Iraq has begun moving anti-aircraft assets in civilian
areas as part of military preparations for war against the United States.
The U.S. Defense Department has released a video of an Iraqi military
truck transporting a Spoon Rest early-warning radar near Basra. The Nov. 26
video shows the truck carrying the radar moving being brought to a cluster
of homes.
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers said
British and U.S. warplanes have not attacked Iraqi military assets deployed
in civilian areas. Myers did not say whether this would remain U.S. policy.
"Because the potential for collateral damage is so high when they park
near buildings like this, we elect not to go after them," Myers told a
Pentagon news conference on Tuesday. "But it's a good example, I think, how
the Iraqi regime places civilians at risk in a conscious way."
Myers said the Iraqi buildup could also reflect naval activity in the
Gulf. He said Iraq has seaworthy ships that can be equipped with sea-to-sea
missiles, mines and other capabilities.
The Iraqi military buildup is being paralleled by the steady increase in
U.S. troops and equipment in the Persian Gulf area. In Qatar, more than 700
military personnel have already arrived to prepare for the Internal Look
command and control exercise by Central Command. The exercise is scheduled
for next week.
"We had been moving forces around the world, as you know," Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. "We've got a somewhat higher level of
presence in the Central Command area today than we did last week or the week
before or the week before that."
Rumsfeld said Iraq has defied United Nations efforts and continues to
possess weapons of mass destruction. The defense secretary said the United
States is helping UN inspectors with intelligence information on Iraq's WMD
arsenal. Iraq is expected to declare on Saturday that it no longer has WMD.
"The responsibility for demonstrating that [Iraq no longer has WMD] is
not on the UN, it's not on the United States, it's not on the UK, it's not
on the Security Council," Rumsfeld said. "It's on Iraq. And it's
important to get that into one's mind, because it is Iraq that is the
subject of the resolutions, and the resolutions call for them to be open and
demonstrate that they have disarmed, and no longer have any of those
programs which they did and we know they do."
