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Secret US plan for Iraq war
The Observer (U.K.) ^ | 12/02/2001 | Peter Beaumont, Ed Vulliamy and Paul Beaver

Posted on 12/01/2001 4:24:48 PM PST by Pokey78

America intends to depose Saddam Hussein by giving armed support to Iraqi opposition forces across the country, The Observer has learnt.

President George W. Bush has ordered the CIA and his senior military commanders to draw up detailed plans for a military operation that could begin within months.

The plan, opposed by Tony Blair and other European Union leaders, threatens to blow apart the increasingly shaky international consensus behind the US-led 'war on terrorism'.

It envisages a combined operation with US bombers targeting key military installations while US forces assist opposition groups in the North and South of the country in a stage-managed uprising. One version of the plan would have US forces fighting on the ground.

Despite US suspicions of Iraqi involvement in the 11 September attacks, the trigger for any attack, sources say, would be the anticipated refusal of Iraq to resubmit to inspections for weapons of mass destruction under the United Nations sanctions imposed after the Gulf war.

According to the sources, the planning is being undertaken under the auspices of a the US Central Command at McDill air force base in Tampa, Florida, commanded by General Tommy Franks, who is leading the war against Afghanistan.

Another key player is understood to be former CIA director James Woolsey. Sources say Woolsey was sent to London by the hawkish Deputy Defence Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, soon after 11 September to ask Iraqi opposition groups if they would participate in an uprising if there was US military support.

The New York Times yesterday quoted a senior administration official who admitted that Bush's aides were looking at options that involved strengthening groups that opposed Saddam. Richard Armitage, the Deputy Secretary of State, said that action against Iraq was not imminent, but would come at a 'place and time of our choosing'.

Washington has been told by its allies that evidence it has presented of an Iraqi link to 11 September is at best circumstantial. However, US proponents of extending the war believe they can make the case for hitting Saddam's regime over its plan to produce weapons of mass destruction.

A European diplomat said last week: 'In the past week the Americans have shut up about Iraqi links to 11 September and have been talking a lot more about their weapons programme.'

The US is believed to be planning to exploit existing UN resolutions on Iraqi weapons programmes to set the action off.

Under the pre-existing 'red lines' for military action against Iraq - set down by Washington and London after the Gulf War - evidence of any credible threat from weapons of mass destruction would be regarded as sufficient to launch military strikes along the lines of Operation Desert Fox in 1998, when allied planes made large-scale strikes against suspected Iraqi weapons complexes.

Opposition by Blair and French President Jacques Chirac may not be enough to dissuade the Americans. One European military source who recently returned from General Franks's headquarters in Florida said: 'The Americans are walking on water. They think they can do anything at the moment and there is bloody nothing Tony [Blair] can do about it.'

Bush is said to have issued instructions about the proposals, which are now at a detailed stage, to his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, three weeks ago. But Pentagon sources say that a plan for attacking Iraq was developed by the time Bush's order was sent to the Pentagon, drawn up by Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, chairman of the joint chiefs General Richard Myers, and Franks.

The plan is to work with a combination of three political forces: Kurdish rebels in the north of Iraq, radical Sunni Muslim groups in and around Baghdad, and, most controversially, the Shia opposition in the south.

The most adventurous ingredient in the anti-Iraqi proposal is the use of US ground troops, Pentagon sources say. 'Significant numbers' of ground troops could also be called on in the early stages of any rebellion to guard oil fields around the Shia port of Basra in southern Iraq.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
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1 posted on 12/01/2001 4:24:49 PM PST by Pokey78
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To: Pokey78
Damn, Pokey...it's not a secret anymore.
2 posted on 12/01/2001 4:27:10 PM PST by OwenKellogg
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To: Pokey78
Piss on the European Union and the United Nations; thet are not responsible for the protection of the American sovereignty!
3 posted on 12/01/2001 4:30:05 PM PST by Chapita
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To: OwenKellogg
I'm sure before I read it, it passed from the hands of the Observer/Guardian editors into the clutches of their anti-American friends. So by now it is old news.
4 posted on 12/01/2001 4:34:54 PM PST by Pokey78
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To: Pokey78
Southeast Asia replay with no jungles to hide in this time?
5 posted on 12/01/2001 4:37:31 PM PST by codebreaker
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To: Pokey78
Now, if the Russians just stay on the sidelines, we can get the job done.
6 posted on 12/01/2001 4:37:34 PM PST by JD86
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To: Chapita
Piss on the European Union and the United Nations...!

