An Iraqi worker holds a portrait of President Saddam Hussein

WASHINGTON, May 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. officials continued Sunday, May 5, to express their belief that Iraq should come under a fresh U.S. strike, saying Iraq would be better off without its present regime, amid reports specific attack plans have been produced, news agencies reported.

”We're in consultation with our friends and allies, [and] we have felt, the [U.S.] president [George W. Bush] felt that it is extremely important to make clear that the status quo is not acceptable with this regime," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on the "Fox News Sunday" program.

"That's why the United States, irrespective of what the United Nations might do with inspectors or sanctions, continues to believe that regime change is the best solution, to get a more responsible regime in there that will be more interested in the needs of the Iraqi people than threatening neighbors," Secretary of State Colin Powell, told NBC.

Their comments came as William Arkin, adjunct professor at the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air Power Studies reported in the Los Angeles Times daily that the U.S. Central Command's draft plan for a massive ground assault on Iraq has sparked criticism within the U.S. military.

The plan by Central Command chief General Tommy Franks calls for a simultaneous ground and air attack on southern Iraq by some 150,000 troops supported by planes from five aircraft carriers in the hopes of sparking a local uprising, Arkin said.

He said the plan -- which has not officially been approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- has been criticized as unworkable and too risky.

"Three of the four subordinate commands within [the Central Command] -- the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines -- took the unprecedented step of expressing alarm at a [command] meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany last month," Arkin wrote in a signed column.

The New York Times reported last week that the attack was to be launched early next year with about 250,000 U.S. troops.

The daily said the plans were drafted after the administration of President Bush concluded a coup would be unlikely to succeed and local forces were insufficient for a proxy battle.

Rice said President George W. Bush has not decided what to do with Iraq, repeating a previous denial by Powell, and a Central Command spokesman refused comment.

"We're not going to comment on any sort of operation like that even if it does exist," Central Command spokesman Commander Dan Keesee said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. media is already psychologically preparing its public to accept a war on Iraq. Time magazine’s cover story laid out the reasons behind the upcoming attack, referring to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship.  

Saddam’s regime is “brittle and rotting from within, held together only by force and bribery,” the magazine said.

Time said that the White House has concluded that Saddam poses a clear and present danger that must be eliminated. "He is a dangerous man possessing the world's most dangerous weapons," Bush said. "It is incumbent upon freedom-loving nations to hold him accountable, which is precisely what the United States of America will do." 

However, the magazine quotes Wamidh Nadhmi, a Baghdad political scientist in contact with Saddam’s regime saying that Saddam “knows it would be very difficult for Bush to retreat from his declared intent." 

“There are signs Saddam is bracing for attack: beefing up his personal security, bucking up the ruling Baath Party and repositioning his military while playing at diplomatic delay with the U.N. He knows the issue for him is existential,” the magazine said. 

Saddam never sleeps in his palaces, but goes to secret tents every night, it claimed.

“Especially since the September 11 attacks, for which he feared immediate American retaliation, Saddam has taken measures to tighten his protection. The inner circle of guardians, known as Al-Himaya, is made up exclusively of close relatives,” Time said. 

“Says a senior U.S. official: ‘They're the ones standing with weapons in the background of photos you see of Saddam.’ The next circle is the Murafiqoun, also related by blood or from unimpeachable families, who are in charge of broader personal and family security and crowd control for Saddam. The outermost circle is the elite SSO, run by son Qusay,” it added.

However, there seems to be military exercises in Iraq in preparation for the attacks, the magazine said. “For the past two months, government agencies have been conducting preparatory exercises, sending top officials to designated safe locations, for example, and protecting official archives,” it said, adding that commanders of the army have been reshuffled and that various military units have been moved around the country. 

Meanwhile, Iraqi state television announced Sunday that Iraq will resume oil exports, suspended for a month in retaliation for Israel's West Bank offensive against the Palestinians, on the night of Tuesday-Wednesday (May 7-8), Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The decision to resume crude exports halted April 8 was taken during the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by the Iraqi president, following the failure of other Arab oil producers to join the embargo, it said.

The cabinet decided to "resume oil exports at the end of the one-month period [of suspension], that is after midnight on the night of May 7-8," the television added.

The cabinet recalled the decision taken by Iraq's top leadership -- the ruling Revolution Command Council, the Baath Party and the cabinet -- on April 8 to halt oil exports for a month "in support of the struggle of the heroic Palestinian people against Zionist-US aggression," it said.

The cabinet noted that Arab "masses" had expressed their support for Baghdad's move, which reflected "the conscience of the Arab nation."

But "brotherly Arab oil producers did not respond to the Iraqi initiative by taking similar steps such that everyone would succeed" in achieving the objectives of the boycott, the cabinet said, according to the TV report.

Arab producers led by Riyadh argued that oil could no longer be used as a "weapon" in the Arab-Israeli conflict as happened in 1973.

Following Baghdad's failure to convince Arab oil exporters to join a collective embargo, the Iraqi leader went on television April 22 to appeal to Arab producers to slash exports "immediately" by 50 percent in solidarity with the Palestinians.

"In solidarity with their [Palestinian] brothers, oil exporters ... [should] slash their exports immediately by 50 percent and deprive the United States and the Zionist entity [Israel]" of the other half, he said.

Last month, Iraq also announced that it is offering $25,000 to the family of every house that was attacked in Jenin.

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