09/26 14:21 U.S. Keeps Retaliatory Strikes Outside NATO Command (Update3) By Adrian Cox Brussels, Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. chose not to call on NATO support for its retaliation for the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, keeping any military strikes outside the 19-member alliance's command structure. At a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz didn't call for the alliance's ``one for all'' defense clause to apply, or ask for the support of other countries in striking at Osama bin Laden, whose Afghanistan- based organization the U.S. says is the prime suspect for the Sept. 11 assault. As the U.S. deploys military forces in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf in preparation for a strike at Afghan targets, analysts say Pentagon planners don't want to include all members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in their decision-making. ``The U.S. has the right to decide whether or not to accept a NATO command structure,'' said Daniel Keohane, defense analyst at the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think-tank. ``They feel they're better served organizing it in the Pentagon.'' NATO members were prepared to invoke Article Five of the North Atlantic Treaty, which says all members ``shall assist'' any other member subjected to military attack, if that attack is shown to come from outside the alliance. NATO Secretary General George Robertson had said he expected the U.S. to provide such proof. ``The first move will be the removal of the word `if','' he said on Monday. Inside and Outside Wolfowitz instead told other NATO defense ministers that the U.S. intends to build several international coalitions with countries inside and outside the alliance. He didn't offer any more proof that the Sept. 11 attacks came from outside the U.S., NATO officials said. Article Five doesn't define the nature of assistance members must give. They're only obliged to give such support if asked. Robertson said no such request for military action had been made. ``The alliance continues to keep its options open. There's been no request from the US for such action so far,'' he said at a news conference. ``If we need collective action, we will ask for it. We don't anticipate that at the moment,'' Wolfowitz told reporters. ``We got something very important when NATO invoked Article Five and this give us a very powerful basis'' for cooperating with individual countries, he said. Robertson said Wolfowitz in a private meeting had presented evidence of the involvement of bin Laden in the attacks. ``It becomes clearer and clearer that all the roads being pursued lead towards Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network,'' Robertson said. ``The U.S. hasn't yet made any definitive conclusions but the burden of the evidence being collected clearly points in that direction.'' Coalition-Building The U.S. is putting together a network of nations including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Russia to support an attack on Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, in Afghanistan and possibly in countries such as Sudan and Yemen. NATO ministers met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov this afternoon. While Ivanov said at a press conference that Russia supports ``addressing terrorism in the same political and legal language'' as NATO members, he said Russia would not participate in military action. ``As far as participation of Russian troops in Afghanistan is concerned, then that is absolutely ruled out,'' he said. Involving NATO could hamper U.S. attempts to woo countries such as Russia. ``They will look to certain NATO states for support, but they also want to work with countries outside NATO and this might complicate things a little too much,'' Keohane said. Keep it Simple Recent experience has convinced some U.S. policy makers that it's easier to operate outside NATO. During the 1999 Kosovo bombing campaign, France insisted on being consulted on U.S. targeting, even though U.S. forces did 85 percent of the bombing. In any case, not all NATO members can provide military support to U.S. action. Britain is alone among NATO's 16 European members in offering combat troops for a U.S.-led reprisal; it's the only European nation with long-range cruise missiles. Only France has a military surveillance satellite. The U.S. and Britain have cooperated on other military operations outside NATO. In December 1998, they bombed Iraqi targets over Baghdad's failure to comply with UN weapons inspections. And they're the only countries still enforcing UN- imposed no-fly zones on Iraq.
