ACCESSION NUMBER:225478
FILE ID:PO-201
DATE:04/28/92
TITLE:WHITE HOUSE REPORT, TUESDAY, APRIL 28 (04/28/92)
TEXT:*92042801.POL
WHITE HOUSE REPORT, TUESDAY, APRIL 28

1Iraq build-up; Peru/plane)  (360)
NEWS BRIEFING -- Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater covered these topics:
IRAQ POLICY DEFENDED
Encouraging Iraq to build up its military capability in the period before
the Persian Gulf war was the right course for the United States to follow,
Fitzwater told a questioner.

Asked if President Bush would acknowledge he made a mistake in encouraging
U.S. firms to supply the wherewithal for Baghdad's arsenal, Fitzwater said,
"We think we have been on the right course with Iraq and with our policy
for several years, both before the war, during the war, and after the war."

When its was suggested that that policy had helped Saddam Hussein build up
his biological, chemical and nuclear weapons potential, Fitzwater replied:
"Without acknowledging anything about what we did in terms of the ultimate
consequences, we said we were supportive of Iraq, as many other countries
were, and that, of course, turned out to be a mistake, as we learned to our
regret on August 2 (1990)."

Asked if Bush had approved the Central Intelligence Agency's failure to
provide a full report to the Senate Intelligence Committee on data-sharing
with Iraq, Fitzwater said, "They did give them a full report, and I think
Senator Boren's comments are quite adequate."

The senator, chairman of the intelligence committee, confirmed the CIA's
failure to fully inform his committee but dismissed the pre-war cooperation
as "basically...insignificant."  The agency said its sharing of
intelligence with Iraq ended when the Iran-Iraq war stopped in 1988.
Administration documents later showed the cooperation in place as of May
1990.  The CIA later acknowledged, The Washington Post reported, that the
cooperation ended only on August 2, 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait.

PERU PROBE CONTINUES
Asked about Peru's attack on a U.S. transport plane in international air
space 80 miles off the Peruvian coast, Fitzwater said, "We are cooperating
in the investigation, but we don't have any more conclusions at this
point."  One American crewman was killed and several were wounded in the
repeated strafing runs by Peruvian planes.

NNNN

.