- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi
government poured scorn Thursday on new U.S. accusations that it was elaborately
deceiving weapons inspectors and had links with al Qaeda.
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- Iraqi officials said they would write to the United Nations
to respond to Secretary of State Colin Powell, who Wednesday presented
the U.N. Security Council with spy satellite photos, recordings of bugged
phone calls and other material he said was damning evidence of Iraq's determination
not to disarm.
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- "We will send a detailed letter to the Security
Council to be the official response to all allegations to rebut Powell's
speech point by point," said Amer al-Saadi, an adviser to President
Saddam Hussein.
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- He said the allegations were "outrageous and not
convincing," designed as "home consumption for the uninformed."
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- "We have military secrets connected with our right
to self defense, nothing more," al-Saadi said.
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- Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meanwhile
that war to overthrow Saddam could transform the Middle East.
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- "Success could fundamentally reshape that region
in a powerful positive way that will enhance U.S. interests," he said
-- especially if Washington could also make progress on solving the Arab-Israeli
conflict, he added.
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- France signaled it would not easily buy into war, saying
Washington had yet to prove that Iraq possessed banned weapons of mass
destruction.
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- France, one of three countries with the veto power to
deny a U.S.-British alliance the support of the 15-member U.N. Security
Council, stood firm against any new U.N. resolution that might authorize
an attack on Baghdad.
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- "A second resolution? We are not at the time for
that right now," Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said. "As
long as the arms inspections make progress, we must pursue them."
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- The United States insists it does not need a new resolution
to go to war but is lobbying hard for support in the Security Council.
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- French President Jacques Chirac made a joint call with
Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Iraq crisis to be solved by diplomatic
and political methods rather than military ones. Russia too is a veto power
in the Security Council.
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- But the pace of military preparations for war quickened.
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said the Royal Air Force would increase
its presence in the Gulf to 100 fixed-wing aircraft, supported by about
7,000 personnel, in coming weeks.
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- The deployment takes the total of British troops committed
to a possible war to more than 40,000.
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- The U.S. contingent is expected to reach well over 200,000
troops. The U.S. Army's 101st Airborne division said Thursday it was preparing
for possible deployment to the Gulf.
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- Turkey granted the United States permission to upgrade
military bases as a first step to inviting in thousands of U.S. troops.
Iraq's ambassador said the move was tantamount to Turkey's joining a war.
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- NATO postponed until next week a decision on taking measures
such as sending Patriot interceptor missiles to protect Turkey, prolonging
a damaging transatlantic split on the timing of military preparations.
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- Jordan, another of Iraq's neighbors and a key ally of
the United States, said it had taken delivery of Patriots already.
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- NO TIES WITH AL QAEDA, SAYS IRAQ
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- Powell Thursday told the U.N. Security Council Iraq had
sheltered the alleged mastermind behind the killing of a U.S. diplomat
in Jordan last year and had ties to the armed fundamentalist group Ansar
al-Islam.
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- "We do not know Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, we do not
know his whereabouts and we continue to cooperate with the Jordanian authorities
to put an end to his activities in Iraq," Iraqi Foreign Ministry official
Saeed al-Mousawi said.
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- Powell told the Security Council Zarqawi was an associate
of Osama bin Laden and Zarqawi's network had helped establish a poison
and explosives training camp in northeastern Iraq.
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- "Concerning the group Ansar al-Islam, here again
is a sheer allegation. This group occupies a small pocket in the (Kurdish-ruled)
northern part of Iraq which is out of the control of the Iraqi government,"
al-Mousawi responded.
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- Iraq said U.N. inspectors were holding Thursday their
first private interview with an Iraqi scientist linked to previous banned
weapons programs. Weapons inspectors have demanded that experts be interviewed
without other Iraqis present, to protect informers from reprisal.
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- A U.N. spokesman in Baghdad said an interview had been
scheduled for 11 a.m. EST. He gave no further details.
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- After Powell's 80-minute U.N. address Wednesday, nearly
every Security Council member agreed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had
fallen short of complying with U.N. resolutions -- but most still asked
if this warranted going to war.
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- The next step is a trip to Baghdad this weekend by Hans
Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, who have headed more than two months of U.N.
inspections. The two men, in London Thursday, will speak to the Security
Council on Feb. 14.
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- "The message coming from the Security Council is
very clear, that Iraq is not cooperating fully, that they need to show
drastic change in terms of cooperation," ElBaradei said after he and
Blix held talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
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- "We need to show progress in our report which will
be due on the 14th of this month."
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- In Geneva, aid agencies said they are rushing experts
and life-saving supplies to the region but needed more money.
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- The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR has forecast that in the
event of conflict, 600,000 Iraqis could flee abroad, about half going to
Iran and the rest to Turkey, Syria or Jordan.
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