- The Canoe.qc.ca web site has learned that American Marines
in the Persian Gulf have been placed on DEFCON 2 alert status, a possible
precursor to war with Iraq.
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- A senior source inside the Expeditionary force of American
Marines - a special operations unit that is usually first on the scene
- told Canoe.qc.ca that President Bush has put U.S. military forces in
the Middle East and Southeastern Asian on high alert.
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- The senior source, who addressed U.S. Marines stationed
in Canada, added that Delta elite corps, Rangers and Marines throughout
the world would be ready to move "within less than 18 hours."
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- The news is eerily reminiscent of the atmosphere prior
to the U.S.-Allied Forces invasion of Iraq in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf
war.
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- On Thursday night, from Ellis Island, Bush said that
America "has entered a great struggle" and he will "pursue
the terrorists in cities, and camps, and caves across the earth... to rid
the world of terror."
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- Bush vociferously added; "We have no intention
of ignoring or appeasing history's latest gang of fanatics trying to murder
their way to power... What our enemies have begun, we will finish."
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- DEFCON, an acronym for Defense Readiness Conditions,
is defined on the U.S. Department of Defense web site as "a uniform
system of progressive alert postures... graduated to match situations of
varying military severity."
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- It consists of five stages defined as follows:
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- DEFCON 5 Normal peacetime readiness
- DEFCON 4 Normal, increased intelligence and strengthened
security measures
- DEFCON 3 Increase in force readiness above normal readiness
- DEFCON 2 Further Increase in force readiness, but less
than maximum readiness
- DEFCON 1 Maximum force readiness.
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- Following the September 11 terrorist attacks the U.S.
Military declared a DEFCON 3 alert, the same state of emergency during
the Middle East War in 1973. Military forces have remained in a hightened
state of alert since the attacks and the subsequent U.S. offensive in Afghanistan.
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- In recent weeks The White House has been attempting
to gain support from its allies for another possible military offensive
against Iraq. Britain and Israel are already on board, but several NATO
nations, including France, Germany and Russia have voiced their opposition
to such action.
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- Thursday President Bush will address the United Nations
to demand that Iraq admit weapons inspectors and urge world leaders to
insist on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's compliance.
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- Bush's address was preceded Wednesday by U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan urging Iraq to admit inspectors or face any consequences the
Security Council decides to impose.
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- Three rounds of U.N.-Iraq talks since March have failed
to get Iraq to agree to the return of inspectors, who left in December
1998 ahead of U.S. and British airstrikes to punish Hussein's government
for not cooperating with inspections. U.N. resolutions and the agreement
that ended the Gulf War bar Iraq from developing weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq also is under orders to allow any such weapons in its arsenal to be
destroyed.
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- Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., was to depart for Iraq on
Wednesday to inquire about the possibility of U.S. negotiations with Baghdad.
Rahall told the Associated Press that he supported the intervention of
the U.S.-led coalition that liberated Kuwait from Iraqi control 11 years
ago. But this time, he said, "I have a lot of unanswered questions."
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- CNN reported Wednesday that Gen. Tommy Franks, commander
of the U.S. Central Command, presented updated war plans targeting Iraq
in a Pentagon meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In the meeting Franks
detailed specific target lists for Iraq and which U.S. weapons would be
used to destroy each target.
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- President Bush has so far been unable to get congressional
approval for military action in Iraq.
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- "I will be extremely disappointed if the president
goes and enunciates a unilateral approach: 'The world be damned, here we
go.' That is not in our interest," Senator Joseph Biden told the World
Affairs Council of Philadelphia.
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- with files from The Associated Press
- <http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/defcon2_sep11-can.html>http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/defcon2_sep11-can.html
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