Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 10, 1994                   TAG: 9410110050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. HINTS THAT FIGHT COULD INCLUDE ATTACK ON SADDAM

Moreover, administration officials hinted that if the Iraqi leader repeats his actions of 1990, the United States will not ``repeat the mistakes of the past'' and let him off the hook.

Defense Secretary William Perry said U.S. forces in the region will be ``very powerful'' by the end of the week, the earliest he thinks Saddam could launch an attack.

``If the Iraqis enter Kuwait, they will be soundly defeated,'' Perry said on the CBS television show ``Face the Nation.''

White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta hinted that U.S. armed forces would not stop with an attack on the Iraqi army, suggesting that they could try to oust or kill Saddam himself.

With some U.S. soldiers questioning why the United States didn't ``finish the job'' in the 1991 Gulf War, Panetta was asked if the United States would ``eliminate'' the Iraqi dictator.

``I'm not going to go into the details of what a military mission might be if we have to face that fact, but I can tell you this: We're not going to repeat the mistakes of the past,'' Panetta said on the NBC program ``Meet the Press.''

A senior Pentagon official said Sunday night that the United States has ``preliminary indications'' that Iraq is moving a third division of its Republican Guards south to join the two other divisions that started shifting toward the border with Kuwait last week. More than 80,000 Iraqi troops and 700 tanks are near or moving toward Kuwait, Pentagon officials said.

Earlier, The Washington Post quoted a top Clinton administration official as saying that the Iraqi troop movements were a ``hostile'' act that could be met with a U.S. military response even if those troops do not invade Kuwait, as they did in 1990.

United Nations Ambassador Madeleine Albright described the troop movements as ``disrupting the stability in the region. ... We consider this hostile.''

Kuwait moved the bulk of its 18,000-member army to its northern border while Iraq proclaimed ``the right to take any measures'' to defend itself against a foreign ``plot'' to crush it.

Iraq's foreign minister said later that Baghdad preferred a diplomatic solution to its ``crisis with the United Nations but would insist on guarantees of a speedy end to the Gulf War sanctions.''

``There's a unifying of the old coalition,'' U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said from Jerusalem on the ABC show ``This Week with David Brinkley.'' Iraq's moves have been condemned by the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Arab League, he said.

Perry said Iraq's movements are ``very comparable'' to those Saddam took just before invading Kuwait in 1990.

1992 presidential candidate Ross Perot suggested that Clinton is trumping up the Iraqi movements to boost his own sagging popularity before next month's elections.

``We're about to have an election, right? This is the old game. The first war didn't get him a bump in the polls; now let's try a second one,'' Perot said on ``Face the Nation,'' referring to Haiti.

``The White House wants military action to show the strength of the president. You don't show your strength with other people's lives. That's wrong.''

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