Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

07 October 2003

EU

• Four European Union states who want to forge closer defence ties have dropped plans to set up a military headquarters in Tervuren, Belgium, a German government spokesman said on Monday in Berlin. “There is no question that Europe needs its own, strategic capability to plan and command operations. There is no longer any discussion about this. It will certainly happen,” the German government spokesman said. “It remains to be seen how we organise it in the end. At the moment the only thing that is clear is...Tervuren won’t happen,” he added. (Reuters 061351 GMT Oct 03)
  
  
• The European Union took a first step towards a common defence research policy on Monday with a proposal to spend 65 million euros between 2004 and 2006. The 65 million euros will fund some of Europe’s biggest defence companies to research areas such as detecting nuclear, chemical or biological attacks. “Europe is paying a very high price for the artificial, and uniquely European, separation between civil and military research,” EU Research Commissioner Busquin told a news conference after talks between the EU executive and leading defence company officials on how to spend the money. The Commission insisted no money would be spent researching offensive weaponry. If the projects are a success, they could pave the way for a European Arms Agency, responsible for research and procurement. (Reuters 061811 GMT Oct 03)

IRAQ

• Turkey’s government agreed Monday to ask Parliament to send soldiers to Iraq. The government submitted a motion to parliament that would authorize the deployment. Prime Minister Erdogan was to address members of his party Tuesday and lobby for support. (AP 062043 Oct 03)

AFGHANISTAN

• A UN Security Council mission led by Germany’s Ambassador Gunter Pleuger is to visit Afghanistan, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 8, to study the work of the world body and the international security force deployed in Kabul, a UN spokesman announced Monday. The mission was organized by U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte after he took over as president of the Security Council for October. Apart from Kabul, the team is expected to visit Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif. The mission will also stop for consultations in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. (AP 061902 Oct 03)

WAR ON TERRORISM

• The Defense Department did not properly monitor Internet sales of equipment that could be used to make chemical and biological weapons, congressional investigators said in Washington. As a result, says the General Accounting Office report being released on Tuesday, there is little assurance that excess chemical and biological equipment has not already been obtained by dangerous people. The House Government Reform subcommittee on national security has a hearing Tuesday to examine the findings, which outline weaknesses in Pentagon controls over surplus biological and chemical lab equipment and protective clothing. “The cheap, virtually unregulated availability of low-cost biological laboratory equipment poses a risk to national security,” Rep. Christopher Shays, the subcommittee chairman, said Monday night. “The Department of Defense should not be a discount shopping outlet for would-be-bioterrorists,” he added. (AP 070237 Oct 03)
  
  
• German Chancellor Schroeder raised suspicions with Saudi officials on Monday that a Saudi-funded school and mosque in Bonn may have links with Islamic extremists. “That was an issue in the discussions I had, and it will be stopped” Gerhard Schroeder told reporters in Riyadh following a visit during which he met King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah. He also said that the head of the Federal Criminal Office, Ulrich Kersten, will travel to Riyadh next week to discuss ways to increase cooperation in the war against terrorism with his Saudi counterparts. (AP 061937 Oct 03)