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                             Newsday Online
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                              NEWS SUMMARY
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                 From Newsday and Wire Service Reports
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January 16, 1991 as of 9:53 PM

1. WAR BEGINS WITH U.S. AIR STRIKES TO DRIVE IRAQ FROM KUWAIT
2. BUSH TELLS AMERICANS: `WE WILL NOT FAIL'
3. U.S. UNLEASHES AERIAL MIGHT ON IRAQI TARGETS
4. ISRAELI MILITARY ORDERS CITIZENS INDOORS
5. LAWMAKERS HOPE MILITARY CONFLICT IS BRIEF
6. TERRORIST EXPERTS DOUBT ATTACK ON U.S. SOIL
7. U.N. CHIEF, DELEGATES WATCHING NEWS OF ATTACK
8. WAR SURPRISES SLEEPY SAUDI CITY
9. PEACE PROTESTERS RALLY WORLDWIDE - IN VAIN
10. NETWORK REPORTERS VIEW WAR'S START


 WAR BEGINS WITH U.S. AIR STRIKES TO DRIVE IRAQ FROM KUWAIT
    CENTRAL SAUDI ARABIA (AP) - The United States launched air attacks
early Thursday against Iraq, hurling its mighty air force against an
Arab power that for five months has held Kuwait in defiance of the rest
of the world.
    ``The liberation of Kuwait has begun,'' President Bush declared in
Washington.
    In Baghdad, television reporters said bombs were falling on the
center of the Iraqi capital. They said explosions shook the ground, an
oil refinery 10 miles away was in flames, and flashes of light
brightened the night sky - apparent antiaircraft fire.
    ``Operation Desert Shield'' became ``Operation Desert Storm'' apound
12:50 a.m. (4:50 p.m. EST) as F-15E fighter-bombers took off from the
largest U.S air base in central Saudi Arabia and streaked north. ``This
is history in the making,'' said Col. Ray Davies, the base's chief
maintenance officer.
    The offensive included U.S.-allied forces and was aimed at Iraqi
troops in both Iraq and Kuwait, U.S. officials said. British news
reports said Royal Air Force Tornado GR1 fighter-bombers had joined the
air assault.
    There was no sign of an Iraqi attack on Israel, as Iraq had
threatened.
    The early-morning assault was the climax to a crisis that built over
more than five months, as Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, whose forces
stormed Kuwait in a lightning invasion Aug. 2, rejected world
condemnation and dismissed international economic sanctions designed to
force him out of the occupied emirate.
    The American warplanes took off from Dharan, Saudi Arabia, in pairs,
disappearing in red dots that winked out as they gained altitude. The
aircraft were heavily loaded with bombs and underwing fuel tanks for the
long trip north. They also were armed with cannon and air-to-air
missiles for self-defense.
    ``We've been waiting here for five months now. Now we finally got to
do what we were sent here to do,'' Col. Davies said.
    Later, in Baghdad, ABC and CNN reporters said there were ``flashes
in the sky.'' Explosions and machine-gun fire could be heard in the
background of their reports. ``The night sky filled with a hail of
bullets from anti-aircraft guns,'' CNN's John Holliman said.
    The U.S.-led attack came one day after the Tuesday midnight deadline
set by the U.N. Security Council for an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait.
After that, the council declared, the assembled international military
force would be free to drive the Iraqis from the conquered oil-rich
enclave.
    ``The liberation of Kuwait has begun,'' White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater said in Washington, quoting Bush. ``In conjunction with the
forces of our coalition partners the United States has moved under the
code name Operation Desert Storm to enforce the mandates of the United
Nations Security Council.
    ``As of 7 o'clock p.m. Operation Desert Storm forces were engaging
targets in Iraq and Kuwait.''

