Belgium’s Interim Government Reveals NATO Secret

From the desk of Paul Belien on Thu, 2008-01-24 23:21

Yesterday, Belgium’s interim Minister of Defense, the Christian-Democrat Pieter De Crem, revealed a NATO top secret which his predecessor, an anti-American Socialist, had managed to keep: i.e. where the (American) nuclear weapons in Belgium are located. During a visit with journalists to the Belgian military base of Kleine Brogel, just south of the Dutch border, Mr. De Crem told Belgian radio that there is "nuclear capacity" at the base.

Today members of the Belgian Parliament interrogated the Belgian interim government about Mr. De Crem’s revelation. The minister was absent. He was in Poland, visiting the former Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz with a group of schoolchildren. The interim Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt answered the MPs in his stead. The interim Prime Minister gave the shortest answer ever given in Parliament. It consisted of a single sentence: “Minister De Crem tells me that his remarks were a slip of the tongue and, hence, for me the case is closed.”

The current Belgian government is an interim government composed of most establishment parties. The government was sworn in on 21 December, six months after the 10 June 2007 general elections which led to a political stalemate and the inability of the Belgian politicians to form a government. The interim government is led by Guy Verhofstadt, a Liberal, who lost last June’s elections. Mr. Verhofstadt has to buy time to allow the Christian-Democrat Yves Leterme, the winner of the last elections, to form a government by 23 March.

One of the interim government’s priorities is to attempt to restore Belgium’s international reputation.

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Rolling On The Floor Laughing M A Off

Submitted by Cogito on Sat, 2008-01-26 04:48.

I read this article much amused, but when I reached the last sentence I couldn't help running out of breath laughing my A off.
I am now convinced that Mr. De Crem is a very fidel husband who thus far never had a mistress. He would have known the difference between his wife suspecting with 99% certainty him having a mistress or she knowing it 100% sure.
A difference of 100%, that is.
 

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C'mon

Submitted by kappert on Fri, 2008-01-25 19:00.

Kleine Brogel is well known since the beginning of the 60s. What military secret?

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Dear Captain André, you

Submitted by Dog of Flanders on Fri, 2008-01-25 16:30.

Dear Captain André, you fail to show how the "peacetime use of personnel and equipment" would constitute a transfer.

If you want to argue your case, please do so cogently.

That your viewpoint is shared by unspecified governments also fails to convince.

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When Dogs Bark...

Submitted by Kapitein Andre on Fri, 2008-01-25 15:51.

Au contraire, dog, many governments, including some within NATO, consider the United States-NATO nuclear weapon sharing programme to contravene Articles I and II, as it involves the peacetime use of personnel and equipment from the militaries of non-nuclear states. American counter-arguments are based on the premise that NATO would withdraw from the NPT under Article X in the event of a general war and that only then would a "transfer" take place (a position contradicted by peacetime operations). However, this policy has also drawn severe criticism, especially from the Non-Aligned Movement.
 
I realise that it is difficult to gorge oneself on Kibbles 'n Bits and get your facts straight at the same time, but in the future, try to make an effort.

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Maybe Captain André should

Submitted by Dog of Flanders on Fri, 2008-01-25 15:10.

Maybe Captain André should post when sober.

The presence of atomic weapons in Belgium under US control does not constitute a "transfer" under article 1 of the 1968 NPT.

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What Secret?

Submitted by Kapitein Andre on Fri, 2008-01-25 03:58.

Though Mr. Pieter De Crem's "slip of the tongue" should cost him his office and should result in civil and/or criminal penalties, it is well known that NATO has a policy of "nuclear sharing" with weapons provided by the United States, and that recipient countries include Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkiye. Though NATO's policy contravenes the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, important NPT signatories were aware of this fact, including the Soviet Union.

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