Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

12 March 2003

IRAQ

• A top Russian diplomat said Tuesday that the chances for a political settlement of the Iraq crisis were growing due to the opposition of Russia, France and other UN Security Council members to a new resolution that would open the way to war. Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov reiterated Russia’s refusal to back any new UN resolution that would sanction the automatic use of force against Iraq if Baghdad misses a deadline to disarm, the Interfax news agency reported. President Vladimir Putin emphasized that point in a telephone conversation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday evening, the Kremlin press service said. (AP 112034 Mar 03)
  
  
• Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested that the participation of America’s closest ally, Britain, in the combat phase of disarming Iraq was in doubt. “Until we know what the (UN) resolution is (going to say), we won’t know the answer as to what their role will be,” Rumsfeld said Tuesday of the British military, which is deploying 45,000 troops to the Gulf. Asked whether that meant the United States was considering going to war without Britain, Rumsfeld said “that is an issue the president will be addressing in the days ahead, one would assume.” Later, after reports that British officials were surprised by the comments, Rumsfeld’s office issued a written statement saying his main point in the news conference was that obtaining a second UN Security Council resolution “is important to the United Kingdom” and that both countries were working to achieve it. (AP 120043 Mar 03)
  

RUSSIA 

• President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday gave Russia’s security service sway over the border guards and government communications - broad powers that nearly equal those of its powerful predecessor, the KGB. Putin said the move, along with other Cabinet changes, should help bolster the fight against illegal drugs and terrorism. (AP 111650 Mar 03)

OTHER NEWS

• The Air Force tested the biggest conventional bomb in the U.S. arsenal for the first time Tuesday, a 9,450 kilogram bomb that could play a dramatic role in an attack on Iraq. A Pentagon spokeswoman, said the test at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, was considered a success. The bomb, officially called the Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, and unofficially dubbed the Mother of All Bombs, is guided to its target by satellite signals. It was dropped out the rear of a C-130 transport plane, officials said. The bomb is so powerful that its detonation had been expected to create a towering cloud visible for kilometers. Asked about the test at a Pentagon news conference, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would not say whether it would be used in an Iraq war, and he refused to discuss its capabilities. Officials said the Air Force expected to have the bomb available for use in an Iraq war. (AP 112147 Mar 03)
  
  
• The Slovak intelligence chief asked Tuesday for his dismissal, a move he said came as a reaction to outside interference into the work of the secret service. Vladimir Mitro, director of the Slovak Information Service (SIS), asked the government to submit his request to the president. NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson, in Bratislava on Monday, urged all NATO candidates to cleanse security services of unreliable staff. “The people who handle (classified information) must be secure and trusted, trustworthy,” said Lord Robertson. Related problems would affect both the credibility of the country and the prospects of NATO membership ratification, he warned. (AP 111807 Mar 03)