GULF WATCH: Day 134 : A Daily Briefing Paper On Developments In The Crisis

Diplomatic Front:

President Bush sharply rejected any suggestion that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein should get a reward for letting the hostages go.

“Hell, no. Not one thing,” Bush said. “You don’t reward a kidnaper. You don’t reward somebody who has done something he shouldn’t have done in the first place.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador W. Nathaniel Howell III and four other diplomats who for months defied Iraq’s order to shut down the embassy in Kuwait finally headed for home on the last U.S.-sponsored flight out of Iraq. Military Front:

The Pentagon intensified its preparations for possible combat in the Persian Gulf by ordering civilian blood banks to begin supplying blood for shipment to Saudi Arabia.

The Navy announced it will call to active duty hundreds of reservists for medical duty, and the Air Force said it is sending more warplanes from Germany and Britain to Saudi Arabia. Political Front:

U.S. District Judge Harold Greene ruled that the Constitution requires a President to win congressional authorization before going to war, but he refused to issue an injunction requested by 54 Democratic members of Congress. The injunction to force Bush to seek a declaration of war before launching an attack was premature, the judge ruled. The Saudi military deployment:

Army: 38,000

National Guard: 56,000

Navy: 7,200

Air Force: 16,500

Tanks: 550

Aircraft: 180

Warships: 8