Biden brings tough love to Georgia

By DOUGLAS BIRCH, Associated Press Writer

TBILISI, Georgia – A year after Georgia's disastrous war with Russia, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden assured the small country on Thursday that the United States stands behind it in their continuing conflicts with their region's dominant power.

But his message was tempered by tough love.

While saying Russia should withdraw its forces from two separatist Georgian regions, Biden also said Georgia should abandon any hopes of reclaiming those regions by force.

Further, he assured that the United States would stand behind Georgia's sovereignty, but Georgia must still strive to build a democratic society, six years after its peaceful Rose Revolution ousted a Soviet-era leader and brought President Mikhail Saakashvili to power.

"Your Rose Revolution will only be complete when government is transparent, accountable and fully participatory, when issues are debated inside this chamber, not only out on the streets," Biden told federal and local officials from across the former Soviet republic.

Georgia's opposition has held street protests since April to call for Saakashvili to step down, saying he has grown increasingly authoritarian.

Few nations are more pro-American than Georgia, and the audience listened in rapt silence for most of the speech delivered in the ornate chamber of the country's parliament building.

But Biden won several standing ovations when he criticized Russia's actions during and after its August 2008 war with Georgia. He pledged that the Obama administration would not abandon Georgia even as it sought to mend relations with Moscow, badly damaged by the Russian-Georgian war.

"I come here on behalf of the United States with a simple, straightforward message: We, the United States, stand by you on your journey to a secure, free and democratic, and once again united, Georgia," Biden said, bringing the audience to its feet.

After the outbreak of fighting in the separatist-held territory of South Ossetia, Russia sent tanks, troops and warplanes deep into Georgia in August.

Moscow later recognized the independence claims of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a separatist-held territory on the Black Sea. Only Nicaragua has followed suit.

Biden told the crowd that Georgia's best hope for reclaiming its lost territories wasn't military action — it was building a free, prosperous society that those territories would want to join.

"It's a sad certainty but it is true, there is no military option to reintegration," he said.

Saakashvili welcomed Biden's visit, saying it demonstrated the strong bonds between the two nations.

Biden also met with opposition leaders, who later praised the message he brought and his support for Georgia's sovereignty.

Irakly Alasania, a Saakashvili critic and former Georgian ambassador to the United Nations, lauded Biden's call for political and social reforms.

Biden told opposition leaders the U.S. stood behind the country, not Saakashvili individually, and "that the choice of president and a government is a matter for the Georgian people and not for any other state," said Nino Burdzhanadze, a former speaker of parliament.

Biden delivered the speech near the end of his two-day visit to Tbilisi, during which he and Saakashvili have discussed economic aid and a proposal for $16 million next year for military training and reorganization, officials on both sides said.

Biden's national security adviser Tony Blinken and a senior Georgian adviser denied that Saakashvili had asked Biden for anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons and U.S. participation in an EU observer mission along its border with the disputed regions. The U.S. official who had told that to reporters earlier Thursday said later he had spoken in error.

Saakashvili has previously expressed a strong interest in acquiring U.S. weapons as he seeks to rebuild his military after the war, and Georgian officials in recent days have said they wanted the U.S. to join the observer mission.

But Blinken said the Georgians have not formally requested heavy weapons, and that the EU has not invited U.S. participation in the mission. Blinken did not rule out the U.S. providing either after a formal request.

In Moscow, the government said it would not stand by while Georgia was resupplied with weapons.

"We will continue inhibiting rearmament of the Saakashvili regime," Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Georgia is one of the world's biggest recipients of U.S. foreign aid, receiving about $1 billion from Washington over the past year — most toward reconstruction and humanitarian relief.

Saakashvili said he remarked to Biden during a meal: "I told you there was no such thing as a free dinner in Georgia."

Israel concerned over US "umbrella" on Iran

By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – A series of failed tests of a joint U.S.-Israel anti-missile system raised new questions Thursday about the U.S. goal of providing an "umbrella" to defend its allies against an Iranian nuclear attack.

The technological setbacks also drew renewed attention to Israel's concerns about a nuclear-armed Iran and the possibility that it might lean further in the direction of a go-it alone strike against the country's atomic facilities.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's offer this week of a "defense umbrella" over its Gulf Arab allies to prevent Tehran from dominating the region "once they have a nuclear weapon" was widely seen in Israel as an acceptance of a nuclear-armed Iran. She later tried to dispel that view, but her comments sparked criticism by Israeli officials.

Israel considers Iran its most dangerous enemy because of its nuclear program, long-range missile development and repeated references by its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Israel's destruction. Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but Israel and the U.S. reject that.

Adding to the urgency was word Wednesday from the head of the Russian nuclear agency that Iran's new atomic power plant will be switched on later this year.

