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OMNI
NEWSLETTER #4 US WESTWARD
IMPERIALISM, PACIFIC OCEAN , EAST ASIA , January 12, 2013. Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace. (#1
May 8, 2012; #2 August 22, 2012; #3 Nov. 25, 2012).
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:
http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/ For a knowledge-based peace, justice, and
ecology movement and an informed citizenry as the foundation for opposition to
empire, militarism, and wars. Here is the
link to the Index: http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/ See: Continental US Westward Expansion,
Indigenous People of Americas, Pentagon ,
US
My blog:
It's the War Department
It's the War Department
An underlying theme of this newsletter and of all of the
newsletters pertaining to war is the necessity of the US peace
movement to be informed, to think, and to act globally. Often the argument is made that peacemaking
must begin with inner equanimity, steadiness, and strength and nobody can deny
their importance, but our leaders’ reckless lawlessness, making the world
unstable, destabilizes each and every one of us locally, and must be
stopped. In order to act, we do not
have to wait until we have fully matured, and anyway a lifetime is seldom
enough time to enable that ideal condition.
See Elliott Adams, “Protecting the Wrong People at Drone Base.” Space
Alert! (Dec. 2012), for a strong indictment of US war crimes, and the
urgent responsibility of us all to resist now.
–Dick
THE CHINA
THREAT
“Percentage of Americans who say China ‘can’t be trusted: 68.” (“Harper’s Index” January 2013). Where do you think that fear came from? US
encirclement of China would
not happen without the majority of people first having been persuaded by the
warriors to believe China
was an enemy, just as with Vietnam
and Iraq .
Nos. 1 & 2 at end
Contents #3, Nov. 25,
2012
Dick: Jeju Island
Obama Focuses on Asia-Pacific
Burns on Panetta: Transferring Forces to China
Letman (via Global Nework and VFP): Hawaii
US Fear of Chinese Port
Andre Vltchek, Oceania , Western Imperialism S. Pacific
Contents #4 Encircling China
LaFebre, Expansion 1860-1898
Dick: Progress to Pacific
Dick: General Custer
Lind: Hawaii
Bardsley: US Troops to Australia : China
Paik and Mander: Pacific Blowback
Space Alert! Dec. 2012
Middleton, Australian
Military Connections
US and NZ: Waihopai Spybase
Vandenberg Air Force
Base
Star Wars and China
Pentagon's X-37B First Strike Defense
USPACCOM
Walter
LeFeber’s “The New Empire” :
An Interpretation of American Expansion 1860-1898 (New York, Cornell University Press, 1963).
A
Review of LeFeber’s “A New Empire”
Walter LaFeber’s “The New
Empire” proposes that American foreignpolicy from 1860-1898 was framed by
extra-continental expansion basedupon an economic need to find foreign markets in which
to sell Americansurpluses. By examining the early theorizing of this economic cause of expansion, its formulation
through intellectual, strategic, and economicchannels, and the
reaction of policymakers to changing economic situationsthrough the use of expansion from 1893-1898, LaFeber claims that the “NewEmpire” established by 1899 was
the culmination of an American foreignpolicy whereby policymakers such as Seward, Blaine, Mahan, and Clevelandused American expansion to
establish an economic chain of marketsbeneficial to the growth of the United States.LaFeber begins with the origin of the idea and the policymakers, suchas William Seward and James
Blaine, who he claims set the economic drivenexpansion in motion. He uses quotes from Seward such as, “The Nation thatdraws most materials and
provisions from the earth, and fabricates the most,and sells the most of
productions and fabrics to foreign nations, must be, andwill be, the greatest
power of the earth,”
1
to showcase early calls foreconomic expansion. He presents Blaine ’s ability to take the idea to abroader level when he quotes him as saying,
“wherever
a foothold is foundfor American enterprise, it is quickly
occupied, and this spirit of adventure,which seeks its
outlet in the mines of South America and the
railroads of Mexico
He claims the formulation of the idea of economic driven
expansionoccurred on an intellectual, a strategic, and an economic level through thework of men such as Mahan, Blaine, and Patterson. LaFeber uses Mahan toshow the intellectual
realization that too much surplus lowered prices in theU.S. and would create farmer turmoil, “Americans must now begin to lookoutward. There owing production of the country demands it.”
LaFeber uses James Blaine to point out the strategic need to protect
American access toforeign markets when he quotes him as saying, “You know I am not much of an annexationist; though I do
feel that in some directions, as to navalstations and points of influence, we must look forward to a departure fromthe
too conservative opinions which have been held hithertofore.”
He pointsout the economic formulation during
the debate in the House over tariffs in1894 of the call for lower tariffs and trade
expansion in order to pull thecountry out of a depression by men like Josiah Patterson of Tennessee
LaFeber supports his economic driven expansion
thesis by describingdirect manifestations of expansion caused by
this idea, including theVenezuelan
Border Crisis of 1895-96 and the Spanish-American War of 1898.
From
Progress to Exceptionalism to Pacific Ocean
By
Dick Bennett
A key to understanding modern Western civilization and its
pursuit of domination has been 1) the decline
of the myth of Providence: the Fall
of humanity and rise through Christ and 2) the rise of the myth of Progress, the belief that history is the record of ever-expanding
human power over nature and consequent cumulative improvement in the conditions
of life. Science, technology,
industrial capitalism, economic growth, material wealth and comfort,
nationalism, democracy, personal autonomy—these developments arose out of the
assumption of inevitable advance.
