Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

3 June 2004

NATO

• “Washington has again conveyed to Athens a request to transfer 550 men in July from the U.S. rapid reaction force to Greece for the security of the U.S. athletes during the Olympic Games,” reported Greek daily To Vima, May 29. The request was reportedly being examined by the Foreign and Defense Ministry. Claiming that the Greek government is trying to find a way to grant the request, “possibly through a NATO cover,” without seeming to break its commitments regarding Greece having first say over the Olympics security issue, the article added: “At a recent joint meeting ‘not to be made public’ between military and security authorities, a proposal was made to call the Americans in through NATO. More specifically, the proposal put forward was that NATO’s contribution should be expanded beyond the participation of AWACS, naval forces and forces to combat a chemical threat.”
  
• BBC News predicted that the D-Day celebrations this weekend will inevitably attract comment that NATO is in trouble. The Cold War has taken away NATO’s original raison d’etre and Iraq has divided its ranks, the network observed, quoting Professor Brian Bond, of King’s College, saying: “At present, it is a rather uneasy political alliance with no underpinning. With the end of the Soviet Union, there are still evils in the world but they are less tangible. And because of Iraq, transatlantic relations are near their worst. The next year will tell if they improve or whether the Alliance will split up.” The network considered, however, that “the likelihood is that NATO will stagger on for the foreseeable future.” It commented: “Already it is changing. From being an almost entirely defensive organization facing a single known enemy, it has become interventionist around the world. It is leading operations in Afghanistan, and the Americans would like it to act in Iraq.” Against the background of the D-Day commemoration, an editorial in French daily Le Figaro calls meanwhile for a “rebuilding of alliances.” “The informal summit between President Bush and President Chirac on June 5 is of extraordinary importance. It is high time that the United States and France succeed in reaching an understanding on the very crucial issues at stake…. On June 5, the two presidents will prepare for the three major international meetings of the month--the vote on the new Security Council resolution on Iraq, the G8 summit in the United States, and the NATO summit in Istanbul. These all represent exceptional opportunities to rebuild unity between allies. Let us hope that each side will be willing to compromise—France, by showing that it has abandoned unrealistic dreams of an “Arab policy” envisaged solely in terms of French interests, and the United States, by relinquishing the ideological world vision contributed, to its misfortune, by the neo-conservatives at the Pentagon. By making the necessary concessions, the United States would recover not only its old European allies, but also the influence that it has reluctantly lost in the Middle East,” the daily says.

  Amid high interest in the D-Day commemorations, French daily Le Figaro highlights the security preparations for the event.
  In order to ensure security in the sky over the area covering Cherbourg to Deauville, the French Air Force has lined up Crotale missile batteries, Mirage aircraft, Tucano visual observation airplanes and 30 or so helicopters carrying sharpshooters. All together, the Air Force has mobilized 1,300 personnel, the daily says, quoting an official saying: “Every unidentified airplane that enters the surveillance zone will be classified as ‘friend, questionable, suspicious, or to be destroyed.’” The article stresses that this system was already used in Tajikistan and in the Congo and is being deployed in France for the first time. It adds that out at sea, the Navy has mobilized 15 frigates and warships to provide security for the zone alongside the Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier, which will take part in a naval parade. Elsewhere, the newspaper writes: “The French security services have mobilized a veritable armada in Normandy to guarantee that the 60th anniversary of D-Day will go smoothly: close to 6,000 gendarmes, 3,300 police officers, 1,500 civil defense first aid workers and firefighters, backed up by 8,000 troops. According to the Interior Ministry, more than a response to a specific threat, the measures correspond to a ‘very sensitive environment, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and the Madrid attacks.’”

AFGHANISTAN

• AP reports the Nobel Peace Prize-winning relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) suspended operations in Afghanistan Thursday, a day after five of its aid workers were killed in an ambush claimed by the former Taliban regime. The dispatch stresses that the implications of the suspension could be grave. MSF is one of the most professional international relief agencies and often sets the trend for others,” it notes.