[casi] FW: Powell, Rice Confirm Plans To Use Nuclear Weapons

["farbuthnot" <asceptic@DELETETHISfreenetname.co.uk>]

thanks to Rick Rozoff again - best, f.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=3481814

The Times Of India
March 12, 2002

Powell, Rice confirm plans to use nukes


PTI [ MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2002  7:40:10 PM ]

ASHINGTON: The United States on Monday asserted that
using nuclear weapons was definitely an option before
the country after several rounds of squeakish
explanations failed to convince Washington's several
adversaries and key partners alike, of its designs.

With countries still unable to recover from the shock
of the explosive secret paper leaked recently that
said the US had planned to make at least seven
countries target of a potential nuclear attack,
Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security
Advisor Condoleezza Rice have confirmed the plans.

"Just as US officials made clear before the Persian
Gulf War in 1991, the President of the United States
and the American people had a full range of options
available to them. Obviously, the full range of
options goes from an M-16 rifle to a nuclear device,"
Powell said.

Rice also confirmed that the Bush administration was
examining a range of scenarios, including possible use
of nuclear weapons. She said the only way to deter the
use of weapons of mass destruction against the US and
its allies is "to be clear that it would be met with
devastating response."

"The use of a weapon of mass destruction against
American military forces, American territory or
American friends and allies," she said, "would be a
horror. The responsibility of the President of the
United States is to make certain that that does not
happen."

Libya reacted with shock over the reports, with its
minister for African Affairs Ali Abd Salam Turki
saying "I don't think this is true."

"I don't think America is going to destroy the world,"
Turki said. Russian reaction came at a non-official
level with Dmitri Rogozin, Chairman of the
International Affairs Committee of the lower House of
the Russian Parliament saying "they have brought out a
big stick -- a nuclear stick -- that is supposed to
scare us and put us in our place."

Col Gen Leonid Ivashov, who was serving Kremlin till
recently said the US even after the end of Cold War
considered Moscow as a rival and wanted to weaken it.
"It is about time Russian politicians realised this
and stopped having illusions that Washington wishes
Moscow well."

Vyacheslav Nikonov, president of the Political
Foundation, a prestigious think tank, said drawing up
contingency plans for a nuclear war with Moscow was an
unseemly gesture for a nation that says it is Russia's
friend.

Iran, another target country, former president Hashemi
Rafsanjani accused the US of trying to frighten other
countries into submission.

He told the official IRNA news agency "America thinks
that if a military threat looms large over the head of
these seven countries, they will give up their logical
demands."

The Tehran Times said the report indicates that the US
Administration "is going to wreak havoc on the whole
world in order to establish its hegemony and
domination."

Powell, who was formerly Chairman of the US Joint
Chiefs of Staff and had a prominent role in that
capacity during the Gulf War said, it is the job of
any national leader and military to have contingency
plans for all circumstances and hence the nuclear war
paper should not be treated as anything extraordinary.

PTI



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