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Blair to detail Saddam's threat
LONDON, England -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair plans to outline his case for action against Iraq Tuesday before lawmakers hold a special, one-day session of Parliament. Blair is expected to release Tuesday a 55-page dossier, collected by British intelligence, about Iraq's alleged programs of developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Two U.S. officials familiar with the report characterized it as a compilation of existing evidence rather than new revelations, but said they understand the document cites some intelligence sources to back up its conclusions. One of the officials said the British have been "digging into their intelligence files" to build the case about Iraq's weapons programs and "what you might find new or interesting is the degree to which we are told they will cite some intelligence sources."
In preparation for the unveiling, Blair briefed his Cabinet Monday on the latest on Baghdad. "What that dossier shows is that the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's regime is not some historic leftover, but is real serious and represents a mounting challenge to the international community," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said after Monday's meeting. Straw said Blair's Cabinet held a "very comprehensive discussion," one that "reflected the gravity and seriousness of the situation." Straw said Britain would prefer the crisis be handled through the United Nations rather than by U.S. action, but the responsibility for that lies with Saddam. But he said the U.N. Security Council must make clear what the consequences will be if Saddam does not "accept the peaceful disarmament of the weapons of mass destruction." "The surest and safest route to agreement is by the international community being exceptionally firm and resolute about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein," he said. Iraq, meanwhile, maintains that it doesn't have nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. The House of Commons has scheduled a vote later in the day that many members of Blair's ruling Labour Party are expected to use to express their opposition to his pro-military action stance. The special session was scheduled because Parliament was not due to return from its summer break until October 15. One of the dissenting members of Parliament (MP) is Alan Simpson who has circulated a pamphlet called "Labour Against the War" to every Labour MP. It gives opponents of Blair's policy ammunition to attack him and Straw. Iain Duncan Smith, leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, strongly supports military action against Saddam, but the Liberal Democrats are more cautious. Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said on Monday that Bush's call for "regime change" in Iraq smacked of imperialism and that there was "still no definitive evidence directly linking the Iraqi regime with al Qaeda and the atrocities of September 11." Over the weekend, Blair's International Development Secretary, Clare Short, broke ranks to declare that a Gulf War-style invasion of Iraq and its people would be wrong. She said: "Each one of them is as precious as the 3,000 people in the twin towers. We can't sacrifice them to putting it right." Speaking in a BBC television interview on Sunday, she added: "We cannot have another Gulf War. We cannot have the people of Iraq suffering again. They have suffered too much. That would be wrong. "We have to find a way of enforcing, quite rightly, U.N. resolutions. Saddam Hussein and the elite around him, should be frightened. "We should be ready to impose the will of the United Nations on them if they don't cooperate, but not by hurting the people of Iraq." Other ministers are also reported to have misgivings over either the scale, timing, nature of, or justification for any possible assault against Baghdad. Commons leader and former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has been scrupulous in his public comments to back Blair. But there have been persistent reports that he favors fuller consultation with MPs and is determined that any military action should be specifically authorized by the United Nations. Last week, Blair urged the international community to "keep up the pressure" on Saddam to ensure that U.N. weapons inspectors go back into Iraq. He said: "We have got to keep up the pressure to make sure the weapons inspectors actually go in. "Not just that he says they can go in, but they actually go in and that they can do their job." Earlier this month he said Saddam was an "international outlaw" in charge of a "barbaric regime" that had to be dealt with. (Full story)
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