Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

21 November 2003

NRF

• NATO’s new strike force was fighting pretend terrorists in a peaceful Aegean Sea bay on Thursday when reality intruded with bomb attacks killing dozens in Istanbul. The timing appeared to be coincidental but threw into focus the alliance’s struggle to adapt structures designed to fight the Cold War to the realities of today’s dangers. Overseeing the first maneuvers of the NATO Response Force outside this coastal town, NATO’s top commander, Gen. James Jones, said the “unspeakable violence” in Istanbul underscored the importance of alliance’s drive to modernize. Counterterrorism is one of the main tasks of NATO’s new force. Thursday’s exercise provided an impressive display of firepower, dealing with a crisis in a fictional, tropical country named Gem where civilians and UN staff were threatened by political unrest and infiltration by foreign terrorists. Speaking to journalists after the display, Gen. Jones said forces should be used proactively to strike terrorists “where they are training, before they can mount operations.” (AP 201425 Nov 03)

TERRORISM

• Turkey’s ambassador to the U.S. and a senior Turkish general vowed at the Pentagon on Thursday that devastating suicide bombing attacks in Turkey would not split them. “It is not going to happen. There is not going to be any split between Washington and its allies - certainly not between Turkey and Washington,” Ambassador Logoglu said. Osman Logoglu and Army Gen. Ilker Basbug, deputy chairman of the Turkish military’s general staff, spoke to reporters at the end of two days of previously scheduled talks involving senior leaders of the high-level U.S.-Turkey Defense Group. (Reuters 201951 GMT Nov 03)
  
  
• Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned “shocking” terrorist attacks in Istanbul and the Security Council unanimously passed a resolution urging all states to cooperate “to find and bring to justice the perpetrators.” The UN resolution expressed sympathy with Turkey and Britain and reaffirmed “the need to combat by all means ... threats to international peace and security.” (AP 202333 Nov 03)
  
  
• Pakistan’s president appealed for an end to religious extremism on Thursday as his government accelerated its crackdown on Islamic militant groups, outlawing three more under its Anti-Terrorist Act. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the government has frozen the bank accounts of the three groups - Hezb-ul Tehrir, Jamiat-ul Furqan and Jamiat-ul Ansar - and police were expected to close their headquarters. (AP 201814 Nov 03)
  
  
• Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court has banned four groups it branded as terrorist and extremist, some of them allegedly connected to the al-Qaida terror network and its allies, officials said in Bishkek. Banned as terrorist groups were the Organization for the Liberation of Turkestan, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the Islamic Party of Turkestan - all linked to China’s Turkic Muslim Uighur minority. The fourth banned group was Hizb ut-Tahrir. Earlier this week, Kyrgyzstan’s security chief said al-Qaida and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a terror group that cooperated with it in Afghanistan, were recruiting followers from Hizb ut-Tahrir. (AP 201251 Nov 03)
  
  
• The Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah is training new leaders, and the region should expect more suicide attacks along the lines of the Bali bombings, Singapore’s home affairs minister said. Recent arrests in Pakistan had also uncovered a group of Jemaah Islamiah members. Minister Wong said that, in a worst-case scenario, graduates of the camps could end up in Iraq, gaining experience and building links with other radical groups. (Reuters 210344 GMT Nov 03)
  
  
• The latest bombings in Turkey have made one thing clear: Everyday life in the Muslim world is no longer safe from al-Qaida and its allies. With militants brazenly attacking targets and civilians inside their own countries, intelligence specialists warn the spreading war on terrorism is becoming harder to fight. “The phenomenon we’re seeing in the Muslim world today is in large part because the boys have gone home from Afghanistan,” said Matthew Levitt, a former FBI counterterrorism analyst. He said those casualties mean little for al-Qaida but could help convince the Muslim world how dangerous the organization is. (AP 210342 Nov 03)