- BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq warned
of global war Thursday and raised fears of a major air campaign against
the country as Western intelligence agencies sought to establish a link
between Baghdad and the US terror attacks.
-
- But the regime, which has denied involvement in the
September
11 horrors, was urged by an influential daily to remain "neutral"
in any conflict which Washington's anticipated strike on Afghanistan is
expected to ignite.
-
- US President George W. Bush "seeks to spark a global
world war, without thinking of the dire consequences it will entail and
the reactions it will trigger," wrote Ath-Thawra, mouthpiece of Iraq's
ruling Baath Party.
-
- Such a war would harm all sides, including those who
imagine they can be safe, the daily said in a reference to the United
States
and its Western and Gulf allies.
-
- "Bush wants to launch a crusade outside the
framework
of international law and without providing concrete evidence to back up
his charges against 60 countries classified as terrorist states, states
that harbor terrorists, or states that abet terrorism," Ath-Thawra
said.
-
- Israel's military intelligence service, Aman, suspects
that Iraq sponsored the attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the
Pentagon outside Washington, Jane's Security, a website specializing in
defense matters, said Thursday.
-
- It said Aman claims that Iraqi intelligence officers
have for the past two years been shuttling between Baghdad and Afghanistan,
which hosts Saudi-born Islamist dissident Osama bin Laden, Washington's
prime suspect in the atrocities.
-
- Iraq on Wednesday dismissed a US claim that an Iraqi
officer had met a hijacker of one of the airliners that crashed in New
York.
-
- "The United States knows very well that this
accusation
is baseless," Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told AFP.
-
- A US government source said Tuesday the Central
Intelligence
Agencywas checking reports that Mohammed Atta, a hijacker of one of the
jets that destroyed the World Trade Center, met a senior Iraqi intelligence
official prior to the attacks.
-
- The daily Babel, run by President Saddam Hussein's elder
son Uday, cautioned that Iraq, weakened by the 1991 Gulf War and the
11-year-old
UN embargo, had no interest in once more calling down the wrath of the
Americans and the rest of the international community.
-
- "We in Iraq should be in the position of spectator,
remain cautious and monitor events, because the enemies will be watching
us," wrote Babel.
-
- "If we do anything, Iraq will be hit ... possibly
on the scope of 1991," the daily said in a reference to the Gulf War
during which a US-led coalition expelled Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
-
- "They (the Americans) will do this because they
will have to, in order to show they are tough," Babel said, predicting
it would be far worse than the three nights of US-British air strikes
during
December 1998.
-
- Iraq "should prepare for all eventualities,
especially
since signs have begun appearing of an intention to drag Iraq's name (into
the list of targets) at the time of their choosing," it added.
-
- Babel's call for neutrality, a departure from the defiant
tone Baghdad has adopted toward the US for the past 11 years, comes against
a backdrop of the United States beefing up the already strong US military
presence in the Gulf.
- ___
-
- Saddam Offers Humanitarian Aid To
US
9-20-1
-
- BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi
President
Saddam Hussein on Thursday offered "for humanitarian reasons"
to help the US relief effort in the wake of the September 11 terror
attacks.
-
-
- "I say to the Americans that if they seek the help
of experts in Iraq, Iraqis could agree to give them assistance for
humanitarian
reasons," he said, quoted by the official news agency INA.
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