On This Day In The Navy:1942: USS Terror (CM 5), the first minelayer built as such, is commissioned. During World War II she participates in Operation Torch, the Battle for Iwo Jima, and the Okinawa Invasion, where she is struck by a kamikaze on May 1, 1945.

TOP STORIES:1. Israel Approves Egyptian-Proposed Gaza Truce But Hamas Suspicious (REUTERS 15 JUL 14) ... Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams

GAZA/JERUSALEM – Israel approved an Egyptian-proposed deal that would halt the week-old Gaza shelling war on Tuesday but the Palestinian territory's dominant Hamas Islamists responded suspiciously, saying they had not been consulted by Cairo.

2. U.S. Defense Officials Get Assessment Of Iraq's Military Next Steps for U.S. Military Officials Key to Process(WALL STREET JOURNAL 15 JUL 14) ... Julian E. Barnes

WASHGINGTON – U.S. military assessment teams examining the strength of Iraq's security forces formally presented their report to top defense officials on Monday, the Pentagon said. The assessment, while not made public, provided additional detail about an Iraqi military American officials describe as hard-pressed to defend the country on its own.

3. Japan, U.S. Admirals Say Naval Cooperation Deepening (ASSOCIATED PRESS 14 JUL 14) ... Audrey McAvoy

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – U.S-Japan naval cooperation is deepening, top U.S. and Japanese admirals said Monday as they met on the sidelines of the world's largest maritime exercises.

MIDEAST:4. Echoes Of A Strongman In Baghdad Today (NEW YORK TIMES 15 JUL 14) ... Rod Nordland

BAGHDAD – The ghost of Saddam Hussein still hangs over Iraq like a cloud stalking a sunny day; it doesn’t always cover the sun, but it never quite goes away.

5. Iraqi Minorities Welcome Kurdish Control In Iraq’s disputed territory, minorities are embracing Kurdish control(WASHINGTON POST 15 JUL 14) ... Jason Motlagh

TOPZAWA, Iraq – Up until a month ago, Baraq Taqan Ali split his time between two homes and two wives in what was a unified Iraq. Now, when the 55-year-old used-car dealer makes his weekly trip, he traverses the turf of two warring factions, neither of them loyal to Baghdad.

6. Syria's Allies Are Stretched By Widening War Lebanon's Hezbollah and Other Shiite Fighters Are Drawn Away by Sunni Rebellion in Iraq, Palestinians' Clash With Israel(WALL STREET JOURNAL 15 JUL 14) ... Sam Dagher

SEYDA ZEINAB, Syria – The Lebanese movement Hezbollah, facing a heavy strain on its resources, is recruiting more fighters in Syria and bringing in fresh but inexperienced forces from Lebanon to shore up Bashar al-Assad's regime.

CHINFO NEWS CLIPSTuesday, July 15, 2014

Further reproduction or distribution is subject to original copyright restrictions.To subscribe: send request with Name, Rank & Email to [chinfo_clips.fct@navy.mil]

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7. Iran Outlines Nuclear Deal; Accepts Limit (NEW YORK TIMES 15 JUL 14) ... David E. Sanger

VIENNA – Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, faced with an imminent deadline for an agreement with the West on the future of the country’s nuclear program, said in an interview on Monday that Iran could accept a deal that essentially freezes its capacity to produce nuclear fuel at current levels for several years, provided it is then treated like any other nation with a peaceful nuclear program.

8. Qatar Spends Big On American Choppers And Missiles (CHECKPOINT (WASHINGTON POST BLOG) 14 JUL 14) ... Thomas Gibbons-Neff

Qatar, the world’s top liquefied natural gas exporter, is using its gas money to cash in on some top-of-the-line U.S. supplied military hardware.

ASIA – PACIFIC:9. Asian Nations' Fears Of War Elevated As China Flexes Muscle, Study Finds Majority of Filipinos, Japanese and Vietnamese Say They Fear Armed Conflict With China(WALL STREET JOURNAL 15 JUL 14) ... Andrew Browne

Large majorities in many Asian countries fear that China's territorial ambitions could lead to war, according to the Pew Research Center, in a finding with implications for U.S. foreign policy in a region that increasingly looks to America for protection.

10. China Tells U.S. To Stay Out Of South China Seas Dispute (REUTERS 15 JUL 14) ... Ben Blanchard

BEIJING – China told the United States on Tuesday to stay out of disputes over the South China Sea and leave countries in the region to resolve problems themselves, after Washington said it wanted a freeze on stoking tension.

11. N. Korea Tests Weapons Near Border North Korea conducts new drills, raising tensions with South Korea(WASHINGTON POST 15 JUL 14) ... Anna Fifield

TOKYO – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un flexed his military muscles again Monday as his country fired more than 100 rockets and artillery shells into the sea near the border with South Korea, just a day after firing two ballistic missiles over the peninsula.

12. Philippines Evacuates Coastal Areas As Typhoon Aims For Manila (REUTERS 15 JUL 14)

MANILA – The Philippines evacuated eastern coastal areas, suspended ferry services and closed schools in parts of its main Luzon island as the strongest storm to hit the country this year intensified as it headed straight towards the capital, Manila.

13. Pacific Partnership Brings Together Former Enemies To Help Typhoon Victims (STARS AND STRIPES 14 JUL 14) ... Seth Robson

TACLOBAN, Philippines – U.S., Australian and Japanese servicemembers are working together on the Philippines’ Leyte island, where their grandfathers fought some of the bloodiest battles of World War II 70 years ago.

14. High-Priced Firepower Bombards Target Ship (HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER 14 JUL 14) ... William Cole

For both Norway and the U.S. Navy, the firing of a Norwegian Naval Strike Missile during Rim of the Pacific war games was a big deal.

15. Naval Forces Japan Helps Lift Geo Restrictions For On-Base Internet (STARS AND STRIPES 10 JUL 14) ... James Kimber

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan – Geographic restrictions have kept many servicemembers from using the Internet to watch their favorite TV shows while posted overseas. The commander of Naval Forces Japan decided to change that for sailors posted in the country, seeing it as a growing quality-of-life issue.

EUROPE:16. Ukraine Says Russian Army Officers Fighting Alongside Rebels (REUTERS 15 JUL 14) ... Natalia Zinets and Richard Balmforth

KIEV – Ukraine accused Russian army officers on Monday of fighting alongside separatists in the east of the country and said Moscow was once more building up its troops on the joint border.

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17. Cameron Announces £1.1 Billion In New Defense Spending (DEFENSE NEWS 14 JUL 14) ... Andrew Chuter

FARNBOROUGH, England – British Prime Minister David Cameron opened the Farnborough International Airshow on Monday with an announcement that the government will spend £1.1 billion (U.S. $1.8 billion) on defense equipment using unspent money from last year’s budget, but declined to commit a future government to retaining defense budget levels at 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

AFGHANISTAN:18. Anxious Moments For An Afghanistan On The Brink (NEW YORK TIMES 15 JUL 14) ... Carlotta Gall and Matthew Rosenberg

KABUL, Afghanistan – It was the Germans who uttered the first alarm that a potentially deadly power struggle might be brewing, after weeks of Western officials’ staying on the sidelines as the Afghan election crisis deepened. Just over a week ago, they threatened to withdraw funding and training troops from Afghanistan if a powerful regional governor declared a breakaway government led by the presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah.

19. In Birthplace Of Taliban, A Fragile Hold On Victory In Taliban heartland where U.S. once fought, Afghan forces triumph – for now(WASHINGTON POST 15 JUL 14) ... Kevin Sieff

PANJWAI, Afghanistan – This was once the front line of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. More than 79 international troops, mostly American, were killed in the district, a parched cluster of villages that was the heartland of the Taliban.

AFRICA:20. Militia Shells Tripoli Airport, U.N. Pulls Staff Out Of Libya (REUTERS 15 JUL 14) ... Feras Bosalum and Ulf Laessing

TRIPOLI, Libya – A militia shelled Tripoli airport, destroying 90 percent of planes parked there, a Libyan government spokesman said, as heavy fighting between armed groups prompted the United Nations to pull its staff out of the North African country.

21. Captain Phillips Strikes Back: Off Horn Of Africa, Pirates Go Bye-Bye (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR 13 JUL 14) ... Mike Pflanz

MOMBASA, Kenya – Three years ago, Isse Yuluh’s pirate gang hijacked a yacht being sailed around the world by a Danish family with three teens. The Danes were eventually freed for a ransom of $3 million.

AVIATION:22. Pentagon: 'Growing Evidence' F-35 Incident Not Systemic (DEFENSE NEWS 14 JUL 14) ... Aaron Mehta

FARNBOROUGH, England – Pentagon officials are increasingly confident that a fire that heavily damaged an F-35A joint strike fighter on June 23 was the result of an isolated issue and not a fleet-wide design flaw that will require redesign or replacement of parts.

23. Moran Writes To F-35 PEO With Concerns About Fleet Grounding, Future Success (DEFENSE DAILY 14 JUL 14) ... Megan Eckstein

Senior defense appropriator Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) wrote to the head of the Joint Strike Fighter program to question whether the most recent fleet grounding was another in a line of setbacks that may prevent the program from meeting its delivery schedule going forward.

24. Raytheon Prep To Test New Electronic Jammer (DEFENSETECH.ORG 14 JUL 14) ... Kris Osborn

FARNBOROUGH, England – Raytheon engineers are preparing for the first planned flight of a prototype Next-Generation Jammer pod aboard a Gulfstream jet this coming September, company officials said July 14 at the Farnborough International Airshow here.

UNMANNED SYSTEMS:25. Pentagon’s No. 2 To Meet With Navy To Discuss UCLASS (DOD BUZZ 14 JUL 14) ... Kris Osborn

The Pentagon’s No. 2 official will meet with Navy officials to discuss requirements for the service’s carrier drone development program as the release date for the formal request for proposal slides to the right, Navy officials said.

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SHIPBUILDING:26. Sea Control 43: RADM Rowden – Sea Control, LCS, And DDG 1000 (CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL MARITIME SECURITY 14 JUL 14) ... Matt Hipple

We are joined by RADM Rowden: OPNAV N96 (CNO’s Director for Surface Warfare), future Commander, Surface Forces, and author of the CIMSEC Article Surface Warfare: Taking the Offensive. We discuss his concepts for Sea Control, the development of LCS, perspectives on DDG 1000, and his plans as incoming Commander, Surface Forces.

27. Navy Cancelled New Destroyer Flight Due To Ohio Replacement Submarine Costs (U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE NEWS 14 JUL 14) ... Sam LaGrone

The looming hit to the shipbuilding budget from the Navy’s plan to build 12 new nuclear ballistic missile submarines resulted in the cancellation of a fourth flight of Arleigh Burke destroyers (DDG-51) as well as the controversial plan to layup 11 Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers (CG-47), the navy’s chief shipbuilder told a congressional panel in a recent hearing on cruiser and destroyer modification.

28. Ingalls Shipbuilding Celebrates Apprentice Graduation (SEAPOWER 14 JUL 14)

PASCAGOULA, Miss. – Huntington Ingalls Industries held a graduation ceremony July 12 for graduates of Ingalls Shipbuilding’s Apprentice School. The ceremony, held at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention Center, celebrated the accomplishments of 72 students representing various crafts at Ingalls.

VETERANS AFFAIRS:29. VA Cites Progress On Backlog; Congress Disagrees (ASSOCIATED PRESS 15 JUL 14) ... Matthew Daly

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has made "tremendous progress" in reducing a disability claims backlog that reached above 600,000 early last year. Members of Congress and the department's assistant inspector general don't believe it.

OUTREACH:30. Navy Robots Normally Deployed To Disarm Bombs Have A Jollier Mission: Entertaining Kids At Summer Camps(OMAHA WORLD-HERALD 15 JUL 14) ... Steve Liewer

The breadbox-size tank ambled down the grassy hill on its treads, and then back up again, a trail of happy children screaming behind it.

31. Helena Man Serves On New Navy Ship In South America (GREAT FALLS (MT) TRIBUNE 14 JUL 14) ... Jenn Rowell

On Friday, the USS America left Mississippi en route to South America for two and a half months of exercises with partner nations. The ship is the lead ship in the Navy’s new class of next generation amphibious assault ships, which are replacing the aging Tarawa class.

COMMENTARY:32. Midlands Voices: Sailors Are On Watch On Land, Sea (OMAHA WORLD-HERALD 14 JUL 14) ... Adm. Cecil Haney

I am privileged to live here in America’s heartland leading U.S. Strategic Command, the command that is responsible for providing a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent capability for our nation and allies.

33. Diplomacy Can Still Save Iraq (NEW YORK TIMES 15 JUL 14) ... Vali R. Nasr

WASHINGTON – Contrary to what pessimists are saying, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s sudden sweep across northern Iraq does not have to end with the Middle East’s borders redrawn. That would be a calamity; the United States should do all it can to avoid it. And we can – if American diplomacy, rather than military intervention, is the main tool.

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34. The One Thing The U.S. Can’t Train The Iraqi Army To Do (DEFENSE ONE 14 JUL 14) ... Lt. Gen. Robert Gard

The U.S. armed forces have spent considerable time, resources and talent building up and training Iraqi security forces to enable them to maintain a reasonable degree of stability in that war-torn and divided country. Why, then, did tens of thousands of Iraqi troops, including two army divisions, discard their weapons and uniforms, abandon their equipment and flee from a small attacking force of lightly equipped fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria?

35. Fate Of The Iran Nuclear Talks Hangs On Three Questions Extension Is Likeliest Outcome for Now, but Regime Faces a Reckoning(WALL STREET JOURNAL 15 JUL 14) ... Gerald F. Seib

It's crunch time with Iran. Negotiators from the U.S. and five other international powers have until Sunday to reach a long-term deal with Iran on reducing its nuclear program, declare the negotiations a failure, or make the politically awkward decision to extend their self-imposed deadline for a deal.

36. Beijing's Appetite For Engagement Ebbs U.S.'s Decades-Old Diplomatic Policy Stalls Amid China's Rise(WALL STREET JOURNAL 15 JUL 14) ... Andrew Browne

A conviction that has guided U.S. diplomacy toward China for more than 40 years is that engagement, rather than confrontation, eventually will transform the country's Communist regime.

37. Anti-China Rhetoric Isn’t Causing Problems, China Is China’s actions in the region are causing problems, anti-China rhetoric is merely the response to them.(THE DIPLOMAT 15 JUL 14) ... Zachary Keck

Over at The Editor’s blog last week, Erin Zimmerman wrote a much discussed piece arguing that the “anti-China rhetoric” of regional actors in forums like the Shangri-La Dialogue was forcing Beijing to lash out more aggressively in the region to appease nationalistic sentiment at home. As a result, she argued that the best way to reduce regional tensions and encourage China to act more constructively in the region is to stop “highlighting political grievances” at these forums. Instead, the region should move to more firmly entrench China into Asia’s existing multilateral institutions, thereby “incentivizing Beijing to demonstrate its positive influence in the region.”

38. Afghanistan’s Promise After Afghanistan’s questionable election, a real chance for peace(WASHINGTON POST 15 JUL 14) ... Editorial

A week ago the political system fostered by the United States in Afghanistan was on the brink of collapse, with a new civil war being the likely result. After Afghan election authorities announced the preliminary results of a presidential election runoff, the apparent loser, Abdullah Abdullah, readied what looked to some like a coup, dispatching forces to Kabul police stations and lining up provincial governors to endorse his announcement of a government.

39. Shedding Light On FY-15 30-Year Shipbuilding Plan (NAVY LIVE BLOG 14 JUL 14)

We delivered to Congress July 3 our annual long-range plan for the construction of naval combatant and support vessels for fiscal year 2015 (FY15). Commonly referred to as the 30-year shipbuilding plan, we have highlighted a path forward that captures the required number of ships by type, as outlined in the FY12 Force Structure Assessment (FSA). Our FSA identified those forces that most efficiently execute the missions and priorities of the Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Strategic Guidance (DSG) and meets requirements in the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review. This report builds and maintains a battle force inventory of near or above 300 ships, and ultimately shows that we can achieve the FSA objective of 306 battle force ships.

40. The Legacy Of Adm. William McRaven (U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE NEWS 14 JUL 14) ... Robert Caruso

Now that Adm. William McRaven has announced his retirement, it is worth looking back at the contributions of perhaps the most influential Navy flag officer since Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz.

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TOP STORIES:1. Israel Approves Egyptian-Proposed Gaza Truce But Hamas Suspicious(REUTERS 15 JUL 14) ... Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams

GAZA/JERUSALEM – Israel approved an Egyptian-proposed deal that would halt the week-old Gaza shelling war on Tuesday but the Palestinian territory's dominant Hamas Islamists responded suspiciously, saying they had not been consulted by Cairo.

Hamas's armed wing vowed its attacks would "increase in ferocity and intensity" but Palestinian rocket salvoes waned ahead of the mooted start of mutual de-escalation at 0600 GMT.

Israel said there had been two cross-border launches overnight that caused no damage, and that it had bombed 25 sites in Gaza. Palestinian medical officials said a 63-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman were killed – bringing the enclave's death toll to more than 182, most of them civilians.

At Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv, the security cabinet convened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it voted to approve the truce deal, minutes before it was to come into effect.

Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defence official and envoy to Cairo, cast the deal positively, saying Hamas had been weakened by the air and sea bombardment of impoverished Gaza. "Look at the balance, and you see that Hamas tried every possible means of striking at Israel while bringing great and terrible damage on its people, from their perspective," Gilad told Israel's Army Radio. "The Egyptian proposal includes a halt to all kind of (military) activity," he said. "What this proposal, if it is accepted, means is that, willy-nilly, Hamas did not manage to make good on its intentions."

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said earlier on Tuesday that the Islamist group had not received an official ceasefire proposal, and he repeated its position that demands it has made must be met before it lays down its weapons.

Hamas's armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, rejected the reported text of the truce deal, saying: "Our battle with the enemy continues and will increase in ferocity and intensity."

Rockets In EilatThe worst Gaza flare-up in two years has killed no one in

Israel, largely due to its Iron Dome anti-missile system. But the frequent rocket salvoes have disrupted life as air raid sirens sent people in much of the country racing to shelters.

In what may have been an effort to upstage Cairo's mediation, three rockets were launched from the Egyptian Sinai at the southern Israeli resort of Eilat, wounding four people, Israeli officials said. They said the salvo was likely fired by Islamist fighters hostile to Israel and the Egyptian government.

Under the proposal announced by Egypt's Foreign Ministry "de-escalation arrangements" would take effect at 0600 GMT, pending implementation of a full truce within 12 hours after.

High-level delegations from Israel and the Palestinian factions would hold separate talks in Cairo within 48 hours to consolidate the ceasefire with "confidence-building measures.”

The Arab League said in a statement it welcomed the Egyptian initiative "to protect the lives of the innocent."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who reached an agreement with Hamas in April that led to the formation of a unity government last month, welcomed the proposal and urged its acceptance, official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will hold talk with Egyptian officials in Cairo on situation on Tuesday, Egypt's state news agency said. In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday spoke positively of the emerging ceasefire.

Reiterating U.S. support for Israel in the face of Hamas's "inexcusable" attacks and concern for Palestinian civilian casualties, Obama said in a speech: "We are encouraged that Egypt has made a proposal to accomplish this (truce) goal which we hope can restore a calm that we've been seeking."

Hours before the proposal was announced, Gaza militants resumed rocket attacks on Tel Aviv after a 24-hour lull, while Israel kept up its strikes in the Gaza Strip and deployed infantry and armour along the frontier.

Israel had mobilised tens of thousands of troops for a threatened Gaza invasion if the rocket salvoes persisted.

"We still have the possibility of going in, under cabinet authority, and putting and end to them (the rockets)," Gilad said.

Late on Monday, Israel bombed the house of Marwan Issa, a top commander of Hamas' armed wing, in Bureij refugee camp.

Hamas DemandsThe surge in hostilities over the past week was prompted

by the murder last month of three Jewish seminary students in the occupied West Bank and the revenge killing on July 2 of a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem. Israel said on Monday three Jews in police custody had confessed to killing the Palestinian.

Hamas leaders have said a ceasefire must include an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza and a recommitment to a truce reached in an eight-day war there in 2012. Hamas also wants Egypt to ease restrictions at its Rafah crossing with Gaza imposed after the military toppled Islamist president Mohamed Mursi last July.

But the Egyptian proposal made no mention of Rafah or when restrictions might be eased. It said only that "crossings shall be opened and the movement of persons and goods through (them) shall be facilitated once the security situation becomes stable on the ground.”

Hamas has faced a cash crisis and Gaza's economic hardship has deepened as a result of Egypt's destruction of cross-border smuggling tunnels. Cairo accuses Hamas of aiding anti-government Islamist militants in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, an allegation the Palestinian group denies. Hamas has said it wants the release of hundreds of its activists arrested in the West Bank while Israel searched for the three missing teens. The detainees include more than 50 Hamas men freed from Israeli jails in a 2011 prisoner exchange.

The proposed truce made no mention of the detainees in stipulating that "other issues, including security issues, shall be discussed with the sides."

(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Noah Browning in Gaza, Michael

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Georgy in Cairo, Amena Bakr in Doha and Annika McGinnis in Washington; Writing by Dan Williams and Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Nick Macfie and Andrew Heavens)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/15/us-palestinians-israel-idUSKBN0FI04420140715

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2. U.S. Defense Officials Get Assessment Of Iraq's MilitaryNext Steps for U.S. Military Officials Key to Process(WALL STREET JOURNAL 15 JUL 14) ... Julian E. Barnes

WASHGINGTON – U.S. military assessment teams examining the strength of Iraq's security forces formally presented their report to top defense officials on Monday, the Pentagon said. The assessment, while not made public, provided additional detail about an Iraqi military American officials describe as hard-pressed to defend the country on its own.

The report suggests that Sunnis working with extremist elements remain active in parts of the Iraqi security force, as are Shiites who work with Iran's Quds Force.

Still, military officials said the assessment found that there are units that have sufficient leadership and basic training that could benefit from working with American military advisers.

The report, written by U.S. military officers in Iraq, assessed that Baghdad can only be defended by the Iraqi government with the help of pro-Iranian Shiite militias, and that the Iraqi security forces alone would have trouble maintaining control of the city, particularly in Sunni dominated areas, officials said.

Key to the U.S. assessment process will be the steps that military officials take next. Top Pentagon leaders, including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are expected to review the classified document and then begin making recommendations.

Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, wouldn't comment on the substance of the assessment presented by U.S. Central Command to the Pentagon on Monday. Other U.S. officials, who were briefed on the findings, described the broad outlines of the assessment.

Despite concerns over extremist infiltration, officials said that the Pentagon is less worried about the safety of advisors

working with the Iraqi units, but more worried that U.S. intelligence could be leaked to Iran or to the extremist Sunni group that calls itself the Islamic State.

Still, Adm. Kirby said it would be "imprudent" for the U.S. not to think about the insider threat to forces working in Iraq.

"We always try to keep in mind the insider threat, we have to factor that in when we are doing work in a partnership capacity," Adm. Kirby said.

The U.S. is operating joint operations centers in Baghdad and Erbil. The center in Baghdad is working with the Iraqi security forces while the center in Erbil is working with forces controlled by the Kurdish regional government, known as the Peshmerga.

Based on the assessment, officials said, the U.S. faces tough questions about how much, and what kind of, intelligence to share with Iraqi forces. The U.S. may be in a position to provide more material to the Peshmerga forces in the north, officials said.

Adm. Kirby said the role of the operations centers wasn't to advise the Iraqi military, but that U.S. personnel assigned to them could one day move from assessing to advising.

"These assessment teams could form the core of advisory teams in the future," Adm. Kirby said.

There are about 210 military personnel in Iraq assigned to the assessment mission. President Barack Obama has authorized up to 300 troops for that mission.

Some details of the assessment were first reported by the New York Times Sunday night.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-defense-officials-get-assessment-of-iraqs-military-1405374302

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3. Japan, U.S. Admirals Say Naval Cooperation Deepening(ASSOCIATED PRESS 14 JUL 14) ... Audrey McAvoy

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – U.S-Japan naval cooperation is deepening, top U.S. and Japanese admirals said Monday as they met on the sidelines of the world's largest maritime exercises.

Adm. Katsutoshi Kawano, the head of Japan's navy, told reporters before a meeting with U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Harry Harris that the two navies have been sharing more information and having more personal exchanges.

The two navies have expanded their ability to operate together by participating in drills like the Rim of the Pacific exercises currently being held in Hawaii waters.

More than 25,000 military personnel from 22 nations are participating in the drills, which last through early August. Japan sent two destroyers, a helicopter, a dive unit, a submarine surveillance plane and land forces to the exercises.

Harris said cooperation between the two navies keeps improving, adding that he has personally seen the relationship evolve since he was first stationed in Japan in 1983.

"We have operated together on the high seas in real-world operations, not just in exercises, for years. And we're getting better and better," Harris said.

A July 1 decision by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet to pursue a new law that would allow Japan to help defend its allies is an example of their close relationship, Harris said.

"I think that's a bold decision, a landmark decision, and I welcome anything that would bring us even closer together – and this certainly will," Harris said.

Kawano said Japan's parliament would need to pass a law on the policy before his forces could put it into effect

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operationally. Naval ties will deepen further if this happens, he said.

"If Japan moves in the direction of collective self-defense, I believe the Maritime Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Navy will have an even more cooperative relationship," Kawano said.

The policy reinterprets Japan's war-renouncing constitution to say Japan may help defend countries with which it has close ties. For example, a Japanese ship would be

able to legally shoot down a North Korean missile heading for U.S. territory. Japan may not legally do this currently.

Critics in Japan say the new policy would leave the door open for Tokyo's eventual participation in conflicts such as the war in Iraq. Japanese forces have previously limited their participation in conflict zones to noncombat roles, even when joining U.N. peacekeeping activities.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_JAPAN_NAVIES

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MIDEAST:4. Echoes Of A Strongman In Baghdad Today(NEW YORK TIMES 15 JUL 14) ... Rod Nordland

BAGHDAD – The ghost of Saddam Hussein still hangs over Iraq like a cloud stalking a sunny day; it doesn’t always cover the sun, but it never quite goes away.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s slide into strongman territory in the years since American troops left has been well documented. His government and security forces have harassed Sunni Arabs with baseless arrests, or by keeping them in jail beyond their mandated terms. And for Sunni militants caught by the security forces, summary execution has become increasingly common.

Even as his Shiite-dominated government has been condemned for abusing Sunnis, however, its foundation in a parliamentary democracy has mostly held up; at no point has it sunk into the outright dictatorship that Mr. Hussein and his Sunni-dominated Baath Party commanded for so many years as it oppressed Shiites and Kurds.

But in recent weeks, as the government has come under relentless pressure from Sunni jihadis who are carving off territory across Iraq, it has become much easier to detect echoes of Mr. Hussein’s legacy in how Mr. Maliki has acted.

Government news conferences, increasingly rare, have for the most part dispensed with allowing journalists to ask questions; officials usually just stand up, give a televised statement, and leave.

Iraqiya, the state television station, broadcasts dramatic music over footage of attacks on fighters aligned with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and airs hourlong programs of dancers in native costumes shouting patriotic slogans and waving guns in the air – all straight out of the playbook for Al Shabab TV, the youth-oriented television channel that was run by Mr. Hussein’s son Uday.

Iraqi officials, never terribly accessible in the best of times, have truly gone to ground now. “I have no comment,” one Maliki adviser said recently, “and that’s off the record.” It was a verbatim echo from the 1990s, when Mr. Hussein’s regime was the most closed and repressive in the world, with the possible exception of North Korea.

It has not yet gotten to the point where visitors to Iraq are constantly escorted by government minders, but it is getting close – particularly in Sunni areas. A New York Times colleague was interviewing a Sunni sheikh in his office recently when an Iraqi police captain came to his side and began answering questions on the sheikh’s behalf.

In Mr. Hussein’s day, the government suppressed fax machines – they were licensed, regulated and monitored as

potential instruments for disseminating dissent. When email arrived in the ’90s, it was flat-out banned for most people.

Now, the Iraqi government, smarting under a social media onslaught from the insurgents, simply pulled the plug on Twitter, Facebook, Skype, Instagram, YouTube and the like for most of June.

Perhaps the strongest resonance from the past is the rebirth of tactics used by Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, the Iraqi government spokesman who publicly declared the Americans defeated outside of Baghdad in April 2003. At the time, they had already blasted their way into his information ministry.

The current analogue of Comical Ali, as the American military dubbed Mr. Sahhaf, is Gen. Qassim Atta, who is now the official military spokesman for Mr. Maliki.

General Atta began his career as a military press officer in Mr. Hussein’s regime. Where Mr. Hussein had many titles, including “The Lion of Baghdad,” General Atta has come to be known by one: “The Liar of Baghdad.”

That may have something to do with his regular news briefings, where he repeatedly has declared victory over the jihadis at places confirmed as having fallen to them by everyone else, even local Iraqi officials. One recent example was the fall of the Trebil and Al Waleed border crossings between western Anbar Province, Syria and Jordan. General Atta declared on June 24 that they had not fallen, which they had, and on June 25 he said they had been retaken, which they had not.

Col. Qassim Atia, an aide to General Atta, asked about the derision directed at his boss, said it was just the result of propaganda efforts by Iraq’s enemies. “Of course we are in a war, and we are expecting them to use everything against us,” he said.

What to make of this déjà vu? Part of it may have to do with an admiration for Mr. Hussein among many Iraqis, even some of his enemies. You can hear it in the widely used term “Little Saddam,” which people apply to their bosses, not always negatively.

Even more telling is the all-purpose execration, common among Shiites at least, “Kharab Saddam!” That could be roughly translated as “Sad-damn it,” which is not exactly deifying the dead dictator, but sort of demonizing him in a socially useful way.

“We had a very strong government back then,” said Khaleel Ziyad, a taxi driver. “Saddam’s regime was far better than the current conditions.” Mr. Ziyad, 36, is a Sunni, but some Shiites now say similar things.

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Reza Saji, 76, is a Shiite Kurd who lost everything during Mr. Hussein’s rule; his business was seized and he was forcibly expelled to Iran. “For all that happened to me, I was one in a thousand, and the other 999 were happy, living a peaceful life in an orderly country,” he said. “But now there is no one happy, with bombs exploding and all their problems.”

There are concrete manifestations of that nostalgia as well. Memorial observations in Ouja, Mr. Hussein’s birth and burial place, started to become so popular that the Maliki government banned them in recent years. In Babil, one of Mr. Hussein’s former palaces was doing a booming business renting out suites with gold-plated bath fixtures for honeymooning couples.

Saddam watches, which bear his likeness and are a symbol of the dictator’s kitschy grandiosity, have become an expensive collector’s item now. Once taken out of Iraq by the handful by American troops in need of cheap souvenirs and an easy laugh, original ones now sell for as much as $700 apiece.

Comparisons between that time and this can only go so far. There will almost surely never be a Maliki watch, for instance. And the prime minister prefers sober suits over Mr. Hussein’s flashy variety of uniforms, robes and turbans, with swords, shotguns and assault rifles as accessories. Whatever Mr. Maliki’s faults, sartorial vainglory has not been one of them.

More important, Mr. Maliki’s government is trying to defend itself against a ruthless opponent, ISIS, that is bent on stoking a wider war. This time the West is on the Iraqi government’s side, hoping to help stop just that. And even General Atta has a long way to go to match Comical Ali’s efforts on the eve of Mr. Hussein’s fall.

Alissa J. Rubin contributed reporting.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/world/middleeast/

echoes-of-a-strongman-in-baghdad-today.html

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5. Iraqi Minorities Welcome Kurdish ControlIn Iraq’s disputed territory, minorities are embracing Kurdish control(WASHINGTON POST 15 JUL 14) ... Jason Motlagh

TOPZAWA, Iraq – Up until a month ago, Baraq Taqan Ali split his time between two homes and two wives in what was a unified Iraq. Now, when the 55-year-old used-car dealer makes his weekly trip, he traverses the turf of two warring factions, neither of them loyal to Baghdad.

His village is occupied by Sunni militants of the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State; his other home is in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, under the control of Kurdish soldiers known as pesh merga. Ali swears that both are preferable to the Shiite-dominated central government that has excluded and persecuted Sunni Arabs like him.

If Nouri al-Maliki stays, “Iraq will break into 1,000 pieces,” he said, referring to the embattled prime minister of Iraq, a Shiite Muslim.

“The pesh merga is better than the Islamic State, and the Islamic State is better than the government. There is no going back.”

Ali is not alone. Most residents interviewed across this ethnically and religiously diverse region say they are far better off since Kurdish forces moved into Kirkuk and nearby towns after the Iraqi army abandoned its posts last month during an Islamic State onslaught. The groundswell of support extends from the Kurdish majority to minority Sunni Arabs and ethnic Turkmens, who have previously resisted Kurdish efforts to absorb the area.

In recent weeks, the Iraqi Kurds have made bold strides toward their long-held goal of independence. Kurdish officials have called for a referendum on converting the semiautonomous region into a separate country. Meanwhile, their pesh merga fighters reinforce their hold along the new 620-mile fault line, taking care to secure oil resources for a future state.

On Friday, the Kurds seized two major oil fields and said they would use some of the production for domestic purposes. The move has intensified a bitter dispute with Baghdad and raised concerns in Western countries determined not to see Iraq fall apart.

But the central government’s weak hand – coupled with the pesh merga’s consolidation of gains and the apparent popular support for the Kurds’ enlargement of their territory – will make it hard to roll back the changes.

“It will be difficult to negotiate Kirkuk away from the Kurds,” said Denise Natali, an expert on Kurdish affairs at the Washington-based National Defense University. The “real issue now is the oil fields,” she added. “Much depends on how the Kurds will manage [revenue] and respond to minorities.”

The broadening acceptance of Kurdish authority is evident in Topzawa, a small, ethnically mixed town about 10 miles northeast of the line that divides territory held by Kurdish forces from areas controlled by Islamic State militants.

Last month, fearful residents of Topzawa holed up or fled in expectation of an attack. But since the pesh merga’s arrival, the return of residents and an influx of hundreds of families from territory controlled by the Islamic State has doubled the population to about 5,000 people.

On a recent afternoon, two Kurdish soldiers patrolled the main bazaar under a scorching sun. Although most of the stalls remain shuttered, struggling merchants were generally upbeat about the prospect of living in a Kurdish state.

Mofaq Abdallah Ahmed, 53, an ethnic Turkmen farmer who brings his rice to the market, blamed the Maliki government for “creating the Islamic State” by “playing Shiites against Sunnis.”

“The Kurds don’t care if you are Sunni or Shiite or Christian; they are practical,” he said. “If they stay here, things will be better for everyone.”

At one stall, Hassan Omar, 18, was servicing the car of a Sunni family who had left their insurgent-held village. The vehicle’s owner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said he decided to move his family because of the chance to live under a government that offered protection without favoring Sunnis or Shiites.

Although business has slowed to a trickle, Omar, a Sunni Arab, hoped that short-term losses caused by the nearby

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fighting would ultimately be offset by the kind of booming economic growth experienced in recent years by Kurdish cities in the north.

“We are waiting for this,” he said.Further down the road, pesh merga units guard the region

from Islamic State fighters. Ali, the merchant whose family spans both sides, says they allow him through a checkpoint and across the river that doubles as a front line.

He said that armed men regularly walk by his home in the village but that Islamic State militants have done little to alter life there. The insurgents have warned that they will punish thieves by amputating their limbs, he said, but no one has yet suffered such a fate.

“The fighters don’t really bother us,” he said.But there is a brutal division between Islamic State

fighters and Kurds. Gen. Mariwan Mohammad, a top Kurdish commander in Kirkuk province, said his forces have exchanged steady artillery and rocket fire with militants dug into a pair of villages south of the city.

So far, he said, 54 Kurdish fighters have been killed and 350 wounded along the 110-mile stretch that his forces help defend.

Mohammad said his soldiers have been welcomed in the area. But, he added, the militants are “very good fighters, and they are trying every day to break through” to access the vast oil fields around Kirkuk.

As part of its push to establish an Islamic caliphate across Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State has seized key refineries and begun selling oil on the black market to fill its war chest.

On Friday, a suicide car bombing and a roadside explosion near Kirkuk’s southern entrance killed 28 people and wounded 25. A day earlier, a bomb injured eight people.

Some residents – expecting the conflict involving the Iraqi military, the Kurds and the Islamic State to heat up – are buying guns to protect themselves.

“We are ready to fight to the death. If it is the Islamic State or the Iraqi army, we don’t care,” said a 31-year-old Kurd who identified himself only as Ahmed, showing off a Russian-made assault rifle that cost him $1,200 at a sidewalk market packed with hundreds of men.

However, many residents agree that regular patrols by security forces and a greater pesh merga presence outside the city are helping to restore confidence.

The most pressing concern is fuel. A severe shortage in northern Iraq has caused gas prices to quadruple from about 40 cents a liter to $1.70 (or nearly $6.50 for a gallon). In Kirkuk, those unable to afford black-market rates wait up to two days to fill their tanks at city stations.

“It’s impossible to earn a living right now,” said Marwan Ahmad, 30, a Sunni Arab taxi driver at the rear of a line of parked vehicles that stretched for more than a mile.

Asked whether he would vote to become part of an independent Kurdistan if given the chance, Ahmad mustered a smile. “If that happens,” he said, “there will be a big party here.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-iraqs-disputed-territory-minorities-are-embracing-kurdish-control/2014/07/13/6dfe8b58-09ed-11e4-8a6a-19355c7e870a_story.html

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6. Syria's Allies Are Stretched By Widening WarLebanon's Hezbollah and Other Shiite Fighters Are Drawn Away by Sunni Rebellion in Iraq, Palestinians' Clash With Israel(WALL STREET JOURNAL 15 JUL 14) ... Sam Dagher

SEYDA ZEINAB, Syria – The Lebanese movement Hezbollah, facing a heavy strain on its resources, is recruiting more fighters in Syria and bringing in fresh but inexperienced forces from Lebanon to shore up Bashar al-Assad's regime.

In the past year, Hezbollah's battle-tested fighters helped Syrian forces retake territory around the capital Damascus and other key cities such as Homs and Aleppo, paving the way for Mr. Assad to win a third, seven-year term as president in elections last month.

But Hezbollah members and people involved in the group's operations in Syria said the militant group is now stretched thin by two conflicts involving its Shiite allies that threaten to erode, if not undo, its successes in Syria.

A Sunni rebellion against the Shiite-dominated government in neighboring Iraq is drawing home Iraqi Shiites who have been fighting alongside Hezbollah in Syria, according to pro-government militiamen in Syria.

On Monday, Islamic State, the extremist group leading the fresh insurgency in Iraq, captured more territory in Syria by routing rival rebel factions from the city of Deir-Ezzour, according to Syrian activists and a spokesman for the rebel umbrella group known as the Free Syrian Army. The city is the seat of the resource-rich province of Deir-Ezzour bordering Iraq and the conquest gave Islamic State control of nearly 80% of the province.

The confrontation between Palestinian militants, whom Hezbollah regards as allies, and Israel, now entering its second week, also raises the potential for fresh violence along Lebanon's southern border with Israel, where Hezbollah has claimed the role of a national resistance force.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based opposition group monitoring the conflict, estimated last week that 509 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Syria since the civil war started in March 2011. While the total is a fraction of the estimated 100,000 government and opposition forces who, according to the Observatory, have been killed in the civil war, many are among Hezbollah's most elite fighters.

During a recent visit to a Shiite shrine on the outskirts of Damascus, the effects of the accumulating losses were temporarily obscured by the unstinting enthusiasm of a group of children, some as young as 5 years old, standing at the shrine's entrance.

They stood in military formation at the entrance of the golden-domed mausoleum and mosque where Shiites believe the Prophet Muhammad's granddaughter Zeinab is entombed. "Who are you?" the instructors shouted. "Hezbollah!" the children bellowed back.

But nearby, hanging from lampposts and plastered on walls, was evidence of the costs to Hezbollah of its decision to enlist on the side of Mr. Assad: posters commemorating the

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Lebanese, Iraqi and Syrian Shiite fighters who have been killed in recent battles with rebels fighting to oust the regime.

Among the honored is Mustafa Ayoub, a Lebanese Hezbollah commander also known by his nom de guerre Abu Turab. He was killed in May during a government offensive to uproot rebels from the town of Mleha on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, said Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria.

"He was part of the first batch of elite Hezbollah fighters sent to Syria – incredible modesty and discipline," recalled Ali al-Tasht, a 27-year-old Syrian.

"Now when you see a Lebanese [fighter], the difference is huge. We nickname them 'Hezb-pizza' or 'Hezb-kabob,’“ said Mr. Tasht, referring to their fondness for fast food.

After Mr. Tasht and about 115 other Syrian Shiites under Hezbollah's command joined Syrian security forces in the battle for Mleha, he was surprised at what he saw as the greenness and naiveté of the recent Hezbollah recruits from Lebanon and their lack of arms and equipment.

"One Lebanese guy told me the battle would be over in 10 days. He was martyred five days later," said Mr. Tasht, who was wounded in Mleha and suffers partial paralysis in the left side of his body.

In interviews with Mr. Tasht and several other fighters affiliated to Hezbollah, a portrait emerged of a movement trying to readjust its posture in Syria as it faces challenges elsewhere. A Syrian who has frequent contact with Hezbollah commanders and fighters in Damascus said the war in Syria is costing the movement some of its most experienced men.

Mr. Ayoub, for example, was the "best sniper in the Middle East – this guy survived for 11 days in an area where not even rats would have remained alive," the man said.

In fighting near the Lebanese-Syrian border with the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and other rebels over the weekend, at least seven Hezbollah fighters were killed and 31 others wounded, according to the Observatory.

Attempts to reach a Hezbollah spokesman in Beirut were unsuccessful. A member of Lebanon's parliament representing the movement's political wing also declined to comment.

There was no comment from Hezbollah. But a Lebanese news website that reports frequently on the movement identified six fighters it said were "martyred" in clashes with Syrian "opposition militias" over the weekend in the Qalamoun area near Syria's border with Lebanon.

Amin Hoteit, a retired Lebanese Army general who has close ties to Hezbollah, said the group was still sending fighters to Syria and so far, its losses were in the "realm of the manageable."

Still, efforts are quietly under way to compensate for the losses. Hezbollah has increased its recruiting inside Syria, according to Shiite fighters and clerics. The recruits receive training from Hezbollah both in Syria and Iran, and many are initially assigned to help guard areas recently captured from antigovernment rebels, these sources said.

Also, to fill the gap created by the shutdown of the Shiite pipeline from Iraq, Iran is deploying Shiites from Afghanistan and elsewhere to Syria, Afghans in Iran and Syria said. Some were recently seen dressed in military fatigues and praying at the Seyda Zeinab shrine.

For now Hezbollah, Iran and its other allies in their self-described "axis of resistance" say they are confident in their ability to recruit Shiite fighters by framing the current regional conflict as an existential struggle between Shiites on the one hand, and Sunni extremists backed by Israel, the U.S. and regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, on the other.

Ayman Taha, a 30-year-old electrician from a Shiite village near Homs who lives in Seyda Zeinab, said he joined Hezbollah in Syria after his brother Jaafar, 14 years his junior and a member of the movement, was killed by a rebel sniper. His resolve is unbending.

"When you stand for a righteous cause, you will prevail," he said. "In the end it is an attack on Shiites."

http://online.wsj.com/articles/syrias-allies-are-stretched-by-widening-war-1405383402

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7. Iran Outlines Nuclear Deal; Accepts Limit(NEW YORK TIMES 15 JUL 14) ... David E. Sanger

VIENNA – Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, faced with an imminent deadline for an agreement with the West on the future of the country’s nuclear program, said in an interview on Monday that Iran could accept a deal that essentially freezes its capacity to produce nuclear fuel at current levels for several years, provided it is then treated like any other nation with a peaceful nuclear program.

The proposal, which Iran said was conveyed to the United States and five other world powers during closed-door negotiating sessions in Vienna, would effectively extend a limited series of concessions Iran made last November as part of a temporary deal to get negotiations started on a permanent accord. In return, Iran wants step-by-step relief from sanctions that have substantially weakened its economy.

Offering a rare glimpse into the secret talks, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, described a proposal that sought to satisfy Washington’s aim to verifiably limit the amount and purity of nuclear fuel that Iran can produce for a still-undetermined number of years. Mr. Zarif is also trying to

satisfy a military and clerical leadership in Iran that is determined not to dismantle existing facilities and intent on resuming unhindered production in future years.

