DTN News: TIMELINE ~ Ethnic And Religious Unrest In Nigeria

DTN News: TIMELINE ~ Ethnic And Religious Unrest In Nigeria *Source: DTN News / Reuters (NSI News Source Info) - January 22, 2010: Following is a timeline of religious and ethnic violence in Nigeria:Children water at a house in Jos, Nigeria, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. Dozens of victims of sectarian violence are being treated for gunshot wounds in a fresh wave of fighting in which men even injured a week-old infant in central Nigeria, a Red Cross official said Thursday.

2000 - Thousands killed in northern Nigeria as non-Muslims opposed to the introduction of Islamic sharia law fight Muslims who demand its implementation in the northern state of Kaduna.

Sept. 2001 - Christian-Muslim violence flares after Muslim prayers in Jos, with churches and mosques set on fire. At least 1,000 people are killed, according to a Sept. 2002 report by a panel set up by Plateau state government.

Nov. 2002 - Nigeria abandons the Miss World contest in Abuja. The decision follows the death of at least 216 people in rioting in the northern city of Kaduna after a newspaper article suggests the Prophet Mohammad would probably have married one of the Miss World beauty queens if he were alive today. May 2004 - Hundreds of people, mostly Muslim Fulanis, are killed by Christian Tarok militia in the central Nigerian town of Yelwa. Survivors say they buried 630 corpses. Police say hundreds were killed.

-- Muslim and Christian militants fight street battles later the same month in the northern city of Kano. Christian community leaders say 500-600 people, mostly Christians, were killed in two days of violence.

Feb. 2006 - At least 157 people die in a week of rioting by Muslim and Christian mobs. The violence begins in the northeastern city of Maiduguri when a Muslim protest against Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad runs out of control. Revenge attacks follow in the south.Nov. 2008 - Clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs triggered by a disputed local government election kill at least 700 people in the central city of Jos, according to U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.

Feb. 2009 - The governor of Bauchi state imposes a night curfew on Bauchi city on Feb. 22, a day after clashes in which at least 11 people die, 28 are seriously wounded and several houses, churches and mosques are burned down.

July 2009 - Boko Haram, an organisation which opposes Western education and demands the adoption of sharia in all of Nigeria, stages attacks in the northeastern city of Bauchi after the arrest of some of its members. More than 50 people are killed and over 100 arrested, prompting the Bauchi state governor to impose a night curfew on the state capital.

-- Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sinful", threatens further attacks on security forces.

-- Police in Maiduguri, home of Boko Haram's leader Mohammed Yusuf, say security forces killed 90 sect members on July 27. In neighbouring Yobe state, police recover the bodies of 33 sect members after a gunbattle near the town of Potiskum on July 29.

-- Yusuf is shot dead while in police detention in Maiduguri on July 30.

-- Red Cross and defence officials say more than 700 people were killed during the five-day Boko Haram uprising.

Dec. 2009 - At least 40 people are killed in clashes between security forces and members of an Islamic sect armed with machetes in the northern city of Bauchi.

Jan. 2010 - At least 460 people are reported killed after clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in Jos, most by gunfire. Police impose a 24-hour curfew, enforced by hundreds of soldiers and police.

DTN News: World Will 'Not Back Down' On Iran Says US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

