Turkish General's Arrest Roils Air Force

ANKARA - A senior general who was expected to become the new air force commander this summer has been detained on charges of conspiracy to topple the government, a senior military official said May 31.
An Istanbul court May 30 arrested Air Force Gen. Bilgin Balanli, commander of the War Academy, accusing him of involvement in a plan to overthrow the government of Islamist-leaning Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Balanli is the most senior Air Force general and, therefore, the strongest candidate to become the service commander in an annual reshuffle in August.
Dozens of duty and retired officers are currently in jail on similar charges, but Balanli is the only active-duty full general.
"The charges against him effectively means that General Balanli has lost chances of becoming the next commander. And this situation raises serious questions regarding who else can take over," the military official said.
In recent years, the prime minister blocked the promotion of officers who were charged with plotting a coup or trying to topple his government.
"One option is to extend the term of the current commander for one year until another full general takes over," he said.
Air Force Commander Gen. Hasan Aksay was set to retire after this year's reshuffle.
Erdogan's government and the military have been long disputed religion's role in politics and public life. In recent years, the government has prevailed in this rift through legislation and judicial proceedings against what prosecutors indict as coup-plotting officers.

North Korea Rejects South Korea Summit Proposal

SEOUL - North Korea said June 1 it had rejected a South Korean proposal to hold a series of three summits to ease tensions on the peninsula.
The North's powerful National Defense Commission (NDC) said the South, at a secret meeting in May, had proposed the meetings to start late this month at the border truce village of Panmunjom.

It said Seoul "begged" for the summits but stuck to its precondition for dialogue - that Pyongyang apologize for two deadly border incidents last year.
But the North said there would be no such summits as long as South Korea follows a hostile policy and "persistently" calls for the dismantling of its nuclear program and an apology over the two incidents.
It repeated a vow made May 30 that it would no longer engage with the current conservative government in Seoul.
Seoul accused Pyongyang of "distorting our real intention" and urged it to sit down for a dialogue in a "responsible" manner.
"It is very regrettable as such an attitude shown by North Korea will never help improve relations," the South's unification ministry in charge of cross-border affairs said in a statement.
Cross-border relations have been icy for more than a year, since the South accused the North of sinking one of its warships and imposed trade sanctions.
The North denies involvement in the sinking but shelled a South Korean border island last November, killing four people including two civilians.
Seoul says its neighbor should take responsibility for both incidents before any serious dialogue can resume.
The NDC, which is chaired by leader Kim Jong-Il, said the South had even tried to bribe North Korean officials to show "regret" for the border incidents by offering an envelope of cash.
In a statement on the official KCNA news agency, it said Seoul proposed a second summit in Pyongyang in August and a third on the sidelines of a nuclear summit in the South next March.
Pyongyang would work to promote "peace, reunification and stability" on the peninsula but would "no longer deal with" the current Seoul government, it said.
"The fact that the North made public the confidential contacts with the South means that it has reached a final decision not to talk to the current government in the South," said Kim Keun-Sik of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.
Following leader Kim's trip to Beijing last month, "the North gained confidence that it can do without help from the South", the academic told AFP. China, the North's sole major ally and benefactor, is trying to revive six-nation talks on the North's nuclear disarmament. But inter-Korean tensions are complicating the issue.
The South's President Lee Myung-Bak has enraged the North by linking major aid to nuclear disarmament, although he has repeatedly said he is willing in principle to hold a summit.
The North's Kim also reportedly expressed willingness to hold a summit in a message relayed by visiting former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in April.
In its statement May 30, the NDC reiterated threats of "physical action without any notice" to halt psychological warfare from the South.
The North has repeatedly threatened to open fire at sites used by South Korean activists to launch cross-border leaflets criticizing Kim's regime.
The ruling communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said June 1 it was futile to pin any hope on Lee's government.
"They are a group of hooligans bereft of elementary political sense, national character and human ethics and morality," it said.

Australia PM to Replace Defence Forces Chief

SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced Wednesday that Defence Force Chief Angus Houston will be replaced by his deputy in July, as she admitted it was a "testing time" for the force.
Lt. Gen. David Hurley will take over from the retiring Houston, who has spent six years in the job and overseen Australian deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor and the Solomon Islands.

The announcement comes in a week in which three soldiers died in separate incidents in Afghanistan, bringing the nation's losses in that conflict to 26.
Gillard acknowledged that the reshuffle came at a "very testing time for the Australian Defence Force, a time of sorrow, of loss".
"I'm absolutely confident the new leadership team will meet these challenges," she told a press conference.
Hurley, who as a young man served on exchange with the British Army's Irish Guards, was appointed vice chief of the Defence Force in 2008.
He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his work commanding a battalion group in Somalia in 1993 and later went on to be named as Land Commander Australia and appointed to Chief Joint Operations Command.
Hurley said he would not back away from giving the government "frank and fearless advice."
"I don't think at times that should be taken as dissent or a war between the minister and the generals," he said. "We're doing our job, and we'll continue to do so."
The leadership change comes as the Defence Force is facing a wave of complaints brought by former members alleging sexual abuse, beatings and other misconduct, as well as investigation into its treatment of women.
Houston said the force had worked hard to reform the culture within defense, which has some 58,000 permanent staff.
"Okay, we are not perfect but the vast majority of people out there act with great generosity of spirit in everything they do," Houston said. "It's been a story of success, what we've done on operations."
Hurley's position as vice-chief will be filled by current air force chief Air Marshal Mark Binskin.

