Monday 27 April 2015

Sale of U.S. Arms Fuels the Wars of Arab States

MIDDLE EAST

Sale of U.S. Arms Fuels the Wars of Arab States
By MARK MAZZETTI and HELENE COOPER APRIL 18, 2015

Qatar is seeking to purchase to replace its aging French Mirage jets, above. Credit Louisa Gouliamaki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

WASHINGTON — To wage war in Yemen, Saudi Arabia is using F-15 fighter jets bought from Boeing. Pilots from the United Arab Emirates are flying Lockheed Martin’s F-16 to bombboth Yemen and Syria. Soon, the Emirates are expected to complete a deal with General Atomics for a fleet of Predator drones to run spying missions in their neighborhood.

As the Middle East descends into proxy wars, sectarian conflicts and battles against terrorist networks, countries in the region that have stockpiled American military hardware are now actually using it and wanting more. The result is a boom for American defense contractors looking for foreign business in an era of shrinking Pentagon budgets — but also the prospect of a dangerous new arms race in a region where the map of alliances has been sharply redrawn.

Last week, defense industry officials told Congress that they were expecting within days a request from Arab allies fighting the Islamic State — Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain,

Jordan and Egypt — to buy thousands of American-made missiles, bombs and other weapons, replenishing an arsenal that has been depleted over the past year.

The United States has long put restrictions on the types of weapons that American defense firms can sell to Arab nations, meant to ensure that Israel keeps a military advantage against its traditional adversaries in the region. But because Israel and the Arab states are now in a de facto alliance against Iran, the Obama administration has been far more willing to allow the sale of advanced weapons in the Persian Gulf, with few public objections from Israel.

“When you look at it, Israel’s strategic calculation is a simple one,” said Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The gulf countries “do not represent a meaningful threat” to Israel, he said. “They do represent a meaningful counterbalance to Iran.”

Industry analysts and Middle East experts say that the region’s turmoil, and the determination of the wealthy Sunni nations to battle Shiite Iran for regional supremacy, will lead to a surge in new orders for the defense industry’s latest, most high-tech hardware.

The militaries of gulf nations have been “a combination of something between symbols of deterrence and national flying clubs,” said Richard L. Aboulafia, a defense analyst at the Teal Group. “Now they’re suddenly being used.”

Saudi Arabia spent more than $80 billion on weaponry last year — the most ever, and more than either France or Britain — and has become the world’s fourth-largest defense market,according to figures released last week by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks global military spending. The Emirates spent nearly $23 billion last year, more than three times what they spent in 2006.

Qatar, another gulf country with bulging coffers and a desire to assert its influence around the Middle East, is on a shopping spree. Last year, Qatar signed an $11 billion deal with the Pentagon to purchase Apache attack helicopters and Patriot and Javelin air-defense systems. Now the tiny nation is hoping to make a large purchase of Boeing F-15 fighters to replace its aging fleet of French Mirage jets. Qatari officials are expected to present the Obama administration with a wish list of advanced weapons before they come to Washington next month for meetings with other gulf nations.

American defense firms are following the money. Boeing opened an office in Doha, Qatar, in 2011, and Lockheed Martin set up an office there this year. Lockheed created a division in 2013 devoted solely to foreign military sales, and the company’s chief executive, Marillyn Hewson, has said that Lockheed needs to increase foreign business — with a goal of global arms sales’ becoming 25 percent to 30 percent of its revenue — in part to offset the shrinking of the Pentagon budget after the post-Sept. 11 boom.

American intelligence agencies believe that the proxy wars in the Middle East could last for years, which will make countries in the region even more eager for the F-35 fighter jet, considered to be the jewel of America’s future arsenal of weapons. The plane, the world’s most expensive weapons project, has stealth capabilities and has been marketed heavily to European and Asian allies. It has not yet been peddled to Arab allies because of concerns about preserving Israel’s military edge.

But with the balance of power in the Middle East in flux, several defense analysts said that could change. Russia is a major arms supplier to Iran, and a decision by President Vladimir V. Putin to sell an advanced air defense system to Iran could increase demand for the F-35, which is likely to have the ability to penetrate Russian-made defenses.

“This could be the precipitating event: the emerging Sunni-Shia civil war coupled with the sale of advanced Russian air defense systems to Iran,” Mr. Aboulafia said. “If anything is going to result in F-35 clearance to the gulf states, this is the combination of events.”

At the same time, giving the gulf states the ability to strike Iran at a time of their choosing might be the last thing the United States wants. There are already questions about how judicious Washington’s allies are in using American weaponry.

“A good number of the American arms that have been used in Yemen by the Saudis have been used against civilian populations,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, an assertion that Saudi Arabia denies.

Mr. Kimball said he viewed the increase in arms sales to the region “with a great deal of trepidation, as it is leading to an escalation in the type and number and sophistication in the weaponry in these countries.”

Congress enacted a law in 2008 requiring that arms sales allow Israel to maintain a “qualitative military edge” in the region. All sales to the Middle East are evaluated based on how they will
affect Israeli military superiority. But the Obama administration has also viewed improving the militaries of select Arab nations — those that see Iran as a threat in the region — as critical to
Israeli security.

“It is also important to note that our close relationships with countries in the region are critical to regional stability and Israel’s security,” Andrew J. Shapiro said in a speech in 2011, when he was an assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs. “Our relationships with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and many Gulf countries allow the United States to strongly advocate for peace and stability in the region.”

There is an unquestionably sectarian character to the current conflicts in the Middle East, nowhere more so than in the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen. The Saudis have assembled a group of Sunni nations to attack Houthi militia fighters who have taken over Yemen’s capital, Sana, and ousted a government backed by Saudi Arabia and the United States. Saudi officials have said that the Houthis, a Shiite group, are being covertly backed by Iran. Other nations that have joined the coalition against the Houthis, like Morocco, have characterized their participation in blunt sectarian terms.

“It’s a question of protecting the Sunnis,” Mbarka Bouaida, Morocco’s deputy foreign minister, said in an interview.

But Sunni nations have also shown a new determination to use military force against radical Sunni groups like the Islamic State. A number of Arab countries are using an air base in Jordan to launch attacks against Islamic State fighters in Syria. Separately, the Emirates and Egypt have carried out airstrikes in Libya against Sunni militias there.

Meanwhile, the deal to sell Predator drones to the Emirates is nearing final approval. The drones will be unarmed, but they will be equipped with lasers to allow them to better identify targets on the ground.

If the sale goes through, it will be the first time that the drones will go to an American ally outside of NATO.


Source: New York Times

புதிய ஈழப்புரட்சியாளர்களின் மே நாள் முழக்கங்கள்

மே1-மே18
புரட்சித்திருநாள் சூளுரைகள்:

* அமெரிக்க இந்திய ஆட்சிக்கவிழ்ப்பில் அதிகாரத்தைக் கைப்பற்றிய 
மைத்திரி-ரணில்-பொன்சேகா கும்பலின் அரசாங்கம் தேசத்துரோக அரசாங்கமே!

* ஏகாதிபத்திய உலக மறுபங்கீட்டில் ரசிய-சீன முகாமுக்கு எதிராக அமெரிக்க இந்திய முகாமுடன் அணி சேரும் வெளிவிவகாரக் கொள்கை, `அணி சேராக் கொள்கை`யைக் கைவிடும் விதேசியப் பாதையே!

* உலக மறுபங்கீட்டுப் போரில் இந்த முகாம்களில் எந்த ஒன்றைச் சார்பவர்களும் ஏகாதிபத்திய தாசர்களே!

* பக்ச பாசிஸ்டுக்களுக்கு மாற்று மைத்திரி ரணில் பாசிஸ்டுக்கள் அல்ல!

* சரிந்து வரும் அமெரிக்காவின் உலக மேலாதிக்க சாகச வெறியாட்டங்களை எதிர்ப்போம்!

* முண்டு கொடுக்கும் இந்திய அரசின் ஆசிய விரிவாதிக்க கனவை தகர்ப்போம்!

