January 24, 2013

Military Contracting: Our New Era of Corporate Mercenaries

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/24-3



Private military contracting has ballooned into an industry worth more than $100bn a year.

Military Contracting: Our New Era of Corporate Mercenaries
by Arjun Sethi
Published on Thursday, January 24, 2013 by The Guardian/UK

~snip~

The privatization of conflict is no longer a trend. It's the norm.

The United States relied so heavily on contractors during the recent Iraq war that no one knows with certainty how many were on the ground. In late 2010, the United Arab Emirates, fearful that the Arab uprisings might spread to the Gulf, paid Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater Worldwide, $529m to create an elite force to safeguard the emirate. And today, Russia is openly considering forming a cadre of private military contractors to further its interests abroad.

Yet, the laws that govern this industry tell a different story. Instead of a transnational system with meaningful collaboration, we have a patchwork of state laws that allow companies to forum-shop and circumvent regulations. Contractors can likewise relocate, as they typically rent the equipment necessary to complete their contracts; their primary source of capital is human, not physical.

In addition to closing loopholes, states must monitor contractors, and prosecute them when they commit crimes. To this day, not a single contractor has been successfully prosecuted for its role in the Abu Ghraib prison atrocities or the Nisour Square massacre, in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed.



on edit to add the report on Wartime Contracting: http://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/cwc/20110929231911/http://www.wartimecontracting.gov/index.php

January 23, 2013

Pentagon, industry seek answers on issue that grounded F-35B

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/22/us-lockheed-fighter-grounding-idUSBRE90L13T20130122

Pentagon, industry seek answers on issue that grounded F-35B
WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 22, 2013 5:38pm EST

(Reuters) - Pentagon and industry officials worked through the weekend to determine what caused the failure of a fuel line on the Marine Corps version of Lockheed Martin Corp's s (LMT.N) F-35 fighter jet that prompted the plane's grounding on Friday.

A spokesman for Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp (UTX.N) that builds the engines for the jets, said those involved included officials from Stratoflex, a unit of Parker Hannifin Corp (PH.N) that built the fuel line.

~snip~

Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the Pentagon's F-35 program office, said on Tuesday it was too soon to say when the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) model of the radar-evading new jet could return to flight, since the investigation was continuing.

~snip~

The Pentagon's F-35 program office announced the grounding of all 25 F-35B model jets on Friday after a fuel line associated with the B-model's exhaust system failed prior to takeoff during a training flight.



unhappycamper comment: At the moment we have over $6 billion dollars (25 x $250 million dollars) of Lockheed paperweights sitting on the ground while the Lockheed wizards figure out why.

January 23, 2013

Drones Provoke Growing Controversy in US

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/01/23-0



$26+ million dollar Predator drone firing $160 grand Hellfire missile

Drones Provoke Growing Controversy in US
by Jim Lobe
Published on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 by Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON - As Barack Obama renews his lease on the White House for another four years, his administration is debating how best to respond to a growing internal and public controversy over his first term’s non-battlefield counter-terrorist weapon of choice: armed drones.

For months, senior administration officials have reportedly been haggling over the terms of a so-called “playbook” for the use of drones against suspected terrorists that will provide detailed rules for who will be included on so-called “kill lists”, under what circumstances drones can be used to kill them, and what agency can do the killing.

How the debate turns out could be critical to Obama’s hopes of reducing the size of Washington’s military “footprint” in the Middle East, notably by withdrawing ground forces while still pursuing a counter-terrorist strategy to disrupt and destroy Al-Qaeda and its affiliates. Over the past four years, drone strikes have played the pre-eminent role in that strategy.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which operates the drone programme in Pakistan and shares responsibility for drone operations with Pentagon forces in Yemen, has reportedly argued for greater leeway in carrying out strikes.

~snip~

“…(I)f the United States decides not to apply the, quote, playbook to Pakistan, it’s essentially meaningless, because 85 percent of all the targeted killings that the U.S. has conducted in non-battlefield settings since 9/11 have occurred in Pakistan,” said Micah Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) whose recently published report, “Reforming U.S. Drone Strike Policies”, is shaping much of the current debate.

January 22, 2013

U.S. gift of F-16 fighters headed to Egypt, despite Morsi's harsh rhetoric

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/22/gift-us-f-16-fighter-jets-en-route-to-egypt-amid-criticism/



U.S. gift of F-16 fighters headed to Egypt, despite Morsi's harsh rhetoric
By Maxim Lott
Published January 22, 2013
Faux Noise

Four F-16 fighter jets left the U.S. this morning, bound for Egypt as part of a foreign aid package critics say should have been scrapped when the nation elected a president who has called President Obama a liar and urged that hatred of Jews be instilled in children.

