FPIF Policy Report
People Power vs. Military Power in East Asia
John Feffer, IRC February 13, 2007
Editor: Chuck Hosking
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3990
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org
People power does not just trouble the sleep of dictators. It can also introduce an element of unpredictability and uncertainty into the security debate in pluralist societies. People, to put it bluntly, can be a problem for the military because civilians frequently come between a military and its objectives.
"In the short term, making governments more accountable to people introduces new uncertainties and limits into diplomacy," Kent Caldor has written about Northeast Asia. Calder's point was that transitional democracies are not ready to open national security to public debate. But the people power quandary perhaps even more profoundly affects Washington. Other nation's democracies sound good on paper and in principle but are risky business in practice. Having frequently forged comfortable military relationships with reliably authoritarian
administrations such as Park Chung Hee's in South Korea, Chiang Kai-shek's in Taiwan, the United States has recently discovered that democratic movements in East Asia can pose an unpredictable and worrisome challenge to U.S. security objectives. Indeed, the transformation of U.S. doctrine and force posture in East Asia results not just from technological changes and the identification of new threats but also from the impact of democratic movements within the countries of our allies.
At the same time, people power influences decision-making in dictatorships. In North Korea, for instance, citizens do not communicate their views in any meaningful way through elections. Yet they are still actors in an important political sense. The leadership in Pyongyang relies on people power - not in the sense of an anti-government movement but as an expression of nationalist sentiment - to achieve some measure of legitimacy for its policies. In this sense, people power and democracy are not interchangeable concepts.
In short, people power is viewed neither wholly negatively by putatively totalitarian regimes nor wholly positively by putatively democratic regimes. The notion that democracy and military security mutually reinforce one another both underestimates the staying power of systems like North Korea and China where democracy is anemic and overestimates the strength of military alliances between more robustly democratic states. This misreading of the relationship between people power and military power significantly distorts the understanding of three major shifts in security doctrine in the United States, North Korea, and South Korea. Conventionally interpreted as responses to geopolitical realities
and technological advances, these transformations in thinking also strongly reflect the influence of the grassroots.
The failure to connect people power to these evolving shifts in doctrine has profound policy implications for the United States. By misjudging popular support for hard-line stances in authoritarian states and by glossing over grassroots challenges to U.S. security strategies in more democratic countries, Washington continues to risk clashing with its regional adversaries and, ultimately, losing influence with its regional allies.
Strategic Flexibility
According to conventional wisdom, the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) and the development of the concept of "strategic flexibility" were chiefly responses to advances in technology (primarily computers and communications) and the application of market principles to military management. The end of the Cold War, the subsequent attacks of September 11, and an altered security environment further accelerated these shifts in doctrine and force structure. The latest war-fighting gurus view fixed military bases with lumbering tanks and static defenses as comparatively low-tech and incapable of addressing rapidly emerging
conflicts and threats. U.S. forces, they argue, should be flexible enough to respond to North Korean missiles, Islamic fundamentalism in Indonesia, or a cross-straits confrontation in Taiwan.
But a case can be made that the RMA and strategic flexibility are also responses to NIMBY (not in my back yard) and democratic movements. Fixed bases were an easy target, not only for the enemy but also for popular discontent, starting in the Philippines and spreading to Okinawa, Tokyo, and Seoul (not to mention other parts of the world such as Vieques). The U.S. security umbrella was generally popular among allied leaders, but the actual U.S. security footprint was another matter.
In the Republic of Korea (ROK), popular anger against U.S. forces came to world attention in 2002, when tens of thousands of South Korean citizens demonstrated in the streets after the deaths of two schoolchildren run over by U.S. military armored vehicles. But this was not the first time that popular movements tried to effect change in the U.S.-ROK alliance. Earlier there were protests over the Status of Forces Agreement. Adding its voice, the "Reclaiming Our Land" movement targeted U.S. bases, as did organizing around prostitution. And the environmental movement campaigned against the toxic byproducts of the U.S. military presence. Nor has resistance dissipated with the planned reduction of
U.S. troops. South Korean movements continue to challenge U.S. plans to expand military facilities in Pyongtaek.
It is also important to acknowledge the influence that the inter-Korean summit of June 2000 had on the transformation of security perspectives. Kim Dae Jung's engagement policy, itself a response to and an incorporation of popular efforts at North-South reconciliation, changed the strategic nature of the demilitarized zone (DMZ). The cross-border tourism projects, the efforts to reconnect the north-south train line, and the industrial park at Kaesong all challenged military planning and even the notion of an infantry tripwire. South Korea's more conciliatory policy toward North Korea, which began to diverge from Washington's hard line after 2001, has made Seoul a less reliable U.S. ally. For instance, reportedly apprehensive that Seoul would transfer advanced technology to Pyongyang, the United States cancelled the sale of four Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft to South Korea in July.
Roh Moo-Hyun's more participatory style of government has also had an effect on security issues beyond the reunification question. It actively brought representatives of people power movements-of civil society-into government and raised expectations that the new administration would be more responsive to concerns percolating up from below. Due in part to this responsiveness, South Korea only begrudgingly sent troops to Iraq, has refused to join either the missile defense alliance or the Proliferation Security Initiative, and has looked askance at the whole notion of strategic flexibility for fear that it might draw Seoul into a conflict with Beijing.
Democratic movements profoundly informed South Korea's new strategic posture. They also provoked both a long-term reappraisal of U.S. strategic objectives and, in 2003, a specific response by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to accelerate the process of U.S. troop reductions in South Korea and the transfer of wartime operational control to Seoul.
Washington's concept of strategic flexibility, in other words, is not only useful for fighting an unpredictable enemy but also for dealing with an unpredictable ally. With Manila, the United States negotiated a Visiting Forces Agreement that not only sidestepped many NIMBY issues but also accorded U.S. forces much greater potential access throughout the Philippines to carry out a rather vaguely defined range of activities. With Seoul, Washington is negotiating a deal to reduce its costs and its overall footprint (though not its firepower). It will also reduce U.S. dependency on South Korean support for strategic flexibility.
Strategic flexibility has allowed Washington to count less on a South Korea, perceived to be unreliable and to shift its security focus to Japan, a more dependable supporter of U.S. positions in the region and elsewhere. If Japan proves unreliable in the future, because of heightened NIMBYism or a nationalist backlash against the security partnership with the United States, strategic flexibility will allow Washington to negotiate a better deal with someone else. And indeed, with popular sentiment still running against U.S. bases in Okinawa and on the mainland, Washington has been forced to draw some forces back to
Guam. Meanwhile, activists in Guam have already begun to protest the relocation of half the U.S. Marines Corps contingent currently based in Okinawa.
South Korea, even under authoritarianism, was not always predictably subservient to U.S. military objectives. Park Chung-Hee was notoriously resistant to the troop reductions that President Carter proposed in the late 1970s. But in general, an authoritarian South Korea was more predictably anti-communist, pro-United States, favorably inclined toward Japan, and suspicious of China than a democratic South Korea. The same can be said about a quiescent Okinawa, an authoritarian Taiwan, and the Marcos-era Philippines. Close U.S. relations with yesteryear's East Asian dictators required a certain flexibility in stated principles. Today, close relations with their democratic successors require flexibility in strategic posture.
Military-First Doctrine
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is no fan of democratic movements. If the rumors of military coups are correct, he is even worried about popular uprisings within the North Korean military. Polls of North Koreans, if they existed, might strengthen Kim's hand by revealing a fierce determination to defend the homeland, a preference for an "iron fist" to insure domestic stability, and even a nationalist pride in their country's entry into the nuclear club. But popular discontent over budget priorities and disapproval of the leadership's decisions over the last decade-not to mention widespread human rights abuses-would likely
undermine his political position. There is no sign that the North Korean government plans to introduce even the modest political reforms adopted by its putative ally China. There is also no tradition of democracy in North Korea to which a dissident or opposition movement might appeal.
In the mid-1990s, Kim Jong Il introduced the "military first" doctrine to consolidate his own political position and mobilize the country against threats both external and internal. In 2003, the doctrine officially became an ideology. At one level, the leadership's emphasis on the military is a pragmatic political decision. Because of its sheer size, the military substitutes for any representative political body. There are practically no civilians in North Korea: there are only future soldiers, current soldiers, veterans, and families of soldiers. The military is the only truly functioning institution in the society, not only in terms of protecting borders and preparing for the much-touted foreign attack, but also in maintaining infrastructure and keeping the
extraction industries running.
By putting the military first, the North Korean leadership is responding to a perceived foreign threat from the outside and strengthening the regime's hold on power. But it is also appealing to the country's most representative institution. In this sense, the military-first doctrine is a populist platform. Pyongyang's October nuclear test can be interpreted-in addition to its deterrent and "bargaining chip" purposes-as an attempt to stimulate nationalist pride and provide some measure of compensation for the economic adversity of the past decade, revealing that popular sentiment is not irrelevant to North Korean policymaking. North Koreans make their voices heard not through the ballot box or demonstrations but rather through their membership in military institutions and their capacity to respond to nationalist appeals.
Such informal political participation should not be construed as either pro-government or anti-government. It is very difficult to know the true feelings of North Koreans. But it would be a mistake for outside governments to assume an unbridgeable gulf between the people and the state. A mass organization like the army and mass ideologies like nationalism mediate between the two. It's certainly not democracy. But even states that aspire to totalitarian control must factor people power into their political calculus beyond merely its potential threat to regime stability.
Strategic Redeployment?
When evaluating the political situation on the Korean Peninsula, particularly as it relates to security issues, it is routine to discuss the personal quirks of the leaders (Kim Jong Il, Roh Moo-Hyun, George Bush) or the characteristics of their coteries (the revolutionary generation in North Korea, the 386 generation of 40-something activists in South Korea, the neoconservative generation in the United States). Yet it may well be the clout of popular movements - or the threat of them - that will prove most influential in determining the future security environment on the peninsula.
Behind the headlines, popular mobilization has profoundly influenced three key doctrinal shifts: the military-first approach in North Korea, a more independent security policy in South Korea, and strategic flexibility in the United States. Leaders in both democratic and nondemocratic countries have kept watchful eyes on people power when formulating security policy, both in terms of mobilizing support (through nationalist or populist appeals) and avoiding negative responses (such as NIMBY).
The future of these doctrinal shifts remains unclear. Should the current tensions around the nuclear conflict subside, North Korea might conceivably switch its military-first doctrine to the competing concept of kangsong taeguk (strong and prosperous nation) and reallocate precious resources to economic modernization. If market reforms don't benefit a large enough portion of the population, however, the country will face a pre-revolutionary predicament of rising and unmet expectations. Only if the military is fully behind these changes, in the sense of implementing them as well as benefiting from them, will the regime avoid collapse. As in Cuba, however, Washington's policy of unmitigated pressure allows Pyongyang to retain a measure of popular support through relentless, nationalist invocations of an external threat.
In South Korea, the character of Roh Moo-Hyun's more independent foreign policy is often ascribed to a narrow party agenda rather than reflecting more significant changes in how South Koreans view their country's role in the region. China has become a much more important economic partner and diplomatic player in the region, and South Koreans are rapidly waking up to this reality (conflicts over the Koguryo historical dispute notwithstanding). U.S. force reductions in Korea, and what will inevitably be a widening conflict over military purchasing and interoperability, will only distance Seoul further from Washington. Even the conservatives, should they win the 2007 presidential election in South Korea, will likely continue Roh's more independent military and foreign policy, partly in response to the pressures of popular sentiment and partly because of geopolitical realities such as China's economic might.
The biggest question mark remains the future of Washington's policy of strategic flexibility. Technological change and new threat perceptions suggest that this doctrinal shift will be with us for some time. But as a response to democratic movements on the ground, strategic flexibility might prove self-defeating. Shifting security emphasis from one ally to another depending on the amplitude of protests around U.S. basing, military policies, or out-of-area operations may not prove sustainable. In the grand scheme, with the focus of U.S. geostrategy still on the Middle East and a period of military belt-tightening likely to return to Washington, strategic flexibility may simply become a cover for U.S. disengagement--strategic redeployment--not just from South Korea but from the region as a whole.
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John Feffer is the co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus and the director of global affairs at the International Relations Center.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Cheney Greeted by 2000 in Guam
Cheney greeted by 2,000 on Guam
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 22, 2007 6:09:57 EST
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam — Vice President Dick Cheney returned to U.S. territory Thursday on his way from Japan to Australia, meeting with U.S. troops and local officials who support a buildup of forces on this isolated American island.
Cheney’s brief stopover — he spent about an hour on Guam — attracted 2,000 troops and residents to hear a brief speech. The visit also brought complaints from the neighboring U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, where residents awaited the remains of the latest Iraq war victim.
The vice president stayed on Andersen Air Force Base, speaking in a hangar to mostly Air Force and Navy personnel.
He discussed the strategic importance of Guam, 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii, in protecting U.S. interests in the region.
Cheney said Pacific sea lanes must be kept open to commerce and closed to terrorists and stressed the need to keep fighting in Iraq.
“In the years ahead, more personnel will be stationed here, along with the job of maintaining a first-rate forward operating base,” he said.
Cheney also said terrorists know they cannot win in a standup fight.
“The only way they can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon our mission,” he said. “So they continue committing acts of random war, believing they can intimidate the civilized world and break the will of the American people.”
In a brief visit to Japan, Cheney also reaffirmed the Bush administration’s commitment to the war in Iraq.
He told troops at a U.S. naval base near Tokyo that America would not relent in Iraq.
“We want to complete the mission, we want to get it done right, and then we want to come home, with honor,” he said. “The American people will not support a policy of retreat.”
Cheney said his visit to Japan was a gesture of appreciation for Tokyo, which has been one of Washington’s most valuable allies in the war on terror by offering non-combat troops to assist U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Guam Gov. Felix Camacho and the territory’s delegate to Congress, Madeleine Bordallo, met with Cheney at Andersen.
Camacho has been leading local support for plans to relocate 8,000 U.S. Marines from Japan to Guam, viewing it as a boon for the island’s economy.
Debbie Quinata of the indigenous group Nasion Chamuro said her group wants Cheney to know of its strong opposition to the decision.
The group has been pushing for reparations for harm from toxic chemicals and radiation on Pacific islands as a result of war and war games. However, a petition campaign by the group to stop the planned deployment from Japan has gathered only 400 signatures.
The group is particularly concerned about the presence of B-2 bombers, joint military exercises in waters near Guam, and the greater naval presence, including the potential for more nuclear submarines and other warships in Pacific waters.
“We believe that increased militarization will put our families, friends and relatives who are living on Guam in harm’s way rather than provide safety and stability,” the group said in a statement prior to Cheney’s visit.
In the nearby Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, where family members of Army Cpl. Leroy Camacho, 27, of Kagman village, were awaiting arrival of his remains, officials said they were disappointed that Cheney did not visit their territory. Leroy Camacho was killed by an explosion in Iraq on Feb. 9 — the fifth island soldier to die in Iraq.
Camacho’s sister, Juanette Camacho, had urged that Cheney visit Saipan, pointing out that the territory has suffered more Iraq war casualties than Guam.
Gubernatorial Press Secretary Charles Reyes said officials in Saipan were not invited to join the Guam officials meeting the vice president.
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 22, 2007 6:09:57 EST
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam — Vice President Dick Cheney returned to U.S. territory Thursday on his way from Japan to Australia, meeting with U.S. troops and local officials who support a buildup of forces on this isolated American island.
Cheney’s brief stopover — he spent about an hour on Guam — attracted 2,000 troops and residents to hear a brief speech. The visit also brought complaints from the neighboring U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, where residents awaited the remains of the latest Iraq war victim.
The vice president stayed on Andersen Air Force Base, speaking in a hangar to mostly Air Force and Navy personnel.
He discussed the strategic importance of Guam, 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii, in protecting U.S. interests in the region.
Cheney said Pacific sea lanes must be kept open to commerce and closed to terrorists and stressed the need to keep fighting in Iraq.
“In the years ahead, more personnel will be stationed here, along with the job of maintaining a first-rate forward operating base,” he said.
Cheney also said terrorists know they cannot win in a standup fight.
“The only way they can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon our mission,” he said. “So they continue committing acts of random war, believing they can intimidate the civilized world and break the will of the American people.”
In a brief visit to Japan, Cheney also reaffirmed the Bush administration’s commitment to the war in Iraq.
He told troops at a U.S. naval base near Tokyo that America would not relent in Iraq.
“We want to complete the mission, we want to get it done right, and then we want to come home, with honor,” he said. “The American people will not support a policy of retreat.”
Cheney said his visit to Japan was a gesture of appreciation for Tokyo, which has been one of Washington’s most valuable allies in the war on terror by offering non-combat troops to assist U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Guam Gov. Felix Camacho and the territory’s delegate to Congress, Madeleine Bordallo, met with Cheney at Andersen.
Camacho has been leading local support for plans to relocate 8,000 U.S. Marines from Japan to Guam, viewing it as a boon for the island’s economy.
Debbie Quinata of the indigenous group Nasion Chamuro said her group wants Cheney to know of its strong opposition to the decision.
The group has been pushing for reparations for harm from toxic chemicals and radiation on Pacific islands as a result of war and war games. However, a petition campaign by the group to stop the planned deployment from Japan has gathered only 400 signatures.
The group is particularly concerned about the presence of B-2 bombers, joint military exercises in waters near Guam, and the greater naval presence, including the potential for more nuclear submarines and other warships in Pacific waters.
“We believe that increased militarization will put our families, friends and relatives who are living on Guam in harm’s way rather than provide safety and stability,” the group said in a statement prior to Cheney’s visit.
In the nearby Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, where family members of Army Cpl. Leroy Camacho, 27, of Kagman village, were awaiting arrival of his remains, officials said they were disappointed that Cheney did not visit their territory. Leroy Camacho was killed by an explosion in Iraq on Feb. 9 — the fifth island soldier to die in Iraq.
Camacho’s sister, Juanette Camacho, had urged that Cheney visit Saipan, pointing out that the territory has suffered more Iraq war casualties than Guam.
Gubernatorial Press Secretary Charles Reyes said officials in Saipan were not invited to join the Guam officials meeting the vice president.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
New US Bases in Australia
Media Release Australia
Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition
Thursday, 15 February 2007
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New US War Base Condemned
“We are appalled by the announcement that the Federal Government has secretly agreed to set up a new United States base at Geraldton in WA,” Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition National Coordinator Denis Doherty said this morning.
“We are sure Australians do not want to supply intelligence and communications for more Bush administration invasions or to host bases which spy on our neighbours and training areas for Australian soldiers to practice fighting under US command.
“The Federal Government has dropped all pretence about ‘joint facilities’ and is calling the new base, the first of several planned facilities, a United States military base.