China's PLA Bans Soldiers From Social Media

BEIJING - Making online friends could play into the hands of the "enemy", according to China's People's Liberation Army, which has said its roughly 2.3 million soldiers will be banned from using social media.
The world's largest military force has notified service men and women that it will strictly enforce the ban to "safeguard military secrets and the purity and solidarity" of the PLA, state media said this week.

The People's Liberation Daily, the armed forces' official newspaper, said passing on personal details such as a soldier's address, duties or contact details could risk revealing the location of military bases.
It added that particular risks exist in users posting photos of themselves, such as during training, which could divulge military capabilities and equipment.
The ban was included in regulations announced last year that proscribed soldiers from launching websites or writing blogs, the paper added.
But in a sign that the ban was apparently being ignored in a country where social media are wildly popular, the military brass has taken the step of re-emphasizing the restriction, warning of a "grim struggle" on the Internet.
Officers and soldiers must be made to understand the "real dangers" of making friends online and to "strengthen their knowledge of the enemy situation," it said, without elaborating.
China has nearly half a billion online users, according to official figures, and Chinese-language social media sites similar to Facebook and Twitter - which are blocked by the country's censors - count hundreds of millions of users.
The newspaper last week said China's military has set up an elite Internet security task force tasked with fending off cyberattacks, while denying that the initiative is intended to create a "hacker army."
The United States, Australia, Germany and other Western nations have long alleged that hackers inside China are carrying out a wide range of cyberattacks on government and corporate computer systems worldwide.

Revised U.S. Fleet Plan Extends Some Ships to 70 Years

he U.S. Navy's two command ships, each about 40 years old, are busy vessels. The Japan-based Blue Ridge, flagship of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, recently completed a cruise around the Far East and supported relief operations in Japan. The Mount Whitney, flagship of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, served as a headquarters ship for the initial coalition strikes in March against Libya.

The U.S. 7th Fleet command ship Blue Ridge, left, and the guided-missile destroyer Stethem sail the Pacific. The Blue Ridge will serve until 2039 according to the Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan. (MCS 3rd Class Brian A. Ston / U.S. Navy)

The ships are at a stage in their service lives where the Navy normally might be expected to plan for replacements. But in a recent update to the 30-year shipbuilding plans, the ships have been extended to serve another 28 years - until 2039.

That would mean the Blue Ridge, launched in January 1969, will have spent more than 70 years in the water. The Mount Whitney is one year younger.
A notional replacement ship, dubbed LCC(X) - or sometimes JCC(X), where the "J" stood for "Joint" - has faded in and out of several previous 30-year plans. The ships were always dropped for affordability reasons. The Navy then planned for the current ships to remain in service until 2029, and now has extended that deadline.
The 70-year planned service life might be a new record for an active Navy ship. Aircraft carriers are intended to serve for 50 years, and most surface combatants such as cruisers and destroyers are planned for 30-, 35- or 40-year lives. Only the sail frigate Constitution, a museum ship in Boston that was launched in 1797, has been in service longer, and she was never expected to last this long.
The revised command ship schedule is contained in an updated version of the Navy's 30-year plan sent to Congress in mid-May. The updates consist of several tables and a cover letter, and lack the explanations and written information provided in the full plan. Copies of some of the tables were acquired by Defense News.
Starting in 2011, the Navy is no longer required to submit a full plan each year to Congress, but rather is to tie the document to the Quadrennial Defense Review, a strategy document issued ever four years that outlines the requirements for U.S. military forces. Some in Congress, including Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., would rather return to annual filing requirements. Wittman, chairman of the House Armed Services oversight and investigations subcommittee, has scheduled a hearing on the matter for June 1.
No major changes are in the new fleet plan, but some of the tweaks include:
■ As expected, a DDG 51-class Flight IIA destroyer was added in 2014, raising the number from one to two ships to be ordered. The Navy has previously discussed this addition, which is based on a multiyear procurement plan starting in 2013.
■ A fourth littoral combat ship (LCS) has been added to 2012, as reflected in the 2012 budget request.
■ Purchases of the T-AO fleet oilers have been brought forward to 2014 - also previously announced.
■ An extra T-AGOS ocean surveillance ship has been added in 2013.
■ One Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) has been eliminated in 2016, going from two to one.
■ The plan still reflects a Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) ship in 2013, but that ship will be eliminated, as called for in the 2011 defense budget finally passed in early May. The Navy intends to buy three MLPs, the third of which is in the 2012 budget request.
■ In the outyears, the Navy cut an LSD(X) landing ship dock replacement ship from 2039 and now plans to build 11 of the ships.
■ The first LPD(X) amphibious transport dock replacement is set for 2040.
■ A big-deck assault ship is planned for 2041.
■ The buys for LCS replacement ships in the 2030s have been beefed up, with three instead of two ships per year now scheduled for 2036 through 2041.
■ A new surface combatant, previously designated DDG(X), has become the DDG 51 Flight IV, scheduled to begin in 2032 with two ships per year through 2041, except for three ships in 2036. The move means the basic DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class design, first procured in 1985, will be bought continuously for at least 56 years.
The plan does not address shortfalls in major surface combatants - cruisers and destroyers - or in attack submarines.
With all ships accounted for, the revised plan shows the Navy purchasing 270 ships from 2012 through 2041, plus another five JHSVs using Army funds.

