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LONDON (Reuters) - The United States will ship tanks and heavy armor to the Middle East this month as President Bush tries to garner domestic support for efforts to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.Shipping sources said Wednesday the U.S. Navy had booked a large commercial ship to carry tanks and heavy armor to the Gulf, a sign its own vessels might have made such shipments.The U.S. Military Sealift Command chartered a U.S.-flagged general cargo ship to sail from the southeast U.S. coast to an unspecified Gulf port for discharge in late September, they said. This is the third shipment...

Blair: Iraq Is Real Threat Prime Minister Tony Blair has strengthened his support for a possible US-led attack on Iraq, saying the country "poses a real and unique threat".Mr Blair made the pledge whilst facing the Press at an open forum in his Sedgefield constituency. "I believe it is in the United Kingdom's national interest that the issue is addressed," he said. Constant dialogue The Prime Minister said "America should not face the issue alone" and promised "the fullest possible debate will take part in Parliament and elsewhere". "The rest of the world has a responsibility, not just America," he...

Iraq is due to dispatch envoys to European capitals, including Paris and Berlin, to explain its stance against US plots to overthrow the regime, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said. "Iraq is going to send emissaries to several European countries, including France and Germany, to explain the scale of American threats against the Iraqi people and the dangers they pose to world peace and security," Ramadan told the official Iraq News Agency (INA) Sunday. He added French and German opposition to US schemes to strike Iraq without seeking a new UN mandate "mean that European countries are aware of the...

CAIRO, Egypt - A U.S.-British air raid in southern Iraq this weekend destroyed a major military surveillance site that monitors American troops in the Persian Gulf, witnesses said Tuesday. The Iraqi military said the allied warplanes on Sunday bombed areas in Basra province, 330 miles south of Baghdad, killing eight civilians and wounding nine others. The U.S. Central Command in Florida said coalition aircraft used precision-guided weapons to strike two air defense radar systems near Basra "in response to recent Iraqi hostile acts against coalition aircraft monitoring the southern no-fly zone." The witnesses, Iraqis who said they were at the...

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Saddam's Rap Sheet by Daniel Pipes and Jonathan Schanzer New York Post August 20, 2002 http://www.danielpipes.org/article/444 http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/55073.htm Consider the paradox: Almost every government agrees that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is an appalling monster and shudders at the prospect of his acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet those same governments are also furiously signaling their disapproval of an American-led military effort to depose him. That would be "risky adventurism," declares Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder; Saddam poses no immediate threat, and Washington lacks a justification to attack him. Most U.S. allies worldwide agree. But they are plain wrong. Saddam is an immediate menace, and...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and British jet fighters bombed targets in southern Iraq on Saturday in the second raid this week, the Iraqi Air Force Command said. It said in a statement the planes struck civilian and public buildings in Dhi-Qar province, 375 km (250 miles) south of Baghdad. Iraqi air defenses fired at the attacking planes, forcing them to return to bases in Kuwait, it said. There was no immediate confirmation of the strike from Britain or the United States. U.S. and British planes had attacked targets in the south on Wednesday, wounding four civilians, the Iraqi air force...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug 15, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Iraqi authorities have ordered Baghdad residents to stay put and warned that their money and property will be confiscated if they leave the city without permission, according to a well-informed source. The measures were taken, the source said, to prevent people fleeing in anticipation of a U.S. military strike. Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

U.S. letter to Arab leaders: 'There will be no turning back' SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COMThursday, August 15, 2002</CENTER LONDON — The United States has warned Arab leaders to prepare public opinion for a change in the Iraqi regime. Diplomatic sources said the Bush administration has sent letters to the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states in the Middle East. The letters, said to be nearly identical, assert that Washington is determined to topple the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. U.S. officials did not confirm the message, Middle East Newsline reported. But in...

Key Bush Aide Says Saddam Must Be Dealt With Thu Aug 15, 6:33 AM ET By Mike Peacock LONDON (Reuters) - The United States has no choice but to take action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday. But President Bush had not decided "how he wants to do it" or how to "make the case for particular methods," she said. "We certainly do not have the luxury of doing nothing," Rice, a pivotal player in Bush's administration, told BBC radio. "We believe the case for regime change is very powerful." Bush...

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - As debate rages about the wisdom of launching a military strike against Iraq, a leading defense publication Thursday called into question some of the key arguments against an attack, saying that many of the critics had been proven wrong in the past. Jane's Foreign Report said its access to Bush administration thinking had led it to the view that opponents of an attack may be exaggerating the dangers while underestimating the advantages of a successful operation for the wider Middle East. That assessment comes at a time politicians in the U.S. and key allies...