Iraq Ordered to Disarm
Bush: Days of "Cheat and Retreat" Are Over

By GORDON I. PETERSON
Senior Editor

In a major diplomatic success for the Bush administration, the 15-nation U.N. Security Council voted unanimously in early November to approve a tough new resolution calling for Iraq to comply with past U.N. disarmament obligations. The resolution warns Iraq that it will face unspecified "serious consequences" should it not comply fully with a fast-paced schedule of renewed inspections and rigorous disarmament requirements.

"With the resolution just passed," President George W. Bush said on 8 November, "the United Nations Security Council has met important responsibilities, upheld its principles, and given clear and fair notice that Saddam Hussein must fully disclose and destroy his weapons of mass destruction. He must submit to any and all methods to verify his compliance. His cooperation must be prompt and unconditional, or he will face the severest consequences."

Bush praised the Security Council for acting with courage and for taking a "principled stand" against Iraq. He also credited Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's leadership and determination in forging a successful U.N. vote through persistent diplomacy over the past two months.

"Zero-Tolerance Policy"

"The [Iraqi] regime must allow immediate and unrestricted access to every site, every document, and every person identified by [U.N.] inspectors," Bush said. "Iraq can be certain that the old game of cheat-and-retreat will no longer be tolerated."

During a tour of the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department's operations center on 12 November, Bush said that there would be no tolerance for repetitions of Iraq's past "deception and delay" regarding its disarmament obligations. "There's a zero-tolerance policy now," he said.

Iraq's foreign minister, Naji Saberi Ahmed, wrote U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in mid-November to communicate Iraq's acceptance of the new resolution and to express his country's readiness to accept U.N. weapons inspectors. Ahmed repeated past Iraqi denials that it has produced any weapons of mass destruction. His rambling eight-page letter also castigated the United States, Great Britain, the 13 other members of the Security Council, and Israel for various misdeeds of a largely unspecified nature. Ahmed specifically accused Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair of "wicked slander" against Iraq and asserted that U.S. pressure on the other Security Council embers to pass the new resolution was "extremely evil and shameful."

"... Iraq neither had produced or was in possession of any weapons of mass destruction--nuclear, chemical, or biological--throughout the time of the [U.N.] inspectors' absence from Iraq," Ahmed said.

Iraq's acceptance of the terms of the resolution immediately led to the dispatch of an advance party of U.N. officials and technicians led by Swedish diplomat Hans Blix, the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector. Speaking to reporters on 16 November, Blix acknowledged that his mission will be challenging. "We are fully aware of the difficulties and the uncertainties, but we will do our best," he said. Mohamed El Baradei, the chief weapons inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency, joined Blix in Baghdad.

Hussein's acceptance of the new U.N. resolution committed Iraq to permit the first U.N. advance team of weapons inspectors to arrive in Baghdad by 25 November. By 8 December, Iraq must provide the Security Council with "... a full, accurate, and complete" declaration of its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction, including civil programs having the potential for military applications.

The U.N.'s strict timetable calls for up to 100 weapons inspectors to resume their work by 23 December. They must report their findings to the United Nations by 21 February 2003.

The Forgotten War

November's flurry of diplomatic activity at the United Nations masked what had been largely a forgotten war over the skies of Northern and Southern Iraq. Since mid-September, the Pentagon has confirmed, Iraq has fired more than 130 times at U.S. and coalition aircraft patrolling the skies over the "no-fly" zones over Iraq that were established at the end of the Gulf War.

Whether a continuation of such incidents would precipitate a major U.S. or U.S./coalition counterattack while U.N. inspectors are back in Iraq is uncertain, but the loss of a U.S. or coalition aircraft to Iraqi antiaircraft fire could and probably would lead to a more forceful response than the recently expanded retaliatory air strikes against Iraqi air-defense and command-and-control sites.

The U.S. Central Command has positioned additional joint military units in close proximity to Iraq as a precautionary measure in the event President Bush orders combat operations. Reportedly included in these forces are lead elements of the headquarter staffs of the U.S. Army's V Corps and the U.S. Marine Corps' I Marine Expeditionary Force. For security reasons, spokesmen for the U.S. Central Command routinely decline to discuss such movements.
Gen. Tommy R. Franks, commander, U.S. Central Command, confirmed in a 29 October Pentagon press briefing that he would deploy to several countries in the region the communications equipment and technicians required to put in place and operate a new and highly mobile command-and-control (C2) post that would significantly enhance the Central Command's C2 capabilities. That deployment, planned for early December, would be part of a training exercise code-named Internal Look. "This Internal Look exercise gives us the opportunity to deploy that command post," Franks said. "The purpose of it is command, control, and communications--to be sure we have the right [radio] bandwidth lined up [and] to be sure that we can talk to our components: the air component, land component, maritime component, and special-operations component."

The more robust C2 post would increase his command's capabilities considerably, Franks acknowledged, but he declined to speculate how long the deployable command post would remain in the Persian Gulf region. "We will make that decision when the time comes," he said.

Increased Sea-Service Presence

In early November, more than 8,000 Sailors and Marines assigned to the USS Constellation Carrier Battle Group departed their homeport of San Diego, Calif., for a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf region. The Constellation Battle Group is scheduled to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln Battle Group, already on station, but that plan could be revised quickly should the United States require additional carrier-based air power in the region.
In addition to keeping the Abraham Lincoln and her battle group overseas, the George Washington Carrier Battle Group, now forward-deployed to the Mediterranean, also could be made available. Other carriers, including the USS Kitty Hawk (forward-deployed to Japan) and the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz, also could be ordered to quickly deploy to the Persian Gulf should circumstances dictate.