 BUSH TELLS AMERICANS: `WE WILL NOT FAIL'
    WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush marshalled American and allied
military forces into war with Iraq on Wednesday night, declaring that
with Operation Desert Storm: ``The battle has been joined'' to free
Kuwait.
    The initial attack was still underway when Bush spoke to the nation
at 9 p.m. EST and said, ``We will not fail.''
    Bush said ``all reasonable efforts'' to resolve the Persian Gulf by
diplomacy had failed and that Iraqi President ``Saddam Hussein met every
overture of peace with contempt.''
    He said the allied forces - ``standing shoulder to shoulder'' -
would drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait, and destroy Iraq's nuclear
potential and chemical warfare facilities.
    Bush said he had been assured by the top American military commander
that the air operations were proceeding according to plans. He said no
ground forces were involved in the assault against Iraqi positions in
Kuwait and Iraq.
    ``The world could wait no longer'' for Saddam to withdraw, Bush
said.
    He said it had become clear that economic sanctions alone woulid
never compel a withdrawal, he said.
    His brief speech included a sharp denunciation of the Iraqi leader.
``While the world prayed for peace, Saddam prepared for war,'' the
president said.
    Bush repeated his oft-standing pledge that ``this will not be
another Vietnam,'' vowing, ``I have said this before and I repeat this
here tonight, our troops will not be asked to fight with one hand tied
behind their back. Our troops will have the best possible support.''

 U.S. UNLEASHES AERIAL MIGHT ON IRAQI TARGETS
    WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States unleashed its unmatched air
power Wednesday on Iraqi targets in Iraq and Kuwait, opening the Persian
Gulf war with a night-time rainstorm of explosives.
    The attack also apparently made use of ``a wave of cruise missiles''
launched from Navy ships in the gulf region, their powerful warheads
programmed for months to hit Iraqi military installations, according to
a senior Pentagon official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
    President Bush, in a televised address to the nation hours after the
assault began and as daylight broke in the Middle East, said ``our
troops will have the best possible support in the world and they will
not be asked to fight with one hand tied behind their back.''
    Bush said initial reports from the commander of American forces in
the region, Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, were that the assault was
going according to plan. Bush said targets included Iraqi chemical and
nuclear weapons facilities.
    ``Our goal is not the conquest of Iraq - it is the liberation of
Kuwait,'' Bush said.
    The only aircraft the military initially confirmed was participating
in the assault were U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter-bombers. But the attack
also likely featured the Air Force's radar-eluding F-117 stealth
bombers, Navy A-6 carrier-based bombers and several other jets including
radar jammers designed to protect attack jets from enemy detection and
fire.
    Military sources in Saudi Arabia said scores of F-15 air-to-air
fighters were scrambled from Saudi air bases and Navy F-A-18s from Navy
carriers in the region to provide air support to the assault force and
to defend Saudi airspace against any Iraqi attempts at retaliation.
    Likely involved as well were Air Force F-4G ``Wild Weasels'' and
Navy EA-6Bs, both designed to jam radar systems used by Iraqi missiles
and fighters for targeting.
    Air Force AWACS planes would use their aerial radar platforms to
direct the traffic from high above Saudi Arabia, and to detect enemy air
traffic hundreds of miles away.
    In all the U.S. forces have more than 1,300 warplanes at their
command and their allies have hundreds more on the scene.
    Details of the attack were sketchy, but White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater said ``Operation Desert Storm'' featured attacks on Iraqi
positions both in Bagdhad and Kuwait. Fitzwater said other coalition
forces were participating, but did not say in what capacity.
    The Saudi Embassy said British and Saudi jets joined the attack -
150 F-15s and British-made Tornado attack planes from the Saudi Air
Force alone, said spokesman Fred Dutton. ``This attack is much more than
we can tell from television, because the reporters are only in
Baghdad,'' he said.
    Reporters in Bagdhad reporting hearing heavy bombing west of the
Iraqi capital in wave after wave of attack from the skies above.
    Iraq has missile and considerable antiaircraft defenses in that
area, and Pentagon planners had said wiping out such installations would
be a primary goal of the first wave of any attack. Also likely targets
of the first wave were Iraqi missile launch sites and command-and-
control communications centers.
    Known to be participating in the attack were a squadron of U.S. F-
15E fighter-bombers that took off from the largest U.S air base in
central Saudi Arabia.
    ``This is history in the making,'' said Col. Ray Davies, the base's
chief maintenance officer.
    Among the more than 800 Air Force combat aircraft deployed so far
are 44 F-117A Stealth fighter-bombers and as many as 38 long-range F-
111F bombers.

