U.S. troops punished over Koran burning

(Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Monday it was disciplining U.S. troops over two incidents that provoked outrage in Afghanistan early this year, one involving a video depicting Marines urinating on corpses and another over burned copies of the Koran.

The administrative punishments -- which could include things like reduce rank or forfeiture of pay -- fell short of criminal prosecution, and it was unclear whether they would satisfy Afghan demands for justice.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai earlier this year branded the Marine's actions in the video as "inhuman," and he initially called for a public trial for the soldiers over the Koran incident.

A detailed U.S. military investigation showed that up to 100 Korans and other religious texts from a detention center library -- a previously undisclosed figure -- were burned on February 20. The investigation found that warnings from Afghans, including a Afghan soldier, had been ignored and attributed the incident in part to distrust between Americans and Afghans.

"However, I absolutely reject any suggestion that those involved acted with any malicious intent to disrespect the Koran or defame the faith of Islam," the investigating officer, Brigadier General Bryan Watson, wrote.

The question of distrust between American troops and Afghans has come into sharp focus in recent weeks due to a surge of "insider attacks," in which Afghans believed to be friendly turn their guns against U.S. forces.

Such distrust has undermined confidence in a U.S. drawdown strategy that relies on training Afghan forces -- sometimes with very small numbers of Americans partnering with them in remote locations -- so they can take over security. Most U.S. combat troops are expected to leave the country by the end of 2014.

DEADLY RIOTS, ATTACKS ON TROOPS

The Koran-burning incident touched off several days of rioting and attacks on U.S. troops after local workers found charred copies among the trash at an incinerator at the Bagram base north of Kabul.

At least 30 people died in the violence that spread across the country after the incident, and two American officers were shot dead in a secure area of the Afghan interior ministry, a crime that remains unsolved.

The U.S. Army announced on Monday that six soldiers received administrative punishments over the incident, four of them officers and two of the non-commissioned officers, a spokesman said.

The investigation found that the texts were removed during a sweep of the library at Parwan detention facility due to concerns that detainees were using books to pass messages.

It partly blamed a translator who warned that up to 75 percent of the books were extremist in nature, including versions of the Koran, but did not instruct American forces how to properly dispose of the texts.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he believed the translator was an Afghan and that he no longer worked for the U.S. military.

The disclosures about the Koran-burning incident came the same day the Marine Corps detailed its punishment over a video that surfaced on the Internet in January. It showed Marines urinating on the corpses of dead Taliban fighters. One can be heard saying, "Have a nice day, buddy."

The investigation showed that the incident actually took place on or around July 27, 2011, during a counter-insurgency operation in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

Three Marines pleaded guilty to charges over the video, including one for "urinating on the body of a deceased Taliban soldier." Another wrongfully posed for a photo with human casualties, and the third lied about the incident to investigators.

Their identities were not disclosed, and the Marines said disciplinary actions against additional Marines would be announced at a later date.

Possible punishment includes reduction in rank, forfeiture of pay and punitive letters permanently placed in their records, the Marines said.

Reuters

Stolen Sovereignty: IMF's grand Greek heist

Gulf sales trigger US defense sales record

The U.S. defense industry is benefiting from the tensions in the Persian Gulf, mainly because of the nuclear disputes between Iran and the West, as the superpower tripled its arms sales to $66.3 billion in 2011 with the help of orders from the region.

The annual defense sales of the U.S. make up more than three-quarters of the global arms market, valued at $85.3 billion in 2011, The New York Times wrote yesterday, citing a Congressional Research Service report.

Russia followed it with $4.8 billion of deals.

These Gulf states – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman – do not share a border with Iran, and their arms purchases focused on expensive warplanes and complex missile defense systems.

The agreements with Saudi Arabia included the purchase of 84 advanced F-15 fighters, a variety of ammunition, missiles and logistics support, and upgrades of 70 of the F-15 fighters in the current fleet.
Sales to Saudi Arabia last year also included dozens of Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, all contributing to a total Saudi weapons deal with the United States of $33.4 billion, according to the study.

