Hussein sets soldiers for war

WASHINGTON -- Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is prepositioning military troops in civilian areas to use them as shields in the event of war, a White House official said Monday.\nSpokesman Scott McClellan, accompanying President Bush on a trip to Nashville, Tenn., cited intelligence information but did not elaborate. He said Bush would present the allegations in a speech later Monday to a convention of religious broadcasters.\n"This is a brutal dictator with a long history of using civilians to further his own purposes," he said.\nSpeaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, McClellan voiced disappointment at a move within NATO to block the alliance from helping Turkey to defend itself in the event of war with neighboring Iraq.\nAsked about published reports that the United States and Britain might propose an ultimatum that would give Saddam 48 hours to leave Iraq, McClellan said "There are a lot of diplomatic efforts going on right now."\nReacting earlier to a move by France, Germany and Belgium to block NATO commencement of planning for possible Iraqi attacks against Turkey, Secretary of State Colin Powell said NATO has a legal obligation to assist Turkey when it asks for help.\nThe alliance should make sure that Turkey "is not put at any risk," Powell said Monday. In brief remarks to reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister John Howard of Australia, he said: "I hope that NATO will now realize that they have an obligation to assist a NATO member."\nPowell cited Article 4 of NATO's mutual defense treaty, which provides for all members of the military alliance to consult when a member is threatened.\nTurkey has requested emergency consultations under the treaty, the first time a North Atlantic Treaty Organization nation has done that in the alliance's 53-history.\nThe dispute deepens divisions in NATO over Iraq. Germany and France have mounted a campaign in the U.N. Security Council to deter the United States and Britain from using force to disarm President Saddam Hussein.\nPresident Bush, who was to see close ally Howard later Monday, has said the United States would act without council approval to disarm Iraq if the council did not support the use of force.\nBush says the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks redefined America's approach to international affairs and increased the urgency of dealing with growing threats abroad.\nPowell meanwhile warned that if Saddam did not begin cooperating fully and quickly with U.N. weapons inspectors, the White House will seek a U.N. resolution authorizing a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.\nSpeaking Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Powell said that if the U.N. inspectors' report, which is due Friday, shows Iraq is still not cooperating, "then the Security Council will have to sit in session immediately and determine what should happen next" and "start considering a resolution that says Iraq is in material breach and it is time for serious consequences to follow."\nThe president, at a policy conference of Republican members of Congress at a West Virginia resort Sunday, explained his reasoning for expanding the war on terrorism to Iraq.\n"Prior to September the 11th, there was apparently no connection between a place like Iraq and terror," he said. There were concerns about terrorists in Iraq, but no fear about a threat to the American homeland. "... We were confident that two oceans could protect us from harm."\nBut, Bush added, "the world changed on September the 11th."\n"It used to be that we could pick or choose whether or not we would become involved," the president said, but the direct potential of an attack on the United States has changed that philosophy.\nBush spoke as chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said in Baghdad that he saw a beginning of Iraq's understanding that it must seriously observe demands for disarmament. U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he expected the Security Council to give the inspectors more time "as long as we are registering good progress."\nBlix and ElBaradei are to make their next report to the U.N. Security Council on Friday.\nPowell said a reported French-German proposal to increase the number of weapons inspectors in Iraq in hopes of averting U.S. military action is "a diversion, not a solution" to disarming Saddam.\n"The issue is not more inspectors. The issue is compliance on the part of Saddam Hussein," he added.\nThe plan would call for the deployment of thousands of U.N. soldiers, reconnaissance flights and a tripling of the number of weapons inspectors, according to the German news magazine Der Spiegel.