But Progress has not even today replaced Providence United
States
But those two
powerful myths would probably not have pushed the USA
to conquer and confiscate so much so rapidly had they not been reinforced by a
third—that of the USA United States
Guided by the ambition engendered by belief
in Providence , Progress, and Exceptionalism, the
people of the USA United States East Asia .
USPACOM: THE HAPPINESS OF GENERAL CUSTER
He needed the map at
home.
USPACOM:
Promotes peace, deters aggression, responds to crises,
will fight and win security and stability
throughout Asia-Pacific.
Map and Mission
Each morning no beat lost between home and work.
Each morning exhilarated as though catapulted,
he hits the ground happily.
Pearl Harbor Neptune speeds the spear,
Midway and Johnston
Wake and Guam point the spear.
To the north the Aleutians
scimitar.
Okinawa and Taiwan
quell E. China Sea ,
Warn the Shanghai/Guangzhou belly,
While far South,
And Cocos
Island
Keeping Westward,
His adrenalined heart quickens with the carnival map,
Poseidon’s spear of land, sea, and air,
each base blinking more intensely orange,
nearer the target;
the closest ring becoming more brightly and rapidly red,
he feels each morning’s crisis,
finger on the button
stopping aggression,
bringing peace,
finger on the button
Red Alert!
Military as Sacred Cow: Case Study in Hawaii
Fri
Dec 7, 2012 10:35 am (PST) . Posted by:
"Global Network"
brucekgag
http://www.civilbeat.com/posts/2012/12/05/17813-hawaii-monitor-would-hawaii-welcome-peace-on-earth/?fb_action_ids=4153706836670&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%224153706836670%22%3A141896575960728}&action_type_map={%224153706836670%22%3A%22og.likes%22}&action_ref_map=[]
Hawaii Monitor: Would Hawaii Welcome 'Peace On Earth?'
By Ian Lind
We're heading into the holiday season, where themes of "peace on earth, goodwill to all" can be heard in private homes and public spaces, from churches to shopping malls.
But if somehow peace were to miraculously break out, ushering in a new era of peaceful and cooperative international relations, would it be greeted as wonderful news by the powers that be? I doubt it.
It isn't hard for me to envision city, state, and federal officials, along with union and business leaders, stepping forward to lobby for continued high levels of military spending, not because they are opposed to peace but, rather, because they are economically dependent on war.
It's a policy stance that might make sense in purely economic terms, but would be much harder to justify in moral terms. But this would be nothing new. The same pressures have long constrained public discussion of military and defense issues inHawaii
The state's war industry, euphemistically referred to as the "defense" sector, is a sacred cow, a very visible part of our community that has been largely exempt from mainstream questioning or criticism.
Public officials reduce the big issues of war and peace to matters of local economic interest. Any policy seen as boostingHawaii Washington
Even the news media shy away from much examination of the military, except when the reporting is in patriotic, adulatory tones or presented in flat prose of dollars-and-cents business reporting.
Economic Dependence
Defense, to use the polite term, is one of the state's core industries. It includes the federal dollars spent to house, feed, and provide services to more than 100,000 military personnel and their dependents, along with the defense contractors and their employees involved in development of high-tech for ultimate use in weapons or command systems.
There is certainly no disagreement that in economic terms, the military's local impact is substantial. In 2009, active-duty personnel stationed inHawaii Hawaii
Even small variations in defense spending reverberate through our economy as their effects are magnified within certain geographic areas and economic sectors. It's no wonder the potential impact of going over the so-called fiscal cliff, with its automatic cuts of some $55 billion annually to the federal defense budget, has created lots of uncertainty among local defense contractors and public officials.
Defense Cuts Are Inevitable
And even if we avoid the fiscal cliff, the bloated defense budget is an obvious target for the substantial cuts in federal spending that will be required in the long-term effort to reduce the federal deficit.
During FY 2011, theU.S. China
and Russia together, and
about 50 percent more than the total combined military spending by other top-10
countries (China , Russia , the United
Kingdom , France ,
Japan , Saudi Arabia , Germany ,
India , and Brazil
"In other words, theUS
The fiscal cliff isn't just a problem, it's also an opportunity to realize that long-term cuts in the military budget, including the share that trickles down toHawaii Hawaii
How do we move forward in a proactive way? The first task is to challenge the military's status as a sacred cow, and subject it to the same level of scrutiny given other major institutions in our community, including the costs, as well as economic benefits, of the extensive military presence. This is the prerequisite to all further changes.
With persistence, we can create space to debate and discuss the military's economic role as well as its broader political impact, and begin developing plans for alternative civilian uses of at least some of the 118 separate military facilities and 230,939 acres of military-controlled land in the state.
This type of planning can end up creating a self-fulfilling prophesy, as contingency plans begin to demonstrate the viability of alternatives to continued military dependence. It's at least a place to start.
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (blog)
Hawaii Monitor: Would Hawaii Welcome 'Peace On Earth?'
By Ian Lind
We're heading into the holiday season, where themes of "peace on earth, goodwill to all" can be heard in private homes and public spaces, from churches to shopping malls.
But if somehow peace were to miraculously break out, ushering in a new era of peaceful and cooperative international relations, would it be greeted as wonderful news by the powers that be? I doubt it.
It isn't hard for me to envision city, state, and federal officials, along with union and business leaders, stepping forward to lobby for continued high levels of military spending, not because they are opposed to peace but, rather, because they are economically dependent on war.
It's a policy stance that might make sense in purely economic terms, but would be much harder to justify in moral terms. But this would be nothing new. The same pressures have long constrained public discussion of military and defense issues in
The state's war industry, euphemistically referred to as the "defense" sector, is a sacred cow, a very visible part of our community that has been largely exempt from mainstream questioning or criticism.