 ISRAELI MILITARY ORDERS CITIZENS INDOORS
    JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's military command ordered its citizens
Thursday to stay indoors and prepare their gas mask kits in response to
a feared Iraqi chemical attack.
    It said only those citizens involved in emergency occupations are
allowed to leave their homes and are instructed to carry their gas masks
with them.
    There were no immediate signs of a threatened Iraqi attack on Israel
as the United States, backed by multinational forces, launched its night
assault on Iraq. Saddam had threatened to scorch half of Israel, vowing
he would use chemical weapons if war broke out.
    Israeli radio stations said that Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and
Defense Minister Moshe Arens were at home receiving reports on the
assault on Iraq.

 LAWMAKERS HOPE MILITARY CONFLICT IS BRIEF
    WASHINGTON (AP) - As the United States unleashed its air power
against Iraq Wednesday, lawmakers said they hoped the conflict would end
quickly with few American casualties.
    ``We can only hope that this military action is swift and successful
and that there will be a minimum of American casualties and Saddam
Hussein will be wiped from the face of the Earth,'' Sen. Alfonse
D'Amato, R-N.Y., said in a statement issued shortly after the U.S.
attack began.
    ``Operation Desert Storm,'' which U.S. officials said included
American and allied forces, was aimed at Iraqi sites in Iraq and Kuwait.
    When news of the first air strikes surfaced, some lawmakers watched
on television while others were on the road. Congressional leaders had
been notified in advance by President Bush.
    A congressional source said Bush called Senate Minority Leader Bob
Dole, R-Kan., in his Capitol office about 5:40 p.m. to notify him that
an attack would be launched.
    Dole talked with the president for several minutes and then called
House Minority Leader Robert Michel and Senate Majority Leader George
Mitchell. Both came to Dole's office and at 6:25 p.m. the leaders were
briefed by Robert Gates, deputy national security adviser, and one of
his aides. The briefing lasted about 30 minutes.
    Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio and a member of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said the Defense Department had refused to give him any
information, so he was getting all his early information by watching
television reports in his Capitol Hill office.
    Glenn had voted Saturday against the congressional resolution giving
Bush the authority to use military force against Iraq. He had favored
giving the economic sanctions against Iraq more time to work.
    ``It's regrettable that Saddam Hussein did not see fit to withdraw
and thus avoid what will now be the terrible destruction of war,'' Glenn
said Wednesday night. ``I would hope that now that Saddam has seen the
planes of war over Baghdad he will finally withdraw from Kuwait before
the casualties mount.''
    Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I. and chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, said in a statement: ``War has now begun. I hope
our armed forces, and those of our United Nations allies, will bring it
to a speedy and successful conclusion. I pray for all those in danger
tonight, our courageous servicemen and women, and innocent civilians in
Kuwait and Iraq.''