For a decade, Israel has been presenting its "Arrow" anti-missile system, developed and jointly funded with the U.S., as an answer to medium-range Iranian missiles that might carry nuclear warheads. Tested repeatedly, the Arrow system has often succeeded in intercepting dummy incoming missiles, to great fanfare.

But just as Clinton worried Israelis by speaking of an umbrella over U.S. allies threatened by Iran, word came of three test failures in the Arrow system over the past week. The latest was in California, where a test was aborted before the Arrow missile could be launched because of a communications failure, according to Israeli defense officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the tests.

Experts played down the importance of the failures. "Arrow has had a pretty successful test program," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org. "I wouldn't be overly concerned about a problem like this."

Uzi Rubin, former director of the Arrow project, agreed. "It's really not a very serious glitch in the system that would require going back to the drawing board," he said.

But the failures underlined the complexity of the whole anti-missile concept, which has been compared to throwing a rock in the air and trying to hit it with another rock. Israeli media personalities wondered if any system could protect Israel if multiple rockets were fired together.

If Clinton's "umbrella" offer, made in a television interview in Thailand, was meant to reassure nervous Israelis, it had the opposite effect.

Dan Meridor, Israel's minister of intelligence and atomic energy, was critical of Clinton's implications.

He said it appeared "as if they have already come to terms with a nuclear Iran. I think that's a mistake." He told Army Radio, "I think that at this time it is correct not to deal with the assumption that Iran will obtain nuclear capability, but to prevent that from happening."

Ever since President Barack Obama took office with a pledge to explore diplomatic contacts with Iran, Israeli officials have voiced concerns that talks would give Iran more time to develop nuclear weapons. Israelis have also suspected that the Obama administration was planning for a future Mideast that included a nuclear-armed Iran — something Israel would consider a threat to its existence.

Hours after Meridor spoke, Clinton clarified her remarks, saying she was "not suggesting any new policy" on Iran and continued to believe that "Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is unacceptable."

U.S. officials have not defined what Clinton meant by her original "umbrella" comment.

Analysts offered two contrasting explanations: a threat of retaliation for any Iranian nuclear strike, or supplying U.S. allies with defense systems aimed at preventing such an attack.

The umbrella formulation did not appear to include Israel, though about 150 American soldiers have been training with Israeli soldiers in the southern Negev desert for several months on advanced radar installations that could be used in missile defense, according to Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the project.

Israel has pointedly not taken the option of a military strike off the table, recalling Israel's lightning 1981 airstrike that destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor.

Experts doubt Israel has the capability of wiping out all of Iran's nuclear facilities, which are said to be scattered around the country, some of them hidden. But hitting well chosen targets could set back Iran's nuclear ambitions for years.

Political analyst Gerald Steinberg, a professor at Israel's Bar Ilan University, said a perception that the U.S. was backing away from preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons "could add to Israeli decision makers' concerns that the U.S. isn't going to take action, and so Israel should."

But Israel has not broadcast an urge to attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long urged concerted international action, including tougher sanctions, and hard-line Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that Israel would not attack Iran just to do the work of others.

Lieberman is visiting South America, and the Foreign Ministry spokesman in Jerusalem refused to comment on the issue of the "umbrella."

Clinton, North Korea exchange barbs on nukes

By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer

PHUKET, Thailand – Hillary Rodham Clinton and North Korea exchanged pointed barbs Thursday, with Clinton declaring North Korea "has no friends left" and the communist regime calling the U.S. secretary of state a "schoolgirl."

The sharp words came as North Korea announced it had refused to re-enter talks to terminate its nuclear weapons program.

Clinton said the world has made it clear to Pyongyang that it has "no place to go," citing near unanimity among Asian nations, including China, on fully enforcing the latest U.N. sanctions against North Korea for its repeated nuclear and missile tests.

Warning the North's nuclear ambitions could spark an arms race in the region, Clinton said the U.S. would continue to vigorously enforce tough U.N. sanctions and insist that the north "irreversibly denuclearize."

But she held out the prospect of restoring U.S. diplomatic ties and other incentives — actions the Obama administration would be willing to consider if the North Koreans dismantle their nuclear program.

"We urge North Korea to return to the six-party talks, look beyond the past and join others in finding the way forward," said Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, who hosted the ASEAN Regional Forum, a security conference among 27 countries and organizations that ended Thursday.

Clinton, who trumpeted Washington's renewed involvement in Asia during the conference, departed the resort island for Washington, wrapping up a weeklong trip to India and Thailand.

"North Korea's continued pursuit of its nuclear ambitions is sure to elevate tensions on the Korean peninsula and could provoke an arms race in the region," Clinton told a news conference before her departure.