Public officials reduce the big issues of war and peace to matters of local economic interest. Any policy seen as boosting
Even the news media shy away from much examination of the military, except when the reporting is in patriotic, adulatory tones or presented in flat prose of dollars-and-cents business reporting.
Economic Dependence
Defense, to use the polite term, is one of the state's core industries. It includes the federal dollars spent to house, feed, and provide services to more than 100,000 military personnel and their dependents, along with the defense contractors and their employees involved in development of high-tech for ultimate use in weapons or command systems.
There is certainly no disagreement that in economic terms, the military's local impact is substantial. In 2009, active-duty personnel stationed in
Even small variations in defense spending reverberate through our economy as their effects are magnified within certain geographic areas and economic sectors. It's no wonder the potential impact of going over the so-called fiscal cliff, with its automatic cuts of some $55 billion annually to the federal defense budget, has created lots of uncertainty among local defense contractors and public officials.
Defense Cuts Are Inevitable
And even if we avoid the fiscal cliff, the bloated defense budget is an obvious target for the substantial cuts in federal spending that will be required in the long-term effort to reduce the federal deficit.
During FY 2011, the
"In other words, the
The fiscal cliff isn't just a problem, it's also an opportunity to realize that long-term cuts in the military budget, including the share that trickles down to
How do we move forward in a proactive way? The first task is to challenge the military's status as a sacred cow, and subject it to the same level of scrutiny given other major institutions in our community, including the costs, as well as economic benefits, of the extensive military presence. This is the prerequisite to all further changes.
With persistence, we can create space to debate and discuss the military's economic role as well as its broader political impact, and begin developing plans for alternative civilian uses of at least some of the 118 separate military facilities and 230,939 acres of military-controlled land in the state.
This type of planning can end up creating a self-fulfilling prophesy, as contingency plans begin to demonstrate the viability of alternatives to continued military dependence. It's at least a place to start.
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (blog)
First deployment of
US troops arrives in Australia
The first
contingent of a deployment of 2,500 US troops has arrived in Australia to boost American's power in the Asia
Pacific as China
The initial
group of 200 marines, to be stationed near
Darwin in northern Australia
Their
deployment comes amid disputes between Beijing
and its neighbours over territory in the South China Sea and East
China Sea - strategic shipping lanes and potentially rich with oil
and gas.
The
state-run Xinhua news agency branded it an "aggressive step venturing into
Asia" despite assurances from the US
president, Barack Obama, that it was not part of an attempt to isolate China
Speaking
yesterday, the Australian defence minister, Stephen Smith, said the agreement
between Washington and Canberra
for the troops to hold six-month training rotations in Australia
"The
world needs to essentially come to grips with the rise of China , the rise of India
Over the
next several years, the numbers of US troops will reach a maximum of 2,500.
Officials insist there is no plan for permanent US
bases in Australia , although
the two countries have a joint
intelligence centre near Alice Springs .
The US
is however reportedly looking to station aircraft carriers and submarines in Western Australia
The modest
size of the planned US deployment - dwarfed for example by the 30,000 American troops based in South Korea
- makes it "more a symbolic move than a real deployment of
troops", according to Jia Qingguo of Peking University's school of
international studies.
"The
number of troops is quite small and it is still quite far away from the South China Sea ," he said.
Some
analysts however see the deployment as significant to China
Disputes in
the oil and gas-rich South China Sea between Chinese vessels and those
belonging to Vietnam and the
Philippines have raised regional
tensions and sparked concerns among China
Several South East Asian countries are
increasing military cooperation with the United States
The
Philippine president, Benigno Aquino, said last month more US
Similarly,
the US is likely to station
several warships in Singapore
and increase deployments in Thailand
"A few
hundred US troops stationed
in Australia China
[Our
leaders are certifiably paranoid? They
see enemies everywhere. Remember the
Reagan administration’s warning of Nicaraguans marching on Brownsville , TX San Francisco if we didn’t stop them in Vietnam China ’s
the enemy, as though Chinese bases and troops occupied Canada , Central and South America, and their war
ships patrolled the Caribbean and Pacific and
Atlantic oceans. Dick]
“BLOWBACK IN THE PACIFIC: THE US MILITARY’S ‘PACIFIC PIVOT’ IS RAISING
TENSIONS WITH CHINA
On the small, spectacular island of Jeju ,
off the southern tip of Korea China
Since 2007, when the $970 million
project was announced, the outraged Tamna people of Gangjeong village have
exhausted every legal and peaceful means to stop it. They filed lawsuits. They
held a referendum in which 94 percent of the electorate voted against
construction—a vote the central government ignored. They chained themselves for
months to a shipping container parked on the main access road, built blockades
of boulders at the construction gate and occupied coral-reef dredging cranes.
They have been arrested by the hundreds. Mayor Kang Dong-Kyun, who was jailed
for three months, said, “If the villagers have committed any crime, it is the
crime of aspiring to pass their beautiful village to their descendants.”
Jeju
is just one island in a growing constellation of geostrategic points being
militarized as part of the “Pacific Pivot,” a major initiative announced late in 2011 to counter a
rising China Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region. (The United States already has 219 bases on foreign
soil in the Asia-Pacific region; China South
Korea , Japan ,
the Philippines , Singapore , Vietnam
and the US colony of Guam . The Pentagon has also positioned Patriot PAC-3
missile defense systems in Taiwan ,
Japan (where the United States has some ninety installations, plus
about 47,000 troops on Okinawa) and in South
Korea (which hosts more than 100 US
The United
States has begun rotating troops to Australia and has announced plans to build a
drone base on that country’s remote Cocos Islands .
