World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World.

First in Europe and now in the United States, Muslim groups have petitioned to establish enclaves in which they can uphold and enforce greater compliance to Islamic law. While the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to religious freedom and the prohibition against a state religion, when it comes to the rights of religious enclaves to impose communal rules, the dividing line is more nebulous. Can U.S. enclaves, homeowner associations, and other groups enforce Islamic law?

Such questions are no longer theoretical. While Muslim organizations first established enclaves in Europe,[1] the trend is now crossing the Atlantic. Some Islamist community leaders in the United States are challenging the principles of assimilation and equality once central to the civil rights movement, seeking instead to live according to a separate but equal philosophy. The Gwynnoaks Muslim Residential Development group, for example, has established an informal enclave in Baltimore because, according to John Yahya Cason, director of the Islamic Education and Community Development Initiative, a Baltimore-based Muslim advocacy group, "there was no community in the U.S. that showed the totality of the essential components of Muslim social, economic, and political structure."[2]

Baltimore is not alone. In August 2004, a local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, granted The Islamic Center for Human Excellence authorization to build an internal Islamic enclave to include a mosque, a school, and twenty-two homes.[3] While the imam, Aquil Hamidullah, says his goal is to create "a clean community, free of alcohol, drugs, and free of gangs,"[4] the implications for U.S. jurisprudence of this and other internal enclaves are greater: while the Little Rock enclave might prevent the sale of alcohol, can it punish possession and in what manner? Can it force all women, be they residents or visitors, to don Islamic hijab (headscarf)? Such enclaves raise the fundamental questions of when, how, and to what extent religious practice may supersede the U.S. Constitution.

The Internal Muslim Enclave The internal Muslim enclave proposed by the Islamic Center for Human Excellence in Arkansas represents a new direction for Islam in the United States. The group seeks to transform a loosely organized Muslim population into a tangible community presence. The group has foreign financial support: it falls under the umbrella of a much larger Islamic group, "Islam 4 the World," an organization sponsored by Sharjah, one of the constituent emirates of the United Arab Emirates.[5] While the Islamic Center for Human Excellence has yet to articulate detailed plans for its Little Rock enclave, the group's reliance on foreign funding is troublesome. Past investments by the United Arab Emirates' rulers and institutions have promoted radical interpretations of Islam. [6]

The Islamic Center for Human Excellence may seek to segregate schools and offices by gender. The enclave might also exercise broad control upon commerce within its boundaries—provided the economic restrictions did not discriminate against out-of-state interests or create an undue burden upon interstate commerce. But most critically, the enclave could promulgate every internal law—from enforcing strict religious dress codes to banning alcohol possession and music; it could even enforce limits upon religious and political tolerance. Although such concepts are antithetical to a free society, U.S. democracy allows the internal enclave to function beyond the established boundaries of our constitutional framework. At the very least, the permissible parameters of an Islamist enclave are ill defined.

The greater American Muslim community's unapologetic and public manifestation of belief in a separate but equal ideology does not bode well. In September 2004, the New Jersey branch of the Islamic Circle of North America rented Six Flags Adventure Park in New Jersey for "The Great Muslim Adventure Day." The advertisement announcing the event stated: "The entire park for Muslims only." While legal—and perhaps analogous to corporate or other non-religious groups renting facilities, the advertisement expressly implied a mindset that a proof of faith was required for admission to the park. In his weblog, commentator Daniel Pipes raises a relevant and troubling question about the event: because it is designated for Muslims only, "Need one recite the shahada to enter the fairgrounds?"[7]

While U.S. law might give such Muslims-only events the benefit of the doubt, flexibility may not go both ways. There is precedent of Islamists taking advantage of liberal flexibility to more extreme ends. Canada provides a useful example into how Islamist groups can exploit liberal legal tolerance. In 1991, Ontario, Canada, passed a seemingly innocuous law called the "Arbitration Act."[8] This act permitted commercial, religious, or such other designated arbitrators to settle civil disputes outside the Canadian justice system so long as the result did not contradict Canadian law. Like U.S. authorities are beginning to do now, Canadian legislators decided to give religious groups the benefit of the doubt, assuming that they would still hold national law to be paramount.

In October 2003, under the auspices of the Ontario legislation, the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice created Muslim arbitration boards and stated its intent to arbitrate on the basis of Islamic law.[9] A national furor erupted, particularly among Canadian Muslim women's groups that opposed the application of traditional Islamic (Shari‘a) laws that would supersede their far more liberal and egalitarian democratic rights. After nearly two years of legal wrangling, the premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, held that religious-based arbitrations "threaten our common ground," and announced, "There will be no Shari‘a law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians."[10] On November 15, 2005, McGuinty's provincial government submitted legislation to amend the arbitration act to abrogate, in effect, all religious arbitration.[11] Requests for Muslim enclaves within larger U.S. communities may signal that U.S. jurisprudence will soon be faced with a similar conundrum. Islamist exceptionalism can abuse the tolerance liberal societies have traditionally extended to interface between religious and secular law.

Prior to the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice demands to impose Shari‘a, the Arbitration Act worked well. Unfortunately for Canadian Jews, the repeal ended state-enforcement of agreements reached by the use of a millennia-old rabbinical court system called beit din (house of law) that had for decades quietly settled marriage, custody, and business disputes. Joel Richler, Ontario region chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress, expressed his lament: "If there have been any problems flowing from any rabbinical court decisions, I'm not aware of them."[12] Canadian Catholics likewise were stopped from being able to annul marriages according to Canon Law and avoid undue entanglement in civil courts. Abuse of the spirit of the law, though, ended up curtailing local liberty. Rather than soften the edge between religion and state, the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice threatened to eliminate it with the imposition of Shari‘a. The Canadian experience demonstrates how flexibility can backfire when all parties do not seek to uphold basic precepts of tolerance. The Little Rock application raises the specter of a parallel situation. While The Islamic Center for Human Excellence may state it wants to create a clean-living community, might the community's extreme interpretation of Shari‘a force a reconsideration of just how much leeway the U.S. government gives religious communities?

As the Muslim community in the United States grows, an increasingly active Islamist lobby has submitted numerous white papers and amicus briefs to legislators and courts arguing for the religious right of Muslims to apply Shari‘a law, particularly in relation to family law disputes.[13] This looming jurisprudential conflict is significant for it raises issues about the rights of community members to marry outside the community, forced marriages, and the minimum age of brides, and whether wives and daughters may enjoy equal inheritance. In cases of non-family law, it raises the question about whether the testimony of women will be considered on par with that of men.

