Category: DMZ-Hawai’i / Aloha ‘Aina In the News

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NATIVE HAWAIIANS & CHAMORRO (GUAM) WARN AUSTRALIA OVER TALISMAN SABRE 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 2007

NATIVE HAWAIIANS & CHAMORRO (GUAM) WARN AUSTRALIA OVER TALISMAN SABRE 2007

Two indigenous Native Hawaiian activists and a Chamorro (GUAM) activist visiting Central Queensland expressed their shock and outrage at the destruction being inflicted on the local environment by the Talisman Sabre US/Australian joint military exercises.

” We are appalled that there will be live firing, bombing and sonar testing on the Great Barrier reef and in the habitat of endangered dugong, whales and green turtles,” said Terri Keko’olani of DMZ Hawai’i Aloha ‘Aina.

Terri Keko’olani & Leimaile Quitevis from DMZ Hawaii Aloha ‘Aina and Fanai Castro from Guam (GUÅHAN) are in Australia to support the protest against the 30,000 strong US/Australia war games.

“We are also appalled at the complete indifference of the Australian Department of Defense in asserting that the war games will not be interrupted simply because 7 peace activists are occupying the military danger zone,” said Leimaile Quitevis

“The demands of the peace protestors include: stop the war games, no more military exercises, close the Shoalwater Bay base, and return the land to the indigenous people,” said Denis Doherty, national co-ordinator of the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition, one of the peace protest organizers.

” In 1976 I occupied the island of Kaho’olawe to stop live bombing by the US military, said Terri Keko’olani. ” My heart goes out to June Norman, a 66 year old grandmother who is presently occupying the Shoalwater Bay training area to stop live bombing of an environment considered to be a world heritage treasure. ”

Fanai Castro of the Organization of People for Indigenous Rights (OPI-R) added, “There is no justification for the toxic contamination of our lands and waters, therefore we uphold the actions demonstrated here to protect these precious resources.” She continued, ” This Peace action is significant in that it brings together a diversity of people who believe that, beyond war, another world is possible.”

For further information, please contact:
Denis Doherty on 0418 290 663 or Dr Hannah Middleton on 0418 668 098.
Terri Kekoolani, Leimaile Quitevis and Fanai Castro can be contacted on either of these numbers.

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GUAM AND HAWAII BRING WARNING ABOUT MILITARY EXERCISES

PEACE CONVERGENCE – MEDIA RELEASE – 20 JUNE 2007
GUAM AND HAWAII BRING WARNING ABOUT MILITARY EXERCISES

Three international guests arrived in Yeppoon – Rockhampton on Wednesday to add their voices to the protest of over 500 Australians concerned about the Australian-US Talisman Sabre 2007 military exercises at Shoalwater Bay Training Area near Yeppoon, central Queensland.

Coming from Guam and Hawaii, the three women carry warnings about the social, political, Indigenous rights, health and environmental price paid by small communities when their homelands become militarised.

A Welcome Ceremony was held at the Rockhampton Airport by the Fitzroy Basin Elders. They were also welcomed by the Peace Convergence which is protesting the military exercises. The Guam and Hawaiian visitors responded with chanting and the giving of gifts.

The guest from Guam is Fanai Castro from the Organisation of Peoples for Indigenous Rights. OPIR campaigns for the Indigenous right to an act of self-determination and opposes the expansion of US militarisation of their small island.

>From Hawaii, Terri Keko’olani and Leimaile Quitevis represent the Demilitarize Zone Hawaii Aloha ‘Aina, a pan-Hawai’ian movement for demilitarisation and Indigenous rights.

All three women are Indigenous rights activists in their respective countries and identify militarisation as one of the manifestations of ongoing colonialism.

“Our guests have firsthand experience of the impact of militarisation on people’s lives. They bring a timely warning about the real price paid by local people when their home communities become militarised,” Dr Zohl de Ishtar from the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Queensland. Dr de Ishtar is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

“It is an honour to receive such a welcoming from the Indigenous elders, since it is with us Indigenous peoples that the atrocities of colonialism first made its mark. In these days it seems that militarisation is the new colonialism,” said Fanai Castro a Chamoru (Indigenous) social justice activist from Guam.

“Shoalwater Bay Training Area is the only facility in the north-western Pacific which provides such extensive air-land-sea live-fire training capacity to the US military. Many of the planes, ships and submarines participating in the exercises come are homebased in or transit through Guam. Hawaii is the headquarters of the Pacific Command under whose jurisdiction the Talisman Sabre exercises fall,” said Dr Zohl de Ishtar.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Dr Zohl de Ishtar, Phone: 0429 422 645
Australia Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Queensland

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Airborne – depleted uranium in Hawai’i

Airborne

The lowdown on depleted uranium in Hawai’i

Keith Bettinger
Jun 13, 2007

‘Damage control’ has taken on a new meaning over the past year as military officials grapple with episode after episode of discarded and forgotten munitions. In addition to the tons of chemical weapons dumped offshore and conventional weapons of unknown origin resting on the sea floor at Wai’anae’s Ordnance Reef, the U.S. Army is now confronted with the remnants of depleted uranium at the site of at least one of its installations.

Adding fuel to the fire is a recent visit by globetrotting depleted uranium enfant terrible Leuren Moret and a subsequent television news story describing elevated radiation readings on the Big Island. While the readings, which were obtained in an uncontrolled environment and have not been replicated, are by no means a smoking gun, they illustrate how the military and state officials respond to signals of a possible contamination threat.

Military officials insist the recent findings pose no danger, but many residents are demanding independent verification that everything is in fact OK. According to some, the recent findings are just more evidence that the Army is irresponsibly polluting the Islands.

In light of this, we have endeavored to sort out what is known and unknown, and what is truth and speculation, about depleted uranium across the archipelago.

Depleted uranium (DU) is a byproduct of the enriching process that creates fuel for nuclear reactors, and it is used because it is able to penetrate armor. According to the World Health Organization, depleted uranium emits about 60 percent of the radiation as natural uranium. In its natural state it is not especially dangerous; it is described as weakly radioactive, comparable to some naturally occurring materials. However, DU burns when heated to 170 degrees Celsius and aerosolizes, forming microscopic particles that are easily dispersed by the wind. When inhaled these particles make their way into the blood stream and cause health problems.

Some researchers believe that DU exposure is responsible for Gulf War Syndrome, which has afflicted thousands of combat veterans since the first Gulf War, but there is no conclusive evidence indicating a link.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says that elevated doses of DU can lead to cancer and that aerosolized DU from training ranges can make its way into the food chain. Although there seems to be no conclusive evidence as to the health effects of DU, health experts advise caution since no one really understands the potential for harm.

Cold War relic

The most concrete finding is the recent discovery of spotting rounds for ‘Davy Crocket’ tactical nuclear weapons at Schofield Barracks. Davy Crockets are a relic of the Cold War and were used between 1961 and 1968. The spotting rounds contained depleted uranium because its weight is similar to that of the actual nuclear weapons (which were never fired in Hawai’i) and were used to estimate trajectories.

Several tail assemblies were unearthed at Schofield by contractors working on Stryker brigade construction, causing work to slow as special safety procedures were put in place. There is some suspicion that these munitions were also used at Makua Military Reservation and at Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island. As of yet there has been no evidence to support this, but perhaps more importantly there has been no testing.

Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, state adjutant general and highest homeland security official, says that DU munitions have never been used in training where armor piercing is required in Hawai’i and that there is no reason to be concerned about DU contamination.

‘Leuren turned the counter on, and it started out at 30, and soon was up to 40, then 50. Over a two hour period the high was 93.’-Big Island resident Doug Fox

‘People don’t know the whole story. It’s only used to blow up enemy tanks and armor. Once that is done DU munitions are not used. None of my troops that were called up even handled DU,’ he says, referring to National Guard troops that had been deployed to Iraq.

DU is currently used in tank ammunition, rounds for the A-10 and Harrier aircraft, Bradley Fighting Vehicle rounds and ammunition for the Navy’s Phalanx CIWS defense system. In 1994, two rounds containing DU were accidentally fired into the Ko’olau Mountains north of ‘Aiea from the Phalanx. Though no damage or injuries were reported, the rounds were never recovered.

The Army also says that depleted uranium munitions are not and have never been used on the Hawaiian Islands. Though the recent discovery of the tail assemblies would seem to contradict the official statement, the Army maintains that the Davy Crocket spotting rounds are a different class of munitions. It is a subtle semantic separation, but a significant one. It suggests that while things are clear now, there is no way to know what is buried beneath the ground. Currently a special license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is required to fire and store DU munitions in the United States. There are no such permits for any of the military facilities on the Hawaiian Islands except for the Naval storage magazine at Lualualei. However, it is unclear whether there was any permit for the Davy Crocket spotting rounds.

