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To: Yoav Chudnoff who wrote (29552)	12/16/1998 9:36:00 PM
From: stockvalinvestor	Respond to of 119973

Wednesday December 16, 8:55 pm Eastern Time Sen.Biden-Sees Iraq oil plants hit if tied to arms WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Senator Joseph Biden said late Wednesday that Iraq's oil facilities would be legitimate targets for military attack if they are believed to be linked to producing weapons of mass production. Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said such attacks would be acceptable even if they would disrupt Iraq's oil exports and deny revenue to feed Iraq's people under the United Nations oil-for-food program. ''I think the military has to make that judgment,'' Biden of Delaware told reporters at a press briefing. ''If they were of the view that a particular oil-producing facility was essentially a mask for a chemical, biological or nuclear weapons facility, then I think they would be justified for going after it.'' Iraq must destroy all its weapons of mass destruction before sanctions, imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait, can be lifted. Iraq's refusal to provide full cooperation with United Nations weapons inspectors was detailed in a report released late Tuesday by the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector Richard Butler. Tensions between the U.N. and Iraq over weapons inspections have escalated since last October, as Iraq persisted in its defiance of the U.N. inspections. President Bill Clinton, in an address to the nation broadcast live at around 2300 GMT from the White House, said he had to order the air strikes against Iraq on Wednesday because Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would have rebuilt weapons of mass destruction ''in months'' and would ultimately have used them. Senator John Warner, the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, declined to comment on whether Iraq's oil facilities would be legitimate targets if they are linked to weapons production. ''I wouldn't want to answer that question now,'' the Virginia Republican said. Warner said he will go to the Defense Department later on Wednesday evening to get the first assessment reports on the damage done by U.S. bombing. Iraq's oil industry is still in disrepair after damage from attacks in the 1991 Gulf War. The U.N.'s oil-for-food program, started in December 1996, is an exception to the eight-year-old sanctions. The program's main purpose is to help the Iraqi people, who have suffered from malnutrition and disease due to a scarcity of food and medicine. Under the oil-for-food program, Iraq is permitted to sell up to $5.256 billion of crude oil every six months. Iraq, however, has been able to sell only up to about $3 billion of oil in a six-month period because its oil facilities lack spare parts. Earlier Wednesday, Iraq's ambassador to the U.N., said that if the U.S. bombed Iraq, then oil exports would have to stop.