Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 5. April 2006 / Time Line April 5, 2006
Version 3.004/05/2006
UNESCO Director-General condemns campaign of violence against
Iraqi academics
Author(s) UNESCOPRESS
Source Press Release N°2006-26
The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, today
condemned the campaign of violence waged against Iraqi academics
and intellectuals and called for international solidarity and
mobilization in favour of education and educators in the
country.
“I firmly condemn the campaign of violence waged in Iraq
against academics and intellectuals,” the Director-General
declared. “The right to education is a basic human right and
the persecution of the custodians of knowledge and skills is an
unacceptable attack against a whole society. Iraq has a long
tradition in learning and academic excellence in the Middle East.
By targeting those who hold the keys to Iraq’s reconstruction
and development, the perpetrators of this violence are jeopardizing
the future of Iraq and of democracy.”
According to the Geneva-based Study and Research Center for the
Arab and Mediterranean World, four Iraqi academics, including one
physician, were killed last week. The Center says that between 170
and 180 academics have been killed in Iraq since 2003 and that
thousands more have been driven into exile.
“UNESCO is currently involved with Iraqi Ministry of Higher
Education to help reconstruct the country’s higher education
system, which has been severely damaged by decades of oppression
and war. We cannot stand by and watch the custodians of
Iraq’s culture and learning be threatened, abducted or
murdered,” Mr Matsuura said, calling for “international
solidarity and mobilization in favour of education and educators in
the country”.
The Director-General also announced that he will discuss this issue
on 14 April, during a meeting with Muhyi Alkateeb, Iraq’s
Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, and members of the
International Committee for the Protection of Iraqi Academics. This
Committee was created in February this year, under the Geneva-based
Study and Research Center for the Arab and Mediterranean World, to
raise awareness and support for Iraqi academics and
intellectuals.
04/05/2006
NNSA Official Lays Out the Future of the Nuclear Weapons Complex
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The future of the nation's nuclear weapons complex was described in a congressional hearing today by Tom D'Agostino, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) deputy administrator for defense programs. D'Agostino, who testified before the House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, outlined a plan to establish a smaller, more efficient nuclear weapons complex able to respond to future challenges.
"By 2030, the vision I set forth is of a world where a smaller, safer, more secure stockpile, with assured reliability over the long term, is backed by an industrial and design capability to respond to changing technical, geopolitical or military needs. It offers the best hope of achieving the President's vision of the smallest stockpile consistent with our national security needs," said D'Agostino.
In 2004, President Bush directed that the size of the nuclear weapons stockpile be reduced by nearly 50 percent by 2012. At that point the stockpile will be the smallest it has been since the Eisenhower administration.
The principal elements of "Complex 2030" proposed by D'Agostino include:
Continuing to work on a reliable replacement warhead to ensure the long-term reliability and safety of the nuclear weapons stockpile and enable a more responsive supporting infrastructure while reducing the possibility that the United States would ever need to return to underground nuclear testing;
Significantly increasing dismantlement of retired warheads that are no longer part of the stockpile;
Increasing security and reducing security costs by consolidating special nuclear materials used in nuclear weapons to fewer sites in the complex and fewer locations within the sites;
Establishing a consolidated plutonium center for research, development, production and surveillance operations, in lieu of construction of a modern pit facility as proposed previously by NNSA; and
Introducing more uniformity in technical and business practices and more effective risk management to achieve more efficient operations.
D'Agostino noted that consolidating nuclear materials and eliminating duplicative capabilities at the nuclear weapons complex sites would allow NNSA to further reduce the "footprint" - the total square footage set aside for weapons work at eight sites around the country. To date, the size of the weapons complex has decreased by more than 40 percent since the end of the Cold War.
"We recognize that 'business as usual' is not sustainable, will not be successful, and cannot be the path we choose," D'Agostino said. "Our Complex 2030 vision represents a significant departure from the current strategy."
D'Agostino said NNSA significantly benefited from the work of the Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board Task Force on the Nuclear Weapons Complex Infrastructure, and that many of the recommendations that the task force outlined were already underway or incorporated into NNSA's existing plans.
Established by Congress in 2000, NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, reliability and performance of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear testing; works to reduce global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the U.S. Navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the U.S. and abroad.
04/05/2006
NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of
Defense
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a
$3,035,000,000 modification to a previously awarded
cost-plus-award-fee contract (N00019-06-C-0081) for the System
Development and Demonstration (SDD) of the CH-53K aircraft, to
include four SDD aircraft, one ground test vehicle, and associated
program management and test support. Work will be performed in
Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed in December 2015.
Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal
year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the
contracting activity.
BAE Systems was awarded on 31 March 2006 a task order under the
DISA I-ASSURE contract. The award amount is $11M if all options are
executed and will be funded using Defense Working Capital Funds.
BAE teamed with McAfee to offer the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator and
Entercept Host Intrusion Prevention. This task order will provide
for a DoD Enterprise-wide Host-Based Security System (HBSS) and
will be used by system administrators and cybersecurity personnel
throughout the Department, including the DoD-related Intelligence
Agencies, the National Guard, and the Reserves. The primary
objective of the HBSS effort is to provide a method to implement,
deploy, and manage Computer Network Defense (CND) capabilities such
as those listed in DoD Instruction 8500.2. Specific HBSS
capabilities include: A tool to support INFOCON policies,
centralized management of host-based CND capabilities, and the
prevention of unauthorized access to files and information. The
contract for this effort also provides a help desk, classroom
training and virtual on-demand training, which will provide DoD
personnel access to training at any network-connected location, 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.
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