Finland receiving direct military information from United States and NATO central commands

print this

Once a week, the United States will provide the coalition liaison officers with a summary on the military situation within the areas of responsibility of the United States Central Command. In the briefing room, among the officers from dozens of countries sits Finnish Lt. Col. Simo Antikainen, and his access to information does not stop there.
      "On Tuesdays and Wednesday, there are at least two but most probably three briefings. There are two weekly briefings on the situation in Afghanistan", Antikainen lists in his office in the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
      In addition to being the home base of the Air Force tankers, MacDill also serves as the the headquarters of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), and thus as the command centre for the United States troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
      CENTCOM'S area of responsibility covers 27 countries in all, including the Greater Middle East area, plus the crisis centres in Eastern Africa.
     
For Finland, CENTCOM provides more information than one liaison officer can digest. "All the information that we need or can think of asking will be provided, sometimes with a day’s delay", Antikainen says.
      One would think that Antikainen’s days would be filled with information requests from Finland, but this is not the case. In Antikainen’s view even the Finnish Defence Forces have not really comprehended yet the excellent position that Finland now enjoys within the general staffs of the United States and NATO.
     
While Finland has been fine-tuning its degree of closeness to the NATO Response Forces (NRF), cooperation between the Finnish and the United States armed forces has continued closely already for quite some time.
      "The Finns will receive information regarding the NATO-led operations that Finland takes part in", explains Colonel Rick Selleck from NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (ACT) in Norfolk, Virginia. Other than that, countries that are not part of NATO, have no access to such classified information.
     
In Florida, Finland and 60 other nations are part of a coalition, the definition of which has lately become somewhat blurred.
      The "Coalition Camp" was born when the world reacted to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. The coalition referred to all countries that supported the United States in the fight against terrorism.
      Since then the term has also been used in reference to the countries that along with the United States took part in the war in Iraq. This excludes Finland and most other nations represented at CENTCOM HQ.
     
This has resulted in confusion. There is a lot of information about, and even the American hosts do not always remember who is part of which operation.
      Antikainen’s priorities are clear, however. From CENTCOM, Finland needs information relevant to the safety of the Finnish peacekeepers currently stationed in Afghanistan. At the moment, the spreading of suicide attacks in Afghanistan is being followed with heightened interest.
      Antikainen believes that the number of suicide attacks will grow and that new targets will be sought for them. Simultaneously, however, Finland also receives data regarding the war in Iraq, the Iran crisis, the situation in Sudan, and the piracy off the Somali coast.
      Most recently extra information was received regarding the policy conflicts within the United States itself. Admiral William J. Fallon, Commander of the U.S. Central Command, announced this week that he would resign after his disagreement with the American President George W. Bush regarding attitudes towards Iran came to light.


Links:
  United States Central Command (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat