Posted on 09/19/2001 7:50:33 PM PDT by aculeus
AMERICA and Britain are producing secret plans to launch a ten-year “war on terrorism” — Operation Noble Eagle — involving a completely new military and diplomatic strategy to eliminate terrorist networks and cells around the world. Despite the mass build-up of American forces in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, there will be no “D-Day invasion” of Afghanistan and no repeat of the US-led Operation Desert Storm against Iraq in 1991, defence sources say.
The notion that a US-led multinational coalition would attack Afghanistan from all sides for harbouring Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi dissident leader and prime suspect for the terrorist outrages in New York and Washington, has been rejected in Washington and London. The sources also say that the planned campaign is not being focused on just “bringing bin Laden to justice”.
The build-up of firepower by the Americans in the region, notably the two aircraft carrier battle groups that are to be joined by a third carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, is seen as a major display of available military capability. While it is important for these assets to be in the right place in case of a political decision to launch a strike, there are no plans for a “short-term fix”.
The dramatically different anti-terrorism campaign is being planned to meet what is now regarded as the most dangerous threat to global security, known as asymmetric warfare. “We’re expecting it to last from five to ten years,” one source said.
New ideas are needed to counter small groups armed with the minimum of weaponry, whether conventional or non-conventional. Such groups have the capability to attack a nation as powerful as the United States, which is equipped with the full range of modern weapons and professional Armed Forces.
Old doctrines for fighting wars, based on lining up tanks and artillery and layers of troops, are being thrown out and replaced by a more subtle and wide-ranging doctrine which seeks to defeat the enemy at its own game. “The aim is not to go for the enemy’s strengths, but its weaknesses,” one source said.
American and British planners are working on the basis that military strikes will take place only as part of a broader global counter-terrorist operation, embracing every other type of international action — diplomatic, economic and political.
Most of the focus of the ten-year campaign plan, the sources say, is on using military action as a potent back-up to all the other strands of Operation Noble Eagle.
However, President Bush, conscious of the demand for “revenge” from the American public, might sanction shorter-term military operation by special forces, or airstrikes, but only if there is sufficient intelligence to guarantee a sucessful outcome. “There’s no point in firing a lot of missiles at bin Laden if they miss their target, or launching Tomahawks at bin Laden training camps if they are empty,” one source said.
Donald Rumsfeld, the American Defence Secretary, also gave the strongest hint yesterday of what Operation Noble Eagle is all about. “I think what you will see evolve over the next six, eight, ten, 12 months, probably over a period of years, is a coalition to help battle terrorists,” he told CNN.
He added: “This is a very new type of conflict or battle or campaign or war or effort, for the United States. We’re moving in a measured manner. As we gather information, we’re preparing appropriate courses of action, and they run across the political and economic and financial, military, intelligence spectrum.”
British officials said the whole focus of the long-term American approach was being driven by Richard Cheney, the American Vice-President, and General Colin Powell, the Secretary of State. The combination of the two highly experienced men was guaranteeing a well-coordinated strategy. “Everyone now knows it’s going to be a long haul, not a spectacular single strike,” one official said.
The war on terrorism could be likened, they said, to the war on drugs or poverty, and the best way to undermine and eventually dismantle the terrorist structures around the world was to use the method of “hearts and minds” — encouraging foreign governments and people to join in the “war” so that terrorists would be isolated and identified.
Some of the most dramatic achievements, the sources say, might come, not from military action, but from political pressure on foreign governments to turn their backs on terrorism and to hand over the organisers of terrorist networks.
They point to the campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999. Although the airstrikes fitted more closely to the “old doctrine concept” of using massed firepower to target the enemy, which brought criticism from many parts of the world, Nato was also seen to be working as a humanitarian agency with its operation in Albania helping to build shelters for the thousands of refugees pouring out of Kosovo.
The eventual outcome, the political downfall of Slobodan Milosevic and the decision by the new Government to hand him over to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, is seen as a classic example of how military action can serve two purposes, defeating the enemy and effecting political change.
In the Gulf War, the American-led coalition achieved one objective, driving the Iraqis out of Kuwait, but not the other, the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein by his own people.
Already, the sources say, just over a week after the terrorist attacks in America, there have been positive developments: the Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed a new ceasefire and 1,000 clerics have been forced to gather in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, to discuss the fate of bin Laden.
Yesterday it was also announced that President Putin is to visit Nato headquarters in Brussels on October 3 and will meet Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, the Secretary- General, another positive sign that the Russian leader supports the campaign against terrorism.
Russia and Nato put out a joint statement last week condemning the terrorist attacks and vowing that they would not go unpunished.
Other coalitions against terrorism are also being rapidly formed and several countries, notably Pakistan yesterday, have offered bases for American military action.