* அண்டிப் பிழைக்கும் மைத்திரி - ரணில் கும்பலின் தேசத்துரோக அரசாங்கத்தை தூக்கியெறிவோம்!

* அதிகாரப்பரவலாக்கல் பாதையை நிராகரித்து, ஈழச்சமரசவாதிகளை, நாடுகடந்த-புலம் பெயர்ந்த தமிழீழ ஏகாதிபத்திய தாசர்களை, தமிழக- இந்திய விரிவாதிக்க நீசர்களை தனிமைப்படுத்துவோம்!

* சிங்கள, தமிழ் - இரு தேச உழைக்கும் மக்களையும் ஒன்றிணைக்க ஈழப்பிரிவினையை உயர்த்திப்பிடிப்போம்!

* மலையக முஸ்லிம் ஈழத்தமிழ் மக்களின் ஐக்கியத்தைக் கட்டியமைக்க போராடுவோம்!

* ஏகாதிபத்திய உலகமய, உலக மறுபங்கீட்டு கொடுங்கோன்மையை எதிர்த்து அலைகடலென ஆர்ப்பரிக்கும் உலகத் தொழிலாளர்களுடனும் ஒடுக்கப்பட்ட தேசங்களுடனும் ஒன்றுசேருவோம்!

* இனப்படுகொலையாளரை கூண்டிலேற்ற ஐ.நா.பாதையை நிராகரிப்போம்!

*பாராளமன்ற தேர்தல் பாதையைப் புறக்கணிப்போம், புரட்சிப்பாதையில் அணிதிரள்வோம்!

மே நாள் தியாகம் - முள்ளிவாய்க்கால் தியாகம் நீடூழி வாழ்க! 
மார்க்சிய லெனினிய மா ஓ சிந்தனை வெல்க!
புதிய ஈழம் மலர்க!
இறுதி வெற்றி ஈழ மக்களுக்கே!

புதிய ஈழப்புரட்சியாளார்கள்



Sunday 26 April 2015

மு.நித்தியானந்தனின் `கூலித்தமிழ்`மலையக இலக்கிய ஆய்வு நூல் வெளியீடு

  
                                                                            



''கூலித் தமிழ்`` வெளியீட்டை ஒட்டி BBC செய்தியகத்தில் திரு.மு.நித்தியானந்தன் அவர்கள்


175 ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்னால் இந்தியாவில் இருந்து இலங்கைக்கு காலனித்துவ கூலி அடிமைகளாக கடத்திக் கொன்று வரப்பட்ட மக்கள் சந்தித்த குரூர வாழ்வை; அக்காலத்தின் தோட்டத்துறை அதிகார வர்க்கத்தின் அடக்குமுறை மொழியாக `கூலித்தமிழ்` பயிற்றுவிக்கப்பட்ட வரலாற்றை,
 இலக்கிய சாட்சியங்கள் ஊடாக,
கோப்பிக்காலம் முதல் தற்காலம் வரை ஆய்வு செய்துள்ளார் இந்நூலாசிரியர்.
கூலித்தமிழ் ஆய்வு நூல் வெளியீடு குறித்து BBC தமிழோசை மணிவண்ணனுடன் நூலாசிரியர் பகிர்ந்து கொண்ட கருத்துக்களை கீழ்க்காணும் இணைப்பில் காணக்கூடும்.
25-04-2015
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tamil/sri_lanka/2015/04/150425_koolithamail



நூல் அறிமுகம்
Rathina Iyer Pathmanaba Iyer 
added 3 new photos. 29 November 2014 · Edited · Face Book

நண்பர் மு.நித்தியானந்தன் அவர்களது முதலாவது நூல் சில தினங்கள் முன்னர் வெளியாகியுள்ளதை மகிழ்ச்சியுடன் பகிர்ந்துகொள்கிறேன். 'கூலித் தமிழ்' 
எனும் தலைப்பிலான இந்நூலினைத் தமிழகத்தில் 'க்ரியா' பதிப்பகம் அழகாகப் பதிப்பித்துள்ளது! 'வீரகேசரி', 'தினகரன்' பத்திரிகைகளில் நண்பர் நித்தியானந்தனது கட்டுரைகள் பல வெளியாகியுள்ளன என்பதோடு மூன்று, நான்கு நூல்களுக்குரிய விஷயங்களைப் பல ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்னரே எழுதிவைத்திருந்தபோதும், ஒருவித அசிரத்தை காரணமாக, நண்பர் நித்தியானந்தனது நூல் எதுவும் இன்றுவரை வெளிவராமை துரதிர்ஷ்டமே! 

இந்நிலையில், இப்போது அவரது முதலாவது நூல் வெளிவந்திருக்கின்றமை, புத்தாண்டில் மேலும் ஒருசில நூல்கள் வெளிவரும் என்கிற ஒரு நம்பிக்கையைத் தருகின்றது.
'கூலித் தமிழ்' நூலின் உள்ளடக்கம் பற்றிச் சுருங்கக்கூறின் பின்வருமாறு கூறலாம்!

* 19ஆம் நூற்றாண்டில் தமிழகத்திலிருந்து இலங்கையின் மத்திய மலைநாட்டுப் பகுதிகளுக்குக் 'கூலி'களாகக் கொண்டுசெல்லப்பட்ட இந்திய வம்சாவளித் தமிழர்களின் மத்தியில் எழுந்த முதல் எழுத்து முயற்சிகளை இந்நூல் பதிவுசெய்கிறது.
 * நூற்றைம்பது ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன் மலையகத் தமிழர்கள்மீது இடம்பெற்ற கொடூர துரைத்தன அடக்குமுறையையும், ஆங்கிலத் துரைமார் தமிழ் பேச உபயோகித்த 'கூலித் தமிழ்' போதினிகளில் இந்த அடக்குமுறை எவ்வாறு வெளிப்படுகிறது என்பதையும் ஆராயும் கட்டுரைகள் இந்நூலில் இடம்பெற்றுள்ளன.
 * இந்திய வம்சாவளித் தமிழர்கள் மோசமாக நடத்தப்படுவதற்கு எதிராகக் கருமுத்து தியாகராசர் எழுப்பிய கண்டனங்கள் முதல்முறையாக இந்நூலில் பதிவுபெறுகின்றன.
 * மலையகத்தில் எழுந்த முதல் இரண்டு நாவல்கள் பற்றிய ஆய்வுகள் மலையக இலக்கியத்திற்கு வளம் சேர்ப்பவை.
 * அஞ்சுகம் என்ற கணிகையர்குலப் பெண் ஆளுமையை மலையகத்தின் முதல் பெண் புலமையாளராக இந்நூல் அடையாளப்படுத்துகிறது.
 * ஐரோப்பிய நூலகங்களில் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்ட விரிவான தேடல்கள் இந்நூல் ஆய்விற்குப் பலம் சேர்த்துள்ளன.


விரைவில் லண்டனிலும், தொடர்ந்து இலங்கை, ஐரோப்பா, கனடா போன்ற இடங்களிலும் நூல் வெளியீட்டு நிகழ்வுகள் இடம்பெறுமென அறிகிறேன்.

Sunday 19 April 2015

Peoples’ Alliance May Be Revived To Prop Up Rajapaksa

Peoples’ Alliance May Be Revived To Prop Up Rajapaksa

By P.K.Balachandran Published: 18th April 2015

COLOMBO: The Peoples’ Alliance (PA) which won all major elections in Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2001, is likely to be revived to prop up defeated Lankan President  Mahinda Rajapaksa, according to media reports.

The move to revive the PA stems from the conviction that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which is Rajapaksa’s party, will not put him up as its Prime Ministerial candidate in the
coming parliamentary elections. This is because there is no love lost between Maithripala Sirisena, the current chairman of the SLFP, and Rajapaksa, who Sirisena had defeated in the January 8 Presidential election.

A conglomerate of the  SLFP and left parties, the PA was put together in 1994 to take on the then entrenched United National Party (UNP). Though its place was taken by the United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in 2004-2005, the PA continued to officially exist with the “chair” as its election symbol. Its  General Secretary (former Prime Minister D.M.Jayaratne) and some of its constituents are now with the Rajapaksa faction.