“I’m not here to present maximalist positions,” Mr. Zarif said in an interview in a 175-year-old neoclassical former palace, now a luxury hotel where the negotiators are living and working. “We’re here to reach an agreement.”

Mr. Zarif’s decision to go public with what he called an “innovative proposal” appeared motivated to achieve two goals: to make it harder for the White House to walk away from a deal that would establish intrusive inspections and freeze Iran’s program, but also to offer just enough for both sides to propose extending the talks beyond Sunday, the current deadline.

But while American officials said Mr. Zarif was now showing a flexibility they had not seen before, his proposal does not address, in its current form, the most central American concern. Because the proposal would leave centrifuges spinning in place, Iran would retain what is known

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as a “breakout capability” to race for a bomb if it ever decided to produce one. Mr. Zarif contended that other elements of his plan would lengthen that period to over a year, which Secretary of State John Kerry has said is a minimum. American officials are doubtful.

Such arguments are a reminder that this negotiation is taking place on at least two levels: a political discussion that is focused on whether two countries that have been implacable adversaries for more than 30 years can finally reimagine their relationship in the broadest terms, and a technical discussion that is both mind-boggling in its complexity and mired in distrust.

In specific terms, Iran will press for the restrictions on its program to be short-lived, perhaps three to seven years; the United States has said that period must be in the “double digits,” meaning at least a decade. After the agreement expired, Iran would be free to produce as much fuel as it wanted as a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, as long as it abided by the treaty’s inspection rules.

Moreover, Congress will be looking for sharp, perhaps permanent, limits on Iran’s capability, or even on its development of next-generation centrifuges, in return for lifting American sanctions.

Mr. Zarif rejected the concept that Iran would be subject to any permanent limits, and he did not use the word “freeze,” because his proposal would allow the kind of production of low-enriched uranium fuel that Iran has underway now, under a temporary accord. But he said, “I can try to work out an agreement where we would maintain our current levels.”

To provide further assurances to the United States and others, he said, Iran would convert most of the nuclear fuel it produces into a form that is impossible to use in a weapon, and forgo the construction of the facility that would be needed for the first step of converting it into bomb-grade fuel.

Asked about his proposals, a senior administration official involved in the talks here, who would not speak on the record, said: “We have consistently said we wouldn’t negotiate in public, and we’re not going to start doing so now. Some of the things described in this interview they have put forward in negotiations. Some have not come up. And on some, they’ve shown more flexibility behind closed doors.”

American officials said that keeping the 22,000 nuclear centrifuges Iran now has in place – slightly fewer than half of which are now operating – creates the risk that in the future Iran could throw out international inspectors and turn the centrifuges back on, much as North Korea did in recent years with another bomb-making technology.

But Mr. Zarif’s decision to go public with the proposal in a 45-minute conversation before meeting with Mr. Kerry for a second time in two days was clearly tactical. His willingness to move away from Iran’s insistence that it must be free, immediately, to expand its nuclear program may give Mr. Kerry room to recommend to President Obama that the negotiations continue, for weeks or months.

Mr. Zarif’s plan follows a declaration by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last week that Iran would not dismantle any of its infrastructure under Western pressure, but would not need a major expansion of its fuel-making facilities for at least five years. That gave Mr. Zarif, who is viewed with suspicion by Iran’s military and its clerical leadership, some wiggle room. His proposal for a freeze moves significantly in

the direction that the United States and the five other nations have been urging, and brings into focus the outlines of a possible deal, though one that would be extraordinarily hard to reach by Sunday.

In the interview, Mr. Zarif accused the West of trying to sabotage a heavy-water reactor under construction near Arak by altering components of its cooling system, a step he said could have led to an “environmental catastrophe.” But he did not directly blame the United States.

“You know about cyberattacks,” Mr. Zarif said, referring to the American- and Israeli-led operation called Olympic Games that blew up roughly one thousand centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear enrichment plant until it was discovered in 2010. He said a foreign power had tried “to create malfunctions in equipment” purchased for the Arak plant from outside Iran “so that for instance instead of cooling the facility they would have increased the heat in the facility, had we not detected it” in time.

Mr. Zarif offered no evidence, and when pressed, he said his own briefings on the subject have been sketchy. Arak has been a known target of Western intelligence because it has the potential to produce weapons-usable plutonium. He said Iranian engineers found what he contended was sabotage before it could create “huge problems.”

The core measure of whether Mr. Zarif’s proposal will gain traction focuses on what nuclear experts call “breakout capacity,” the speed at which Iran could produce the fuel for a single nuclear weapon. The American position has been that only by dismantling a large proportion of Iran’s centrifuges can the United States and its European allies extend that time to a year or more.

Mr. Zarif combined his proposal of a freeze with an offer to take the nuclear fuel produced by its 9,000 or so working centrifuges and convert it to an oxide form, a way station to being made into nuclear fuel rods. He said that Iran would guarantee, during the agreement, not to build the facility needed to convert the oxide back into a gas, the step that would have to precede any effort to enrich it to 90 percent purity, which is what is generally considered bomb-grade.

He clearly signaled that he had some room to negotiate on how long the freeze would last because Iran has an agreement with Russia to provide fuel for its Bushehr nuclear plant for the next seven years. “We want to produce only what we need,” he said. “Since our reactor doesn’t need fuel for another seven years we don’t have to kill ourselves for it. We have time.”

American officials say that argument is specious; Russia must license the fuel for its reactor and does not want to give up the business. They doubt Iran could safely make the fuel for that reactor.

At talks in Vienna on Monday, participants said, a series of exchanges focused on whether Iran’s leadership was willing to give up hopes of industrial-scale nuclear fuel production for more than a decade, along with specifics of how it would answer questions about evidence that its scientists had worked on nuclear weapons designs.

Robert Einhorn, who left the American negotiating team last year to return to the Brookings Institution, said that Mr. Zarif was clearly setting up a trade-off.

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“Iran’s strategy seems to be to accept near-term limitations in exchange for longer-term freedom of action,” he said.

“The U.S. and its partners will want to scale back enrichment capacity and constrain R & D during the agreement, and lengthen the duration considerably.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/world/middleeast/iran-outlines-nuclear-deal-accepts-limit.html

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8. Qatar Spends Big On American Choppers And Missiles(CHECKPOINT (WASHINGTON POST BLOG) 14 JUL 14) ... Thomas Gibbons-Neff

Qatar, the world’s top liquefied natural gas exporter, is using its gas money to cash in on some top-of-the-line U.S. supplied military hardware.

Qatar’s defense minister, Hamad Bin Ali al-Attiyah, met with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and signed acceptance letters for $11 billion worth of Apache attack helicopters, Patriot missile defense batteries and anti-tank Javelin missiles, the Pentagon said in a statement Monday.

“Today’s signing ceremony underscores the strong partnership between the United States and Qatar in the area of security and defense and will help improve our bilateral cooperation across a range of military operations,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary.

The MIM-104 Patriot is a long-range surface-to-air missile system known primarily for its anti-ballistic missile capabilities, while the FGM-148 Javelin is an anti-tank missile system that also has the ability to engage low-flying helicopters.

In March, Qatar announced it would spend $23 billion to purchase a slew of attack helicopters, mid-air refueling tankers and guided missiles from companies like Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

In addition to its contracts with American defense giants, Qatar has also agree to buy a number of NH90 helicopters from NHIndustries for $2.76 billion. Airbus’ Eurocopter helicopter unit is the majority shareholder in NHIndustries.

Qatar, like other Gulf and Middle Eastern countries, has drastically increased defense spending in recent years.

“This is a critically important relationship in the region,” Kirby said. “And the secretary is pleased to be able to continue to make it stronger.”

Thomas Gibbons-Neff is a summer intern and a former U.S. infantry Marine.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/07/14/qatar-spends-big-on-american-choppers-and-missiles/

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ASIA – PACIFIC:9. Asian Nations' Fears Of War Elevated As China Flexes Muscle, Study FindsMajority of Filipinos, Japanese and Vietnamese Say They Fear Armed Conflict With China(WALL STREET JOURNAL 15 JUL 14) ... Andrew Browne

Large majorities in many Asian countries fear that China's territorial ambitions could lead to war, according to the Pew Research Center, in a finding with implications for U.S. foreign policy in a region that increasingly looks to America for protection.

A widespread worry that military conflict over territorial disputes may disrupt the region is among the findings of a public-opinion survey of 44 countries by the Washington-based Pew.

Another global trend is building opposition to U.S. eavesdropping following revelations of spying by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. U.S. drone strikes also elicit strong misgivings. However, those controversies don't appear to have done too much damage to America's generally positive global image, outside the Muslim world, the Pew report said.

The survey, conducted from March to June, comes after China has muscularly pressed its claims over disputed islands, sending ships, planes and, in one case, an oil rig into areas held or contested by several neighbors.

Fears of armed conflict are at high levels among those countries locked in these standoffs with China, according to responses to a question introduced this year in Pew's spring survey of global attitudes. In the Philippines, 93% of respondents are concerned about an outbreak of hostilities. In Japan, the figure is 85%, and in Vietnam, 84%.

Yet worries about China's threat to peace are almost as strong in South Korea, a close neighbor that has warm relations with China, where 83% of respondents fret about war. Even in China, 62% are anxious.

Among the 11 Asian countries surveyed, majorities in nine were concerned about armed conflict.

China's actions to assert what it regards as its legitimate territorial rights have stopped just short of the point where they might trigger armed conflict with Japan and other U.S. allies and new friends like Vietnam – and potentially entangle the U.S. itself.

The U.S. is growing increasingly alarmed at China's use of coercion in a part of the world where it has vital trade and security interests. The survey showed 67% of Americans are also concerned about conflict.

After a long spell of "smile diplomacy" to woo its neighbors, China has over the past two years shown a different face. Chinese ships and warplanes have been intruding into waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea that are controlled by Japan but claimed by China, which calls them the Diaoyus. Chinese paramilitary vessels have fenced off the Scarborough Shoal, a fishery haven off the Philippines coast and are putting pressure on a small contingent of Philippine marines defending a speck of territory called the Second Thomas Shoal. This spring, China positioned an oil-

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drilling rig off the Paracels, a set of islands disputed with Vietnam.

The Pew findings underscore how China's perceived bullying is driving countries in the region into America's embrace. Eight of 11 Asian countries surveyed see America as their No. 1 ally. Three perceive the U.S. as the major threat – China, Malaysia and Pakistan – while one, Indonesia, counts the U.S. as both an ally and a threat.

Underlying the tensions is the fact that China's economic rise, while an undisguised blessing for most Asian countries, is also spurring Chinese military spending and shifting the balance of power toward China in a region that has relied on U.S. security guarantees to underpin its stability. Asian security experts and some politicians have voiced concern about how a powerful China intends to wield power in the future.

All this is exacerbated by perceptions that America's long-term economic prospects are declining. Around the world, according to Pew, there is a gathering perception that China is overtaking the U.S.

Based on a smaller sample of 20 countries surveyed in 2008, before the global financial crisis erupted, and again this year, the median percentage naming the U.S. as the world's leading economic power has dropped to 40% from 49% six

years ago, while the percentage naming China has risen to 31% from 19%.

Meanwhile, 50% of that narrower sample now believes that China will eventually replace the U.S. as the pre-eminent superpower – or has already replaced it – up from 41% in 2008. Only 32% believe the switch will never take place.

Overall, though, America is still more popular than China. A median 65% of the publics surveyed hold a positive view of the U.S. versus 49% for China.

This is despite Mr. Snowden's spying revelations, which has led to a decline in those saying that America respects the personal freedoms of its people. U.S. President Barack Obama remains popular, with a median of 56% having confidence in him to do the right thing in world affairs. Interestingly, his stock is rising sharply in China, where 51% give him the thumbs up. But his ratings have plummeted in Germany – to 71% this year from 88% last year – where there is mounting anger over the way the U.S. has listened in to the phone calls of national leaders.

The Pew report also finds rising misgivings about American drone attacks. In 39 of 44 countries surveyed, majorities or pluralities oppose U.S. drone strikes targeting extremists in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/asian-nations-fears-of-war-elevated-as-china-flexes-muscle-study-finds-1405361047

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10. China Tells U.S. To Stay Out Of South China Seas Dispute(REUTERS 15 JUL 14) ... Ben Blanchard

BEIJING – China told the United States on Tuesday to stay out of disputes over the South China Sea and leave countries in the region to resolve problems themselves, after Washington said it wanted a freeze on stoking tension.

Michael Fuchs, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Strategy and Multilateral Affairs, said no country was solely responsible for escalating tension in the region. But he reiterated the U.S. view that "provocative and unilateral" behaviour by China had raised questions about its willingness to abide by international law.

China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is believed to contain oil and gas deposits and has rich fishery resources. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also lay claim to parts of the sea, where about $5 trillion of ship-borne trade passes every year.

China's Foreign Ministry repeated that it had irrefutable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, where most of the competing claims overlap, and that China continued to demand the immediate withdrawal of personnel and equipment of countries which were "illegally occupying" China's islands.

"What is regretful is that certain countries have in recent years have strengthened their illegal presence through construction and increased arms build up," the ministry said in a statement.

China would resolutely protect its sovereignty and maritime rights and had always upheld resolving the issue based on direct talks with the countries involved "on the basis of respecting historical facts and international law,” it added.

China "hopes that countries outside the region strictly maintain their neutrality, clearly distinguish right from wrong and earnestly respect the joint efforts of countries in the region

to maintain regional peace and stability,” it added, in reference to the United States.

Recent months have seen flare-ups in disputes over rival offshore claims.

Anti-Chinese riots erupted in Vietnam in May after China's state oil company CNOOC deployed an oil rig in waters also claimed by Vietnam, which has also accused China of harassing its fishermen

China's official Xinhua news agency said authorities had on Tuesday deported 13 Vietnamese fishermen and released one of two trawlers seized recently for illegally fishing close Sanya on the southern tip of China's Hainan island.

Relations between China and the Philippines have also been tested in recent months by their dispute over a different area. A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Manila said the Philippines strongly supported the U.S. call for all sides to stop aggravating the tension.

The United States wants the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China to have "a real and substantive discussion" to flesh out a call for self-restraint contained in a Declaration of Conduct they agreed to in 2002, with a view to signing a formal maritime Code of Conduct, Fuchs said.

A U.S. official said the issue was raised again last week with China at an annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue, a bilateral forum that seeks to manage an increasingly complex and at times testy relationship.

China's Foreign Ministry said that it and ASEAN were carrying out the Declaration of Conduct and "steadily pushing forward" talks on the Code of Conduct.

(Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in Manila; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/15/us-china-usa-asean-idUSKBN0FK0CM20140715

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11. N. Korea Tests Weapons Near BorderNorth Korea conducts new drills, raising tensions with South Korea(WASHINGTON POST 15 JUL 14) ... Anna Fifield

TOKYO – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un flexed his military muscles again Monday as his country fired more than 100 rockets and artillery shells into the sea near the border with South Korea, just a day after firing two ballistic missiles over the peninsula.

Kim has steadily been ratcheting up tensions with his neighbors since he took over from his father, Kim Jong Il, 2 ½ years ago, leading to perceptions in Washington that he is both erratic and weak.

While his father tended to keep his powder dry for times when he really needed to lodge a protest, the younger Kim has presided over an unusually large number of missile and artillery tests this year alone, according to South Korean officials.

On Monday, North Korea fired about 100 artillery rounds into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, from a site on its east coast, just a few hundred yards from the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.

Some shells traveled as far as 30 miles and landed within one mile of the Northern Limit Line, the countries’ de facto maritime border, but did not cross into southern waters, said Um Hyo-sik, a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The shelling appeared to be part of a military drill, he said.

“It is not unusual for Pyongyang to carry out such a shelling on its east coast, but it is rare that the North has done that near the military demarcation line,” a military officer told the South’s Yonhap news agency.

It was the latest in a series of similar incidents in recent weeks. On Sunday, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles from the border city of Kaesong, on the western side of the peninsula, into the eastern sea. Kim reportedly attended the launch.

The displays are thought to be a protest against joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises set to start this week. The North views such exercises as provocative.

The aircraft carrier USS George Washington arrived in the South Korean port city of Busan on Friday, triggering an

angry – but not unusual – denunciation from the North of “gunboat diplomacy.”

“The U.S. should properly understand that the more persistently it resorts to reckless nuclear blackmail and threat, the further [North Korea] will bolster up its cutting-edge nuclear force for self-defense,” said a spokesman for the North’s National Defense Commission, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The exercises anger the North not only because it has to scramble its relatively poorly equipped military in response, but also because Pyongyang thinks such large-scale drills are unwarranted during a period without nuclear tests, according to Americans who have recently met with North Korean representatives.

North Korea last set off a nuclear device – its third test – in February 2013. Predictions of a fourth test have not come true.

While the joint exercises are often thought to be the trigger for North Korean rocket launches, Narushige Michishita, a regional security expert at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, offered a different theory.

“My guess is that Kim Jong Un is trying to test the effectiveness of his armed forces,” he said. “By having this unit do this and that unit do that, he might be trying to consolidate his control over his armed forces and find out which military units are capable and which are not.”

Regardless, the Kim regime is sending mixed messages to its neighbor and archrival.

In a surprising gesture, the North said last week that it would send cheerleaders along with about 150 athletes to the Asian Games set to be held in the South in September. The two sides are due to hold discussions Thursday about the event.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korea-conducts-new-drills-raising-tensions-with-south-korea/2014/07/14/b75cf238-0b4d-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html

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12. Philippines Evacuates Coastal Areas As Typhoon Aims For Manila(REUTERS 15 JUL 14)

MANILA – The Philippines evacuated eastern coastal areas, suspended ferry services and closed schools in parts of its main Luzon island as the strongest storm to hit the country this year intensified as it headed straight towards the capital, Manila.

Parts of the Philippines are still recovering from Typhoon Haiyan, one of the biggest cyclones known to have made landfall anywhere, which killed more than 6,100 people last year, many in tsunami-like sea surges, and left millions homeless.

Typhoon Rammasun, with gusts of up to 160 kph (99 mph) and sustained winds of 130 kph (81 mph) near its centre,

was expected to make landfall over the eastern provinces of Albay and Sorsogon later on Tuesday.

Tropical Storm Risk described Rammasun, expected to bring moderate to intense rainfall of up to 20 mm per hour within its 500-km (300-mile) radius, as a category-one typhoon, on a scale of one to five of which five is the most severe.

It is the strongest storm to threaten the country since Haiyan, a category-five "super typhoon,” wiped out nearly everything in its path when it crossed the central Philippines in November.

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Rammasun was expected to bring storm surges of up to three metres (10 feet) in coastal villages, the weather bureau said.

On its current path, the storm would also be the first in about four years to score a direct hit on Manila, the weather bureau said.

The storm will pass north of Eastern Samar and Leyte, the provinces worst hit by Haiyan, where some residents are still living in tents due to slow recovery efforts. Those areas may see heavy rain and strong winds.

Full AlertAlbay province ordered the evacuation of low-lying and

coastal areas, as well as landslide-prone villages."We sought the assistance of the Philippine army to

enforce mandatory evacuations," Governor Miguel Villafuerte of nearby Camarines Sur, one of the provinces which Rammasun could hit, said in a radio interview.

Despite warnings, many residents were reluctant to leave home.

"We are prepared for the worst," said 67-year-old Rosemarie Poblete of Tobaco City in Albay, whose family of four lives near a river swollen by heavy rain early on Tuesday.

"We bought extra food and candles and are ready for any emergency," she told Reuters.

Schools will be closed on Wednesday in some areas including Manila.

The government has been placed on full alert and has intensified preparations in the hope of avoiding casualties, said Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma.

(Reporting by Karen Lema and Siegfrid Alegado; Writing by Rosemarie Francisco and Erik dela Cruz; Editing by Nick Macfie and Robert Birsel)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/15/us-typhoon-philippines-idUSKBN0FK08220140715

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13. Pacific Partnership Brings Together Former Enemies To Help Typhoon Victims(STARS AND STRIPES 14 JUL 14) ... Seth Robson

TACLOBAN, Philippines – U.S., Australian and Japanese servicemembers are working together on the Philippines’ Leyte island, where their grandfathers fought some of the bloodiest battles of World War II 70 years ago.

The military men and women traveled there this month on a Japanese amphibious ship, the Kunisaki. Each day they’ve been going ashore on a hovercraft emblazoned with a red-and-white rising sun flag similar to the ensigns flown by ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Many of those flags have been at the bottom of the sea off Leyte since October 1944, when the Japanese fleet was routed, despite the desperate use of kamikaze attacks, by a combined U.S.-Australian force in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

The three nations have long since buried the hatchet. Their militaries are back in the Philippines honing disaster response skills in an event called Pacific Partnership.

More than 300 servicemembers – mostly from the U.S. and Japan – are participating in the Partnership’s northern leg, which began in early June and included two-week stops in Vietnam and Cambodia. A southern component, which began mid-May, involved East Timor and Indonesia.

The cooperation comes as Japan and the U.S. prepare new bilateral defense cooperation guidelines for the first time since 1997. The guidelines are expected to address a recent cabinet resolution calling for Japan’s forces to defend close allies for the first time since WWII, if not doing so would endanger the country. Japan’s national legislature, where the ruling party holds a strong majority, is scheduled to consider laws related to the cabinet resolution next spring.

Pacific Partnership was established in 2006 in response to the 2004 Asian tsunami that devastated parts of Indonesia, Thailand and other countries.

The participation of the Kunisaki and its Japanese crew is a milestone: in past years, the command ship for Pacific Partnership has always been a U.S. vessel – either an amphibious, hospital or supply ship, said U.S. Navy Capt. Brian Shipman, commodore of the mission in the Philippines.

The Kunisaki transported most of those involved in the mission – including two Malaysians, nine Australians and 120

U.S. personnel, along with members of non-governmental organizations – to Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines.

Each morning, the hovercraft transports medics, veterinarians, engineers, civil affairs experts, public affairs staff and NGO workers to shore. At night, most return to the ship to sleep.

Shipman, whose regular job is leading Destroyer Squadron 21 out of Naval Base San Diego, said the three countries’ ability to deploy from a Japanese ship shows how much they have in common. The partnership prepares the militaries to respond to disasters in Southeast Asia, he said.

“It has nothing to do with China,” he added, in reference to the territorial disputes that many nations in the region are engaged in with their larger neighbor. “It has everything to do with bad things that have happened to people in this area.”

