EU strong-armed nations into submitting to a single president over all Europe

FILE – In this Oct. 9, 2009 file photo, Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair attends a reception in London. Very soon, Europeans from Denmark to Bulgaria will wake up to the reality of having their very first president, one person world leaders can call when they want to talk to Europe. It’s taken a lot of history to get here. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, Pool, File)

AP | Nov 15, 2009

By ANGELA CHARLTON

PARIS — The European Union has battled long and hard for this moment: the imminent choice of its first president.

To get there, the EU strong-armed Irish voters, brushed aside hostile French and Dutch ballots, and pressured the Czech president into agreeing to a single leader to give Europe a strong voice on the world stage.

Yet after all that, EU leaders meeting Thursday may end up picking someone from a small country with little international power instead of a charismatic heavyweight to head this continental bloc of 27 nations, half a billion people and huge economic heft.

To pick a boss they can all live with, they must strike the right balance between big countries and small, east and west, socialists and conservatives, perhaps male and female. They must maneuver between proponents of a strong Europe and those who fear it — eurocentrics and euroskeptics, in the local parlance.

It’s a diplomatic minefield.

The decision will help define Europe’s future, the climax of a decade of agonized contortions and oft-thwarted efforts to make the EU about more than money and markets and common rules about what bananas Europeans can buy.

“The time has come to have a personality who will make an imprint … a European mark” on world affairs from Iran’s nuclear program to relations with Russia, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said last week.

“We should have weight in the world; we are 500 million people,” he said. “We should participate in world events and not just finance them.”

The early favorite was Britain’s former prime minister, Tony Blair, but his candidacy has run into trouble. He cuts a big figure on the world stage — perhaps too big for the liking of other powerful figures such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Now the talk among diplomats is that the EU president won’t be that globally powerful after all and that the role will primarily be to liaise internally among EU governments. That would leave room for a low-profile president and a more eye-catching figure in the No. 2 slot of EU foreign minister, which carry the real international oomph.

There’s talk of grudges: Will Britain block Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as punishment for Belgian objections to Blair? Will Poland nix Italy’s Massimo d’Alema because of his communist past?

The path toward giving Europe a public face has been a tortured one. First, there was the EU constitution, which was meant to streamline decision-making and stipulated creating a president and a commissioner of defense and foreign affairs. But French and Dutch voters rejected the constitution in referendums in 2005, fearing a threat to their sovereignty.

Then a toned-down reform treaty was born. That made it past most governments — but then Irish voters said no.

They were talked into a second vote, said yes — and then the euroskeptic Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, resisted. Under heavy pressure, the Czechs also signed on last week.

There are no declared candidates and no public campaigns. President Barack Obama’s future European counterpart will be determined not by elections but over a closed-door dinner.

Blair’s most visible handicap is his enthusiasm for the Iraq war, which many Europeans opposed. He is especially resented among European leaders who bucked resistance at home to join the euro, the bloc’s common currency, only for Britain to stay out of it.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband is often mentioned for the job of foreign minister, but he insists he’s not in the running.

Being on the left and coming from a big country, Miliband could have been nicely balanced against a conservative from a small country holding the presidency, such as Dutch Premier Jan Peter Balkenende, Belgium’s Van Rompuy or former Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel.

At the last EU summit two weeks ago, calls mounted to give the presidency to a woman. That boosted the long-shot chances of Latvian former President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.

The logic of choices is often mysterious or counterintuitive. Balkenende is vaunted as a good candidate because his country’s voters rejected the EU constitution, “which should comfort the euroskeptics,” the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad surmised.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt is known internationally for his U.N. role in the Balkans, but says he’s not running. He says only that Europe’s president should be “a good person.”

The European Union that rose from the ashes of World War II has torn down its borders, adopted common standards in everything from the death penalty to the weight of cargo trucks. It has dug a tunnel to link Britain to the Continent and its haves have poured billions into its have-not member states — 10 from the former communist bloc — raising their living standards beyond recognition.

And that’s where it should stop, say the euroskeptics, before national governments lose their sovereignty to a faceless superstate.

A face, say the europhiles, is exactly what Europe needs in order to take its proper place on the world stage. They have a stock phrase: When America needs to talk to Europe, it doesn’t know whom to call.

Now, said France’s Kouchner, “Europe will have a telephone number.”

