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May 1998

• Space Guns Vectors May 1998 - Bull was unable to interest anyone in the US in his superguns, and so moved to Brussels and peddled his designs to anyone who would pay -- first to the Chinese, then to the Iraqis. This was a fatal mistake in judgement; Bull was gunned down in front of his home in early 1990, apparently by agents of the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency.
• IRAQ - U-N Voice of America 30 May 1998 -- A SENIOR OFFICIAL IN THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAQ HAS CRITICIZED THE LATEST UNITED NATIONS FOOD FOR OIL PLAN AS INSUFFICIENT.
• U-N / IRAQ AID Voice of America 30 May 1998 -- U-N SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN TODAY APPROVED THE NEXT STAGE OF IRAQ'S OIL-FOR-FOOD PROGRAM, WHICH ALLOWS THE COUNTRY TO EXPORT OIL IN RETURN FOR FOOD, MEDICINE AND HUMANITARIAN SUPPLIES.
• EDITORIAL: PICKERING ON OIL FOR FOOD FOR IRAQIS Voice of America 29 May 1998 -- IRAQ HAS NOT COME CLOSE TO SATISFYING U-N INSPECTORS THAT IT HAS ELIMINATED OTHER WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. AS A RESULT, IRAQ REMAINS SUBJECT TO COMPREHENSIVE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC SANCTIONS.
• U.S. policy of "containment" of Saddam Hussein 29 May 1998 Project for a New American Century -- Unwilling either to adopt policies that would remove Saddam or sustain the credibility of its own policy of containment, the administration has placed us on a path that will inevitably free Saddam Hussein from all effective constraints.
• U-N / IRAQ Voice of America 28 May 1998 -- IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER MOHAMMED SAID AL-SAHAF IS IN NEW YORK FOR TALKS ABOUT U-N SANCTIONS IMPOSED ON HIS COUNTRY AFTER THE GULF WAR.
• U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 1998 -- Iraq - Richard Butler is going to the Security Council next week with new information that could speed up the process of closing Iraq's weapons files. Does that indicate any shift in US thinking on the best way to do that?
• DoD News Briefing Tuesday, May 26, 1998 -- President Clinton has decided to reduce the current force there to its pre-crisis levels of about October of last year. Last year we had 18,000 to 19,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in the Gulf. We began to build up in response to the problems over inspections and reached a peak force of about 44,000. Today there are about 36,000 or 37,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in the Gulf. We're also leaving behind a very powerful force of cruise missiles that will be about double the size of the cruise missile force before the crisis began last fall.
• GULF TROOPS HEAD HOME Voice of America 26 May 1998 -- PENTAGON OFFICIALS SAY THEY WILL SOON CUT THE NUMBER OF U-S TROOPS AND SHIPS IN THE PERSIAN GULF BY ABOUT HALF. THE 37-THOUSAND SAILORS, SOLDIERS, AIRMEN, AND MARINES HAVE BEEN KEEPING A CLOSE WATCH ON IRAQ.
• U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing , MAY 26, 1998 -- IRAQ UNSCOM Chairman Butler re sanctions could be lifted by October if Iraq cooperates Butler to brief UNSC on "roadmap" for Iraqi actions US troop reduction in region, commitment to sanctions enforcement
• COHEN / GULF Voice of America 25 May 1998 -- U-S DEFENSE SECRETARY WILLIAM COHEN HAS CONFIRMED THE UNITED STATES INTENDS TO SCALE BACK ITS FORCES IN THE PERSIAN GULF TO THE APPROXIMATE LEVELS THAT EXISTED BEFORE LAST NOVEMBER'S STAND-OFF WITH IRAQ OVER U-N WEAPONS INSPECTIONS.
• Senate Hearing, "Iraq: Are Sanctions Collapsing?" Iraq News 24 May 1998 -- On Thurs, May 21, the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee and its Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a joint hearing, "Iraq: Are Sanctions Collapsing?" The panelists were Under Secretary of State, Thomas Pickering; former Asst Sec Def, Richard Perle; former chief nuclear inspector in Iraq, David Kay; and Kenneth Pollack, Persian Gulf Analyst, Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
• Press Briefing Enroute to Santiago, Chile Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen Sunday, 24 May 1998 -- I would hope that we will go to that one carrier presence so that we can get down to approximately where we were prior to November. That is still very significant and that would be between 17,000 and 20,000 personnel. And again, we would hope to have a rapidly deployable force that could go back within a 48 hour period.
