Drudge: BUSH WARNS SADDAM: LEAVE IRAQ IN 72 HOURS

Drudge / CNN ^ | 3.17.03

[mhking]

Bush to address nation on Iraq
Official: President to demand Saddam leave country

Monday, March 17, 2003 Posted: 11:53 AM EST (1653 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush, during a Monday night national address, will make clear "time is very short" for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to avoid military action, an administration official told CNN. A 72-hour ultimatum "is in the right ballpark," the official said.

Bush, in a televised address set for 8 p.m. ET, will demand that Saddam yield power and leave the country, the White House said.

Saddam has a "very small opening, several days at best," a second senior administration official told CNN.

The president also was scheduled to meet with congressional leaders Monday at 5:45 p.m. ET, officials said.

Word of the televised speech came just moments after United Nations representatives from the United States, Britain and Spain said they would not seek a vote on a second Security Council resolution aimed at disarming Iraq of alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Saddam, in a statement read by an Iraqi television announcer, reiterated his stance that Iraq once had weapons of mass destruction but has since destroyed them.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was expected later Monday to inform the council that he is withdrawing U.N. weapons inspectors from Iraq. The United States had advised the United Nations to remove its inspectors from Iraq, and offered to help ensure their safe passage.

After a Sunday summit with British and Spanish leaders in the Azores, President Bush said that Monday would be a "moment of truth" -- a final day for the United Nations to work out a diplomatic solution to the Iraqi crisis acceptable to the U.S.-led coalition.

Senior British Cabinet member Robin Cook Monday resigned in protest over the Iraq crisis. Cook, a former foreign secretary and the government's leader in the House of Commons, met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair prior to an emergency Cabinet meeting on Iraq this afternoon.

Along the Kuwait-Iraq border, the U.N. Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission on Monday pulled its remaining staff from both sides of the demilitarized zone separating the two nations. (Full story)

Meanwhile, unnamed U.S. officials in Washington told CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr on Monday there was "more chatter in the system" pointing to the possibility that Iraq may be preparing to use chemical weapons in a possible U.S.-led war. Chatter is usually defined as monitored, yet unspecified, intelligence messages.

The U.S. State Department urged all U.S. citizens to leave Kuwait due to the threat of war. The warning followed Sunday's notice for all U.S. Embassy nonemergency staff and family members to depart.

Germany and Russia have already urged their citizens to leave Iraq and to avoid traveling there. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Moscow continues to support a peaceful resolution of the crisis only and "any other option would be a mistake."

There are 60 inspectors remaining in Iraq out of about 140 international staff. Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix has said inspectors will need 24 to 48 hours to clear out of the country.

The Iraqi government has had no immediate reaction about the possible pullout, but an Iraqi official stressed that the country has cooperated with the Security Council.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Sa'eed al-Sahaf said: "We've done everything, and we will continue to cooperate with the Security Council..."

The continued threat of a U.S.-led war on Iraq came as a newly released CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll said 64 percent of Americans favor sending U.S. ground forces to remove Saddam from power -- up five percentage points from a similar survey earlier this month. The telephone poll interviewed 1,007 adults on Friday and Saturday.

CNN Correspondents Rym Brahimi and John King and CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty contributed to this report. For latest developments, see CNN.com's Iraq Tracker.

[Hugin]

Don't be surprised if Saddam accepts it, and then Bush will have painted himself into a similar corner to the one his father created.

How so? Bush will insist that Saddam an his top 200 or so people leave Iraq. Not just say they will, or say they will talk about it, but be gone by then. Of course it will never happen.

[Dog Gone]

this exile option is a terrible idea. Terrible. Don't be surprised if Saddam accepts it, and then Bush will have painted himself into a similar corner to the one his father created

Saddam won't accept it. Notice that there's no guarantee of amnesty in exile. It's an ultimatum to leave and surrender the country, or stay and die. Either way, we go in.

This is carefully calculated.

[johnb838]

Saddam's not leaving. He's hoping for a big world-wide squeal "Stop the Bombing!" and that he'll squeak through again.

[twigs]

It will also put us at the beginning of the Muslim sabbath.

[Alamo-Girl]

This is carefully calculated.

I agree! We are on a hair trigger. Bush will give him n hours, but the minute after Saddam says "no", we're in.

[ambrose]

Where is Saddam supposed to go

Either North Korea or France...

[twigs]

Why wait until Tuesday? Do they WANT their inspectors to be taken as hostages?

[ambrose]

Also, the moment Saddam shows signs of weakness (i.e., fleeing) may lead a general to put a bullet in his head. He may be trapped right where he is.

[not-alone]

72 minutes? :)

more like it

[Adam-ondi-Ahman]

Fox reporting that the Iraqi Foreign Minister says that Hussein will not leave Iraq. So, no need for an ultimatium, huh?

[mass55th]

And aren't the Oscar's on this coming Sunday? All eyes will be on coverage of the war, not those leftist freaks.

[twigs]

I was referring to the UN inspectors. I just think it's strange that the SG is not asking them to leave until tomorrow. I never did believe that SH would leave Iraq. I think he truly thinks he will survive this war in the "safety" of his bunker. Ego is a wonderful tool for the opposition.

[My Favorite Headache]

Which is why Bush is giving him 48-72 hrs. Just enough time for statements and games to come from Iraq and then Bush will put the smackdown. I say Bush will be speaking to the nation around Wednesday night again.

[brydic1]

Haven't heard anything from France. The Germans have recalled their diplomatic staff and asked all Germans to leave Iraq. Nothing heard from France. Are they going to stay in Iraq?

[Cabbages and Kings]

I work on saturdays and sundays, would it be possible, and I solicit your comments here, for me to ask the President to further delay the attack until next monday, or at least push it up for a start this friday? my only regret is that we have not, as yet, decided to open a second front on the left-wing liberal trash in this country! oh well.

[Alamo-Girl]

I work on saturdays and sundays, would it be possible, and I solicit your comments here, for me to ask the President to further delay the attack until next monday, or at least push it up for a start this friday?

Er, you can ask for anything, but I wouldn't hold my breath (LOL!) On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if this whole thing was over by Friday.

[ZULU]

He's giving the bad guys 3 days to clear out of town. I thought the line was "be out of town by sunset."

The sooner the better. Go get them Bush!!!

[Cabbages and Kings]

You got that right!

[carl in alaska]

A 48 hour ultimatum has a much better ring to it.

[finnman69]

US news reporting 82nd airborne getting ready for a action.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=926&e=4&u=/usnews/20030317/ts_usnews/battle_ready

NORTHERN KUWAITI DESERT--Paratroopers do not pack up their equipment unless they are getting ready to jump. The process is too numbingly laborious: rigging jeeps, humvees, and artillery pieces with parachutes and readying them to be dropped from cargo planes in the black of night. So there may be no more telling indicator of impending war than the 82nd Airborne Division's sweaty soldiers working around the clock to rig their equipment for what could be the most dangerous jump of their lives.

Their backbreaking work is critical. If the weapons aren't safely at the drop zone by the time the paratroopers touch Iraqi soil minutes later, they will stand little chance against Iraqi troops waiting to kill American soldiers falling from the sky. The 82nd trains to seize enemy airfields, and commanding officer Maj. Gen. Chuck Swannack and his intelligence staff have spent weeks poring over the key strategic airfields his troops might secure in the opening hours of an Iraq (news - web sites) invasion. But in the end, they know they could be asked to drop anywhere. "In the desert," says Swannack, "pretty much anything you look at is a drop zone."