It is clear that the SLFP is going to split on the Rajapaksa issue. Stung by the belligerence of the Rajapaksa faction, Sirisena told party MPs that those who do not want him to carry out his Presidential election pledges will not be given tickets in the coming parliamentary elections.

Top leaders of the SLFP want Sirisena to disengage himself from the UNP.  They have also said that they will not support the 19 th. Constitutional Amendment Bill (meant to depoliticize Lanka’s administration), unless Sirisena simultaneously brings a bill for electoral reforms. Voting on the 19 th  Amendment is fixed for April 21.

But Sirisena has made it clear that he cannot ditch the UNP, as he had won the Presidential election with UNP’s support. He also feels that electoral reforms cannot be carried out in a hurry. He has threatened to dissolve parliament if the 19 th. Amendment is not passed on April 21.

Sirisena is hopeful of getting a parliament that will back his agenda, despite the fact that his government’s lackluster performance thus far, is boosting Rajapaksa’s prospects.

NATO: Guardian of peace or bellicose bully?

Saturday 18 April 2015

Mahinda Rajapaksa prepares for political comeback!


Mahinda Rajapaksa prepares for political comeback in Sri Lanka
Former president who suffered surprise election defeat in January plans to stand in parliamentary polls, aides say
Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former president of Sri Lanka, is planning to stand in parliamentary polls to launch an attempt to return to power, aides have said.

The veteran politician, who suffered a surprise defeat in snap presidential polls he called in January this year, has been taking a break from politics and has yet to formally declare any campaign.

However, he has been meeting hundreds of supporters who visit his residence in the town of Hambantota, and travelling widely around Sri Lanka to see elected members of local and municipal authorities.

“You wait and see,” Rajapaksa said, when asked last week if he was a spent force. “I am yet to take a decision on CONTESTING, but if people request me, I can’t refuse.”

The victory of Maithripala Sirisena by six percentage points in a runoff vote on 8 January was welcomed by India and western nations including the US. Analysts had described the election as the most significant in the country for decades and a last chance for democracy.

Rajapaksa came to power in 2005, led the military to a bloody victory over violent separatists from the Tamil minority four years later and surfed a wave of popularity among the Sinhala majority TO WIN again in 2010. He then had the constitution changed to allow the third term he hoped to win in January’s poll.

However, allegations of corruption, violent intimidation of political opponents, attacks on journalists, growing resentment among Tamils and mounting sectarian violence led to concern at home and abroad.

Rajapaksa’s aides say that soon after the surprise defeat he was downcast. But they say he “picked up fast when he saw people coming to see him”.

“When he saw that he still had that following, he was back to his old self,” said one friend, whose relationship with Rajapaksa goes back more than 18 years.

Observers point out that Rajapaksa remains popular among his core Sinhala, rural, conservative Buddhist support base. He is also acknowledged to be an effective campaigner, working a crowd with avuncular ease.

“He wants the government to feel that he is its main threat, and he has succeeded in doing that. There is no opposition without Rajapaksa right now,” an aide said.

Three rallies have been organised in different parts of Sri Lanka to call for the ousted president to CONTEST the parliamentary polls.

Rajapaksa has blamed his defeat on a conspiracy involving Indian and western intelligence agencies.

The first step to a return to power would involve getting a nomination from his own Sri Lanka Freedom party (SLFP) to stand in parliamentary polls expected in June. The former president told the Guardian he was confident he would be wanted as a candidate.

“I am SLFPer, I have been a SLFPer all my life. Why should the party refuse me nominations? I plan to CONTEST from the SLFP. The fact that I am a SLFPer can not be ignored,” he said.

An alternative might be to join another party that appeals to his support base. “Rajapaksa will come from a platform that will CONTEST on a Sinhala nationalist agenda. That is where his power base is, these are the voters that never deserted him,” the aide said.

This will raise fears of increased tensions in what is an already polarised nation. Votes from the Tamil-dominated former warzone in the country’s north and from areas with large Muslim communities played a key role in Rajapaksa’s defeat. According to one report, Sirisena got nearly three-quarters of the vote in the Tamil stronghold of Kilinochchi.

In a speech this week, the new president called for unity. “Throughout history our strength as a nation has come from the mutual understanding and co-existence that made us rise together to defend our motherland,” Sirisena said.

However, Sirisena and the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, a veteran of Sri Lanka’s convoluted and bitter politics, face significant challenges. One problem is the instability of the ruling coalition. Essentially united only by a desire to oust Rajapaksa, the government needs to consolidate its hold in the national assembly at the coming elections.

Sirisena is trying to rebalance executive power by reinforcing Sri Lanka’s judiciary and parliament, while stripping the president’s office of the extensive powers accumulated under Rajapaksa. However, this will need new legislation and possibly a referendum.

There are also deep economic problems and the bruises of the 26-year war are still livid. In the closing phases of the conflict, thousands of Tamil civilians were killed in army bombardments and confused fighting with separatist extremists from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

According to Wickremasinghe, there are still more than 200 detainees loosely categorised as political prisoners in Sri Lankan jails.

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo-based think tank, said any decline in the new government’s popularity would open an opportunity for a comeback by the ousted president.

“As long as the government’s popularity keeps eroding, Rajapaksa becomes a factor, he becomes an obvious choice for disgruntled voters, especially from the majority Sinhala community,” he said.

Rajapaksa’s aide said the former president was in no hurry to mount his comeback bid. “He knows how to wait, he waited 35 years before he showed anyone he had presidential ambitions. Now he will wait till this government makes its moves,” he said.

Thursday 16 April 2015

ஆந்திர நிர்வாகத்தின் தமிழ்த் தொழிலாளர் படுகொலை- கோரப் புகைப்படக் காட்சிகள்









புகைப்படங்கள் நன்றி: இனந்தெரியாதோருக்கு ENB

ஆந்திர அரசின் தமிழகக் கூலித் தொழிலாளர் படுகொலையை எதிர்த்து கழகம் கண்டன ஆர்ப்பாட்டம்!

மிழகத்தைச் சேர்ந்த தொழிலாளர்கள் ஆந்திராவில் செம்மரம் வெட்டுகிறார்கள் என்று கூறி நூற்றுக்கணக்கானோரை ஆந்திரா போலீஸ் கைது செய்து சிறையில் அடைத்து வருகிறது. இந்நிலையில் இம்மாதம் 8ஆம் திகதியன்று ஆந்திராவின் சித்தூர் மாவட்டம் ஸ்ரீவாரிமெட்டு வனப்பகுதியில் உள்ள ஸ்ரீநிவாசமங்காபுரத்தில் தமிழக தொழிலாளர்கள் 200 பேர் செம்மரம் வெட்டுவதாக கூறி டிஐஜி காந்தராவ் தலைமையிலான `செம்மரக் கடத்தல் தடுப்புப் பிரிவு போலீசார்` அன்று காலை தேடுதல் நடவடிக்கை மேற்கொண்டனர். அப்போது தமிழக கூலித் தொழிலாளர்கள் மீது கண்மூடித்தனமாக துப்பாக்கிச் சூடு நடத்தி 20 தமிழ்த் தொழிலாளர்களைப் படுகொலை செய்துள்ளனர்.  மேலும் பல தொழிலாளர்கள் படுகாயமடைந்த நிலையில் மருத்துவமனைகளில் சேர்க்கப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.

இப்படு பாதகக் கொலையில்  பலியானோர் தமிழகத்தின் திருவண்ணாமலை மற்றும் வேலூர் மாவட்டங்களைச் சேர்ந்தவர்கள் ஆவர்.

இப்படுகொலை மிகக் கொடூரமான முறையில் நடத்தப்பட்டதற்கான ஆதாரங்கள் உள்ளன. 
மிக நெருக்கத்தில் வைத்து தானியங்கித் துப்பாக்கிகளால் ஆந்திர போலீஸார் சுட்டுள்ளதாக கூறப்படுகிறது. 
பலருக்கு நெற்றியில் குண்டு பாய்ந்துள்ளதாகவும் கூறப்படுகிறது


மக்கள் ஜனநாயக இளைஞர் கழகம் கண்டன ஆர்ப்பாட்டம்
ஆந்திர மாநில நிர்வாகத்தின் இந்த அடக்குமுறையை எதிர்த்து கழக முழக்கம் ஏந்திய பதாகை.


