From Volume 7, Issue 13 of EIR Online, Published Mar. 25, 2008

Western European News Digest

EU Utopians Seek Privatized Army—It Goes With Feudalism

March 17 (EIRNS)—European Union defense and foreign policy czar Javier Solana, the former Secretary General of NATO, is rushing forward with privatized air logistics for EU military forces. The EU's would-be Pentagon, the European Defense Agency (EDA), sponsored a conference on "Commercializing Logistics," at the end of February, with assistance from Dick Cheney's old company KBR (formerly Halliburton-KBR). Solana argued that third-party commercializers could overcome the lack of individual EU country commitments, i.e., privatization, as a flank against national priorities.

KBR defense services head Herbert Abela boasted of KBR's contract with the British Ministry of Defense, which gives KBR a big role in air and other logistics for the U.K.'s armed forces. With the U.K. COMLOG contract, normal general staff functions for logistics have been turned over to a private company, furthering Felix Rohatyn's plan of turning warfare over to private financial conglomerates. One unnamed U.K. defense ministry attendee said the problem is "national sovereignty" and one needs to use the logistics issue to force through a "European" solution. The EDA's written account of the conference though, did make clear that there was resistance to Solana's plan.

EU-NATO War School: First Step in NATO-EU Merger?

PARIS, March 17 (EIRNS)—A March 2008 discussion paper of the Brussels-based Security and Defense Agenda (SDA) called "Revisiting NATO-ESDP [European Security and Defense Policy] Relations" confirms the current imperial drive to weld together the EU and NATO at the April 2-4 Bucharest, Romania NATO summit. SDA's directors are NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and EU high representative for common foreign and security policy (CFSP) Javier Solana, and "liberal empire" ideologue Richard Cooper sits on the SDA advisory board. One of the contributions to the document is bluntly titled "A Checklist for Enhanced EU-NATO Cooperation," written by Daniel Korski, a senior policy fellow of the George Soros-financed European Council on Foreign Relations (ECRF), directed by Tony Blair's "European Century" wonderboy Mark Leonard.

Korski says "NATO's 60th anniversary in 2009 will be an opportunity to revitalize Europe's premier security organization, and following this year's U.S. Presidential election, rebuild a consensus on Euro-Atlantic security, including an agreement on the role for the EU. This year is a good time for both organizations to begin preparing for 2009 by addressing some key problems. EU leaders' agreement on the Lisbon Treaty means they can now move away from intra-institutional arrangements and focus on Europe's role in the world."

France's reintegration into NATO's command structures is seen as key.

Brits Announce New Imperial 'National Security Strategy'

March 20 (EIRNS)—The British government yesterday issued a "national security strategy" paper, calling for a "civilian intervention force" for Great Britain, to be used also during crises in developing countries, or for "reconstruction" after wars. This force is also to be deployed into Afghanistan. The foreign office, according to this plan, will be restructured, reallocating resources formerly destined for Europe, to regions in Africa and Asia. All expenditures for national security, not allocated to the police or security services, will be put into a separate account; the budget will be increased, with 4,000 additional secret service personnel, with overall spending to increase in this sector by one-third.

The report focuses on threats from terrorism, global conflicts, and climate change, proposes "countermeasures," and wants to "sharpen public attention against these threats." Once a year, a "National Security Register" will be published, which lists all the threats. All of this is in sync with the reshaping of NATO, and the NATO-ization of the EU, and comes in the context of the financier oligarchy's determination to protect its failing British empire.

In announcing the report in the House of Commons yesterday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown referenced "current British efforts, to agree to international measures for protection against the current credit crisis," especially with Germany, France, and Italy, as an example of its "multilateral" foreign policy course.

British-Backed Fascists on the Rise in Italy

March 14 (EIRNS)—The British have made sure that almost all Italian parties slated to make it into the Parliament in the April 13-14 general elections, have figures associated with left-wing or right-wing fascism.

Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's PdL party is running Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Il Duce. Ms. Mussolini will leave her post in the European Parliament to Roberto Fiore, head of the neo-fascist Forza Nuova and a protégé of British intelligence.

Another avowed fascist, mineral water producer Giuseppe Ciarrapico, is on the list of the PdL. Ciarrapico published Il Duce's Opera Omnia (collected speeches and articles). His candidacy has been promoted by Gianni Letta, former Berlusconi chief of cabinet and now with Goldman Sachs.

Alessandra Borghese, leader of the Italian black nobility, is going to run for the Christian Democratic Union (UDC) in Rome. UDC leader Pierferdinando Casini, at a meeting of the European Popular Party on March 12, said that, contrary to Giulio Tremonti's protectionist recipes, Europe needs more open and freer markets. (See InDepth for "Bretton Woods Debate Spreads Beyond Italy.")

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