German arms dealers logged record foreign sales in 2010, according to an annual government report. The opposition has urged more limits for weapons exports.

German arms manufacturers exported weapons worth 2.1 billion euros ($ 2.8 billion) in 2010 – a record turnover in export statistics and a significant increase from 2009. On an international scale, Germany ranked third after the US and Russia last year.

According to the German government, more than half of the revenue was due to the export of three warships to NATO partners: Portugal bought German submarines and parts for warships worth more than 800 million euros; Greece, too, purchased a German submarine.

Warships are at the top of armament manufacturers’ export lists – as are handguns, ammunition, military electronics and track vehicles, including the Leopard 2 combat tank, produced by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. Last year, Leopard 2 tanks were sold to Chile, Turkey and Singapor, among other countries. German government plans to sell hundreds of Leopard 2 vehicles to Saudi Arabia triggered a wave of criticism during the summer, with opposition politicians branding the tank deal as the wrong signal to the democracy movement in the Arab world.

The German government must agree to every single weapons export. The government must adhere to specific guidelines: Arms exports are only permitted to countries that respect human rights and are not involved in armed conflict. Every year the government declines requests for weapons exports. In 2010, rejections included exports to Belarus and Yemen.

Controversial export plans

Critics say exports to Saudi Arabia should also be rejected because Riyadh helped the government in neighboring Bahrain forcefully put down an uprising. Apart from in its annual weapons export report, the German government has remained silent on the issue. Where transparency is concerned, Berlin lags far behind many of its neighbors.

In 2010, German firms sold handguns, ammunition and military communication equipment to Saudi Arabia. The country ranks 10th among the 20 most important recipients of German arms exports.

This is something that outrages Jan van Aken, a Left party parliamentarian.

“Especially disgusting is the unimpeded sale of arms to states which disrespect human rights in the worst way,” Aken said. “Every euro that is earned from war is one euro too many.”

Weapons are also sold to developing countries – more in 2010 than in the previous year.

“The exception has become the rule,” criticized Green party parliamentarian Katja Keul. She said it sets a particularly bad example when Germany sells weapons to both Pakistan and India, who have fought three wars against each other.

“Detente looks different than that,” she said.

Source.

Imagine for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large foreign military base, say Chinese or Russian. Imagine that thousands of armed foreign troops were constantly patrolling American streets in military vehicles. Imagine they were here under the auspices of “keeping us safe” or “promoting democracy” or “protecting their strategic interests.”

Imagine that they operated outside of US law, and that the Constitution did not apply to them. Imagine that every now and then they made mistakes or acted on bad information and accidentally killed or terrorized innocent Americans, including women and children, most of the time with little to no repercussions or consequences. Imagine that they set up checkpoints on our soil and routinely searched and ransacked entire neighborhoods of homes. Imagine if Americans were fearful of these foreign troops, and overwhelmingly thought America would be better off without their presence.

Imagine if some Americans were so angry about them being in Texas that they actually joined together to fight them off, in defense of our soil and sovereignty, because leadership in government refused or were unable to do so. Imagine that those Americans were labeled terrorists or insurgents for their defensive actions, and routinely killed, or captured and tortured by the foreign troops on our land. Imagine that the occupiers’ attitude was that if they just killed enough Americans, the resistance would stop, but instead, for every American killed, ten more would take up arms against them, resulting in perpetual bloodshed. Imagine if most of the citizens of the foreign land also wanted these troops to return home. Imagine if they elected a leader who promised to bring them home and put an end to this horror.

Imagine if that leader changed his mind once he took office.

The reality is that our military presence on foreign soil is as offensive to the people that live there as armed Chinese troops would be if they were stationed in Texas. We would not stand for it here, but we have had a globe-straddling empire and a very intrusive foreign policy for decades that incites a lot of hatred and resentment towards us.

According to our own CIA, our meddling in the Middle East was the prime motivation for the horrific attacks on 9/11. But instead of re-evaluating our foreign policy, we have simply escalated it. We had a right to go after those responsible for 9/11, to be sure, but why do so many Americans feel as if we have a right to a military presence in some 160 countries when we wouldn’t stand for even one foreign base on our soil, for any reason? These are not embassies, mind you, these are military installations. The new administration is not materially changing anything about this. Shuffling troops around and playing with semantics does not accomplish the goals of the American people, who simply want our men and women to come home. 50,000 troops left behind in Iraq is not conducive to peace any more than 50,000 Russian soldiers would be in the United States.

