Iraq News by Laurie Mylroie
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 .
IRAQ NEWS, FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1999
I. THE TIMES, MI6 PROPOSED COUP TO TOPPLE SADDAM, MAR 18
II. INC LETTER TO DEREK FATCHETT, FEB 26
III. FATCHETT REPLY TO INC, MAR 16
For some time, the UK position has been that Saddam's overthrow, if it
is to be pursued, should be pursued through a coup, rather than a
popular insurgency. If Margaret Thatcher, or somewhat like her, were
prime minister, UK policy would probably be different. But the Arabist
current is still strong in the UK and Arabist-types want a coup. That
although repeated attempts, since 1990, to make a coup in Iraq, have all
ended in failure. Moreover, because of the "Official Secrets Act," MI-6
is not subject to the same degree of embarrassment and exposure as the
CIA when it makes a serious mistake--which can help promote the radical
change sometimes necessary to correct an error, as it is easier to keep
things quiet.
The Times of London, Mar 18, reported that Scott Ritter, in his new
book, Endgame, explained that "British intelligence encouraged the
United States to seek a 'quick, simple coup' in Iraq. . . In the
mid-1990s MI6 pushed the CIA to shift its support from the Iraqi
National Congress (INC), which was recruiting an army in Kurdish-held
northern Iraq, to the rival Iraqi National Accord (INA)," which MI6 had
created.
Thus, as Ritter wrote, "Although the INC had amassed 10,000 men to
stage a ground war from northern Iraq, the CIA changed policy on the eve
of the planned battle in March 1995 and told the group's London-based
leader, Ahmad Chalabi, that it would not provide military assistance.
Mr. Chalabi launched the attack anyway."
However, Ritter erred, perhaps understandably, given the many
misunderstandings that have accumulated over Iraq, in writing that the
INC-led operation failed after an Iraqi counter-offensive. There was no
Iraqi counter-offensive.
The INC-led attack--which Warren Marik, a retired CIA official, then
in Northern Iraq with the INC, has described as a "poking operation,"
modest in its objectives, not reckless, as some in Wash DC apprehended
--produced significant defections from the Iraqi army. That was what
was intended. But the operation ended when the KDP, which had held
back from the skirmish with the Iraqi army, attacked its rival, the PUK,
and the PUK pulled out from the INC-led offensive.
It is very important to understand that in order to understand that
the Iraq Liberation Act is, in fact, a very promising measure and not
the recipe for fiasco its detractors have claimed.
And although MI6 led the US down the garden path in 1995/96, when the
INA plot ended in fiasco, after Saddam rounded up the conspirators in
Jul 96, it does not seem the UK position has much changed. INC head,
Ahmad Chalabi, Feb 26, wrote UK Minister of State, Derek Fatchett,
explaining the "hope" that the Iraq Liberation Act had brought the Iraqi
people.
Fatchett replied, Mar 16, that the UK could not provide military
support, as envisaged in the ILA. And sounding much like a Clinton
administration official, Fatchett wrote, "We will continue to do all we
can to assist you in spelling out the alternative future for Iraq and
raising awareness of the international community of crimes and abuses
committed by the present regime. This is an important and valuable
activity."
I. THE TIMES, MI6 PROPOSED COUP TO TOPPLE SADDAM
The Times (London)
March 18, 1999, Thursday
MI6 'proposed Iraqi coup' to topple Saddam
By: James Bone in New York
British intelligence encouraged the United States to seek a "quick,
simple coup" in Iraq through an opposition group that Britain had
created and which later mounted a failed effort to overthrow President
Saddam Hussein, a former senior United Nations inspector claims.
Scott Ritter, writing in his new book, Endgame, says that in the
mid-1990s MI6 pushed the CIA to shift its support from the Iraqi
National Congress (INC), which was recruiting an army in Kurdish-held
northern Iraq, to the rival Iraqi National Accord (INA), which was based
in Jordan.
"More and more, the CIA was being wooed by the British secret
intelligence service, or MI6, which proposed a quick, simple coup,
orchestrated from within by military officers close to Saddam," he
writes.
"Such was the offer being presented by the rival opposition group,
the INA. The CIA began supporting both factions, but putting the bulk
of its effort behind the INA."
Mr Ritter describes the INA as a "creation of the British MI6" and
says it consists of "former military personnel who had defected from
Iraq and who were hoping to take advantage of their old contacts at
home".
Although the INC had amassed 10,000 men to stage a ground war from
northern Iraq, the CIA changed policy on the eve of the planned battle
in March 1995 and told the group's London-based leader, Ahmed Chalabi,
that it would not provide military assistance.
Mr. Chalabi launched the attack anyway, but his Kurdish allies split
and an Iraqi counter-offensive routed his forces. In early 1996, the CIA
was ordered to develop a "quick-fix" solution to get rid of Saddam
before the American presidential elections the following November and
"the only option was the INA".
