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Iraq Attack: A Message
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By firing missiles at
Baghdad, the U.S.
hoped to slow
Saddam's military
resurgence — and
deliver a warning
to others.
DOUGLAS DAVIS
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
he ostensible reason
for the U.S. missile
attack on Baghdad last
weekend was Iraq's
complicity in an assassina-
tion attempt on former
President George Bush in
Kuwait last April.
While American officials
have said that alone was
ample justification for the
action, Middle East analysts
believe the Clinton adminis-
tration was addressing far
broader concerns when it
unleashed 23 Tomahawk
cruise missiles at the Iraqi
Intelligence Agency com-
plex.
The analysts agreed a
state-sponsored plot to kill a
former American president
could not go unanswered,
but at the same time they
expressed mounting concern
about Saddam Hussein's
military achievements and
Security Organization,
his revived political ambi-
recently briefed Iraqi army
tions.
commanders on "security
Some noted that the
measures" to be implement-
attack also serves as a
ed in captured Kurdish ter-
warning to nations other
ritories.
than Iraq — Iran, Sudan or
In another secret meet-
any other rogue country in
ing, Saddam's son-in-law
the business of launching
and close aide, Hussein
terrorist attacks against the
Kamil al-Majid, told officers
United States.
that they would soon carry
A report published in
out a mission that will
Washington last week by
"make the streets of
the House of
Kurdistan run with blood."
Representatives Foreign
The report by the House
Affairs Subcommittee on
Foreign Affairs Subcom-
International Security
mittee revealed that
revealed that Saddam has
Saddam has succeeded, par-
restored most of his military
tially or completely, in
infrastructure destroyed
rebuilding more than 200
during the Gulf War,
military facilities that were
despite U.N. sanctions.
damaged during the Gulf
At the same time, there
War.
are fears of an imminent
It also notes that Iraq's
Iraqi drive aimed at chal-
military industries have
lenging U.N. resolve in the
resumed production of a
protected Kurdish "safe
wide range of military hard-
havens" north of the 36th
ware, including T-72 tanks,
parallel.
artillery, ammunition and,
Iraqi troops are reported
of particular concern for
already to have moved
Israel, short-range missiles.
about eight miles north of
Among the facilities that
the 36th parallel and into
are functioning normally
the protected Kurdish terri-
again are "Saad 16," code
tory, where they occupied
name for a military
several villages after dri-
research and development
ving out the local inhabi-
facility near Mosul, and the
tants.
Rabiya plant at Zaafarniya,
The troops are now poised
which is known to produce
to make the push 25 miles
equipment for Iraq's nuclear
north to capture Irbil, the
program.
Kurdish regional capital
According to an accompa-
and seat of the Kurdish
nying letter by Kenneth
"parliament." The blitzkrieg
Timmerman, the sub-com-
is expected to occur at night
mittee staffer who wrote the
to reduce possible harass-
report, Iraq has repaired
ment by allied aircraft
and returned to service
based in Turkey.
"most of the tanks, artillery
According to senior
and combat aircraft dam-
Middle East sources,
aged during Desert Storm."
Saddam's son, Kusai, who
The report casts doubts
heads Iraq's Special
on the ability of the U.N.
Special Commission (UNS-
COM) to monitor compli-
ance with security council
resolutions and points out
that it has failed to find "the
vast majority" of equipment
acquired by Iraq between
1985 and 1989 at a cost of
$14.2 billion.
It also says that despite
U.N. sanctions, Iraq is con-
tinuing to operate "an
extensive clandestine pro-
curement network in
Europe, the Middle East
and possibly in the United
States.
"Some of the most notori-
ous agents who helped Iraq
obtain sophisticated
Western technologies for its
Analysts fear
Saddam may be
preparing to
gain lashout at
the Kurds.
ballistic missile programs
and its nuclear weapons
efforts are still at large,"
according to the report.
They include Safa al-
Habobi, who headed Iraq's
most important front trad-
ing organization in Europe,
Technology and
Devel6pment Group, which
in 1987 took over the
British company Churchill
Matrix that later formed a
central component in
Baghdad's military procure-
ments, notably the Iraqi
supergun.
Saddam's passion for
nuclear capability also
appears to remain undimin-
ished, despite the devasta-
tion of the Gulf War and the
U.N. inspection exercises
that are aimed at ensuring
the destruction of his
weapons of mass destruc-
tion.
One
nuclear
site,
described by sources as
being east of Baghdad, is
being constructed about 150
feet below ground, which is
considered to be too deep for
a missile silo but suitable
for monitoring nuclear tests.
In addition, Saddam is
reported to have threatened
the lives of any Iraqi
nuclear scientists who
attempt to leave the coun-
try, a message that was dra-
matically illustrated when
one such scientist, Muayyad
al-Jannabi, was murdered
in the Jordanian capital of
Amman last year as he was
negotiating for asylum in
Britain.
David Kay, the American-
born former leader of U.N.
inspection teams in Iraq,
underlined the dangers
when he warned that nei-
ther inspections nor hi-tech
U.S. surveillance would nec-
essarily be enough to uncov-
er and destroy the full
extent of Saddam's military
capability.
Mr. Kay, now secretary-
general of the London-based
Uranium Institute, achieved
international prominence in a,
1991 when Iraqi troops
blocked his access to a mili- c•J
tary installation and he was >-
besieged in a downtown =
-J
Baghdad parking lot for 10
days.
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