Shutting down military bases and ceasing to deal with other nations with threats and violence is not isolationism. It is the opposite. Opening ourselves up to friendship, honest trade and diplomacy is the foreign policy of peace and prosperity. It is the only foreign policy that will not bankrupt us in short order, as our current actions most definitely will. I share the disappointment of the American people in the foreign policy rhetoric coming from the administration. The sad thing is, our foreign policy WILL change eventually, as Rome’s did, when all budgetary and monetary tricks to fund it are exhausted.

Imagine!: speech written & given by Ron Paul
should you be a US citizen in support of Ron Paul: http://revolutionpac.com/defense

The UK and US militaries have been developing new biological weapons which are capable of terminating certain races, a Middle East expert tells Press TV.

“They (the US and UK military establishments) even developed a black-only bomb that targeted the Afro gene. There is even talk now that there may be one for the Chinese gene,” Peter Eyre, a Middle East consultant, said in a recent interview with Press TV.

Eyre described the sinister project as “absolutely insane,” adding the work on such weaponry initially started in former Rhodesia [modern day Zimbabwe] by the UK government, but was then transferred to South Africa [by then UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher] when the former British colony declared independence.

The analyst went on to say that the US and UK have not only amassed a huge stockpile of biological and chemical weapons but also provided dictatorial regimes around the world to use and develop such lethal weapons.

“The United States, the United Kingdom…were behind providing Iraq Saddam Hussein with chemical and biological warfare [during Iran-Iraq conflict]…The UK actually paid for the laboratories to be established [in Iraq] and helped them (the former Iraqi regime) produce that,” Eyre said.

Ralph Schoenman, a California-based political commentator, also told Press TV that the Pentagon has also been weaponizing genomes viral agents in level 4 and level 5 laboratories in the US.

Schoenman further stated that such weapons are either sold to repressive regimes or are deployed in operations against countries Washington wants to destabilize.

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which prohibits the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons, called on member states to destroy all stockpiles of banned substances by April 29, 2007.

However, the US has announced that it will not be able to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons before a final deadline required by the CWC in 2012, saying it needs at least another decade to destroy its chemical weapons.

According to the CWC’s directive, any country found to be in non-compliance will have to be referred to the United Nations Security Council.

Schoenman said, however, that the US has no intention of eliminating these weapons and such talk on the US part is simply propaganda.

“There is not a scintilla of evidence to suggest that the US military indents to dispose of this weaponry; on the contrary, it is escalating its supply,” he added.

Source.

India finally plans to test its most ambitious strategic missile Agni-V, with near ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capabilities, this December after some delay.

With high road mobility, fast-reaction ability and a strike range over 5,000 km, Agni-V would even bring China’s northernmost regions within its nuclear strike envelope if it is ever required.

The armed forces are already inducting the two-stage 3,500-km Agni-III after completion of its developmental and pre-induction trials last year, having earlier operationalised the Pakistan-specific Agni-I (700-km) and Agni-II (over 2,000-km) missiles.

The Agni-V, in turn, is meant to add some much-needed credible deterrence muscle against China, which has a massive nuclear arsenal with missiles like the 11,200-km Dong Feng-31A capable of hitting any Indian city.

For one, it will be quite easy to store and swiftly transport the 17.5-metre tall Agni-V by road since it’s a canister-launch missile system, unlike the earlier Agni missiles. If fired from the North-East, for instance, it would be able to hit China’s northernmost city of Habin.

For another, Agni-V would also carry MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) payloads being concurrently developed. A single MIRVed missile can deliver multiple warheads at different targets even if they are separated by long distances.

“We have tested the three (solid-propellant composite rocket motor) stages of Agni-V independently…all ground tests are now over. The integration process is now in progress. We want to test the missile in December, not let it spill over to 2012,” DRDO chief V K Saraswat told TOI on Friday.

This came after defence minister A K Antony, addressing the annual DRDO awards ceremony, asked defence scientists to “demonstrate” the 5,000-km missile’s capability “at the earliest”.

