Monthly Archives: April 2020

The majority of the United Kingdoms missile technology was developed in tandem with the United States, and is thus compatible with American weapons platforms. Here are two missiles that show just how close the United States and the United Kingdoms missile tech really is.

Trident D-5

Perhaps the most well-known missile in the United Kingdoms arsenal is the Trident D-5. The Trident D-5 missile is in service with both the United States and the United Kingdom, where it is used to equip American Ohio-class submarines, and British Vanguard-class subs. Its maximum range is 12,000 kilometers, or about 7,500 miles and carries a nuclear payload.

The Trident family of missiles was originally developed in the late 1980s at the tail-end of the Cold War. It entered service with the United States in 1990 and with the United Kingdom in 1994. Although each missile is capable of carrying up to twelve re-entry vehicles, the New START treaty caps this number at eight.

Trident missiles have been steadily improved nearly as soon as they entered service. In 1994, an earth penetrating version was developed that could eliminate hardened, underground targets. In 1998, Tridents were given an optionally-equipped air burst fuse, presumably for non-tactical scenarios where maximum destructive power would be ideal.

Though the Trident missile system was intended to be retired by the United States in the late 2020s, 300 Tridents are currently being upgraded, which will allow them to remain in service with both the United States and the United Kingdom until at least 2042.

Nuclear missiles get a lot of attention. Heres something conventionally explosive:

Spear 3

In the aftermath of NATOs 1999 involvement in Kosovo, a missile capability gap was observed. United Kingdom forces struggled at times to carry out strikes against mobile and time-sensitive targets. The Spear 3 was developed to fill this gap.

The Spear 3 is an air-launched cruise missile that can target air defense units, ballistic missile launchers, fast moving and maneuvering vehicles, main battle tanks, naval vessels, and armored personnel carriers.

The Spear 3 also has stand-off capabilities, and is intended to be launched at ground targets at safe distance away from advanced anti-aircraft and air defense systems, especially those used by Russia. To that end, the Spear 3 has wings that deploy after launch, giving the missile a 140 plus kilometer range, or nearly 90 miles.

It is domestically-designed in the UK and specifically intended for use with the American F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter. The F-35 can carry the Spear 3 internally in the weapons bay, or under the wings on two external hard points, though carrying missiles outside the weapons bay would greatly degrade the F-35s stealth characteristics.

One of the considerations that was prioritized during the design process was missile robustness. The missile is insensitive to external factors that could cause its trajectory to deviate or the missile to explode, like bullet strikes or extreme heat or cold. It can be deployed against many targets and be specifically tailored to achieve its desired effect based on mission-specific details in real-time.

Special Relationship

There is no denying the U.S.-UK Special Relationship, which is very apparent when looking at the missile development and interoperability between the two countries. Trident missiles equip American and British submarines, and the UK developed munitions specifically for their American-bought stealth fighter-jetsa friendship for the ages.

Caleb Larson is a Defense Writer with The National Interest. He holds a Master of Public Policy and covers U.S. and Russian security, European defense issues, and German politics and culture.

Image: Wikipedia.

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The U.S. and U.K. Have a Special (Missile) Relationship - The National Interest

A screenshot from electronic court in Sacramento

By Nancy Martinez

What will be the long-lasting effects of COVID-19 on the national criminal justice system?

The COVID-19 pandemic has momentarily transformed Californias criminal justice system; some argue that this change is exactly what is needed for the 21st century, while others argue that it violates the right to confront ones accuser.

As of April 1, the Sacramento Superior Court began live-streaming some criminal court proceedings through the live stream application, Zoom. The San Francisco Superior Court will also begin live streaming some proceedings. These decisions come after several published statements on the courts websites declaring court closures until mid-April.

Court closures have resulted in extended periods for motions to be filed. While this is currently affecting the timeframe individuals are kept in jail, this has also initially affected civil jury trials, such as eviction trials. Dean Preston, Supervisor of San Franciscos Fifth District, discussed via a thread of tweets on March 14 that the San Francisco Superior Court had exempted the continuation of eviction cases while all other civil jury tries were continued for 90 days.

