US Senate approves 2010 military budget

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Rising German arms sales criticized
Berlin (UPI) Dec 16, 2009 - Church and peace groups have criticized Germany's rising arms sales, an increasing number of which are going to conflict-torn countries. Germany in 2008 granted arms export permits worth $8.42 billion, a rise of 37 percent compared with 2007, according to a report by the Joint Conference Church and Development, or GKKE. "Germany is a major player in the global arms market," Karl Juesten, head of the GKKE, said this week at the report's presentation in Berlin. Germany's main customers in 2008 included NATO countries South Korea, the United States, Britain and Singapore. The key non-NATO member customers include Saudi-Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but also countries considered "problematic" by the GKKE such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Congo, Colombia, Rwanda and Sudan. "If you want to counter regional arms races in the Near and Middle East, in South and Southeast Asia and in Latin America, you should not fuel them with your arms deals," Juesten said.

The German government has still not published the number and value of arms that actually left the country in 2008 -- as opposed to permits cited in the GKKE study. The experts criticized Berlin for delaying the report, which won't be published until 2010. The biggest single permits were granted for war ship exports, for example sub part deliveries to South Korea. The German submarine business has been largely export driven: Since 1960 it has sold 117 subs to foreign countries and only 36 to the German navy. Bernhard Moltmann of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt urged Berlin to practice restraint when granting export permits for submarines as they have become "war machines" able to strike targets on land and in the air from underwater. The experts also pointed to the danger of small weapons from Germany, such as guns and rifles, to be resold on the black market if they are sold into "problematic countries." Moltmann said the German Heckler & Koch G3 rifle, developed in the 1950s and long used by the German Bundeswehr and other armies around the world, is now sported by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Bernhard Felmberg, another senior GKKE official, said German-made weapons surfaced last year in Georgia and are currently sold at black markets in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Dec 19, 2009
The US Congress on Saturday sent US President Barack Obama a massive annual military spending bill that funds current operations in Afghanistan and pays for the troop withdrawal from Iraq.

In a rare weekend vote, the Senate approved the 636.3-billion-dollar package, which cleared the House of Representatives 395-34 on Wednesday, by an 88-10 margin.

Obama is expected to send Congress an emergency spending measure of at least 30 billion dollars early next year to pay for his recently announced decision to send 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan.

The bill includes 101.1 billion dollars for operations and maintenance and military personnel requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan and to carry out the planned withdrawal of all US combat forces from Iraq by August 2010.

The package also funds the purchase of 6,600 new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armored vehicles configured to better resist improvised explosive devices -- roadside bombs used to deadly effect by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The bill includes 80 million dollars to acquire more unmanned "Predator" drones, a key tool in the US air war in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

That campaign deploys unmanned Predator and larger Reaper drones equipped with infrared cameras and armed with precision-guided bombs and Hellfire missiles.

With little public debate in the United States, the pace of the drone bombing raids has steadily increased, starting last year during ex-president George W. Bush's final months in office and now under Obama's tenure.

The spending bill upholds Obama's ban on torture of detainees in US custody, continues a general provision forbidding the establishment of permanent bases in Iraq or Afghanistan, and provides no funds to close the prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Saturday praised the bill's passage.

"In addition to giving our troops a pay raise and funding more than 100 million dollars for operation of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, this bill extends unemployment and makes health insurance more affordable for unemployed Americans," Reid said.

"We're keeping our country safe with critical investments in our defense and giving an important boost to our economy."

Reid took a swipe at rival Republicans, accusing them of "political maneuvering" to slow down passage of the bill in order to delay debating health care reform, the next measure the Senate will be handling.

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Brazil delays decision on jet fighters
Rio De Janeiro (UPI) Dec 16, 2009
Brazil has postponed, at least until early spring 2010, a decision on buying jet fighters from any of the three rival bidders who were hoping to win huge orders worth tens of billions of dollars. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's decision to put off buying the warplanes as part of a major military refurbishment program is seen by analysts as part of a strategy to extract maximum ... read more

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