Rice: US Will Be Resolute With Iraq

July 29, 2001

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush's national security adviser put Saddam Hussein on
notice Sunday that the United States intends a more resolute military policy toward Iraq.

The warning from Condoleezza Rice came days after an Iraqi surface-to-air missile was fired
at an American surveillance plane.

``Saddam Hussein is on the radar screen for the administration,'' Rice told CNN's ``Late
Edition.'' ``The administration is working hard with a number of our friends and allies to
have a policy that ... looks at use of military force in a more resolute manner, and not just a
manner of tit-for-tat with him every day.''

She said the policy also will examine the use of economic sanctions so that their effects will
be felt by the regime rather than the Iraqi people, and that the policy will have a role for
opposition forces within Iraq.

Last Wednesday, a U.S. U-2 plane was fired upon, but was not hit. The intelligence aircraft
was flying as part of Operation Southern Watch, a U.S.-British operation patrolling ``no-fly''
zones over Iraq.

Rice said the president ``has reserved the right to respond'' when the threat from Saddam
``becomes one that he wishes no longer to tolerate.''

She added, ``I think it's always best not to speculate about the grounds or the circumstances
under which one would do that.''

The allied operation, in place since the Gulf War ended in 1991, is designed to protect
Kurdish and Shiite groups from government forces. Iraq disputes the legitimacy of the
flight-interdiction operations and regularly contests U.S. and British patrols by firing
missiles and artillery
guns.

Less than a week before, the crew of a Navy E2-C surveillance aircraft flying in Kuwaiti
airspace reported seeing the plume of a surface-to-air missile fired from inside Iraq. That
plane also was not hit.
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