Japan allows military use of space

CBC News
Reversing a nearly 40-year-old ban, Japan’s parliament voted on Wednesday to allow the nation’s space programs to be used for national defence.

The country’ upper house of parliament approved the legislation with a 221 to 14 vote, seconding an earlier approval by the lower house and lifting a ban on the military use of space in place since 1969.

The law gives Japan’s military greater freedom to develop advanced spy satellites for intelligence and allows the country to pursue a joint missile defence shield with the United States.

The law requires that space programs be used for defence only and that they “contribute to establish a safe society, remove various threats to life of the people and ensure peace and safety of international society, as well as the national security of our country.”

Under the new measure, Japan’s defence minister will join a special task force responsible for overseeing Japan’s future space projects.

Japan is prohibited from offensive war by its U.S.-drafted 1947 constitution. But the country has begun to relax its controls on the military, upgrading the Defence Agency to ministry status last year.

Its space program has also been historically focused on peaceful endeavours such as research and communications. Japan launched its first satellite in 1970 and has achieved several major scientific coups in space, including launching a probe that collected samples from an asteroid.

But starting with the launch of its first spy satellite in 2003, Japan has been increasing its presence in space, partly in response to a perceived nuclear threat from Communist North Korea.

It has since launched three other intelligence-gathering satellites.

Harper announces 20-year, $30B plan to beef up military

May 12, 2008 | www.cbc.ca

The Tory government announced a 20-year, multibillion-dollar plan to strengthen Canada’s military, which includes the purchase of new aircraft, armoured vehicles, ships and helicopters, and a goal to expand the Forces to 100,000.

Referring to it as the “Canada First Defence Strategy,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the long-term investments in the military could reach costs of up to $30 billion.

“If a country wants to be taken seriously in the world, it must have the capacity to act. It’s that simple,” Harper said Monday at the Halifax Armoury, joined by Defence Minister Peter MacKay. “Otherwise, you forfeit your right to be a player. You’re the one chattering on the sideline that everyone smiles at, but no one listens to.”

Much of what was announced on Monday has been revealed before by the government.

“The newest thing about this announcement is that it is a long-term plan,” Harper said when asked by a reporter.

Harper said this strategy will focus on replacing some of the military’s core equipment fleets, including destroyers, frigates and different types of aircraft that will end their operational life over the next 20 years.

The plan will also seek to boost the strength of the regular Forces from 65,000 to 70,000 and the reserves from 24,000 to 30,000.

“Renewal of the Canadian Forces is the most pressing priority,” Harper said, adding the average age in the military is rising.

Harper said the plan will also improve surveillance of land and coastal borders, bolster support for civilian authority in the event of natural disasters, and provide security to major national events like the 2010 Olympics.

Harper said having a long-term plan for stable funding will create jobs and opportunities for tens of thousands of Canadians who work in the defence industry and communities with military bases.

PM’s plan will increase troops, update equipment

This war-mongering excuse for a Canadian P.M. has got to go….

Harper unveiled the plan at an armoury in Halifax on Monday, alongside Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

“As the name implies the first priority of our Canada First Defence Strategy is to strengthen our ability to defend our country and protect our citizens,” Harper said.

“The bottom line is that we will substantially strengthen the Canadian Forces, we will gradually increase the number of regular troops and reservists and provide them with more and better equipment to make them as effective and safe as possible.”

Spending on the military will increase to $30 billion over the next 20 years, Harper said.

Part of that money will go to a strategy to recruit greater numbers of regular and reserve force troops — including efforts such as a new television ad campaign currently running.

MacKay said the federal government’s military shopping list includes search-and-rescue planes, combat helicopters and new fighter aircraft to replace Canada’s CF-18 fighters.

In addition, Harper said, the plan will enhance the Canadian Forces’ ability to carry-out surveillance and security in the north and will improve Canada’s ability to contribute to global security and meet its commitments on continental security.

Canada is fortunate in many ways to have a defence alliance with the United Stated that has been nurtured for decades by governments both Conservative and Liberal,” Harper said.

“This relationship however, only works if it is governed by mutual respect, and the way to earn that respect is to ensure Canada shoulders its fair share of the burden of defencing North America.

The prime minister also said the plan will create thousands of jobs for Canadians, thereby providing a boost to the economy.

Fallon Resigns As Mideast Military Chief

“The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East resigned Tuesday amid speculation about a rift over U.S. policy in Iran,” the AP reports.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that Adm. William J. Fallon had asked for permission to retire and that Gates agreed. Gates said the decision, effective March 31, was entirely Fallon’s and that Gates believed it was “the right thing to do.”
Fallon was the subject of an article published last week in Esquire magazine that portrayed him as opposed to President Bush’s Iran policy. It described Fallon as a lone voice against taking military action to stop the Iranian nuclear program.