DTN News: World Will 'Not Back Down' On Iran Says US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton *Source: DTN News / AFP (NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON, US - January 22, 2010: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the international community is "unified in its resolve" to put pressure on Iran over its disputed nuclear program, and will not back down. However, the chief US diplomat stopped short of renewing the US threat of sanctions following a weekend six-power meeting in New York when China, which is reluctant to use such measures, sent a lower-level envoy. "Let me be clear, we will not be waited out and we will not back down," Clinton told reporters as she stood with European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton. Iran has for three months balked at an offer from the Vienna-based UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ship abroad low-grade nuclear fuel so it can be further enriched and returned to refuel a Tehran medical research reactor. In Vienna, diplomats said Wednesday the Islamic Republic had effectively rejected the deal because it refused to accept some of the conditions called for by the West and insisted on a simultaneous exchange of fuel. (Image/Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks as British Foreign Secretary David Miliband looks on during a news conference at the Department of State in Washington January 21, 2010. Major powers are united in working toward pressuring Iran over its nuclear program, Clinton said on Thursday, despite many signals that China is reluctant to impose more sanctions.) Western countries have ruled out such an exchange as unacceptable. But Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying Tehran had not rejected "the principle of the exchange (of nuclear fuel)." Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast spoke of a "gradual" exchange of fuel. Clinton said the United States "will continue our close consultations on the next steps" with its partners: the four other UN Security Council permanent members -- Russia, China, Britain, and France -- plus Germany. The negotiating group is known as the P5-plus-1. "We are focused, we are unified in our resolve to work toward pressure on Iran in the face of their continuing rejection of the overtures by the international community," the chief US diplomat said. "We're going at this in a very concerted and unified manner, because we think it's important to send that message to the Iranian leadership that the world will act, and the world will act together," she added. Ashton, on her first visit to Washington as the EU foreign policy chief, echoed Clinton's point, speaking about "determined and concerted steps." But Clinton gave no idea when the P5-plus-1 would next meet after a weekend meeting in New York at the political directors level yielded no apparent results and was attended by a lower-level Chinese official. Clinton described the meeting an "another productive step along the way toward accomplishing unified international action." Speaking later with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Clinton said she was aware that China and other countries -- an apparent allusion to Russia -- had questions about how effective sanctions would be. "But we are unified in the position that we have to influence the Iranian government's behavior concerning its nuclear program," she said when queried on how unified the world community is given China's apparent reluctance. Clinton indirectly urged China to consider the global consequences if Iran acquired a nuclear weapon or the capacity to build one. It "would be so intensely destabilizing, there is not a country in the world that is in the neighborhood, the region, (or) relies on the oil markets, that would not be directly affected," Clinton warned. The IAEA proposal is designed to buy breathing room as the big powers try to halt Iran's uranium enrichment -- which the West fears masks a drive to build a nuclear bomb. Denying the charge, Iran says it seeks peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

