UAE asks U.S. for $2.5B MRAP deal

by Richard Tomkins
Washington (UPI)
Sep 29, 2014

More than 4,500 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles are being sought from the United States by the United Arab Emirates.

The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, in its required notification to Congress of a Foreign Military Sales deal, said the sale of vehicles for refurbishment and modification is worth an estimated $2.5 billion.

The 4,569 vehicles to be sold separately would come from U.S. Army stock pursuant to section 21 of the Arms Export Control Act, as amended, as Excess Defense Articles, the agency said.

The vehicle list includes 29 MaxxPro long wheel base vehicle; 1,085 MaxxPro LWB chassis; 264 MaxxPro Base/MRAP Expedient Armor Program capsules without armor; 729 MaxxPro bases; 283 MaxxPro MEAP without armor; 970 MaxxPro Plus; 15 MRAP recovery vehicles; 1,150 Caiman multi-terrain vehicles without armor; and 44 MRAP all-terrain vehicles.

"Notification for the sale from stock of the MRAP vehicles referenced above has been provided separately, pursuant to the requirements of section 7016 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 and section 516 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended," the agency said.

Also included is the requested sales package are improvement kits for vehicle underbodies, spare and repair parts, support equipment and personnel training.

"The UAE intends to utilize the EDA MRAP vehicles to increase force protection, to conduct humanitarian assistance operations, and to protect vital international commercial trade routes and critical infrastructure," according to the notification. "Additionally, these MRAPs will enhance UAE's burden-sharing capacity and defensive capabilities."

Navistar Defense, BAE Systems and Oshkosh Defense would be the principal contractors. Multiple trips to the UAE by U.S. government and contractor representatives would be required for a period of three or more years for program support.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/UAE_asks_US_for_25B_MRAP_deal_999.html.

Poland needs nuclear arms to ward off Russia: Walesa

Warsaw (AFP)
Sept 24, 2014

Polish anti-communist icon Lech Walesa said Poland should procure nuclear weapons as a safeguard against Russia, which it blames for stoking the crisis in neighboring Ukraine.

"Poland needs to stand up to Russia," the Nobel Peace laureate, who spearheaded Poland's democracy movement and became its first post-communist president, said in an interview published Wednesday.

EU and NATO member Poland has been rattled by Russia's actions in Ukraine, including its March annexation of the Crimean peninsula and suspected backing of rebels in the east.

Russian President Vladimir "Putin has been trying to intimidate us with his nuclear weapons, so why shouldn't we have our own arsenal?" Walesa told the Rzeczpospolita daily.

"We should borrow, lease nuclear weapons and show Putin that if a Russian soldier poses one foot on our land uninvited, we will attack. Just to be clear," the 70-year-old said.

Several countries including Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey currently host shared nuclear weapons on their territory under NATO.

But there is no tradition at the moment of borrowing or leasing the weapons.

Poland should speak up and say: "Mister Putin, we won't let you make one step forward. Try it and you'll perish, and so will we," added Walesa, who as leader of the Solidarity trade union negotiated a peaceful end to Communism at home in 1989.

It is under his presidency in 1993 that the last Soviet troops left Poland. Six years later the country joined the NATO defense alliance.

On Wednesday, Poland began major military exercises involving 12,500 troops, including 750 from other NATO countries, which will continue through October 3.

Poland stages the Anakonda maneuvers every two years but this time they "take on a special significance given the events in Ukraine," Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said at the opening ceremony.

"It is important for NATO to show that we stick together," added Torben Moller, a brigadier general from the alliance's command center at Brunssum in the Netherlands.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Poland_needs_nuclear_arms_to_ward_off_Russia_Walesa_999.html.

Italians protest against controversial wiretap law

ROME (BNO NEWS) -- Italian protesters on Thursday continued to rally outside the country's parliament in Rome to voice their opposition against a government attempt to curb the publication of leaked pre-trial wiretaps, the ANSA news agency reported on Friday.

Demonstrators wore gags to protest against what they consider to be an attack on freedom of information. The wiretap bill would allow reporters to only publish wiretaps in the form of summaries before trial.

