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[infowar.de] WPO 22.01.03 U.S. Escalates Iraq Rhetoric (Office of Global Communications)
Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
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Als erstes Produkt der "Office of Global Communications" wird ein
kleines Broschürchen erwähnt mit dem Titel "Apparatus of Lies". Na wenn
das kein Paradox ist! Aber wie sehr die Administration ihre
Kommunikationsstrategie unter Kontrolle hat, konnte man gestern auf
Frontal21 sehn. Das war sehr gut geschnitten! In einer Abfolge sagten
Rice, Bush, Rummy: "Time is running out"....
Grüsse,
OM
U.S. Escalates Iraq Rhetoric
Bush Likens Calls for Delay To a 'Rerun of a Bad Movie'
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 22, 2003; Page A01
President Bush yesterday dismissed U.N. Security Council members who
have said weapons inspectors should be given more time in Iraq,
recalling that all of them,
"including the French," voted last November to impose "serious
consequences" if Iraq did not disclose and dismantle all of its weapons
of mass destruction
programs.
"This business about, you know, more time -- you know, how much time do
we need to see clearly that he's not disarming?" Bush said of Iraqi
President Saddam
Hussein. "This looks like a rerun of a bad movie and I'm not interested
in watching it."
Bush's testy remarks, made in a brief White House exchange with
reporters, came as the administration escalated its campaign against
Hussein in a clear indication
that it has begun a final effort to persuade the world's governments and
public that military action against Iraq is both justifiable and
necessary.
The administration plans to lay out the various elements of its case in
speeches and presentations over the next several weeks. The effort began
yesterday with a
speech by Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, who said that
Hussein's "regime has very little time left. . . . There is no sign,
there is not one sign that the
regime has any intent to comply" with United Nations demands.
On Thursday, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz will deliver the
same message in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New
York. Bush's
State of the Union speech next Tuesday will include a heavy emphasis on
Iraq, although senior officials said the president is not likely to make
his formal public
argument that the time has come for disarming Iraq by force, and
removing Hussein from power, until next month.
Senior aides are anxious that Bush not appear to preempt a separate
calendar of events at the Security Council, where Hans Blix, the head of
the U.N. Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), and International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei are due
on Monday
to make their first comprehensive report on Iraqi compliance with
inspections that began two months ago. On Jan. 29, the day after Bush's
State of the Union
speech, the council will convene to debate the report and decide what
further steps to take.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the strongest U.S. ally on Iraq in
the council, has scheduled a one-day visit with Bush at Camp David on
Jan. 31. U.S. and
diplomatic sources said that Blair was anxious that the two be seen to
be having "a genuine consultation," something that would be difficult if
Bush had already
declared the inspections over.
"The moment will come when the administration will want to make its case
before the court of public opinion as well as the Security Council,"
said one source.
"They've only got one shot at it . . . and there's a tradeoff" between
having the strongest possible evidence to present and "waiting so long
that the moment passes."
Despite its apparent eagerness to move quickly toward military action,
the administration is also constrained by still-incomplete military
deployments to the Persian
Gulf. Pentagon officials said yesterday that Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld has ordered two more aircraft carriers to the region.
But neither Bush nor other officials indicated there was much likelihood
the anticipated war would be postponed for long.
"I wish I were here to tell you that I am optimistic," Armitage told a
packed hall at the Institute of Peace in Washington. Listing the
thousands of weapons of mass
destruction Iraq was known to possess when the last round of U.N.
inspections ended in 1998, Armitage said it was not the job of the new
inspectors to find them,
but Iraq's responsibility to turn them over.
"If Iraq is disarming peacefully, showing active cooperation, then we
can sit back and claim that our U.N. resolution is successful," he said.
"If he is not disarming,
then we must have the guts to draw that conclusion and take another
course. It does none of us any good to let Saddam think he can wear us
down into business as
usual."
As Armitage spoke, aides in the back of the room passed out copies of a
25-page booklet entitled "Apparatus of Lies." A compilation of what it
called "the lies that
Iraq has used to promote its propaganda and disinformation," most dating
from 1990 and 1991, it urged governments, the media and the public "in
the weeks ahead
. . . to consider the regime's words, deeds and images in light of this
brutal record of deceit" and not to be fooled by Hussein's seeming
compliance with inspectors.
The document was the first major product of the White House Office of
Global Communications, which Bush officially signed into existence with
an executive order
yesterday. Headed by veteran Bush administration and campaign media
operative Tucker Eskew, the office will oversee and coordinate a daily
foreign policy
message for the government. The office's goal, Eskew said, is to "try to
anticipate upcoming events, plan for them, and use the tools in this
unique institution of the
White House to convey with the kind of clarity and convictions that are
hallmarks of President Bush's communications."
Although Bush told reporters yesterday that "I will let you know when
the moment has come" to make a decision on Iraq, he said several times
that "it's clear to me
now that he [Hussein] is not disarming." Repeating that "time is running
out," Bush said that if the United Nations decides not to back a
U.S.-led invasion, "we will
lead a coalition of willing nations to disarm him."
Bush expressed rising irritation that, so far, at least, few council
members have agreed with his assessment that Hussein is "giving people
the runaround" and there is
little point in continuing the inspection effort.
Leading the charge to give inspectors more time, French Foreign Minister
Dominique de Villepin on Monday accused Washington of overeagerness and
impatience
to confront Baghdad, and said that "we believe that nothing today
justifies envisaging military action." In a meeting of Security Council
foreign ministers, Russia and
China expressed similar displeasure at the U.S. move toward war.
Germany, which does not hold one of the five council vetoes but is
current chairman of the 15-member body, said it would not participate in
any military action.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told Germans at a state election rally
yesterday not to "expect that Germany will agree to a resolution that
legitimizes war."
At a meeting in Baghdad last weekend, Iraqi officials told Blix and
ElBaradei that they would provide an early response to specific
questions raised by the
inspectors, step up their facilitation of the inspectors' efforts, and
encourage scientists and technicians who have worked on weapons programs
to respond positively
to inspectors' requests to meet with them privately.
"We told [the Iraqis] it's very much in their interest to produce
something in one of these areas in the next week," IAEA spokesman Mark
Gwozdecky said
yesterday. "It would certainly improve their report card."
© 2003 The Washington
Post Company
--
Olivier Minkwitz___________________________________________
Dipl. Pol.
HSFK Hessische Stiftung für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung
PRIF Peace Research Institute Frankfurt
Leimenrode 29 60322 Frankfurt a/M Germany
Tel +49 (0)69 9591 0422 Fax +49 (0)69 5584 81
http://www.hsfk.de pgpKey:0xAD48A592
minkwitz -!
- hsfk -
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