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---- By The Associated Press Edited by Jennifer O'Cilka U.S. subs launching missiles WAbHlNOlUN - U.S. submarines, operating from the depths of the Mediterranean and Red seas, are fir ing Tomahawk cruise missiles at tar gets inside Iraq, Pentagon sources said Thursday. The development in the war against Saddam Hussein amounts to “the first use of American submarine-launched missiles in a combat environment,” one source said. “There have been multiple launches” of Tomahawk missiles from the submerged subs over the last several days, said a second source. Both spoke on the cond'tion of anonymity. The entry of submarine-launched missiles into Operation Desert Storm “just gives Saddam a new threat to worry about,” the first source said. Missiles “are now comingat him from the north as well as the south.” Releasing cruise missiles from either the Red or Mediterranean seas means the weapons could be flying through Turkish, Egyptian, Israeli or Syrian airspace. The sources would not describe the Tomahawks’ routes. Normally, a high state of secrecy surrounds submarine activines, as shown by the comment of one top Pentagon general. “We don’t discuss submarines — ever!” Lt. Gen. Thomas Kelly, the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters. Word of one sub participating in Operation Desert Storm came earlier this week when the admiral in charge of the U.S. naval force in the Red Sea, Rear Adm. Riley Mixson, told report ers that one submarine had fired a cruise missile as part of the campaign against Iraq. The revelation that subs have fired missiles from both the Mediterranean and the Red seas indicates that more than one has participated. The sources refused to say how many had taken part. “Let’s just say a few,” one source said. There are 123 submarines in the Navy’s fleet— 89 attack subs and 34 ballistic missile submarines. The Navy has refused to comment on the subs role in the war. .Submariners are dubbed the “Si lent Service” because of their ability to roam undetected and hunt their prey at will. They prefer to have their activities kept out of the limelight. “It’s ingrained in submariners. Their effectiveness depends on them being ‘the big question mark,’” said one Pentagon official. “A lack of fanfare is a measure of submariners’ success,” the official said. “The only time anyone would know it is there is when the Tomahawk breaks the water.” After launch, a solid-propellant booster shoots the missile into the sky. Then, a small turbofan engine takes over and the missile cruises toward its target. Making use of the pinpoint accu racy of the relatively slow-flying, computerized Tomahawks, the subs have been directing the missiles against strategic targets, such as suspected chemical weapons facilities, the sources said. With a conventional warhead, the missiles have a range of , about 700 miles. Targeting Scud Missiles , Finding mobile launchers is a high priority:*^?' i___ _ i V Tracks Uses radar and visual j \ Monitors launcher identification to search \ and detects movements _ arid destroy. Danger j ^ movement and locations. exists enterin9 into \ from orbit. Operates radar unfriendly territory. j \ using new technology to see over the \ horizon. \ Scud transporter-erector-launcher: _/[.___ Specially adapted version of a cargo SCUD MISSILE truck, offers good cross-country capability. MOBILE LAUNCHER AP/Cynthia Greer, T. Dean Capio White House security stepped up during war WASHINGTON - President Bush’s Secret Sen/ice agents now routinely tote gas masks. Dozens of riot-helmeted guards stand sen try duty along the White House fence. Sharpshooters prowl the roof. A line of police vehicles is sta tioned in the median strip of Penn sylvania Avenue. Sometimes, when protests get unruly, traffic in front of the nation’s most famous ad dress is stopped entirely. And that’s just what you can sec. Officials understandably won’t talk about what you can’t see. But you can bet there’s plenty of hid den firepower there. “The president lives next to public streets, in a metropolitan area,’’ said Chuck Vance, a former Secret Service agent and now a consultant on securitv. “The nresi deni does noi choose lo hide out in a bunker 60 feci in ihc ground. You do ihe besi you can and you use whatever resources are available to you.” To stale the obvious: security surrounding the president and the executive mansion has been stepped up dramatically since the Persian Gulf war began a week ago. One of the first tolls of the height ened security was the