However, sources in Washington say there are no plans to deploy huge numbers of US troops to Pakistan, which would only inflame Islamic fundamentalists opposed to the decision by President Musharraf to grant US access to two air bases in the country.
Or between a Western "Armageddonite" and the Taliban, excepet for standard of living.
Say goodbye to any last vestige of financial privacy.
Nothing. What can we do?
Get rid of the Dept. of Miseducation and NEA?
Yup,that's already a given. Pretty soon we will all be issued "credits" that we can access electronically and cash will be outlawed,just like in all the science fiction books. The gooberment will be able to instantly track ANY citizen in just a few seconds,and be able to totally shut you down at will by freezing your electronic account and denying you access to your "credits".
ALL in the name of "making us all safer",of course. After all,"it's for the chilrun!"
Yeah, but it won't be long before plenty of others will be standing on one knee with a cheezy smile asking, "Please, please, please, can we be your friends too? We'll even be friends with Israel, we promise!"
Heh heh heh heh heh...
Gee, just like the war on drugs and poverty. If that's the case, the terrorists ought to be happy today.
Amen!
(1) Yep.
(2) Yep. It's taking our "experts" weeks to find out who did what and how to respond. Those "average" Americans had minutes -- 18 or 20 minutes? -- to figure out what had happened, what was going to happen, and what to do about it. And they did it. There are no words to describe the hearts and souls and minds of those people. They were Americans. That word says it all.
(3) Just before I sat down to type this, CNN did a long story about how the Government now reports that "Infinite Justice" isn't really going to be the name of the middle east campaign, that it was leaked prematurely. CNN went on to explain that the phrase offends Muslims because only Allah can dispense infinite justice. So the Government is going to change the name of its war...
Our leaders are changing the name of the coming war to avoid offending the people our soldiers are going over to kill. Our leaders are changing the name of the coming war to avoid offending the people who incited the terrorists to come over here and murder thousands of innocent Americans.
Are these "leaders" worthy of the people from that Pennsylvania flight?! Are these "leaders" worthy of the soldiers who will go fight and die carrying out their orders?! Are these "leaders" worthy of this country?!
Some one, some how, needs to do an Oliver Cromwell and clean out DC... Mark W.
They point to the campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999. Although the airstrikes fitted more closely to the “old doctrine concept” of using massed firepower to target the enemy, which brought criticism from many parts of the world, Nato was also seen to be working as a humanitarian agency with its operation in Albania helping to build shelters for the thousands of refugees pouring out of Kosovo.
This is to be the global equivalent of our "glorious" war against the Serbian people? God help us.
The appended is offered as a possible mix of other special forces that may be involved in the effort.
"Achtung! Hier kommen die KSK!
Western politicians have swung into a whirlwind of important meetings in response to the terrorist attacks in America. Mr. Chirac has been to Washington, Mr. Blair to Berlin, and so on. Chris Patten, the EU foreign affairs commissar, gave in a radio interview a huge list of inter-ministerial meetings he was attending this week as proof that something is being done even though many might be forgiven for thinking that it is business as usual for him. One thing seems certain: the Americans want the British SAS to go into Afghanistan. But the Germans might get a slice of action too. On 19th September, the German parliament approved by a massive majority the principle that the German army would co-operate with the Americans in the war against terrorism. A huge demonstration was organised in front of the Brandenburg gate in Berlin to show support for the US. A poll for Die Woche shows a large majority of Germans in favour of American strikes, even though most Germans do not want their army to get involved.
There have therefore been high-level talks between the US and Germany. At the centre of German-American discussions are "secret" plans (reported in the newspapers) about how Germany might participate. An elite commando of the German army is said to be eliciting special interest among security bods in Washington: the KSK or Kommando Spezialkräfte (Commando Special Forces). A German general told the FAZ that, "Special intervention forces like the KSK are the things which Western armies lack most keenly." Western armies, he said, had only 3,000 such troops who could capture presumed terrorists and their accomplices. Another senior German army officer said that the KSK might be better even than the US Delta Force since the KSK, having originally been trained by the SAS, was better at fighting terrorism and capturing persons.
Looking a little like Darth Vader, or like the SS, the men of the KSK wear a black uniform with black masks and helmets. They are laden with guns and equipped with the latest radio and infra-red equipment. The KSK was created in 1996 after Belgian paras had to rescue two journalists from Deutsche Welle out of Rwanda. If the German commando is sent into Kabul, it is likely to be accompanied by both British and French special forces and also perhaps by American special troops of which there are some 40,000 in the US forces. The French would be likely to send their 13th parachute regiment (known as Dragon) as well as their own elite unit, Commando de Renseignement et dAction Profondeur, or CRAP for short." [Udo Ulfkotte, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 19th September 2001
] (From: EUROPEAN FOUNDATION INTELLIGENCE DIGEST ISSUE 126)
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