American military chiefs may have to review their strategy for phase two of the war against terrorism after it appeared that Iraq could have purchased a modern radar system able of detecting U.S. multi-billion dollars fleet of stealth bombers.
According to the British Sunday Telegraph newspaper, the radar is believed to be the same Czech-built type used by Serb forces to shoot down an American stealth bomber and seriously damage another during the war in Kosovo in 1999.
The report claimed that U.S. intelligence officers assess that the Iraqi army tried to purchase a system for over 250 million dollars from the Czech Republic during1997, but the deal collapsed after it was exposed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
However, according to the British newspaper, following the closure of the Czech defense company "Tesla-Pardubice" in 1998 two of its "Tamara" radar systems, which Iraq wished to buy "disappeared" and might have been forwarded by arms traders working for Iraq.
This new information is expected to affect the next stages of the international war against terrorism and determine whether the U.S. decides to carry out "a full-scale attack against Saddam Hussein's regime", the British weekly newspaper asserted.
Senators Comment
Meanwhile, two U.S. senators, among nine on a tour of Central Asia, discussed on Sunday the possibility of an American strike on Iraq. "How we go about it, the timing of how we go about it, are judgments that all will have to be made when we finish what we are doing right now (in Afghanistan)," said senator john Edwards during an interview on "Fox News Sunday."
For his part, Senator Chuck Hagel, commented that "whatever we do and when we do it, how we do it, must be in concert with our allies over here." Hagel and Edwards were interviewed from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, one of their stops.
"Saddam Hussein hates the United States," added dwards. "He has been involved in developing weapons of mass destruction. He has ignored the terms of the cease-fire agreement. He will not allow our weapons inspectors into the country." "So we have a very serious problem there," Edwards conveyed. "And we cannot allow him to continue in this effort to develop and foster weapons of mass
destruction." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