Would you like to take care of this this personally?

7 posted on 12/01/2001 4:37:47 PM PST by codeword
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Comment #8 Removed by Moderator

To: Chapita
Piss on the European Union and the United Nations; thet are not responsible for the protection of the American sovereignty!

Precisely my first thought. Well said.

9 posted on 12/01/2001 4:42:35 PM PST by carpio
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To: Pokey78
There is no chance that we could count in Iraqi opposition groups for any meaningful assistance. It has been crushed.
10 posted on 12/01/2001 4:45:55 PM PST by Dog Gone
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To: OwenKellogg
That's exactly what I was going to say - It's not a secret any more.
11 posted on 12/01/2001 4:47:02 PM PST by Sueann
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To: Chapita
BUMP, I say we bomb and if the Europeans don't like it let them do something about it.
12 posted on 12/01/2001 4:47:52 PM PST by The Vast Right Wing
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To: Chapita
Although I empathize with your anti-globalist senetiments, I wish that some posters could contain themselves. There's no reason to wet yourself, old girl.

It is the language used on these threads not the content which has the servers at some employers, schools and other institutions blocking out this site.

13 posted on 12/01/2001 4:51:06 PM PST by a merkin
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To: Pokey78
huh? secret plan for war posted on the internet?
14 posted on 12/01/2001 4:52:23 PM PST by TWRepublican
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To: Pokey78
alt
15 posted on 12/01/2001 4:53:48 PM PST by Incorrigible
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To: Incorrigible

16 posted on 12/01/2001 4:55:15 PM PST by Incorrigible
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To: Pokey78
I say, that just for the general good of mankind, Saddam Hussein should be deposed, whether he was involved in September 11 or not. And every one of his neighbors should be willing to join in on the effort. Sooner or later, Saddam will commit the country of Iraq to something so horrendous, so outrageous, that the world will have no choice but to go in after him, with resulting collateral damage far greater than a coup engineered by the efforts of the US, and involving some expatriate Iraqi dissidents.
17 posted on 12/01/2001 4:58:50 PM PST by alloysteel
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To: Dog Gone
There is no chance that we could count in Iraqi opposition groups for any meaningful assistance. It has been crushed.

And if any were left, they'd be idiots for trusting us after we left them high and dry so many times in the past...

18 posted on 12/01/2001 5:00:51 PM PST by Arleigh
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To: Pokey78
HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TELL YOU PEOPLE. DON'T POST MILITARY INFORMATION HERE YOU HORSE'S PUTTIE!
19 posted on 12/01/2001 5:02:01 PM PST by mrb1960
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To: Dog Gone
"There is no chance that we could count in Iraqi opposition groups for any meaningful assistance. It has been crushed."

Visibly, yes. The nominal government-in-exile, the Iraqi National Congress, under-funded by and unable to trust the Clinton administration, is reduced to begging for crumbs. Beyond posturing, they are certainly incapable of mounting any meaningful resistance effort.

On the other hand, the Shiites in the South continue to make themselves troublesome. Witness the mortar attack on one of Saddam's palaces only last week. The Iranis are evidently giving active support to these activities.

In the North, the Kurds have gone to ground but you can bet that the Kurds continue to nurse their grudges and await only the opportunity to slit some Husseini throats.

An effective internal resistance movement is something the Clinton administration never could have brought off. Nobody trusted him. But the Bush administration -- with a re-vitalized CIA, active support from the Turks and at least tacit support from Iran -- may well be capable of generating some sparks.

20 posted on 12/01/2001 5:07:01 PM PST by okie01
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