Defense & Security Archive

Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported once again that Iran had defied U.N. Security Council demands to stop enriching uranium. And in response, the United States once again demanded that international sanctions against Iran be made more severe. This call for sanctions — which has become routine by now — would be a lot more credible if it were not for a one embarrassing fact: The United States now lags many other countries in enforcing sanctions that the U.N. Security Council has already approved. One of the few real penalties to survive previous rounds of council negotiation over […]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, under new pressure from congressional budget-cutters, continues to draw criticism that its underlying concept is flawed. The massive, ambitious FCS program would unite a large number of Army vehicles and weapons systems through a common computerized network, in theory allowing for better interoperability and coordination of troops in the field. The problem: “The whole concept doesn’t work,” according to Winslow Wheeler, a defense analyst at the Center for Defense Information in Washington. The Army heartily disagrees with this viewpoint, as does The Boeing Co., which is one of two main […]

On May 9, Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands officially unveiled a Memorial in The Hague for all those who have perished from chemical weapons. The International Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Weapons falls annually on April 29. This year’s date was also the 10th anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Governments and security experts used the occasion to laud the CWC as well as suggest ways to improve it. The CWC bans the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer, and use of chemical weapons (CW). Its provisions are of indefinite duration and apply to all […]

WARRI, Nigeria — It takes two hours by boat to get to Deibu, an isolated outpost of about 17,000 people in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. The town is cut off from civilization by the River Nun and a thick mangrove forest, and first-time visitors who make the journey are struck by the poverty they find — a stretch of rickety mud houses, with canoes lying by the riverside. Deibu is trapped in another age. Children and adults bath naked in the Nun. There is no electricity service or plumbing. The village’s only sign of modernity is a battered health center, a […]

If you had never looked at the Middle East, you might find it strange that a bank robbery spiraled into a raging battle between Lebanese government forces and a radical Islamic band of fighters based in a Palestinian refugee camp, leaving at least 100 dead and countless injured. The fighting, of course, has very little to do with the robbery that spawned the furious clashes. The battle between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army offers a look at the deadly kaleidoscope of Middle Eastern conflicts, some of them local on the surface, but all deeply interrelated. Among the many pieces […]

WASHINGTON — Reparing and strengthening commercial ties between the U.S. and European defense industries requires more U.S. action and less talk, says Thomas Enders, chief executive of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., Europe’s largest defense contractor. “Concrete steps,” rather than mere talk, should be the order of the day, Enders last week told a Washington audience that included many U.S. government officials and European diplomats. High on the action agenda, Enders said, should be reform of International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a set of U.S. government regulations that controls the import and export of defense-related articles and […]

A week ago, when almost no media organization was paying close attention to the emerging disaster in the Gaza strip, we wrote about the ominous spiral of violence tearing through the Palestinian-controlled territory, as rival militias, gangs, religious extremists and common criminals turned the area into a free-for-all of terror. Since then, the Palestinian-on-Palestinian fighting has only intensified, creating a crisis that many veteran observers describe as the worst they have ever seen. Gazans, running for their lives from the street battles between armed factions, are now openly saying life was better under the hated Israeli occupation. Israel withdrew its […]

OAXACA, Mexico — The grim images of tear gas and street battles that were streaming out of Oaxaca late last year nearly dissuaded Spanish-language student Hermann Ingjaldsson from coming to the southern Mexican state, where a teachers’ strike had descended into a revolt against the governor. “I looked it up on YouTube and it didn’t look good,” the native of Iceland recalled one quiet evening while poring over his notes. At the urging of a Mexican friend, he came anyway and found the reality entirely different from the unfavorable videos shot in the colonial city and state of the same […]

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe — In a bid to quash growing dissent amidst a worsening economic and political situation, Zimbabwe´s Robert Mugabe has ordered the creation of a reserve army made up of war veterans that took part in the country’s liberation struggle in the 1970s. The move comes after thousands of junior soldiers and police deserted or resigned from the government’s security forces over the past few years, disgruntled by poor pay and working conditions, leaving Mugabe short of the manpower that is essential to the maintenance of his oppressive regime. Many have left to seek better paying jobs as private […]

