Imminent Threat

In the structure of a classical play, a problem is presented in Act 1. Complications arise in Act 2, and all is resolved in Act 3. In Iraq this spring, while much of Europe was still enmeshed in Act 2, George W. Bush plunged directly into Act 3, without acknowledging the complications or fully considering the consequences of his actions. The result was the most heated year in trans-Atlantic relations since the Suez crisis of 1956. The Iraq war ignited tinder already piled high by clashes over trade, arms control, the Middle East, global warming and the International Criminal Court.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace spent five months studying whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that threatened the world, and last week it concluded that the answer was no. The study -- by Jessica Mathews, president of the think tank, George Perkovich, its vice president for studies, and Joseph Cirincione, senior associate and director of the nonproliferation project -- concludes that U.S. officials distorted intelligence to...

WASHINGTON - CIA Director George J. Tenet offered a rare and forceful defense yesterday of the nation's prewar intelligence, saying his agents never said that Iraq posed an "imminent" threat but acknowledging weaknesses in U.S. efforts to penetrate high levels of Saddam Hussein's regime. Under criticism that flawed intelligence information led to the invasion of Iraq, Tenet asserted that his agents accurately portrayed Hussein as a rising danger who sought nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The shooting of Kendra Diggs and the subsequent barricade by her alleged attacker presented a challenge Tuesday for police and emergency responders. Under the threat of further gunfire from the off-duty Baltimore police officer, officials said, they were unable to render medical aid to the dying woman. "When you have a person who is down … what we're trained on is that you don't jeopardize six or seven police officers in your emotional reaction to save that person," Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said in an interview Wednesday.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush may postpone his planned summit in Moscow next month with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, according to White House officials, who say the trip is threatened both by the Persian Gulf crisis and problems in the U.S.-Soviet relationship.The most imminent threat to the meeting, scheduled for Feb. 11-13, is posed by the situation in the gulf. The White House has not ruled out the possibility that Mr. Bush would travel if hostilities were under way, but administration officials said it was unlikely the president would make the trip unless the crisis was close to being resolved.

PARIS -- Dutch police arrested a known teenage extremist yesterday and six other suspects for allegedly plotting to assassinate Dutch politicians and to attack the headquarters of the Dutch intelligence service, authorities said. The group, they said, has links to a cell broken up last year after the Nov. 2 assassination of Theo van Gogh, an outspoken filmmaker and descendant of the artist Vincent van Gogh. As anti-terror agents carried out raids in Amsterdam, an outlying suburb and The Hague, well-armed police guarded the Netherlands' intelligence service headquarters, Parliament and other government buildings in The Hague.

As we are faced with the imminent threat of Israel'sattacking Iran, pro-Israeli lobbying groups are putting pressure on President Barack Obama and the Congress to support such an attack. Israel would attack in the name of protecting its security, but at the end of the day, her security lies in peace - a peace derived from a comprehensive and just settlement with the Palestinians. If that is done, including return of most of the territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, then the chances of Israel living in peace with all her Islamic neighbors will be greatly improved.

In response to Quinton D. Thompson's letter ("Obama's decision to leave Iraq led to catastrophe," April 5), I must remind your readers that the underlying catastrophe was perpetrated by then-President George W. Bush's illegal attack on Iraq. President Bush led this attack on the false pretenses that Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction that posed an imminent threat to our nation. It was Mr. Bush's irresponsible decision to take this action that led to thousands of U.S. soldiers dead or wounded (not to mention the innumerable Iraqi civilian casualties)

ANNAPOLIS -- Over the past few months, a 39-year-old Baltimore woman says she petitioned the court three times to keep her husband away from her. But she still wound up beaten, raped and brutalized.Her husband returned each time a 30-day civil protection order expired, the woman told the House Judiciary Committee yesterday.He fractured her jaw and knocked out her teeth the first time, and raped and spit and urinated on her the second time, said the woman, who testified on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama will likely confront a biological or nuclear attack at home or abroad if the United States and its allies do not act decisively to prevent it, according to a report released this week by a panel created by Congress. The report found that the United States had taken important steps to counteract nuclear proliferation and, to a lesser extent, biological terrorism, but had "not kept pace with growing risks." The nine-member, bipartisan commission presented its conclusions yesterday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Obama's nominee for secretary of Homeland Security.