IRAQ: US President Bush yesterday accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of placing troops in civilian areas of Iraq to protect his forces and to blame the US military for casualties if war should break out.
"In violation of the Geneva conventions, Saddam Hussein is positioning his military forces within civilian populations in order to blame coalition forces for civilian casualties that he has caused," he said.
"Saddam Hussein regards the Iraqi people as human shields, entirely expendable when their suffering serves his purposes." Mr Bush's charge that Saddam is using human shields comes from intelligence sources, acording to White House spokesman Mr Scott McClellan.
The US President's remarks, to a conference of religious broadcasters in Memphis, Tennessee, were clearly aimed at preparing Americans for the consequences of war with Iraq.
The people of Iraq were not America's enemies, he said, and "we will try in every way we can to spare innocent life". If conflict occurred, "we will bring Iraq food and medicine and supplies, and most importantly freedom". Mr Bush also said the policy of containment no longer applied in a post-September 11th world.
"Saddam Hussein is a threat to the United States of America and to some of our closest friends and allies and we don't accept this threat," he announced to prolonged applause.
"Before September 11th 2001 there was a lot of good folks who believed that Saddam Hussein could be contained \ we thought oceans would protect us forever." That all changed "on that fateful day".
"Secretly, without fingerprints, Saddam Hussein could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists or help them develop their own."