No previous enclave in U.S. history has ever been so vigorously protected by agents of group identity politics or so adamantly defended by legal watchdogs; nor has any previous religious enclave possessed the potency of more than one billion believers around the world. Islamic-only communities may also benefit from the largess provided by billions of petrol dollars to finance growth. The track record of Saudi and other wealthy Persian Gulf donations and charitable efforts are worrisome. There is a direct correlation between Saudi money received and the spread of intolerant practices. In 2004, for example, the U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets of Al-Haramein Foundation, one of Saudi Arabia's largest nongovernmental organizations, because of its financial links to Al-Qaeda.[14] Additionally, American graduates of Saudi academies advance Wahhabist interpretations of Islam inside the U.S. prison system,[15] and Saudi-subsidized publications promote intolerance inside U.S. mosques.[16]

A Muslim enclave is uniquely perilous because there are few if any internal enclaves that adhere to a polity dedicated to the active abrogation of secular law and the imposition of a supreme religious law. The concept of Shari‘a is so fundamental to Islam, that even today, prominent Muslim jurists argue over whether a Muslim can fully discharge Shari‘a obligations while residing in a non-Muslim territory.[17] Yet, in spite of this apparent conundrum, Muslims have resided peacefully in non-Muslim lands since the seventh century. In the greater context, there may be a breach in the dike for Islamist groups residing in the United States because the Baltimore and Little Rock enclaves must acknowledge the U.S. Constitution as the paramount basis of civil law.

A dissident Islamic sub-community is filled with dichotomous propositions: from the presumed supremacy of Shari‘a-based law over secular law; the melding of religion and polity versus the constitutionally mandated separation of same; to the politics of group and factionalism, versus assimilation and pluralism. To deny the settlement of a Muslim-only community based solely upon prejudices formed after September 11 would be illiberal. But the alternative, opening the door to Islamic enclaves without scrutiny, is as dubious.

The Enclave under U.S. Law Existing U.S. legal precedent, though, may provide some grounds for handling expansive demands for Islamic enclaves. U.S. legal views of internal enclaves derive from the famous 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled the concept of separate but equal to be unconstitutional.[18] While the case revolved around the right of black children to attend white schools, it promulgated a concept that is anathema in today's world of multiculturalism: neither the state nor any constituent group could claim equality through separation.

Enclaves can exist, though. As courts have ruled on issues relating to equality under the law and upon the autonomy of religious practice, two distinctive features of internal U.S. enclaves have taken shape: first, the boundaries of the enclave should be recognized by local inhabitants. Second, the enclave cannot supersede the constitutionally protected rights of the citizens of a state.

Because most rights secured by the constitution are protected only against infringement by government action, the Supreme Court has avoided establishing a bright-line test as to the limits of religious liberty. Any religious group or individual seeking to establish an internal enclave has the right to limit residency, promulgate local rules, and perhaps even collect fees or taxes to support nominal community services.

Such enclaves do not hold final sway over the rights of non-residents, however. In Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Company[19] and Flagg Brothers v. Brooks,[20] the court outlined constitutional protections for private citizens in which any entity, religious or otherwise, exercising governmental authority over private citizens remains subject to the provisions of the First and Fourteenth amendments. In both cases, the court affirmed that citizens of a state retain their right to "due process of law" under the Fourteenth Amendment, even when inside an enclave. These holdings, however, do not prevent enclaves from restricting the individual freedoms of their inhabitants.

The Supreme Court has ruled upon the limits of religious liberty. In Cantwell v. Connecticut, the court outlined the circumstances in which the government could act to restrict religious independence. The court held that the free exercise clause "embraces two concepts—freedom to believe and freedom to act. The first is absolute, but in the nature of things, the second cannot be. Conduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society."[21]

Christopher L. Eisgruber, professor of law at New York University, explained. He argued that, "the Constitution permits government to nurture ideological sub-communities founded upon premises inconsistent with the constitution's own commitments."[22] He maintained that such dissident sub-communities can provide important "sources of dissent"[23] and asserted that even if an enclave embraced ideals contrary to constitutional ideals, it should still be granted the right to pursue its own vision of good. For example, he wrote:

[Though] it is regrettable that young women in Kiryas Joel [a Satmar Hasidic enclave] will grow up in a starkly sexist culture, and it is regrettable that the Amish children of Yoder will find it very hard to become astronomers or lawyers … it would also be regrettable if the United States were not home to any sub-communities which, like the Satmars or the Amish, rejected principles of justice fundamental to the American regime.[24]

According to Eisgruber, tolerance of the intolerant is fundamental to the freedoms espoused by Western liberal democracy. While Islamists might use such logic to argue for the permissibility of Shari‘a communities, such tolerance has limits. Enclaves do not have carte blanche to act. Both the state and national legislatures must retain control over the extent of accommodation, and there should be no subsidization of the enclave by the government.[25] Such limits ensure that the government can constrain those sub-communities that might espouse more radical, violent, or racist views.[26]

It is usually when the U.S. government moves to uphold the rule of law that most Americans first learn of an internal enclave. Few Americans knew of the philosophy espoused by anti-government activist Randy Weaver until 1992 when the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol and Firearms raided his compound at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, killing Vicki Weaver, their infant son, Sam, and the family dog.[27] Nor did many Americans know about David Koresh and his religious views until a raid the following year on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in which a resulting fire killed fifty adults and twenty-five children under the age of fifteen.[28] While tragic, such events involved cults or political splinter groups. The growth of Muslim enclaves raises the specter of such conflicts occurring on a much larger scale.

While the court has interpreted the establishment clause to empower the government to constrain dissident sub-communities when necessary to protect public safety, it has been wary of addressing legal issues requiring intrusion upon the religious polity. Because the First Amendment provides for religious freedom, the court has confined itself to ruling upon three basic issues: property disputes between national religious hierarchical organizations with affiliated breakaway entities; accommodations under the free exercise clause; and the prohibition against the establishment of a state religion. New challenges, though, may lead to new interpretations.

The Antithesis to Democracy Is concern over internal Muslim enclaves justified? On their face, the fundamental principles of the internal Muslim enclave are no more invidious than any other religious enclave. But ideology matters. Many proponents of an Islamic polity promote an ideology at odds with U.S. constitutional jurisprudence and the prohibition against the establishment of a state-sponsored religion. The refusal to recognize federal law makes Islamist enclaves more akin to Ruby Ridge than to the Hasidic and Amish cases cited by Eisgruber.

Muslim theologians describe Islam not only as a religion but also as a system of state. The Qur'an—viewed by Muslims as the word of God—is replete with instructions about governance. An enclave promoting Islamic mores does not necessarily restrict itself to a social atmosphere but also one of governance. Traditional Islamic law controls the most basic aspects of everyday life and may make any Islamic enclave irreconcilable with the basic presumptions of Western liberal democracy and secular law.

While many American Muslims practice Islam and embrace the fundamental principles of the U.S. Constitution, others do not. There are consistent attempts by Islamist elements overseas to strengthen their own radical interpretation of Islam at the expense of moderation and tolerance. Saudi donors, for example, have propagated the ideology of Islamism, which seeks to interweave a narrow and often intolerant interpretation of religion into an all-encompassing political ideology. The number of imams and jihadists who have been outspoken in identifying the supremacy of Shari‘a to democracy underlines the incompatibility of Islamism and democracy. The late Saudi theologian, Sheikh Muhammad bin Ibrahim al-Jubair, for example, stated,

Only one ambition is worthy of Islam, to save the world from the curse of democracy: to teach men that they cannot rule themselves on the basis of man-made laws. Mankind has strayed from the path of God, we must return to that path or face certain annihilation.[29]

Prior to Iraq's January 30, 2005 elections, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, released an audiotape in which he declared war upon democracy and denounced its tenets as "the very essence of heresy, polytheism, and error."[30] Nor is Islamist antipathy for democracy limited to popular elections. According to a Saudi publication distributed at a San Diego mosque, "[Democracy is] responsible for all the horrible wars … more than 130 wars with more than 120 million people dead [in the twentieth century alone]; not counting victims of poverty, hunger and disease."[31] Such sentiments reflect a common theme among Islamists: democracy is the antithesis to everything pious and pure in Islam; and, in truth, democracy is the direct and substantial causal effect of Muslim suffering and injustice in the world today.

This does not mean that Islamists are unwilling to use democracy for their ends. But while they accept the trappings of democracy, they continue to reject its principles because the Shari‘a, to them the perfect rule of law, cannot be abrogated or altered by the shifting moods of a secular electorate. Mohamed Elhachmi Hamdi, editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab weekly Al-Mustakillah, explained,

The heart of the matter is that no Islamic state can be legitimate in the eyes of its subjects without obeying the main teachings of the Shari‘a. A secular government might coerce obedience, but Muslims will not abandon their belief that state affairs should be supervised by the just teachings of the holy law.[32]

He could draw from plenty of examples. In 1992, for example, Ali Balhadj, a leader of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, declared, "When we are in power, there will be no more elections because God will be ruling."[33] While mayor of Istanbul, Islamist Turkish politician Recep Tayyip Erdoðan quipped, "For us, democracy is a streetcar. We would go as far as we could, and then get off."[34] As he eviscerates the judiciary, many Turks wonder about his sincerity.[35]

Experience abroad is relevant, as it goes to the heart of the sincerity of proponents of the Little Rock and Baltimore enclaves, an issue compounded by the willingness to accept donations from Persian Gulf financiers.

Conclusion How Muslims reconcile Islamic polity within the confines of Western liberal democracy is an unresolved issue. This process will take years to evolve and is likely to convulse in further violent episodes. Presently, many Muslims reject wholesale the notion of a dominant secular law and instead seek the imposition of a pan-Islamist state under the guidance of Shari‘a. These Islamists view secular modernity and the democratic practices of radical egalitarianism, individual rights, and free exercise of religion as a direct and substantial threat to their belief system, and they are intent on employing violence against the West for the foreseeable future. The remainder and majority of the Muslim world must reject nihilism and engage in widespread debate regarding Islam's role within the world community.

The local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, might proceed with the proposed Muslim enclave, but the Arkansas courts and its legislature should not abdicate its responsibilities to ensure that Western liberal rights and protections remain supreme. The government should monitor both the rhetoric and behavior of these communities. As the Supreme Court stated in Cantwell: the freedom to believe is absolute, but the freedom to act, in the nature of things, cannot be, especially as to the safety and preservation of the American democracy.[36]

David Kennedy Houck is an attorney at Houck O'Brien LLC, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Antibiotic injection recalled after death of six-year-old girl

Chinese health authorities have recalled and banned the use of an injection antibiotic that is suspected of killing a six-year-old girl who was being treated for a common cold.

More than 1.02 million bottles of the drug have been recalled or sealed in east China's Anhui province.

The batch of the drug, known as clindamycin phosphate glucose injection, was made in June and July, said sources from the Anhui Provincial Food and Drug Bureau.

The Anhui Huayuan Worldbest Biology Pharmacy Co., a subsidiary of the Shanghai Worldbest Co. Ltd., produced 3.68 million bottles of the injection in the batch.

By Thursday, the company, based in Fuyang city, had recalled 539,000 bottles and the 485,000 more bottles had been sealed.

The Ministry of Health late on Thursday issued an urgent circular ordering the suspension of the drug's use.

The dead girl, identified as Liu Sichen from Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, reportedly had an intravenous injection of the clindamycin phosphate made by the Anhui Huayuan Worldbest Biology Pharmacy Co. at about 2:00 p.m. on July 24, said Sun Pengli, director of the Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring Center of Harbin, on Friday.

The girl, who was being treated for a common cold, became seriously ill with a high fever within 20 minutes of the injection by a trained nurse at her home. She was transferred to two hospitals for emergency treatment, but was declared dead on July 27.

Patients from provinces and regions including Qinghai, Guangxi, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang and Shandong have complained of chest discomfort, kidney pain, stomach ache, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and even anaphylactic shock after having injections of the clindamycin phosphate glucose produced by the Anhui company.

Sources from Penglai City, Shandong Province, and Heilongjiang and Qinghai provinces said at least 21 people became ill after receiving intravenous injections of the drug, and nine were still receiving intensive care treatment in hospital.

Food and drug authorities in Shandong and Qinghai provinces have banned the sale and use of the medicine. Food and drug officials in Heilongjiang collected samples of the injection and sent them for testing with the provincial pharmaceuticals testing laboratory.

The Ministry of Health ordered all batches of clindamycin phosphate glucose injections produced in the past two months by the Anhui Huayuan Worldbest Biology Pharmacy Co. to be suspended from use immediately.

Fake or contaminated drugs have killed dozens of people in China in recent years and raised questions about pharmaceutical safety.

The Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. was fined 16.82 million yuan (2.1 million U.S. dollars) and had its licence revoked after a contaminated drug for gastric disorders killed 11 people.

The Anhui Huayuan Worldbest Biology Pharmacy Co., has been told by the Anhui Provincial Food and Drug Bureau to halt production and to cooperate with an investigation by the health authorities.

A spokesman for the Anhui provincial food and drug bureau said officials had moved into the company premises to investigate.

"Production cannot be resumed until the investigation is complete," said the spokesman, who added the bureau ordered a province-wide inspection of all major pharmaceutical enterprises.

Clindamycin phosphate glucose is mainly used to treat bacterial infections. Its side effects can include gastrointestinal problems, along with anaphylactic reactions and liver and kidney pain.

