Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 20. september 2005 / Timeline September 20, 2005
Version 3.519. September 2005, 21. September 2005
09/20/2005
Peace campaigners spend third day up military mast
By Trident Ploughshares
Two peace campaigners are beginning the third day of a
high-altitude protest up a 150 foot high communications mast at a
secret military fuel base at Padworth Common, Berkshire.
Kate Holcombe and Ludd McCloud scaled the mast at
4.00 am on Saturday morning (17^th September) and unfurled giant
banners down the mast reading 'Nukes Out' and 'US Bases out of
UK'.
They are currently safely anchored on a maintenance platform
halfway up the tower and have sufficient food and water to allow
them to stay there for several days.
Their protest takes place at a military fuel storage and
distribution hub at Padworth Common in Berkshire with the aim of
disrupting fuel distribution to the UK's nuclear weapons factory at
Aldermaston and United States military bases in the UK, which
receive fuel through the pipeline network served by the Padworth
depot.
The storage and supply depot, located between the UK's two nuclear
weapons factories at Aldermaston and Burghfield is part of a
nationwide network of military fuel lines supplying US and British
military establishments throughout the UK.
Kate Holcombe from Worcestershire said: "In 1952 Harry S. Truman
and Winston Churchill agreed that in an emergency the United States
could use bases in the UK. That agreement has been corrupted by
Tony Blair, into his own 'Special Relationship'. The illegal attack
on Iraq was no emergency and the United States use of the UK as a
material launchpad for its illegal wars has no basis in any
agreement or in UK law.
"The US has declared its agenda to gain global military supremacy
of Land, Sea, Air, Space and Cyberspace in its Joint Vision for
2020. It must be stopped as Hitler was, and its bases in and on UK
territories closed."
Belgian Ludd McCloud says, "I am recruited by a growing
international/ /network of insurgents to help stop the US war
machine in the UK. International help is flowing in to stop further
War Crimes being committed.
"The UK government and military is internationally a favourite
target for insurgents but unfortunately for terrorists also because
it's willingly providing necessary support for US imperialism.
Taking action now is urgent for the US is paving the way for a
pre-emptive nuclear strike as their Doctrine for Joint Nuclear
Operations predicts.
"Britain must also fulfil international agreements to disarm its
nuclear weapons and not fuel an international nuclear arms race by
developing new ones under various agreements and partnerships with
the United States and its corporations."
Kate and Ludd are both members of anti nuclear campaign group
Trident Ploughshares.
The Padworth site is owned by the Ministry of Defence's Oil and
Pipelines Agency and is part of the Government Pipeline and Storage
System (GPSS). The site is operated by private contractors Babcock
Infrastructure Services on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
09/20/2005
U.S. Deactivates Peacekeeper Missile
The United States officially deactivated its Peacekeeper nuclear
missile yesterday at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming The base
housed the last 50 Peacekeepers, also known as MX missiles,
deployed in the United States. Washington began removing the
71-foot-tall weapons from its ICBM arsenal in 2002, AP
reported.
09/20/2005
Bush Buddies At Halliburton's KBR Gave Iraq Troops Raw Sewage,
Bacteria & Parasites In Untreated Water For Years
"Incompetence And Willful Negligence In Protecting The Water
Supply"
Sept. 20 (HalliburtonWatch.org)
Former KBR employees and water quality specialists, Ben Carter and
Ken May, told HalliburtonWatch that KBR knowingly exposes troops
and civilians to contaminated water from Iraq's Euphrates River.
One internal KBR email provided to HalliburtonWatch says that, for
"possibly a year," the level of contamination at one camp was two
times the normal level for untreated water.
"I discovered the water being delivered from the Euphrates for the
military was not being treated properly and thousands were being
exposed daily to numerous pathogenic organisms," Carter informed
HalliburtonWatch.
Carter worked at Camp Ar Ramadi, located 70 miles west of Baghdad
in the notoriously violent Sunni Triangle, but he says water
contamination problems exist throughout Iraq's military camps.
He helped manage KBR's Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit
(ROWPU), which is a water treatment system designed to produce
potable (drinkable) water from a variety of raw water sources such
as lakes, lagoons and rivers. ROWPU is supposed to provide the
troops with clean water from Iraq's Euphrates River.
William Granger of KBR Water Quality for Iraq reached this
conclusion in an email after investigating Carter's complaint:
"Fact: We exposed a base camp population (military and civilian) to
a water source that was not treated. The level of contamination was
roughly 2x the normal contamination of untreated water from the
Euphrates River..."
09/20/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States
Department of Defense
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, Reston, Virginia, is being
awarded an Indefinite - Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) / award
term contract to support Ballistic Missile Defense System
operational components that may be deployed in the future; support
the Missile Defnse Agency/Integration Center missile defense
related analysis, system level engineering, integration,
interoperability, and test and evaluation; support development of
Joint and Combined missile defense doctrine, requirements, and
concept of operations through simulations, wargames and exercises;
provide a rapid prototyping environment for air and missile defense
missions; support combatant commands by integrating missile defense
concepts, space asset exploitation, and battle management/command
and control, communications, computers, and intelligence. The
minimum award value is $30 million for the first award period and
the maximum award value is $500 million with a potential total
maximum for all options and award terms of $2.5 billion. The
primary performance is at Schriever AFB, Colorado. This is a
two-year base period of performance with three one-year options,
and five-one year award terms for a potential maximum contract
length of ten years. The initial contract period of performance is
February 1, 2006 to January 31, 2008. The Missile Defense Agency is
the contracting activity (H95001-06-D-0001).
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