(Also targeted is the gorgeous Palawan
Island in the Philippines and the resource-rich Northern Mariana Islands , to name only two more on a long
list.) In a September whistle-stop tour of the region intended to gather more
allies, Panetta said the United States
hopes to station troops in New
Zealand Myanmar (Burma ), Cambodia
and Thailand as potential
trade partners and military allies in the encirclement of China United States has even reopened discussions with
the brutal Indonesian military—collaboration had been suspended for several
years because of human rights issues—in an attempt to influence this key
trading partner of China
Adm. Robert Willard, former head of the
US Pacific Command (PACOM), gave context to these maneuverings in September
2011. In a speech at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, he labeled the
entire Asia-Pacific region—which covers 52 percent of the earth and is home to
two-thirds of its human population—as a “commons” to be “protected” by the
United States. Normally, the word “commons” refers to resources commonly shared
and controlled by contiguous parties. But Willard seemed to have in mind a
massive “US commons” that
extends nearly 8,000 miles, from the Indian Ocean to the west coast of North America .
Willard’s imperial rhetoric became
concrete when current PACOM commander Adm. Samuel Locklear reacted to disputes
between Japan and China over islands in the geostrategically vital
East China Sea . From PACOM’s Pearl Harbor
headquarters in Hawaii , Locklear initiated
joint military exercises involving 37,000 Japanese and 10,000 US Manila
to show force in the Philippines ’
dispute with China over the Spratly Islands
Less well known is that PACOM activity
includes overseeing the South Korean military. This condition dates back to the
signing of the 1953 ROK-US Mutual Defense Treaty, which is still in effect. In
fact, US hegemony over the
entire region has remained unchanged for more than half a century, locked into
an anachronistic Cold War landscape marked by similar bilateral agreements with
Taiwan , Japan , the Philippines China
Local Impacts
On the island of Jeju Korea
Gangjeong villagers also worry that
twentieth-century history will repeat itself, turning their small village into
a first-strike military target, as happened there during World War II and the
Korean War. The base protesters never again want to get caught in the
cross-fire of global powers.
The villagers’ struggle has been
difficult. Dissidents in South
Korea US
A miraculous break presented itself
when the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)—the world’s
largest mainstream environmental group, which claims dedication to “a just
world that values and conserves nature”—announced it would hold its quadrennial
World Conservation Congress for 8,000 participants on Jeju on September 6–15,
only four miles up the road from the destruction and the increasingly bloody
confrontations.
The villagers rejoiced at the prospect
of reporting their story to this gathering of world environmental leaders. But
they were soon shocked to find that the IUCN planned to ignore the nearby
catastrophe. What happened? It turned out that a horrendous deal had been
struck, unbeknownst to member NGOs, between the IUCN’s top leaders and the
South Korean government. The government had budgeted $21 million to support the
convention. In return, the IUCN had agreed not to allow discussion of the naval
base during the convention without government approval; nor would it permit any
of the villagers to participate in—or even get near—the proceedings. Additional
financial support came from several giant corporations, including Samsung, the
lead contractor in the base construction. It was only when an internal revolt
erupted within the IUCN’s membership that the dubious deal was challenged and
the struggle against the military base catapulted onto the international
stage.
Apparently, greenwashing the naval base
was not the only reason the South Korean government had paid so dearly to host
the 2012 IUCN Congress in Jeju. It also wanted to promote a long list of what
it calls “Green Growth” projects to a skeptical Korean public. The term is a
grievous misnomer. These hugely profitable, environmentally devastating
initiatives are driven by Korea Korea
After this debacle and in the face of
the growing naval base controversy, the Korean power elite needed the 2012 IUCN
Congress in Jeju as a PR boost to appease heartsick citizens. It didn’t work
out that way.
IUCN Revolt
Once they figured out what was going
on, IUCN members were appalled. They were astonished that their leaders had so
drastically compromised their values by partnering with the Republic of Korea Barcelona
Many disgusted IUCN members joined in
solidarity with the Jeju Emergency Action Committee, a group of
anti-base/pro-Gangjeong activists that featured supporters like Vandana Shiva,
Robert Redford, Gloria Steinem, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Noam Chomsky, Joseph
Gerson, Christine Ahn, and dozens of prominent scientists and
environmentalists. During the convention, the committee sent a series of fiery
protest e-mails to IUCN members promoting meetings and interaction with the
villagers.
Meanwhile, conference participants were
getting a great lesson in Korean Civics 101: SWAT teams were roving the
building, Koreans were racially profiled and searched at the door for anti-base
literature, and four young women were ejected from the premises for wearing
yellow anti-base T-shirts. When Gangjeong activist Sung-Hee Choi was spotted
entering the convention center, she was rushed by twenty policewomen, who
denied her entry and snatched away her admission badge, for which she had paid
$600. One IUCN member said, “I’ve never been to a congress like this, where the
state Ministry of Defense is at every meeting, putting on the pressure.”
The turning point came when People’s
Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a Seoul-based NGO, disseminated a
just-acquired report from the Defense Ministry that had been submitted to the National
Assembly. The report indicated that ships would regularly pass through the core
of the UNESCO biosphere reserve, dooming all life in that area. Capt. Yoon
Seok-Han, chief of base construction, promised during a press conference that
no ships would travel through the core except in the case of bad weather (which
is common in that area).
IUCN members loudly began to denounce
their leadership’s “deal with the devil.” The leaders backpedaled furiously to
close the rift that was rapidly widening in their ranks. Suddenly, the
organization encouraged anti-base presentations and allowed pamphleteering
inside the convention center. The Gangjeong villagers found themselves the star
attraction of the conference. They seized the moment and sold yellow T-shirts,
and even held a concert that drew hundreds of spectators. Young villagers
dressed as endangered species, sprawled on the floor in tortured positions, and
held signs that said, Please let me live! The Korean sponsors were
horrified.
