Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

12 March 2004

NATO

• NATO said on Thursday it would patrol the air space of Baltic members joining next month despite Russian worries, saying the alliance believed Moscow would understand. "There will be no Baltic air space - it will be NATO air space, and NATO air space will be policed," the alliance's Secretary-General de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference during a visit to Latvia. Local media reported on Thursday that alliance member Denmark might station four F-16 fighter jets and 100 soldiers in Lithuania. Western diplomats said NATO had yet to decide. Mr. De Hoop Scheffer declined to comment on the reports but said he would go to Moscow this month to try to allay Russian suspicions about NATO's plans in the Baltics. ( Reuters 111539 GMT Mar 04 )

TERRORISM

• A letter purporting to come from al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the train bombings in Spain and said plans for a major attack on the U.S. were almost complete, a London-based Arabic newspaper said. The letter, e-mailed to the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, claimed responsibility for the attacks on behalf of the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades - a group that aligns itself to bin Laden' al-Qaeda network and has previously claimed bombings in Turkey and Iraq. Thursday's letter, a copy of which was faxed by the al-Quds newspaper to the Reuters news agency , said: "We have succeeded in infiltrating the heart of crusader Europe and struck one of the bases of the crusader alliance." The letter called the bombings: "Operation Death Trains." The letter also said preparations for an attack on the United States were being finalised. "We bring the good news to Muslims of the world that the expected "Winds of Black Death" strike against America is now in its final stage...90 percent (ready) and God willing near." "I believe it (the letter) could be authentic," al-Quds editor Abdel-Bari Atwan told Britain's Sky television , adding that its style and rhetoric were similar to previous statements issued by al-Qaeda. The bombings killed 192 and injured 1,421 people. ( Reuters 112322 GMT Mar 04 ) •  Counterterrorism experts renewed their campaign to pool data and expertise from governments and military and police forces in the global fight against terrorism. Security experts at a two-day conference worked on a draft declaration, to be announced on Friday, warning that agencies risk overlooking some aspects of the terrorist threat while duplicating efforts on other fronts. The conference in Vienna, hosted by the UN and the OSCE, was closed to media and had been scheduled long before the train station attacks in Madrid. ( AP 120010 Mar 04 )

BALKANS

• Serbia's new prime minister scaled down his harsh rhetoric against the UN war crimes tribunal, saying he would seek a balance between cooperating with the court and safeguarding the republic's stability. The comments by Vojislav Kostunica appeared aimed at alleviating fears that Serbia would lose badly needed Western aid. Mr. Kostunica announced that he would travel to Brussels on March 23 to meet top EU officials and explain exactly how his government will work. The Hague tribunal is likely to figure highly in the talks. ( AP 111617 Mar 04 )

OTHER NEWS

• A senior U.S. Middle East diplomat accused Iran of increasing financial and operational support for anti-Israel militant groups. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield said that Iran was delivering more money to the Lebanon-based Hizbollah and the Palestinian groups, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Islamic Jihad, as well as giving instructions to the Palestinian guerrillas through Hizbollah. "The increasing lethality that Hizbollah brings in terms of its preparations, and in support to Palestinian acts of terror is extremely destabilizing," he added. ( Reuters 112237 GMT Mar 04 ) •  Georgia's President Saakashvili picked France's ambassador in Tbilisi to be his foreign minister, saying he had cleared the appointment with French President Chirac. Salome Zurabishvili has worked in the United States, the European Union and NATO and headed the international department of France's national security general secretariat until taking up her post in Georgia. ( Reuters 111845 GMT Mar 04 )