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Thu, 18 Mar 04
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NE-@latvia-usa.org
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Mar 17, 2004 22:59 PST
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NATO ENLARGEMENT DAILY BRIEF (NEDB)
Thursday, 18 March 2004, 01:30 EDT
---------------------------------------------
* SPAIN'S ZAPATERO SAYS U.S. SHOULD DUMP BUSH / WP / Keith
B. Richburg
* NATIONS WITH TROOPS IN IRAQ MAKE NO MOVE TO JOIN SPAIN /
NYT / Richard Bernstein
* FACTSHEET ON NATIONS PARTICIPATING IN IRAQ OPERATION
/AFP
* ZAPATERO'S FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES FOR SPAIN / AFP
* LATVIANS STILL LARGELY UNWORRIED ABOUT TERRORISM: POLL /
AFP
* PEACE-KEEPING IS LATVIA'S DUTY TO NATO ? POLL / BNS
* NATO EXTENDS ANTI-TERROR PATROLS IN MEDITERRANEAN ? AFP/
Michael Thurston
* EUROPEAN DISTRUST OF U.S. ROLE SHARPENS / IHT / Meg
Bortin
* U.S. TO HOLD NATO ENLARGEMENT CEREMONY THIS MONTH:
OFFICIAL / AFP
* NATO TO PATROL BALTIC AIR SPACE / BNS / TASS
* GEORGIA'S PRESIDENT RISKS SHOWING WARLORD WHO'S BOSS /
NYT / Seth Mydans
---------------------------------------------
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SPAIN'S NEXT PRIME MINISTER SAYS U.S. SHOULD DUMP BUSH
Washington Post, 18 Mar 04, by Keith B. Richburg
MADRID, March 17 -- Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis
Rodriguez Zapatero on Wednesday described the U.S.
occupation of Iraq as "a fiasco" and suggested American
voters should follow the example set by Spain and change
their leadership by supporting Sen. John F. Kerry of
Massachusetts for president in November.
"I said during the campaign I hoped Spain and the Spaniards
would be ahead of the Americans for once," Zapatero said in
an interview on Onda Cero radio. "First we win here, we
change this government, and then the Americans will do it,
if things continue as they are in Kerry's favor."
Zapatero, whose Socialist Party swept the governing Popular
Party out of office in elections Sunday, just three days
after terrorist attacks killed 201 people in Madrid, also
rejected President Bush's request that he reconsider his
plans to withdraw Spain's troops from Iraq unless the
United Nations is given control of the country. "I'll
listen to Mr. Bush. But my position is very clear and
firm," Zapatero said.
"The occupation is a fiasco," he said. "There have almost
been more killed after the war, from a year ago, than
during the war. In the end, the occupying forces have not
handed over control of the situation to the U.N."
Spanish troops constitute 1 percent of the U.S.-led
occupation force in Iraq, and other nations participating
in the coalition have rushed to reaffirm their willingness
to remain in Iraq. But a Spanish pullout could hamper U.S.
attempts to encourage other nations to send troops. In
addition, diplomats said the new Spanish government's
position would make it more difficult for the Bush
administration to persuade NATO to take a stronger role in
Iraq after the planned June 30 handover of sovereignty.
The Spanish force currently in Iraq is scheduled to come
home in April, and a replacement contingent had its
farewell ceremony Wednesday at a Spanish military base.
Officials said no decision had been made to delay or cancel
the transfer. Zapatero said he looked forward to "a
profound debate" with the Bush administration about how to
effectively combat terrorism. "Fighting terrorism with
bombs, with Tomahawk missiles, isn't the way to beat
terrorism, but the way to generate more radicalism," he
said.
Zapatero's implicit endorsement of Kerry, the presumptive
Democratic nominee, was a surprising public repudiation of
a sitting U.S. president by the incoming leader of an
allied country and fellow NATO member.
Members of Spain's Popular Party -- which will become the
opposition when Zapatero, a 43-year-old lawyer, takes
office next month -- immediately criticized Zapatero's
remarks, saying they demonstrated his inexperience in
diplomacy.
"I think that was extremely un-careful," said Gustavo de
Aristegui, a Popular Party member of parliament who is
expected to become the opposition's spokesman on foreign
affairs. "A prime minister cannot say that -- maybe an
opposition leader can say that."
The outgoing prime minister from the Popular Party, Jose
Maria Aznar, was one of the Bush administration's most
steadfast allies in Europe. He joined Bush and British
Prime Minister Tony Blair a year ago at a prewar summit in
the Azores before the invasion of Iraq and sent more than
1,300 Spanish troops to help with peacekeeping after the
fall of Saddam Hussein. Aznar was not running for
reelection, but his close embrace of the Bush
administration was seen as a major factor in his party's
defeat.
Government officials and Popular Party leaders, stunned by
their loss Sunday, have accused the Socialists of
exploiting the March 11 attacks on trains in Madrid to gain
the upper hand in the elections. Some officials have
questioned whether the Socialist victory would be seen as a
victory for the terrorists who planted the bombs.
On Wednesday, several thousand Popular Party supporters
converged on the party headquarters chanting "Zapatero,
manipulator!" and waving placards equating the Socialist
Party with terrorists.
Meanwhile, several Spanish media outlets reported that an
Arabic-language newspaper in London had received a new
letter from an Islamic group claiming credit for the
attacks. In the new message, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade
said it was halting "all operations in the Spanish
territory" to give the new government time to honor its
pledge to withdraw from Iraq.
Several experts had previously discounted the group, saying
it had falsely claimed responsibility for such actions as
the power blackouts on the U.S. East Coast last year that
were caused by a faulty power grid.
Spanish investigators continued seeking clues Wednesday
that might link three arrested Moroccans, and at least five
others being sought, to Thursday's bomb attacks. One of the
Moroccans already in custody, Jamal Zougam, has been linked
to an al Qaeda cell operating in Spain and to suicide
bombings in the Moroccan city of Casablanca last May that
killed 45 people, including 12 of the bombers.
The Spanish interior minister, Angel Acebes, offered no new
details about the investigation Wednesday, telling
reporters that it had reached "a decisive phase." The
Spanish are being assisted by Moroccan investigators and by
other European intelligence agencies. The FBI is helping
with fingerprint and background checks on some suspects.
Also Wednesday, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that
investigators believe the explosives used in the attacks
may have been stolen from a factory in Burgos, north of
Madrid, and that the detonators had come from a nearby rock
quarry. That would suggest a high degree of local knowledge
and some sophisticated planning for the attacks.
-Special correspondents Pamela Rolfe and Robert Scarcia
contributed to this report.
NATIONS WITH TROOPS IN IRAQ MAKE NO MOVE TO JOIN SPAIN
The New York Times, 16 Mar 04, by Richard Bernstein
The announcement by Spain's prime minister-elect that he
would withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq by midyear was
clearly bad news for the other countries that have
contributed forces there, but on Monday none of them gave
indications that the Spanish move would affect their own
troop commitments.
"Revising our positions on Iraq after terrorist attacks
would be to admit that terrorists are stronger and that
they are right," the Polish prime minister, Leszek Miller,
said at a news conference.
Boguslaw Majewski, spokesman for the Polish Foreign
Ministry, said, "We are not contemplating any change,
certainly not from the Polish perspective, and we hope that
this will remain the perspective of all our coalition
partners."
Similar statements were made Monday by leaders in Britain
and Italy, the two other major European contributors, with
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi saying that Italy "will
not raise its arms in surrender."
Speaking on BBC Radio on Monday, the British foreign
minister, Jack Straw, rejected the idea that Spain might
get a kind of immunity from future terrorist attack by
disengaging from Iraq.
"The idea that somehow there is some exemption certificate
for this war against terrorism is utter nonsense," Mr.
Straw said.
"Al Qaeda are absolutely vicious fanatics who not only
obviously hate those who were responsible for the military
action in Iraq, but hate anybody who upholds democratic
values," he said.
Germany, too, which opposed the American war in Iraq and
has no troops in the country, reaffirmed that it would go
ahead with a plan to train Iraqi policemen outside Iraq.
The Germans also announced that there would be no change in
their engagement in Afghanistan, where they are one of the
biggest contributors to the NATO forces.
"There are no such considerations," Bela Anda, the
government spokesman, said at a regular press briefing.
Still, the Spanish election results, in overthrowing the
government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, open up
likelihood of political shifts in Europe away from those
who have supported the United States in Iraq.
"The omens for Mr. Blair do not look good this morning,"
The Evening Standard editorialized in London. "Not only
does he face the possibility of a major attack on British
soil, and not only has the war in Iraq patently made no
difference to Al Qaeda's capabilities. But it was he who
took this country to war in controversial circumstances,
when many Britons opposed it -- and Spanish voters have
shown afresh the danger of defying public opinion in such
dangerous times."
Britain, Poland and Italy have more than 13,000 troops in
Iraq. Poland, with about 2,500 troops, commands one of four
military zones in Iraq, which includes Spain's 1,300-member
contingent.
If Spain does withdraw its forces, it will leave the Poles
responsible for making up the shortage, a result that may
have prompted some harsh criticism of Spain from Polish
officials and commentators.
"The eventual withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq means
serious trouble for Poland, because Poland will not be able
to replace these soldiers,"said Bronislaw Komorowski, a
former defense minister.
The newspaper Rzeczpospolita said in an editorial: "The
Socialists have announced a withdrawal of Spanish troops
from the Polish zone in Iraq. If their government does
that, it will be the victory of the terrorists and it will
mean that the terrorists are the ones who really rule in
Spain."
Many countries, not surprisingly, were deeply divided
within themselves on the election results in Spain, not
surprising given that there was strong public opposition to
the governments in almost all of the countries that backed
the United States. The shift in Spain opens the possibility
that the pro-American governments will now face intensified
opposition.
Members of Italy's opposition, apparently heartened by the
results in Spain, took their government to task for
policies supporting the Iraq war.
"In democracies, lies don't pay," a liberal oppostion
leader, Piero Fassino, told reporters. "Evidently the
voters want to know the truth and are truly tired of having
their legs pulled."
Two marches were announced in Italy, one on Thursday to
show support for the victims of terrorism, the other on
Saturday to protest the war in Iraq.
"You cannot demonstrate on Thursday against terrorism and
on Saturday against those who are combating terrorism," Mr.
Berlusconi said Monday.
In Britain, the pro-government Daily Telegraph said in an
editorial that the Socialist win in Spain was a "blow for
the war on terrorism."
"The idea abounds that if the West somehow withdrew from
Iraq or transferred more wealth to the masses of the
Maghreb, then all of this would stop," the paper said.
"De-ideologized, postmodern man is particularly bad at
grasping the ideological nature of its foes. The desire not
to take our enemies at face value, in word and deed, is the
hallmark of much of contemporary Europe."
NATIONS PARTICIPATING IN IRAQ OPERATION
AFP, 16 Mar 04
Spain's contingent with the US-led forces occuyping Iraq is
the sixth largest, making up the bulk of a battalion of
Spanish-speaking troops based in a Shiite-dominated region
south of Baghdad.
If prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
carries out his threat to bring them home it will leave a
sizeable hole in the coalition's strength.
The top US commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo
Sanchez, said Tuesday coalition forces "will have to adapt
our foot prints ... in central-south," referring to Iraq's
five provinces garrisoned by the Polish-led multinational
division which includes the Spanish forces.
"The greater impact strategically on the coalition has yet
to be determined," he added.
The Spanish forces have suffered 11 deaths, including seven
intelligence agents ambushed in November.
Following are the foreign contingents of troops and police
occupying Iraq, with their current strengths:
1. United States: 130,000
2. Britain: 9,000
3. Italy: 3,000
4. Poland: 2,460
5. Ukraine: 1,600
6. Spain: 1,300
7. Netherlands: 1,100
8. Australia: 800
9. Romania: 700
10. Bulgaria: 480
11. Thailand: 440
12. Denmark: 420
13. South Korea: 400 (rising to more than 3,000 from April)
14. Honduras: 370
15. El Salvador: 380
16. Hungary: 300
17. Japan: 240 (rising to 550 by the end of March)
18. Norway: 179
19. Mongolia: 160
20. Azerbaijan: 150
21. Dominican Republic: 150
22. Portugal: 128
23. Latvia: 120
24. Lithuania: 118
25. Slovakia: 102
26. Czech Republic: 80 (police)
27. Philippines: 96
28. Albania: 70
29. Georgia: 70
30. New Zealand: 61
31. Moldova: 50
32. Estonia: 31
33. Macedonia: 37
34. Kazakhstan: 25
-The South Korean and Japanese troops are strictly
non-combatant.
ZAPATERO'S FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES FOR SPAIN
AFP, 15 Mar 04
The election of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero as Spain's new
prime minister is likely to bring major changes to Spanish
foreign policy, including a reversal of support for the
US-led occupation of Iraq and a willingness to support
adoption of a constitution for the European Union.
PRIORITIES:
Zapatero will change the priorities for Spain, placing
emphasis on the EU, Latin America, the Mediterranean --
particularly Morocco -- and the fight against terrorism.
The outgoing government or Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar
put more emphasis on US ties and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO).
EUROPEAN UNION:
The EU will become the natural framework for Spain's
foreign policy. Zapatero expressed his willingness to
facilitate discussions on a constitution for the enlarged
25-nation EU, which has been blocked by the refusal of
Spain and Poland to compromise over voting rights in
European councils.
Zapatero instead speaks of a "reasonable balance of power"
in an enlarged EU.
He said he will re-establish a "magnificent" relationship
with France and Germany, the leading opponents of the war
in Iraq with which the future government will be allied.
Zapatero pledged that his government will be "deeply
pro-European."
IRAQ:
On Iraq, Zapatero said he will withdraw the 1,300 Spanish
troops in the southern occupation zone by June 30 unless
there is a sovereign Iraqi government by then and foreign
forces in Iraq operate under the authority of the United
Nations. He said President George W. Bush and Prime
Minister Tony Blair of Britain needed "to engage in some
self-criticism."
