Word: iraq
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Outraged, the U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned Iraq, ordering the three Americans to fly back to Baghdad and the inspection team there to continue its work. At the White House, national security aides convened an emergency meeting to consider a U.S. response. "This is a very serious move by the Iraqis," said an official. "It threatens the linchpin of what we've built to contain Saddam...
Clinton immediately decided to press the U.N. to add new sanctions to the trade embargo that has crippled Iraq's economy since the country invaded Kuwait in 1990. If Saddam continued to resist, the White House signaled, it was more than ready to use military force. The Pentagon has 18,500 soldiers, 17 ships and 200 warplanes in the region poised to launch a retaliatory strike if the American inspectors in Baghdad are endangered...
Ironically, Saddam's gambit helped unify the Security Council just as he was making headway in dividing it. Last month the U.S. tried to get the council to ban international travel by Iraqi military and intelligence officials after U.N. inspections chief Richard Butler reported that Iraq was continuing to withhold information on its chemical weapons and missile programs. But France, Russia and China balked at an immediate ban, and the U.S. had to settle for a watered-down threat to block such travel sometime in the future...
...subject of those weapons, however, Iraq also admitted that yes, they have been "hiding" some of their key military equipment while the inspectors are locked out. "It looks a little bit like, 'the cat's away, the mice will play,'" said the chief U.N. weapons inspector, Richard Butler ? an Australian. And what exactly are the mice playing at? "They could have enough anthrax to fill a warhead in one week," Butler later warned...
...doesn't take a genius to figure out what will happen next. Shore leave has been canceled aboard the USS Nimitz in the Persian Gulf. And according to the Turkish press, the U.S. has requested permission to use their air bases in Turkey for an air strike against Iraq. Is Saddam, the Bad Boy of Baghdad, due yet another spanking...