Kamoa Quiteis, the field director of the cultural monitors who supervised clearance for Styrker Brigade construction and transformation at Schofield Barracks, was on hand when the first of the tail assemblies were discovered. (The presence of Cultural Monitors is required by law; they safeguard relics and sites of special significance.)

‘They initially found 15 tail assemblies, but recently they have found more,’ he says.

Quiteis explains that while widely circulated rumors of open burning of the tail assembles are not true, there is regular open burning on the ranges at Schofield to maintain a clear line of sight. These fires often cause unexploded ordnance on the range to detonate.

‘Our concern is, are the fires aerosolizing these fin assemblies?’ Quiteis says. ‘And how much DU gets kicked into the air when they do live-fire exercises?’

Quiteis was also concerned about contamination of streams that feed into Kaukonahua stream, which flows through taro and other agricultural fields in Waialua.

A foul wind

In addition to the findings at Schofield, concern has been increasing recently among residents of the Big Island over possible depleted uranium contamination. These concerns stem from some elevated radiation readings obtained on a hand-held Geiger counter. ‘We had a strange windy day with winds coming from the direction of Pohakuloa. Leuren (Moret) turned the counter on, and it started out at 30, and soon was up to 40, then 50. Over a two hour period the high was 93,’ said Doug Fox, a Kona resident who was present when the readings were taken.

Normal readings for Kona, according to Fox, are between two and 15 counts per minute. ‘We were quite shocked.’

Fox and visiting activist Moret conducted an informal survey from Cape Kumukahi up through the Saddle Road and the Mauna Loa access measuring soil and collecting samples. Fox indicated that the elevated readings were obtained during Stryker maneuvers at Pohakuloa. Findings were broadcast by a local television news station, but official comment has treated these findings as an unreliable artifact.

‘Something is being released and is impacting a number of people,’ says Fox. ‘We do know that the military said it didn’t use DU here, but we know that it did,’ referring to the spotting rounds found at Schofield.

In the wake of these findings a citizens’ monitoring movement is taking shape on the Big Island. ‘I’ve been running a Geiger counter all the time for the past two and half weeks. I download all the data×We are trying to put information out because there is a lot of bogus stuff,’ says Kona resident Gunther Monkowski. ‘I don’t want to put out false information×so far I think [my readings] are still in the natural radiation scope.’

Fox also says that he has not been able to replicate the elevated reading. ‘It is an anomaly, but when you have an anomaly, you have to investigate it. I’ve satisfied myself that it is reality,’ he says.

The group is working on compiling the results into a database and making them available to the public. Results should be available soon at [www.world-peace-society.org].

Monkowski says that his meter had the highest possible accuracy and was used frequently by professionals. Fox told Honolulu Weekly that a number of people have ordered counters, and so they should soon have five to 12 monitoring stations up and running around Pohakuloa.

The silent treatment

A perceived failure to address the issue does not help the Army’s credibility. Despite a promised interview with Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Environment, Safety and Occupational Health Tad Davis, the Army refused to comment for this story.

Davis recently made several appearances in Hawai’i to discuss discarded munitions at Wai’anae and World War II-era chemical weapons dumps and expressed a willingness to discuss DU on the record. However, Davis ultimately did not respond to our requests for an interview.

Previous media accounts indicate that the Army will conduct radiological testing this summer at Schofield, Makua military reservation and Pohakuloa, but when this will happen and who will be involved is a mystery. Nor are there any answers to questions regarding the extent of the Davy Crocket firings on the Islands or records of these firings. Difficulty in obtaining information from the military is not an isolated phenomenon, as local NGOs frequently complain of obscurantism and obstructionism.
‘Our concern is, are the fires aerosolizing these fin assemblies? And how much DU gets kicked into the air when they do live-fire exercises?’ -Kamoa Quiteis

Kyle Kajihiro, program director of the American Friends Service Committee says the military in Hawai’i has a history of not quite telling the whole truth. ‘The problem of something like DU for example comes from the fact that the military is so pervasive and no one has held them accountable,’ he says. ‘They have too much power, and they tend to abuse it.’

Citizens concerned about their health report similar difficulties. ‘We were trying to get information about the hazards from the Army, but we never really got the information,’ says Quiteis.

Transparency now

If the Army isn’t saying anything, though, state officials and local representatives are taking notice. State Rep. Josh Green (6th District Kailua-Kona) introduced a bill (HB 1452) during the recently ended legislative session calling for testing around military reservations in response to the findings at Schofield.

‘We felt very strongly that we ought to know if there is depleted uranium in the state,’ Green says.

The bill was subsequently scaled down in committee but was passed by both the House and Senate before stalling in conference committee due to a lack of funding. ‘I encountered no one who was against the bill in principle,’ the state representative adds. ‘My understanding is that we just ran out of funds.’

Green, a medical doctor and legislator known for environment-friendly bills, says that he would try to get the bill passed next year.

Before HB 1452 stalled out, it ran into opposition from the military and the state. ‘The bill wanted to have a state incursion onto federal property, which we can’t do,’ says Lee, who testified against the bill. ‘Our intention was not to kill the bill, but to have the state [Department of Health] work with the army.’

Department of Health (DOH) Program Manager for Noise, Radiation and Indoor Air Quality Branch Russell Takata explained that the DOH’s opposition was procedural. ‘It’s a legal obstacle for DOH to test on federal property.’

‘It’s really a shame that the Legislature let it die,’ says Kajihiro, who testified in support of the bill. ‘It was a minimal step×but it has helped to raise the public awareness and stimulate discussion on the issue.’

The Health Department has also looked into alleged elevated readings on the Big Island. Takata says that his department took readings but found nothing out of the ordinary. ‘We did go down there, and we will do this periodically,’ he says.

Takata welcomes the monitoring efforts of citizens, but urges them to be aware that their reading my be inaccurate. ‘It’s good in that when there is some type of emergency there is always an insufficient number of meters,’ he says. ‘However, for precise background measurements they should buy better equipment.’

According to Takata, many hand-held Geiger counters are not considered by experts to be accurate in the lower ranges, because they cannot precisely pick up the energies of hundreds of different radio isotopes that are naturally occurring. He adds that meters should be calibrated once a year.

Takata’s department provides training for first responders and emergency workers. This includes six hours of classroom instruction and hands-on training for specific meters, tailored to the types of equipment participants have. There is no charge for the training, and Takata says the department would be willing to work with Big Island residents to better utilize their equipment.

‘There have been a lot of claims lately, and a lot is unscientific.’ Lee indicated that more testing was required before any action was taken. ‘Remnants are still out there,’ he says of Schofield. ‘That’s why the Army is coming: to get the information to prepare a remediation strategy.’

In response to the readings on the Big Island, the 93rd Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team was deployed to take readings and check the air filters of Humvees. ‘I’m in charge of homeland security, and so it’s of enormous concern to me,’ says Lee. ‘They have the best equipment on the Islands and could find nothing above background radiation.’

Local groups want the military to be more forthcoming and to cooperate in testing. They say at the very least the state should be involved. ‘A suitable solution would be for the state to participate in every level and to be a partner at every step of the way,’ says Marti Townsend of KAHEA, The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, a coalition of environmental and native Hawaiian advocates throughout the Islands.

‘We’re having to take health protection efforts into our own hands,’ says Townsend of the Geiger counter movement.

However, for many citizens, nothing short of completely independent testing and monitoring will suffice. Lorrin Pang, a consultant with the World Health Organization, is suspicious of official statements. ‘You really have to pin [the Army] down,’ Pang says. ‘What are they really saying? It’s always vague.’

Pang echoes the sentiment of many on the Big Island, calling for independent, unannounced testing.

‘There must be transparency,’ he says. ‘Give us references. Don’t tell us what you think.’

Pang served for 24 years in the Army Medical Corp and says he is familiar with the bureaucracy. He says, ‘I’ve seen how this system works. I don’t love it, and I don’t hate it. I just know how it can be.’

So, it’s clear that DU has been used on the Islands. It will probably continue to pop up from time to time. The danger of the old assemblies is debatable. It’s also likely that radiation readings on the Big Island can be attributed to calibration or user errors, rather than surreptitious and illegal use of DU munitions. Likely is by no means certainly, though. DU is just the latest chapter in a long saga, and it is telling that Hawai’i has learned to keep one eye on its military tenants. 

Keith Bettinger can be reached at [email: kisu1492]‘

Source: http://honoluluweekly.com/cover/2007/06/airborne/

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U.S. Ramps Up Missile Tests in the Pacific

June 3, 2007

U.S. Ramps Up Missile Tests in the Pacific

by John Lasker

Earlier this year, when China blasted one of its satellites into thousands of little floating pieces, it was condemned by Washington as a provocative act.

But some arms-control experts believe Beijing was baring its teeth to send the White House a different message. They say that China, which has consistently opposed the weaponization of space, is hoping to negotiate an arms treaty that would rein in both nations’ growing arsenal of so-called “space weapons.”

