Bush Pressured to Block Cargo Flights to Iraq

WASHINGTON —  The Bush Administration came under pressure from Congress on Wednesday to extend its blockade against Iraq to include shipments by air and to demand that Saudi Arabia share more of a $19-billion windfall it will receive from increased oil production and prices.

The proposals by lawmakers were made as Secretary of State James A. Baker III departed for the Persian Gulf in the first stop of a weeklong diplomatic mission aimed at mustering additional international support for the economic sanctions and their mounting costs.

The new calls for an air embargo came amid mounting frustration over reports of a steady flow of cargo-laden planes--many of them from Libya--that continue to ferry food and other goods to Baghdad in open defiance of the U.N.-sponsored trade ban.

Meanwhile, the Navy released an Iraq-bound freighter that it had seized only 24 hours earlier in the Gulf of Oman after receiving assurances that it would not try to run the blockade and deliver its cargo of tea to Iraq. And President Bush spoke by telephone with the beleaguered U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, urging him to “keep up the good work” despite dwindling supplies of food and water for those Americans stranded in the isolated embassy compound.

U.S. officials said it will be at least several days before the situation at the embassy will become critical. But with stockpiles running low, some expressed apprehension that the fate of the diplomats is approaching a critical point.

The indication of congressional sentiment came as President Bush met with members of a congressional delegation that had just returned from Saudi Arabia and Baker appeared on Capitol Hill for a second day to outline an Administration proposal for a permanent U.S.-backed military alliance in the Middle East.

The lawmakers generally voiced support for the way the Administration has managed the crisis to date and said meetings with U.S. military commanders in the region left no doubt that the mission was being handled correctly.

But with Baker heading abroad in search of new contributions to the international campaign against Iraq, some warned that the effects of the embargo could be slow to take effect if the Administration does not move to halt the continued penetration from the skies.

“We have to make certain that the embargo is tight and that it works,” Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) told reporters after the session with the President. While the United States now has effective control over shipments by land and sea into Iraq, he said, “I think we need to extend the embargo to include air.”

Intelligence reports show that one to two cargo planes have landed in Iraq every day since the crisis began, according to U.S. officials involved in managing the crisis. Most of the planes were said to have originated in Libya, where a freighter two weeks ago unloaded cargo that originally had been bound for Iraq.

Other sanction-busting flights have come from Yemen and Vietnam, with some using East European nations as transit points. The officials said most of the flights have carried food and consumer goods to Iraq.

In acknowledging that such “leakage” continues, Baker described the effect as relatively insignificant and said there are no plans for the United States to attempt to intercept aircraft flying into Iraq. Separately, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater ruled out an air blockade as a “provocative act.”

Under pointed questioning on Capitol Hill, however, Baker assured Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) that the continued flights are “something we’re watching” and indicated that the United States may seek U.N. Security Council approval to take additional steps.

Other Administration officials said that a proposal under consideration would impose an international ban on air flights from Libya and other nations known to have violated the trade ban with Iraq.

In the meantime, the officials said, the United States hopes to pressure Cyprus, Syria and Jordan into refusing permission for the Iraq-bound cargo flights to travel through their air space.

On the question of burden-sharing, some members of Congress raised particular concern about the contribution to be made by Saudi Arabia, where Baker and his delegation are to arrive this morning.

With Baker expected to seek new commitments from the Saudis and other wealthy nations, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said calculations by his staff indicate that the Saudis stand to “reap” about $19 billion this year as a result of their agreement to step up oil production during the crisis.

Recommending that such a windfall be used to help finance the crisis effort, Kerry said to Baker: “I wonder if you can envision making some kind of request with respect to those additional revenues?”

The secretary of state refused to provide even in general terms a country-by-country breakdown of the $25 billion in assistance the Administration has said it will seek from abroad. “It’s very sensitive information,” he said. “We’ve been asked to protect it.”

On the military front, the Navy announced a surprise ending to an episode that began Tuesday when an armed boarding party from the Navy destroyer Goldsborough took control of the Iraqi-flagged freighter and forced it to change course.

U.S. officials said the ship was never forced into port, as originally expected, but was diverted at sea after the vessel’s captain told U.S. officers that he would not try to evade the economic quarantine of Iraq.

“Our boarding team has left the ship. The Zanubia is in international waters and is being monitored. It’s free to go anywhere in the world except an Iraqi port,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sam Midliazzo, a Pentagon spokesman.

Meanwhile, the Navy authorized the battleship Wisconsin, now on station in the Persian Gulf, to begin testing its 16-inch guns after a four-month suspension. Firing of the guns had been halted in May after laboratory tests showed that gunpowder in the barrels could accidentally ignite if improperly loaded and rammed.

The safety of powerful battleship guns has been under suspicion since the April, 1989, explosion aboard the battleship Iowa that killed 47 sailors. The Navy originally blamed a despondent sailor for deliberately igniting the blast but was forced to reopen its investigation when lab tests showed the powder could have been accidentally detonated.

Staff writer John M. Broder contributed to this report.