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To: lurqer who wrote (42833)4/15/2004 11:17:42 PM
From: lurqer  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 89467
 
Say it ain't so, Fogh!

Whistleblower claims Danish premier lied

JAN M OLSEN

A Danish military intelligence analyst fired for leaking confidential reports said yesterday that Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the country's prime minister, lied to lawmakers in 2002, when he sought their support for a US-led coalition to oust Saddam Hussein.

Major Frank Soeholm Grevil was quoted as telling the newspaper Information: "We have a (prime) minister who has been lying. A minister who said something that is not in agreement with the truth. And he did it repeatedly.

However, in Paris yesterday to meet Jacques Chirac, the French president, Mr Fogh Rasmussen said: "I totally deny these allegations.

"The information that I and the government have presented to parliament is the official information that we received from the Danish Defence Intelligence Service."

Mr Soeholm Grevil told the left-wing newspaper that Mr Fogh Rasmussen had been given several separate reports that showed no proof of weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq.

"In connection with the war, Fogh Rasmussen said he knew that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, there were at least 10 reports on his desk whose content said the opposite," he said.

Information has been a vocal critic of Denmark's centre-right government for its backing of the US-led war in Iraq.

In October 2002, Mr Fogh Rasmussen told parliament that Denmark's government was "convinced that the regime in Iraq today possesses weapons of mass destruction and missiles." AP

theherald.co.uk

lurqer



To: lurqer who wrote (42833)4/15/2004 11:24:06 PM
From: T L Comiskey  Respond to of 89467
 
Poles Urge U.S. Against Najaf Assault -
- Reuters

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish military officials responsible for security in part of southern Iraq (news - web sites) are arguing hard against taking Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr by force in Najaf, a leading Polish newspaper said late on Thursday.



U.S. troops are now poised around Najaf, where Sadr's militia started an uprising earlier this month against the U.S.-led occupying forces, but America's top general said talks were under way to avoid a bloodbath in the city.

"Going into Najaf will be a disaster, it will make the main Shi'ite leaders turn away from us," Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper quoted a senior diplomatic source as saying. "If Sadr gives up on violence, we should be talking with him. We want to talk with anyone in Iraq who doesn't shoot at us."

Poland, a staunch ally of the United States, has 2,400 troops in Iraq and leads a multinational force based in Kerbala in the Shi'ite-dominated south-central zone of the country.

On Thursday Polish forces in Iraq said they were blindsided by the violence with Sadr's followers because U.S. officials did not warn them of actions that triggered the bloodshed.

Lt. Col. Robert Strzelecki, a spokesman for the Poles, said the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority did not inform the multinational division in advance of a decision to shut down a newspaper associated with Sadr or about the detention of a key lieutenant to the Shi'ite cleric.

Asked if there was a difference of opinion with Washington over Najaf, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski told the newspaper: "Our currency is dialogue and understanding. We do not need new troops in Iraq, just (new) political initiatives."