UNITED STATES:
Zapatero said his government would seek cordial relations
with the United States, above and beyond disagreements over
the occupation of Iraq and the manner of conducting the
fight against terrorism.
LATIN AMERICA:
Zapatero said his government would deal with Latin American
nations on a basis of equality. He said Spain should be
considered a natural intermediary between Europe and Latin
America.
MOROCCO:
The prime minister-elect stressed that his government would
pay particular attention to good relations with Morocco,
with which the Aznar government had disputes over fishing
rights and territory. The need for closer cooperation
became more pressing as it emerged that the group thought
to be responsible for the terrorist bombings in Madrid last
week may also have carried out attacks in Casablanca in May
last year.
LATVIANS STILL LARGELY UNWORRIED ABOUT TERRORISM: POLL
AFP, 17 Mar 04
Over 43 percent of Latvians are not worried about the
possibility of a terrorist attack in their country,
compared with 39 percent who fear violent reprisals for
their country's support for the US-led war in Iraq,
according to a poll released Wednesday.
The poll was conducted by SKDS research company among 1,009
people in February, before the Madrid railway bombings last
Thursday which appear to be an Islamic extremist act of
revenge for Spain's part in the Iraq war.
Latvia has 113 soldiers participating in a stabilisation
force in Iraq.
People aged 18 to 24, those with university degrees and
those with higher-than-average incomes were found to be
less worried about the likelihood of a terrorist attack.
In a similar poll in 2003 the fear of terrorist attacks was
shared by 44.4 percent, and in 2002 the figure was 39.5
percent.
Undecided respondents made up 18.2 percent among the people
polled, who were aged between 18 and 74.
The March 11 railway attacks in Madrid killed 201 people
and wounded more than 1,500.
JOINING PEACE-KEEPING MISSIONS IS LATVIA'S DUTY TO NATO --
POLL
BNS, 13 Mar 04
It is Latvia's duty as a would-be NATO member to
participate in international peace-keeping missions, stated
most respondents, who approved of Latvia sending its troops
on peace missions in a poll commissioned by the Latvian
Defense Ministry.
Those, who think that Latvian soldiers should not join
international peace-keeping operations, supported their
opinion mostly by pacifist views, showed the survey of the
public opinion on national defense issues carried out by
the Data Serviss company.
It was also determined that pro-NATO minded respondents
tended to approve of Latvia's participation in
peace-keeping missions while the opposites opinion
prevailed among those in anti-NATO mood.
Among respondents supporting Latvia's participation in
international military operations, 27.1 percent said it was
Latvia's duty as a would-be member of NATO. In a similar
poll last year, the same argument was used by 23.7 percent.
Also, 23.1 percent (289.4 percent last year) said
peace-keeping missions would help to improve professional
level of Latvian soldiers, and 20.4 percent (24.4 percent)
said Latvia should contribute to peace-keeping in other
countries.
Another 16.6 percent (10 percent) explained their support
to international missions by the need to fight terrorism
and 12 percent (12.1 percent) it was just a well-paid job
one assumes voluntarily.
Among the respondents objecting to participation of Latvian
soldiers in international operations, 28.8 percent (42.5
percent) said conflicts should be solved in a peaceful
manner and 24.1 percent (17.9 percent) were afraid that
this would put Latvian security under the threat.
Other arguments against international peace-keeping
missions included subjecting soldiers to unnecessary risk
(23.8 percent), inadequate skills by peace-keepers (12.3
percent) and high costs of the missions running counter to
the country's economic interests (9.9 percent).
At present Latvian soldiers participate in peace-keeping
operations in five countries. Of a total of 237 Latvian
peace-keepers, 120 serve in Iraq, 104 in Kosovo, 11 in
Afghanistan, one in Bosnia-Herzegovina and one in Georgia.
NATO EXTENDS ANTI-TERROR PATROLS IN MEDITERRANEAN
AFP, 16 MAr 04, by Michael Thurston
NATO ordered the extension of anti-terrorist surveillance
patrols across the Mediterranean on March 16, in a
long-planned move it said was made ?more relevant? by last
week?s Madrid bombings.
Operation Active Endeavor was launched in the eastern
Mediterranean after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the
United States, and it was extended a year ago to protect
vessels in the Straits of Gibraltar.
NATO?s top decision-making body the North Atlantic Council
agreed to extend the mission, which initially involved nine
ships, to the whole of the Mediterranean basin.
?The whole point is about making it seriously difficult for
terrorists to operate,? said a NATO spokesman after the
decision involving a force that has monitored more than
41,000 vessels since it was launched in October 2001.
Asked if the decision was linked to last week?s Madrid
bombings, which killed over 200 people, a spokesman said:
?It?s not a direct response. It?s part of the review that?s
ongoing.?
