Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

24 January 2003

IRAQ

• The Financial Times writes that "old Europe" hit back with anger and disbelief yesterday at the suggestion by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld that Germany and France, which failed to back U.S. policy on Iraq, were no longer modern states or important allies of Washington. On Wednesday, Mr. Rumsfeld reportedly described Germany and France as "a problem", saying: "I think that's old Europe. If you look at the entire NATO Europe today, the center of gravity is shifting to the east. And there are a lot of new members." In a related article, The Times asserts that Mr. Rumsfeld enraged France and Germany by branding "old Europe" and trying to isolate their stance against war with Iraq. But his intervention, it is argued, also served to highlight the support Washington is expected to receive from newer NATO countries in the event of a war: Czech Republic, Poland, the Baltic States, Romania and Bulgaria are cited by U.S. officials as likely members of President Bush's "coalition of the willing." The subject is also echoed in the Washington Post, where German Foreign Minister Fischer is quoted saying in an effort to play down the trans-Atlantic divergence: "The only answer is 'cool down'," and he also reportedly added: "We are good friends and allies."
  
  
• According to The Guardian, the new NATO allies of eastern Europe are lining up behind Washington in offering to join a war against Iraq with or without a UN mandate. The newspaper observes that the new NATO members are more instinctively pro-American than the traditional allies, although they have less to offer than the traditional allies. However, the daily adds, the Czech Republic is an exception because their anti-chemical warfare unit comprises almost one third of the NATO capacity in this area. Analysts are reported saying that Washington is urging the new members in eastern Europe into the war camp in order to highlight the relative reluctance of the west Europeans to get involved. In the same vein, an AFP dispatch quotes a foreign ministry spokesman saying: "If NATO countries ask for our support for their activities in Iraq, Latvia will give support to the extent that she is able." Meanwhile, according to the Financial Times, the U.S. was warned at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that a unilateral war by the U.S. against Iraq could undermine its own interests and make conflicts and terrorist threats around the world harder to resolve.
  

TERRORISM

• An AP wire dispatch reports that authorities on Thursday interrogated five Moroccans detained a day earlier after being arrested near the northern city of Rovigo in a raid that turned up a kilogram of explosives, maps, and reported references to NATO bases in Italy. Italian news agency ANSA reportedly said that authorities were believed to have found the addresses and plans of NATO bases in Italy. Meanwhile, the dispatch adds that U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft met with Justice Minister Castelli on Thursday and the two described the arrests as part of Italy's fight against terror. A major operation launched by the Spanish police against suspected Al-Qaeda cells in Barcelona and elsewhere in the region of Catalonia is reported by a Reuters dispatch. A related AP dispatch, adds that police arrested 10 suspected Al-Qaeda members and there could be more arrests, according to the Interior Ministry spokesman. Some 150 police took part in at least a dozen of raids of apartments in the northeastern provinces of Barcelona and Gerona.