From: harelb@MATH.CORNELL.EDU (Harel Barzilai)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,misc.headlines,alt.desert-storm,talk.politics.misc
Subject: U.S. "TO PROVOKE IRAQ" on MONDAY
Date: 17 Aug 92 04:23:22 GMT
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB


    "Other U.S. officials said the Defense and Military
    Industrialization Ministries were selected not because American
    intelligence has identified specific documents hidden there, but
    because these buildings are so important to Hussein's overall
    survival that he is certain to refuse access.
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    One official complained that "we are going to stage an incident"
    that relates less to the importance of any documents that might be
    found in the targeted buildings than to the conviction that the
    steps will provoke a confrontation that will serve as the pretext
    for military action and "to help get the president re-elected."
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[Via PeaceNet's mideast.actions]
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Topic 31        -> U.S. TO PROVOKE IRAQ MONDAY <-       2 responses 
sfreedkin       News of Actions for Mideast Activists    9:10 am  Aug 16, 1992 
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(As printed as the lead story on Page 1 of the Santa Barbara (CA)
News-Press, Sunday, August 16, 1992 -- I have added items in [square
========================================== 
brackets] and the footnote about time zones)
========================================== 

		    U.S. PLANS SHOWDOWN IN BAGHDAD
				   
			 By Patrick E. Tyler
			  The New York Times

HOUSTON -- The United States and its allies have decided to provoke a
confrontation with Iraq on Monday morning* over the right to inspect
Baghdad's most closely guarded ministry buildings, American officials
familiar with administration planning said on Saturday.

The plan could lead to renewed bombing in Baghdad in coming days and
the evacuation of U.N. personnel in Iraq.  Some U.S. government
officials said that the timing appeared calculated to give President
Bush a boost during the Republican National Convention, which begins
on Monday, and could damage the credibility of the United Nations,
which is carrying out weapons inspections in the name of the 15-member
[U.N.] Security Council.

After a series of interagency meetings in Washington last week, and
consultations with British, French, and U.N. officials, Bush and his
national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft, approved a plan on
Thursday calling for U.N. inspectors now in Baghdad to demand access
to Baghdad's Ministry of Military Industrialization, government
officials said.  The chief of the U.N. special commission that
supervises the inspections, Rolf Ekeus, was said to have left for
Bahrain, where inspection teams are based.

This ministry, which was not bombed during the Persian Gulf War,
supervised Iraq's once-secret program to develop weapons of mass
destruc- tion under the management of President Saddam Hussein's
son-in-law, Hussein Kamel Hassan.

If Iraqi officials bar inspectors from the building, as they have
threatened to do to protect Iraqi national security and sovereignty,
American carrier-based aircraft would bomb the building in short
order, the officials said, in a demonstration of American resolve that
would have an inescapable impact on the political gathering here [the
Republican National Convention in Houston].

But the action would not necessarily end there.  After an attack on
the Military Industrialization Ministry, the United Nations would
demand access to Iraq's Ministry of Defense, the heart of its national
security apparatus, which was relocated to the Ministry of Petroleum
building after the 1991 allied bombardment of the capital destroyed
the original structure.

Again, any refusal by Iraqi officials to allow access to this building
would lead to its destruction by U.S. aircraft, officials said, adding
that the confrontation and bombing could continue through a list of
nine targets.

Other U.S. officials said the Defense and Military Industrialization
Ministries were selected not because American intelligence has
identified specific documents hidden there, but because these
buildings are so important to Hussein's overall survival that he is
certain to refuse access.

One official complained that "we are going to stage an incident" that
relates less to the importance of any documents that might be found in
the targeted buildings than to the conviction that the steps will
provoke a confrontation that will serve as the pretext for military
action and "to help get the president re-elected."

"That is unbelievable -- that is total trash," Bush campaign political
director Mary Matalin said in response.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said there had been no change in policy
regarding Iraq and that the allegation that Bush would hit Hussein in
such a way for political gain was a "goofy charge."

"We aren't doing anything that we haven't been doing for the last two
years in terms of insisting that Saddam Hussein comply with U.N.
resolu- tions," Cheney told reporters in Seattle.

"As long as he complies with those resolutions, then everything's
going to be fine," Cheney added.  "If he fails to comply with those
resolu- tions, clearly we have the capability, should it be required,
to compel him to comply."

Bush appeared to be calculating he has a strong mandate from the
allies to confront Iraq's broad challenge to U.N. authority this
summer as well as a political green light from his Democratic
challenger, Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, to take a tougher line
against Hussein.

Initially, Bush has selected a set of military options that pose the
least risk to American military forces, though the loss or capture of
any American pilots could deal Bush a damaging political blow.

And, though more risky steps might have to be considered if Bush
exhausts a target list and finds Hussein still defiant, he can also
hope that the humiliation of renewed bombing will embolden internal
Iraqi dissidents who staged an unsuccessful coup against Hussein in
late June.

The Bush administration telegraphed its planning last week when a
senior official, speaking in a background session with reporters, said
U.N.  inspectors would demand access to Iraqi ministry buildings
"within the proximite future."

One reporter was encouraged beforehand to ask the senior briefer about
planning against Iraq, and the official replied that if the Iraqi
leader "decides we can't inspect certain places" U.S. military forces
in the region "can respond sharply."

"I think it might be useful to demonstrate that he had to obey the
United Nations sanctions," the senior policymaker told the reporters,
but declined to provide further details.  In subsequent days, other
officials, troubled by the rush with which the White House asked the
State Department and the Pentagon to prepare for simultaneous relief
and military operations in Somalia and Iraq during the Republican
convention, provided additional details about the planned sequence of
confrontation and the primary targets.


    -- This story includes reports from The Associated Press. 

******************************************************************
*The article did not clarify what "Monday morning" means.  8 a.m. Monday 
Baghdad time is midnight Monday morning Eastern time. 

POSTED BY: 

-- Steve Freedkin (igc:sfreedkin) 

Executive Director 
   Peace Resource Center of Santa Barbara 

13 W. Figueroa St. 
   Santa Barbara, CA  93101-3103   USA 

tel. (805) 965-8583 
   fax  (805) 962-6227 

Mon.-Sat. noon-5 Pacific time 


##################################################################


Topic 31        -> U.S. TO PROVOKE IRAQ MONDAY <-       Response  1 of  2 
sfreedkin 
News of Actions for Mideast Activists    3:22 pm  Aug 16, 1992 

Coverage of this story on This Week With David Brinkley today made only 
passing reference to hints that the timing of this development may be 
related to the campaign, cited Administration denials, and did not 
include the reference to the choice of buildings being intended to 
provoke a confrontation.  In fact, the reporter said the U.N. inspectors 
were expected to go after "sensitive information" -- which is not 
technically in opposition to the Times piece but gives a very different 
impression to TV viewers than would be gained from reading the article. 
The TV reporter made no mention of the fact that the accusations of 
political motive came from WITHIN the Administration. 
-- Steve Freedkin 

Newsgroups: alt.activism,talk.politics.misc