"Agreement allows US to fly drones from base in Japan; Pentagon gets northeast Asia rights for 1st time" by Craig Whitlock and Anne Gearan | Washington Post, October 04, 2013
TOKYO — The US military will deploy long-range Global Hawk surveillance drones from Japan next year, American and Japanese officials announced on Thursday, marking the first time the Pentagon has been able to secure basing rights for the advanced unmanned aircraft in northeast Asia.
The Air Force will begin flying ‘‘two or three’’ Global Hawks from an undetermined base in Japan next spring, a senior US administration official told reporters during a visit here by Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
The drones’ primary mission will be to fly near North Korea, an area where US officials hope they will greatly enhance current spying capabilities. The Air Force already has Global Hawks stationed at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the US territory in the Pacific, but North Korea is at the edge of their range and their flights often are curtailed because of bad weather.
The Air Force also has Global Hawks stationed in the Persian Gulf.
The unarmed drones carry multiple spy sensors and are the most advanced surveillance aircraft in the Air Force’s fleet. They fly at altitudes above 60,000 feet, placing them out of range of most air defenses. Without pilots in the cockpit, they can fly for more than 28 hours at a time, giving them an unmatched range of nearly 9,000 nautical miles.
The presence of Global Hawks is sure to irritate China, which has increasingly pushed back against the US military presence in the region. Officials in Beijing had criticized Tokyo in recent days over reports that the Japanese military was considering acquiring its own Global Hawks, saying the move could escalate tensions.
China is also engaged in a bitter territorial dispute with Japan over the Senkaku Islands, an uninhabited group of outcroppings in the East China Sea that Japan nationalized last year, sparking confrontations between the two countries’ ships deployed in the area.
It's the East CHINA Sea?
I think that clears up the ownership. Doesn't Japan have its own sea.
Related: Chinese Seize Japanese Islands
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: China Maps Out WWIII
They have decide to dump their U.S. Treasury bonds.
Besides flying missions over North Korea, the Global Hawks would presumably give the United States and Japan better information about the movements of Chinese ships in the vicinity of Senkaku.
Yeah, this isn't about Korea at all!
The same goes for Chinese ships elsewhere in the region, such as the South China Sea, where China is mired in territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and other countries.
The US military has flown drones over Japan in the past on a temporary basis, including after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, but next year will mark the first time it will base them in that country, according to US officials. They said the drones would be deployed on a rotational basis, meaning they could be moved elsewhere, such as Guam, for months at a time.
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Related: Sunday Globe Special: The Ringing Silence of Drone $urveillance
Maybe you can hear this:
"US military helicopter crashes in Okinawa" Associated Press, August 06, 2013
TOKYO — A US military helicopter crashed Monday at an American base on the southern island of Okinawa, and all four crew members are believed to have survived, Japanese and US officials said.
The HH-60 rescue helicopter, which belongs to Okinawa’s Kadena Air Base, was on an unspecified training mission when it crashed at Camp Hansen, a US Air Force statement said.
Television footage showed smoke rising from a spot in the forest, with a mangled object that appeared to be the frame of the helicopter ablaze.
The US statement said the cause of the crash was not known, and it did not elaborate on the condition of the four crew members on board.
However, Japan’s defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, told reporters that three crew members ejected and the fourth was taken to a hospital.
Onodera said he was asking the United States to provide information promptly, conduct a thorough investigation, and take preventive measures. Okinawan prefectural police said there were no reports of injuries or damage outside the base.
The crash comes amid strong local opposition to the US Marine Corps’ additional deployment of 12 MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft on the island. About half of the 50,000 US troops in Japan are based on Okinawa.
I guess they won't be putting the drone base there.
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I'm sure they will find some place to put them since the new nationalist government is looking to change the constitution (even with polls showing a majority of voters still opposing changes to the antiwar provisions) to allow for the return of Japanese imperialism to places never dreamed before. Let's hope it ends up better than the last time for the ladies.
Maybe the new AmeriKan ambassador can help:
"Caroline Kennedy is president’s pick as ambassador to Japan" July 25, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday revealed he was nominating Caroline Kennedy as the US ambassador to Japan, an appointment that would catapult the only surviving child of slain President John F. Kennedy to a dynamic diplomatic post.
Kennedy, who has been rumored to be in line for the position for months, would be the first female American ambassador in Tokyo.
Kennedy has a long history with President Obama, having endorsed him over Hillary Rodham Clinton at a crucial point in the 2008 Democratic primary contest. She also cochaired Obama’s 2008 search for a running mate and cochaired his 2012 reelection effort.
Kennedy, 55, a book editor and lawyer, unsuccessfully sought an appointment to replace Clinton in the US Senate in 2009 but declined to run in a special election. She serves as president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and chair of the senior advisory committee of the Institute of Politics at Harvard.
Kennedy would enter Far East diplomacy in a time of change and unease. The United States is pivoting its military and diplomatic focus from the Middle East to the Pacific Rim in a bid to engage and check China.
Of course we told the Chinese we have no such motives or desires.
Also, problems have percolated in the past decade on the Korean peninsula, with North Korea’s blustering diplomatic pose and its testing of nuclear devices.
If she is confirmed to the post, her boss would be Secretary of State John F. Kerry, former Massachusetts senator. She would also follow in a Kennedy tradition, with her grandfather, Joseph P. Kennedy, serving as President Franklin Roosevelt’s ambassador to Great Britain from 1938 to 1940, and her aunt, Jean Kennedy Smith, who served as US envoy to Ireland under President Bill Clinton.
Grandfather Joe was run out as a Nazi sympathizer because he knew the power of the Jewish cabal, something of which his sons were well aware.
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"Caroline Kennedy’s personal fortune as high as $275m" by Matt Viser | Globe Staff, August 19, 2013
WASHINGTON — The 53-page filing disclosed a broad range of investments, most of which are in bond holdings, health care, and property that she has in New York, Chicago, Washington, and Massachusetts.
Caroline Kennedy has three separate trusts that were established in her name in 1959, 1963, and 1982 and are worth up to $35 million. She also has a trust named for her late brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., worth up to $5 million.
Kennedy filed the disclosure forms last month, but it did not gain wide notice until the New York Post reported on them Monday.
Over the last year and a half, Kennedy earned between $5 million and $27.4 million from her investments, according to a tally of her filing.
She also received $583,333 from Hyperion Books for payments related to her 2011 book, “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy.” And she received a total of $325,000 for four speaking engagements, from Swan Productions in California and Triglobal Strategic Ventures in New York.
There were some investments that she did not disclose. She has a financial interest in a Goldman Sachs fund that does not disclose the underlying assets to investors. Kennedy said that she would divest from the fund if she is confirmed.
How far the Kennedy family has fallen since the days of Camelot.
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Related:
Japan ambassadorship requires a seasoned diplomat
Is Caroline Kennedy qualified?
Too late now because she was cleared for confirmation.
That should just about do it.
Also see:
Japan urged to allow more US cars
US says Japan has long way to go to open markets