With a “launch mass” of around 50 tonne and a development cost of over Rs 2,500 crore, Agni-V will incorporate advanced technologies involving ring laser gyroscope and accelerator for navigation and guidance. It takes its first stage from Agni-III, with a modified second stage and a miniaturized third stage to ensure it can fly to distances beyond 5,000 km.

An ICBM, incidentally, usually denotes a missile capable of hitting targets over 5,500 km away, and has largely been the preserve of the Big-5 countries till now.

DRDO is also gearing up for another test of its two-tier BMD (ballistic missile defence) system, designed to track and destroy hostile missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth’s atmosphere, around this August with a new interceptor missile called PDV to add to the existing ones.

Antony, on his part, said, “The interceptor missile development programme has taken India into an elite club of nations that possess the capability to demonstrate and deploy missile defence. DRDO should now also work towards developing a credible BMD for our country.”

Source.

Nation – France has air dropped arms to Libyan rebels in mountains south of Tripoli who are eyeing an assault on the capital, it said on Wednesday after anti-regime forces captured a network of weapons caches.

But the increasingly emboldened rebels were under a deadly assault from veteran strongman Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in the third-largest city Misrata, where rockets killed one civilian and wounded six late Tuesday, residents said.

In London, meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday the cash-strapped rebels had received the first $100 million from a fund set up by international donors.

France’s Le Figaro daily said today it had seen a secret intelligence memo and talked to well-placed officials, saying the air drops were designed to help rebels encircle Tripoli and encourage a popular revolt in the city itself.

It said the arms were dropped from planes above the Djebel Nafusa region, where Berber tribes have risen to join the revolt against Gaddafii’s four-decade rule and seized several provincial towns.

The crates contained assault rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, it said, and also European-made Milan anti-tank missiles, a powerful addition to the rebel arsenal that can destroy a tank or a bunker.

“If the rebels can get to the outskirts of Tripoli, the capital will take the chance to rise against Gaddafi,” said an official quoted in the report.

Later on Wednesday, Colonel Thierry Burkhard, spokesman for the French general staff, told AFP the shipments were essentially light arms such as assault rifles to help civilian communities protect themselves from regime troops.

Col Burkhard said France had become aware in early June that rebel-held Berber villages in the Djebel Nafusa region had come under pressure from Gaddafi loyalist forces.

“We began by dropping humanitarian aid: food, water and medical supplies,” he said. “During the operation, the situation for the civilians on the ground worsened. We dropped arms and means of self-defence, mainly ammunition.”

Burkhard described the arms as “light infantry weapons of the rifle type” and said the drops were carried out over several days “so that civilians would not be massacred”.

On Tuesday, rebels overcame heavy multiple rocket fire from loyalist troops to seize bunkers in the desert about 25 kilometres from the hill town of Zintan, an AFP correspondent said.

The capture of rockets, machine guns and other munitions was a major boost for rebel hopes of driving on to Tripoli from the front line on the other side of the Nafusa mountains, now just 50 kilometres from the capital.

In Misrata, meanwhile, residents said between eight and 10 rockets struck the city, which has come under repeated assault by surrounding loyalist forces and is entirely dependent on resupply by sea.

An AFP correspondent was shown four damaged buildings residents said had been hit by the late night salvo.

In London, Hague told lawmakers the National Transitional Council (NTC), the rebel leadership based in the eastern city of Benghazi, had received in the past week the “first $100 million of international funding through the temporary financing mechanism set up by the contact group for vital fuel and salaries.”

The rebels complained earlier this month they were running out of money and had not yet received any of the roughly $1 billion promised by international donors.

In other developments, Gaddafi health minister, Mohammed Hijazi, was in Egypt today to ask officials for medical supplies to meet shortages in Libya, the official MENA news agency said.

He is to hold talks with Egyptian officials to “ask them for medical support so that the Tripoli government can meet the increasing need for medical supplies,” MENA said.

