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To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (32897)	12/16/1998 10:55:00 AM
From: Captain James T. Kirk	Respond to of 95453

Clinton, Advisers Meet on Iraq By SANDRA SOBIERAJ Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton met early today with his top national security advisers on how to respond to Iraq's latest defiance. One official called it a ''very serious situation'' and underscored that military strikes remain an option. The president, just back from the Middle East, sat down with his national security team at 7:30 a.m. EST in the White House Situation Room. They met there for about 45 minutes and were expected to confer throughout the day, one adviser said. The huddle followed on Clinton's telephone call to British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday night to review the standoff with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as it approaches yet another boiling point. ''This is obviously a very serious situation. All options are on the table,'' one White House national security aide said today, speaking on condition of anonymity. There was a high level of anxiety at the White House as word traveled that an attack against Saddam might be imminent. Plans have remained in place for a strike since the aborted attacks against in Saddam in November. The United States has maintained a hefty force in the Gulf, which has been bolstered by the arrival of additional of B-52s in Diego Garcia. The USS Carl Vinson is due to arrive Dec. 20, giving the military a second aircraft carrier in the region. Military planners said after the aborted attack that a swift and severe series of airstrikes could be launched with little advance warning, utilitizing up to 300 Tomahawk cruise missiles carried aboard eight warships in the region. That could be followed by attacks from warplanes. Defense Secretary William Cohen had plans to depart late today for a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also was slated to attend the session. The United Nations' weapons monitors were ordered to evacuate Baghdad today, one day after chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler reported that Iraq had reneged on its promise of full cooperation with his team, called UNSCOM. In November, when the United States retreated from its last standoff with Iraq over weapons inspections, Clinton ordered U.S. forces in the region to remain on alert. He and his British allies warned that punishing air strikes could come without warning if Saddam defied the United Nations once more. Butler's report ''clearly stated that Iraq did not provide full cooperation to UNSCOM as it promised last month,'' said P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for Clinton's National Security Council. Despite that unequivocal conclusion, another White House adviser suggested a bit of a wait-and-see tact. ''We need to review the Butler report and make a determination about where we go from here,'' this adviser said. THE CAPTAIN PREDICTS A STRIKE WITHIN 48 HRS !!