APSNet for 20070830
Austral Peace and Security Network (APSNet)
Twice weekly report from the Nautilus Institute at RMIT, Australia.
Thursday 30 August 2007
- Australia: $2Bn Deal for US Military Satellite
- Philippines: Calls for Action to Save Foreign Employees
- Downer Visits E Timor
- Jemaah Islamiah: Radicals in Retreat
- Britain: Army Gets New ‘Enhanced Blast’ Weapon to Fight Taliban
- Weapons Inspector Fears New Arms Race
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$2Bn Deal for US Military Satellite, Mark Dodd, Australian, 2007-08-28
Cabinet’s national security committee decided last week to share the Wideband Global SATCOM system rather than build an Australian-owned military communications satellite. The NSC opted for access to up to six new satellites being built by Boeing for the US army and air force. A Boeing spokesman confirmed the deal would probably come under a US government-approved foreign military sale.
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Transformational Wideband Communication Capabilities for the Warfighter, Integrated Defense Systems, Boeing
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Wideband Global Satcom Satellite, United States Air Force Space Command
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Wideband Gapfiller System, GlobalSecurity, 2006-01-28
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Calls for Action to Save Foreign Employees, Matthew Moore and Malcolm Knox, SMH, 2007-08-29
The Philippine Government has called on Australia to modify its 457 skilled visa scheme after the illegal treatment of immigrants, including two Filipinos who died in workplace accidents. The vice-consul in the Philippines embassy, Alexander Go, said a mechanism was needed to allow employees to freely voice concerns about their employment conditions, and even change jobs, without the threat of losing their visas.
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Skilled Worker Program under Scrutiny, Graeme Dobell with Kevin Andrews and Kevin Rudd, ABC, 2007-08-28 [Transcript]
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Australia and Slavery, Anti-Slavery Project, University of Technology Sydney
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Slavery Today, Anti-Slavery International, 2007-08-28
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Downer Visits E Timor, ABC, 2007-08-30
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer is visiting East Timor. It is the first visit by an Australian minister since the Gusmao Government was sworn in earlier this month. Mr Downer will meet East Timor’s political leaders and the United Nations special representative. Australia has 850 soldiers and 50 police in East Timor.
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Timor-Leste Civil Unrest, OCHA Situation Report 6, ReliefWeb, 2007-08-29
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Radicals in Retreat, Mark Forbes, Age, 2007-08-25
Australia’s “soft” war on Jemaah Islamiah has been the unsung success story of the fight against terror. In a swipe at those who had claimed Indonesia was not tough enough against suspects and should have outlawed JI, Indonesian Security Ministry counter-terrorism chief Ansyaad Mbai says a “soft, humane approach” contributed to the achievements – along with the Australian police training, equipment and assistance.
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Army Gets New ‘Enhanced Blast’ Weapon to Fight Taliban, Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian, 2007-08-23
British soldiers in Afghanistan are being supplied with a new “super weapon” to attack Taliban fighters more effectively, defence officials said yesterday. The “enhanced blast” weapon is based on thermobaric technology used in the powerful bombs dropped by the Russians to obliterate Grozny, the Chechen capital, and in US “bunker busters”.
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Analysis: How Thermobaric Bombs Work, BBC, 2002-03-04
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Weapons Inspector Fears New Arms Race, Sarah Smiles, Age, 2007-08-27
Former top UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has warned that Australian uranium sales to India could help the country generate nuclear weapons. He said Australian uranium sales could free up India to use its own uranium to create weapons-grade material and heighten tensions in the region. Dr Blix said the world had entered a dangerous period of rearmament
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Is Peace that Difficult? Hans Blix, Age, 2007-08-28
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Weapons of Terror: Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, June 2006
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Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, DFAT, August 1996
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