-Caveat Lector-
Posted at 10:48 p.m. PST Monday, February 22, 1999
Book: CIA placed spies among weapon inspectors in Iraq
BY PHILIP SHENON
New York Times
WASHINGTON -- The CIA began placing American spies among U.N. weapons
inspectors in Iraq only a year after the end of the Gulf War of 1991
and worked closely with the United Nations to organize the
inspections, a former arms inspector says.
The former inspector, Scott Ritter, said in a new book that he and a
senior CIA official operating under an assumed name had planned some
of the largest and most complex inspections undertaken by the United
Nations and that the U.N. inspection teams had included ``CIA
paramilitary covert operatives.''
He said a coup attempt against President Saddam Hussein of Iraq in
June 1996 coincided with the presence of a U.N. inspection team that
included nine CIA officials. Ritter, who does not provide
documentation for all of his conclusions and who has been criticized
repeatedly by the Clinton administration, speculated in his book that
the intelligence agency might have orchestrated the timing.
While Ritter praised the agency's employees as ``the kind of people
you want around you in a difficult situation,'' the book, ``Endgame,''
supports the Iraqi allegation that the U.N. inspections teams were
riddled with American spies almost from the start. Saddam has accused
Ritter of being one of the chief spies, but Ritter has denied that.
U.S. officials have acknowledged that the CIA gave assistance to the
U.N. inspections program and provided specialists to work on the
inspection teams. But Ritter makes clear that the agency's involvement
was far more extensive -- and began earlier -- than previously
reported.
The CIA and the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq, or Unscom, which is
responsible for the inspection teams, said they had no immediate
comment on the book, which is scheduled for publication in April.
The Defense Department, which demanded only last week that Ritter turn
over a copy of the book for a security review before publication,
would not comment on Monday on whether it was considering legal action
to block distribution.
Ritter resigned last summer in protest over what he described as the
Clinton administration's meddling in the work of the inspectors out of
fear of direct confrontations with Iraq.
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