March 10, 2002	Sunday	Zilhaj 25, 1422

WASHINGTON, March 9: The Bush administration has directed the military to prepare contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against at least seven countries, including the three named as the “axis of evil” by President Bush, in battlefield situations, according to a classified Pentagon report obtained by the Los Angeles Times and published in the paper on Saturday.

The secret report, which was provided to Congress on Jan 8, says the Pentagon needs to be prepared to use nuclear weapons against China, Russia, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria.

It says the weapons could be used in three types of situations: against targets able to withstand non-nuclear attack; in retaliation for attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons; or “in the event of surprising military developments.”

The inclusion of Russia in the list will no doubt unpleasantly surprise Moscow, which has been engaged in talks with Washington to downsize nuclear stockpiles, and President Bush only recently paid a visit to Beijing during which expressions of goodwill from both sides were many.

The secret report’s disclosures also means that Vice-President Richard Cheney will have a hard time explaining America’s new nuclear posture during his tour of 11 Middle Eastern countries that was due to begin on Saturday.

Arab and European countries have been worried about increasing war talk emanating from Washington and directed at Iraq, which is among the possible target countries mentioned in the secret report. The US has been insisting on Baghdad to permit United Nations weapons inspectors to return to Iraq, but during a briefing on Friday on Mr Cheney’s trip, it appeared that even if Iraq complies, the US will continue to consider it a target. The trip is meant to muster support for America’s Iraq policy, but it has been overshadowed by the vicious violence unleashed by Israel against Palestinians in the past week.

A senior administration official has said pointedly that the chief US concern is not with inspections but with ensuring that Iraq did not possess chemical, biological and nuclear arms. The question of inspections, still the United Nations’ chief concern, was secondary, the official said, and the US did not want to get caught up in the notion that an inspection regime would solve the problem.

It was hoped that reporters might be able to question President Bush on the secret report at a Saturday morning White House ceremony to sign a job creation act, but this did not happen. Mr Bush did say during brief remarks on the legislation that the administration would continue to take steps to strengthen America’s defences against terrorist attacks.

The LA Times report says US officials have long acknowledged that they had detailed nuclear plans for an attack on Russia. However, this “Nuclear Posture Review” apparently marks the first time that an official list of potential target countries has come to light, analysts said. Some predicted the disclosure would set off strong reactions from governments of the target countries.

“This is dynamite,” Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear arms expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, told the LA Times. “I can imagine what these countries are going to be saying at the UN.”

Arms control advocates said the report’s directives on development of smaller nuclear weapons could signal that the Bush administration is more willing to overlook a long-standing taboo against the use of nuclear weapons except as a last resort. They warned that such moves could dangerously destabilize the world by encouraging other countries to believe that they, too, should develop weapons.

“They’re trying desperately to find new uses for nuclear weapons, when their uses should be limited to deterrence,” said John Isaacs, president of the Council for a Livable World. “This is very, very dangerous talk . . . Dr Strangelove is clearly still alive in the Pentagon.”

But, according to the LA Times, some conservative analysts insisted that the Pentagon must prepare for all possible contingencies as dozens of countries are engaged in secret weapon development programmes.