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| Axis of Evil |
| US and Britain lambast Iraq dossier |
| 2002-12-18 |
| The United States and Britain are piling the pressure on Saddam Hussein, accusing the Iraqi leader of "obvious falsehood" and omissions in his weapons declaration to the United Nations. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on Wednesday that US President George W Bush was "concerned" about gaps in the Iraqi report. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also criticised the declaration, saying it was not "the full and complete" version demanded by the UN Security Council. "This will fool nobody," Mr Straw said in a statement on Wednesday. "If Saddam persists in this obvious falsehood, it will become clear that he has rejected the pathway to peace." Mr Bush is meeting security officials in Washington to consider a formal response to the 12,000 page Iraqi declaration. After they stop giggling. They are expected to find the report inadequate, but correspondents say Mr Bush is unlikely to cite this as a "material breach" of the US arms resolution and therefore justification for war. Instead, Mr Bush is expected to chart a slightly more patient course that would push the prospects for military action back to Mid-January. Remember, new moon 2 Feb Britain has been the strongest international supporter of Bush's tough line on Iraq - and the latest statement keeps Britain's position closely aligned with that of the US. Mr Straw said the declaration had "obvious omissions" - notably a failure to account for the weapons of mass destruction listed in the final report of the UN inspectors who left Iraq in 1998. Iraq screwed up big time here, they forgot we had a itemized list of everything we found after GW1. Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday that Britain would give its formal response to the declaration after Christmas. The Brits have placed a order for ships to carry armor to the Gulf, loading to begin around 15 Jan. Nothing to do with this, just a preplanned live-fire exercise. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #4 R.S. Rising Great book,well worth reading |
| Posted by: raptor 2002-12-19 06:22:28 |
| #3 Ed Morris in "Red Storm Rising" |
| Posted by: Steve 2002-12-18 21:19:21 |
| #2 It was a joke. "At least the American Navy doesn't name ships after our mothers-in-law..." |
| Posted by: mojo 2002-12-18 16:50:37 |
| #1 I believe HMS Battleaxe is a frigate, a completely different ship from the "Harrier carrier" HMS Ark Royal. |
| Posted by: Mike 2002-12-18 15:22:51 |