DTN News: Korea Think Tank Says Kim Jong-il Nearing Death

DTN News: Korea Think Tank Says Kim Jong-il Nearing Death *Source: By Park Chan-Kyong, Agence France-Presse (NSI News Source Info) SEOUL, South Korea - January 22, 2010: North Korea's ailing leader Kim Jong-il may die in two or three years and this could spark upheavals such as a coup, mass unrest or massacres in the communist nation, a South Korean state think tank says.North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (C) visits the Heungnam refinery at South Hamkyong Province in North Korea, in this undated picture released by North Korea's official news agency KCNA on January 21, 2010. KCNA did not state when the picture was taken. In a rare report forecasting possible regime collapse in the North, the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) also warned that such internal unrest could prompt the North to start a limited war on the Korean Peninsula. KINU's "Study on Unification" was released this week, days after Pyongyang reacted angrily to reports of a separate Seoul government contingency plan to handle unrest in the North. "There is a high possibility that Kim Jong-il may not exist in the North by 2012," KINU said in its report. The North's stated goal is to become a powerful and prosperous nation by 2012, the 100th anniversary of the birth of its founder Kim Il-Sung. Kim Jong-il, who succeeded his father, will be 68 next month. He is widely thought to have suffered a stroke in August 2008 and is also reportedly suffering from diabetes and heart disease. "The post-Kim Jong-Il era would likely see a change in power elites, possibly including a military coup and upheavals such as civil unrest and popular uprisings, massacres and massive outflows of refugees," it said. The report presented three scenarios for life after Kim — a third-generation power succession by his son Jong-Un, a collective military leadership or the rise of a single ruler from the military. It said a post-Kim power vacuum would likely aggravate shortages and corruption, sparking civil unrest and a breakdown in order, giving the military an excuse to step in. Whatever happens in the North after Kim Jong-il dies, South Korea should pursue a policy of non-intervention and respect its people's rights to self-determination, the report said. Discussion of its leader's fate is taboo in the North and some analysts said the KINU report could anger the isolated regime. On Friday the North's powerful National Defence Commission (NDC) led by Kim Jong-il threatened to break off all dialogue with South Korea unless Seoul apologizes for an alleged contingency plan to tackle regime collapse. South Korean media has reported the existence of the plan, which has not been confirmed by the government. The NDC denounced the alleged plan as a "crime" and said it would stage a "holy war" against those who drew it up, accusing the conservative Seoul government of seeking reunification through absorption. "Making such a sensitive (KINU) report public in the South is likely to irritate North Korea greatly," Kim Yeon-Chul of the private Hankyoreh Peace Institute told AFP. Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies said the KINU report "touched a raw nerve among North Koreans" by considering the sensitive topic of regime collapse, and could bring an angry response.