“Defence Minister Nelson’s claim that the government will have full knowledge of all activities at the base is unbelievable,” Mr. Doherty said.
“We already have over 40 US military facilities in Australia. We cannot afford more. This is a case where less is best!
“US bases make Australia a target for nuclear and terrorist attacks,” Mr. Doherty said.
“They increase the US hold on Australian foreign policy. They undermine Australia’s security and add even more to the already out of control Australian military budget which is running at $55 million every day.
“In the most recent budget the military got more money than education.
“These bases do not make Australia safer but they make us poorer,” Mr. Doherty said.
“Around the world, US bases have become the centre of major social problems. Australia is no different. An Anglican Church report from Hobart details frequent sexual assaults on young men and women by US service people. US MPs assaulted Aborigines in Ipswich during 1997 war games and two US servicemen were tried for rape in Darwin in February 2004.
“There are also major dangers to our environment of pollution from repairs and maintenance programs and from weapons firing.
“The Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition condemns this outrageous agreement and vows to fight it in every way we can,” he said.
“Our Coalition and other groups are preparing for a major campaign against another new US base at Shoalwater Bay in Queensland. In June this year there will be protests against the huge joint military exercise called “Talisman Sabre 07’.
“We call on the Government to rescind this agreement and hold a public enquiry into the US military presence in Australia,” Mr Doherty said.
Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition
Thursday, 15 February 2007
--------------
New US War Base Condemned
“We are appalled by the announcement that the Federal Government has secretly agreed to set up a new United States base at Geraldton in WA,” Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition National Coordinator Denis Doherty said this morning.
“We are sure Australians do not want to supply intelligence and communications for more Bush administration invasions or to host bases which spy on our neighbours and training areas for Australian soldiers to practice fighting under US command.
“The Federal Government has dropped all pretence about ‘joint facilities’ and is calling the new base, the first of several planned facilities, a United States military base.
“Defence Minister Nelson’s claim that the government will have full knowledge of all activities at the base is unbelievable,” Mr. Doherty said.
“We already have over 40 US military facilities in Australia. We cannot afford more. This is a case where less is best!
“US bases make Australia a target for nuclear and terrorist attacks,” Mr. Doherty said.
“They increase the US hold on Australian foreign policy. They undermine Australia’s security and add even more to the already out of control Australian military budget which is running at $55 million every day.
“In the most recent budget the military got more money than education.
“These bases do not make Australia safer but they make us poorer,” Mr. Doherty said.
“Around the world, US bases have become the centre of major social problems. Australia is no different. An Anglican Church report from Hobart details frequent sexual assaults on young men and women by US service people. US MPs assaulted Aborigines in Ipswich during 1997 war games and two US servicemen were tried for rape in Darwin in February 2004.
“There are also major dangers to our environment of pollution from repairs and maintenance programs and from weapons firing.
“The Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition condemns this outrageous agreement and vows to fight it in every way we can,” he said.
“Our Coalition and other groups are preparing for a major campaign against another new US base at Shoalwater Bay in Queensland. In June this year there will be protests against the huge joint military exercise called “Talisman Sabre 07’.
“We call on the Government to rescind this agreement and hold a public enquiry into the US military presence in Australia,” Mr Doherty said.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
US Deploys Stealth Fighters to Okinawa
Friday, February 16, 2007 · Last updated 10:19 p.m. PT
U.S. deploys stealth fighters to Okinawa
By ERIC TALMADGE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TOKYO -- The U.S. took its newest and most expensive stealth fighter on the road Saturday, deploying the F-22 to an air base on the southern Japan island of Okinawa for its first overseas mission.
The first two of a dozen F-22s roared into the Okinawa skies from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for a three-to-four month deployment to show "the flexibility that U.S. forces have to meet our ongoing commitments and security obligations throughout the Pacific," the U.S. military said in a statement.
Bringing the jets to Japan is a way of showing off the fighter's strengths in a region with a complex security balance that is being challenged by the rapid growth of Chinese and North Korean military power.
"It's a very formidable asset," said Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright, commander of the U.S. forces in Japan. Wright added that it is important for the F-22 pilots from
Langley to get the experience of flying abroad and training with the Japanese.
Though Wright, speaking to reporters in Tokyo before the arrival, said there are no plans to regularly bring F-22s to Japan after the current mission ends, F-22 fighters are scheduled to be deployed in Alaska and possibly Hawaii, which would give a significant boost to the Air Force's fire power in the Pacific.
The U.S. is not alone in boosting its air capabilities in Asia.
The arrival of the planes - the rest were scheduled to arrive Sunday - comes less than two months after China unveiled its J-10 fighter, which is believed to be one
of the most advanced used by any air force in the world today, though it is not seen as a serious technological rival to the F-22.
U.S. deploys stealth fighters to Okinawa
By ERIC TALMADGE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TOKYO -- The U.S. took its newest and most expensive stealth fighter on the road Saturday, deploying the F-22 to an air base on the southern Japan island of Okinawa for its first overseas mission.
The first two of a dozen F-22s roared into the Okinawa skies from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for a three-to-four month deployment to show "the flexibility that U.S. forces have to meet our ongoing commitments and security obligations throughout the Pacific," the U.S. military said in a statement.
Bringing the jets to Japan is a way of showing off the fighter's strengths in a region with a complex security balance that is being challenged by the rapid growth of Chinese and North Korean military power.
"It's a very formidable asset," said Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright, commander of the U.S. forces in Japan. Wright added that it is important for the F-22 pilots from
Langley to get the experience of flying abroad and training with the Japanese.
Though Wright, speaking to reporters in Tokyo before the arrival, said there are no plans to regularly bring F-22s to Japan after the current mission ends, F-22 fighters are scheduled to be deployed in Alaska and possibly Hawaii, which would give a significant boost to the Air Force's fire power in the Pacific.
The U.S. is not alone in boosting its air capabilities in Asia.
The arrival of the planes - the rest were scheduled to arrive Sunday - comes less than two months after China unveiled its J-10 fighter, which is believed to be one
of the most advanced used by any air force in the world today, though it is not seen as a serious technological rival to the F-22.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
The Tide is Rising
Disappearing world: Global warming claims tropical island
For the first time, an inhabited island has disappeared beneath rising seas. Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean reports
Published: 24 December 2006
Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.
As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities.
Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.
It has been officially recorded in a six-year study of the Sunderbans by researchers at Calcutta's Jadavpur University. So remote is the island that the researchers first learned of its submergence, and that of an uninhabited neighbouring island, Suparibhanga, when they saw they had vanished from satellite pictures.
Two-thirds of nearby populated island Ghoramara has also been permanently inundated. Dr Sugata Hazra, director of the university's School of Oceanographic Studies, says "it is only a matter of some years" before it is swallowed up too. Dr Hazra says there are now a dozen "vanishing islands" in India's part of the delta. The area's 400 tigers are also in danger.
Until now the Carteret Islands off Papua New Guinea were expected to be the first populated ones to disappear, in about eight years' time, but Lohachara has beaten them to the dubious distinction.
Human cost of global warming: Rising seas will soon make 70,000 people homeless
Refugees from the vanished Lohachara island and the disappearing Ghoramara island have fled to Sagar, but this island has already lost 7,500 acres of land to the sea. In all, a dozen islands, home to 70,000 people, are in danger of being submerged by the rising seas.
For the first time, an inhabited island has disappeared beneath rising seas. Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean reports
Published: 24 December 2006
Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.
As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities.
Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.
It has been officially recorded in a six-year study of the Sunderbans by researchers at Calcutta's Jadavpur University. So remote is the island that the researchers first learned of its submergence, and that of an uninhabited neighbouring island, Suparibhanga, when they saw they had vanished from satellite pictures.
Two-thirds of nearby populated island Ghoramara has also been permanently inundated. Dr Sugata Hazra, director of the university's School of Oceanographic Studies, says "it is only a matter of some years" before it is swallowed up too. Dr Hazra says there are now a dozen "vanishing islands" in India's part of the delta. The area's 400 tigers are also in danger.
Until now the Carteret Islands off Papua New Guinea were expected to be the first populated ones to disappear, in about eight years' time, but Lohachara has beaten them to the dubious distinction.
Human cost of global warming: Rising seas will soon make 70,000 people homeless
Refugees from the vanished Lohachara island and the disappearing Ghoramara island have fled to Sagar, but this island has already lost 7,500 acres of land to the sea. In all, a dozen islands, home to 70,000 people, are in danger of being submerged by the rising seas.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Hickam Gets a Look at Raptors
Posted on: Friday, February 9, 2007
Hickam gets a look at stealthy Raptors
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE- The stealthy F-22A Raptor this week made its first stop in Hawai'i, appearing small on radar but creating a big buzz as the Air Force moves ahead with plans to base 20 of the fighter aircraft at Hickam starting in late 2010.
Six of the sleek gray jets arrived Wednesday from Virginia, and six more landed yesterday en route to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, on what is the first deployment for the Raptors outside the United States.
"It's very important that we send it to Japan because of our strategic alliance that we have with Japan," said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Remington, Pacific Air Forces director of air space and cyberspace operations.
The Raptors can reach supersonic speed without afterburners, are highly maneuverable and "it's basically invisible to radars," Remington said.
The Hawai'i Air National Guard will be the first Guard unit to "own" the Air Force's most advanced weapons system, while the active duty Air Force at Hickam will be an associate unit and also fly and maintain the aircraft.
"We're excited, obviously," said Air Guard Lt. Col. Chris "Frenchy" Faurot, 40, who will be flying the jets. "When the announcement was made back in March of last year, everyone was walking around with a grin on their face."
The Hawai'i basing is part of what Gen. Paul Hester, commander of Pacific Air Forces, calls the "strategic triangle" of Hawai'i, Alaska and Guam,” bases
from which the Air Force can rapidly deploy forces throughout Asia and the
Pacific.
TO ALASKA IN AUGUST
In August, the Air Force will locate an F-22 squadron in Alaska, and add another squadron in 2008. The third of three squadrons will arrive in Hawai'i starting in late 2010.
The aircraft, whose angular shape and internal weapons bays contribute to a radar signature the size of a bird, is one of the costliest fighters ever at more than $339 million a copy, including research, development and testing.
In the fighters' first major exercise, Northern Edge, in June in Alaska, the Raptors from Langley Air Force Base that are now passing through Hickam "downed" 144 other jets.
"We didn't lose a Raptor, not one," said Lt. Col. Wade Tolliver, commander of the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley. "That's pretty incredible numbers."
The jets will leave today for Japan and will stay there as long as four months. The Pacific Air Forces' Remington said the F-22s replaced F-15C aircraft at Langley and it happened to be the unit's turn in the rotation of aircraft for the "theater security" deployment.
The Raptors also will be replacing F-15 Eagles at Hickam. The Air Guard aircraft, in addition to having an air defense role for Hawai'i, deployed to Saudi Arabia in 2000 and conducted combat missions over southern Iraq.
A LITTLE NOISIER
In the 1990s there were two other deployments to the region. The air defense mission has seen a succession of aircraft since 1956, meanwhile, with the F-86, F-102, F-4 and most recently, the F-15, the Air Guard said.
Faurot, a Damien High graduate who now flies the F-15, said the Raptor brings greater capabilities, but the public won't notice much of a difference.
"It's a more powerful aircraft, it's faster, it's louder, so there may be a little increase in noise," he said. "However, that will be for a shorter duration because we get out of the airspace and we get out of the public view, if you will, a lot faster than we do with the F-15s."
Once the aircraft gets to cruise mode at 30,000 to 40,000 feet, it also gets somewhat more economical.
"It's actually pretty much sipping gas, so once you get it up there, it's a pretty efficient machine and we're still going supersonic," Faurot said.
C-17 WORK ONGOING
An environmental impact study is expected to be done in July. Brig. Gen. Peter Pawling, who commands the 154th Wing of the Hawai'i Air National Guard, said work still is being done for eight C-17 cargo carriers that are now based at Hickam” including a giant hangar now being built.
But Pawling said he estimates $155 million in construction will be needed for the Raptors for facilities like hangars and maintenance buildings.
Those who saw the Raptor up close yesterday, including about 60 University of Hawai'i Air Force ROTC cadets, were pretty impressed. An inert AIM-9 missile was affixed to a side bay.
"I think it's awesome," said Ira Mindoro, 20, a UH student from Pearl City. "It provides another way to motivate someone young like myself to become a pilot."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Hickam gets a look at stealthy Raptors
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE- The stealthy F-22A Raptor this week made its first stop in Hawai'i, appearing small on radar but creating a big buzz as the Air Force moves ahead with plans to base 20 of the fighter aircraft at Hickam starting in late 2010.
Six of the sleek gray jets arrived Wednesday from Virginia, and six more landed yesterday en route to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, on what is the first deployment for the Raptors outside the United States.
"It's very important that we send it to Japan because of our strategic alliance that we have with Japan," said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Remington, Pacific Air Forces director of air space and cyberspace operations.
The Raptors can reach supersonic speed without afterburners, are highly maneuverable and "it's basically invisible to radars," Remington said.
The Hawai'i Air National Guard will be the first Guard unit to "own" the Air Force's most advanced weapons system, while the active duty Air Force at Hickam will be an associate unit and also fly and maintain the aircraft.
"We're excited, obviously," said Air Guard Lt. Col. Chris "Frenchy" Faurot, 40, who will be flying the jets. "When the announcement was made back in March of last year, everyone was walking around with a grin on their face."
The Hawai'i basing is part of what Gen. Paul Hester, commander of Pacific Air Forces, calls the "strategic triangle" of Hawai'i, Alaska and Guam,” bases
from which the Air Force can rapidly deploy forces throughout Asia and the
Pacific.
TO ALASKA IN AUGUST
In August, the Air Force will locate an F-22 squadron in Alaska, and add another squadron in 2008. The third of three squadrons will arrive in Hawai'i starting in late 2010.
The aircraft, whose angular shape and internal weapons bays contribute to a radar signature the size of a bird, is one of the costliest fighters ever at more than $339 million a copy, including research, development and testing.
In the fighters' first major exercise, Northern Edge, in June in Alaska, the Raptors from Langley Air Force Base that are now passing through Hickam "downed" 144 other jets.
"We didn't lose a Raptor, not one," said Lt. Col. Wade Tolliver, commander of the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley. "That's pretty incredible numbers."
The jets will leave today for Japan and will stay there as long as four months. The Pacific Air Forces' Remington said the F-22s replaced F-15C aircraft at Langley and it happened to be the unit's turn in the rotation of aircraft for the "theater security" deployment.
The Raptors also will be replacing F-15 Eagles at Hickam. The Air Guard aircraft, in addition to having an air defense role for Hawai'i, deployed to Saudi Arabia in 2000 and conducted combat missions over southern Iraq.
A LITTLE NOISIER
In the 1990s there were two other deployments to the region. The air defense mission has seen a succession of aircraft since 1956, meanwhile, with the F-86, F-102, F-4 and most recently, the F-15, the Air Guard said.
Faurot, a Damien High graduate who now flies the F-15, said the Raptor brings greater capabilities, but the public won't notice much of a difference.
"It's a more powerful aircraft, it's faster, it's louder, so there may be a little increase in noise," he said. "However, that will be for a shorter duration because we get out of the airspace and we get out of the public view, if you will, a lot faster than we do with the F-15s."
Once the aircraft gets to cruise mode at 30,000 to 40,000 feet, it also gets somewhat more economical.
"It's actually pretty much sipping gas, so once you get it up there, it's a pretty efficient machine and we're still going supersonic," Faurot said.
C-17 WORK ONGOING
An environmental impact study is expected to be done in July. Brig. Gen. Peter Pawling, who commands the 154th Wing of the Hawai'i Air National Guard, said work still is being done for eight C-17 cargo carriers that are now based at Hickam” including a giant hangar now being built.
But Pawling said he estimates $155 million in construction will be needed for the Raptors for facilities like hangars and maintenance buildings.
Those who saw the Raptor up close yesterday, including about 60 University of Hawai'i Air Force ROTC cadets, were pretty impressed. An inert AIM-9 missile was affixed to a side bay.
"I think it's awesome," said Ira Mindoro, 20, a UH student from Pearl City. "It provides another way to motivate someone young like myself to become a pilot."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Military Build-up Won't Strain Guam's Utilities
Buildup won't strain utilities
Bice: Guam has chance to add capacity
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News
gdumat-ol@guampdn.com
The U.S. military's multibillion-dollar buildup will not strain the island's power, waste-disposal and water plants, the official who oversees the expansion said yesterday.
What the buildup can present is an opportunity to add capacity to the island's utilities infrastructure, said retired Marine Maj. Gen. David Bice, executive director of the Joint Guam Program Office. The office is in charge of planning, managing and overseeing buildup-related projects.
"We have the opportunity to add to (the utilities capacity) in all the areas," Bice said.
"In fact, we don't want to add the burden on the (existing local utilities plants). What we will see is an addition to the Guam utilities," Bice added.
Japan delegation
Bice also confirmed yesterday that a high-level delegation from the Japan Diet is visiting Guam in connection with the Japanese government's part in the buildup.
The Japanese government will help pay for the relocation of members of the U.S. Marines and their families from Okinawa -- altogether a jump in Guam's population by about 16,000.
Under a U.S.-Japan agreement, Japan will pay 60 percent of the $10 billion to $14 billion cost of the relocation, Bice said.
In Japan, wire reports state that U.S. Ambassador to Japan J. Thomas Shieffer and Deputy Commander of Pacific Command Lt. Gen. Daniel Leaf are hosting the Japanese Diet delegation's two-day Guam visit, which starts today.
The delegation, Bice said, is visiting "to see what's going on, what the assessment is, see where the Japanese money is proposed to be spent, and make their own determination (whether it's) a wise investment for the Japanese people."
Assistance sought
In anticipation of increased use of power, water and wastewater services related to the military buildup, Guam's locally elected officials have said they would ask the federal government for financial assistance to upgrade local utilities plants.
"The way this is gonna work," said Bice of the utilities-related funds for the buildup, is that the Special Purpose Entity -- established in the U.S.-Japan agreement -- "would provide equity investment for a business partner to come in and potentially provide" power, water and waste-management services.
The services that the business partner might provide could include building a power plant and adding to utility distribution and delivery lines, Bice said.
Another option, Bice said, may involve entering into a partnership with the Guam Power Authority.
The U.S. has held technical talks with Japanese government officials and Guam public utilities officials, Bice said.
Preliminary report
Engineers are completing their studies, and there will be a meeting in Washington, D.C., next week about Guam infrastructure issues, Bice said.
A preliminary report is expected around April, he said, that would assess the capabilities of Guam's power and water agencies.
"From that, we will look at our options," he added.
