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SACEUR-SLOVENIA

• Radio Slovenia, April 11, asserted that Gen. Ralston is pleased with measures aimed at reorganizing the Slovene army and with a plan for the future Slovene defense force. The broadcast was reporting on Gen. Ralston’s visit to Slovenia, where he was meeting with high-ranking officials, including President Kucan.

International media echo a report in the Washington Post, April 11, which quoted unidentified Pentagon officials saying that Gen. James Jones, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, is slated to become SACEUR. Please note that the information running in the media has not been validated.

The Stars and Stripes reports that, reached through a Marine Corps spokesman while attending a ceremony at Camp Lejeune, Gen. Jones said he was aware of the report about his selection, "but at the moment it amounts to speculation." He reportedly stressed: "There is a selection process…. It involves a presidential nomination after the Secretary of Defense’s recommendation, and confirmation by the Senate." The newspaper further says that the reported selection took people in the Pentagon’s media office by surprise. "I’ve seen the story. Whether there is any validity to it, I don’t know," a Pentagon spokesman assigned to cover the European Command reportedly indicated.

"Bush looks to Marine to lead NATO forces," says a related article in the New York Times, stressing that Gen. Jones’ nomination, "not expected until summer," is subject to the approval of the 19 NATO nations and Congress.

The Bush administration is planning a major shake-up of the country’s military high command to speed up the creation of more streamlined armed forces for the post-Cold War world. The changes, including the first appointment of a Marine to head NATO, signal Defense Secretary Rumsfeld’s determination to create a more flexible military for the 21^st century, despite resistance from the entrenched Pentagon bureaucracy, writes The Independent. Stressing that "the most striking move is the expected nomination of Gen. James Jones … to be the new supreme commander of NATO," the article continues: "Gen. Jones will replace … Gen. Ralston, who will step down at the end of the year…. Gen. Jones, raised in France and a fluent French speaker, has a reputation as an innovative soldier. As Marines commandant, he leads the service most used for far-flung interventions and peacekeeping missions—which Pentagon planners believe will be the shape of warfare to come. The arrival of a Marine general in Brussels may foreshadow a scaling back of fixed U.S. Army bases in Europe, most of them installed to counter a vanished Soviet threat. Such steps have been hinted at on several occasions by the Pentagon since Rumsfeld took office in January 2001."

"New NATO chief for Europe," says Frankfurter Rundschau, adding: "According to information in the Washington Post, Gen. James Jones will become the new NATO Supreme Commander Europe. The 58-year-old officer will succeed Gen. Ralston."

AP carries related information, stressing that Gen. Jones’ selection must be approved by the Senate.

The International Herald Tribune reprints the Washington Post article.

Related information is also carried by the Reuters news agency, based on information from senior defense officials in Washington, who reportedly confirmed the Washington Post information.

The sources, who asked not to be identified, reportedly said that President Bush plans to nominate Gen. Jones to become commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Europe this year as part of a broad push to overhaul and modernize the U.S. military. "(Gen) Jones, who was born in Paris and speaks French … would become the first Marine to head Alliance troops if he succeeds … Gen. Ralston … in September," adds the dispatch.

AFGHANISTAN

• CNN reported that international peacekeepers in Afghanistan have seized a large cache of rockets in a joint operation with Afghan forces. Some 150 Chinese-made 107mm rockets were found on the road north of Kabul to the Bagram air base. The rockets are thought to be of the same type as those fired at ISAF earlier in the week, said the broadcast. A related article in The Guardian stresses that the weapons’ seizure revived the fear that terrorists are preparing to create mayhem in Kabul. The article adds that an ISAF spokesman would not say whether foreign soldiers were thought to have been the intended targets.

MIDDLE EAST

• Looking at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a commentary in Tel Aviv’s Ha’aretz argues that the only way to calm the region is to deploy a strong international peacekeeping force prepared to take responsibility for security in the territories. Claiming that support for the idea of an international force is growing, the commentator writes: "A sorry bunch of blue-helmeted observers … will not do. The force must have a strong mandate and the power to enforce the law. NATO soldiers, or whoever is sent here, will fight the war instead of the parties themselves. It is they who will dismantle both the settlements and Hamas."

FINAL ITEM