EU presidential candidate proposed “Green Tax” to fund “Welfare State” at secret Bilderberg meeting

In this Oct. 29 2009 file photo, Belgium’s Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy participates in a meeting prior to an EU summit in Brussels. Very soon, Europeans from Denmark to Bulgaria will wake up to the reality of having their very first president, one person world leaders can call when they want to talk to Europe. AP Photo

“New resources will be necessary for the financing of the welfare state. Green tax instruments are a possibility.”

Top candidate debates EU tax at elite dinner

EU Observer | Nov 16, 2009

by ANDREW RETTMAN

Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, a top candidate for the new European Union president job, laid out his views on future EU financing at a dinner of the secretive Bilderberg group last week.

The event took place at Val Duchesse, a former priory on the outskirts of Brussels, on Thursday (12 November), with guests including Belgian industrialist and Bilderberg chairman Etienne Davignon, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and luminaries from the worlds of international politics and business, according to Belgian broadsheet De Tijd.

The Belgian leader is reported to have said in a speech that: “New resources will be necessary for the financing of the welfare state. Green tax instruments are a possibility, but they are ambiguous: This type of tax will eventually be extinguished. But the possibilities of financial levies at European level must be seriously examined and for the first time the large countries in the union are open to that.”

Mr Van Rompuy’s official spokesman later told the Belga news agency that: “The Prime Minister … indicated that it is necessary to carry on thinking about structural financing at the European level.”

The leak to De Tijd, coming just days before the EU aims to choose its first permanent president, could damage Mr Van Rompuy’s chances.

Proposals about imposing fees on environmentally-damaging behaviour or skimming small levies off financial transactions have been mooted before. But the suggestion that the new EU president might interfere in national taxation policy is anathema to anti-federalists in EU countries such as the UK or Denmark.

Mr Van Rompuy’s participation at the Bilderberg dinner will also give ammunition to critics of the EU top job selection process, which takes place via confidential consultations between EU leaders and informal social events.

The Bilderberg group is an elite club of aristocrats, politicians and businessmen dating back to 1954, which likes to meet away from the public eye and which is widely disliked by pro-transparency campaigners.

EU parliament chief shows his cards

Meanwhile in a related development, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek over the weekend backed former Spanish leader Jose Maria Aznar to take the EU president post.

“As far as I know, Aznar is not currently interested in this kind of position. But I think it would be good for the EU if he changed his mind and submitted his candidature,” Mr Buzek told Spanish daily ABC in an interview published on Saturday.

Mr Buzek met Mr Aznar along with the current Spanish government on a trip to Madrid ahead of Spain taking up the rotating EU presidency in January.

The conservative Spanish politician is from the correct political family according to the prevailing wisdom that the centre-right will take the EU president job while the centre-left will take the EU foreign minister position. But he was a firm advocate of the Iraq war, which remains a highly-divisive topic in the EU.

The speculation is set to see an end on Thursday (19 November) when EU leaders gather in Brussels to decide the top appointments. Other names in line for the presidency post include Dutch leader Jan Peter Balkenende and his Luxembourg counterpart, Jean-Claude Juncker.

Favourite to be EU president backs European national anthem

The revelation of the extent of Mr Van Rompuy’s federalist agenda will increase the pressure on Gordon Brown to try to block his elevation on Thursday  Photo: REUTERS

The new front-runner to be the first EU President is committed to a European national anthem and the replacement of a range of nationalistic symbols.

Telegraph | Nov 16, 2009

By Andrew Pierce and Holly Watt

Herman Van Rompuy, 62, the Prime Minister of Belgium for 11 months, is expected to be installed as President of the European Council at a dinner in Brussels on Thursday of the 27 EU leaders.

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that the Flemish Christian Democrat was an architect of his party’s federalist manifesto which calls for a massive extension of the presence of the EU in town halls, schools and sporting events.

The manifesto says: “Apart from the euro, also other national symbols need to be replaced by European symbols (licence plates, identity cards, presence of more EU flags, one time EU sports events, …).”

Mr Van Rompuy suggested a compromise to placate any anger at the perceived dilution of national pride. The manifesto continued: “In order to preserve unity in diversity a national reference can be preserved (as on the national side of euro coins).”

The revelation of the extent of Mr Van Rompuy’s federalist agenda will increase the pressure on Gordon Brown to try to block his elevation on Thursday.

The government had claimed victory after references to Beethoven’s Ode To Joy adopted as the EU’s anthem in 1985 were removed from the revised European ‘constitution’ which was voted down in the Dutch and Irish referendums in 2005.