Source: Xinhua

http://english.people.com.cn/200608/05/print20060805_290084.html

People's Daily Online --- http://english.people.com.cn/

US Report on China military power analyzed

Researcher Tao Wenzhao, and associate researcher Li Xiaogang with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) were interviewed by People's Daily Reporter Wu Yingchun.

The US Defense Department's annual report on China's military strength it published on July 19 played the same old tune of "China threat theory". The Chinese side has lodged solemn representations with the US part. International observers, experts and scholars analyzed the intentions of the report and raised criticisms of it.

Reporter: Why did the US Defense Department publish the report on China's military power, what does it mainly preach?

Tao Wenzhao: According to the "2000 National Defense Authorization Act", the US Congress requires that the National Defense Department submit a report on China's military power to the Congress every year. This shows many people in the US Congress have doubts and misgivings about China's development, the "China threat theory" still has a market there.

Previous years' reports were published at an earlier time, but this year the report was released very late. It is said that the reason for the repeated postponements was that there were different opinions on some issues between the Defense Department on the one hand and the National Security Council and the State Department on the other. After the Defense Department has prepared the draft, it has to solicit the opinions of the State Department, the National Security Council and others.

If both sides are divided on some issues, they will conduct consultations and make revisions. If both sides fail to reach an agreement, they will hand over the contradiction to the president for a ruling. Therefore, the report mainly reflects the viewpoints of the Defense Department, but to some extent it is also the result of a compromise between the two sides with the Defense Department as one side, and the State Department and the National Security Council as the other side.

This sign is rather obvious in this year's report. For instance, the report says that China is at the crossroads of a strategic option, China can be fused into the world peacefully and begin benign competition; China can also exert dominant influence in the aspect of its expansion.

In the views of those hawkish lords in the Defense Department, they will not write the first possibility into the report So the report we now see is the one after repeated revisions on the basis of the manuscript of the Defense Department, the most groundless and most alarmist parts have been deleted. Nevertheless, the purport of the report that exaggerates China's military power and advertises the "China threat theory" from the military angle remains unchanged.

Reporter: Under what backdrop was the report published, and what is its aim?
Li Xiaogang: There are mainly three reasons explaining why the report fusses about "China threat".

Firstly, beginning from the end of last year, one notable tendency of US foreign strategy is that its counter-terrorism color is fading, and its foreign policy has begun to return to what it was like before the "September 11" incident in 2001, statements on coping with potential big-power challenges have reemerged.

Secondly, although the current situation in Iraq remains turbulent, the outcome is a foregone conclusion; there are signs showing relaxation in Palestine-Israel relations; "democratization" symptoms have initially emerged in Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. US strategic pressure in the Greater Middle East region has diminished accordingly, this makes it possible for it to divert part of its energy and attention to other regions, so the American anti-China forces once again regard China as a target of attack.

Thirdly, since the Iraq war, although the hard strength of the United States is still peerless, its soft strength has seriously weakened, its international image has been greatly reduced. Seeing that US influence is declining while China's influence is on the rise in the East Asian region, US Right-wing forces are psychologically imbalanced, thinking that China has benefited itself by taking advantage of the opportunity offered by US busyness with the anti-terrorism war.

They feel anxious about China's rapid economic development and the constant enhancement of its national strength, worrying that the expansion of China's influence would gradually weaken America's leading role in the Asia-Pacific region and thus finally form a challenge to US hegemony. It was out of such a mindset of "suspecting the neighbor of stealing a cauldron" that the report obstinately tries to find a basis for its anti-China stand, and deliberately twists the active role China plays in the international community.

For instance, the report describes China's participation in the peacekeeping operations in Haiti as trying to expand its effect in the sphere of US influence. China's active participation in the multilateral mechanism in the Asia-Pacific region is also regarded as an attempt to weaken US influence in this region, etc.

With an assumption of figures and subjective guess, the report alleges that the development of China's military strength has broken the balance of forces in the Taiwan Straits and even in the Asia-Pacific region, and that China has become a "potential threat" to America's interests.

US Los Angeles Times points out bluntly: In exaggerating "China threat", the Pentagon's aim is to get more military expenditures.

Reporter: The report utters irresponsible remarks on China's Taiwan issue, what is it up to?
Tao Wenzhao: Chapter 6 of the report is "PRC Force Modernization and Security in the Taiwan Strait". The report points out: Due to China's economic growth, diplomatic levers, the military power development of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, including the modernization of navy, air force and missiles, "Taiwan is further required to have anti-control measures, so as to prevent it from being speedily overwhelmed by the mainland".

The report adds that in the past decade, Taiwan's military expenditures have actually been on the decline, and so on and so forth. The report also lists some comparative figures of cross-Strait military strengths. Some American scholars had earlier pointed out that the writer of the report weighed his words for this passage over and again. If the contrast of cross-Strait military strengths is depicted as sharply unbalanced, that would make the Taiwan authorities lose their confidence; if the contrast is described as not so unbalanced, then it would deprive the United States of any reason to sell weapons to Taiwan.

As a result, there appears the present wording that reads as follows: Taiwan is required to have "anti-control measures", obviously, this means continuing to persuade Taiwan to purchase US weapons. In April 2001, the Bush administration promised to sell a large batch of weapons to Taiwan, including anti-submarine airplanes, submarines, destroyers, "Patriot-3 interception ballistic missiles. But because the price is too high, the transaction is not yet closed to date.

The US Defense Department has sent out people several times, and it resorts to both soft and hard tactic, it applies both pressure on the Taiwan authorities and influence on the "blue camp", requiring Taiwan to pass the military purchase budget. This can be regarded as the heart disease of the US Defense Department. To a great extent, Chapter 6 of the report serves this purpose.

Reporter: What influence will the report have on China-US relationship?
Tao Wenzhao: Recently, the "China threat theory" has reared its head again in the United States. The report of the US Defense Department has joined in this chorus, this will bring about some negative influence on Sino-US relations, but will not necessarily stir up any billow.

President George W. Bush recently said that China-US relationship is a good, important and vigorous and yet complicated relationship. Clearly, the Bush administration attaches importance to China-US relations, testifying to this is that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited China twice in April.

Li Xiaogang: The repeated revisions and postponements of publication of the report show that the importance placed on the development of China-US ties by President Bush, the State Department and the National Security Council from the perspective of the general situation makes it impossible for the extreme anti-China forces in the Defense Department to do as they please.

