Operation: Enduring Freedom!

...11/10/02: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said early Sunday morning, I think we can expect a positive position by the Iraqis...Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal also indicated Iraq would accept the resolution that dictates return of arms inspectors...They (Arab ministers) welcomed Iraq's approval of this resolution with the confirmation that Syria received that there would be no automatic military action...11/15/02 is the dealine for Iraq to accept the UN resolution to disarm its weapons of mass destruction & allow inspectors to examine the process...

...11/10/02: Arab ministers indicated Sunday Saddam Hussein was ready to accept a UN resolution to disarm, with Syria's foreign minister assuring Arab governments the Security Council document does not authorize the use of military force by the US...Arab officials and commentators have said the resolution - revised to satisfy French and Russian concerns - has at least set back the chance of war...but some have expressed fear that Washington still could use the document as an excuse to attack Baghdad at the earliest opportunity...Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted Sunday by Russian news agencies as saying the resolution does not contain a mechanism for the use of force...

...11/11/02: one after the other, senior Iraqi lawmakers rejected the resolution, the latest in a long effort to ensure Iraq scraps its weapons of mass destruction...this time, however, the United States and Britain have made clear they will attack Iraq if it does not fully comply...11/13/02: Iraq reluctantly accepted on Wednesday a tough new U.N. resolution that gives Baghdad one last chance to disarm and paves the way for weapons inspectors to return to the country after a four-year absence...faced with a Friday deadline, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri surprised diplomats by submitting a letter of acceptance to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan two days early...

...11/24/02: in a point-by-point protest, the Iraqi government complained to the United Nations Sunday that the small print behind the weapons inspections beginning this week will give Washington a pretext to attack...the new U.N. resolution on the inspections could turn inaccurate statements (among) thousands of pages of required Iraqi reports into a supposed justification for military action, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan...his lengthy letter, a detailed commentary on the Security Council resolution, was not expected to affect the inspections...Iraq had accepted the resolution in a Nov. 13 letter from Sabri to Annan...the resolution, adopted unanimously Nov. 7, demands the Iraqis give up any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, or face serious consequences...it requires Iraq to submit an accounting by Dec. 8 of its weapons programs, as well as of chemical, biological and nuclear programs it claims are peaceful...any false statements or omissions in that declaration could contribute to a finding it had committed a material breach...of the resolution - a finding that might lead to military action...the Bush administration has threatened war to enforce Iraqi disarmament, with or without U.N. sanction...but other governments, including France, Russia and China, say that decision can be made only by the Security Council...

...11/27/02: but that's not all there is to worry about...bin Laden emerged from his post-Sept. 11, 2001 netherland (maybe he's dead, maybe he's not) on 11/21/02...he did so with a message that another attack on the U.S. was imminent...he specifically mentioned New York City and Washington, D.C, and that it would be aimed at the nation's critical economic infrastructure...

...11/27/02: let the inspections begin!...11/30/02: so far the inspectors are pleased with Iraq's cooperation...

...why should we send troops to Iraq if the militray fears a biological attack on theUS?...there are many countries with stockpiles of germ warfare, such as Russia (who reports some of its inventory missing), N Korea, Iraq & the US!...the greatest threat appears to be of smallpox...the plan in this country is to immunize medical workers first...there have been no smallpox cases since 1949...health officials say the risk is very small for a smallpox attack...the US should have the time to respond...it would take 10 days to innoculate the entire population...at this time (11/29/02), there is a shortage of the vaccine...and many people under 35 have never been vaccinated against this disease in their lives...

...11/30/02: Federal workers will get a smaller pay raise next month because President Bush is freezing part of the increase, citing a national emergency because of the fight against terrorism...Bush's decision is yet another blow to the civilian federal work force, which has been the target of sweeping changes in the government bureaucracy...In a letter sent Friday to congressional leaders, Bush announced he was using his authority to change workers' pay structure in times of national emergency or serious economic conditions to limit raises to 3.1 percent...most federal employees also were to receive a second pay hike based on private-sector wages earned in metropolitan areas. But Bush said that increase would be too expensive and inappropriate at this time...a national emergency has existed since Sept. 11, 2001; Bush wrote...Such cost increases would threaten our efforts against terrorism or force deep cuts in discretionary spending or federal employment to stay within budget...neither outcome is acceptable.

The White House quietly divulged the cut in the middle of a long holiday weekend in which government and politics weren't likely to be on most Americans' minds...military personnel will still receive a 4.1 percent increase and aren't affected...

This is just another slap at federal employees, said Bobby L. Harnage Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 600,000 federal workers...the Bush administration can't even keep the best and the brightest in those jobs now. It's been a tough year for federal employees, said Paul Light, at the Brookings Institution...I don't think any one of them will be surprised. It's one of several lumps of coal in the stocking this year...the White House couldn't say exactly how many federal employees would receive the reduced pay raise, but said it would be almost all...

...12/5/02: President Bush says the US has proof that Iraq is hiding weapons from the inspectors!...Turkey has mixed feeling about having US soldiers on its soil...12/7/02: Iraq produces an 12,000 page report listing it weapons of mass destruction...a copy has been sent to NYC & DC...Note: Venezuela is the 5th largest oil producer in the world...

...12/7/02: Saddam Husein apologized to Kuwait for invading that country 12 years ago, and regrets any action that angered or offended them...he is also appealing to the common man, stating the US only cares about the oil these countries produce...the Iraqi foreign minister stated that Saddam should have first apologized to his own countrymen...

...12/11/02: facing criticism from the U.N. secretary-general & several Security Council members, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday defended a deal the United States initiated to take possession of Iraq's weapons declaration and spirit it to Washington.

Ambassador John Negroponte told the BBC that the Bush administration's aim was to provide expertise to help U.N. weapons inspectors and other council members in making as expeditious as possible an analysis of the Iraqi declaration....all 15 Security Council members had agreed Friday that before any member nations saw the report, U.N. inspectors would read the 12,000-page declaration & eliminate material that could be used to promote the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.....but the United States changed its mind & lobbied to get the entire uncensored document in the hands of the five permanent members - the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain and France - who are all nuclear powers and already have access to such information...a U.S. official took possession of the Security Council's copy late Sunday after Colombia's U.N. Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso, the current council president, agreed to the U.S. proposal...the decision, taken without a meeting of the 15-member council, angered some council members...

...12/11/02: in a new defense strategy submitted to Congress on Wednesday, President Bush warned Iraq and other hostile countries that the United States is prepared to use overwhelming force, including nuclear weapons, in response to any chemical or biological attack...

...12/15/02: the Senate's No. 2 Republican leader broke ranks with GOP colleagues and called Sunday for a new election for majority leader, saying Sen. Trent Lott may be so weakened that his continued service in that job could jeopardize the party'slegislative agenda...the comments by Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma were the first sign of rebellion among Republican senators...they have watched closely to see whether Lott's repeated apologies would defuse the controversy that has raged since his racially charged comments at a birthday party for South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond...

...12/18/02: Iraq is preparing to destroy its own oil fields, food supplies and power plants and blame the destruction on U.S. bombs during a war, U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday...the officials, briefing reporters at the Pentagon, said they have evidence Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has plans to wreck his own infrastructure to foster a humanitarian crisis & turn world opinion against US & Britain...several military experts in Washington said this was a plausible scenario, given that Saddam destroyed Kuwaiti oil fields as he abandoned that country in 1991...US defense officials have also said Saddam forces once chopped off the top of a mosque to make it appear it was hit during a U.S. airstrike...It's very likely Saddam will use scorched earth tactics, says one analyst...Any amount of destruction to protect his rule is justified....others say the course of the war will determine whether Saddam acts in this manner...A number of countries have prepared for operations like this in the past, but not executed them, says another critic...the U.S. intelligence officials also predicted Saddam will use his biological and chemical weapons if he believes he is about to fall...they predicted he would attack U.S. forces in Iraq, U.S. allies Israel and Kuwait, and any native Shiite Muslims and Kurds who rise up to oppose him...Iraq can deliver these weapons with missiles, aircraft-mounted sprayers and artillery shells...Iraq could use disease weapons like anthrax, poisons like botulinum and ricin, and mustard gas... Saddam is not believed to have any nuclear weapons...

...12/20/02: Baghdad fails to come clean with weapons inventory...