Mr Van Rompuy, in a speech to the Belgian Parliament after the No votes, said: “We go on with the ratification of the European Constitution in all our parliaments, but we need to admit that for the moment the project is over. However, this doesn’t mean that we cannot continue to work in a creative way in the direction which the Constitution points in.

“I don’t object if we break up the Constitution into smaller parts, as long as we continue to work in the same direction: in the direction of more Europe.“

Mr Van Rompuy, barely known outside Belgium, is the favoured candidate of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor.

They want a figure who will not overshadow them on the world stage who will act a chairman rather than a Presidential figure with the stature of a world leader which was why Tony Blair’s chances faded.

He also backs proposals for the EU to be directly funded from a ring-fenced swathe of green taxes such as fuel duty or aviation levies. It could mean all shopping and petrol station receipts in Britain could in future include the amount of VAT or fuel duty that goes directly to Brussels as an “EU tax”. The idea, championed by the federalists, is fiercely resisted by Britain.

William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “Any attempt to move the EU further towards a federal state would be unacceptable. The British people never had a chance to give their view on whether the job of president of the Council should exist at all.”

Pieter Van Clippe, of Open Europe think tank, said: “Van Rompuy is your typical EU federalist – he isn’t going to step on anyone’s toes or try to dominate the world like Tony Blair or President Sarkozy might have – but he can be relied upon to quietly make sure that the EU gets more and more powers, with less and less say for voters.”

The Taxpayers Alliance is setting up the “Great EU debate” at http://www.greateudebate.com/ where people are invited to register and express their view of Britain’s EU membership. The TPA is funding cinema adverts and publishing a book “Ten Years On: Britain without the European Union”, which paints a positive picture of Britain in 2020 outside the EU.

British stealth robot jet-copter to fire ray guns in “urban canyons”

The UK MoD’s ‘Novel Air Concept’ robot stealth jet/copter notion. Credit: Defence Science

You have to wonder just what urban areas in “defended air space” the MoD has in mind for its stealthy robot jet/chopper to penetrate.

Bids for droid tail-sitter with pop-out chopper

Register | Nov 10, 2009

UK to build robot stealth raygun jet/copter

By Lewis Page

Aerospace firms are competing for a “classified” UK MoD contract to build a robotic military stealth aircraft which would be able to hover like a helicopter or fold its rotors and fly as an aeroplane. The “novel air concept” would be able to operate “within urban canyons” and deploy radical new weapons such as microwave or laser rayguns.

News of the commercial bids comes from Aviation Week & Space Technology, which names UK-headquartered arms globocorp BAE Systems, Euro missile alliance MBDA (partly owned by BAE) and British uni spinout Cranfield Aerospace as competitors to build the Novel Air Concept prototype.

The MoD’s Defence Science organisation had already released some details on the Concept. Specifically, the military boffins would like to see:

A more cost-effective means of achieving the effects currently provided by manned aircraft and cruise missiles by using new concepts in unmanned air vehicles (UAVs)/unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs). The specific effects under consideration are the delivery of novel payloads over remote hostile territory and, specifically, within the urban environment.

Pop-chopper: Good for hovering in urban canyons as well as VTOL

This is seen as being delivered as “a flying demonstrator within 3 years” (that is by 2012), which is to have the following abilities:

A reusable uninhabited air system with a radius of action of 1000km and able to survive defended air space. Capable of being launched and recovered from land, sea and air with the emphasis on ship based operations. The vehicle is to be able to operate within the urban canyons inherent in the major city landscape.

The MoD’s graphic seems to indicate a sort of mini stealth jet able to deploy rotors from its nose and hang vertically from them, setting down perhaps on its back end like the “tail-sitter” VTOL prototypes of yesteryear. The concept of large rotors, rather than a small propellor or even narrower jetpipe, makes sense in the context of the “urban canyon” requirement. A large heli-style vertical-thrust disc is required for an aircraft which is going to hover for any length of time without burning up all its fuel and probably melting its engines to boot.

As to the “novel payloads”, again the graphic offers a clue. The mysterious green cabinets between the conventional missiles have something of the look of phased-array antennae, perhaps capable of emitting focused, directable beams of microwaves – most probably for “soft” electronic-warfare purposes, but conceivably as active weapons able to permanently fry enemy circuitry.

