US offers latest airborne radar to India

New Delhi, March 21 : After a range of top fighter aircraft and other weapon systems, the US has now offered another sophisticated system to India, the Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR), whose capability has been described as "unmatched" by a former US navy official.

According to Admiral Walter F. Doran, president Asia for Raytheon, Indian officials had already been briefed on "this latest radar, for highly effective 24-hour surveillance and target acquisition capability", India Strategic magazine reported in its latest issue. The system is being operated now by the British Army and Royal Air Force (RAF) in Afghanistan with five ASTOR aircraft and eight ground stations.

Admiral Doran is quoted in the magazine as saying that Raytheon, a military technology giant, had also submitted a formal proposal to the Indian government. He declined to give details.

First deployed in 2008, ASTOR can even detect minor variations in surface levels, like digging and filling of earth at the same place, and draw conclusions about activity. The system consists of an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar on board the Bombardier Global Express 'Sentinel' business jet. Indian officials first visited the aircraft displayed at the Paris Air Show in June 2009 and have followed up with discussions.

Admiral Doran, a former US Navy 7th Fleet commander, said that "the capability on board the ASTOR was unmatched", pointing out that although Raytheon did not make platforms, its combat systems were on board most of the US aircraft, ships, spacecraft and land vehicles. For instance, the AESA radar on board the Boeing F 18 Super Hornet, F 15 Eagle and P8 Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (for the US and Indian Navies) is built by Raytheon.

The company has also built an AESA radar for F 16s, should a country buying it make the choice in its favor.

So was the Mini-SAR, or the Miniaturized Synthetic Aperture Radar, on board India's lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 which located ice on the polar surface of moon through high resolution imagery.

Raytheon provided the Mini-SAR to NASA, which gave it to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for its lunar mission as part of their cooperative venture. NASA later sent another mission with a higher resolution SAR camera.

Admiral Doran said that ASTOR flies high enough - 40,000 to 45,000 feet - to cover a large ground area, and to be beyond the range of most surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). It is also equipped with a self protection suite to put out flares and chaff to confuse and deflect any threatening missiles.

ASTOR's main equipment includes a dual-mode SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and Moving Target Indicator (SAR/MTI), part of the AESA system. The aircraft can fly for nine hours at a stretch.

There are three consoles for monitoring the ground, two for image analysts and one for the Airborne Mission Commander, besides the pilot and co-pilot. Data from the aircraft is fed to the ground stations from where action against hostile targets is initiated if required.

The US has already offered to India F 35 JSF, F 16 Super Viper, F 18 Super Hornet and P8I aircraft and weapon systems.

Source: New Kerala.
Link: http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-74564.html.

Arab League invites India to attend March 27 Summit

New Delhi, Mar 20 : The League of Arab States, comprising 22 Arab nations, today called for collective and dedicated efforts for strengthening Indo-Arab ties and invited India to attend the upcoming Arab League Summit in Libya on March 27.

In a statement issued on the eve of 65th anniversary on the League, which falls on March 22, the Arab League Mission here said the League member countries were also considering hosting the second Arab-India cultural week in one of the Arab countries.

The first such week was held in Delhi in December 2008.

India has been attending the annual Arab League Summits on a regular basis as a manifestation of strong relations between the country and the Arab world.

''The two sides exert all efforts to consider more options of further developing Arab-India relations in different areas including political, social, cultural and economic fields,'' the statement said.

''There is a need for collective and dedicated efforts for strengthening Indo-Arab ties with further building up relations between India and the Arab world including in the field of Science and Technology, Education, Health, Telecommunication and Energy,'' it added.

Source: New Kerala.
Link: http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-74195.html.

Thousands rally to pull troops from 2 war zones

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Thousands of protesters — many directing their anger squarely at President Barack Obama — marched through the nation's capital Saturday to urge immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least eight people, including activist Cindy Sheehan, were arrested by U.S. Park Police at the end of the march, after laying coffins at a fence outside the White House. Friday marked the seventh anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

"Arrest that war criminal!" Sheehan shouted outside the White House before her arrest, referring to Obama.

At a rally before the march, Sheehan asked whether "the honeymoon was over with that war criminal in the White House" — an apparent reference to Obama — prompting moderate applause.

The protesters defied orders to clear the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House and park police say they face charges of failure to obey a lawful order.

Activist Ralph Nader told thousands who gathered in Lafayette Park across from the White House that Obama has essentially continued the policies of the Bush administration, and it was foolish to have thought otherwise.

"He's kept Guantanamo open, he's continued to use indefinite detention," Nader said. The only real difference, he said is that "Obama's speeches are better."

Others were more conciliatory toward Obama. Shirley Allan of Silver Spring, Md., carried a sign that read, "President Obama We love you but we need to tell you! Your hands are getting bloody!! Stop it now."

Allan thought it was going too far to call Obama a war criminal but said she is deeply disappointed that the conflicts are continuing.

"He has to know it's unacceptable," Allan said. "I am absolutely disappointed."

The protest drew a smaller crowd than the tens of thousands who marched in 2006 and 2007. Protests in cities around the country also had far fewer participants than in the past.

San Francisco's rally brought out Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the top-secret Pentagon Papers study of the Vietnam War and is the subject of the recent documentary film, "The Most Dangerous Man in America." He likened the protest and others like it around the country Saturday to a day of demonstrations organized against the conflict in Vietnam in 1969.

"They thought it had no effect," he told the crowd in San Francisco, referring to the 1969 protesters. "They were wrong."

Ellsberg said President Richard Nixon was planning to escalate the war around that time, but held off.

Protesters in Washington stopped at the offices of military contractor Halliburton — where they tore apart an effigy of former Vice President and Halliburton Chief Executive Dick Cheney — the Mortgage Bankers Association and The Washington Post offices.

Anna Berlinrut, of South Orange, N.J., was one of a number of protesters who have children who have served in Iraq, and said her son supports her protests.

"If there were a draft, we'd have a million people out here," Berlinrut said when asked about the turnout. The exact number of protesters was unclear, as D.C. authorities do not give out crowd estimates. Organizers estimated the march, which stretched for several blocks, at 10,000.

Despite the arrests, the protest was peaceful. At the outset, police closed a portion of the sidewalk in front of the White House fence after protesters tried to use mud and large stencils to spell out "Iraq veterans against the war."

Once the sidewalk was closed, the protesters stenciled the message on the street using mud they had carried in buckets to the rally.

Sheehan has been a vocal critic of the war since her 21-year-old son Casey was killed in Iraq in April 2004. She staged a prolonged demonstration in 2005 outside former President George W. Bush's ranch near Crawford, Texas.

Fellow anti-war activist and attorney Stephen Pearcy of Sacramento keeps in touch and supports Sheehan in her efforts. Sheehan lived with his family for a year while traveling to peace events.

Pearcy said in an e-mail that in the last decade, the U.S. government has a widespread pattern of violating the constitutional rights of peaceful anti-war protesters, arresting them, then not pressing charges.

"We've essentially become a country of restrictions rather than a country of freedoms," he said.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark also spoke at the D.C. rally, calling on the Justice Department to investigate the officials who launched the Iraq war.

In New York City, a few dozen enthusiastic protesters gathered near a military recruiting station in Times Square, though they were far outnumbered by disinterested tourists.

A group of older women calling themselves the Raging Grannies sang, "The country is broke, this war is a joke." Four demonstrators evoked images of the U.S. detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by dressing in orange uniforms and wearing black hoods.

Liz Proefriedt, a retired Roman Catholic nun, held up a banner that read, "Bread not bombs."

"It's sad that a lot of people did not come out for this protest," said Kathy Hoang, of Manchester, Conn. "People are getting used to the war, and don't bother even to think about it anymore."

In Los Angeles, hundreds chanted anti-war slogans and carried mock tombstones, and several hundred gathered in San Francisco. The Los Angeles march, which was under a mile, was to culminate with a rally in front of the famed Grauman's Chinese Theater.

