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Dithering by Defence Chiefs on Armoured Vehicles has cost 30 lives

Matthew Hickley

[Daily Mail-Defence Correspondent -February 21-2007]

DEFENCE chiefs wasted almost a decade on trying to develop new armoured vehicles - while soldiers were being killed in aging Land Rovers.

A scathing report by the Commons Defence Select Committee today describes the Ministry of Defence's efforts to provide [suitable] battlefield vehicles as hampered by a '

'sorry story of indecision , changing requirements and delay'.

Opposition critics accused the Government of putting the lives of servicemen and women in Iraq and Afghanistan at greater risk due to their 'INDECISION and MISMANAGEMENT' of the ISSUE.

More than 30 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq by roadside bombs since 2003 - many of them while travelling in poorly protected 'Snatch' Land Rovers.

MPs claim they identified an urgent need to equip the Army with new medium-weight armoured vehicles as long as 1998.

BUT despite Labour spending hundreds of millions og taxpayers money on failed or aborted schemes, the entire project remained little more than an idea.

Labour first promised the Army a new fleet of armoured vehicles in its 1998 Strategic Defence Review.

Ministers announced that medium-weight vehicles were needed to bridge the gap between the heavy Challenger tanks on the one hand and thin-skinned or lightly armoured vehicles such as Snatch Land Rovers on the other. But nine years on

NOT A SINGLE VEHICLE HAS BEEN BUILT OR ORDERED.

The vehicles - expected to be eight-wheeled armoured trucks -must be tough enough to protect troops from small roadside bombs or rocket-propelled grenades, but also light enough to be carried in the RAF's long awaited A400M transport aircraft - WHICH IS ITSELF YEARS BEHIND SCHEDULE.

Today's report reveals how the MoD first wasted £182 million on two failed joint projects with the USA and GERMANY.

The expected date for vehicles to enter service has slipped from 2009 and now doubtful before 20127, MPs said.

Meanwhile the MoD has spent £120 million buying off- the- shelfbomb proof Mastiff and Vector vehicles -although they have no fighting capability. Committee chairman James Arbuthnot said:

'The Army needs a a new generation of armoured fighting vehicles capable of being deployed overseas.

'Meanwhile, our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are expected to make do with a mix of old vehicles and stop-gap purchases.'

Shadow defence spokesman Gerald Howarth said:

'The Government's indecision, lack of direction, and mismanagement has led to its inability to provide our servicemen and women with the equipment they need when they need it.'

Defence Procurement Minister Lord Drayson [Friend of Tony Blair] said the delays were partly because of changing requirements on the Army's experiences in Iraq.

He said the MOD was now making 'rapid progress'.

[Well! We all know that Tony Blair was warned by seasoned diplomats from the Middle East when he decided to embark on an illegal war that it would lead to the exact scenario as shown since the supposed victory in 2003.

We have previously said that if the MoD had to pay a £1,000,000 to the relatives for each death in the theatre of war they would have solved the question of adequate protection for our troops years ago.

While the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have been starved of critical resources - billions have been spent on the EU Rapid Response Force and allied projects. Germany now has one of the largest Army's in EU Europe with 300,000 troops but it is very careful not to allow its soldiers to become involved in combat.

It caused the Kosovo crisis by the recognition of their WWII friend Croatia and the support of the Albanian so -called Freedom Fighters who were operating the biggest drug and gun-running corridor through Kosovo and Tiranen.

Germany gained control by the outright purchase of their main asset, their chromite mines.

Provoked by repeated terrorist attacks by Kosovo Freedom Fighters, the anticipated Serb response gave German-controlled Europe the excuse to lead NATO into an ILLEGAL WAR against a SOVEREIGN STATE -by cunning German contrivance. This served Germany's historical aim of destroying Serbia, helping to reclaim so-called German territory in the East, thus helping the construction of

GERMAN EUROPE

NOW

EUROPEAN UNION.

[For more background information click here]

[Font Altered-Bolding & Underling Used -Comments in Brackets]

FEBRUARY/07

*

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN-IS THE EU COMMISSION LISTENING?

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Ditch the EU TREATY after IRISH REJECTION

SAY VOTERS

by

Daniel Martin

Political Reporter

[Daily Mail-Wednesday, June 18,2008]

MORE THAN HALF of voters believe Britain should drop the controversial European Treaty in the wake of its rejection in last week's

IRISH REFERENDUM'

The poll comes as the Tories launch a last-ditch bid in the

HOUSE of LORDS

today to delay the

RATIFICATION OF THE TREATY.

And

10,000 people

have signed a

PETITION

on the

DOWNING STREET- WEBSITE

within the past few days

JUNE16-2008

, calling on the

GOVERNMENT

NOT TO RATIFY THE BILL

[WHY DON'T YOU?]

Downing Street website is

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Abandon-Lisbon/

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JUNE 18-2008