cancellation of public tours of the White House for the first lime since World War II. Officials decided that the tours provided would-be terrorists easy access to the mansion, even though visitors had been required to pass through metal detectors and have bags searched. When there is an alert — a pro tester threatening to jump the rela tively low fence around the While “ti —— The president does not choose to hide out in a bunker 60 feet in the ground. You do the best you can and you use whatever resources are available to you. Vance security consultant -— House perimeter or, perhaps, a squirrel setting off electronic mo tion alarms — even tighter secu rity is imposed. For instance, doors arc locked to the press room — preventing anyone from cither leaving or en tering — until the alarm is called off. Uniformed Secret Service offi vvio nuvt ^u^^u;iiu;iiicu 111 protection of the White House by officers from the National Park Service and from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police. And, while sharpshooters always have been stationed as a precau tion on the roof of the White House, now thcrcclcarlyarcmorcoflhcm. Docs the United States have anti missile missiles, like the Patriot, stationed near the White House? No one will say. But former agent Vance said: “If you’re going to protect the president of the United States, you would assume you would have the latest technology to do it with. And they do.” Soviet foreign minister meets President Bush this weekend WASHINGTON - Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh will meet with President Bush this week end as the administration nears a decision on whether to postpone next month’s summit meeting in Moscow, U.S. officials said today. Bush has “made it clear he has really, really told Gorbachev in no uncertain terms,” of his displeasure about the military crackdown against the breakaway republics, House Republican leader Bob Michel said today as GOP leaders left the While House. Michel said Bush indicated “he has to look at it in a little bit the bigger picture.” ‘‘He said we’re involved in a very delicate relationship here,” Michel said. Meanwhile, sources said Bess mertnykh will meet with Bush in Washington this weekend. The new Soviet foreign minister also will dis cuss with Secretary of State James A. Baker III a broad agenda that in cludes the Soviet crackdown in the Baltics and whether a treaty to curb long-range nuclear missiles can be concluded in time for the summit, tentatively S( heduled for Feb. 11-13. Washington: Prepare for losses WASHINGTON - The war against Iraq probably will last months, not weeks, and will entail “enemy victo ries" and allied losses before Saddam Hussein is defeated, the White House said Thursday in its first, tentative predictions about the duration of the conflict. The somber appraisal was com bined with a confident prediction that “in the final analysis, we will pre vail.” Eight days into the war, Republi can leaders of Congress were briefed on the fighting by President Bush and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. “It’s not going to be a short war,” said House Republican Leader Bob Michel of Illinois. “We’re not going to be rushing into a land war while the air strikes still have much to accom plish.” Rep. Newt Gingrich, the GOP House whip from Georgia, said Sad dam was “a very, very dangerous opponent” and that “all of us ought to understand that this is still a long, difficult undertaking.” Even so, Gingrich said Saddam is “going to get his bull kicked.” “There are going to be enemy vic tories, there are going to be enemy surprises, days when we sec allied losses,” presidential press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said. “We need to get into a frame of mind that allows us to accept those reverses and surges and still keep track of the main thrust and our con viction that we will win, that we arc being successful at this point,” Fitzwa ter said. With Iraqi forces hunkered down and refusing to come out fighting, allied casualties have been kept low. Thatcduld change dramatically if the war moves from the air to a fierce battle on the ground between infan try, armored and artillery forces. “W'e would prefer not to talk in terms of days or weeks but months because we think the people need to be prepared for the idea that this is not a short war,” Fitzwater said. “But we don’t know how long it’s going to last.” In other developments: •The Army said it was calling 8,478 more reservists and National Guard members to active duty from units in 22 