While playing up "China threat", the report has to admit that the US strategic need of China in the aspect of international security assumes an upward trend. For instance, the report says that China has "unique potential" in promoting denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

As a matter of fact, along with China's economic development and the enhancement of its international influence, the common interests of China and the United States have expanded instead of decreasing. The United States cannot solve the nuke issue of the Korean Peninsula, the Iranian nuclear issue and the issue concerning Iraqi reconstruction without China's cooperation. At present, on the nuke issue of the Korean Peninsula, the United States especially needs China's help, hoping China to use its political and economic influence and cooperate with the United States to promote denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula.

In addition, although China's military input has increased in recent years, the increase rate, however, is not as big as its inputs in economic and cultural fields and China's advancement of military modernization is aimed mainly at Taiwan's secessionist forces. China's move against "Taiwan independence" constitutes a deterrent to the malignant development of "Taiwan independence" forces, objectively increasing the weight of US warning to the Taiwan authorities. At least for the moment, stopping "Taiwan independence" and maintaining the status quo of the Taiwan Straits conforms to the common security interests of China and the United States.

By People's Daily Online

http://english.people.com.cn/200507/26/print20050726_198368.html

People's Daily Online --- http://english.people.com.cn/

Hezbollah not terrorists: PM advisors
By Sandra O'Malley
02aug06

THE Government was on a collision course with its Muslim advisory group over its claim that Hezbollah should not be considered a terrorist organisation.

The Muslim Community Reference Group is considering writing to Prime Minister John Howard asking the Government to reconsider its listing of the militant arm of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.

The group is meeting tomorrow and will decide whether to put the demand to Mr Howard.

But any call for the government to change its position on Hezbollah, which has been engaged in open warfare with Israel for the past three weeks, would appear to be futile.

Mr Howard made it clear today the government had no intention of removing the militant arm of Hezbollah from its official list of terrorist organisations.

"No chance, full stop. No chance at all (of removing Hezbollah from the list)," Mr Howard said.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the decision to ban Hezbollah, which was first listed in 2003, had not been made lightly.

"They're not decisions which are political," he said.

However, the Government would be willing to consider new information which may cause it to reassess the listing.

"Obviously we look at these issues from time to time to see whether circumstances change," Mr Ruddock said.

"I'm not aware of any information that would suggest we should reconsider proscription of the military wing of Hezbollah."

But Ameer Ali, chairman of the Muslim advisory group set up last year in the wake of the London terrorist bombings, says Hezbollah should not be lumped in with groups like al-Qaeda.

"They should not condemn Hezbollah as a terrorist group," he said.

"I don't think they should judge that they are simply a terrorist organisation like al-Qaeda.

"It is part of Lebanese politics."

On its national security website, the Government says that Australian Security Intelligence Organisation believes Hezbollah's military wing is continuing to prepare, plan and foster the commission of acts involving threats to human life and serious damage to property.

"Such acts include those made with the intention of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause and with the intention of coercing or influencing by intimidation, US, Israeli and other Western governments."

Dr Ali believes the government's assessment of Hezbollah is clouded by the US and Israel.

"We are of the opinion that the Australian government does not have an independent foreign policy with regard to the Middle East," he said to ABC Radio.

"We go along with whatever the Americans say and the Americans go along with whatever the Israeli lobby says."

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,19995402,00.html

US anti-war activists off to Lebanon
From correspondents in Amman
06aug06

A GROUP of US anti-war activists on Saturday said they will head to Lebanon to denounce their government's failure to call for an immediate ceasefire between key ally Israel and the Hezbollah.

The group made the announcement after two days of talks in Jordan with Iraqi parliamentarians on ways to gain US Congress backing for a swift end to US troop deployment in Iraq and US funds to rebuild Iraq.

"We are leaving tomorrow (Sunday) for Syria and hope to go the next day to Lebanon," said Medea Benjamin, founding director of the US human rights organisation Global Exchange and member of several other anti-war groups.

"We feel that the US government, by not calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, is also responsible for a lot of the deaths and destruction that is going on today," she told a news conference.

"We are appalled by our government's refusal to call for that ceasefire, appalled that the US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, stopped the Security Council from calling for an immediate ceasefire.

"That puts a great weight on us as US citizens," she added.

Ann Wright, a retired US army colonel and veteran diplomat, said the group wants "to bear witness to what is happening" in Lebanon and hook up with civil rights groups to assess the humanitarian crisis and help provide aid.

Celebrated US anti-war campaigner Tom Hayden meanwhile questioned the motives behind Israel's onslaught.

"Is this a desperate effort by the Israeli and US neo-conservatives to escalate their way out of deceit in Iraq before the November (congressional) American election?" Hayden asked.

"Are they trying to scramble and sub-divide the whole Middle East? Do they hope this escalates into a conflict with Syria and Iran?" asked Hayden who was most famous for his involvement in the anti-war of the 1960s.

"I don't really understand Hezbollah's motives and I don't understand how the Israelis mobilised so quickly," he said, adding that an investigation was essential to determine if Israel had notified Washington of its actions.

Hayden will not be going to Lebanon but he joined Benjamin, Wright and 12 other US activists in meetings Friday and Saturday with Iraqi MPs to discuss a US troop pullout from Iraq.

Medea said the group wanted to press congress, ahead of November elections, to support calls for "a fixed timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and a commitment not to have permanent US bases in Iraq.

"There also needs to be a commitment on the part of the US government to pay financially for rebuilding Iraq," she said.

"The Iraqis know that if the US is an ethical and moral country, that it will help rebuild the destruction that this war caused, that the United States caused," added Wright.

"The United States will have to offer them economic compensation to help them rebuild," she said.

Iraqi MP Salman al-Jumaili, one of seven deputies who met with the US peace activists, told reporters: "We have found a voice inside the United States that backs us."

"We told them that we in Iraq want to see the light at the end of the tunnel," he added.

privacy terms © The Australian

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20034961-1702,00.html

[Remember the London raid for the chemical vest? check this out....]

Terror man in porn arrest
Abul Koyair Mohammed and Abdul Kahar
Brothers ... Mohammed Abdul Kahar (on the right) has been arrested over porn allegedly found on his computer

FULL NEWS INDEX

By SUN ONLINE REPORTER
THE man shot during the Forest Gate anti-terror raid was today arrested today on suspicion of possessing and making child abuse images.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, who was shot in the shoulder during the controversial operation in east London on June 2, was held by officers from Scotland Yard’s Child Abuse Investigation Command.

He remains in custody at a London police station.

A force spokeswoman said: “Following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service a man in his 20s has been arrested today by officers from the Metropolitan Police Child Abuse Investigation Command.

“The man, who attended a London police station by appointment, has been arrested on suspicion of possession, and making of, child abuse images.”

The force said the investigation had followed the passing of “property”, understood to be a computer, to the Command for its examination.

The arrest came as the police watchdog announced the shooting of Kahar was an “accident” and no offence was committed.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) had been investigating the discharge of a firearm during the operation in East London on June 2, which led to Kahar being shot in the shoulder.

The gun went off as a result of contact on a narrow staircase between the police officer and Kahar, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said.

There was “no evidence” of intent or recklessness on the part of the
firearms officer and no evidence to support claims that the gun was fired by one of the brothers, the IPCC’s report revealed.

Kahar, 23, and his 20-year-old brother, Abdul Koyair, were arrested following the raid at their home Forest Gate, by police hunting for a suspected chemical bomb.

The operation - codenamed Volga - involved close to 250 officers, but resulted in no device being found at the property.

Both brothers were taken to London’s high-security Paddington Green police station and questioned for a week before being released without charge.

In a dramatic press conference a few days later, Kahar gave an emotional account of the raid and told how he feared he and his family were going to be killed.

The Metropolitan Police has started refurbishment work on the property and is meeting the brothers’ living expenses while this is being carried out.

In June, Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair admitted that his force had got it “wrong” over the raid because they did not find what they were looking for.

He insisted the operation was justified and revealed that the intelligence behind the operation had come from a “credible sensitive source”.

However, he said: “This time we did not find what we were looking for and it seems we were wrong. Once again, I apologise for the harm and disruption caused.”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006350600,00.html

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/secret-cities.htm

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
Secret Cities

On the eve of the Great Patriotic War the Soviet military-industrial complex created a number of new other towns and cities for weapons development and manufacturing. The creation of such "town-forming enterprises" accelerated during the War, as much of the Soviet military industrial infrastructure was relocated beyond the reach of Hitler's advancing armies.

In response to the immense challenge of the unfolding East-West arms race, Stalin decided to create dozens of centers of research and development excellence in the USSR. Some of these so-called "Naukograds" [Science Towns] were "Akademgorodok" [Academic Cities} devoted to basic research. Others were secret cities which were to provide the technical foundation for Soviet military technology - sputniks, long-range missiles, thermonuclear warheads of extreme yield. Among the work performed in such places were chemical, biological and nuclear weapons research and manufacturing, enrichment of plutonium, space research, and military intelligence work.

Collectively, these secret cities are known as zakrytye administrativno-territorial’nye obrazovaniia (ZATO), many of which were built by slave labor from the Soviet GULAG. During the cold war many of Russia's towns and cities, including some of its largest, were 'closed cities'. Anyone with a foreign passport was forbidden to enter, and many were even out of bounds to Russian citizens. These closed cities provided the technical foundation for Soviet military technology including chemical, biological and nuclear weapons research and manufacturing, enrichment of plutonium, space research, and military intelligence work. This meant that large numbers of highly qualified scientists and researchers were concentrated in these geographical areas, developing new technologies but isolated from the global research community. With Glasnost and the fall of the Soviet Union, all of the major cities were opened for collaboration in civil research and the slow process of breaking down the barriers of secrecy began.

Such "secret cities" were known only by a postal code, identified with a name and a number. Originally, the number following the city was the distance in kilometers the facility was located from the city. In practice, the numbers were in some instances arbitrarily assigned, and changed from time to time, to obscure the actual location of the installation. Thus, the All-Russian Scientific and Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF) was initially known as Arzamas-60, a postal code designation to show that it was 60 km from the city of Arzamas. But the "60" was considered too sensitive, and the number was changed to "16." In 1947 the entire city of Sarov (Arzamas-16) disappeared from all official Russian maps and statistical documents. The facility has also been known Moscow-300, the town of Kremlev, and Arzamas-75. Zlatoust-20 is probably the same as Zlatoust-36, and Kurchatov-21, Moscow-21, Moscow-400 and Semipalatinsk-121 are almost certainly the same as Semipalatinsk-16.

[numbers are postal codes for the cities]
The naukograds reflect the character of the Soviet system of organising the society to a high degree of purity. More generally, the secret cities were a natural expression of the Soviet emphasis on secrecy, and strict controls on the internal movement of the population. But they were not entirely unique to the Soviet system. For instance, in 1915, Britain built a massive new war factory on the Solway River. HM Factory Gretna employed 30,000 women and men manufacturing cordite for ammunition. The two new Townships of Eastriggs and Gretna were created to house many of the workers who built and worked in the factory. But the new communities did not officially exist because of the secrecy surrounding the operation. Gretna and Eastriggs were referred to by their codename "Moorside" in Government circles. Conan Doyle describes those townships as Miracle Towns, because the houses were not just thrown up without thought. They were designed by prominent architects of the day to modern Garden City principles. Cinemas, Dance Halls, Schools, Churches, State Controlled Public Houses and Leisure Facilities were provided for the needs of the munitions workers. The United States employed a similar philosophy with the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb during World War II, building secret cities at Hanford, Washington, Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Many Soviet era defense plant are, in some ways, a throw-back to a US factory-town. The defense plant is a mini-city in itself, with its own apartments, doctors, clinics, restaurants, and power plants. Outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg, defense plant employees usually live in company apartments, shop in company stores, and eat in company cafeterias. Up to 80 percent of a defense plant's budget goes to maintaining these social services. The plant manager is often as concerned with making deals to bring in potatoes and bread to feed his people as with joint venture agreements, and these and other transactions are often conducted on a barter-basis.

The "secret cities" share these characteristics, but they were separated from other urban areas, self-contained, and protected by fences and guard forces. The secret cities require a special permit for entrance, and are usually surrounded by a concrete wall. Personnel working in the Soviet nuclear complex were under heavy surveillance by the KGB, and underwent an intensive screening process, and their activities were closely monitored. Soviet-era control systems relied heavily on keeping personnel and materiel in secret cities and facilities, closely monitoring nuclear industry personnel, and severely punishing control violations.

The facilities could grow to considerable size, with tens of thousands of employees and dependents. With schools, stores, and recreational facilities, these secret cities contained everything a normal city might have. The selection of goods was often much better than a normal Soviet city, a reward for the difficult lifestyle and secrecy required by the job. Many of these cities are now "open," but remain engaged in military-industrial work. In present Russia, 3 million people live in such naukograds. The problem is what to do with these cities after the end of the militarized East-West contest.

According to one estimate, there are at least 40 known ZATO, ten of which are dedicated to nuclear weapons development and production. In addition, there are thought to be at least 15 ZATO in existence that cannot be accounted for. Other sources suggest that there are thirty-eight localities believed to be secret cities. Seventeen secret cities are categorized as a gorod (city) or gorsovet, a rayon-independent district of a larger size that is largely urban, but usually containing rural locations as well. Gorod/gorsovet secret cities appear to be large manufacturing and research facilities, usually with populations above 20,000. The remaining twenty-one districts are designated as Posyolok Gorodskogo Tipa [PGT] or "Urban-Type Settlement". PGT secret cities are smaller, under 20,000 in population (often ranging down to only a few thousand). These secret urban-type settlements appear to be garrisons for military installations or research/manufacturing centers of secondary importance.

