US battle plan 'shock and awe'

WASHINGTON - A US war plan calls for the launch in March of 300 to 400 cruise missiles a day at the start of a war on Iraq, more than were fired during the entire first Gulf War, according to a weekend television report.

US officials have predicted for months that an attack on Iraq would be swift, massive and designed to catch Baghdad by surprise.

The report by CBS Television, quoting Pentagon sources, offers new details of Pentagon thinking as the Bush Administration is undergoing a military buildup and trying to persuade President Saddam Hussein that force will be used if he does not disarm.

CBS said the battle plan, called "shock and awe," focuses on the "psychological destruction of the enemy's will to fight".

"If the Pentagon sticks to its current war plan, one day in March, the Air Force and Navy will launch between three and four hundred cruise missiles at targets in Iraq - more than were launched during the entire 40 days of the first Gulf War. On the second day, the plan calls for launching another 300 to 400 cruise missiles," the network reported.

During the 1991 Gulf War, a US-led armoured column swept into Kuwait and destroyed President Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard divisions in the largest tank battle since World War II.

This time the target is the Iraqi leadership and the battle plan is designed to "bypass Iraqi divisions whenever possible", the network reported.

Meanwhile, the US State Department has cabled embassies around the world telling Americans abroad to be ready to leave their resident country quickly in an emergency, its first such blanket warning.

A senior State Department official made no comment when asked whether the cable related to a military campaign against Iraq.

The message to US citizens advises them to have a supply of prescription medicines on hand, keep their passports up to date and maintain adequate stocks of food in the event of political unrest, natural disasters or "terrorist" attacks.

As the US cranked up the pressure on Iraq, White House officials said that President George W. Bush would use his State of the Union speech on Wednesday to gird Americans for the possibility of war.

Bush will "talk about the direct nature and threat that the Iraqi regime poses due to the massive piles of weapons of mass destruction it currently possesses", said White House spokesman Dan Bartlett.

Bush is not expected to issue an ultimatum to Saddam or declare war.

White House officials played down the prospect that Bush will outline new evidence of the Iraqi threat, something the Bush Administration has been reluctant to do because of concerns intelligence sources could be compromised.

In his annual address to report on the state of the country, Bush will also pledge he is "equal to the task" of restoring growth in the weak US economy and adding a prescription drug benefit to the Government-backed Medicare health insurance programme for seniors while putting Medicare on a sound financial footing.

For an economy that is "coming out of recession at an unsatisfactory rate", Bartlett said Bush would use the speech before a joint session of Congress to promote his US$674 billion ($1247 billion) plan to stimulate growth in the US economy.

A key part of the plan, eliminating the tax on dividends paid by shareholders, has received a lukewarm response on Capitol Hill.

But the language the American people will mostly be wanting to hear about will be on Iraq, as thousands of troops are shipping off to the Gulf to prepare for a military attack if Iraq refuses to give up suspected weapons of mass destruction.

Polls show many Americans seem ambivalent about the need for military action soon given the ongoing UN inspections.

The speech will come the day after chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix reports to the Security Council on the extent of Iraqi co-operation.

The report is expected to say that Iraq has left large gaps in its arms declaration, is blocking private interviews with scientists and is balking at U-2 surveillance flights over the whole country.

Giving a preview of what he would tell the Security Council, Blix said Iraq had vowed it had no more documents on its past weapons of mass destruction programmes than it submitted to the United Nations on December 7.

Blix had also struck difficulty getting assurances from Iraq that it would not shoot at American U2 spy planes, on loan to the UN to survey inspection sites.

In London, two more of the men arrested during a raid on a London mosque are no longer being held on suspicion of terrorism offences.

Of the original seven, who were detained during the operation at Finsbury Park Mosque in north London last Tuesday, only two are still being quizzed under the Terrorism Act, Scotland Yard said.

Two North African men, aged 48 and 38, were released under the Terrorism Act at the weekend but they were still being detained over alleged immigration offences.

The men still being questioned on suspicion of terrorism-related offences are North Africans aged 29 and 31.

After the raid, police carried out a meticulous search of the mosque, where the controversial hook-handed cleric Abu Hamza preaches, and two adjacent buildings.

Officers discovered a stun gun, an imitation weapon which fires blanks and a CS gas canister.

Large numbers of passports, identity cards and credit cards were also found.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq