THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS MAN

<BR><b><center>THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS MAN (House of Representatives - August 02, 1990)</center></b> <p><center><pre>[Page: H6814]</pre></center> <p>(Mr. <strong>SOLOMON</strong> asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and to include extraneous material.) <p>Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, several weeks ago during debate I held up this headline from U.S. News and World Report. This is the headline. And I warned this Congress that Saddam Hussein, labeled the most dangerous man in the world, was building a deadly arsenal of nuclear weapons, chemical weapons supplied to him by Communist China and the Soviet Union, that could disrupt peace in the Middle East and threaten the oil supplies that run America's cars and run America's industries. Today, this Hitler of the Middle East has done just that. <p>Mr. Speaker, let this be a warning to all of my colleagues who want to mothball our warships, ground our B-2 bombers, and decimate our troop strength. Tyrants like Saddam Hussein must be dealt with, and they cannot be dealt with from weakness, my colleagues. <p><h2>From U.S. News and World Report</h2> <p><center><strong>[FROM U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT]</strong></center> <p><h2>The World's Most Dangerous Man--With Billions to Spend and Help From the United States, the Soviet Union and Europe, Saddam Hussein Is Amassing a Truly Terrifying Arsenal</h2> <p>In this strange season of political upheaval, with the lights of dictators winking out around the globe, the world suddenly seems a saner and safer place. But as Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush confer this week, providing a little new hope for safety and sanity, in ancient Baghdad, half a world away, a dangerous man with great ambitions is hosting a summit of his own. <p>While Bush and Gorbachev are signing agreements to reduce their aresenals of chemical and nuclear arms, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the host of the Arab summit, continues to spend billions of dollars in the pursuit and development of those very same weapons. What is even more troubling is that while the superpowers are trying to ensure that their bulging arsenals are never used, Hussein has already lobbed his nerve gas not only at his archenemies in Iran but at some of his own people, killing several hundred Kurdish tribesmen. It is no small irony that this new threat to peace and stability is coming from Mesopotamia, from the cradle of civilization, but if Saddam Hussein has taken note of the fact, he has not deigned to comment on it. He is not, after all, a man much inclined to humor. What he is, demonstrably, is the most dangerous man in the world. <p>In his ruthless and obsessive quest to become the `Sword of the Arabs,' as Hussein lately has styled himself, he has relied upon the complicity of Western and other governments, the greed of middlemen, and a clandestine arms-procurement network with front companies in the U.S. and Europe. The Atlanta branch of Italy's biggest state-owned bank extended more than $1 billion in credit for Iraqi arms deals, U.S. officials say. A Canadian ballistics and rocket expert was helping Hussein build the world's biggest gun where he was mysteriously murdered in Brussels, and Iraq obtained hundreds of tons of a chemical used to make mustard gas from a Baltimore manufacturer before the transaction was caught by U.S. Customs. <p>The fateful combination that fuels Iraq's drive for military power is at once simple and familiar: Money, militarism and ego. With virtually unlimited funds from an oil industry that has an estimated 10 percent of the world's petroleum reserves, he has infinitely more cash to spend on instruments of destruction than Iran, Libya or North Korea. The U.S. intelligence community has consistently underestimated Iraq's military capabilities, but now a growing number of intelligence officials believe Hussein may have a nuclear-weapons capability in between two and five years. And unlike Kim II Sung in North Korea, Hussein's ambitions are not contained by a powerful military on his border. His phenomenal military spending, estimated by some intelligence officials at as much as $50 billion over the past decade, has made him the world's single biggest buyer on the international market of chemical, biological and nuclear weaponry. <p>Even more frightening than his capabilities are the ample indications that Hussein has few qualms about using them. `I swear to God,' he said in a statement printed around the world a few weeks ago, `we will let our