Individuals who were in the process of being evicted from their homes were required to present themselves in court to defend their case.

While these orders have changed since March 14, as the pandemic worsens, this clearly shows the impact COVID-19 has had on court trials and the responses courts have had to unprecedented change.

To avoid further delaying court matters, multiple California courts have endorsed the use of conferencing tools such as Zoom to live stream court hearings.

Though some technological obstacles may arise during these streams, the Superior Court of Sacramento has found the technique to be successful and plans on expanding technology-based solutions to other areas, as reported in a news release on April 3.

COVID-19 has enforced a sudden change that some believe was already coming. As the turn of the 21st century brought an explosion of technological advances, the criminal justice system and its processes remained unchanged.

The criminal justice system has seen little change in the traditional trial process. In the last 20 years, efficiency may have increased as technology has allowed for a swifter court process. However, drastic changes have been surprisingly unseen.

As many people online predict that the world will never return to the ways before COVID-19, it is reasonable to conclude that the criminal justice system will not be exempted from these predictions. This sudden heavy reliance on technology has begun instilling an idea of an electronic future that does not require in-person interactions.

The success of new technological techniques will allow future courts to be able to consider other methods that can alleviate the inconveniences of crowded courtrooms, trauma on witnesses from facing defendants, and communication struggles.

On the other hand, a remote court system can affect the benefits of in-person interactions that include a defendants right to confront their accuser, accurate and clear communication between the defendant and their attorney, and attention retention of all members of the court.

Despite the advantages and disadvantages of a remotely-sustained court system, the question of whether the criminal justice system will remain unchanged after COVID-19 seems insignificant after considering the reactions courts have had to the introduction of streaming services.

To deny a predicted long-lasting effect of COVID-19 on the criminal justice system is to deny the development of a rapidly changing world at the hands of technology. Society is now comprehending how to adjust a justice system that is struggling to defend the human rights of individuals affected by the justice system.

In the coming months, the long-lasting effects of an electronic court system will be determined as courts across the United States devote their efforts to remotely assist their communities.

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Transitioning into the Electronic Court System - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

**As House Insists on Probe

The House of Representatives, yesterday vowed to dig into the expenditure of the Social Intervention Funds as a palliative for Nigerians who are depressed by the effect of the COVID 19 pandemic, the refusal of the Presidency to cooperate with them, notwithstanding.

The House, in a statement issued by its Spokesman, Rep. Benjamin Kalu(APC-Abia), also rejected allegations by an online newspaper and the Special Advisor to the President on National Social Investment Programs (NSIPs), Mrs. Maryam Uwais that the House attempted to compromise operations of the programme.

We are aware that Madam Uwais has on certain occasions, including a TV interview on ChannelsTVs Sunrise Daily programme, cited Section 14 of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act as providing an exemption by which the FG can refuse to reveal details of the NSIPs to the National Assembly. This suggests a deliberate attempt by Madam Uwais to conceal information pertaining to the financial activities of NSIP from the elected representatives of Nigerians as we especially recall that she blatantly ignored a letter of enquiry from the House Committee on Public Account addressed to her in her capacity as Special Assistant to the President on NSIP dated August 6, 2019 with reference number HR/SCO5/52/XX/400 requesting a brief of the activities (including income and expenditure profile) of her office from the year 2014 to 2018, he stated.

The Spokesman stated further that While stating categorically that the operations of the NSIP do not fall under the exemptions contemplated in Section 14 of the FOI Act, it is instructive to note that Sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution vests exclusive powers of oversight on the legislative arm of government, which also applies to any and all forms of government intervention programs, including the NSIP which is a disbursement of the nations funds appropriated by the National Assembly in the first place. The powers of the National Assembly to investigate or request any information from the executive are vested by the Constitution and are not subject to the stipulation of the FOI Act, he stated on behalf of the House .

He warned that We must remember that the doctrine of checks and balances is an essential element of our constitutional democracy and once it is discarded our democracy becomes wobbly. Therefore, the 9th House of Representatives frowns at any fake news or publication that seeks to cast aspersions on its intentions and commitment to the people of Nigeria in its exercise of constitutional duties, stressing that the Peoples Parliament and in the spirit and letter of Sections 14, 88 and 89 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (the Constitution), our priority remains to employ all legislative interventions to ensure the welfare of Nigerians in the face of the Covid-19 crisis and the economic hardship it has wrought on the poor and vulnerable among us.

He described as misleading and slanderous, publications of Madam Maryam Uwais MFR and Sahara Reporters both published on April 8, 2020 regarding the implementation of the National Social Investment Programs (NSIPs), the National Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, including the development of the National Social Register (NSR).

He said insinuations in the above mentioned publications that the 9th House of Representatives labeled the NSIPs as a failure and a scam are incorrect and untrue. So also are the insinuations that the 9th House of Representatives has sought to compromise the NSR and input the names of undeserving Nigerians as beneficiaries of the programs.

According to him, the 9th House of Representatives under the leadership of the Speaker Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila acting upon complaints from Nigerians in 360 federal constituencies regarding the inadequate spread of the NSIPs, and also concerns that the NSR is outdated and does not reflect an accurate representation of the poor and vulnerable in Nigeria, intervened through a cordial interaction with the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq with the sole aim of ensuring and enhancing the delivery of service as well as the equitable distribution of the programs to the Nigerians most in need of them during this period of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He disclosed that Part of our concerns expressed at this meeting, was the need to review and improve the outdated NSR as well as the methodology deployed in identifying the poor and vulnerable in the various communities in view of the complaints from several constituencies that they have not benefited from the programs. An outcome of this meeting was an understanding per the Speakers proposition that a legislative framework is needed to maximize the efficiency of the NSIPs.

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COVID 19: Presidency rejects reps summons over palliative funds - Vanguard

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Doing so will save countless lives, and in the process, they may show us by example how to begin, finally, to dismantle mass incarceration for good.

By Sharon Dolovich

Most of Americas 2.3 million prisoners cannot practice social distancing. They are packed into overcrowded facilities, living, sleeping and bathing within feet sometimes inches of each other. Whats more, they lack basics including soap, warm water and clean towels, let alone hand sanitizer. Unless radical action is taken, many thousands of people inside staff and prisoners alike will needlessly die.

The radical action required the only one that can prevent massive unnecessary loss of life is reducing the population of jails and prisons. Efforts in this direction have begun in many jurisdictions. But the steps taken so far are not nearly enough, not by a long shot. All public officials with release authority including sheriffs, prosecutors, judges, corrections officials, parole boards, and governors need to step up and immediately find ways to release as many people as they can before the virus strikes. In doing so, they have the opportunity both to save thousands of lives and begin the long overdue process of ending the costly, inhumane and counterproductive project of mass incarceration.

In the 1970s, the size of the American prisoner population was roughly on par with other Western democracies. Yet starting in the 1980s, the U.S. became the worlds biggest jailer, jamming incarcerated people into dormitories and doubling them up in small cells in open disregard for their health and wellbeing.

There was a time, beginning in the mid-1970s, when federal courts confronting dirty, decrepit and crowded prisons and jails readily found conditions unconstitutional and ordered states and municipalities to reduce their prisoner populations. But when President Clinton joined with Congress to enact the Prison Litigation Reform Act, the power of the federal courts to issue such orders was drastically curtailed.

In the mid-1980s, 43% of the national jail population and 27% of the prison population were housed in facilities with court-ordered population caps. By 2006, these numbers had dropped to 11% and 2% respectively, undermining a key check on overcrowding.

Today, harsh conditions and often grossly inadequate health care leave many prisoners medically compromised. In California prisons alone, an estimated 17,000 people 14% of the states prison population suffer from chronic diseases including cancer, end-stage liver disease, acute asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and kidney conditions requiring dialysis.

