WASHINGTON: A small Chinese firm has sued President Barack Obama for squashing its bid to build wind farms close to a naval training site, but experts say the suit is long shot for a firm that greatly underestimated US suspicions about Chinese intentions.

Ralls Corp, which is owned by two Chinese nationals, was installing wind turbines close to the training site in Oregon, which, according to the facility’s web site, is used to test unmanned drones – a highly sensitive and prized US technology.

The US Navy says the training site’s airspace is also the only restricted area in western United States where fighter jets conduct training maneuvers at high speed and very low altitudes.

Obama put the brakes on the project last week and ordered Ralls to sell off the four planned wind farms due to national security risks, the first time since 1990 that a US president has formally blocked a business transaction or required a sale on such grounds. Ralls Corp has until December 27 to comply.

In its suit, made public on Tuesday, Ralls Corp alleges Obama exceeded his power by dictating the terms of the sale, by allowing the government to inspect all aspects of its operations, and by not treating the firm equally as required by law.

The lawsuit comes in the final weeks of the US presidential campaign, during which Obama’s Republican rival, Mitt Romney, has accused the president of not pushing back against China’s trade and investment practices.

Obama’s order followed a recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an inter-agency group headed up by the Treasury secretary that evaluates the national security risks of foreign investments in US companies or operations.

Ralls Corp initially sued CFIUS in September for ordering the company to halt operations temporarily while the committee completed its probe and made its recommendation to Obama.

Its chances of winning the suit are slim given the president’s broad authority on national security matters and the fact that courts do not often second guess the executive branch on security issues, experts say.

“It’s a very, very difficult case,” said Ivan Schlager, a partner with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, who is in charge of the firm’s CFIUS practice.

“The statute was crafted to give the president a great deal of discretion and authority to act to protect the national security interests of the United States.”

A Treasury spokeswoman said the administration believes the lawsuit has no merit and would defend its case vigorously.

In issuing the rare presidential order, Obama said there was credible evidence that led him to believe that Ralls Corp and the Chinese Sany Group executives who own the company might take actions that posed a risk to US security.

The statement did not get into the specifics of the risk, but experts have said that the government was likely to have been wary of any potential for espionage.

Ralls Corp said the government had not provided any evidence or explanation.

Missteps

CFIUS experts said the deal was likely doomed from the start. They said Ralls Corp miscalculated by not asking CFIUS to review its plans to acquire wind-farm projects before closing the deal and embarking on plans to install turbines made in China by the closely held Sany Group.

It is unclear whether Ralls Corp studied previous cases in which CFIUS forced other Chinese companies to kill development plans because of their location or for failing to get CFIUS approval before closing a deal.

Benjamin Powell, a former general counsel to the director of national intelligence and now a partner at the WilmerHale law firm, said companies could face a more difficult review process if they did not notify CFIUS of a transaction that might raise national security issues.

In 2009, CFIUS forced the Chinese-owned Nonferrous International Investment Company to backtrack on a proposal to buy Nevada-based Firstgold, whose properties were close to a naval air station.

And in 2011, Chinese telecom maker Huawei had to relinquish plans to buy some assets from US server technology firm 3Leaf after CFIUS ordered Huawei to give up some parts of the deal.

Huawei did not file paperwork with CFIUS on the deal, even though a few years earlier the panel had rejected another of its proposed deals because of national security concerns.

Ralls Corp has also been slow to bring in US firepower. It hired two high-profile lawyers – the George W Bush administration’s top lawyer Paul Clement and former US assistant attorney general Viet Dinh – only after CFIUS ordered the company to cease activity in August and months after the Navy expressed concerns that one of Ralls Corp’s wind-farm projects was located within restricted airspace.

The company’s three other wind-farm projects are located close to the training facility. According to court documents, the Navy said the company should be obliged to move the wind farm located in the restricted airspace to another spot, even though it had no authority to require the move.

Hundreds of wind turbines are already located close to the Oregon training site, according to maps included in the court documents filed by Ralls Corp. The maps also show that a handful of turbines are already operating within the restricted airspace. (Reuters)

BEIRUT: Four blasts ripped through a government-controlled district close to a military officers’ club in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, killing at least 40 people and wounding more than 90 on Wednesday, opposition activists said.

The attacks within minutes of each other struck the main Saadallah al-Jabiri Square and a fifth bomb exploded a few hundred metres away, state television said, on the fringes of the Old City where rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been fighting.

“Five minutes after the first explosion a second bomb exploded. A third exploded ten minutes after that,” a state television reporter said. “There was a fourth car bomb which exploded before engineering units could defuse it.”

The station also broadcast footage of three dead men disguised as soldiers in army fatigues who it said were shot by security forces before they could detonate explosive-packed belts they were wearing. One appeared to be holding a trigger device in his hand.

Rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad announced last week a new offensive in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and commercial hub of 2.5 million people, but neither side has appeared to make significant gains so far.

The explosions also came a week after rebels bombed military command buildings in the heart of Damascus and clashed with security forces for several hours.

That was the biggest attack in the capital since July 18 when a bomb killed several senior security officials including Assad’s brother-in-law, the defence minister and a general.

BODIES IN RUBBLE

Aleppo is now split in two with Assad’s forces mainly in the west and rebels in the east. Several large protests in support of the president have been held in Saadallah al-Jabiri square.

Pro-Assad al-Ikhbariya TV showed footage of four dead men, including one dust-covered body being pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building and loaded onto the back of a pickup truck.

The British-based Observatory, which monitors the violence in Syria through a network of activists, said the explosions occurred next to an Officers Club. Footage showed sandbags near the bomb site. Fighting only with light weaponry, rebels have resorted to bomb attacks in areas still controlled by Assad.

A pro-Assad Lebanese paper said on Tuesday that Assad was visiting Aleppo to take a first-hand look at the fighting and had ordered 30,000 more troops into the battle. It said Assad would remain in the city. For much of the revolt, Assad has retained a grip on Aleppo with many rich merchants and minority groups there, fearful of instability, remaining neutral while protests spread. (Reuters)

Kathmandu: A new trekking trail to attract more foreigners by allowing them to retrace the memory of Nepal’s decade-long Maoist insurgency has been launched by former rebel chief Prachanda to rebuild the country’s economy.

The ambitious project ‘The Guerrilla Trek’ – a 19-day hike – follows trails where thousands of Maoist guerrillas once dug trenches and ambushed enemy during their fight against the once-absolute monarchy.

The civil war claimed 16,000 lives. UCPN-Maoist Chairman Prachanda on Tuesday launched a map and a guide book produced by US author Alonzo Lyons at a programme organised by Nepal Tourism Board in Kathmandu.

The trail has been divided into three sections and is a walk over rugged mountains, forests, rivers, caves and centuries-old villages. “As all know, Nepal has seen big political upheavals and the people’s revolution will be of no value unless the country goes through an economic transformation,” Prachanda said at the function.

With peace restored in the country, the Maoist party has now transformed the districts hit by war into a “war tourism” destination.

In 2006, Maoists agreed to lay down arms and participate in the new electoral process and was voted to power two years later. Guerrilla Trek has the potential of becoming a “war tourism product” like in Vietnam, Russia, and China, he said. “As war tourism has been promoted worldwide for economic benefit, Nepal’s Guerrilla Trek also holds the potential to lure visitors from around the world,” he said.

The vision is more or less showing visitors how the people’s war began and spread to other districts from Rukum. The Maoists were the largest party in the parliament, which was dissolved in May over the failure to draft a new post-war constitution. (PTI)