* The roll call that defeated the Amash-Conyers amendment to the FY14 House Appropriations bill was close enough that several congressmen have since the reiterated their support for or opposition against attempts to limit the NSA’s phone data gathering. It seems likely that similar amendments will be introduced in future bills.
* The bipartisan split over the Amash amendment, like other recent votes in the US Congress, show a weakened “pro-defense” bloc in the face of war weariness, deficit concerns, and concerns about civil liberties.
* The NSA debate has taken a new turn in New Zealand, whose Sunday Star-Times claimed the “New Zealand military received help from US spy agencies to monitor the phone calls of Kiwi journalist Jon Stephenson and his associates while he was in Afghanistan reporting on the war.” The government denied the claims – though they say they will look into the matter – but the newspaper is sticking to their story.
* Meanwhile a German historian says that Germany has been under surveillance from the US for decades, so surprise and outrage expressed by politicians in the wake of the NSA revelations are at best misplaced.
* National Journal: the sequester will lift, not cut, defense costs.
* China’s military urges vigilance over Japan’s defense plans, while India’s IDSA think tank worries about the rise of nationalism in both China and Japan:
“Both Japan and China have no other alternative but to urgently re-structure their economic policies and go in for major reforms if Japan is to escape deflation and China an irreversible slowdown. This will inevitably cause domestic hardship and perhaps even a political backlash. Both will seek to play the card of nationalism to divert attention. Thus with the leadership both in China and in Japan having stoked the fires of nationalism for their domestic political requirements to a tipping point, will now find it hard to follow pragmatic policies.”
* India’s ministry of defence and military services have their own internal turf wars to resolve, as well as disagreements on make (locally) vs. buy (abroad) decisions.
* Russian President Vladimir Putin finds that defense contract execution passes muster so far this year, but beyond inking deals there is the uncertainty of program delays, especially with Russia’s naval construction plans stretching what their shipyards seem likely to deliver.
* Arianespace will launch GSAT-7, a military communications satellite that will be primarily be used by India’s navy, on August 30.
* L’Usine Nouvelle’s ranking of France’s top 50 manufacturing plants [in French] is dominated by the defense/aerospace and automotive industries. Were France’s southern half to lose its D&A sites, that part of the country would have barely any large industry sites left.
* The video below from NATO explains how to provide water to troops during operations. Water in Afghanistan for instance can be loaded with heavy metals and/or unhealthy bacteria, necessitating tests and treatment before shipping it to frontline troops. The US has made extensive use [PDF] of bottled water but that is very expensive:
