Laurie Mylroie
The Washington Times
April 24, 2001
Saddam´s revenge
by Joe Lauria
Saddam Hussein has vowed revenge for air strikes near Baghdad
earlier this year. Conventional Washington wisdom says he´s sufficiently
boxed in by sanctions and the no-fly zone to hit back. But the Iraqi
leader has called on Arabs outside Iraq to strike U.S. interests in the
region. That, according to Iraq expert Laurie Mylroie, fits Saddam
Hussein´s pattern of revenge since the 1991 Gulf War: masterminding
terrorism through Arab fundamentalists who are left holding the bag.
In "Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein´s Unfinished War against
America," Miss Mylroie argues that the Clinton administration erred by
prosecuting such individuals in Justice Department-led criminal trials,
rather than conducting national security investigations that would have
fingered Saddam Hussein.
Miss Mylroie, who co-wrote the 1991 bestseller "Saddam Hussein and
the Crisis in the Gulf," sees his fingerprints on four terrorist
attacks: the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; the 1995 bombing of the
U.S. training mission for Saudi troops in Riyadh; the 1996 attack
against the U.S. base in al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S.
servicemen; and the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa.
Saddam Hussein´s motive is not in doubt: Continue the Gulf War through
other means. Proving it is more difficult.
The author sets out an intriguing case for Iraq´s involvement in
the World Trade Center blast based on circumstantial evidence. There is
no smoking bomb, but the late head of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation in New York, James Fox was convinced that Iraq was behind
the WTC attack. Washington ignored him, believing a "loose network" of
Islamic radicals intended to topple the twin towers onto one another
with their bomb, releasing a cloud of cyanide gas to maximize the
killing.
Miss Mylroie´s evidence mostly phone, airline and passport records
entered into the trial appears to show that mastermind Ramzi Yousef, now
serving life, was an Iraqi agent who traveled to New York on an Iraq
passport to direct dupes who were intended to be caught, to deflect
attention from Saddam Hussein. Another indicted suspect who fled New
York a day after the bombing is living under Saddam Hussein´s protection
in Baghdad, she says.
Miss Mylroie argues that Bill Clinton purposely ignored these leads
because he didn´t want to deal with Baghdad. Indeed, the middle chapters
form one of the clearest expositions of how the Clinton White House
undermined United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq: "Official silence
is undoubtedly the most dangerous possible response to a terrorist
adversary," writes Miss Mylroie. "It is, quite simply the opposite of a
policy of deterrence; instead of holding out the threat of retaliation,
the silence holds forth the promise of a blind eye, if a convenient
cover story is provided." Such as, it was all the work of "Muslim
extremists."
Miss Mylroie says the Riyadh bombing that killed five Americans
was likely Saddam Hussein´s response to a negative U.N. weapons
inspectors´ report and was aimed at U.S. troops still in the region from
the Gulf War. She quotes an unnamed senior Saudi official: "Of course
that was Iraq. That was a professional bomb. It was not made by a bunch
of Saudis sitting in a tent." She admits: "There is no proof Iraq was
behind the Riyadh bombing. Yet Iraq should have been considered a prime
candidate, and it was not."
The al-Khobar bombing in Saudi Arabia seven months later killed 19
U.S. servicemen who had helped enforce the Iraq no-fly zone. Miss
Mylroie constructs a scenario in which Iraqi agents in Khartoum worked
with Osama bin Laden to plan the attack. She quotes Israeli
counterintelligence sources and Saudi officials who believed Saddam
Hussein was behind that bomb, too.
Likewise, Miss Mylroie believes Iraq worked with Osama bin Laden in
the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa on August 7, 1998, two days
after Saddam Hussein formally suspended U.N. weapons inspections. In
May, Baghdad warned of "dire consequences" if U.N. sanctions were not
lifted. Because U.S. intelligence never investigated the possible links
to Saddam Hussein, there is no proof, Miss Mylroie says. Instead, the
U.S. indictment stops at bin Laden and his gang.
Mr. Clinton´s secretary of defense, William Cohen, spoke of a
"grave new world of terrorism" in which "traditional notions of
deterrence and counter-response no longer apply." Miss Mylroie swims
against this stream.
"According to the Clinton administration, a new terrorist threat
has come into being, represented by loose networks of Muslim
extremists," she writes. "It is truer to say that the Clinton
administration´s handling of terrorist episodes and its refusal to
address the question of state sponsorship have encouraged further
terrorist attacks."
We may never know if Iraq was behind these terrorist attacks, but
if the Bush administration wants to lead a more robust policy against
Baghdad, it might be wise for it to find out.
Joe Lauria has covered Iraqi issues at the United Nations for the Daily
Telegraph (London), the Boston Globe and other publications.
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