NATO expected to back U.S. claims
that bin Laden was behind attacks
By Gregory Piatt,
Belgium bureau
BRUSSELS, Belgium — NATO could endorse on Wednesday U.S. claims that Osama bin
Laden and his terrorist networks were responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks in America, an
alliance official said.
Allies are expected to express robust solidarity after the U.S presents evidence
implicating bin Laden at a one-day informal defense ministers meeting on Wednesday at the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s headquarters in Brussels.
"The individual allies will have to respond under Article 5 when the United States
asks for their help," the official said about the article in the alliance charter,
which says an attack on one of its members is an attack on all of them and allies are
bound to assist a member in whatever way they can.
The official, who asked not to be named, said this will resolve any doubts among
alliance members, who asked for evidence that the terrorist attacks were from abroad when
it invoked the article last week.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who will attend the meeting in place
of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, will not present a formal report on the evidence,
said a Western diplomat serving with NATO.
"But I can’t guarantee that he won’t surprise us and present
something," said the diplomat, who asked for anonymity.
However, the alliance isn’t expecting a formal report outlining the exact evidence
the U.S. has gathered, the official said. It is expecting it will receive a briefing from
Wolfowitz further updating what evidence the U.S. already has presented to or received
from alliance members, the NATO official said.
"The United States won’t present the secretary-general [George Robertson]
with a report explaining every detail because they don’t want to reveal their
intelligence sources and many of the allies know what the evidence is because they have
been giving it to the U.S.," the official said.
In return, NATO could offer the United States help such as organizing commissions on
terrorism, sharing intelligence, coordinating NATO naval forces and offering alliance
AWACS planes for any U.S. missions, the official said. Individual allies could offer other
military assets such as troops or other equipment on a bilateral basis with the United
States in a U.S.-led operation, the official said.
So far, several individual NATO members have either offered troops, aircraft, airspace,
bases and intelligence in the fight against terrorist networks.
"The United States … has the lead in this matter and it is up to them to ask
for what help they want from NATO as a whole and from individual allies in
particular," Robertson said on Monday.
"I … expect the ministers will want to review what elements, both collective
and individual, might be put in place by individual member states to fulfill the Article 5
commitment and to assist the United States with whatever policy it is going to embark
upon."
Russian Defense Minister Sergej Ivanov, who will be attending and will meet with
Wolfowitz, is interested in what the U.S. is about to embark on and will talk about the
implications for international security in the wake of the attacks in the U.S., the
official said.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would arm the anti-Taliban
opposition in Afghanistan, offer its airspace to humanitarian aid flights if the U.S.
launches retaliatory strikes, not block the U.S. from using former military bases in the
former Soviet republics bordering Afghanistan and share information on the bases and
operations of international terrorists.
But Putin gave no concrete offer of military assistance and Ivanov said Russian troops
would not return to Afghanistan, from which they were driven in 1989.
What information or further help the Russians will present at the meeting is unknown,
the NATO official said. However, after Putin revealed on Monday that it wouldn’t
block any U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, there is no doubt that Russia will help,
the official said.
But in return for its help, Russia might want concessions from the alliance and the
U.S. on the missile defense system and the expansion of NATO, two alliance initiatives the
Russians are against.
"What Ivanov will say or how he will use this meeting, we don’t know,"
the official said.
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