Military

DATE=03/26/2002

TYPE=EDITORIAL

NUMBER=0-09784

TITLE=EDITORIAL: IRAQ AND TERRORISM

INTERNET=Yes

CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES.

Anncr: Next, an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government:

Voice: The regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has a long history of supporting terrorism. "It also had contacts with al-Qaida," said George Tenet, U.S. director of Central Intelligence. Iraq's sponsorship of terrorism is especially dangerous because Iraq's ruler is determined to thwart U-N sanctions, press ahead with weapons of mass destruction, and resurrect the military force he had before the Persian Gulf War.

Al-Qaida terrorists are also seeking weapons of mass destruction. Documents recovered from al-Qaida facilities in Afghanistan show that Osama bin Laden was pursuing a sophisticated biological weapons research program. The U.S. has evidence indicating that al-Qaida was attempting to develop a nuclear weapon, and a so-called "dirty bomb" -- a conventional explosive laced with radioactive materials.

Iraq and al-Qaida have much in common. "Their ties may be limited by divergent ideologies," said Mr. Tenet, but their "antipathies toward the United States and the Saudi royal family suggest that tactical cooperation between them is possible."

Iraq continues to provide safe haven to a variety Palestinian terrorist groups, including the Abu Nidal organization, the Arab Liberation Front, and the former head of the now-defunct 15 May Organization, Abu Ibrahim.

Iraq's dictator not only supports terrorism, his regime has practiced it on a massive scale. This month marks the fourteenth anniversary of the murder of some five-thousand men, women, and children, mostly ethnic Kurds, in the Iraqi city of Halabja. They were killed with mustard gas and other deadly chemical weapons dropped by Iraqi forces on Saddam Hussein's order. Some ten-thousand other civilians were wounded in this horrific attack. Nor was this the only such atrocity. Halabja was one of some two-hundred- fifty villages targeted by the Iraqi regime between April 1987 and August 1988.

Little wonder that Iraq's controlled press praised al-Qaida's savage attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in September.

President George W. Bush said Iraq "is a nation run by a man who is willing to kill his own people by using chemical weapons; a man who won't let inspectors into the country; a man who's obviously got something to hide. And he is a problem. And we're going to deal with him."

Anncr: That was an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-ibb-dot-gov-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043.