ACCESSION NUMBER:291843
FILE ID:POL204
DATE:06/29/93
TITLE:CLINTON SAYS STRIKE AT IRAQ SENT "APPROPRIATE MESSAGE" (06/29/93)
TEXT:*93062904.POL
CLINTON SAYS STRIKE AT IRAQ SENT "APPROPRIATE MESSAGE"
(U.S. "will not tolerate" terrorist acts) (450)
By Alexander M. Sullivan
USIA White House Correspondent
Washington -- The United States chose to strike at Iraq's major
intelligence facility to "send the appropriate message" to Saddam Hussein,
President Clinton said June 29.
Asked at a news conference why he had not chosen to strike more directly at
Saddam Hussein personally, the president acknowledged that it would be
"highly unusual" for an operation such as the attempted assassination of
former President Bush to be "authorized other than at the highest levels"
of the Iraqi government.
But he said that "under international law and the facts of this particular
case," he had decided the headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service
was "the best possible target." The president added that it was likely the
plot to explode a car bomb -- perhaps at an outdoor ceremony at the
University of Kuwait while Bush and the emir of Kuwait were in attendance
-- was hatched in the compound. "To damage that headquarters," Clinton
said, "would send the appropriate message, given the facts of this case."
Pressed on whether he thinks Saddam Hussein "signed off" on the
assassination plot, Clinton replied, "I have given you the only answer I
think it's appropriate for me to give you."
The president said the cruise missile attack on the compound had "made it
absolutely clear that we will not tolerate acts of terrorism or other
illegal or dangerous acts. I think it sent a very important message."
Asked to justify the cruise missile attack in light of U.S. leadership in
disarmament, Clinton said Washington has signed agreements to reduce
nuclear armaments, but he reminded the questioner that the weekend attack
was a response to the attempt on the life of a former president. It was a
response, he added, "to an operation that involved a bomb that, had it
exploded in downtown Kuwait City, had a 400-yard radius of lethal
destruction." He said the U.S. action was "a clear signal that people
ought not to use weapons in illegal ways.
Clinton said the standard rules of engagement covered a separate incident
over the "no-fly" zone imposed by the United Nations Security Council in
southern Iraq. A U.S. F-4G aircraft launched an anti-radar missile against
an Iraqi installation. "If radar locks onto our airplanes," Clinton
explained, "our airplanes are authorized to take action against those
installations." The president noted similar incidents have occurred in the
past and said he "wouldn't read too much into" the event, despite its
1uxtaposition with the U.S. cruise missile attack.
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