MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – August 8, 2012

• Costa Rican media says Canadians involved in Central American Canal exercise  “Maybe it is attacked. Maybe it is damaged. Maybe mines appear and traffic is halted.  In the event that any of those scenarios ever occur at the Panama Canal — the 51-mile waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans — militaries from across the world want to be ready. So on Monday at Mayport Naval Station, personnel from more than a dozen nations came together to begin working out a variety of responses.  The exercise, known as PANAMAX, will last 10 days. The purpose is to make sure the partner nations are better prepared to work together if the Panama government ever requests help in protecting commercial traffic through the canal and ensure its neutrality.  The exercise’s opening ceremony took place Monday inside the Ocean Breeze Conference Center at Mayport.  “It’s key for us to be able to train together, to practice, to build up trust so that we can work more efficiently together,” Rear Adm. Sinclair Harris, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet, said after the ceremony. “We have 17 different nations … so there are different cultures, both inside the military and between nations, that have to come together.”  This is PANAMAX’s ninth year. In 2003 three nations — the United States, Chile and Panama — took part in the first. This year there are 17 nations, including a handful from South and Central America, as well as France and Canada. Roughly 600 military personnel have traveled to Mayport for the exercise, including 170 from other nations ….” - more on PANAMAX from regional media here and here, and from U.S. Southern Command here.
  
• MPs lobbied about defence job cuts  “A last-ditch effort to stop the closure of the Canadian Forces’ Area Supply Unit in Chilliwack is being mounted by the Union of National Defence Employees.  And Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP Mark Strahl is being “targeted specifically” by the union to reverse the decision, Mark Miller, UNDE vice-president in B.C., told The Progress last week.  Strahl should be fighting to keep the ASU open, he said, “instead of kowtowing to the various doctrines of the prime minister.”  “I’m targeting him specifically (because) he’s got the only (ASU) where there’s an actual closure taking place,” he said.  Strahl was not available to comment on the political heat the union is mounting through the newspaper advertising campaign ….”
  
• Keeping track of a great organization via Milnet.ca (disclaimer:  I’m a moderator with Milnet.ca, but have no connection to WoundedWarriors.ca)  “Wounded Warriors of Canada, an independent not-for-profit charity that supports Canadian service members and veterans who suffer from Mental injuries, such as PTSD.  Since its modest beginnings in 2006, WoundedWarriors.ca has made a significant impact in assisting and improving the Quality of life for Canada’s wounded and their families. By establishing positive, strategic and dynamic partnerships with the Director Casualty Support Management within the Department of National Defence, the Department of Veterans Affairs and other support agencies coupled the generous support of our donors WoundedWarriors.ca has been an instrument of change …. In just three years, Wounded Warriors.ca has raised more than $1,700,000! The health of the fund is a credit to the benevolence of Canadian citizens and corporations alike ….” - more via FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube.  Well done!
• Way Up North (1)  What’s the U.S. up to? (Hat tip to Mark Collins for aiming this one my way)  ” The Coast Guard is ready for expanded activity in Arctic waters, including petroleum exploration, Commandant Robert Papp told a U.S. Senate subcommittee Monday, even though the nearest agency base is more than 750 miles southeast of the Bering Strait, on Kodiak Island.  “For right now, we are well prepared, because like we always do traditionally, we have multi-mission assets that we can deploy, that are very capable, and that are sufficient for the level of human activity that’s going on this summer and perhaps for the next three or four summers,” Papp told a U.S. Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ….”
  
• Way Up North (2)  And our northern neighbours?  “Russia is placing accents in the fight for the Arctic planning to set up naval bases and border guard services along the Northern Shipping Route. This was stated by secretary of Russia’s National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev at a conference in Krasnoyarsk.  Experts believe that this is a timely decision because the Arctic littoral states have been actively searching for not only economic but also political and military methods to secure footing at any cost in this region which is rich in natural resources.  Competition for Arctic influence, especially with the climate warming in these latitudes has lately escalated. At present, five Arctic littoral states, Russia, Denmark, Canada, Norway and the U.S. are competing to develop natural resources in the Arctic. The hydrocarbon deposits in the Arctic are estimated at one fourth of the world’s unexplored reserves. To hold the strategic position in the region, Russia needs adequate military strength to repulse any attempt to divide the Arctic resources militarily, vice-president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Konstantin Sivkov said in an interview with the Voice of Russia ….”
  