Both the government and the opposition agree that the publication of gossip unrelated to probes should be banned, but the opposition sees the government's bill as an attack on the freedom of the press. The government said Thursday it expects to push the bill through parliament with a confidence vote next week, according to ANSA.

The Italian edition of Wikipedia earlier shut down all its pages to protest against the draft bill, which would severely limit publication of wiretapped conversations. Under the new bill, anyone found guilty of releasing or publishing wiretaps faces a jail sentence ranging from six months to three years.

The Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, expressed its support for the protest. "This bill would hinder the work of projects like Wikipedia: open, volunteer-driven, and collaborative spaces dedicated to sharing high-quality knowledge, not to mention the ability for all users of the internet to engage in democratic, free speech opportunities," said Jay Walsh, a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation.

Italians have become used to wiretap leaks in the media, many of them filled with revelations concerning Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's four trials regarding cases of alleged corruption and paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

Friday, October 7th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/news/italians-protest-against-controversial-wiretap-law.html.

Some 30,000 Germans protest against anti-Islam rallies

January 05, 2015

BERLIN (AP) — The square around the Cologne Cathedral was plunged into darkness Monday evening after the historical landmark in western Germany shut down its lights in a silent protest of weekly rallies in Dresden against the perceived "Islamization" of Europe.

The symbolic act came as thousands of Germans demonstrated in Cologne and several other cities against the ongoing protests by the group calling itself Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA, which attracted its biggest crowd yet in Dresden on Monday night.

Cologne Cathedral provost Norbert Feldhoff, told n-tv that shutting down the lights was an attempt to make the PEGIDA demonstrators think twice about their protest. "You're taking part in an action that, from its roots and also from speeches, one can see is Nazi-ist, racist and extremist," he said on n-tv. "And you're supporting people you really don't want to support."

Only about 250 PEGIDA supporters showed up in Cologne, as compared to about ten times that number of counter-demonstrators. Similarly in Berlin, police said some 5,000 counter-demonstrators blocked about 300 PEGIDA supporters from marching along their planned route from city hall to the Brandenburg Gate. Another 22,000 anti-PEGIDA demonstrators rallied in Stuttgart, Muenster and Hamburg, the dpa news agency reported.

But PEGEIDA's main demonstration in the eastern city of Dresden, a region that has few immigrants or Muslims, attracted some 18,000, according to police. The demonstrations there have been growing from an initial few hundred in October to around 17,500 at a rally just before Christmas.

Carrying signs with slogans like "wake up" the crowd chanted "we are the people" and "lying press" as they passed television cameras on Monday. In uncharacteristically frank words in her New Year's address, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to stay away from the Dresden rallies.

When the PEGIDA demonstrators chant "we are the people," Merkel said "they actually mean 'you don't belong because of your religion or your skin." PEGIDA organizer Kathrin Oertel slammed the speech at the rally Monday, telling the crowd "in Germany we have political repression again."

"Or how would you see it when we are insulted or called racists or Nazis openly by all the political mainstream parties and media for our justified criticism of Germany's asylum seeker policies and the non-existent immigration policy," she asked the cheering crowd.

PEGIDA has sought to distance itself from the far-right, saying in its position paper posted on Facebook that it is against "preachers of hate, regardless of what religion" and "radicalism, regardless of whether religiously or politically motivated."

"PEGIDA is for resistance against an anti-woman political ideology that emphasizes violence, but not against integrated Muslims living here," the group said. It has also banned any neo-Nazi symbols and slogans at its rallies, though critics have noted the praise and support it has received from known neo-Nazi groups.

Cem Ozdemir, co-chairman of The Greens party and himself the son of a Turkish immigrant, told n-tv that while he, too, was against any form of extremism, "intolerance cannot be fought with intolerance."

"The line is not between Christians and Muslims," he said. "The line is between those who are intolerant ... and the others, the majority." In Berlin, anti-PEGIDA demonstrator Ursula Wozniak said she had joined the protest because she felt the PEGIDA group was abusing Germany's democratic tradition.

