• Military Menu                       

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

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

• Using Afghanistan as a breakthrough example, NATO leaders are urging the Bush administration and Congress to improve the alliance’s ability to fight wars outside Europe. Secretary-General Robertson and the 19 allied countries ambassadors to NATO headquarters in Brussels are citing the U.S.-led war on terrorism as their prime reason for expanding NATO’s mission beyond defending Europe. "NATO has to go to where the threat to Europe and North America is," Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said Wednesday at a news conference. The only question, he said, is whether the alliance has the weapons it needs to get the job done. Specifically, Burns said NATO needs a modern missile defense system and more and better special forces. "Ballistic missile attack is a threat to all of us," he said. And, Burns said, the line beyond Europe has now been permanently crossed with NATO’s intervention in the war against the Taliban and the al-Qaida terror network in Afghanistan.(AP 192134 Jun 02 GMT)

• Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday pledged his country’s support for the former communist country of Bulgaria to join NATO and eventually the EU. "Denmark is in favor of an ambitious decision including Bulgaria as a future member of NATO," Fogh Rasmussen said after he met with Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxcoburggotski. The Danes also have put top priority on plans to accept new members in the EU during its six-month presidency of the 15-nation bloc that begins on July 1.(AP 191539 Jun 02 GMT)

• President Bush will host Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski on a state visit to Washington in July, the White House said on Wednesday. The July 17-18 visit will be the second state visit -- accompanied by a formal arrival ceremony and ornate dinner -- of the Bush presidency. The first was a visit by Mexican President Vicente Fox last September. "Poland has become a friend, partner and NATO ally of the United States, and is an ardent supporter in the war on terrorism," the White House said in a statement.( Reuters 1752 190602 GMT)

• A senior minister cleared NATO and other foreign vessels on Wednesday of sinking Russia’s Kursk nuclear submarine two years ago, saying a faulty torpedo was to blame. The softer line came as senior Russian navy officers and a top NATO admiral discussed joint work on submarine rescue, the first tangible fruits of Russia's closer relationship with the Atlantic alliance after the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. "There remains only one version -- a torpedo blast," Ilya Klebanov, who chairs an official investigation into the disaster in which all 118 crew died, said in comments on RTR television. "The commission has discounted a collision and a mine," said the trade, science and technology minister. (Reuters 1612 190602 Jun 02 GMT)

• Radovan Karadzic, the UN war crimes tribunal’s most wanted suspect, remains in the Serb part of Bosnia and his top general, Ratko Mladic, in Yugoslavia, the tribunal's spokeswoman said Wednesday. Her comments contradicted claims by government officials. Bosnian Serb as well as Yugoslav authorities claim that neither Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serb leader, nor Mladic are on their territory. "According to our information ... Karadzic is in Republika Srpska and Mladic is still on the territory of Yugoslavia," said Florence Hartmann, the spokeswoman for chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte. A high-level delegation of the tribunal is visiting Bosnia to try to arrange the transfer of some of its cases to the national courts here. But this will not happen until a judicial reform is concluded in Bosnia to ensure fair trials that will fit international standards. In any case, the trials of Karadzic and Mladic would not be transferred, said Jim Landale, the tribunal spokesman. (AP 191426 Jun 02 GMT)

• Britain and other U.S. allies are not abandoning the military campaign in Afghanistan, even though London is about to pull out its main force after just three months, analysts said Wednesday. The Ministry of Defense said Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon would announce the withdrawal of a 1,700-man British marine strike force this week, ending its three-month deployment. While some analysts suggest the withdrawals demonstrate a reluctance to commit substantial troops to a drawn-out campaign, others insist the coalition remains strong. "There has not been any shortage of nations" volunteering to send troops to Afghanistan, Ian Kemp, news editor of Jane’s Defense Weekly, said Wednesday. "On the ground there are more non-U.S. forces in Afghanistan than there are U.S. forces." The British government and other U.S. allies say they remain committed to helping with the peacekeeping, aiding the hunt against terrorists and supporting the new Afghan government.(AP 191816 Jun 02 GMT)
• The Slovak parliament voted Wednesday to send a military engineering unit to take part in the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. Parliament approved a government decision made earlier this month. Spokesman Frantisek Kasicky said a majority of lawmakers supported the decision but gave no breakdown. Kasicky said the engineers were chosen over other proposed units, such as health care or anti-chemical warfare units because of the good reputation they gained while working in the Balkans and Eritrea. (AP 191324 Jun 02 GMT)

• To the dismay of its allies, the United States on Wednesday threatened to withdraw from UN peacekeeping missions if its troops were not exempted from the reach of a new global criminal court. As part of a U.S. onslaught against the court, the Bush administration introduced a draft UN Security Council resolution that would exclude all missions, military and civilian, fielded by the United Nations or even endorsed by the world body, such as the NATO-led troops in Kosovo or Bosnia. "We will not put American men and women under the reach of the International Criminal Court while serving in a United Nations peacekeeping operation," said U.S. representative Richard Williamson. A U.S. official said if American personnel were not protected there would "no longer be U.S. peacekeepers." No one in the 15-member council agreed with the American stance on the court. Several members said they would see if "there was a way out" of the dispute, such as expanding the network of bilateral agreements. The United States has only about 700 personnel in UN missions -- police, civilians and a handful of military observers, but no combat troops. It does have 5,200 troops in Kosovo and 2,500 soldiers in Bosnia outside the UN command, which it wants exempted.(Reuters 2115 190602 Jun 02 GMT)

FINAL ITEM