Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

PUBLISHED WITH THE NEW YORK TIME.~ AND THE WASHINGTON POST ""l
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What Does Clinton Do ifTehran Proves Guilty?
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ASHJNGTON-Proteusas~s- By Jim Hoagland riskto American lives. The missiles hit evacuate at a moment's notice, They lJ:l
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ident That is the s~ thus of . ~s intelligence headquarters late at can be repaired or replaced far more
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William Jefferson Clinton. uddenlythe nig t, killing janitors rather than the easily than major pieces of Iran's oil ~
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ongoing search for =c, unmalle- America's military leadership, which officials who plotted against Mr. Bush. industry, which Mr. Cinton is nô more
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able form for bis presi andbimself would contribUle its own values to car- Later military responses to Iraqi mis- likely to attack than was Ronald Re- .......
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as a leader moves back to the Islamic .rying out the punishment of a foreign deeds and a pathetic failed covert at- agan in 1986, when he ordered an air
There is now a struggle inside the suspects in touch with Iranian officials That raises fears amon~ Saudi of- and the United Nations has determined
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U.S. government to answer a question shortly before the bombing. These re- ficials and others that Mr. linton may that his agents carried out the bombing
being posed with increasing urgency: ports follow a flurry of unpublicized launch "pinprick raids" against Iran if of Pan Am Right 103 in 1988. "Clinton
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What does Mr. ainton do if clear ev- visits by senior forei~ officials to he does decide on retaliation. These has to think about what happened when
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idence is uncovered that Iran, in a wan- Washington to gather information on would infuriate the Iranians and tempt Reagan tried retaliation on the cheap, ' , ~
ton act of murder by proxy, helped possible U.S. military retaliation and its them to lash out locally, without bring- says Henry Shuler, an international oil CI)
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Saudi extremists bomb the Khobar ing about a change of behavior or re- expert who was consulted by the Air ~
Towers apartment complex in Dhahran gime in Tehran. Foree on targets in Libya in 1986. ~
and kill 19 U.S. airmen last June? Shuler advocates These fears help explain the Saudi Mr. Shule.' advocates extending the ~ ~
The struggle for Mr. Clinton's mind. ambivalence in cooperating with the navalblockadenowinforceagainstlraq I
on Iran is a struggle over conflicting extendr.ng the naval FBI in.vestigation into the Dhahran to Iran if Iranian. sponsorship of the tl
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values and concepts of justice (areas blockade nOw in force bombing. The Saudis do not want to Khobar Towers massacre is established. ~
where he is under attack at horne) rather wind up bearing the costs of limited He does not underèstiJnate the tunnoil .....
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thanastru~eovertherealmsofpolicy- against Iraq to Iran. American strikes. that this would create in oil markets or
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~ an diplomacy. This makes a The Pentagon has beenreviewing the difficulties withAmerica's allies, but ~
diffi t decision even more complex. potential target listsinside Iran since he prefers those problems to mana~g
The case of ~nding to Iran 's de- consequences for their nations. Fig- the Dhahran attack in Saudi Arabia the downside of new ~Ck rai in ~
ètions is ra' y slipping out of the uring out how far Mr . .clinton will go (500 Americans were wounded, in ad- the Gulf. He makes a g case . 'ï:l
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ds of the diJ»lomats, who are paid to on Iran is the No. 1 global diplomatic dition to the dead). Last July, then If Iran did commit murder of Amer-
postpone or mmimize conflict and pur-. guessing game right now. Defense Secretary William Perry told a icans by~xy, the one option that Mr. ~
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sue general principles, into the grasp of His record here is one of equivo- group of DOl=gn advisers that Clinton oes not have is to do nothing. ~
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law enforcement officials, who are paid cation. Early in his presidency he such lists had y been presented to The ayatollahs, and Saddarn, have
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to pursue and punish specific criminals quickly ordered a cruise missile strike the White Ho=ssibie action. handily survived four years of Mr. -
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and who want aroon by yesterday. against Iraq to retaliate for an unsuc- Target lists Ycenleron ideo- Clinton's "dual containment" policy
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If a smoking Iranian bomb fragment cessful !::tot against George Bush. But tified terrorist trainin~ centers, which in the Gulf. It is time for values of.
.is found by the FBI, Mr. ainton's he care ly tailored the strike to min- w.ouldbe easy::.tts or croise strikes. justice, not of policy, to prevail. 0
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decision would be shaped as well by imize enemy casualties as well as the Terror camps, owever, are easy to The Washington POSI.
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THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1997
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