US Will Attack Iraq 'Without UN Backing'

By TOBY HAMDEN

The Daily Telegraph, London   Friday January 10, 2003



WASHINGTON, D.C.­­America will not delay a war with Iraq until the autumn
and is prepared to launch military action against Saddam Hussein without
further United Nations authorization, a senior Bush administration adviser
said yesterday.
Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board and a hawk
whose views carry considerable weight, rejected suggestions from British
ministers and senior Foreign Office officials that plans for an early war should
be put on hold.
Mr. Perle, who is close to Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary, said he
did not expect the UN Security Council to reach agreement on the use of force
but had little doubt that George W. Bush, the U.S. president, would press ahead
regardless and lead a coalition to victory.
"I'm assuming that we will not get a consensus on the Security Council but it
may be possible to get it," he said.  "It would be a great mistake to become
dependent on it and take the view that we can't act separately.
Driving force behind U.S. foreign policy
"That would be an abrogation of the president's responsibility."
Mr. Perle stressed that as an outside adviser he could not speak for the Bush
administration.  But with Mr. Rumsfeld and his ally Vice-President Dick Cheney,
now the driving force behind U.S. foreign policy, his pronouncements have
taken on increasing importance.
Mr. Perle said inspectors would not find actual weapons in the face of Iraqi
concealment.  "If that's the test, we're never going to find a smoking gun,"
said Mr. Perle.
He criticized Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, for his handling of the
inspections.  He said inspectors had mainly visited previously known sites.
Mr. Perle suggested that American patience with the UN inspections process
was limited and closely linked to the military timetable that makes it very difficult
to fight a war after March because of the searing heat.
UN resolution useful in producing cover for invasion
He said:  "If there's no change in Saddam's attitude I think there'll be a reluctance
to continue this without a clear indication that our patience will be rewarded by
a UN Security Council consensus.
"A consensus would be a useful thing, and I think we'd be willing to wait a little
longer to get it but not a long time."
Mr. Perle said America had been right to go to the UN to seek Resolution 1441,
passed unanimously in November, because it "produced a consensus in support
of significant demands," but the UN had only a limited role in dealing with Saddam.
"The question now, of course, is whether the UN having done that [passed 1441]
will insist that its demands be met or revert to its previous posture which was
to pass resolutions but not take the actions necessary to ensure compliance
with them."
Claims moral justification for war
He expressed doubt that Tony Blair had asked or would ask Mr. Bush to delay war
until the autumn and accused those who sought such a delay of being opposed
to ousting Saddam in any event.
Mr. Perle said:  "There are nations on the UN Security Council against taking
military action, so they will try to slow any movement towards military action."
America and its allies, he insisted, already had the legal and moral justification
for war.  
"We might be acting without a resolution from the UN authorizing it, but I think
the administration can make a strong case that Saddam's defiance of a variety
of resolutions passed previously could be understood to justify military action."

Comment from Adelaide Institute

The inspectors, who say they have found no 'smoking gun' to challenge

 Iraq's denial it has any banned weapons, are to present a report to the UN 

Security Council on January 27.

On 27 January many countries under Zionist influence celebrate

 Holocaust Memorial Day - the new religious holiday for non-Jews. 

Many Germans also on this day celebrate their Kaiser's Birthday!