Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 9, 1993 TAG: 9301090144
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
IRAQ MOVES MISSILES
Intelligence reports Friday said Saddam Hussein's anti-aircraft missiles in a no-fly zone had been "broken down" and moved from a hostile position, but the Bush administration cautioned that the crisis with Iraq may not be over.The destination of the missiles remained unclear, U.S. officials said.
At the Pentagon, Friday night intelligence reports indicated the missiles "are no longer up and in a position to shoot," a senior defense official said.
One senior administration official said "The crisis is much defused," noting the Iraqis "definitely have moved the things, but we don't know where - and we won't know for certain until probably Sunday."
This official, who declined to be named, said Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had urged Bush to "declare victory" and end the standoff, although the White House initially was reluctant to embrace that view.
"We're still watching this very closely. We are still in a position to take action, should we find that we need to do so," said a senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Another administration official said it was "not conclusive whether they're leaving or not. We're prepared to respond at any time we feel they've had enough time and haven't done it."
That official cited two factors in a U.S. decision not to act as soon as the deadline, 5:15 p.m. EST, passed.
"One is the weather and its impact on our ability to in effect see what's going on. The other is that there is movement by the missiles, but you can't tell whether they're just being hidden or being moved to camouflage sites or they're just being moved in a mobile fashion to try to throw us off track."
He said the Iraqi jets that had darted in and out of the no-fly zone in southern Iraq have been removed from the Al Jarrah air base near the 32nd parallel.
It was the anti-aircraft missiles, however, that spurred the latest Iraqi confrontation with the West. On Wednesday, allies demanded that Saddam move them, by Friday evening, out of the zone set up to protect Muslim Shiites in southern Iraq. Since then, Saddam has played a cat-and-mouse game with the missiles, and foul weather has complicated intelligence efforts to pinpoint them.
Pilots of U.S. jets returning from a sweep of southern Iraq Friday night reported the weather at least temporarily had improved. They said there was a nearly full moon and clear skies, and no sign of threat from Iraq's air force or surface-to-air missiles.
President-elect Clinton said Bush had consulted him "about the action that the president proposed to take and I agreed with the action."
President Bush earlier in the day said Iraq was challenging the United States.
Officials at the White House, Pentagon and State Department all indicated there was no reason to expect a quick military response.