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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (7528)	9/10/2003 10:32:17 PM
From: NickSE	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793624

I'm sure you would have. ;0) I would have beat you to the beer in the old days, too! Btw, PSI is gearing up.... Australia to lead WMD search exercise thewest.com.au CANBERRA - AUSTRALIA will lead the first exercise aimed at intercepting vessels suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction, the Government announced today. Defence Minister Robert Hill said the maritime interdiction training exercise would be held in the Coral Sea off Queensland's central coast this weekend. Senator Hill said it would involve about 800 military and law enforcement personnel from around the globe. The exercise, Pacific Protector, is the first in a series of maritime, air and land exercises agreed by members of the Proliferation Security Initiative meeting in Paris last week. Personnel from Australia, the United States, Japan and France will participate while Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom have been invited to send observers. "The aim of the exercise is to practice intercepting, boarding and searching vessels suspected of illegal trafficking in weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and related materials," Senator Hill said in a statement. "Australia is experienced in conducting successful joint interdiction operations, such as the apprehension of a suspected illegal fishing vessel three weeks ago after a long pursuit across the Southern Ocean and the South Atlantic Ocean. "Exercise Pacific Protector will further improve our capabilities to conduct actual maritime interdiction operations in partnership." The exercise starts at first light on Saturday with aerial searches for a simulated Japanese-flagged commercial merchant vessel suspected of carrying WMD-related items. The vessel will be trailed by military and law enforcement ships and aircraft from the four participating nations. The Japanese Coast Guard, working with French, US and Australian counterparts, will request and execute a boarding and search of the vessel on the high seas. It ends with the seizure of its WMD-related cargo. Australian involvement includes the frigate HMAS Melbourne, Customs vessel Botany Bay plus Coastwatch surveillance aircraft. Also participating will be the United States destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur, a US Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment boarding team, Japanese Coast Guard patrol vessel Shikishima and a French Guardian maritime patrol aircraft. The target vessel will be the US Maritime Sealift Command freighter MV Private Franklin J Phillips, one of the fleet of pre-positioning vessels laden with US military equipment. For this exercise the vessel will be reflagged as the Japanese ship MV Tokyo Summer to allow legal participation of the Japanese coast guard.