The book records the INA's failed attempt to get members of the
Republican Guards to stage a coup - a plot that was foiled in June 1996
when the Iraqis intercepted CIA-supplied communications gear.
Mr Ritter says he suspects that a UN inspections mission at the time,
known as Unscom 150, might have been used as cover by the CIA to help to
execute the planned coup. Unknowingly, he led his team against the same
Special Republican Guard facilities involved in the plot.
The team included nine "CIA paramilitary covert operators," including
an operative he calls "Moe Dobbs", a US Army Special Forces veteran who
had played a critical role in supporting the rebel Contras in Nicaragua
and had spent the Gulf War in Syria directing Arab agents inside Iraq.
"There is virtually no chance that opposition groups could overthrow
Saddam," Mr Ritter writes. "Attempts by the CIA and the British MI6 to
orchestrate a coup from within all met with disaster."
II. INC LETTER TO DEREK FATCHETT, FEB 26
Iraqi National Congress
26th February, 1999
The Rt. Hon. Derek Fatchett MP
Minister of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Downing Street
London SW1
Dear Mr. Fatchett,
I have the honour to inform you that the Iraqi National Congress will
convene a plenary session of the INC National Assembly in Washington, DC
at the end of April.
The INC National Assembly will meet to reaffirm its commitments to
democracy and human rights, peaceful relations with Iraq's neighbours,
and the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq. The INC National
Assembly will discuss a comprehensive plan of action to work for the
removal of Saddam's regime through the co-operation of the Iraqi people,
the Iraqi armed forces and the democratic Iraqi opposition under the
auspices of the Iraq Liberation Act. A new leadership will be elected to
carry out this plan.
We have always valued the British Government's support for the
democratic Iraqi opposition and were heartened by the Prime Minister's
statement on 16th November 1998 that Britain would try to bolster the
Iraqi opposition to remove Saddam's regime. However, we are dismayed by
recent media reports that Britain does not support the Iraq Liberation
Act and the role of the opposition in removing Saddam's dictatorship.
The Iraqi National Congress has demonstrated its ability to work inside
Iraqi territory to confront Saddam and the Iraqi people have clearly
demonstrated their willingness to rise up against the dictator. The Iraq
Liberation Act provides the structure, resources and, most importantly,
the overt political commitment that is needed to confront the regime in
a meaningful way inside Iraq.
The Iraq Liberation Act has provided hope to the Iraqi people that a
future of democracy, justice and peace is possible and that this
dictator will not simply be replaced by another. This is the goal of the
Iraqi National Congress and we would hope, the goal of our friends in
the international community.
The role of the democratic Iraqi opposition is to attack Saddam's
regime at its weakest point by mobilising all forces in society in a
broad-based and popular campaign to liberate Iraq. The Iraqi people
expect and demand that the Iraqi opposition take the lead in confronting
Saddam. While raising awareness in the international community of the
regime's crimes is important, our agenda is to remove Saddam's regime.
The regime will not be overthrown by media campaigns. The only way
to remove Saddam and his system and to ensure a future of democracy for
the Iraqi people is by confronting the regime as envisioned in the Iraq
Liberation Act. It is our unshakeable mission to continue the struggle
against the dictatorship inside Iraq until the Iraqi people are
liberated.
We are grateful for your leadership in shaping British policy to
support the Iraqi people, and we assure you of our highest esteem.
Yours sincerely,
Ahmad Chalabi
President of the Executive Council
III. FATCHETT REPLY TO INC
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
London SW1A2AH
>From the Minister of State
16 March 1999
Dr. Ahmad Chalabi
President of the Executive Council
Iraqi National Congress
Dear Dr. Chalabi,
Thank you for your letter of 26 February about a forthcoming plenary
session of the INC National Assembly. I look forward to hearing the
results of your discussions in Washington.
You also wrote of your dismay at media reports about the Government's
position. You should have no doubt about our commitment to the Iraqi
opposition. We have consistently supported groups such as your own
since the Gulf war. But you will be well aware, not least from the
meetings we hold periodically in the Foreign and Commonwealth office,
that it would not be right for the British Government to play any part
in attempts by the INC or others to overthrow the Iraqi regime. We have
always made it quite clear that we cannot, for example, provide military
support, as envisaged by the US Iraq Liberation Act.
We do, of course, share your belief that the departure of Saddam
Hussein could only benefit the people of Iraq and I look forward to the
day when your vision of a democratic government in Baghdad and a people
living in peace and security becomes reality. We will continue to do
all we can to assist you in spelling out that alternative future for
Iraq and raising awareness of the international community of crimes and
abuses committed by the present regime. This is an important and
valuable activity which I believe adds to the pressure on Saddam
Hussein's regime.
Sincerely,
Derek Fatchett
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