 TERRORIST EXPERTS DOUBT ATTACK ON U.S. SOIL
    HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Experts on terrorism doubt Middle East
terrorists will attack Americans on their own soil, but say war between
the United States and Iraq makes attacks on Americans abroad a near
certainty.
    ``The chances are very slim,'' said Robert L. Phillips, director of
the War and Ethics Program, a public policy think tank at the University
of Connecticut's Hartford campus.
    Phillips said there is a much greater probability that terrorists
will attack American targets in Europe and in the Middle East. He said
the United States has become more sophisticated in its anti-terrorism
techniques since the terrorism rampage of the 1970s.
    ``The FBI is just very, very good. We don't have terrorism here,''
said Phillips. ``It's not easy to get a known terrorist operative in the
United States - and even if they were able to get in, they don't have a
network here.''
    Phillips has served as a consultant on terrorism to both the U.S.
and British governments and has written extensively on the subject,
including a 1984 book, ``War and Justice,'' on the ethical issues of
warfare, notably terrorism.
    David E. Apter, a professor of political science at Yale University
who has written extensively on political violence, said he believes it
fits better with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's strategy to attack
Americans abroad, rather than in their own country, where such attacks
would solidify American support for war and eradicate the anti-war
sentiment that has grown in recent weeks.
    ``Saddam Hussein has got more to gain from not arousing the American
public,'' Apter said.
    The experts said they believe the most likely targets for terrorist
attacks overseas are American diplomats, military personnel and
facilities, businessmen and tourists.
    Martha Crenshaw, a government professor at Wesleyan University, said
the sheer number of American targets abroad would make terrorist attacks
there much easier than in the United States.
    ``It's a matter of expediency,'' Crenshaw said.
    Phillips said while he believes the chances for state-sponsored
terrorist attacks in the United States are slim, that does not
necessarily mean a ``loose cannon'' terrorist won't strike here.
    ``I would think that the kind of thing that would worry the FBI
would be that some unknown or crazy who takes it upon him or herself to
change the course of history,'' Phillips said.
    In response to the potential for terrorism in the United States,
officials at nuclear plants, airports, military installations and other
sites across the country have beefed-up security over the last week.
    Experts said Americans should be comforted by the heightened
security, but said there are no guarantees when it comes to terrorism.

 U.N. CHIEF, DELEGATES WATCHING NEWS OF ATTACK
    UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Secretary-General late Wednesday
remained sequestered in his office, watching news of the attack on Iraq.
    It was not known whether the Security Council would convene to
discuss the matter, because the U.N. council on Nov. 29 authorized the
use of military force to dislodge Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
    Most diplomats had gone home or were attending receptions, but the
council was scheduled to resume closed consultations at 10:30 p.m. EST
on the Palestinian question and the situation in the Israeli-occupied
territories.
    Cuban Ambassador Ricardo Alarcon told reporters that the U.S. attack
upon Iraq ``deals a death blow to the new international order. This is
the most severe blow to the prestige and role of the United Nations.''

 WAR SURPRISES SLEEPY SAUDI CITY
    DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (AP) - The war caught this city almost by
surprise, in a fitful sleep 24 hours after the U.N. deadline had passed.
    There was no official announcement of the first strike north into
Kuwait and Iraq.
    The stillness of the night was shattered by the thunder of
afterburners as the F-15E fighter-bombers took off in pairs, becoming
red dots that winked out at high altitude.
    They carried heavy loads of bombs, wing tanks with extra fuel for
the trip north, and missiles and cannon for self-defense.
    ``The ground shook and you felt it'' when the first planes took off
at 12:50 a.m. Thursday, said Col. Ray Davies, 44, chief maintenance
officer at the base.
    ``We've been waiting here for five months,'' he said. ``Now we
finally got to do what we were sent here to do.''
    Journalists in the U.S. Air Force media pool were awakened by the
near-continous thunder of the jets taking off. When they arrived at the
flight line shortly afterward, the parking aprons that had been crowded
only Wednesday night were half-empty.
    Airmen walked across the concrete in pairs during the early morning
hours to waiting planes that were fully armed and ready to go. Each
plane has a crew of two - the pilot in front and the weapons officer in
the back.
    An air raid alarm was called at 3:15 a.m. local time after a sudden
blackout, and air raid sirens sounded.
    The hotel staff at the Dhahran International Hotel, some in a near-
panic, herded 700 reporters and hotel guests into the hotel basement.
    Mohammed Khayat of the Saudi Ministry of Information who was in the
shelter, told reporters: ``There is no reaction from the Iraqi side. Our
planes went in but there is no reaction.''