Fallon, who is traveling in Iraq, issued a statement through his U.S. headquarters in Tampa, Fla.

“Recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my views and the president’s policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time and hamper efforts in the Centcom region,” Fallon said.

“And although I don’t believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command area of responsibility, the simple perception that there is makes it difficult for me to effectively serve America’s interests there,” Fallon added.

Gates described as “ridiculous” any notion that Fallon’s departure signals the United States is planning to go to war with Iran. And he said “there is a misperception” that Fallon disagrees with the administration’s approach to Iran.

“I don’t think there were differences at all,” Gates added.

Don’t want to be a War Criminal

AWOL U.S. soldier seeks refugee status

American finds hope in NDP MP Libby Davies’ lobbying efforts

Andy Ivens

The Province

Monday, December 03, 2007

CREDIT: Nick Procaylo, The Province American soldier Brad McCall, 20, arrived in Vancouver in early October as a conscientious objector.

Uncle Sam wants Brad McCall.

The U.S. Army wants the AWOL private from Kentucky to go to Iraq to fight George W. Bush’s “war on terror,” but McCall’s conscience won’t allow it.

He applied to be a conscientious objector, but as his date to ship out approached, McCall realized that, like many other “COs,” he’d be in the war zone before a decision came down.

So, in early October, the six-foot-two GI followed the route of an estimated 50,000 previous American war resisters to Vancouver and applied for refugee status, which at least delays his possible extradition to the U.S., where he’d likely be tried for desertion.

“I don’t want to go to Iraq because I don’t want to be a war criminal,” McCall, 20, said yesterday.

“Any participation in the war in Iraq can be punishable as a war crime. The war is a criminal act, in my opinion and many countries’ opinion.”

McCall thinks the army recruiters who convinced him to sign up last year stretched the truth.

“We were told we probably wouldn’t be going to Iraq because [the war] was ending,” he said.

While posted at Fort Carson, Colo., “I heard the atrocities being committed on innocent people and soldiers laughing about that.”

That prompted him to apply for conscientious-objector status.

“They just laughed at me,” he said. “So I took the necessary steps and took off.”

His family has virtually disowned him, but he has found an esprit de corps in Vancouver.

“My parents and I don’t really communicate much,” he said. “I’ve met a lot of people here who have given me a lot of support.”

He’s been put up in the east Vancouver home of Colleen Fuller.

“I called the War Resisters Support Campaign [www.resisters.ca] and she volunteered her house for [an AWOL] soldier. I’ve been here ever since,” he said.

If he returned to the U.S., McCall figures he’d face a court martial and be ordered to serve “a few years” in the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Asked what he would like the Canadian government to do with the growing number of war resisters in Canada, McCall said: “Take us in. Do what Canada used to do in ’70s. Be a haven from militarism.”

Last month, the first two American military deserters to ask Canadian courts to allow them to stay in this country — Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey — received bad news from the Supreme Court of Canada.

The high court declined them leave to appeal a decision by the Federal Court of Appeal on their application for refugee status.

One crucial difference between the deserters who fled north during the Vietnam War and today’s resisters appears to be the evolution of the U.S. Army from a conscript force to today’s all-volunteer service, the court noted in its reasons.

“I was shocked,” said McCall, who remains “optimistic” that Canadians will convince their federal politicians to amend the refugee provisions of the law.

He has Vancouver East NDP MP Libby Davies in his corner.

“With their legal avenues pretty well exhausted, that’s absolutely the right direction to take — lobbying for change to the law to allow resisters to apply for landed-

immigrant status,” said Davies.

“We [New Democrat MPs] have a motion right now before the Citizenship and Immigration Committee that, if approved, would create a special category for war resisters that would allow them to stay in Canada.”

The motion — “to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members . . . who have refused or left military service related to the war in Iraq, to apply to remain and work in Canada and be eligible for permanent resident status” — will go before the committee later this week.

If the committee endorses the motion, said Davies, “we would then get that into the House [of Commons] and get the House to adopt it. There are many, many well-known Canadians who have made amazing contributions to this country who came here as war resisters.”

She suggested people write Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finlay, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and their own MPs to voice support for the motion.

Colleen Fuller urged others to join the war-resisters campaign.

“The [Hinzman and Hughey] decision is bad for anybody, not just Americans,” she said. “Normally, Canada goes by the United Nations. That’s why we didn’t go to Iraq — because the UN didn’t see that as a legal way to go.”

The U.S. Pentagon refused to comment on McCall’s case.

aivens@png.canwest.com