"What is happening right now in Germany is just extremely shocking," she said. PEGIDA was forced to call off its demonstration early in Cologne, after organizers reported being blocked from marching along their planned route, police said.

Other buildings, including several other churches and a museum, joined the Cologne Cathedral in shutting off their lights in support of the anti-PEGIDA demonstrators. In Dresden, automaker Volkswagen decided to keep its glass-walled manufacturing plant dark, to underscore the company "stands for an open, free and democratic society."

Kerstin Sopke in Dresden and Dalton Bennett in Berlin contributed to this report.

France to send aircraft carrier to Gulf in ‘Islamic State’ fight

2015-01-06

PARIS - The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its fleet will be deployed to the Gulf to support operations against the Islamic State group, a military news site reported on Tuesday.

The deployment of the marine battle group is due to be announced by President Francois Hollande when he gives his annual new year's speech to the armed forces onboard the Charles de Gaulle on January 14, according to the "Mer et Marine" news site.

According to Mer et Marine, the Charles de Gaulle carrier will travel to the Gulf with its fleet of air and naval craft, including Rafale and Super Etendard fighter jets and an attack submarine, to take part in the US-led bombing campaign against IS forces in Iraq.

The president's office, navy and army did not respond to requests for confirmation.

France currently has nine Rafale and six Mirage fighters engaged in the campaign -- based in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan -- as part of Operation Chammal launched in September, along with a C135 supply plane, E-3F surveillance and control plane and an Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft.

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in early December that French planes had carried out "120 to 130 missions" -- primarily intelligence-gathering operations.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=69575.

Sweden orders submarine overhaul

by Richard Tomkins
Linkoping, Sweden (UPI)
Sep 29, 2014

Swedish company Saab is to overhaul HMS Halland, a Gotland-class submarine commissioned in 1997.

The work was contracted by the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration. It is worth about $17.9 million.

Saab said the overhaul will include all the necessary measures to ensure the submarine's operational availability. The company will also define future needs for the ship's maintenance, which could result in additional work being contracted separately during the period.

"Maintenance of Swedish surface vessels and submarines is an important part of our ongoing business," said Gunilla Fransson, head of Saab's Security and Defense Solutions business area. "It is also important to ensure the customer's long-term operational capability."

Work based on the submarine will be carried during 2014 and 2015 at the Saab Kockums shipyard in Karlskrona.

In other Saab maritime news, the company announced that the government organization also ordered 10 remotely-operated vehicles for seabed surveys, inspections, light underwater operations and object recovery.

The ROVs to be supplied as stand-alone systems are the Seaeye Falcons, which Saab is adapting to meet FMV's specifications.

"This is another example of how Saab combines civil and military technology and adapts it for the requirements and purposes stipulated by the military," said Agneta Kammeby, head of Saab's Underwater Systems business unit. "Over the years, we have developed and established unique expertise within the field and we are delighted and proud of being able to deliver the system to the customer."

The systems will be delivered within 12 months.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Sweden_orders_submarine_overhaul_999.html.

Mexico must probe 'possible' army executions: UN expert

Mexico City (AFP)
Sept 29, 2014

A UN expert urged Mexico on Monday to conduct an independent investigation into the killing of 22 drug gang suspects by soldiers, saying the deaths may have been summary executions.

Christof Heyns, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, welcomed the military's arrest last week of seven soldiers and one officer "in what could be summary executions," said a statement by the UN's human rights office.

"The government of Mexico has the duty to fully investigate, prosecute, and punish all suspected cases of extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions," Heyns said in the statement.

Heyns called on the government to protect a witness whose testimony contradicted official accounts that the suspects had died in a gunfight with soldiers on June 30 in Tlatlaya, 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Mexico City.

The witness told Esquire magazine that 21 of the suspects, including her 15-year-old daughter, were executed after surrendering, while only one person died during a shootout.

Heyns said the authorities should also protect two other women who survived the shooting and were detained on charges of firearms possession and organized crime.

The federal attorney general's office is conducting its own investigation into the case, which has put a spotlight on Mexico's controversial use of the military in the drug war.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Mexico_must_probe_possible_army_executions_UN_expert_999.html.