US intel official has said the White House 'will not take yes for answer'

[BigBearJohn]

Seymour Hersh, the noted US investigative reporter wrote in December 2001: 'Inside the Administration, there is general consensus on one issue, officials told me: there will be no further effort to revive the UN inspection regime withdrawn in late 1998'. (New Yorker, 24 December 2001, p. 63)

According to one former US official, 'The hawks' nightmare is that inspectors will be admitted, will not be terribly vigorous and not find anything. Economic sanctions would be eased, and the U.S. will be unable to act... and the closer it comes to the 2004 elections the more difficult it will be to take the military route.' (Washington Post, 15 April 2002, p. A01)

'The more hawkish members of the US defence department are said to favour direct military action on Iraq, which would be more difficult if weapons inspectors were on the ground.' (FT, 5 March 2002, p. 10)

US Secretary of State Colin Powell (allegedly a 'dove') made it clear that the the inspectors were irrelevant: 'US policy is that, regardless of what the inspectors do, the people of Iraq and the people of the region would be better off with a different regime in Baghdad. The United States reserves its option to do whatever it believes might be appropriate to see if there can be a regime change.' The issue of the inspectors was a 'separate and distinct and different' matter from the US position on Saddam Hussein's leadership, said Powell. (Guardian, 6 May 2002)

READ: http://electroniciraq.net/news/1946.shtml