Just days later, on Jan. 27, Beijing seemingly had its answer. On the western shore of Hawaii’s Kauai Island, the U.S.’s ground-based Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, shot down a dummy ballistic missile over the southern Pacific as it skirted the edge of space roughly 110 kilometers high.

Analysts say the George W. Bush administration is turning its back on any new space weapons treaty because it would ground many parts of the U.S.’s emerging missile defense shield. One such treaty is PAROS, the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space – a treaty China initiated at the United Nations in 1985 and has pressed for ever since.

The existing international regime, known as the Outer Space Treaty, entered into force in 1967 and critics – who include experts like Hans Blix, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector – say it is hopelessly outdated.

However, Washington has made it clear that the U.S. has no intention of endorsing new restrictions.

“Arms control is not a viable solution for space,” a U.S. State Department official told Space News on Jan. 19. “For example, there is no agreement on how to define a space weapon. Without a definition you are left with loopholes and meaningless limitations that endanger national security.”

Pentagon officials insist the U.S. is not seeking to put weapons in Earth’s orbit. Its space research, which is funneling billions to aerospace contractors such as Lockheed Martin, is strictly for defense, they say.

But arms control experts suggest that this rhetoric has failed to assuage China’s anxieties.

“So many defensive capabilities have inherent offensive applications as well,” said Theresa Hitchens, a space weapons expert at the Center for Defense Information, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington.

China’s ASAT, or anti-satellite test, may have also been a response to the US’s new National Space Policy doctrine released in late 2006, wrote Hitchens in a recent issue of the Air Force’s High Frontier Journal.

The new “NSP” states: “The U.S. considers space capabilities vital to its national interests. The U.S. will preserve its freedom of action in space [and will] dissuade or deter others from either impeding those rights, and take those actions necessary to protect its space capabilities.”

Hitchens says there is a more “aggressive tone inherent in this policy” and that it “rejects any limits on U.S. actions in space.” She adds, “This strategy, this policy, more aggressively articulates a space war fighting strategy.”

Meanwhile, the Pentagon continues to intensify its focus on the Pacific Rim, where it has dispatched a very strange-looking, very high-tech ship.

The vessel is actually a revamped oil-drilling platform, and centered on its top, roughly 20 stories above the ocean, is its most striking feature — a white globe so immense it could engulf the middle of a soccer field.

Hidden inside the inflated white ball is the clue to this ship’s ultimate mission: A radar dish so powerful it can decipher a real ballistic missile from a dummy missile, claims the U.S. military.

The vessel is actually a new and important piece in the growing arsenal that is the US’s missile defense program, which is now run by the MDA, or Missile Defense Agency. Some have dubbed the agency the “Son of Star Wars,” a 1980s-era program to deploy missiles in space, and the strange ship is the MDA’s billion-dollar Sea Based X-Band Radar.

Last year, the Sea Based X-Band Radar was witnessed off the coasts of Hawaii. It was taking part in an unknown number of missile defense tests, said the MDA. Space weapons experts suggest it could also decipher space debris from a “killer” micro-satellite.

Indeed, all sorts of missile defense tests are on the rise around the Islands, say Hawaiian peace activists, who believe they are intended to intimidate Asian “Tigers” such as China and North Korea.

“The increasing missile defense tests are a destabilizing factor,” said Kyle Kajihiro, director of the Honolulu-based DMZ Hawaii. “The tests are provoking an arms race in the region between nuclear powers.”

Since being recently relocated from a New Mexico desert, the MDA’s ground-based THAAD has a perfect “hit to kill” ratio.

But it is the ship-based “Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System” that is creating more tension for China. Since 2004, the MDA and the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor have launched missile-like “interceptors” to obliterate at least eight dummy ballistic missiles in space or in the atmosphere.

What is so unnerving for Beijing is that Japan has spent millions to arm several of its own battleships with this missile defense.

Ships with the “Aegis” technology have tremendous reach, say experts, thus exposing more satellites to a shoot-down. In Greek mythology, “Aegis” is the name of the shield used by Zeus.

The U.S. Air Force is also researching ground-based lasers. On a summit of Mount Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui, the Air Force helps run the Maui Space Surveillance Site. The military contends the site is for astronomical research, and has powerful telescopes that can detect rogue asteroids.

“I’m not buying any of it,” said Kajihiro. Lasers that can “paint” satellites – so to guide interceptors to their target – are being tested there as well, he told IPS.

However, Greg Kulacki, an expert on the Chinese military at the Union of Concerned Scientists, says the theory that China’s ASAT test was a call for a space-weapons arms treaty “is just not true.”

Kulacki has spoken to Chinese scientists who work for the military’s defense labs. They told him the ASAT test was a “20-year-old end-result to an ASAT program that began in the mid-80s.”

Even though China is spending more and more on its military, says Kulacki, Beijing no longer subscribes to the theory the U.S. may someday contain China’s growing thirst for oil by “choking off its sea lanes.”

Nevertheless, many still believe U.S. forces positioned around China could deny its people resources in the event of war. And as missile defense tests are ramped-up in the Pacific, one expert says such tests makes many Chinese even more worried about the eagle’s shadow.

“The Chinese don’t like America’s offensive posture in the Pacific; they don’t like it one bit,” says University of Hawaii professor Oliver M. Lee, who was born in Shanghai, and studies Sino-American relations.

He says most Chinese believe “the U.S. Navy controls the Pacific Ocean.” They also feel that China’s military build-up is for defense. only, he says.

For the last several years, Lee, Kajihiro of DMZ Hawaii and many others have been fighting a plan by the Pentagon to bring 300 U.S. Army Strykers to the Islands.

The Stryker uproar reflects Hawaii’s internal debate over its militarization, says Kajihiro.

Why would the islands need hundreds of armored vehicles that are loaded with exotic weapons and also easily transported by plane?

“That’s the forty-thousand-dollar question,” says Kajihiro. “We’ve asked that over and over again, and no good explanation was ever given.”

(Inter Press Service)

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Hawai’i representatives participate in Demonstrations against Talisman Sabre

June 2007

DMZ Hawai’i/Aloha Aina Head to Australia to Particpate in Solidary Actions Opposing Talisman Sabre 07 – OZ/US Joint Military Exercises

Operation Talisman Sabre is scheduled to taking place over a six week period from the end of May to 2 July 2007. According to the Public Environment Report released October 2006 it will involve approximately 13,700 US personnel and 12,400 Australian personnel. Indigenous Chamoru and Hawaiians arrived in Australia to demonstrate solidarity with Indigenous Darumbal elders and to raise awareness within the Peace Convergence – a week of activities protesting the Australian-US military exercises called Talisman Sabre.

For more information on the actions, visit the following Australia-based websites:

Shoalwater Bay

Peace Convergence

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Abolishing the bases of war: AFSC works to eliminate foreign U.S. military bases

The following article was published in the AFSC newsletter in 2007 following the inaugural conference of the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases in Quito, Ecuador.

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Abolishing the bases of war

AFSC works to eliminate foreign U.S. military bases

By KYLE KAJIHIRO

Little known to most Americans is the vast scope of the United States’ network of military bases world wide — more than 2,600 bases in the United States and its territories, some 730 foreign bases, and nearly 100 temporary bases.

These bases not only make it possible for the United States to wage wars, but also increase the likelihood that the country will go to war rather than pursue nonviolent strategies to resolve conflicts. Because of their impact on local communities, military bases have sparked widespread protest.


International Women’s Day rally during the military bases conference in Ecuador.

Hawai’i is a case in point. The U.S. military in Hawai’i has displaced entire communities and generations of families from their ancestral lands and accelerated the influx of foreign settlers, impeding Hawaiians’ efforts at self-determination. It has destroyed ecosystems and sacred places, and endangered community health with widespread military contamination. It also has exacerbated violence, crime, accidents, and had a negative impact on other aspects of Hawaiian society, economics, and culture. In response, the AFSC Hawai’i Area Program has made demilitarization a priority of our peace building work for more than thirty years. In 1976, AFSC staff participated in the first boatload of protestors to land on the Hawaiian sacred island of Kaho‘olawe in the successful campaign to stop the Navy bombing.

AFSC-Hawai’i continues to work with communities struggling to stop military expansion and promote the clean up and return of lands in Makua, Pohakuloa, Wahiawa, Nohili, and other sites.

Elsewhere, AFSC programs have had a similarly positive impact on demilitarization efforts.

In the Philippines, the AFSC supported the “People Power” movement that ended the violent Marcos dictatorship and ousted U.S. bases from their country. In Puerto Rico, the AFSC supported the successful campaigns to end the military bombing of Culebra in 1975, and Vieques in 2003. AFSC programs also stood in solidarity with anti-bases movements in Okinawa, Guam, Korea, the Marshall Islands, and Japan.