DTN News: Afghanistan TODAY January 22, 2010 ~ US Ambassador Puts Brakes On Plan To Utilize Afghan Militias Against Taliban

DTN News: Afghanistan TODAY January 22, 2010 ~ US Ambassador Puts Brakes On Plan To Utilize Afghan Militias Against Taliban *Source: By Greg Jaffe and Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, January 21, 2010; 10:52 AM (NSI News Source Info) KABUL, Afghanistan - January 22, 2010: The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and senior Afghan officials have resisted moving forward with a bold and potentially risky initiative to support local militias in Afghanistan that are willing to defend their villages against insurgents, according to U.S. officials. Their concerns have slowed the implementation of a key effort to provide security in places where there are relatively few NATO forces or Afghan police and Army units. U.S. military officials had wanted to get the initiative -- developed under the leadership of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan -- off to a quick start this year. The plan was to take advantage of the emergence of informal village security forces that were taking up arms against outside insurgents. The hope was that the new program could yield thousands of new security forces relatively fast, bridging the gap until more Army and police forces could be trained. But before the initiative can be implemented on a broader scale, Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry must approve the release of more money for it. Eikenberry's unease about the program as it was structured by the military also reflects a broader difference of opinion at the highest levels of the U.S. military and diplomatic headquarters in Kabul about new approaches to combating the Taliban insurgency. While military commanders are eager to experiment quickly with decentralized grass-roots initiatives that work around the ponderous Afghan bureaucracy in Kabul, civilian officials think it is more important to wait until they have the support of the central government, something they regard as essential to sustaining the programs. U.S. Embassy and Afghan officials are working to modify the program, called Local Defense Initiatives, to ensure that the Afghan government plays a more central role in how it is run. "We are committed to doing this right, and that means taking the time for the Afghan government and people to decide on whether and how to move ahead," said Philip Kosnett, the U.S. Embassy's political-military counselor in Kabul. The disagreement about how best to move forward with the local security program comes at a time when McChrystal and Eikenberry, who previously served as the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, are under intense pressure to show fast results to take advantage of the 30,000 U.S. troops that will arrive in the country this year. By July 2011, President Obama has said, military commanders will begin sending some of those forces home. Afghan officials and Eikenberry have also expressed concern that unless there is a detailed plan to connect these village security forces to Ministry of Interior oversight, they could fuel the rise of warlords and undermine the already fragile government in Kabul. Another worry is that the local tribal leaders could manipulate U.S. officers who do not understand politics and tribal grievances in a particular area, said U.S. officials. "Our level of intelligence is so lacking," said an adviser to the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. "We could be supporting people whose interests are not what we think they are." Eikenberry has argued that without Afghan government support, the program could be quickly disbanded if one of the village security forces is turned by the Taliban or gets into a dispute with government security forces. "It's a two-edged sword," Richard C. Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in an interview. "One person's community defense initiative can be another person's warlord militia." Military officials said it is important to take advantage of the colder winter months when violence drops to begin training village forces. "If you delay until March, you lose a lot," said a military official in Kabul. The military is moving forward with the initiative on a smaller scale, using money that the embassy does not currently control. "No one is frustrated. We just want to get going," the official said. The Afghan village program has drawn comparisons to the Sons of Iraq effort, in which Sunni tribal forces consisted of more than 100,000 Iraqis -- many of them former insurgents -- were paid to police their villages. That effort, which was widely viewed as essential to blunting a runaway insurgency, was started without seeking permission from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who initially voiced strong objections to the program. Although some members of the Sons of Iraq have been absorbed into the army and police forces, Sunni leaders have accused Maliki of reneging on commitments made by U.S. commanders when the program was started and trying to dismantle the program. The Afghan village security initiative differs significantly from the Sons of Iraq effort, which involved U.S. military personnel training, arming and paying Sunni tribesmen to defend their communities against al-Qaeda-affiliated extremists. In Afghanistan, the military does not intend to arm or pay members of the local security groups. Afghanistan, military officials note, is already awash in weapons. Compensation will be in the form of money for development projects in areas where the groups operate. Although Afghanistan's interior minister has expressed a desire to pay recruits, the United States plans to channel development projects to villages that sign up for the security effort. Village militias will also receive radios to call for assistance from nearby U.S. or Afghan forces and receive training from Special Forces troops. Military officials also said that to prevent warlordism, the groups will be under the authority of a local shura -- a council of tribal elders -- not a single tribal chief. U.S. military officials, meanwhile, have said that they are committed to a bottom-up approach to security and economic development, which recognizes that many Afghans consider the corrupt central government part of the problem and a threat to local tribal power structures. "The community level will be decisive -- and that support is entirely up for grabs," Col. Christopher D. Kolenda, an adviser to McChrystal, wrote in the current issue of Joint Force Quarterly, a military journal. Staff writer Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.

