WASHINGTON Ñ The Bush administration has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to increase
their monitoring of Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
U.S. officials said the intelligence community Ñ which on Wednesday
released a CIA report on Teheran's strategic weapons capabilities Ñ will
focus on Iranian activities to develop missiles and weapons of mass
destruction. Another target will be Iranian efforts to form
alliances in Afghanistan, Middle East Newsline reported.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the intelligence gathering
reflects the priorities of the administration. Rumsfeld said Washington has
also focused on missile and WMD programs in Iraq and North Korea.
"We are gathering additional information every day from a variety of
sources," Rumsfeld said.
On late Tuesday, President George Bush warned that Iran, Iraq and North
Korea are developing missiles and WMD that threaten their region as well as
the West. Bush suggested that the United States might physically stop these
countries from completing such weapons, a prospect that the White House
later downplayed.
"The United States will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to
threaten us with the world's most dangerous weapons," Bush said.
U.S. officials said the intelligence focus on Iran is meant to obtain a
clear picture of Teheran's efforts to achieve nuclear capability. They said
Iran has been the least monitored of the so-called rogue countries, which
include Libya, Iraq and North Korea. The funding for the monitoring effort
is being sought by the administration, which will submit its fiscal 2003
budget request to Congress next week.
"The strategy will deal with nonproliferation, counter-proliferation and
consequence management and will look at a broad variety of tools that can be
applied," Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf, who focuses on
nonproliferation issues, said. "In this administration, nonproliferation
policy and coordination is being chaired at the White House. The National
Security Council is taking the lead, but formulation is part of an
interagency process."
On Thursday, the Washington Times reported that U.S. intelligence has
alerted the administration to the prospect of another Islamic attack that
would rival the suicide strikes in New York and Washington in September. The
newspaper said nuclear power plants could be one target.
Bush's warning to Iran has been welcomed by Israel. Israeli officials
said the United States and Israel have increased consultations and
intelligence exchange regarding Iran's missile and WMD programs.
On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told parliament that
Iran has provided Hizbullah with 10,000 rockets with ranges of between 20
and 70 kilometers. Peres said Iran is developing the Shihab-3, with a range
of 1,300 kilometers, and is "working to produce" missiles with ranges of
5,000 kilometers that will threaten Europe.
"Iran will try and produce a 10,000-kilometer range missiles capable of
threatening North America," Peres said.
