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Who Will Stop the Madness?
Mon Apr 14 15:00:44 2003
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Who Will Stop the Madness? The Bush Cartel Moves Their Weapons of Mass Destruction Shell Game to Syria. It's All According to the Neo-Con Script They Denied They Were Using, Until Now.

White House Escalates Diplomatic Pressure on Syria
Action Comes as U.S. Suspects Syria of Developing Chemical Weapons


Secretary of State Colin Powell, right, with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Mohammed Al-Sabah in Washington, said the U.S. "will make [Syria] aware of our concerns." (Nicholas Roberts - AFP)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22809-2003Apr14.html

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 14, 2003; 1:26 PM

The Bush administration escalated sharp diplomatic warnings to Syria today, accusing Iraq's neighbor of developing chemical weapons, harboring former Iraqi leaders and allowing foreign fighters to enter Iraq to attack U.S. troops.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, at his morning briefing, said repeatedly that "Syria needs to cooperate." He read from a CIA report to Congress last year that Syria had stockpiles of the nerve agent sarin, that it was "trying to develop more toxic and persistent nerve elements," and that it was "highly probable" that Syria was pursuing biological weapons. Fleischer described the document as "authoritative" and said the charge is "well corroborated."

Senior administration officials also added to the escalating administration rhetoric about Syria today, but the strongest rhetoric came from the White House. Fleischer declined to dispel the impression that administration was targeting Syria for possible diplomatic or even military measures. "I can only say to you that it should not be unexpected that the United States for a considerable period of time has said through diplomatic channels that nations that are rogue nations need to clean up their act," he said. "They should not harbor terrorists. They should not produce weapons of mass destruction."

Pressed on whether the White House was sending the message that it was threatening an invasion of Syria, Fleischer said, "People have to realize there are acceptable standards of behavior that world and certainly the free Iraqi people hope will be followed by its neighbors, including Syria, and part of that is not to harbor Iraqi leaders. Syria needs to cooperate and not harbor Iraqi leaders."

Fleischer made clear there was no commitment to hostilities with Syria. "Every nation will be treated as events warrant," he said. "Not every solution applies equally around the world." But Fleischer said that "Syria is indeed a rogue nation" and suggested it must rid itself of Hezbollah, a terrorist group that is a principal foe of Israel.

"Nations that are interested in peaceful outcomes to world affairs-and do not interpret this as saying the United States has made a decision of action-when you talk about making peace in the Middle East, broadly speaking, nations should not pursue polices that ferment or encourage or harbor terrorism," Fleischer said.

Asked why the increasingly hostile rhetoric was being directed at Syria at a time when world jitters had just begun to calm, Fleischer demanded: "Do you think the White House and President Bush should look the other way at the fact that Syria is taking in Iraqi leaders?" As for why the White House decided to raise the issue of the months-old CIA report on chemical weapons in Syria, Fleischer said "it's a relevant fact."

U.S. and British officials said yesterday that a half-brother of Saddam Hussein, Watban Ibrahim Hasan, had been captured in Iraq trying to flee to Syria and was in U.S. custody.

At the Pentagon today, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Syria had allowed "some Iraqi people" to cross its borders, "in some cases to stay and some cases to transit." Foreign fighters were also allowed to enter Iraq via Syria to target U.S. troops, Rumsfeld told reporters after talks with Kuwait Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah. Rumsfeld also said Syria had tested chemical weapons.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who also met with the Kuwaiti foreign minister earlier in the day, said the United States will examine possible diplomatic or economic measures against Syria.

"With respect to Syria, of course we will examine possible measures of a diplomatic, economic or other nature as we move forward," Powell said.

"In light of this new environment they [Syria] should review their actions and their behavior, not only with respect to who gets haven in Syria and weapons of mass destruction but especially the support of terrorist activity," Powell added.

In Bahrain, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw emphasized that Washington and London have no plans to invade Syria, but said Damascus had "important questions" to answer about its weapons programs. "As far as 'Syria next on the list', we made clear that it is not," Straw said.

"There is no 'next' list," he said. "There are important questions which the Syrians need to answer."

The remarks by Straw and Powell followed statements yesterday by President Bush, who continued to lend his personal weight to warnings to Syria, for the first time personally accusing the country of developing chemical weapons. "I think that we believe there are chemical weapons in Syria," he said.

U.S. officials said yesterday they took Bush's statement as very significant, since the possession of weapons of mass destruction was the president's chief reason for confronting Iraq.

Bush also said Syria "needs to cooperate with the United States and our coalition partners and not harbor any Baathists, any military officials, any people who need to be held to account for their tenure during what we are learning more and more about."

Today, Syria denied Bush's charges about chemical weapons. "We say to him [Bush] that Syria has no chemical weapons and that the only chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in the region are in Israel, which is threatening its neighbors and occupying their land," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Buthaina Shaaban told Reuters.

Shaaban also denied that Syria had cooperated with the government of Saddam Hussein.

"There was never any cooperation between Damascus and Baghdad, our support was for the Iraqi people who have suffered the plights of wars," Shaaban said.

The Reuters news agency contributed to this report.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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