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An original orig classic from 19 1978
£1.00 Friday 18.09.09 Published in London and Manchester guardian.co.uk

Plus Going straight Why Michelle Obama’s hair matters
G2 Cover

Obama scraps missile shield plan
• U-turn seen as overture to Moscow • New system to target Iranian missiles
Ewen MacAskill Washington Ian Traynor Brussels
Barack Obama yesterday reversed almost a decade of Pentagon strategy in Europe, scrapping
plans to deploy key elements of a US missile defence shield. Instead, he said, a
more flexible defence would be introduced, allowing for a more effective response
to any threat from Iranian missiles. The U-turn is arguably the most concrete shift
in foreign policy from that of the Bush administration, which spent years negotiating
to place silos and interceptor missiles in Poland, and a radar complex in the Czech
Republic. The shift is a triumph for the Kremlin, which has long and vehemently argued
that the shield is aimed at neutralising its intercontinental missiles; Moscow had
warned of a return to a cold war arms race, and threatened to deploy nuclear missiles
in its Kaliningrad exclave, surrounded by EU states. President Dmitry Medvedev described
yesterday’s announcement as a “responsible move … We value the US president’s
responsible approach towards implementing our agreements,” he said. “I am ready
to continue the dialogue.” However, the US decision now puts the onus on Moscow
to respond in kind by cooperating with the White House on the Iranian nuclear programme,
on Afghanistan, and on nuclear arms control. At a hastily-arranged press conference
at the White House after news of the switch leaked overnight, Obama said the aim
was to protect against the threat of an Iranian missile attack. He said the Bush
plan had intended to intercept long-range Iranian missiles, but US intelligence now
showed the danger was short and medium range. The new system would be more flexible
and spread across various countries, Obama said. “It deploys capabilities that
are proven and cost effective, and it sustains and builds upon our commitment to
protect the US homeland,” he said. The shift could potentially see a more aggressive
approach to Iran, with US military deployment shifting from central Europe to right
up to the Iranian border. The plan envisages sea-borne missiles in place close to
Iran by 2011. The decision was welcomed among Nato allies in western Europe, which
had viewed the earlier project as an unnecessary provocation to the Russians. But
some in Poland and the Czech Republic will view it as a betrayal of efforts over
the years to accommodate US requests in the face of domestic opposition. Former Czech
prime minister Mirek Topolanek, whose government signed the original deal, described
Obama’s decision as bad news. “This has two dimensions. The first is a certain
softer position of the US in negotiating with Russia. And the second, that is bad
news, they used the opportunity when this country is unstable, when it is behaving
in a very untraditional and unstable way, and ended co-operation on a matter that
the Obama administration considered unacceptable,” he said.


Continued on page 2 ≥

Waiting for rain Almost 4 million Kenyans on food aid as drought deepens

A dry white season A worker tries to lift a weak cow among carcasses at the Kenya
Meat Commission near Nairobi. The drought gripping the country has killed 40% of
its cattle Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters

Tory peer severs links with oil trader after waste scandal
David Leigh Rob Evans
The leader of the Conservative party in the Lords, Lord Strathclyde, is to sever
his links with the controversial oil traders Trafigura. Evidence was disclosed in
the Guardian yesterday that the London-based firm has carried out a huge cover-up
of its role in an African waste-dumping scandal. Strathclyde said: “I’ve read
today’s stories about Trafigura with concern and I am making inquiries about the
situation.” He is to leave his post as a non-executive director on the board of
Trafigura’s hedgefund arm, Galena Asset Management, which pays him an undisclosed
fee. Strathclyde said yesterday that he had already intended to stand down from Trafigura
and all his other business roles by the end of the year “in preparation for the
forthcoming general election”. A second senior Tory, former minister Peter Fraser
QC, has now registered on the register of Lords interests that he is being paid by
Trafigura. This follows a formal complaint by Lib Dem Norman Lamb. Lord Strathclyde
said he read of Trafigura’s toxic waste with concern, but had already intended
to stand down Internal emails published by the Guardian yesterday revealed that Trafigura,
whose traders declared $440m profit last year, knew its oil waste was highly toxic,
before hundreds of tonnes of it were dumped around the west African city of Abidjan,
in Ivory Coast. The company has now agreed to pay compensation to more than 30,000
inhabitants who say they were injured by toxic fumes. Greenpeace in the Netherlands,
where Trafigura has a holding company, have launched a legal action in Amsterdam
calling for the firm to be prosecuted for manslaughter or grievous bodily harm,
quoting documents they say detail the waste’s toxicity. Trafigura continues to
deny its waste could cause “serious” injury. In November 2006, the firm’s directors
anticipated the prospect of litigation against them over the waste dumping. Strathclyde
had since 2004 sat as a nonexecutive director on the board of Galena, which shares
directors with the oil-trading operation and is based at the same London office block,
Portman House, near Marble Arch. He was asked for assistance in dealing with the
controversy, and recommended Fraser. Trafigura hired Fraser to write “an independent
report”, also for an undisclosed fee. Fraser says he accepted the job on a similar
basis to that of Lord Woolf, the retired lord chief justice, who was paid £6,000
a day by BAe, to write a report on allegations of bribery. Woolf declared his BAe
work on the Continued on page 2 ≥

Inside Man City David Conn on the untold story of the biggest takeover in football
Sport Cover ≥