By day five of the conference,
government officials were watching their exorbitant PR investment blow up in
their faces. A Chicago-based NGO, the Center for Humans and Nature, introduced
a surprise emergency motion to halt construction of the naval base. Within
forty-eight hours, a record thirty-four other NGOs had signed on as
co-sponsors.
In the end, the motion won a huge
majority of all votes cast by IUCN member organizations, though it didn’t pass
because of a peculiar bias in how the IUCN tallies votes: nation-state member
votes weigh far more heavily than NGO member votes. The Korean media dutifully
reported that “Green Growth” and the “eco-friendly navy base” had prevailed.
But for the Gangjeong villagers, the vote didn’t matter much. In their struggle
for recognition, the 2012 IUCN “Battle of Jeju” counted as a tremendous
victory. Light had been shed on the dire consequences of the Pacific Pivot. As
one villager said on the last day of the convention, “We are not lonely
anymore.”
Immediately following the convention,
hundreds of villagers, joined by Buddhist and Christian leaders, led a
one-month march to Seoul candidate
Park
New Resistance: Moana Nui
As the Pacific Pivot advances across
the region, local resistance movements like Jeju’s are growing rapidly.
Communities are increasingly refusing to be sacrificed by their governments as
tribute to a superpower benefactor. For example, in Okinawa, 100,000 protesters
have repeatedly taken to the streets, fed up after decades of “bearing Japan ’s burden” of the US Philippines , protests are building against the
increasing US Marshall
Islands , where US US
nuclear bombing of Bikini and other atolls in
the 1940s and ’50s sacrificed them enough.) The latest blowback comes from the
far southerly pastoral Japanese island
of Yonaguni , only sixty-nine miles
from Taiwan United States is
pressuring Japan
Now something really new has developed:
the heretofore disparate peoples of the Asia-Pacific region are unifying into
larger coalitions for mutual aid and action. Fourteen months ago, when nineteen
heads of state (including Obama) gathered in Honolulu for the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation meetings and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade
negotiations, an unprecedented parallel event was under way across town at the
University of Hawaii. Some 300 anti-militarism, anti-globalization, and
environmental and indigenous-rights activists from across the region met for
the first Moana Nui (Polynesian for “Big Ocean Waikiki and a large protest demonstration outside the TPP
negotiations. The gathering was widely reported in the Pacific but not on the US San Francisco
The question, finally, is this: At a
time of economic and ecological crisis, do Americans really want to ramp up
costly and dangerous Cold War programs in hundreds of places, thousands of
miles away, nearly always against the will of the people who live there and
with awful environmental effects? If not, then now’s the time for wide debate
on the Pacific Pivot and all its ramifications.
At the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation on September, Vladimir Putin announced his decision to
reposition Russia
by Dr. Hannah Middleton
There is no official confirmation that
the Pine Gap satellite tracking spy base
near alice Springs in central australia
being used in Pentagon drone strikes in
or elsewhere. But it certainly has the
capability to be so.
Drones are equipped with satellite
communications equipment through
which they can transmit and receive
information, which is essential for their
operation. Pine Gap is a satellite receiving and transmitting
ground station,
which has a footprint covering about
one-third of the world’s surface from the
Middle to the far East.
The US military
realignment to Asia
and the Indo-Pacific region makes
supporter of US military operations. US
drones have been flown from Australia
the australian Defence force (aDf) is
using drones in afghanistan
Australian Government is planning to
buy drones.
Joining all these dots convinces antiwar activists in Australia
is complicit in the targeted assassinations
and the indiscriminate murder of civilians by US drones in Pakistan , afghanistan ,
Yemen and Somalia
The Pine Gap military base in central
staffed mainly by the NSA, serves as
a ground station for US signals intelligence collection
satellites. Significantly,
Pine Gap controls US satellites that span
a strategically important area of the
globe: from the Middle East
oilfields,
across russia
targeting, meteorological data, terrain
information and real time footage of
events for US drone activities.
the royal australian air force has
deployed israeli-owned
drones for
battlefield surveillance and to select
targets in Afghanistan
2009. Australia
drones from a Canadian company that
leases them from Israel Aerospace Industries, which is wholly
owned by the
Israeli government. So far none of the
unmanned aerial vehicles employed by
australian forces carry weaponry but
US armed drones have conducted strike
missions at the direction of Australian
Special forces troops.
the australian Defence force is planning to buy seven Northrop
Grumman
Global Hawk intelligence and surveillance drones that could cost
up to $3
billion (australian).
The Royal Australian Navy is also
planning for drone warfare. Lieutenant
Commander Bob Ferry, who runs the
Navy’s UAV development unit, has said
that the Navy will soon start 300 hours
of trials with small Scan Eagle drones.
The US
Hawk spy drone missions from the
royal australian air force base at Edinburgh
in South Australia
until at least 2006.
Global Hawks en route from the west
coast of the US
in the United
Arab Emirates
is widely believed that some flights were
surveillance missions of Afghanistan
In 2004 former Australian Defence
Minister Robert Hill told US officials
that he intended to announce the flights
to the australian public. the US
Force opposed the disclosure, demanding all Global Hawk operations
remain
classified.
while the australian public was left
in the dark, an Aviation Week and Space
Technology journalist was given access
to a report on a single Global Hawk reconnaissance mission from
RAAF Edinburgh to southern Japan
The mission was launched just one week after North korea had
conducted a series of failed missile tests.In late March this year media
reported that australia was planning to allow the US to use its territory to
operate longrange spy drones, as part of an increased Pentagon presence in the
region. the new base would be on the cocos islands, atolls in the indian Ocean
off northwest Australia US
co-operation were the rotation of Marines through Darwin ,
greater air access and more use by the US
of the Stirling naval base in Perth (West Australia ). Significantly, he did not deny the Cocos Islands plan, merely commenting that it was
something to be considered “down the track”.
