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Scott Ritter; the Iraqi Opposition

Iraq News, SEPTEMBER 9, 1998

The 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. HA'ARETZ, IRAQ NOW HAS THREE VIRTUALLY COMPLETE NUCLEAR BOMBS, SEPT 9
II. HA'ARETZ, IRAQI DISSIDENTS VISIT ISRAEL; FURIOUS WITH US, SEPT 6
III. SUNDAY HERALD SUN, CIA IGNORES SADDAM BOMBINGS ROLE, SEPT 6
  This is the 35th day without weapons inspections in Iraq.
   The highly-regarded Israeli journalistic team, Ehud Ya'ari and Ze'ev 
Schiff, have aggressively taken up the issue of the threat posed by 
Iraq's unconventional capabilities, as revealed last week by Scott 
Ritter.  Last night Israeli TV ran an extensive story, top of the news, 
on Ritter's information, as did Schiff in a top of the front page 
article in today's Ha'aretz.
   Two Iraqi opposition figures attended the AEI's recent New Atlantic 
Initiative conference, in Israel and Jordan.  Ha'aretz, Sept 6, reported 
their criticism of US Iraq policy-driven by the White House and aimed at 
avoiding confrontation with Saddam, whether in regard to the Iraqi 
opposition or UNSCOM.  They described how Saddam could be overthrown 
-through the creation of a no-drive zone in Southern Iraq and the 
provision of other support for an insurgency against Saddam.
   Also, as Ha'aretz explained, "Israeli officials are careful not to 
create the impression of independent policy on Iraq. 'When it comes to 
anything to do with policy on Iraq, we act only after full consultation 
with the United States,' an official in the Prime Minister's office 
said."  And that is part of the problem, because the US has a 
hear-no-evil, see-no-evil, do-nothing policy on Iraq.  Notably, that was 
not the posture of the Shamir Government and probably would not have 
been the policy of the Rabin Government, if Rabin had lived long enough 
after the defection of Hussein Kamil to recognize that Saddam retained a 
large and dangerous unconventional capability, including near-nuclear, 
that he was not turning over to UNSCOM.  
   Finally, in Amman, the Iraqi dissidents told Jay Bushinsky, of the 
Australian Sunday Herald Sun, that they believed that Iraq was behind 
the Kenya/Tanzania bombings.  As they explained, the bombings came the 
day after Baghdad severed cooperation with UNSCOM inspectors.  They also 
explained how the UNSC had, at one point, carelessly authorized weekly 
Sudanese flights to Iraq to airlift fresh meat into the country and 
which the Iraqis used to send out equipment for making proscribed 
weapons.  The INC told the US about it and urged the US to require the 
planes "to land in Amman, Cairo or Bahrain to undergo inspection, but 
our plea went unheeded."  They also explained that Osama Bin Laden has 
been working with the Iraqis since the early 1990s. "He was in frequent 
contact with the boss of one of our sources who was based in Sudan.  The 
Iraqi intelligence station in Khartoum is the biggest in the world."