===================================================================
20 தமிழ்த் தொழிலாளர்கள் படுகொலையை கண்டித்து
மக்கள் ஜனநாயக இளைஞர் கழகம்
கண்டன ஆர்ப்பாட்டம் !
==============================================
ஆரூர் வட்டாட்சியர் அலுவலகம் எதிரில் ,ரௌண்டன பேருந்து நிறுத்தம் .
நாள் :20/04/2015 திங்கள் மாலை 4.00 p.m.
தலைமை : தோழர்  ஞானம் மாநில அமைப்பளர் ம ஜ இ க .
சிறப்புரை : தோழர்  மனோகரன் ம ஜ இ க சென்னை
நன்றியுரை ; தோழர் .மயகண்ணன்

தருமபுரி கிருஷ்ணகிரி மாவட்ட ம ஜ இ க அமைப்பாளர்.
=======================================================================

Putin annual Q&A session 2015

Chinese Naval Ships to Use Pakistan's Port After Colombo Snub

Colombo Port
Chinese Naval Ships to Use Pakistan's Port After Colombo Snub
World | Press Trust of India | Updated: April 15, 2015 23:27 IST

BEIJING:  Pakistan's Gwadar port which has been taken over by a Chinese firm could guarantee maintenance and supply for China's naval ships in the Indian Ocean after the new Sri Lankan government declined permission for Chinese vessels to dock in the country.

"The Gwadar port will also guarantee China's naval ships' maintenance and supply in the Indian Ocean. The move is widely seen as crucial for China, especially as it is unlikely that Sri Lanka will open its ports to Chinese naval ships," Zhao Gancheng, director of South Asia Studies at Shanghai Institute for International Studies told state-run Global Times.


The new Sri Lankan government headed by President Maithripala Srisena reversed his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa's policy of allowing Chinese submarines to dock in Colombo, following India's concerns.

Zhao said the port will serve as a major route to the Indian Ocean for Chinese goods, which will have far-reaching significance for China's Xinjiang region's economic development.

Xinjiang is planned to be connected through an economic corridor with Gwadar through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Chinese experts however warned of inherent risks about the project in view of militancy in the Balochistan region.

Experts cautioned about obstacles as the port area suffers from a lack of water resources, housing, transportation and other facilities to provide for a large workforce, the Global Times reported.

Wang Dehua, an expert with the Shanghai Municipal Center for International Studies, who has been visiting Gwadar Port since 2007, said that detailed plans on building highways, railways and pipelines are the second step.

"Building such infrastructure has inherent risks and difficulties, he said, due to the high mountain ranges and security issues caused by militants operating in the region.

These difficulties can be overcome, but may take time," he said.

The port will formally commence operations by a Chinese company this month which is projected as a key transportation hub of the planned China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Story First Published: April 15, 2015 - NDTV

US checkmates China with Modi and Sirisena

Ceylon today, 2015-04-16

US checkmates China with Modi and Sirisena

The government has used the US to influence the UN to postpone the probe report's publication until September, a mere 150 days away. The report will be made public irrespective of whether the government initiates its own domestic probe on par with global standards which meet UN specifications. Despite all the ballyhoo, MR knows that the west and Sirisena and company will in the final essay allow the UN to throw the BOOK at MR come September. Besides the anti-west foreign policy issue that created the conditions for the birth of the MS faction and MR's ouster from power, MR's survival, as he see it, leaves him no option but to wrest power by hook or by crook to be in power again as the ONLY OPTION available to him to ensure that he can call the cards when the UN report is made public. In MR's mind, he will concede that Sirisena is unlikely to anger the electorate by throwing him to the wolves. It could ricochet badly on him at election time.

 
The government has used the US to influence the UN to postpone the probe report's publication until September, a mere 150 days away. The report will be made public irrespective of whether the government initiates its own domestic probe on par with global standards which meet UN specifications. Despite all the ballyhoo, MR knows that the west and Sirisena and company will in the final essay allow the UN to throw the book at MR come September. Besides the anti-west foreign policy issue that created the conditions for the birth of the MS faction and MR's ouster from power, MR's survival, as he see it, leaves him no option but to wrest power by hook or by crook to be in power again as the only option available to him to ensure that he can call the cards when the UN report is made public. In MR's mind, he will concede that Sirisena is unlikely to anger the electorate by throwing him to the wolves. It could ricochet badly on him at election time.


MS persuaded the US to get the report postponed for no other reason than this. All he has to do to signal the UN to publish the report is to have Mangala Samaraweera take a call to the US. I am not brave enough to hazard a guess as to whether or not he can DEAL with the social pejoration it will generate. It can undo the steady inroads he is making into the hearts of the electorate that he is carefully cultivating.


There are unspoken fears known to Sirisena and Ranil who naturally would not want negative and highly disturbing details coming out in a UN probe. This is one of the main undercurrents inexorably pushing MR to make a bid for power again and equally powerfully pushing Sirisena to delay the probe report because it would lead to a huge groundswell of sympathy for MR that could translate into a massive vote for him as Premier in the general election. On the flip side, properly handled, the release of the report could be so manipulated. And timed that it could cast MR in very bad light and swing voter fervour against MR. Sirisena could be playing for time for that purpose and till then hold the domestic probe in abeyance. All I'm saying is that these are the factors which impact on the motives which drive MR, MS and Ranil to seek power at the coming general elections. The US and India would not want the report out for the same reason, while China will not trust Sirisena either way. All else in between with Sirisena will be aimed at gauging out how deep his link with the west goes before they make a decisive policy decision about him.


UN probe report

These facets in the background are what drive MR to want power again so that he has control if and when the UN probe report is released. It's imperative and that is why he has mounted a strong bid to return to power. He simply can't have CBK-Ranil-Sirisena handling a probe any less than he can afford to have the UN throw a probe report in his face. MR knows he now has to come out as a candidate of a new party and a coalition led by him. That's why I said the battle lines are drawn. They were drawn before the UPFA's 'MR FOR PM' demand was launched.


The Congress led administration's approach, that had none of Modi's stance, was seen by the west to be weak in the face of a China that was swiftly consolidating its hold in the Indian Ocean region via its ever increasing footprints all over Sri Lanka and more ominously, offshore too and in the Maldives. Under MR Sri Lanka was quickly becoming a Chinese satellite or slave State. Trends in India and Sri Lanka had to be arrested and reversed fast.

Which is why and how Sirisena came to power. Which is also how Modi came to power in India.

Modi's willingness to smile and shake China by the hand must never be interpreted to mean that he's forgotten what's between the lines in the India-US military/defence agreement. Such agreements are put in place and are primed to be ACTIVATED at a moment's notice when perceived military threats from a potential enemy force show signs of metamorphosing into rapid deployment forces, jets and submarines literally where your fishermen are fishing. Those Indian fishing trawlers, I can assure you, are doing a heck of a lot more than fishing. A trawler with anti-asdic technology on board can spot a sub, especially a nuclear sub, more than five kilometres away. When an Indian Admiral, a few years ago, took a speed boat ride around Trincomalee Harbour, shortly after explosions ripped out a secret truck load of Chinese explosives in Trincomalee, flattening the Police Station and killing some people, his experienced eye was looking for evidence even back then of Chinese subs deep down in the harbour... WHY? Compelling reasons why Modi's India will back the CBK/Sirisena/Ranil trio to the hilt!


All this puts the last presidential election and today's developments into some sort of logical perspective. We then understand better why Sirisena is playing for time before he and CBK are reasonably sure of victory before calling a general election. The MR UPFA faction can bay all day to the moon, but Sirisena will not call a general election until he is sure the electorate has swung away from MR to the new look SLFP. A revamped Central Committee and islandwide elections organizational structure has also to be in place before he calls a general election. The cleansing out of the CC has run into some flak, but the President seems to be able to respond in a manner that shows he has anticipated these minor hiccups and has contingency plans to retain his growing stranglehold on the emerging new SLFP. No matter what wishful thinkers contend, I find it difficult to see the sacked CC members making, at best, a temporary come back to the CBK/SIRISENA SLFP.

