[A-List] The end of NATO?

[Keaney Michael]

As NATO expands, it becomes more cumbersome, and its use to the US as a
more effective and quick means of enforcing US political will is
reduced. This helps to explain Dubya's unilateralism in general, and the
complete sidestepping of NATO's invocation of Article 5 in the wake of
September 11 in particular. Last week's botched attempt to arrest
Karadzic seems to be part of the latest effort to discredit NATO's
administrative prowess. Or at least that is what Ian Bruce's
unimpeachable sources are telling him...


Nato probes delay in hunt for Karadzic

IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 4 March 2002 

      NATO has launched an internal inquiry into the
      embarrassing failure of two US-led raids in
      Bosnia last week to capture Radovan Karadzic,
      the number one target on the Balkans war
      crimes list.

      German commandos from GSG-9, the special
      forces unit modelled on Britain's SAS, have
      been deployed to patrol the mountain tracks
      which connect the fugitive's suspected hiding
      place with neighbouring Montenegro and
      Serbia.

      Allied officers are furious that the Americans
      waited more than two days from the time they
      received an intelligence tip-off on Karadzic's
      location before launching a high-profile search
      mission to the hilltop village of Celebici. The US
      commanders also insisted that their troops
      should spearhead the operation while German,
      Italian and French units familiar with the area
      were relegated to blocking roads to the village.

      Local Bosnian Serbs watched with amusement
      as black-clad American teams arrived by
      helicopter on Thursday morning, blew in the
      doors of houses, and herded children at
      gunpoint into a schoolhouse, before searching
      homes and outbuildings.

      A second pre-dawn raid the next day, this time
      involving other Nato contingents, turned up
      weapons caches, but no sign of Karadzic and
      his bodyguards.

      Armoured vehicles moving in to cordon off
      escape routes were visible for miles on the
      winding mountain roads, and the US helicopters
      used for the raid were observed taking off from
      their base, giving ample warning time for the
      suspects to slip away.

      Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb president
      charged with inciting genocide during the
      1992-95 civil war, is reported to have been in
      Celebici with a heavily-armed escort party on
      Tuesday night. It was Thursday morning before
      the US troops swooped on the village.

      Karadzic seldom stays more than one night in
      any location, moving constantly through the
      mountainous triangle which gives him a choice
      of bolt-holes in Montenegro, where his mother
      lives, or Serbia. Both are no-go areas for Nato.

      A Nato source in Sarajevo said yesterday: "The
      Americans were glory-hunting. But they were too
      slow to react. They also failed to use European
      troops familiar with the terrain. This was to be a
      US coup. Now they have egg on their faces and
      no-one at S-for (the Nato stabilisation force)
      headquarters is tremendously sympathetic."

      The latest debacle in the hunt for Karadzic and
      his military commander, General Ratko Mladic,
      is only one in a series of botched or aborted
      arrest attempts since 1996.

      President Bill Clinton vetoed Operation Amber
      Star six years ago, only hours before snatch
      squads were about to seize Karadzic in Foca, a
      Bosnian Serb town where he moved freely
      under the gaze of French peacekeepers.

      Britain's SAS, who were not involved in last
      week's raids, have arrested more than half of
      the 23 war crimes suspects brought before the
      tribunal in The Hague.

Full article at:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/4-3-19102-0-58-23.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney at mbs.fi