AFP report: NATO poised to invoke collective security after US attacks.

Thursday September 13, 4:21 AM

NATO poised to invoke collective security after US
attacks

BRUSSELS, Sept 12 (AFP) -

The 19 NATO allies, in a powerful message of solidarity with the United States, agreed
Wednesday to invoke the collective defence clause of the North Atlantic Treaty if
Washington determines that Tuesday\'s terrorist attacks were masterminded from abroad.

The unanimous decision by NATO ambassadors, meeting as the North Atlantic Council,
opens the way for America\'s allies in Europe to support any potential US military action
against the alleged perpetrators of the New York and Washington attacks.

\"The council agreed that, if it is determined that this attack (sic) was directed from abroad
against the United States, it shall be regarded as an action covered by Article Five of the
Washington Treaty, which states that an armed attack against one or more of the allies in
Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all,\" a NATO
statement said.

The Washington Treaty of April 1949, a product of some of the darkest days of the Cold
War, is the document on which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is
founded.

NATO Secretary General George Robertson told reporters: \"The United States is still
assessing the evidence that is available (and) they are the ones who obviously can make
that judgement\" about who carried out the attacks.

\"They have not yet reached a judgement as to who did it, and why they did it,\" he said.

\"What the allies are saying is what they did was unacceptable, barbaric, and we stand
today in solidarity with the United States,\" he said.

Speaking in Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the decision in Brussels
put NATO in a position to invoke the full authority of Article Five on short notice.

Once invoked, he said, the United States would, for instance, be able to get instant
permission from allies to allow US warplanes to fly through their airspace to carry out
retaliatory air strikes.

Elaborating, Robertson said: \"The country that is attacked has got to make the decisions
and has got to be the one to ask for help. That is where it remains at the moment.\"

Asked if this was the first time in NATO\'s 52-year history that the alliance had applied its
bedrock principle of collective defence, Robertson replied: \"That is my understanding.\"

\"But I don\'t think there has been a series of events like what we saw yesterday (Tuesday)
in the United States of America. These were unprecedented scenes and it has led the
North Atlantic Council to consider what can be done in solidarity with an ally that has been
so savagely attacked.\"

\"What happened in the United States yesterday could have happened to any of the other
18 members of the alliance,\" he added.

Wednesday\'s NATO statement declared: \"The commitment to collective self-defence ...
was first entered into in circumstances very different from those that exist now.\"

\"But it remains no less valid and no less essential today, in a world subject to the scourge of
international terrorism,\" it said.

Article Five of the North Atlantic Treaty states that \"an armed attack against one or more
(NATO member countries) in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack
against them all.\"

If NATO nations declare that to have been the case, then the alliance can take \"such action
as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security
of the North Atlantic area.\"

NATO\'s campus-like headquarters were eerily quiet Wednesday, as most staff remained
at home and security at the front gate stepped up -- particularly out of concern of
explosives.

Tight security was also thrown up around the headquarters in Mons, a Belgian city 60
kilometers (35 miles) from Brussels, of SHAPE, NATO\'s supreme military headquarters
for Europe.

Besides the Article Five debate, NATO ambassadors Wednesday agreed to make a
specialized NATO rescue and disaster relief unit, known by the acronym EADRCC,
available to coordinate emergency assistance to US authorities.

\"We stand ready to act as a clearing house to coordinate offers of assistance from NATO
member states\" and from non-NATO countries taking part in the Partnership for Peace
program, NATO spokesman Yves Brodeur said.

Offers of help have come from countries as diverse as Belgium and Russia, the spokesman
said, though US authorities have yet to ask for such international assistance.