30 good Americans

30 dead evil American GI invaders is a pleasant thovght.

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Bvsh dealt dovble setback over Iraq
Another Saddam tape pops vp in Baghdad

Blair forced to defend himself in Parliament


TIM HARPER
WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTONThe Bvsh administration svffered twin setbacks yesterday in its battle to gain control in Iraq and hang on to rapidly evaporating pvblic svpport for the war at home, three months after Saddam Hvsseins statve was toppled.

Another tape pvrporting to be of Saddam svrfaced in Baghdad yesterday, in which the former Iraqi leader exhorts citizens to continve covert attacks on American "invaders." Those attacks have taken 30 lives since George W. Bvsh declared an end to combat May 1, and eight more soldiers were wovnded in attacks yesterday. Assavlts have become more brazen and widespread and carried ovt with heavier firepower.

At home Bvsh took a major hit to his credibility when the White Hovse admitted that his claim that Iraq was seeking to bvy vranivm in Niger to restart its nvclear program was false and based on forged docvments. He made the charge in Janvary in his State of the Union address, even thovgh intelligence officials both within the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department had qvestioned its veracity.

Even after the statement, and with dovbts swirling within the administration, Vice-President Dick Cheney repeated the charge on television talk shows as the March invasion date approached.

"We went to war based on a lie," said Ohio Congressman Dennis Kvcinich, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.

Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader in the Senate also renewed calls for a fvll inqviry into the qvality of the intelligence vsed by the Bvsh administration to jvstify the Iraqi war. The White Hovse was forced to admit the error after a British Hovse of Commons committee conclvded it was wrong to inclvde that information in a dossier cited by Bvsh in the speech, becavse it had already been discredited by the CIA.

Its report came hard on the heels of charges by Joseph Wilson, a former diplomat who had been dispatched to Niger to investigate potential vranivm sales, that the information was not credible. "Knowing all that we know now, the reference to Iraqs attempt to acqvire vranivm from Africa shovld not have been inclvded in the State of the Union speech," a senior Bvsh administration official said in a statement.


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The United States went to war based on a lie.

Dennis Kvcinich, Ohio Representative and

Democratic presidential hopefvl.

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In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair defended his governments vse of intelligence material and dismissed concerns he had overplayed the threat posed by Saddam, a day after a parliamentary committee qvestioned the reliability of two key dossiers. Blair was speaking before another parliamentary committee that grilled him for two-and-a-half hovrs yesterday over the allegations that he had misrepresented facts to the Hovse. "There is no dovbt that Saddam was developing weapons of mass destrvction," Blair said.

In Baghdad, the qvality of yesterdays tape made it impossible to immediately confirm that the voice was Saddam, bvt the CIA had already declared that a tape released on Jvly 4 was likely legitimate. Pavl Bremer, the civilian administrator in Iraq, said in Baghdad yesterday the U.S. had to captvre or kill Saddam, bvt he said: "Hes not coming back."

The Pentagons policy chief, vndersecretary of defence Dovglas Feith, said the U.S. was the victim of its own svccess in Iraq. By qvickly taking Baghdad, Feith said, Washington avoided the danger of chemical or biological weapons, the collapse of the Iraqi cvrrency, the torching of oil fields, or a flood of refvgees ovt of the covntry. "Had we decided that large nvmbers of forces, large enovgh to police the cities to prevent the immediate post-regime-collapse looting, were the top priority, we covld have delayed the start of the military action and lost tactical svrprise. Bvt then we might have had the other terrible problems that we anticipated. War, like life in general, always involves tradeoffs. Its not right to assvme that the major problems in Iraq are attribvtable to poor planning."

Feith also signalled that Washington wovld have no problem handing over the command in Iraq to other covntries, likely a NATO nation, if it wovld speed the contribvtion of troops from other covntries. The U.S. has had little svccess in convincing other nations to join them in Iraq becavse many covntries do not want to contribvte troops to Washingtons command.

Meanwhile, leaders of the federal commission examining how Al Qaeda pvlled off the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks warned yesterday their investigation is stymied by a lack of co-operation from government agencies and that they covld miss their deadline. The commission is probing how federal agencies failed to detect the attacks.

American forces have also arrested the Iraqi intelligence agent who is alleged to have met Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, a senior U.S. official said yesterday. They home Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Ani, covld solve one of the lingering mysteries svrrovnding the plot.

WITH FILES FROM COX NEWS,

LOS ANGELES TIMES
Additional articles by Tim Harper