Long before COVID-19 arrived, some jurisdictions had made moves towards decarceration. The federal prison population is down 20% from its historic 2014 high of almost 220,000. From 2006 to 2016, New Yorks prison system shed 10% of its population. In 2016, the New Jersey Department of Corrections held 37% fewer people than it did at its height in 1999. Some local jurisdictions have gone still further. Thanks to bail reform and other strategies, the population of Chicagos Cook County Jail has dropped by more than half since 2005. In Rikers Island, the population is down more than two-thirds from a decade ago. Still, these facilities are outliers, and, as the fast-growing number of confirmed cases in both institutions makes crystal clear, even they remain too crowded and too full of people in the highest risk groups to avoid the devastating effects of the virus.

But crisis is opportunity. As the COVID-19 threat has grown, something is happening that was unthinkable just six weeks ago: government officials are letting people out. UCLA School of Law has created a public database to track coronavirus-driven policy changes all over the country, and it shows conscientious officials rediscovering decarceral powers they had forgotten they had. Officials in Fort Worth, Texas have suspended arrests for minor offenses. The jail in Oakland, California sent home 314 low-level offenders. The New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the release of anyone in jail on a probation violation or for a minor offense. In West Virginia, prison officials are releasing parole violators and extending weekend furloughs and are actively looking for other levels to pull. Corrections commissioners in Iowa, North Dakota, Rhode Island and other states are seeking to expedite parole releases and to shift people to community placement.

Some officials are driven by fear that prisoners with COVID-19-induced respiratory distress will be sent to local hospitals and monopolize scarce ventilators. But whatever the motive, no one is racing to release anyone dangerous. Nor need they do so to quell this crisis.

For decades, we have incarcerated hundreds of thousands of people who pose little public safety risk. Many people in custody right now committed nonviolent crimes. Many, after decades in prison for serious crimes, are fully ready to be law-abiding and productive citizens. Many more are elderly and sick and need medical or hospice care, not bars and handcuffs.

COVID-19 is already moving through prisons and jails across the country, and confirmed cases are growing exponentially. In Rikers, 374 staff and 273 residents have now tested positive. At Oakdale, a low-security federal prison in southwest Louisiana, at least five prisoners have already died. These numbers, along with all reported positive cases and COVID-19-induced deaths inside, are almost certainly undercounts. In every facility, once the virus takes hold, it will spread quickly. Untold numbers of people will die, effectively sentencing them to the death penalty, whatever their crime.

Every public official with the power to decarcerate should exercise that power now, to the fullest extent. If they do, they will save countless lives, including those of staff. And in the process, they may show us by example how to begin, finally, to dismantle mass incarceration for good.

Sharon Dolovich is a professor of law and director of the UCLA Prison Law and Policy Program. She is currently spearheading the UCLA COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project, which is keeping track of developments related to COVID-19 in prisons and jails nationwide. Article originally appeared in the Appeal.

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Guest Commentary: Every Public Official with the Power to Decarcerate Must Exercise That Power Now - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

Opinion

By Abdulai Braima

Dear Guru Oswald Hanciles,

I think your curious attempt to clean up Sylvia and present her in the bright light of her ethnic pedigree is a disservice to what you profess to represent as well as to the Creole people in whose brilliant image you want to define Sylvia.

In the first place, there is nothing inversely or overtly relevant about your unwarranted tumbling into the derogative diction of slave-catcher/seller historicity of OUR (Creoles and non-Creole) collective past with reference to Sylvia Blyden and her mischief!

And, CERTAINLY, Sylvia is not one of the stellar representatives of a glorious line of a people who were/are not just known to be very brainy but who were/are verifiable champions of the fight to instil morality in, especially, public life!

On the contrary, it is my candid opinion that your strenuous attempt to decorate Sylvia and instal her in the hall of fame to which the phalanx of commendable creole notables rightly belong is a disingenuous disservice to our great national patriots, both living and dead.

In some of your writings you sound like a fair-minded dude. I would advise you to stick to your global call for trillion dollar slave trade reparation and your even more plausible advocacy on climate change. Your attempt to launder your ghastly Tolongbo comrades and sell them off as gold is a dead lead sinker! For you might be the only APC elite who does not know that TOLONGBOISM is not about Creole history or Mende-Themne/etc interest. It is about tethered Human Cows eating every blade of stolen grass in their sight. It is about thieves STEALING from every tribe in every region! Simple!

