Promoting a more transparent and accountable NATO No.21 – May 2011 Welcome to NATO Watch’s monthly Observatory: the only online publication dedicated entirely to news and independent commentary on NATO policy-making and operational activities. The clips are drawn from a wide range of subscriptions, feeds and alerts covering a substantial part of the major English language newspapers and other periodicals worldwide. If you are short on time – go straight to the recommended reading, marked ♠♠ Contents: NATO Watch Editorial: p2 • Dead-end streets: targeted assassination and the ‘war’ on terror • Shifting sands between terrorism and fighting for freedom • Revolving doors at the Pentagon and CIA News, Commentary & Reports p4 Afghanistan-Pakistan Arab Protests(and the implications for NATO’s Mediterranean Support NATO Watch Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative) If you value our work, please Arms Control consider making a donation. 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NATO Watch website www.natowatch.org Subscription to NATO Watch Observatory is free of charge To start a subscription go to: Start NATO Watch Observatory NATO Watch Editorial: Dead-end streets: targeted assassination prosecute the ‘war’ on terror, the latest and the ‘war’ on terror manifestation of which was a drone strike in Yemen that reportedly killed two suspected mid- The NATO airstrike on Tripoli on 30 April that level al Qaeda figures. reportedly killed one of Gaddafi's sons, Saif al- Arab Gaddafi, and three grandchildren, has been The real lesson of the bin Laden operation is that heavily criticised by Russia and China (among it demonstrated what can be done with focused others) for being in excess of the force authorized intelligence, (largely) law enforcement measures by the UN Security Council. The Libyan and persistence. Indeed, had the Bush government went further and accused NATO of administration focused on international policing violating international law by conducting “a direct and, where necessary, occasional legally- operation to assassinate the leader of this sanctioned use of special forces in hunting bin country”. NATO officials said the airstrike was Laden, it is unlikely that the families of 9/11 would aimed at an installation being used to direct have had to wait almost 10 years before he was military operations against Libyan civilians, and killed or, as will now never happen, brought to repeated that the Alliance does not target trial. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the torture individuals. Who to believe? and abuses at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib (among others), and the whole ‘black box’ war on While inclined to take NATO’s claims at face value terror narrative almost certainly slowed the US (although we return to the issue of ‘excessive and its allies down on the road towards bin Laden force’ below), the Alliance’s denials ring rather and numerous other members of al-Qaeda. The hollow when a growing number of political leaders use of torture and other coercive interrogation and commentators in member states are calling techniques created many false leads, while the for the targeting of Gaddafi and when at least one illegal war in Iraq and unnecessary ‘war of choice’ coalition nation (the United States) already in Afghanistan alienated and destabilised potential operates a policy of ‘targeted allies and even whole assassination’ and ‘extrajudicial continents. killing’. Just to recap for the three wise monkeys, Mizaru, From 9/11 to Osama bin Laden's Kikazaru and Iwazaru, currently death, the US alone spent $1.28 dominating the airwaves in trillion on the wars in Iraq, America, assassinations are Afghanistan and other ‘war on banned under both US and terror’ operations. And in so international law, while doing, the Bush administration extrajudicial killings are only poisoned the post 9/11 well of allowed in an armed conflict. goodwill and cooperation (photo credit: NATO) towards the United States – and to such an extent A similar debate has emerged over whether bin that by the middle of the decade friends and foes Laden's killing a day later on 1 May was lawful. alike were seeing the US as the ‘ biggest global Once the facts are established, it may become peace threat ’. clearer as to whether the raid and its consequences were legal or not, although the Yet in most of the Arab world, bin Laden’s Obama administration seems to have a eventual death is little more than a historical reasonably good legal case . There are certainly footnote and the movements he gave birth to in some subtle but important differences between Yemen to North Africa have proven remarkably the operation carried out by US navy seals (under peripheral in the Arab Spring. It is closer to home which ‘law enforcement levels’ of force appear to that the al-Qaeda leader’s death provides new have been applied) and the targeted killing of so opportunities. NATO and its allies have a chance many others in Pakistan since 2004 with the use to reconceptualise and reapply long-standing of predator drones. As the UN Special Rapporteur ideas of justice and morality that were put on hold on extrajudicial killings Martin Scheinin has said, during the 9/11 era. President Obama seemed to authorities must be prepared to use force in recognise this at the start of his presidency when capturing dangerous criminals, while also noting he emphasized in a speech the need for "security that bin Laden had the option of surrendering . that can only come through the rule of law" and stressed that "a campaign against extremism No such option exists for the terrorist suspects in cannot be won with bullets and bombs alone". Pakistan who are targeted with missiles from Regrettably, however, the US counter-terrorism drones. Indeed, even if Obama's order was to kill, agenda in Afghanistan and Pakistan has rather than capture or kill, bin Laden, the assault continued to deliver mainly bullets and bombs by US navy seals was more proportionate than under his watch. the missiles and bombs regularly being used to 2 Hopefully the death of bin Laden will open a absolute limit by targeting command, control, political space in America that enables the communications and intelligence networks President to at last guide his country (and NATO (known, in military parlance, as C3I). The Bab al- allies) back from the ‘war’ on terror narrative and Aziziya compound struck by NATO at the end of towards civilian-led counter-terrorism of a scale April included all three such C3I networks. and magnitude in keeping with a much diminished Whatever the strategic and operational merits of threat – although his re-shuffled national security such attacks, sharp distinctions need to be team provides little grounds for optimism (see maintained between "protecting civilians" and below). The future Western focus should be on supporting rebel military advances. policing methods to hunt down arrest and process suspected al-Qaeda (and other) terrorists through If the principle of R2P is not to be sullied in Libya properly constituted courts of law. There may also the NATO intervention requires a light hand. How be an opportunity for an accelerated military then to protect civilians in places like Misrata from drawdown in Afghanistan and renewed optimism sniper, mortar and rocket attacks? Fast jets that a comprehensive peace process can be armed with missiles costing up to 100 times more forged. than the weapons they are trying to destroy are of limited use. Until military intervention can be put Ideas of justice and morality also matter in Libya. on a broader international peacekeeping footing, NATO is in Libya on a UN Security Council arguably the best course to follow is patience, mandate, strictly limited to the creation through air although Read Admiral Chris Parry’s suggestion power of a no-fly zone and to protect civilians and of using marine commandoes —"fins" as opposed the civilian population of Libya from Gaddafi's to boots on the ground —to military and security forces. deter and prevent serious While there is much debate attacks on civilians is worthy about the extent of the UN of serious consideration. mandate and how best to apply it, the targeted killing of Ultimately, it is by upholding Gaddafi is not envisaged or core values—the sanctity of encapsulated in resolution life, the rule of law and 1973. Targeting Gaddafi fundamental human rights— might be said to be militarily that NATO can separate legitimate in a war against (and be unequivocally seen Libya, but that is not NATO's to separate) itself from the legal mandate. bin Laden’s and Gaddafi’s of this world. Targeted A ceasefire followed by assassinations are the negotiations needs to be devices of criminal gangs urgently pursued in Libya, and not civilised states. A not only because UN return to matching deeds resolution 1973 calls for "a with values may also help to peaceful and sustainable reduce the root causes that solution" to the crisis, but drive some people to radical because the conflict is also violence.