APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, August 6, 2009

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"APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, August 6, 2009", APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, August 06, 2009, https://nautilus.org/apsnet/apsnet-6-august-2009/

APSnet 6 August 2009

  1. Olympic Dam economics must be for the greater good
  2. Talisman Sabre military exercises, war and the environment
  3. Fretilin criticises Dili arms deal with Jakarta
  4. [East Timor] Campos’s crimes continued
  5. Islanders’ choice: integrate or emigrate
  6. Infection risk spurs Torres Strait review
  7. A tighter net: strengthening the Proliferation Security Initiative
  8. US faces huge bill for Afghan security

1. Olympic Dam economics must be for the greater good, Simon O’Connor, Age, 2009-08-06

An examination of the EIS goes part of the way to showing the value of [BHP Billiton’s plans to expand the Olympic Dam mine] to Australia. But it leaves out critical factors that prevent us from ascertaining whether this project is a good investment. The three major components that are poorly tackled in the EIS are government-funded infrastructure costs, subsidies and, most significantly, the impact of a carbon price.

2. Talisman Sabre military exercises, war and the environment, Sue Wareham, Online Opinion, 2009-07-10

There is one human activity that manages to escape scrutiny in our efforts to address climate change and other forms of environmental destruction.  That activity is war and its preparation. The commencement of major military exercises in Australia on July 6 should prompt an examination not only of warfare’s environmental footprint, but, importantly, its impact on our security.

3. Fretilin criticises Dili arms deal with Jakarta, Lindsay Murdoch, Age, 2009-08-04

A Jakarta company has been secretly awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to supply police and army equipment to East Timor. The deal to supply equipment including bulletproof vests, tear gas grenades, rubber bullet rifles and pepper spray is the latest of a number of contracts awarded by the Dili Government this year to business people and companies in Jakarta linked to the Indonesian military.

4. Campos’s crimes continued, James Thomas, Today Tonight, 2009-08-06

Federal agents have collected our tapes, on them Guy [Campos] confessing to bashing Joanna Ximenes’s brother, court documents showing Guy’s conviction for torturing a man to death, eye witnesses, torture victims, and people that surved alongside Guy in the military, and former Australian defence analysts confirming Guy’s role with the Indonesian military. But still the Minister [for Home Affairs] goes on with the tired line that the investigation is ongoing.

5. Islanders’ choice: integrate or emigrate, Greg Earl, AFR*, 2009-08-06

Australia will need to expand its guest-worker program and pay more heed to Pacific concerns about global warming if it is going to make any progress pushing for a more integrated regional economy. But given continuing concerns about the overall effectiveness of aid and a reluctance to embrace a PACER free-trade deal, the challenge of warding off further civil turmoil with better growth remains.
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6. Infection risk spurs Torres Strait review, Sean Parnell, Australian, 2009-08-04

The threat of diseases spreading from Papua New Guinea to Torres Strait has become so profound that authorities are no longer trying to stop sick people illegally crossing the border. Instead they are trying to rework immigration laws so health professionals can move just as freely in the region to confront the problem.

7. A tighter net: strengthening the Proliferation Security Initiative, Emma Belcher, Lowy Institute, August 2009

Australia and other countries should redouble their efforts to fix serious gaps in an international arrangement to stop maritime shipments of materials destined for weapons of mass destruction programs, according to the Brief. Concerns over North Korea provide an opportunity to bolster the Proliferation Security Initiative, a 95-country arrangement to promote interception of transfers of cargoes related to weapons of mass destruction.

8. US faces huge bill for Afghan security, Daniel Dombey, Financial Times*, 2009-08-05

The US will have to provide billions more dollars in coming years to finance a huge increase in the size of Afghanistan’s security forces. General Stanley McChrystal, the new commander of US and Nato forces in the country, is in the final stages of a review of policy in which he is expected to conclude, among other findings, that the Afghan army and police force should be increased to a combined total of 400,000.
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