The United Arab Emirates purchased a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, an advanced antimissile shield that includes radars and is valued at $3.49 billion, as well as 16 Chinook helicopters for $939 million.

Oman bought 18 F-16 fighters for $1.4 billion.

Most of the weapons purchases, worth about $71.5 billion, were made by developing nations, with about $56.3 billion of that from the United States.

Turkey is also developing its defense industry ties with the Gulf countries and the Arab world in general terms but it is very moderate when compared with the world’s largest defense exporter.

Turkish defense firms have participated in eight international fairs and visited six countries so far this year, and officials have said they raised revenues through deals with Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.

The Turkish Undersecretariat of Defense Industry plans to participate in at least eight international defense and security fairs next year to increase its exports volume, with a rich selection of products to offer, including high-technology military supplies

The most important defense fair next year will be the International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF), which will take place in Istanbul.




Daily News

Banks face "colossal" problem without deeper European union

(Reuters) - Failure to create a deeper euro zone union would represent an enormous problem for banks, the head of Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) said on Monday.

The chairman of Siena-based MPS, the world's oldest bank, said banks will run into trouble without a strengthened single supervision for the region's banks, seen by some observers as the first step towards a European banking union.

"(Banks) have lent out more money than they have collected... If we don't create this European system we will not be able to plug that gap and this will be a colossal problem," Alessandro Profumo said at an event held by Italy's centre-left Democratic Party.

The Italian No. 3 lender, heavily exposed to Italian sovereign debt, aims to borrow 3.4 billion euros by selling bonds to the state to help plug a capital shortfall.

If the bank, which has a market capitalisation of 2.8 billion euros, posts a loss this year it will have to give shares to the Italian Treasury. The bank releases its first-half results on Tuesday.

"MPS has lived for 540 years and wants to live for other 540 years, but this is being put at serious risk," Profumo said, interrupted by whistles from the audience, including some who said they were bank employees.

"The Senese spirit has been lost but we want to regain it," Profumo said.

Italian bank executives are facing pressure to slash costs and shed assets to repair balance sheets hurt by the euro zone debt crisis.

Workers at Monte dei Paschi, UniCredit (CRDI.MI) and Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) went on strike in July to protest job losses and pay cuts.

Reuters

New Euro Bailout Fund Could Fall Short

The new fund set up to bail out struggling euro zone economies may face a 150 billion euro ($189 billion) shortfall if Spain and Italy need a full bailout program before the end of 2014, according to analysts at Credit Suisse.

However, its firepower could be significantly improved if the European Central Bank (ECB) intervenes in secondary bond markets – an outcome which has been rumored in recent weeks. (CNBC Explains: How Does the European Central Bank Work?)

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is one of the key pillars of euro zone leaders’ attempts to deal with the debt crisis which threatens to spread its tentacles ever further. It’s expected to come into force later this year, as a replacement for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), if the German Constitutional Court rules positively on it on September 12th.

When it was first announced earlier this year, the ESM sparked a rally in markets, as traders hoped it would help break the cycle of hopes rising, then being dashed, for a solution to the euro zone debt crisis.

However, as Spain and Italy have looked more likely to be in need of a full bailout, worries have grown about its size. The ESM is dependent on contributions from euro zone member states, with Germany its biggest contributor. Growing dissatisfaction in Germany about the cost of saving peripheral euro zone economies could threaten its firepower – and limit the potential to increase its size which is written into the treaty.

According to Credit Suisse analysts, the ESM in its current state would at most provide a full bailout to Spain for one year. (Read More: Will Spain Seek Full Bailout?)

The ESM’s full lending capacity, which will be reached in 2014, will be around 400 billion euros, according to the bank’s figures. While the official maximum lending capacity is 500 billion euros, when liabilities for existing bailouts are taken into consideration, the total is 408 billion euros. (Read More: Bailout Fund Should Buy Debt)

The fund’s power may be most felt in its ability to buy government bonds on the primary and secondary markets. This could help keep steady bond yields for Spain and Italy – which in recent weeks have climbed above the dangerous 7 percent level where other countries had to seek bailouts.