AFSC’s efforts to eliminate foreign U.S. military bases reached a new apex this past March when an AFSC delegation participated in the International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases in Quito, Ecuador. There, AFSC staff joined more than four hundred grassroots peace and justice activists from forty countries. It was the largest meeting ever of grassroots leaders of the anti-military bases movement.

Participants shared stories about their struggles, forged relationships of mutual solidarity, took to the streets to protest the U.S. base in Manta, Ecuador, and, most importantly, launched a global network for the abolition of foreign military bases.


Demonstration against U.S. military
expansion in Hawai’i.

The conference proclaimed a powerful, shared vision of a world free from what renowned scholar and author Chalmers Johnson has dubbed “The Empire of Bases.” It also helped create strategic alliances among movements.

AFSC’s leadership and support contributed to the success of this historic gathering.

Through its Ecuador office, AFSC supported and contributed to the efforts of the conference’s organizing committee to hold the gathering in Ecuador. AFSC’s experience in the region has taught us the connections between human rights conditions of communities subjected to toxic fumigation, chronic violence along the border between Colombia and Ecuador, and the U.S. base in Manta.

A delegation from the conference met with Ecuador’s newly elected president, Rafael Correa, who expressed his thanks and reiterated his commitment to end the agreement allowing U.S. military use of the Manta base. Unfortunately, this would not prevent the U.S. from establishing a base elsewhere in the region.

While the conference marked an important milestone in the global anti-bases movement, it is just part of a continuing process of awakening, convergence, and movement building that will be an enduring gift from Ecuador, the “Middle of the World.”

Kyle Kajihiro is the director of AFSC’s Hawai’i Area Program.

For more information on AFSC’s work on military bases log onto www.afsc.org/no-bases. Also go to www.abolishbases.org for information about the International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases.

By the numbers

Number of foreign military bases: 1,000+
(from the U.S., Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and Italy)
Note: These do not include secret military bases, like the four operated by the U.S. in Iraq.

Number of U.S. foreign military bases: 737 (officially)
Many estimate the true number to be more than 1,000

Number of U.S. soldiers deployed overseas: 2.5 million+

Number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq: 133,000 (as of March 2006)

For more information, see AFSC’s “10 Reasons Why U.S. Military Bases Must Go” at www.afsc.org/no-bases/
ten-reasons.pdf

A history of aggression

In January 1893, U.S. troops invaded and overthrew the government of the sovereign Kingdom of Hawai’i to secure access to a military port at Keawalau o Pu‘uloa—the original name for Pearl Harbor. This illegal act of war, for which the U.S. formally apologized in 1993, violated numerous treaties and international laws and is the fundamental source of conflict between the Hawaiian pro-independence and human rights movement and the U.S. government.

With the outbreak of war with Spain in 1898, the United States occupied Hawai’i and expanded its military bases there—bases that have been subsequently used in every major U.S. war.

Today, the Gatling guns that once were aimed at the ‘Iolani Palace have evolved into the complex of bases, troops, weapons systems, and infrastructure that comprise the Pacific Command, the oldest and largest of the unified military commands.

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Washed Ashore

Washed ashore

Keith Bettinger

Apr 11, 2007

It’s a refrain that has become frighteningly familiar: Relics of a long forgotten military operation turn up where they aren’t supposed to be, causing alarm in the community. An often frustrating and fruitless quest for answers follows, further straining the relationship between the civilian population of Hawai’i and its military tenants. This time the area in question is Ordnance Reef off of Poka’i Bay, and the relics in question are small, fibrous pellets that burn intensely when exposed to open flame. These tiny pellets are reportedly igniters for large artillery rounds and rockets left over from World War II.

According to reports in the local press, Army officials claim that ordnance dumped less than a mile from shore is not a threat to the fish and other marine life that inhabit the reef. The Army also stated that the dump does not pose a danger to the people who eat the fish around the reef or who swim in its waters.

Wai’anae residents believe differently. For them, the coast is not clear.

In May 2006, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducted a survey of the ordnance site off Wai’anae. The study was part of the Ordnance Reef Project, which was under the direction of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Environment, Safety and Occupational Health. The study employed biological, sediment and water sampling. It indicates that overall trace metals in sediments are very low and that there is little evidence of contamination of the area from discarded munitions.

But questions and concerns remain. Why? Technically speaking, the headlines of a few weeks proclaiming that it’s all clear off the Wai’anae Coast are wrong.

According to Michael Overfield, marine archaeologist with NOAA and coauthor of the report, it is a jump to say that the report concluded the reef is safe. The Army’s Office for Munitions and Chemical Matters made that conclusion, not NOAA.

‘I personally have seen grenades, grenade cans and grenade pins in 80 feet of water…I’ve got [a grenade pin] sitting on my desk’

-Waianae harbormaster William Aila

Erroneous conclusions aside, others believe the report itself is flawed. William Aila, Jr., longtime Wai’anae harbormaster, takes issue with the methodology used in analyzing the fish. He explains that the analysis didn’t target specific parts of the fish (i.e. organs) where metals or contaminants might accumulate. Instead, technicians ‘homogenized’ the fish, blending its parts together.

Others complain that the fish that were analyzed are not the kinds of fish that people eat (one of the objectives of the study was to collect fish species that are ‘harvested for human consumption’). Although the moano, the main fish taken from the Ordnance Reef area is a common food, Aila and others argue that there would be better choices.

‘The moano eats above the sand. It doesn’t eat the algae from the coral,’ the harbormaster says. ‘They should have picked a fish that people eat that are close to the coral. Those other fish [malamalama, humuhumu mimi, maka’a] are not fish that people eat.’

Aila speculates that the moano was chosen because that is the only fish researchers could catch.

Overfield points out that the choice of fish was determined by NOAA. He adds, ‘Unfortunately with fish, they don’t volunteer themselves to jump on your spear.’

Residents present at a Wai’anae neighborhood also questioned why there are so few fish swimming around the reef; these questions seemed to contradict comments made by one of the NOAA report’s coauthors to a briefing that the area was ‘teeming with life.’

Overfield says, ‘I saw a lot of reef fish down there. I saw a lot of coral growth as well. Coming out of Pˆka’i Bay to where there were large concentrations of munitions×We saw a lot of coral.’

However, one divemaster present at the meeting said quite pointedly, ‘That reef is dead.’

Uncovering the source

Sometime in the early 1920s the Army started dumping munitions at sea. These dumps included tremendous amounts of captured and unused chemical weapons. Around 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents along with 500 tons of radioactive waste are documented; the actual total including undocumented dumpings and dumpings for which records have been lost are likely higher.

‘They should have picked a fish that people eat that are close to the coral. Those other fish are not fish that people eat’

-William Aila

This activity continued until 1970, when public concerns prompted Congress to prohibit the practice. Now the Army is working to chronicle the history of chemical weapons dumping in an effort to see if there is any potential danger.

In a public study released in 2001, the Army’s Historical Research and Response Team identified 26 sites around the globe where the armed forces disposed of chemical agents in the ocean between World War II and 1970. (Other older sites are likely; the dumping of chemical weapons was common after World War I.) The report documents three sites in Hawai’i.

The first site was off Wai’anae, and the dump was made in late 1945. The report states that material was loaded at Wai’anae ‘to avoid moving the munitions through densely populated areas’ and that ‘the exact location of the sea disposal is unknown.’ This incident included over 4,000 tons of chemicals munitions, including hydrogen cyanide bombs, cyanogens chloride bombs, mustard bombs and lewisite.

The second dump occurred in 1944 off Pearl Harbor and included 4,220 tons of ‘unspecified toxics [sic] [and] hydrogen cyanide.’ The report notes that this material was probably loosely dumped and speculates that this is likely the source of a mortal round that injured a dredging crew in 1976.

The third documented dump occurred in 1944 ‘about five miles off of O’ahu’ and included around 16,000 100-pound mustard bombs or around 8,000 tons of chemical munitions. No one seems to know where this dumpsite is.

Although ‘the exact location is unknown,’ the Army knows where the chemical weapons should be. According to Department of War directives in effect in 1944, disposal sites were required to be at least 300 feet deep and 10 miles from the shore. In 1945 the policy was revised, changing the depth requirement to 600 feet. The policy was revised again in 1946, requiring a 6,000 foot depth for chemicals and 3,000 feet for explosive ammunition.

It is clear that the records don’t match regulations. It is also clear from other reports that munitions are often not where they are supposed to be-more are probably in places nobody has thought to look.

Currently, the Department of Defense is putting the finishing touches on a more comprehensive report covering ocean chemical weapons sites. It is expected to be released in the next month or so.

And while this new report will lead to more questions being asked and an increase in the number of folks calling for a cleanup, for now, though, there are more immediate problems lurking just off shore.