But what's clear, Bice emphasized, is that the military receives "good, reliable" utility services.
"It is a mission-readiness requirement," he said.
2/3/07
Bice: Guam has chance to add capacity
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News
gdumat-ol@guampdn.com
The U.S. military's multibillion-dollar buildup will not strain the island's power, waste-disposal and water plants, the official who oversees the expansion said yesterday.
What the buildup can present is an opportunity to add capacity to the island's utilities infrastructure, said retired Marine Maj. Gen. David Bice, executive director of the Joint Guam Program Office. The office is in charge of planning, managing and overseeing buildup-related projects.
"We have the opportunity to add to (the utilities capacity) in all the areas," Bice said.
"In fact, we don't want to add the burden on the (existing local utilities plants). What we will see is an addition to the Guam utilities," Bice added.
Japan delegation
Bice also confirmed yesterday that a high-level delegation from the Japan Diet is visiting Guam in connection with the Japanese government's part in the buildup.
The Japanese government will help pay for the relocation of members of the U.S. Marines and their families from Okinawa -- altogether a jump in Guam's population by about 16,000.
Under a U.S.-Japan agreement, Japan will pay 60 percent of the $10 billion to $14 billion cost of the relocation, Bice said.
In Japan, wire reports state that U.S. Ambassador to Japan J. Thomas Shieffer and Deputy Commander of Pacific Command Lt. Gen. Daniel Leaf are hosting the Japanese Diet delegation's two-day Guam visit, which starts today.
The delegation, Bice said, is visiting "to see what's going on, what the assessment is, see where the Japanese money is proposed to be spent, and make their own determination (whether it's) a wise investment for the Japanese people."
Assistance sought
In anticipation of increased use of power, water and wastewater services related to the military buildup, Guam's locally elected officials have said they would ask the federal government for financial assistance to upgrade local utilities plants.
"The way this is gonna work," said Bice of the utilities-related funds for the buildup, is that the Special Purpose Entity -- established in the U.S.-Japan agreement -- "would provide equity investment for a business partner to come in and potentially provide" power, water and waste-management services.
The services that the business partner might provide could include building a power plant and adding to utility distribution and delivery lines, Bice said.
Another option, Bice said, may involve entering into a partnership with the Guam Power Authority.
The U.S. has held technical talks with Japanese government officials and Guam public utilities officials, Bice said.
Preliminary report
Engineers are completing their studies, and there will be a meeting in Washington, D.C., next week about Guam infrastructure issues, Bice said.
A preliminary report is expected around April, he said, that would assess the capabilities of Guam's power and water agencies.
"From that, we will look at our options," he added.
But what's clear, Bice emphasized, is that the military receives "good, reliable" utility services.
"It is a mission-readiness requirement," he said.
2/3/07
Friday, February 02, 2007
Adam Emul Killed in Iraq
Cpl. Adam Emul, who sister says wanted to serve, is killed in Iraq at age 19
By Brian Alexander
Seattle Times
2/2/07
Lance Cpl. Adam Emul was a quiet and very independent teen, yet it still surprised his family when he came home from school one day and said he had signed up for the armed services.
"He was proud; it was something that he wanted to do," his sister, Maryann Mendiola, said Thursday. "We didn't like his decision at the time, but he just kept telling us that it was something that he wanted to do."
Cpl. Emul died in Iraq on Monday during operations in the Al Anbar province, the Department of Defense announced Thursday. Though the department didn't release the details of his death, his sister said he was hit by a bomb's explosion while on foot patrol.
Cpl. Emul, 19, graduated in 2005 from Hudson's Bay High School in Vancouver, Clark County, and went into basic training, his sister said.
He then went on to more advanced training and was only reunited with his family for about a month before he shipped out for Iraq in September.
Cpl. Emul was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force in Twentynine Palms, Calif., according to the Department of Defense.
Cpl. Emul moved to Vancouver from Saipan in 2003 with his sister, her family and his mother, Mendiola said.
"Me and my husband, we have kids of our own, and we wanted to expose our kids to what was outside of the islands. And we wanted Adam to be part of that," Mendiola said. "Living here is way, way different from living back home. Adam pretty much adjusted real well and made friends real fast."
Cpl. Emul loved playing basketball, listening to music and doing "other teenager things," his sister said. "He was still young."
While he was in Iraq, the family kept in touch mainly via e-mail and Cpl. Emul's MySpace page. He would ask for the family to send things, particularly chocolate, for himself, and big bags of candy for the kids in Iraq he met on patrol, Mendiola said.
Mendiola expected her brother to come home in March — he was looking forward to taking a vacation to Saipan to visit family and friends who still live there, she said.
"We just saw how happy he was, and we just supported him from there. But we constantly told him: 'Please be careful,' " Mendiola said. "He was always assuring us not to worry about him, and things were going fine."
In addition to Mendiola, Cpl. Emul is survived by four brothers and sisters: Frankie Quitugua, of Saipan; Clarissa Mendiola, of Vancouver; Mindy Quitugua, of Vancouver; and Christopher Quitugua of Saipan. His parents are Angelica Quitugua, of Vancouver, and Wayne Emul of Saipan. He was preceded in death by a brother, Roger Mendiola.
By Brian Alexander
Seattle Times
2/2/07
Lance Cpl. Adam Emul was a quiet and very independent teen, yet it still surprised his family when he came home from school one day and said he had signed up for the armed services.
"He was proud; it was something that he wanted to do," his sister, Maryann Mendiola, said Thursday. "We didn't like his decision at the time, but he just kept telling us that it was something that he wanted to do."
Cpl. Emul died in Iraq on Monday during operations in the Al Anbar province, the Department of Defense announced Thursday. Though the department didn't release the details of his death, his sister said he was hit by a bomb's explosion while on foot patrol.
Cpl. Emul, 19, graduated in 2005 from Hudson's Bay High School in Vancouver, Clark County, and went into basic training, his sister said.
He then went on to more advanced training and was only reunited with his family for about a month before he shipped out for Iraq in September.
Cpl. Emul was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force in Twentynine Palms, Calif., according to the Department of Defense.
Cpl. Emul moved to Vancouver from Saipan in 2003 with his sister, her family and his mother, Mendiola said.
"Me and my husband, we have kids of our own, and we wanted to expose our kids to what was outside of the islands. And we wanted Adam to be part of that," Mendiola said. "Living here is way, way different from living back home. Adam pretty much adjusted real well and made friends real fast."
Cpl. Emul loved playing basketball, listening to music and doing "other teenager things," his sister said. "He was still young."
While he was in Iraq, the family kept in touch mainly via e-mail and Cpl. Emul's MySpace page. He would ask for the family to send things, particularly chocolate, for himself, and big bags of candy for the kids in Iraq he met on patrol, Mendiola said.
Mendiola expected her brother to come home in March — he was looking forward to taking a vacation to Saipan to visit family and friends who still live there, she said.
"We just saw how happy he was, and we just supported him from there. But we constantly told him: 'Please be careful,' " Mendiola said. "He was always assuring us not to worry about him, and things were going fine."
In addition to Mendiola, Cpl. Emul is survived by four brothers and sisters: Frankie Quitugua, of Saipan; Clarissa Mendiola, of Vancouver; Mindy Quitugua, of Vancouver; and Christopher Quitugua of Saipan. His parents are Angelica Quitugua, of Vancouver, and Wayne Emul of Saipan. He was preceded in death by a brother, Roger Mendiola.
Japan's minister ignores US demand to end criticism
Peter Alford,Tokyo correspondent
January 29, 2007
THE US Government has drawn a line in the sand over criticism from Japan's Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma, but the outspoken Mr Kyuma has immediately stepped across it. The Kyodo news agency reported yesterday the head of the State Department's Japanese affairs office, James Zumwalt, had lodged a protest about Mr Kyuma's comments critical of the US's Iraq campaign on Wednesday and last month.
Mr Zumwalt warned officials from Japan's Washington embassy that further provocative remarks would make it "difficult" to arrange security talks between Mr Kyuma, Foreign Minister Taro Aso, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and new Defence Secretary Robert Gates. Strongly pro-American Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pressing for fresh "two-plus-two" talks on bilateral security issues and is understood to have told the 66-year-old national security veteran on Friday to watch his words.
But 66-year-old Mr Kyuma was at it again on Saturday, saying the US "doesn't understand" the importance of local negotiations to resolve the problem of relocating a military airbase on Okinawa.
"We've been telling them, 'Please don't say things that are too cocky, we are talking to the (Okinawa) governor, so please wait for a while'," he said in a public speech referring to an argument about shifting a US Marines airbase from crowded Ginowan City to Nago.
Given American frustration at Japan's foot-dragging before the national Government agreed to the relocation last year and the protracted negotiations since with Okinawa's Government, Mr Kyuma's chiding is likely to infuriate the US administration.
The remarks followed his meeting on Friday with Mr Abe, after which he promised to take more care.
He offended the Americans by saying on Wednesday -- at virtually the same moment as President George W. Bush's State of the Union address -- that the President's decision to invade Iraq was wrong.
In December, Mr Kyuma criticised Japan's support for US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and claimed then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi had acted without government authority in sending a non-combatant contingent to southern Iraq.
Mr Kyuma's comments on Friday made clear that he continues to hold views critical of the US, though he suggested the strength of his remarks was unnecessarily amplified by English-language media translations.
"If they were taken (as criticism) I think I should be more careful how I say things," he told reporters. "Even if they were my thoughts, I think perhaps it might be better not to say them."
Mr Kyuma is one of many headaches the new PM created for himself by appointing perhaps the least impressive cabinet in years. He is actually one of the most popular of Mr Abe's team.
Possibly reflecting that Mr Kyuma's dim view of American military policy is widely held in his Liberal Democratic Party, though usually carefully repressed, Mr Abe has not publicly repudiated the Defence Minister's comments.
Peter Alford,Tokyo correspondent
January 29, 2007
THE US Government has drawn a line in the sand over criticism from Japan's Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma, but the outspoken Mr Kyuma has immediately stepped across it. The Kyodo news agency reported yesterday the head of the State Department's Japanese affairs office, James Zumwalt, had lodged a protest about Mr Kyuma's comments critical of the US's Iraq campaign on Wednesday and last month.
Mr Zumwalt warned officials from Japan's Washington embassy that further provocative remarks would make it "difficult" to arrange security talks between Mr Kyuma, Foreign Minister Taro Aso, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and new Defence Secretary Robert Gates. Strongly pro-American Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pressing for fresh "two-plus-two" talks on bilateral security issues and is understood to have told the 66-year-old national security veteran on Friday to watch his words.
But 66-year-old Mr Kyuma was at it again on Saturday, saying the US "doesn't understand" the importance of local negotiations to resolve the problem of relocating a military airbase on Okinawa.
"We've been telling them, 'Please don't say things that are too cocky, we are talking to the (Okinawa) governor, so please wait for a while'," he said in a public speech referring to an argument about shifting a US Marines airbase from crowded Ginowan City to Nago.
Given American frustration at Japan's foot-dragging before the national Government agreed to the relocation last year and the protracted negotiations since with Okinawa's Government, Mr Kyuma's chiding is likely to infuriate the US administration.
The remarks followed his meeting on Friday with Mr Abe, after which he promised to take more care.
He offended the Americans by saying on Wednesday -- at virtually the same moment as President George W. Bush's State of the Union address -- that the President's decision to invade Iraq was wrong.
In December, Mr Kyuma criticised Japan's support for US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and claimed then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi had acted without government authority in sending a non-combatant contingent to southern Iraq.
Mr Kyuma's comments on Friday made clear that he continues to hold views critical of the US, though he suggested the strength of his remarks was unnecessarily amplified by English-language media translations.
"If they were taken (as criticism) I think I should be more careful how I say things," he told reporters. "Even if they were my thoughts, I think perhaps it might be better not to say them."
Mr Kyuma is one of many headaches the new PM created for himself by appointing perhaps the least impressive cabinet in years. He is actually one of the most popular of Mr Abe's team.
Possibly reflecting that Mr Kyuma's dim view of American military policy is widely held in his Liberal Democratic Party, though usually carefully repressed, Mr Abe has not publicly repudiated the Defence Minister's comments.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Despite Environmental Protests, Air Force to Proceed
Air Force to proceed with strike force plan
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
http://www.mvariety.com
DESPITE the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's dissatisfaction with the U.S. Air Force's preliminary environmental impact study, or EIS, the Pentagon has decided to proceed with its plan to base permanent tankers on Guam to support the Air Strike mission at Andersen Air Force Base.
The Air Force says it will implement its existing environmental protection measures for Andersen and just reevaluate them in the future as the mission goes along.
In the Record of Decision dated Jan. 12, Air Force Deputy Assistant Fred W. Kuhn said "the decision takes into account the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts from the alternative."
"The Air Force, when balancing the essential considerations of national policy, the selection standards and other matters, chose Andersen AFB and did not carry the other six installations considered forward for detailed analysis in the EIS," Kuhn said.
The Air Force has identified Andersen Air Force Base as the site best suited to host the air strike force compared to Iwo Jima, Japan, Saipan, Diego Garcia, Wake Island and Hawaii, which were initially considered as alternative locations for the mission.
"From Guam, combat aircraft are within easy striking range of the region's likely potential hot spots, yet far enough from an adversary's missile launch sites to limit the likely effects of such strikes," stated the Record of Decision, which contains the final EIS.
Last year, the USEPA urged the Air Force to conduct a more substantial environmental analysis and address other "reasonable and foreseeable" issues before proceeding with its plan to build up an Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance and Strike, or Strike Force, at Andersen.
The Air Force published its draft preliminary EIS before the Pentagon's release of the Guam Integrated Military Development Plan in July 2006.
"The Air Force recognizes that future actions are planned for Guam," Kuhn said. "However, the Air Force cannot reasonably speculate on preliminary proposals that are still under development and that are not presently capable of meaningful analysis."
He said details contained in the Guam Integrated Military Development Plan are "currently undefined, speculative and not conducive to an informative environmental analysis."
The Air Force says additional planning to modify the EIS will take two more years to complete. Kuhn said the Air Force is not inclined to wait that long, noting the unavailability of information needed to assess the cumulative impacts on Guam environment.
"The Air Force does not consider the unavailable information regarding potential relocation of Marines to Guam to be relevant to any significant environmental impacts or essential to any reasoned choice among alternatives for ISR/Strike bed down and operations," Kuhn said.
"Furthermore," he added, "even if such information were relevant to significant adverse impacts or essential to a choice among alternatives, the Air Force considers the cost of a two-year delay to obtain that information for this EIS to be exorbitant and inconsistent with the Air Force's responsibilities to the Department of Defense mission."
Kuhn, however, said the Air Force will put in place several conservation measures and mitigations to protect Guam's natural resources and habitat for endangered local species, including the Mariana fruit bats, kingfishers and crows. The Air Force also says it will strictly implement a solid waste management system on base.
These measures, Kuhn said, "could be reexamined and reevaluated in any future environmental impact analysis for potential future federal actions on Guam."
The Pentagon is planning to deploy 12 KC-135 tanker aircraft and four Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles and personnel to Andersen Air Force Base on a permanent basis. As many as 40 fighter planes such as the F-22 and the F-15E and six bomber aircraft will be rotated from bases in the 50 states. The mission will be deployed in four phases over a period of 16 years.
Air Force officials expect the Andersen population to increase by 3,000.
The ISR/Strike's mission, according to the Pentagon, is "to achieve pre-engagement battle space awareness, locate and identify critical adversary movement, achieve assured success through air dominance, and deliver decisive effects via persistent and precise application of air and space power."
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
http://www.mvariety.com
DESPITE the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's dissatisfaction with the U.S. Air Force's preliminary environmental impact study, or EIS, the Pentagon has decided to proceed with its plan to base permanent tankers on Guam to support the Air Strike mission at Andersen Air Force Base.
The Air Force says it will implement its existing environmental protection measures for Andersen and just reevaluate them in the future as the mission goes along.
In the Record of Decision dated Jan. 12, Air Force Deputy Assistant Fred W. Kuhn said "the decision takes into account the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts from the alternative."
"The Air Force, when balancing the essential considerations of national policy, the selection standards and other matters, chose Andersen AFB and did not carry the other six installations considered forward for detailed analysis in the EIS," Kuhn said.
The Air Force has identified Andersen Air Force Base as the site best suited to host the air strike force compared to Iwo Jima, Japan, Saipan, Diego Garcia, Wake Island and Hawaii, which were initially considered as alternative locations for the mission.
"From Guam, combat aircraft are within easy striking range of the region's likely potential hot spots, yet far enough from an adversary's missile launch sites to limit the likely effects of such strikes," stated the Record of Decision, which contains the final EIS.
Last year, the USEPA urged the Air Force to conduct a more substantial environmental analysis and address other "reasonable and foreseeable" issues before proceeding with its plan to build up an Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance and Strike, or Strike Force, at Andersen.
The Air Force published its draft preliminary EIS before the Pentagon's release of the Guam Integrated Military Development Plan in July 2006.
"The Air Force recognizes that future actions are planned for Guam," Kuhn said. "However, the Air Force cannot reasonably speculate on preliminary proposals that are still under development and that are not presently capable of meaningful analysis."
He said details contained in the Guam Integrated Military Development Plan are "currently undefined, speculative and not conducive to an informative environmental analysis."
The Air Force says additional planning to modify the EIS will take two more years to complete. Kuhn said the Air Force is not inclined to wait that long, noting the unavailability of information needed to assess the cumulative impacts on Guam environment.
"The Air Force does not consider the unavailable information regarding potential relocation of Marines to Guam to be relevant to any significant environmental impacts or essential to any reasoned choice among alternatives for ISR/Strike bed down and operations," Kuhn said.
"Furthermore," he added, "even if such information were relevant to significant adverse impacts or essential to a choice among alternatives, the Air Force considers the cost of a two-year delay to obtain that information for this EIS to be exorbitant and inconsistent with the Air Force's responsibilities to the Department of Defense mission."
Kuhn, however, said the Air Force will put in place several conservation measures and mitigations to protect Guam's natural resources and habitat for endangered local species, including the Mariana fruit bats, kingfishers and crows. The Air Force also says it will strictly implement a solid waste management system on base.
These measures, Kuhn said, "could be reexamined and reevaluated in any future environmental impact analysis for potential future federal actions on Guam."
The Pentagon is planning to deploy 12 KC-135 tanker aircraft and four Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles and personnel to Andersen Air Force Base on a permanent basis. As many as 40 fighter planes such as the F-22 and the F-15E and six bomber aircraft will be rotated from bases in the 50 states. The mission will be deployed in four phases over a period of 16 years.
Air Force officials expect the Andersen population to increase by 3,000.
