U.S. weighs consequences of Iraq targets
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pentagon
planners have no shortage of targets in
Iraq, but most present difficult mili
tary and political problems.
A factory in a Baghdad suburb
might produce either deadly anthrax
or beer - or both.
The intelligence service’s head
quarters, which might be the target of
an early cruise missile strike, sits in a
busy urban neighborhood, thereby
raising the risk of civilian casualties.
No one knows which of 100 or
more bunkers might conceal President
Saddam Hussein or his top com
manders.
Thursday, U.S. government offi
cials said the military’s intent would
be to remove Hussein from power, not
necessarily to kill him.
Sen. Richard G. Lugar, R-Ind.,
encouraged the administration to con
sider an all-out follow-up campaign to
remove Saddam from power - a plan,
he acknowledged, that probably would
require U.S. ground troops.
And if Saddam cannot be removed
without targeting and killing him? “I
suspect, then, he will have to be
killed,” Lugar said.
In response, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright said the Clinton
administration looked forward to
working with a post-Saddam govern
ment and was increasing its support to
Iraqi opposition groups.
“But the purpose of force, if we
use it, would be to degrade his ability”
< to develop and use weapons of xnass
* destruction, Albright said onl^BS’
| “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.” ^
Senior Pentagon officials say
plans for possible air strikes on Iraq
seek to avoid accidental damage and
harm to Iraqi civilians. But they admit
that goal often clashes with the mili
u
We can do immense damage to some of
Iraq s most valuable military facilities. But
most of Saddam s forces will remain intact.”
Anthony Cordesman
Middle East specialist
tary aim of weakening Iraq’s military
and with the political aim of hitting
Iraq hard enough to force compliance
with U.N. weapons inspections.
A senior military official familiar
with the strike planning said installa
tions likely to harm the general popu
lation unduly are not being targeted.
The official specified power grids,
bridges and other public utilities as
likely to be off limits.
Instead, planners are focusing pri
marily on targets related to Iraq’s sus
pected programs to develop weapons
of mass destruction. Many sites are
simply unknown because of elaborate
Iraqi efforts at concealment.
The Americans give two examples
they say indicate the lengths Iraq has
gone to hide its weapons programs:
After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, inter
national inspectors found Scud mis
sile production tools at the villa of
Iraqi Maj. Izzadin al-Majid in the West
Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib. And
U.S. intelligence reports indicate that
the Taji Electrical Light BuIfc^Factory
alchemical weapons storag&sftS^^S^
“Because of eight years of deter
mined efforts by Saddam, we cer
tainly wouldn’t pretend to know where
vast quantities of chemical or biologi
cal product is stored or manufac
tured,” said another senior defense
official.
' Even known potential targets pose
problems. U.N. inspectors identified
and visited 79 possible biological
weapons manufacturing sites. Only
five were making weapons before the
Gulf War. Another five make vaccines
or pharmaceuticals, raising parallels
to the hotly debated August cruise
missile strike on a pharmaceutical
plant in Sudan linked by U.S. intelli
gence to VX gas production.
The rest of the possible biological
weapons sites are research centers or
university-based laboratories and
breweries, distilleries and dairies with
equipment that could be used for mak
ing weapons, according to the United
Nations.
About a dozen Iraqi airfields also
are likely to be targeted, not only to
eliminate a threat to U.S. and British
aircraft but also to destroy planes that
might be used to drop or spray chemi
cal or biological weapons.
A top-priority target will be Iraq’s
extensive air defense system, with 340
surface-to-air missile launchers
arrayed, many of them around
Baghdad.
Middle East specialist Anthony
Cordesman of the Center for Strategic
and International Studies said Iraq’s
U.S. signs global-warming accord
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP)
I - The United States’ signing of the
• Kyoto global*.warming accord
j Thursday energized talks in Argentina
on how to implement the treaty’s key
provisions for cutting pollutants.
But critics said U.S. intentions, con
veyed at the environmental summit by
Undersecretary of State Stuart
Eizenstat, appeared short on concrete
actioa
The United States - the world’s
largest polluter - was the last of the
major industrial nations to sign the
agreement reached last December in
Kyoto, Japan. The accord calls for
I
reductions in heat-trapping gases by
industrialized nations by 2012.
The U.S. signing, which took place
Thursday at U.N. headquarters in New
York, is largely symbolic because it still
needs to be ratified by Congress, where
it faces firm opposition.
The two-week Buenos Aires sum
mit is the biggest since the historic
Kyoto treaty was reached. It is ex
pected to conclude Friday with a frame
work for implementing some of the
accord’s key provisions.
Developing nations, which are not
legally bound to emissions targets
under the treaty but are under pressure
I
to participate, say die United States isn’t
taking climate change seriously
enough.
The developing nations say emis
sion controls place a greater burden on
their economies than on the United
States’ and they generally oppose con
trols.
But on Wednesday, Argentina
became the first major developing
nation to promise voluntary action to
curb greenhouse gases, a move seen as
a breakthrough by U.S. officials.
China and India, two of the biggest
contributors of greenhouse gas pollu
tion, have refused to participate.
Eizenstat told representatives of
more than 160 countries in Buenos
Aires that Washington was promoting
new energy-efficiency standards for
appliances, and cleaner technologies
for industry, but gave few other
specifics on how the United States
would cut emissions.
Alden Meyer of the Washington
based Union of Concerned Scientists
praised die signing but said the United
States needs to do more to cut pollu
tion from power plants and cars.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., a
treaty proponent, said the signing was
essential for the United States if it
wants to be a “full player*’ as the talks
near their conclusion.
