US Threatens to Use Nuclear Weapons in Reaction to Biochemical Attack

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 11, 2002

US Threatens to Use Nuclear Weapons in Reaction to Biochemical Attack

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The White House reminded Iraq and other hostile countries on Tuesday that the United States is prepared to use "overwhelming force," including nuclear weapons if necessary, to respond to any chemical or biological attack.

The warning, included in a six-page strategy document on countering weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, underscored a long-standing US policy that Washington may use nuclear weapons if needed.

"The United States will continue to make clear that it reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force -- including through resort to all our options -- to the use of WMD against the United States, our forces abroad, and friends and allies," the document said.

Senior US officials said that the passage, which was not included in the previous strategy document on WMD issued in 1993, intends to deter attacks by hostile governments or rogue states. It did not represent a shift in US policy on when it would use nuclear weapons, but was put in the new report as part of an increased emphasis on the role of deterrence against WMD, they said.

The officials said the strategy, developed jointly by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and homeland security adviser Tom Ridge, is an overall statement of the Bush administration's overarching principles.

The document, called the "National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction," is to be delivered to the Congress on Wednesday.

It was released at a time when the Bush administration seeks touse force to disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Other major elements of the new strategy include prevention, deterrence and defense measures against any chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attack.

On the eve of the 1991 Gulf War, Bush's father, former President George Bush, wrote a letter to Saddam threatening the "severest consequences" if Iraq were to use chemical or biological weapons against the United States. Iraq did not use chemical or biological weapons in that war.

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