WASHINGTON – President Bush’s team may soon spell out the case against Iraq and Saddam Hussein, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday.
That news comes as Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress come to the White House today, at Bush’s invitation, to talk about how to get rid of Saddam.
“One of the topics will be U.S. policy toward Iraq – which includes regime change,” said an administration official, stressing that Bush still hasn’t decided on whether that means military action.
Rumsfeld said Bush aides may use congressional hearings on Iraq later this month to outline the threat Saddam poses to world.
“What the president wants to do, and will do, in his own time, is to provide information he feels is important with respect to any judgment he decides to make,” Rumsfeld said.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer declined comment on reports Saddam has stockpiled several tons of chemical weapons, but said: “We do know that Saddam Hussein possesses chemical weapons.”
There is widespread speculation that Bush will start making the case against Saddam next week when he speaks to the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 12, one day after the commemoration of the terror attacks.
Bush also intends to meet with a large number of world leaders at that U.N. session.
Bush got reinforcements in Britain when Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday said he’ll soon go public with a dossier showing Saddam is developing weapons of mass destruction and “poses a real and unique threat.”
Last fall, Blair and Britain took the lead to making the case against Osama bin Laden – and Blair’s remarks yesterday hinted that America’s closest ally may play the same role on Iraq.
Blair said Britain has spent months compiling its dossier against Saddam and plans to publish it in the next few weeks, showing Iraq has chemical and biological weapons and is trying to get nuclear weapons.
If he intends to join Bush’s policy on Iraq, Blair will need to convince British public opinion – where a majority now opposes military action – as well as the left wing of his own Labor Party.
Iraqi officials told U.N. officials at an economic summit in South Africa that Iraq is ready to talk about a return of U.N. weapons inspectors – but only if economic sanctions end and Iraq regains sovereignty over all its territory.
Rumsfeld said that’s just more proof that Iraq is willing to talk about weapons inspectors only “as a ploy for time” and knows how to “play the international community and U.N. process like a guitar.”
Secretary of State Colin Powell left last night for that same summit where he can talk to other leaders on Iraq – while the White House again yesterday denied Powell is skeptical about Bush’s Iraq policy.