The Independent, 10 April 1999<\/p>\n
War in the Balkans – Nato spokesman\u00a0accused of exaggeration by French<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>By Katherine Butler in Brussels<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>SPONTANEOUS LAUGHTER rippled through\u00a0the room as journalists listened to\u00a0Nato’s daily press briefing. They had\u00a0just heard Jamie Shea, the Nato\u00a0spokesman, say that the bombing of\u00a0Yugoslavia brought nothing but relief\u00a0to Kosovo’s oppressed Albanians. One\u00a0woman, he told them, on hearing Nato\u00a0jet engines overhead, said she thought\u00a0it was “the sound of angels”.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Mr Shea stopped in his tracks at the\u00a0titters. “Yes, that’s right,” he said\u00a0“The sound of angels.” Reading\u00a0everyone’s mind, Shea added: “I could\u00a0never have put it so eloquently.”<\/p>\n This was false modesty. Mr Shea’s dailybriefings are a catalogue of soundbites\u00a0<\/span>and powerful quotes. The Serbian leader\u00a0is Pol Pot or Al Capone. Fleeing\u00a0refugees stripped of their identity\u00a0<\/span>documents are going through “an\u00a0Orwellian nightmare” or “trading in\u00a0their property rights for a train\u00a0ticket to oblivion”.<\/p>\n Live television broadcasts of his news\u00a0conferences have turned 45-year-old Mr\u00a0Shea into a household name. In fact Mr\u00a0Shea is a reluctant star and his new\u00a0role as Nato’s frontman, constantly in\u00a0the spotlight, churning out selective\u00a0information and overblown rhetoric, is\u00a0something those close to him believe he\u00a0is uneasy with.<\/p>\n Mr Shea is no newcomer to Nato. For 18\u00a0years he has been with the alliance,\u00a0the last six as spokesman. He is a\u00a0favourite with the Brussels-based\u00a0press. “He is the consummate\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>journalists’ friend,” says one. “He\u00a0yanked Nato into the 20th century and\u00a0made it a more open place.” It is hard\u00a0<\/span>to find a journalist with a complaint.<\/p>\n Affable and unassuming, his impeccable\u00a0courtesy and air of local-boy-made-good\u00a0<\/span>contrasts with the style of other\u00a0British spin doctors, such as Alastair\u00a0Campbell, or Gordon Brown’s former\u00a0mouthpiece, Charlie Whelan.<\/p>\n Someone who first met him when Mr Shea\u00a0was a Nato minute-taker stresses how he\u00a0has remained a shy and modest man: “He\u00a0is not a performer. He is uncomfortable\u00a0when he has to accompany [the Nato\u00a0secretary-general, Javier] Solana to\u00a0London and they stay at Claridges. He’d\u00a0rather go to the pub.”<\/p>\n But this self-effacing side belies the\u00a0authority he commands within the\u00a0alliance. Mr Shea is in his own right a\u00a0heavyweight academic who earned a\u00a0doctorate from Oxford after a First in\u00a0History and French from Sussex\u00a0University.<\/p>\n His accent has attracted much comment,\u00a0particularly in the class-obsessed\u00a0British press, the subtext being: how\u00a0did someone who sounds like Frank\u00a0Butcher of EastEnders get to be the\u00a0voice of the transatlantic military\u00a0alliance?<\/p>\n Mr Shea is now being blamed for a\u00a0number of Nato “exaggerations”. Two\u00a0French newspapers this week accused him\u00a0of “propagating rumours”. Now he has\u00a0been embarrassed by Nato’s admission\u00a0that it bombed residential districts in\u00a0the Kosovo capital, Pristina.<\/p>\n Those who know him say he is sincere in\u00a0his feelings, both for the plight of\u00a0the Kosovo Albanians and his belief in\u00a0the “fundamental gospel” of Nato. As\u00a0the messenger for Nato’s actions and\u00a0policies he is now being shot for\u00a0Nato’s mistakes.<\/p>\n But Mr Shea is more than a messenger.\u00a0He has allowed himself, however\u00a0reluctantly, to become the public face\u00a0of the allied campaign. And, having\u00a0started, he must go on justifying it,\u00a0whatever happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Independent, 10 April 1999 War in the Balkans – Nato spokesman\u00a0accused of exaggeration by French \u00a0By Katherine Butler in Brussels \u00a0SPONTANEOUS LAUGHTER rippled through\u00a0the room as journalists listened to\u00a0Nato’s daily press briefing. They had\u00a0just heard Jamie Shea, the Nato\u00a0spokesman, say that the bombing of\u00a0Yugoslavia brought nothing but relief\u00a0to Kosovo’s oppressed Albanians. One\u00a0woman, he told … <\/p>\n