.- From a bunker located some 50 meters underground and heavily guarded, NATO develops near the Turkish city of Izmir, on the shores of the Aegean Sea, air strategy of the operation 'Unified Protector' in Libya. The bunker, built in 1969 during the Cold War, is accessed through a gorge between mountains guarded by barbed wire and sandbag barricades.
In the kilometer tunnel into the mountain is an echo of the steps-top, top, top-interrupted only by the metallic voice of public address announcements. They call it "the tunnel of whispers," because for very low to speak, an official at the other end could hear the whole conversation. Turn right and the tunnel is narrow.
The hall now resembles a submarine, with its cabins on each side, identified by signs: Tunnel Evacuation Deposit of spoiled food, Barbero ... Between 400 and 500 soldiers working for NATO in Izmir, in the barracks located in the center of the city, as in the bunker, where you move the controller in times of 'war'.
"It is confidential information" justifies military. Officers make up to 14 hours shifts in the bunker and even sometimes have to spend all night, if the situation requires. We came to the meeting room. From there you can not pass: a red light signals the start of another area in which NATO develops, in the utmost secrecy, the strategy of air strikes on Libya.
But why in Turkey, one of the countries that has objected to the attack on Libya? At first, when the operation was in the hands of the United Kingdom and France, Ankara feared "losing influence over the situation" and pushed for NATO to take charge because "it was the only way to have a voice," says professor International Relations Alper Kaliber, Yasar University Izmir.
Incidentally, the rotary commander of the Air Forces of NATO fell, and will remain so until June, at the headquarters of Smyrna. "Even when I was in the army, did not quite understand how it worked NATO," says an official of the bunker. According to Efe said the head of Strategy, British Mike Rafferty, everything starts in Brussels: there, the secretary general, Denmark's Anders Fogh Rasmussen, along with the assembly of ambassadors from the partner countries, making policy decisions.
"These are communicated to the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, American James Stavridis, in Mons (Belgium), who translates political directives on military standards," he says. The orders are reported to Canadian General Charles Bouchard, head of operations in Libya in the NATO Joint Command in Naples (Italy) and the Allied Air Command in Izmir.
"Here we set the tactics of the air campaign and have plans for the next 72 hours," says Rafferty. After the strategy is sent to the base-Renatico Poggio (Italy) where you give orders to the planes taking off located at 16 bases across Europe. Some have criticized the transfer command of the Anglo-French coalition, NATO has lost prompt action to lengthen the chain of command, which denies the Head of Strategy.
"We have a number of communication systems, such as a secret Internet, which allows high speed communication through the chain of command," he said. "Furthermore, in Poggio have dynamic control over the aircraft. For example, if a plane is flying over an area and received information that civilians are being attacked in another area, is charged immediately to come to the new area," he explains.
With the intelligence they collect the NATO planes, which have already conducted more than 3,000 flight-recognition also identifies where there are heavy weapons to "neutralized." "The biggest problem in Libya is that we are on the ground, due to the ambiguity of the UN mandate, and we have to trust what we get through our intelligence sources, mostly air," laments the German Gregor Brehm , Air Operations Team.
In the bunker bored into the mountain Turkish nobody dares to predict when the bombs stop falling on Libya, nor when she failed to stop the attack of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. But Anthony Stroup political adviser warns: "Do not forget, we are good." 
In the kilometer tunnel into the mountain is an echo of the steps-top, top, top-interrupted only by the metallic voice of public address announcements. They call it "the tunnel of whispers," because for very low to speak, an official at the other end could hear the whole conversation. Turn right and the tunnel is narrow.
The hall now resembles a submarine, with its cabins on each side, identified by signs: Tunnel Evacuation Deposit of spoiled food, Barbero ... Between 400 and 500 soldiers working for NATO in Izmir, in the barracks located in the center of the city, as in the bunker, where you move the controller in times of 'war'.
"It is confidential information" justifies military. Officers make up to 14 hours shifts in the bunker and even sometimes have to spend all night, if the situation requires. We came to the meeting room. From there you can not pass: a red light signals the start of another area in which NATO develops, in the utmost secrecy, the strategy of air strikes on Libya.
But why in Turkey, one of the countries that has objected to the attack on Libya? At first, when the operation was in the hands of the United Kingdom and France, Ankara feared "losing influence over the situation" and pushed for NATO to take charge because "it was the only way to have a voice," says professor International Relations Alper Kaliber, Yasar University Izmir.
Incidentally, the rotary commander of the Air Forces of NATO fell, and will remain so until June, at the headquarters of Smyrna. "Even when I was in the army, did not quite understand how it worked NATO," says an official of the bunker. According to Efe said the head of Strategy, British Mike Rafferty, everything starts in Brussels: there, the secretary general, Denmark's Anders Fogh Rasmussen, along with the assembly of ambassadors from the partner countries, making policy decisions.
"These are communicated to the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, American James Stavridis, in Mons (Belgium), who translates political directives on military standards," he says. The orders are reported to Canadian General Charles Bouchard, head of operations in Libya in the NATO Joint Command in Naples (Italy) and the Allied Air Command in Izmir.
"Here we set the tactics of the air campaign and have plans for the next 72 hours," says Rafferty. After the strategy is sent to the base-Renatico Poggio (Italy) where you give orders to the planes taking off located at 16 bases across Europe. Some have criticized the transfer command of the Anglo-French coalition, NATO has lost prompt action to lengthen the chain of command, which denies the Head of Strategy.
"We have a number of communication systems, such as a secret Internet, which allows high speed communication through the chain of command," he said. "Furthermore, in Poggio have dynamic control over the aircraft. For example, if a plane is flying over an area and received information that civilians are being attacked in another area, is charged immediately to come to the new area," he explains.
With the intelligence they collect the NATO planes, which have already conducted more than 3,000 flight-recognition also identifies where there are heavy weapons to "neutralized." "The biggest problem in Libya is that we are on the ground, due to the ambiguity of the UN mandate, and we have to trust what we get through our intelligence sources, mostly air," laments the German Gregor Brehm , Air Operations Team.
In the bunker bored into the mountain Turkish nobody dares to predict when the bombs stop falling on Libya, nor when she failed to stop the attack of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. But Anthony Stroup political adviser warns: "Do not forget, we are good."
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