Hawaiian Jade

The munitions at Wai’anae have been found much closer than 10 miles from shore. The so-called Ordnance Reef or 5-Inch Reef (named for the presence of large, 5-inch diameter shells) ranges from .3 to 1.2 miles offshore. According to Aila, munitions have been found right off the Poka’i Bay break wall, less than 50 yards off shore at a location known to divers as Ammo Reef. Moreover, the previously mentioned cigarette-filter-size flammable nodules that have been described as ‘nitrocellulose propellant charges’ have been washing up on the shore for more than 50 years.

‘Another homeless person told me that these tablets are what we used to use to start bonfires. I lit it with a lighter and the thing just shot off. I blew it out and it restarted again by itself.’

-Alice Greenwood

‘We’ve found full-on artillery shells,’ says Aila, who has called the Navy’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit twice over the past 20 years. ‘I personally have seen grenades, grenade cans and grenade pins in 80 feet of water. I’ve got one sitting on my desk.’

Aila explains that there is probably ordnance he doesn’t know about: ‘Often times people don’t tell me because it’s an interesting dive site, and they don’t want me to have the ordnance removed.’

The report and the munitions were on the April 3 meeting agenda for the Wai’anae Neighborhood Board No. 24. During the meeting board member Paul K. Pomaikai said, ‘Tonight I’m going to make an action to set a date to start the cleanup. I say that we take it all the way to Washington, D.C.’

He adds, ‘When it hits the tourists in Waikiki, then we do something? We don’t know what else is going to wash up. The stuff that doesn’t wash up is what worries me. The stuff that gets in our coral and in our fishes.’
That night the board passed a motion to ‘demand the military clean up the reef, shore and ocean starting June 1, 2007, in Wai’anae.’

According to observers, the board was uncharacteristically unanimous regarding this issue. ‘There are some real pro-military people on that board,’ says Fred Dodge, a local physician and activist familiar with the issue. ‘The fact that they went along with the motion shows how united they are on this.’

Alice Greenwood, a lifelong resident of Wai’anae, says she first learned of the pellets from the beach’s homeless residents.

“Look, this is ‘Hawaiian Jade”, [the homeless person] told me. I took the tablet and showed it around. Another homeless person told me that these tablets are what [they] used to use to start bonfires,’ she says. ‘I lit it with a lighter, and the thing just shot off. I blew it out, and it restarted again by itself.’

Greenwood was in attendance at the neighborhood board meeting. She presented one of the igniters to the Navy representative who was on hand for the monthly briefing. She requested the representative take the igniter for testing.

According to Greenwood, ‘When the ocean is calm, not many wash up. The ocean is getting rougher now, though, so we’ll probably see a bunch wash up in the next few days.’ She says she has a ‘whole jar’ filled with igniters ranging in size from one to three inches in length and she regularly collects them from the beach’s residents.

The bombs from wars past that make up Wai’anae’s explosive tide are not the same types of munitions detailed in the Army Historical Team’s 2001 report. In fact, they don’t seem to be chemical weapons at all, but are rather conventional munitions; military dives in 2002 revealed a variety of munitions including naval gun ammunition, 105mm and 155mm artillery projectiles, mines, mortars and small arms ammunition. So the question is, where did they come from? Again, no one seems to know.

The best guess is that the munitions were dumped during World War II, but there is no way to know for certain. And the lack of documentation indicates that there is no way to know the extent of the dumping zone or if other dumping zones exist elsewhere around the islands.

Furthermore, the study states that the survey found nine additional clusters of military munitions not previously identified near the shore, suggesting that there may be other discarded military munitions waiting to be discovered. But the NOAA report also indicates that levels of metals (except copper) in fish seem to be normal and no positive relationships between the ordnance and heightened levels of contaminants could be ascertained.

So is the Wai’anae issue closed? Probably not, but it’s going to be an uphill slog for community activists and legislators looking for answers and pressing for action.

J.C. King, an assistant for munitions and chemical matters for the Army says the study shows ‘there is no immediate threat to the public or the environment’ and that no cleanup is imminent.

Some locals don’t agree with that assessment. ‘What if children find those [propellants]?’ asked one resident present at the meeting. ‘They are washing up all over the place.’

‘Insead of someone who’s from outside the community, they should have someone who’s from Waianae doing the study. They should talk to the people who are at the beach all the time’

-Rep. Maile Shimabukuro

Rep. Maile Shimabukuro, who represents Wai’anae, is less than satisfied with the results of the study. ‘Instead of someone who’s from outside the community, they should have someone who’s from Wai’anae doing the study. They should talk to the people who are at the beach all the time. There seems to be a disconnect between the locals and the people doing the study,’ she says. ‘And they should’ve tested humans×People that are in the water almost every day.’

Rep. Shimabukuro has filed several Freedom of Information Act requests for documents pertaining to the Wai’anae dumpsite. So far her office has not received a substantive response.

‘There is a pattern of obstructionism, denial and not listening to the community. They are control freaks about any bit of information that comes out,’ says Aila of his interactions with the military. ‘They know that they’re in a situation where they can deny and deny until we come up with undeniable evidence and proof, and then they attempt to minimize that proof. It’s a classic pattern.’

It’s a difficult situation with no clear solution in site. A cleanup would cost millions and would damage the reef. Furthermore, given the fact that there are no records, there could be other sites around the island. The military has to consider how much it wants to put itself on the hook for.

Although Army spokesman Troy Griffen previously assured Wai’anae residents that ‘[the Army] accepts responsibility for those propellant grains as a military cleanup issue, and we’re working diligently and urgently with other agencies to determine the next actions that need to be taken,’ the Army says the new study indicates that no cleanup is necessary.

While there is no way to know where the next munitions will wash up, what is certain is that they eventually will. Or they will leak out of their containers. Or they will roll around on the ocean floor, damaging the coral. Or they will be dredged up by unsuspecting fishermen. Denying the problem only makes it worse.

According to many residents, community activists and politicians, the military is not always forthcoming when confronted with the lingering remnants of their past activities. There are complaints of willful obfuscation, misinformation and foot dragging. Only when the truth starts to come out, activists say, does the military ‘goes into damage control mode.’

As a result, many locals say that until the military adopts an attitude of willingness to clean up after itself, they will continue to feel unsure about the fish they eat and the water they swim in.

Army officials did not respond to numerous requests for information for this article.

Keith Bettinger can be contacted at kisu1492@yahoo.com.

What is the danger of submerged chemical weapons?

Until the ocean disposal of chemical weapons ceased in 1970, the military dumped millions of pounds of chemicals into the seas. Exact amounts and precise locations are unknown, but according to Craig Williams of the Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, more than 500,000 tons has been dumped off U.S. coasts, including Hawai’i. The theory behind dumping chemical weapons in the ocean is that they will dissipate before causing any serious damage or that the pressure and cold temperatures of the depths of the ocean will render munitions inert. However, containers corrode over time, releasing the chemicals into the ocean. The longer the chemicals remain in the ocean, the greater the chances for a rupture or leak.

‘There are a number of avenues of risk associated with this,’ Williams says. ‘The highest is to marine life. In small doses chemicals can accumulate in animals and work their way up the food chain×There are also impacts on the reproductive capabilities of some species, in addition to the lethality of higher doses.’

Though military documents indicate these chemicals break down quickly in water, they can remain dangerous in their containers for years. And military studies might be misleading.

‘Some studies contradict this blanket feel-good position of the government. Each chemical agent will have a different reaction with whatever it is exposed to, whether it is water or salt water. It is inappropriate of the government to assume that chemicals will react the same way and dissipate,’ Williams adds.

Here are details of some of the known chemical munitions dumped off the Hawaiian Islands. Army records also indicate numerous other dump locations in unspecified areas around the Pacific Ocean.

Mustard 3,927 tons

These are blister agents that form a solid mass in the colder temperatures fond at ocean depths. They are heavier than seawater and not very water soluble. According to Army documents, mustard deteriorates due to hydrolysis into chemicals (thiodiglycol and hydrochloric acid) that are non-toxic or are neutralized by the seawater. However, as the mustard deteriorates a hard polymer shell develops, effectively sealing the mustard off from the seawater. Thus mustard can remain stable for years in the ocean. ‘If a mustard round or container were to rupture or begin leaking, the evidence suggests the water encapsulates the mustard that is leaking into a globular underwater oil slick that can travel significant distances before it is broken up by current or topography,’ explains Williams. This is what caused large pus-filled blisters to afflict a bomb disposal crew from Dover Air Force base called in to dispose of mustard pulled up by a dredging operation in New Jersey in 2004. A similar incident occurred here in 1976.

Lewisite 399 tons

Lewisite is a blister agent similar to mustard, but faster acting. It is denser than mustard and has a much lower melting point, so it is usually in the form of a liquid in the ocean. When it was originally manufactured (production ceased in 1943) other chemicals were added as stabilizers, and so about a third of lewisite is actually arsenic. Army bulletins say that lewisite quickly loses its blister agent properties when exposed to seawater, but during this process arsenic is released, thus resulting in increased arsenic concentrations in sediments or solution.

