L’USAF bétonne : Checkmate, ou l’innocence opérationnelle

Pourquoi ce soupçon constant contre les intentions de la vertueuse U.S. Air Force? C’est ce que semble nous dire Air Force Daily (éditée par l’Air Force Association [AFA], principal lobby de l’USAF) dans son édition du 25 septembre, à propos de Project Checkmate, dont nous parlions nous-mêmes le 24 septembre… «What's the Buzz About Checkmate?» (“Pourquoi tant de bruit autour de Checkmate?”) , s’exclame plaintivement AFA, en citant l’article du Sunday Times.

L’explication de AFA Daily:

«What's the Buzz About Checkmate?: An article in the Sept. 23 The Sunday Times of London extends an unnecessary air of mystery about the Air Force’s revival of its Checkmate group, linking it to supposed secretive US military contingency planning for “a possible attack on Iran.” The newspaper states that Checkmate “was quietly reestablished” in June. Now really, if the Air Force had wanted to be quiet, it wouldn’t have issued a news release on the matter. That said, the Times reporter Sarah Baxter apparently talked with former Gulf War I Checkmate honcho, now retired Col. John Warden, who said that he believes that Checkmate now is supposed to be ready with expert data “if somebody says Iran, it says: Here’s what you need to think about. Here are the objectives, here are the risks, here is what it will cost, here are the numbers of planes we will lose, here is how the war will end, and here is what the peace will look like.” Nothing nefarious there; rather it sounds like what contingency planning is all about.»

Air Force Daily renvoie à un de ses propres texes qui annonçait la réactivation de Checkmate, le 5 juin dernier.

«Checkmate Finds New Life: The Air Force has decided to reinvent the long-time Air Staff operational planning cell called Checkmate as an independent strategic studies group. Checkmate has been around since the 1970s and in the 1990s had a brief resurgence with the initial air attack plan for Operation Desert Storm. In an Air Force release, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley said the new group of 15 to 20 military and civilian members will “serve as an incubator—not just for new ideas, but also for future leaders and strategists for the Air Force and Joint community.”»

Tous ces textes n’apportent rien de décisif, en prenant bien garde de rester dans le domaine technique. Rien n’est dit sur ce que nous jugeons être l’essentiel dans l'article du Sunday Times: les liens, ou plutôt l’absence de liens de Checkmate avec CentCom. Quoi qu'il en soit, la rapidité de cette réaction de Air Force Daily dans le sens de l’“apaisement” pourra paraître significative aux esprits chagrins et soupçonneux.

Mis en ligne le 26 septembre 2007 à 14H27