“The capacity of the ESM is now of reduced importance,” Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a research note.

It should only be able to buy up to 50 percent of final issued bonds, but if this means that it can match what is bought by the market, it could help reassure investors, particularly if the ECB was also in the market.

Whether the ECB will support the bond market by intervening to support Italian or Spanish bond yields is one of the questions keeping markets awake at night. Germany has maintained a stalwart opposition to the idea, and Jens Weidmann, chief executive of the Bundesbank, warned that it could become “addictive like a drug.”

CNBC

Iran shields covert nuclear activities from spy satellites

U.S.-based Institute for Science and International Security says suspicious explosives chamber at military base near Tehran now obscured from satellite view, as are nearby facilities • Netanyahu: Iran continues to flout the world and has accelerated its program • No new date for talks after International Atomic Energy Agency and Tehran fail to agree.


Eli Leon, Mati Tuchfeld, Yoni Hirsch and Reuters


GeoEye satellite image showing the suspected high explosives test building and nearby structures covered .

| Photo credit: The ISIS report


In what appears to be another indication of a clandestine military nuclear program in Iran, the U.S.-based Institute for Science and International Security released new satellite imagery on Friday showing suspicious activity at the Parchin military base near Tehran.

The satellite images, dated Aug. 15, show "pink tent-like material over two buildings," which had apparently been used for "high explosive experiments," according to an ISIS report. Earlier this month, ISIS reported that "sanitation and displacement" work had been carried out around these two buildings in late July. This latest report suggests more cover-up activity was undertaken since then. Diplomatic sources told Reuters on Friday that the pink material could in fact be either scaffolding or tarpaulin, which, according to the ISIS report indicates a desire to "hide any sanitization or other activity there from satellite cameras."

According to ISIS, one of the buildings may be an explosives chamber where a neutron initiator was tested. "In such a neutron initiator test, the number of neutrons is very small and many of the activated materials would have had relatively short half-lives" and therefore would be more difficult to detect, ISIS said on Aug. 1.

The latest imagery indicates an attempt to "conceal further clean-up activity from overhead satellites or to contain the activity inside," ISIS said on Friday."Depending on how effective of a seal the tarp provides, the goal could be to continue sanitizing the inside and outside of the building that is suspected to contain particles indicative of nuclear weapons development work. Alternatively, tarps could provide a cover for the demolition of the buildings, or portions of them, while also containing the spread of potentially contaminated debris."

International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have repeatedly been denied access to Parchin. The issue also came up on Friday, when IAEA and Iranian officials met for another round of talks in Vienna. The two sides failed to reach an agreement over the U.N. nuclear inspection and verification regime relating to Iran's nuclear program. Access to Parchin, as well as to other sensitive sites and facilities, are among the outstanding issues.

"The discussions today were intensive, but important differences remain between Iran and the agency that prevented [an] agreement," IAEA Deputy Director-General for Safeguards Herman Nackaerts said in a statement on Friday. "At the moment we have no plans for a follow-up meeting," he said.

An upcoming IAEA report is expected to show Iran has continued to defy the West. According to Western sources familiar with the report, over the past several months Tehran installed additional enrichment centrifuges in its Fordo facility, which is buried deep inside a mountain to protect it against a military strike.

Iran's representative to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh told Iran's English-language PressTV channel on Friday that the two sides "made progress." Soltanieh said the parties held "intensive discussions, under a constructive environment" but still have issues that would have to be "worked out at a later stage."

Asked if Iran's national security concern was raised, Soltanieh said that the Iranian delegation made clear that the issue is very "delicate" as far as Iran is concerned. "Iran's national security should be protected, we need patience and hard work," he said. When asked about the recent report alleging a nuclear cover-up at Parchin, Soltanieh said, "They (the West) just try to exaggerate. [This is] nothing to be concerned about. The IAEA visited the site and reported no evidence of nuclear activity."