• Remember this?  ” On June 28, Pratt & Whitney Canada pleaded guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act and to making false statements to the U.S. government about its export activities. Pratt & Whitney Canada sold commercial helicopter engines and modified software to the Chinese government. The software, originally developed for use in U.S. military helicopters, is controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.  The U.S. government does not allow the export of defense equipment and technology to China. Certain “dual-use” items that may have both a military and civilian use, such as the helicopter engines, may be exported under a license provided that they are not intended for military use. Pratt & Whitney Canada allegedly knew that the Chinese government would use the technology to develop a military attack helicopter, but proceeded with the sale despite the embargo with the hope that the company would be able to break into the civilian helicopter market in China.  Pratt & Whitney Canada, its parent company, United Technologies Corporation, and United Technologies’ U.S. subsidiary Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation, all agreed to pay more than $75 million in fines in order to settle with the State Department and the Justice Department ….”  Well, two U.S. Senators are pissed enough to write a letter calling for more sanctions  “Two high-profile American senators are urging the U.S. to take tougher action against a Canadian aerospace company that has admitted to exporting military software to China in violation of U.S. law.  Pratt and Whitney Canada, which is owned by American defence giant United Technologies Corporation, acknowledged in a settlement a few weeks ago with the U.S. Justice Department that it and another UTC subsidiary, Hamilton Sundstrand, sold the computer programs that could allow China to complete the development of its first attack helicopter.  Senators John McCain and Carl Levin, who sit on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, have called on the Obama administration to further punish Pratt and Whitney beyond the US $75 million fine already assessed the two companies.  In a letter to both Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the two senators demanded the Pentagon consider suspending or blocking the subsidiary, based in Longueuil, Que., from participating in U.S. defence contracts.  They say they’re concerned that the violations “may have caused significant harm to our national security.”  Both senators are also calling for further action against officials from all three companies ….”- more here, here and here.
• BAAAAAAAAD Private Military Contractor!!!!!!!!!  “Academi LLC, the military contractor formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, has agreed to pay a $7.5-million fine to settle charges of arms-sales violations, the United States Justice Department said on Tuesday.  The agreement, filed in US District Court in New Bern, North Carolina, covers unauthorised sales of satellite phones in Sudan, unauthorised military training provided to foreign governments including Canada’s, the illegal possession of automatic weapons and other violations, the Justice Department said.  The sales and training in question took place from 2005 to 2008 and did not have the authorisation of the US Treasury and State departments, as required by law, prosecutors said.  Academi acknowledged “responsibility for the conduct” in signing what is known as a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department ….”- more here and here.
  
• Big military concert coming up  “Media are invited to question a panel of representatives participating in Fortissimo 2012, including Lieutenant Colonel Jaimie Ogilvie, Commanding Officer of the Jamaican Military Band, Jamaican Defence Force, a representative from the U.S. Army, a representative from the German Forces, and Captain David Rennie, Adjutant of the Ceremonial Guard of the Canadian Army. Media will also have the opportunity to speak with soldiers and performers and to view the final dress rehearsal of the show ….”
• “A search for a suspected Second World War German submarine in a Labrador river has turned up only a sandy mound of frustration and an unresolved military mystery.  A remote-operated vehicle was used for two days to probe the deep, murky depths of the Churchill River, where a sonar image has suggested that a U-boat may have sunk.  The search over the past week, however, not only didn’t add new information to what a prior search had uncovered, it found that the object — first identified two years ago, but not made public until last month — has subsequently been buried by sand and clay that had eroded from nearby cliffs.  Still, diver Brian Corbin says the lack of new evidence hasn’t shaken his belief that the object may have been a U-boat ….”
  
• Helping pay for an RAF Bomber Command memorial by emptying one’s pockets  “The recent trip by Royal Canadian Air Force veterans to London, England to attend the Bomber Command Memorial unveiling involved a quiet gesture that speaks volumes about how much the veterans appreciated the experience.  On their return trip to Canada, the veterans decided rather than take their leftover British currency back home and cash it in for Canadian money, they agreed as a group to donate the money to the Bomber Command Memorial fundraising committee.  On July 30, Colonel Paul Keddy, Canadian Defence Liaison Staff officer in London, visited the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund head office (for an official) cheque presentation.  “It was a privilege to present a cheque for £300 on behalf of those Canadian veterans who donated all their surplus pounds sterling and pocket-change so generously during the return trip to Canada,” said Col Keddy. Three hundred British pounds is equal to approximately $470.00 Cdn ….”
• War of 1812  One Canadian academic’s take on what to celebrate  “…. Canadians (and Americans too) also need to be imaginative in how this should be done. We really don’t need any more physical monuments (although some of those mentioned may be in need of refurbishing) but rather something more timely such as a Can-Am student exchange program or major scholarships (like the Rhodes). Or maybe even a joint Can-Am holiday.  The possibilities are endless. It is our opportunity to think big and do something important to mark the occasion — the Canadian-American Peace Bicentenary. (Certainly the recent cancellation of the “Understanding Canada” program that encouraged and supported Canadian Studies abroad is not a step in the right direction.). The simple fact is that in our post-Sept. 11 world two centuries of continuous peace between Canada and the United States truly deserves to be celebrated.”

About these ads