The ISR/Strike's mission, according to the Pentagon, is "to achieve pre-engagement battle space awareness, locate and identify critical adversary movement, achieve assured success through air dominance, and deliver decisive effects via persistent and precise application of air and space power."
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Guam Hosting International Terrorism Exercise
Guam hosting international terrorism exercise
by Sabrina Salas Matanane, KUAM News
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Planning continues in the meantime for TOPOFF 4, scheduled to take place on Guam in October. TOPOFF 4 is U.S. Department of Homeland Security's most comprehensive terrorism response exercise. It's an honor bestowed to only a select few homeland security offices once every two years, and Guam was selected for the location of the exercise this year.
Former Guam homeland security advisor Senator Frank Blas, Jr. says he's still actively involved in the planning process, telling KUAM News, "Preliminarily, there are a number of countries that are going to be involved not only as participants, but observers. I do know that there is interest from Canada and Mexico, from the Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Korea as well as Australia, New Zealand; as well there's interest from European nations. Great Britain was involved last TOPOFF, they want to be involved with this one as well. There's a lot of interest from those nations to participate in these exercise, and it also involves the people on island and those to arrive to assist in this homeland security effort."
Senator Blas (R) who has oversight over homeland security issues, says upwards of 600 people could be on Guam to participate in the exercise. TOPOFF 4 is expected to be the culmination of a two-year cycle of seminars, planning events, and exercises. Guam participants for the exercise will include federal, state, local, private sector agencies and organizations, as well as volunteer groups.
by Sabrina Salas Matanane, KUAM News
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Planning continues in the meantime for TOPOFF 4, scheduled to take place on Guam in October. TOPOFF 4 is U.S. Department of Homeland Security's most comprehensive terrorism response exercise. It's an honor bestowed to only a select few homeland security offices once every two years, and Guam was selected for the location of the exercise this year.
Former Guam homeland security advisor Senator Frank Blas, Jr. says he's still actively involved in the planning process, telling KUAM News, "Preliminarily, there are a number of countries that are going to be involved not only as participants, but observers. I do know that there is interest from Canada and Mexico, from the Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Korea as well as Australia, New Zealand; as well there's interest from European nations. Great Britain was involved last TOPOFF, they want to be involved with this one as well. There's a lot of interest from those nations to participate in these exercise, and it also involves the people on island and those to arrive to assist in this homeland security effort."
Senator Blas (R) who has oversight over homeland security issues, says upwards of 600 people could be on Guam to participate in the exercise. TOPOFF 4 is expected to be the culmination of a two-year cycle of seminars, planning events, and exercises. Guam participants for the exercise will include federal, state, local, private sector agencies and organizations, as well as volunteer groups.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Beholden Justice
BEHOLDEN JUSTICE
Written by Patricio P. Diaz/MindaNews
Friday, 19 January 2007
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/18 Jan) -- Just very recently, an American soldier in South Korea raped a Korean woman – a 23-year-old raping a 67-year-old. Hours after South Korean police had arrested the soldier, Maj. Gen. John Morgan, acting commander of the 8th Army, issued an apology.He said: “I deeply regret and personally apologize for this terrible incident that has resulted in grave injury to a Korean civilian. This vicious act is an affront to all soldiers.” According to the AFP report, some 29,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea.
In Okinawa, Japan, the base of the US Marines in the Pacific, Japanese authorities take custody of American soldiers who rape Japanese women and try them in Japanese courts. In reported incidents in the past, Japanese authorities frustrated the Americans in their bid to take custody of their soldiers.
The recent incident in South Korea, as well as those in Okinawa, highlights the Smith rape case – the contrast in the dispensation of justice. Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith is from the Okinawa US military base.
To highlight more the contrast, had Smith raped an American woman – white, black or immigrant -- in his homeland, within months, not a year, he would have been in jail and be there while awaiting his appeal.
Beholden Justice
Smith basks in the comfort of what may be called “beholden justice” in the Philippines engendered by the US arm-twisting diplomacy and double-standard view of the court – one standard for the US and another for the Philippine, notwithstanding that the Philippine court system is modeled after that of the US.
Under US court rules and procedures, judicial proceedings end with the sentencing. The convicted goes to jail while awaiting the results of his or her appeal. That, too, was the ruling of Judge Benjamin Pozon which was sustained by the Court of Appeals.
But Washington did not respect that. Through its embassy, it insisted that “judicial proceedings” as provided in the Visiting Forces Agreement end when the appeal ends. Malacañang supported that line and Smith’s petition at the CA that he be put under the custody of the US Embassy.
To give muscle to the US position, the Pacific Command chief announced the cancellation of the joint US-RP military exercises in February – the Balikatan. Alarmed that other US military and economic assistances might be cut, too, Malacañang agreed to transfer Smith from the Makati jail to the US embassy.
The CA decision, penned by Justice Apolinario Bruselas Jr., in upholding Pozon’s ruling, was hailed as a “roaring lion” but decried as “a roar ending in a whimper” when it dismissed Smith’s petition as moot without ordering his return to Makati jail. Bruselas must have felt beholden to Malacañang.
In the Philippines, it is not uncommon to see components of the pillars of justice, including judges of courts, beholden to the President and those closely associated with Malacañang. Examples are legions. That Bruselas has been seen by many as having lost nerve is understandable.
Respect for the Court
That Malacañang did not respect the court in the Smith case is deplorable. Just as deplorable is Washington’s disrespect for the Philippine court.
Court decisions in the US are questioned. However, Americans bow to these decisions until they are reconsidered after having been reviewed by the courts themselves – from the lowest to the highest.
Americans know that their courts are not beholden to their president. In two landmark cases recently, President George W. Bush was virtually chastised by the US Supreme Court and a US district judge.
In an earlier case, the US Supreme Court voided the military courts Bush had ordered created to try the foreign terrorism detainees at Guantamano Bay Naval Base prison. In giving the order, Bush believed that he did not violate the US Constitution and the Geneva Conventions.
Following the Court’s ruling, Bush asked Congress to pass a law authorizing the creation of the military tribunals. Under the doctrine of check-and-balance, the Supreme Court will scrutinize the law for its conformity with the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions if questioned.
In another case, US District Judge Anne Digs Taylor, an African-American, ruled “that President Bush’s secret eavesdropping program to track terrorists is unconstitutional and ordered it to cease immediately” – rejecting the president’s “claim that he had the inherent power to authorize the program”.
In what amounted as a rebuke, the judge said: “There are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution” – actually meaning that what’s provided in the Constitution may not be interpreted just by the Executive but must be spelled out by Congress in an enabling law.
The ruling was questioned immediately by the Department of Justice and the conservatives. Whatever the outcome of the appeals, which could go up to the US Supreme Court, will not dilute the high respect of the court by the Americans starting from the president.
Sad Reality
Why can’t the American authorities respect the Philippine court ruling in the Smith rape case? Had that been an American court ruling, Smith would have directly gone to jail. Why the double standard?
Why did the US military apologize to the South Koreans and called the act of its soldier “an affront to all soldiers”? The Marine commander in Okinawa did not find the Filipinos deserving of an apology and the act of Smith as an affront to the Marine Corps.
Why were the Marines in Okinawa arrested for raping Japanese women held by Japanese authorities in Japanese jails? The Japanese, unlike the Filipinos, must not be beholden to the Americans.
Why? Why? Why? Is it because the Americans respect the South Koreans and Japanese as sovereign in “words and deeds” while the Filipinos are sovereign only in “words” but colonials in “deeds”? That the South Koreans and Japanese assert their sovereignty while we don’t?
Look at the VFA. To us, it’s a law – a treaty ratified by our Senate. Do the Americans regard it their law? It was not ratified by the US Senate. The US Constitution provides that the president can make treaties with the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senate and these treaties “shall be the supreme Law of the Land”.
The demeaning Smith case, an icon of “beholden justice”, highlighted by a similar case in South Korea and several others in Japan for their different treatment by US authorities, exposes the sad reality of the Filipino-American relations that Malacañang treasures and wants to protect at all costs.
Written by Patricio P. Diaz/MindaNews
Friday, 19 January 2007
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/18 Jan) -- Just very recently, an American soldier in South Korea raped a Korean woman – a 23-year-old raping a 67-year-old. Hours after South Korean police had arrested the soldier, Maj. Gen. John Morgan, acting commander of the 8th Army, issued an apology.He said: “I deeply regret and personally apologize for this terrible incident that has resulted in grave injury to a Korean civilian. This vicious act is an affront to all soldiers.” According to the AFP report, some 29,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea.
In Okinawa, Japan, the base of the US Marines in the Pacific, Japanese authorities take custody of American soldiers who rape Japanese women and try them in Japanese courts. In reported incidents in the past, Japanese authorities frustrated the Americans in their bid to take custody of their soldiers.
The recent incident in South Korea, as well as those in Okinawa, highlights the Smith rape case – the contrast in the dispensation of justice. Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith is from the Okinawa US military base.
To highlight more the contrast, had Smith raped an American woman – white, black or immigrant -- in his homeland, within months, not a year, he would have been in jail and be there while awaiting his appeal.
Beholden Justice
Smith basks in the comfort of what may be called “beholden justice” in the Philippines engendered by the US arm-twisting diplomacy and double-standard view of the court – one standard for the US and another for the Philippine, notwithstanding that the Philippine court system is modeled after that of the US.
Under US court rules and procedures, judicial proceedings end with the sentencing. The convicted goes to jail while awaiting the results of his or her appeal. That, too, was the ruling of Judge Benjamin Pozon which was sustained by the Court of Appeals.
But Washington did not respect that. Through its embassy, it insisted that “judicial proceedings” as provided in the Visiting Forces Agreement end when the appeal ends. Malacañang supported that line and Smith’s petition at the CA that he be put under the custody of the US Embassy.
To give muscle to the US position, the Pacific Command chief announced the cancellation of the joint US-RP military exercises in February – the Balikatan. Alarmed that other US military and economic assistances might be cut, too, Malacañang agreed to transfer Smith from the Makati jail to the US embassy.
The CA decision, penned by Justice Apolinario Bruselas Jr., in upholding Pozon’s ruling, was hailed as a “roaring lion” but decried as “a roar ending in a whimper” when it dismissed Smith’s petition as moot without ordering his return to Makati jail. Bruselas must have felt beholden to Malacañang.
In the Philippines, it is not uncommon to see components of the pillars of justice, including judges of courts, beholden to the President and those closely associated with Malacañang. Examples are legions. That Bruselas has been seen by many as having lost nerve is understandable.
Respect for the Court
That Malacañang did not respect the court in the Smith case is deplorable. Just as deplorable is Washington’s disrespect for the Philippine court.
Court decisions in the US are questioned. However, Americans bow to these decisions until they are reconsidered after having been reviewed by the courts themselves – from the lowest to the highest.
Americans know that their courts are not beholden to their president. In two landmark cases recently, President George W. Bush was virtually chastised by the US Supreme Court and a US district judge.
In an earlier case, the US Supreme Court voided the military courts Bush had ordered created to try the foreign terrorism detainees at Guantamano Bay Naval Base prison. In giving the order, Bush believed that he did not violate the US Constitution and the Geneva Conventions.
Following the Court’s ruling, Bush asked Congress to pass a law authorizing the creation of the military tribunals. Under the doctrine of check-and-balance, the Supreme Court will scrutinize the law for its conformity with the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions if questioned.
In another case, US District Judge Anne Digs Taylor, an African-American, ruled “that President Bush’s secret eavesdropping program to track terrorists is unconstitutional and ordered it to cease immediately” – rejecting the president’s “claim that he had the inherent power to authorize the program”.
In what amounted as a rebuke, the judge said: “There are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution” – actually meaning that what’s provided in the Constitution may not be interpreted just by the Executive but must be spelled out by Congress in an enabling law.
The ruling was questioned immediately by the Department of Justice and the conservatives. Whatever the outcome of the appeals, which could go up to the US Supreme Court, will not dilute the high respect of the court by the Americans starting from the president.
Sad Reality
Why can’t the American authorities respect the Philippine court ruling in the Smith rape case? Had that been an American court ruling, Smith would have directly gone to jail. Why the double standard?
Why did the US military apologize to the South Koreans and called the act of its soldier “an affront to all soldiers”? The Marine commander in Okinawa did not find the Filipinos deserving of an apology and the act of Smith as an affront to the Marine Corps.
Why were the Marines in Okinawa arrested for raping Japanese women held by Japanese authorities in Japanese jails? The Japanese, unlike the Filipinos, must not be beholden to the Americans.
Why? Why? Why? Is it because the Americans respect the South Koreans and Japanese as sovereign in “words and deeds” while the Filipinos are sovereign only in “words” but colonials in “deeds”? That the South Koreans and Japanese assert their sovereignty while we don’t?
Look at the VFA. To us, it’s a law – a treaty ratified by our Senate. Do the Americans regard it their law? It was not ratified by the US Senate. The US Constitution provides that the president can make treaties with the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senate and these treaties “shall be the supreme Law of the Land”.
The demeaning Smith case, an icon of “beholden justice”, highlighted by a similar case in South Korea and several others in Japan for their different treatment by US authorities, exposes the sad reality of the Filipino-American relations that Malacañang treasures and wants to protect at all costs.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
U.S. Submarine Collides with Japanese Ship
U.S. Submarine Collides With Japanese Ship
AP
--------
TOKYO (Jan. 9) - A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine collided with a Japanese oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world's oil supplies travel, officials said.
No one was hurt in the accident that happened Monday night in the 34-mile wide straits, which are bordered by Iran and Oman and serve as the entrance to the Persian Gulf.
Damage to the fast-attack USS Newport News submarine and the supertanker was light and there was no resulting spill of oil or leakage of nuclear fuel, officials from the U.S. Navy and the Japanese government said.
Both ships remained able to navigate, Navy officials said.
The bow of the submarine was traveling submerged when it hit the stern of the supertanker Mogamigawa as the vessels were passing through the Straits, causing minor damage to the Japanese vessel, the U.S. Navy and Japan's Foreign Ministry said. The Japanese government said it was informed of the crash by the Navy and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
The tanker, operated by Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., was able to continue to a nearby port in the United Arab Emirates, the statement said.
Commander Kevin Aandahl of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain confirmed there had been a crash and that there were no injuries aboard either ship. Aandahl said the submarine had surfaced and its crew was evaluating damage.
The Navy said the sub's nuclear propulsion plant was undamaged. The Newport News is based in Norfolk, Va., and is part of a U.S.-led multinational task force patrolling the Persian Gulf and nearby seas. It has a crew of 127.
The Mogamigawa was traveling from the Gulf to Singapore and was carrying a crew of eight Japanese and 16 Filipinos. It is expected to arrive in the port of Khor Fakkan later Tuesday, company spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.
She said crew members reported a sudden large bang and shaking just before the collision, but no other details were immediately available.
The Japanese government has asked the U.S. side to investigate. Aandahl said a Navy investigation would begin shortly.
In February 2001, a U.S. Navy submarine rammed into a Japanese fishing vessel in waters off Hawaii, killing nine people. The American captain's delay in apologizing for the crash triggered protests by the victims' families.
U.S. naval vessels have been involved in previous collisions with commercial ships in the busy shipping lanes around the Persian Gulf. In September 2005, the U.S. nuclear submarine Philadelphia collided with a Turkish cargo ship in the Gulf, causing no injuries.
In July 2004, the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy collided with a dhow in the Gulf, leaving no survivors on the traditional Arab sailing boat. The Navy relieved the Kennedy's commander, Capt. Stephen B. Squires, after the incident.
Fleets of U.S. and allied navy vessels patrol the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea and western Indian Ocean, attempting to block smuggling of weapons to Iraq and Somalia, nuclear components to Iran, as well as the movement of drug shipments and terrorists.
U.S. and coalition ships started patrolling the coast of Somalia in recent weeks in a bid to capture any al-Qaida suspects fleeing Ethiopia's December invasion.
-----
Associated Press writers Hans Greimel in Tokyo and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
AP
--------
TOKYO (Jan. 9) - A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine collided with a Japanese oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world's oil supplies travel, officials said.
No one was hurt in the accident that happened Monday night in the 34-mile wide straits, which are bordered by Iran and Oman and serve as the entrance to the Persian Gulf.
Damage to the fast-attack USS Newport News submarine and the supertanker was light and there was no resulting spill of oil or leakage of nuclear fuel, officials from the U.S. Navy and the Japanese government said.
Both ships remained able to navigate, Navy officials said.
The bow of the submarine was traveling submerged when it hit the stern of the supertanker Mogamigawa as the vessels were passing through the Straits, causing minor damage to the Japanese vessel, the U.S. Navy and Japan's Foreign Ministry said. The Japanese government said it was informed of the crash by the Navy and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
The tanker, operated by Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., was able to continue to a nearby port in the United Arab Emirates, the statement said.
Commander Kevin Aandahl of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain confirmed there had been a crash and that there were no injuries aboard either ship. Aandahl said the submarine had surfaced and its crew was evaluating damage.
The Navy said the sub's nuclear propulsion plant was undamaged. The Newport News is based in Norfolk, Va., and is part of a U.S.-led multinational task force patrolling the Persian Gulf and nearby seas. It has a crew of 127.
The Mogamigawa was traveling from the Gulf to Singapore and was carrying a crew of eight Japanese and 16 Filipinos. It is expected to arrive in the port of Khor Fakkan later Tuesday, company spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.
She said crew members reported a sudden large bang and shaking just before the collision, but no other details were immediately available.
The Japanese government has asked the U.S. side to investigate. Aandahl said a Navy investigation would begin shortly.
In February 2001, a U.S. Navy submarine rammed into a Japanese fishing vessel in waters off Hawaii, killing nine people. The American captain's delay in apologizing for the crash triggered protests by the victims' families.
U.S. naval vessels have been involved in previous collisions with commercial ships in the busy shipping lanes around the Persian Gulf. In September 2005, the U.S. nuclear submarine Philadelphia collided with a Turkish cargo ship in the Gulf, causing no injuries.
In July 2004, the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy collided with a dhow in the Gulf, leaving no survivors on the traditional Arab sailing boat. The Navy relieved the Kennedy's commander, Capt. Stephen B. Squires, after the incident.
Fleets of U.S. and allied navy vessels patrol the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea and western Indian Ocean, attempting to block smuggling of weapons to Iraq and Somalia, nuclear components to Iran, as well as the movement of drug shipments and terrorists.
U.S. and coalition ships started patrolling the coast of Somalia in recent weeks in a bid to capture any al-Qaida suspects fleeing Ethiopia's December invasion.