A new, maritime surveillance version of the Global Hawk—the MQ4C
Triton—is the favoured option for the Cocos Island Indian Ocean . The Australian owned Cocos islands are seen
as an ideal location to base unmanned patrol planes to keep watch on the
world’s busiest shipping routes and the South china Sea .
It is clear that US and australian
planners are preparing for the ability to cripple China
Andrew Lichterman, “Close Waihopai Spybase,” Space Alert! (Dec. 2012).
The Kim
Dotcom saga [Internet entrepreneur in New Zealand
of insider
trading, embezzlement and
copyright
infringement] has certainly
put the New
Zealand (NZ) Government Communications Security Bureau
(GCSB) and
its Waihopai spy base smack
bang into
the glare of the spotlight.
Not
coincidentally this is happening
in the same
year that the government
has got New Zealand
[Treaty] in
all but name. NZ has hosted
its first
visit from a US Defense Secretary
in 30 years
and he offered to base US
marines
here. For the first time since
the 1980s,
American troops have trained
here; NZ
troops have trained in the US
and NZ
warships have taken part in
US-led naval
exercises. How ironic that
all this was
happening at the same time
as the
country was celebrating the 25th
anniversary
of our nuclear free law.
the public
face of New Zealand
as an
American ally is the NZ military
presence
in afghanistan
to the
global American war fighting
machine is,
and has been for more than
20 years,
the waihopai electronic intelligence gathering base, located in the
controlled
by the US , with New Zealand
(including
Parliament and the Prime
Minister)
having little or no idea what
goes on
there, let alone any control.
First
announced in 1987, Waihopai
is operated
by New Zealand
Bureau
(GcSB) in the interests of the
foreign
powers grouped together in the
super-secret
UK-USA Agreement (which
shares
global electronic and signals
intelligence
among the agencies of the
US, Uk , canada ,
australia
satellite
interception dishes download a
huge volume
of civilian telephone calls,
telexes,
faxes, email and computer data
communications.
It spies on
our Asia/Pacific neighbours, and forwards the material on
to the major
partners in the UK-USA
Agreement,
specifically the US National
Security
agency (NSa). its targets are
international
civilian communications
involving
New Zealanders, including
the
interception of international phone
calls.
Post 9/11
the GCSB and Waihopai
now spy
further afield, to those regions
where the US
notorious
worldwide as the vast scope of
its spying
has become public. New
Zealand
a global
spying network, a network that
is
ultimately accountable only to its own
constituent
agencies, not governments,
and
certainly not citizens.
In April
2008 three peace activists were
arrested for
breaking into the spy base
near
Blenheim and slashing an inflatable
plastic dome
covering a satellite dish. In
March 2010,
a jury in wellington District
Court took
only two hours to find schoolteacher and part-time farmer Adrian
leason,
Dominican friar Peter Murnane,
and farmer
Sam land not guilty of all
charges
against them.
Peter
Murnane, who represented himself throughout the trial, said the action
taken by the
group had been successful.
“We wanted,
in going into Waihopai, to
challenge
these warfaring behaviours
and I think
we have done this,” he said.
“We have
shown New Zealanders there
is a US
waihopai
does not operate in the interests of New Zealanders or our neighbours.
Basically it is a foreign spy base
on NZ soil
and directly involves us in
a weekend of
anti-war protest at this
spy base is
planned for January 18–20,
2013.
Waihopai must be closed.
—Anti-Bases
Campaign is based in Christchurch ,
New Zealand
December
2012 Space Alert! P. 11
“Vandenberg & the Future of US Warmaking” By Andrew
Lichterman
Vandenberg
Air Force Base is best
known as the
place where the US
intercontinental
ballistic missiles and
launches
target rockets for missile
defense
tests, but there is far more to
it.
Vandenberg plays a key role in US
military
operations worldwide, as well
as in
maintaining the current generation
of strategic
weapons and developing
the next.
Vandenberg
Air Force Base occupies
nearly
100,000 acres, stretching along
thirty-five
miles of the Central California
coast. it is
the headquarters for one of
the two US
the other
centered at Cape Canaveral ,
this purpose
because satellites could
be launched
into polar orbit without
passing over
land and missiles could be
launched
over open water towards target sites, including US-occupied islands
in the
Pacific. Converted to a missile
launch site
in 1957, Vandenberg was
the home of
the first US nuclear-armed
intercontinental
ballistic missile (ICBM),
the Atlas.
Many of its successors, from
the Titan to
the Minuteman and the MX
“Peacekeeper,”
were tested at Vandenberg. In all, over 1,850 missile and orbital
rocket
launches have taken place there.
Over decades
as a satellite launch
facility,
missile base, and test site, Vandenberg developed an extensive array
of ground
facilities for tracking missiles
and
controlling satellites. Today, Vandenberg is the headquarters of the 14th
Air Force,
the command responsible for
providing
many space services to the
rest of the
military. From Vandenberg
and other
bases and tracking stations in
the US
Air Force
operates satellites that provide
surveillance,
communications, global
positioning
data, and weather information to the military. Forces on the ground
receive
satellite-produced intelligence
and weather
reports via satellite communications, and navigate and target
weapons
using satellite-generated global
positioning
signals (GPS). Shortly before
the iraq
Major
General frank J. Blaisdell told
the press
“We are so dominant in space
that I pity
a country that would come
up against
us.”
