Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
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Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro<br />
<strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Baszn Öz<strong>et</strong>i<br />
As Clinton Withdraws, SaddaDl Survives<br />
Unchallenged<br />
By Jim Hoagland<br />
WASHINGTON - Saddam<br />
Hussein counts the<br />
days that remain before he can<br />
crow about having outlasted a<br />
second U.S. presi<strong>de</strong>nt Each inauguration<br />
day in Washington<br />
represents a huge psychological<br />
victory and an important political<br />
boost for the Iraqi dictator.<br />
It may be too late for Presi<strong>de</strong>nt<br />
Bill Clinton to achieve his<br />
reluctantly adopted and unpersuasively<br />
stated goal of regime<br />
change in Iraq. But he does still<br />
have the time to lay the foundatiop<br />
for a broad political and<br />
military strategy for the Gulf.<br />
Thatstrategy qIust be built<br />
around active U.S. support for<br />
r.epresentatiVè <strong>de</strong>mocracy. not<br />
only in Iraq and Iran but also<br />
in the conservative Arab monarchies<br />
of the region. The two<br />
rogue statés canndt be isolated<br />
as the only candidates for<br />
change through free elections,<br />
free speech and civic' and religious<br />
toleränce.<br />
U.S. support for <strong>de</strong>mocratic<br />
change across the Gulf must be<br />
consistent and broad for reasons<br />
of powerpolitics as well as<br />
morality. Saddam's hold on<br />
power has everything to do with<br />
the separate but strong fears<br />
harbored by Iraq's power elite<br />
and by neighboring Arab regimes<br />
of Iran and of <strong>de</strong>mocracy.<br />
Isolated, fragmented campaigns<br />
to <strong>de</strong>al with Saddam as a<br />
security problem that ignore the<br />
of the International, Atomic bnergy<br />
Agency from 1981 to 1997, said he had<br />
no plans to go to Iraq to smooth the way<br />
for his new commission or to make any<br />
other overtures, as some of Iraq's supporters<br />
have proposed.<br />
"I don't think I should have to tempt<br />
them to cooperate," he said. "The first<br />
step would be for Iraq to accept the<br />
resolution. "<br />
He said Iraq, which has publicly dismissed<br />
the new inspection system,<br />
should instead see the benefits in cooperating,<br />
including an improvement in<br />
Iraqi living standards. In theory, at least,<br />
the system could lead within a year to the<br />
suspension of sanctions that were imposed<br />
after Iraq inva<strong>de</strong>d Kuwait in August<br />
1990.<br />
Mr. Blix spoke on the same day that<br />
Hans von Sponeclçi the relief coordipolitical<br />
and economic framework<br />
in which his tyranny exists<br />
are doomed to fail.<br />
The Clinton administration<br />
has proved this in spa<strong>de</strong>s. Its<br />
reJ?Cated but limited military<br />
strikes are slowly gaining Saddam<br />
support in world opinion<br />
and leading to a loosening of<br />
economic sanctions on Iraq. International<br />
inspections for<br />
weapons of mass <strong>de</strong>struction<br />
have been halted for more than<br />
a year. And the U.S. covert<br />
action program to topple Saddam<br />
has ground to a halt<br />
Little remains in Amman of<br />
the CIA 's multimillion-dollar<br />
effort to find a colonel or a<br />
general who Would put a bull<strong>et</strong><br />
in Saddam's brain. The Iraqi<br />
National Accord, the shadowy<br />
group that the CIA banked on, is<br />
essentially out of the coup business.<br />
Instead it produces radio<br />
programs and picks up smallbore<br />
tactical intelligence.<br />
CIA briefers told congressional<br />
committees recently that<br />
the agency has adopted a new<br />
"multiyear" covert program<br />
that has only a "10 to 15 percent<br />
chance of success" against<br />
Saddam's countermeasures. No<br />
won<strong>de</strong>r Saddam is limbering up<br />
his vocal chords for a January<br />
send-off to Presi<strong>de</strong>nt Clinton.<br />
CIA lea<strong>de</strong>rs are skeptical<br />
about the Iraqi exile groups that<br />
