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Bush backs two-step campaign to dump Saddam

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, February 15, 2002

WASHINGTON Ñ The Bush administration has agreed to a plan that would focus on bolstering the Iraqi insurgency against the regime of President Saddam Hussein.

U.S. government sources said the plan is a compromise to reconcile the opposition positions of such key agencies as the CIA, Defense Department and State Department. The plan, they said, envisions a two-stage approach to topple Saddam.

In the first stage, the sources said, the United States would increase aid for the Iraqi opposition. The opposition would organize sabotage operations and encourage military commanders to defect from Saddam's forces, Middle East Newsline reported.

The second stage would be a U.S.-led attack on Baghdad as early as June. The attack would begin with massive air strikes, followed by ground troops.

The sources said that Bush has ordered the Pentagon to draft a full military plan, an effort that could take two months. They said the CIA would be responsible for the Iraqi insurrection.

ABC News reported that the White House envisions the deployment of up to 500,000 troops, 1,000 warplanes and six aircraft carriers in an attack on the Saddam regime. The television network said special operations troops are being prepared to join Iraqi insurgents.

The sources said the first step against Iraq is to win United Nations Security Council approval of so-called "smart sanctions" against the Saddam regime. The current effort, they said, focuses on Russia.

"We are this close," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "We believe that Iraq would be better served with a different leadership, with a different regime."

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