APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, February 9, 2009

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APSNet 9 February 2009

  1. Diggers Urged to Double Offensive in Afghanistan
  2. Canadian Soldiers to Target Afghan Drug Trade Linked to Taliban
  3. Japan: Defense Chief Likely to Order Antipiracy Mission in March
  4. UK: Letters Prove US Warning
  5. Pakistan Frees Nuclear Dealer in Snub to U.S.
  6. Philippines’ Power Dilemma
  7. It’s Still a Mad MAD World, But For How Much Longer?

1. Diggers Urged to Double Offensive in Afghanistan, Patrick Walters, Australian, 2009-02-07

US military leaders want Australia to take the lead role in NATO-led coalition operations in Afghanistan’s Oruzgan province following an expected drawdown by Dutch forces. If the Rudd Government were to agree to NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan’s, request, this would mean at least a doubling of Australia’s current 800-strong military presence in the province.

2. Canadian Soldiers to Target Afghan Drug Trade Linked to Taliban, CBC News, 2009-02-06

Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan will be ordered to attack opium traffickers and drug facilities when there is proof of direct links to the Taliban, CBC News has learned. The new order follows a heated debate among NATO allies over whether the attacks could be declared war crimes.

3. Defense Chief Likely to Order Antipiracy Mission in March, Kyodo, Japan Times, 2009-02-09

Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada has said that he expects to issue an order in early March for Japanese destroyers to be dispatched to waters off Somalia for an antipiracy mission. If Hamada issues the order in early March, two Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers would arrive in waters off Somalia in late March at the earliest. The MSDF is also considering deploying several P-3C patrol aircraft as part of the antipiracy operations.

4. Letters Prove US Warning, Paola Totaro, Age, 2009-02-07

A flurry of letters between the British Foreign Office and the US State Department has revealed that Washington did threaten to withdraw intelligence-sharing with Britain if documents related to the alleged torture of a British terrorism detainee in Guantanamo Bay were made public.

5. Pakistan Frees Nuclear Dealer in Snub to U.S., Salman Masood and David E. Sanger, NYT, 2009-02-06

A Pakistani court freed one of the most successful nuclear proliferators in history, Abdul Qadeer Khan, from house arrest on Friday, lifting the restrictions imposed on him since 2004 when he publicly confessed to running an illicit nuclear network.

6. Philippines’ Power Dilemma, Alastair Mcindoe, Straits Times, 2009-02-06

Congressman Juan Miguel Arroyo, who heads the House of Representative’s energy panel, said the proposed BNPP Commissioning Act of 2008 now has the support of 190 of the House’s 238 lawmakers. The developments in Congress for reviving the plant have touched off a heated debate on whether the country should go nuclear to help meet its future energy needs. And, if yes, whether to revive the BNPP or start from scratch.

7. It’s Still a Mad MAD World, But For How Much Longer? Hamish McDonald, SMH, 2009-02-07

New studies in the US are suggesting that the Americans have quietly put themselves in a position where “mutually assured destruction”, or MAD, the foundation of deterrence, no longer applies – to them at least. Even if the Americans have no intention of using their first-strike capability, the Russians and Chinese could be led by the perception that they are at risk of a successful first disarming strike to short-term responses that are destabilising in themselves.

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