US makes case for Iraq attack

WASHINGTON -- Pressing its campaign for worldwide support, the Bush administration is reaching out to world leaders and members of Congress with fresh disclosures that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction and has links to the al Qaeda terror network.\nAs Secretary of State Colin Powell ponders a U.N. appearance next week to make intelligence public, Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld arranged to provide an advance, secret briefing on Wednesday to House members.\nPresident Bush used one or two new pieces of recently unclassified intelligence to outline his case against Iraq in Tuesday's night's State of the Union address. He asserted that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction and ties to terrorist groups and argued that America can't wait until the threat matures to the point that it's too late to contain Saddam.\nWith White House approval, Powell will disclose previously classified material designed to indict Iraq as a deceitful holder of illicit weapons and as having links to the plotters of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States.\nPowell has material showing that Iraq not only was hiding chemical and biological weapons from U.N. inspectors but smuggling in technology for long-range missile and nuclear weapons programs, a senior U.S. official said.\nA senior Iraqi official insisted Tuesday that Baghdad holds no banned weapons and said that U.N. inspectors' reports critical of its cooperation was not a "proportional representation" of the facts.\n"I would like first of all to say Iraq has been free of any weapons of mass destruction since the end of 1991 and all the inspections ... have proven this fact," Gen. Amir Rashid told reporters.\nPowell, meanwhile, conferred with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw by telephone Tuesday.\nThe administration is refusing to tip its hand on when it might go to war to disarm Iraq, but Powell has suggested the tug-of-war with Saddam Hussein was nearing an end.\n"What we can't do is just keep kicking the can down the road in the absence of a change in policy and attitude" in Baghdad, Powell said Monday.\nFollowing up on a weapons inspectors' report to the United Nations, President Bush consulted with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende on Monday and had meetings on tap later this week with prime ministers Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and Tony Blair of Britain, the closest U.S. ally.\nThe United States intends to provide U.N. inspectors with more evidence next week in support of its contention that Saddam has hidden thousands of chemical and biological weapons in palaces, mosques and private homes, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.\nA U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration might go along with inspections for about two weeks.\nThe U.N. inspectors credited Iraq with only limited cooperation. "Inspections only work in the presence of cooperation, active cooperation," Powell said.\nAsked Tuesday if the administration supports returning to the Council for a second resolution before going to war, Fleischer said, "It's desirable but it is not mandatory."\nThe Army general who would run a war against Iraq, Tommy Franks, was returning to his Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., Tuesday after a tour of the Persian Gulf region. The Central Command battle staff has moved from Tampa to a base in Qatar where Franks would oversee all land, sea and air forces in an Iraq war.\nGermany opposes going to war under any circumstances. France, Russia and others have been skeptical that a case for war has been made.\nBut on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow could soften its insistence on a diplomatic solution if Baghdad hampers U.N. weapons inspectors.\n"If Iraq begins to make problems for the work of the inspectors, then Russia may change its position and agree with the United States on the development of different, tougher U.N. Security Council decisions," Putin said during a visit to Ukraine.\nPowell said earlier that the administration had "some basis" for assuming Iraq had links to the al Qaeda terror network, accused in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.\n"The information that we can divulge in greater detail we will be divulging in the days ahead," he said.\nLater, a senior Bush adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bush would cite U.S. claims of Iraqi links to al Qaeda in his speech and that Powell would reveal evidence of the ties and more about hidden Iraqi weapons next week.\nPrevious administration claims about Iraqi al Qaeda links proved inconclusive.\nThe Pentagon pushed ahead with war preparations that point to more than 150,000 troops and four aircraft carrier battle groups, each with more than 70 warplanes, in the Persian Gulf region by the end of February.\nIn a significant step, the Pentagon concluded an arrangement with the Turkish government to permit up to 20,000 U.S. troops to use bases in Turkey for a potential ground invasion into northern Iraq, a senior Defense Department official said.