When leaders of the two main rival factions in Palestinian politics signed a unity deal under Saudi auspices in February, the internal violence that had gripped the Palestinian Territories was supposed to come to an end. Instead, what came to an end was international news coverage of a crisis that has turned Palestinian society — particularly in the Gaza Strip — into a Hobbesian picture of lawlessness and despair.<<ad>>The Gaza Strip, which Israelis evacuated almost two years ago, is the scene of almost daily murders, kidnappings and shootouts, for reasons ranging from personal feuds to religious zealotry. Children are dying […]

WASHINGTON — In recent months, federal and state homeland security officials have become increasingly concerned that terrorists and other groups might attempt to imitate the insurgents in Iraq and employ chlorine-bombs and other chemical weapons within the United States. Even before insurgents in Iraq began detonating trucks carrying bombs combining conventional explosive with industrial chlorine, U.S. government and non-government experts had identified the United States as potentially vulnerable to terrorist attacks against chemical plants or rail tankers transporting toxic chemicals such as chlorine. In their “National Planning Scenarios” (pdf file), analysts at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified a […]

DENPASAR, Indonesia — As the 45 million Filipinos eligible to vote get ready to make a choice in their country’s May 14 mid-term election, the Philippines political landscape has been disturbed by the sound of guns, and filled with a mix of celebrities, rebels and political dynasties. Several actors, a current boxing world champion and a certain “Bin Laden” are among the nearly 87,000 candidates vying for 17,000 national and local positions, which include all of the 250 seats in the House of Representatives and half of the 24 Senate seats. In the meantime, reports indicate that up to 80 […]

BERLIN — The Iranian nuclear issue was a major topic of discussion during this week’s EU-U.S. summit in Washington. The current Western strategy of combining increasingly severe sanctions on Iran with offers of civil nuclear and other assistance has not succeeded in limiting Iran’s progress towards achieving the capacity to manufacture a nuclear bomb. Although European Commission President José Manuel Barroso warned Iranian leaders against trying to divide Europe and the United States, this week’s meeting in Washington suggests that EU and U.S. leaders disagree over the appropriate next steps toward Tehran. Despite years of negotiations and sanctions, President Mahmoud […]

WASHINGTON — The United States is moving forward on plans to establish an Africa Command that will anchor military operations across a continent seen to be of increasing strategic importance and threatened by transnational terrorists. But critics argue the initiative could backfire and fuel radicalism in areas where it is not yet a problem. The new force, known informally as AFRICOM, will preside over all countries on the continent except Egypt and is expected to be operational by the fall, according to Pentagon officials, who say it is needed to secure vast, lawless areas where terrorists have sought safe haven […]

KARZAI GOING? — Are Hamid Karzai’s days numbered as Afghanistan’s president? Knowledgeable Afghan expatriates predict Karzai will probably not last out the year. Initially named interim president at Washington’s insistence in 2001, he ran for the office virtually unopposed in Oct 2004 and was elected for a five-year term. But the Bush administration is losing confidence in his ability to take the necessary steps to halt Afghanistan’s slide back into chaos. Even if NATO forces are successful in containing the Taliban threat this summer, it’s still up to Karzai’s government to regain public confidence by cleaning up corruption, reforming the […]

If Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is looking for someone in Israel willing to stand up and fight for his political survival, the only place he may find that person is staring straight into the mirror. Olmert’s approval ratings could hardly go any lower — and that was even before Monday’s release of partial results from the Winograd Commission investigation into what went wrong in Israel’s war with Lebanon last summer. Olmert’s survival looks like the longest of long shots, and yet, the road ahead looks anything but clear for his political opponents. The Commission skewered Olmert, declaring that he “bears […]

Nigerian President-elect Alhaji Umar Musa Yar’Adua has pledged to secure the insurgent-riddled Niger Delta in an apparent bid to solidify his contested victory in last month’s election and prove his commitment to the country’s resource and revenue base. “If government must succeed in its bid to secure the country, it must secure the Niger Delta region,” said Yar’Adua Friday in one of his first official appeals as the troubled West African nation’s next elected leader. “I have given my pledge that the Niger Delta is a strategic part of this nation and will be treated as such. We will take […]