• PICKERING DEFENDS U.N. SANCTIONS REGIME ON IRAQ - May 21, 1998 - By Peter Sawchyn USIA -- Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering staunchly reassured a Senate panel May 21 that United Nations-imposed sanctions on Iraq are an effective way of countering the threat Saddam Hussein continues to pose to peace and security in the Gulf and to U.S. national interests.
• Statement issued by an official Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs REPUBLIC OF IRAQ Permanent Mission To The United Nations May 21, 1998 -- The Government of the Republic of Iraq utterly and totally rejects the draft resolution circulated on 20 May 1998 by the United States delegation to some members of the Security Council on the Oil-for-Food program.
• IRAQ / TRADE Voice of America - 21 May 1998 - U-N SANCTIONS ON TRADE WITH IRAQ ARE SUPPOSED TO SHARPLY LIMIT THE GOODS IRAQ CAN PURCHASE FROM OTHER COUNTRIES. BUT TRADE BETWEEN IRAQ AND MANY OF ITS NEIGHBORS IS ON THE INCREASE.
• SENATE-IRAQ SANCTIONS Voice of America - 21 May 1998 - THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION HAS REJECTED SUGGESTIONS THE INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS ON IRAQ ARE COLLAPSING, BUT HAS ALSO EXPRESSED CONCERN ABOUT BAGHDAD'S ILLEGAL OIL SALES.
• Various Developments Iraq News MAY 20, 1998CABINET REJECTS UNSC STATEMENT, REITERATES MAY 1 LETTER, NAT'L ASSEMBLY SPEAKER: IRAQ WILL TAKE ACTION, NAT'L ASSEMBLY MARKS 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF USURPATION.
• Dear Members of the Security Council International Action Center - May 18, 1998 -- The sanctions against Iraq imposed by the Security Council of the United Nations are inflicting the cruelest genocide in history: slow death by malnutrition, polluted water, manufactured sicknesses and forced deprivation of health care.
• Iraq's Position on the Issue of the Kuwaiti Missing in Action May 1998 -- In compliance with United Nations' Security Council resolution 686 (1991), Iraq had released and repatriated in March of 1991, in cooperation with the International Red Cross (ICRC), all the detainees and POWs of the Gulf War. The ICRC was asking Iraq to respond to (627) files of missing Kuwaitis and others.
• Iraq and the UNSC on its Nuclear Program 17 May 1998 -- Iraq News UNSC PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT ON IRAQ, UN MAY SCALE BACK NUCLEAR INSPECTIONS IN IRAQ, IRAQI CABINET PROTESTS UNSC STATEMENT, NUCLEAR CONTROL INSTITUTE, LETTER TO BILL RICHARDSON, D. ALBRIGHT & K. O'NEILL, "IRAQ: RESETTLE THE SCIENTISTS," NEWS FROM THE FREE IRAQ CAMPAIGN
• Rep. Conyers Dear Colleague May 15, 1998 Upholding basic humanitarian principles need not be at odds with maintaining a tough stance on Iraq; on the contrary, it could strengthen our relations with Iraq's neighbors. This letter asks President Clinton to de-link the economic sanctions on Iraq, which have been a political and humanitarian failure, from the military sanctions.
• IRAQ / SECURITY COUNCIL Voice of America - 14 May 1998 -- THE U-N SECURITY COUNCIL ACKNOWLEDGED THE PROGRESS IRAQ HAS MADE IN DISMANTLING ITS NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM. THE FORMAL RECOGNITION SIGNALS A WILLINGNESS ON THE PART OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL TO CONSIDER REDUCING U-N INSPECTIONS OF IRAQI WEAPONS.
• FRANCE / IRAQ Voice of America - 14 May 1998 -- FRENCH PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC HAS TOLD IRAQ'S DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER TARIQ AZIZ THAT IRAQ MUST COMPLY WITH ALL UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTIONS IF IT WANTS INTERNATIONAL TRADE SANCTIONS ENDED.
• PRESS CONFERENCE BY CHAIRMAN OF IRAQ SANCTIONS COMMITTEE 12 May 1998 -- Among the issues discussed was the question of spare parts for Iraqi oil pipelines, and the payment of compensation to Egyptian workers who were expelled from the Gulf region following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
• The Iraqi Press on the Confrontation Coming Iraq News 11 May 1998 -- SAHHAF, OUR NEXT STEP IS PLANNED, AL THAWRA WARNS OF DIRE CONSEQUENSES, IRAQ'S DISSATISFACTION WITH ITS UNSC SUPPORTERS, ONLY IRAQ KNOWS WHEN AND HOW IT WILL ACT
• U-N / IRAQ TRAVEL BAN - Voice of America 08 May 1998 - THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL LIFTED A TRAVEL BAN ON IRAQI OFFICIALS IN AN APPARENT EFFORT TO EASE TENSION WITH THAT COUNTRY.
• [EXCERPTS] UNITED NATIONS REPORT - 07 May 1998 - Head of UN Special Commission recommends travel restrictions against Iraqi officials be lifted. Iraq to submit distribution plan for humanitarian aid under UN oil-for-food programme.
• US Carriers in the Gulf Iraq News 07 May 1998 There will be only one carrier in the Gulf as of late May, unless a decision is made to delay the departure of the USS Independence from the region.
• U-N / IRAQ / TRAVEL RESTRICTS May 7, 1998 Voice of America THE HEAD OF THE U-N SPECIAL COMMISSION CHARGED WITH DISMANTLING IRAQI WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION HAS RECOMMENDED LIFTING TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS ON IRAQI OFFICIALS.
• UNSCOM NOTIFIES SECURITY COUNCIL OF IRAQI COOPERATION By Judy Aita USIA 07 May 1998 -- The head of the Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) officially notified the Security Council May 6 that Iraq has granted weapons experts unrestricted and unconditional access to all sites, thus paving the way for ending a six-month ban on Iraqi officials traveling abroad.
• [EXCERPTS] STATE DEPARTMENT NOON BRIEFING MAY 7, 1998 IRAQ Amb. Butler's letter on Iraqi cooperation; UN Security Council action necessary to change sanctions.
• EDITORIAL: IRAQ'S CHEMICAL WEAPONS DECEPTION 07 May 1998 - Voice of America -- IRAQ MUST COMPLY WITH ITS U-N OBLIGATIONS. IT MUST ELIMINATE ALL ITS WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. UNTIL THAT HAPPENS, IRAQ WILL REMAIN SUBJECT TO INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS.
• U.S. policy in the Gulf: Five Years of Dual Containment 06 May 1998 --- Five years after the U.S. Dual Containment policy toward Iraq and Iran was instituted, "We continue to face a very serious challenge to the stability of the Gulf from Saddam's Iraq" Bruce O. Riedel, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director, Near East and South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, said May 6.
• GULF TROOPS HOME 06 May 1998 - Voice of America -- PRESIDENT CLINTON SAYS HE HAS NOT DECIDED WHETHER OR NOT TO REDUCE U-S MILITARY FORCES NEAR IRAQ. BUT ONE AIRCRAFT CARRIER, WITH THOUSANDS OF SAILORS AND DOZENS OF PLANES, IS SCHEDULED TO HEAD HOME BEFORE A REPLACEMENT SHIP IS SCHEDULED TO ARRIVE.
• Iraq's Strong Reaction to the UNSC Sanctions Review Iraq News MAY 5, 1998 By Laurie Mylroie -- Last Monday's sanctions review was preceded by numerous Iraqi statements to the effect that if that review did not pave the way for the quick lifting of sanctions, another crisis would follow.
• Two US Paths on Iraq By Laurie Mylroie Iraq News MAY 1, 1998 - The administration is preparing another retreat. But the tactic is unlikely to work. Saddam needs no encouragement for his next challenge. Clinton's newest display of irresolution will only suggest to Saddam that he is correct in his calculations, while underscoring to America's regional allies that the US is not to be counted on.