Hydrogen Cyanide 4,227 tons

This toxin works by preventing the body’s cells from using oxygen. According to Army bulletins, this chemical, which was used mainly in World War I, quickly breaks down in seawater.

Cyanogen Chloride 489 tons

CK, as this agent is also known, is a colorless gas which is unstable in canister munitions and can form explosive polymers. CK is very soluble in water and breaks down quickly, and through a chain of reactions eventually yields carbon dioxide and ammonium chloride.

Source: http://honoluluweekly.com/cover/2007/04/washed-ashore/

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New Network Forms to Close Foreign U.S. Military Bases

A New Network Forms to Close U.S. Overseas Military Bases

Thursday, 15 March 2007

By Medea Benjamin

In a new surge of energy for the global struggle against militarism, some 400 activists from 40 countries came together in Ecuador from March 5-9 to form a network to fight against foreign military bases. The conference began in Quito, then participants traveled in an 8-bus caravan across the country, culminating in a spirited protest at the city of Manta, site of a U.S. base.

While a few other countries such as England, Russia, China, Italy and France have bases outside their territory, the United States is responsible for 95% of foreign bases. According to U.S. government figures, the U.S. military maintains some 737 bases in 130 countries, although many estimate the true number to be over 1,000.

A network of local groups fighting the huge U.S. military complex is indeed an “asymmetrical struggle,” but communities have been trying for decades to close U.S. military bases on their soil. Their concerns range from the destruction of the environment, the confiscation of farmlands, the abuse of women, the repression of local struggles, the control of resources and a broader concern about military and economic domination.

The Ecuadorian groups who agreed the host the international meeting had been fighting against a U.S. base in the town of Manta. The U.S. and Ecuadorian governments had signed a base agreement in 1999, renewable after 10 years. The purpose of the base was supposed to be drug interdiction, but instead it has provided logistical support for the counterinsurgency war in Colombia, placing Ecuador in a dangerous position of interfering in the internal affairs of its neighbor. The base has also affected the livelihoods of local fishermen and farmers and brought an increase in sex workers, while the promised surge in economic development has not materialized.

During Ecuador’s presidential race in November 2006, candidate Rafael Correa criticized the base and after winning the election he quipped, “We can negotiate with the U.S. about a base in Manta, if they let us put a military base in Miami.” His comment displayed the stunning hypocrisy of the U.S. government, a government that would never deign to have a foreign base on its soil but expects over 100 countries to host U.S. bases.

In a great boost to the newly-formed network to close foreign bases, President Correa sent high-level representatives to the conference to express support, and he himself, together with the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Relations, met with delegates from the network to express their commitment to closing the Manta base when it comes up for renewal in 2009.

But the Ecuadorian government’s courageous stand is unfortunately not echoed in most countries, where anti-bases activists usually find themselves fighting against both the U.S. bases and their government’s collusion.

Indigenous representatives attending the conference talked about the destruction of indigenous lands to make way for bases. In the island of Diego Garcia, the indigenous Chagossian people have been driven off their lands, as have the Chamorros from Guam and the Inuit from Greenland. Kyle Kajihiro, director of the organization Area Hawaii, explained that the U.S. military occupies vast areas of Hawaiian territory, territory which was once public land used for indigenous reserves, agricultural production, schools and public parks.

The delegation from Okinawa, Japan, has been trying to dismantle the U.S. bases for the past 50 years. One of their main complaints has been the violence against women. Suzuyo Takazato, the director of Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, has compiled

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Upside Down World on the No Bases Conference

Ecuador: International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases

Written by Marc Becker
Thursday, 15 March 2007

Activists gathered in Quito, Ecuador the first week of March in an International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases. The International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases is a global network of individuals, organizations, social movements, and coalitions working for the closure of foreign military bases and other forms of military presence worldwide.

The no-bases coalition which organized the conference began to converge three years ago at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India. The conference brought together 300 activists from 40 countries from around the world united in a common concern for the proliferation of military bases, primarily those operated by the United States. At the same time, others strongly urged broadening the network’s scope to include the actions of other countries, particularly the French and Brazilian military presence in Haiti.

The week-long conference began with three days of meeting in the capital city of Quito and was designed to strengthen coordinating efforts. Speakers presented perspectives from around the world on the impacts of military bases, and the struggles of social movements to abolish them. Panels focused on the impact of military bases on the environment, gender, human rights, peace, democracy, and sovereignty. Discussions included struggles against military bases in Vieques, Japan, Korea, Hawaii, and the Philippines. A series of film screenings on struggles against military bases and broader peace issues also ran throughout the event.

On Thursday, March 8, International Women’s Day, activists joined a Women for Peace Caravan from Quito to Manta with intermediary stops demanding the closure of foreign military bases. Local organizers emphasized that the dates were specifically selected to correspond with International Women’s Day. The week culminated with a march calling for the withdrawal of United States troops from the Eloy Alfaro Air Base in Manta, and a festival celebrating the successes of the no-bases campaign.

The gathered delegates drafted a declaration that condemned foreign military bases for their role in “wars of aggression [that] violate human rights; oppress all people, particularly indigenous peoples, African descendants, women and children; and destroy communities and the environment.” Delegates demanded a closure of existing bases, cleanup of environmental contamination, and an end to legal immunity for foreign military personnel. The statement concluded with support and solidarity for “those who struggle for the abolition of all foreign military bases worldwide.”
Manta

Ecuador was selected as the location for the conference because of a growing movement to evict United States troops from the US military base in Manta. When the United States withdrew its Southern Command from Panama, it began to search out alternative methods of maintaining a military presence in the region. Since 1999, the United States has used the Manta base as a so-called Forward Operating Location, purportedly to halt drug trafficking from neighboring Colombia. Some opponents consider former president Jamil Mahuad’s signing of the lease which gave the US military permission to use the land in Manta to be unconstitutional and a violation of national sovereignty. Rather than wait until the lease runs out in 2009, they would prefer to have the troops withdrawn now.

Nieve Solórzano from the Ecuador No-Bases Coalition noted how surprised many in the country were by Mahuad’s agreement, and the negative impact that the foreign military presence had on the city of Manta. The majority of the country is against the base. Instead of impeding drug trafficking, it converts Manta into a trafficking center and increasingly draws Ecuador into regional conflicts. Solórzano welcomed the international gathering as strengthening the local struggle against the base.

A Transnational Institute study documents Manta as just one of about one thousand foreign military bases around the world. The majority of these bases are United States institutions. The United States disputes these figures, claiming instead that they only have 34 permanent bases, and that the rest are just bilateral cooperative agreements that allow for a small military presence. In addition to the United States, several European countries also maintain extra-territorial military bases. Activists criticize foreign bases for their violations of human rights and negative ecological impacts. United States bases in particular have become targets for strong anti-imperialist sentiments.

Correa once famously quipped that it would be ok with him for the United States to maintain a military presence in Manta if in exchange Ecuador were allowed to have a base in Miami. The unlikeliness that the United States government ever to allow a foreign government to maintain troops on its soil highlights the fundamentally unequal nature of international relations, and the hypocrisy of United States pressure on local governments to host such institutions.

Critics charge that the presence of U.S. troops in Manta is dragging Ecuador into a growing regional conflict, and that the mission has expanded into other unrelated activities-especially that of providing surveillance on Colombia’s internal political conflicts and interdiction of immigrants leaving Ecuador. Manta represents more than just a landing strip: it is a vital and strategic position in Bush’s global war.

Official support

The Abolition of Foreign Military Bases conference was planned well in advance of left-populist Rafael Correa’s election last fall to the presidency of Ecuador. The timing, however, provided to be very convenient for the success of the conference. Correa rode a rising tide of anti-imperialist sentiment into office, including campaigning on promises to close the Manta base.

The conference opened on Monday, March 5 at the Catholic University in Quito with an inaugural panel that presented a mixture of ceremony and an opening salvo of forceful statements against foreign military bases. Quito’s mayor, retired General Paco Moncayo, welcomed delegates to Quito, and then Manuel Corrales, the university’s rector, presented a welcome to the university. Correa was invited but unable to attend. In his place, to the cheers of the audience, Subsecretary of the Ministry of Defense Miguel Carvajal confirmed that the Ecuadorian government will not renew the United States lease on the Manta base when it expires in 2009. Correa himself publicly ratified that decision later in the week.

After a full day of speeches, the mayor arranged for a tour of Quito’s historic center and a reception in the City Museum. A mayor’s representative greeted Lindsey Collen from the Mauritius Islands as an honored guest of Quito, and in turn Collen accepted the honor in the name of all of the delegates. A folklore ballet then entertained delegates with traditional Andean songs and dance.

In Manta, Manabí’s governor Vicente Veliz defended Correa’s action to terminate the lease agreement. Veliz condemned the oligarchy that extracted wealth from the country, and congratulated Correa as being the first president in Ecuador since Eloy Alfaro, one hundred years ago, to stand up to the international finance system. Veliz applauded Correa’s support for education and health programs that benefit the Ecuadorian people.

