Bush: Iraq inspections 'not encouraging'
( 2002-12-03 08:14 ) (7 )

US President Bush said Monday "the signs are not encouraging" that Saddam Hussein will cooperate with weapons inspectors and avoid a war threatened by the United States.

As a Sunday deadline neared, the president said he won't tolerate "any act of delay, deception or defiance."

Even as UN investigators reported progress in their first week of work, Bush said war may prove necessary. "The temporary peace of denial and looking away from danger would only be a prelude to broader war and greater horror," he said.

"America will confront gathering dangers early before our options become limited and desperate."

Weapons inspectors are carrying out a United Nations resolution ordering Saddam to rid Iraq of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons or face the prospect of war.

The resolution gives Iraq until Sunday to disclose its weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Al-Douri, said the declaration could be ready as early as Wednesday. "There will be nothing surprising," Al-Douri said. "We have repeated our position several times that we have nothing hidden."

The White House disputed that contention again Monday. Senior officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US intelligence has evidence of Saddam's weapons programs and is willing to share it with UN inspectors to help rebut the Iraqi declaration.

The US is flying Predator unmanned surveillance aircraft to look for signs of Iraq's noncompliance with the inspections, said a defense official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The UN inspectors completed their first week of work Monday by visiting alcoholic beverage plants and a factory that once made parts for now-banned missiles.

While inspectors said some equipment of interest was missing at the Karama ballistic design plant, they have reported no problems gaining access to suspect sites nor have they made public any findings of deadly weapons.

The lack of a confrontation has raised concerns in the White House that Saddam is winning the early public relations battle by creating an impression that he is complying with inspectors. Aides said those fears prompted the president and Vice President Dick Cheney to deliver separate speeches Monday to cast doubt on Saddam's intentions.

"So far, the signs are not encouraging," Bush said as he signed a bill giving the US military its largest spending increase since the Reagan administration.

"A regime that fires upon American and British pilots is not taking the path of compliance. A regime that sends letters filled with protests and falsehoods is not taking the path of compliance," Bush said.

He was referring to Iraqi letters to the UN protesting terms of the resolution.

In Denver, Cheney spoke ominously about the Sunday deadline. "This time deception will not be tolerated," he told 1,500 Air National Guard leaders. "The demands of the world will be met, or action will be unavoidable."

Answering critics of Bush's Iraq policy, Cheney also said confronting Saddam is not a distraction from the broader war on terrorism.

"Iraq could decide on any given day to provide biological or chemical weapons to a terrorist group or to individual terrorists," Cheney said. "The war on terror will not be won until Iraq is completely and verifiably deprived of weapons of mass destruction."

Yet there also were signs that Bush would be patient.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the Iraqi declaration "begins the process" under which inspectors will determine whether it is accurate. Privately, White House officials said they do not expect Bush to take immediate action against Saddam after the deadline, even if Iraq claims not to have weapons of mass destruction.

Instead, the United States will work to help inspectors prove deceptions, officials said.

While putting the onus on Saddam, Bush seemed to set limits on the authority of UN inspectors.

"Inspectors do not have the duty or the ability to uncover terrible weapons hidden in a vast country," he said. "The responsibility of inspectors is simply to confirm the evidence of voluntary and total disarmament."

"It is Saddam Hussein who has the responsibility to provide that evidence as directed and in full. Any act of delay, deception or defiance will prove that Saddam Hussein has not adopted the path of compliance and has rejected the path of peace," he said.

In London, one of Bush's most hawkish advisers tried to assure wary allies that the president wants to disarm Saddam without a fight.

"Our only hope ... of achieving the peaceful outcome is if we can confront the Iraqi regime with a credible threat of force behind our diplomacy," said Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, an independent think tank.

Even as he spoke of the desire to avoid war, Wolfowitz met privately with Iraqi opposition leaders who could help the United States build a post-Saddam Iraq.