<

Bush Preparing to Make Iraq War Case
Tuesday, September 3, 2002
By Ron Hutcheson, Warren P. Strobel & James Kuhnhenn
Knight Ridder

Senate Republican leader Trent Lott on Tuesday joined a long list of lawmakers who have urged Bush to seek congressional support for any military action. Lott, a Mississippi Republican who backs Bush's hard-line stance on Iraq, said the White House has failed to present a convincing case for war. "I do think that we're going to have to get a more coherent message together and make sure the American people understand the threat and what we may have to do," Lott told reporters.

WASHINGTON -- KR
The Bush administration on Wednesday will launch a concerted effort to prepare the nation and the world for war with Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld hinted Tuesday that Bush holds a trump card - new evidence that Iraq is close to developing a nuclear weapon.

Under pressure at home and abroad to justify a war against Iraq, President Bush will meet with congressional leaders from both parties at the White House on Wednesday morning to discuss Iraq. Later that day he will send Rumsfeld to a closed-door briefing on the subject for all 100 senators in a secure room inside the Capitol.

And next week Bush is expected to use a Sept. 12 speech at the United Nations to begin spelling out his grievances against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"I think you'll see that the president will pull all of these threads together," Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters traveling with him to an international conference on development and the environment in Johannesburg, South Africa. "With respect to what the American position will be, the president will articulate it. He will articulate it fully in the very near future."
(More: The Macon Telegraph News Source)
2002 © Knight Ridder Newspapers.

Dan