The US is planning to use meetings with NATO and Russian ambassadors in Brussels April 19 to defend its plans to build an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying the West needs a defense shield against the threat of Iran developing nuclear warheads. (Bloomberg [1], April 18) Polish President Lech Kaczynski has been invited to the White House in July to discuss building European support for the missile plan. (NYT [2], April 18) Hundreds of Poles marched in Warsaw March 24 against the missile proposal, and against Polish military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Reuters [3], AP [4], March 24)
While planning to withdraw them by year's end, Poland still has troops [5] in Iraq, and is planning on sending more troops [6] to Afghanistan. Despite requisite denials [7], Poland has been singled out by Human Rights Watch as one of the European countries most likely to be hosting secret CIA prisons [8]—claims backed up [9] by some Polish officials.
See our last posts on Poland [10], Central Europe [11], the missile shield [12] and nuclear fear [13] in general.