But he added: ?This becomes even more relevant in the wake
of Madrid,? noting that: ?Spain is one of the countries
which is very much in favor? of the extension.
Over the last two-and-a-half years the NATO forces have
boarded 47 vessels in the shipping lanes of the eastern
Mediterranean while over 400 ships have been escorted
through the Straits of Gibraltar between Spain and Africa.
The patrols were deployed under Article 5 of NATO?s
founding treaty, which requires all members to aid each
other. The article was invoked immediately after the Sept.
11 attacks.
NATO extended the force to the western end of the
Mediterranean last March. ?The narrow Strait of Gibraltar
is widely recognized as a potential site of terrorist
attacks,? it said at the time.
Lt. Cmdr. Harvey Burwin, of NATO?s southern command based
in Naples, Italy, welcomed the decision in Brussels.
?After two-and-a-half years of experience in the eastern
Mediterranean the intelligence community now believes that
there is a perceived threat throughout the Mediterranean,?
he told Agence France-Presse.
Last June, it emerged that the NATO force had been involved
in developments which led to the seizure by Greek
authorities of an explosives-laden vessel heading for
Sudan.
Operation Active Endeavor alerted Greece to the
Comoros-registered Baltic Sky, because it did not dock
anywhere for some time. The ship was found to be carrying
680 tons of explosives and 8,000 detonators.
The Task Force Endeavor fleet, part of NATO?s permanent
Mediterranean force, has comprised ships from Britain,
Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and
United States.
The decision comes as NATO prepares to help Greece to
safeguard this summer?s Athens Olympic Games in the wake of
the massacre in Madrid, which has raised the specter of
fresh al-Qaida attack across Europe.
Greece took up the NATO offer of help last Friday, a day
after the Madrid bombings. The alliance is expected to
provided air and sea surveillance to protect the Olympics
from chemical, biological or radiological attack.
NATO commander for southeast Europe, U.S. Adm. Gregory
Johnson, said earlier this week that the transatlantic
alliance stood ready to provide AWACS surveillance aircraft
in particular to oversee the games.
EUROPEAN DISTRUST OF U.S. ROLE SHARPENS
International Herald Tribune, 17 Mar 04, by Meg Bortin
'No healing of the wounds' a year after Iraq war, global
survey finds
PARIS One year after the war in Iraq, European distrust of
the United States has intensified, with sharp doubts among
America's closest allies of the Bush administration's
motives in the war on terror, a global opinion survey has
found.
The poll of more than 7,500 people in nine countries,
conducted in late February and early March by the
nonpartisan Pew Research Center, before the bombings in
Spain, showed that anger toward America is still fierce in
Muslim countries, too, 12 months after the war began.
Resentment is so strong that majorities in three Muslim
countries surveyed - Jordan, Pakistan and Morocco - feel
that suicide bombings against Americans and other
Westerners in Iraq are justifiable.
The poll, carried out in association with the International
Herald Tribune, found that even in Turkey, an American
partner in NATO, 31 percent felt such attacks were
justifiable.
Still more worrisome perhaps for Washington in an election
year, however, the trans-Atlantic confidence gap has
deepened since a Pew survey carried out in the immediate
aftermath of the war, when public ire over the U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq was still hot in Europe.
"There has been no healing of the wounds," said Andrew
Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center in Washington.
Unfavorable opinion of the United States, which skyrocketed
in the run-up to the war, has become still more negative in
France, Germany and Britain since President George W. Bush
declared hostilities over in May, the survey found.
British views in particular are more critical, with a 12
percent slide in favorable opinion of the United States.
The decrease, from 70 percent last May to 58 percent now,
"reflects dropping support for the war" in Britain, Kohut
said.
In France, favorable views dropped to 37 percent from 43
percent in May; in Germany positive opinion fell to 38
percent from 45 percent 10 months ago.
Majorities in the three countries - historically
Washington's closest NATO partners - also said that as a
consequence of the war they had less confidence that the
United States is trustworthy. Mistrust was expressed by 82
percent in Germany, 78 percent in France and 58 percent in
Britain.
According to Franēois Heisbourg, director of the
Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, alienation is
increasing in Europe "because there's been no give on the
Bush side."
"There is a widespread perception in Europe that we have
the choice of being treated as a vassal - a poodle in the
case of Britain - or being treated as an antagonist,"
Heisbourg said.
As grounds for resentment, he cited continuing American
neglect of European sentiment on issues ranging from the
Kyoto Protocol on the environment to the treatment of
prisoners at the U.S. naval base at Guantįnamo Bay,
Cuba. In France, he noted, anger flared anew recently when
the State Department came out against the banning of the
Islamic head scarf in French schools.
The survey results also indicate that there has been no
rebound among America's allies of post-Sept. 11 sympathy
for the United States, which dissipated in the glare of
European disapproval during the build-up to war.
