Overcoming internal divisions, the NATO military alliance said on Tuesday that it's going to enforce the U.N.-backed arms embargo against Moammar Gadhafi. Will it take charge of the no-fly mission, Operation Odyssey Dawn? That's... iffy.
A brand-new statement from Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the secretary general of NATO, says that Adm. James Stavridis, NATO's military commander, to "conduct operations to monitor, report and, if needed, interdict vessels suspected of carrying illegal arms or mercenaries." It sounds like a largely sea-based mission: Stavridis is "activating NATO ships and aircraft in the Central Mediterranean."
So does that mean the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle or the Navy amphibious ship Kearsarge are now under Stavridis' control? Those ships are supporting Odyssey Dawn. That mission is supposed to transition over the coming days to a different international command. And while the French are pretty hawkish on going after Gadhafi, Rasmussen's statement stops short of saying Odyssey Dawn will become a NATO mission.
"NATO has completed plans to help enforce the no-fly zone -- to bring our contribution, if needed, in a clearly defined manner, to the broad international effort to protect the people of Libya from the violence of the Gaddafi regime," Rasmussen said in the statement.
I'm off to the Pentagon for a briefing from Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, the operational commander of Odyssey Dawn, who's aboard the U.S.S. Mount Whitney in the Med. He's currently under the authority of the U.S. Africa Command. We'll see if Locklear will clarify whether Odyssey Dawn will come under NATO's authority, or if there's going to be a supplemental NATO military operation taking place against Gadhafi.
Photo: U.S. Africa Command
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