News from the 51st State

An interesting debate, I look forward to reading more.  Here is an article 
from today's Guardian newspaper, all the way from the 51st state.


US targets Saddam

Pentagon and CIA making plans for war against Iraq this year

Julian Borger in Washington and Ewen MacAskill
Thursday February 14, 2002
The Guardian

The Pentagon and the CIA have begun preparations for an assault on Iraq 
involving up to 200,000 US troops that is likely to be launched later this 
year with the aim of removing Saddam Hussein from power, US and diplomatic 
sources told the Guardian yesterday.

President George Bush's war cabinet, known as the "principals committee", 
agreed at a pivotal meeting in late January that the policy of containment 
has failed and that active steps should be taken to topple the Iraqi leader.

But, according to a US intelligence source familiar with CIA preparations, 
the plans for a parallel overt and covert war only landed on the president's 
desk in the past few days.

"I will reserve whatever options I have. I'll keep them close to my vest. 
Saddam Hussein needs to understand that I'm serious about defending our 
country," Mr Bush said yesterday.

Since the principals committee decision, Colin Powell, the secretary of 
state and the dove of the administration, has pointedly added his voice to 
the calls for a "regime change".

"We are looking at a variety of options that would bring that about," he 
told the Senate budget committee.

The blueprint for a campaign against Iraq has evolved from a contingency 
plan drawn up by the joint chiefs of staff that envisaged the use of a 
200,000-strong US force, the bulk of which would invade from Kuwait.

However, it may be that the actual force used will be less numerous, relying 
more on covert and special forces operations.

Central Command has already set up forward headquarters in the Gulf from 
which each of the component services will be able to coordinate the war.

The air force headquarters (Afcent) is at the Prince Sultan air base in 
Saudi Arabia. The army headquarters (Arcent) is in Kuwait, while the navy 
(Navcent) is in Bahrain.

Central Command's marine component (Marcent) is also expected to move to 
Bahrain in the next few days, weeks after the main marine force left 
Afghanistan.

The US, Israel and Turkey were due to hold joint exercises codenamed 
Anatolian Eagle this year, but in another sign of accelerated preparations 
there will be three such exercises in the next few months, based at the 
Turkish air force base at Konya. Once upgraded, Konya could be used 
alongside Incirlik as a base for air strikes on northern Iraq.

The Pentagon's military planners are reported to have agonised over the Iraq 
plan because of the significant risk that Saddam - aware that unlike during 
the Gulf war his own life is at stake this time - would use chemical and 
biological weapons against US troop concentrations and Israel.

The danger would be minimised by intensive bombing of missile launchers, but 
the generals reportedly remain extremely concerned that the risks cannot be 
eliminated entirely.

The CIA's covert war would involve arming and training Kurdish fighters in 
northern Iraq and Shi'ite forces in Kuwait. CIA trainers and special forces 
troops have already been dispatched to Kuwait for that purpose, and may 
already have begun work.

Meanwhile, CIA and special forces will launch a campaign of sabotage and 
information warfare in the next few months.

The CIA puts very little faith in the military capacity of the main 
opposition movement, the Iraqi National Congress, but it has begun intensive 
consultations with INC officials about the logistics of training and arming 
the movement's supporters.

The trigger could be the expected row over weapons inspections in three 
months' time. America's allies are clinging to the hope that US military 
action will be forestalled by Baghdad's acceptance of unconditional and 
unfettered weapons inspections when the international sanctions regime comes 
up for review at the United Nations in May.

However, Iraq's vice-president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, said yesterday there 
was no need for "spies" from the UN weapons inspection teams to return to 
the country.

A US state department official said he thought it very unlikely that the 
Iraqi regime would be prepared to accept the stringent programme of 
inspections the US will demand. As the American intelligence source put it, 
the White House "will not take yes for an answer", suggesting that 
Washington would provoke a crisis. He added that he expected the war to 
begin soon after the May ultimatum.

US allies in the Middle East have been informed that a decision to attack 
Iraq has already been taken, and diplomats from the region said yesterday 
they were resigned to the inevitability of a war that may threaten the 
stability of a string of Arab regimes.

"It is a nightmare situation for us," said one Arab diplomat in Washington. 
"We feel the Americans will take very drastic action and we have to be 
prepared for such a reality. But the public opinion in the street will not 
see this as a benign attempt to restore order, but as American imperialism."

France, Germany and others in the European Union have been queuing up to 
make clear to Mr Bush that they will not support him in military action 
against Iraq.

The German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, this week joined the French 
foreign minister, Hubert Védrine, by expressing publicly his concern about 
US policy towards Iraq.

But Tony Blair and the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, have refused to join 
the public outcry. A Foreign Office official said yesterday that military 
action was not imminent, but would be "a question of months".

A Foreign Office spokesman later said: "The prime minister has made it clear 
from the outset that the campaign would have two phases: the first focusing 
on Afghanistan and the second looking at different aspects of international 
terrorism. In that context, we have to look at issues such as weapons of 
mass destruction."

There are regular exchanges between the US state department and the Foreign 
Office on strategy for tackling Iraq. The Foreign Office spokesman said: "We 
will proceed in consultation with our allies and the precise methods of 
action will be for consultation in due course."

In the months after September 11, the Foreign Office repeatedly ruled out 
military action against Iraq, other than the regular bombing along its 
border with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Its line at the time was that there was 
no evidence linking Iraq to terrorist activity.

Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey, all US allies neighbouring Iraq, expect to 
sustain significant economic and political damage from a new conflict. 
Jordan believes it stands to lose $800m (£500m) from the interruption of 
deliveries of cheap Iraqi oil, and has already begun to hint at the need for 
compensation.




Malcolm


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.