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Friday, December 3, 2010

Flying car that's a helicopter and a plane

It looks too far-fetched to be anything but a child’s toy. But for front-line troops in Afghanistan, this revolutionary vehicle could soon be a reality. The road-going army truck turns into a helicopter at the touch of a button, allowing it to fly above hazards such as roadside bombs. And military chiefs believe the American-made vehicle, complete with rotor blades and wings, could transform the fortunes of soldiers fighting the Taliban. It would be similar to a Humvee vehicle for patrolling on the ground but could turn into a helicopter at the touch of a button in an emergency. Troops could manoeuvre past lethal roadside bombs, improve resupply operations to remote patrol bases and insert elite Special Forces into Taliban strongholds. The vehicle would also enable soldiers to escape quickly by air if they were caught in a Taliban ambush. It would also reduce the time required to evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield because they would not need to wait for a medical helicopter - increasing the chances of survival. The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a £41million programme to develop a flying armoured vehicle that can carry four servicemen or women. The vehicle - which uses composite armour to protect crew from gunfire, IED blasts and missiles - would be able to travel 280 miles by land or in the air. It could take-off and land vertically - like the Royal Navy's Harrier jump jets - to increase access to rugged terrain. Fitted with automatic flight controls, it could be flown by someone who was not a qualified pilot - increasing its flexibility. And it would be fitted with machineguns and cannons to kill and maim attacking insurgents. A prototype of the vehicle, dubbed the Transformer, or TX, could be ready by 2015 when British and U.S. troops are still in Afghanistan.

WikiLeaks US Pakistan wrangling

A series of private diplomatic cables of the United States' State Department, released this week by WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website, has cast light upon the complex relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan. They detail Pakistani efforts to block the U.S. from monitoring the use of civilian aid; a civilian leadership in Pakistan noticeably lacking in power relative to the military yet pleading for U.S. military assets such as drones; and fears that U.S. diplomats had for the safety of their personnel based in Pakistan. Three diplomatic cables in particular, sent from the U.S. embassy in Islamabad to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, highlighted the tug-of-war among senior U.S. officials such as former Pakistan Ambassadors Anne Patterson and Ryan Crocker and the former National Security Advisor, James Jones, on the one hand and Pakistani Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani, Inter-Services Intelligence Chief Ahmad Pasha and President Asif Zardari, on the other. One cable, dated October 7, 2009, accounts Ms. Patterson submitting to a two-hour meeting with General Kayani and Mr. Pasha wherein they repeatedly complained about “conditions” attached to the Kerry-Lugar civilian financing bill. Mr. Kayani was noted to have said “there were elements in the bill that would set back the bilateral relationship, and critical provisions were almost entirely directed against the Army”. In this meeting, the Pakistani officials remonstrated with Ms. Patterson about everything, from insecurities on whether the Pressler sanctions would be invoked to suspend the Kerry-Lugar aid, to the American assessment of civilian control over military promotions and the chain of command. The latter issue, in particular, “rankled COAS Kayani (and) DGISI Pasha said Kayani was receiving criticism on the bill from the Corps Commanders”, according to the cable. All the U.S. Ambassador could do was emphasise the bill's long-term commitment to Pakistan — $7.5 billion over five years — and make three further points: that the provisions of the bill could be waived; that the bill only required certifications and “assessments;” and that the bill did not apply to the large amounts in the Pakistan Counter-insurgency Fund or Coalition Support Fund. In another cable, Mr. Jones was recorded as hearing numerous pleas from Mr. Zardari for even more U.S. support in Pakistan's fight against extremist groups on its soil and also hints that the U.S. should convey to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the difficulties that Mr. Zardari faced domestically. The cable, dated June 30 2009, described Mr. Zardari making repeated pleas for drones to be “put in Pakistan's hands” so that Pakistan would own the issue and drone attacks (including collateral damage) would not provoke anti-americanism. “Zardari said the technology behind them was not cutting-edge and said he has raised the issue with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” the cable said. India has expressed concern in the past that Pakistani access to “killer” Predator drones could inflame tensions on the border. In the same discussion with Mr. Jones, Mr. Zardari's comments indicated a sense of relative weakness experienced by his civilian government. Mr. Zardari not only emphasised that “goodwill from America was central to his and Pakistan's future” but when told by Mr. Jones that it was vital for Pakistan to ensure that another Mumbai-style attack did not occur, he said that Prime Minister Singh was unaware of what it took to change the mindset of Pakistan's “establishment”, given Pakistan's “short history of fragile democratic regimes toppled by the military”. In a third cable classified by Mr. Crocker on March 7 2006, U.S. officials recommended to the State Department that the imposition of United Nations Security Council sanctions a domestic terrorism finance designation on Jamaat-ud-Dawa, “an alter-ego of current terrorism finance designee Lashkar-e-Taiba,” be delayed by two weeks based solely on “force-protection considerations.” Specifically the U.S. embassy explained that U.S. military personnel would be flying helicopter sorties in North West Frontier Province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir until the end of March that year and ground staff would be deployed too. “In order not to increase the risk to our military personnel as they conclude their successful mission to Pakistan, post recommends that no action on the JuD designation be taken until all... operations have concluded and (U.S.)... personnel are in the Islamabad area,” the cable said.

WikiLeaks Sharif's brother "tipped-off"


Pakistan opposition leader Nawaz Sharif's brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif "tipped-off" the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) about impending UN sanctions after the terror group attacked Mumbai in November 2008, reveals a US cable exposed by WikiLeaks. The tip-off helped the outfit to clean out its bank accounts before they could be raided.  The Guardian reported that six weeks after LeT gunmen killed 166 people in the Mumbai carnage, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari told the US of his "frustration" that Shahbaz Sharif's government in Punjab province helped the terror group evade UN sanctions. A month earlier, Shahbaz Sharif "tipped off" the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), LeT's charity wing, "resulting in almost empty bank accounts", Zardari told the US ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson. US diplomats weren't able to confirm the allegation, but they admitted that JuD did appear to have received a warning from somewhere. The cable in January 2009 said: "Information from the ministry of the interior does indicate that bank accounts contained surprisingly small amounts." Senator Pervaiz Rashid, an adviser to Shahbaz Sharif, however, said: "There's nothing true in it." "Zardari is our political opponent and he wants to topple our government." He said Shahbaz Sharif couldn't have known about the UN sanctions as the UN coordinated its action with the federal government and not the provincial one. The embassy cables have for the first time revealed the drama that unfolded behind the scenes after the Mumbai attacks in which 10 gunmen from Pakistan sneaked into India's financial capital and unleashed mayhem for over three days.