Al-Qaida Plotted to Kill Lockheed Martin Chief: Testimony

CHICAGO - A Pakistini-based branch of al-Qaida was hatching a plot to kill the head of U.S. defense group Lockheed Martin, self-confessed terrorist David Coleman Headley testified in a U.S. court Tuesday.

In this courtroom drawing, David Coleman Headley faces U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber on March 18 in Chicago. (Carol Renaud / AFP via Getty Images)

"There was a plan to kill him because he was making drones," Headley testified during the Chicago trial of his childhood friend, Tahawwur Hussain Rana.

Headley pleaded guilty to 12 terrorism charges related to the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks and other unrealized plots in the wake of his 2009 arrest in Chicago.
He is testifying against alleged co-conspirator Rana in exchange for avoiding the death penalty and extradition to India, Pakistan or Denmark.
Headley testified that he secretly used Rana's office computer for research on the plot to assassinate the Lockheed Martin executive but dismissed his brief online search there as insignificant.
"My research is more in-depth than Googling someone a couple of times," he testified during cross-examination by Rana's defense attorney.
Headley said he was working on the plot with Ilyas Kashmiri, the commander of the Pakistani-based terrorist organization Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI), and a senior member of al-Qaida.
Headley pleaded guilty to working with Kashmiri on a plot to attack the Danish newspaper Jyllen Posten, which published controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, after Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) got distracted with the Mumbai plot.
Rana is accused of providing Headley with a cover and acting as a messenger, with prosecutors alleging he played a behind-the-scenes logistical role in both the Mumbai attacks and another abortive plan to strike Copenhagen.
Rana, a Canadian-Pakistani and Chicago businessman, has denied all charges, and his defense attorneys argue that he was duped by his friend, whom he had met in military school.

Gates To Reassure Asian Allies on Military Ties

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to reassure anxious allies in Asia this week that the U.S. military will maintain a strong presence in the region despite budget pressures at home, officials said.

The Pentagon chief will address the allies' concerns "head on" at a security conference this week in Singapore, said a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
As Washington moves to tackle a ballooning deficit and debt, Asian allies fear a scaling back of the U.S. military's role just as China's armed forces take a more assertive stance, defense officials said.
"There's no doubt that the region has that concern, and I think it's one that we're well aware of, and hence it's one the secretary will want to address," the official told reporters.
Gates, who departs May 31 on his global tour, will seek "to assure the region that we will maintain our commitments in the region and that we have both the capability in addition to the will to do so," the official said.
In a speech in Singapore, Gates is "going to talk in greater detail than in the past about what we in DoD (Department of Defense) are doing to make that more tangible, specifically in terms of U.S. presence in the region," the official said.
Gates will stress that the United States is "not distracted" from defense issues in Asia despite crises elsewhere in the world, the official said.
In his last international trip as defense secretary before he steps down at the end of June, Gates will use the speech at the security summit in Singapore to discuss U.S. policy on Asia and the underlying principles that guide it, officials said.
After arriving June 2 in Singapore following a stop in Hawaii, Gates plans to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, to try "to build on the positive momentum that exists in the military-to-military relationship right now," a second official said.
Last year's conference in Singapore was marked by sharp exchanges between Gates and senior Chinese generals, who said U.S. arms sales to Taiwan remained a serious obstacle to building a security dialogue between the two countries.
But officials have cited positive signs more recently, with Gates having traveled to China in January and the People's Liberation Army Chief of General Staff Chen Bingde making a week-long U.S. visit earlier this month.
During his U.S. tour, Chen struck a mostly conciliatory tone and said his country had no plans to take on the American military in the Pacific.
In his talks with Liang in Singapore, Gates hopes to renew his proposal for a civilian-military dialogue that would address "sensitive security issues," including nuclear weapons, missile defense and cyber warfare, officials said. The Chinese have yet to agree to the idea.
The United States has also disagreed with Beijing over the South China Sea, saying it has a right to sail U.S. naval ships in the area and backing calls from smaller countries for a diplomatic arrangement to settle territorial disputes.
The Spratlys, a reputedly oil-rich South China Sea island chain, is claimed in whole or in part by China as well as Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
At the Asia security conference, Gates plans to meet his counterparts from Japan, Australia, Thailand and Singapore as well as Malaysia's prime minister, officials said.
After Singapore, Gates was due to attend a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, where the air campaign in Libya and the war in Afghanistan are expected to dominate the agenda.