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Monday, Feb. 10, 2003

An annoyed U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld learned of the proposal Saturday night only after it was reported in the German newsweekly der Spiegel.

The proposal, to be presented this week to the U.N. Security Council, would send thousands of U.N. troops -- so-called "blue helmets" -- and hundreds, possibly thousands, more inspectors to enforce U.N. resolutions calling for Iraq's disarmament.

In comments to reporters, a senior U.S. government official said, "In diplomacy, if you are trying to win friends and influence people the last thing in the world you want to do is to lay on the U.S. government -- on the most important issue facing us -- a major diplomatic proposal through the press. That's not exactly the way to go."

The official pointed out that Rumsfeld, who was in Munich for the 39th annual Wehrkunde security conference of defense ministers, had met with European officials throughout the day and the matter never was brought up.

"That furthered suspicions on our side," the official said.

Rumsfeld, who was scheduled to return to Washington Sunday, raised the issue with German Defense Minister Peter Struck in a one-on-one meeting Saturday. "And the response we got was, 'We're talking about that with the French, but we're not ready to talk to you about it; it's not fully done,'" the senior official said, "which to say the least was a highly inadequate response."

The official called it extraordinary that no one had spoken to Rumsfeld about it before, particularly given Rumsfeld's strong condemnatory comments earlier in the day. Earlier Saturday, Rumsfeld had warned Germany and France --the most vociferous critics of the U.S. hard-line toward Iraq -- they risk isolating themselves rather than the United States if they continue their resistance to forcing Iraq to disarm.

"And we are now making the point to any French and Germans we can find that it's not the way to have a winning hand with the United States," the senior official said.

Reject Out of Hand

Separate from the secretive process that the United States delegation found outrageous, the U.S. government is likely to reject out of hand any such proposal to beef up inspections.

The senior official brought up the disaster with U.N. troops in Srebrenica in the former Yugoslavia in July 1995, when Bosnian Serb units killed about 8,000 Muslim men and boys after capturing the town, a U.N.-designated "safe area."

"We remember the last time that blue helmets were in a very difficult situation, and we remember July 10th, 1995, Srebrenica, when 8,000 men and boys were killed," the official said. "Srbrenica was an unmitigated disaster."

Moreover, the U.S. position remains it is not the inspectors' job to find Iraqi weapons but Iraq's job to prove it has disarmed.

According to the United States, more inspectors will not change Iraq's noncompliance.

Moments before the senior official spoke a clearly angry Rumsfeld declined to comment on the proposal, saying he only knew what was in the press.

Earlier in the day, Rumsfeld had blasted the "two or three" NATO members--including Germany and France--who are blocking a NATO proposal to direct the Strategic Allied Commander of Europe to prepare a Patriot missile battery, a surveillance plane and chemical and biological detectors to protect Turkey from a possible attack from Iraq. His remarks came in a speech Saturday to the alliance defense ministers gathered here for the conference.

"It is beyond comprehension to me how in the world can a NATO country," he began--interrupted by thunderous applause. "To prevent," he continued, "just the planning I think is inexcusable," he continued.

"Those preventing the alliance from taking even minimum measures to prepare to do so risk undermining the credibility of the NATO alliance," he warned. "If they won't live up to that, what next might they not live up to?"

Rumsfeld said if NATO does not approve the protective measures for Turkey, the United States will do it independently.

"Turkey will not be hurt. The United States (and others) will go right ahead and do it, let there be no doubt," he said. "What will be hurt is NATO."

A senior defense official told reporters Saturday afternoon he expects NATO to approve the proposal on Monday. So "confident and comfortable" was NATO Secretary-General Lord George Robertson that he put the proposal under a "break-silence procedure," meaning if no NATO member objects, it will go into effect.

The United States proposed three weeks ago that NATO send Patriot missiles, an AWACS plane and chemical and biological weapons detection equipment to Turkey. The proposal has been stalled because of Germany and France's objections, the senior defense official said.

Turkey could invoke Article IV of the NATO charter to secure the protective measures, the official said, but at this point it has opted not to.

"It is a fairly major step for a country to invoke the treaty. This was a desire to move this forward quickly and without invoking the treaty," the official said.

It was also a way for the United States to involve and consult with NATO, a gesture it was accused of ignoring after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the defense official said.

Turkey shares a border with Iraq and already hosts more than 1,000 American troops at Incirlik Air Base, from where raids on Iraqi air defense are conducted.

Copyright, United Press International.

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