US prepares new Iraq strike
BAGHDAD: (South News,Dec 16) The United Nations ordered its staff
out of Baghdad
Wednesday after a UNSCOM chairman Richard Butler criticised Iraq
for
breaking its promise to cooperate fully over weapons inspections.
The decision raised the spectre of a new military confrontation
just over a month after the United States and Britain made an
eleventh hour decision not to launch air strikes. Clinton called
off
the attack 15 minutes before it was to begin on November 14.
The diplomatic mission for foreign embassies in Baghdad sent
representatives to the U.N. headquarters to discuss the situation.
Some U.N. cars belonging to the humanitarian staff also arrived
at the headquarters carrying luggage.
In London, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook described Butler's
report
as ``very serious'' and that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
should expect no warning if Britain and the United States decided
to
launch air strikes.
"This is a very serious report and we are taking it very
seriously,"
Cook said on BBC radio, reiterating that Britain is prepared for
a military strike.
"Last month, Saddam Hussein gave an undertaking that there would
be
unconditional, unrestricted access for the inspectors and it was
on that
basis that military action last time was halted. It is quite clear
(from Butler's
report) that he has not kept to that commitment."
Cook told the BBC: ``We said last time we would not be giving
further warnings to Saddam Hussein. I
am not now going to give him any warning of what we might do over
BBC radio.''
The United States said late Tuesday the U.N. report criticizing
Iraq's lack of full compliance with
weapons inspections was ``a very serious matter'' and all options,
including air strikes, remained
open.
State Department spokesman James Foley said President Clinton
would review the report with his
senior foreign policy advisers, but no decisions had yet been made
on whether to proceed with
previously threatened U.S.-British air strikes against Iraq.
Clinton, facing likely impeachment by the U.S. House of
Representatives later this week,
arrived back in Washington late Tuesday after a three-day visit
to
the Middle East which had concentrated mainly on the
Israeli-Palestinian situation.
Foley left no doubt that Washington would act against Iraq if it
deemed
necessary.
He declined to speculate about how Clinton and his advisers would
respond to the UNSCOM report
but said Washington felt no further endorsement was required from
the Security Council for any U.S.
military action against Iraq.
An anaylst said the US could bomb Iraq between 2 and 4 am Thursday
or Friday
morning Iraq time. This would put it on prime time US on Wednesday
or
Thursday
A dark sky with little or no visible crescent is seen as the
best time to launch an attack. Ramadan New Moon occurs on December
18/19 creates a potential window of opportunity for a U.S. strike.
There are three or four nights of darkness on either side of the
new moon.
The 1991 Persian Gulf War was launched Jan. 17, two days after the
new moon arrived Jan. 15, continuing a long military tradition of
surprising the enemy in the dead of night.
First strike aircraft come after sundown. Fighter-bomber jets such
as F-117s, which have few defense means, fly under cover of
darkness.
end
==============
Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List
As vilified, slandered and attacked by One Nation
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html
