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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SeachRE who wrote (302797)	10/1/2002 7:54:47 AM
From: jttmab	Respond to of 769670

Neither is coming up with "new" interpretations of UN resolutions. It just hurts the Administration wrt credibility to the members of the Security Council. It reinforces the belief that the Administration will say anything. U.S. Asserts Inspection Role for Planes Over Iraq 'Aerial' Surveillance for Weapons Is Valid, Rumsfeld Says By a Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, October 1, 2002; Page A13 Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld asserted for the first time yesterday that U.S. and British warplanes enforcing "no-fly" zones over Iraq are performing "aerial" weapons inspections under a United Nations resolution, a statement that expands the stated mission of the air patrols. The U.S. government has long justified the missions as necessary to protect Iraqi Shiites and Kurds from helicopter assaults and aerial bombardments by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's military. But Rumsfeld, briefing reporters at the Pentagon, argued that the no-fly zones, which were established in northern and southern Iraq after the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, have existed both to protect Iraqi citizens under U.N. Resolution 688 and to perform "aerial inspections" under U.N. Resolution 687. Resolution 688 was passed in 1991 to protect Iraqi citizens from military attacks by their government. Resolution 687, passed the same year, mandated Iraq's disarmament and required that Baghdad allow U.N. weapons inspectors into the country to certify it was no longer producing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. But Rumsfeld said that enforcement of the northern and southern no-fly zones have existed as "air components" of the U.N. inspections regime, which ended in 1998 when U.N. inspectors withdrew after repeated disputes with Hussein. "Aerial inspections, however, continued," Rumsfeld said. "As coalition aircraft attempt to enforce the no-fly zones, they conduct aerial surveillance to help determine compliance with U.N. resolutions 688 and 687, which bans nuclear, chemical and biological weapons." Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld dismissed criticism by Russia's foreign ministry that recent attacks by U.S. and British warplanes enforcing the no-fly zones against Iraqi air defenses have made it more difficult for U.N. efforts to resume weapons inspections in Iraq. Rumsfeld said the attacks have come in response to fire directed at coalition warplanes by Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries. Joining Rumsfeld, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, showed reporters video footage taken by F-16 fighters and Predator surveillance drones of Iraqi anti-aircraft shells and surface-to-air missiles being fired at coalition jets. Myers also released statistics showing that Iraq fired at coalition aircraft 67 times in September, including nine times last weekend. So far this year, he said, Iraq has fired at coalition jets 406 times. Myers said coalition aircraft responded to Iraqi attacks 32 times in 2000 and 2001 and 34 times so far this year, including a series of attacks last month against radar sights and communications "nodes" linked to those radars. While coalition rules of engagement have always allowed warplanes to target communications centers in response to hostile fire, Rumsfeld recently directed that they place more emphasis on those installations when returning fire. One U.S. official said Rumsfeld's comments represented the first time that a senior administration official had argued that warplanes patrolling the no-fly zones were actually performing weapons inspections under U.N. auspices. Outside experts agreed. "These are new interpretations," said Kenneth M. Pollack, director of research at Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy. "The no-fly zones were established to enforce 688 -- to protect the Iraqi people from the depredations of the regime. This is the first time the U.S. government has ever tied them to enforcement of the inspection provisions of 687." Pollack, a former CIA analyst who served on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration, said he thought Rumsfeld's position will be hard for the administration to sell to the international community, particularly when Russia and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan have said that U.S. and British enforcement of no-fly zones is not sanctioned by either Resolution 687 or 688.... washingtonpost.com