"We want to see the troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq," said Corazon Esguerra with Act Now to Stop War and Racism or ANSWER, which organized the protest. "We want all the troops wherever they are to come back."

Arrest warrant boosted my popularity, says Sudan's Al-Bashir

Berlin (Earth Times) - Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir said the international arrest warrant against him had unexpectedly increased his popularity, in a interview in Germany on Saturday.

"The International Court of Justice (ICC) has done me a favor which I would never have dreamt of. My popularity in my home country has unexpectedly multiplied through this arrest warrant," Al-Bashir told Spiegel news magazine.

The Hague-based ICC issued an arrest warrant last year on charges that Al-Bashir presided over crimes against humanity committed in the government's campaign against the rebels.

The president dismissed the allegations, and denied that his government had unleashed Janjaweed militia to slaughter civilians and burn villages.

"From the start, it was a conspiracy orchestrated from abroad that politically, militarily and financially supported the rebellion in Darfur," Al-Bashir said.

He also said US "inconsistencies" with regard to Sudan could only be explained because "powerful interest groups influence the US government."

"The actual decision makers in the US, as well as the FBI and CIA, know very well that what is being disseminated about Sudan is not true," Al-Bashir said in the interview to appear in Monday's edition of Spiegel magazine.

The president said that, despite the international arrest warrant, he had several African and international allies.

"We enjoy best relations with South Africa," Al-Bashir said, adding that President Jacob Zuma was due to visit after Sudanese elections in April. Al-Bashir said he also planned to visit Venezuela after the vote, in response to a "personal invitation."

Al-Bashir said he supported Hamas and Hezbollah in their "legitimate fight against the Israeli occupation," in the Middle East, as well as supporting the resistance to the "American invaders in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The president said US withdrawal from Sudan's oil industry had paved the way for better deals with Chinese, Indian and Malay companies.

"The Americans had kept 70 per cent of the oil revenues for themselves," Al-Bashir said. "Today the (Sudanese) government gets 70 per cent." He added that the Chinese provided training and mostly employed Sudanese engineers.

Al-Bashir said the Sudanese elections in April would pave the way for a referendum on whether to grant independence to the oil-rich south of the country.

"Such an important historical event can only be decided by legitimized representatives of the people," the president said, explaining that the decision was not the result of international pressure.

ANALYSIS: Iraqi religious parties' decline could favor Allawi

Baghdad - Final results from Iraq's March 7 parliamentary vote are expected within the next few days, but politicians in Baghdad are already in intricate talks on forming a new government.

Early results are close enough together to suggest that no party will be able to form a government without striking alliances with former rivals, but some analysts in the Iraqi capital see former prime minister Ayad Allawi's gains, apparently at the expense of religious parties, as favoring him in the political horse-trading.

Early results have shown incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition and former prime minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List in a very tight race, with the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition of mostly Shiite religious parties, trailing in a more distant third-place.

Though results released late Saturday showed Allawi's coalition pulling ahead by just under 8,000 votes in the national vote, al-Maliki still led in seven out of Iraq's 18 provinces, with Allawi leading in five.

Since seats are allocated by province, al-Maliki's coalition on Saturday looked set to win 91 seats out of 325 in the new parliament. Allawi's list was set to win 88 seats, and the INA 68.

The Kurdish Alliance, a union of the two parties that have for decades defined Iraqi Kurdish political life, was poised to win 39 seats in the new assembly, cementing its role as an important part of any governing coalition.

But perhaps the biggest loser in the elections was the Iraqi Accord Front, dominated by the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Muslim descendant of the Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood.

The party had won 44 seats in the 2005 elections, but with 90 per cent of the 2010 vote counted, on Saturday appeared poised to win only six seats.

"The salient characteristic of the Iraqi election results was the continued decline in the religious political parties, which began in last year's provincial elections," Kadhem al-Muqdadi, a professor of media at Baghdad University, told the German Pres Agency dpa.

"Al-Maliki did well not because he belongs to the (Shiite) Dawaa Party, but because people found in him a man who could be moderate in his leadership of the country," al-Muqdadi said.