The Philippines component comprises two weeks in Tacloban, the city that bore the brunt of Typhoon Haiyan last November. One of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, it killed more than 6000 and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Locals have welcomed the humanitarian work by the servicemembers but haven’t forgotten the roles of America and Japan as colonial occupiers.

Both nations dealt out harsh treatment to Filipinos during the colonial period. Photographs on the walls of the Alejandro Hotel, where some U.S. servicemembers have been staying this month, show slave laborers and a village burning after it was set alight by Japanese troops during World War II.

Many Filipinos still harbor a grudge over the U.S. Army’s refusal to return church bells taken as war trophies from town of Balangiga, where Filipino “insurrectos” massacred members of the U.S. 9th Infantry Regiment in 1901 prompting a brutal campaign of reprisals that left thousands dead on the island of Samar, which has been linked to Leyte by bridge.

However, the Filipinos, like the servicemembers, appear ready to let bygones be bygones. Crowds of smiling residents greeted the American and Japanese personnel as they went about their work in Tacloban.

In a sign of the sensitivities surrounding the return of Japanese forces to the Philippines, Japanese military personnel

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working alongside the Americans and Australians declined to be interviewed.

Hideki Asai, a Japanese doctor working with Internatioinal Emergency Medical Service Japan – one of the NGOs affiliated with Pacific Partnership – said he and the other Japanese personnel enjoy working with the Americans.

“They are very friendly,” he said.Asai praised the quality of hospitals in the Philippines but

noted that many residents couldn’t afford medical treatment.Australian Army Capt. Darren Stendt, 37, a nurse, spent

part of Thursday giving medical advice to a Filipino man who broke his arm in a motorcycle accident. Stendt said he’d worked with Americans at a hospital in Balad, Iraq, but it was his first time working with Japanese troops.

“We are the first Australians to ever work on a Japanese ship… voluntarily,” he said.

Thousands of U.S. and Australian prisoners of war were transported across the Pacific in “hell ships.” Packed below deck without adequate food or water, many did not survive the journey or their time in harsh POW camps on the Japanese mainland.

Some of the Australian and American personnel have complained about a monotonous diet of rice and squid on board the Kunisaki, but, otherwise, appear to work well with the Japanese sailors.

Stendt said he thinks it’s good that Japanese are getting more involved in events such as Pacific Partnership.

“The Japanese started with medical forces into East Timor in 2000 and the Germans went to Afghanistan,” he said. “It’s good for both Japan and Germany to have broken those yokes of World War II.”

http://www.stripes.com/news/pacific-partnership-brings-together-former-enemies-to-help-typhoon-victims-1.293261

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14. High-Priced Firepower Bombards Target Ship(HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER 14 JUL 14) ... William Cole

For both Norway and the U.S. Navy, the firing of a Norwegian Naval Strike Missile during Rim of the Pacific war games was a big deal.

Thursday's launch was the first operational "war shot" test of the 13-foot cruise missile, and first tropical evaluation of the weapon that could add significant firepower to the U.S. Navy's controversial "littoral combat ships" in Asia and the Pacific, officials said.

The RIMPAC test will be followed up in September by the firing of a Naval Strike Missile from the littoral combat ship USS Coronado off the coast of California, according to Norwegian officials.

The cruise missile was part of a fusillade fired at the retired 569-foot amphibious transport dock ship USS Ogden 63 miles northwest of Kauai as part of a SINKEX (sink exercise).

It's a rare opportunity for RIMPAC nations to unleash at a Navy hulk some of the costly firepower they usually only simulate firing.

The South Korean submarine Lee Sun Sin fired a Harpoon missile; the Norwegian frigate Fridtjof Nansen launched the Naval Strike and Evolved SeaSparrow missiles; the Pearl Harbor-based cruiser USS Chosin fired a Harpoon; F/A-18 and P-3 aircraft also fired missiles; and Hawaii Air National Guard F-22 Raptors fired 20 mm cannons.

An Air Force B-52 bomber even dropped a GBU-12 laser-guided bomb onto the Ogden, the Navy said.

The Navy put the cost for a Harpoon Block II at $1.2 million.

"Participating in a Harpoon missile firing exercise is a rare occurrence, a once-in-a-career occasion for most," said Capt. Patrick Kelly, commander of the Chosin. "Chosin's combat team regularly runs drills with simulated targets and shots. Although their training is effective, the majority of my sailors have never had the chance to participate in a Harpoon live fire."

The SINKEX started at 8 a.m. Thursday, the Ogden capsized at about 4:30 p.m., and the ship, whose paint had turned pinkish in sections during its time spent in the inactive

fleet shipyard, finally sank at 7:28 p.m., according to the Navy.

Ships are sunk in waters at least 6,000 feet deep and at least 57 miles from land, and only after the area has been surveyed for marine mammals, the Navy said. The ocean is about 15,000 feet deep where the Ogden was sunk, an official said.

A second SINKEX is scheduled for Monday, this time involving the retired USS Tuscaloosa, a 522-foot tank landing ship. As part of greater maritime cooperation with the Navy, the Army is sending OH-58 Kiowa Warrior and AH-64E Apache helicopters that will fire weapons including the Apache's Hellfire missiles.

The Norwegian frigate fired the Naval Strike Missile from about 57 miles out (about half its maximum range) as the second nation after South Korea to shoot at the Ogden, officials said.

When the missile penetrated the hull, smoke poured out passageways over nearly the length of the ship.

"The firing was a success," said Sgt. Marthe Brendefur, a crew member on the Fridtjof Nansen and a spokeswoman for the ship. "The main focus for this firing was to demonstrate that the (Naval Strike Missile) will function just as well in tropical as in arctic conditions, which it does."

A YouTube video of a past Naval Strike Missile test on a retired military ship target showed a large section of the superstructure being dramatically blown away by the sea-skimming missile.

Brendefur said in Thursday's firing the missile was programmed to detonate inside the Ogden's hull.

"Because we have this precision, we can decide where the missile will engage on a ship," said Rear Adm. Lars Saunes, chief of the Royal Norwegian Navy.

A variant of the missile is being developed for use in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

"I think that this is a unique missile that the Norwegian defense industry has developed with regard to precision and recognition (identification) of targets that you don't find in the market today, and I think that is why a lot of nations are interested in the missile," Saunes said.

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http://www.staradvertiser.com/newspremium/hawaiinewspremium/

20140714_RIMPAC_WAR_GAMES_HighPriced_FIREPOWER_bombards_target_ship.html

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15. Naval Forces Japan Helps Lift Geo Restrictions For On-Base Internet(STARS AND STRIPES 10 JUL 14) ... James Kimber

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan – Geographic restrictions have kept many servicemembers from using the Internet to watch their favorite TV shows while posted overseas. The commander of Naval Forces Japan decided to change that for sailors posted in the country, seeing it as a growing quality-of-life issue.

Following Misawa’s lead, all Navy bases and base housing communities under the CNFJ umbrella – including Navy bases in Yokosuka, Atsugi, Sasebo, Okinawa and Diego Garcia – are no longer subject to such restrictions from digital streaming companies.

“Unblocking” such sites, as it’s commonly called, allows overseas servicemembers and their families to access U.S.-based streaming content without paying for a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or a Domain Name Service (DNS) proxy.

Rear Adm. Terry Kraft recognized how wider Internet access has become a major issue for today’s servicemembers. AFN’s TV and radio offerings have expanded in recent years but still are just a fraction of what anyone in the U.S. can access.

“It’s important to deliver the best of the Internet to our sailors,” Kraft told Stars and Stripes. “When you come to Japan, we want our sailors to have a consistent experience as they have in the U.S.”

After Misawa’s successful conversion, CNFJ formed a focus group – called the Stream Team – to ask the community about the base’s Internet services. Based on the initial feedback, more and more sailors and their families get their entertainment, communicate with loved ones and receive education online., which is what led Kraft to ask his Stream Team to have the restrictions lifted at all of his bases.

“We’re not stopping at lifting geographic restrictions, we also want to look into how we’re delivering Internet on our bases,” Kraft said. “We’re looking at where are we establishing Wi-Fi hotspots, is it consistent from base-to-base, are sailors getting the bandwidth they require, whether it’s in a public spot or through a private connection.”

Having geographic restrictions lifted alleviates the need for base residents to subscribe to VPN services or download browser extensions, which can open up users’ computers to adware and data collection. Aside from saving a few dollars and increasing security, this also frees up network bandwidth and maximizes the full speed for which they are paying.

Petty Officer 1st Class DeShawn Oliver, a customer of the Navy Exchange-contracted Internet service provider, Americable, says his family loves being able to easily access digital media in their Yokosuka home.

“I watch Netflix at home and on iPad, Xbox, whatever I’m using,” Oliver said. “It’s still kinda slow, so I’d like to see stronger Internet. They should really boost the speed.”

Word of the lifted geographic restrictions hasn’t quite made its way around Yokosuka, though. Seaman Thomas Taylor, who learned of it early last week, hoped his gadgets would work just as they did in the States.

“I’ve had a Netflix account for years but I haven’t been able to use it since I’ve been out here,” said Taylor, an avid gamer who uses his Internet access to download updates and stream entertainment. “This would be great for me because I live on base. I’m going to try it when I get home today.”

The unblocking only benefits base residents. Those who live off base still fall under the digital rights agreements between each company and the government of Japan. Additionally, anyone who lives on base and uses an alternative Internet technology like WiMAX instead of an Exchange-contracted Internet service provider or a public hotspot on base would not be able to log in directly to Netflix without extra effort.

Airman 1st Class Zachary Garten – from the 374th Maintenance Squadron in Yokota – will stick to his WiMAX service. Garten is a heavy Internet user, saying he could use 100-gigabytes of data in a week, which would put him on pace to exceed the monthly bandwidth cap set by the Exchange contracted Internet service provider four to five times over. In his opinion, unlimited data is the single most important need for his Internet usage.

According to Garten, his WiMAX provider has comparable speeds to the Internet service contracted through his local Exchange, Allied Telesis, but is significantly cheaper and provides unlimited bandwidth.

Tech Sgt. David Schnabel of the 730th Air Mobility Squadron in Yokota would also like to see unlimited data usage at a competitive price. “Better still if they offered Internet service comparable to what the local nationals have just over the fence,” he said.

Servicemembers who live off base and their Japanese neighbors typically have Internet speeds that are three to five times as fast with unlimited bandwidth for about half the price.

“I understand Allied Telesis is contracted and on-base utilities are not easily changed, but at the end of the day I don’t care about contractual obligations,” Schnabel said.

According to Julie Mitchell, a spokesperson for AAFES, the bandwidth caps are necessary to “ensure all customers receive the same high quality level of service and affect only a small percentage of customers.”

Exchange-contracted telecommunications companies, like Allied Telesis, provide U.S. television, telephone and Internet services in Japan with the convenience of native English-speaking customer service, contract-free service and multiple payment options, many conveniences not offered by their off-base counterparts. Additionally, the Exchange is looking to improve Internet service, but neither AAFES nor Allied Telesis could elaborate.

Stars and Stripes reporter Trevor Andersen contributed to this report

http://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/naval-forces-japan-helps-lift-geo-restrictions-for-on-base-internet-1.292859

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EUROPE:16. Ukraine Says Russian Army Officers Fighting Alongside Rebels(REUTERS 15 JUL 14) ... Natalia Zinets and Richard Balmforth

KIEV – Ukraine accused Russian army officers on Monday of fighting alongside separatists in the east of the country and said Moscow was once more building up its troops on the joint border.

A missile that downed a Ukrainian transport plane carrying eight people near the border was probably fired from Russia, Ukrainian officials said.

President Petro Poroshenko held an emergency meeting of his security chiefs after a weekend of Ukrainian air strikes on rebel positions near the border with Russia and charges by Moscow that Kiev killed a Russian man with a cross-border shell. The war of words between Kiev and Moscow and intense fighting, in which Ukrainian forces say they inflicted heavy losses on the rebels, marked a sharp escalation in the 3-1/2 month conflict in which several hundred Ukrainian servicemen, civilians and rebels have been killed. "Information has ... been confirmed that Russian staff officers are taking part in military operations against Ukrainian forces," Poroshenko said.

Diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis have so far made little progress. However, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said a "Contact Group" – which includes Russia, Ukraine and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – aimed to talk to the rebels by video link on Tuesday and meet them in person soon afterwards.

Speaking after what he described as "difficult talks" on the telephone with his French, Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Steinmeier said all parties were making a "strong effort" for the Contact Group to hold the video conference and agree a venue for the direct meeting.

Poroshenko made similar complaints of Russian incursions on Sunday to the European Union with an eye to pushing the bloc to exert greater pressure, and possibly more sanctions, on Moscow.

Poroshenko told his security chiefs that government forces, which lost 23 men in a rocket attack on an army camp last Friday, were now facing a new Russian missile system and there would have to be a change in tactics. He gave no details.

Accusing Russia of embarking on a course of escalation in Ukraine's eastern regions, National and Security Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists: "In the past 24 hours, deployment of (Russian) units and military equipment across the border from the Sumy and Luhansk border points was noticed. The Russian Federation continues to build up troops on the border."

NATO said Russia had increased its forces along the border and now had 10,000-12,000 troops in the area.

Lysenko added that three Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 12 more injured in the fighting in the past 24 hours.

Moscow's response to the cross-border shelling and the Ukrainian reports of Russian troops being moved up to the border raised again the prospect of Russian intervention, after weeks in which President Vladimir Putin had appeared intent

on disengaging, pulling back tens of thousands of troops he had massed at the frontier.

Military SuccessThe Ukrainian army said it had broken a rebel

encirclement of Luhansk airport on Sunday night. A spokesman for the so-called Luhansk People's Republic said 30 volunteer fighters had been killed in Ukrainian fire on Oleksandrivka, a village to the east of the town, Russia's Interfax news agency said.

As military action continued on Monday near the rebel-controlled border town of Luhansk, Ukraine's defence minister said a Ukrainian AN-26 transport plane, taking part in the military campaign against the rebels, had been shot down by a rocket which was "probably" fired from Russian territory.

Officials said two crew members, out of the eight people on board, had been in contact with the army general staff and a search and rescue operation was underway. The fate of the other six people was not immediately known.

Defence Minister Valery Heletey said the plane had been flying at a height of 6,500 metres and was out of range of any weapon the separatists had.

"So the plane was downed from another, more powerful rocket weapon which was fired, probably, from the territory of the Russian Federation," he said, according to Poroshenko's website.

The rocket may have been a Pantsir ground-to-air or self-guided air-to-air rocket fired from a Russian plane, he said.

Lysenko said separatists, backed by what he described as Russian "mercenaries,” had fired on Ukrainian border guards in an attempt to give cover as armoured vehicles and equipment were being brought into the country.

And he again rejected Russian charges that Ukraine forces had fired a shell over the border killing a Russian man on Sunday – an incident that Moscow has described as an "aggressive act" which would have "irreversible consequences.” "The (rebel) fighters systematically fire mortars and shoot into Russian territory, which killed a Russian citizen," Lysenko told journalists.

Russia said it had invited monitors from the OSCE, a European security and rights body, to visit two of its border crossings with Ukraine as a sign of goodwill.

In a weekend of fierce combat, Ukraine said its warplanes had inflicted heavy losses on the pro-Russian separatists in air strikes on their positions, including an armoured convoy which Kiev said had crossed the border from Russia.

Poroshenko's office said Kiev would present documentary proof of incursions from Russia to the international community via diplomats.

But Russia kept up pressure on Kiev over the cross-border shell incident. A Russian newspaper, citing a source close to the Kremlin, said on Monday that Moscow was considering the possibility of pinpoint strikes on Ukraine in retaliation.

EU SanctionsA few hundred Ukrainians protested against France's sale

of two Mistral helicopter carrier vessels to Russia outside a

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museum in Kiev on Monday where the French national day was being celebrated.

Russian seamen are training in France on the amphibious assault ships which will be delivered by the end of the year under a 1.2 billion euro ($1.6 billion) deal signed in 2011.

Poroshenko complained on Sunday of alleged Russian incursions into Ukraine in a telephone call with the European Union's Herman Van Rompuy.

The EU – Ukraine's strategic partner with which it signed a landmark political and trade agreement last month – targeted a group of separatist leaders with travel bans and asset freezes on Saturday but avoided fresh sanctions on Russian business.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine erupted in April when armed pro-Russian fighters seized towns and government buildings, weeks after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in response to the overthrow of a pro-Moscow president in Kiev.

Well over 200 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed in the fighting and several hundred civilians and rebels.

The fighting has escalated sharply in recent days after Ukrainian forces pushed the rebels out of their most heavily fortified bastion, the town of Slaviansk.

Hundreds of rebels, led by a self-proclaimed defence minister from Moscow, have retreated to the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, built reinforcements and pledged to make a stand. The once-bustling city has been emptying in fear of a battle.

Rebel fighters on Monday were evacuating about 200 Donetsk residents by bus across the Russian border into the Rostov area.

Vladimir, a 55-year-old coal miner, was sending his wife with two children to relatives across the border. "The Ukrainians have already cut off water. Electricity is only just working. How can you live without water and light?" he said.

($1 = 0.7331 Euros)(Additional reporting by Anton Zverev in Donetsk,

Thomas Grove and Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow, Mark Trevelyan in London and Annika Breidthardt in Berlin; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Giles Elgood and David Stamp)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/15/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSKBN0FJ0R720140715

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17. Cameron Announces £1.1 Billion In New Defense Spending(DEFENSE NEWS 14 JUL 14) ... Andrew Chuter

FARNBOROUGH, England – British Prime Minister David Cameron opened the Farnborough International Airshow on Monday with an announcement that the government will spend £1.1 billion (U.S. $1.8 billion) on defense equipment using unspent money from last year’s budget, but declined to commit a future government to retaining defense budget levels at 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The announcement of spending on surveillance, special operations forces, cyber, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars and other equipment got the weeklong event off to the start it needed after the non-appearance so far of the Lockheed Martin F-35.

But the refusal to guarantee Britain would stay at, or above, 2 percent of GDP for defense spending after the next general election in 2015 holds out the possibility of continuing constraints on budgets here.

“We will obviously have a spending review whoever the government is in 2015.We have set out our budget overall to 2016 and it will have to be examined at the time, but we meet the 2 percent and we recognize how important that is,” Cameron told reporters at the show.

Current British defense spending at £33 billion hovers just above the 2 percent target set by NATO for member states. Britain is one of only four NATO nations that meet the target.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer though has already given notice that government spending overall will have to take another hit in any 2016 spending review in order to reduce Britain’s debt problem. The Defence Ministry has not been exempted from that.

Last week, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond warned an audience of senior military personnel and industry executives at a conference in London that further significant cuts to the defense budget could not occur without having “meaningful consequences.”

Whatever the outcome of the long-term spending deliberations after next May’s general election, the mini spending spree announced by Cameron Monday will take forward some important capabilities for the military and industry here.

The British are using unspent money from last year’s defense budget to fund the programs announced at Farnborough.

Cameron said it was like spending new money. “What normally happens is that departments that don’t spend the money usually hand it back to the Treasury. The reason this isn’t happening this time is because we have assessed the budgets carefully and because the [overall] budget deficit has come down and crucially we have got rid of the £38 billion black hole in the defense budget, because of that prudence we can now spend some more money on important capabilities,” he told reporters.

The Conservative-led coalition government had to cut £38 billion in unfunded commitments when it entered office in 2010 as well as invoke an 8 percent budget cut of its own, causing substantial reduction in personnel numbers and capabilities.

Details of how the £1.1 billion is being spent are scarce for the moment, but Cameron committed to retaining Raytheon Sentinel R-1 and Shadow R-1 reconnaissance and intelligence gathering aircraft until at least 2018.

That’s a reprieve for the business-jet based Sentinel, which was slated to be cut at the end of the Afghanistan campaign in the 2010 strategic defense and security review.

The King Air-based Shadow R1 was purchased as an urgent operational requirement for Afghanistan, but the prime minister’s announcement appears to signal that capability is being added to the military’s core equipment program.

Aside from the surveillance and intelligence boost, the government has also finally committed to adopting the AESA

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radar being developed for the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter by the Selex ES-led Euroradar.

The actual contract remains to be signed by the British, German, Italian and Spanish governments behind the Typhoon program, but Cameron’s public commitment to the program signals it is set to advance to the production contract stage.

British Defence Procurement Minister Philip Dunn told Defense News in an interview this month that he hoped to have the deal signed by the end of the year.

A development version of the AESA radar, vital for Typhoon’s export prospects in the Middle East and Asia, made its public debut at the show Monday installed in a British test aircraft.

The AESA commitment was part of a £300 million package of projects that included purchase of an ice patrol ship previously leased from the private sector, funding toward a £120 million study into a Anglo-French future unmanned combat air system and force protection and other enhancements for British forces operating in the Arabian Gulf.

The remaining £800 million pledged by Cameron will go on intelligence, surveillance and cyber capabilities.

Cameron said he expected the next strategic defense and security review to follow the same broad lines set out in the 2010 version, although with the defense budget now under control, the process should be less painful.

http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140714/DEFREG01/307140021

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AFGHANISTAN:18. Anxious Moments For An Afghanistan On The Brink(NEW YORK TIMES 15 JUL 14) ... Carlotta Gall and Matthew Rosenberg

KABUL, Afghanistan – It was the Germans who uttered the first alarm that a potentially deadly power struggle might be brewing, after weeks of Western officials’ staying on the sidelines as the Afghan election crisis deepened. Just over a week ago, they threatened to withdraw funding and training troops from Afghanistan if a powerful regional governor declared a breakaway government led by the presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah.

It was not long before the German concerns proved founded. Enraged by Afghan officials’ sudden announcement of suspicious preliminary results last Monday, the governor declared the breakaway government. And he was followed by similar declarations from other Abdullah supporters.

But as Western officials scrambled to respond, what was not being said aloud was that the Abdullah camp’s threats had already gone beyond talk to a plan of action. Some of Mr. Abdullah’s backers were preparing to take over the centers of government in at least three provinces, and on his word to march on and occupy the presidential palace, according to several of his supporters and former government officials.

What followed was as tumultuous a six-day stretch for Afghanistan as any since the American invasion in 2001. Interviews with Western officials, the two presidential campaigns and other Afghan officials detailed a week that went beyond any previous political crisis in carrying the risk of a factional conflict that would tear open the wounds of the devastating civil war.

Local mujahedeen commanders were urging action against the palace, expressing confidence that the Afghan security forces, including those guarding President Hamid Karzai, would not fire on them. The commanders believed that most of the security forces were sympathetic to Mr. Abdullah, and that Mr. Karzai would be loath to order guards to open fire.