-----
Associated Press writers Hans Greimel in Tokyo and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Why Guam? Because The Military Can't Go to the PI
Monday, January 8, 2007
More Marines bound for O'ahu, Guam
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
----------
The Marine presence on O'ahu could grow by about 1,000 as the service
reshuffles its forces in the Pacific and moves forward with plans to relocate 8,300
Marines from Okinawa to Guam by about 2014, Lt. Gen. John Goodman said.
The top Marine commander in the Pacific offered a straightforward explanation
for the move to Guam, which is precipitated by growing tensions and a
shortage of space on Okinawa.
"Why Guam? The answer is because I can't go to the Philippines," Goodman said
at a Chamber of Commerce of Hawai'i military partnership conference last
week.
"If our alliance with the Philippines would allow us to go there, I would
move 8,000 Marines right now to Manila Bay," Goodman said.
In 1991, the Philippine Senate voted to reject a treaty allowing U.S. bases
in the country, but the government continues to welcome U.S. military aid and
training.
Strategically, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan also would be preferable for
the basing, but since such moves are not possible, Guam is as close as Goodman
can get to potential hot spots.
"I can take off from Guam in my helicopters or Okinawa with Marines on board
and I can be in the fight fast â within hours," the three-star general said.
Service commanders also emphasized the importance of Hawai'i as the Pacific
increasingly becomes a center of gravity for economic production, potential
terrorism, and military buildup by countries such as China.
At the same time, the United States is taking forces from Europe and South
Korea and pulling them back to the Mainland.
Lt. Gen. John M. Brown III, who heads U.S. Army, Pacific, at Fort Shafter,
said 85 percent of the Army will be based in the continental United States in
the next few years. Forces that are forward-based, like those in Hawai'i, become
critical to national military strategy, Brown said.
"Those forces have to be early and initial entry forces that can respond to
the combatant commander's requirements immediately while that big portion in
the Army back in the continental U.S. moves forward," Brown said.
The Army's Stryker brigade is a fast-strike unit that is designed to be
deployed within days.
Hawai'i also remains a command and control nerve center.
O'AHU MARINES
Goodman said Hawai'i's contingent of about 6,500 Marines could grow by 800 to
1,000 as part of possible command and control changes at Kane'ohe Bay.
Adm. Gary Roughead, who commands U.S. Pacific Fleet from Pearl Harbor, noted
that exercise Valiant Shield off Guam in June brought together three aircraft
carriers, more than 300 aircraft and other forces in the biggest U.S. Navy and
Air Force presence in the western Pacific since the Vietnam War.
The exercise was commanded from the Navy's Makalapa headquarters and Kenney
Headquarters at Hickam Air Force Base.
"But Hawai'i really enables it all from the Navy perspective," Roughead said.
"We do have the tyranny of distance, but with today's technology, we're now
commanding our forces in ways that were unheard of 10 to 15 years ago."
The Navy presence in the region is only going to grow with defense planning
expected to tip the balance of attack submarines from a 50/50 split in the
Pacific and Atlantic to 60 percent in the Pacific, Roughead said.
IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN
Some 22,000 Marines from Marine Forces Pacific drawn from California,
Hawai'i, Arizona, Okinawa and Mainland Japan are in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that
number probably will go up by another 3,000 to 4,000 over the course of the year
if anticipated orders are received, Goodman said.
Brown said excluding a troop level change expected to be made by the
president, 25,000 U.S. Army, Pacific, soldiers are expected to serve in Iraq and
Afghanistan this fiscal year, and in fiscal 2008 another 25,000 will be prepared to
deploy if called upon.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.
More Marines bound for O'ahu, Guam
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
----------
The Marine presence on O'ahu could grow by about 1,000 as the service
reshuffles its forces in the Pacific and moves forward with plans to relocate 8,300
Marines from Okinawa to Guam by about 2014, Lt. Gen. John Goodman said.
The top Marine commander in the Pacific offered a straightforward explanation
for the move to Guam, which is precipitated by growing tensions and a
shortage of space on Okinawa.
"Why Guam? The answer is because I can't go to the Philippines," Goodman said
at a Chamber of Commerce of Hawai'i military partnership conference last
week.
"If our alliance with the Philippines would allow us to go there, I would
move 8,000 Marines right now to Manila Bay," Goodman said.
In 1991, the Philippine Senate voted to reject a treaty allowing U.S. bases
in the country, but the government continues to welcome U.S. military aid and
training.
Strategically, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan also would be preferable for
the basing, but since such moves are not possible, Guam is as close as Goodman
can get to potential hot spots.
"I can take off from Guam in my helicopters or Okinawa with Marines on board
and I can be in the fight fast â within hours," the three-star general said.
Service commanders also emphasized the importance of Hawai'i as the Pacific
increasingly becomes a center of gravity for economic production, potential
terrorism, and military buildup by countries such as China.
At the same time, the United States is taking forces from Europe and South
Korea and pulling them back to the Mainland.
Lt. Gen. John M. Brown III, who heads U.S. Army, Pacific, at Fort Shafter,
said 85 percent of the Army will be based in the continental United States in
the next few years. Forces that are forward-based, like those in Hawai'i, become
critical to national military strategy, Brown said.
"Those forces have to be early and initial entry forces that can respond to
the combatant commander's requirements immediately while that big portion in
the Army back in the continental U.S. moves forward," Brown said.
The Army's Stryker brigade is a fast-strike unit that is designed to be
deployed within days.
Hawai'i also remains a command and control nerve center.
O'AHU MARINES
Goodman said Hawai'i's contingent of about 6,500 Marines could grow by 800 to
1,000 as part of possible command and control changes at Kane'ohe Bay.
Adm. Gary Roughead, who commands U.S. Pacific Fleet from Pearl Harbor, noted
that exercise Valiant Shield off Guam in June brought together three aircraft
carriers, more than 300 aircraft and other forces in the biggest U.S. Navy and
Air Force presence in the western Pacific since the Vietnam War.
The exercise was commanded from the Navy's Makalapa headquarters and Kenney
Headquarters at Hickam Air Force Base.
"But Hawai'i really enables it all from the Navy perspective," Roughead said.
"We do have the tyranny of distance, but with today's technology, we're now
commanding our forces in ways that were unheard of 10 to 15 years ago."
The Navy presence in the region is only going to grow with defense planning
expected to tip the balance of attack submarines from a 50/50 split in the
Pacific and Atlantic to 60 percent in the Pacific, Roughead said.
IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN
Some 22,000 Marines from Marine Forces Pacific drawn from California,
Hawai'i, Arizona, Okinawa and Mainland Japan are in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that
number probably will go up by another 3,000 to 4,000 over the course of the year
if anticipated orders are received, Goodman said.
Brown said excluding a troop level change expected to be made by the
president, 25,000 U.S. Army, Pacific, soldiers are expected to serve in Iraq and
Afghanistan this fiscal year, and in fiscal 2008 another 25,000 will be prepared to
deploy if called upon.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
CNMI Faces Federal "Typhoon"
CNMI faces federal 'typhoon'
Cohen: Loss of labor, immigration control likely
By David V. Crisostomo
Pacific Sunday News
dcrisostomo@guampdn.com
A top Interior Department official, who spoke before the Saipan Chamber of Commerce Friday, warned that a federal "typhoon" is barreling toward the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and that its impact likely will strip the local government's controls on wages and immigration.
"'Federalization' of the CNMI is almost certain to occur in the near future," said Interior's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs David Cohen, as he gave his remarks before the Saipan Chamber of Commerce installation dinner, which was also attended by members of the Guam Chamber of Commerce, federal officials and military leaders.
Cohen stressed that the CNMI faces its toughest challenges yet and that each member of its community will be affected.
"If any portion of this community is at risk, then everyone is at risk," Cohen said. "You are all in the same boat, and if that boat sinks, then everyone drowns."
Cohen said under a worst-case scenario "the transformation of this society will be abrupt and painful."
"I'm sorry to say that in my opinion, the worst-case scenario is much more likely in this case than the worst-case scenario usually is," he said. "Can there be federalization without strangulation? I'm afraid that we may soon find out."
Garment industry
Cohen said the federal "typhoon" comes at a time when the territory's two main industries -- tourism and the garment industry -- are reeling. The garment industry, he said, is "on its way out anyway."
"One does not have to be a fan of the Saipan garment industry to recognize the danger of its abrupt departure," Cohen said.
"The garment industry has in recent years accounted for about 35 percent of the local government's revenues," he added. "Could the local government absorb the rapid loss of such a large portion of its revenues and still protect the health, safety and welfare of its people? Could the economy survive an immediate exit of the garment industry at a time when the other pillar of the economy, the tourism industry, is also reeling? I'm afraid that we may soon find out."
Cohen said while the absence of the garment industry will be good for the CNMI in the long run, the territory must first survive the short run.
"Left to its own devices, the steady downsizing of the garment industry had been dragging the CNMI's economy down to a hard landing," Cohen said. "Pushing the industry out the door may result in a crash landing. Unfortunately, there is no soft landing in sight--but it is easier to survive a hard landing than a crash landing."
Details
Cohen provided the following details:
Wages: The federalization of the CNMI minimum wage is "on an extremely fast track."
"It is woven into the bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25. Under the Democrats' proposal, the CNMI minimum wage will increase from $3.05 to $7.25 over a four-year period, jumping $1.50 in the first year alone," he said. "This could very likely result in a complete and immediate exodus of what's left of Saipan's garment industry."
Immigration: Congress has expressed an interest in moving immigration control in the CNMI to the federal government. Cohen said the timing and terms of any immigration federalization legislation is not clear.
"What I do know is that the U.S. Senate has given my office a lengthy homework assignment -- 24 complex questions about the labor and immigration in the CNMI, due January 26," he said. "A hearing is likely to follow shortly thereafter. To state the obvious, federalization of immigration could also have a profound impact on the CNMI economy."
Representation in Washington: Cohen urged CNMI leaders to push Congress for a delegate seat to the U.S. House of Representatives, but cautioned that such an effort requires a unified community speaking with one voice.
"For a community this small, Washington simply will not take the time to decipher many voices speaking in cacophony. That's why it's so important to transcend the divisions that exist in this community to find the common ground," he said.
Uncertainty
Cohen said uncertainty lies ahead for the CNMI community and its survival will depend on what it does next.
"There's nothing you can do to control a real typhoon," Cohen said. "But there may still be hope that your actions can protect you from the typhoon of my analogy. Regardless of what happens, a concerted effort that brings this community together can only be a good thing. You should at least make the effort. You have nothing to lose, everything to gain and your community to save."
Cohen: Loss of labor, immigration control likely
By David V. Crisostomo
Pacific Sunday News
dcrisostomo@guampdn.com
A top Interior Department official, who spoke before the Saipan Chamber of Commerce Friday, warned that a federal "typhoon" is barreling toward the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and that its impact likely will strip the local government's controls on wages and immigration.
"'Federalization' of the CNMI is almost certain to occur in the near future," said Interior's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs David Cohen, as he gave his remarks before the Saipan Chamber of Commerce installation dinner, which was also attended by members of the Guam Chamber of Commerce, federal officials and military leaders.
Cohen stressed that the CNMI faces its toughest challenges yet and that each member of its community will be affected.
"If any portion of this community is at risk, then everyone is at risk," Cohen said. "You are all in the same boat, and if that boat sinks, then everyone drowns."
Cohen said under a worst-case scenario "the transformation of this society will be abrupt and painful."
"I'm sorry to say that in my opinion, the worst-case scenario is much more likely in this case than the worst-case scenario usually is," he said. "Can there be federalization without strangulation? I'm afraid that we may soon find out."
Garment industry
Cohen said the federal "typhoon" comes at a time when the territory's two main industries -- tourism and the garment industry -- are reeling. The garment industry, he said, is "on its way out anyway."
"One does not have to be a fan of the Saipan garment industry to recognize the danger of its abrupt departure," Cohen said.
"The garment industry has in recent years accounted for about 35 percent of the local government's revenues," he added. "Could the local government absorb the rapid loss of such a large portion of its revenues and still protect the health, safety and welfare of its people? Could the economy survive an immediate exit of the garment industry at a time when the other pillar of the economy, the tourism industry, is also reeling? I'm afraid that we may soon find out."
Cohen said while the absence of the garment industry will be good for the CNMI in the long run, the territory must first survive the short run.
"Left to its own devices, the steady downsizing of the garment industry had been dragging the CNMI's economy down to a hard landing," Cohen said. "Pushing the industry out the door may result in a crash landing. Unfortunately, there is no soft landing in sight--but it is easier to survive a hard landing than a crash landing."
Details
Cohen provided the following details:
Wages: The federalization of the CNMI minimum wage is "on an extremely fast track."
"It is woven into the bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25. Under the Democrats' proposal, the CNMI minimum wage will increase from $3.05 to $7.25 over a four-year period, jumping $1.50 in the first year alone," he said. "This could very likely result in a complete and immediate exodus of what's left of Saipan's garment industry."
Immigration: Congress has expressed an interest in moving immigration control in the CNMI to the federal government. Cohen said the timing and terms of any immigration federalization legislation is not clear.
"What I do know is that the U.S. Senate has given my office a lengthy homework assignment -- 24 complex questions about the labor and immigration in the CNMI, due January 26," he said. "A hearing is likely to follow shortly thereafter. To state the obvious, federalization of immigration could also have a profound impact on the CNMI economy."
Representation in Washington: Cohen urged CNMI leaders to push Congress for a delegate seat to the U.S. House of Representatives, but cautioned that such an effort requires a unified community speaking with one voice.
"For a community this small, Washington simply will not take the time to decipher many voices speaking in cacophony. That's why it's so important to transcend the divisions that exist in this community to find the common ground," he said.
Uncertainty
Cohen said uncertainty lies ahead for the CNMI community and its survival will depend on what it does next.
"There's nothing you can do to control a real typhoon," Cohen said. "But there may still be hope that your actions can protect you from the typhoon of my analogy. Regardless of what happens, a concerted effort that brings this community together can only be a good thing. You should at least make the effort. You have nothing to lose, everything to gain and your community to save."
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Indigenous Rights in the Crosshairs
Guam: Indigenous Rights in the Crosshairs
by Gina Hotta
Michael Tuncap pulls up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo on his arm. It’s the word “Chamoru”, the name of the indigenous people of Guam. “The reason the Spanish called us Chamoru is because of our dark skin”, says Tuncap. The name originally comes from the word “Moro” and has to do with Spain’s conflicted relationship with the Moors of Africa. “So initially, from the point of contact, race mattered in Guahan”, says Tuncap using the Chamoru word for Guam. An instructor at the University of California, Berkeley, Tuncap is also part of a younger generation of Chamorus who are voicing their concerns about plans to increase US military presence on Guam. In October 2006, a group of Chamorus went to the United Nations and testified that those plans could bring about the irreversible decline of indigenous culture and further undermine their political rights.
Following the Spanish-American war, the US took control of the island and changed its name from Guahan to Guam. “Guhan means ‘we - have’. It is connected to our principal of interdependence. For me to be good, then all of us in this room need to be good. Changing things like language are ways that the US has tried to get us to forget where we come from,” says Tuncap. Sitting next to him are Victoria Guerrero and Kerri Ann Borja. The two young women were part of the Chamoru coalition that testified at the United Nations to try and bring the world’s attention to their plight.
For the US military, Guam plays a critical role in the deployment of forces should conflict arise in the Pacific. At the same time, environmental concerns, crime, and the high costs associated with housing US bases in Asia have created grassroots movements in South Korea, Okinawa and Japan that seek to move the US military out of those countries. And Guam is seen as a prime alternative for relocation of US troops. In a March 2006 Taipei Times article, US Pacific Commander leader Admiral William Fallon explained that South Korea’s President Roh Moo-hyun has the ability to impose some restrictions on US forces stationed there. Fallon said he saw Guam as primarily a staging area where no such restrictions would apply. And that, Fallon says, is a genuine advantage. “Guam is American territory”.
But as Americans and military personnel on Guam exercised their right to vote in November, many Chamorus could not do so. The Congressional Organic Act of Guam in 1950 made Chamorus US citizens, but citizens without the right to vote thereby weakening their ability to determine local policies that are set by the federal government. Guam’s Congressional representative does not have a vote and can only lobby in Congress. Guam is an unincorporated US territory with limited constitutional rights. This makes it much harder to gain political clout in situations where, for example, the US military exercises its power to take control of land. Guerrero says that during World War II, “75% of the island was used for eminent domain to bomb Japan and now the US occupies 30% of the island. For about 20 years we’ve been fighting to get land back”. Immigration policies, also set by the federal government, have led in part to Chamorus becoming a little over a third of Guam’s population out of a total of around 168,000 people.
Introducing herself in Chamoru and identifying herself by family affiliation in the traditional way, Victoria-Lola Montecalvo Leon Guerrero is a writer who is bi-lingual in both her native tongue
and in English. However, she thinks that less than half of her age-group of twenty to thirty-year olds speaks the language. Among the generation following hers, the ability to speak Chamoru diminishes even more. English became the main language after World War II when the US regained control of Guam from Japan. Guerrero says of her parent’s generation that, “you’d be punished if you spoke Chamoru in school. In order to succeed you had to follow these US standards in which Chamoru had no place.”
Kerri Ann Borja echoes this sentiment. Like Tuncap and Guerrero, she now lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many Chamorus migrate to the continental US because of limited opportunities on the island. Borja teaches in San Francisco and has thought of working in Guam. However, people there tell her to teach in military schools because of the higher pay as opposed to teaching in schools serving primarily native residents. Borja was born and raised off-island, traveling with her family while her father served in the US military. When researching the endangered Chamoru language, Borja asked her father why she was never taught it. “If you go to American schools”, Borja’s father told her, “you don’t need to know Chamoru”. However, Borja intends to educate herself. “My mom’s parents never taught her Chamoru. She learned it when she was older. Now I’m trying to learn Chamoru, but it’s so hard for me to learn it fully.”
Spanish, US and Japanese occupation of Guam total about five hundred years. But Victoria Guerrero says that Guam’s history goes back thousands of years and that this is what provides the foundation for a people still proud of who they are. “Even though my parents weren’t allowed to speak Chamoru in school, they spoke it in the streets. That is the way they rebelled to preserve that language.”
But Guam’s central role in the Pacific region continues to increase for the US armed forces. And that will put more pressure on the indigenous community. The relocation of Marines from Okinawa will base approximately 8000 Marine Expeditionary Force personnel and about 9000 dependents in Guam by 2014 as stated in the US-Japan Roadmap for Realignment issued by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Japan Foreign Affairs Minister Taro Aso in May 2006. And in June 2006, the US launched operation “Valiant Shield” from Guam. It was the largest joint military showcase of US power in the Pacific in the last decade.