Looking the near-final results, Hamid Fadhil, a professor of political science at Baghdad University, saw a "complex political scene," that he believes ultimately favors Allawi.

"The scene is currently open to all possibilities and alliances," he told dpa, but "the head of the next government will probably be Ayad Allawi."

"Al-Maliki's best chance appears to be to coax members of rival coalitions to join him in a majority government, but this will be difficult for him," Fadhil said.

"(Allawi) could continue in power for a long time if he reaps the benefits of al-Maliki's labor. As the country begins to rebuild in earnest, he will gain the people's trust, and will be seen as a savior," Fadhil predicted.

Hussein Hafez, another professor of political science at Baghdad University, attributed Allawi's strong showing as a symptom of "discontent on the Iraqi street with the programs put forward by the religious blocs."

"Allawi is a hot candidate to head the next government," he said.

"There was a big drop in popular support for the religious currents, and this allowed Allawi to rise. The results show the Iraqi street is looking for change and for alternatives in the management of the country," Hafez said, noting al-Maliki's failure to make any headway in the north or west of the country.

"Allawi's gains were unexpected," the professor said. "I think it will decide the battle to form a new government for him, particularly as the religious currents are determined to oust al-Maliki for various reasons."

"I think that a strong alliance will probably be reached between Allawi and the INA. That alliance, together with the Kurdistan Alliance, would enable Allawi to lead the next government," Hafez said.

For the moment, though, behind closed doors, the intense negotiations to form a new government continue, as elections workers tabulate the last of the roughly 12 million votes cast in Iraq's second parliamentary election since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314993,analysis-iraqi-religious-parties-decline-could-favour-allawi.html.

Rival edges past Iraq's al-Maliki in popular vote count

Baghdad - Former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List eked out a narrow lead over Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition in early election results announced Saturday.

Regional broadcaster al-Jazeera on Saturday reported that Allawi's coalition was leading al-Maliki's by just under 8,000 votes, with roughly 93 per cent of the 12 million votes cast counted.

Al-Maliki's coalition still holds a lead in seven out of Iraq's 18 provinces, to Allawi's five, which could give al-Maliki's coalition a slight edge in seats in the new parliament, even if Allawi's list wins the popular vote.

Iraq's al-Sumaria television on Saturday reported that the two front-runners in the race had "not ruled out" forming a government together, though Allawi was quoted as saying that al-Maliki "would have to forgo sectarianism" to make an alliance possible.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314997,rival-edges-past-iraqs-al-maliki-in-popular-vote-count.html.

Ahmadinejad: Iran will stand up to the West in Persian New Year

Tehran - Iran would stand even more firmly against the West this year, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday in a message broadcast on state television as the country celebrated the Persian New Year.

"Enemies have tried to weaken our country but they have failed and in the coming year we will stand even more firmly against them than before," he said.

Iran faces continued pressure over its suspected nuclear weapons program, with the US and European states pushing for tougher economic sanctions.

On the occasion of Persian New Year, Nowruz, which began Saturday evening, US President Barack Obama appealed directly via video message to the Iranian people and repeated his offer of a dialogue with Tehran.

Ahmadinejad said however "next year we will continue our work faster and with more decisiveness, move towards more progress and present the people with great political and technical achievements."

"We will remove obstacles and turn any moves (by the West) into new opportunities," the president said.

"Nobody should worry because the future is ours," Ahmadinejad continued.

Referring to last June's disputed presidential election, he said that the high number of votes in favor of the government was not only "a manifestation of real democracy ... but also the start of the globalization of Iran's Islamic revolution."

The election led to street protests in which tens of people were killed and thousands arrested. Over 80 were later sentenced to jail terms and at least ten to death. Two monarchists have already been executed for allegedly planning to topple the Islamic establishment.

The opposition has not yet acknowledged Ahmadinejad's re-election. Green Movement leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi said in his new year message that resistance against the Iranian government would continue.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/315022,ahmadinejad-iran-will-stand-up-to-the-west-in-persian.html.