A-Infos (en) US has policy allowing nuclear attack on Iraq [Washington Post] FWD

[Tom Boland <wgcp@earthlink.net>]

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FWD from Spot News [Washington Post Service]

US HAS POLICY ALLOWING NUCLEAR ATTACK ON IRAQ

Irish Times
February 3, 1998

Patrick J. Sloyan reports on secret contingency plans
authorised by President Clinton at the end of last year
The US/Iraq: The Clinton administration has quietly
changed US nuclear weapons policy to permit for the
first time attacking Iraq with tactical atomic
warheads, according to US officials.

The top-secret directive, signed by President Clinton
in November, is part of the administration's
contingency plan to consider using atomic bombs on
Iraqi weapon sites if President Saddam Hussein
initiates a major biological attack on Israel or other
neighbouring countries, according to White House
and Pentagon officials.

Administration officials said the policy shift involving
tactical nuclear weapons and so-called "rogue
states", such as Iraq, was made as part of the most
extensive overhaul of US policy regarding both
strategic and tactical nuclear weapons since the
Reagan administration.

"It is US policy to target nuclear weapons if there is
the use of weapons of mass destruction" by Iraq, said
a senior Clinton adviser who spoke on condition of
anonymity. "Whether we would use it is a another
matter."

The new policy was part of Presidential Policy
Directive 60, which Clinton approved after
consultation with the Defence Secretary, Mr William
Cohen, and Gen Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff.

The United States is the only country to have used
atomic weapons in war, dropping bombs on the
Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Through the Reagan administration, US policy
promised massive retaliation to prevent nuclear
confrontations with the Soviet Union and China.

With the end of the Cold War, the threats changed
from longrange strategic nuclear weapons aimed at
major nations to new, more flexible weapons of mass
destruction that could be used by smaller rogue states
such as Iraq.

Administration officials said they feared the Iraqi
president might use a handful of Scud rockets to
spread a powdered version of anthrax spores over
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel, killing thousands
and making parts of Riyadh, Kuwait City and Tel Aviv
uninhabitable for decades.

During the Persian Gulf war in 1991, President Bush
threatened to retaliate with nuclear force if President
Saddam Hussein used biological weapons, but his
admin istration never formally adopted a policy,
officials said. But it was Mr Bush's warning that has
evolved into Mr Clinton's directive.

Until November, first use of nuclear weapons on Iraq
would have violated US pledges never to make such
an attack on a signer of the nuclear Non Proliferation
Treaty, which includes Iraq. But US officials say
President Saddam's efforts to develop nuclear
weapons would forfeit Iraq's treaty protection. Mr
Clinton's threat has been deliberately vague. A
Pentagon spokesman, Mr Ken Bacon, said last week
the United States refused to "rule in or rule out" the
use of tactical nuclear warheads. Mr Bacon's words
have caused rumblings abroad and among the arms
control community.

"It's a mistake to threaten Hussein with nuclear
weapons because it will not deter him," said Mr
William Arkin of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
Most senior military planners now prefer conventional
weapons for the massive strike being considered if
Iraq refuses to allow UN weapons inspections. But in
the latest showdown, the administration wants
President Saddam to include in his current
calculations the possibility of one or more B61
nuclear warheads finding their way to Iraqi targets.

The B61 series of tactical warheads involved in the
contingency planning are so-called "mininukes" with
an explosive force less than 1 kiloton. The bomb
dropped on Hiroshima had an estimated 13 kilotons of
explosive power. Even so, the mini-nukes are 300 to
500 times more powerful than the largest
conventional, non-nuclear warhead in the US arsenal.

Some US intelligence officials suspect that the
remnants of President Saddam's chemical and
biological weapons are hidden in European-built
bunkers made of reinforced concrete.

During the Persian Gulf war, these bunkers were
attacked with limited success by 2,000 lb
television-guided bombs dropped with pinpoint
accuracy on laser-designated targets. This was one
reason the air force pushed its effort to develop a
5,000 lb bomb, the GBU28, which could cut through 11
feet of reinforced concrete.

Since then, the air force has modernised the GBU28
and produced hundreds of the laser-guided bombs
with conventional warheads. They can be dropped by
F15E fighter-bombers or the B-1, a subsonic strategic
bomber now poised in Bahrain.

The mini-nuke available for the bunker attack most
likely would be the B61-7, a bomb dropped from a
fighter-bomber by parachute to explode at the
surface. Its explosive force ranges from 300 tons to
500 tons of high explosive.

- (Washington Post Service)

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