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Politics : Attack Iraq? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chas. who wrote (8082)	9/16/2003 8:28:46 PM
From: lorne	Respond to of 8683

U.S.: Syria Lets Militants Kill U.S. Forces in Iraq Tue September 16, 2003 12:53 PM ET reuters.com WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Syria has failed to stop militants from crossing into Iraq to kill U.S. forces and it continues to pursue chemical and biological weapons programs, a leading Bush administration hawk said on Tuesday. U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton told Congress the United States must keep open the option of using "every tool" -- code for the remote possibility of military action -- to dissuade Syria and others from pursuing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. While saying the United States had yet not found any information to substantiate media reports that Iraq might have transferred some of its suspected weapons of mass destruction to Syria, Bolton said Washington was concerned by the reports. U.S. allegations that Iraq was pursuing weapons of mass destruction were a key justification for the U.S.-led war on Iraq but Washington's failure to find any since it toppled former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in April has tarnished the Bush administration's credibility. "We have seen Syria take a series of hostile actions toward Coalition forces in Iraq," Bolton told members of the House International Relations Committee. "Syria permitted volunteers to pass into Iraq to attack and kill our service members during the war, and is still doing so." Bolton's comments and remarks by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sept. 4 that Syria and Iran were not doing enough to stop anti-American militants from entering Iraq suggest Washington's patience with Damascus may be wearing thin. However Bolton stressed that Secretary of State Colin Powell, who visited Damascus in May, was continuing to pursue a diplomatic effort to persuade Syria to stop such militants as well as to give up its suspected weapons of mass destruction. Bolton testified before a number of lawmakers who support legislation that demands Damascus end support for terrorism, withdraw from Lebanon and stop producing weapons of mass destruction or face business and diplomatic sanctions. The Bush administration has not formally taken a position on the legislation but it generally resists such congressional efforts that it fears may tie its hands and interfere with the executive branch's conduct of foreign policy.

To: Chas. who wrote (8082)	9/17/2003 9:18:04 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8683

Blix Says Iraq Probably Destroyed WMDs Sep 17, 9:08 AM EDT SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix believes that Iraq destroyed most of its weapons of mass destruction 10 years ago, but kept up the appearance that it had them to deter a military attack. In an interview with an Australian radio station broadcast Wednesday, Blix said it was unlikely that the U.S and British teams now searching for weapons in Iraq would find more than some "documents of interest." "I'm certainly more and more to the conclusion that Iraq has, as they maintained, destroyed all, almost, of what they had in the summer of 1991," Blix told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "The more time that has passed, the more I think it's unlikely that anything will be found." Blix indicated he thought the U.S.-led coalition had backtracked on the issue of Iraq's weapons. "In the beginning they talked about weapons concretely, and later on they talked about weapons programs. Maybe they'll find some documents of interest," he said. Blix, who spent three years searching for Iraqi chemical, biological and ballistic missiles as head of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, said Iraq might have tried to fool the United States into believing it had weapons of mass destruction over the years in order to deter attack. "I mean, you can put up a sign on your door, 'Beware of the Dog,' without having a dog," he said from his home in Sweden. The United States and its allies Britain and Australia invaded Iraq in May after saying Saddam Hussein's regime was developing nuclear arms as well as chemical and biological weapons. However, a search by the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group - which is made up of some 1,400 scientists, military and intelligence experts - has failed to uncover any weapons of mass destruction since the conflict ended. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have come under increasing pressure to prove that Iraq had a weapons of mass destruction. Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.