Introduction to the Panel:
Ken Kuper, FITE Club
Victoria-Lola Leon Guererro, Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice
Abacca Anjain-Maddison, Former Rongelap Senator, Marshall Islands
Kyle Kajihiro, Hawai’i Peace and Justice and DMZ-Hawai’i / Aloha ‘Aina
Panel Discussion and Question and Answer
NATIVE VOICES #3: 11/9/11, 7pm, Halau O Haumea, Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies.
DEMILITARIZING THE PACIFIC: a roundtable featuring scholars & activists from HAWAII & GUAHAN, including JULIAN AGUON, LISA NATIVIDAD, TY KAWIKA TENGAN, TERRI KEKOʻOLANI, & KALEIKOA KAʻEO. Hosted by CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ.
Activists from Hawai’i island issued an appeal for solidarity in the face of a massive military expansion planned for Pohakuloa. Please send solidarity statements to ja@interpac.net. Mahalo!
>><<
For Public Release concerning U.S. military training at Pohakuloa
See list of individual signers below
Further contact: Jim Albertini 966-7622
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622. Email ja@interpac.net http://www.malu-aina.org
We (the undersigned) appeal to all Hawaii peace, justice, environment, and independence activists, to the general public, and to local and state government officials. We ask that you stand in solidarity with us on Moku O Keawe in resistance to major U.S. military expansion at the 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area, and now even helicopter assault training for Afghanistan on our sacred mountains –Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.
We congratulate the Malama Makua community organization for its victory in stopping all military live fire in Makua Valley on Oahu. But Makua is still held hostage by the military and used to train for ongoing U.S. wars of aggression.
We are opposed to pushing U.S. desecration and contamination from one site to another. We want an end to U.S. occupation in Hawaii and the restoration of the Hawaii nation. We want the U.S. to stop bombing Hawaii and clean up its opala. We want to put an end to U.S. desecration and contamination of all sacred cultural sites. We do not want the U.S. training anywhere to do to others what the U.S. has already done to Hawaii: overthrow and occupy its government and nation, desecrate its sacred sites, and contaminate its air, land, water, people, plants, and animals with military toxins.
Restore the Hawaii Nation!
End U.S. Terrorism!
Military Clean-Up NOT Build Up!
Stop all the Wars! End all Occupations!
Signers
Isaac Harp, Kelii “Skippy” Ioane, Hanalei Fergerstrom,
Kihei Soli Niheu, Ali`i Sir Kaliko Kanaele, Calvin Kaleiwahea,
Lloyd Buell, Danny Li, Stephen Paulmier, Ronald Fujiyoshi,
Moanikeala Akaka, Tomas Belsky,
Samuel Kaleleiki, Jim Albertini
The AP reported:
Speaking on a hillside terrace at the East-West Center on the campus of the University of Hawaii, Clinton was met upon arrival by a few dozen protesters lining the street and shouting “End the wars!” and hoisting signs demanding that the U.S. withdraw its military forces from Okinawa. None attended the speech.
>><<
ROBERT BURNS
The Associated Press
HONOLULU – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday the Obama administration feels assured of Japan’s commitment to a continuing security alliance with the United States, even as Tokyo weighs abandoning a 2006 deal on a U.S. Marine air base.
“The Japanese government has explained the process they are pursuing to reach a resolution” on relocating the Futenma air station, “and we respect that,” she told a news conference after meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada at a Honolulu hotel.
Clinton apparently received no explicit promise from Okada that Japan would not force Futenma off its territory entirely. The U.S. military views Futenma as critical to its strategy for defending not only Japan but also reinforcing allied forces in the event of war on the Korean peninsula.
Okada told reporters that he reiterated his government’s pledge to reach a decision on relocation of Futenma by May. He said Tokyo would determine the future of the air station in a way that would have “minimal impact on the U.S.-Japan alliance.”
In a nod to Japanese sensitivities, Clinton said it was important for the U.S. to maintain its role in contributing to stability in the Asia-Pacific region while keeping in mind the need to reduce the impact of jet noise and other inconveniences to local communities near U.S. bases.
Clinton also delivered a speech designed to clarify the Obama administration’s views on modernizing the groupings of Asian and Pacific nations in ways that would enhance their cooperation on a wide range of issues, including regional security, trade and the environment.
