1. AFP to Form Paramilitary Wing
2. Haneef Charge Will Be Dropped: Lawyer
3. Afghanistan: Australian Forces Kill Civilian
4. India to Buy our Uranium
5. The US and the Southern Philippines’ Quagmire
6. Commonwealth to Assist Countries in Application over Continental Shelves

1. AFP to Form Paramilitary Wing, Mark Dodd, Australian, 2006-07-26

   The Australian Federal Police will form a 1200-strong paramilitary-style International Deployment Group to be equipped with the latest weaponry including armoured personnel carriers. Tenders are now being called for the vehicles designed to provide maximum protection for the specialised police unit. The force is expected to be at full strength next year, AFP officers told a Senate inquiry yesterday.

   • Inquiry into Australia’s Involvement in Peacekeeping, Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, 2006-11-08 [to report by 2007-08-16]

   • Submissions Received, Inquiry into Australia’s Involvement in Peacekeeping, Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, 2007-07-03

   • The Australian Federal Police Submission, Inquiry Into Australia’s Involvement In Peacekeeping Operations, Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, March 2007 [Primary source, PDF]

   • AFP in Afghanistan, Australian in Afghanistan, Nautilus Institute, 2007-05-24

   • Australian Federal Police, International Posts, AFP, July 2007

2. Haneef Charge Will Be Dropped: Lawyer, AAP, SMH, 2007-07-26

   A prominent criminal lawyer predicts the charge against accused terrorism supporter Mohamed Haneef will be dropped as early as tomorrow. Mr Faris said the case had been plagued by repeated bungles by Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigators and the inability of the commonwealth DPP to prosecute terrorism cases. He called for Mr Bugg and AFP commissioner Mick Keelty to resign. “Both organisations have failed the Australian public very badly,” Mr Faris said. “I think heads should roll and I think it’s really got to be Keelty … and Bugg.

   • Keelty Rejects Claims Haneef Case ‘About to Collapse’, ABC, 2007-07-26

3. Australian Forces Kill Civilian, Craig Skehan, SMH, 2007-07-26

   Hard on the heels of a warning by the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, that the “extreme use of force” by the US and its allies was resulting in an unacceptably high number of civilian deaths, Australian soldiers have shot and killed a civilian Afghan truck driver.

   • Casualties – Civilian, Australia in Afghanistan, Nautilus Institute, 2007-07-26

   • Who’s Still for the War in Afghanistan? Angus Reid, Tyee, 2007-07-23

   • The Human Cost – The Consequences of Insurgent Attacks in Afghanistan, ICG, April 2007

4. India to Buy our Uranium, Greg Sheridan, Australian, 2007-07-26

   Cabinet’s National Security Committee will shortly consider a submission from Mr Downer to allow Australia to sell uranium to India despite the nation not being a signatory to the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Canberra will not need to wait for full ratification by the US Senate to proceed. Australia plans to negotiate a nuclear safeguards agreement with India, governing the uses for Australian uranium.

5. The US and the Southern Philippines’ Quagmire, Working paper 144, Nathan Gilbert Quimpo, Asian Research Centre, July 2007 [PDF]

   Vanquishing the Abu Sayyaf may be the easy part. Finding a peaceful resolution to a very bloody and tangled ethnic conflict that has provided fertile ground for spawning terrorists constitutes the formidable challenge. Unless Washington grapples fully with the southern Philippines’ complexities, its peace efforts may amount to nothing. Frustration with another failed peace pact could help spawn new Abu Sayyafs.

6. Commonwealth to Assist Countries in Application over Continental Shelves, RNZI, 2007-07-26

   The Commonwealth Secretariat is to provide legal advice and technical assistance to Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Tonga for submissions to the United Nations on their continental shelves. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country can put in a claim to extend the areas of their continental shelf beyond the traditional 200 nautical miles but must do so by mid 2009.

   • Economic Exclusion Zones, The Sea Around Us, University of British Columbia

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