• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

WAR ON TERRORISM

• The United Nations said on Monday it had approved a raft of new and radical maritime security laws to counter the threat of terrorist attack through ports and shipping lines. It said in a statement the measures, some of which are recommendations and others mandatory, include placing security officers on board every ship, fitting vessels with onboard technology that can relay information about the ship, cargo and crew back to the mainland, and enhancing existing port security arrangements. The new measures will be scrutinised again in September before finally being put forward for adoption at a diplomatic conference on security in December. (Reuters 271756 GMT May 02)

NATO

• NATO will set the seal on a new era of security cooperation with former foe Russia on Tuesday, rewarding President Vladimir Putin for embracing the West and backing the U.S.-led war on terrorism. "Starting tomorrow, all Western states and Russia will stand united together to combat the new danger represented by international terrorism," Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi declared ahead of the 20-nation summit outside Rome. But analysts said that despite the mood of amity between NATO and its once-defining enemy, risks of confrontation still lay ahead, not least from a possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq. In a discordant reminder of the suspicions lingering among President Putin’s political and military elite which came on the eve of the summit, Moscow reiterated its opposition to NATO’s expansion behind the old Iron Curtain. Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti news agency - in comments later attributed to a Kremlin source - that the defence alliance’s plan for a second round of eastward enlargement was a "mistake." (Reuters 272205 GMT May 02)

• NATO opened its long-delayed military mission in Moscow on Monday, on the eve of a summit meeting intended to give Russia an equal say in formulating policy on some European security issues. "This is a big change, because it will allow NATO countries, NATO and Russia, to discuss ... and take decisions on things to be done in collaboration in fields of security and military interests," said Italian Admiral Guido Venturoni, head of NATO’s military committee. He and Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, then cut a blue ribbon stretched across the entrance to the new office. Admiral Venturoni also met Monday with Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who praised the agreement as promoting "a new quality of relations between Russia and NATO," in a report by Interfax-Military News Agency. Russian analysts say the new relationship could founder if NATO should decide to take action against Russian partner Belarus’ authoritarian leader or if the United States increases its military presence in formerly Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus in its anti-terrorism campaign. Even proponents of the new relationship say its success is hardly guaranteed. (AP 271527 May 02)

BALKANS

• Former ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Macedonia (sic) said on Monday they would form a political party to take part in a general election this year. The move marked another step into the political mainstream for the rebels whose insurgency last year brought the former Yugoslav republic to the brink of all-out civil war. The new political force should be headed by former rebel leader Ali Ahmeti and will include most of the former commanders and rebel fighters pardoned last year under an amnesty which formed a central plank of the peace process. (Reuters 271738 GMT May 02)

• Yugoslavia could hand over an arrested Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect to The Hague tribunal within days, a judge said on Monday in Belgrade. Serb police arrested on Saturday Ranko Cesic indicted for systematic killings and other atrocities in the notorious Luka camp near the Bosnian town of Brcko in 1992. (Reuters 271313 GMT May 02)

• Senior defense officials of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council discussed Monday in Manama security and defense issues, including the combined military force of the Gulf states known as the Peninsula Shield. "We are witnessing a world of many changes at both the regional and international levels, which compels us in the GCC to ... coordinate efforts in order to shoulder the joint responsibility toward our countries and our people," said Sheik Khalifa, the Bahrain Defense Minister. Peninsula Shield is stationed at Hafr al-Baten in northeastern Saudi Arabia, near the border with Iraq. (AP 271743 May 02)

 FINAL ITEM