Split in SLFP

Changes in the SLFP 'administered' by Sirisena merely prove my prediction in last week's analysis of a huge split in the SLFP. What Sirisena and CBK are trying to do is to control that split to ensure that they inherit the biggest piece of the SLFP mirror when its shattered pieces fall apart. The vote on the CB Governor's issue proved tha I would not be surprised to see President MS tear up the 100-day programme, and postpone the dissolution of Parliament for June next year, consolidate in the electorate, precipitate the split on the SLFP, have Ranil make more inroads into floating votes and then call a general election. A split SLFP faction in Parliament backed by its leftist riot squad of Vasu, Wimal, Dinesh, Tissa Vitharana et all can at best rouse the rabble in some electorates to create riots here and there in desperate death struggles. Sirisena has been cheek by jowl with these characters in Parliament for decades. He knows what to expect and, I suspect, is more than a match for rabble rousers. And of course we all know who FINANCES these elements. And we also know that India wants the Port City Project out.

The scenario then seems poised to turn very ugly, very soon. Given the known qualities of the antagonists, one looks objectively at the unfolding realities and sees chaos, even anarchy. Violence, planned violence. The university students' protests were just a testing of the waters, a dry run.

The blurred battle lines are getting clearer by the day. It does not take an Einstein to tell you who's on the wrong side of the moral equation.

Tuesday 14 April 2015

Russia opens way to missile deliveries to Iran

World | Mon Apr 13, 2015 8:01pm BST Related: WORLD
Russia opens way to missile deliveries to Iran, starts oil-for-goods swap
MOSCOW | BY GABRIELA BACZYNSKA

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (L) talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as they meet during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Dushanbe September 12, 2014. REUTERS/Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin
(Reuters) - Russia paved the way on Monday for missile system deliveries to Iran and STARTED an oil-for-goods swap, signalling that Moscow may have a head-start in the race to benefit from an eventual lifting of sanctions on Tehran.

The moves come after world powers, including Russia, reached an interim DEAL with Iran this month on curbing its nuclear programme.

The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin signed a decree ending a self-imposed ban on delivering the S-300 anti-missile rocket system to Iran, removing a major irritant between the two countries after Moscow cancelled a corresponding contract in 2010 under pressure from the West.

A senior government official said separately that Russia has STARTED supplying grain, equipment and construction materials to Iran in exchange for crude oil under a barter DEAL.

 S-300 anti-missile rocket system
Sources told Reuters more than a year ago that a DEAL worth up to $20 billion was being discussed and would involve Russia buying up to 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil a day.

Officials from the two countries have issued contradictory statements since then on whether a DEAL has been signed, but Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday one was already being implemented.

"I wanted to draw your attention to the rolling out of the oil-for-goods DEAL, which is on a very significant scale," Ryabkov told a briefing with members of the upper house of parliament on the talks with Iran.

"In exchange for Iranian crude oil supplies, we are delivering certain products. This is not banned or limited under the current sanctions regime."

He declined to give further details. Russia's Agriculture Ministry declined comment and the Energy Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. There was no comment from Iran.

Iran is the third-largest buyer of Russian wheat, and Moscow and Tehran have been discussing the oil-for-goods barter DEAL for more than a year.

Russia hopes to reap economic and trade benefits if a final deal is concluded to build on the framework agreement reached in the Swiss city of Lausanne between Iran and Russia, the
United States, France, Britain, Germany and China.

They have until June 30 to WORK out a detailed technical agreement under which Iran would curb its nuclear programme and allow international control in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday raised concerns about the missile system sale with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

She said, however, that U.S. officials do not think Russia's actions will hurt unity between the major powers in the nuclear talks.

TWO TO TANGO

Lavrov said the agreement in Lausanne wiped out the need for Moscow's ban on the delivery of S-300 and that the system was defensive, hence would pose no threat to Iran's foe, Israel.

"As a result of suspending the contract, we did not receive major sums that we were due. We see no need to continue doing this given progress in talks on Iran's nuclear programme and the absolutely legitimate nature of the forthcoming deal," he said.

The United States and Israel had lobbied Russia to block the missile sale before it did so in 2010, saying the S-300 system could be used to shield Iran's nuclear facilities from possible FUTURE air strikes.

Leonid Ivashov, a retired Russian general who now heads the Moscow-based Centre for Geo-Political Analysis think-tank, said the move was part of a race for future contracts in Iran.

"If we now delay and leave Iran waiting, then tomorrow, when sanctions are fully lifted, Washington and its allies will get Iran's large market," RIA news agency quoted him as saying.

Ryabkov suggested Russia had high hopes that its steady support for Iran would pay off in energy cooperation once international sanctions against Tehran are lifted.

"It takes two to tango. We are ready to provide our services and I am sure they will be pretty advantageous compared to other countries," he said. "We never gave up on Iran in a difficult
situation ... Both for oil and gas, I think the prospects for our cooperation should not be underestimated."

He also reiterated Moscow's view that an arms embargo on Iran should be lifted once a final nuclear DEAL is sealed.

Sanctions have cut Iran's oil exports to about 1.1 million barrels per day from 2.5 million bpd in 2012. Analysts say Iran is unlikely to see a major boost in exports before next year.

One upper house lawmaker asked Ryabkov whether lifting sanctions on Tehran could undermine Russia's position on global energy MARKETS, including as the main gas supplier to Europe.

"I am not CONFIDENT as yet that the Iranian side would be ready to carry out supplies of natural gas from its fields quickly and in large quantities to Europe. This requires infrastructure that is difficult to build," he said.

(Additional reporting by Polina Devitt, Olesya Astakhova, Vladimir Soldatkin and Emily Stephenson Editing by Timothy Heritage, Angus MacSwan and James Dalgleish)

Monday 13 April 2015

மீளாத்துயரில் மீரியப் பெத்த!

இறுதிப் போர்ப் பெருந் திட்டம் எவ்வாறு தீட்டப்பட்டது?

ஏதிரிகள் எவ்வாறு எம்மைத் தோற்கடித்தனர்!
How did Sri Lanka succeed against what many considered the most innovative and dangerous insurgency force in the world,
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) 

==================================
How Sri Lanka Won the War
Lessons in strategy from an overlooked victory

By Peter Layton April 09, 2015

How to win a civil war in a globalized world where insurgents skillfully exploit offshore resources? With most conflicts now being such wars, this is a question many governments are trying to answer. Few succeed, with one major exception being Sri Lanka where, after 25 years of civil war the government decisively defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and created a peace that appears lasting. This victory stands in stark contrast to the conflicts fought by well-funded Western forces in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade. How did Sri Lanka succeed against what many considered the most innovative and dangerous insurgency force in the world? 

Three main areas stand out.


First, the strategic objective needs to be appropriate to the enemy being fought. For the first 22 years of the civil war the government’s strategy was to bring the LTTE to the negotiating table using military means. Indeed, this was the advice foreign experts gave as the best and only option. In 2006, just before the start of the conflict’s final phase, retired Indian Lieutenant General AS Kalkat in 2006 declared, 

“There is no armed resolution to the conflict. The Sri Lanka Army cannot win the war against the Lankan Tamil insurgents.”

Indeed, the LTTE entered negotiations five times, but talks always collapsed, leaving a seemingly stronger LTTE even better placed to defeat government forces. In mid-2006, sensing victory was in its grasp, the LTTE deliberately ended the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire and initiated the so-called Eelam War IV. In response, the Sri Lankan government finally decided to change its strategic objective, from negotiating with the LTTE to annihilating it.


To succeed, a strategy needs to take into account the adversary. In this case it needed to be relevant to the nature of the LTTE insurgency. Over the first 22 years of the civil war, the strategies of successive Sri Lankan governments did not fulfill this criterion. Eventually, in late 2005 a new government was elected that choose a different strategic objective that matched the LTTE’s principal weaknesses while negating their strengths.


