Stories from 2002-08-17

"General MacDonald, vice chief of the Canadian defense staff, said the ideas under discussion centered on a joint unit to assess possible threats, based in Colorado Springs next to the binational North American Aerospace Defense Command, known as Norad. As Norad addresses threats from missiles and aircraft, the proposed unit would address threats from land and sea, monitoring ship traffic, for example, and coordinating military planning." [more]

"Moscow also continues to have close ties with the two other nations named by US President George W Bush as part of an ''axis of evil'' along with Iraq. It recently announced plans for increased nuclear co-operation with Iran, while the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, is to visit Russia later this month." [more]

"Since March, 12,000 US troops have been added to Kuwait (8,000) and Qatar (4,000) and 5,000 Brits to Oman, bringing the April/May total to 62,000. In late June, the Turkish foreign ministry reported heavy air traffic of US military transport planes aimed at increasing the number of US troops in southern Turkey from 7,000 to 25,000 by the end of July. Also in June, a contingent of 1,700 British Royal Marines were re-deployed from Afghanistan to Kuwait and a 250-man, highly-specialized German NBC (nuclear-biological-chemical) warfare battalion equipped with "Fuchs" (fox) armored vehicles has been in Kuwait since early this year." [more]

"The names who have come forward this week to express scepticism or outright opposition to a military invasion could not be more high-profile: Henry Kissinger, the primary architect of American foreign and security policy during the second half of the Cold War, who is considered something of a Delphic oracle by many Americans; Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security adviser to George Bush Snr and is still close to the whole Bush family; and Lawrence Eagleburger, another veteran from the Reagan-Bush era who briefly served as Secretary of State after the 1991 Gulf War." [more]

"He reported that Iraq had used chemical weapons to cinch its victory, one former D.I.A. official said. Colonel Francona saw zones marked off for chemical contamination, and containers for the drug atropine scattered around, indicating that Iraqi soldiers had taken injections to protect themselves from the effects of gas that might blow back over their positions. (Colonel Francona could not be reached for comment.)" [more]

" 'We must question those who think that America is our strategic option that cannot be substituted. Those will put us in a narrow space, and their [belief] is not supported by objective justification,' the Al-Riyadh editorial said on Friday." [more]

"In the past three days there have been three separate small explosions in the capital." [more]