“Our commanders say we do not need the palace key from the Election Commission, we can go and take it ourselves,” said Fazal Ahmad Manawi, a former supreme court judge and an election adviser to Mr. Abdullah. “If Dr. Abdullah had said yes, several provinces including the palace would have fallen into the hands of his team.”

According to Mr. Manawi and others, it was a call from President Obama to Mr. Abdullah just after dawn last Tuesday that helped stop a headlong rush into a disastrous power struggle. Mr. Obama warned Mr. Abdullah not to even consider seizing power and to keep calm over the three days until Secretary of State John Kerry could get to Kabul.

“Really here the U.S. government did a great favor to the Afghan people,” Mr. Manawi said. “If it was not for the telephone call to Dr. Abdullah, this would not have stopped.”

The American ambassador in Kabul, James B. Cunningham, would not directly confirm that American officials knew of the plan to march on the palace before Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry reached out. But he did acknowledge an acute sense of urgency.

“The reason we intervened so rapidly was to urge them to stop even thinking about going down that road, which, I agree, would have been a disaster for the country,” Mr. Cunningham said in an interview with a small group of reporters. “It was serious enough that it engaged the president of the United States and the secretary of state, and that’s not an everyday occurrence.”

At a political rally the day of the call, Mr. Abdullah invoked the American warnings as he struggled to curb supporters who had begun to shout their demands for a march on the palace. Beginning to tear up, he urged patience, saying that Mr. Kerry would soon be in Afghanistan, and that they should wait to see what kind of agreement could be struck with his rival, Ashraf Ghani.

He was shouted down, and left the stage as the crowd’s yells heightened.

From the start, diplomats and election observers knew there were signs of large-scale fraud. After troubling reports from the first round of voting in April, things sharply escalated the day of the presidential runoff, June 14.

When the election commission announced a turnout of seven million that day, it was far higher than expected, and than plausible, given witness reports from polling stations around the country. The announcement was immediately suspicious not just to Mr. Abdullah, but to some international officials as well.

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Over the next weeks, Mr. Abdullah pressed accusations of systemic election fraud, in which millions of false ballots had been arranged in a conspiracy that included Mr. Ghani’s campaign, national election officials and President Karzai himself. Mr. Ghani, for the most part, kept a studied silence other than to deny his opponent’s claims and reaffirm that he would abide by the election commission’s process.

Mr. Abdullah began unveiling evidence, including audio recordings of phone calls that his campaign officials said involved a senior election commissioner talking with staff members about stuffing ballot boxes. The commissioner resigned, but the electoral body mostly refused Mr. Abdullah’s other demands.

Then, last Monday, the Independent Election Commission announced preliminary results for the runoff, even as the candidates were still negotiating with the United Nations on a broader investigation of fraudulent ballots. They put Mr. Ghani more than a million votes ahead of Mr. Abdullah, and said the turnout was even greater than initially announced, at 8.1 million voters.

The announcement caught most by surprise. One diplomat in Kabul said it “torpedoed” the United Nations’ efforts to negotiate a deal, and left Mr. Abdullah “extremely vulnerable in his own camp.” The diplomat, along with some other officials interviewed about the crisis, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

As Mr. Abdullah’s supporters began agitating for action, the Germans sounded their note of alarm, followed by other Western officials. Then Mr. Obama stepped in, and a tense three-day countdown began until Mr. Kerry’s arrival.

Although Afghan officials were careful to say that they believed Mr. Abdullah did not personally want a call to arms on his behalf, he began publicly walking a very tenuous line. Even as he tried to calm his supporters, he also insisted that he would be found the rightful winner of the election. And he reserved the right to unilaterally declare a government if talks with Mr. Kerry did not satisfactorily address his accusations of fraud.

Mr. Kerry, whose flight arrived just before midnight, spent the first hours of Friday morning with Mr. Cunningham and other officials at the embassy discussing the situation and going over possible solutions, American officials said. “The outcome was not preordained,” Mr. Cunningham said. “There really was quite a deadlock when he arrived.”

After the meetings broke up around 3 a.m., Mr. Kerry and other officials slept a few hours before embarking on a crucial and harried schedule. It included direct meetings with Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Ghani and Mr. Karzai, and with other Afghan and Western officials.

Much of Friday was spent listening to the concerns of the Afghans. That night, Mr. Kerry huddled with American and

United Nations officials to come up with a plan for the next day, which he would spend at the American Embassy, shuttling between the two camps in the embassy’s main meeting rooms in hopes of brokering a deal. Mr. Cunningham’s residence in the embassy’s upper floors were to be used for more private meetings.

Adding to the difficulty of the negotiations was that it was Ramadan, and the candidates and their entourages were observing dawn-to-dusk fasts for the Islamic holy month.

The negotiations on Saturday were most drawn out over the details of how to audit the runoff ballots, Mr. Manawi said. Mr. Abdullah was insisting that any box in which over 93 percent of the ballots were for one candidate should be reviewed. Mr. Ghani objected, eventually suggesting that they audit all the votes cast.

After that deal, officials said, the rest of the agreement was reached relatively easily, despite the fact that it included a sweeping plan to change the shape of the government over the next few years and to agree on a unity government in the shorter term after the results of the audit – and the election – are announced.

The winner will become president, and the runner-up, or somebody he nominates, will become a chief executive running the government. The security ministries will remain as they were for the first three months, Mr. Manawi said. The chief executive will serve for two years and the constitution will be amended to create an empowered prime minister post. The two election commissions will also be reformed.

Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah were in the compound at the same time at multiple points during the day, Mr. Cunningham said. But American diplomats kept them apart “not because there was any danger that passing by each other they would cause any problem, but just because we were trying to keep the conversations separate until the very end.”

Once deals with both were secured, Mr. Cunningham said, “then we would ask them both to come together to ratify that, and that is, in fact, what happened.”

Mr. Abdullah made his final decision at the end of a dinner to break the daily Ramadan fast, known as an Iftar, that was held in the ambassador’s living room.

Mr. Ghani had by then left for an Iftar at his campaign office, which is nearby. “We asked him to come back,” Mr. Cunningham said, and the rivals sat together and agreed.

After weeks of intense bad feelings between their camps, Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Ghani embraced in the living room after striking the deal. They would do the same thing a short while later, at the end of news conference to announce their agreement to the Afghan people.

Azam Ahmed contributed reporting.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/world/asia/anxious-

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19. In Birthplace Of Taliban, A Fragile Hold On VictoryIn Taliban heartland where U.S. once fought, Afghan forces triumph – for now(WASHINGTON POST 15 JUL 14) ... Kevin Sieff

PANJWAI, Afghanistan – This was once the front line of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. More than 79 international troops, mostly American, were killed in the district, a parched cluster of villages that was the heartland of the Taliban.

Today, the insurgents are gone, beaten back by Afghan forces and rejected by villagers. But there is no sign of the flourishing state many hoped would emerge.

Police man checkpoints, but there is no traffic. They carry guns but say they lack bullets. Old U.S. blast barriers and

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barracks are fossilizing in the desert, covered in graffiti that alludes to a decade of haunting deployments.

At a time when many Americans are asking whether the Afghan war was worth fighting, Panjwai shows how dramatic some of the security gains have been – but also how little has been done to consolidate the presence of the state. It is a former insurgent haven now free of insurgents. It is also a shelled-out constellation of villages ignored by Kabul and patrolled by some of the government’s least reliable employees, many of them younger than 17.

“The Taliban once owned this village, but now it is ours,” said Amadullah, a local police commander, extending his right arm toward a group of mud-brick homes. But the air quickly came out of his defiance. “Unfortunately, nothing is guaranteed in Afghanistan.”

The risk posed by Afghanistan’s weak democratic institutions has become alarmingly evident in recent weeks as one of the two candidates in the presidential runoff threatened to reject the results of the vote count, raising fears of prolonged political stalemate or even civil war.

Panjwai is known to many Americans as the place where Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales murdered 16 residents in 2012, in one of the worst U.S. atrocities of the war. To the Taliban, it has long been sacred ground. The insurgents emerged here in the early 1990s. Their leader, Mohammad Omar, spent time in Panjwai after founding the organization.

When President Obama announced his troop surge in 2009, Panjwai was one of the first places where soldiers were dispatched. By then, the Taliban had taken over dozens of villages and turned them into makeshift command centers and bunkers. Between 2009 and 2014, the Taliban buried more than 5,000 roadside bombs here, according to the U.S. military.

“They came to me and preached about the cause. They were strong in Panjwai then, and I needed money to feed my family,” said Jan Mohammad, 25, one of many young men recruited by the Taliban. He fought on their side for two years before being detained by U.S. forces. He was later released and left the insurgency.

One American unit after the next waged war on the insurgents, defusing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that were then replaced, and dropping bombs on a Taliban leadership that seemed to regenerate every year. U.S. forces failed to gain the trust of the district’s population.

And then Bales walked off his base in the middle of the night March 11, 2012, and gunned down the 16 civilians, most of them women and children.

“That’s when the Taliban preaching really increased,” said Aktar Mohammad, who lives a few yards from one of the homes targeted by Bales. “They told us the Americans were here to kill our children and our women.”

Bales was sentenced last year to life in prison. The families of the victims left Panjwai; their homes are still pocked with bullet holes. In one, where several children were killed, a tattered first-grade textbook lies on the floor. The victims were part of a larger exodus out of the district during years of unremitting violence.

Vulnerable Afghan troopsBy last summer, responsibility for combat operations

shifted from U.S. to Afghan troops, dozens of whom were killed, mostly by roadside bombs. Without modern body

armor or bomb-proof vehicles, the Afghans were particularly vulnerable.

Around that time, a group of Afghan elders declared their opposition to the Taliban. For years, Panjwai residents had offered hospitality to insurgents and Americans, afraid that shutting out either group would make them targets. But the elders said they would no longer offer the same degree of assistance to the Taliban.

“We were tired of living between two countries – one controlled by the government and the Americans, and the other controlled by the Taliban,” said Mohammad Osman, 75, an elder.

Afghan troops continued to die throughout the summer fighting season. The Afghan brigade commander, Gen. Ghulam Murtaza, said his unit lost count of how many of its vehicles were destroyed by roadside bombs. Everyone wondered: What would happen in 2014, when the Taliban pledged a brutal campaign to disrupt Afghan presidential elections?

A long foot patrol last month with the local police in Panjwai offered at least a partial answer. The Afghan police walked through village after village, entering old Taliban command centers, crossing culverts where IEDs were once buried. But not a single bullet was fired at them, and not a single bomb exploded.

Amadullah, their commander, who like many Afghans uses one name, attributed the relative peace to the role of the local police. They are recruited from Panjwai and are therefore able to “identify the Taliban and gain the trust of the locals” in a way that Americans and even Afghan soldiers, who hail from other parts of the country, could not, he said.

Tribal elders say their decision to stand up to the Taliban was the key factor in keeping the insurgents from returning for this summer’s fighting season. Others credit a large-scale Afghan army operation last year that targeted top insurgents. And still others point to the Taliban’s internal divisions.

“It’s hard to boil it down to one thing,” said Gen. James Rainey, the deputy U.S. commander in southern Afghanistan. He called the district’s security gains “a model of what could be” in southern Afghanistan.

An Opportunity For KabulWhatever the cause, Panjwai now represents an

opportunity for the Afghan government to capitalize on the Taliban’s absence.

If the district remains a wasteland, unsupported by the government, insurgents could easily return, playing again on local disaffection with authorities. This summer, they have regrouped in some of the districts around Panjwai, such as Maiwand and Band-e-Timor. U.S. and Afghan officials have intercepted phone calls in which insurgents have expressed a desire to retake Panjwai.

A government development effort could serve as proof that the Afghan state offers more than the Taliban. Right now, there’s no evidence of that.

“The existential threat to Afghanistan is the government of Afghanistan. You need to have a government to connect the people to – and that’s not something that exists right now,” Rainey said.

Several years ago, the U.S. government would probably have launched a massive reconstruction program in the

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district. But as the war winds down, those funds are no longer readily available.

The infrastructure the U.S. government built in Panjwai during the height of the war was destroyed. Clinics and schools are charred and hollow. A huge portion of the district’s homes are uninhabitable, riddled with holes from American bombardments or Taliban crossfire.

“The investment is going to be done by the Afghan government,” Rainey said. “We’re not in that business anymore.”

For their part, Afghan officials and tribal elders express pessimism that the funds will arrive to rebuild the city.

“Most of the homes are destroyed, and the people don’t have enough money to rebuild them,” said Haji Fazl Mohammad, the district governor. “We don’t have the money to help them, and the government in Kabul didn’t give us anything.”

On their patrol last month, the Afghan police officers walked through the Taliban cemetery, where the organization’s white flags fly above gravestones.

The police chief ordered an end to Taliban burials there months ago, but the cemetery was surprisingly well maintained.

As the police wandered through the graveyard, they were well aware of the fragility of the peace in Panjwai. A few miles away, on the periphery of the district, four residents who had cooperated with the government had been killed that afternoon by insurgents. Was it the beginning of another offensive? No one was sure.

One of the youngest police officers clasped his hands and started praying in front of a grave, on behalf of the deceased Taliban militants.

“God forgive them,” he whispered.Sharifullah Sharaf contributed to this report.http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-

taliban-heartland-where-us-once-fought-afghan-forces-triumph – for-now/2014/07/14/3773cad8-0dd0-4ada-9df8-bbd743e845b0_story.html

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AFRICA:20. Militia Shells Tripoli Airport, U.N. Pulls Staff Out Of Libya(REUTERS 15 JUL 14) ... Feras Bosalum and Ulf Laessing

TRIPOLI, Libya – A militia shelled Tripoli airport, destroying 90 percent of planes parked there, a Libyan government spokesman said, as heavy fighting between armed groups prompted the United Nations to pull its staff out of the North African country.

At least 15 people have been killed in clashes in Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi since Sunday, and a Libyan official said several Grad rockets hit the Tripoli International Airport on Monday, damaging the control tower.

Government spokesman Ahmed Lamine said 90 percent of the planes parked at the airport were destroyed.

"The government has studied the possibility to bring international forces to enhance security," he told reporters On Tuesday.

Three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has slipped deeper into chaos with its weak government and new army unable to control brigades of former rebel fighters and militias who often battle for political and economic power.

Two soldiers were killed and a number of planes were damaged when a militia shelled Tripoli airport on Monday, a Libyan soldier told Reuters.

"Several planes and cars belonging to citizens were hit," said Abdel Rahman, a soldier in a unit protecting the airport. A hall used by customs controls had also been hit, he added.

Seven people were killed in Tripoli on Sunday in the worst fighting for six months in the capital, where rival militias have been fighting for control of the airport.

Security and medical sources said at least six people had been killed and 25 wounded in Benghazi in heavy fighting between security forces and rival militias since late Sunday.

The U.N. mission in Libya said the closure of Tripoli airport and the deteriorating security situation made it impossible for it to operate.

Tripoli residents said a Grad rocket struck the airport perimeter late on Monday. A Reuters reporter at the airport heard anti-aircraft guns and other heavy weapons.

In Benghazi, irregular forces loyal to renegade former general Khalifa Haftar bombarded Islamist militia bases as part of his campaign to oust militants. Special forces clashed with militia fighters in the city.

Most of the dead and wounded were civilians, according to security and medical sources at Benghazi hospital. At least 10 houses were hit with missiles, and government offices and banks were forced to close.

Misrata city airport was also closed on Monday, and Benghazi airport has been closed since May. That leaves only two small airports in the south and a land route to Tunisia as the country's only gateways to the outside world, a flashback to the 1990s when Libya was under U.N. sanctions.

Western powers fear chaos in Libya will allow arms and militants to flow across its borders. The south of the vast desert country has become a haven for Islamist militants kicked out of Mali by French forces earlier this year.

(Reporting by Feras Bosalum, Ulf Laessing and Ayman al-Warfalli; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/15/us-libya-violence-idUSKBN0FK05B20140715

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21. Captain Phillips Strikes Back: Off Horn Of Africa, Pirates Go Bye-Bye(CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR 13 JUL 14) ... Mike Pflanz

MOMBASA, Kenya – Three years ago, Isse Yuluh’s pirate gang hijacked a yacht being sailed around the world by a Danish family with three teens. The Danes were eventually freed for a ransom of $3 million.

Mr. Yuluh went to sea again. This time he returned to his beachfront base in northern Somalia with a Liberian-flagged oil tanker and an Emirati chemicals carrier, and their 48 crew members, in tow. After 10 months of negotiations and a handover of $12 million, all were released.

But despite being one of Somalia’s most feared and wealthiest gang leaders, Yuluh announced in May that he had “renounced piracy” and would tell his “fellow comrades to leave this dirty business, too.”

Yuluh is not the first and not the only pirate to quit. Mohamed Abdi Hassan, another notorious pirate nicknamed Afweyne, or “Big Mouth,” said earlier he was getting out of the game.

Things are changing in East Africa’s high-profile pirate business: A combination of greater force at sea and swifter justice on land means the bottom has fallen out of the kind of Somali piracy vividly depicted in “Captain Phillips,” the 2013 film about the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama.

In 2011 at the height of piracy, 237 attacks took place in the zone of the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea, and the northwest Indian Ocean. So far in 2014, there have been seven attacks, all of which failed, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

The number of pirate hostages has also dropped, from 1,206 in 2011 to 38 today.

In June, 11 sailors from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran, and India were freed after nearly four years, with little or no ransom paid.

“With a few very small exceptions, we’ve had two years now without any successful piracy attacks,” says Alan Cole, regional coordinator of the maritime crime program for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC).

“What’s happened is that the odds of success for the pirates have dropped, and it’s become an increasingly hazardous business to be in,” Mr. Cole adds. “The chance of getting killed or captured is pretty high now, and watching so many men disappear off over the horizon and not coming back does suppress interest in this as a career path.”

To be sure, security analysts caution that the shipping industry has taken these favorable outcomes as a reason to reduce expensive antipiracy measures. For their part, the pirates say they are simply waiting for international vigilance to slacken, at which point they will come roaring back.

The Maersk AlabamaWhen a skiff carrying a handful of menacing armed men

swung alongside the Maersk Alabama in 2009, piracy was the best job going for a young Somali.

That hijacking, in part because of the movie that followed, is the highest-profile such attack that is familiar to Americans. But it was only one of hundreds.

Somali pirate methods have been straightforward for much of the past decade: Gangs that gathered on land and shore were financed by faceless kingpins, mostly in Kenya or the United Arab Emirates. The gangs put to sea in “mother

ships” stocked with many weeks’ worth of food, water, fuel, and weapons, towing litters of smaller skiffs behind them.

Once a potential target was sighted, often hundreds of miles from Somalia’s shores, the skiffs were launched and would speed to the slow-moving prize ahead. Until recently, most commercial ships were undefended and pirates could easily board them.

Then, the captured ships would be sailed to Somali waters to be followed by the first calls for ransom to owners or family. Everything captured was monetized – crew, cargo, and vessels. Hostages were mostly well treated and released without harm when an agreed-upon ransom was paid.

Typically, the pirate gang then lived large on land for a week or two off their spoils, then put to sea again. The pickings were rich. Dozens of large container vessels, cargo ships, and oil tankers representing a chunk of global trade pass each day through the Red Sea via the Suez Canal on journeys to and from Asia and Europe.

Firhan Ali, a pirate who now finds himself unemployed, can testify from personal experience that these were “the good days.”

He went to sea a dozen times, and was involved in five successful hijackings, including that of a Greek oil tanker he refuses to name. The Monitor talked with him by phone from the Somali town of Galkayo.

Today, Mr. Ali and his former comrades-in-arms say things are very different. “Life is pretty bad now,” Ali says. “What used to be my daily income is now my monthly income. It’s all about struggle to make ends meet. During the heydays, none of us expected such an inferior life could come back.”

What has changed: The world has fought back. Three coordinated international naval forces run antipiracy patrols off Somalia.

One is the U.S.-led Combined Task Force 151, with navies from six nations. The second, Operation Atalanta of the European Union Naval Force, has a special mandate to protect aid shipments to Somalia. The third flotilla is NATO’s Operation Ocean Shield.

Across the three deployments, dozens of warships from more than 40 countries have been involved. Patrols can include vessels from otherwise antagonistic nations: South Korea and North Korea have taken part, as have Ukraine and Russia. At any one time, an average of 20 warships are at sea.

Changes have occurred on land, too. Most important, justice systems in Indian Ocean countries including Kenya and the Seychelles have been boosted so their courts can process suspected pirates and their prisons can host them while they serve their sentences.

In Somalia, the UNODC has coordinated international efforts to refurbish dilapidated prisons in the northern city of Hargeisa, capital of semiautonomous Somaliland, and in neighboring Puntland.

Today, 1,350 people convicted of connections to piracy off Somalia are in jail in 21 countries, according to the UNODC.

Warning shotsYet by far the most successful tactic contributing to the

drop in successful attacks has been sending commercial ships

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out to sea past Somalia with armed private security on board. [See related interview here.]

Teams of three or four guards – usually former British, American, South African, or Russian military – join vessels for the few days that they will be in what is known as the “high-risk zone” off the Horn of Africa.

For most, the passage is routine. But if a suspicious skiff approaches, under new “best practices” that most firms follow, they have a series of protocols designed to thwart a hijacking. Some are simple. Captains increase speed, trying to accelerate away or churn up a wake that is tough for a small speedboat to navigate. Decks are festooned with razor wire or electric fences to deter boarding. Powerful sonic devices have been used to repel pirates with directed, unbearable noise.

If a skiff continues to advance, security guards first show their weapons, then fire warning shots, or as a very last resort, use lethal force.

“It’s just not worth their bother coming after a vessel with armed security, if they can peel away and go and find someone else without,” says Conrad Thorpe, chief executive officer of Salama Fikira, a Kenya-based maritime security company.

Ali, the jobless pirate, confirms that the combined effect of prosecutions, navies, and security is keeping him ashore. He has returned to his former job as a security guard in Galkayo.

“Because of frequent arrests of some of our top-notch guys, which disabled our coordination, hijackings have stopped,” he says. “Every attempt ended up losing men and money. In the end, it looked like we were flogging a dying horse, and that discouraged everybody. Even our investors have lost hope. Enemy warships are watching every corner of the sea, and many of our heroes are still in jails.”