Speaking on a hillside terrace at the East-West Center on the campus of the University of Hawaii, Clinton was met upon arrival by a few dozen protesters lining the street and shouting “End the wars!” and hoisting signs demanding that the U.S. withdraw its military forces from Okinawa. None attended the speech.
Clinton stressed that the first U.S. priority in the Asia-Pacific is to maintain the country-to-country alliances it already has, while exploring ways in which the United States can play a role in any new or reconfigured associations.
“The ultimate purpose of our cooperation should be to dispel suspicions that still exist as artifacts of the region’s turbulent past,” she said.
No country, including the U.S., should dominate in the region, she said. But the role of the United States is irreplaceable, she added.
“We can provide resources and facilitate cooperation in ways that other regional actors cannot replicate, or in some cases are not trusted to do.”
She described the region as a source of potential instability.
“Asia is home not only to rising powers, but also to isolated regimes; not only to long-standing challenges, but also unprecedented threats,” she said.
For decades the main U.S. ties to the Asia-Pacific region have been through security and trade agreements with individual countries, such as the 50-year-old security treaty with Japan that allows the basing of U.S. forces on Japanese territory.
The case of Futenma air station, on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, has become particularly sensitive. That it must be moved is not in dispute , the two countries signed a deal in 2006 to relocate it on the island. The problem is where to put it. And the U.S. position is that it cannot be shut down until a replacement is established elsewhere on Okinawa , an idea most Okinawans oppose.
A new left-leaning Japanese government that took office in September is reassessing the U.S.-Japan alliance.
It also is investigating agreements long hidden in government files that allowed nuclear-armed U.S. warships to enter Japanese ports, violating a hallowed anti-nuclear principle of postwar Japan. The findings are due out this month.
At her news conference with Okada, Clinton played down the friction over Futenma, stressing the many other areas of long-standing cooperation between the two countries. And she made clear that satisfying U.S. needs for the Marine base is equally in Japan’s own interest.
“We look to our Japanese allies and friends to follow through on their commitments, including on Futenma,” she said. “I know Japan understands and agrees that our security alliance is fundamental to the future of Japan and the region.”
The Hawaiian setting for Tuesday’s meeting, in the 50th year of the U.S.-Japan defense alliance, inevitably stirred memories of darker times. After her session with Okada, Clinton visited the World War II memorial to the sunken USS Arizona, which still lies in Pearl Harbor with its dead. She chatted briefly with two survivors and laid a wreath before a wall containing names of those who died on the ship.
Nearly 2,400 Americans were killed and almost 1,180 injured when Japanese fighters bombed and sank 12 naval vessels and heavily damaged nine others on Dec. 7, 1941. The Arizona, which sank in less than nine minutes after an armor-piercing bomb breached its deck and exploded in the ship’s ammunition magazine, lost 1,177 sailors and Marines. About 340 of its crew members survived.
JUNE 19, 2009
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is moving ground-to-air missile defenses to Hawaii as tensions escalate between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea’s recent moves to restart its nuclear-weapon program and resume test-firing long-range missiles.
In anticipation of a North Korean missile test, the U.S. is positioning off Hawaii a floating radar, like this one shown in a 2005 Boeing photo.
Associated Press
Mr. Gates told reporters that the U.S. is positioning a sophisticated floating radar array in the ocean around Hawaii to track an incoming missile. The U.S. is also deploying missile-defense weapons to Hawaii that would theoretically be capable of shooting down a North Korean missile, should such an order be given, he said.
“We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile…in the direction of Hawaii,” Mr. Gates said. “We are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect American territory.”
In another sign of America’s mounting concern about North Korea, a senior defense official said the U.S. is tracking a North Korean vessel, the Kang Nam, suspected of carrying weapons banned by a recent United Nations resolution.
The U.S. moves come as strains intensify between the U.S. and North Korea. Earlier this year, Pyongyang test-fired a missile that flew over Japan before crashing into the Pacific Ocean. On May 25, Pyongyang detonated a nuclear device at a test site near its border with China, drawing rare rebukes from Moscow and Beijing.
President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met earlier this week at the White House and agreed to launch a new effort to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal. In a joint statement, the Obama administration also agreed to maintain the longstanding U.S. vow to defend South Korea from a North Korean attack.
Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper reported Thursday that North Korea would launch a long-range Taepodong-2 missile at Hawaii from the Dongchang-ni site on the country’s northwestern coast on or close to July 4. In his comments to reporters, Mr. Gates didn’t directly address the Japanese report or say whether the U.S. had evidence that North Korea was preparing for a launch.