* Cities in bold are the most commonly used designations, while other entries represent alternative designations or entities of uncertain provenance.
* Cities in italic have been mentioned in only one source, and in some instances probably represent alternative designations for more well attested cities. All others have appeared in at least two different sources
* All cities are in the Russian Federation unless otherwise noted
* NA=Not Available

The following list is evidently incomplete in at least two respects. In many cases it is not possible to correlate the letter-box address with a specific facility or enterprise, though in more than a few cases there are several promising candidates in the area. Prominent examples include Naro-Fominsk-5, Nizhny-Tagil-39, Golitsyno-2, and Zagorsk-7. It will also be apparent that many classes of facilities, such as ICBM bases or test ranges, are incompletely represented in this list, though presumably they were all assigned postal code designations.

Secret and Closed Cities in Russia Postal Code Name Local Name Oblast/Kray/ASSR Rayon
??? Sibirskiy PGT Altayskiy Kray ??
Alkino-2 (NA) Bashkortostan
Arzamas-16 Sarov gorod / Kremlev Nizhegorod oblast Diveevskiy
Arzamas-60 Sarov gorod / Kremlev Nizhegorod oblast Diveevskiy
Arzamas-75 Sarov gorod / Kremlev Nizhegorod oblast Diveevskiy
Beloretsk-15 Mezhgorye Bashkortostan
Beloretsk-16 Mezhgorye Bashkortostan
Bologoe-4 Ozernyy PGT Tver oblast Bologovskiy
Chelyabinsk-40 Ozersk gorod Chelyabinsk oblast Kyshtym gorsovet
Chelyabinsk-65 Ozersk gorod Chelyabinsk oblast Kyshtym gorsovet
Chelyabinsk-70 Snezhinsk gorod Chelyabinsk oblast Kaslinskiy
Chelyabinsk-95 (NA) Chelyabinsk oblast
Chelyabinsk-115 (NA) Chelyabinsk oblast
Chelyabinsk [?] Trezhinsk gorod Chelyabinsk oblast ???
Chita-46 Gornyy PGT Chita oblast Uletovskiy
Dombrovskiy-3 Komarovskiy PGT Orenburg oblast Yasnenskiy
Golitsino-2 Krasnoznamensk gorod Moscow oblast Odintsovskiy
Kapustin Yar-1 Znamensk gorod Astrakhan oblast Akhtubinskiy
Kartaly-6 Lokomotovnyy PGT Chelyabisnk oblast Kartalinskiy
Kosulino-1 Ural'skiy PGT Sverdlovsk oblast ???
Krasnoyarsk-25 (NA) (NA)
Krasnoyarsk-26 Zheleznogorsk gorod Krasnoyarsk kray Berezovskiy
Krasnoyarsk-35 Podgornyy PGT Krasnoyarsk kray ???
Krasnoyarsk-45 Zelenogorsk gorod Krasnoyarsk kray Rybinskiy
Krasnoyarsk-66 Kedrovyy PGT Krasnoyarsk kray ???
Krasnoyarsk-95 (NA) (NA)
Kurchatov-21 (NA) Semipalatinsk oblast, Kazakhstan
Mirnyy Mirnyy gorod Arkhangelsk oblast Plesetskiy
Moscow-21 (NA) Semipalatinsk oblast, Kazakhstan
Moscow-300 Kremlev Nizhegorod oblast
Moscow-400 (NA) Semipalatinsk oblast, Kazakhstan
Murmansk-60 Snezhogorsk gorod Murmansk oblast Polyarnye
Murmansk-130 Skalistyy gorsovet Murmansk oblast Polyarnye
Murmansk-140 Ostrovnoy gorsovet Murmansk oblast Levozerskiy
Murmansk-150 Zaozersk gorod Murmansk oblast Kol'skiy
Naro-Fominsk-5 Molodezhnyy PGT Moscow oblast Naro-Fominskiy
Novopetrovsk-2 Voskhod PGT Moscow oblast ???
Nizhny-Tagil-39 Svobodnyy PGT Sverdlovsk oblast Nizhniy Tagil gorod
Olovyannaya-4 (NA) Chita oblast
Ostashkov[?] Solnechnyy PGT Tverskaya Oblast Ostashkovskiy
Penza-19 Zarechnyy gorod Penza oblast Kuznetskiy
Perm'-76 Zvezdnyy PGT Perm' oblast ???
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy-35 Vulkanniy PGT Kamchatka oblast Elizovskiy
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy-50 Vilyuchinsk gorod Kamchatka oblast Elizovskiy
Plesetsk Plesetsk Arkhangelsk oblast Plesetskiy
Semipalatinsk-16 Kurchatov Semipalatinsk oblast, Kazakhstan
Semipalatinsk-121 Kurchatov Semipalatinsk oblast, Kazakhstan
Severodvinsk Severodvinsk Arkhangelsk oblast
Shkotovo-17 Fokino PGT Primorskiy kray Shkotovskiy
Shkotovo-22 Dunai Primorskiy kray
Shkotovo-26 Putyatin Primorskiy kray
Sosnovoborsk Podgornyy PGT Krasnoyarsk kray ???
Stupino-7 Prioksk PGT Moscow oblast Stupinskiy
Sverdlovsk-44 Novoural'sk gorod Sverdlovslast Nev'yanskiy
Sverdlovsk-45 Lesnoy gorod Sverdlovsk oblast Nizhniy Tura gorsovet
Svobodnyy-18 Ugelgorsk PGT Amur oblast Svobodnenskiy
Tatishchevo-5 Svetlyy PGT Saratov oblast Tatishchevskiy
Tomsk-7 Seversk gorod Tomsk oblast Tomskiy
Uzhur-4 Solnechnyy PGT Krasnoyarsk kray Uzhurskiy
Yur'ya-2 Pervomayskiy PGT Kirov oblast Yur'yanovskiy
Zagorsk-7 (NA) (NA)
Zlatoust-20 Trekhgornyy Chelyabisnk oblast
Zlatoust-36 Trekhgornyy Chelyabinsk oblast
Sources and Resources

* Secret and Closed Cities in the Russian Federation by the Center for Post Soviet Studies.This list of known secret or closed cities was originally compiled by Dr. Murray Feshbach and his research staff: Doug Goudie, Janel Lardizabel, Cathy Schaidler and Niki Gallozzi. The data was taken from a wide variety of Russian-language sources, including newspapers, journals and books. It appears as Appendix A in Dr. Murray Feshbach's Ecological Disaster: Cleaning up the Hidden Legacy of the Soviet Regime (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1995, pp. 110-111).
* POST-SOVIET TRANSITION AND RUSSIA’S "SECRET CITIES" By Trey Whittenton
* Russian Administrative Districts The Ethnic Territories of Russia GIS Project, Dr. Robert J. Kaiser also includes an interesting discussion of Rayon-Level Population Data Limitations and Considerations
* Don't Play With Nuclear Fire. The Open `Wounds' of the Closed Cities, Anatoliy Pokrovskiy, PRAVDA, 12/2/1995 -- Discussion of Russia's closed cities in the post-Cold War era.
* From Nuclear War to the War of the Markets, Pilar Bonet, EL PAIS, 11/7/1995 -- Report on the transition of Russia's secret defense research laboratories to the post-Cold War environment.