The Air
Force Space Command 2004-
2005 Almanac
proclaimed that military
space
applications in the iraq
bombs; GPS
navigation for ground
forces;
missile warning from Defense
Support
Program satellites; and communications fed by military satellites
communications
systems.”
the Joint
Space Operations center
at
Vandenberg does day-to-day planning of space missions, drafting tasking
orders for
the positioning and use of
satellites.
As one of the main launch
sites for satellites
and a coordinating
facility for
satellite tracking and control,
Vandenberg
constitutes a key element
in a global
space surveillance and communications network that virtually all
elements of
the US
depend on.
as Deputy Under Secretary
of the Air
Force for Space Programs Gary
Payton told
a House committee in 2010,
“Our users
stretch from the Oval Office
to the
mountains of Afghanistan
protected,
wideband, or narrowband
communications,
the President can command the nation’s nuclear forces, our
UAV pilots
can fly Predators over Iraq
and Afghanistan from the US
or tactical
air support.”
Vandenberg
plays multiple roles in
the
ground-based mid-course interceptor element of missile defense. Target
missiles for
the program have been
launched
from Vandenberg for years,
with
interceptors fired from Kwajalein
in the Marshall Islands
of
operational interceptor missiles has
been
installed at Vandenberg and at Fort
of the
initial thirty interceptors. Ground
based
mid-course interceptors like those
at
Vandenberg are only a small part of
the
ambitious US
which is
exploring a variety of technologies to destroy rockets in the boost phase,
in [deep]
space, and after re-entry into
the
atmosphere. Additional interceptors already are being deployed aboard
Navy ships.
Missile
defenses will be dependent
on an
increasingly sophisticated array of satellites to detect launches and
coordinate
the weapons used to shoot
missiles
down. Vandenberg is likely to
play a
leading role in all phases of missile defense, from testing ground and
space-based
technologies to launching
parts of the
satellite constellations that
missile
defense would require.
Minuteman
ICBMs, now the only landbased US
routinely
flight-tested from Vandenberg.
The
Minuteman is being modernized
and the
air force already has begun
planning for
the next generation of
land-based
strategic weapons. the US
is hoping to
take advantage of continuing advances in aerospace and guidance
technologies
to place non-nuclear as
well as
nuclear payloads on long range
missiles.
The goal is to achieve “prompt
global
strike,” the ability to hit targets
anywhere on
earth in [one hour] or
less from
the decision to attack. In addition to long-range missiles, the US
researching
new kinds of weapons with
global
reach, including gliding, maneuvering reentry vehicles that could carry
a variety of
weapons and that could be
delivered by
missile.
after
slowing down for a few years
after the
collapse of the Soviet Union , the
pace of US
weapons research quickened
again in the
new century, fueled in part
by two wars.
with little public debate,
we have
resumed a kind of arms race,
one that may
be considerably more complex, both in the number of participants
and in the
range and interaction of technologies, than the dangerous first half
century of
the nuclear age. there can be
no doubt who
is leading this arms race:
the US
big as the
rest of the world combined and
a policy and
practice of preventive war.
Those in
power have bet all our futures
on a
strategy of permanent military
dominance.
Vandenberg Air Force Base
stands at
its leading edge.
—Andrew
Lichterman is research analyst
for the
Western States Legal Foundation in
with a
proposal to establish a Canadian
military
base there as a “logistics facility”
that would
support the US-NATO “Pivot
to Asia ”. Defence Minister Peter Mackay
has admitted
Canada
is at the
highest levels since the Korean
War. Because the US
the
resistance to its occupations of Afghanistan
and Iraq
capitalist
economic crisis, Canada
in MacKay’s
words, “become a go-to”
country to
meet the global demands of
Canadian and
US
The
conservative Harper government
will not
reveal to its own citizens the content of these new basing agreements or
exactly how
many or which countries it
is
negotiating with. the Canadian people
are overwhelmingly
opposed to their
role in the
occupation of Afghanistan
and the
growing militaristic position
their nation
is taking alongside NATO.
PENTAGON’S X-37b, MISSILE DEFENSE, FIRST STRIKE
P. 2 Space Alert! December 2012 by Bruce K. Gagnon
The third
test launch of the Pentagon’s
military
space plane from Cape Canaveral , the X–37B,
has been continuously
delayed
because of engine failures on
the atlas
rocket that would carry the
experimental
craft into space.
Originally
set to launch on October
25 the date
was reset to November 13
and then
further delayed. At the time
of
publication of Space alert the launch
was still
facing delays.
The first
flight of the unpiloted space
plane lasted
225 days, racing over the
prepared
runway at Vandenberg Air
force Base
in california
The second
X–37B mission made a
touchdown at
Vandenberg on June 16,
2012. That
mission remained in orbit
for 469
days.
The Boeing
built X–37B is being hailed
as the
“successor” to the space shuttle.
analysts
though contend the space
plane is
part of the Pentagon’s effort
to develop
the capability to strike anywhere in the world with a conventional
bunker
busting warhead in less than an
hour—known
as Prompt Global Strike.
The “official”
purpose of the X–37B program remains classified.
the Pentagon
has steadfastly refused
to discuss
its mission but amateur space
trackers
have noted how its path around
the globe is
nearly identical to china’s
spacelab,
Tiangong–1.