The LTTE’s principal problem was its finite manpower base. Only 12 percent of Sri Lanka’s population were Lankan Tamils and of these it was believed that only some 300,000 actively supported the LTTE. Moreover, the LTTE’s legitimacy as an organization was declining. By 2006, the LTTE relied on conscription – not volunteers – to fill its ranks and many of these were children. At the operational level some seeming strengths could also be turned against the LTTE, including its rigid command structure, a preference for fighting conventional land battles, and a deep reliance on international support.


Grand Strategy


Second, success requires a grand strategy. A grand strategy defines the peace sought, intelligently combines diplomacy, economics, military actions, and information operations, and considers the development of the capabilities the nation needs to succeed. The new government decided not to continue with the narrowly focused military strategies that had failed its predecessors, but rather adopt a comprehensive whole-of-nation grand strategy to guide lower-level activities.


In the economic sphere, the new government decided to allocate some 4 percent of GDP to defense and increase the armed forces budget some 40 percent. This would significantly strain the nation’s limited fiscal resources so annual grants and loans of some $1 billion were sought from China to ease the burden. Other forms of financial assistance, including lines of credit for oil and arms purchases, were provided by Iran, Libya, Russia and Pakistan.


Diplomatically, the government took steps to isolate the LTTE, which received some 60 percent of its funding and most of its military equipment from offshore. This succeeded and over time the group was banned in some 32 countries. Importantly, a close working relationship was formed with India, the only country able to meaningfully interfere with the new government’s grand strategy. The U.S. in the post-9/11 counter terrorism era also proved receptive to the government’s intentions of destroying the world’s premier suicide bomber force. America assisted by disrupting LTTE offshore military equipment procurement, sharing intelligence, providing a Coast Guard vessel, and supplying an important national naval command and control system. Canada and the European Union also came on board by outlawing the LTTE’s funding networks in their countries, severely impacting the group’s funding base.


Internally, the government set out to gain the active support of the public. By 2006 many Sri Lankans were war weary and doubted the new government’s abilities to achieve a victory no one else could. To win popular support the government realized that development activities had to be continued, not stopped while the war was fought. Moreover, various national schemes addressing poverty needed to be sustained, a prominent example being the poor farmer fertilizer subsidy scheme. These measures made financing the war very difficult and foreign financial support important, but were essential to convincing the people that there was a peace worth fighting for. The measures worked. Before 2005, the Army had difficulty recruiting 3,000 soldiers annually; by late 2008, the Army was recruiting 3,000 soldiers a month.


The increased budgets and popular support allowed the Sri Lankan armed forces to grow significantly. The Army in particular was expanded, growing from some 120,000 personnel in 2005 to more than 200,000 by 2009.


Astute Tactics


Third, to meet the ends that the grand strategy seeks, the focus of the lower-level, subordinate military strategy needed to be exploiting the enemy’s weaknesses while countering its strengths. 


The LTTE had limited numbers of soldiers, fielding only some 20,000-30,000, and with astute tactics could be overwhelmed. In this regard, the government forces had already won a major success before Eelam War IV started in mid-2006.


In late 2004, a senior LTTE military commander, Colonel Karuna, defected, bringing with him some 6,000 LTTE cadres and seriously damaging the LTTE’s support base in Eastern Sri Lankan. The mass defection provided crucial intelligence that offered deep insights into the LTTE as a fighting organization. Crucially, for the first time, the government intelligence agencies now had Lankan Tamils willing to return to LTTE-held areas, collect information, and report back. The scale of the defection also clearly showed that the legitimacy of the LTTE was waning.


At the start of Eelam War IV, the LTTE were able to operate throughout the country. There were no safe rear areas as high-profile suicide attacks on the foreign minister, defense secretary, the Pakistani high commissioner and the army chief underlined. 


This capability was countered by using the enlarged armed forces and police on internal security tasks, and by developing a Civil Defence Force of armed villagers. Operations were also conducted to find and destroy LTTE terrorist cells operating within the capital and some large towns. This defense-in-depth neutralized the LTTE’s well-proven ability to undertake both leadership decapitation strikes and terrorist attacks on vulnerable civilian targets.


These defensive measures in the south and the west of the country allowed the Sri Lankan military strategy in the north and east to be enemy-focused rather than population-centric. The primary aim there was to attack the LTTE and force them onto the defensive rather than try to protect the population from the LTTE – the conventional Western doctrine. The areas under LTTE control were accordingly attacked in multiple simultaneous operations to confuse, overload, tie down and thin out the defenders. Tactical advantage was taken of the Army’s new much greater numbers.


In these operations, small, well-trained, highly-mobile groups proved key. These groups infiltrated behind the LTTE’s front lines attacking high-value targets, providing real-time intelligence and disrupting LTTE lines of resupply and communication. 


Groups down to section level were trained and authorized to call in precision air, artillery and mortar attacks on defending LTTE units. The combination of frontal and in-depth assaults meant that the LTTE forces lost their freedom of maneuver, were pinned down, and could be defeated in detail.


The small groups included Special Forces operating deep and a distinct Sri Lankan innovation: large numbers of well-trained Special Infantry Operations Teams (SIOT) operating closer. The considerably expanded 10,000 strong Special Forces proved highly capable in attacking LTTE military leadership targets, removing very experienced commanders when they were most needed and causing considerable disruption to the inflexible hierarchical command system. Of the SIOTs, Army Chief General Fonseka, who introduced the concept, notes that: 

“we also fought with four-man teams… trained to operate deep in the jungle…. be self-reliant and operate independently. So a battalion had large numbers of four-man groups that allowed us to operate from wider fronts.”
 When Eelam War IV started there were 1500 SIOT trained troops; by 2008 there were more than 30,000.

Learning Organization


With enhanced training in complex jungle fighting operations, Sri Lankan soldiers generally became more capable, more professional, and more confident. The Army could now undertake increasingly difficult tasks day or night while maintaining a high 

tempo. The Army had became a ‘learning organization’ that embraced tactical level initiatives and innovations.

The LTTE was unique amongst global insurgency groups in also having a capable navy that conducted two main tasks: interdiction of government coastal shipping and logistic sea transport.


For interdiction operations the LTTE developed two classes of small, fast boats: fiberglass-hulled, attack craft armed with machine guns and grenade launchers, and low-profile, armored suicide boats fitted with contact-fused, large explosive charges. In 

Eelam War IV, sizeable clusters of some 30 attack craft and 8-10 suicide craft operated as swarms, mingling with local trawler fleets to make defense difficult. These were eventually defeated by even larger counter-swarms of 60-70 government fast attack craft that used targeting information from some 20 shore-based coastal radars coordinated through the command and control system the U.S. had provided.

For sea transport operations the LTTE used eleven large cargo ships that would pick up military equipment purchased from around the globe, station themselves beyond the Navy’s reach some 2,000 kms from Sri Lanka and then dash in close to the coast and quickly offload to waiting LTTE trawlers. In Eelam War IV though, the Navy used three recently acquired, second-hand offshore patrol vessels (including the donated ex-U.S. Coast Guard Cutter) combined with innovative tactics and  intelligence support from India and the U.S. to strike at the LTTE’s transport ships. The last ship was sunk in late 2007 more than 3,000 km from Sri Lanka and close to Australia’s Cocos Islands.


The combination of the three factors of adopting a strategic objective matched to the adversary, using a grand strategy that focused the whole-of-the-nation on this objective, and adopting an optimized, subordinate military strategy proved devastating. 


The LTTE was completely destroyed. The government proved able to change its strategies in response to continuing failure and win, whereas the LTTE doggedly stuck to its previously successful formula and lost.


Some have criticized the Sri Lankan victory as only being possible because the government disregarded civilian casualties and used military force bluntly and brutally. This view correctly emphasizes that wars are by their nature cruel and violent and should not be entered into or continued lightly. However, it unhelpfully neglects critical factors and explains little. As this article has discussed, victory came to the side with the most successful strategies – even if it took the government more than 22 years to find them.