India fears China may use Nathu La to extend spy network

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, July 5, IRNA
India-China-Nathu La
As India and China prepare to re-open the Nathu La, the Himalayan pass on the legendary Silk Road trade route between East and West this week, some Indian military experts warn China could use the pass to extend its spy network deep into India.

Businessmen are excited at the prospects of border trade. Pro- Chinese communists and many other Indian political leaders welcome the re-opening of the pass, considering it a vital step in the normalization of relations between Beijing and New Delhi.

But security and strategic affairs experts warn that India's counter intelligence costs will rise dramatically after Nathu La opens because of its proximity to a wide swath of eastern and northeastern India, where Beijing is alleged to have stoked insurgency for decades.

"Chinese spies and agents on subversive missions will find it easier to slip in through Nathu La," said a report published in Toronto Star's webpage on Monday quoting Maloy Krishna Dhar, a retired joint director of India's Federal Intelligence Bureau and author of `Open Secrets: India's Intelligence Unveiled'.

"India is inviting trouble. The Chinese will stoke insurgency, monitor troop deployment and movement along the disputed border and gain access to vital installations like refineries and highly sensitive warfare training centers," he said.

Another security expert, Professor Brahma Chellaney from New Delhi's Centre for Policy Research, said: "At one level, India and China are cozying up to each other and talking of the 21st century as an Asian century. But the grim reality, which New Delhi is inexplicably trying to shrug off, is that both the Communist Party of China and People's Liberation Army are implacably hostile to India beneath the veneer of bonhomie."
Pressure from powerful business and political lobbies put the pass back on the agenda. New Delhi agreed to reopen Nathu La, overruling its own defence experts who continue to express their concerns publicly.

"There is no question of troops along the India-China border being reduced after the re-opening. We will not lower our guard," said Lt-Gen Arvind Sharma, the army commander responsible for the defence of eastern and northeastern India.

In 1959, the Dalai Lama crossed it, fleeing Tibet to obtain exile in India. Then a brief but bloody high-altitude war in 1962 over a border dispute led to the closing of the 4,500-meter high pass that runs between India's present state of Sikkim and Tibet.

Now, with relations thawing between the world's most populous nations, Nathu La is to re-open on Thursday. Commercial vehicles are all set to start trudging across the pass.

Nathu La pass used to be the lifeblood of business between India and China, accounting for 80 percent of border trade.

China and India recorded close to USD 21 billion in bilateral trade in 2005, up 37.5 percent from 2004, according to Chinese statistics. The volume is expected to top USD 22 billion this year.

2160/2321/1414

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/news/2006/intell-060705-irna01.htm

[will the 'Dragon Lady' show up in messages?]

U-2s boast new, improved cockpit

by Staff Sgt. Andrea Knudson
51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs

In-Depth Coverage
6/23/2006 - OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea (AFPN) -- An improved U-2S Dragon Lady offering greater pilot awareness and improved safety arrived here June 14 as part of the Reconnaissance Avionics Modernization Program.

The program's goal is to improve the maintainability and reliability of the aircraft.

"The Block 20 aircraft is a new, modern cockpit with a computer on board that analyzes and displays a lot more information on three, 6-by-8-inch multi-function displays and two smaller displays," said Lt. Col. Lars Hoffman, 5th Reconnaissance Squadron commander.

"The (displays) can be configured for information pilots desire in the layouts they prefer," the colonel said. "Examples of information include altitude and navigation information, engine performance, moving map with mission course overlay, electronic checklists, diagnostic information on all aircraft systems and reconnaissance sensors, and multiple radio frequencies and settings."

Trading in an old-fashioned typewriter for a cutting-edge computer may better illustrate the upgrade from the Block 10 to the Block 20 aircraft.

"The Block 10 was a classic cockpit with round dials. Information was spread all around the cockpit and not easily readable by a pilot wearing a full pressure suit," the commander said. "This up-front design of the Block 20 makes it easier for the pilot to read information while flying an aircraft that always requires a pilot's full attention."

Pilots wear a full pressure suit and helmet, similar to those astronauts wear in space, because of the U-2's high-altitude mission.

The U-2, which has provided high-altitude reconnaissance for more than 50 years, has one of the highest mission completion rates in the U.S. Air Force despite the fact that the aircraft is one of the most difficult to fly because of its challenging takeoff and landing characteristics.

"It's a very complicated aircraft. Depending on configuration, you may need 10 to 30 people needed to launch the U-2," said Maj. Ramsey Sharif, a U-2 pilot from Beale Air Force Base, Calif., who is temporarily assigned at Osan. "A mobile pilot is in charge of getting the pilot airborne and back on the ground. They act as a safety observer and ensure a safe launch and recovery."

The colonel said the U-2 is the most difficult to land aircraft in the Air Force inventory. The landing gear configuration is unique so the "chase car" concept is used. Typically, a second U-2 pilot, the mobile pilot, is designated as the mission's backup pilot who waits in a high-performance chase car at the end of the runway as the aircraft makes it landing approach. As the U-2 passes, the chase car follows it at high speed, with the "mobile" calling out the aircraft's altitude via radio to the pilot.

"The pilot must maneuver the aircraft to two feet above the runway, and then stall the wings to touch down tail-wheel-first," Colonel Hoffman said. "The pilot continues to keep the wings level as the aircraft slows to a stop and then allows one wingtip to touch the ground."

This makes for a total team effort operation. The U-2 community is a tight-knit group with less than 850 pilots since 1955.

"We're an operational squadron doing real-world missions," said Senior Airman Joshua Joyce, an avionics specialist with the 5th RS. "We're providing critical intelligence information to senior leaders."

The U-2 was specifically designed to carry reconnaissance payloads to extremely high altitudes. The Block 20 U-2 can carry thousands of pounds of reconnaissance sensors to more than 70,000 feet, and remain aloft for more than 10 hours.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/news/2006/intell-060623-afpn01.htm

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