That was then: different priorities

[Michael Pollak <mpollak@xxxxxxxxx>]

Copyright 2001 Associated Press
All Rights Reserved
Associated Press Online

January 17, 2001; Wednesday
LENGTH: 531 words
HEADLINE: Clinton Adviser Warns of Bin Laden
BYLINE: EUN-KYUNG KIM
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:

Incoming National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that
President-elect Bush will press allied leaders to enforce economic
sanctions against Saddam Hussein because the Iraqi leader remains a
''tremendous threat.''

''There has to be continuous pressure brought on him to live up to the
obligations that he undertook at the end of the Gulf War,'' Rice said.

Economic sanctions against Saddam have ''eroded considerably'' and must
be strengthened because he remains a threat to neighboring countries
with his arsenal of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction,
she said.

''He signed on to certain obligations under U.N. resolutions in 1991
and he needs to be held to them,'' Rice said. ''This is a major
diplomatic effort, I'd be the first to admit, but I think we're going to
have to take it on because no one wants to see Saddam Hussein escape his
box.''

Rice spoke at a conference held by the U.S. Institute of Peace titled,
''Passing the Baton: Challenges of Statecraft for the New
Administration.''

Sandy Berger, who holds the job Rice will assume on Saturday, addressed
the meeting earlier in the day and urged Rice to advance the Clinton
administration's efforts to disable the terrorism network led by Osama bin
Laden.

''America is in a deadly struggle with a new breed of anti-Western
jihadists,'' he said, referring to the Islamic word for ''holy war.''

Bin Laden, a Saudi-born millionaire suspected of using Afghanistan as a
base for international terrorist operations, is believed to be directing a
terrorism network that spans dozens of countries and is ''deeply committed
to injuring and destroying the United States and our allies,'' Berger
said. ''This is one of the most serious threats the next administration
will face.''

Bin Laden has been linked to the suicide bombing that killed 17 American
sailors on board the destroyer USS Cole during a refueling stop in Yemen
last year. He also is wanted for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies
in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. The United States fired
dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles on eastern Afghanistan days after the
bombings in retaliation.

Berger said the Clinton administration has spent the last few years
''systematically going after'' bin Laden's terrorist web, breaking up
cells and making arrests.

''I believe the next administration will need to build on what we've done
to take a systematic, sustained, long-term effort to render this
international network a far lesser threat to the United States,'' he said.
''More people have been killed by bin Laden and his network more Americans
than all of the wars since Vietnam.''

Berger noted China's entry into the World Trade Organization, the downfall
of ousted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Clinton's visit to
India and Vietnam as some of last year's highlights. Besides the USS Cole
attack, he included fighting in the Middle East and the inability to
negotiate a peace agreement among the year's ''disappointments and
tragedies.''

Berger has not disclosed many details about what he plans to do after
leaving office Saturday, other than to take some time off and write.