At the conference Correa’s advisor, Fernando Bustamante, reiterated that government would not be renewing the Manta base lease. Bustamante called for respect for Ecuador’s sovereignty, and articulated political stances for peace and ecology instead of militaristic and war-based policies. In particular, Bustamante outlined a peace plan for Ecuador’s northern border to contrast with Plan Colombia.

No-bases

Activists debate whether efforts to terminate foreign military bases are better directed at local host governments or at United States policy. Some argue that the United States government needs to be targeted since it pressures host governments to accept the agreements. Others point to the examples of Vieques and Ecuador, where determined local movements could evict bases, and say that efforts are better targeted there. The cause of the creation of foreign bases is not only imperialism, but also domestic neoliberal policies.

At the conference, Filipino anti-base activist Baltazar Pinguel argued that the movement needs to build on both levels: targeting U.S. policy as well as pressuring local host governments to terminate military agreements. The two struggles are directly linked on a variety of levels, including the cost of the bases to people on both foreign and domestic fronts. Pinguel also pointed to the importance of international coalitions and meetings such as the World Social Forum to build a strong movement. This sentiment echoed throughout the conference.

“The problem is global,” Corazon Valdez Fabros from the international no-bases committee emphasized, “and we need to fight it globally.” Fabros saw this meeting as a step in the right direction. However, some participants cautioned against jumping from national to global struggles and ignoring work on a regional or continental level that could also significantly strengthen the movement.

Miguel Moran, from the local Ecuadorian organizing committee, noted that this was the first international anti-imperialist conference of the new century. He emphasized the importance of the conference as a meeting of peoples, rather than governments, to plan the future of humanity. Chilean activist Javier Garate echoed the necessity of attacking the no-bases issue on various levels and through various strategies, including engaging issues of pacifism and economic profiteering. Baltazar Pinguel noted that the caravan was an effective tool which allowed international and local activists to connect with each other to build a stronger movement. He also encouraged increased anti-base activism in the United States in order “to become an active force for peace right in the eye of the storm.”

Throughout the conference, delegates connected their local struggles with Manta. For example, Nilda Medina from Puerto Rico noted the common links between the struggle at Manta and in Vieques, Puerto Rico, where local pressure forced the United States Navy to withdraw from its base in 2003. Women organized against the base, Medina emphasized, and the government could not stop them. However, “evicting the military is only half the struggle,” Medina emphasized, because recovery and cleanup remain as unfulfilled tasks. “We have to keep walking together,” she declared, “because victory will be ours.”

Kyle Kajihiro pointed to the heroic example of the Vieques struggle as a symbol which encourages Hawaiians to struggle more determinately in the face of oppression. “We cannot just fight on one level,” Kajihiro emphasized, “because this will just move the opposition to another level.” The conference facilitated the development of these networking connections on multiple levels.

Similarly, a delegate from Cuba stood in solidarity with Correa and declared that the Guantanamo and Manta bases are not isolated phenomena, but part of Bush’s international war pattern. Other activists linked Manta with the one hundred year presence of U.S. troops in Panama; the long military presence in Germany, Korea, and Japan; and growing involvement in Paraguay’s triple border region. Finally, Leslie Cagan from United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) denounced the Bush administration for its occupation of Iraq and construction of massive bases in that country.

Despite the apparently overwhelming presence of foreign military bases around the world, delegates seemed far from defeated. Rather, activists pointed to the fact that foreign military bases are being met with oppositional movements world-wide. The examples of Vieques and Manta illustrate that, through the use of a variety of tactics, foreign military presences can be overcome.

Marc Becker is a Latin America historian and a member of Community Action on Latin America (CALA) in Madison, Wisconsin. Contact him at marc(at)yachana.org

Source: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/664/1/

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Hawaiian Star Wars

Hawaiian Star Wars

John Lasker / Mar 7, 2007

In January, a Chinese missile snarled and flashed its fangs 500-miles above the earth’s surface. China, in a show of its space war-fighting capabilities, had obliterated one its own weather satellites with a ground-based missile interceptor. Later that month, while still in the fall-out of China’s provocative action, the United State’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) shot down a dummy ballistic missile as it skirted the edge of space, 70-miles above the Pacific and not far from Kaua’i.

The dummy missile had been launched from a mobile platform floating off the coast of Kaua’i. Traveling at more than 10,000 feet per second as it closed in on the dummy, the interceptor missile had been fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) at Barking Sands on Kaua’i’s western shore.

For the MDA and many of its private contractors from the aerospace industry, it was reason to stand up and cheer. This was the first time the Pacific Range had showcased the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system since Missile Defense had moved it from a New Mexico desert in October. THAAD is, in military parlance, a mobile ballistic missile interceptor.

But while the invading MDA unit and their peers at PMRF celebrated, it was more bleak news for island peace activists and those worried about the militarization of Hawai’i.

There is no doubt that missile defense tests or ‘Star Wars’ tests are on the upswing in the Pacific and Hawai’i. Some peace activists and arms control experts believe this is a sign that beginnings of a new arms race, a chess match of space-combat prowess between China and the United States, is brewing in the Pacific.

This potential arms race has far greater implications than which nation can build the more powerful laser or the first to launch a ‘killer satellite’ constellation. It is a race that signals to the international community that a future war between China and the U.S. may be inevitable. A war between an emerging superpower and the current champion that could be sparked by the skyrocketing demand for energy resources. A war fought on traditional battlescapes such as land, water and air, and not-so-traditional-cyberspace and outer space. It is a conflict where the frontlines could easily engulf the Islands.

‘If you think about it,’ says a Naval officer from the Islands who spoke on the condition of anonymity, ‘the threats we’re facing are going to be coming from space.’

In the mean time, some are speculating on what China was trying to accomplish by turning a satellite no bigger than a refrigerator into a 1,000 little floating pieces.

‘The [anti-satellite] test could have been a strategic move by the Chinese to bully the United States into actually discussing (a space weapons) treaty,’ states space-weapons expert Theresa Hitchens. The current White House is telling the world there’s no need for a treaty, says Hitchens, who directs the left-leaning Center for Defense Information, a Washington-based think tank.

‘There certainly are many in U.S. policy and military circles who believe that China is the new threat, and that the United States must ready itself for an eventual military conflict in the Pacific,’ she says.

Son of Star Wars

Maine resident Bruce Gagnon is the coordinator for Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. He has traveled the world warning peace activists and university crowds about the MDA, which he calls the ‘son of Star Wars.’

Since President Ronald Reagan called for a space shield in the early 1980s, the Pentagon and its space hawks have spent more than $100 billion on research. More than 20 years later, former-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld promised to revive missile defense. And though he’s gone, he and others managed to double funding for missile defense and make it the premier research quest of the Pentagon.

All U.S. missile defensive capabilities, however, have an offensive application as well, says Gagnon. That is why he calls Star Wars a ruse, a Trojan horse.

‘It has always been my contention that the Missile Defense Agency is in fact creating an offensive program that includes anti-satellite weapons and other first-strike space weapons programs,’ he says.

Gagnon, a veteran of the Air Force, has kept a close eye on the Pacific. He has traveled to Japan to rally peace activists there as that nation spends more and more on U.S. missile defense. Citing Pentagon documents and major newspaper reports, the Global Network coordinator says the Pentagon is slowly doubling its military presence in the Asian-Pacific region. Pentagon officials say over 50 percent of their ‘forward looking’ war games took place in Asia during the last decade.

Like other observers, Gagnon agrees a Sino-American war could erupt over the global competition for oil. But he also believes this: The U.S. may try to manage China’s development before it even comes to this. ‘China, if left alone, will become a major economic competitor with the U.S.,’ he says. ‘The U.S. wants to control the keys to China’s development.’

To do so, the U.S. will arm the Pacific with a high-tech arsenal, such as space weapons, which can, among other things, knock out satellites and thus blind a modern war force. ‘China imports much of its oil through the Taiwan Strait and thus if the U.S. can militarily dominate that region, then the Pentagon would have the ability to choke off China’s ability to import oil,’ he says. ‘The U.S. could then theoretically hold them hostage to various political demands.’

Some of Gagnon’s peers in the arms-control field have labeled him a chicken little and his theories too far out there. But after what the national office of the ACLU uncovered, he’s being criticized less and less these days. Two years ago, the ACLU discovered that ‘agents’ from NASA and the Air Force were secretly monitoring him and his family.

Full Spectrum Dominance

Just hours after China blew up its own weather satellite, calls were made on Capital Hill to ramp up the U.S. space warfighting arsenal.

Peace activists and arms-control experts could only shake their heads.

They know the Pentagon has quietly been making the case for ‘full-spectrum dominance’ for the last 10 years. Besides rising missile defense budgets, numerous defense papers have called for the U.S. to militarize the ultimate high ground, even the moon.