Quite the contrary: Majorities in France, Germany, Russia,
Turkey, Pakistan, Jordan and Morocco said they thought the
U.S.-led war on terrorism was not sincere. Instead, most
said it was an effort "to control Mideast oil" or "to
dominate the world." Even in Britain only the slimmest
majority - 51 percent - viewed the war on terror as
sincere.
In fact, people in many countries were dismissive of U.S.
attitudes toward the threat of international terrorism.
While fully 84 percent of Americans questioned said the
United States was right to be concerned, majorities in
France and the four Muslim countries in the survey -
Turkey, Pakistan, Jordan and Morocco - said America was
overreacting.
Kohut said the survey results might have differed had the
question been asked after the March 11 carnage in Spain.
William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard
and a strong supporter of the war on terrorism, said the
Madrid attacks "could even widen the rift."
Kristol cited remarks this week by Romano Prodi, president
of the European Commission, that the U.S. approach to
fighting terrorism had failed, and added: "If that's going
to be the European conclusion of the past two and a half
years, I think Americans, and not just Bush, are going to
reject that."
In foreign policy in general, the view that the United
States acts unilaterally is more widespread now than at the
war's end, the survey found.
In France, 84 percent said they felt the United States did
not take their country's interests into account in
international policy decisions, up from 76 percent last
May. Similar strong feelings were expressed in Turkey (79
percent), Jordan (77 percent), Russia (73 percent), and
Germany (69 percent).
In contrast, 70 percent of Americans surveyed felt that the
United States takes other countries' interests into
account.
"Americans think we're cooperative and popular," Kohut said
of the perception gap. "Americans think, 'We're the ones on
the white horse who do good things for the planet, like
dealing with terrorism and evil dictators, and we're
misunderstood.'"
The trans-Atlantic chasm in thinking translated into desire
in Europe for looser ties with the United States in
security and diplomatic affairs, the survey found.
Majorities in France (75 percent), Germany (63 percent),
Turkey (60 percent) and Britain (56 percent) said Europe
should be more independent.
Majorities in the five European countries in the survey -
Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Turkey - said it would
be a good thing if the European Union became as powerful as
the United States. In France, 90 percent expressed this
view.
European dislike of President George W. Bush, too, has not
diminished. Majorities in every country surveyed expressed
unfavorable views, with negative opinion of Bush in France
and Germany - 85 percent - higher than in Muslim countries
like Pakistan and Turkey.
"I think what has hurt Bush the most, both in Europe and
the United States, is his failure to explain why no weapons
of mass destruction were found in Iraq," Kristol said.
"We're paying a real price for that."
Most people questioned in the survey said they felt that
Bush and Tony Blair, the British prime minister, had lied
about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to have a pretext
for war.
Only in the United States and Britain did a majority say
their leaders had been misinformed by bad intelligence, and
even there sizable minorities said the two leaders had
lied: 31 percent in the United States and 41 percent in
Britain.
Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden is still viewed as a hero in
parts of the Muslim world. Sixty-five percent in Pakistan
and 55 percent in Jordan expressed favorable views of the
Qaeda leader. In Turkey, however, 75 percent expressed
unfavorable views.
As for American attitudes, the anger felt toward the
"coalition of the unwilling" - notably France and Germany -
has subsided slightly since the war's end, but is still
strong.
Thirty-three percent in the United States now express
favorable views of France, up from 29 percent in May; 50
percent hold positive views of Germany, up from 44 percent.
Enthusiasm for Britain is declining, however, with 73
percent now holding favorable views, down from 82 percent
in May.
Given the intense media coverage of the Iraq war and the
resulting tensions between the United States and Europe,
another surprising finding is that 7 percent of Americans
surveyed have never heard of the European Union. That
figure, however, is an improvement since early September
2001, when one-fifth of Americans surveyed - 20 percent -
said they had never heard of the allied bloc across the
Atlantic.
U.S. TO HOLD NATO ENLARGEMENT CEREMONY THIS MONTH:
OFFICIAL
AFP, 17 Mar 04
US President George W. Bush will host a White House
ceremony welcoming seven new members of NATO later this
month, a few days before a formal enlargement ceremony in
Brussels, an official said Wednesday.
The Washington event, to be attended by the prime ministers
of the ex-Soviet newcomers, will be held on March 29, ahead
of an April 2 ceremony at the US-led alliance's Brussels
headquarters where foreign ministers will participate.
In the US capital the leaders of Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria will
deposit their articles of ratification to NATO's 1949
founding Washington Treaty, said the NATO official. That is
the final step on the path to joining the alliance.
In Brussels the foreign ministers will be formally welcomed
as members of the currently 19-member alliance by NATO
secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
NATO's formal expansion was originally pencilled in for a
NATO summit to be held in Istanbul in June. But it was
brought forward after the incoming members move rapidly to
ratify their accession.
