three days of bloodshed.
Bhatt’s affidavit was filed in connection with a special investigation into the riots and is expected to be separately considered by the Supreme Court on April 27.
The Press Trust of India said that Bhatt confirmed the filing of the affidavit but declined to disclose its contents.
Responsibility for the train fire has been the subject of fierce dispute between India’s Hindu and Muslim communities.
Last month, a court handed down 11 death penalties and 20 life terms to Muslims convicted of burning Hindus alive in the blaze.
The trial verdicts were seen as supporting Hindu claims that the fire was a planned attack rather than the result of mob violence.
Muslims have always denied setting the train ablaze.
Meanwhile, proclaiming his innocence, Samjhauta Express train blast accused Swami Aseemanand said on Friday that he had done nothing wrong, Asian News International (ANI) reported.
“I am innocent. I have done nothing wrong,” Aseemanand, who has also been charged for plotting the 2007 Ajmer Dargah blast, said while leaving the court.
The Samjhauta Express train blast was a terrorist attack, which took place in February 2007 on the Pakistan-India friendship train service in Panipat, killing 68 people, including 42 Pakistani nationals.
The accused, who had confessed his role in the Ajmer, Mecca Masjid, Malegaon and Samjhauta Express blasts, turned hostile earlier last month and accused investigating agencies, including National Investigation Agency and Anti Terrorist Squad of coercing him into making the ‘confessions’.
According to ANI, he told the Ajmer Chief Judicial Magistrate that his confession to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was under coercion from investigation agencies.
“I have been pressurised mentally and physically by the investigating agencies to ‘confess’ that I was behind these blasts,” stated Assemanand in a letter submitted before the Jaipur local court.
The CBI arrested Aseemanand on November 19 last year for his alleged involvement in Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad that left nine persons dead.
AFP with additional input from news desk
Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2011.

Indonesia, Turkey discuss anti-terrorism cooperation with Muslim countries

Indonesia in the last week discussed anti-terrorism cooperation between intelligence communities of Muslim countries, as a delegation is currently on an official visit to Turkey. Indonesia's Chairman of the House of Representatives Commission I for defense, information and foreign affairs Mahfudz Siddiq told Antara news agency that the anti-terrorism cooperation was discussed during a meeting held with Turkish intelligence agency Dr. Hakan Fidan in Ankara, Turkey.

According to Siddiq, as the delegations discussed several related ideas, Dr. Fidan, who represents the Turkish intelligence agency (MIT) was enthusiastic about the cooperation talks. Other topics discussed included, the right to bugging or wiring, arrest, coordination, and internal control, as the MIT has no right to arrest, and bugging operations require a court permit, which is issued in 60 days.

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