It’s all very shiny, but you have to wonder just what urban areas in “defended air space” the MoD has in mind for its stealthy robot jet/chopper to penetrate. And you definitely have to wonder whether it would really be more cost-effective than comparatively simple one-shot cruise missiles, whose price is now falling through the few-hundred-k$ range: and which on their own can eliminate most air-defence networks possessed by non-nuclear powers.

There’s a definite air of seed-money about this, rather than of something that will actually be much use. We’ll be hoping that Cranfield gets the pork in this case – BAE and MBDA have already had more than their share.

We asked for comment from the MoD – after all, they weren’t shy about unveiling the concept to begin with – but hadn’t heard back as of publication. If we hear any more we’ll let you know.

Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton look forward to “coffee summit”

Palin Finds One Bond With Clinton

NY Times | Nov 16, 2009

By SARAH WHEATON

Could there be a “coffee summit” in the future between Hillary Rodham Clinton — the secretary of state, runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, former senator and author — and Sarah Palin, author, former Republican vice-presidential candidate and former governor?

In her memoir, “Going Rogue,” Ms. Palin offers a political olive branch to Mrs. Clinton, saying it was only after her own experience on the national campaign trail that she came to agree with the former presidential contender’s complaints about biased news coverage.

In an appearance Sunday morning on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” the host read Mrs. Clinton a passage from the Palin book:

“Should Secretary Clinton and I ever sit down over a cup of coffee, I know that we will fundamentally disagree on many issues. But my hat is off to her hard work on the 2008 campaign trail. A lot of her supporters think she proved what Margaret Thatcher proclaimed: ‘If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.’ ”

Mrs. Clinton smiled and replied, “Well, you know, I’ve never met her.”

“And look,” she continued, “I’d look forward to sit down and talk with her. Obviously, we’re going to hear a lot more from her in the upcoming weeks with her book coming out, and I would look forward to having a chance to actually get to meet her.”

Within hours of that appearance, the blogosphere had already christened a potential tête-à-tête as the “coffee summit.”

Ms. Palin resigned as governor of Alaska in July, before the end of her first term, citing a desire to pursue goals outside of elected office.

Mrs. Clinton, asked by Mr. Stephanopoulos on Sunday if she was contemplating a run for the governor’s office in New York, promptly used the question to dismiss the suggestion.

“That rumor is dead,” she said. “And if you can please, you know, put it in a little box and send it off somewhere, I’d appreciate it.”

Anti-terror expert: Pakistani Army ran terrorist training camps under CIA “acceptance”

Pakistani Army ran Muslim extremist training camps, says anti-terrorist expert

London Times | Nov 14, 2009

by Charles Bremner in Paris

The Pakistani Army ran training camps for a Muslim extremist group, at least until recently, with the acceptance of the US Central Intelligence Agency, according to France’s foremost anti-terrorist expert.

Jean-Louis Bruguière, who retired in 2007 after 15 years as chief investigating judge for counter-terrorism, reached this conclusion after interrogating a French militant who had been trained by Lashkar-e-Taiba and arrested in Australia in 2003.

In a book in his counter-terrorism years, Mr Bruguière says that Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was set up to fight India over disputed Kashmir territory, had become part of the international Islamic network of al-Qaeda.

Willy Brigitte, the suspect, told Mr Bruguière, that the Pakistani military were running the Lashkar-e-Taiba training camp where he spent 2½ months in 2001-02. Along with two Britons and two Americans, Brigitte was driven in a 4×4 through army roadblocks to the high-altitude camp where more than 2,000 men were being trained by Pakistani regular army officers, he said.

“The links between the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Pakistani Army are more than close. Brigitte observed this twice,” Mr Bruguière said. “When the camp was resupplied, all the materiel was dropped off by Pakistani army helicopters. And there were regular inspections by the Pakistani Army and the CIA.”

The US agency carried out spot checks to ensure that Pakistan was sticking to an agreement not to train any foreigners at the militant organisation, the judge said. “After 9/11, the Americans put pressure on the Pakistani Government to put more effective controls on the activities of the Islamic organisations linked to al-Qaeda,” he said.

Mr Brigitte, originally from the French West Indies, and other foreign personnel were moved out to another camp when the CIA was due to visit, Mr Bruguière said.

The judge said that it was possible that the Americans had been turning a blind eye to the organisation’s training of foreign operatives.

It was not clear whether the Pakistani armed forces and ISI intelligence service were “playing the same game” as the Pakistani Government over Islamic terrorism, said the judge, whose book is titled Some Things that I Wasn’t Able to Say.

Defense lawyer: Fort Hood suspect may be paralyzed

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, “Everybody ought to shut up.”

AP | Nov 13, 2009

By ANGELA K. BROWN

FORT HOOD, Texas — The attorney for the Army psychiatrist accused of killing fellow soldiers at Fort Hood says doctors have told the soldier he may be paralyzed from the waist down.

Attorney John Galligan told The Associated Press on Friday that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan told him that he has no feeling in his legs and doctors say the condition may be permanent. Galligan says Hasan also told him he had extreme pain in his hands.

Hasan was shot by police officers responding to last week’s shootings at Fort Hood. Galligan spoke with him Thursday in the intensive care unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the attack at the sprawling Texas post that also left 29 people wounded.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — Accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was coherent during his first meeting with his defense lawyer in a hospital intensive care unit, the attorney said Friday.

Civilian lawyer John Galligan told the CBS “Early Show” that Hasan was alert but began to fade toward the end of their hour-long session Thursday.

Hasan was charged Thursday with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the attack at the sprawling Texas post that also left 29 people injured. The Army psychiatrist was shot several times and remains hospitalized. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Galligan said Hasan’s medical condition remains “extremely serious.” But he says Hasan was alert enough to know he was speaking with his lawyer.

“He understands who I am. We can talk …. But I was only there for an hour and towards the end of the one-hour session, I could tell I was kind of pushing him in terms of my ability to keep him fresh and alert in a discussion with me,” Galligan said.

President Barack Obama has ordered a review to determine if warning signs were mishandled of contact between Hasan and a radical Islamic cleric who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq.

Obama said he wanted all intelligence related to Hasan preserved and reviewed to determine whether it was properly shared and acted upon within the government. The first results are due Nov. 30. John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, will oversee the review.

Members of Congress also are pressing for a full investigation into why Hasan was not detected and stopped. A Senate hearing on Hasan is scheduled for next week.

A joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan’s repeated contact with the cleric. The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn’t linked to terrorism.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and others have called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan’s contacts with a radical imam and others of concern to the U.S., and what they did with the information. Hoekstra confirmed this week that the U.S. government knew of about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and a radical imam, beginning in December 2008.

Staff overseeing Hasan’s training had reported that he was at times belligerent in his frequent discussions about his Muslim faith and was considered a lazy worker, according to a military official familiar but not authorized to speak publicly about several group discussions about Hasan.

Army officials have said they believe Hasan acted alone when he jumped on a table with two handguns last week, shouted “Allahu akbar” and opened fire inside a building at Fort Hood. The 13 people killed included a pregnant soldier and at least three other mental health professionals.

Hasan could face additional charges, said Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey. It had not been decided whether to charge Hasan with the death of the soldier’s unborn child, officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case publicly.

Hasan was charged in the hospital without his lawyers present, Galligan said.

“What I find disturbing is that my client is in ICU, and he’s 150 miles south of his defense counsel, and he’s being served with the charges,” he told The Associated Press. “Given his status as a patient, I’m troubled by this procedure and that I’m not there. I’m in the dark, and that shouldn’t be the case. I am mad.”

Months before the shootings, doctors and staff overseeing Hasan’s training reported viewing him at times as defensive and argumentative in his frequent discussions of his faith, according to the military official familiar with several group discussions about Hasan. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hasan was characterized as a mediocre student and lazy worker, which concerned the doctors and staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a military medical school in Bethesda, Md., the official said.

Even outside the military, Hasan’s behavior drew attention. Golam Akhter, a civil engineer from Bethesda, Md., said Thursday that he had spoken with Hasan about 10 times at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring before Hasan left for Texas last summer.

“He used to not believe that 9/11 was solely the work of Middle East people,” Akhter said. “His main thing was, ‘America is killing Muslims in the Middle East.’ That made him very, very upset.”

Akhter said he sensed that Hasan was “a troubled man” and feels guilty for not alerting others.

“I tried to convince him to try to be a moderate Muslim,” Akhter said.

Hasan repeatedly referred to his strong religious views in discussions with classmates at Walter Reed, his superiors and even in his research work, the military official said. His behavior, while at times perceived as intense and combative, was not unlike the zeal of others with strong religious views.

