we will see..........
Iraq Pledges to Teach U.S. an Unforgettable Lesson
Sat December 28, 2002
By Nadim Ladki
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. President George Bush said Saturday Iraq could avoid war by destroying illegal arms, but Baghdad warned it would fight any invaders through the streets and teach them a lesson they would never forget.
Amid planning for possible war and reconstruction if President Saddam Hussein goes, Bush said Iraq posed a danger of catastrophic violence and the United States would confront it.
"The burden now is on Iraq's dictator to disclose and destroy his arsenal of weapons," he said in a radio address looking forward to 2003 from his Texas ranch.
"If he refuses (to yield), then for the sake of peace, the United States will lead a coalition to disarm the Iraqi regime and free the Iraqi people."
U.N. inspectors, combing Iraq for signs of illegal weapons it denies having, checked at least five more sites around Baghdad linked to the Military Industrialization Commission, in charge of developing weapons and munitions.
They interviewed a key Iraqi scientist on Friday with expertise in restoring aluminum tubes used in missiles, but he denied their suggestions his work might be linked to a clandestine nuclear program.
"These statements...don't relate to reality," Kathim Mijbil said on Saturday. "Does cleaning an aluminum tube from corrosion with basic chemicals...lead to a secret program?"
The United States says it has intelligence proving Iraq still has nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Baghdad has invited CIA agents to come and point out where.
Despite a lack of concrete evidence of Iraqi involvement in attacks against the United States, including September 11, Bush linked his anti-terror campaign to disarming Saddam.
"The war on terror also requires us to confront the danger of catastrophic violence posed by Iraq," he said.
UNFORGETTABLE LESSON
The main Iraqi Shi'ite opposition group based in Iran, SCIRI, said it had evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and wanted to hand it to the United Nations.
U.S. officials said Bush had made no final decision to use force. Still, the United States continued to build up its forces in the region ahead of a possible war.
Two aircraft carriers went on alert for possible use and the Washington Post said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered "significant" ground forces and combat aircraft to the Gulf.
U.S. planners also looked ahead, drawing up plans to secure key cities and use Iraqi oil revenues for reconstruction after a possible U.S.-led invasion toppled President Saddam Hussein.
But Iraq said Washington was deluding itself.
"He who ever attacks our country will lose," Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh told a solidarity conference in Baghdad where he announced extra food rations -- wheat, rice, cooking oil and powder milk -- to help households build up reserves.
"We will fight from village to village, from city to city and from street to street in every city. The enemy will be taught an unforgettable lesson if it tries to attack."
Clad in military fatigues, he praised Saddam as a warrior who would take Iraq to a bright future, and told his audience:
"Iraq's oil, nationalized by the president...from the hands of the British and Americans in 1972...will remain in the hands of this people and this leadership."
OIL
Baghdad says the United States and Britain want to go to war to wrest control of the world's second largest oil reserves.
It says they plan to invade regardless of what U.N. inspectors, one month into a search for banned weaponry, conclude in a report to the Security Council due by January 27.
Speculation has mounted war could start soon after then.
Bush has already said Iraq is in "material breach" of a U.N. Security Council resolution last month by swearing it has got rid of any illegal weapons it still had after the 1991 Gulf war.
The resolution demanded Iraq readmit the inspectors after a four-year gap and gave Iraq a last chance to come clean on its weapons programs or face serious consequences.
British aid minister Clare Short, a dove, urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to prevail on Bush not to fight without U.N. backing.
"We have got to try to keep the whole world together and the U.S. together behind the authority of the U.N. and that is where I think the UK should use its influence," she said.
America, still embroiled in Afghanistan as it builds up forces in the Gulf, also faced a shock confrontation with North Korea, which has said it will revive its nuclear program and announced on Friday it was expelling U.N. nuclear inspectors.
Rumsfeld warned North Korea earlier this week against seizing on Iraq to press a nuclear weapons program, and said Washington could fight and win two wars at once if needs be.
In Turkey, U.S. Treasury and State Department officials said they discussed economic aid for their close ally to calm markets and ensure stability in the event of war in neighboring Iraq.
Jordan, another regional ally of Washington, said it was bracing for a probable war against Iraq and expressed fears that this could lead to the break-up of its powerful eastern neighbor. |