In order to voice their concerns, Victoria Guerrero and Kerri Ann Borja went to the United Nations in New York. On October 4th and 5th 2006, as part of the Chamoru coalition, they testified before the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee. The military build-up and its negative impact on the indigenous people of Guam were central to their presentations. In addition, a petition asking for UN intervention to help ensure rights for Chamorus was presented in the hopes of elevating their concerns before the international community.
On the strength of their testimonies, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari later met with coalition members. “He really believes that Guam deserves the right to self-determination,” says Guerrero. However, Gambari was honest with them saying that no UN resolution will be passed because the US will veto it. Guerrero says there was a recommendation for, “a UN representative to go to Guam and do a report on the situation to take us out of that status of being an invisible colony.”
On Guam, the issue of the military remains a controversial one. “Guam may gain from Korea downsizing,” was a headline from an August 2006 edition of the Marianas Variety newspaper that serves Micronesia. The article also reported that the number of US troops in South Korea is slated to be cut-back by 2008 with some troops perhaps relocating to Guam. And for some people on the island, this means more jobs, more resources and more security under US protection.
Victoria Guerrero states that it is protection that comes with limitations. Many Chamorus died in World War II when the island was bombed by Japan. “Guam was attacked on the same day as Pearl Harbor. In just two days Guahan was surrendered to Japan,” says Guerrero who was named after a close relative who died as a child during that war, “the United States left our island defenseless.” Tuncap adds that many sons and daughters of Guam fought for the United States and that, “in Guam you’ll find people who really believe in the US and the potential of this nation.” It the promise of this potential that makes Tuncap and other Chamorus challenge US military interests. He says what they ask for is not anti-American, “in fact we are calling for what America stands for which is equality, which is a voice – a right to vote, a right to a job, a right to a good and fair education”.
by Gina Hotta
Michael Tuncap pulls up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo on his arm. It’s the word “Chamoru”, the name of the indigenous people of Guam. “The reason the Spanish called us Chamoru is because of our dark skin”, says Tuncap. The name originally comes from the word “Moro” and has to do with Spain’s conflicted relationship with the Moors of Africa. “So initially, from the point of contact, race mattered in Guahan”, says Tuncap using the Chamoru word for Guam. An instructor at the University of California, Berkeley, Tuncap is also part of a younger generation of Chamorus who are voicing their concerns about plans to increase US military presence on Guam. In October 2006, a group of Chamorus went to the United Nations and testified that those plans could bring about the irreversible decline of indigenous culture and further undermine their political rights.
Following the Spanish-American war, the US took control of the island and changed its name from Guahan to Guam. “Guhan means ‘we - have’. It is connected to our principal of interdependence. For me to be good, then all of us in this room need to be good. Changing things like language are ways that the US has tried to get us to forget where we come from,” says Tuncap. Sitting next to him are Victoria Guerrero and Kerri Ann Borja. The two young women were part of the Chamoru coalition that testified at the United Nations to try and bring the world’s attention to their plight.
For the US military, Guam plays a critical role in the deployment of forces should conflict arise in the Pacific. At the same time, environmental concerns, crime, and the high costs associated with housing US bases in Asia have created grassroots movements in South Korea, Okinawa and Japan that seek to move the US military out of those countries. And Guam is seen as a prime alternative for relocation of US troops. In a March 2006 Taipei Times article, US Pacific Commander leader Admiral William Fallon explained that South Korea’s President Roh Moo-hyun has the ability to impose some restrictions on US forces stationed there. Fallon said he saw Guam as primarily a staging area where no such restrictions would apply. And that, Fallon says, is a genuine advantage. “Guam is American territory”.
But as Americans and military personnel on Guam exercised their right to vote in November, many Chamorus could not do so. The Congressional Organic Act of Guam in 1950 made Chamorus US citizens, but citizens without the right to vote thereby weakening their ability to determine local policies that are set by the federal government. Guam’s Congressional representative does not have a vote and can only lobby in Congress. Guam is an unincorporated US territory with limited constitutional rights. This makes it much harder to gain political clout in situations where, for example, the US military exercises its power to take control of land. Guerrero says that during World War II, “75% of the island was used for eminent domain to bomb Japan and now the US occupies 30% of the island. For about 20 years we’ve been fighting to get land back”. Immigration policies, also set by the federal government, have led in part to Chamorus becoming a little over a third of Guam’s population out of a total of around 168,000 people.
Introducing herself in Chamoru and identifying herself by family affiliation in the traditional way, Victoria-Lola Montecalvo Leon Guerrero is a writer who is bi-lingual in both her native tongue
and in English. However, she thinks that less than half of her age-group of twenty to thirty-year olds speaks the language. Among the generation following hers, the ability to speak Chamoru diminishes even more. English became the main language after World War II when the US regained control of Guam from Japan. Guerrero says of her parent’s generation that, “you’d be punished if you spoke Chamoru in school. In order to succeed you had to follow these US standards in which Chamoru had no place.”
Kerri Ann Borja echoes this sentiment. Like Tuncap and Guerrero, she now lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many Chamorus migrate to the continental US because of limited opportunities on the island. Borja teaches in San Francisco and has thought of working in Guam. However, people there tell her to teach in military schools because of the higher pay as opposed to teaching in schools serving primarily native residents. Borja was born and raised off-island, traveling with her family while her father served in the US military. When researching the endangered Chamoru language, Borja asked her father why she was never taught it. “If you go to American schools”, Borja’s father told her, “you don’t need to know Chamoru”. However, Borja intends to educate herself. “My mom’s parents never taught her Chamoru. She learned it when she was older. Now I’m trying to learn Chamoru, but it’s so hard for me to learn it fully.”
Spanish, US and Japanese occupation of Guam total about five hundred years. But Victoria Guerrero says that Guam’s history goes back thousands of years and that this is what provides the foundation for a people still proud of who they are. “Even though my parents weren’t allowed to speak Chamoru in school, they spoke it in the streets. That is the way they rebelled to preserve that language.”
But Guam’s central role in the Pacific region continues to increase for the US armed forces. And that will put more pressure on the indigenous community. The relocation of Marines from Okinawa will base approximately 8000 Marine Expeditionary Force personnel and about 9000 dependents in Guam by 2014 as stated in the US-Japan Roadmap for Realignment issued by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Japan Foreign Affairs Minister Taro Aso in May 2006. And in June 2006, the US launched operation “Valiant Shield” from Guam. It was the largest joint military showcase of US power in the Pacific in the last decade.
In order to voice their concerns, Victoria Guerrero and Kerri Ann Borja went to the United Nations in New York. On October 4th and 5th 2006, as part of the Chamoru coalition, they testified before the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee. The military build-up and its negative impact on the indigenous people of Guam were central to their presentations. In addition, a petition asking for UN intervention to help ensure rights for Chamorus was presented in the hopes of elevating their concerns before the international community.
On the strength of their testimonies, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari later met with coalition members. “He really believes that Guam deserves the right to self-determination,” says Guerrero. However, Gambari was honest with them saying that no UN resolution will be passed because the US will veto it. Guerrero says there was a recommendation for, “a UN representative to go to Guam and do a report on the situation to take us out of that status of being an invisible colony.”
On Guam, the issue of the military remains a controversial one. “Guam may gain from Korea downsizing,” was a headline from an August 2006 edition of the Marianas Variety newspaper that serves Micronesia. The article also reported that the number of US troops in South Korea is slated to be cut-back by 2008 with some troops perhaps relocating to Guam. And for some people on the island, this means more jobs, more resources and more security under US protection.
Victoria Guerrero states that it is protection that comes with limitations. Many Chamorus died in World War II when the island was bombed by Japan. “Guam was attacked on the same day as Pearl Harbor. In just two days Guahan was surrendered to Japan,” says Guerrero who was named after a close relative who died as a child during that war, “the United States left our island defenseless.” Tuncap adds that many sons and daughters of Guam fought for the United States and that, “in Guam you’ll find people who really believe in the US and the potential of this nation.” It the promise of this potential that makes Tuncap and other Chamorus challenge US military interests. He says what they ask for is not anti-American, “in fact we are calling for what America stands for which is equality, which is a voice – a right to vote, a right to a job, a right to a good and fair education”.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Gone But Never Forgotten
Gone, but never forgotten - Dudkiewicz & Castro are forever heroes
by Clynt Ridgell, KUAM News
Monday, January 01, 2007
Among the noblest pursuits a person can undertake is defense of one's homeland. And although scores of local young men and women volunteer their time and take up arms to preserve freedom with all of the United States armed forces, anytime these brave citizens pay a price for their commitment the hurt and pain of their loss is felt throughout our tightly-knit island community. This year, Guam laid to rest two of its own, with a pair of servicemen losing their lives in Iraq.
Kasper Dudkiewicz and Jesse Joel Jesus Castro were both lost, but certainly will never be forgotten. In January, Dudckiezicz, 23, was killed in Mosul when his humvee was involved in a collision. The military police officer had just married his sweetheart Katie three months earlier, and had only been deployed to the Middle East that past November.
Then in December we reported the death of our island's seventh causality of war, as we learned of Castro's passing. Just a week away from his twenty-fourth birthday, he and four soldiers from his combat unit was killed by an improvised explosive while on patrol in Kirkuk. He leaves behind a young wife, and a month-old son he had never met, who he looked forward to christen upon his return.
2006 ended with the memory of yet another fallen hero, as Richard Naputi, Jr. had the baseball field in Talofofo on which he starred for so many years as a youngster renamed in his honor exactly one year to the day he was killed in Iraq.
by Clynt Ridgell, KUAM News
Monday, January 01, 2007
Among the noblest pursuits a person can undertake is defense of one's homeland. And although scores of local young men and women volunteer their time and take up arms to preserve freedom with all of the United States armed forces, anytime these brave citizens pay a price for their commitment the hurt and pain of their loss is felt throughout our tightly-knit island community. This year, Guam laid to rest two of its own, with a pair of servicemen losing their lives in Iraq.
Kasper Dudkiewicz and Jesse Joel Jesus Castro were both lost, but certainly will never be forgotten. In January, Dudckiezicz, 23, was killed in Mosul when his humvee was involved in a collision. The military police officer had just married his sweetheart Katie three months earlier, and had only been deployed to the Middle East that past November.
Then in December we reported the death of our island's seventh causality of war, as we learned of Castro's passing. Just a week away from his twenty-fourth birthday, he and four soldiers from his combat unit was killed by an improvised explosive while on patrol in Kirkuk. He leaves behind a young wife, and a month-old son he had never met, who he looked forward to christen upon his return.
2006 ended with the memory of yet another fallen hero, as Richard Naputi, Jr. had the baseball field in Talofofo on which he starred for so many years as a youngster renamed in his honor exactly one year to the day he was killed in Iraq.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Rising Tide in the Pacific
Published on Thursday, December 21, 2006 by the London Times / UK
The Last Tide Could Come at Any Time.
Then These Islands at the End of the Earth Will Simply Vanish
Blame it on global warming or a submerged volcano.
Either way, the low-lying atoll seems doomed - and it is not the only one
by Richard Lloyd Parry on the Carteret Islands
It begins with the simple rising of the tide in the lagoon, above the flashing coral, and high up the beach where the thin canoes lie. Soon water is breaching the frail sea walls and running over the coconut palms and the dusty pathways of the village. The sea laps at the houses of palm and wood; in the middle of the islands saltwater bubbles up through holes dug by the crabs and floods the fields and gardens until half the land is swallowed up.
It happens every few months. But however many times they have seen it before it is never any the less terrifying for the people of the Carteret Islands. “The kids run around crying,” says Selina Netoi, who lived through the experience last year. “People try to comfort them and they carry them and leave everything else behind. I have seen houses washed away — swish! — and everything inside them. We are helpless when this thing happens. We can’t save anything.”
Every year the tidal surges are becoming stronger and more frequent; every month, a few more inches are being eaten away from the shrinking land of the tiny islands. It happened last March, it happened again in September and it may happen again tonight under the tug of the new moon.
The people of the Carteret Islands — among the smallest, most beautiful and most remote inhabited islands in the world — are hungry and afraid. Since the sea poisoned their fruit trees, their children have lived on an unbalanced diet of fish and coconuts and their pot bellies and the yellowing tips of their black hair hint at malnutrition. Most of them are desperate to leave and plans are being drawn up to move them to higher, safer ground on the larger island of Bougainville, 120km (75 miles), across the water. But however blighted the lives of the 2,600 Carteret islanders are, this is a problem far greater than just for them. The Carterets are a portent of catastrophe to come — not only for the other low lying atolls of the South Pacific, but for low-lying coastal communities across the world, from Bangladesh to New Orleans. If environmental scientists and campaigners are correct, the rising seas are the result of global warming caused by the release of greenhouse gasses. Some time next year the islanders will become the world’s first climate-change refugees; within a few years, barring a dramatic reversal, their home will literally go down in history as the first inhabited territory in the world to be swallowed up by global warming.
“We have no cars and no factories and no aeroplanes,” says Bernard Tubin, a leader on the island of Piul. “We are the victims of this greenhouse-gas emission and we are totally innocent. America sends someone to the Moon, wars are being fought and millions are being spent on warheads and ammunition. So why is it that Russia and the US and Japan and Australia cannot do anything to help us?” Even by the standards of Papua New Guinea, the anarchic nation of mountains, jungles and islands north of Australia, the Carteret Islands are about as remote as can be. From the capital, Port Moresby, you fly to the island of Buka in the autonomous province of Bouganville. After an 11-hour journey by fishing boat, you see six crinkly indentations emerge on the horizon. They are perched on the lip of a circular reef, none at their highest point more than 170cm above sea level. These are the Carterets, the islands at the beginning of the end of the world.
They are named after a British naval captain, a contemporary of Captain Cook, who came across them in 1767. Two and a half centuries later, the most modern charts still mark them in the wrong place. Philip Carteret described them as “scarce better than large rocks”, and during the Second World War a Japanese bomb obliterated one of the smaller islets.
The silhouettes of a few wrecks jut above the circular coral atoll, most of them fishing boats from Taiwan, which plundered the giant clams that used to litter the sea bed. But nothing in the history of the Carterets has been as momentous as their continuing destruction. There have been high tides and coastal erosion for decades, but it was not until the 1980s that they were identified as a cause for long-term anxiety. The population was expanding and at first this seemed to be the cause of overcrowding. But then islanders who had been away for a few years began noticing that areas that had previously been land were under water. “When I was a small boy this shore began out there,” Mr Tubin says, pointing to a spot 150 metres out to sea. “One year ago it was five metres out from here. There were houses here, and fruit trees.”
The authorities erected a series of sea walls of heaped up giant clam shells and wire cages stuffed with coral; their rusting remnants litter the islands. A team of Australian botanists tried to plant stands of mangrove, which bind coastlines with their tough roots; but few of the trees survived.
The Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) had bigger things to worry about in the shape of a civil war that raged on the island of Bougainville throughout the 1990s. “We have to rely on the national Government of PNG,” Mr Tubin says. “But PNG is a dysfunctional, failed state.” In the 1980s the island of Huene was cut in two by the sea and its twin, Iolasa, is quickly going the same way.
“When the tides rise this place is shoulder-deep in water,” Mr Tubin says about an expanse of drying mud that was formerly rich bush. “There are stingrays and sharks swimming around. And when the water goes down, the place is wet and stinking and there is rubbish all over the place. Then the mosquitoes breed in the water, and the children get malaria and diarrhoea.”
Once this was a jungle “garden” of banana, breadfruit, papaya, cassava, tapioca, sugarcane and the starchy tuber called taro. Now it is a slimy, salinated wilderness where only palm trees grow.
The coconuts they produce, with the lagoon’s plentiful fish, are the only food that the islanders have left. The few wells on the islands have been poisoned by saltwater and are now good only for washing. To drink, the islanders must collect rain in water tanks or rely on coconut milk. Four times a year now, rice and other supplies have to be shipped out by the hard-pressed local government of Bougainville — but the Carteret islanders are down to one meal a day. After a flood, the nurse in the small clinic on the island of Han treats 50 cases of malaria a day. Paul Tobasi, the executive manager of the Atolls District, and a Carteret islander, says: “It’s a hard, hard life. These kids don’t realise how hard it is because they have lived with it all their lives.”
The causes of the crisis are not simple, and there is no doubt that the islanders have unwittingly made their own contribution to the problem. Unlike many tropical reefs, the Carteret atoll seems little damaged by bomb fishing — but the mangroves that once formed a natural sea wall around the islands were stripped away for firewood a generation ago. Islanders speak of smoke and even fire that rises from the centre of the lagoon every few years — if these emerge from a submarine volcano,that may have contributed to the subsidence. But a growing body of research suggests that, however much the land may be sinking, waters are rising across the world, especially in the South Pacific. A report last year by John Church, of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, based in Canberra, concluded: “The analysis clearly indicates that sea level in this region is rising. The continued and increasing rate of sea-level rise and any resulting increase or intensity of extreme sea-level events will cause serious problems for some of these islands during the 21st century.”
All but the oldest of the islanders are ready to leave for resettlement on Bougainville — but even this obvious step has become bogged down in delay. During the 1990s, 20 families were relocated to Bougainville, but driven back again by the terror of the civil war. They require assurance that this experience will not be repeated. “Here we move freely, but on Bougainville you have to take your kids everywhere — and even then you get attacked,” Mr Tubin says. “We need land, it must be close to the sea, and close to a reef so that we can fish in our accustomed way.”
The ideal place would be one of the coastal plantations formerly owned by foreign companies and abandoned during the civil war. But complicated legal procedures are required to procure the land for the Autonomous Bougainville Government. Then there is the expense. It is a measure of the Government’s desperation that even modest sums are beyond its reach. “How long before a really big wave?” asks Selina Netoi. “A tidal wave that destroys everything — washes away all the houses, drowns the children. We live in fear here, but we have nowhere else to go.”
Even without such a catastrophe, the sea will not retreat. Soon, perhaps within a decade, the islands will be bisected, quartered and submerged.
Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter Press Service
###
The Last Tide Could Come at Any Time.
Then These Islands at the End of the Earth Will Simply Vanish
Blame it on global warming or a submerged volcano.
Either way, the low-lying atoll seems doomed - and it is not the only one
by Richard Lloyd Parry on the Carteret Islands
It begins with the simple rising of the tide in the lagoon, above the flashing coral, and high up the beach where the thin canoes lie. Soon water is breaching the frail sea walls and running over the coconut palms and the dusty pathways of the village. The sea laps at the houses of palm and wood; in the middle of the islands saltwater bubbles up through holes dug by the crabs and floods the fields and gardens until half the land is swallowed up.
It happens every few months. But however many times they have seen it before it is never any the less terrifying for the people of the Carteret Islands. “The kids run around crying,” says Selina Netoi, who lived through the experience last year. “People try to comfort them and they carry them and leave everything else behind. I have seen houses washed away — swish! — and everything inside them. We are helpless when this thing happens. We can’t save anything.”
Every year the tidal surges are becoming stronger and more frequent; every month, a few more inches are being eaten away from the shrinking land of the tiny islands. It happened last March, it happened again in September and it may happen again tonight under the tug of the new moon.
The people of the Carteret Islands — among the smallest, most beautiful and most remote inhabited islands in the world — are hungry and afraid. Since the sea poisoned their fruit trees, their children have lived on an unbalanced diet of fish and coconuts and their pot bellies and the yellowing tips of their black hair hint at malnutrition. Most of them are desperate to leave and plans are being drawn up to move them to higher, safer ground on the larger island of Bougainville, 120km (75 miles), across the water. But however blighted the lives of the 2,600 Carteret islanders are, this is a problem far greater than just for them. The Carterets are a portent of catastrophe to come — not only for the other low lying atolls of the South Pacific, but for low-lying coastal communities across the world, from Bangladesh to New Orleans. If environmental scientists and campaigners are correct, the rising seas are the result of global warming caused by the release of greenhouse gasses. Some time next year the islanders will become the world’s first climate-change refugees; within a few years, barring a dramatic reversal, their home will literally go down in history as the first inhabited territory in the world to be swallowed up by global warming.
“We have no cars and no factories and no aeroplanes,” says Bernard Tubin, a leader on the island of Piul. “We are the victims of this greenhouse-gas emission and we are totally innocent. America sends someone to the Moon, wars are being fought and millions are being spent on warheads and ammunition. So why is it that Russia and the US and Japan and Australia cannot do anything to help us?” Even by the standards of Papua New Guinea, the anarchic nation of mountains, jungles and islands north of Australia, the Carteret Islands are about as remote as can be. From the capital, Port Moresby, you fly to the island of Buka in the autonomous province of Bouganville. After an 11-hour journey by fishing boat, you see six crinkly indentations emerge on the horizon. They are perched on the lip of a circular reef, none at their highest point more than 170cm above sea level. These are the Carterets, the islands at the beginning of the end of the world.
They are named after a British naval captain, a contemporary of Captain Cook, who came across them in 1767. Two and a half centuries later, the most modern charts still mark them in the wrong place. Philip Carteret described them as “scarce better than large rocks”, and during the Second World War a Japanese bomb obliterated one of the smaller islets.
The silhouettes of a few wrecks jut above the circular coral atoll, most of them fishing boats from Taiwan, which plundered the giant clams that used to litter the sea bed. But nothing in the history of the Carterets has been as momentous as their continuing destruction. There have been high tides and coastal erosion for decades, but it was not until the 1980s that they were identified as a cause for long-term anxiety. The population was expanding and at first this seemed to be the cause of overcrowding. But then islanders who had been away for a few years began noticing that areas that had previously been land were under water. “When I was a small boy this shore began out there,” Mr Tubin says, pointing to a spot 150 metres out to sea. “One year ago it was five metres out from here. There were houses here, and fruit trees.”
The authorities erected a series of sea walls of heaped up giant clam shells and wire cages stuffed with coral; their rusting remnants litter the islands. A team of Australian botanists tried to plant stands of mangrove, which bind coastlines with their tough roots; but few of the trees survived.
The Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) had bigger things to worry about in the shape of a civil war that raged on the island of Bougainville throughout the 1990s. “We have to rely on the national Government of PNG,” Mr Tubin says. “But PNG is a dysfunctional, failed state.” In the 1980s the island of Huene was cut in two by the sea and its twin, Iolasa, is quickly going the same way.
“When the tides rise this place is shoulder-deep in water,” Mr Tubin says about an expanse of drying mud that was formerly rich bush. “There are stingrays and sharks swimming around. And when the water goes down, the place is wet and stinking and there is rubbish all over the place. Then the mosquitoes breed in the water, and the children get malaria and diarrhoea.”
Once this was a jungle “garden” of banana, breadfruit, papaya, cassava, tapioca, sugarcane and the starchy tuber called taro. Now it is a slimy, salinated wilderness where only palm trees grow.
The coconuts they produce, with the lagoon’s plentiful fish, are the only food that the islanders have left. The few wells on the islands have been poisoned by saltwater and are now good only for washing. To drink, the islanders must collect rain in water tanks or rely on coconut milk. Four times a year now, rice and other supplies have to be shipped out by the hard-pressed local government of Bougainville — but the Carteret islanders are down to one meal a day. After a flood, the nurse in the small clinic on the island of Han treats 50 cases of malaria a day. Paul Tobasi, the executive manager of the Atolls District, and a Carteret islander, says: “It’s a hard, hard life. These kids don’t realise how hard it is because they have lived with it all their lives.”
The causes of the crisis are not simple, and there is no doubt that the islanders have unwittingly made their own contribution to the problem. Unlike many tropical reefs, the Carteret atoll seems little damaged by bomb fishing — but the mangroves that once formed a natural sea wall around the islands were stripped away for firewood a generation ago. Islanders speak of smoke and even fire that rises from the centre of the lagoon every few years — if these emerge from a submarine volcano,that may have contributed to the subsidence. But a growing body of research suggests that, however much the land may be sinking, waters are rising across the world, especially in the South Pacific. A report last year by John Church, of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, based in Canberra, concluded: “The analysis clearly indicates that sea level in this region is rising. The continued and increasing rate of sea-level rise and any resulting increase or intensity of extreme sea-level events will cause serious problems for some of these islands during the 21st century.”
All but the oldest of the islanders are ready to leave for resettlement on Bougainville — but even this obvious step has become bogged down in delay. During the 1990s, 20 families were relocated to Bougainville, but driven back again by the terror of the civil war. They require assurance that this experience will not be repeated. “Here we move freely, but on Bougainville you have to take your kids everywhere — and even then you get attacked,” Mr Tubin says. “We need land, it must be close to the sea, and close to a reef so that we can fish in our accustomed way.”
The ideal place would be one of the coastal plantations formerly owned by foreign companies and abandoned during the civil war. But complicated legal procedures are required to procure the land for the Autonomous Bougainville Government. Then there is the expense. It is a measure of the Government’s desperation that even modest sums are beyond its reach. “How long before a really big wave?” asks Selina Netoi. “A tidal wave that destroys everything — washes away all the houses, drowns the children. We live in fear here, but we have nowhere else to go.”
Even without such a catastrophe, the sea will not retreat. Soon, perhaps within a decade, the islands will be bisected, quartered and submerged.
Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter Press Service
###
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Economic Outlook Bleak in the US Colonies
Report paints bleak picture of Guam's financial condition
by Clynt Ridgell, KUAM News
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Guam faces serious economic, fiscal and financial accountability challenges, according to a report from the United States Government Accountability Office. Joining Guam in the report is the U.S. insular areas of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Chairman of the Legislative Committee on Finance & Taxation, Senator Eddie Baza Calvo (R), told KUAM News, "There is a common thread linking Guam and other insular areas other territories, as well as the Commonwealth, and that is that all of the U.S. flag territories are under some financial duress."
Senator Calvo says this shared pressure is not a coincidence, and may actually be tied in with the fact that we are all not full fledged members of the American political family. "There must be something to that when you have unincorporated territories that do not have full representation," he continued, "and when it comes to the economic treaties that the United States signs with other countries and some of the laws dealing with economic activity that we're not in or a part of the bargaining table." Calvo says one example of this is with restrictive laws like the Jones Act and cabotage laws that make it difficult for Guam to create other industries. In fact, the report points to problems that all insular areas face with having a narrow economic base.
Several factors have been attributed to constraining the economic potential of all four insular areas namely a lack of diversification, scarce natural resources, small domestic markets, limited infrastructure, and shortages of skilled labor. The report also discussed Guam's weakened fiscal condition stating that in CNMI and Guam the fund balance of total governmental funds declined, as government spending rose faster than revenues. Admitting that this is a disappointing revelation, Senator Calvo said, "Obviously we have been spending more than we have been taking in, and this is all that important even now."
The report also takes a look at the poverty level of the insular areas. Although Guam has the lowest percentage of individuals in poverty out of the insular areas at 23%. 23% is still almost double the rate of the Continental U.S. Senator Judi Won Pat (D) says that most of the findings of the report are not new to her, telling KUAM News, "The way I see things is it's something we've known and maybe now I think we need to be very serious if we want to make the changes if we're serious also in the sense that we are saying that we want the military to come to Guam, then we need to do something."
And finally, one of the most important findings of the report is that the governments of all four insular areas, Guam included, have had longstanding financial accountability problems. These issues include the late issuance of single audit reports, the inability to achieve clean audit opinions on their financial statements, and numerous weaknesses in internal controls over financial operations and compliance with federal grant awards.
Read the GAO report by clicking here
by Clynt Ridgell, KUAM News
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Guam faces serious economic, fiscal and financial accountability challenges, according to a report from the United States Government Accountability Office. Joining Guam in the report is the U.S. insular areas of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Chairman of the Legislative Committee on Finance & Taxation, Senator Eddie Baza Calvo (R), told KUAM News, "There is a common thread linking Guam and other insular areas other territories, as well as the Commonwealth, and that is that all of the U.S. flag territories are under some financial duress."
Senator Calvo says this shared pressure is not a coincidence, and may actually be tied in with the fact that we are all not full fledged members of the American political family. "There must be something to that when you have unincorporated territories that do not have full representation," he continued, "and when it comes to the economic treaties that the United States signs with other countries and some of the laws dealing with economic activity that we're not in or a part of the bargaining table." Calvo says one example of this is with restrictive laws like the Jones Act and cabotage laws that make it difficult for Guam to create other industries. In fact, the report points to problems that all insular areas face with having a narrow economic base.
Several factors have been attributed to constraining the economic potential of all four insular areas namely a lack of diversification, scarce natural resources, small domestic markets, limited infrastructure, and shortages of skilled labor. The report also discussed Guam's weakened fiscal condition stating that in CNMI and Guam the fund balance of total governmental funds declined, as government spending rose faster than revenues. Admitting that this is a disappointing revelation, Senator Calvo said, "Obviously we have been spending more than we have been taking in, and this is all that important even now."
The report also takes a look at the poverty level of the insular areas. Although Guam has the lowest percentage of individuals in poverty out of the insular areas at 23%. 23% is still almost double the rate of the Continental U.S. Senator Judi Won Pat (D) says that most of the findings of the report are not new to her, telling KUAM News, "The way I see things is it's something we've known and maybe now I think we need to be very serious if we want to make the changes if we're serious also in the sense that we are saying that we want the military to come to Guam, then we need to do something."
And finally, one of the most important findings of the report is that the governments of all four insular areas, Guam included, have had longstanding financial accountability problems. These issues include the late issuance of single audit reports, the inability to achieve clean audit opinions on their financial statements, and numerous weaknesses in internal controls over financial operations and compliance with federal grant awards.
Read the GAO report by clicking here
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Japan Leader Wants Changes to Constitution
Japan leader eyes move on constitution
By CHISAKI WATANABE, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 19, 12:30 PM ET
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday he wants to pass legislation next year that would allow a national referendum on changing Japan's pacifist Constitution.
Abe, in a speech marking the end of this year's parliamentary session, also said he aimed to amend the Constitution during his term in office.
He took office in September after winning a three-year term as ruling party president. The U.S.-drafted Constitution, which bars Japan from warfare overseas, has never been amended since taking effect in 1947.
"I want to revise the Constitution while I am in office, though it is a historic task," Abe said. "First, I want the legislation for a referendum to be passed in the next ordinary (parliamentary) session."
The Constitution stipulates that a referendum is required for constitutional change. Special legislation would be required for such a referendum to take place.
Abe wants to make it easier for the military to operate abroad, but he faces considerable political obstacles. Amending the Constitution requires two-thirds support in both houses of Parliament and majority backing in a national referendum.
Members of Abe's own Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the New Komei Party, are strongly opposed to stripping the charter of its pacifist provisions.
Abe acknowledged the challenge ahead.
"We will negotiate with both ruling and opposition parties to reach a draft (of the revision). We need discussions among the parties. I'd also like to see a national debate on the issue," he said.
Constitutional change is a major plank in Abe's platform of giving Japan a larger diplomatic and military role in the world and bolstering its defense coordination with the United States, which bases 50,000 troops here.
It is not certain, however, how successful Abe's drive would be as some say Japan may simply change its interpretation of the Constitution to allow its military a wider role, rather than changing the Constitution.
During the speech, Abe also said that a series of bills passed by Parliament will form the foundation for building a new country, leaving its "postwar regime" behind.
"I believe that the passage of the bills marked a big step forward," he said.
Parliament's upper house passed bills last week that require schools to teach patriotism and upgrade the Defense Agency to a full ministry for the first time since World War II. Both bills are key elements of Abe's push to bolster Japan's international military role, build up national pride and distance the country from its post-1945 war guilt.
Abe said the bill to upgrade the Defense Agency to a ministry was "extremely significant" and was a sign that Japan's democracy has matured.
The bills have been controversial because of a strong undercurrent of caution in Japan to any efforts to strengthen the military or revive the pre-1945 style of nationalism that led Japan into its disastrous period of imperialism and colonialism.
By CHISAKI WATANABE, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 19, 12:30 PM ET
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday he wants to pass legislation next year that would allow a national referendum on changing Japan's pacifist Constitution.
Abe, in a speech marking the end of this year's parliamentary session, also said he aimed to amend the Constitution during his term in office.
He took office in September after winning a three-year term as ruling party president. The U.S.-drafted Constitution, which bars Japan from warfare overseas, has never been amended since taking effect in 1947.
"I want to revise the Constitution while I am in office, though it is a historic task," Abe said. "First, I want the legislation for a referendum to be passed in the next ordinary (parliamentary) session."
The Constitution stipulates that a referendum is required for constitutional change. Special legislation would be required for such a referendum to take place.
Abe wants to make it easier for the military to operate abroad, but he faces considerable political obstacles. Amending the Constitution requires two-thirds support in both houses of Parliament and majority backing in a national referendum.
Members of Abe's own Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the New Komei Party, are strongly opposed to stripping the charter of its pacifist provisions.
Abe acknowledged the challenge ahead.
"We will negotiate with both ruling and opposition parties to reach a draft (of the revision). We need discussions among the parties. I'd also like to see a national debate on the issue," he said.
Constitutional change is a major plank in Abe's platform of giving Japan a larger diplomatic and military role in the world and bolstering its defense coordination with the United States, which bases 50,000 troops here.
It is not certain, however, how successful Abe's drive would be as some say Japan may simply change its interpretation of the Constitution to allow its military a wider role, rather than changing the Constitution.
During the speech, Abe also said that a series of bills passed by Parliament will form the foundation for building a new country, leaving its "postwar regime" behind.
"I believe that the passage of the bills marked a big step forward," he said.
Parliament's upper house passed bills last week that require schools to teach patriotism and upgrade the Defense Agency to a full ministry for the first time since World War II. Both bills are key elements of Abe's push to bolster Japan's international military role, build up national pride and distance the country from its post-1945 war guilt.
Abe said the bill to upgrade the Defense Agency to a ministry was "extremely significant" and was a sign that Japan's democracy has matured.
The bills have been controversial because of a strong undercurrent of caution in Japan to any efforts to strengthen the military or revive the pre-1945 style of nationalism that led Japan into its disastrous period of imperialism and colonialism.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
The Pacific Century
Military Growth Anticipated in Guam, Civilian Leaders Learn
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam, Sept. 18, 2004 -- With President Bush dubbing the 21st century "the Pacific century," Guam is expected to become increasingly important to U.S. military operations, officials here told visiting civilian leaders Sept. 17.
Both Andersen Air Force Base in the north and Naval Base Guam in the south anticipate big growth within the next several years, capitalizing on Guam's prime strategic location, its pro-military population, and its status as a U.S. territory.
Air Force Col. P.K. White, commander of the 36th Air Expeditionary Wing here, told participants in the secretary of defense's Joint Civilian Orientation Conference all signs point to major growth for the U.S. military in Guam.
Strategically located more than 3,000 miles southwest of Hawaii, Andersen Air Force Base offers what White calls three major attractions: ramp space, green space and air space.
The base's 7.5 million square feet of ramp space provide "a lot of room to put a lot of airplanes to do a lot of things," he said.
In addition, White said, Andersen features extensive open space to support future growth. "There's a ton of room here to put a lot of new infrastructure," he said.
Air Force Col. Steve Wolborsky, vice commander of the 36th Air Expeditionary Wing, said the Air Force anticipates investing $1 billion to $2 billion into Andersen Air Force Base within the next five to 10 years. This, he said, reflects recognition of Andersen as "the most significant U.S. Air Force base in the Pacific region for this century."
White said another one of Andersen's primary attractions is its access to airspace -- an access he said continues to shrink in the continental United States, Europe, Korea and Japan. "You need airspace to train the way you're going to fight," he said. "And you can find it here."
Already, Guam features a wide range of military assets, including the Air Force's largest fuel supply in the United States and its largest supply of weapons in the Pacific.
Meanwhile, Naval Base Guam, with its protected deep-water harbor, is building up its infrastructure, getting more homeported ships and increasing the training opportunities it is able to offer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Doug Lito told the group.
The base is home port to two submarines, with a third to be added in December, a submarine tender and two Coast Guard cutters. Another 15 ships are forward deployed to Guam, Lito said.
Perhaps the most compelling reason for increasing the U.S. military presence in Guam, Maj. Gen. Dennis Larson, commander of Andersen Air Force Base, told the group, is the fact that it offers a slice of America in one of the world's most strategic locations. This, he said, gives military planners and operators far more leeway in conducting operations than they typically find at overseas bases.
"It lets us deploy forces to here and employ forces from here with a lot fewer restrictions than in any other part of the world," said Wolborsky.
White invited participants in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference to return to Guam in a few years to see the changes ahead.
"It's been said that Andersen will be the key air force base for the 21st century, and I believe it," he said. "This region of the world is very important, and it's a critical time in the future of this base."
While visiting Guam during a weeklong trip through the Pacific to observe U.S. military operations, the civilian leaders witnessed some of the current operations taking place on the island.
They traveled to Naval Base Guam to watch Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 5 demonstrate its bomb-disposal techniques.
Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Spengler, an explosive ordnance technician based here, jumped from a helicopter into Apra Harbor, swam to a simulated mine floating in the harbor, and tagged it with an explosive charge. He then swam away from the "mine," grabbed the helicopter's rescue harness, and was lifted onto the aircraft.
Once the helicopter left the immediate area, Conoly Phillips, retired CEO of Conoly Phillips Lincoln Mercury in Norfolk, Va., was selected from the civilian group to detonate the device, creating a huge explosion in the harbor.
