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NATO

• NATO is organizing three rapid reaction corps in its effort to reinvent a role for itself after being sidelined by America in the Afghan war, writes The Independent. According to the newspaper, the Alliance would like to be able to put more than 100,000 personnel into a campaign, and envisages a total force in excess of 250,000, capable of combat in three conflicts in any part of the world for up to two years. The British-led ARRC would form the spearhead of the "new type of conflict" after the end of the Cold War. Five other corps—led by the Italians, the Spanish, the Germans, the Dutch, Turkey and a Franco-German Eurocorps—are also being formed. They are expected to be amalgamated into two, to supplement the ARRC. The various corps will be multinational, with ARRC, for which Britain will supply 60 percent of the personnel, as their model. The newspaper claims that NATO’s plan to present a united force for use in global conflict is the result of soul searching in response to the U.S. making clear it is capable of mounting military operations without help from its allies. Noting that the NATO initiative faces the complication of a proposal for an EU rapid-reaction force, the newspaper adds that Alliance commanders are unsure about how the two rapid-reaction forces would work together.

• The Daily Telegraph quotes Italian Defense Minister Martino saying in an interview that under plans to replace conscripts with long-service professionals, by January 2007, the size of the Italian armed forces will have been reduced from 300,000 to 190,000. But they will be better trained, better paid and better equipped. The professional soldiers will be "much better trained and much more useful," Martino reportedly stressed. According to the newspaper, he expressed his belief that Italy can make a major contribution to European defense with fully professional forces.

• Charging that "at the European Headquarters of the U.S. Forces in Stuttgart security standards are obviously slack," German weekly Stern reports that a CD rom, "classified NATO Secret," describing in detail 53 targets in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro has reached the public. According to the article, a computer freak found "the explosive data carrier" in a laptop he had purchased at an internet auction. This shiny golden CD rom was apparently "original material," a high-ranking military reportedly told Stern, adding that the fact that it was obtainable via the internet was "certainly a glaring security violation." The article claims that the CD-rom contains the coordinates, aerial photos and maps of missile sites, airports and barracks installations. The locations of electrical plants and bridges in the three Balkan countries are also explained. The article adds that the target data were compiled in 1998 and saved on CD rom in February 1999, "i.e. shortly before the outbreak of the war in Kosovo." According to experts, adds the article, it was not unusual to store targets on friendly Bosnian territory as well. This would be for the case that enemy troops "penetrated" the area. The finder had bought the laptop for DM118 from a person in Schweinfurt. This person says he purchased it at an auction of "army stocks," adds the newspaper. A related article in Germany’s Financial Times echoes Stern’s view that "at the headquarters of the U.S. Command Europe, the handling of military secrets is obviously highly deficient." A former Bundeswehr general said the CD rom was a military secret and had to be stored in a safe, adds the newspaper. The general reportedly added that the files contained target data that any general staff would prepare for a potential operation. The targets were "typical" targets to weaken the enemy air forces, he noted. The article also quotes a EUCOM spokesman saying: "We did not know that information had left the headquarters. Further, we do not publish any information that could endanger our soldiers or the soldiers of our allies. If it is a fact that this man has such a CD rom, we ask him to return this material to the responsible army agencies." Under the title, "CD-rom of NATO secrets feared sold," The Guardian reports that the U.S. military’s European Command appealed Wednesday for the return of a CD-rom said to be packed with a wealth of secret military information on the Balkans. The newspaper notes that EUCOM would not say whether a CD was missing or an investigation was planned.

BALKANS

• According to AP, an UNMIK spokeswoman said ethnic Serb protesters Thursday hurled stones at UN police and NATO-led peacekeepers following the arrest of two murder suspects. Two UN police vehicles were stoned and one was shot at after special teams of UN police raided three apartments and arrested two Serbs in the Serb-dominated northern part of Mitrovica, the spokeswoman reportedly said. NATO peacekeepers guarding the area and a bridge linking the Serb neighborhood with the ethnic Albanian sector of the city were also stoned, she added.

Transatlantic relations remain at the center of media interest.

A Reuters’ analysis observes that U.S. and European leaders moved this week to cool a bout of transatlantic megaphone diplomacy trigged by President Bush’s "axis of evil" speech. The dispatch stresses, however, that the underlying differences remained unresolved. It adds that many analysts expect them to flare again soon over what to do about Iraqi President Saddam Hussein or about the worsening Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In a contribution to the International Herald Tribune, Friedbert Pflueger, chairman of the Committee on EU Affairs of the German Bundestag and a member of the Federal Executive Committee of the Christian Democratic Union stresses that "European sniping at America is overdone."

"Leading European politicians have criticized the United States in unusually clear terms. The style and substance of their remarks are unacceptable," Pflueger writes and adds: "What gives Europeans the right to criticize when their own deficiencies are so obvious? A country like Germany, for example, which is militarily so weak that it has to borrow Uzbek Ilyushins to transport supplies to Afghanistan, should be more reserved about lecturing its allies. The substance of the European criticisms is also incorrect. What justifies the assertion that the United States is planning unilateral military action against Iraq? So far, despite some strong words, America’s actions since Sept. 11 have demonstrated how responsibly Washington has approached the fight against the terrorists…."

UNITED STATES-OFFICE OF STRATEGIC INFLUENCE

• According to AP, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said Wednesday a Pentagon campaign to influence global opinion will not include lies to the public, but might employ "tactical" deception to confuse an enemy for battlefield advantage. "Government officials, the Department of Defense, this secretary, and the people that work with me tell the American people and the people of the world the truth," Rumsfeld reportedly said while meeting with troops providing security at the Salt Lake City Olympics. Responding to reports that the new Office of Strategic influence has proposed placing news items—false if necessary—with foreign news organizations, Rumsfeld reportedly said the office will instead mostly oversee longtime Pentagon activities like dropping leaflets and broadcasting messages during wartime. He added that the Pentagon also might engage in strategic or tactical deception, as it has in the past. For example, if U.S. troops were about to launch an attack from the West, they might "very well do things" that would make the enemy believe an attack was instead coming from the north," he said. According to the dispatch, he made clear that the new office’s mandate is still under discussion. The dispatch further reports that earlier, the senior Pentagon official who oversees the new office also ruled out using the news media for deception efforts. "Despite some of the reports about the Office of Strategic Influence that I’ve read over the last day or two, Defense Department officials don’t lie to the public," said Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy. A related Reuters dispatch remarks that top U.S. defense officials tried to disseminate the following message Wednesday: The Pentagon will not lie to the public in its propaganda campaign related to the war on terrorism, but its new Office of Strategic Influence might mislead the enemy. Based on the AP dispatch, Belgium’s De Standaard stresses that "the Pentagon will not send false information."

AFGHANISTAN

• AP quotes a UN spokesman saying Thursday thousands of ethnic Pashtuns are fleeing parts of northern Afghanistan, claiming that anti-Taliban commanders from rival minorities have been inciting to loot their homes and, in some cases, kill Pashtuns. The dispatch notes that the Taliban were dominated by Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.

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