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NOTE: Due to PIO’s participation in Exercise "Strong Resolve 2002," the SHAPE News Morning Update will not be published until March 16. Significant news items are incorporated in the SHAPE News Summary and Analysis.

BALKANS

• According to AFP, posters of support for former Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic were Tuesday plastered around the Bosnian town of Foca following last week’s failed NATO raids in the area to capture him. Posters were reportedly pasted over a billboard which previously had posters offering a U.S. reward offering up to $4 million for the capture of Karadzic and former Bosnian Serb military leader Mladic. "Until death and Doomsday we are going to defend brother Radovan," said the posters, sporting a black-and-white picture of Karadzic. The message was reportedly written in the Serb alphabet Cyrillic.

Media continue to focus on NATO’s attempts last week to nab Karadzic. All note NATO’s denial of press reports that a tip-off by a French officer foiled the swoop.

AP reports that after meeting with Gen. Ralston, NATO Secretary General Robertson called the reports "pure speculations" and stressed that "there is no evidence known to us to substantiate them." Based on a Reuters dispatch, the News York Times reports, in a similar vein, that "NATO Secretary General Robertson said in a statement after meeting Gen. Ralston that the allegations were pure speculations and there is no evidence known to us to substantiate them." Lord Robertson’s denial is also noted by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, the BBC World Service, and Hamburger Abendblatt, which initiated the allegations.

France’s AFP notes meanwhile that the French government said Monday any doubts over France’s willingness to see Karadzic arrested are "intolerable." Anything that throws into doubt the willingness and determination of France is inadmissible and intolerable, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, reportedly said. He also reiterated President Chirac’s comments last week in support of arrest attempts. Recalling that the French Defense Ministry said Monday it would await the result of SFOR’s investigation before reacting to the accusations, the dispatch quotes a French officer saying, on condition of anonymity: "If it is false, we will ask SFOR to deny it, but if it is true this person will be severely punished for having committed an act of such idiocy…. We are asking SFOR to supply the proof. If phone-calls were being tapped, there must have been recordings."

Another AFP dispatch writes that the U.S. State Department Monday denied a report that a U.S. diplomat had accused a French officer of foiling attempts to capture Karadzic. "This report is incorrect. It is not true that the American diplomat said that," the dispatch quotes a U.S. official saying, on condition of anonymity.

Liberation, Le Figaro, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent focus on reports that SFOR has launched an investigation into the allegations. The latter highlights that Paris said it would cooperate fully.

TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS

• According to the International Herald Tribune, although the allies have no unified strategy on Iraq, some of the United States’ European partners are signaling an easier, less daggers-drawn approach to working together on the peace-and-war implications of President Bush’s "axis of evil" speech. The newspaper observes that in recent days, and with different tonalities, Prime Minister Blair and Chancellor Schroeder have emphasized the quality of their consultations with the Bush administration. And, last week, President Chirac went so far as to assert that France and the United States were "on exactly the same line" concerning the fight against international terrorism. The newspaper acknowledges that "this kind of all’s-well signal could be considered standard operating procedure" to calm one of the many trans-Atlantic disputes that have marked the relations between the United States and its European allies over the past 50 years. It considers, however, that this time, a particular effort seems under way to refute those in Europe who talk of an irreconcilable U.S.-European breach.

NATO-RUSSIA

• Foreign Minister Ivanov said Monday Russia wanted changes to ensure joint decision-making in a new relationship with NATO and the Interfax news agency said talks on the issue had run into trouble, writes the International Herald Tribune. Speaking as NATO and Russian officials held a new round of talks on a closer partnership, Ivanov reportedly said a "purely cosmetic" decision-making mechanism "scarcely meets the reality of the age or the interests of our country." It must not simply be a consultative or advisory body but must be an organ that genuinely works out decisions, takes them, and jointly carries them out, he added. The newspaper further notes that Interfax quoted sources saying that the talks had encountered "considerable difficulties" and suggesting that the problems could prevent the two sides from meeting a May deadline.

Looking at U.S. plans to train and equip Georgian soldiers to take control of the Pankisi Gorge, an editorial in the International Herald Tribune opines that hunting down terrorists in the Gorge would be an appropriate issue for the new cooperation council that NATO now proposes to establish with Moscow. "Last week, NATO suggested holding monthly meetings of the 19 alliance members and Russia to talk about issues of common concern, including the fight against terrorism. Using these meetings to discuss strengthened military action against international terrorists taking shelter in the Caucasus would help assure that this new council does not degenerate into an empty diplomatic ritual," says the editorial.

AFGHANISTAN

• All media report that at least seven American soldiers were killed and 11 wounded Monday when two U.S. helicopters took enemy fire during an allied air and ground offensive in Afghanistan. AP remarks that the U.S. assault, codenamed Operation Anaconda, marked a new approach. Instead of relying on Afghan forces to take the fight to Al Qaeda, with U.S. troops in support, the Americans took the lead. Afghan, Canadian, Australian, German, Danish, Norwegian and French forces were supporting. Under the headline, "U.S. allies join fight in Afghanistan," the Wall Street Journal notes that in a departure from previous operations in Afghanistan, a large number of coalition troops have joined American soldiers in a fierce air and ground assault on Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. The newspaper stresses that the participation significantly increases the stakes some of Washington’s closest allies have in the expanding war on terrorism. It quotes defense officials saying that several hundred troops from Canada and a handful of European countries are fighting alongside about 1,000 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Afghan troops. Most of the coalition troops involved in the fighting are ground forces, including infantry soldiers from Canada and France and special operation forces from Australia, Denmark, Germany and Norway, the article asserts. It quotes Norway’s defense attaché in Washington, Maj. Gen. Olav Bjerke, saying the participation of coalition forces "sends a very strong message of solidarity with the U.S." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports meanwhile that German official Monday expressed "their extreme displeasure" about the U.S. military’s announcement that German forces had joined the largest ground offensive launched in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan. The newspaper quotes a Defense Ministry spokesman saying that officers considered the American "contribution" to be unhelpful. "I would have preferred that the information about the German deployment in this operation had not been released in this form," the spokesman reportedly stressed. According to the newspaper, he defended the German government’s desire to keep its force’s role in the offensive secret, saying officials wanted to help protect the troops involved. The Washington Times claims that allied military commanders shifted tactics for the ongoing battle in eastern Afghanistan, allowing large number of enemy fighters to reassemble south of Gardez before striking with the United States’ first combined ground and air assault. According to the newspaper, the aim is to bring more killing power directly to ground level, while blocking escape routes that in the past provided a second life to Al Qaeda.

 FINAL ITEM