• The world population will rise dramatically; every 13-15 years there will be one billion additional people: In 30-40 years the planet will no longer be able to sustain the population; this will have distressing effects for humankind.
• 10 billion people are manageable only with dictatorship and military suppression; culture, individual development and life of free spirit will no longer be allowed, it will be impossible and definitely not open to discussion.
• Exorbitant spending on military, wars, large industries and state administration together with corruption do not allow for any solutions.
• The incredibly hyped up weapons and car industry will drain the earth of its resources and lead the planet to total collapse resulting in the complete destruction of life.
• Due to huge debts and speculation the next financial crisis will lead to a complete breakdown of the system and destroy with it entire countries and nations resulting in widespread anarchy and suffering.
• The unequal distribution of wealth and natural resources of the earth will mean the end of supra-millionaires and billionaires as well as their children’s future.
• Increasing and ever more unpredictable change in the climate will bring enormous destruction to continents resulting in incalculable damage and costs; not to mention hideous suffering.
• We have to expect more drought, floods, heat waves, fires, heavy rainfall, storms, tornadoes, cyclones with the worst imaginable aftermath for the environment and people.
• Sea levels will increase by 20-60 cm. in the next 20-60 years; some experts predict an increase of 90-150 cm. By 2100, all this will wreak havoc.
• Beaches, landscapes, entire islands and natural habitats will be completely destroyed or simply disappear; there will be overwhelmingly more contamination and pollution.
• Natural resources (e.g. fish, drinking water, natural food, water for agricultural productions, healthy farm land) will decrease spectacularly and become more and more contaminated.
• Mega-cities and widespread construction as well as pollution, littering, contamination and radiation of the earth, air, water, seas and food will increase.
• All variations of cancer and serious illnesses will increase dramatically as a result of pollution, poisoning, fine dust and radiation: What the chain reactions in the human body will be nobody knows. No one has been there before.
• 1-2 billion people will fall into poverty in the coming 10 years; in 30-40 years this will be 80% of the population; completely without or at best with minimum medical provision.
• The sewage water (with poisonous substances) of 2.5 billion people flows directly into the oceans and seas today; this amount will double in the next 25 years and in 40 years will completely destroy nature.
• Several hundred million people will migrate in search of a new home as a result of unemployment, wars, climate change and natural catastrophes.
• All kinds of rubbish and waste, especially nuclear, electric and car waste, will take on gigantic dimensions and totally poison land, oceans and seas.
• The price of oil, wheat, corn, rice, coffee, sugar and soya will rise dramatically and thus become unattainable for 30% of the world’s population; 80% will have to live under the bread line.
• Most people in industrialized nations will have significantly less disposable wealth which will curtail holidays. Tourism around the globe will collapse.
• Unemployment statistics fail to reflect reality. Around the world today there are over half a billion people who have no work or too little work; this will result in massive social unrest.
• Crises, unrest, revolutions, wars, tax hikes and martial laws will completely choke the human experience; religious conflict will form part of everyday life.
• The explosive hotspots and conflicts will increase and totally change the world; WWIII is imminent, ongoing and can begin any moment; they are all ready.
• Humanity and all religions have lost the Archetypes of the Soul, also Love, the Truth, Trust, as well as genuine inner needs and the inner Spirit.
• The truth has no chance today. Lies, perversion, lunacy, religious psychosis, narcissism, arrogance, ignorance and stupidity have replaced the truth.
• Humanity is (nearly) completely brainwashed and manipulated, degenerated in its inner being. It has become soulless; therefore driven by illusions, greed and repression of guilt.
• The world will collapse beyond repair in 30-40 years with 9-10 billion people. The “end” is foreseeable and will become reality for those alive today and especially for the coming generation!

Download the World Report 2011…

Yahoo – Libya’s government has begun distributing arms to more than one million people and will complete the operation within hours, the state news agency reported on Sunday.

Jana news agency quoted sources in Libya’s defence ministry as saying they “expected the operation to end in the next hours to arm more than a million men and women.”

Daily Mail – Israel says its navy has intercepted a ship carrying a large delivery of weapons off the country’s Mediterranean coast.

The military says the ship originated in Turkey and was bound for Egypt. But it gave no details on what types of arms were on board or for whom the delivery was bound.

DEBKAfile - The Israeli Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 commandos intercepted the German-owned A.S. Victoria Tuesday, March 15 about 320 kilometers off Israel’s Mediterranean coast on its way from the Turkish port of Mercin to Egyptian El Arish with Alexandria its final destination.

