SG Jaap de Hoop Scheffer ::

Belgium Foreign Minister De Gucht hosted the Transatlantic dinner--NATO ministers, EU Foreign Ministers--and as you might have heard there was a very good discussion on a question [secret detention centers and CIA flights - Oui] which has been in discussion very much over the past weeks.

Also yesterday evening, as you will have heard, we discussed at length the situation in the Balkans. I made a few remarks on Afghanistan, but I'll come back to that subject as far as our meetings are today are concerned.

It is good to tell you that this morning, over a working breakfast, NATO ministers had a broad-ranging and frank discussion, informal discussion at the security situation in the broader Middle East. Secretary Rice kicked off a discussion followed by French Minister Douste-Blazy, Minister Gül and many others. And there was a frank exchange of views on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Syria, Lebanon, Iran. It was a good discussion. Also, I think, underpinning NATO's outreach in the region in the framework of the Mediterranean Dialogue and the so-called Istanbul Cooperation Initiative.

It is not a discussion to give NATO, of course, a direct role in the peace process, or a direct role in what's happening in the talks between the EU-3 supported by the United States. But it is important that we have this political Trans-Atlantic debate.

Q & A Session

As such, you will not see this discussion continue in the NATO framework, because I say again, it is not a NATO issue as such. We have our own detention policy.

About Afghanistan and the Dutch participation, it goes without saying that after all the important work which has been done in this NATO building and elsewhere I preparing for ISAF expansion, it is my strong hope that all the potential contributors to this expansion will indeed participate. I also know, perhaps better than anybody that Dutch participation awaits a cabinet decision and a parliamentary decision because the Parliament in the Netherlands, as you and I know, plays the decisive role in the process of participating in such a mission.

If you ask me, do you hope that the Dutch will participate? My answer is clearly, of course I do, because I think this expansion is very important indeed, and we need as many allies as we can get.

Final Communiqué

Press Conference Condoleezza Rice - MP3  

In a New York Times editorial entitled "Torturing the facts", Maureen Dowd cited Rice as saying "The United States government does not authorize or condone torture of detainees". Dowd commented sarcastically: "It all depends what you mean by 'authorize,' 'condone,' 'torture,' and 'detainees.'"  

Put your questions on Iraq and the War on Terror to Noam Chomsky in this week's forum.

• Chomsky says the invasion of Iraq is "one of the most astonishing failures in military history".
  
• The major powers - with the US at the top of the list - are the main source of terrorism.  

The Sunday Times Nov. 13, 2005 -- In a telegram on November 21, 1943, Winston Churchill defined a fundamental difference between the Anglo-American way of war and that of our enemies.

Churchill wrote:

"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."  

Executives invariably over-reach in prosecuting wars, and have done so in both Britain and America in the past. But our system - of habeas corpus, executive powers subject to legislative and judicial checks, and free speech to air the issues - is specifically designed to correct such errors. That's its beauty - and its strength in wartime. It gives us a flexibility in war that dictators lack.

Continued ...

  «« click for Churchill letter

Winston Churchill - Statesman

  «« click on pic to enlarge

LEAVE Iraq to the Iraqis

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."