Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hdl who wrote (20707)	12/19/2002 7:17:20 PM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27666

Jan 27: Make or break point for Iraq US will wait till then - when UN inspector gives his first substantive report - to make its final case for war on Iraq WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has set the last week in January as the make-or-break point in the long standoff with Iraq, a date that falls within the window United States military planners have said is the optimum moment to launch an invasion. The administration is also increasingly confident that by then it would have marshalled the evidence to convince the United Nations Security Council that Iraq was in violation of a UN resolution passed last month, and to call for the use of force, according to officials. In a boost to the administration's position, UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix told the Security Council late yesterday there was 'not much' new information about Iraq's weapons programmes in its 12,000-page declaration. 'There is a good bit of information about non-arms related activities,' he said. 'Not much information about the weapons.' Mr Blix said gaps remained in the declaration. 'The absence of supporting evidence is what we are talking about mainly. That continues,' he said. Bush administration officials, who were speaking before Mr Blix addressed the council, offered the clearest timetable to date of how they would like to see the UN weapons inspections process brought to a head. They pointed to Jan 27, when Mr Blix was scheduled to make his first substantive report to the Security Council on Iraq's weapons declaration. Administration officials said that waiting until late January, rather than pushing for the Security Council to declare Iraq was in material breach of the resolution based on the arms declaration alone, would suffice to demonstrate the US commitment to an international approach to ridding Iraq of its long-range missiles and chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes. The additional month, officials said, would also provide enough time to put together a case against Baghdad that Iraq would not be able to refute and even the most sceptical Security Council members would be unable to ignore. President George W. Bush has made clear that he is prepared to move militarily against Iraq, with or without the UN, once the case has been made. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday that other Security Council members shared the US assessment that the Iraqi declaration contains 'troublesome' gaps and omissions. Once Mr Blix and Mr Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had made their report, Mr Powell said: 'We'll... work with our partners in the Security Council to determine the way to go forward.' Iraq has in the meantime dismissed the allegations of omissions in its 12,000-page declaration, describing them as 'nonsense'. But Baghdad yesterday also offered a new goodwill gesture. It agreed for the first time in four years to hold a meeting with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia about the fate of people reported missing since the 1991 Gulf war. --Washington Post, AFP