RAF was making a very substantial contribution "to the building of a credible threat of force" Hoon said

LONDON, February 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – While a number of leading British newspapers stressed that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell failed to present the U.N. Secretary Council with hard evidence regarding Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon announced Thursday, February 6, dispatching around 100 RAF aircraft and 7,000 personnel to the Gulf as part of the preparations for a possible war against Iraq.

Hoon told the House of Commons that the force would include E3D Sentry aircraft for airborne command; Jaguar and Tornado reconnaissance aircraft; VC10 and Tristar refueling aircraft; Hercules transporters; and Tornado F3s, Tornado GR4s and Harrier GR7s, providing an offensive capability, reported the Independent.

It added that the RAF element of the Joint Helicopter Command would provide 27 Puma and Chinook aircraft and around 1,100 personnel.

Hoon told the lawmakers that the RAF was making a very substantial contribution "to the building of a credible threat of force".

He dismissed as "simply speculation" media reports that British forces would have to stay in Iraq for three years.

"Our forces will be in the Gulf for as long as it takes to disarm Iraq and the regime of Saddam Hussein," said the British defense secretary.

British Papers Say Powell Failed his Mission

Running the headline "Powell’s Lack of Proof Exposes War Of Flaws", the British Daily Telegraph said Powell displayed " Dodgy tapes, grainy videos, great rhetoric" but wondered "where's the PROOF Colin? "

"America laid out its ‘evidence’ to justify war on Iraq yesterday - but it was not enough," stressed the British paper.

It quoted skeptics as saying that "the U.S. could have digitally altered pictures and manipulated tapes."

It also quoted the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris as ruling that "Powell make serious charges, but there's no proof. You can't attack on the basis of photos. That would be dangerous."

Powell "insisted Iraq was developing nuclear weapons, but produced no evidence of a bomb factory," charged the Daily Telegraph, underlining that much "of his presentation relied on ‘human sources’ which could not be corroborated."

The leading British daily The Times, for its part asserted that a "dramatic presentation of declassified satellite images and communications intercepts" by Powell "failed yesterday to persuade key members of the U.N. Security Council to back military action to disarm Iraq."

In its editorial, the paper described Powell’s speech as an "impressive show" but stressed that he "failed to make the case for a war with Iraq."

British Foreign Secretary told The Times later that Britain intended to wait until after the inspectors had delivered visited Baghdad on Saturday and delivered their next report before deciding whether to table a resolution authorizing military force.

Noting that Powell's speech before the Security Council "leaves questions to answer," the Financial Times said it was a moot point whether "skeptical council members will be more persuaded after yesterday.

"Many of them know Iraq retains a residual armory of rogue weapons. Their skepticism is about whether war is the best way of dealing with it," it said.