Archive for April 6th, 2009
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday announced sweeping cuts and a significant shift in priorities for next year’s defense budget, with more money for servicemembers and federal employees but less for some major defense contractors.
Calling his plan a “reform budget,” Gates said he would eliminate the $11 billion VH-71 Presidential Helicopter program, end production of the F-22 Raptor at 187 aircraft, negotiate less expansive ways to build three DDG-1000 destroyers and drop the $87 billion vehicle portion of the Army’s Future Combat Systems program.
“I decided I would not take the political issues associated with any of these projects into account,” he said. “I decided I would just do what’s right for this country.”
And while other systems saw large cuts, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will see an increase of $4.4 billion to buy 513 aircraft over the next five years.
Gates also detailed moves designed to strengthen personnel programs and “lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The budget includes $500 million more than fiscal 2009 for recruiting and training helicopter maintenance crews, a major need for current missions overseas. Another $400 million will go towards new medical research, and $300 million more to supplement existing traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder programs.
The military’s special operations forces ranks will be increased by nearly 3,000 next year, and the Pentagon will triple the number of students in its cybersecurity programs. And Gates announced plans to hire up 30,000 new government employees to replace contractor slots over the next five years, 13,000 in 2010 alone.
Last week the House and Senate passed separate budget outlines for fiscal 2010, both calling for about $534 billion in defense spending next year, not including funds for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s up nearly 4 percent from fiscal 2009 levels.
But both the White House and Congress have promised major changes in defense acquisition this year, and Gates on Monday said this plan represents a call for more fiscal responsibility by defense planners.
“There has been broad agreement on the need for defense acquisition reform,” he said. “We’ve had enough hand-wringing. Now is the time for action.”
Pentagon officials have been tight-lipped about details of the defense budget for weeks. Gates made those involved in the process sign a nondisclosure agreement, and lawmakers did not receive any details until shortly before the public announcement of the plan.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said defense industry leaders weren’t given any advanced notice of the budget cuts.
Gates insisted the new budget does not ignore future threats in order to focus on immediate ones.
He estimated that about 10 percent of the total figure will go toward irregular warfare projects, 50 percent for conventional warfighting, and 40 percent dual-purpose programs.
The budget also plans to hold the Navy’s future aircraft carrier fleet at 10, down from the current 12. That was one of several major cuts for the Navy, including a halt to the CGX cruiser program and a delay in production of an 11th Landing Platform Dock Ship.
But the budget plan would accelerate the purchase of Navy littoral combat ships, which are designed for close-shore support missions. Plans had called for two next year; Now, the Pentagon will buy three and plan for a fleet of 55 in coming years.
Gates said that the missile defense program will also see cuts while officials re-evaluate ground-based interceptor systems.
Those decisions on missile defense come after North Korea’s launch of a long-range missile this weekend. While U.S. officials said North Korea failed to put a satellite into orbit, the test shows that North Korea can successfully fire a two-stage missile, said defense analyst Bruce Bennett for the RAND Corp.
Gates said he does not think the delay in those missile defense system will endanger U.S. forces or allies, noting plans to ramp up purchase of proven programs like the Patriot missile.
While the plan supports the continued growth in Army end strength to 547,000, it would hold the number of brigade combat teams at 45 instead of the planned 48. Gates said the change would allow for better-staffed BCTs, reducing the need for stop-lossed troops to fill in the gaps.
Lawmakers will begin hearings on the defense budget when Congress returns from break later this month.
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
The death of a newspaper seller during the G20 protests last week which was initially reported by the media to have been caused by a heart attack was actually a result of an attack by riot cops, according to eyewitnesses.
Ian Tomlinson, 47, was not even taking part in the G20 protests, he was walking home from his job as a newsagent near the Bank of England when he collapsed and suffered a heart attack.
News reports immediately after the incident stated that Tomlinson looked dazed and confused before collapsing and being treated by medics.
The explanation that the man’s death was accidental was strongly pushed by the media in the hours after the incident, and a police post mortem examination attributed his death to natural causes.
However, eyewitnesses have come forward to state that Tomlinson was attacked by riot police before his collapse.
Anna Branthwaite, an experienced press photographer, told the IPCC: “I can remember seeing Ian Tomlinson. He was rushed from behind by a riot officer with a helmet and shield two or three minutes before he collapsed.”
Amiri Howe stated that Tomlinson was struck ‘near the head’ with a police baton.
Another protester said she saw Mr Tomlinson being pushed aggressively from behind by officers.
Police have promised to make further inquiries as a result of the new testimony, but since British cops can get away with shooting innocent people in the head multiple times and not face charges , we are skeptical that anyone will be brought to justice for the murder of Tomlinson.
Tomlinson’s murder echoes the death of Carlo Giuliani, who was murdered by riot police at the G8 summit in 2001 in Italy. Giuliani was shot twice and ran over twice by police. The officer who shot Giuliani was later charged with murder but escaped punishment after a judge ruled that the shots fired by officer Mario Placanica “ricocheted off plaster”.
However, forensic doctor professor Marco Salvi claimed the shots were a direct hit and that police ran over Giuliani’s body when he was still alive. Mario Placanica later claimed that he was a patsy for a wider cover-up, and soon after was involved in a “suspicious” car accident, days after allegedly observing someone tampering with his car.
(CNN)
A U.S. immigration judge on Monday revoked a stay of deportation granted to suspected Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk, paving the way for the retired auto worker’s possible deportation as soon as Wednesday for trial in Germany.
“It is the opinion of the court that the motion to reopen has been misfiled with the Immigration Court,” wrote Judge Wayne Iskra in Arlington, Virginia. “Consequently, this court’s order to stay respondent’s removal is revoked effective April 8, 2009.”
The judge noted that “jurisdiction over the motion to reopen lies with the board.” Both the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Board of Immigration Appeals have issued final orders in the case.
Demjanjuk’s attorney, John Broadley, did not immediately return telephone calls. He had argued that his 89-year-old client was in such ill health that his deportation and trial in Germany would be tantamount to torture.
Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian, is accused of involvement during World War II in killings at Sobibor, a Nazi German death camp in Poland. He denies the allegations.
German authorities issued their arrest warrant for Demjanjuk on March 10, accusing him of being an accessory to 29,000 counts of murder as a guard at the death camp from March to September 1943.
German authorities studied an identification card provided by the U.S. Office of Special Investigations and concluded it was genuine before issuing the warrant, a statement said.
Demjanjuk has been fighting charges of Nazi war crimes for more than two decades. He was extradited from the United States to Israel, where he was convicted in 1986 of being “Ivan the Terrible,” a guard at the notorious Treblinka extermination camp. Israeli courts overturned the conviction on appeal, and he returned to the United States.
The United States filed new charges against him in 1999, again alleging that he had been a concentration camp guard. He was stripped of U.S. citizenship and has been awaiting deportation since 2005 despite fighting his case all the way to the Supreme Court.
Demjanjuk, who lives with his wife in Cleveland, Ohio, has said he fought in the Soviet army and later was a prisoner of war held by the Germans.
RECENT POSTS
