Experts with broad experience of the C.I.A., the Swedish military and Canada’s diplomatic corps strongly advise Sweden to remain outside the military alliance. 

Over thirty leading experts from eight countries comprise a newly formed advisory board for a Swedish project entitled Stop the Furtive Accession to NATO!, the purpose of which is to investigate and illuminate the ”tyranny of small steps” by which Sweden has been dragged deeper and deeper into the alliance. 

The 33 members of the board will support the project with their knowledge and advice, based on broad experience that includes service in the C.I.A., the Swedish military, Canada’s diplomatic corps, research institutions, both the Swedish and the European parliaments, etc.

The board’s international composition reflects the fact that the question of membership in NATO is not only of crucial significance for Sweden; it also has important implications within a broader geopolitical context. The mutually independent advisors view the problem within a variety of perspectives, but on one point they are clearly agreed: Sweden should not join NATO.

“Definitely not!” says James Bissett, former Canadian diplomat with 36 years in government service as ambassador, director of the Immigration Service and other posts. There is no reason even to discuss Swedish membership, contends Amb. Bissett “unless NATO reasserts its adherence to the first article of its charter, which prohibits the use or threat of force in the resolution of international disputes, and requires that the alliance always act in accordance with the principles of the U.N. Charter. As it is now, NATO has become an instrument of U.S. foreign policy and has abandoned the fundamental principles embodied in Article 1.” 

According to David MacMichael, former C.I.A. analyst and founding member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, NATO should no longer even exist. “With the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the rationale for NATO’s existence was eliminated,” he asserts. 

“I was among those in the United States who felt that it was in the interest of all parties — the U.S., western and eastern Europe, and Russia — for the organization to be dissolved. It would have meant that the U.S. could avoid being drawn into essentially European quarrels such as those involving Kosovo and Cyprus, for example. Likewise, European nations could avoid being dragged into U.S. military actions around the world which may well be irrelevant or even contrary to their own interests — as sadly illustrated by the ongoing tragedy of Afghanistan.” 

It is precisely to enable participation in USA/NATO’s military actions that Sweden’s national defence has been converted into a drastically reduced professional army directed outward to foreign lands. That has taken place without any public debate worthy of the name, and it is a development that deeply concerns advisor Per Blomquist, member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Military Science and a former colonel in the Swedish army whose duties included command of the west Sweden military region.

”It seems to me that Swedish political and military leaders have been led astray by USA/NATO’s military thinking, which is based on a strategy to satisfy the United States’ (and to some extent its allies’) global interests by means of overwhelming attack forces and advanced technology,” says Per Blomquist. 

”Even during the Cold War, I felt that it would be both wrong and dangerous for Sweden to attach itself to USA/NATO’s attack concept based on rapid deployment forces, not least because it would lead to what has now taken place — the dismantling of the Swedish conscript army that is a basic precondition for an effective and economical national defence,” he explains. 

“One need not be a pacifist to be deeply concerned about a defence policy that is governed by USA/NATO and invests everything in rapid deployment forces that are not capable of defending our own country. The ongoing furtive accession to USA/NATO is exposing the Swedish nation to great peril, and I find no good reason for it. Furthermore, it clearly increases the risk that we will become complicit in grave crimes against humanity and international law.”

That it is a matter of contributing to and belonging to the United States’ global hegemony is not in doubt, according to advisor Rick Rozoff of Chicago, who for over two decades has monitored, analysed and reported on the military alliance as moderator of the Stop NATO information service which he founded. 

“NATO is dominated by the United States and is well on the way to establishing a global military structure. Sweden’s increasing participation in its activities is a threat to the nation’s sovereignty and contributes to mounting international tensions,” explains Rick Rozoff. “If Sweden and Finland become members, it will close the last two open links in a chain being tightened along the Russian border from the Arctic to the Caucasus, and complete the militarization of Europe under USA/NATO command.”

These and related issues provide the context for the project, Stop the Furtive Accession to NATO! With the advisory board now in place, it is time to launch the citizens’ inquiry urged by the original project proposal. 

For that purpose, an initial attempt has been made to chart the tyranny of small steps as it has been exercised from the end of World War II to the present. The resulting document is entitled From Neutrality to NATO and is intended to provide an initial frame of reference for the work of the inquiry. 

It is an extremely urgent issue for Swedish author and intellectual historian, Sven-Eric Liedman. “We have long been deceived about Sweden’s policy regarding neutrality,” he notes. “Now, the government is misleading us again, this time into the embrace of NATO. It is therefore important to raise awareness of the ongoing furtive accession, which may end by compelling us to participate in wars that are as unwanted as they are loathsome.”

Stop the Furtive Accession to NATO! 
http://www.stoppanato.se/english/proposal.htm 

Below follows the complete list of advisors. Further details on their backgrounds, etc. are provided in the accompanying RTF document, and at the following web address:
http://www.stoppanato.se/english/advisors.htm 

Stop the Furtive Accession to NATO! 
http://www.stoppanato.se