Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 25. Mars 2005 / Time Line March 25, 2005
Version 3.503/25/2005
Naomi Klein Reveals New Details About U.S. Military Shooting of
Italian War Correspondent in Iraq
Friday, March 25th, 2005
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/25/1516242
Three weeks after being shot by US forces in Iraq, veteran Italian
war correspondent Giuliana Sgrena is released from a
military hospital. New details are emerging about the killing of
the Italian agent who saved her life. We speak with independent
journalist Naomi Klein, who just returned from meeting with Sgrena
in Rome. [includes rush transcript]
In Rome, journalist Giuliana Sgrena has been released from a
military hospital where she was being treated for a gunshot wound
she suffered when US forces shot up the car bringing her to freedom
after a month being held hostage in Iraq. The head of Italy's
Foreign Military Intelligence Nicola Calipari was killed in the
attack when he shielded Sgrena from the bullets.
Yesterday, Italian newspapers reported that the justice minister
has asked U.S. authorities to release the car so it can be examined
by Italian ballistics experts. The papers said the request came
after the U.S. command in Iraq reportedly blocked two Italian
policemen from examining the car.
03/25/2005
Ukraine's proliferation skeletons
By David Isenberg
Asia TImes, March 25, 2005
http://atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GC25Ag02.html
WASHINGTON - Recent stories about the alleged sale of 12 former
Soviet nuclear-capable unarmed air-launched cruise missiles (ALCM)
to Iran and China - six to each nation - by Ukraine advance a long
unfolding slow-motion scandal, but still leave many questions
unanswered.
Allegations of Ukranian arms sales to Iran and other countries have
been around for years. For example, in November 2002 lawmaker
Hryhoriy Omelchenko, a former reserve colonel in the Ukranian
intelligence service, promised to lay out "proven facts" of
Ukraine's arms sales "not only to Iraq, North Korea, China and
Iran", but even other states, according to his office. Omelchenko
is the same legislator who went public last month in letters to
President Victor Yuschenko and the prosecutor general, Svyatoslav
Piskun, with allegations of the smuggling operation.
The 2002 charge came at the same time that Ukraine was in the news
for a scandal over the alleged sale of Kolchuga air-defense radars
to Iraq. It was then feared that the radars could be used to track
Western aircraft in Iraq's no-fly zones ...
03/25/2005
The Energy Crunch to Come --
Soaring Oil Profits, Declining Discoveries, and Danger Signs
by Michael Klare
© 2005 TomDispatch and Michael Klare
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=2277
Data released annually at this time by the major oil companies on
their prior-year performances rarely generates much interest
outside the business world. With oil prices at an all-time high and
Big Oil reporting record profits, however, this year has been
exceptional. Many media outlets covered the announcement of mammoth
profits garnered by ExxonMobil, the nation's wealthiest public
corporation, and other large firms. Exxon's fourth-quarter
earnings, at $8.42 billion, represented the highest quarterly
income ever reported by an American firm.
"This is the most profitable company in the world," declared Nick
Raich, research director of Zacks Investment Research in Chicago.
But cheering as the recent announcements may have been for many on
Wall Street, they also contained a less-auspicious sign. Despite
having spent billions of dollars on exploration, the major energy
firms are reporting few new discoveries and so have been digging
ever deeper into existing reserves. If this trend continues -- and
there is every reason to assume it will -- the world is headed for
a severe and prolonged energy crunch in the not-too-distant
future.
To put this in perspective, bear in mind that the global oil
industry has, until now, largely been able to increase its combined
output every year in step with rising world demand. True, there
have been a number of occasions when demand has outpaced supply,
producing temporary shortages and high gasoline prices at the pump.
But the industry has always been able been able to catch up again
and so quench the world's insatiable thirst for oil. This has been
possible because the big energy companies kept up a constant and
successful search for new sources of oil to supplement the supplies
drawn from their existing reserves. The world's known reserves
still contain a lot of oil -- approximately 1.1 trillion barrels,
by the estimates of experts at the oil major BP -- but they cannot
satisfy rising world demand indefinitely; and so, in the absence of
major new discoveries, we face a gradual contraction in the global
supply of petroleum ...
03/25/2005
Det rakner for Putin - og for Bush
Av Sigurd Lydersen
sigurd.lydersen@sensewave.com
Like utenfor den kirgisiske hovedstaden Bishkek, hvor
demonstrantene nå har tatt kontroll over regjeringsbygget,
ligger en stor amerikansk militærbase, som tjener som et av
de sentrale støttepunktene for det amerikanske
militære eventyret i Midt-Østen. Da New York Times
korrespondent i Kirgisistan på CNN nettopp ble stilt
spørsmålet om hva opptøyene vil ha å si
for det amerikanske militære nærværet i den
tidligere Sovjetrepublikken, så ble linjen kuttet. Kanskje en
tilfeldighet, men trolig et uttrykk for at sterke krefter, som
naturligvis nøye overhører en slik samtale, det er jo
jobben deres, helst vil unngå uautorisert synsning rundt det
kompromitterte Akajevregimets nære samrøre med USA i
den såkalte krigen mot terror.
Hvis noen skulle være i tvil etter millionmønstringene
i Kievs gater i desember i fjor, så viser nå
utviklingen i Kirgisistan med all mulig tydelighet at motstanden
mot den postsovjetiske neototalitarismen er den postsovjetiske
befolkningens eget verk, og ikke en forlengelse av amerikansk
utenrikspolitikk, slik det er blitt hevdet. Hva vi er vitne til er
videreutviklingen av det sovjetiske demokratiske prosjektet som ble
innledet med den russiske revolusjonen i 1917. De tidligere
Sovjetrepublikkene som frigjør seg fra Putin-regimets klamme
grep representerer nye statsmakter med bred folkelig legitimitet
som er frigjort fra den kalde krigens polarisering av verden, og
innrettet mot en global demokratisk verden hvor menneskerettigheter
og internasjonal rett ikke er spill for galleriet, men
nødvendige livsbetingelser. Vi ser framveksten av genuint
demokratiske samfunn, ikke, unnskyld, antikommunistiske
kvasidemokratiske som det norske, som uttrykk for det vellykkede i
det progressive sovjetiske prosjektet.
Den amerikanske basen utenfor Bishkek blir i denne sammenhengen en
svært pinlig og ømtålelig sak. Basen er en
tydelig manifestasjon av samrøret mellom vestlige land og
Putin-regimet, og kler hele "krigen mot terror" naken. 19. mars ble
det demonstrert over hele den vestlige verden, også i
våre egne byer, mot den amerikanske okkupasjonen av Irak.
Alle som er kritiske til krigen mot terror og det amerikanske og
andres nærvær i Midt-Østen, og det er mange,
burde sette inn kreftene på å støtte opp under
den postsovjetiske befolkningens frigjøringskamp mot Putins
menneskefiendtlige neototalitarisme og dens løpegutter i
Vesten.
Hvem tar opp hansken?
Les mer på
http://www.bevegelsen.no/w-agora/view.php3?site=bevegelsen&bn=bevegelsen_aentforum&key=1111413408
Sigurd Lydersen, tidligere leder for Norges Fredslag
og redaktør av Fredsviljen.
03/25/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States
Department of Defense
McDonnell Douglas Corp., Saint Louis, Mo., is being awarded a
$6,754,307 cost-plus fixed-fee contract modification. This contract
is for F/A-22 Spiral 3A Phase A+ integration support to integrate
the Small Diameter Bomb on the F/A-22. This effort includes
ensuring functional, mechanical, electrical and environmental
compatibility between the F/A-22 and the Small Diameter Bomb;
conducting supersonic free-stream wind tunnel testing; continuing
strut design and strut interface between the F/A-22 and the Small
Diameter Bomb carriage system to finalize a production design;
planning and supporting Instrumented Vehicle flight testing; and
analyzing data. At this time, $5,218,691 of the funds have been
obligated. This work will be complete by March 2006. The Air
Armament Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting
activity (FA8682-04-C-0019, P00050).
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