 PEACE PROTESTERS RALLY WORLDWIDE - IN VAIN
    (AP) - Anti-war protesters rallied in vain across the globe up to
the final hours, chanting ``No blood for oil!'' and praying for peace
before the U.S. bombing of Iraq began Thursday at 3 a.m. Baghdad time.
    U.S. officials in central Saudi Arabia announced that the air raids
had started, and President Bush said in Washington, ``The liberation of
Kuwait has begun.''
    Hundreds of demonstrators had kept a vigil outside the White House
after a U.N. deadline expired at Tuesday midnight for Iraq to leave
Kuwait - invaded on Aug. 2 - or risk attack.
    One demonstrator shouted early Wednesday, ``Wake up, Bush, don't go
to sleep tonight!'' Others pounded on drums or honked horns.
    In Europe, people rose before dawn Wednesday to pray in churches.
    Protesters maintained a somber candelight vigil outside United
Nations Headquarters in New York.
    More than 100,000 demonstrators marched in German cities for a fifth
day, many with banners declaring: ``No blood for oil!'' Others blocked
entrances to U.S. military bases.
    About 10,000 students marched in a single rally down elegant
Kurfuerstendam boulevard in western Berlin. Others demonstrated in
Munich and Berlin.
    A radical leftist group claimed responsibilty for a pre-dawn bombing
that slightly damaged the Victory Column, a prominent landmark in Berlin
hailing Prussian triumphs in 19th century wars.
    The U.S. Defense Department reported a bomb threat Wednesday at the
Pentagon outside Washington.
    Police arrested 55 demonstrators lying on the sidewalk in front of
the White House as protesters, including young schoolchildren, chanted
``One, two, three, four, we don't want your stupid war!''

 NETWORK REPORTERS VIEW WAR'S START
    NEW YORK (AP) - ABC's Gary Shepard saw ``huge red tracers'' speeding
skyward Wednesday night. But he and CNN correspondents initially said no
planes could be seen. Later was different, though.
    ``If you're still with us,'' said CNN's Peter Arnett minutes later,
``you can hear the bombs now. They're hitting the center of city.''
    ``Oh, oh, now there's huge fire,'' added his CNN colleague, John
Holliman. ``It is due west of our position. ... WHOA, HOLY COW! That was
a large airburst that we saw that was filling the sky.''
    And that's how millions of viewers first began learning that the
U.S. attack on Iraq may have begun - by phone reports from network
correspondents who refused to leave Baghdad, despite a White House plea
earlier Wednesday.
    One could clearly hear the chatter of anti-aircraft machine guns
firing as Shepard, Holliman, Arnett and CNN's anchor Bernard Shaw.
Later, NBC's Tom Aspell gave the first reports from their vantage points
at Baghdad's Al-Rashid Hotel, where CBS correspondent Allen Pizzey also
was staying.
    Ironically, Pizzey, who reported live the 1986 predawn attack of
U.S. warplanes during a retaliatory attack against Libya, was foiled
this time by a phone line that CBS said somehow died as Wednesday's U.S.
air attack began.
    CBS anchor Dan Rather cited an Associated Press bulletin from Saudi
Arabia to tell American viewers that the war had begun. ABC anchor Peter
Jennings and CNN also cited that bulletin.
    All four networks immediately swung into action. ABC, broadcasting
Sherpard's running account of the attack, was first to air the action
shortly after 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Baghdad time. ABC's account was
followed immediately by those of Holliman and Arnett, then later by
NBC's Aspell.
    Rather made do with reports from experts and other CBS
correspondents in Washington and Saudi Arabia.
    No video pictures of the U.S. strike on Baghdad could be
transmitted, but Arnett and Holliman marveled that their communications
with CNN in Atlanta still were going.
    No injuries to the U.S. network crews in Baghdad were reported,
despite bomb blasts near their hotel, with one air attack on targets
within a mile of the hotel, according to Arnett, a Pulitzer Prize-
winning reporter who covered the Vietnam War for The Associated Press.
    The attacks occurred hours after White House press secretary Marlin
Fitzwater pleaded ``one last time'' for American journalists still in
Iraq to leave immediately. He warned that war could begin ``at any
time'' now that the United Nations' deadline had passed for Iraq to get
out of Kuwait.