Why the Pentagon desires to weaponize space while also shifting much of their global warfighting focus and missile-defense research from Europe to Asia-Pacific is the subject of a contentious debate. China does have a small cache of intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach the U.S. The world’s fastest growing economy has also made overtures to regain its lost province-Taiwan.

But China isn’t the only Asian nation keeping the Pentagon on edge. North Korea has threatened to strike Hawai’i with ballistic missiles and in the late 1990s fired a ballistic missile over Japan. Last year the regime detonated a nuclear weapon underneath a mountain and test-fired several ballistic missiles-on July 4 no less.

‘Our stance is the increasing missile defense tests are a destabilizing factor. The tests are provoking an arms race in the region between nuclear powers’

-Kyle Kajihiro
local peace activist,
DMZ Hawai’i

Kyle Kajihiro is one of Hawai’i’s most notable peace activists. He directs the Honolulu-based DMZ Hawai’i and believes there may be a simpler reason as to why missile defense research is on the rise around the Islands.

As if mirroring the resurgence of Star Wars, the increasing militarization of Hawai’i has coincided with two significant events, the National Missile Defense Act of 1999 and the election of President Bush in 2001. What’s too easy, Kajihiro adds, is targeting the current wave of Republican leadership in Washington for allowing defense funding to pour into the islands. You also have to blame the gatekeeper who has the keys to the federal safe that houses the Pentagon’s money, the peace activist says.

‘Sen. Daniel Inouye wants the money to pour in. They (Inouye and allies) want defense contractors to set up shop here,’ Kajihiro says. ‘The Congressional earmarks are not necessary. That’s my gut feeling. The North Korean threat has been completely exaggerated.’

There’s no debate that Sen. Inouye is a war hero and his contribution during World War II a story of legendary proportions. Sixty years later, however, Inouye’s influence and power as one of Washington’s veteran senators has allowed Hawai’i to become a ‘destabilizing’ factor in the Pacific, Kajihiro says.

Fifteen years ago the Navy’s Pacific Missile facility at Barking Sands was on the Pentagon’s list for downsizing and possible closure. In 1999, Kajihiro claims that Inouye sought to rejuvenate the facility by co-sponsoring the National Missile Defense Act.

The Clinton administration, which significantly cut missile defense funding during the 1990s, criticized the bill. But it passed anyway and Inouye secured nearly $50 million to upgrade the missile range. ‘It was the beginning of the flood gates opening for a lot of these missile defense projects around Hawai’i,’ says Kajihiro.

Sen. Inouye is the third most senior senator. He also chairs the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee and has declared many times his position has helped Hawai’i economically. Indeed, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan think tank, 60 to 65 percent of all military-related earmarks during the last several years went to the states of senators who sit on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

As Christmas neared in 2001, a time Congress worked furiously in the wake of 9/11 to beef up 2002’s defense budget, Sen. Inouye’s committee quietly doubled Hawai’i’s defense budget for that year. The Islands would receive a total of $850 million, which doesn’t include payroll or day-to-day expenses.

Of the $400-million plus in new 2002 appropriations, $75 million was allocated for cleaning up unexploded ordinance at Kaho’olawe. But $150 million went to missile defense research. Other funds were added to ambiguous projects that peace activists claim could someday contribute to space weapons.

For instance, $6 million was given to the Silicon Thick Film Mirror Coating program, an ongoing research project on Kaua’i. Peace activists say the coating will someday be applied to space-based mirrors that will relay ground-based or space-based lasers around the globe.

Twenty million also went to the Air Force’s Maui Space Surveillance System, located on the summit of Haleakala Mountain. There, the U.S. military operates its largest telescope-the Advanced Electro-Optical System. One of its responsibilities is to monitor asteroids that may strike earth.

‘I’m not buying any of it,’ says Kajihiro, who believes he telescope will be used for missile defense and space combat. The military says the telescope can also track satellites; it also admits that laser-beam research continues at the site.

During this decade, Hawai’i has annually ranked in the top five for states receiving defense funding. According to Kajihiro, the militarization of Hawai’i ‘is really driven by the appropriations.’ He adds, ‘Sen. Inouye says it’s about defending Hawai’i. Our stance is the increasing missile defense tests are a destabilizing factor. The tests are provoking an arms race in the region between nuclear powers.’

The millions of dollars that are being spent on missile defense research around Hawai’i do not entirely go to military personnel. Take for example the THAAD system, which was moved from New Mexico to Kaua’i. THAAD is managed by the MDA, but its primary contractor and researcher is aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.

Between the years 2001 and 2006, five of Inouye’s 20 top campaign finance contributors were defense contractors, says Kajihiro, citing information received from [Opensecrets.org]. Inouye’s biggest contributor from defense contractors was Lockheed Martin.

‘Sen. Inouye has said he’s anti-war, but at the same time he’s pro-military build-up, pro-military pork. It’s kind of weird. It’s hypocritical,’ says Kajihiro.

Sen. Inouye’s office failed to return phone calls for this story.

Terminal Fury

When asked about the Joint Space Control Operations-Negation program and their field tests during classified ‘Terminal Fury’ exercises, Major David Griesmer, a public information officer for U.S. Pacific Command, said, ‘I don’t know anything about it.’

Griesmer’s statement is revealing when trying to gauge the entire picture of missile defense research ongoing around the Islands. Millions of unclassified military funding is being pumped into the Islands to test missile defense. But what about classified or secret missile defense research?

Terminal Fury is a ‘command post exercise,’ says Griesmer, ‘involving multiple bases, a naval component, air component and army component.’

‘Some involved don’t even come to Hawai’i,’ he adds.

Yet for the last three Terminal Fury’s, reports the civilian-owned CS4ISR Journal, the Joint Space Control Operations-Negation (JSCON) conducted field tests. The tests would be the first known anti-satellite tests conducted by the U.S. military since 1985 when a F-15 destroyed a satellite with a missile. ‘[The JSCON] program will help the Pentagon figure out which satellite-killers to buy,’ states the C4ISR Journal.

The journal would not say what satellite killer technology was used, but suggested it was probably the Counter Communications System or CounterCom. The $75 million ground-based device is classified, but it was declared operational by the Pentagon several years back. While not an actual killer, the device allegedly can make a satellite go dead.

Here’s a partial list of missile defense and space weapons research ongoing around the Islands and in the Pacific.

Sea-based X-Band Radar

At the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kaua’i, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is testing THAAD, a ground-based missile-to-space interceptor system. But at sea and at Pearl Harbor, the MDA is testing the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. Named after the shield of Zeus, the Aegis technology fires an interceptor missile that simply slams into a ballistic missile and destroys it. The technology has been applied to only a handful of ships, including Pearl Harbor’s USS Lake Erie, but many other ships from the Pacific fleet are slated to acquire it. Since the late 1990s, the Erie has shot down nearly a dozen dummy missiles, some of which were 200 miles above the earth’s surface.

The floating Sea-based X-Band Radar platform is perhaps the strangest looking craft to have ever sailed the Pacific. Built on a modified oil-drilling platform, the X-Band’s gigantic white dome could easily be mistaken for some alien craft. The distance from the water to the top of the radar dome is roughly 250 feet. The MDA has said the radar has enough detection and target resolution power that it can distinguish a warhead from a decoy or a piece of space debris. The X-band arrived in Pearl Harbor early in 2006, took part in several ballistic missile tests and then headed to its current home in Alaska. The X-band cost between $900 million and $1 billion to build.

Maui Space Surveillance System

Since calling for Star Wars, the U.S. military envisioned high-powered lasers or directed-energy weapons shooting down ballistic missiles in the earth’s atmosphere or in space. But since then, the Pentagon is leaning more toward a missile-to-missile strategy not only because the technology is more feasible but because it is also cheaper. Nevertheless, the U.S. has spent hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars on combat energy beam weapons. Again, just days after the Chinese satellite incident, the U.S. Air Force launched its ‘ABL’ or Air Borne Laser aircraft from Vanderberg Air Force Base north of Los Angeles. For the first time the aircraft test fired in flight. The aircraft is a Boeing 747-sized airplane that has been gutted and turned into a flying laser canon. On the Islands, the Air Force is researching space-related lasers at Maui Space Surveillance System (MSSS) on Haleakala mountain. Two laser beam director/trackers are in use at MSSS but experts say they are not powerful enough to be deemed weapons. These same experts say nearly all astronomical sites across the U.S. don’t project lasers into space.

While they have no connection to Hawai’i as of yet, the most controversial missile defense tests on the horizon are the Space-based test bed maneuvers, activists claim. Space-based test beds are killer satellites that are loaded with missiles or high-powered lasers. When such a satellite constellation may launch is unknown; the U.S. military has targeted the middle of next decade. What is certain is the money the MDA wants for the space-based test bed: The agency as submitted to Congress a request or $675 million to develop this experimental constellation for the years 2008 through 2011, according to Space News.

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