Some U.S. officials have said satellite imagery shows activity at a North Korea testing facility that has been used in the past to launch long-range missiles. On a trip to Manila earlier this month, Mr. Gates said the U.S. had “seen some signs” that North Korea was preparing to launch a long-range missile. But he cautioned, that “at this point, its not clear what they’re going to do.”
The stakes would be high for both North Korea and the U.S. in the event of a missile launch.
North Korea would be attempting to demonstrate that it was capable of striking the U.S., but many U.S. defense officials are highly skeptical that North Korea has a missile capable of reaching Hawaii, which is more than 4,500 miles away from North Korea.
North Korean long-range missiles have failed three previous tests in the past 11 years. In the most notable North Korean misfire, a Taepodong-2 missile that Pyongyang launched on July 4, 2006, imploded less than 35 seconds after taking off.
The Obama administration, meanwhile, would have to choose whether to attempt to shoot down the missile, a technically complicated procedure with no guarantee of success. An American failure would embarrass Washington, embolden Pyongyang and potentially encourage Asian allies like Japan to take stronger measures of their own against North Korea.
Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, who as Hawaii’s adjutant general directs the state’s Army and Air National Guard, said the military “certainly has enough assets to protect the state of Hawaii.”
Last week, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution expanding sanctions and inspections against North Korea in response to the nuclear test. The resolution bars North Korea from exporting a wide range of weaponry, and “calls upon” all U.N. states to search North Korean vessels, with their consent, for nuclear-related material and other contraband.
The senior defense official said the U.S. would seek to have the North Korean ship suspected of carrying banned arms searched before it reaches its final destination, believed to be Singapore. The ship left North Korea on Wednesday. The official said U.S. or allied personnel wouldn’t board the ship by force and would search the ship only with the permission of its crew.
North Korea has said it would view any efforts at interdiction as an act of war, and some U.S. officials worry North Korean vessels would use force to prevent U.S., Japanese or South Korean personnel from searching their ships, potentially sparking an armed confrontation.
More broadly, the Obama administration has recently begun re-evaluating the entire premise of American diplomatic outreach to North Korea. Successive U.S. administrations dating back to the Clinton White House have struck deals with North Korea that traded financial assistance, food and power generators for North Korean promises to shut down its nuclear program. Each time, North Korea eventually backed out of the deals.
Pyongyang’s refusal to honor its agreements has persuaded the Obama administration that North Korea was unlikely to ever voluntarily give up its nuclear weapons. That has led the administration to reject the idea of offering North Korea additional aid in exchange for new North Korean vows to abide by agreements it has repeatedly abrogated.
Many Obama administration officials are also skeptical of reopening the so-called six-party talks with North Korea, which also involve China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
Instead, the administration is trying to persuade China to take a stronger line with North Korea, a putative ally that is deeply dependent on China. U.S. officials hope China will help search and potentially board suspicious North Korean vessels, but China has been noncommittal.
Asked if China had finally accepted U.S. assessments of the threat posed by North Korea, Mr. Gates demurred. “I think that remains to be seen,” he said.
-Stu Woo contributed to this article.
Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB124535285705228571-lMyQjAxMDI5NDE1OTMxNTkyWj.html
Well, not really. But if you took to heart the headlines and the fear mongering press about North Korea’s announced missile launch, you might have concluded that North Koreans were just monsters bent on obliterating Hawai’i. The recent announcement by Sec. of Defense Gates that missile defense systems would be deployed to Hawai’i to protect against a North Korean missile launch is more propaganda to demonize and isolate North Korea while inciting fear to generate support for the extremely expensive and ineffective missile defense programs.
By Associated Press
POSTED: 11:07 a.m. HST, Jun 19, 2009
WASHINGTON >> A new anti-missile system ordered for Hawaii is partly a strategy to deter North Korea from test-firing a long-range missile across the Pacific and partly a precaution against the unpredictable regime, military officials said today.
The United States has no indication that North Korean missile technology has improved markedly since past failed launches, and military and other assessments suggest the communist nation probably could not hit the westernmost U.S. state if it tried, officials said.
The North’s Taepodong-2 could travel that far in theory, if it works as designed. But three test launches have either failed or do not demonstrate anything close to that range.
