NATO Rules Out Arming Rebels

BRUSSELS—Officials at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which early Thursday assumed control of allied operations to enforce the United Nations mandate in Libya, said they aren't considering arming Libyan rebels.
Simmering debate in Washington and Europe about whether to arm rebel groups and intensified amid the opposition's recent retreat from territory they had gained under the umbrella of coalition airstrikes.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Stockholm that he has taken note of the "ongoing discussion in a number of countries" about arming the rebels but "as far as NATO is concerned...we will focus on the enforcement of the arms embargo," which he said applies "across the board to all sides in this conflict."
NATO took full control of operations in Libya at 6 a.m. Brussels time Thursday. Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, the commander of NATO and non-NATO forces in the operation said that by midday, NATO had run more than 90 flights and sorties. He said he had more than 100 fighters and support aircraft, and more than 12 ships and submarines, under his command.
Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, chairman of the NATO Military Council and the alliance's most senior military official, said the NATO operation, dubbed Unified Protectorate, entails enforcing an arms-embargo and no-fly zone and protecting civilians, as set out by the U.N. resolution.
"NATO is not in Libya to decide the future of the Libyan people," he told a news briefing in Brussels. "We are helping enforce the will of the international community."
U.S. President Barack Obama has signed a secret order that could facilitate weapons transfers to rebels. Under the authorization, the Central Intelligence Agency has placed covert operatives on the ground in parts of Libya, officials say.
"We have done very well in attacking the targets that air power can attack," said retired Army Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington. "But we will not be able to protect civilians to the point expected through air power alone."
Adm. Di Paola said that NATO is running operations based partly on intelligence supplied by alliance members and isn't itself in contact with any rebels. "We are not coordinating operations with anyone" outside the alliance and its partners, he said.
He said that if allies are gathering information using intelligence officials on the ground in Libya, "it's not for us to question the source."
He stressed that any intelligence-gathering on the ground is being done by member countries, not NATO itself. "If [alliance] nations have forces on the ground, these are not NATO forces," Adm. Di Paola said. "We don't have NATO forces on the ground."
by DANIEL MICHAELS and CHARLES DUXBURY 
taken from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576234112952203504.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories