Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

24 June 2003

NATO

• NATO naval forces, which tipped off Greece to a ship in its waters carrying 680 tonnes of dynamite, said on Monday that they were hunting 20 “suspect” vessels that intelligence trackers say could be used by terror groups. “The ‘Contact of Interest’ list are vessels which have achieved a level of suspicion by numerous intelligence sources and if they fell within our level of interest there is a possibility that they would be boarded and searched,” a spokesman for “Operation Active Endeavour” said. Asked if the ships on the list were suspected of being operated by militant groups like al Qaeda, he replied: “Yes at the extreme.” He said organisations like NATO, the U.S. Navy and national governments share information on suspect vessels. NATO said the boardings, of which there have only been a handful, were the first to be made since the start of “Active Endeavour” in October 2001, although some 30,000 ships have been actively monitored in that time. (Reuters 231807 GMT Jun 03)

UNIVERSAL COMPETENCE LAW

• Belgium on Monday presented changes to a war crimes law used to target President Bush and other U.S. leaders, and NATO’s secretary-general said he hoped the amendments will avert a major crisis in the alliance. Foreign Minister Louis Michel met separately with U.S. Ambassador Stephen F. Brauer and NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson to discuss changes in the 1993 law, which allows charges to be brought in Belgian courts regardless of where alleged offenses took place. “I made clear that there was no reason to fear this law,” Louis Michel told reporters. He said the changes “close the door to political games that people have tried to play with the law to destroy our relations with our allies.” Ambassador Brauer said U.S. officials were studying the changes and it was too early to determine whether they would satisfy Washington, which had demanded the law be repealed. “I very much hope that it addresses the concerns that have been raised,” NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson said of the proposed changes. “If it does, I think we will have avoided a major crisis.” Louis Michel said the changes, are expected to be adopted by Belgium’s parliament in October. (AP 231619 Jun 03)

AFGHANISTAN

• The chief of staff of the French army wrapped up a three-day visit to Afghanistan on Monday, saying his country was committed to building up the Afghan national army and continuing its support for the multinational force that patrols the capital. Bernard Thorette arrived in Kabul on Saturday to visit some 520 French troops serving with the 5,000 strong international peacekeeping force in the city. He also met senior Afghan military officials. He said that France was sending a small contingent of French special forces “in the following weeks” that will serve about 11,500 coalition troops deployed in the country to route out remnants of the former Taliban regime and their allies. (AP 231529 Jun 03)

TERRORISM

• The UN will issue a report next week showing Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda militant network has some 800 members ready to strike economic or tourist targets, a French consultant to the report said on Monday. Roland Jacquard, head of the International Observatory on Terrorism, said bin Laden sent this “third generation of al Qaeda” from Afghanistan before U.S.-led forces toppled Kabul’s Taliban leadership in November 2001. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the report would show that United Nations travel and arms sanctions on members of the al Qaeda network had not succeeded in capturing a single suspect person or weapon crossing international borders. “The report of the UN Security Council...which will appear next week, will show that a third generation of al Qaeda is forming,” Jacquard told France 2 television. Jacquard said it was becoming increasingly difficult for intelligence services to track these al Qaeda members, whom he described as extremely dangerous. (Reuters 231229 GMT Jun 03)

IRAQ

• U.S. senators said on Monday American troops could remain in Iraq for at least five years. The lawmakers, members of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee on a bipartisan fact-finding visit to Iraq, urged President Bush to be more forthcoming about the breadth of the U.S. commitment and the cost of rebuilding Iraq. (Reuters 232143 GMT Jun 03)
  
• The American public is growing increasingly uneasy about the continuing casualties of U.S. troops during the occupation of Iraq, a new poll suggests. About half the public, 51 percent, in an ABC News-Washington Post poll released on Monday, said the level of U.S. casualties is acceptable, but nearly that many, 44 percent, called the level of casualties unacceptable. Nearly one-fourth, 23 percent, said the war can be justified only if the United States finds weapons of mass destruction, while 63 percent said the war can be justified even if those weapons aren’t found. More than the half, 56 percent, said they would favour military action against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, while 38 percent opposed that step. The ABC-Post poll of 1,024 adults was taken June 18-22 and has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points. (AP 240021 Jun 03)