Chillingly, though, Ali says he and his friends are not finished. “We are still eyeing the waters,” he says. “Chances will come. I’m very much in no doubt those good days will come back. It’s very hard for now, but after some coordination, we shall return, and we will be stronger.”

These are not fanciful boasts. Pottengal Mukundan, the International Maritime Bureau director, says the fact that there were still occasional attempted hijackings showed that “the threat of Somali piracy is still clearly evident.”

“There can therefore be no room for complacency as it will take only one successful Somali hijacking for the business model to return,” he says.

Signs are emerging that firms may be letting down their guard. Already, shipping firms are advising their captains to slow down through the high-risk zone, and to lop miles off their route by cutting closer to Somalia’s shores. Both will save money, and boost profits.

Mr. Cole of the UNODC agrees that no one can relax yet. He reckons that the essential preconditions to running a piracy business are many ships passing; people willing to pay ransoms; young men and money for boats, guns, and fuel; and a place where the police leave one alone, which is still the case despite huge efforts to reform Somalia’s security sector.

“All of that still exists in Somalia. It’s just that the odds have been stacked against [the pirates] at sea where they now have a good chance of being killed or captured,” Cole says.

“But if those odds change back again because private security backs out, or the navies back out, I can’t think of any reason why they would not come back again.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2014/0713/Captain-Phillips-strikes-back-Off-Horn-of-Africa-pirates-go-bye-bye

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AVIATION:22. Pentagon: 'Growing Evidence' F-35 Incident Not Systemic(DEFENSE NEWS 14 JUL 14) ... Aaron Mehta

FARNBOROUGH, England – Pentagon officials are increasingly confident that a fire that heavily damaged an F-35A joint strike fighter on June 23 was the result of an isolated issue and not a fleet-wide design flaw that will require redesign or replacement of parts.

However, the F-35 fleet remains grounded and the window to appear at the Farnborough International Airshow grows slimmer each day.

“There is a growing body of evidence that this is not a systemic, major design problem, that the problem is a manageable problem,” Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official, told reporters on Monday. “We have not found a similar problem on any of the other engines that are in service, so that’s encouraging.

“At this stage in the game, I do not see this as any kind of major setback.”

The cause of the fire, which claimed the fighter designated AF-27 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is a part of the engine known as the integrally bladed rotor (IBR). There are multiple IBRs in each F135 engine, designed by Pratt & Whitney, but this particular one was located in the fan section of the engine.

As described by Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, the head of the F-35 Joint Program Office, the engine blade is designed to rub against part of the engine during normal operation. For whatever reason, this particular IBR encountered “more severe” rubbing than planned, leading to higher temperatures, cracks – and eventually a major fire.

“All 98 of the other engines did not indicate the same phenomenon that we saw on the one engine that failed,” Bogdan said. “So we understand what happened. We are now trying to figure out why it happened.

This is the second IBR-related engine issue to crop up in the past eight months. A test engine was heavily damaged in December when an IBR blew after 2,200 hours of testing, a significant amount, the equivalent of nine years of service.

However, the current incident is not related to any past IBR issue, according to the panel.

“No, this is not related to any incident in the past,” Paul Adam, president of Pratt & Whitney, said. “This is a unique failure mode we had.”

Kendall expressed confidence in Pratt & Whitney and indicated a reintroduction of a second engine for competitive purposes was not in the cards.

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“Overall we’re confident in the design. We’re still in development, we still have work to do, [largely] on the margins, but overall we’re confident,” he said. “We’re not interested in this point in going back several years and opening up to another competitor.”

The officials acknowledged what Kendall called the “unfortunate timing” of the event coinciding with Farnborough and last week’s Royal International Air Tattoo, which were supposed to serve as an international debut for the fighter.

“We’re all disappointed,” Bogdan said. “It would have been a wonderful thing to have those airplanes here so the rest of the world can see it’s not a paper airplane and that it’s really a technological marvel.”

Hope still exists, however. Bogdan indicated that they would go ahead with the trip even if it could only appear for the public day Sunday. That cutoff point when the plane would no longer be able to make it would likely be sometime on Friday.

Lessons LearnedThe incident has also led Pentagon officials to formalize a

plan for how to share information among the eight international partners and two foreign military sales customers.

Information on the fire, in particular the haphazard way news about whether the fleet was grounded or not was released, led to the appearance that the fire had thrown the lines of communication into disarray.

Sean Stackley, the Navy’s lead acquisitions official, acknowledged a breakdown in the normal lines of communications.

“We work hard, in my experience with the F-35, to keep our partners informed of everything that is happening in the program,” Stackley said. “What happened in this case was because safety authorities were involved, a different group of people were involved, so we didn’t have as good communications as we normally do.

“That is a lesson learned so we’re going to correct that going forward to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

The incident has also led Pentagon officials to formalize a plan for how to share information among the eight international partners and two foreign military sales customers.

“We are going to formalize the process for mishap reporting and for safety investigations across all the service partners and FMS customers so that everybody will understand that,” Bogdan said. “As soon as we can get past this engine issue we will work to bring everybody together and formalize that.”

William LaPlante, the U.S. Air Force acquisition head, said that process will include explaining to partners and customers how U.S. safety investigations work.

The panel was a rare conglomeration of top officials for the F-35 program. In addition to Kendall, Bogdan, LaPlante and Stackley, Adam of Pratt & Whitney and Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson helped represent the industry side of things.

Normally, the companies are represented by their individual F-35 program managers; the appearance of the top executives speaks volumes about how important the program is to the individual companies.

http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140714/DEFREG02/307140022

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23. Moran Writes To F-35 PEO With Concerns About Fleet Grounding, Future Success(DEFENSE DAILY 14 JUL 14) ... Megan Eckstein

Senior defense appropriator Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) wrote to the head of the Joint Strike Fighter program to question whether the most recent fleet grounding was another in a line of setbacks that may prevent the program from meeting its delivery schedule going forward.

In a letter to Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, Program Executive Officer for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Moran asked for a brief on last month’s engine fire and subsequent fleet grounding. He noted recent statements indicating the engine fire may have been an isolated incident – Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall told the House Armed Services Committee last week that early evidence suggested that – and asked for more information on why the grounding was needed as well as the sequence of events preceding the engine failure. (Defense Daily, July 10)

But Moran went on to say that despite repeated problems with the F-35 program, “it remains one of the few DoD programs whose budget continues to grow in the current environment of fiscal austerity. These latest concerns coupled with previously documented problems highlight the pitfalls of a concurrent development and procurement strategy, which not only forces costly modifications to production aircraft, but also inhibits meaningful operational testing, according to the Pentagon’s own Director of Operational Test and Evaluation in a report released last year.”

For all the progress that has been made in the program, including the start of nighttime training flights, improvements in the Helmet-Mounted Display and the re-engineering of the tail hook for the Navy’s carrier variant, Moran said he is still concerned. The military services are buying the planes before they finish testing, so every time a new problem arises in testing, the cost to retrofit the delivered planes grows even more.

The decision to ground the whole F-35 fleet “further delay[ed] operational testing as well as the aircraft’s European debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo and the Farnborough International Airshow in the United Kingdom. These limitations and delays effectively rule out combat training and ultimately risk still more costly delays and potential readiness gaps as the DoD seeks to retire its legacy aircraft,” Moran wrote.

The senior House Appropriations Committee member won’t be able to use the information to shape this year’s defense spending bill, which the full House already passed. But the Senate Appropriations Committee will meet this week to mark up its defense bill – the defense subcommittee will hold a markup Tuesday morning and the full committee will mark up the bill Thursday morning – so Moran could still shape the debate as the Senate crafts its bill and the two chambers work out the differences in their bills later this year.

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http://www.defensedaily.com/moran-writes-to-f-35-peo-with-concerns-about-fleet-grounding-future-success/

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24. Raytheon Prep To Test New Electronic Jammer(DEFENSETECH.ORG 14 JUL 14) ... Kris Osborn

FARNBOROUGH, England – Raytheon engineers are preparing for the first planned flight of a prototype Next-Generation Jammer pod aboard a Gulfstream jet this coming September, company officials said July 14 at the Farnborough International Airshow here.

Technology development of the Next-Generation Jammer, or NGJ, was awarded to Raytheon in July of last year through a $279 million Navy contract. The new jammer will bring a new suite of offensive and defensive electronic warfare technologies to the F-18 fighter jet.

“Now with Next Generation Jammer you have the ability to respond to threats and create combinations of beams and techniques very rapidly. You can deal with very dense, dynamic threat environments,” said Travis Slocumb, vice president of EW systems, Raytheon space and airborne systems.

The NGJ is slated to replace the existing ALQ-99 jammers now outfitted onto specially configured Super Hornet fighters called E/A-18G Growler aircraft. The new jammer, slated to be ready by 2020, is being engineered with multiple high efficiency power amplifiers. It is designed to operate in a

range of different frequencies, reach dynamic ranges and jam a variety of targets at the same time, Slocumb said.

The EW technologies of the NGJ are tailorable, meaning various combinations of beams can be adjusted depending upon what makes the most sense for the threat, Slocumb explained.

“It is a very powerful system,” he added.EW jammers on Growler aircraft can be used defensively

to help identify the location of a signal from an enemy air defense system on the ground. The system could also help jam the signals or receivers of air defenses or potentially locate and jam signals from other aircraft.

Raytheon officials said now is a crucial time to develop the next-generation of electronic warfare.

“Many of the EW platforms that fought in Desert Storm and Kosovo are reaching their service life level. The enemy has not stopped evolving his threat signal. It is not just the U.S. that is looking at EW – it is global,” said Cesar Rodriguez, director of business development, air warfare systems, Raytheon missile systems.

http://defensetech.org/2014/07/14/raytheon-prep-to-test-new-electronic-jammer/

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UNMANNED SYSTEMS:25. Pentagon’s No. 2 To Meet With Navy To Discuss UCLASS(DOD BUZZ 14 JUL 14) ... Kris Osborn

The Pentagon’s No. 2 official will meet with Navy officials to discuss requirements for the service’s carrier drone development program as the release date for the formal request for proposal slides to the right, Navy officials said.

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work and other top Pentagon officials will meet with the Navy as part of a larger meeting with all the services to discuss the Defense Department’s aviation portfolio. Following this portfolio review, the Pentagon’s Defense Acquisition Board will meet later this month to provide final approval on the requirements for the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike system, or UCLASS.

The Navy had planned to issue the formal RFP by the end of July and that still could happen, it appears that August seems more likely. The U.S. Naval Institute first reported the upcoming meeting between Work and Pentagon officials and the Navy regarding the UCLASS requirements.

The UCLASS program has faced a series of ongoing Pentagon reviews of the requirements for the drone following criticism from lawmakers that said the Navy is not designing enough stealth and pay load capabilities into the first version of the aircraft.

Rear Adm. Mathias Winter, Program Executive Officer, unmanned aviation and strike weapons, addressed some of these concerns and the overall health of the program Monday at the Farnborough International Airshow outside London.

“An analysis of alternatives already identified that this warrants a Navy unique capability. Our job now is to ensure we have the right set of design requirements to give to industry to deliver that capability,” Winter said.

The ongoing reviews regarding the UCLASS drone’s mission scope, design and requirements for the program do not appear to be derailing or delaying the Navy’s plans for the program, said Winter.

Last summer, the Navy awarded four contracts valued at $15 million for preliminary design review for the UCLASS to Boeing, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman

Winter said a formal Request for Proposal detailing program requirements will be released within the next several weeks, an initiative which will formally start the process moving toward formal source selection. A 10-month long selection process will follow the release of the RFP.

“The final RFP will be given to the four vendors. They will have 60-days to refine their proposals. At that time we will begin formal source selection and we will evaluate the proposals,” he added.

Since the Navy had said they planned to release the RFP this month, it remains to be seen whether the RFP can be released before August after the DAB was forced to be pushed back.

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Navy officials maintain that a slight delay, if it even happens, would be a minor developmental in light of the overall positive progress of the program and the drone’s technology.

Correction: On Friday, DoDBuzz had reported the Navy was considering the creation of a new joint capabilities

development document. Navy officials said Monday this is not the case. DoDBuzz also incorrectly stated that the DAB had recently met to discuss the final UCLASS requirements.

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2014/07/14/pentagons-no-2-to-meet-with-navy-to-discuss-uclass-requirements/

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SHIPBUILDING:26. Sea Control 43: RADM Rowden – Sea Control, LCS, And DDG 1000(CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL MARITIME SECURITY 14 JUL 14) ... Matt Hipple

We are joined by RADM Rowden: OPNAV N96 (CNO’s Director for Surface Warfare), future Commander, Surface Forces, and author of the CIMSEC Article Surface Warfare: Taking the Offensive. We discuss his concepts for Sea

Control, the development of LCS, perspectives on DDG 1000, and his plans as incoming Commander, Surface Forces.

Download Audio (RT: 31:09)http://cimsec.org/sea-control-43-radm-rowden-sea-

control-lcs-ddg-1000/Return to Index

27. Navy Cancelled New Destroyer Flight Due To Ohio Replacement Submarine Costs(U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE NEWS 14 JUL 14) ... Sam LaGrone

The looming hit to the shipbuilding budget from the Navy’s plan to build 12 new nuclear ballistic missile submarines resulted in the cancellation of a fourth flight of Arleigh Burke destroyers (DDG-51) as well as the controversial plan to layup 11 Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers (CG-47), the navy’s chief shipbuilder told a congressional panel in a recent hearing on cruiser and destroyer modification.

The shifts in the Navy’s large surface combatants come as the $100 billion bill for the 12 new boomers begin to take up more and more of the Navy’s shipbuilding budget – leaving less and less for other shipbuilding programs.

From 2021 to 2035, the service’s estimated shipbuilding budget will rise to about $24 billion a year at the peak of the Ohio replacement program, almost double the service’s traditional yearly outlays.

One of the largest future problems for the surface forces is how to coordinate the air defense of the carrier strike group – a role built into the aging Ticonderogas and not a native function of existing Arleigh Burkes.

“We need an air defense commander with deploying battle groups,” Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development & Acquisition (RDA), told the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces in a Thursday hearing. “11 carriers, 11 carrier battle groups, 11 air defense commanders.”

Now, the air defense commander is the skipper of accompanying cruiser. The ship’s combat information center (CIC) has room for consoles and a staff of three to four for the carrier protection role.

“Our cruisers are commanded by a captain with a more senior staff on the ship and more individuals dedicated to the planning and execution of the air defense mission for the carrier strike group,” Rear Adm. Thomas Rowden, the outgoing director of surface warfare (N96) for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) told the panel. “That’s really how we drive that requirement for the cruisers and the air defense commander on the ship.”

Until the current budget, the follow-on to the air defense commander role was to be filled with a new flight of Arleigh Burke that would be built to fill the air defense commander role, Stackley said.

“We need to recapitalize those [cruisers] with a future ship class, either an upgrade to a DDG-51 – a Flight IV type of ship – or a cruiser,” Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development & Acquisition (RDA), told the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces in a Thursday hearing. “We do not have the ability to do that during the period of construction of the Ohio replacement.”

Including an air defense commander capability on the upcoming Flight III version of the Arleigh Burke is unlikely given the limited margin remaining in the ship once the planned Air and Missile Defense Radar is installed, USNI News understands.

Absent a Flight IV and the next future surface combatant not due to start construction until 2028, the Navy wants to keep the cruisers that it has.

In February, the Navy proposed to layup half of its cruiser force in in a cost savings plan that would preserve the air defense component of the carrier strike group (CSG) and reduce manpower and operations and maintenance cost of the total 22 ship force to the tune of $4.7 billion.

The 11 ships would all go in layup by Fiscal Year 2016 and would come out of layup one at a time, receive a modernization upgrade to extend the cruisers into the 2040s and likewise the cruiser air defense commander role.

The plan has met resistance in Congress. Last month the House Appropriations Committee limited instructed the Navy to sideline no more than two Ticonderogas a year starting in Fiscal Year 2016 and have no more than six in lay up at any one given time.

http://news.usni.org/2014/07/14/navy-cancelled-new-destroyer-flight-due-ohio-replacement-submarine-costs

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28. Ingalls Shipbuilding Celebrates Apprentice Graduation(SEAPOWER 14 JUL 14)

PASCAGOULA, Miss. – Huntington Ingalls Industries held a graduation ceremony July 12 for graduates of Ingalls Shipbuilding’s Apprentice School. The ceremony, held at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention Center, celebrated the accomplishments of 72 students representing various crafts at Ingalls.

“The expertise you’ve acquired during your time at the Ingalls Apprentice School will serve you well throughout your career, as you establish yourselves as the next generation of craftsmen,” said VADM William Hilarides, commander, Naval Sea Systems Command, who served as the keynote speaker. “Whether you’re graduating today as an electrician, a welder, a sheet metal cutter or one of the many other trades, you are providing a much-needed skill, not just to Ingalls, but to the Navy and the nation.

“That is really something to be proud of, knowing that the work you’re doing today is a part of the Navy’s growing legacy of operating forward to keep America safe,” he said. “So congratulations and thank you. You are part of an exceptional group of American craftsmen who demonstrate your service to our nation in the work you do each and every day.”

Since 1952, the Apprentice School has produced more than 4,000 graduates in support of Ingalls’ operational needs. The program involves comprehensive two- to four-year curriculum for students interested in shipbuilding careers.

“This ceremony is a celebration of your successful completion of this apprentice program and is an opportunity for us to show you how proud we are of you and what you have accomplished,” said Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Cuccias. “When you entered the program, we believed in your

potential. Being here today proves we were right. As I look out across this room, I am encouraged by what our future holds. I am proud of each and every one of you. Continue the momentum you have started, because you are the future of Ingalls Shipbuilding.”

This is the first graduating class that had students who attended classes in the new Haley Reeves Barbour Maritime Training Academy. Through the academy, Ingalls is entering into a new phase of partnership with the Mississippi Community College System that offers a path into bachelor’s degree programs. Currently, more than 60 faculty and staff deliver 14 different programs and over 120 course offerings that enable apprentices to gain not only the skills, knowledge and pride of workmanship, but also the educational foundation and personal qualities needed to fully meet the challenges of a shipbuilding career.

Today, more than 1,500 apprentice alumnae fill approximately 50 different types of jobs at Ingalls, from pipe welders to senior executives.

Marine electrician Brandon Hamilton, the Outstanding Apprentice of the Year, spoke at the ceremony.

“I’m a fourth-generation Ingalls shipbuilder,” he said, “so I grew up hearing about the shipyard and wanted to become a part of it. I learned many things and got a well-rounded experience in the apprentice program. Working with different foremen and crews in many areas of the ship taught me new ways to work with a team, and I learned valuable skills that will stay with me as I enter into this new phase of my career.”

http://www.seapowermagazine.org/stories/20140714-apprentice.html

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VETERANS AFFAIRS:29. VA Cites Progress On Backlog; Congress Disagrees(ASSOCIATED PRESS 15 JUL 14) ... Matthew Daly

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has made "tremendous progress" in reducing a disability claims backlog that reached above 600,000 early last year. Members of Congress and the department's assistant inspector general don't believe it.

Allison Hickey, the VA's undersecretary for benefits, told Congress that at the insistence of officials from President Barack Obama on down, the benefits backlog has been whittled down to about 275,000 – a 55 percent decrease from the peak.

Hickey's claims were met with disbelief by some. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, told her flatly that he thinks the VA's numbers are inaccurate.

"I don't believe anybody at the table is telling the truth from the VA," Miller said at a contentious hearing that lasted more than five hours Monday night. "I believe you are hiding numbers."

Asked if she trusted numbers produced by VA, the agency's assistant inspector general, Linda Halliday, said no.

"I don't want to say I trust them," Halliday said.In a report issued earlier Monday, Halliday said that in its

rush to reduce the backlog of disability claims, the VA has made benefits payments of more than $85 million to veterans who lacked adequate medical evidence that they deserve them. Without improvements, the VA could make unsupported payments to veterans totaling about $371 million over the next five years for claims of 100 percent disability alone, Halliday said.

The IG's office also found widespread problems at VA regional offices in Philadelphia and Baltimore, including mail bins full of disability claims and associated evidence that had not been electronically scanned for three years.

"Improved financial stewardship at the agency is needed," Halliday told the House veterans panel. "More attention is critical to minimize the financial risk of making inaccurate benefit payments."

Special initiatives designed to remove older claims and speed processing of new claims are worthwhile, Halliday said, but in some cases they "have had an adverse impact on other

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workload areas" such as managing appeals filed by veterans and reducing overpayments to veterans.

Hickey defended her agency, saying the department has spent the past four years redesigning and streamlining the way it delivers benefits and services to veterans.

Last year, the Veterans Benefits Administration, which she oversees, completed a record 1.2 million disability rating claims, Hickey said. The agency is on track to complete more than 1.3 million rating claims this year and pay a total of $67 billion in benefits – about half the VA's budget, Hickey said. More than 90 percent of the claims are being processed electronically, she said.

The VA has long struggled to cope with disability claims. The backlog intensified in recent years as more solders returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, and as the VA made it easier for Vietnam-era veterans to get disability compensation stemming from exposure to Agent Orange.

The VA has set a goal to process all claims within 125 days at 98 percent accuracy in 2015, but so far has fallen far short. The agency now processes most claims within 154 days – or more than five months – at a 90 percent accuracy rate, compared with an accuracy rate of 86 percent three years ago, Hickey said. At one point, veterans were forced to wait an average nine to 10 months for their disability claims to be processed.

"It has never been acceptable to VA ... that our veterans are experiencing long delays in receiving the benefits they have earned and deserve," Hickey said, adding that she was "saddened and offended" by related problems that have plagued VA health centers in recent months. Investigators have found long waits for appointments at VA hospitals and clinics, and falsified records to cover up the delays.

Halliday, in her report, said she found similar problems with the benefits agency, including faulty claims processing that "increases the risk of improper payments to veterans and their families."

Inspectors surveying Philadelphia's VA benefits center in June found mail bins brimming with claims and associated evidence dating to 2011 that had not been electronically scanned, she said.

Inspectors also found evidence that staffers at the Philadelphia regional office were manipulating dates to make old claims appear newer. The findings are similar to problems in which investigators have found long waits for appointments at VA hospitals and clinics, and falsified records to cover up the delays.

In Baltimore, investigators discovered that an employee had inappropriately stored in his office thousands of documents, including some that contained Social Security data, "for an extensive period of time." About 8,000 documents, including 80 claims folders, unprocessed mail and Social Security information of dead or incarcerated veterans, were stored in the employee's office, Halliday said.

