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U.S. Cites Iraq Nuclear Threat
Monday, September 9, 2002
Reuters

"It seems that Bush and Blair are trying hopelessly to convince the world of their old lies through intensifying propaganda campaigns and supplying the Western media with fabricated incidents and stories. Iraqis, unaffected by such futile project, would confront the aggressors who will find the gates of hell waiting for them."

WASHINGTON, DC -- Reuters
Top advisers to US President George W. Bush cited new evidence yesterday that Saddam Hussein is trying to make a nuclear bomb as they made the administration's case to topple the Iraqi leader -- with or without international support.

"We don't want 'the smoking gun' to be a mushroom cloud," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said as some allies and members of the US Congress demanded still more details of the Iraqi threat before a possible US pre-emptive strike.

US officials first disclosed the other day that there was evidence Iraq had been intensifying its bid for nuclear weapons with a global search for necessary materials.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said that in the past 14 months, Iraq had attempted to purchase thousands of special aluminum tubes they believe were to be used in devices to enrich uranium.

"We know about a particular shipment -- we've intercepted that," Vice President Dick Cheney said in a television interview. "We don't know what else -- what other avenues he may be taking out there."

Rice, Cheney, and other Bush aides discussed these Iraqi nuclear efforts on Sunday news shows, and said there were differing estimates of how long it might take Saddam to develop nuclear arms. But as Rice put it, "We do know that he is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon."

The comments were part of a concerted diplomatic offensive by the Bush administration, including a speech by the president to the United Nations this Thursday, to persuade Americans and the world there is a case to act quickly against Saddam.

Cheney said a war against Iraq would not be "that tough a fight." But in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," he conceded that US troops would have to remain in Iraq for a long time to ensure a peaceful transition to a new government.

"The danger of an attack against the United States by someone with the weapons that Saddam Hussein now possesses or is acquiring is far more costly," Cheney said.

Cheney said there has been no final decision on whether to oust Saddam by force. But he suggested one could be made soon.

"We'd like to do it with the sanction of the international community," Cheney said, adding he hopes the U.S. Congress votes on it before lawmakers recess for the year. "But... this problem has to be dealt with one way or the another."

* Bomb plot
* Futile
* Bin Laden
* Lawmakers
* Caution
(More: The Manila Bulletin Online News Source)
2002 © Reuters, Ltd.

Dan