-Caveat Lector-
Ex-CIA chief calls Clinton policy ''feckless,'' urges tougher approach
toward Saddam
by RICHARD PYLE
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Former CIA director R. James Woolsey called
Tuesday for tough new policies toward Iraq, saying Saddam Hussein
had expanded his power and credibility partly as the result of a
''flaccid and feckless'' approach by the Clinton administration.
Among other things, Woolsey said, President Bush should demand
the return of international weapons inspectors to Iraq, and
expedite a ''boost phase'' missile defense system to intercept
and destroy long-range ballistic missiles before they reach
orbit. Baghdad is suspected of rushing development of long-range
missiles along with nuclear weapons.
Except for ordering bombing strikes on Iraqi missile sites as one
of his first acts in office, there has been little in the way of
''encouraging statements'' from President George W. Bush, Woolsey
said.
''One hopes the new administration will be ... forceful with
Iraq,'' he said. ''So far the jury is out.''
Woolsey said that along with development of the boost-phase
missile defense, U.S. policy should be based on support for
Iraq's political opposition and the eventual removal of Saddam
and his Ba'athist party from control in Baghdad.
Although the ruling party remains secular, he said, Saddam has
made a great effort to restore and forge new ties with Muslim
Arab leaders since the Gulf War a decade ago. One sign of this,
he said, is the Arabic phrase, ''Allahu akbar'' (God is great)
inscribed on the Iraqi national flag, in what is said to be
Saddam's own handwriting.
''He (Saddam) is gaining substantial credibility in the Arab
street as the one to take on the infidel, namely us,'' said
Woolsey.
Woolsey, who served as Clinton's director of intelligence from
1993 to 1995, was scathing in his remarks about the former
administration at a luncheon sponsored by the Middle East Forum,
a non-profit organization concerned with policy issues in that
region.
Reminding listeners that Madeline Albright, Clinton's secretary
of state, had chosen to refer to Iraq, Libya, North Korea and
certain other countries as ''states of concern'' rather than
''rogue states,'' Woolsey said Bush has instead used the latter
reference to Iraq.
He said that after U.S. forensic experts blamed Iraq for an
attempt to kill former President Bush with a terrorist bomb
during a visit to Kuwait in 1993, ''Clinton shot a couple of
dozen cruise missiles into an empty building in the middle of the
night.''
''I think it's kind to call that (response) flaccid and
feckless,'' Woolsey said.
Woolsey, who resigned the top spy post in 1993 after CIA analyst
Aldrich Ames was exposed as a Soviet agent who had inflicted
major damage on U.S. intelligence operations for years, said he
was never a Clinton policy adviser.
''I provided intelligence,'' he said. ''My career in the Clinton
administration was best summed up by the fact that when a little
airplane crashed into the south front of the White House in the
fall of 1994, the joke among the White House staff was that it
must have been Woolsey still trying to get an appointment.''
Woolsey said an FBI counter-intelligence expert recently accused
of spying for Russia had also done ''tremendous damage'' to U.S.
operations. He declined to comment on reports that U.S. agencies
had constructed a secret tunnel under the Russian embassy in
Washington D.C.
Woolsey said that while the United States continues to insist on
international sanctions imposed on Iraq after the war, Saddam is
selling oil on world markets in defiance of those restrictions
and has used it to curry favor with ostensible U.S. allies,
especially France.
He said he believes the United States needs ''a clear national
policy'' to get rid of the Iraqi regime, but does not know
whether the American people would support such a call. ''It
depends on how forcefully the president expresses his policy,''
he said.
''I have no problem with deception and covert action, but... as a
result of the fecklessness of the Clinton administration over
eight years, it would be functionally impossible for us to
deceive anyone or provide aid to any resistance organization,''
Woolsey said.
''In backing the opposition groups, we should use force in
support of them, at least from the air.'' He said one element of
this would be ''no-drive zones'' to limit movement of Iraqi
government armed forces, something he said the Clinton
administration should have done.
Asked whether the first Bush administration blundered in not
trying to oust Saddam from power as part of the 1991 Gulf War
victory, Woolsey said some of those officials ''with 20-20
hindsight, might look on it differently'' today.
He said he could ''fully understand'' former President Bush's
decision at the time in view of the difficulties of the military
effort and of keeping the allied coalition together. But the
administration failed to impose sufficient limits on air and
ground movements by Iraqi forces, or to support anti-Saddam
factions trying to mount a popular rebellion, he said.
AP-ES-03-06-01 1805EST !--END-->
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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