“Space-to-space
surveillance is a
whole new
ball game made possible
by a
finessed group of sensors and
sensor
suites, which we think the X–
37B may be
using to maintain a close
watch
on china’s nascent space station,” said
Spaceflight editor Dr. David
Baker. Spaceflight
is the well-respected
magazine of
the British Interplanetary
Society.
The
Washington Times has in the past
reported,
“The actual expense [of the
X–37] is
hidden in the Pentagon’s ‘black,’
or
classified, budget—is likely to cost
more than $1
billion. The launch vehicle
alone—a
two-stage, liquid-propelled
Atlas V
rocket—costs as much as $200
million. Ten
years of development on
the plane—as
the project was shuffled
from NASA to
DARPA and finally to
its current
institutional home in the Air
Force—is
likely to have cost hundreds
of millions
of dollars more.”
The
development of new systems like
the space
plane is one reason that the
Obama
administration and the Pentagon
are eager to
reduce nuclear weapons
stockpiles
in russia
years to
come. As key elements in the
expanding US
become even
more effective if the US
get its
potential rivals to reduce their
nuclear
retaliatory capability giving the
Pentagon an
even greater chance of pulling off a successful decapitating attack.
Coupled with
“missile defense”
(the shield)
these military space
planes and
other first-strike weapons (the sword) make a devastating
combination.
In fact at
the US Space Command
they have
been computer war gaming such a first-strike on China
in 2016. The
military space plane
is the first
weapon system used
to launch
the attack that attempts
to take out
china’s underground
nuclear
missiles (about 20 of them)
that are
capable of hitting the west
coast of the
US
After the
initial US attack from
space China
retaliatory
nuclear strike. the US
“missile
defense” systems currently
deployed in taiwan , Japan ,
Okinawa, and South Korea
as on aegis
destroyers outfitted
with
interceptor missiles deployed
just off China
remaining
Chinese capability.
Thus as the US
with these
kinds of global strike
systems it
becomes more likely that
respond by
refusing to dramatically
reduce their
nuclear weapons and
instead
develop new technologies
to counter
the US
The American people will be made to cheer
future launches of
the space
plane just as they applauded the dramatic “retirement
parade” of
the shuttle Endeavor that was pulled through the streets of Los angeles
If the public has been conditioned to
worship Gods of Metal it becomes much easier in times of austerity to get
taxpayers to fork over funding cut from programs of social uplift to pay for
expensive space technology systems.
—Bruce K
Gagnon is the coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear
Power in Space and lives in Bath ,
Maine
USPACCOM, Misc. First Page Google Entries
1.
United States Pacific Command - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Pacific_Command
The United States
2.
United States Pacific Command | USPACOM | Ensuring security and ...
www.pacom.mil/
Promotes peace, deters aggression,
responds to crises and, if necessary, will fight and win to advance security
and stability throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
3.
Pacific Command Seeks Collaboration, Not Confrontation
www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=118728
Dec 6, 2012 – 6, 2012 – The United
States would like China
4.
U.S. Pacific Command | Facebook
www.facebook.com/pacific.command
To connect with U.S. Pacific Command, sign up for Facebook
today. .... Inouye was aU.S. Army World War II combat veteran
with the 442nd Regimental Combat ...
5.
U.S. Pacific Command Blog
us-pacific-command.blogspot.com/
Jan 5, 2012 – The official blog of U.S. Pacific Command has moved to a new
address..... the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and
the U.S.
6.
[PDF]
HEARING TO RECEIVE TESTIMONY ON U.S.
PACIFIC COMMAND ...
www.armed-services.senate.gov/.../2012/.../12-04%20-%202-28-12....
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Feb 28, 2012 – of Transportation Command and its important global mission. Relative to the Asia Pacific, theUnited States
Feb 28, 2012 – of Transportation Command and its important global mission. Relative to the Asia Pacific, the
7.
Special Operations Command, Pacific (SOCPAC)
Dec 9, 2012 – Special Operations Command, Pacific (SOCPAC) is the theater
special operations command for US Pacific Command (PACOM) Theater ... with over 105 million
square miles and nearly 60 percent of the world's population.
8.
US Army Pacific (USARPAC)
Apr 10, 2012 – The mission of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), as the Army
Service Component Command to US Pacific Command (PACOM), is to provide
forces,command ... World War II, numerous Army
headquarters in the central Pacific ...
9.
US names new Pacific Command chief | Inquirer Global Nation
globalnation.inquirer.net/.../us-names-new-pacific-command-chief
Mar 11, 2012 – CAMP SMITH , Hawaii
10.
U.S. Force Posture Strategy in the Asia Pacific Region: An ...
csis.org/publication/pacom-force-posture-review
Aug 15, 2012 – The Center for Strategic
and International Studies (CSIS) released
its... assessment of force posture options for
the Pacific Command Area of ...
Searches related to US
THE
SUPREME INTERNATIONAL CRIME IS THE LAUNCHING OR THREATENING OF WAR, declares
the KELLOGG-BRIAND PACT, the UN CHARTER,
and the NUREMBERG PRINCIPLES.
See: David Swanson, When the World
Outlawed War, on the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which is still the law of the land. Application of this law to all national
leaders who invade other countries would end wars between nations. --D
Contents #1
May 8, 2012
Tom Hayden , US
Dick, Breaking News: China
Asian NAFTA
US Pacific Empire
Vandenberg Space Command
New Provocations
Contents #2, Aug. 22,
2012
US/S. Korea War Games
US Marines to Australia
New Jeju Web Site
Wright, Jeju
Island
Chomsky, Jeju
TomDispatch/Vine, Empire of Bases
Johnson, Blowback: Indonesia , Okinawa ,
etc.
END US
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