The NATO official said the alliance has invited Russia's
foreign minister to attend the Brussels ceremony but had
not yet received a reply. Russia long opposed NATO's
expansion into former Soviet territory.
Three other ex-communist countries -- Poland, the Czech
Republic and Hungary -- joined NATO in 1999.
NATO TO PATROL BALTIC AIR SPACE
BNS, 17 Mar 04
NATO will ensure protection of the Baltic air space after
the three nations join the alliance, stationing allies'
capacities in Lithuania to perform air policing tasks, the
North Atlantic Council decided in Brussels on Wednesday.
The decision obligates the supreme allied commander Europe
to start the procedure of forces generation - ask allies to
propose their aircraft and technical equipment to be
stationed in Lithuania.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry reported that the North
Atlantic Council had confirmed that all NATO countries must
have equal collective security guarantees.
The North Atlantic Council decided that the air space of
all 26 NATO allies would be protected according to the same
standards. The Alliance will offer equipment needed for air
space protection to those members that do not have it of
their own. It was decided that equipment needed to fulfill
the objective would be deployed in Lithuania.
"It is an important event, which will have extensive
practical and political meaning. The alliance will station
its capacities in Lithuania, which does not have all
technical capacities to defend its air space. In the
political sense, we become a part of the alliance's air
space without any reservations and comments, as NATO
Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said during his
visit in Lithuania," Defense Minister Linas Linkevicius
told BNS.
"I am glad to see the decision made on the same day as the
signing of agreement on defense funding for the 2005-2008
period by Lithuanian political parties," said Linkevicius.
Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis hailed the NATO decision.
"This is yet another proof that we are entering a union of
equal and full-fledged states, which is able to take care
of its members' security. I am glad that having become a
full member of the alliance, Lithuania will feel safer
politically as well as practically. This will increase
security in the entire Baltic Sea region," Valionis was
cited in a Foreign Ministry's press release as saying.
Danish politicians and military officers have earlier
confirmed to BNS about a possibility under discussion in
Denmark to allocate four fighter planes F-16 of the Royal
Air Force, crews and service personnel - about 100 people -
and portable radar for the protection of air space of
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
The initiative was presented to members of the Foreign
Policy Committee, a key body in the Danish parliament,
Folketing, last Thursday.
A high-ranking official of the Danish Defense Ministry then
told BNS that such decision was under military planning.
BNS sources at the Lithuanian Defense Ministry said there
were few doubts about NATO's plans to deploy 4-6 air planes
in Lithuania to perform air-policing tasks until the
alliance comes up with a long-term decision on the matter.
The aircrafts may be temporarily deployed in Vilnius until
the runway of Zokniai airport is repaired. Some 1.5 million
litas are scheduled to be allocated for the initial repair
works in the nearest months. The sources said the
stationing of aircrafts in the Lithuanian capital would
also have an important political shade -- it would say
about NATO commitments.
Lithuania seeks the alliance's air policing forces to be
deployed at the Zokniai airport-based 1st aviation base of
the Lithuanian Air Force -- huge Soviet-era airport which
can receive even largest aircrafts. NATO observation plane
E-3 AWACS has recently landed in Zokniai. Light attack
aircrafts L-39 Albatros and transport aircrafts An-26 and
L-410 are deployed at the first base.
The sources at the Defense Ministry have said Zokniai is
perfectly fit for the role of air force base as it has
developed infrastructure and is remote from Siauliai city,
but the runway needs to be renovated.
The possibility of temporarily using the civil Vilnius
International Airport for deployment of the air policing
force until the necessary repair works are completed is
currently being considered.
Just weeks before the new members' accession to NATO, the
absence of proper air security force is one of the major
problems of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
/?/
NATO TO GUARD SKIES OF NEW MEMBERS
TASS, 17 Mar 04, by Alexander Kondrashov
Planes of Danish, Belgian and Dutch air forces will protect
the air space of the three Baltic republics at the first
stage after their joining the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, the Belga Press Agency said on Wednesday,
citing the Belgian Defence Ministry.
NATO is to secure the guarding of the skies of seven newly
admitted countries, four of which do not have interceptor
planes, after April 2, the official date of their joining
the Western alliance.
It is planned to engage in this mission during the first
three months Denmark, which has agreed to deploy in the
Baltic region four fighter jets F-16, a mobile radar
station and about 100 army servicemen.
Later, on a rotation basis, Belgium and the Netherlands
will send to the Baltic region similar forces.
This is considered in NATO as an "interim decision".
A final plan of protecting the air space of Latvia,
Lithuania, Estonia and Slovenia is to be passed after a
NATO summit in Istanbul.
GEORGIA'S PRESIDENT RISKS SHOWING WARLORD WHO'S BOSS
New York Times, 17 Mar 04, by Seth Mydans
TBILISI, Georgia, March 17 ? Two months after taking
office, President Mikhail Saakashvili has touched off his
first crisis by doing something that would seem quite
unremarkable elsewhere: driving through his own territory.
He was stopped Sunday by armed men at the border of the
renegade province of Adzharia, touching off a series of
events that left his government in a standoff with the
warlord who runs the province, Aslan Abashidze.
A confrontation was bound to come sooner or later, analysts
say. But in attacking the problem directly by trying to
cross the provincial border, Mr. Saakashvili has raised the
possibility of armed conflict and put his young
administration to a harsh test.
"If he succeeds in this he is very strong," said Ghia
Nodia, a leading political analyst. "And if he is seen as a
loser, this will of course become the beginning of a big
problem for him also in Tbilisi."
The standoff is of keen interest to both Moscow and
Washington, which have important interests in Georgia. It
carries echoes of the proxy conflicts between the
superpowers during the cold war.
On Monday, Mr. Saakashvili instituted a blockade of
Adzharia, and on Wednesday he sent Prime Minister Nino
Burdzhanadze to meet with Mr. Abashidze in the Adzharian
capital, Batumi. His office said he planned to travel there
himself on Thursday.
For his part, Mr. Abashidze declared a state of emergency,
sent armed men into the streets and traveled to Moscow in
hope of support.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that the
province is home to a Russian military base and has the
backing of at least some Russian officials. Moscow's
influence could be decisive in calming or sharpening the
conflict, depending on its calculations of its own
interests.
The Kremlin has warned Georgia of "grave and unpredictable
consequences" if Adzharia comes under attack. The mayor of
Moscow, Yuri M. Luzhkov, flew to Batumi on Tuesday and
said, "We are brothers with Aslan Abashidze. I came to
support him in a difficult situation."
Washington is watching closely because of its close
relations with this former Soviet republic and its interest
in a major oil pipeline that will open soon across Georgian
territory. Mr. Saakashvili, 36, studied law in the United
States and his government is receiving large-scale
financial aid from Washington.
A parliamentary election is scheduled for March 28, and
some analysts see it as a deadline for dealing with Mr.
Abashidze or proceeding with a vote that does not include a
significant portion of the country.
Mr. Saakashvili's supporters are sure to dominate the next
Parliament. He remains highly popular since his ouster of
former President Eduard A. Shevardnadze in a peaceful
uprising in November.
Success in Adzharia would strengthen Mr. Saakashvili's hand
in addressing major problems of corruption and economic
collapse in this nation of nearly five million people on
the southern border of Russia.
Since his election in late January, he has centralized
power in the presidency through constitutional amendments
that he calls a temporary measure to allow him to act more
vigorously. With a series of showy televised arrests of
prominent figures by armed men wearing masks, he has sent a
signal that he is attacking corruption.
His blockade of Adzharia took effect on Monday, closing its
border with Turkey, cutting off its road and rail links
with the rest of Georgia and barring ships from its Black
Sea port at Batumi, a major transfer point for oil from
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
Mr. Saakashvili also announced that the bank accounts of
Adzharia's leaders would be frozen.
"Georgia is under real threat of disintegration and
collapse," he said after announcing the blockade. He
described Mr. Abashidze's actions as an armed revolt, but
said he would try to resolve the confrontation in Adzharia
peacefully.
"I am taking these steps to prove that Georgia is a state,
it has a state border, it has airspace, it has its
sovereignty and it has its budget, and this budget belongs
to every citizen of Georgia, not to one of its clans," he
said.
Under Mr. Shevardnadze, the central government in Georgia
was weakened and the country and its economy were fractured
into fiefs and criminal enterprises. Mr. Abashidze was one
of Mr. Shevardnadze's last supporters and had been allowed
to enrich himself by keeping fees from oil shipments and
withholding taxes from Tbilisi.
"This crisis is not just a confrontation between a region
and the capital or between one politician and another,"
said Levan Ramishvili, director of the Liberty Institute, a
private pro-democracy organization. "It is a confrontation
between two Georgias ? the Georgia of the past and the
Georgia of the future."
During a testy telephone call on Sunday, Mr. Abashidze said
Mr. Saakashvili demanded control of customs duties and of
the Batumi port.
"He was just saying what he wanted and wouldn't listen," he
told a regional television station. "I reminded him several
times that I am older than he is. He apologized but
continued in the same vein."
Mr. Abashidze's time has passed, Mr. Saakashvili told
reporters on Monday. "No one likes to lose power,
especially those from the old Soviet nomenklatura who have
been around for too long. The whole idea of losing their
position as a result of free polls and the will of the
people makes them totally confused and they refuse to
accept it."
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