At Naval Base Guam, the group also saw a display of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3's equipment and an MH-60 Knight Hawk helicopter used by Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 5 to conduct search-and-rescue missions in the region.
Later, at Andersen Air Force Base, group members met the crew and climbed aboard one of six B-52H Stratofortress bombers deployed for a four-month rotation from Barksdale Air Force Base, La. White said B-52s from Barksdale and Minot Air Force Base, N.D., began regular deployments to Guam in February -- a significant step since the last permanently based B-52s left Guam in 1991.
Larson told the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference visitors the activities they observed today -- and plans for the future still on the drawing board -- will contribute to Guam's role in U.S. defense.
"Our primary job is to be ready for any crisis," he said. "If we do this right, we can continue to help provide security and maintain peace in this region."
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam, Sept. 18, 2004 -- With President Bush dubbing the 21st century "the Pacific century," Guam is expected to become increasingly important to U.S. military operations, officials here told visiting civilian leaders Sept. 17.
Both Andersen Air Force Base in the north and Naval Base Guam in the south anticipate big growth within the next several years, capitalizing on Guam's prime strategic location, its pro-military population, and its status as a U.S. territory.
Air Force Col. P.K. White, commander of the 36th Air Expeditionary Wing here, told participants in the secretary of defense's Joint Civilian Orientation Conference all signs point to major growth for the U.S. military in Guam.
Strategically located more than 3,000 miles southwest of Hawaii, Andersen Air Force Base offers what White calls three major attractions: ramp space, green space and air space.
The base's 7.5 million square feet of ramp space provide "a lot of room to put a lot of airplanes to do a lot of things," he said.
In addition, White said, Andersen features extensive open space to support future growth. "There's a ton of room here to put a lot of new infrastructure," he said.
Air Force Col. Steve Wolborsky, vice commander of the 36th Air Expeditionary Wing, said the Air Force anticipates investing $1 billion to $2 billion into Andersen Air Force Base within the next five to 10 years. This, he said, reflects recognition of Andersen as "the most significant U.S. Air Force base in the Pacific region for this century."
White said another one of Andersen's primary attractions is its access to airspace -- an access he said continues to shrink in the continental United States, Europe, Korea and Japan. "You need airspace to train the way you're going to fight," he said. "And you can find it here."
Already, Guam features a wide range of military assets, including the Air Force's largest fuel supply in the United States and its largest supply of weapons in the Pacific.
Meanwhile, Naval Base Guam, with its protected deep-water harbor, is building up its infrastructure, getting more homeported ships and increasing the training opportunities it is able to offer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Doug Lito told the group.
The base is home port to two submarines, with a third to be added in December, a submarine tender and two Coast Guard cutters. Another 15 ships are forward deployed to Guam, Lito said.
Perhaps the most compelling reason for increasing the U.S. military presence in Guam, Maj. Gen. Dennis Larson, commander of Andersen Air Force Base, told the group, is the fact that it offers a slice of America in one of the world's most strategic locations. This, he said, gives military planners and operators far more leeway in conducting operations than they typically find at overseas bases.
"It lets us deploy forces to here and employ forces from here with a lot fewer restrictions than in any other part of the world," said Wolborsky.
White invited participants in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference to return to Guam in a few years to see the changes ahead.
"It's been said that Andersen will be the key air force base for the 21st century, and I believe it," he said. "This region of the world is very important, and it's a critical time in the future of this base."
While visiting Guam during a weeklong trip through the Pacific to observe U.S. military operations, the civilian leaders witnessed some of the current operations taking place on the island.
They traveled to Naval Base Guam to watch Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 5 demonstrate its bomb-disposal techniques.
Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Spengler, an explosive ordnance technician based here, jumped from a helicopter into Apra Harbor, swam to a simulated mine floating in the harbor, and tagged it with an explosive charge. He then swam away from the "mine," grabbed the helicopter's rescue harness, and was lifted onto the aircraft.
Once the helicopter left the immediate area, Conoly Phillips, retired CEO of Conoly Phillips Lincoln Mercury in Norfolk, Va., was selected from the civilian group to detonate the device, creating a huge explosion in the harbor.
At Naval Base Guam, the group also saw a display of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3's equipment and an MH-60 Knight Hawk helicopter used by Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 5 to conduct search-and-rescue missions in the region.
Later, at Andersen Air Force Base, group members met the crew and climbed aboard one of six B-52H Stratofortress bombers deployed for a four-month rotation from Barksdale Air Force Base, La. White said B-52s from Barksdale and Minot Air Force Base, N.D., began regular deployments to Guam in February -- a significant step since the last permanently based B-52s left Guam in 1991.
Larson told the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference visitors the activities they observed today -- and plans for the future still on the drawing board -- will contribute to Guam's role in U.S. defense.
"Our primary job is to be ready for any crisis," he said. "If we do this right, we can continue to help provide security and maintain peace in this region."
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Chamorros Decry US Military Expansion in Guam
POLITICS:
Natives of Guam Decry U.S. Expansion Plan
Aaron Glantz
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Dec 12 (IPS) - A Pentagon plan for a massive military build-up on the Pacific island of Guam is meeting with resistance by ethnic Chamorros who live there and the Chamorro diaspora in the United States.
According the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, the Pentagon has already moved attack submarines and cruise missiles to Guam, where it is forming a strike force of six bombers and 48 fighters that have been deployed from bases in the continental U.S.
In addition, earlier this year, the U.S. Defence Department announced plans to move 8,000 Marines and 9,000 of their dependents from Okinawa, Japan to Guam. Last week, the Air Force announced it plans to add 2,600 service members and their families to the island's Andersen Air Force Base beginning next year.
The realignment is currently undergoing an environmental review. Pentagon officials say construction of the new bases should begin in 2010, with troop movements starting in 2011.
Activists believe the redeployment will result in a total influx of approximately 35,000 people, a number they say will overwhelm their small island, which has a population of just 168,000 people. The southernmost island in the Western Pacific Mariana chain, Guam has been a U.S. territory since the United States won the Spanish-American War in 1898.
"Guam has basically no say," said writer Michael Lujan Bevacqua, a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego. "So the U.S. has the right to bring in whatever they want and there is no framework that Guam can make demands or negotiate with the U.S. military. The Pentagon and the United States Congress are the sovereign owners and they act like that. There is no relationship that says we have to listen to your feedback or we have to listen to your demands."
Bevacqua noted that the Pentagon's decision to redeploy to Guam comes after large-scale protests against the United States military presence in South Korea and the Japanese island of Okinawa. In both countries, the U.S. military operates under rules negotiated between governments called a "Status of Forces Agreement", or SOFA. But because Guam is a U.S. territory, no SOFA is required.
Indeed, the Japanese government is so keen to have the Marines leave Okinawa -- where a number of U.S. servicemen have made headlines by raping local women -- that Tokyo is underwriting most of the estimated 10-billion-dollar cost of the redeployment.
"Japan and South Korea make noises, the people there antagonise the U.S. military, so the U.S. responds," Bevacqua told IPS. "They say you don't want us there, we'll go to a place where people have no say over what we do, and that place is Guam."
Guam elects one non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. During U.S. presidential elections, citizens in Guam vote in a straw poll, but their choice for president is not counted toward the final outcome. Residents of Guam serve in the U.S.. military and can be conscripted when there is a draft.
Not everyone on Guam agrees with the activists. The territory's non-voting Congresswoman Madeline Bardallo is a big supporter of a stepped-up U.S. military presence on the island.
"When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor (in World War II), they invaded Guam at the same time," she told IPS. "We were occupied by the Japanese for three and a half years. Now you've got South Korea-North Korea, Taiwan-China. There's a lot of unrest. A lot of us remember the Japanese occupation and don't want something like that to happen again."
People from Guam are very patriotic, she added, pointing out that Guam has the highest rate of enlistment in the National Guard and Army reserves of any U.S. state or territory.
But the activists see the calculation differently. Though they grew up hearing horror stories of forced labour and mass murder under the Japanese emperor during World War II, they do not believe a large U.S. presence is in their interest.
"If there's a confrontation between the United States and North Korea, the Koreans won't look to bomb the U.S. mainland," Sabina Perez of the International Peoples Coalition against Military Pollution told IPS. "They'll look for a place that's closer and easier to hit, and that will be Guam."
It was in this political environment that a coalition of mostly young ethnic Chamorros traveled to the New York in October to address a special summit of the United Nations Committee on Decolonisation. They told the panel, which was originally designed to eradicate colonialism in 10 years but is now in its second decade, to come out in favour of self-determination for the people of Guam.
But they said that while they were greeted with a positive response from countries like Venezuela, the United States, which holds a veto on the panel, refused to listen.
"From where we were sitting, the U.S. representative had to turn his head in order to look at us," Victoria Leon Guerrero of the Guahan Indigenous Collective told the community forum in Berkeley. "He never turned, never looked at us. That's how the United States government relates to the people of Guam."
Natives of Guam Decry U.S. Expansion Plan
Aaron Glantz
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Dec 12 (IPS) - A Pentagon plan for a massive military build-up on the Pacific island of Guam is meeting with resistance by ethnic Chamorros who live there and the Chamorro diaspora in the United States.
According the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, the Pentagon has already moved attack submarines and cruise missiles to Guam, where it is forming a strike force of six bombers and 48 fighters that have been deployed from bases in the continental U.S.
In addition, earlier this year, the U.S. Defence Department announced plans to move 8,000 Marines and 9,000 of their dependents from Okinawa, Japan to Guam. Last week, the Air Force announced it plans to add 2,600 service members and their families to the island's Andersen Air Force Base beginning next year.
The realignment is currently undergoing an environmental review. Pentagon officials say construction of the new bases should begin in 2010, with troop movements starting in 2011.
Activists believe the redeployment will result in a total influx of approximately 35,000 people, a number they say will overwhelm their small island, which has a population of just 168,000 people. The southernmost island in the Western Pacific Mariana chain, Guam has been a U.S. territory since the United States won the Spanish-American War in 1898.
"Guam has basically no say," said writer Michael Lujan Bevacqua, a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego. "So the U.S. has the right to bring in whatever they want and there is no framework that Guam can make demands or negotiate with the U.S. military. The Pentagon and the United States Congress are the sovereign owners and they act like that. There is no relationship that says we have to listen to your feedback or we have to listen to your demands."
Bevacqua noted that the Pentagon's decision to redeploy to Guam comes after large-scale protests against the United States military presence in South Korea and the Japanese island of Okinawa. In both countries, the U.S. military operates under rules negotiated between governments called a "Status of Forces Agreement", or SOFA. But because Guam is a U.S. territory, no SOFA is required.
Indeed, the Japanese government is so keen to have the Marines leave Okinawa -- where a number of U.S. servicemen have made headlines by raping local women -- that Tokyo is underwriting most of the estimated 10-billion-dollar cost of the redeployment.
"Japan and South Korea make noises, the people there antagonise the U.S. military, so the U.S. responds," Bevacqua told IPS. "They say you don't want us there, we'll go to a place where people have no say over what we do, and that place is Guam."
Guam elects one non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. During U.S. presidential elections, citizens in Guam vote in a straw poll, but their choice for president is not counted toward the final outcome. Residents of Guam serve in the U.S.. military and can be conscripted when there is a draft.
Not everyone on Guam agrees with the activists. The territory's non-voting Congresswoman Madeline Bardallo is a big supporter of a stepped-up U.S. military presence on the island.
"When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor (in World War II), they invaded Guam at the same time," she told IPS. "We were occupied by the Japanese for three and a half years. Now you've got South Korea-North Korea, Taiwan-China. There's a lot of unrest. A lot of us remember the Japanese occupation and don't want something like that to happen again."
People from Guam are very patriotic, she added, pointing out that Guam has the highest rate of enlistment in the National Guard and Army reserves of any U.S. state or territory.
But the activists see the calculation differently. Though they grew up hearing horror stories of forced labour and mass murder under the Japanese emperor during World War II, they do not believe a large U.S. presence is in their interest.
"If there's a confrontation between the United States and North Korea, the Koreans won't look to bomb the U.S. mainland," Sabina Perez of the International Peoples Coalition against Military Pollution told IPS. "They'll look for a place that's closer and easier to hit, and that will be Guam."
It was in this political environment that a coalition of mostly young ethnic Chamorros traveled to the New York in October to address a special summit of the United Nations Committee on Decolonisation. They told the panel, which was originally designed to eradicate colonialism in 10 years but is now in its second decade, to come out in favour of self-determination for the people of Guam.
But they said that while they were greeted with a positive response from countries like Venezuela, the United States, which holds a veto on the panel, refused to listen.
"From where we were sitting, the U.S. representative had to turn his head in order to look at us," Victoria Leon Guerrero of the Guahan Indigenous Collective told the community forum in Berkeley. "He never turned, never looked at us. That's how the United States government relates to the people of Guam."
Monday, December 11, 2006
Guam a "toxic dumpsite"
Szyfres: Guam residents live in ‘toxic dumpsite’
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
-------------------
CONTAMINATION in Guam’s environment may have caused other diseases affecting local residents who live in “a toxic dumpsite,” according to University of Guam professor and researcher Dr. Luis Szyfres.
Szyfres said the contamination started with the storage of toxic chemicals by the U.S. government. “There are no longer dumpsites of toxic chemicals on Guam, but the island remains a toxic dumpsite,” he said.
Due to evaporation, rain, infiltration and wind dispersion of the toxic chemicals in the dumpsites for more than 50 years, the contamination has spread all over Guam, Szyfres said.
Diseases prevalent on Guam besides neurodegenerative conditions include diabetes, various types of cancer and disorders affecting the kidneys, skeletal system, heart and arteries, glands and hormones and respiratory system.
Other diseases associated with exposure to toxic chemicals are deafness, blindness, liver dysfunction, anemia, sudden infant death syndrome, and progressive immune suppression.
Szyfres also pointed to a Government of Guam report which showed that in comparison to the continental U.S., many diseases on island have epidemic proportions and death rates here are higher than in the mainland.
Szyfres also noted that the prevalence of certain types of cancer is way higher in Guam than in the mainland. These include nasopharyngeal cancer, which is 1,999 percent higher in Guam; cervical cancer, 65 percent higher; uterine cancer, 55 percent higher; depression/suicides, 67 percent; liver cancer, 41 percent; diabetes, 150 percent; Ischemic heart disease, 15 percent; and kidney failure, 12 percent.
In coming up with the theory linking Guam diseases to toxic chemicals, Szyfres cited studies conducted by local and federal agencies.
He said his report is aimed at providing the population of Guam with concrete official information about the health hazards to which they are exposed, and “to avoid any type of political or government interference with the truth, by presenting their own official information.”
Szyfres, a professor at the UOG College of Natural and Applied Sciences, acknowledged that health problems related to toxic chemicals “is obviously a very sensitive socio-political issue.”
He cited studies by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which presented concrete evidence that the soil and groundwater of Guam contains toxic chemicals, and that concentrations of the toxic chemicals are above their own acceptable levels.
The toxic chemicals found on Guam include aluminum, barium, antimony, arsenic, cadmium, copper, chromium, lead, manganese, unspecified metals, nickel, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, selenium, silver, thallium, tetrachloro dibenzeno dioxins, total petroleum hydrocarbons, vanadium, volatile organic compounds, trichloroethylene, benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylenes, and semi-volatile organic compounds, and zinc.
“Unknown to the residents of Guam, the food they eat, the water they drink, and the air they breathe are contaminated with toxic chemicals,” Szyfres said. “The toxic chemicals enter the person’s bloodstream and may affect any organ or system in the body.”
“The fact that the only way that toxic heavy metals can get to the brain is through the blood, and that they can only get to the blood through the food, water, or air contaminated with heavy metals, proves that the toxic chemicals are not only in the environment of Guam, but in Guamanians as well,” he added.
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
-------------------
CONTAMINATION in Guam’s environment may have caused other diseases affecting local residents who live in “a toxic dumpsite,” according to University of Guam professor and researcher Dr. Luis Szyfres.
Szyfres said the contamination started with the storage of toxic chemicals by the U.S. government. “There are no longer dumpsites of toxic chemicals on Guam, but the island remains a toxic dumpsite,” he said.
Due to evaporation, rain, infiltration and wind dispersion of the toxic chemicals in the dumpsites for more than 50 years, the contamination has spread all over Guam, Szyfres said.
Diseases prevalent on Guam besides neurodegenerative conditions include diabetes, various types of cancer and disorders affecting the kidneys, skeletal system, heart and arteries, glands and hormones and respiratory system.
Other diseases associated with exposure to toxic chemicals are deafness, blindness, liver dysfunction, anemia, sudden infant death syndrome, and progressive immune suppression.
Szyfres also pointed to a Government of Guam report which showed that in comparison to the continental U.S., many diseases on island have epidemic proportions and death rates here are higher than in the mainland.
Szyfres also noted that the prevalence of certain types of cancer is way higher in Guam than in the mainland. These include nasopharyngeal cancer, which is 1,999 percent higher in Guam; cervical cancer, 65 percent higher; uterine cancer, 55 percent higher; depression/suicides, 67 percent; liver cancer, 41 percent; diabetes, 150 percent; Ischemic heart disease, 15 percent; and kidney failure, 12 percent.
In coming up with the theory linking Guam diseases to toxic chemicals, Szyfres cited studies conducted by local and federal agencies.
He said his report is aimed at providing the population of Guam with concrete official information about the health hazards to which they are exposed, and “to avoid any type of political or government interference with the truth, by presenting their own official information.”
Szyfres, a professor at the UOG College of Natural and Applied Sciences, acknowledged that health problems related to toxic chemicals “is obviously a very sensitive socio-political issue.”
He cited studies by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which presented concrete evidence that the soil and groundwater of Guam contains toxic chemicals, and that concentrations of the toxic chemicals are above their own acceptable levels.
The toxic chemicals found on Guam include aluminum, barium, antimony, arsenic, cadmium, copper, chromium, lead, manganese, unspecified metals, nickel, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, selenium, silver, thallium, tetrachloro dibenzeno dioxins, total petroleum hydrocarbons, vanadium, volatile organic compounds, trichloroethylene, benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylenes, and semi-volatile organic compounds, and zinc.
“Unknown to the residents of Guam, the food they eat, the water they drink, and the air they breathe are contaminated with toxic chemicals,” Szyfres said. “The toxic chemicals enter the person’s bloodstream and may affect any organ or system in the body.”
“The fact that the only way that toxic heavy metals can get to the brain is through the blood, and that they can only get to the blood through the food, water, or air contaminated with heavy metals, proves that the toxic chemicals are not only in the environment of Guam, but in Guamanians as well,” he added.
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