So your syllogisms coated in such utterly divisive ethnic slave-seller phraseology is sadly self-debasing and ultimately deluding!

In actuality, your lengthy preamble not withstanding, you have failed on the most vital counts on which the theme of your post really rested. No, it is not unity. The under-current thrust here is an attempt to showcase why you think Sylvias divisive rants against the current government should be accepted as a call to peace and unity.

I dont know if any other person has, but I directly accused Sylvia of the showboating you referenced. If somebody else saw her that way then that would be a welcomed addition to my candid conclusion.

And speaking of contextualisation I wonder why you didnt reference the shifty statements that provoked the showboating characterisation of your unity champion. WHERE is the unity in any of Sylvias sarcastic jibes?

Okay, let me draw your attention to the context: Sylvia scribbled a nonsensical post in which she tried to disparage Rtd. Brig Kellie Conteh, Hon. Dr. Alpha Wurie and President Julius Maada Bio by patronisingly (even flippantly) describing these three respectable and respected gentlemen as non medical persons leading the fight against the Covid-19 menace.

Her unnecessary emphasis on the non-medicality of our leaders in this battle was a calculated art of mischief that has nothing like Creole heritage and smells nothing of unity in its input or implications. So I challenged her to produce the equivalent TOLONGBO MEDICAL-LADEN leadership line-up during our fight against Ebola and I even went further to educate her on the wrong-headed premise built into her piece suggesting that national leadership should be predicated upon medical qualifications.

Bro, your attempt to sanitise Sylvia may understandably be a pandering to past or present political (or perhaps ethnic) proximity but it certainly has ZERO to do with the trans-Atlantic slave trade era. If anything, her attitude (if not her conduct) is a typical manifestation of the mindless cash-flushed Slave Catchers and the sneaky Uncle Tom House Niggers both of whom may come from different ethnic backgrounds but all of whom belong to the same nation-selling category! Dont you realise that Sylvias butt of attacks has been constantly directed at someone who is a woman who also happens to be APC and who is even more Creole than Sylvia claims to be?

Mayor Aki-Sawyer is miles above Sylvia Blyden in every category that spells decency!

And NO, Sylvia Blyden has not resisted...being overtly or obliquely cowered into silence by the descendants of the slave-catchers and slave-sellers; on the contrary, Sylvia has actively participated, at the highest level, in silencing the descendants of the slaves as well as the descendants of the Slave-sellers.

By pitching her tent with crooks in the Tolongbo camp who banded together to plunder our land, Sylvia actively helped to defile our national institutions and deprive our people.

In your own words, the APC is a party that practised State-sanctioned terrorism. Knowing that you have been inside or around the APC for decades, I can take your word for that.

But the question is: When did you realise that the APC is a terrorist outfit? After the bludgeoning of Bank Governor Sam Bangura? After the murder and burning of love rival Mustapha? After the cold blooded slaughter of Major S.O. Williams? After criminally selling off our rutile resources for 99 years and plundering everything else in sight including a highly lucrative iron-ore mine or after the daylight rape of our national constitution with disdain?

Oswald, do you really want to play the political lawyer to absolve Sylvia and create a saint out of this broken-pen EBK-trusted SEA, from acts that led to sinking our nation? Really? You need an undiluted pipe of pouring bleach!

My brother, Sylvia Blydens sainthood can only receive a crown from those who worshiped in the same den of the APC DEBUL... perhaps in the self same pew in a State House that fed its ranks on Ebola cheques and hard Hajj cash.

What is so Creole about that shameful level of sacrilegious robbery?

Bo do ya unu lef dem Creole out of unu Tolongbo dabaru saful! True true Creole man (or woman) nor mix pan Ojukokoro business.

Nar so me see ahn; en Nar so Ih be!

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Cautioning Oswald over Sylvia - The Patriotic Vanguard