THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 16, 1995 TAG: 9508160408
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Defense Secretary William Perry is rattling America's saber in the Middle East, but the sailors and airmen who are on the blade's edge are going about business as usual, the skipper of a Norfolk-based aircraft carrier suggested Tuesday.
In a telephone interview from the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Navy Capt. Robert L. Christenson said his crew on the carrier Theodore Roosevelt is looking forward to a port call today in Haifa, Israel, ``and then to do what we're told'' should a confrontation develop with Iraq.
The carrier's jets flew 74 sorties on Tuesday, Christenson said, all of them routine training flights over international waters.
The Roosevelt is one of two U.S. carriers positioned within striking distance of Iraq amid signs that country may be preparing to attack Jordan. The second ship, the West Coast-based Abraham Lincoln, is in the Persian Gulf.
In addition to the 150 or so planes on the two carriers, ``We . . . have a sizable number of Tomahawk (missiles) within range of Iraq,'' Perry told reporters and editors of The Washington Times in an interview published Tuesday. Other surface ships and attack submarines carry those missiles.
His warning came in response to what Perry called unusual Iraqi military movements and a government purge that is destabilizing Saddam Hussein's reign in Iraq, the Times said.
Iraq's movements are in retaliation for a decision last week by Jordan's King Hussein to grant asylum to two high-level Iraqi defectors.
In Jerusalem, the newspaper Haaretz reported, without attribution, that Israel has agreed to a U.S. request to let planes from the Roosevelt fly over Israel in case Iraq attacks Jordan.
The Roosevelt has been operating in the central Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea for several weeks and had been scheduled to make a port call in Cannes, France, this week. But Perry ordered the big ship to waters just west of Israel instead.
Christenson said the Roosevelt spent ``pretty much a standard day'' at sea on Tuesday and that he expects that the ship will return to Norfolk on schedule next month.
Perry declined to say whether a ``pro-Western team'' is ready to take over in Iraq if Saddam falls, but told The Washington Times: ``I can say that it's a question which we have thought about very, very seriously . . . and we are working on.''
He said last week's defections of two top Iraqi military leaders are a ``very clear indication of how shaky, how unstable the regime in Iraq is.''
``There's evidently a sizable purge going on in the Iraqi government, particularly in the Iraqi military today,'' Perry told the Times. ``That can only lead to more instability, more weakness in the Iraqi government.''
He said U.S. military preparations are a response to ``the danger to the Jordanian government for having provided sanctuary for these defectors.''
``I think there's every reason to be concerned about that,'' he said.
Perry said the United States ``would respond'' if Iraq fired any missiles at Jordan.
``I don't feel free to tell you the nature of the response,'' he told the paper. ``My job at the moment is to be sure that we're in a position to respond and, furthermore, to let the Iraq government know we're in a position to respond.''
He said Iraqi military forces are on the move, but not necessarily in an attack mode.
``We see some redeployment of forces, but the pattern does not necessarily suggest an attack,'' he said. `We also see some mobilization.'' by CNB