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| U.S. May Try to Find Haven for Saddam |
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| Red |
| 01/29/03 at 18:07:44 |
| [slm], what do you guys think about this? wasalam red ??? U.S. May Try to Find Haven for Saddam By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=514&ncid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20030129/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq_68 WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, weighing whether to set a deadline for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) to disarm, offered on Wednesday to try to help find a haven for the Iraqi president and his "henchmen" as a way to avert war. But time appeared to be running out, and State Department officials said an exile scenario was not under serious consideration. "We're entering the final phase" and only a narrow "diplomatic window" remained open, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said. With several world leaders hurrying to Washington for last-minute consultations, and a second round of talks set for next week in New York, Bush's National Security Council culled intelligence data for Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) to present next Wednesday in a public U.N. session. Powell intends to demonstrate a concerted effort by Iraq to conceal its weapons of mass destruction from U.N. inspectors as well as Iraqi links to al-Qaida and other terror groups. Some of the information was known to have been provided by China, some by terror suspects detained in Afghanistan (news - web sites). Photographs may be made public, a senior U.S. official said. President Bush (news - web sites), in a speech in Grand Rapids, Mich., that dealt mostly with his economic policy, dismissed as impractical simply containing Saddam Hussein — a strategy some Europeans are inclined to favor in preference to war. That, Bush said, could leave Iraq free to join with terrorists to attack the United States "and never leave a fingerprint behind." "In my judgment you don't contain Saddam Hussein," Bush said. "You don't hope that therapy will somehow change his evil mind." Throughout the protracted crisis with Iraq the idea of exile for Saddam has been raised in the Arab world as a possible way to avoid war. And Arab diplomats said earlier this month that the idea had been presented to Saddam. But denials have cropped up as promptly as new countries have been suggested as havens, and many experts say they do not believe the Iraqi president would quit Baghdad. Powell, at a State Department news conference, said, "If he were to leave the country and take some of his family members with him and others in the leading elite that have been responsible for so much trouble during the course of his regime, we would, I am sure, try to help find a place for them to go." Asked if the United States would support giving Saddam immunity from prosecution as a war criminal, Powell said that was hypothetical at this point and that he was not prepared to talk about it. Later, the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, calling Saddam's close aides "henchmen," said exile was only "an idea floating out there" that did not seem to be under serious consideration. Powell said the evidence he intended to present next Wednesday in New York would "fill in some of the gaps" between what the United States knew and what has been reported by U.N. weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei. "Some of it will be new information that was really not relevant to the inspectors' work," he said. Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld told House members at a closed-door briefing that the administration was reviewing intelligence to determine what could be released without compromising intelligence sources or methods. The task is complicated by the fact that a photograph that is meaningful to intelligence officers may appear to an untrained observer as simply a bunch of rooftops, a senior official said. Rumsfeld and Powell discussed with lawmakers the possibility of Saddam going into exile, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said. DeLay said, "If it's done under the right conditions, I would say they see that as an option. There are still possibilities out there to avoid going to war." Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Mich., said of the presentation by Powell and Rumsfeld that there was nothing to change his mind that a clear case had not been made for a pre-emptive military strike against Iraq. Then Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon (news - web sites) news conference, said if Bush declares all peaceful means have been exhausted, "other countries will stand up and say, 'We want to be helping' and they will do it because they will see that ... force will have to be used." As a way to draw support from skeptical nations, the administration is considering a new U.N. resolution. One senior official said it could declare Iraq in violation of its obligations to disarm and authorize the use of force after a certain deadline. Or, the official said, a deadline could be set but without a resolution being proposed by the United States in the Security Council. A decision is unlikely before Powell concludes his meetings with foreign ministers at the United Nations (news - web sites). All or at least most of the 15 members of the Security Council are expected to send their foreign ministers to New York. Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri of Pakistan, whose government is on the Council, said after seeing Powell Wednesday that Pakistan hoped both for a peace resolution and for Iraq to disarm. The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Saud, was rushing to Washington to meet with Bush and Powell on Thursday, and Powell conferred by telephone with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of Russia and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain. Bush planned to meet on Thursday with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and on Friday at Camp David with Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) of Britain, the closest U.S. ally. |
| 01/29/03 at 21:46:59 |
| Red |
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