News-Info-Alerts

Re: Cheney "news to me"

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: March 26, 2002

"Courier-Mail
26mar02

VICE-President Dick Cheney said yesterday that an Iraqi offer to receive a US team to look into the fate of a US navy pilot downed over Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War was "news to me".

However, he said Washington would study the offer to see whether it was "a serious proposition".

Iraqi authorities said they were prepared to receive a US delegation to look into the fate of Lieutenant-Commander Michael Speicher.

"I'd have to see," Mr Cheney said on the CBS television network. "I'd have to take a look at the report and probably go back and take a look and see whether or not this is a serious proposition or whether (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein is simply trying to change the subject."

Lt-Cdr Speicher's F/A-18 Hornet aircraft crashed in the desert west of Baghdad on January 17, 1991, the first night of the allied air war against Iraq, apparently shot down by a missile fired by an Iraqi aircraft.

An Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday that Baghdad was inviting a US team to "prove its goodwill and refute repeated US slanders against Iraq".

He suggested the team be accompanied by "a US media delegation to cover and document" the visit under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The Pentagon last year took the unusual step of changing the status of Lt-Cdr Speicher from that of killed-in-action to missing-in-action.

Mr Cheney also reiterated that Washington was "deadly serious" about preventing Baghdad from acquiring nuclear weapons and downplayed the importance of sending UN weapons inspectors back to Iraq.

"The issue's not inspectors," Mr Cheney said. "The issue is that he (Saddam) has chemical weapons and he's used them.

"The issue is that he's developing and has biological weapons.

"The issue is that he's pursuing nuclear weapons."

While pressing for a return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq, Washington fears Baghdad will use the issue to stonewall and dupe the international community.

US officials instead appear to be laying the early groundwork for military action against Saddam's regime after President George W. Bush identified Iraq as part of an "axis of evil" along with North Korea and Iran.

"I think it would be a great tragedy if (Saddam) were to be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons and that's one of the concerns I shared as I travelled through the region last week," Mr Cheney said.

"He (Saddam) knows we're deadly serious. Our friends and allies in the region know we're deadly serious and that we do need to find a way to address this problem."

On Friday, the US accused Iraq of trying to distract the United Nations from its refusal to abide by UN Security Council resolutions by submitting a list of questions about the possible return of weapons inspectors.

Agence France-Presse "