this keeps getting interestinger and interestinger

Arsenal hidden on ships
By Bruce Wilson in London and Phillip Coorey in New York
February 20, 2003

THREE cargo ships plying the world's oceans could be carrying Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

British shipping sources said the three ships left Iraqi ports in November, just after United Nations weapons inspectors began their new search.

The 40,000-tonne ships had been at sea since, occasionally stopping at ports in the Arab world.

British and US intelligence officers were tracking the vessels but feared boarding the ships in case the crews sank them and created an ecological catastrophe with their suspected cargoes of nuclear material and/or biological weapons.

The London-based Independent newspaper reported the ships were maintaining radio silence in clear violation of international maritime law.

They had been chartered by a shipping agent based in Egypt and the captains had failed to provide details of their cargoes. It was understood the three were sailing under different flags and had stopped at some ports, including one in Yemen.

The newspaper report said if weapons were aboard, the ships could provide the "smoking gun" US President George W. Bush needed to justify invading Iraq.

"For a considerable time they have been steaming around in ever-decreasing circles," a British shipping source said.

Reports from the UK yesterday indicated Britain was urging President Bush to delay an attack in a bid to gain UN support.

The Times newspaper said the UK – previously President Bush's strongest ally – was seeking to give diplomacy three more weeks before the UN was asked to trigger military action.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw were suggesting that a crunch meeting of the UN could take place on March 14.

That would provide enough time to convince France and other doubters that Saddam had failed to cooperate with UN inspectors and that a new UN resolution paving the way to war should be approved.

But Mr Bush declared he did not need another UN resolution before waging war.

As increasing anti-war sentiment in the UN threatens the passage of a tough resolution, Mr Bush said a second resolution would be useful but only be ignored by Saddam.

The US sent another 28,000 troops to the Gulf yesterday as it rushed to have more than 200,000 in place by the end of the month.

Australia's UN Ambassador John Dauth told an open session of the UN Security Council yesterday that it must stop giving Saddam the benefit of the doubt and quickly pass a second resolution dealing decisively with the Baghdad regime.

Only Australia, Japan and Peru – and a qualified Kuwait – called for bringing the matter to a head with a second resolution.

Wesley Clark, who led NATO forces during the Kosovo campaign, wrote in The Times that he thought March 24 was the most likely date for the launch of a US-led attack on Iraq.

Mr Blair insisted yesterday there was "no rush to war" and he still wanted a second UN resolution before any military action against Baghdad.