But some doctors and staff were concerned that their unfamiliarity with the Muslim faith would lead them to unfairly single out Hasan’s behavior, the official said.

Some questioned Hasan’s sympathies as an Army psychiatrist, whether he would be more aligned with Muslims fighting U.S. troops. There also was some concern about whether he should continue to serve in the military, the official said.

But they saw no signs of mental problems, no risk factors that would predict violent behavior. And the group discussed other factors that suggested Hasan would continue to thrive in the military, factors that mitigated their concerns, the official said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he was appalled at news leaks about the investigation into last week’s deadly shootings at Fort Hood.

“Frankly if I found out with high confidence anybody who’s leaking on the Department of Defense, who that was, that would probably be a career-ender,” he told reporters traveling with him to Oshkosh, Wis. “Everybody ought to shut up.”

Civilian deaths mount as South African police get greater “shoot to kill” powers

monstersandcritics.com | Nov 13, 2009

By Clare Byrne

Johannesburg – The increasingly gung-ho approach to crime-fighting of South Africa’s police is under fire after a toddler was shot dead by a policeman last week in the latest case of police bungling claiming innocent lives.

Atlegang Phalane, 3, was hit by a bullet last weekend while sitting in the back seat of his uncle’s parked car outside a relative’s house in Rabie Ridge, a low-income suburb on the northern edge of Johannesburg.

Two police officers searching for a suspect pulled up outside the house and opened fire on the parked car, killing him instantly.

The police Independent Complaints Directorate said one of the officers alleged he had seen a pipe that looked like a gun, but that no weapon or pipe had been found at the scene.

One policeman was arrested over the killing, which follows a number of police killings of civilians in recent weeks that the political opposition says is the consequence of a new, hardline tack by President Jacob Zuma and his security chiefs.

Last month, Olga Kekana, 29, was shot dead and two of her fellow passengers injured when police shot at the car in which they were travelling after mistaking it for a hijacked car.

In another incident under investigation, two policemen in Pretoria shot dead a street vendor after he allegedly insisted they pay for their food, while a young man in a Pretoria township died of a police bullet to the head after he ran away from police when they came to his shack to question him.

Deaths at the hands of police have been on the increase for a few years, since the police started coming under intense pressure to get a handle on crime before the 2010 football World Cup.

Around 50 people are murdered each day in the country and another 50 the victims of a murder attempt, making South Africa one of the world’s most violent societies.

Pitted against heavily-armed criminal gangs, police are understandably jittery, given the high risk of death or injury. From April 2008 to April 2009, a total of 109 police were killed on the job, according to police statistics.

Over the same period, 912 people were reported to have died in police custody or as a result of police action, 120 more cases than the previous year.

‘The suspects – when they attack us, they shoot to kill. We must protect ourselves,’ one detective, who has been on the job for 18 years in southern Johannesburg and who has lost nine colleagues in action, told the German Press Agency dpa.

The detective approves of the ’shoot to kill’ doctrine espoused by the country’s new national police commissioner, Bheki Cele.

Cele, a Stetson-wearing former provincial security minister came into the job guns blazing in July, telling police not to die with their firearms in their holsters and to shoot first if their lives were under threat.

Zuma has also encouraged police to use lethal force, on the basis that ‘criminals don’t take an oath to do warning shots.’

In the wake of the recent spate of civilian killings, Zuma’s spokesman has since stressed that the president’s remarks ‘did not translate to a licence for policemen to just go out and shoot people.’

Cele has also warned police against being ‘trigger-happy’ but deputy police minister Fikile Mbalula on Thursday brushed off civilian deaths as ‘unavoidable.’

‘When you are caught up combat with criminals, innocent people are going to die, not deliberately but in the exchange of fire,’ he said, repeating his demand of police: ‘Shoot the bastards.’

The controversy comes as the government prepares to amend the law to give police more license to shoot – including at fleeing suspects.

The main opposition Democratic Alliance has warned such a move would return South Africa to apartheid-style policing of ’shooting unarmed citizens in the back.’

‘One almost wants to ask the question: What will come first?’ Johan Burger, a retired former senior police and senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies questioned. ‘Will crime get out of control first, or will the police get out of control first?’

Fort Hood’s military victims blocked from getting damages

Tribune-Review | Nov 15, 2009

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Legal experts say families of active-duty military members who were killed during the recent Fort Hood shootings or the military members themselves who were wounded probably will be unable to win court judgments for damages even if they can prove the Army was negligent in not acting to remove the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.

