Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 30, 1993 TAG: 9306300170
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
President Clinton said it was "very difficult to conceive" of improved relations with Baghdad in light of "the stubborn refusal of Iraq to comply with United Nations resolutions."
The U.N. measures require Saddam to dismantle his weapons of mass destruction and open his military facilities to inspection.
The president spoke at a news conference after the Pentagon disclosed that a U.S. jet fired a missile at an Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery site. The Pentagon said the Iraqis had aimed their radar at the U.S. plane, a possible prelude to firing.
Clinton noted there have similar occurrences in the past. "I wouldn't read too much into it," he said.
Iraqi spokesmen confirmed that, in a separate incident, nervous Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners apparently misidentified an Iraqi plane as American and unleashed a fusillade of shells at it, but there was no immediate indication whether the aircraft was hit.
Questions about Iraq dominated Clinton's news conference three days after U.S. warships fired cruise missiles at Saddam Hussein's intelligence headquarters in retaliation for the alleged assassination plot against Bush.
The developments came as two U.S. warships - the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and the destroyer Spruance - sailed through the Suez Canal on Tuesday en route to the Red Sea, where they have been assigned to help enforce the southern Iraq "no-fly zone."
Their arrival will bring the number of U.S. warships in that area to six, including another destroyer, two frigates and an auxiliary vessel. Until now, the Roosevelt had been in the Adriatic Sea, helping to enforce a separate no-fly zone over Bosnia.
While strongly hinting he believed Saddam responsible for the assassination plot, Clinton declined to directly accuse the Iraqi leader.
He said intelligence experts "have no experience of such an operation of that magnitude being authorized other than at the highest levels."
The State Department was more explicit.
"Our feeling is the Iraqi intelligence services and the Iraqi government are so centralized and so tightly controlled that it is inconceivable that any large-scale operation like an assassination attempt against a former president of the United States could be conceived without it being known and approved by Saddam Hussein," said spokesman Mike McCurry.
by CNB