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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (148086)	2/3/2002 2:35:25 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Eight-Week Plan to Topple Saddam London Times Sunday February 2, 2002 AMERICAN military planners have presented President George W Bush with a strategy to defeat the army and air force of Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power within eight weeks. The Pentagon plan, prepared in conjunction with the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, calls for an all-out bombardment of Saddam's forces and installations, followed by an attempt to turn his army against him. "The argument on whether to act goes on, but the president needed to know what he was up against and how it might be done," said a military source last week. Israeli military strategists are concerned about a possible Iraqi counterattack and say their intelligence suggests Saddam could retaliate with warplanes carrying chemical or biological weapons on suicide missions. Any American assault on Iraq would entail a critical race against time to destroy Saddam's air force and missiles, or risk a regional conflagration. The American plan assumes that Iraq's military forces are much weaker than they were before the 1991 Gulf war. But it recognizes that while Saddam was reluctant to use weapons of mass destruction a decade ago, he may now be prepared to use chemical and biological warheads. Intimidation of Saddam would be vital in the initial stages of the operation, with America and its allies building up forces of overwhelming strength in the region. The bombardment would be executed by land and carrier-based aircraft, while special forces on the ground would attempt to destroy Scud and other missile launch pads inside Iraq, along with sites thought to house weapons of mass destruction. The campaign would then be widened to take in communications centers, broadcast outlets, pipelines and supply depots. With communications broken and all propaganda channels silenced, western intelligence agents would encourage Iraqi insurgents to gather behind an opposition leader and mount a coup. Only Saddam's inner circle would be expected to fight to the death. The plan describes a popular new Iraqi leader who must not be seen as an American puppet. The entire campaign could take eight weeks in ideal conditions, it says, but American ground troops would be required to stay longer to ensure stability. The idea is said to have split the Bush administration, with Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary, and John Bolton, the senior official responsible for arms control, sympathetic to a campaign starting as early as this spring, and Colin Powell, the secretary of state, being rather cooler. Iraqi opposition figures have held several meetings with White House officials. One said: "There seems no question now that they're going after Saddam. It's not a question of whether; it's a question of when." Powell is believed to fear a regional conflict and intelligence gathered by the Israeli military backs his "worst case scenario" thinking. Sources in Tel Aviv claim Iraqi pilots are training for suicide missions against Israel. The Israelis know that the Iraqi air force still has a range of Russian MiG-29 and Sukhoi jet fighters and French Mirages. Experienced pilots are familiar with low-level routes across Jordan and into Israel. Officials have warned Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, that Iraq could target the Dimona nuclear plant. Sharon called a secret meeting last month to discuss the intelligence. Dalia Rabin, the deputy defense minister, and General Uzi Dayan, the chief of Israel's national security council, have been briefed by Avigdor Sheperman, the head of the Israeli biological warfare institute in Nes Ziona, south of Tel Aviv. The Israeli air force has held training exercises for chemical and biological warfare. Israeli intelligence officials say Saddam believes the Americans will strike in April. The 20,000 elite Special Republican Guards, who protect Baghdad, have received increased salaries, and officers have been given cars. Iraqi morale is said to be better than the Americans suppose. Washington's planners will meet more leaders of the Iraqi national congress tomorrow. The Iraqis are pushing for military training of insurgents and support to overthrow Saddam. Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy US defense secretary, called yesterday for a fundamental reform of Nato. He told a European security conference in Munich that it should be streamlined into a more flexible alliance capable of preventing the spread of terrorism.

To: Les H who wrote (148086)	2/3/2002 3:27:07 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 436258

theglobeandmail.com Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, in fact, has argued that the Federal Reserve should be abolished, since it is either not very good at or perhaps even incapable of influencing the economy, and any money-supply related duties could be carried out by a computer set up with buy and sell criteria. Hey.... I said that, years ago. Perhaps he was first (but perhaps not). At any rate I did not know anyone else subscribed to that theory. I want my Nobel Prize. LOL M