Just moments before she spoke, a spokesman for the North Korean delegation said his government would not return to talks with the U.S., Japan, South Korea, China and Russia, citing the "deep-rooted anti-North Korean policy" of the United States.

"The six-party talks are over," Ri Hung Sik said, calling any proposed U.S. incentives "nonsense."

North Korea's Foreign Ministry, reacting to an earlier Clinton comment likening the regime to "small children" demanding attention, described her Thursday as "a funny lady" who sometimes "looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping."

Clinton offered a somewhat more optimistic message about another trouble spot on the U.S. foreign policy agenda: Myanmar, the military-run southeast Asian nation also known as Burma.

She praised Myanmar's government for committing to enforce the U.N. sanctions against North Korea, calling it important in light of Myanmar's suspected secret military links to North Korea. "There is a positive direction that we see with Burma," she said.

Clinton suggested Myanmar may have played a role this month in persuading a North Korean cargo ship suspected of carrying weaponry in violation of the sanctions to return home instead of continuing to its destination, which U.S. officials said was probably Myanmar.

Clinton also called on Myanmar to unconditionally release democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is accused of violating the terms of her house arrest and faces a five-year prison term.

On North Korea, Clinton stressed a point she has made repeatedly — that a fully nuclear North Korea might compel other countries in Asia to follow suit. She mentioned no names, but Japan and South Korea are thought to be among those that might go nuclear if they felt threatened by the North and less than fully confident of protection under a U.S. nuclear umbrella.

North Korea's leaders, Clinton said, "have no friends left that will protect them from the international community's efforts to move toward denuclearization."

Clinton also said she "wanted to make very clear that the United States does not seek any kind of offensive action against North Korea."

Citing complaints from a North Korean delegate that Pyongyang has been subjected to U.S. nuclear threats, Clinton said this showed a disconnect with reality, given that U.S. nuclear weapons were removed from South Korea nearly 20 years ago.

Clinton said she was disappointed when the North Korean delegate refused to "recognize that North Korea has been on the wrong course" in his address to the conference.

"The bottom line is this: If North Korea intends to engage in international commerce its vessels must conform to terms" of the U.N. sanctions, "or find no port," she said.

"Our goal in enforcing these sanctions and others proposed earlier is not to create suffering or destabilize North Korea. Our quarrel is not with the North Korean people."

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said the North's negotiating partners agreed in Phuket to open the door for a dialogue with Pyongyang while enforcing the U.N. sanctions.

Clinton said the Obama administration would soon send Philip Goldberg, its coordinator for implementing the U.N. sanctions, back to Asia for a new round of consultations on a joint enforcement strategy.

US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 675

As of Thursday, July 23, 2009, at least 675 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.

Of those, the military reports 504 were killed by hostile action.

Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 68 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, three were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen.

There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military civilian death.

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The latest deaths reported by the military:

• A soldier died Thursday in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan.

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The latest identifications reported by the military:

• The following two soldiers died Wednesday in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive detonated near their vehicle. They were assigned to the 4th Engineer Battalion, Fort Carson, Colo.

• Army Sgt. Joshua J. Rimer, 24, Rochester, Pa.

• Army Spc. Randy L.J. Neff, Jr., 22, Blackfoot, Idaho.

US intelligence gathering in Afghanistan expanded

By RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan are assembling a potent intelligence-gathering operation to help defeat the Taliban insurgency, a senior Defense Department official said Thursday.

A combination of unmanned aerial vehicles and sensor-laden aircraft with links to ground forces will give commanders an "unblinking eye" over the war-torn country, Michael Vickers, the Pentagon's top special operations official, said.

Use of high-technology assets proved essential in Iraq, he said, and are key to negating the Taliban's ability to plan and carry out attacks around the country.

"Systemically taking apart the network through intelligence-led operations is a very important feature of modern counterinsurgency," Vickers said.

But he added that victory in Afghanistan is up to the Afghans.

"We want to bring every available technology we can to bear, but ultimately it will be won and lost on the ground, and it will be won and lost by the Afghan people," he said at a meeting with defense reporters.

The stakes are growing higher in Afghanistan, where President Barack Obama is adding thousands of more troops to defeat the Taliban. The Islamist regime was ousted in 2001 after a U.S.-led invasion, but has made a strong comeback after U.S. military forces were shifted to Iraq.

About 68,000 U.S. troops will be in the country by fall, more than twice as many as were there last year. The growing violence has made July the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Vickers said more Predator unmanned aerial vehicles will be sent to Afghanistan. The Predator can carry missiles to hit targets on the ground. A large fleet of missile-carrying Reaper drones is being readied for Afghanistan, he added.

Manned C-12 aircraft are also providing surveillance and gathering intelligence in Afghanistan.