fire scorch half of Israel if it tries to wage anything against us.' Defenders of the Iraqi leader point out that he threatened to use force only in retaliation for an Israeli attack. But he is so isolated, both from his own people and from the international community, that no one knows for sure what he might do. <p>Worse, there is virtually no one, at home or abroad, who can restrain his worst impulses. He has few friends, even in the Arab world, and fewer and fewer within Iraqi's own political structure. He has stubbed out rivals, real and imagined, like cigarette butts, and Western intelligence agencies have reported several instances in which he has pulled the trigger himself. Hussein committed his first murder at 14, attempted his first political assassination at 22, and there is no evidence to suggest he has broken the habit. The State Department calls Iraq's human-rights record `abysmal' and says the country continues to harbor several of the world's most notorious terrorists. <p>In recent years, moreover, what few constraints there were on Hussein have withered. The Ba'ath Socialist Party, which he rode to power, and the Revolutionary Command Council, which he dominated once he got there, have both fallen into decline, and more and more of the business of government is being handled by trusted members of Hussein's own family. <p><center><pre>[Page: H6815]</pre></center> <p><center><pre>[TIME: 2210]</pre></center><p> <p><em>END</em><br> <style type="text/css"> @media only screen and (min-device-width : 320px) and (max-device-width : 480px) { #ga-ad {display: none;} } </style> <p></p><br><br> <div align=center> <table border="1"> <tr><td> <div align=center> <font size="+1" color="#8C3100"><b>NEWS</b></font><font size="+1" color="#0000C6"><b>LETTER</b></font> </div> </td> </tr> <tr><td bgcolor="#FF0000"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="+1"><b>Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list</b></font> </td></tr> <tr><td> <form name='f1' action='https://inl02.netline.com/rssnews0001/' method='post' target='_blank'> <input type='hidden' name='_submit' value='0001'> <input type='hidden' name='brand' id='brand' value='globalsecurity'> <input type='hidden' name='opt_001' value='Y'> <label for="MERGE0"><strong>Enter Your Email Address</strong></label> <br> <input type='text' id='email' name='email'> <input type='submit' value='Sign Up Now!' id='my_button'> </form> </td></tr> </table> </div> <br> <div class="pubs-container"> <p></p> <br clear=right> <div align="center"> <table> <tr><td> <table> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> </table> </td><td> <table> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> </table> </div> </div> </div>  <div id="clear"> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="adbot"> <div class="pubs-container">   <div align="center" data-freestar-ad="__336x280 __970x250" id="globalsecurity_bottom"> <script data-cfasync="false" type="text/javascript"> freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: "globalsecurity_bottom", slotId: "globalsecurity_bottom" }); </script> </div>  </div> <button type="button" data-ot-ccpa-opt-out="button" style="display:none;" class="ot-ccpa-optout__button ot-ccpa-optout__button--light"><img src="https://cookie-cdn.cookiepro.com/ccpa-optout-solution/v1/assets/icon-do-not-sell.svg"style="width:30px;height:30px;" alt="" role="presentation"><span class="ot-ccpa-optout__button__title">Do Not Sell My Personal Information</span></button></div> <div id="navbot"><a href="/org/advertise.htm" title="Advertise with GlobalSecurity.org">Advertise with Us</a> <span class="navsep">|</span> <a href="/org/index.html" title="About GlobalSecurity.org">About Us</a> <span class="navsep">|</span> <a href="/org/news/index.html" title="GlobalSecurity.org In the News">GlobalSecurity.org In the News</a> <span class="navsep">|</span>  <a href="/sitemap.htm" title="GlobalSecurity.org Site Map">Site Map</a> <span class="navsep">|</span> <a href="/privacy.htm" title="GlobalSecurity.org Privacy Policy">Privacy</a></div> <div id="footer"><a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/copyright.htm" title="Copyright">Copyright</a> © 2000-2023 GlobalSecurity.org All rights reserved.<br> Site maintained by: <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/org/staff/pike.htm" title="John Pike">John Pike</a><br>  <script type="text/javascript"> window._qevents = window._qevents || []; (function() { var elem = document.createElement('script'); elem.src = (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? 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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)