Nonetheless, past failure should not be considered a predictor, one military official said, and the seaborne radar and land-based interceptors were added this week as a prudent backstop.
Military and other U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity t o discuss the U.S. response a day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is concerned about the potential for a North Korean missile launch toward Hawaii.
A senior defense official would not discuss details of range estimates for North Koreans missiles, but said the same principle of caution for Hawaii would apply if the North appeared to threaten U.S. territories in the Pacific.
Japanese media have reported the North Koreans appear to be preparing for a long-range test near July 4. The Daily Yomiuri reported that Japan’s Defense Ministry believes a long-range missile was delivered to the new Dongchang-ni launch site on North Korea’s west coast on May 30.
U.S. analysts say that after the last test fizzled, the North wants to prove its missile capability both as proof of military strength and as a sales tool for its lucrative overseas weapons deals.
A U.S. counterproliferation official said the U.S. government is not currently seeing preparations for launch of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, sometimes short-handed as a TD-2. The official said a launch sometime in the future could not be ruled out but it is too soon to be seeing ground preparations for a launch around July 4.
“I don’t see any evidence that Hawaii is in more danger now than before the last TD-2 launch,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation.
It took North Korea about 12 days to complete ground preparations before the April launch of a Taepodong-2, roughly equivalent to a U.S. Titan missile.
If North Korea does launch a long-range missile from its new Dongchang-ni site on the west coast, it could be placed on a southeast trajectory toward Hawaii.
However, the only three long-range missiles fired by North Korea so far have fallen well short of the 4,500 miles required to reach the chain of islands.
The North Korea missile launched in Apr il traveled just under 2,000 miles before falling into the Pacific. That was about double the distance traveled by a similar missile launched in 1998. North Korea also launched a missile in 2006 but it fizzled shortly after take off.
WASHINGTON >> A new anti-missile system ordered for Hawaii is partly a strategy to deter North Korea from test-firing a long-range missile across the Pacific and partly a precaution against the unpredictable regime, military officials said today.
The United States has no indication that North Korean missile technology has improved markedly since past failed launches, and military and other assessments suggest the communist nation probably could not hit the westernmost U.S. state if it tried, officials said.
The North’s Taepodong-2 could travel that far in theory, if it works as designed. But three test launches have either failed or do not demonstrate anything close to that range.
Nonetheless, past failure should not be considered a predictor, one military official said, and the seaborne radar and land-based interceptors were added this week as a prudent backstop.
Military and other U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity t o discuss the U.S. response a day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is concerned about the potential for a North Korean missile launch toward Hawaii.
A senior defense official would not discuss details of range estimates for North Koreans missiles, but said the same principle of caution for Hawaii would apply if the North appeared to threaten U.S. territories in the Pacific.
Japanese media have reported the North Koreans appear to be preparing for a long-range test near July 4. The Daily Yomiuri reported that Japan’s Defense Ministry believes a long-range missile was delivered to the new Dongchang-ni launch site on North Korea’s west coast on May 30.
U.S. analysts say that after the last test fizzled, the North wants to prove its missile capability both as proof of military strength and as a sales tool for its lucrative overseas weapons deals.
A U.S. counterproliferation official said the U.S. government is not currently seeing preparations for launch of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, sometimes short-handed as a TD-2. The official said a launch sometime in the future could not be ruled out but it is too soon to be seeing ground preparations for a launch around July 4.
“I don’t see any evidence that Hawaii is in more danger now than before the last TD-2 launch,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation.
It took North Korea about 12 days to complete ground preparations before the April launch of a Taepodong-2, roughly equivalent to a U.S. Titan missile.
If North Korea does launch a long-range missile from its new Dongchang-ni site on the west coast, it could be placed on a southeast trajectory toward Hawaii.
However, the only three long-range missiles fired by North Korea so far have fallen well short of the 4,500 miles required to reach the chain of islands.
The North Korea missile launched in Apr il traveled just under 2,000 miles before falling into the Pacific. That was about double the distance traveled by a similar missile launched in 1998. North Korea also launched a missile in 2006 but it fizzled shortly after take off.
Source: http://www.starbulletin.com/news/breaking/48630442.html
I am for nuclear abolition, but the hypocrisy of the nuclear powers is outrageous: why is it okay for the U.S. to have missiles and nuclear warheads, but the countries that are consistently threatened by the U.S. are not allowed to have these same weapons?
