President Clinton has not decided what action to take in response to allegations that the Iraqi government attempted to assassinate former President George Bush when he was in Kuwait in mid-April, a spokesman said Saturday.
A team of counterterrorism experts from the FBI and the Secret Service was dispatched to Kuwait City "to determine if there is credible evidence to back up the allegations," White House com-mu-ni-ca-tions director George Stephanopoulos said at a briefing."The investigative team is just on the ground since Monday," he said. "We're still in the middle of the investigation."
The Washington Post reported Saturday that Clinton administration officials were divided over how the United States should respond, with some arguing for direct retribution against Iraq while Justice Department officials were calling for extradition of the suspects in Kuwait to the United States to face criminal charges here.
Stephanopoulos said no decision will be made until the team of U.S. investigators wraps up its work and reports to Clinton. He said he did not know how long that would take.
"These are serious charges, serious allegations," he said.
Stephanopoulos said the president discussed the situation briefly in a meeting Saturday morning with Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Vice President Al Gore, deputy national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger and others. The main focus of the meeting was the U.S. response to the Bosnian civil war.
Stephanopoulos said he was not aware of any conversations between Clinton and Bush about the plot against the former president.
Administration officials have said they have credible evidence that the government of Iraq was involved in an assassination attempt planned for Bush's visit April 14-16. Bush, accompanied by his wife, Barbara, and several former members of his administration, went to Kuwait to celebrate the allied victory in the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
The Kuwaiti government has arrested 16 people, 11 of them Iraqi nationals, in connection with the plot and charged them with conspiracy to kill Bush, among other charges.
But U.S. officials have also said they are not depending solely on Kuwaiti information. They cited several connections to Iraq, including statements by one of those arrested and seizure of hundreds of pounds of explosives that were carried last month from Iraq into Kuwait. Kuwait also seized highly technical equipment from those arrested.