Pentagon: U.S. troops ready to attack Iraq
Tuesday, March 18, 2003 Posted: 8:15 PM EST (0115 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush has been told by senior Pentagon officials that U.S. troops are ready to attack Iraq on his orders, and senior officials say those orders could come as early as Wednesday night.
Bush has demanded that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Qusay give up power and go into exile by 8 p.m. ET Wednesday -- 4 a.m. Thursday in Baghdad.
But two senior officials noted that in Bush's televised ultimatum he said the United States would attack "at a time of its choosing."
And they took pains to draw attention to the fact the United States did not launch attacks in Afghanistan until more than two weeks after Bush used those same words in the ultimatum he gave to the Taliban.
"There is no magic to tomorrow night in terms of military action," one of the senior officials told CNN. The other said, "The president will make the military decision based on what the military thinks is best. The deadline is a political deadline for Saddam Hussein."
At the United Nations Tuesday, Iraq's U.N. ambassador denounced Bush's ultimatum as "illegal, immoral and unjustifiable."
"This is the first time in the history the president of a state ordered the president of another state to leave his own country. It is a mess," Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri said. "We reject totally this madness."
From Baghdad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri called Bush an "idiot" and said the ultimatum "is a expression of frustration and isolation.
"His speech is another indication of frustration and big failure, of disappointment and desperation, and by that he is pushing himself to the, over the cliff -- just like Blair is being pushed down from over a cliff," Sabri said.
In other developments:
• Turkey's government will send a proposal to parliament for a Wednesday or Thursday vote on whether to allow U.S. troops to move against Iraq from Turkish soil, a government spokesman told CNN. The United States wants to put about 62,000 troops in Turkey, a NATO ally, in order to move against Iraq from the north in an increasingly likely conflict. An earlier proposal was voted down despite U.S. promises of up to $6 billion in grants or up to $20 billion in loans. (Full story)
• Despite opposition from many in his ruling Labour Party, British Prime Minister Tony Blair won backing for war with Iraq from the House of Commons Tuesday night. By a 412-149 vote, lawmakers approved his request to use "all means necessary" to disarm Saddam. That vote came after an antiwar motion was defeated. (Full story)
• Saudi Arabia "will not participate under any condition or in any form in war against our brother Iraq," Crown Prince Abdullah said Tuesday in a televised address on behalf of King Fadh. In addition, Abdullah said, "our armed forces will, under no circumstances, step even one foot into Iraqi territory." Abdullah said he expected that any war would end "as soon as U.N. Resolution 1441 is implemented," meaning as soon as Iraq is stripped of its alleged weapons of mass destruction. (Full story)
• The Iraqi government announced the National Assembly would meet in "extraordinary session" Wednesday morning, and in a televised statement Tuesday, Saddam's eldest son, Uday, said Bush should be the one to step down from power. (Full story)
• Iraqi Republican Guard military units south of Baghdad may now have chemical munitions filled with a form of VX nerve agent as well as mustard gas, U.S. military officials Tuesday told CNN. They also said one oil well in southern Iraq has been spilling crude into the desert, possibly as an effort to hinder the movement of U.S. troops. (Full story)
• Westerners, Kuwaiti citizens and resident aliens were scrambling at Kuwait International Airport to find seats as both the number of commercial airlines flights and the hours before an all-but-certain U.S.-led war against Iraq dwindle. British Airways' final departure -- a sold-out flight -- is set for the early hours of Wednesday morning. KLM said its final scheduled flight from Kuwait, planned for early Wednesday, had been canceled. Lufthansa reported the same.
• U.S. military aircraft and ships are broadcasting new messages into Iraq telling military forces how to surrender and avoid being attacked by the U.S. military. The latest instructions include directives to lay down heavy weapons, turn tank and vehicle gun turrets downward, park vehicles all in one direction, and other actions the U.S. would interpret as non-threatening.
• Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge laid out the details Tuesday of a unified security plan called "Operation Liberty Shield," which includes increased security at ports, borders, railroads, airports and other key infrastructure. It also calls for detaining asylum- seekers from countries where terrorist groups such as al Qaeda have been known to operate. (Full story)
• With the nation on the brink of war, two-thirds of Americans say they approve of President Bush's stark ultimatum to Saddam Hussein and say they believe he did all he could to resolve the crisis diplomatically, according to a new CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll. However, the prospect of war left seven in 10 respondents feeling worried. (Full story)
• Stung by the U.S. and British decision to abandon diplomatic efforts on Iraq, foreign ministers from several Security Council countries were expected in New York for a meeting Wednesday morning to discuss the future of U.N. weapons inspections. At least seven foreign ministers, including those leading the antiwar efforts at the council -- France's Dominique de Villepin, Germany's Joschka Fischer and Russia's Igor Ivanov -- were expected to attend.
People line up at the Kuwait City airport Tuesday as they leave the country.
• All U.N. weapons inspectors have arrived in Cyprus after being ordered out of Iraq, chief inspector Hans Blix said Tuesday. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan ordered all inspectors and U.N. humanitarian aid workers out of Iraq Monday ahead of a looming U.S.-led war against that nation. (Full story) (CNN's Nick Robertson, On the Scene)
• Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said Tuesday that Spain would not send combat troops to fight alongside the United States and Britain in the expected war on Iraq. Instead, he said, Spain would send a hospital ship, army engineers who could defuse land mines, and other Spanish troops trained in decontaminating nuclear, chemical or biological attacks. (Full story)
• The leaders of the two major Iraqi Kurd political parties, Turkmen representatives, Turkish government officials and the U.S. special envoy to the northern Iraqi opposition agreed Tuesday on a plan to maintain the status quo in the region during and after a war with Iraq. Turkey's main concern is that if Saddam is toppled by a U.S.-led coalition, Kurds in northern Iraq could gain control of Iraqi oil fields and use that as leverage to create an independent Kurdish territory in northern Iraq. Turkey feared Kurds in southeast Turkey could rise up as well.
• France's ambassador to the United States, Jean-David Levitte, said Tuesday his country might re-think its position on war with Iraq if Saddam were to use biological or chemical weapons against coalition forces. "If Saddam Hussein were to use chemical and biological weapons, this would change the situation completely and immediately for the French government," Levitte said. (Full story)
• As part of the tightened U.S. security efforts, the Secret Service has expanded the security perimeter around the White House complex, barring pedestrians unless they have an appointment or an official pass. Tours have also been suspended.(Full story)
• California Gov. Gray Davis Tuesday increased the on-duty hours of state highway patrol officers and doubled their presence at "trophy buildings" and other high-profile potential targets. The California National Guard has been guarding the Golden Gate Bridge since the September 11 attacks, and that duty could be expanded to other major bridges in the area.
• New York authorities are implementing Operation Atlas, a plan to bolster security throughout the city, a law enforcement source said. Atlas, which could cost the city more than $5 million per week, will go into full effect should war with Iraq begin, a source said. (Full story)
CNN correspondents Rym Brahimi, Andrea Koppel, Suzanne Malveaux and Barbara Starr and producer Elise Labott contributed to this report. For latest developments, see CNN.com's Iraq Tracker. |
