Bangladeshi military 'foils coup plot' - The Guardian

Thursday, January 19, 2012

The Bangladeshi army spokesman Brigadier General Muhammad Masud Razzaq describes the coup plot at a press conference. Photograph: EPA

The Bangladeshi military says it has foiled a plot by a group of hardline officers, their retired colleagues and Bangladeshi conspirators living abroad to overthrow the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

The coup attempt underlined tensions between Hasina's government and elements of the military that have lingered since a mutiny in 2009.

Brigadier General Muhammad Masud Razzaq told a news conference the military had specific evidence that up to 16 current and former Bangladeshi military officers "with extreme religious views" were involved in the "heinous conspiracy". The plot was instigated by Bangladeshi conspirators living abroad, he said.

Two retired officers, Lieutenant Colonel Ehsan Yusuf and Major Zakir, have been arrested, Razzaq said, but did not reveal when the arrests had been made. He said the authorities were looking for another fugitive serving officer, Major Ziaul Haq, who had fled his post after the arrests of Yusuf and Zakir.

In 2009, two months after Hasina took office after a sweeping general election victory, Bangladeshi border guards mutinied over pay, perks and promotion prospects. At least 74 military commanders were killed, many of them the commanders of the mutineers.

Military officials were furious with Hasina for not ordering an assault on the compound but instead ending the standoff by offering an amnesty to the mutineers that was later rescinded.

Since then, the military has been pressing for an early trial for the mutineers. Hasina's government is trying more than 800 border guards on charges of killing, arson and looting in Dhaka. Hundreds who mutinied at locations outside the capital have already been tried and sentenced to prison.

It is not clear why the alleged coup participants are being described as having extreme religious views. Hasina banned Islamic militant groups after taking office in 2009, and has warned in recent speeches that such groups are "conspiring against [the] elected government".

Bangladesh, a parliamentary democracy since 1990, has seen two presidents killed in military coups and 19 other failed coup attempts.

Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh, was assassinated in the country's first military coup in 1975.

Another coup, in 1981, killed the army general turned president Ziaur Rahman, the husband of the former prime minister Khaleda Zia, Hasina's main rival.

The country's last military ruler, General Hussain Mohammad Ershad, was ousted in 1990 in a pro-democracy movement led jointly by Hasina and Zia.

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Egypt's military ruler warns of 'grave dangers' - Fox News

CAIRO -- Egypt is facing unprecedented "grave dangers" but its military will protect it, military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said in remarks published Wednesday which appeared aimed at rallying public opinion against protests planned for next week's anniversary of the country's 2011 uprising.

Tantawi's comments also seemed to be a thinly veiled warning to the activists behind last year's Jan. 25-Feb. 11 demonstrations that led to the toppling of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak.

The activists are now calling on the military to step down immediately, and accuse the ruling generals of botching the transition to civilian rule, of killing at least 80 protesters since October, of torturing detainees and of hauling at least 12,000 civilians before military tribunals for trial.

Activists plan to stage a wave of protests to mark next week's first anniversary of the start of the uprising. The state-run media has responded with a media campaign warning of a plot to destabilize the nation on the anniversary.

Tantawi's talk of unspecified "grave dangers" facing the nation and of the military's resolve to counter them harks back to the Mubarak era, when officials frequently sought to shift attention away from domestic problems with warnings of conspiracies against the country by local agents of foreign powers.

"Egypt is facing grave dangers it has not seen before," Tantawi said. Calling on Egyptians to foil the "schemes and conspiracies" against Egypt, he said: "The armed forces is the backbone that protects Egypt. These schemes are aimed at targeting that backbone. We will not allow it and will carry out our task perfectly to hand over the nation to an elected civilian administration."

Tantawi, who is in his late 70s, said that the armed forces were "pushed into the political fray only to protect Egypt from the enemies of the nation and people," language that appears designed to counter charges by activists and politicians that the ruling generals planned all along to retain their political leverage and their privileges.

Activists claim that Tantawi and the rest of the generals sitting on the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces are an extension of Mubarak's 29-year regime and remain beholden to the former president, whose consent was essential to their promotion through the ranks.

