Pentagon builds case on Iraq
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
11/19/2001 - Updated 07:16 AM ET
usatoday.com
WASHINGTON — Defense Department strategists are building a case for a massive bombing of Iraq as a new phase of President Bush's war against terrorism, congressional and Pentagon sources say. Proponents of attacking Iraq, spearheaded by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, are now arguing privately that still-elusive evidence linking Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime to the terrorist attacks Sept. 11 is not necessary to trigger a military strike.
In Geneva Monday the United States said it strongly suspects Iraq of building up a germ warfare program, but stopped short of saying that country might supply biological weapons to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. ''The United States strongly suspects that Iraq has taken advantage of three years of no U.N. inspections to improve all phases of its offensive biological weapons program,'' said John R. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control. ''The existence of Iraq's program is beyond dispute.''
He also said the United States was ''quite concerned'' about Libya, Syria and Sudan, all of which appeared to have biological weapons programs.
Pentagon officials contend that Iraq should be hit because it supports terrorism, is trying to build nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and has refused to admit U.N. weapons inspectors for nearly 3 years.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, "We didn't need Sept. 11 to tell us that Saddam Hussein is a very dangerous man."
U.S. officials say no decision on bombing Iraq has been made. The top U.S. priority, they stress, remains tracking down Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and his al-Qa'eda network in Afghanistan.
Officials say the campaign won't stop there. Besides Iraq, Pentagon officials are eyeing al-Qa'eda operations in Somalia, Sudan, and South America. "The war on terrorism neither begins or ends with Afghanistan," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said Sunday. The president will decide the next target.
Word of a new push to attack Iraq came as the Navy said it was searching for two sailors aboard an oil tanker that sank in the northern Persian Gulf. The sailors from the destroyer USS Peterson had been trying to keep the tanker afloat after it had been interdicted for allegedly smuggling nearly 2,000 tons of Iraqi oil.
The tanker, carrying the flag of the United Arab Emirates, sank because it was overloaded and in poor condition, according to the Navy. It said one member of the tanker's 14-man crew drowned and three others were missing.
A source on Capitol Hill said Pentagon strategists are looking at an array of military targets in Iraq, including barracks and headquarters of the elite Republican Guard.
The State Department has adamantly opposed broadening the war to Iraq out of concern that it would infuriate Arab public opinion and fracture the U.S.-led alliance against al-Qa'eda.
Contributing: Jonathan Weisman, the Associated Press |
