BBC: Liam Fox Quits as Defence Secretary

Defence Secretary Liam Fox has resigned after a week of pressure over his working relationship with friend and self-styled adviser Adam Werritty.

Mr Fox was being investigated amid claims he broke the ministerial code.

In a letter to David Cameron, Mr Fox said he had "mistakenly allowed" personal and professional responsibilities to be "blurred".

In response, the prime minister said he was very sorry for Mr Fox's departure but "understood his reasons".

Labour said Mr Fox had not upheld the standards expected of ministers and his departure was "inevitable".

The defence secretary has been under pressure since it emerged that Mr Werritty, a lobbyist, had met him on 18 foreign trips despite having no official role, and had been handing out business cards suggesting he was an adviser to Mr Fox.

Questions have also been raised about who paid for Mr Werritty's business activities and whether he had personally benefited from his frequent access to the defence secretary.

'National interest'

No 10 sources said that the prime minister had been willing Mr Fox to stay in his job until the details of a report by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell in his conduct was published early next week.

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The BBC's Norman Smith said it was Mr Fox's decision to quit and his replacement was expected to be named soon.

In his resignation letter, Mr Fox said he had "mistakenly allowed the distinction between my personal interest and my government activities to become blurred".

"The consequences of this have become clearer in recent days," he added. "I am very sorry for this.

"I have also repeatedly said that the national interest must always come before personal interest.

"I now have to hold myself to my own standard. I have therefore decided, with great sadness, to resign from my post as secretary of state for defence."

PM's reaction

Responding to Mr Fox's resignation, Mr Cameron said: "I understand your reasons for deciding to resign as defence secretary, although I am very sorry to see you go.

"We have worked closely for these last six years, and you have been a key member of my team throughout that time."

He said Mr Fox, MP for North Somerset, had "done a superb job in the 17 months since the election, and as shadow defence secretary before that" and had overseen changes that would allow the armed forces to "meet the challenges of the modern era".

Mr Fox apologised to MPs earlier this week about but maintained that there was no wrongdoing in his dealings with Mr Werritty.

'Broke rules'

Labour said Mr Fox had "fallen foul of the standards expected of ministers and broken the rules".

"The facts have caught up with Liam Fox and he had to resign," shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said. "It was unconceivable that once a minister had been seen to break their own code of conduct on so many occasions that he could survive."

But Conservative backbencher Peter Bone said Mr Fox had made mistakes but they did not constitute a "hanging offence".

"He said he made mistakes and with hindsight he wouldn't have done it but I didn't think that was enough to require him to resign," he told the BBC.

"But when the story, every news item, isn't about what's happening in Afghanistan and what's happening in Libya but who said what to who then he put his country first and resigned."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15300751

With new threats, US Army must reinvent itself: Panetta

WASHINGTON: The US Army won’t be fighting conventional wars against columns of tanks in the future and will have to prepare for new threats from cheaper high-tech weaponry, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday.

With budget pressures bearing down on the Pentagon, Panetta challenged the “battle-hardened” generation of army officers who had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade to come up with new ideas on how to counter a wide range of potential adversaries, including militant groups.

Referring to the first Gulf war in 1991, Panetta said “the reality is there aren’t a lot of countries out there building massive tank armies, it is unlikely that we will be re-fighting Desert Storm in the future.

“Instead, I see both state and non-state actors arming with high-tech weaponry that is easier both to buy and operate, weapons that frustrate our traditional advantage and freedom of movement,” he told an audience of mainly retired officers at the Association of the US Army.

Panetta described what US military planners and analysts call a new “hybrid threat” that combines conventional and irregular warfare, with the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon often cited as the most vivid example.

In that conflict, Hezbollah fighters used precision-guided weapons, such as anti-tank missiles, while moving in small units akin to a guerrilla force.

New models of shoulder-launched rockets and other weapons, including drones, have become easier to use, less expensive and more threatening to US military might, analysts say.

The US Army trained for decades to fight major land wars that envisaged numerous tank battalions but then switched course in Iraq and Afghanistan to embrace counter-insurgency doctrine.

Panetta, however, said the army would need to move beyond traditional strategy and help define its role in the future, with a smaller but agile force.

“Coming up with new ideas, with operating principles to defeat these kind of enemies is a challenge that I pose to this battle hardened generation of American soldiers,” he said.

The army has shouldered much of the burden of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a rising suicide rate among its ranks has underscored the strain on the all-volunteer force.

Panetta noted that 2010 was the sixth year in a row that the suicide rate has increased for the US Army, which he called “a national tragedy.”

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/12/with-new-threats-us-army-must-reinvent-itself-panetta.html

US ‘fighting a war’ in Pakistan: Panetta

WASHINGTON: Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday the United States is waging “war” in Pakistan against militants, referring to a covert campaign the CIA steadfastly refuses to publicly confirm.

It was Panetta’s latest comment acknowledging drone bombing raids in Pakistan, an open secret that the US government declines to discuss publicly.

Speaking to an audience at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, the former CIA director pointed to a “complicated relationship” between Washington and Islamabad.

“And admittedly, there are a lot of reasons for that. We are fighting a war in their country,” Panetta said.

“They have in fact given us cooperation in the operations of trying to confront Al-Qaeda in (tribal areas)… And they continue to work with us.”

But he said the two countries had sharp disagreements over “the relations they maintain with some of the militant groups in that country”, a reference to Washington’s demand that Islamabad crack down on the Haqqani network.

During a visit to US bases in Italy last week, Panetta made two casual references to the CIA’s use of armed drones.

“Having moved from the CIA to the Pentagon, obviously I have a hell of a lot more weapons available to me in this job than I did at CIA — although Predators aren’t bad,” Panetta told an audience of sailors at the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet headquarters in Naples.

Bombing raids by robotic unmanned US aircraft dramatically increased under President Barack Obama, with the CIA operation focusing on Al-Qaeda and Taliban figures in northwest Pakistan.

About 30 drone strikes have been reported in Pakistan since elite US Special Operations Forces killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May near the country’s main military academy in Abbottabad, close to the capital.

US officials did not notify Pakistan in advance of the raid, and Panetta — the CIA chief at the time — subsequently said the US government feared that bin Laden would be tipped off about the operation beforehand.

An American drone is also believed to have killed US-born Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi in Yemen last month.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/12/us-fighting-a-war-in-pakistan.html