Bush presses case on Iraq

'STIFFING THE WORLD'

The president pledges to seek Congressional support for any U.S. action By James Gerstenzang

and Janet Hook ~ Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Wednesday he would seek congressional approval before taking action against Iraq, as he began a major drive to win support at home and abroad for removing Saddam Hussein from power.

Bush also said that he will press his case against the Iraqi president when he addresses the United Nations Sept. 12, telling his audience of diplomats the Hussein is "stiffing the world" by violating the agreements he had made not to develop weapons of mass destruction.

The Iraqi leader is "a serious threat to the world," Bush said Wednesday after meeting for an hour with congressional leaders at the White House. He added: "Doing nothing about that serious threat is not an option for the United States." The president also said he would meet this weekend with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Camp David in Maryland, and then reach out to the leaders of Canada, China, Russia and France, engaging in personal diplomacy to persuade world leaders to join his campaign.

Energized effort

The flurry of activity reflects a newly energized effort by the White House to broaden support - in Congress and across the world - for changing the regime in Baghdad.

During the past month, the administration, with the exception of Vice President Dick Cheney, has largely taken a back seat while critics overseas and at home expressed sharp reservations about launching a war against Iraq, particularly if Bush does not first line up a coalition of international support. Several U.S. lawmakers - including some of Bush's fellow Republicans - also have complained that the administration has kept Congress in the dark about its plans.

Now, the go-it-alone approach appears to have been abandoned. Bush's remarks on Wednesday to reporters, his commitment to members of Congress to seek their approval, and the upcoming diplomatic efforts suggested the complaints had registered with the White House.

But there were no immediate dividends, either in Congress or among foreign officials. Also left unclear was just what course Bush would take, and whether he would have wide support.

"I am in the process of deciding how to proceed," Bush said in a letter he dispatched to every member of Congress. He pledged to seek congressional support "for U.S. action to do whatever is necessary to deal with the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's regime." Left unclear, however, was whether the administration might proceed with action against Hussein if it failed to win congressional approval.

No new intelligence

There were also widespread complaints on Capitol Hill that a briefing on Wednesday by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had produced no intelligence information supporting the administration's argument against Hussein.

Rumsfeld said Wednesday that CIA Director George J. Tenet would soon present the Senate with intelligence information about the Iraqi weapons program.

Some lawmakers defended the administration's position.

"We have plenty of reason to believe Hussein has now chemical and biological weapons," said Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. "We have a great deal of information indicating that he is working on the ability to have nuclear weapons."

In preparing their plan to confront such threats, Bush administration officials are considering proposals for what they are calling "extremely aggressive" weapons inspections or face military action. Such a program would provide inspection teams with thousands of U.S. troops or soldiers from a multinational force as backup in or near Iraq.

A failure by Iraq to cooperate completely with the inspections could help make Bush's effort to win international support for a confrontation with Hussein, and result in a military attack.

Weapons inspectors, mandated in the wake of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, were pulled out of Iraq in 1998 ahead of U.S. airstrikes, and the Hussein regime has since blocked their return.

On Wednesday, the administration's effort to draw support from overseas reached to the U.N. development summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell met there with U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan and several other leaders.

Powell said he received "a solid expression of support" from heads of state and other leaders. But after meeting with Powell, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said it was "vitally important" that the United States work through the United Nations and not try to oust Hussein by itself.

Using the blunt, colloquial language he favors when discussing U.S. enemies, Bush said he will remind the United Nations that "for 11 long years, Saddam Hussein has sidestepped, crawfished, wheedled out of any agreement he had made not to harbor, not to develop weapons of mass destruction, agreements he's made to treat the people within his country with respect." "I'm going to call upon the world to recognize that he is stiffing the world," Bush said.

Those attending Bush's meeting with congressional leaders in the Cabinet Room said the president's preference is that a vote supporting action against Iraq occur before Congress breaks in early October.

This would be just weeks before the November elections - putting political pressure on members of Congress to support the president in the face of a foe he has presented as a threat to global security. The entire House and one-third of the Senate are up for election.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., expressed concern that the timing of the debate would unnecessarily politicize the issue.

"There are skeptics out there who wonder to what extent the political implications of any of this may affect the elections," he said.

Lawmakers returning to Washington from a monthlong recess this week have been posing a host of questions about the timing, rationale and strategy of action against Hussein - especially a military strike.

Daschle and others in the meeting with Bush said they did not believe the president considered a military attack to be a foregone conclusion.

House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo., added: "We've got to now have an argument made to the Congress and the American people, and it's got to be one that convinces a majority of Americans that this is something that we need to do. What happens in Iraq after something happens? How are we going to build a democracy? Who's going to help with that? What is the strategy for dealing with all of that?" Even members of Bush's party have said the president has yet to make a convincing case for military action.

During the last month, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, raised some of the strongest objections to a preemptive strike against Iraq, saying he was concerned the Unites States would appear to be an aggressor nation. But he also said he was keeping an open mind on the issue.