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

To: calgal who wrote (21447)	2/12/2003 11:11:50 AM
From: calgal	Respond to of 27764

URL:http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/steiner.htm

To: calgal who wrote (21447)	2/12/2003 12:47:06 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27764

Bin Laden at Heart of Transatlantic Iraq Dispute 50 minutes ago URL:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=574&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20030212/wl_nm/iraq_dc By Miral Fahmy and Steve Holland DUBAI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the accused mastermind of the World Trade Center attacks, took center stage in a trans-Atlantic war of words Wednesday that pitted the United States against powerful allies in Europe. The State Department, eager to boost support for a possible war against Iraq, insisted a purported bin Laden audiotape exhorting Muslims to fight the "allies of the devil" was proof Iraq and bin Laden's al Qaeda network were in cahoots. The United States blames the elusive bin Laden for the suicide attacks that killed 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. The United States has said one of the main reasons for disarming Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), even by force if necessary, was the possibility that Baghdad would provide terror groups with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. "We are reaching a moment of truth as to whether or not this matter will be resolved peacefully, or will be resolved by military conflict," Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) told U.S. lawmakers in Washington. "The president still hopes it can be resolved peacefully." But in yet another sign of Washington's troubles selling its ideas across the Atlantic, a German government spokesman questioned whether Tuesday's broadcast of the audiotape on Qatar's al-Jazeera television linked Iraq and al Qaeda. "From what is known so far we don't think we can conclude that there is evidence of an axis or close link between the regime in Baghdad and al Qaeda," government spokesman Thomas Steg told a news conference. Baghdad has repeatedly denied any connection to al Qaeda. GREAT CATASTROPHE Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency, said on Wednesday: "America is working on dragging the world toward a great catastrophe by insisting on launching an unjust aggression on Iraq." Iraq rejects allegations it is concealing weapons of mass destruction. The bin Laden tape denounced Saddam as an infidel but said it did not hurt that the interests of Muslims coincided with those of Iraq's secular government in "the war against the crusaders." The tape thrust al Qaeda into the heart of a showdown over Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction as serious divisions over Iraq pitted the United States and Britain against Russia, Germany, France and Belgium. Russia begged Washington Wednesday not to go it alone in a war against Baghdad. Faced with a growing U.S. and British military buildup in the Gulf around Iraq, France circulated detailed proposals for averting war by strengthening a nearly three-month-old United Nations (news - web sites) search for banned weapons. With the U.S. military announcing it had activated more than 150,000 reservists, nearly 40,000 of them in the past week, Powell told Egypt's al-Ahram newspaper that the French proposals aimed to delay a solution forever. Latest news: • Lawmakers Say Allies Jeopardizing NATO AP - 2 hours, 16 minutes ago • Experts to Destroy Banned Iraqi Weapons AP - Wed Feb 12, 7:49 AM ET • France Proposes More Iraq Arms Monitors AP - Wed Feb 12, 5:15 AM ET Special Coverage The war of words could reach a climax Friday when the U.N. Security Council meets to hear reports from chief inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei that could start the countdown to a U.S.-led war. In a sign of the importance attached to the meeting, diplomats said Powell could attend the Security Council meeting along with the French and Russian foreign ministers, Dominique de Villepin and Igor Ivanov. EUROPE IN TURMOIL The trans-Atlantic battle has had implications for Europe also. In Athens, European Union (news - web sites) president Greece said the 15-nation EU would be plunged into a deep crisis if it failed to forge a common stance at an emergency summit next Monday. In Brussels, NATO (news - web sites) ambassadors struggled to end one of their military alliance's most damaging deadlocks in 54 years -- over proposed measures to protect Turkey from any attack by its neighbor Iraq. France, Germany and Belgium oppose such measures, saying they would signal conflict is unavoidable. Siding with Washington, Romania's parliament approved sending non-combat troops to the Gulf and opening the country's skies to U.S. warplanes in the event of a war on Iraq. Romania was invited in November to join NATO. At a summit meeting in Spain Wednesday, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar appeared to chide German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for not falling into line behind the White House. "The relationship between the United States and Europe is fundamental, and maintaining the Atlantic alliance is fundamental," Aznar said with Schroeder seated at his side.