time for the adults to take away George's dangerous toys

[pynchonoid]

It's past time that the grown-ups step in and stop the
kids from hurting each other any more. 
-Doug

14:09 09/02/2003	Last update - 14:10 09/02/2003Paris,
Berlin to present Iraq plan to UN on
Friday
By Reuters

MUNICH, Germany - German Defence Minister Peter Struck
confirmed on Sunday that Berlin and Paris would
present to the UN Security Council a joint plan to try
to avert war in Iraq by reinforcing arms inspections. 

"We hope that the initiative will be taken up
positively in the Security Council on February 14,"
Struck told Germany's Phoenix television in an
interview on the fringes of a major security
conference in the southern German city of Munich. 

Weapons inspectors in Iraq are due to report back to
the UN Security Council on Friday. 

Struck confirmed that the plan included backing up
weapons inspections in Iraq using UN troops and was
being driven by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
and French President Jacques Chirac, who diplomatic
sources said were due to talk on Sunday. 

Asked whether Germany would be prepared to participate
in the proposed UN force, Struck said: "We could well
take part in that." 

Struck added that Schroeder would discuss the idea
with Russian President Vladimir Putin at talks in
Berlin later on Sunday. 

French and German reticence over war has infuriated
Washington, prompting U.S. Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld to label them "old Europe," saying they were
isolated in a continent whose center of gravity was
shifting east to embrace U.S. allies in central
Europe. 

Germany's leading news magazine Der Spiegel said the
idea had originated from the chancellor's office and
that Berlin and Paris had been working on the details
of the initiative in secret talks since the beginning
of the year. 

Initial reactions from Security Council veto-holders
Russia and China and European Union president Greece
were positive, the magazine said, while Pope John Paul
had offered German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer
support for the initiative.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=261022&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Published on Sunday, February 9, 2003 by Agence France
Presse 

US Plans for War on Iraq Suffer Blow from European
States 
 
US plans for an imminent invasion of Iraq suffered
severe blows when European states led by France,
warned they would run interference in the UN and NATO.

Iraqi officials meanwhile tried to avert war by
handing over key documents about its weapons programs
to UN officials on Sunday.

Belgium, which also backs the plan, shot down US hopes
of using NATO to immediately bolster defenses in
Turkey -- a planned launching pad for part of its
invading force into neighboring Iraq -- by saying it
and France would block military assistance.

In Baghdad, top UN inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed
ElBaradei were given documents on Iraqi biological,
chemical and nuclear arms programs as they completed
two days of talks with senior Iraqi officials,
according to a UN source.

Blix said Saturday the talks had proved "useful... and
substantial".

The developments undermined US efforts to rally
skeptical allies for a war in the near future to
forcibly disarm Iraq, with or without a new UN
resolution being drafted by Britain.
[...] 
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0209-10.htm

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