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Pyongyang could improve accuracy of weapon within 3 years, Pentagon says
By Julian E. Barnes
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON – North Korea may be capable of hitting Hawai’i and the West Coast of the United States with its missiles within three years, but it is unlikely to be able to deliver a nuclear warhead in that time frame, a top U.S. defense official said yesterday.
The assessment came as North Korea’s rulers show signs of preparing for additional weapons tests in the face of international condemnation and new United Nations sanctions.
The estimate of three to five years, given in congressional testimony by Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is longer than horizons estimated previously by the U.S. military. It follows North Korea’s most recent weapons tests, including a nuclear detonation last month and a multistage missile launch in April that indicated progress but highlighted flaws in the country’s missile technology.
Cartwright outlined the potential threat posed by North Korean missiles in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Pyongyang’s Taepodong-2 missile is designed to reach the U.S. West Coast, but analysts say they believe the missile is inaccurate and so far has failed to reach a third stage, a critical leap to be able to hit the United States.
Cartwright said Pyongyang might be able to overcome its technical problems in three to five years.
But Cartwright said that horizon did not include the time needed to develop an actual warhead. He did not estimate how long it might take Pyongyang to develop a warhead small enough to put on a long-range missile.
Cartwright stressed that his assessment represented an estimate. “My crystal ball’s not going to be any better than anyone else’s,” he said.
Under questioning from Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Cartwright said he was “90 percent plus” confident that the United States could shoot down a missile launched from North Korea.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has proposed trimming the overall U.S. missile-defense budget but has requested $900 million to maintain and improve interceptor missiles based in California and Alaska.
Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090617/NEWS08/906170374/Hawai+i+warned+of+missile+threat
Schofield soldier Mark Heath was arrested in 2007 for allegedly breaking into a UH dorm and stealing an iPod and panties from a female student. Investigators suspected him of committing an earlier rape. See the Star Bulletin story from 2007: http://starbulletin.com/2007/11/28/news/story05.html Now the DNA confirms he was the rapist. Here’s the story from the Honolulu Star Bulletin:
Find this article at:
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/hawaiinews/20081218_case_grows_against_sex_assailant.html
Case grows against sex assailant
DNA links Mark Heath to an unsolved crime that occurred in 2007
By Gene Park
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 18, 2008
A man who has already pleaded guilty to burglary and sexual assault at the University of Hawaii at Manoa pleaded no contest yesterday to another sexual assault case.
After Mark Heath, 21, pleaded guilty on April 30 to breaking into University of Hawaii dormitories and taking underwear and other objects, his DNA sample was taken.
That DNA was linked to an unsolved 2007 sexual assault case. Heath has been in custody on a $1 million bail.
Deputy Prosecutor Thalia Murphy said she hopes to get a maximum of 60 years total for Heath’s crimes, including the university incidents.
“He’s a predator and he’s indiscriminate,” Murphy said. “This defendant knows no bounds. And yet if you were to look at him, he looks like someone you’d want your daughter to marry.”
In April 2007, Heath followed a woman unknown to him to her Ala Wai Boulevard apartment. The woman shut the door on him and went to sleep.
She awoke to find Heath raping her, chased him out but could not catch up to him.
Heath’s DNA was linked to that case. Yesterday he pleaded no contest to first-degree burglary and second-degree sexual assault.
On Aug. 19, 2007, Heath tried to cut off the panties of a female student at the Hale Mokihana dormitory on the Manoa campus. He also was accused of stealing women’s underwear and an iPod in November 2007.
Heath’s sentencing is scheduled for March 4.
Posted at 11:27 p.m., Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Kaneohe Marine accused of burglary, auto theft
Advertiser Staff
A 19-year-old Marine based at Kane’ohe was charged yesterday with
multiple offenses stemming from an alleged burglary early Sunday in
Kaka’ako.
Joseph Striegel was charged with second-degree burglary, first-degree
criminal property damage, auto theft, leaving the scene of an
accident, operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant
and resisting arrest. His bail totals $20,000.
Striegel was arrested at 4:27 a.m. at Pensacola and Waimanu streets.
According to police, Striegel allegedly climbed to the rooftop and
entered a business through an unlocked door. Striegel allegedly took
a vehicle and drove it through the bay doors, striking another
vehicle parked outside. He jumped from the moving vehicle and fled
the scene.
Source: Honoluluadvertiser.com
We Are Guahan feed