The Liberian-flagged vessel was carrying a large consignment of weapons including C-704 shore-to-ship missiles with a range of 35 kilometers and heavy mortars shells bound for the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip. DEBKAfile reports the consignment was picked up at the Syrian port of Latakia after being offloaded there by the two Iranian warships which transited the Suez Canal February 22.

The ship’s documents and crew showed the vessel had departed from Latakia Port in Syria before proceeding to Mercin Port in Turkey. At least three crates of weapons were uncovered on board. Hundreds of others will be inspected when the ship reaches Israeli port. The crew did not resist the Israeli naval commandoes who boarded the vessel.

The US and Israeli navies did not stop the Iranian Alvand missile destroyer and Kharg logistical cruiser when they applied to transit the canal last month, asserting that they could not be stopped as they were not carrying contraband weapons. Egyptian Suez Canal officials made the same determination after reporting they had been inspected. Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the voyage was no more harmful than a “cadets’ outing.”

DEBKAfile alone reported the Iranian warships were carrying missiles.

It now turns out that the clean bill of health they all gave the Iranian warships was not based on fact.

At the same time, DEBKAfile’s military sources report that from the time that the Iranian navy ships entered the Mediterranean, US and Israeli warships and spy planes kept their movements under close surveillance: Around Feb. 25-26, the Kharg was seen offloading a large batch of containers at Syrian Navy ordnance depots in Latakia port.

In the second half of last week, the German A.S Victoria docked there and was seen loading the containers delivered by the Iranian warships at Latakia.

It now appears that the ship was instructed to detour to the Turkish port and wait there for a couple of days to disguise its real destination.

But after learning that the arms were bound for El Arish, in northern Sinai, Israel decided to apprehend the cargo before it could be delivered, whether to Hamas in Gaza or radical Egyptian Muslims, which Iran has been backing and funding.

Hamas would have arranged to have had it picked up at Al Arish and spirited into the Gaza through its smuggling tunnels. But it is possible too that Iran, while originally planning to consign the weapons to the Palestinian extremists in Gaza, changed their destination later to Egypt.

Much about this episode is still obscure, except for the clear evidence of military intelligence cooperation between Tehran, Damascus, Ankara, Hizballah and Hamas in the smuggling of Iranian weapons to radical groups in the region.

Cairo may have something to say about the seizure in international waters of a ship bound for Egyptian waters, albeit one surreptitiously carrying arms. Ankara, too, will not enjoy the exposure of Mercin, a port under the close supervision of the Turkish Navy, as a hub for the illegal transfer of Iranian war materials to the Palestinian Hamas and anti-government forces fighting Arab regimes.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that several boats loaded with arms for the Libyan rebels sailed out of Mercin in the last few days. They were bound for the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

It was decided in Jerusalem that whatever the destination of the Iranian weapons cargo may be, severing this link in Iran’s new weapons smuggling route was absolutely essential.

New Scientist – 17 February 2011 - THE US army is planning to field “rubber bullets” for machine guns. Military officials claim the ammunition will allow them to more effectively quell violent protests without loss of life, but human rights campaigners are alarmed by the new weapon.

The final design for the XM1044 round has not been selected, according to an order placed on the Federal Business Opportunities website last month, but the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate has been working on a ring aerofoil projectile for some years. The round is a hollow plastic cylinder 40 millimetres across, looking something like a short toilet-paper roll. In flight its shape generates lift, giving it a longer range.

The army’s existing crowd-control rounds are single shots fired from handheld grenade launchers with a range of about 50 metres – the XM1044 would double this range. It would be supplied in belts for the Mk19 grenade launcher, a truck-mounted weapon that can fire almost six rounds per second. The Mk19 has been exported to some 30 countries, including Egypt.

“The US army has a requirement for a rapid-fire non-lethal capability,” says Ken Schulters, project manager for close combat systems at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. “All currently fielded non-lethal ammunition is single shot.”

Firing rapidly at long range is likely to be dangerously inaccurate, says Angela Wright of Amnesty International. “Such a weapon system would allow for a burst of non-accurate fire at a crowd, with high risk of hitting bystanders, ricochets and of hitting vulnerable areas of the body,” she says.

Despite being hollow and plastic, if a round were to strike someone in the head, it could severely injure or kill them, she adds.