THE TELEGRAPH/UK –  Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, was speaking as he arrived in Beijing on Sunday for four days of talks aimed at renewing ties between the US and Chinese armed forces. However his visit has been overshadowed by a series of announcements by the Chinese about the growing strength of their missile technology, naval capabilities and other defence initiatives.

The visit is the first by a US defence secretary since 2000, and comes at a time of heightened tension in the region. It is also almost one year after China suspended military contacts with Washington following arms sales to Taiwan.

With relations between North and South Korea at their lowest point in decades, Beijing has been angered by joint US-South Korean military exercises close to its shores, while Washington is concerned by China’s increasing willingness to flex its muscles. Ten days ago, Japan revealed that it had scrambled its fighter jets 44 times in the last nine months in response to incursions into Japanese air space by the Chinese air force.

Click to read the full article on the US response to China’s military build up.

Article by David Elmer

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2010

Photograph by Gary Lerude

GUARDIAN.CO.UK – The following correction was printed in the Guardian’s Corrections and clarifications column, Wednesday 5 January 2011

The story below reported the authors of a study as saying that birth defects in the Iraqi city of Falluja could have been caused by weaponry used in US assaults in 2004, and added by way of background that this suggestion might add to the dispute over whether rounds containing depleted uranium have residual effects. But a line of explanation went wrong in saying that such rounds “contain ionising radiation to burst through armour”. As readers with expertise in this area noted, it is not the radiation emitted by this substance that makes it penetrate armour. Rather, depleted uranium is used because of its density and its melting point, one of whose effects is to produce heat and therefore fires or explosions upon high-speed impact.

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A study examining the causes of a dramatic spike in birth defects in the Iraqi city of Falluja has for the first time concluded that genetic damage could have been caused by weaponry used in US assaults that took place six years ago.

The research, which will be published next week, confirms earlier estimates revealed by the Guardian of a major, unexplained rise in cancers and chronic neural-tube, cardiac and skeletal defects in newborns. The authors found that malformations are close to 11 times higher than normal rates, and rose to unprecedented levels in the first half of this year – a period that had not been surveyed in earlier reports.

The findings, which will be published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, come prior to a much-anticipated World Health Organisation study of Falluja’s genetic health. They follow two alarming earlier studies, one of which found a distortion in the sex ratio of newborns since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – a 15% drop in births of boys.

Click to read full article on link between rise in Falluja birth defects and cancer, and US assault.

Article by Martin Chulov

Photograph by US Army/Flickr

© COPYRIGHT GUARDIAN.CO.UK, 2010

THE PENINSULA – Top officials in several Arab countries have close links with the CIA, and many officials keep visiting US embassies in their respective countries voluntarily to establish links with this key US intelligence agency, says Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks.

“These officials are spies for the US in their countries,” Assange told Al Jazeera Arabic channel in an interview yesterday.

The interviewer, Ahmed Mansour, said at the start of the interview which was a continuation of last week’s interface, that Assange had even shown him the files that contained the names of some top Arab officials with alleged links with the CIA.

Assange or Mansour, however, didn’t disclose the names of these officials. The WikiLeaks founder said he feared he could be killed but added that there were 2,000 websites that were ready to publish the remaining files that are in possession of WikiLeaks after “he has been done away with”.

Click to read the full article on Arab officials working for the CIA.

Article by Mobin Pandit & Ahmed El Amin

Photograph by Flickr user: Jan Krömer 

© COPYRIGHT THE PENINSULA, 2010

AL JAZEERA – Sexual assault within the ranks of the military is not a new problem. It is a systemic problem that has necessitated that the military conduct its own annual reporting on the crisis.

A 2003 Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal prompted the department of defense to include a provision in the 2004 National Defense Authorization Act that required investigations and reports of sexual harassment and assaults within US military academies to be filed. The personal toll is, nevertheless, devastating.

Military sexual trauma (MST) survivor Susan Avila-Smith is director of the veteran’s advocacy group Women Organizing Women. She has been serving female and scores of male clients in various stages of recovery from MST for 15 years and knows of its devastating effects up close.

“People cannot conceive how badly wounded these people are,” she told Al Jazeera, “Of the 3,000 I’ve worked with, only one is employed. Combat trauma is bad enough, but with MST it’s not the enemy, it’s our guys who are doing it. You’re fighting your friends, your peers, people you’ve been told have your back. That betrayal, then the betrayal from the command is, they say, worse than the sexual assault itself.”

On December 13, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups filed a federal lawsuit seeking Pentagon records in order to get the real facts about the incidence of sexual assault in the ranks.

The Pentagon has consistently refused to release records that fully document the problem and how it is handled. Sexual assaults on women in the US military have claimed some degree of visibility, but about male victims there is absolute silence.

Click to read the full article on rape in the US military.
Article by Dahr Jamal

Photograph by WeNews

Research support was provided by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.

This is the first in a two part series on sexual harassment in the US military. The second part in the series will be published in the coming week. 

© COPYRIGHT AL JAZEERA, 2011

RAW STORY– Iraq’s newly appointed oil minister on Monday said the country’s daily oil production has increased by about 100,000 barrels a day, exceeding 2.6 million barrels per day for the first time in 20 years.

Abdul-Karim Elaibi said Iraq’s production of crude will continue to rise and will reach its planned, higher targets “sooner than expected.”

“Today, our production exceeded 2.6 million barrels a day,” Elaibi told reporters during a ceremony to formally put him in charge of Iraq’s oil ministry after the country’s new government was sworn in last week.

“We haven’t reached this figure since 20 years ago,” Elaibi said.

Last week, Elaibi also reported an increase by 100,000 barrels a day to 2.5 million barrels a day, saying it was a significant jump in a long while.

Iraq has awarded 15 oil and gas deals since 2008 to international companies in the first major investment drive in more than three decades aimed at strengthening the country’s battered energy industry.

The crude-rich nation plans to raise its daily output to about 12 million barrels by 2017.

Read full article about the increase in Iraq’s oil production here.

Photo by flickr user indigo prime

© COPYRIGHT RAW STORY, 2010