"Got your victory dance?"
Posted on 12/18/2002 4:27:46 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush is likely this week to declare Iraq in "material breach" of a U.N. Security Council resolution on disarmament, but is not expected to cite it as an immediate case for war, U.S. officials said early on Wednesday.
Bush's national security advisers are to meet on Wednesday to discuss the situation after concluding that Iraq's declaration of its weapons of mass destruction required by the resolution falls short of the U.N. demand that it list all of its weapons, a senior administration official said.
"The president at some point has to decide on material breach," one official said. "No such decisions, either by the president, or his advisers have been taken."
Bush could declare Iraq in "material breach" as early as Thursday after Chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix makes a presentation on the Iraqi declaration to the full 15-member Security Council.
The Nov. 8 Resolution 1441 says that false statements or omissions in the Iraqi declaration coupled with a failure to comply with inspections would be a "further material breach" of Iraq's obligations, language that could lead to war.
Washington is expected to argue that military action is the only way to force Iraqi compliance to disarm but is expected to look for other violations and not just omissions in the document before any declaration of war.
The United States has maintained that it has the authority under the U.N. resolution to declare Iraq in material breach but has said that this would not be an immediate cause for war as Washington seeks to build a "coalition of the willing" and puts its military machine in place for a possible confrontation.
Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters on Monday that Washington had found problems with Iraq's weapons declaration to the United States, but he did not elaborate.
"We'll withhold making a final judgment or final statement until we have completed our analysis, completed our discussions," Powell said.
However, U.S. and U.N. diplomats said last week that they had reached a preliminary conclusion that Iraq's declaration of its weapons program failed to account for all of its chemical and biological agents.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said an early review of the 12,000-page declaration indicated that the document appeared to fall short of what was required under the U.N. Security Council resolution, which demanded Iraq disarm or face severe consequences.
In addition to failing to account for chemical and biological agents missing when U.N. inspectors left Iraq in 1998, the document did not explain either why Iraq allegedly sought nuclear technology in recent years, the sources said.
The United States, which seeks to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, insists Baghdad has continued to pursue weapons of mass destruction but Iraq denies this.
There is ample evidence scattered among countless UN and US reports over the past 12 years. But that said, I submit that the president would look even more "stupid" if "he knew" of a threat against US interests and did nothing to prevent it.
Saudi Arabia for example?
Saudi Arabia for example?
I would almost bet that a couple weeks ago, when he had a dinner date with one of the Saudis, he made it clear that he would hate to have to add them to the Axis of Evil and that they needed to clean up their act.
"Got your victory dance?"
"Hey, you know me!"
"That's exactly what I'm talking about!"
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