ACCESSION NUMBER:291843

FILE ID:POL204

DATE:06/29/93

TITLE:CLINTON SAYS STRIKE AT IRAQ SENT "APPROPRIATE MESSAGE" (06/29/93)

TEXT:*93062904.POL

CLINTON SAYS STRIKE AT IRAQ SENT "APPROPRIATE MESSAGE"



(U.S. "will not tolerate" terrorist acts)  (450)

By Alexander M. Sullivan

USIA White House Correspondent

Washington -- The United States chose to strike at Iraq's major

intelligence facility to "send the appropriate message" to Saddam Hussein,

President Clinton said June 29.



Asked at a news conference why he had not chosen to strike more directly at

Saddam Hussein personally, the president acknowledged that it would be

"highly unusual" for an operation such as the attempted assassination of

former President Bush to be "authorized other than at the highest levels"

of the Iraqi government.



But he said that "under international law and the facts of this particular

case," he had decided the headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service

was "the best possible target."  The president added that it was likely the

plot to explode a car bomb -- perhaps at an outdoor ceremony at the

University of Kuwait while Bush and the emir of Kuwait were in attendance

-- was hatched in the compound.  "To damage that headquarters," Clinton

said, "would send the appropriate message, given the facts of this case."



Pressed on whether he thinks Saddam Hussein "signed off" on the

assassination plot, Clinton replied, "I have given you the only answer I

think it's appropriate for me to give you."



The president said the cruise missile attack on the compound had "made it

absolutely clear that we will not tolerate acts of terrorism or other

illegal or dangerous acts.  I think it sent a very important message."



Asked to justify the cruise missile attack in light of U.S. leadership in

disarmament, Clinton said Washington has signed agreements to reduce

nuclear armaments, but he reminded the questioner that the weekend attack

was a response to the attempt on the life of a former president.   It was a

response, he added, "to an operation that involved a bomb that, had it

exploded in downtown Kuwait City, had a 400-yard radius of lethal

destruction."  He said the U.S. action was "a clear signal that people

ought not to use weapons in illegal ways.



Clinton said the standard rules of engagement covered a separate incident

over the "no-fly" zone imposed by the United Nations Security Council in

southern Iraq.  A U.S. F-4G aircraft launched an anti-radar missile against

an Iraqi installation.  "If radar locks onto our airplanes," Clinton

explained, "our airplanes are authorized to take action against those

installations."  The president noted similar incidents have occurred in the

past and said he "wouldn't read too much into" the event, despite its

1uxtaposition with the U.S. cruise missile attack.



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