In a reaction to the latest report on Iran's activities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his concern over the implications of Iran's defiance.

"Just yesterday, we received additional proof of the fact that Iran is continuing to make accelerated progress toward achieving nuclear weapons while totally ignoring international demands," Netanyahu said in a statement on Friday shortly after meeting U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who is visiting the region.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beytenu) also warned against a nuclear Iran over the weekend.

"Those who discount this scenario and cite the examples of the nuclearization of Pakistan, India and North Korea don't know what they are talking about; Israel cannot live with a nuclear Iran," Lieberman told Israel's Channel 2 Friday. Lieberman also attacked what he called the "senseless chatter" over the merits of a pre-emptive attack on Iran, saying this "compromises our deterrence; we stepped up our rhetoric to the point that if we do not do anything we are going to pay a price for that."

Iran has also been front and center in the U.S. presidential campaign in recent weeks. While the White House has repeatedly said a strike on Iran would be premature and stressed that economic sanctions could still prove effective, President Barack Obama's challenger, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, has indicated he would adopt a more aggressive policy toward Iran.

In an interview with CBS on Friday Romney said, "We certainly have to maintain all options that we have. But Iran becoming nuclear and potentially providing fissile material to Hezbollah or another of the groups that are associated with that nation ... that's unacceptable."

"No question in my view that we can put all matter of pressure upon the regime that's there, but they have to also know that a military option is one which we would be willing to consider if they do not take action to dissuade a course towards nuclearization," Romney said.

Asked if Iran could become nuclear under his watch, Romney said, "It's unacceptable for this nation (the U.S.) to have Iran become nuclear [and] have a nuclear weapon."

On Friday, the White House's National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor said the revelations on Iran's new centrifuges were troubling, and accused Iran of "continuing to violate its international obligations."

“The president has led an unprecedented effort to increase the pressure on Iran to live up to its international obligations," Vietor said. "Because of the president's leadership, Iran is under greater pressure than ever before. Just last month [Iran's] President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad said they are facing ’the most severe and strictest sanctions ever imposed on a country.’ We continue to believe that there is time and space for our current approach of diplomacy paired with unrelenting pressure to achieve our shared objective — preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.”

Vietor said the White House believed a diplomatic solution was still possible, despite the recent reports on the new centrifuges at Fordo.

Over the weekend, The New York Times cited another administration official who said the new centrifuges could “add to Iran’s ability to produce more 20 percent low-enriched uranium."

Converting the high-quality uranium into nuclear fuel would be relatively easy and would constitute what is called a "breakout," the paper reported. The official told The New York Times that “any breakout would not be a quiet affair; the IAEA is in the facility regularly and they would detect a move.”


Israel Hayom

Middle East Region becoming less stable, more Islamist

Israel will face a more unstable, tense, and Islamist environment than in the past, Military intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi told IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Benny Gantz on Monday.

The comments were made during a presentation of an annual Military Intelligence evaluation.

"It will be an environment that deals with a series of crises, regional and internal, which raises the level of sensitivity of all players, and which could lead, without prior planning, to an eruption," said Kochavi.

The annual intelligence evaluation is produced by the the Research Division of Military Intelligence, and is based on intelligence gathering by the IDF and the intelligence community at large.

It is designed to create a current regional evaluation and point out strategic and operational challenges. The report will be sent to the government as well.

Last month, during a briefing to the Foreign Ministry, Kochavi estimated that Syrian President, "Bashar al-Assad will not survive the uprising, even if it takes some more time." Kochavi expressed his concern that the Golan Heights region might become a terror hotbed, similar to the Sinai Peninsula.

"Recently over ten infrastructures of deadly terror attacks were dismantled [in Sinai]," he said last month, prior to the deadly terror attack on Egyptian security personnel by al-Qaida-inspired attackers in Sinai, and their failed attempt to subsequently attack Israeli targets.

Jerusalem Post