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. More than 190,000 have been called up since U.S. troops were sent to the gulf last August. •The Senate voted 99-0 in favor of lax relief for troops in the gulf. The measure, already approved by the House, allows the troops to delay filing their 1990 tax returns until they have been out of the combat zone for six months. •Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter, Bush’s choice to become chairman of the Republican National Committee, created a uproar when he suggested Democrats who opposed authorizing use of force in the gulf would suffer politically. Bush ignored reporters’ questions about Yeutter’s remarks, and Yeutter himself said, “You need a little more precision on what Mr. Yeutter said.” House Speaker Thomas Foley of Washington, who had opposed the war resolution, said Ycutter’s “judg ment has deserted him.” He said, “To try to raise a political scare tactic out of that is, I think, unwise.” Fitzwater said, “We don’t believe the gulf conflict is a partisan issue. On the other hand, it will be noted. I’m sure, that there was a certain partisanship” to the way votes were cast. Bush, in his meeting with Republi cans, called the gulf war “the No. 1 issue of the day.” Saddam focus of allied hatred IN SAUDI ARABIA - Unlike ear lier wars, this one has no Jerries or Charlies, no commies or cocaine kings. For Operation Desert Storm, the en emy is personified in a single hated visage: Saddam Hussein. For most U.S. troops, their war is not about oil or ideals but rather a lone megalomaniac. The heavily armed Iraqis across a desert no man’s land are viewed by many as reluctant vic tims of their common nemesis. The commander in chief, Presi dent George Bush, calls it “the war against Saddam.” In almost every interview, servicemen echo his senti ment, describing their foe in the sin gular. ' “This is about Saddam,” said Chief Warrant Officer Roy Lester of the 82nd Airborne Division. “It’s like when you see a snake in the grass. You kill it. The Iraqis are just follow ing orders.” Another paratrooper put it suc cinctly: “We’re gonna kick his butt, sir” Focusing on Saddam fits into the American penchant for identifying foreign entanglements with a single leader, as with Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, Moammar Gadhafi in Libya and Manuel Noriega in Panama. But the Iraqi despot is considered in a class by himself, a symbol of evil incarnate unmatched since Adolf Hitler poisoned himself in a Berlin bunker nearly 50 years ago. Even seasoned analysts of world affairs lay the blame for Iraq’s deadly power play squarely at its leader’s feet. Saddam, in turn, has blamed the war on the aggression of “the Satan Bush.” Perhaps the residents of Baghdad and the Iraqi troops, pounded from above day after day by the U.S. led forces, have the same single-minded hatred for the U.S. president that Americans are concentrating on Sad dam. Saddam is known as a man who began as a teen-age assassin, a ruth less and cunning opportunist who rose to the top by murder and deceit. As president of Iraq, he quietly amassed chemical weapons and used them not only on Iranians but also on Iraqis, recalcitrant Kurds in the north of his country. He purified his officer corps with summary executions. Last year, he hanged as a spy a British journalist of Iranian extraction. In the Desert Storm rear echelons, hostility toward Saddam has an edge of black humor. At Christmas time, the hot item among U.S. information officers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, was a cheap day-glo plastic bust of Saddam suit able for smashing with a stick like a Mexican pinata. T-shirts and baseball caps proclaim “Saddam Busters.” Caricatures of the familiar mustachioed face decorate headquarters walls. NetSra&kan Editor Eric Planner Assistant Photo Chief AlSchaben .. 472-1766 Night News Editors Pat Dlnslage A..J^.a0,n<!Fdl,or v,c,or1a Ayotte Clndv Woetrel Assoc News Editors Jana Pedersen Professional Adviser Don Walton Emily Rosembaum 473-7301 braskauSiSbii«fn(Q,Sn 14,4'°®2) 18 published by the UNL Publications Board. Ne west? dudng^ummer ws.ionS ' ' **thrOU°h F',day dunn° ** academlc yoar: 8utKT1lt >t0fy Ideas and comments to the Dally Nebraskan by £S2!fy.47Jll?63 P a*Land S p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also has Su“sS.XjSEtoSsto onlw0'™"0n- COn**X Bi^ot,e,da 436 9993 St UncoS*NE 10 Dally Ntebra*kan. NeUaskaUnion 34.1400 R ot.Lincoln, ne Secona-classoostage paid at Lincoln. NE. _*LL MATERIAL COPYRKjHT 1961 PAILY NE6RA8KAN_
