U.S. Developments
Iraq News, NOVEMBER 24, 1999
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. IRAQ OPPOSITION FUNDING IN OMINBUS APPROPRIATION BILL
II. BUSH DRAFTING CALL FOR SADDAM'S OUSTER, PITTSBURGH POST, NOV 24
Before recessing, Congress passed legislation authorizing new funding
for the Iraqi opposition. It awaits the president's signature. The
legislation states, "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, . . .
$10,000,000 shall be made available to support efforts to bring about
political transition in Iraq, of which not less than $8,000,000 shall be
made available only to Iraqi opposition groups designated under the Iraq
Liberation Act."
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov 24, reported "George W. Bush is
preparing a speech that will say it is time to get Saddam Hussein out of
power. . . . Richard Perle, who was assistant secretary of defense for
international security policy from 1981 to 1987 under former President
Ronald Reagan, is advising Bush on foreign policy. He said this week
that Bush thinks President Clinton's policy in Iraq is badly flawed
because Saddam continues to dominate the Persian Gulf region. . . .
Bush wants to give a speech that will say 'it's time to finish the job.
It's time for Saddam Hussein to go.' He also will say it is
understandable that his father's administration underestimated the Iraqi
leader's ability to stay powerful, Perle said. . . . Bush hasn't decided
on a time-frame for the speech, Perle said, but will insist that money
should be funneled to Saddam's enemies in Iraq."
I. IRAQ OPPOSITION FUNDING IN OMINBUS APPROPRIATION BILL
H.R. 3422
Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs
Appropriations Act, 2000
IRAQ OPPOSITION
SEC.580 Not withstanding any other provision of law, of the funds
appropriated under the heading 'Economic Support Fund', $10,000,000
shall be made available to support efforts to bring about political
transition in Iraq, of which not less than $8,000,000 shall be made
available only to Iraqi opposition groups designated under the Iraq
Liberation Act (Public Law 105-338) for political, economic,
humanitarian, and other activities of such groups, and not more than
$2,000,000 may be made available for groups and activities seeking the
prosecution of Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi government officials for
war crimes.
II. BUSH DRAFTING CALL FOR SADDAM'S OUSTER, PITTSBURGH POST
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
November 24, 1999
Bush drafting call for Saddam's ouster
By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush is preparing a speech that will
say it is time to get Saddam Hussein out of power in Iraq, an implicit
admission that his father, former President George Bush was wrong,
according to a key adviser.
Richard Perle, who was assistant secretary of defense for
international security policy from 1981 to 1987 under former President
Ronald Reagan, is advising Bush on foreign policy. He said this week
that Bush thinks President Clinton's policy in Iraq is badly flawed
because Saddam continues to dominate the Persian Gulf region.
Former President Bush has said the most frequently asked question he
gets is why he let Saddam's forces escape back to Baghdad in the 1991
war and why U.S. forces didn't capture Saddam as a war criminal.
The former president answers that the U.S. public had no stomach for
the lives that would have been lost, that it was no sure thing that
Saddam could have been captured and that he expected that foes of Saddam
by now would have united to bring him down.
Perle says, "It was easy to underestimate Saddam Hussein's staying
power. Brent Scowcroft [Bush's national security adviser], Colin Powell,
[then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff], Dick Cheney [then defense
secretary] and I were all wrong."
He said Bush wants to give a speech that will say "it's time to
finish the job. It's time for Saddam Hussein to go." He also will say it
is understandable that his father's administration underestimated the
Iraqi leader's ability to stay powerful, Perle said.
Bush hasn't decided on a time-frame for the speech, Perle said, but
will insist that money should be funneled to Saddam's enemies in Iraq.
Iraq a few days ago closed off its oil imports, immediately jacking
up the worldwide price by $1 a barrel, in protest of a United Nations
decision not to approve a six-month extension of the oil-for-food
program. Instead, the United Nations authorized only a two-week
extension of the program, which permits Iraq to sell only enough oil to
provide food and medicine for its people.
Months ago, the Iraqi dictator refused to permit U.N. arms
inspectors to continue their search in Iraq for factories making weapons
of mass destruction. Because of that, U.N. economic sanctions continue
against Iraq. Whether the United States knows what is happening inside
Iraq is in dispute.
In September, the State Department released a report on Iraq that,
spokesman James Rubin said, "shows conclusively that Saddam Hussein
continues to violently repress his own people; continues to neglect the
needs of his own people by obstructing the oil-for-food program while
his regime exports food and diverts resources for resorts and palaces
for family members and close supporters; and, thirdly, that he maintains
his goal of rebuilding his weapons of mass destruction so that he can
threaten his neighbors."
The report contains declassified photographs of what the United
States says is the Iraqi army's destruction of the Shi'a village of
Al-Masha, near Basra, and of the Kirkuk Citadel in an effort to
eradicate movements against Saddam. The report also shows the new resort
city of Saddamiat al Tharthar, which Saddam built and which Rubin
described as a "sprawling lakeside vacation resort that features
stadiums, an amusement park, special hospitals for the elite and several
hundred homes for government officials."
Because Saddam is said to sleep in a different bed every night to
avoid assassination, the United States estimates that he has spent $2
billion building 48 palaces.
Rubin said Iraq has failed to distribute about 50 percent of
available medicine to sick Iraqis and about 60 percent of the supplies
for clean water and agriculture.
But the United States has been unsuccessful so far in persuading
Russia, France and China to go along with stiffer sanctions, renew
disarmament inspections in Iraq or implement measures intended to get
food and medicine directly to the Iraqi people.
Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk said at a State Department
briefing that if the United States gets direct evidence of "a
reconstitution of weapons of mass destruction" or deployment of such
weapons, "we will use force to take care of that problem definitively."
Indyk said Saddam is weaker and more isolated at home and abroad.
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