WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Adding his voice to the chorus of Bush administration officials laying out a case for some action against Iraq, U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks said Monday Iraq has violated between 15 and 20 United Nations resolutions over the last 11 years, beginning with its refusal to disarm.
U.S. ships have stopped 337 ships smuggling Iraqi oil, a trade that is limited and supposed to be conducted only through a U.N program known as "oil for food." Money from black market oil is believed to finance Saddam Hussein's military and weapons program, Franks said at the annual conference of the National Council of U.S. Arab Relations in Washington, D.C.
"We continue to enforce sanctions through maritime interdiction with wonderful support from (Gulf Cooperation Countries) having boarded more than 1,800 ships and having found 337 not in compliance with sec council resolutions in order to remove illicit revenue from a regime under sanction," Franks said.
Franks made these points without once specifically uttering the word "Iraq," at attempt, perhaps, to avoid adding to speculation about U.S. plans for a war against that country.
"I made a deal with my boss that if he let me do my job I'd try real hard to leave the policy decisions to he and the president," he said.
President Bush will address the United Nations on Sept. 12, a speech in which he is expected to lay out his case against Iraq.