In this regard, a comparison with the two other Western-led counter insurgency wars of the period comparing soldiers and civilians killed is instructive:


Breakdown of Overall Deaths in the Conflict




These were three different civil wars that each featured counterinsurgency strategies that progressively evolved. All involved significant civilian casualties with Iraq markedly the worse with 61 percent of those killed being civilians and Afghanistan the best at 25 percent. The Sri Lankan war with 34 percent of those killed overall being civilians, and thus broadly comparable to Afghanistan, then seems somewhat unremarkable except that the Sri Lankan war was decisively won. In Iraq and Afghanistan there was no victory, there remains no peace and people continue to die.


In Sri Lanka the guns fell silent in 2009, there is 7 percent GDP growth, low unemployment, and steadily rising per capita incomes. Even an economically poor country it seems can win the peace in a civil war. The key is to focus on getting the strategy right.



Peter Layton has considerable defense experience and a doctorate in grand strategy.


Peter Layton

Peter Layton

Peter Layton is a doctoral candidate at the UNSW researching conceptual frameworks to assist policymakers when formulating grand strategies.  As part of this he recently completed a Fellowship at the European University Institute in Italy. A retired RAAFGroup Captain, Peter has extensive experience in force structure development and taught national security strategy at the US National Defense University.  He has written extensively on defence and security matters, and was awarded the US Exceptional Public Service medal for force structure planning work. In 2006, he won the RUSI Trench Gascoigne Essay prize for original writing on contemporary issues of defense and international security.
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பிற்குறிப்பு: இக்கட்டுரை தோல்வியில் இருந்தும், எதிரிகளிடமிருந்தும் படிப்பினை பெறும் நோக்கில் பிரசுரிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.ENB Admin
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Sunday 12 April 2015

எதிர்க்கட்சி நாற்காலிக்கு வாலாட்டும் நாய்க் கூட்டமைப்பு


எதிர்க்கட்சித் தலைவர் பதவி தமிழரசுக்கட்சிக்கே வழங்கப்பட வேண்டும்
news

எதிர்க்கட்சித் தலைவர் பதவி இலங்கை தமிழரசுக் கட்சிக்கு வழங்கப்பட வேண்டுமெனத் தெரிவித்து, சபாநாயகரிடம் கடிதமொன்று இன்று கையளிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

இலங்கை தமிழரசுக் கட்சியின் பொதுச் செயலாளர் கே. துரைராஜசிங்கம் மற்றும் தமிழ்த் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பின் நாடாளுமன்றக் குழுத்தலைவர் இரா. சம்பந்தன் ஆகியோரது கையொப்பத்துடன் இந்தக் கடிதம் கையளிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

ஐக்கிய மக்கள் சுதந்திரக் கூட்டமைப்பு மற்றும் ஐக்கிய தேசியக் கட்சிக்கு அடுத்தபடியாக நாடாளுமன்றத்தில் அதிக ஆசனங்களைக் கொண்ட இலங்கைத் தமிழரசுக் கட்சிக்கே எதிர்க்கட்சித் தலைவர் பதவி வழங்கப்பட வேண்டுமென இந்தக் கடிதத்தின் ஊடாக வலியுறுத்தப்பட்டுள்ளமை குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.

AJ EMPIRE: US - CUBA Relations

``குடும்பம் பலமானால் அமெரிக்கா பலமாகும்`..ஹில்லரியின் பதவி முழக்கம்!




Clinton's 2016 White House launch contrasts with her 2008 bid
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON | BY JONATHAN ALLEN AND JOHN WHITESIDES

(Reuters) - Hillary Clinton cast herself as a champion for everyday Americans on Sunday, kicking off her long-awaited second run for the White House with a vow to fight for a level playing field for those recovering from tough economic times.

Clinton, who begins the 2016 presidential race as the commanding Democratic front runner, entered the fray with a flurry of video, email and social media announcements that indicated she had absorbed some of the lessons of her painful 2008 loss and would not take anything for granted this time.

When she lost the Democratic nominating battle to Barack Obama, her campaign was heavily criticized for conveying a sense of arrogance and entitlement, and for being out of touch with the party's progressive wing.

This time, the video launching her campaign portrayed her as a warmer, more empathetic figure and laid the groundwork for a more populist economic agenda.

Eight years ago, her launch message was "I'm in it TO WIN." On Sunday, she shifted the attention to voters, declaring on her new website, "Everyday Americans need a champion. I want to be that champion."

Her roll-out included a sophisticated use of social media, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube - a contrast to her last campaign which was seen as less adept than Obama's at using technology to convey messages.

But showing a more down-to-earth side while connecting with ordinary voters will be a challenge for Clinton, one of the most famous figures in the United States after decades as the wife of former President Bill Clinton, a U.S. senator and secretary of state. Indeed, her launch drew praise from French and German government ministers.

While Clinton enters the race as prohibitive favorite to be her party's presidential nominee, a crowd of potential candidates are vying for the Republican nomination.

Clinton's campaign will be based around her plans to address economic inequality and will tout the historic nature of her effort to become the first woman U.S. president, aides said.

In announcing her presidential bid in 2007, Clinton spoke to the camera alone while sitting on a couch and asked voters to join her later for a series of Web CHATS.

This time, her video featured a mix of Americans talking about their futures and their economic troubles, along with images of Clinton in listening mode and only a small snippet of her speaking.

Her announcements featured strong words but no specific policy proposals about the struggles of working Americans and the need for economic equality. That included a shot at executive salaries that reflected populist rhetoric to a degree that could raise alarm among her Wall Street backers.

"Families have fought their way back from tough economic times. But it's not enough - not when the average CEO makes about 300 times what the average worker makes," Clinton said in an email to supporters.

One analyst noted the picture of Clinton on her launch website, holding a paper coffee cup and talking to a gray-haired man and woman, showed her appreciation for one set of voters.

"Having your maiden voyage launched with senior citizens may not look like the future but it’s a core constituency," said Linda Fowler, a political scientist at Dartmouth University.

Aides have said Clinton's campaign schedule will feature plenty of smaller events where she can listen to voters. She will visit Iowa, which holds the kickoff contest in the nominating process early in 2016, this week on a "listening tour." It will include a roundtable discussion with students and educators on Tuesday and SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS on Wednesday.

"I'm going to work my heart out to earn every single vote, because I know it's your time," Clinton said in her email to supporters. She mentioned her father's small business, her mother's "tough childhood" and her baby granddaughter.

Opinion polls show Clinton has a huge lead over potential Democratic rivals, and few are expected to enter the race. A Reuters-Ipsos tracking poll shows Clinton backed by more than 60 percent of Democrats.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a favorite of the party's liberal wing who says she is not running, is a distant second at 18 percent. So far, only former Senator Jim Webb of Virginia and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who both languish in single digits in polls, are the only Democrats to make moves toward a candidacy.

PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES

Even before Clinton entered the race, potential Republican opponents took swings at her.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush criticized her guidance of U.S. foreign policy as secretary of state.

"We must do better than the Obama-Clinton foreign policy that has damaged relationships with our allies and emboldened our enemies," Bush said in a video released by the political action committee Right to Rise.

Many Democrats have been waiting for Clinton to get back into the White House fight since the day in June 2008 when she pulled out of her primary battle against Obama with an expression of regret that she could not crack "that highest and hardest glass ceiling this time."

But Clinton still has to convince some liberals that she is the best candidate to tackle issues like income inequality and the power of Wall Street banks. Some liberal groups are pushing Warren, who has vocally criticized some Wall Street practices, to challenge Clinton.

The Clinton campaign's FINANCE chair, Dennis Cheng, emailed donors and bundlers on Sunday telling them to expect an email message from Clinton herself explaining her vision for the campaign and the presidency.

(Additional reporting by Emily Flitter, Lisa Lambert, Amanda Becker, Elizabeth Dilts and Howard Schneider; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Ross Colvin and Frances Kerry)

Monday 6 April 2015

ஆலயத்திற்கு சென்ற அனந்தியை திருப்பி அநுப்பிய ``புதிய அரசுப்`` படையினர்!