Tantawi himself was Mubarak's defense minister for 20 years, during which he was widely considered to be unquestioningly loyal to his patron.

The military has said it intended to hand over power to an elected president by the end of June, but many suspect the military will not easily give up the political dominance it has enjoyed ever since army officers seized power in a coup nearly 60 years ago.

Critics of the generals say they hope to promote an ex-officer or an ally as a candidate, to shield the military's budget, economic interests and behind-the-scenes political leverage from civilian scrutiny.

Taking advantage of the frustration of many Egyptians following nearly a year of demonstrations, sit-ins, strikes and deadly street clashes, the generals have been trying to publicly discredit the revolutionaries as troublemakers or as agents of foreign powers.

Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, brought out of retirement in November to take the Cabinet post that runs the police, has warned against what he calls attempts to destroy public property during the uprising's anniversary protests.

The state media has used the loss last month of rare books and manuscripts in a fire in a downtown library during clashes between protesters and troops to portray activists as reckless individuals who destabilize the country.

The army's reputation however has taken a blow from video images of the clashes posted on social networks depicting violence against protesters. They show a woman stripped half-naked while troops kick and stomp her, and soldiers urinating on protesters from the roof of the building of parliament.

But despite those images, activists acknowledge that the army's campaign has largely worked, and that they no longer have the degree of public support which they enjoyed a year ago.

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Israel: Nuclear Iran could deter military action

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

JERUSALEM -- A nuclear Iran could make it tougher for Israel to act against enemies closer to home, a senior Israeli military official said Tuesday, suggesting that regional fallout would be broad should Tehran achieve bomb making capabilities.

Military planning division chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel said if Tehran attains atomic weapons, that could constrain Israel from striking Iranian-backed Islamist groups in Lebanon and Gaza, Hezbollah and Hamas.

"If we are forced to do things in Gaza or in Lebanon, under the Iranian nuclear umbrella it might be different," Eshel said at a briefing in Jerusalem.

He warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would set off an atomic arms race in the region, leading to "a global nuclear jungle."

Israel has been warning the world for years that Iran must not be allowed to develop the technology needed to build a bomb. It worries that a nuclear-armed Iran could threaten Israel's survival and has hinted it could strike Iran militarily if international sanctions do not halt nuclear development.

Iran claims its nuclear program is for energy production, not bomb making, and shows no sign of abandoning it.

Israel itself is assumed to have a large stockpile of nuclear weapons, and unlike Iran, it has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Based on photographs and material smuggled out of Israel's main nuclear reactor in the mid 1980s, experts concluded that Israel had several hundred nuclear warheads.

Israel has a policy of "ambiguity" concerning nuclear weapons. It refuses to confirm or deny their existence and insists it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.

Eshel spoke to reporters at a time of rising global tensions around Iran's nuclear aspirations. Last week, an Iranian nuclear scientist died in a car bomb assassination in Tehran, the fourth attack on a member of Iran's nuclear team. Iran blamed the killing on Israel, which had no comment, and on the U.S., which denied involvement.

Iran has also threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for one sixth of the world's oil, should international sanctions block Iranian petroleum exports.

Eshel also said Israel is worried that Syria's "huge stockpile of chemical weapons" could reach militant groups like Hezbollah if the regime of President Bashar Assad falls. He predicted that would happen soon.

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Israel: Nuclear Iran could deter military action - The Associated Press

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

JERUSALEM (AP) — A senior Israeli military official says a nuclear Iran could make it tougher for Israel to act against enemies closer to home.

Military planning division chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel says a nuclear-armed Tehran could constrain Israel from striking Iranian-backed Islamists groups in Lebanon and Gaza — Hezbollah and Hamas respectively.

Eshel said Tuesday that if Israel is "forced to do things in Gaza or in Lebanon, under the Iranian nuclear umbrella it might be different."

Israel worries that a nuclear-armed Iran could threaten its survival and has hinted it could strike Iran militarily if international sanctions do not halt Tehran's nuclear program.

Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes, such as energy and the production of medical isotopes.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Zardari gets in talking mode with military to defuse tensions - Hindustan Times

Even as temperatures have soared in Islamabad over the Gilani-Kayani face-off, the presidency and the Pakistani military are engaged in parleys aimed at defusing the tensions between the two sides over memo scandal.

Away from the storm generated by the Supreme Court's contempt

notice issued to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani yesterday for failing to reopen high-profile graft cases, talks continued between the government and the military establishment for defusing the situation.

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairperson Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne met President Asif Ali Zardari at the presidency yesterday for a follow-up meeting to talks held between the President and army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani over the weekend, the Dawn newspaper quoted a source as saying.

A brief statement issued by the presidency said Zardari and Wynne discussed professional matters pertaining to the armed forces.

However, sources told the Dawn that the two leaders focussed on finding a way out of the ongoing impasse.

Though there was no certainty about how the civil-military talks were progressing, there were "hints that some progress is being made", the report said.

An unnamed army official told the Dawn that Kayani had made no demand during his meeting with Zardari that the Prime Minister should retract comments about the army chief acting unconstitutionally in his handling of the memo issue.

The official said the meeting between the army chief and the President was held "for lowering temperatures rather than raising it".

The presidency too has denied media report that Kayani had asked Zardari to tell the Prime Minister to explain or retract his comments about the army and intelligence chiefs acting in an "unconstitutional and illegal" manner while filing affidavits on the memo issue in the Supreme Court.

Some observers following the civil-military dialogue were worried that legal developments could unsettle the easing of tensions between the two sides.

Some quarters have suggested that the military was the force behind the legal battles in the Supreme Court over the reopening of graft cases and the memo scandal that can potentially cause the government's downfall.

While speaking in the National Assembly or lower house of parliament last night after the House passed a pro-democracy resolution, Gilani said the military and judiciary must protect democracy instead of making efforts to "pack up" or derail the democratic system.

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Major US-Israel Military Exercises Delayed - New York Times

The move appears intended to avoid further escalating tensions with Iran, which is under intense international diplomatic and economic pressure to curb its nuclear program out of fears it is seeking to make a nuclear bomb. Iran itself recently held 10 days of naval exercises near the Strait of Hormuz, and Israel has kept open the possibility of a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

At the same time, the United States is leading an effort to increase sanctions on Iran, and an Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated in Tehran, the fourth such attack reported in two years. Iran blames the United States and Israel for the killings.

Speaking Monday on Israel Radio, Mr. Lieberman cited “diplomatic and regional reasons, the tensions and instability” as factors in delaying the exercise. The Israeli military said in a statement that the joint exercise, Austere Challenge 12, would take place during the second half of 2012.

The exercises, involving thousands of American and Israeli soldiers, were designed to test various Israeli and American air defense systems against missiles and rockets from a range that would include Iran, The Associated Press reported.

The American defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta, said last month that the drill exemplified unprecedented levels of defense cooperation between the two countries, and was meant to back up Washington’s “unshakable” commitment to Israel’s security, The A.P. said.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Israel and the United States took the decision to delay the exercise jointly “because it was not the right time.” He did not elaborate.

Israeli officials have saluted the effectiveness of existing sanctions against Iran, while also urging more, specifically on Iran’s Central Bank and its petro-chemical sector.

In an interview published Saturday in The Weekend Australian, Mr. Netanyahu said he was seeing Iran “wobble” for the first time. “If these sanctions are coupled with a clear statement by the international community, led by the U.S., to act militarily to stop Iran if sanctions fail,” he said, “Iran may consider not going through the pain.”

On Sunday, Moshe Yaalon, a vice prime minister and minister of strategic affairs, described the Obama administration’s failure to add more sanctions as “a disappointment so far.”

“The administration is hesitating because of fears of rising oil prices this year, apparently out of election year considerations,” he told Israel Radio.

On Monday, Mr. Netanyahu told a closed meeting of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that sanctions on Iran had to be beefed up and implemented expeditiously and aggressively, according to a participant in the meeting.

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