nasty!!! - and i wonder who supplied...., page-26

re: viper, stelep & now gaweb:!!nasty!!! - and i w The U.S. Has Lowered the Bar for Using the Ultimate Weapon.

By William M. Arkin January 26 2003 - L.A. Times

WASHINGTON -- One year after President Bush labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea the "axis of evil," the United States is thinking about the unthinkable: It is preparing for the possible use of nuclear weapons against Iraq.

At the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) in Omaha and inside planning cells of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, target lists are being scrutinized, options are being pondered and procedures are being tested to give nuclear armaments a role in the new U.S. doctrine of "preemption."

According to multiple sources close to the process, the current planning focuses on two possible roles for nuclear weapons:

*attacking Iraqi facilities located so deep underground that they might be impervious to conventional explosives;

*thwarting Iraq's use of weapons of mass destruction.