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12
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MONDAY, MAY 16, 2011
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Wary of security, Navy won’t talk about bin Laden ABOARD THE USS CARL VINSON: American servicemen aboard the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, which buried Osama bin Laden’s body at sea, basked in their history-making mission yesterday but refused to discuss the attack that killed him, reflecting concerns over possible retaliation. US defense officials are taking measures to ensure the security of the operatives involved in the May 2 assault on a walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, particularly the Navy SEAL team that killed the world’s most-wanted terrorist. The massive aircraft carrier dropped anchor under heavy guard at Manila Bay yesterday at
the start of a four-day routine port and goodwill visit. It’s the first break for Carl Vinson’s 5,500 sailors, pilots and crew after months of war in Iraq and Afghanistan that was capped by their support to the commando strike that killed bin Laden. All those aboard the warship were ordered not to discuss operational details as they come into contact with the public for the first time since the covert strike, officials said. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, accompanied by senior members of his Cabinet and military chief of staff, were flown to the Carl Vinson on Saturday as it traveled in the South China Sea toward the Philippines, a key Asian anti-terrorism ally.
Then a group of journalists were invited the next day. Discussions about the slain al-Qaeda leader were taboo in both visits. American servicemen did not show any overt sign of celebration over their triumph. Asked how he felt being a part of the history-making mission in Pakistan, Rear Admiral Samuel Perez, who headed the carrier strike force that included the nuclear-powered Carl Vinson, refused to be drawn in. “You know I’m not going to comment on that,” Perez told journalists aboard the 97,000ton carrier, but added that “everyday that you’re a sailor in the US Navy, you’re a part of history.” Filipino-American Navy Corpsman Liberty Raposas said
morale was “very high” among her colleagues. Perez said hundreds of servicemen and women who trace their roots to the Philippines welcomed Aquino, who was given a tour of the ship and an exhibition of fighter jets landing and taking off. Aquino, at one point, sat in the cockpit of an F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet in a hangar bay as sailors snapped pictures. But the one thing on everybody’s mind — bin Laden’s burial from the Carl Vinson just 12 days earlier — was not raised by either side, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said. “We did not ask for a briefing because it was too sensitive,” Gazmin told The Associated Press on Sunday.
“It was a friendly visit and we let it stay that way.” In impromptu remarks on the ship, Aquino reaffirmed the “historic, defense and cultural ties” between the United States and the Philippines, his spokesman, Ricky Carandang, said. US forces have been training and arming Filipino soldiers battling al-Qaeda-linked militants in the south. The Carl Vinson came from the North Arabian Sea, where it had received the SEAL team that carried bin Laden’s body after his death in his compound near a Pakistani military academy. Pentagon officials have said that on the carrier, bin Laden’s body was placed in a “weighted bag,” an officer made religious
remarks and the remains were put on a flat board and tipped into the sea. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that during a recent meeting with SEAL members who attacked bin Laden, they expressed concerns about their families’ security. American officials agreed shortly after bin Laden was killed not to release any details on the commando assault, Gates said, but added “that fell apart — the next day.” “We are looking at what measures can be taken to pump up the security,” Gates said. The US Embassy said Carl Vinson’s servicemen will take part in sports events and civic projects with Filipino counterparts. —AP
Japan readies new tactics for Fukushima after setback Radioactive water pooled in basement TOKYO: Japanese officials are readying a new approach to cooling reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant after discovering an Olympic swimming pool-sized pond of radioactive water in the basement of a unit crippled by the March earthquake and tsunami. The discovery has forced officials to abandon their original plan to bring under control the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant as they focus on how to deal with the rising pool that some experts see as a threat to groundwater and the Pacific coast.
NARATHIWAT: Thai police officers examine the site of an attack on a Thai Buddhist man who was shot dead with another injured by suspected separatist militants in Thailand’s restive southern province of Narathiwat yesterday. —AFP
Singapore patriarch Lee’s departure signals reform SINGAPORE: Singapore independence leader Lee Kuan Yew’s decision to step down after half a century in government could pave the way for reforms after the ruling party’s worst election showing, analysts said yesterday. The 87-year-old politician popularly known as “LKY” and his successor Goh Chok Tong, who turns 70 next week, announced Saturday that they would quit the cabinet of Lee’s son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 59. The catalyst was the May 7 parliamentary election, which revealed deep anger against the People’s Action Party (PAP) and confirmed the desire of young Singaporeans for a more open political system with checks and balances. “This decision reflects the first major steps toward serious reform of the PAP, a generational transformation,” Bridget Welsh, a political science professor at the Singapore Management University, told AFP. “The retirement of LKY was long overdue, as he has been seen as disconnecting from contemporary Singaporeans,” Welsh said. The PAP’s share of all votes cast fell to 60 percent, its lowest ever, and only a controversial system that elects MPs in groups capped the opposition at six out of 87 seats in the incoming parliament, still better than its previous best of four seats. The elder Lee served as prime minister from 1959, when colonial ruler Britain granted self-rule to Singapore, until 1990, when he stepped aside for his deputy Goh, who in turn handed power in 2004 to Lee’s son. In a joint statement, the two former premiers said their departure from the cabinet would enable the prime minister to “break from the past” and allow a younger generation to “carry Singapore forward.” The PAP has often described the unusual presence of two former leaders in the cabinet as part of an orderly succession process designed to tap the experience and international connec-
tions of Lee and Goh. But during the campaign, the two veterans attracted scorn from younger Singaporeans on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The prime minister said after the vote that the PAP would take a hard look at how it governs, calling it a “watershed” poll that marked a shift in the political landscape of the affluent island of five million people. He and other PAP leaders admitted they needed to address voters’ gripes over the cost of living, the presence of over a million foreigners, overcrowding in public housing and transport, and a lack of support for the poor and elderly. “The feedback was that the people are really very angry with the PAP,” said Seah Chiang Nee, who operates the independent socio-political website www.littlespeck.com. “There will be change. For one, people won’t have to fear about having someone always looking over their shoulders or about being sued,” he said, referring to libel suits that typically followed past elections. The PAP has always been associated with the elder Lee’s commanding presence and authoritarian style of government. Days before the polls, Lee warned voters in a hotly contested district that they would “repent” if they voted for the opposition-but it triggered an outcry instead and failed to stop the loss of five seats to the Workers’ Party. That setback cost Foreign Minister George Yeo, one of the most respected cabinet members, his job because he led the losing PAP ticket. The prime minister is expected to form his new cabinet within days. “What kind of transformation are they talking about?” political commentator Seah asked. “I would like to see it not only in words but in deeds. What will Prime Minister Lee do with the newfound power that he has?” —AFP
JILIN: Chinese police officers march with a police emblem during a mass performance of public security forces in Changchun in northeastern China’s Jilin province. —AP
Despite the setback, Japanese nuclear safety officials and the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) , plan to stick to a target of stabilising the plant and bringing its reactors to a state of “cold shutdown” by January. At that point, the fuel at the core of the reactors would have dropped in temperature and no longer be capable of boiling the surrounding water. “We want to preserve the timetable, but at the same time we’re going to have to change our approach,” Goshi Hosono, an adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, told a television talk show yesterday. Some outside experts have questioned whether the initial timetable for Fukushima was too optimistic. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the tsunami that followed unleashed the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. “We would be cautious about saying the danger is over until the decontamination and cleanup of the site are well under way with no more leakage,” Serge Gas, a spokesman for the Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency, said in an email. Tepco is scheduled to provide an update on progress on Tuesday. In a pair of television appearances yesterday, Hosono said the government would announce its own timetable then as well. Tepco is preparing to pay compensation to thousands of residents, farmers, fisherman and businesses for the disaster under a plan directed and partly funded by the government. The earthquake and ensuing 15-metre (46.5-foot) tsunami devastated Japan’s northeastern coast, killing more than 15,000 people. A further 9,500 are still missing. Details emerged about the state of the No. 1 reactor in the
FUKUSHIMA: A woman from Iitate village, carrying a baby, arrives at a housing of local government workers to be used for evacuation center, in Fukushima city, northern Japan, yesterday. — AP past week. Progress to bring the unit under control has been seen as a test case for how quickly work on three other damaged reactors can proceed. Among the revelations: the fuel in the reactor melted down after the earthquake and dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel at the reactor’s core about 16 hours after the quake struck. A robot on the first floor of the reactor building on Friday recorded radiation of 2,000 millisieverts per hour. At that level workers could stay in the vicinity for no longer than eight minutes before exceeding exposure limits. In addition, the reactor’s containment vessel has leaked large amounts of radioactive water into the reactor building. On Saturday, a Tepco worker was able to peer into the base-
N Korea, Iran share missile know-how UNITED NATIONS: North Korea and Iran are suspected of sharing ballistic missile technology, according to a UN sanctions report which China has sought to block, diplomats said yesterday. A Chinese representative on a UN panel of seven experts on North Korea nuclear sanctions refused to sign on the report, which said prohibited material was moved through a “neighboring third country”, according to diplomats. The country is not named in the report, excerpts of which were passed to AFP, but diplomats said it was China, the isolated north’s closest ally. The New York Times reported that Beijing had put political pressure on the expert not to sign. “There are certainly going to be some tough talks on the report this week,” said one diplomat, speaking like the others on condition of anonymity. The sanctions panel’s work is to be discussed on Tuesday. The UN Security Council imposed sanctions against North Korea after two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. It is banned from dealing in nuclear and ballistic material. “Prohibited ballistic missile-related items are suspected to have been transferred between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran on regular scheduled flights of Air Koryo and Iran Air,” the report said. Air Koryo and Iran Air are the national airlines of North Korea and Iran. Both countries face UN sanctions over their nuclear programs. —AFP
ment of the No.1 reactor and saw it had filled to almost half its 11metre (35-foot) height-an estimated 3,000 tonnes, larger than the volume of an Olympic swimming pool. Critics have said that pumping in large amounts of water- more than 10,000 tonnes in No. 1 reactor alone - could pose grave environmental risks. Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said new steps were being readied to treat and store radioactive water at Fukushima. As a first step, a massive barge set out for Fukushima yesterday. The 136-metre long “Mega-Float” had been used as an artificial island for fishing in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo. It will be turned into a floating storage site for
water with low levels of radioactivity starting in June. Among the major risks ahead, experts say, is the prospect of another hydrogen explosion like those believed to have destroyed parts of the buildings housing reactors No. 3 and No. 4. Officials also remain worried about structural damage to the No. 4 reactor and whether its storage pool for spent fuel rods has sufficient support. A strong aftershock could topple the structure and spill and scatter radioactive fuel on the ground, compounding the crisis, experts have said. Nishiyama said that Japanese officials “don’t believe it is in danger of immediate collapse,” but want to shore up the No. 4 reactor with new steel girders and cement. —Reuters
Australia arrests 1,600 ‘boozed-up idiots’ SYDNEY: Australia’s binge-drinking culture has been starkly highlighted with 1,600 “boozed-up idiots” arrested by police in a hardline weekend crackdown on alcohol-fuelled violence and crime. The trans-Tasman “Operation Unite”, a two-day blitz on public alcohol abuse and related crime that ended yesterday, was the latest attempt to hammer home the message that drunken thugs will not be tolerated. Almost two-thirds of the arrests were made in New South Wales state, followed by Western Australia, and included numerous assaults on police officers. Other offences included drink-driving, urinating in public, failing to quit a licensed premises when asked and resisting arrest. The Police Association of NSW slammed the “chaos and mayhem” that it says prevails in Australian cities every weekend and called for new strategies to attack the root causes of alcohol-related violence. “Operation Unite has proved that our culture of alcohol and violence is out of control, with boozed-up idiots running wild all over the country,” the association’s
acting president Pat Gooley said in a statement. “We need a comprehensive strategy for tackling alcohol-fuelled violence-one that addresses the causes of the problem, not just the symptoms.” Operation Unite’s commander, Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford, said that despite the cold weather there were still many people out drinking to excess. “Until people start getting the message, we’ll continue to target licensed premises, we’ll continue to target excessive alcohol consumption and we’ll continue to put people before the courts,” he said. In New Zealand, where Operation Unite was also conducted, 338 alcoholrelated arrests were made and 467 motorists returned positive breath tests. New Zealand police spokesman, acting Detective Superintendent Ross Grantham, said it would take more than a weekend of action to change the drinking culture. “Shifting away from the drink-to-getdrunk culture needs parents, retailers, community and other interested groups to be actively involved,” he said. —AFP