DTN News: U.S. Offers Pakistan Drones To Urge Cooperation U.S.

DTN News: U.S. Offers Pakistan Drones To Urge Cooperation U.S. *Source: DTN News / The NY Times By ELISABETH BUMILLER Published: January 21, 2010 (NSI News Source Info) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - January 21, 2010: The United States will provide a dozen unarmed aerial spy drones to Pakistan for the first time as part of an effort to encourage Pakistan’s cooperation in fighting Islamic militants on the Afghanistan border, American defense officials said Thursday. But Pakistani military leaders, rebuffing American pressure, said they planned no new offensives for at least six months. In this photo provided by the Pakistan Press Information Department, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates met with his Pakistani counterpart, Ahmad Mukhtar, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on Thursday. The Shadow drones, which are smaller than armed Predator drones, will be a significant upgrade in the Pakistanis’ reconnaissance and surveillance ability and will supply video to help cue strikes from the ground or the air. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who is in Pakistan on a two-day visit, disclosed plans for the drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, in an interview Thursday with a Pakistani television reporter. Asked if the United States planned to provide the Pakistani military with drones, something it has long requested, Mr. Gates replied, “There are some tactical U.A.V.’s that we are considering, yes.” Other Defense Department officials later confirmed that the United States was making such an offer. Shortly before Mr. Gates’s remarks, the chief spokesman of the Pakistani Army indicated that the army would not begin any assault against militants in the tribal region of North Waziristan for 6 to 12 months, pushing back against calls by the United States to root out militants staging attacks along the Afghan border. The army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, told American reporters at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi that Pakistan had to stabilize its gains and contain Taliban militants scattered by offensives already opened last year. “We are not capable of sustaining further military operations,” General Abbas said. The developments underscored the difficulties that President Obama now faces in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Even as the Taliban have stepped up attacks on both sides of the border, the Pakistani Army has been reluctant to take on all of its factions in all parts of the country’s tribal areas. Pakistan, which already has some limited surveillance ability, has long asked for drone technology from the United States, arguing that it should have the same resources to watch and kill militants on its own soil as does the Central Intelligence Agency, which conducts regular drone strikes in Pakistan. American officials have rejected giving Pakistan armed drones. The Shadow surveillance drone appears to be a compromise aimed at enticing Pakistan further into the war and helping the country’s political leadership explain the drone strikes to a deeply suspicious and anti-American public. “It will have a very positive political impact,” said Talat Masood, a retired general in Islamabad. “It will reduce the embarrassment of the political leadership.” American defense officials said that the drones would be for use in Pakistan’s tribal areas and would be restricted to defensive rather than offensive operations. One major concern for the American military is the possibility that Pakistan could use the drones against India, its archrival in the region. The latest version of the Shadow is used by the United States Army and the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has a wing span of 14 feet, is about 12 feet long, is launched from a trailer by ground units and can fly about 70 miles. Mr. Gates, who is on his first trip to Pakistan in three years, met Thursday with the Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and with Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the director of the country’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence. He attended a dinner in his honor given by the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, and is to deliver a speech on American policy on Friday before a military audience. American officials said that Mr. Gates had urged the Pakistanis in the meetings to do more against the militants, a constant American theme that the defense secretary also sounded in an opinion article published on Thursday in The News International, Pakistan’s largest English-language daily newspaper. In the article, Mr. Gates implicitly pressed Pakistan to root out the Afghan Taliban leadership, the Quetta Shura, which has found refuge in Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province, outside the tribal areas. American officials are increasingly frustrated that while the Pakistanis have conducted offensives against the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda, they have not so far pursued the Afghan Taliban and an allied militant faction on their border, the Haqqani network, whose fighters pose a threat to American forces. “Maintaining a distinction between some violent extremist groups and others is counterproductive,” Mr. Gates wrote. “Only by pressuring all of these groups on both sides of the border will Afghanistan and Pakistan be able to rid themselves of this scourge for good.” American officials say privately that the Pakistanis are reluctant to go after the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network because they see them as a future proxy against Indian interests in Afghanistan when the Americans leave. Under Mr. Obama’s Afghanistan strategy, announced last month, the United States is to begin withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan by July 2011. In the same article in The News International, and in his public comments in Pakistan, Mr. Gates lavishly praised the Pakistani Army for its efforts against the militants in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan, and noted that the army had suffered nearly 2,000 deaths in the last three years. He also sought to reassure Pakistani citizens that Americans had a long-term interest in their country, not just in a short-term strategic gain across the border in Afghanistan. Mr. Gates said in the article that he regretted past injustices in the American-Pakistan relationship that he himself has been part of since the late 1980s, when he was No. 2 at the C.I.A. At that time, he helped funnel covert Reagan administration aid and weapons through Pakistan’s spy agency to the Islamic fundamentalists who ousted the Russians from Afghanistan. Some of those fundamentalists are now part of the Taliban and are fighting against the United States. Mr. Gates said that the United States largely abandoned Afghanistan and cut military ties with Pakistan once the Russians left Kabul, which he called “a grave mistake driven by some well-intentioned but short-sighted U.S. legislative and policy decisions.” He also repeated an assessment that the militant groups on Pakistan’s border were an inter-connected syndicate, a view that General Abbas rejected as not as “black and white” as Mr. Gates described.

DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated January 21, 2010

DTN News: U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Dated January 21, 2010 *Source: DoD issued January 21, 2010 (NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - January 21, 2010: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Contracts issued January 21, 2010 are undermentioned; CONTRACTS

MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY The Missile Defense Agency is pleased to announce the award of advisory and assistance services contracts to three small business concerns: a.i. solutions, Inc., Launch Services Division, Lanham, Md. (HQ0147-10-D-0027); A-P-T Research, Inc., Huntsville, Ala. (HQ0147-10-D-0028); and Bastion Technologies, Houston, Texas (HQ0147-10-D-0029), are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide advisory and assistance services to the Quality, Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate, Missile Defense Agency. The contractors will assist the Quality, Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate in assessing the engineering, technology, production and programmatic practices/processes used to develop and operate the Ballistic Missile Defense System. These contracts are being competitively awarded under the small business set aside request for proposal HQ0147-09-R-0001. This procurement is managed by the Missile Defense Agency engineering and support services program office. This program office is responsible for centrally managing the acquisition of advisory and assistance services for the agency. Each contract has a not to exceed ordering ceiling of $209,600,000. The companies will have the opportunity to bid on each individual task order. Work under these contracts will be performed in Huntsville, Ala., and other Missile Defense Agency locations. The performance period is through December 2014. Obligations will be made by task orders using research, development, test and evaluation funds. NAVY ~General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Conn., is being awarded an $118,161,229 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-09-C-2100) to exercise options for continued engineering, technical services, concept studies and design of a common missile compartment for the United Kingdom Successor SSBN and the Ohio Replacement SSBN. This contract action exercises an existing option that provides for continuation of common missile compartment design, common missile compartment concept studies, ship concept studies, engineering, and technical services, and whole ship integration engineering and concept studies to determine key ship attributes that impact common missile compartment design. Additionally, this contract action will support completion of studies and design work including completion of a preliminary design review, a missile tube critical design review, and a missile module critical design review. Work will be performed in Groton, Conn. (89 percent); Newport News, Va. (7 percent); Quonset, R.I. (3 percent); and Newport, R.I. (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. ~Sikorsky Support Services, Inc., Pensacola, Fla., is being awarded a $7,035,212 modification to a previously awarded indefinite-delivery requirements contract (N00019-06-D-0017) to provide aircraft maintenance and logistics support for the T-34C, as well as manage the aircraft’s service life extension and service life maintenance management programs. Additionally, the contractor will provide all required support to enter T-6 aircraft flight data into the Training Information Management System and Organizational Optimized Maintenance Activity software systems. Work will be performed at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Corpus Christi, Texas (50 percent), and NAS Whiting Field, Fla. (50 percent), and is expected to be completed in September 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity. ~Intelagard, Inc., Broomfield, Colo., is being awarded a $7,000,600 firm-fixed-priced contract to procure man-portable backpacks which will be used for fire suppression and extraction from wheeled vehicles. Work will be performed in Broomfield, Colo., and is expected to be completed April 8, 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract award was a sole-source procurement. Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Va., is the contracting activity (M67854-10-C-5047). AIR FORCE ~Vinnell Brown and Root, LLC, Herndon, Va., was awarded a $37,535,776 contract which will provide consolidated base operations and maintenance contract for base facilities located in Turkey and Spain. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. 700 CONS, APO, AE, is the contracting activity (FA5613-10-C-5400). ~CymSTAR LLC, Broken Arrow, Okla., was awarded a $6,101,030 contract which will provide boom operator weapons system trainers for Air Mobility Command, KC-135 aircrew training systems. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. 558 ACSG/PK, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8223-10-C-0002). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY ~Sopakco, Inc., Mullins, S.C.*, is being awarded a maximum $14,333,760 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity contract for first strike ration. There are no other locations of performance. Using services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. There were originally 38 proposals solicited with three responses. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance completion is Aug. 31, 2010. The Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (SPM3S1-08-D-Z101). ~Carter Enterprises, LLC, Brooklyn, N.Y.*, is being awarded a maximum $9,180,000 firm-fixed-price, total set-aside contract for mechanic’s coveralls. There are no other locations of performance. Using services are Army, Navy and Air Force. There were originally four proposals solicited with four responses. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The date of performance completion is Oct. 5, 2010. The Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (SPM1C1-10-C-0009).

DTN News: Oshkosh Defense Receives Four Awards Valued At $89 Million For M-ATV And FHTV Parts

DTN News: Oshkosh Defense Receives Four Awards Valued At $89 Million For M-ATV And FHTV Parts *Source: DTN News / Oshkosh Corporation (NSI News Source Info) OSHKOSH, Wis. - January 21, 2010: Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK) announced today that its Defense division received four awards valued at more than $89 million from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to supply parts for the MRAP All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV), Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET) and Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT). Under two delivery orders with the DLA, Oshkosh will supply M-ATV spare parts, including engines, transmissions, transfer cases and alternators. Work under the orders is expected to be completed by October 2010. Under two other delivery orders with the DLA, Oshkosh will supply 2,400 axle assemblies for the HEMTT A2 and A4 models and more than 430 engines for the HET. Work under these orders is expected to be completed by December 2010. Oshkosh is providing the M-ATV’s spare parts to the DLA to be used as in-the-field replacements after the original vehicle parts have been consumed. These parts will ship without delay to maintain optimal readiness rates for existing vehicles in theater. To date, Oshkosh has received awards valued at more than $3.6 billion to deliver 6,619 M-ATVs, as well as spare kits and aftermarket in-theater support. Existing Oshkosh facilities have the capacity, highly skilled workforce and proven manufacturing capability to deliver these spare parts and all other Defense program orders, including the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV), as well as any surges in production. The M-ATV features the Oshkosh-patented TAK-4® independent suspension system to provide superior mobility on Afghanistan’s harsh off-road terrain and unimproved roads. Oshkosh teamed with Plasan North America to provide an advanced armor solution for the vehicle. Plasan also developed the armor system used on more than 5,000 legacy MRAPs and thousands of Oshkosh Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) Armored Cabs already in theater. A 13-ton payload and off-road capabilities make the Oshkosh® HEMTT the backbone of the U.S. Army’s logistics fleet. Improvements to the HEMTT A4 include: a more powerful drivetrain; improved suspension; a fully air-conditioned and armor-ready cab; and other structural changes to make in-field installation of add-on armor quicker and easier. The HEMTT A4 is built with maximum common parts across its variants. The Oshkosh HET is designed to rapidly transport battle tanks, fighting and recovery vehicles, armored vehicles and construction equipment, as well as their crews, so they arrive in mission-ready condition. The latest Oshkosh HET A1 configuration includes increased horsepower, higher-capacity front suspension, an armor-ready cab, electrical upgrades and improved diagnostics. About Oshkosh Defense

Oshkosh Defense, a division of Oshkosh Corporation, is an industry-leading global designer and manufacturer of tactical military trucks and armored wheeled vehicles, delivering a full product line of conventional and hybrid vehicles, advanced armor options, proprietary suspensions and vehicles with payloads that can exceed 70 tons. Oshkosh Defense provides a global service and supply network including full life-cycle support and remanufacturing, and its vehicles are recognized the world over for superior performance, reliability and protection. For more information, visit www.oshkoshdefense.com. About Oshkosh Corporation

Oshkosh Corporation is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of specialty access equipment, commercial, fire & emergency and military vehicles and vehicle bodies. Oshkosh Corp. manufactures, distributes and services products under the brands of Oshkosh®, JLG®, Pierce®, McNeilus®, Medtec®, Jerr-Dan®, Oshkosh Specialty Vehicles, Frontline™, SMIT™, CON-E-CO®, London® and IMT®. Oshkosh products are valued worldwide in businesses where high quality, superior performance, rugged reliability and long-term value are paramount. For more information, log on to www.oshkoshcorporation.com.

DTN News: Russia Warns Against Remilitarization Of Georgia

DTN News: Russia Warns Against Remilitarization Of Georgia *Source: DTN News / RIA Novosti (NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW, Russia - January 21, 2010: Russia will call for the international community to prevent the remilitarization of Georgia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. A new round of talks on the Transcaucasus, launched after Russia's war with Georgia in 2008, will start in Geneva on January 28. They also involve Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, recognized by Russia as independent states. "A solution is needed on the issue of remilitarizing Georgia and restoring its offensive military potential, which may in the long term lead to escalating the situation in the Transcaucasus with unpredictable consequences for the region's peoples and countries," the ministry said in a statement. The talks are backed by the UN, the EU and the OSCE. "All responsible parties in international relations should understand the malignancy of double-standard policies in regard to Georgia, especially in regard to secret supplies of modern weapons and military equipment to Georgia," the ministry's statement reads. The ministry said Russia would also call for Georgia, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia to sign an agreement on non-use of force as soon as possible. "Amid the continuing military rhetoric from Tbilisi, calls for the restoration of territorial unity of Georgia by all means, and the elevation of Georgia's military presence and maneuvers near the borders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the issue of providing strong security guarantees for Sukhumi and Tskhinvali becomes even more important," the ministry said. The parties will also discuss humanitarian issues related to refugees and displaced people. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin will head the Russian delegation at the talks, which will take place in Geneva for the tenth time.