Andrew Adair, a Washington attorney, and others say a 1950 Supreme Court ruling would stand in the way of such damage claims.

The restriction would not apply to the lone civilian, Mike Cahill, 62, who was killed in last week’s attack. Nor would it apply to injured civilians, including police officer Kimberly Munley, who was involved in a shootout with Hasan.

In the 1950 ruling, known as the Feres Doctrine after one of the plaintiffs that brought the case, the high court said active-duty members of the military cannot sue for damages if the death or injury is “incident to military service.”

“Even if the higher-ups in the military have knowledge that someone is a loose cannon and take no action, there is no recourse. That’s where the law is,” Adair said

Hasan was formally charged Thursday with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the attack, which left 29 people wounded. Congressional investigators have begun to question whether Army officials failed to respond to indications that Hasan might be a danger to others. President Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on an investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings.

Obama made his comments during an eight-day Asia trip and pleaded for lawmakers to “resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater.” He said those who died on the nation’s largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft.

“The stakes are far too high,” Obama said in a video and Internet address released by the White House while the president was flying from Tokyo to Singapore, where Pacific Rim countries were meeting.

Obama has ordered a review of how officials handled warning signs that might have pointed to the killing spree. Among the warning signs were e-mail contacts with radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was linked in the 9/11 Commission’s report to at least two of the 2001 hijackers.

Dean Swartz, another Washington attorney and former military lawyer, who has experience on both sides of military torts cases, said that even with evidence that Hasan’s superiors were aware of a potential for violence, survivors of the shooting would face a virtually insurmountable hurdle in overcoming the Feres Doctrine.

Swartz said that as a government attorney, he was obligated to oppose such claims, and “it made me sick to do it.”

Justice Department lawyers are defending the Feres Doctrine in several pending lawsuits, arguing that the doctrine is necessary to maintain military discipline and that active-duty members of the military are entitled to death benefits.

Pentagon spokesman Wayne V. Hall confirmed those killed at Fort Hood will be entitled to the benefits provided to all members of the military, including a $100,000 death benefit. Exact individual amounts, including life insurance benefits, will depend on determinations yet to be made by the military and what level of benefits were chosen by the killed or wounded soldiers, Hall said.

With respect to the Fort Hood shootings, Hall said he could not comment since there has been no attempt at litigation.

Barbara Cragnotti, spokeswoman for an advocacy group that has been seeking to have the Feres Doctrine overturned by Congress, said it appeared to her that the ban on legal claims would apply to all of those shot who were on active duty.

“I believe that Feres will bar all suits on the Fort Hood shooting,” she said, referring to active duty members of the military.

Cragnotti’s group, called Veterans Equal Rights Advocacy, has been backing a bill recently approved by the House Judiciary Committee that would lift the ban on lawsuits, but only in cases involving medical malpractice, such as botched surgery in a military hospital.

That bill, which is awaiting House floor action, would not apply to the Fort Hood incident because it involves only medical malpractice cases.

Cragnotti’s group contends the limits imposed by the Feres ruling are unfair and deprive members of the military rights that are provided to all other citizens.

Obama to Congress: Hold off Fort Hood hearings

He urges lawmakers to let Army finish its investigation first

San Antonio Express | Nov 14, 2009

By GARY MARTIN

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called Saturday for a comprehensive review of the events leading to the tragedy at Fort Hood to “prevent a similar breach from happening again,” and he urged Congress to delay hearings until an investigation is complete.

“If there was a failure to take appropriate action before the shootings, there must be accountability,” Obama said during his weekly radio address.

Obama paid tribute at a Fort Hood ceremony last week for the soldiers and civilians killed Nov. 5 when a gunman opened fire on the base, killing 13 people. Dozens were wounded.

Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder. Hasan suffered wounds and is being treated at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

“It’s unthinkable that so many would die in a hail of gunfire on a U.S. Army base in the heart of Texas, and that a fellow service-member could have pulled the trigger,” Obama said.

Obama’s call for a thorough investigation comes as Congress prepares to launch hearings into the tragedy. Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, will preside over the first hearing next week.

The House Armed Services Committee also has announced it will holding hearings, but Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, a ranking Democrat on the panel, said the review would come later.

An Austin lawmaker, Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican, is asking the House Homeland Security Committee to hold hearings to investigate any possible ties that Hasan may have had with terrorist groups.