பலாலி கிழக்கு இராஜேஸ்வரி அம்மன் ஆலயத்திற்கு சென்ற அனந்தி சசிதரன் படையினரால் திருப்பி அனுப்பப்பட்டார்

06 ஏப்ரல் 2015
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குளோபல் தமிழ்ச் செய்தியாளர் யாழ்ப்பாணம்:-

பலாலி கிழக்கு இராஜேஸ்வரி அம்மன் ஆலயத்திற்கு சென்ற அனந்தி சசிதரன் படையினரால் திருப்பி அனுப்பப்பட்டார்

பலாலி உயர்பாதுகாப்பு வலயத்தினுள் அமைந்திருக்கும் பலாலி கிழக்கு இராஜேஸ்வரி அம்மன் ஆலயத்திற்கு பங்குனி திங்கள் நிகழ்வினை முன்னிட்டு வழிபடச் சென்றிருந்த வடமாகாணசபை உறுப்பினர் அனந்தி சசிதரன் திருப்பி அனுப்பப்பட்டுள்ளார்.

படையினரது ஆக்கிரமிப்பில் இருக்கும் உட்பகுதிகளது செழிப்பு தொடர்பான தகவல்கள் மற்றும் புகைப்படங்கள் வெளிவருவதை தடுக்கவே தடை விதிக்கப்பட்டிருக்கலாம் என நம்பப்படுகின்றது.

முன்னதாக இன்றைய தினம் பங்குனி திங்கள் நிகழ்வினை முன்னிட்டு பக்தர்களை உள்ளே செல்ல அனுமதிப்பதாக படைத்தரப்பு அறிவித்திருந்தது. இதற்கு முன்னரும் பக்தர்களில் ஒரு பகுதியினரை அமைச்சர் விஜயகலா மகேஸ்வரன் அழைத்து சென்றிருந்த நிலையில் அங்கு அமைந்திருந்த மாட்டுப் பண்ணைகள் போன்றவை தொடர்பில் தகவல்கள் வெளிவந்திருந்தது.

இந்நிலையில் தான் பிறந்த பலாலி கிழக்கில் அமைந்துள்ள இராஜேஸ்வரி அம்மன் ஆலயத்திற்கு பங்குனி திங்கள் நிகழ்வினை முன்னிட்டு வழிபடச் சென்றிருந்த வடமாகாணசபை உறுப்பினர் அனந்தி சசிதரனை படையினர் இன்று திருப்பி அனுப்பியுள்ளனர்.

முதலில் அவரது கைத்தொலைபேசி மற்றும் புகைப்படக் கருவிகளை கையளித்துவிட்டு உள்ளே செல்லுமாறு படையினர் அறிவுறுத்தி உள்ளனர். எனினும் தான் ஒரு மாகாணசபை உறுப்பினரெனவும் தனது கைத் தொலைபேசியினையாவது கொண்டு செல்ல அனுமதிக்குமாறும் அனந்தி கோரியுள்ளார்.

இதனையடுத்து எழுந்த முரண்பாட்டை அடுத்து அவரை உள்ளே செல்ல படையினர் அனுமதித்திருக்கவில்லை. இதனிடையே அவர் பயணித்த ஒட்டோ வாகனத்தை படையினர் சுற்றிவளைத்துக் கொண்டதாகவும் எனினும் இராணுவப் பொலிஸார் தலையிட்டு அவரை வெளியேற அனுமதித்ததாகவும் தெரியவருகின்றது.

பா.ஜ.க நில அபகரிப்பை எதிர்த்த கழகச் சுவரொட்டி


WAR CRIME:US to wait until September


“Sometimes it is better to walk steady, than  run quickly and stumble,”

< US Assistant Secretary on Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Tom Malinowski


UN ‘War Crimes’ probe:
US to wait until September
by Dilrukshi Handunnetti

The United States will not prejudge but wait until September when the differed human rights report on Sri Lanka is placed before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to adopt a stance of supporting a UNHRC-driven initiative or a bilateral mechanism, visiting US Assistant Secretary on Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Tom Malinowski, said yesterday.

Malinowski said: “ What happens in September and beyond is still to be determined. The Sir Lankan Government has promised a credible domestic process to inquire into the rights abuses that took place during the final phase of the war, which is supported by the Sri Lankan people.”

The US welcomed the positive steps taken by the governed but more important work remains to be done. The Untied States looks forward to partnering Sri Lanka’s government and people to support that work,” he added. When questioned whether the US identified anything tangible beyond the change of a government, Malinowski said: “It is not just a change of government. It is a change in commitment and direction.

Problems are being acknowledged and positive partnerships are being formed. Some of the conversations we had during this visit would not have been possible a year ago with high levels
of self censorship.”

He added that Sri Lanka’s was an unfinished process but it had been just three months for the new government in office. “Sometimes it is better to walk steady than than run quickly and stumble,” he said.
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ஆக மூன்றே மாதத்தில் ஆட்சிக்கவிழ்ப்பு நடத்திய அமெரிக்காவே, காலம் தாழ்த்தி இனப்படுகொலையை மூடி மறைக்காதே! 
தேசங்களை அபகரிப்பவனுக்கு இவ்வளவு அவசரம் என்றால், தேசத்தை இழந்தவருக்கு எவ்வளவு அவசரம் இருக்கும்!
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Acknowleding that some of the issues faced by the population in the North in particular, remained unresolved, he said: “The twin issues of missing persons and political prisoners are extremely important for the people there. The government appears to be on the right path but understanding
that families need closure, these twin issues must be addressed urgently. They need not wait anymore,” he said.

Malinowski said: “ What happens in September and beyond is still to be determined. The Sir Lankan Government has promised a credible domestic process to inquire into the rights abuses that took place during the final phase of the war, which is supported by the Sri Lankan people.”

The US welcomed the positive steps taken by the governed but more important work remains to be done. The Untied States looks forward to partnering Sri Lanka’s government and people to support that work,” he added.

When questioned whether the US identified anything tangible beyond the change of a government, Malinowski said: “It is not just a change of government. It is a change in commitment and direction. Problems are being acknowledged and positive partnerships are being formed. Some of the conversations we had during this visit would not have been possible a year ago with high levels of self censorship.”

He added that Sri Lanka’s was an unfinished process but it had been just three months for the new government in office. “Sometimes it is better to walk steady than than run quickly and stumble,” he said.

Acknowleding that some of the issues faced by the population in the North in particular, remained unresolved, he said: “The twin issues of missing persons and political prisoners are extremely important for the people there.

The government appears to be on the right path but understanding that families need closure, these twin issues must be addressed urgently. They need not wait anymore,” he said.

Malinowski also said it was important to consider that ‘something’ had begun.

“Its heartening. This is what the people of Sri Lanka wanted. Its not the international community’s will but the people’s will that brought in democratic transformations to the island.”

The visiting envoy noted that Sri Lanka was at a pivotal moment in its history where there is a genuine opportunity for reconciliation, justice and true peace.

This will also require, looking backward to acknowledge the suffering of the innocent and ACCOUNT for the wrongdoing of the guilty on every side, he said, adding that confidence
building measures such as the returning of land to civilians in the North and justice for families of the disappeared add value to a process.

“What I realise is that impunity is not a concern for a particular community but for all communities.

These issues have come to matter for all the communities here and that is unifying,” he said.

Malinowski added: “I was struck by how all Sri Lankans, not just particular communities or groups, seek answers to various issues.

It is clearly not the interest of one group or a community but all are interested in resolving issues and moving on.

They feel they would benefit from having a government that is more ACCOUNTABLE and transparent, with less impunity and corruption, together with more opportunity and inclusion.”

Referring to his visit to Aluthgama where communal clashes took place in 2014, the US Under Secretary said, the local people expressed “cautious OPTIMISM” that things would improve, adding: “Nothing can be bad as politicians exploiting religion to serve their interests.”

Source: Sunday Obsever LK , சுவரொட்டி ENB

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