Congress has or<strong>de</strong>red the ad-<br />
ministration to support. They<br />
seem to doubt the effectiveness<br />
of any covert operations against<br />
the Middle East's most accomplished<br />
survivalist The CIA<br />
has essentially bowed out of a<br />
program that its Arabists never<br />
believed in.<br />
That leaves Mr. Clinton <strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nt<br />
on diplomacy and political<br />
action to support those willing<br />
to fight Saddam. But here,<br />
too, the administration is failing,<br />
and may even be trying to fail.<br />
Money appropriated by Congr~ss<br />
to train and equip Iraqi<br />
exIle 0I;lposition groups has<br />
been laVIshed on expensive offices<br />
and conferences in Washington,<br />
New York and London<br />
while next to nothing is being<br />
s~n! on military and civilian<br />
trammg for the opposition.<br />
State Department memoranda<br />
signed by Kathleen Allegrone,<br />
the <strong>de</strong>puty director for<br />
the Northern Gulf Affairs bureau,<br />
show that almost all of<br />
$3.5 million spent in 1999 to<br />
support the Iraqi National Congress<br />
went to fund luxury travel,<br />
rent offices and pay salaries for<br />
employees of U.S. contractors<br />
and public relations firms.<br />
Th~ Pentagon spent $20,000<br />
to tram 'four members of the<br />
l1:a9i Nà~i?na1 Congress in ci-<br />
VIlIan-mIlItary relations.<br />
The II:aqi National Congress<br />
has receIVed almost nothing in<br />
direct financial support from<br />
the State Department, <strong>de</strong>spite<br />
two years of multimillion-doll~<br />
congr~ssional appropriatIons<br />
to implement the Iraq<br />
Liberation Act<br />
A pattèm emerges from these<br />
memoranda and. other documents<br />
of an administration effort<br />
to spend money on inconsequential<br />
projects while avoiding<br />
spending that would put the<br />
Iraqi National Congress or other<br />
groups in a !,?sition to challenge<br />
Saddam senously. The exile<br />
groups will ultimately no doubt<br />
be blamed by the Clintonites for<br />
being too divi<strong>de</strong>d, weak or corrupt<br />
to use money that they<br />
never controlled.<br />
T~is pattern fits a strategy of<br />
keepmg U.S. ,failu~esin Iraq out<br />
of the headlmes m Mr. Clin-<br />
!on 's.last year and in this pres-<br />
I<strong>de</strong>ntIal campaign season. But<br />
the failures become more appar~nt<br />
as ~attles erupt at the.<br />
Umte~ NatIons. over restoring<br />
effectIve arms mspections and<br />
maintaining sanctions.<br />
. U.~. policy on Iraq is a sub-<br />
Ject fit for campaign <strong>de</strong>bate, not<br />
tmention possible congress~onal<br />
investigation. The candidate<br />
who can outline an in-'<br />
tegrated political and military<br />
strategy to <strong>de</strong>al with the multiple<br />
challenges of the Gulf<br />
<strong>de</strong>serves serious consi<strong>de</strong>ration.<br />
The Washington Post.<br />
New UN Chief Arms Inspector<br />
Insists on Full Access in Iraq<br />
By Barbara Cross<strong>et</strong>te<br />
N~ York Timl's Sl'n'icl'<br />
UNITED NATIONS, New York -<br />
The United Nations' new chief arms<br />
inspector for Iiaq has given the government<br />
of SadcIm1Hussein no hope of<br />
~<strong>et</strong>ting a b<strong>et</strong>ter <strong>de</strong>al on the monitoring of<br />
Its weapons programs, saying it will<br />
have to accept inspections.<br />
The arms chief. Hans Blix, said at a<br />
news conference Wednesday. a few<br />
hours after he took office, that he would<br />
-expect Iraq to give inspectors unimpe<strong>de</strong>d<br />
access. He also pledged that standards<br />
for the inspections would not be<br />
lowered.<br />
But he did say that he was not leading<br />
a commando force and would not seek to<br />
humiliate the Iraqis.<br />
Mr. Blix, 71, a former foreign minister<br />
of Swe<strong>de</strong>n and the director-general<br />
Bertil EricsoniAFP<br />
Hans Blix pledged that inspection<br />
standards would not be lowered.<br />
nator in Iraq who has resigned as of<br />
March 31, held a news conference to<br />
llu:nent how badly the Iraqi population<br />
9