Kristen Ruell, an employee at the VA's Pension Management Center in Philadelphia, told the committee that mail routinely "sat in boxes untouched for years" at the pension office. Once, after becoming concerned that unopened mail was being shredded, Ruell opened the boxes and took photos. Instead of addressing the problem, she said, VA supervisors enacted a policy prohibiting taking photos.

After VA officials in Washington issued a directive last year ordering that a backlog of claims older than 125 days be reduced, the Philadelphia office "took this to mean that they could change the dates of every claim older than six weeks," Ruell said. While pension center managers later told the IG's office that the mislabeling was based on a misunderstanding of the directive, Ruell said, "these behaviors are intentional."

"The VA's problems are a result of morally bankrupt managers that through time and (government service) grade have moved up into powerful positions where they have the power to and continue to ruin people's lives," Ruell said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_VETERANS_BENEFITS

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OUTREACH:30. Navy Robots Normally Deployed To Disarm Bombs Have A Jollier Mission: Entertaining Kids At

Summer Camps(OMAHA WORLD-HERALD 15 JUL 14) ... Steve Liewer

The breadbox-size tank ambled down the grassy hill on its treads, and then back up again, a trail of happy children screaming behind it.

“Make it go as fast as it can go,” one youngster shouted to the robot’s controller, Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Kisselman, a Navy explosive ordnance disposal technician.

“Can you make it go down the hill again? Can you make it funny?”

Visits Monday to two Omaha YMCA summer camps marked a different kind of deployment for the operators of the TALON and several other EOD robots, all members of Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11 from Imperial Beach, California.

Hundreds of Omaha children got to see the robots and meet the sailors who operate them during visits to the Omaha

Southwest and Omaha South YMCAs, while Navy divers helped teach the kids to swim.

It’s part of Navy Week, an official effort to expose people who live far from the ocean to the sea service. Navy Week will continue through Sunday with visits and activities throughout the Omaha metro area.

“We get to impact different age groups,” said Kisselman, 23, of Lakewood, Colorado. “I wish I’d had the chance to do this when I was a kid.”

Most of the children had little or no experience with robots, or meeting anyone from the Navy.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” said Dean Johnson, 10, of St. Pius X/St. Leo Elementary School. “I’ve seen robots before, but nothing like this.”

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“It’s awesome!” said Jason Foster-Key, 10, who attends Joslyn Elementary School in west Omaha. “I hope to be in the Navy or Marines someday. Or the NBA.”

Some kids found it a nice change from the usual summer camp diversions.

“This is much more different than running around on the playground,” said Jocelyn Parker, 10, who attends Ackerman Elementary School.

The robots may have been fun for the children, but they’re serious business for the sailors who operate them. They can be equipped with cameras and go into places where it’s too dangerous to send a human.

Some have arms that can be used to safely disarm a bomb. A few years ago that had to be done by a service member in a hot, heavy bomb-disposal suit.

“Not only can you place stuff, you can grab wires and try to disrupt their firing system,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Tod Neal, 43, of San Diego, a veteran of six combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. “I’m probably alive today because of these robots.”

The officer in charge, Lt. j.g. Anna Mansueti, 24, of Easton, Maryland, joined the unit last fall. She is one of only a few Navy women in explosive ordnance disposal.

Mansueti said it appealed to her that the EOD sailors, who work in eight-member platoons, are extraordinarily tight-knit.

“I think we have some of the best people in the Navy,” she said. “You get pretty close. It’s pretty awesome. You get to be a team.”

Her father was an F-14 pilot who became a military doctor.

“I had to explain to him what EOD was,” Mansueti said. “He thought it was pretty cool.”

She enjoyed the hands-on demonstrations with the summer campers – a highly appreciative audience.

Lots more exhibitions are planned. Today the unit will visit the Maple Street, Downtown Omaha and Council Bluffs YMCAs. On Wednesday it will be at the Aim for the Stars Science Camp at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the Omaha Children’s Museum. On Friday a Navy parachute team will perform at the Omaha Storm Chasers game.

“It’s an awesome opportunity for the kids to see the Navy, see what we do,” Mansueti said. “What kid doesn’t like robots?”

http://www.omaha.com/news/military/navy-robots-normally-deployed-to-disarm-bombs-have-a-jollier/article_7acda2c4-06b2-5513-9d1b-5cf959d8d33a.html

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31. Helena Man Serves On New Navy Ship In South America(GREAT FALLS (MT) TRIBUNE 14 JUL 14) ... Jenn Rowell

On Friday, the USS America left Mississippi en route to South America for two and a half months of exercises with partner nations. The ship is the lead ship in the Navy’s new class of next generation amphibious assault ships, which are replacing the aging Tarawa class.

Onboard the ship is Lance Cpl. David Romine of Helena.He’s serving as a mortar man with Special Purpose

Marine Air Ground Task Force-South.Romine joined the Marine Corps right out of high school,

and next month marks his third year with the Corps.“It’s basically something I wanted to do since I was a

little kid,” he said.His father was in the Navy, and while they were stationed

in Pensacola, Fla., his mom would take him out to see the Marine pilots doing physical training.

Since his mom knew the pilots well, she’d sometimes let the young Romine stay with them while she ran errands.

Now he’s headed to South America for his first trip out of the country, and during the exercise, he’ll be one of the Marines sharing the ship and the mission with Navy sailors.

He said the joint-service mission helps build relationships between the two military branches.

It will also “show our partner nations what the Marines and Navy are capable of together in getting the mission accomplished,” he said.

Romine said he’s looking forward to seeing how other countries run their militaries and learning from them. Plus, the experience and learned skills can help him and other Marines in future missions and deployments, he said.

He wants to “pass that down to future Marines that will be coming under my charge in the future,” he said.

He will be helping train South American forces on some weapons and also mixed martial arts, he said.

In exchange, partner nations will train the Marines and Navy on jungle warfare and amphibious landings, among other skills.

Romnine said he volunteered for the mission that will take the ship through South America for about two and a half months until it reaches San Francisco, where it’s slated to be commissioned later this year.

“I’m privileged to be on a brand new, freshly made ship to see what it’s capable of,” he said of being on of the first Marines assigned to the USS America.

The American completed sea trials in February with no major deficiencies, according to the Navy.

The ship will be part of joint, interagency and multinational maritime expeditionary forces and will bring amphibious and aviation capabilities since the ship was built to handle current and future aircraft, such as the tilt-rotor MC-22 and the Joint Strike Fighter, according to Navy data.

According to a ship fact sheet, the USS America has an 844-foot span, displaces 44,971 long tons and can operate at speeds or more than 20 knots

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/local/2014/07/14/helena-man-serves-new-navy-ship-south-america/12613973/

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COMMENTARY:32. Midlands Voices: Sailors Are On Watch On Land, Sea(OMAHA WORLD-HERALD 14 JUL 14) ... Adm. Cecil Haney

I am privileged to live here in America’s heartland leading U.S. Strategic Command, the command that is responsible for providing a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent capability for our nation and allies.

As a career Navy submarine officer, I have had the opportunity to serve our great nation, living and traveling around the world and operating in its oceans for more than three decades.

During that time, my family and I have enjoyed a somewhat unique opportunity for a Navy family – serving twice in Omaha. I appreciate the tremendous relationship the military shares with the community and have seen firsthand the countless things this community does to improve quality of life for our service members and their families.

Today, more than 300 sailors serve at StratCom headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, while thousands more support our missions worldwide.

Sailors are flying aboard E-6B aircraft enabling command and control of the country’s strategic nuclear capability by providing a vital and survivable link to allow the president and secretary of defense to communicate and control the nuclear triad at all times. Sailors are making warfighters safer and more effective through the Navy’s next-generation narrowband tactical satellite communications system and operating throughout the cyber domain, as well as conducting strategic deterrent operations aboard the Navy’s Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine.

As part of our joint military force, StratCom’s sailors help define an American Navy that protects and defends our nation’s freedom and security on the world’s oceans and elsewhere.

Navy ships, submarines, aircraft and, most importantly, tens of thousands of America’s finest young men and women are deployed around the world right now. They will be there while you sleep tonight. They will be there every weekend and holiday this year. They are there around the clock, far from our shores, defending America.

All day, every day, America’s Navy operates with precision and professionalism. It is the largest, most versatile, most capable naval force on the planet, involved in everything from engaging in combat and warfare support, to keeping

waterways safe and open for global commerce, to deterring sea piracy and drug trafficking.

When called upon, it’s a force that readily answers the need for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief anywhere, anytime – to help American citizens and citizens of the world.

When America’s national security is threatened by the existence of a weapons facility or a terrorist camp on the other side of the world, being there matters. Where these threats exist, chances are high that Navy ships, submarines, aircraft and special forces are very close by, with the ability to destroy targets located hundreds of miles inland.

As the world’s geopolitical and economic climates continue to evolve, the case for America maintaining a strong Navy grows. Indeed, the president’s national security strategy calls for a renewed focus on enduring threats in the Middle East region, as well as an increased American commitment in the Asia-Pacific region, a vast, mostly ocean-covered area of the world ideally suited for operations from the sea and in which the Navy maintains a robust presence.

This week, you will have the opportunity to see America’s Navy – your Navy – firsthand as Omaha and the surrounding area welcomes the Department of the Navy’s “Navy Week 2014.”

There will be a number of events going on throughout the Omaha-metro area where the community can interact with these heroes. From Jazz on the Green to Riverfest and more, sailors will be available to tell you about their unique and very important jobs.

I also personally hope to see everyone at Offutt Saturday and Sunday to see the Navy’s Blue Angels aerial demonstration team, the Navy’s Leapfrogs parachute team, the Navy Band, and Navy SEALs and Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams during the Defenders of Freedom Open House and Air Show.

When it comes to protecting and defending America, being there matters. And America’s Navy is already there. Go Navy!

The author is the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, based at Offutt Air Force Base.

http://www.omaha.com/opinion/midlands-voices-sailors-are-on-watch-on-land-sea/article_614e898c-21e1-5d9a-92ad-5a31da7e9196.html

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33. Diplomacy Can Still Save Iraq(NEW YORK TIMES 15 JUL 14) ... Vali R. Nasr

WASHINGTON – Contrary to what pessimists are saying, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s sudden sweep across northern Iraq does not have to end with the Middle East’s borders redrawn. That would be a calamity; the United States should do all it can to avoid it. And we can – if American diplomacy, rather than military intervention, is the main tool.

Yes, America may have to resort to surgical airstrikes to help Iraq check the advance of this extremist group, known as ISIS. But in the end, Iraq can be pulled back fully from the brink only if its quarreling sects agree to share power under a

new constitution. And that will not happen unless American diplomats re-engage as mediators among the sectarian leaders.

The Shiite-Sunni divide has grown too wide for Iraqis to reconcile their differences by themselves, and Iraq’s neighboring powers are in no position to be honest brokers. Iran stands firmly behind Iraq’s Shiites, while Saudi Arabia and Turkey sympathize with its Sunnis.

So Americans alone have the ability to bring together all the stakeholders to end the fighting. Once we take on that role, the cooperation of the three regional powers would be not only useful, but essential.

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And it would be in all of our interests. ISIS has carved out a vast Sunni region, from Aleppo on Syria’s border with Turkey to Samarra deep in central Iraq, that threatens to redraw the maps of both countries by creating a landlocked and impoverished Sunni realm that would covet its neighbors’ riches and be a breeding ground for extremism. That realm could expand further to include parts of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and then project influence across the Sunni world, from Africa to Southeast Asia.

In Syria and Iraq, the rebellion began with protests against anti-Sunni harshness by sectarian governments. Now it may be peaking; ISIS is unlikely to seize Damascus or Baghdad, and its extreme sectarian tone and record of heinous violence are provoking a reaction in kind among Alawites, Christians, Shiites and even among Sunnis, who once admired its fight against the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Still, there is no predicting the ultimate reach of ISIS. That is why it is critical for Iraq and Syria to remain intact and keep hold of their Sunni regions.

Consider the intersecting challenges: two failed states, populated by warring sects and ethnic groups, and ruled by ineffective and predatory governments; they are now besieged by brutal extremists backed by menacing neighbors with regional allies. That is a problem far too large and deeply rooted for a military solution alone.

In the long run, the key to stability and peace is rule from Damascus and Baghdad that is less centralized and that provides more justice and equality for Sunnis than in the past. And that, in turn, is achievable only if Iraqis and Syrians agree to power-sharing deals.

However estranged the quarreling parties are right now, they might respond to our diplomacy, with the buy-in of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The effort should steer clear of war-making, nation-building and goals as quixotic as ending the Middle East’s sectarian and ethnic divisions.

Rather, its guideposts should be three achievable goals: don’t let the extremists control territory; protect the territorial integrity of the region’s states; and promote governance by bargaining, to allow each sectarian community a fair chance to live in peace.

The task for American mediators would be formidable. While many Iraqis cling tenaciously to the idea of a unified

country, the dysfunctional wrangling among Baghdad’s politicians pales when compared with the deep sectarian distrust left in the population by a decade of violence and displacement. In addition, the Kurdish region in the north has already left Iraq for all intents and purposes. And America has far less leverage than in 2006, when it had troops in Iraq to quell sectarian violence, and more financial and political levers with which to influence Iraqi politics.

Iraq’s Shiites, an overwhelming majority of its Arabs, will resist talk of sharing power with rebellious Sunni extremists. Most Shiites want instead to vanquish ISIS, then embrace Sunnis only as junior partners in a Shiite-dominated state. Many Sunnis, by contrast, feel the wind in their sails and think they can again rule Iraq; they are unlikely to settle for less than an equal partnership.

Breaking those attitudes may require a new government in Baghdad. But even with one, keeping Iraq intact will also require a new constitution to define how power is shared. A workable formula would have Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds governing their own domains, while sharing national power in a weaker center. A similar formula ended the ethnic war in Bosnia in the 1990s.

One factor in favor of this plan is the fear already sown by ISIS. Even leading Sunni Arabs who criticize Iraq’s Shiite prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, and who have supported ISIS in Syria, worry that an ISIS triumph in Iraq would threaten their own interests; in particular, an emergent “Sunnistan” could strengthen other Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood, which they have opposed in Egypt as too populist. As angry as these Arabs are with Mr. Maliki, they have little appetite for breaking up Iraq.

As for Iran, its ties are with the current rulers in Baghdad and Damascus, so it wants them to keep their borders. And with a Sunni minority of its own, Iran fears that even it may not be immune from efforts to redraw the map of the Middle East.

America can build a diplomatic plan on the common interest in keeping Iraq intact. It can rally the region and nations around it. It needs to start the effort now.

Vali R. Nasr is the dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/opinion/vali-nasr-diplomacy-can-still-save-iraq.html

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34. The One Thing The U.S. Can’t Train The Iraqi Army To Do(DEFENSE ONE 14 JUL 14) ... Lt. Gen. Robert Gard

The U.S. armed forces have spent considerable time, resources and talent building up and training Iraqi security forces to enable them to maintain a reasonable degree of stability in that war-torn and divided country. Why, then, did tens of thousands of Iraqi troops, including two army divisions, discard their weapons and uniforms, abandon their equipment and flee from a small attacking force of lightly equipped fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria?

The major reason was lack of a parallel effort to establish governing institutions capable of earning the loyalty and commitment of its soldiers.

At the time that ISIL took over Mosul without even token resistance, and continued its advance toward Baghdad, Iraqi active duty armed forces of the Ministry of Defense numbered

over 200,000, with more than 500,000 police under the Ministry of the Interior. The Iraqi army had more than 300 main battle tanks, including 140 U.S. M1A1 Abrams Tanks, about 3,000 armored personnel carriers, including more than 400 U.S. M113A2s, and more than 70 helicopters.

The collapse of Iraqi security forces certainly was not due to an insufficient number of trained troops or inferiority in equipment and firepower. There is no doubt that our trainers successfully inculcated in the Iraqi soldiers the tactical combat skills necessary to deal with numerically inferior hostile insurgent forces.

What cannot be taught, however, is motivation or incentive that can be called morale or confidence in, and commitment to, the nation’s institutions and leadership, both

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military commanders and political authorities. This intangible element, essential to success in combat, depends on the legitimacy of domestic governance, not admonitions from foreign military advisors.

The U.S. must accept at least some of the responsibility for the incompetent, corrupt and non-inclusive Iraqi government and its institutions. We supported a second term of another four years for Nouri al-Maliki as primeminister after the 2010 election, despite his obvious malfeasance during his first term, and although a rival coalition bloc, led by a moderate Shiite, Ayad Allawi, had won a majority of the seats in Parliament.

Maliki has since become even more authoritarian in excluding and oppressing the Sunni minority, and consolidating his political power, to include replacing military commanders we had trained with his unqualified political supporters. On April 10, 2012, Allawi warned in an op-ed published in The Washington Times that sectarianism was in full force and that Iraq’s fledgling democracy was in serious jeopardy. He did not call for the return of American combat troops or advisors, but went to the heart of the problem by urging U.S. pressure on Maliki to form an inclusive and reformed government.

Maliki has misplaced blame for the military success of ISIL on the failure of the U.S. to deliver the F-16 fighter aircraft and helicopters currently under contract; and he has issued a clarion call for outside military support, particularly air power, to stem the ISIL tide. But he has rejected the critical governance issue by calling for “reconciliation,” not reform, and turning down Allawi’s proposal for an inclusive National Salvation Government.

President Barack Obama has sensibly ruled out sending in U.S. ground combat troops, and has called for a reformed Emergency National Unity Government in Iraq as a precondition for providing supportive air strikes. But with ISIL insurgents able to blend with the Sunni population, U.S. air strikes are likely to be as counter-productive as the commitment of American ground combat troops.

With the mobilization of Shiite militias, it is highly unlikely that Baghdad will fall to ISIL fighters. Obama sent a small contingent of Marines to beef up security at the American Embassy in Baghdad and several Special Forces teams to assess the security situation on the ground. During a press conference on July 3, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Staff Martin Dempsey stated that “political inclusiveness” in the Iraqi government “will be an important factor in determining what we do there.” Without an inclusive government, he said, “the future [of Iraq] is pretty bleak.”

Current U.S. security strategy envisions training indigenous military forces to counter hostile forces and insurgents. What we should have learned from the Vietnam experience, and what the recent collapse of Iraqi troops confirms, is that the legitimacy of the parent government and its institutions is as necessary to success in combat as well-trained troops. Anything less is a recipe for failure.

Lt. General (USA, Ret.) Robert G. Gard is senior military fellow at the Center for Arms Control & Non-Proliferation and former president of the National Defense University.

http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2014/07/one-thing-US-cant-train-iraqi-army-to-do/88663/

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35. Fate Of The Iran Nuclear Talks Hangs On Three QuestionsExtension Is Likeliest Outcome for Now, but Regime Faces a Reckoning(WALL STREET JOURNAL 15 JUL 14) ... Gerald F. Seib

It's crunch time with Iran. Negotiators from the U.S. and five other international powers have until Sunday to reach a long-term deal with Iran on reducing its nuclear program, declare the negotiations a failure, or make the politically awkward decision to extend their self-imposed deadline for a deal.

U.S. officials don't want to talk about extending the deadline – that would just reduce pressure to get an agreement – though an extension seems the likeliest outcome as a bevy of high-level negotiators wrestle in marathon talks in Vienna.

The mood of the talks has gone from optimistic weeks ago, as Iran made concessions on items such as the future of its Arak nuclear reactor, to pessimistic in recent days as it becomes clear a giant gap remains on the crucial question of how much capacity Iran will retain to enrich uranium for what it insists is a peaceful nuclear program.

The details are important, of course. But the fate of these talks turns on three much broader questions about Iran:

Does Iran consider a deal vital? Obviously Iran thinks it would be nice to get a deal, which would ease international economic sanctions that Iranian officials themselves have candidly acknowledged are creating painful problems.

Indeed, there is ample reason to believe that the administration of Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, who took office last year, was constructed specifically to reach a deal

that would ease the economic pressure. As an indication of how intensely Mr. Rouhani is following the stretch run, the president's own brother, a special adviser, just arrived in Vienna in recent days to take part in the deliberations, Iran's news agency reported.

But there is a difference between wanting a deal and considering one essential. Would economic relief be simply convenient, or does Iran consider failure to achieve it an existential threat to the regime? The negotiations won't succeed unless Iran wants a deal more than its international interlocutors do. And there's probably no way to know for sure exactly how much urgency Iran attaches to a deal until talks reach their 11th hour.

Who is calling the shots? U.S. officials had thought that President Rouhani and his able, American-educated foreign minister, Javad Zarif, had the latitude and authority to reach an agreement. But in recent weeks they have come to doubt that they really are free agents.

Instead, officials say there are new signs the Iranian team may not have the full backing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or the powerful leaders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The most obvious sign came last week, when Ayatollah Khamenei rocked the talks with a speech in which he appeared to say that Iran needs to not only retain the

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ability to enrich uranium, but also to do so on a much larger scale than it does currently.

Considering that the amount of uranium-enrichment capacity Iran will retain has become the most important unresolved issue in the talks, the signal to the U.S. and the other countries involved in the talks – Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany – was discouraging. Yet despite that signal, and compounding the uncertainty about Iran's bottom line, Iranian negotiators on Monday indicated for the first time that they are willing to accept a modest reduction in nuclear-enrichment capability, according to people involved in the talks.

Does Iran think its strategic situation is changing for the worse? This is in many ways the broadest and most intriguing question. Iran's calculation on whether its position is eroding in a rapidly destabilizing Middle East could go a long way in determining how eager it is to end its isolation by striking a deal.

For a long while, Iran had reason to think its strength as a regional power was growing. Iraq, its big neighbor and longtime nemesis, was being run by a friendly fellow Shiite, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Iran's principal regional ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was firmly ensconced in

Damascus. Tehran's friends in the Hamas movement were overtaking more-moderate figures as leaders of the Palestinian cause.

But suddenly all those trend lines have reversed. Mr. Maliki is besieged, Mr. Assad's control of Syria has shrunk dramatically amid civil war, and Hamas is estranged from its former ally in Egypt, under siege from Israel and on strained terms with Iran over its unwillingness to help the Assad regime.

Most important, the rapid emergence of a powerful and extreme Sunni movement, a group calling itself Islamic State, poses a severe threat to Iran's interests. It is violently anti-Shiite, bent on destroying the regimes friendly to Tehran in both Syria and Iraq, and intent on establishing a Sunni caliphate in Iran's backyard.

