Iraqi people would not be targeted, says defense chief

WARSAW, Poland -- If the U.S. military attacked Iraq it would target Saddam Hussein's thin power base while avoiding widespread harm to the civilian population, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday.

Speaking to reporters traveling with him from Washington to Poland, Rumsfeld refused to discuss any details of U.S. war planning. He blasted those who have leaked such information to the news media as poorly informed, low-level officials whose talk puts the lives of American troops at risk.

Rumsfeld's suggested that any U.S. military action would look much different that the 1991 Gulf War when the goal was to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait rather than break Saddam's grip on power.

"I have said, and the president has said, that the small group of people that run Iraq and have run it for a good many years have repressed the people, and in a very real sense the people of that country are hostages to a small group of dictatorial, repressive government officials," he said.

"The United States hasn't, and never has had, any problem with the Iraqi people."

Referring to news reports that any U.S. military attack on Iraq that is designed to topple Saddam's regime would seek to avoid inflicting extensive damage on the nation's infrastructure, Rumsfeld said:

"They're saying the obvious. Obviously no one would want to harm the people of that country. We favor the people of that country. But what the president will decide to do is entirely in the future."

The White House acknowledged that the Pentagon delivered to Bush in early September a detailed set of military options for action against Iraq. Officials said that Bush had made no decision to go to war.

Rumsfeld flew to Warsaw to attend NATO meetings Tuesday and Wednesday that are intended to address several institutional matters, including plans for adding new member countries, preparing for a meeting of NATO heads of government in November, streamlining NATO's command structure, improving ties with Russia, and considering a U.S. proposal for creating an always-on-call NATO force for short-notice operations.

He is scheduled to meet Monday with Polish government leaders. Poland became a NATO member in 1999, and this is the first time it has played host to a meeting of allied defense ministers.

Also on the agenda at the NATO meeting Tuesday is the search for a successor to NATO member Turkey as leader of the international security assistance force that is keeping order in Kabul. Turkey's commitment expires in December. Rumsfeld wants another European country, possibly Germany, to take over.

German government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye said last week that German and Dutch experts have been considering future leadership of the 19-nation, 5,000-soldier International Security Assistance Force.

On his way to Warsaw, Rumsfeld said he would press the point with the allies that U.N. resolutions requiring Saddam to disarm must be enforced. He did not intend to discuss war options, and he all but ruled out a NATO military role in a conflict with Iraq.

"I can't imagine it," he said.

The defense secretary said he planned to provide a briefing to his fellow defense ministers that would focus on Iraq and the prospect of Saddam Hussein either using his arsenal of chemical and biological weapons or giving al-Qaida or other terrorist networks access to them.

He indicated his briefing would contain no proof that Iraq has links to terrorists.

Most U.S. allies in NATO are either lukewarm to the idea of attacking Iraq or oppose it outright.

Rumsfeld would not discuss, even in broad terms, how far along U.S. military planning is on Iraq.

"People who are talking to the media about war plans are so far out of line, and so disgracefully misbehaving, that I find it stunning," he said. "Anyone that knows anything isn't talking, and no one with any sense is talking."