Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

05 August 2003

NATO

• NATO’s supreme allied commander arrived on Monday in Romania to discuss the country’s preparations to join NATO. Gen. James L. Jones, was invited by Gen. Mihail Popescu, Romania’s chief of staff, and will also meet President Ion Iliescu and Defense Minister Ioan Mircea Pascu. During his two-day visit, he will discuss Romania’s army preparations to join NATO and its contribution to the fight against terrorism and to peacekeeping missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP 041603 Aug 03)
  
  
• A top U.S. general praised the Czech armed forces on Monday and said their “specialized skills” could be of use in future military campaigns abroad. Marine Corps. Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived on Saturday for four days of talks with military leaders amid implementation of painful austerity measures for the Czech armed forces. Gen. Pace singled out the anti-chemical warfare unit and medical capabilities as potential assets in future allied operations. (AP 041238 Aug 03)

BALKANS

• A sniper killed a UN policeman near the village of Slatina in Kosovo, the first-ever fatal shooting of an international police officer in the province since it came under UN-control four years ago. Authorities blamed underworld gangs for the slaying. The UN Mission in Kosovo has launched “an intense criminal investigation,” said a UN spokesman on Monday in New York. (AP 050011 Aug 03)

IRAN

• Experts from the UN nuclear watchdog began talks aimed at getting Tehran to permit unrestricted inspections of its nuclear facilities even as a published report said Iran was moving toward developing a nuclear weapons capability. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful, electrical power purposes. But in a report on Monday, the Los Angeles Times said Iran “appears to be in the late stages of developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb.” The Los Angeles Times said its three-month investigation found that Iran has been involved in a pattern of activity that has concealed weapons efforts from international inspectors. The newspaper - citing sources ranging from previously secret reports, international officials, independent experts and Iranian exiles - reported that Iran made use of technology and scientists from Russia, North Korea, China and Pakistan to bring it closer to building a bomb than Iraq ever was. Among its findings, the paper said a confidential French report concluded that “Iran is surprisingly close to having enriched uranium or plutonium for a bomb.” The paper also reported that samples of uranium taken by arms inspectors in June tested positive for enrichment levels high enough to be consistent with an attempt to build a nuclear weapon. (AP 050215 Aug 03)
  
  
• Iran said on Monday that it would not hand over any detained members of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network to Washington and denied trying to strike a prisoner exchange deal with the United States. On Saturday, the New York Times quoted a U.S. official as saying Washington had approached Tehran with a request to hand over al Qaeda men in Iranian custody. The paper said Iran wanted the United States to hand over members of the People’s Mujahideen Iranian opposition group, currently under U.S. control in Iraq, in return. (Reuters 041313 GMT Aug 03)

IRAQ

• Swedish arms experts found signs of an Iraqi program for manufacturing prohibited weapons during a secret visit there in June, their supervisor said Monday. Military and government officials played down the claims and criticized the visit, saying it wasn’t authorized. Two chemical and biological weapons experts traveled to Iraq to help a television team from the World Television Network evaluate information it had obtained about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, said Aake Sellstroem, from the Swedish Defense Research Agency, who authorized the visit. The information indicated Iraq had a program for making chemical and biological weapons as late as last year, but yielded no clues about whether any actual weapons were made, he said. (Reuters 041528 Aug 03)