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