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Thread 4. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1084291/posts |
Posted on 02/05/2004 8:31:17 PM PST by Mossad1967
Edited on 02/09/2004 3:20:18 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
SANAA, Yemen, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- A purported statement by al-Qaida in Yemen warned Saturday of a "major strike" soon in the United States.
The statement, distributed by the Yemeni Tagamoo Party for Reforms, said: "A major strike, a big event will take place in America soon," reminiscent of the Sept. 11 attacks.
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The generals who head the nation's military services said Tuesday they were convinced before the invasion of Iraq that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
In their first joint testimony since the war began, the chiefs of the Air Force, Navy and Marines stood by the decision to invade, even though intelligence used to justify the campaign apparently turned out wrong.
Marine Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee told the Senate Armed Services Committee he was "absolutely convinced" during the war planning stage that Saddam "had chemical weapons, if not biological weapons, and that he would use them" as soon as American troops crossed over the Iraqi border.
The Marine Corps went to "great lengths" to make sure troops had protective suits, masks and air filters, as well as chemical and biological detection devices, he said.
"I'm happy that I was wrong on that," Hagee said. "But looking back on the intelligence that we had at that particular time, there is nothing different that I would do, even having perfect vision looking back."
Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker was not in his position at the time, but the other service chiefs pretty much agreed with Hagee.
"I stand by my position at that time," said Air Force Chief of Staff. Gen. John P. Jumper.
"It was my belief that this cause was just," said Adm. Vernon Clark, chief of Naval Operations. "That was my position then and that's what I believe today."
Clark read part of a letter he wrote to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld the day the invasion began.
"For some this is about WMD," Clark wrote. "For others, this is about al-Qaida. For us, it's about all of that and more. Iraq has been shooting at our aircraft for over five years."
He was referring to U.S. aircraft that patrolled no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq in an effort that officials said was designed to deny Saddam the ability to attack minorities living in those regions.
Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing that if Saddam had chosen to cooperate with weapons inspectors and disclose what it had on weapons of mass destruction, war could have been averted. "He chose war. If he had chosen differently, if the Iraqi regime had taken the steps Libya is now taking, there would have been no war," Rumsfeld said.
The chiefs were responding to a request from Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the committee chairman, who noted that they have the responsibility to tell a president if they disagree about the need for war.
The decision to go to war has been called into question again in recent weeks since David Kay, who led the search for weapons of mass destruction, said he now believes no weapons stockpiles exist. The Bush administration had said its certainty that Saddam had weapons was the main reason for the campaign, but critics charge the administration wanted the war and manipulated intelligence to justify it.
"I think it's appropriate, since this is your first appearance as a group before this committee since the commencement of hostilities, that in your opening statements each of you ... advise this committee," Warner said. "You had the opportunity to approach the president ... if you had any doubts ... concerning the advisability of the use of force at the time it was used."
Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the committee's top Democrat, said there were consequences to the intelligence problem on weapons and on other issues.
For instance, there were more than 500 sites where weapons of mass destruction were believed stored, he said, adding: "That means that there may have been targets that we did not strike because we were concerned about collateral damage from a potential release of chemical and biological weapons."
Intelligence also indicated Iraqi police would stay in their stations, and when that didn't happen, it likely contributed to the widespread looting that destroyed government files and buildings, Levin said.
The chiefs also expressed concerns about where they will get money during a period between budget proposals that looms later this year.
Senators also complained about the administration proposal, which would pay for continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan — and for a planned 30,000-troop increase in the number of people in the army — out of a supplemental budget rather than the regular department budget.
"I think what it does, it increases the size of the deficit and ... deceives the American people about the size of the deficit and the debt that we are incurring," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
The administration plans to ask for the supplemental in calendar year 2005 — after the November presidential election and months after the Sept. 30 end of the 2004 fiscal year.
Asked later at a Pentagon press conference how the gap would be handled, Rumsfeld said: "I guess the same way we did last year and the year before." The money will be taken from other accounts in the military's $402 billion budget, he said.
Tue Feb 10, 2:11 PM ET
MOSCOW - Police were called to examine a suspicious package at the Moscow office of the BP oil company Tuesday, but found the substance on the parcel from Houston, Texas, was not dangerous.
Hazardous materials experts also tested the air at the office and the mail for chemicals, but found no powder or liquid inside envelopes the company received, Moscow police spokesman Pavel Klimovsky said.
Another spokesman, Kirill Gerasimenko, later said preliminary tests found that the substance on the package, which he said was not poisonous, came from a canister that was in the delivery truck.
A spokesman for BP in London confirmed that the Moscow office had received a parcel from Houston "which had a substance on the outside of the package" and that it was being tested by the authorities.
Spokesman Toby Odone did not specify what the substance was or what it looked like, and said that all BP staff members were well.
A duty officer at Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, who did not give his name, said that a woman had reported feeling ill after handling the parcel but that she felt fine later. He said ministry experts were involved in the tests at the office.
The Interfax news agency earlier quoted a separate Moscow police spokesman as saying that a person had called from the BP office and said that employees had complained of a stinging in the eyes, headaches and rashes when they sorted the mail.
SANTIAGO, Chile - Telephones were tapped at the Chilean mission at the United Nations in the run-up to the war in Iraq, Chile's government said Tuesday.
The statement by a government spokesman comes after a British newspaper reported about a leaked memo a year ago that the U.S. National Security Agency had begun extra eavesdropping of key U.N. Security Council members at the time, including Chile.
At the time, Chile appeared undecided on whether to support the U.S.-led attack on Iraq. Eventually, it joined France, Russia, Germany and other council members in opposing a resolution backed by the United States, Britain and Spain authorizing the war.
Chilean government spokesman Patricio Santamaria refused to say who was suspected of tapping of the telephones at the diplomatic premises.
"At that time, we expressed our concern to the respective institutions," Santamaria said.
In early February 2003, the London newspaper The Observer published a Jan. 31 memo said to be from the U.S. National Security Agency. It said that the NSA had begun a "surge" of extra eavesdropping on officials from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea and Pakistan, all key Security Council members at the time.
The memo allegedly asked the British listening agency for help bugging the delegates' home and office telephones.
A former translator at the communications headquarters, Katharine Gun, has admitted leaking the memo and has been charged with breaking state secrecy laws. Pretrial arguments in her case are scheduled to be heard Feb. 16.
Gun said the disclosure was justified because it "exposed serious illegality and wrongdoing on the part of the U.S. government, who attempted to subvert our own security services."
She has also defended the disclosures as an attempt to prevent the deaths of Iraqi civilians and British troops in a war.
Santamaria's remarks confirmed a disclosure of wiretapping made earlier by then Chilean ambassador to the United Nations Juan Gabriel Valdes to the Spanish daily El Pais.
Valdes, a former foreign minister who is now Chile's envoy to Argentina, told the Spanish newspaper El Pais that technicians who had been called to check the telephones at the mission discovered they had been tampered with in early 2003.
"We called on technicians to verify if the telephones of the Chilean mission had been bugged." Valdes told the paper. "The result of the test was positive. Indeed, we verified that the majority of our phones had been bugged."
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