The New York-based Environ
mental Defense Fund said the U.S.
signing was only a start
“The buildup of greenhouse gases
will not be stopped by the stroke of a
pen,” Executive Director Fred Krupp
said. “The administration must back
up their work to move the negotiations
forward here with real efforts to reduce
admissions at home.”
. n.. Question*? Comments?
Attlo'““,raS’!s?ion
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Arabs’ attitudes on strike shift
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Signaling
changed attitudes across the Arab
world, eight Arab foreign ministers
declared Thursday that Iraq would be
“held responsible for any conse
quences” of its decision to halt the
activities of U.N. weapons inspectors.
The diplomatic phrase was the
clearest sign yet of a remarkable
reversal in Arab sentiments amid
signs that an American military strike
may be imminent
During a similar standoff in
February over U.N. inspections
intended to find and destroy Iraq’s
weapons of mass destruction, the
Arab world was outraged at the
prospect of a U.S. attack.
At that time, hundreds of
Palestinians paraded a model of an
Iraqi Scud missile and chanted
“Beloved Saddam, Hit Tel Aviv.”
Yemenis jumped off buses to join
anti-American protests, and in
Jordan, police had to use attack dogs
to keep demonstrators at bay.
The mood is far different
Thursday. Rather than anger, a sense
of resignation prevails.
“Kuwait cannot stop a superpow
er from taking certain steps,” said
Kuwait’s Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al
Sabah after the meeting in Doha,
Qatar, of foreign ministers from Syria
and Egypt as well as six Persian Gulf
states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,
Qatar, die United Arab Emirates and
Saudi Arabia.
“The question now is: What will
this strike be like? What will its size
be, and what will be the end?” colum
nist Abdullah al-Shayegi wrote in
Kuwait’s Al-Watan newspaper
Thursday.
That perception was echoed in
Al-Wafd, one ofEgypt’s most popular
newspapers. The newspaper’s banner
headline Thursday read, “The count
down begins for the strike on Iraq.”
In die statement Thursday - a dec
laration that was praised by the
United States - the foreign ministers
expressed hope that “wisdom and
reason prevail” so as not to worsen
hardships for already miserable
Iraqis.
The softer tones in Arab capitals
may not be coincidental.
Some Arab diplomats have said
Defense Secretary William Cohen
told leaders, while on his tour this
month of the Gulf as well as Egypt
and Jordan, that if the governments
did not agree with an attack, they
should keep the criticism to them
selves.
still huge military presents more tar
gets than even a Gulf War-scale attack
could cover. ._
“We can do immense damage to
some of Iraq’s most valuable military
facilities,” Cordesman said. “But most
of Saddam’s forces will remain
intact.”
Dan Kuehl, a professor at the
i—r
National Defense University involved
in planning the Gulf War air cam
paign, warned against “shying away”
from aggressive tactics once the deci
sion to strike is made. ' *
“Be prepared for losses, both ours
and theirs,” Kuehl said. “If you do this
seriously, it is not going to be blood
less.”
European insurance firms
donate to Holocaust fund
LONDON (AP) - Six European
insurance companies will give $90 mil
lion to a humanitarian fund for
Holocaust victims and will also pay
wartime insurance claims, officials
said Thursday.
“We view this as a historic achieve
ment, one that demonstrates the will
ingness of these insurance companies
to bring justice at last to the victims of
the most heinous crime of our time,”
said Elan Steinberg of the World Jewish
Congress.
At issue are claims of thousands of
Holocaust survivors and relatives of
those who died in die Holocaust They
charge that insurance companies
refused to honor policies after the war.
The money pledged to the fund was
a gesture of good faith and not neces
sarily the final sum, Steinberg said. The
companies have pledged to pay what
ever the commission deems they owe,
after a thorough search of records.
The companies - Allianz of
Germany, Axa of France, Generali of
Italy, Zurich Financial Services Group,
Winterthur Swiss Insurance Co. and
Baloise Insurance Group of Switzerland
- put up a further $ 10 million for the
work of the international commission.
The commission includes repre
sentatives of the World Jewish
Congress, the World Jewish Restitution
Organization, Israel and U.S. insurance
regulators. Former Secretary of State
Lawrence Eagleburger is its chairman.
Attorneys want Omaha
parents’ case thrown out
OMAHA (AP) - City and county
attorneys Thursday urged a judge to
dismiss a lawsuit filed by the parents
of an Omaha man who was shot to
death last year by police.
In the lawsuit* Leon Ammons and
Ollie Reaves claim police shouldn’t
have made them wait to see the body
of their son, Marvin Ammons. They
complained of being denied immedi
ate access to police reports.
It was the first hearing in civil
suits filed by Marvin Ammons’ par
ents.
The city and county asked Judge
Richard J. Spethman to throw out the
lawsuit, saying the parents’ claim has
no legal basis.
“Everything we did was lawful,”
Assistant City Attorney Tom
Mumgaard said. “Regardless of the
distress it may have caused the par
ents, you cannot recover damages for
lawfiil activity.”
Marvin Ammons’ death prompt
ed authorities to convene a grand
jury, and officer Todd Sears was
indicted for manslaughter. The
indictment was thrown out last week
because of juror misconduct. A new
grand jury will be convened.
The parents claim the city of
Omaha and Douglas County con
spired after the shooting to keep them
from their son’s body and to prevent
them from learning the circum- 1
stances of his death.