In theory, at least, this development means Iran now shares fear of a common and frightening new foe with moderate Sunni states in the Persian Gulf and beyond, with the U.S., and even with Israel. That should make Iran eager to find some common ground with those feeling similarly threatened.

In theory, that is. We'll see soon.http://online.wsj.com/articles/fate-of-the-iran-nuclear-

talks-hangs-on-three-questions-1405350843Return to Index

36. Beijing's Appetite For Engagement EbbsU.S.'s Decades-Old Diplomatic Policy Stalls Amid China's Rise(WALL STREET JOURNAL 15 JUL 14) ... Andrew Browne

A conviction that has guided U.S. diplomacy toward China for more than 40 years is that engagement, rather than confrontation, eventually will transform the country's Communist regime.

It's a way of thinking, many say, which reflects a uniquely American brand of missionary zeal.

The U.S. ambition for China, if not full-blown democracy – one man, one vote – is a country that at least respects the rule of law and individual rights, and embraces international norms and standards. A more open China, the theory runs, will make it a more cooperative partner.

"The world cannot be safe until China changes," declared Richard Nixon in a Foreign Affairs magazine essay back in 1967, an era when China was whipping up "class struggle" at home and fomenting revolution overseas.

"Taking the long view," he argued "we simply cannot afford to leave China forever outside the family of nations, there to nurture its fantasies, cherish its hates and threaten its neighbors." Five years later, Nixon made a historic visit to Beijing as president to meet Mao Zedong and open ties with the People's Republic of China.

The U.S. project to engage China has been a roller-coaster ever since. The Tiananmen Square massacre, whose 25th anniversary passed last month, sent the relationship into free fall.

Today, there's little doubt we're in a new slump. This one looks very different, though. Previous lows were often triggered by a tragic event, like the Tiananmen killings, or the accidental U.S. bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade in 1999 that resulted in government-sanctioned mobs pelting the U.S. embassy in Beijing with rocks. The latest decline reflects a deeper malaise.

Disillusion seems to be taking hold on both sides. From the U.S. perspective, engagement with China has not brought forth the kind of change that Nixon – and every U.S. administration since – has hoped for and expected.

U.S. policy makers see a frustrating paradox: at a time when China's economy is in triumphant ascendance – thanks in large part to America opening its vast markets to Chinese trade – the old hatreds that Nixon remarked upon are burning more brightly than ever. Meanwhile, China's neighbors once again feel threatened.

A study by the Pew Research Center released this week showed that large majorities in many Asian countries fear that China's aggressive territorial moves in the region could lead to war.

Since taking office early last year, China's president Xi Jinping has been emphasizing a resentful type of nationalism that seeks to settle scores for the country's "century of humiliation" at the hands of imperialist powers.

That's driving China into an uncompromising quest to recover territory it believes was stolen when the country was on its knees.

It inflames tensions with Japan, China's wartime nemesis. And it emboldens China to challenge the U.S.-led status quo in Asia that is anchored in America's alliances.

At the same time, say many Western legal scholars, progress toward the rule of law and individual rights has been thrust into reverse. A new catchall category of crime ensnares those bold enough to challenge the regime. The lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, who's made a name for himself as a "rights defenders," has been arrested and now awaits trial for the offense of "picking quarrels and provoking troubles."

Democrats in Hong Kong accuse Beijing of betrayal over its failure to deliver promised democratic elections for the

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territory's leader, and have rallied hundreds of thousands of residents to protest.

China, meanwhile, is more convinced than ever that the U.S. will never accept the legitimacy of a Communist government. In the minds of Chinese leaders, the U.S. is hell bent on blocking China's continued rise.

It's hardly surprising, therefore, that the mood around last week's U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing, a forum to discuss everything from weapons proliferation to climate change, was somber.

At the opening session, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tried to lightening the tone a bit. Surveying the impressive lineup of U.S. officials – Treasury secretary Jack Lew, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, Commerce secretary Penny Pritzker, among many others – he quipped: "It is obvious to me that not a lot is getting done back in Washington today. It is being done here."

In the end, however, the accomplishments were modest, at best. Among the outcomes: an agreement to strengthen cooperation on international piracy and some consensus on how China's currency exchange rate regime should evolve.

In some ways, that counts as failure because in the absence of a common enemy – the former Soviet Union – that brought them together in the first place, the relationship's momentum is carried forward by their common efforts to address, forcefully, big global problems.

Both sides talk frankly these days about the danger of strategic rivalry leading to armed conflict. "It is not inevitable," Mr. Kerry told his audience in Beijing. "It is a choice."

As enthusiasm for engagement ebbs, however, the options for a constructive relationship are narrowing.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/beijings-appetite-for-engagement-ebbs-chinas-world-1405397472

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37. Anti-China Rhetoric Isn’t Causing Problems, China IsChina’s actions in the region are causing problems, anti-China rhetoric is merely the response to them.(THE DIPLOMAT 15 JUL 14) ... Zachary Keck

Over at The Editor’s blog last week, Erin Zimmerman wrote a much discussed piece arguing that the “anti-China rhetoric” of regional actors in forums like the Shangri-La Dialogue was forcing Beijing to lash out more aggressively in the region to appease nationalistic sentiment at home. As a result, she argued that the best way to reduce regional tensions and encourage China to act more constructively in the region is to stop “highlighting political grievances” at these forums. Instead, the region should move to more firmly entrench China into Asia’s existing multilateral institutions, thereby “incentivizing Beijing to demonstrate its positive influence in the region.”

Her argument seems to have touched on a nerve of many judging from the comments on the website and made to this author personally on Twitter and email. In some rather extreme examples, many were derisive of the fact that The Diplomat would even publish the article.

I disagree. Zimmerman makes a strong and coherent argument expressing a viewpoint that is held by many in the region including but not limited to China and its government. As such, it is an integral part of the regional debate, and I am proud of the fact that Zimmerman was kind enough to submit it to The Diplomat and we were able to feature it on the site.

Which is not to say that I agreed with the article’s arguments, and I don’t appear to be alone in dissenting. Thus, with the spirit of a healthy debate in mind, I felt it worthwhile to outline where I disagree with the piece.

Zimmerman’s first major argument is that the concerns that regional states are expressing about China’s conduct in regional forums is what is fueling China to act so provocatively in the first place. For example, in the context of the Shangri-La Dialogue, Zimmerman argues that Japan and America’s “comments may prove to be provocative, in that they are likely to push Beijing into pursuing the very same behaviors that they condemn.”

This is the kind of circular logic that one often finds the CCP itself employing to try and obfuscate which party is to blame in a dispute. Unfortunately, it is logically unsustainable. What Zimmerman is essentially arguing is that other countries

expressing concerns about China’s actions is what is causing Beijing to take these actions in the first place. But other countries expressing concern about China’s actions cannot be the cause of the actions any more than a murderer can be acquitted for his crime by arguing that he only murdered his victim because the state accused him of murdering that person.

Even the example of the murderer doesn’t do the argument justice. Essentially what Zimmerman is arguing is that the victims of China’s assertiveness are to blame for the assertiveness itself because they publicly express concern about it. Thus, the apt parallel from the criminal justice system would be accusing the victim of a violent assault of bringing it upon him or herself because they reported it to local law enforcement. If only the victim hadn’t reported the crime, the crime would have never happened in the first place. This isn’t a chicken and egg kind of case where cause and effect is difficult to ascertain. Countries are expressing concern about what China has done and is continuing to do. China’s actions are causing the criticisms to be made; not the other way around.

Besides arguing that regional states should stop speaking out about China’s actions, Zimmerman’s other major argument is that “Multilateral forums can and should be put to better use as a means of positively engaging with China. This means not highlighting political grievances and using these events to more firmly entrench China as part of a larger Asian community.”

This argument too employs a peculiar logic. The purpose of multilateral institutions is to bring together countries to discuss various problems in hopes of finding solutions to them. In the case of security forums like Shangri-La Dialogue, the purpose is to bring together Asian nations to discuss security challenges in hopes of finding peaceful solutions to them.

The first part of Zimmerman’s argument, however, is that states should abstain from using these forums to voice their concerns because that is what’s causing China’s provocations in the first place. But this is the exact purpose of holding these forums. If countries agree to no longer use these forums for

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the purposes they were created – namely, to discuss challenges in hopes of resolving them – then why would they want to expand and deepen the institutions themselves? This would be akin to expanding the World Cup after banning the game of football, or a country launching a prison expansion program right after it nullified its penal code and dismantled its criminal justice system.

The argument that more firmly entrenching China into the existing order would mollify it is also hard to reconcile with the fact that China opposes this order. As President Xi articulated at CICA back in May, and General Wang reiterated at the Shangri-La Dialogue, China views the current regional security order as a Cold War archaism. It is therefore calling for it to be dismantled and replaced by a new order based on the principle of Asia for Asians. This would presumably be centered on CICA where the U.S. is excluded and Japan and the Philippines have only observer status.

Similarly, China has proposed the creation of a “multilateral” Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. News reports suggest that the bank would have initial funding of $50 billion and China would be the majority stakeholder. By all accounts, the AIIB is designed to reduce the influence of the Asian Development which China perceives as being too dominated by Japan and, to a lesser extent, the United States.

If China was interested in playing a larger role in the existing regional order it could easily use this substantial funding for the ADB, and thus give itself more status within that institution. However, it has chosen to create its own alternative that seems aimed at excluding Japan, the United States and India, who could potentially threaten China’s majority stakeholder status. As one economist explained it: “China wants to play a more pivotal role in these kinds of organizations – so the best way is to establish an organization by itself.”

It therefore isn’t at all certain that China would willingly accept a larger role in a regional order that it is intent on upending. But even if it did agree to this role, it’s difficult to imagine it valuing its new position more than it values securing its core interests in the East and South China Seas. More likely, China would use its greater influence in these institutions to prevent others from using them to hinder its larger objectives.

There are other slightly less central but still immensely important issues with Zimmerman’s argument. For example, she contends China is forced to act provocatively when under external criticism because it has a nationalistic populace. However, the Chinese government itself has spent years carefully cultivating this nationalism in order to legitimate its continued grip on power. Thus, Zimmerman is essentially asking other nations to accept China’s provocations in order to advance the greater good of perpetuating one party rule in China.

It’s not clear why China should be given such an exulted status. After all, the CCP is hardly the only government in the region that faces nationalistic sentiments at home. Vietnam’s Communist Party faces similar pressures and Vietnamese nationalism is highly interwoven with defending the country from Chinese encroachment. Thus, why shouldn’t China allow Vietnam to retake the islands Beijing took from it in the 1970s in order to help the Vietnamese Communist Party’s popularity at home?

Nor is the CCP in the least bit accommodating about the nationalistic pressures other governments face. It hardly withheld criticism of the Vietnamese government when anti-China protests broke out last month. More notably, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faces nationalistic pressures from within his own political party and core constituencies. Yet, China doesn’t seem understanding in the slightest when Abe indulges these audiences with visits to the Yasukuni Shrine.

And this gets to the central paradox of the constant concern one hears about how “anti-China rhetoric” in the region is forcing Beijing to provoke. Namely, that China is the main transgressor in perpetuating anti-foreign rhetoric. Take the example of the United States, for instance. In April 1997, for example, Russia and China issued a joint statement saying that “No country should seek hegemony, practice power politics or monopolize international affairs.”

In May 1999, Xinhua ran an op-ed entitled “Global Democratization – Camouflage of U.S. Hegemony.” Not surprisingly, the article said that the U.S. created a “global democratization” to help “build a single-polared world and to strengthen its hegemony,” In December 2011, China claimed that Bashar al-Assad’s massacre of his own citizens was an attempt by the U.S. to maintain its unipolar hegemony over the Middle East. When Obama created an interdepartmental task force to enforce trade agreements in March 2012, China lashed out at the U.S. for seeking world trade hegemony. When Western leaders decided against going to the Sochi Olympics because of Russia’s anti-gay laws, China accused them of arrogance.

In March of this year, China’s state media said that the U.S. and West had orchestrated “an anti-Russia color revolution” in Ukraine and also blamed them for the violence in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. Later, in response to Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, it said that the U.S. was trying to provoke Russia into a new Cold War. Last month it blamed the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham’s massacre of thousands of war prisoners on the United States.

Despite the absurdity of most of these claims, and their frequency, no one ever argues that China should temper back its anti-American or anti-Japanese rhetoric. And certainly no one suggests that this rhetoric gives America or Japan license to act aggressively in the region.

http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/anti-china-rhetoric-isnt-causing-problems-china-is/

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38. Afghanistan’s PromiseAfter Afghanistan’s questionable election, a real chance for peace(WASHINGTON POST 15 JUL 14) ... Editorial

A week ago the political system fostered by the United States in Afghanistan was on the brink of collapse, with a new civil war being the likely result. After Afghan election

authorities announced the preliminary results of a presidential election runoff, the apparent loser, Abdullah Abdullah, readied what looked to some like a coup, dispatching forces to Kabul

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police stations and lining up provincial governors to endorse his announcement of a government.

Timely phone calls to Mr. Abdullah and rival Ashraf Ghani, first by Secretary of State John F. Kerry and then by President Obama, temporarily defused the crisis. Now Mr. Kerry has brokered an accord that appears to establish a clear plan for arbitrating the dispute over the election and establishing a stable government – a turnaround so remarkable that the U.N. representative in Kabul is calling it “not just a top-notch diplomatic achievement [but] close to a miracle.”

Mr. Kerry himself is rightly cautioning that “we haven’t won yet”; the delicate and complex deal must be implemented over weeks. But his weekend diplomacy in Kabul has created a real chance for a peaceful transition of power this summer, rewarding the millions of citizens who turned out to vote and creating a government that could continue to attract Western support.

The June 14 runoff at first looked like a success, as up to 8 million Afghans voted without significant disruption by the Taliban. But it soon became clear that the balloting was marred by massive fraud, particularly in the southern and eastern provinces where Mr. Ghani has his political base among ethnic Pashtuns. Mr. Abdullah, whose strongest support is from ethnic Tajiks and other minorities in the north, withdrew his recognition of the election process after releasing tape recordings implicating the chief of the election authority in ballot box stuffing.

That official resigned, but the election authority last week announced a preliminary result that gave Mr. Ghani an

advantage of 1 million votes. That, in turn, prompted the near-rebellion of Mr. Abdullah. The swift intervention of Mr. Kerry and Mr. Obama was constructive. But even more important were the decisions by Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Ghani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai to act in the larger interests of the country. Mr. Karzai invited U.N. and U.S. officials to mediate the dispute; Mr. Ghani eventually agreed to an audit, under international supervision, of all of the ballots cast in the election. For his part, Mr. Abdullah agreed to accept as binding the result of the count.

Most crucially, the two candidates agreed that once a new president is determined, a coalition government will be established in which the loser takes a new position as “chief executive” and cabinet and patronage appointments are shared. That is essential to maintaining stability in a country that is divided along ethnic and geographical lines but has a constitution granting the president extraordinary powers. Working out the details of the power-sharing arrangement will be challenging, as will maintaining comity as the vote count proceeds. But Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah appear to understand the stakes, which are nothing less than whether Afghanistan will survive as a democracy or again collapse into civil war.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/afghanistans-political-leaders-offer-hope-for-the-countrys-future/2014/07/14/e736de8a-0b73-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html

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39. Shedding Light On FY-15 30-Year Shipbuilding Plan(NAVY LIVE BLOG 14 JUL 14)

We delivered to Congress July 3 our annual long-range plan for the construction of naval combatant and support vessels for fiscal year 2015 (FY15). Commonly referred to as the 30-year shipbuilding plan, we have highlighted a path forward that captures the required number of ships by type, as outlined in the FY12 Force Structure Assessment (FSA). Our FSA identified those forces that most efficiently execute the missions and priorities of the Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Strategic Guidance (DSG) and meets requirements in the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review. This report builds and maintains a battle force inventory of near or above 300 ships, and ultimately shows that we can achieve the FSA objective of 306 battle force ships.

As we have done with previous submissions our plan assesses Department of the Navy (DoN) investments in battle force ships in three 10-year periods – near-, mid-, and far-term. The near-term 10-year period (FY15-FY24) comprises the FY15-FY19 Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) and the next FYDP. The mid-term planning period covers the two FYDPs between FY25-FY34, and the far-term planning period covers the two FYDPs between FY35-FY44.

Of note, this 30-year shipbuilding plan uses the new ship counting guidelines implemented in March to account for ship types routinely requested by the Combatant Commanders and allocated through the Global Force Management Allocation Plan (GFMAP). Regardless of whether we used the old counting methodology or our new ship counting procedures, we would still reach our 306 ship Navy objective.

During our PB15 budget submission we emphasized that we are operating in an environment of increasing fiscal austerity and uncertainty. Understanding these realities we applied a similar philosophy when drafting this year’s 30 year shipbuilding plan. This plan acknowledges fiscal unknowns/challenges moving forward – sequestration in FY16, Ohio Class submarine replacement procurement in the 2020s and ship recapitalization, however, the plan reflects FSA requirements. Our intent is to provide a sound plan that delivers capability to meet the DSG and QDR while sustaining the shipbuilding and combat systems industrial base as we build toward the future.

No doubt tough choices will have to be made to preserve our war fighting capability and force structure integrity. To put this into perspective, in order to reach the 306 ships outlined in the FSA then beginning in FY20 and running through the end of the 30-year shipbuilding plan, we require an average investment of about $17.2B (FY14 dollars) to finance, which is ~$4B a year more than our historical average annual investment of ~$13B a year. When you look at procuring the Ohio Replacement (FY25-FY34) the Navy will have to provide an average of $19.7B annually with the peak year in FY32 (~$24B).

As we have repeatedly emphasized, presence matters. The demand for naval forces worldwide remains high and we are uniquely positioned to be where it matters, when it matters. A successful shipbuilding plan remains a top priority for leadership and we understand budget uncertainty poses

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significant risks to the size of our fleet. We will continue to work with Congress to determine and build our Fleet without sacrificing capability.

Editor’s note: Read the 30-year shipbuilding plan here.http://navylive.dodlive.mil/2014/07/14/shedding-light-on-

fy-15-30-year-shipbuilding-plan/Return to Index

40. The Legacy Of Adm. William McRaven(U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE NEWS 14 JUL 14) ... Robert Caruso

Now that Adm. William McRaven has announced his retirement, it is worth looking back at the contributions of perhaps the most influential Navy flag officer since Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz.

The future of what the U.S. armed forces looks like is uncertain, but one constant will be the mark McRaven has left. He is preparing to retire from as the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, the nerve center of the effort to combat terrorism and other threats in the unlit spaces.

While the past decade has been dominated by Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States cannot take its eyes off the threat of transnational terrorism nor the special activities of a Russia, Iran, or China. To combat those threats, McRaven, his staff, and his counterparts have engaged willing nations the world over in building capacity, strengthening capabilities, and solidifying partnerships.

When they do, they should know that more than any other serving officer McRaven has postured the force to be better prepared when conflicts arise. He is perhaps the most accomplished flag or general officer of our time.

He holds the title of “Bull Frog” – the active-duty UDT/SEAL operator with the longest period of cumulative service.

SOCOM recently stood up J-3I, an operations directorate focused exclusively on international cooperation under McRaven’s guidance. A global network of special operations forces will be imperative to the future fight, as the nation increasingly turns to a global network of partners to combat a global network of threats.

Concurrently, he has increased SOF’s stature in Washington and established a framework to lead the interagency in the fight against globally dispersed networks.

During his time leading Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane stood up a customer advocate shop, devoted to resourcing special operations forces – a trend the rest of the sprawling Pentagon equities took to replicating with gusto.

When then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton wanted to boast of the United States’ success at hacking al Qaeda, she took to the stage at the annual special operations conference, introduced by McRaven.

It was his deputy, Air Force General Marshall Webb, who is featured in the iconic White house situation room photo the night Osama bin Laden was killed.

McRaven is a proponent of the joint approach: early on in the global war on terror, the Pentagon “merged the two commando teams and headquartered the reflagged Task Force 121 [McRaven] in Baghdad,” reported The Washington Post.

Indeed, the forces under McRaven’s command time and again revolutionized the way technology was used to win the fight. Much of modern social analysis and mapping techniques, as well as Palantir’s tools and software like Analyst’s Notebook and Webee instant messaging, owe their

success with government to organizations he led during his career.

And if that wasn’t enough, his 1993 thesis, ”The Theory of Special Operations,” is required reading across government. Many career FBI personnel believe this thesis revolutionized the way FBI looks at counterterrorism. It is considered such a seminal work that Coast Guard special operations forces created a doctrinal foundation based almost exclusively on its contents.

Recent congressional testimony gives a window into the kind of transformative change McRaven has wrought across the interagency, to include the Department of State and much of NATO:

USSOCOM is working to develop opportunities to improve our partnership with regional Special Operations Forces (SOF). This approach was very successful in NATO, with the establishment of the NATO SOF Headquarters which allowed U.S. and partner nations to share information, improve interoperability and, when necessary, work together abroad.

While the NATO construct is unique in the world, we believe there are other low-key opportunities that may present themselves in other regions of the world.

In addition to the SOF capacity inherent in all GCCs (Global Combatant Commands) through the TSOCs (Theater Special Operations Command), USSOCOM also employs Special Operations Liaison Officers (SOLOs) in key U.S. embassies around the world.

Known for their agility, flexibility, and light-footprint approaches, SOF will increasingly serve as the principal means through which nations conduct counterterrorism campaigns.

SOCOM will play a large part in the execution, with or without a SEAL at the helm.

In 2012, the President and the Secretary of Defense released new defense strategic guidance, emphasizing the need to rebalance toward the Pacific. But the majority of the crises that the United States will be called on respond to won’t always be in Asia. Globally postured and forward deployed, the Navy that once fielded thousands of river rats to fight in Vietnam and put Seabees on the ground in Afghanistan will be called upon again and again to augment special operations forces.

As McRaven first said in his June 2011 testimony: “The world’s strategic environment has evolved toward one that is characterized more by irregular warfare activity rather than major nation state warfare [ ... ] we must confront this ‘new normal’ and posture our forces to be successful in it.”

The U.S. armed forces and a grateful nation are better prepared to face those challenges because of McRaven’s contributions.

Robert Caruso is a veteran of the United States Navy and served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Department of Defense, in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security

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at the Department of State and as a contractor for the Department of the Army.

http://news.usni.org/2014/07/14/opinion

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