The Marine Corps' expeditionary-warfare capabilities in the Gulf region also will increase significantly in the foreseeable future when the USS Tarawa Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) departs San Diego to relieve the USS Belleau Wood ARG in the Northern Arabian Sea. Both ARGs could and probably would be kept in the region if combat operations seem imminent.

The U.S. military's preparation for the possibility of renewed conflict with Iraq also is reflected in a number of critical logistical-support areas. The Reuters News Agency reported in early November, for example, that the U.S. Navy has been seeking more merchant ships to carry a large quantity of ammunition and armored vehicles to the Persian Gulf region. Such commercial shipping would augment the considerable stockpiles of munitions, combat vehicles, weapons, and support equipment already stored afloat aboard ships of the Maritime Prepositioning Force (MPF) deployed to various logistics sites overseas.

The MPF has expanded considerably since its inception during the 1970s.

The Marine Corps, for example, has stowed the combat gear and sustainment material (spare parts, supplies, fuel, etc.) for more than 17,000 Marines aboard 15 Maritime Prepositioning Ships anchored at the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. As demonstrated convincingly during the Gulf War a decade ago, these ships can transit within days to the Persian Gulf region to offload their cargo. Marines flown in from the United States would then marry up with their equipment and be ready to commence combat operations quickly.

The U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force also have prepositioned large stockpiles of critical equipment and other supplies aboard MPF ships in the Indian Ocean.

"Landmark" Homeland Defense Bill Receives Congressional Approval

Buoyed by the Republican Party's 5 November success in winning key seats in the Senate and House of Representatives, the Bush administration quickly moved to forge needed compromises with Congressional Democratic leaders to permit passage of the landmark Homeland Security Bill before the end of the post-election lame-duck session.

On 13 November, the House of Representatives passed, by a 299 to 121 margin, its version of the legislation (H.R. 5710) authorizing the establishment of a new Department of Homeland Security. The Senate followed the House lead, defeating several attempts to delay final action until sometime early next year, by approving the bill, by a 90 to 9 vote, on 19 November.

Creation of the new department will affect numerous other departments and independent agencies under a reorganization that will take many months to complete--and that probably will require the incorporation of various late amendments (to be voted on next year) that already have been agreed to by the White House and the Congress. Nonetheless, it seems unlikely that any of the most important provisions of the bill will be seriously compromised in any way.

Those provisions, according to a summary of the bill developed by the House of Representatives Select Committee on Homeland Security, include the following in the "action areas" indicated:

• Immigration - Brings all immigration responsibilities under the Secretary of Homeland Security. Immigration services, however, will be kept separate from enforcement functions within the Department. A separate director will be responsible for immigration services.
• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) - Moves ATF from the Treasury Department to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to improve its law-enforcement responsibilities. ATF revenue collection functions will remain at the Treasury Department.
• Personnel Flexibility - Gives managers more authority to develop a flexible work force that can respond to a shifting threat, and protect and defend the American people. Union representatives are permitted to negotiate, for up to 30 days, changes to current personnel policies. If direct negotiations fail to yield agreement, the president must notify Congress, after which the issues unresolved will be referred to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. If the FMCS is unable to resolve a disagreement within 30 days, the secretary may notify Congress of the proposed policy change and the reasons for the disagreement. After that, changes proposed by the secretary may be implemented. If the president finds that union presence is having a substantial, and adverse, impact on homeland security he may not exercise his existing authority to exclude collective bargaining units from the Department until he has notified Congress and ten days have passed.
• Research and Development - Allows the secretary to designate a lead Homeland Security research organization to help coordinate homeland security research across the government, the academic community, and the private sector. Another provision establishes and funds a Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, similar to the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency, to help identify promising technologies and quickly get them into the hands of those who need them.
• Critical Infrastructure Protection ­ Includes provisions that encourage partnerships between government and the private sector to better protect civilian infrastructures such as telecommunications, transportation nodes, and power grids.
• Coast Guard - Preserves the Coast Guard's position as a distinct organization within the new Department while retaining and performing all current missions. Identifies separate funding for Coast Guard research-and-development activities.
• Corporate Inversion - Allows the Department of Homeland Security to do business with U.S. companies that have inverted as long as there is a national-security or economic-security reason to do so. [This provision was included, the Select Committee said, to protect U.S. jobs.]
• Guns in the Cockpit - The bill includes, with slight modifications, the Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act (H.R. 4635, which passed the House on 10 July by a 310 to 112 vote; it allows pilots to be trained [in the use of firearms] and to possess a gun in the cockpit of passenger planes).
• Airport Security - Provides for a one-year waiver for airports to comply with stringent security requirements for baggage screening to make sure the work is done properly with the most up-to-date technology.
• Inspector General ­ Gives law-enforcement authority for certain functions to various Inspector General offices throughout the federal government.
• Planning - Expands federal planning for domestic preparedness and recovery from terrorist attacks from the specific boundaries of Washington, D.C., to the entire National Capital Region.
• Agriculture - Expands cooperation and coordination within and between the Department of Agriculture and the Homeland Security Department.

Bush praised the leaders of both parties for their efforts in reaching agreement on the critical legislation. "This compromise is the result of months of hard work and negotiation," Bush said on 16 November following House passage of the bill, "and it will take additional time to put the agreement into place. The threat of terror will be with us for years to come, and we remain resolved to see this conflict [i.e., the global war on terrorism] through to its end."*