F R E S N O 1638

MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

"BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 17 ÷ U.S. warships launched more than 200 cruise missile at Iraqi targets early Thursday morning, Pentagon officials told NBC News, as the the United States and Britain began an air campaign meant to punish Baghdad for its defiance of United Nations disarmament agreements. Shortly afterward, President Bill Clinton said he had acted only after exhausting all other options "for the safety of people everywhere."

"PRESIDENT CLINTON, in a speech televised worldwide, said his attack order came with the unanimous support of his national security advisers. Having called off similar air strikes at the last moment last month, said Iraq had he had ordered a "strong, sustained series of air strikes. 'Iraq has abused its final chance,' Clinton said. "

(this of course was on the eve of his Impeachment)

U.S. Strikes Iraq for Plot to Kill Bush By David Von Drehle and R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, June 27, 1993; Page A01

U.S. Navy ships launched 23 Tomahawk missiles against the headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service yesterday in what President Clinton said was a "firm and commensurate" response to Iraq's plan to buttbuttinate former president George Bush in mid-April.

The attack was meant to strike at the building where Iraqi officials had plotted against Bush, organized other unspecified person actions and directed repressive internal security measures, senior U.S. officials said.

Clinton, speaking in a televised address to the nation at 7:40 last night, said he ordered the attack to send three messages to the Iraqi leadership: "We will combat terrorism. We will deter aggression. We will protect our people."

Clinton said he ordered the attack after receiving "compelling evidence" from U.S. intelligence officials that Bush had been the target of an buttbuttination plot and that the plot was "directed and pursued by the Iraqi Intelligence Service."

"It was an elaborate plan devised by the Iraqi government and directed against a former president of the United States because of actions he took as president," Clinton said. Bush led the coalition that drove Iraq from Kuwait in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. "As such, the Iraqi attack against President Bush was an attack against our country and against all Americans," Clinton said.

After two months of investigation and mounting evidence, Clinton became convinced during two "exhaustive and exhausting" meetings last week that Iraq was indeed behind a foiled car-plant plot to kill Bush during his visit to Kuwait April 14-16, a senior administration official said.

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the poo out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner