The Detainees in CA; Clinton Spinning on Iraq
Iraq News JUNE 28, 1998
By Laurie MylroieThe central focus of Iraq News is the tension between the considerable, proscribed WMD capabilities that Iraq is holding on to and its increasing stridency that it has complied with UNSCR 687 and it is time to lift sanctions. If you wish to receive Iraq News by email, a service which includes full-text of news reports not archived here, send your request to Laurie Mylroie .
I. THE IRAQI DETAINEES IN CALIFORNIA, AFP, JUN 27
II. THE IRAQI DETAINEES IN CALIFRONIA, WASH POST, JUN 26
III. "INVENTING REALITY," MONA CHAREN, WASH TIMES, JUN 22
IV. "SPEAK LOUDLY--FORGET THE STICK," FRED HIATT, WASH POST, JUN 21
As AFP, Jun 27, reported, "In a tale Franz Kafka would have relished,
a former CIA director is battling the US government on behalf of six
jailed Iraqis who face deportation on secret charges that they are
agents of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The Iraqis, their lawyers,
and even the former US spymaster, James Woolsey, have been barred from
seeing the evidence in the case because the government has declared it
all secret."
Warren Marik, a retired CIA case officer who worked with the INC and
was treated while in Northern Iraq by one of the Iraqi physicians
currently being detained, told the Wash Post, Jun 26, the case was
"nonsense." "The entire episode, he said, 'is a little microcosm of
what's going on with Iraq policy. We get caught up in our own axle, the
INS gets wound up in things. No one knows what's happening. No one has
a plan.'"
Indeed, as Mona Charen wrote in "Inventing Reality," Wash Times, Jun
22, "You think it doesn't matter that President Clinton has trouble
telling the truth? You suppose he lies only to conceal his tawdry
personal conduct?" Referring to Clinton's statement, May 1, "We are
encouraged by the level of [Iraqi] compliance so far with the UN
inspections," Charen wrote, "Consider the state of US policy toward
Iraq. . . . By announcing himself 'encouraged,' Mr. Clinton in effect
changed US policy toward Iraq. . . Some of the nations imposing
sanctions, notably France, Russia and China, are tiring of this policy.
They are prepared to ignore Iraq's depredations in order to lay their
hands on Iraq's oil. The president's comments, it was later explained,
were intended for their ears. But how in the world does pretending that
Iraq is complying with UN resolutions strengthen the resolve of those
nations?
"In any case, the president's declaration stands in stark contrast to
reality. Just a few days before the president's statement that he was
'encouraged' by Iraq's conduct, Richard Butler, the United Nations chief
weapons inspector, reported to the Security Council that there had been
'virtually no progress' in six months. . . .
"This president, when confronted by uncomfortable truths simply
invents his own truth . . . A group of leading foreign-policy thinkers,
including Reagan-era State and Defense Department officials Elliot
Abrams, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Paula Dobriansky, former
Clinton CIA Chief R. James Woolsey, as well as Donald Rumsfeld and
William Bennett have sent a letter to House Speaker Newt Gingrich and
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott calling upon the United States to
adopt a more muscular policy of removing Saddam form power before it is
too late. The alternative, already emerging, is an Iraq that can
threaten and intimidate is neighbors, impede American interests in the
region and sabotage any prospects for peace between Israel and her
neighbors."
Charen referred to an article, "Speak Loudly--Forget the Stick," by
Wash Post editor, Fred Hiatt. As Hiatt wrote, Jun 21, "More and more,
President Clinton's foreign policy seems based on wishful thinking,
tired excuses and idle threats. As the world spins increasingly out of
US control, he and his advisers spin the facts more and more
frenetically, but with less connection to reality." Regarding Iraq,
"The United States portrayed Iraq as a grave and present danger to
national security-'Not since Hitler have we seen anybody like Saddam
Hussein,' Albright said in February-and then began casting about for
politically acceptable ways to sell a policy of accommodation."
Hiatt evidently got their goat, as State Dept Spokesman, James Rubin,
replied in the Wash Post, Jun 27, and, in the process, seemed to confirm
exactly what Charen and Hiatt had so sharply criticized. Rubin wrote,
"In Iraq, Hiatt shows us how much fun you can have when the only stick
you have the responsibility to carry is a ballpoint pen. Since the gulf
war, the United States has pursued a hard-headed policy to contain
Saddam Hussein: to contain his ability to threaten his neighbors and to
prevent him from once again developing nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons . . ."
But the stated goal of Bush's post-war Iraq policy, as of May, 1991,
was to overthrow Saddam, not "contain" him, while even the Clinton
administration pursued the same goal, although without publicly saying
so, until Aug 31, 1996, after which, Clinton, on the campaign trail
announced that US interests lay in the South, rather than the North of
Iraq.
Rubin also misstated, or "spun," Saddam's capabilities. Saddam now
has, or can quickly develop, large quantities of chemical and biological
weapons, with which to threaten his neighbors [see UNSCOM's Jun 3/4
report to the UNSC, "Iraq News," Jun 11]. And as best as can be
understood, Saddam has the capability to build a nuclear bomb under
certain circumstances. The Nuclear Control Institute maintains a web
page http://nci.org/nci/sadb/htm about the problem. On that page is
written, "IRAQ: STILL A NUCLEAR THREAT All of Iraq's nuclear scientists
are still in place. None of the nuclear-bomb components they built
before the Gulf War have been found. If Iraq could steal or buy
plutonium or bomb-grade uranium, Saddam could have the Bomb in short
order."
[ UNSCOM's website is http://un.org/Depts/unscom The IAEA is at
http://iaea.or.at/worldatom/ ]
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