[A-List] UK capitulation to missile defence

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Hoon hints Britain will back US missile shield
Iraq is one of many threats says defence secretary, writes MICHAEL SETTLE
and IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 13 November 2002

GEOFF Hoon last night highlighted the growing security fears in Whitehall
when he sent the strongest signal yet to America that Britain was now
prepared to support its controversial plan for a missile defence system.

In a speech to the Foreign Policy Centre in London, the defence secretary
said the development of a defence shield against ballistic missile attack
was "in the interests of the UK and its people just as much as it is in the
interests of the United States".

In a lively debate on the issue, his comments will be seen as the strongest
indication to date that the government would be prepared to allow the
Americans to use the early warning radar stations at Fylingdales and Menwith
Hill in north Yorkshire in the creation of a transatlantic defensive missile
shield.

Last month Mr Hoon, who told MPs he had ordered a detailed analysis of the
implications of missile defence, again insisted the US had not yet decided
whether they needed to use the British bases for their so-called "son of
star wars" system.

However, given the increased sense of threat from rogue states like Iraq,
many feel decision time on the issue is fast approaching.

The secretary of state emphasised that when it came to considering such
issues, he saw no "divergence" between basic British security interests and
those of America.

"Developing the capacity to defend against the threat of ballistic missile
attack is in the interest of the UK and its people, just as much as it is in
the interest of the United States," he said.

Mr Hoon pointed out Iraq was only one of a number of rogue regimes seeking
to acquire both a ballistic missile capability and weapons of mass
destruction.

Mentioning no names, he added: "The leader of a rogue state contemplating a
ballistic missile attack on the UK or an ally would need to reckon not only
with the near certainty of a powerful retaliatory response but also with the
possibility that active defences would prevent his attack from succeeding at
all."

Wider conflict

Last night Carol Naughton, chairwoman of CND, was deeply critical, asking if
Mr Hoon had now signed up the UK as the 51st state of the US.

"If this is the signal of UK total compliance to the national security
strategy of the United States of America, including regime change, then we
can only expect the UK to follow America into a war on Iraq."

The war talk continued with Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt, who warned
military action against Iraq would trigger a wider conflict and provide a
spur to international terrorists, while a report by Medact, a campaigning
anti-nuclear war group of international doctors, claimed any confrontation
could go nuclear, killing some four million people.

In Baghdad, there was a mood of defiance after Iraqi MPs unanimously
rejected the UN resolution on weapons inspectors, but left the final
decision to Saddam Hussein.

He has until Friday to comply but Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary,
held out little prospect the Iraqi dictator would ultimately agree to the UN
demands.

He said Saddam had already started hiding his banned weapons at secret sites
across Iraq, including underground.

"They've gone so far underground that the only way they can be found is
through defectors," he said.

Earlier, George W Bush, reacting to the Iraqi MPs' decision, warned Saddam:
"There's no more time."

He told reporters: "The man must disarm. He said he would disarm; he now
must disarm. This kind of deception and delay - all that is over with."

Odai, Saddam's eldest son, suggested one way of making the resolution
acceptable to Iraqis would be to include Arabs in the inspection teams.

But Sean McCormack, Mr Bush's spokesman, said: "There's nothing in this
resolution that is negotiable."

Yet Jacques Baute, the chief UN nuclear inspector, later suggested Arabs
could be included in the inspection teams as a matter of common sense.

He said: "We will have some Arab speakers of various nationalities," adding
it was "essential" for teams to be able to communicate with the Iraqis.

Meanwhile, US officials confirmed reports out of New York that said Iraq had
imported large amounts of atropine and obidoxime chloride, drugs that can be
used to counter the effects of nerve gas.

A senior US official said: "If the Iraqis were to use nerve agents, they
would want to take steps to protect their own soldiers, if not their
population."