A source who works on the Naval Air Force Base in Dallas confirmed the departure of the state-of-the-art fighter planes to FoxNews.com. Sixteen F-16s and 200 Abrams tanks are to be given to the Egyptian government before the end of the year under a $216 million foreign aid deal signed in 2010 with then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a longtime U.S. ally..

Critics, including several in Congress, say it doesn't make sense to follow through with the package, given that new Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, elected last summer, has given decidedly mixed signals about relations with the U.S. While he has toned down his rhetoric since his election, in 2010 - the same year the aid package was struck - Morsi attacked Obama for supporting Israel.

“One American president after another — and most recently, that Obama — talks about American guarantees for the safety of the Zionists in Palestine," Morsi, then a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said on Egyptian television in reaction to Obama's 2009 speech in Cairo. "[Obama] was very clear when he uttered his empty words on the land of Egypt. He uttered many lies, of which he couldn’t have fulfilled a single word, even if he were sincere — which he is not.”

January 22, 2013

US begins transporting French troops to Mali

http://www.macon.com/2013/01/22/2325584/islamist-rebels-gone-from-malian.html



An elderley man looks at the charred remains of a truck used by radical Islamists on the outskirt of Diabaly, Mali, some 460kms (320 miles) North of the capital Bamako Monday Jan. 21, 2013. French and Malian troops took control Monday of the town of Diabaly, patrolling the streets in armored personnel carriers and inspecting the charred remains of a pickup truck with a mounted machine gun left behind by the fleeing militants.

US begins transporting French troops to Mali
By KRISTA LARSON and BABA AHMED — The Associated Press
Published: January 22, 2013 Updated 46 minutes ago

SEGOU, Mali — U.S. Africa Command says American planes have begun transporting French troops and equipment in support of the country's mission in Mali.

Tom Saunders, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany said Tuesday that the U.S. Air Force C-17 transport began flights on Monday from the French base in Istres, France, to Bamako.

He said two flights arrived in Bamako on Monday and a third arrived Tuesday morning.

Saunders said the missions will operate over the next several days. He said he could not give any details on how many more flights were envisioned for operational security reasons, and referred any questions about how much equipment and how many soldiers were being transported to the French Ministry of Defense.

January 22, 2013

Army general expected to enter plea on sex charges

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jan/22/army-general-expected-to-enter-plea-on-sex-charges/



Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair

Army general expected to enter plea on sex charges
By MICHAEL BIESECKER
Associated Press 12:16 a.m.Jan. 22, 2013

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — An Army general facing court-martial was set to enter his plea Tuesday on a series of sexual misconduct charges.

Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair was scheduled for arraignment before a military judge, at which time he would be formally informed of the charges against him and offered an opportunity to plead either guilty or not guilty.

Though the Army has not yet released the final charges against Sinclair, a preliminary list included forcible sodomy, wrongful sexual conduct, violating orders, engaging in inappropriate relationships and adultery.

A 27-year Army veteran who served five combat tours, Sinclair faces life in prison if convicted on the most serious offenses.

January 22, 2013

US Navy Ship Ignored Warning Before Ramming Pristine Coral Reef

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/01/21-1



The Tubbataha Reef Marine Park

US Navy Ship Ignored Warning Before Ramming Pristine Coral Reef
Craig Brown, staff writer
Published on Monday, January 21, 2013 by Common Dreams

The US Navy minesweeper that smashed into the World Heritage-listed coral reef off the Philippines coast last week ignored warnings to avoid the area, according to a Philippine government official.

The comments from the superintendent of Tubbataha Marine Park, Angelique Songco, added to growing anger in the Philippines over the incident, for which the US Navy may face fines.

According to The Navy Times, the 79 US Navy personnel aboard abandoned ship and the minesweeper is taking on water, “multiple spaces” are flooded.

Park rangers radioed the USS Guardian to advise it was nearing the Tubbataha Reef on Thursday, but the ship captain radioed back telling park rangers to bring their complaint to the US embassy, Ms Songco told reporters on Monday.



A photo released on Jan. 20, 2013 by the Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Command (AFP-WESCOM) shows the US Navy ship USS Guardian remaining stuck in the vicinity of the Tubbataha Reef, western Philippines, on Jan. 19.

January 22, 2013

CIA drone strikes will get pass in counterterrorism ‘playbook,’ officials say

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-drone-strikes-will-get-pass-in-counterterrorism-playbook-officials-say/2013/01/19/ca169a20-618d-11e2-9940-6fc488f3fecd_story.html?hpid=z1


A counterterrorism manual designed to establish rules for targeted drone strikes leaves open major exemptions for drone strikes in Pakistan, U.S. officials say.

CIA drone strikes will get pass in counterterrorism ‘playbook,’ officials say
By Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima and Karen DeYoung, Published: January 19

The Obama administration is nearing completion of a detailed counterterrorism manual that is designed to establish clear rules for targeted-killing operations but leaves open a major exemption for the CIA’s campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan, U.S. officials said.

The carve-out would allow the CIA to continue pounding al-Qaeda and Taliban targets for a year or more before the agency is forced to comply with more stringent rules spelled out in a classified document that officials have described as a counterterrorism “playbook.”

~snip~

A senior U.S. official involved in drafting the document said that a few issues remain unresolved but described them as minor. The senior U.S. official said the playbook “will be done shortly.”

The adoption of a formal guide to targeted killing marks a significant — and to some uncomfortable — milestone: the institutionalization of a practice that would have seemed anathema to many before the Sept. 11 , 2001, terrorist attacks.

January 22, 2013

Denial still is a river in Egypt

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/OA23Ak02.html



Denial still is a river in Egypt
By Spengler
Jan 23, 2013

Denial, it turns out, really is a river in Egypt. I refer not to the world's longest waterway, but the world's largest outpouring of pious expressions of confidence in Egypt by American and European politicians. Infusions of real cash, to be sure, could delay Egypt's deterioration into a failed state, but not by long, because the country requires more than US$20 billion a year simply to meet its basic needs, and Western governments will not provide that much money.

As Egypt's foreign exchange reserves dipped below what the central bank called a critical minimum and the country's currency began sinking, the country cut imports of essentials such as oil earlier this month. Reuters reported January 8, "State-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has only purchased 3 million barrels of crude oil for the first quarter of this year, half of what it was seeking in a tender, traders said. That content tender was already considered insufficient to supply Egypt's refineries, even at reduced running rates. 'Of course it's not enough, they need more - but no money,' a trader, active in the East Mediterranean oil market said."

Even before government cut back oil imports by half, 15 Egyptian power stations, representing more than a tenth of the country's installed capacity, had stopped generating power, the daily al-Ahram reported December 28.

Egypt is running out of everything, except well-wishers from the Western foreign policy establishment, for which the Arab Spring has been a humiliating proposition. After a year of attempts to reinforce the Sunni opposition in Syria, the West is left with an insurgency dominated by radical jihadists, and an Assad regime that continues to draw support from minorities who fear the Sunnis even more than they fear Assad. In Libya, the US helped overthrow Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and for its trouble got a dead ambassador and roving bands of terrorists equipped with the best of the Libyan arsenal.

January 22, 2013

War on terror forever

http://atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/OA23Dj06.html



War on terror forever
By Pepe Escobar
Jan 23, 2013

And the winner of the Oscar for Best Sequel of 2013 goes to... The Global War on Terror (GWOT), a Pentagon production. Abandon all hope those who thought the whole thing was over with the cinematographic snuffing out of "Geronimo", aka Osama bin Laden, further reduced to a fleeting cameo in the torture-enabling flick Zero Dark Thirty.

It's now official - coming from the mouth of the lion, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, and duly posted at the AFRICOM site, the Pentagon's weaponized African branch.

Exit "historical" al-Qaeda, holed up somewhere in the Waziristans, in the Pakistani tribal areas; enter al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). In Dempsey's words, AQIM "is a threat not only to the country of Mali, but the region, and if... left unaddressed, could in fact become a global threat."

With Mali now elevated to the status of a "threat" to the whole world, GWOT is proven to be really open-ended. The Pentagon doesn't do irony; when, in the early 2000s, armchair warriors coined the expression "The Long War", they really meant it.



unhappycamper comment: For those of you not familiar with Vietnam, this is another do-over.

After WWII, the United States paid around 70% of France's cost to recolonize French Indochina. After the French got booted out of Vietnam in 1954, American advisors were on the ground to protect "American business interests". Or to protect us from communists; who knows?

How many simultaneous wars can we afford to have? How many of them can we put on the National credit card?