Stepping Up the Preparation and Propaganda Campaign for Next Preempt Strike in the Middle East?
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Bush, Rumsfeld Challenge Syria on Support for Iraq
Sun April 13, 2003 01:54 PM ET
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Sunday that Syrian fighters had been killed or captured by U.S. forces in Iraq, but declined to say what Washington might do if Saddam Hussein were found in Syria.
"The last thing I would do would be to discuss that," he said in a television interview, stressing that if the missing Iraqi president turned up in the neighboring state, it would show that "Syria would have made an even bigger mistake."
"The (Syrian) government is making a lot of bad mistakes, a lot of bad judgments in my view," Rumsfeld said in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation."
Shortly thereafter, President Bush again urged Syria to give up any Iraqi officials that had fled to that country.
"The Syrian government needs to cooperate with the United States and our coalition partners and not harbor any Baathists, any military officials, any people who need to be held to account," Bush told reporters at the White House, repeating a warning he issued on Friday.
Rumsfeld has in recent days repeatedly charged that Damascus has not only voiced support for Saddam's fallen government, but has been helping senior Iraqi leaders enter Syria to stay or move on to other countries.
But on Sunday, Rumsfeld also said Syrian nationals had been actively involved in fighting against U.S. forces, including many in Baghdad.
"There are a number of non-Iraqis who are in the country, particularly in Baghdad we find ... A lot from Syria, most from Syria it appears," he said.
Asked if they were involved in fighting, Rumsfeld said, "Absolutely. In firefights, a lot of them got killed last night."
The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, which has openly called for the defeat of U.S. and British forces by Iraq, earlier dismissed charges from Rumsfeld that it allowed night vision equipment and other military aid into Iraq.
QUESTIONS ABOUT TIMING
Syria has been on the U.S. list of countries supporting terrorism for many years and some conservative hawks in Washington say that after Iraq, the United States should set its sights on "regime change" in Syria and Iran.
No one is explicitly advocating force against Syria or Iran but conservatives inside and out of the U.S. government hope the Iraq war will signal to Damascus and Tehran that seeking weapons of mass destruction may be hazardous to their health.
Asked by a reporter on Sunday whether military action might be taken against Syria, Bush said: "Syria just needs to cooperate with us."
In Beirut, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said on Sunday the time was not right for the United States to raise pressure on Syria by accusing it of aiding Saddam's collapsed regime.
Villepin said after meeting Lebanese leaders the international community should focus instead on rebuilding Iraq and reviving Middle East peace efforts.
But Rumsfeld said Washington would not "deny the truth."
"The fact of the matter is that Syria has been unhelpful and pretending that that's not the case it strikes me is to deny the truth. And I don't think you can live a lie," he said on CBS.
"We did see busloads of people coming out of Syria into the country. Some were stopped -- the ones we could find we turned around and sent them back. Some we impounded and put them in enemy prisoner-of-war camps. And others are getting killed," he said.
The secretary repeated charges by the U.S. military that one bus found had had contained several hundred thousand dollars and leaflets that suggested that people would be rewarded if they killed Americans.
Rumsfeld was asked if Syria was going to pay a price for supporting Saddam.
"I'm sure they already are if you think about it," he said. "I mean who in the world would want to invest in Syria? Who would want to go in tourism in Syria? They're associating with the wrong people and the effect of that hurts the Syrian people."
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