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US Allies Agree to Take Military Measures
NATO said Thursday all its allies agreed to provide the United States with all necessary assistance as it prepares a military assault on Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attack on New York and Washington.
The 18 allies accepted U.S. requests for unlimited use of their airspace, access to ports, airfields and refueling facilities, NATO airborne early warning aircraft, extra security for U.S. forces in Europe, intelligence sharing, and deployment of naval forces in the Eastern Mediterranean "to provide a NATO presence and demonstrate resolve," NATO Secretary-General George Robertson told an urgent press conference at the alliance's Brussels headquarters.
"These decisions clearly demonstrate the allies' resolve and commitment to support and contribute to the U.S.-led fight against terrorism," said Robertson.
The decisions "operationalize Article 5 of the Washington Treaty", the NATO's founding protocol Western allies signed in 1949. "These measures were requested by the United States" on Wednesday following "the determination that the September 11 attack was directed from abroad," the NATO chief said.
NATO activated the article 5, under which an attack on one ally is treated as an attack on all, after the United States laid out detailed evidence Tuesday implicating Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden and his Afghan-based al Qaeda network in the U.S. attack.
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