The Times February 03, 2006


Bush 'tried to lure Saddam into war using UN aircraft'
By Rosemary Bennett and Michael Evans



PRESIDENT BUSH had plans to lure Saddam Hussein into war by flying an
aircraft over Iraq painted in UN colours in the hope he would shoot
it down, a book reveals.
Mr Bush told Tony Blair of the extraordinary plan during a meeting in
the White House on January 31, 2003, six weeks before the war
started, according to an updated version of Lawless World by Philippe
Sands, a human rights lawyer. He says the President made it clear
that he had already decided to go to war, despite still pressing for
a UN resolution.



"The US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with
fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours. If Saddam fired on
them, he would be in breach," the book reports Mr Bush telling Mr
Blair at the meeting.

If the U2 idea was a serious proposal, it would have made sense only
if the spy plane was ordered to fly at an altitude within range of
Iraqi missiles. Mr Bush's reference in the recorded conversation to
the U2 being escorted by fighter aircraft indicates that that is what
he had in mind.

The U2, America's most sophisticated aerial reconnaissance aircraft,
can operate at 90,000ft, taking high-resolution photographs of
targets. At this altitude, the U2 would have been beyond the range of
Iraqi surface-to-air missiles.

U2s were made available to the UN weapons inspectors to help them in
their search for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD). But there
has never been any suggestion until now that Mr Bush had thought
about painting one of them in UN colours to deceive Saddam.

Later in the same meeting the President said it was also possible
that a defector could be brought out who would give a public
presentation about Saddam's WMD, and there was a small possibility
that Saddam would be assassinated.

The book also claims that the President "thought it unlikely that
there would be internecine warfare between the different religious
and ethnic groups".

President Bush also made clear, according to the book which was
featured on Channel 4 News, that he would go to war irrespective of
whether there was a second UN resolution.

"The US would put its full weight behind efforts to get another
resolution and would `twist arms' and `even threaten'. But he had to
say that if, ultimately, we failed, military action would follow
anyway," the book said.

The section of the book is based on a memo of the meeting. Mr Blair
responded that he was "solidly with the President and ready to do
whatever it took to disarm Saddam". But the Prime Minister said that
a second Security Council resolution would provide an insurance
policy against the unexpected, and international cover, including
with the Arabs.

Mr Sands' book says that the meeting focused on the need to identify
evidence that Saddam had committed a material breach of his
obligations under the existing UN Resolution 1441. There was concern
that insufficient evidence had been unearthed by the UN inspection
team, led by Dr Hans Blix.

That was why other options, such as the aircraft in UN colours, were
considered.

Last night Sir Menzies Campbell, acting Liberal Democrat leader,
said: "If these allegations are accurate, the Prime Minister and
President Bush were determined to go to war with or without a second
UN resolution, and Britain was signed up to do so by the end of
January 2003."

He added: "By then it was clear that there was no credible evidence
of weapons of mass destruction, the stated justification for the
moves against Saddam Hussein. The fact that consideration was
apparently given to using American military aircraft in UN colours to
provoke Saddam graphically illustrates the rush to war."