[A-List] US imperialism: Iraq

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

US draws up plans for Saddam's exile
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
The Independent on Sunday, 29 September 2002

The United States and a number of Arab countries have drawn up plans for
the exile of Saddam Hussein to a neutral country to avoid an invasion
that could lead to massive number of civilian deaths.

Planners in the Near East division of the US State Department have
looked at various scenarios under which the Iraqi president would cede
power to a democratic government and then leave the country. President
Saddam has angrily dismissed such suggestions - made to him by third
parties.

"We have to look at all scenarios," a senior State Department official
told The Independent on Sunday. "We are still trying to sort it out."
The official said US policy calls for President Saddam to be "brought to
justice". But he added that if the exile option could be shown to
prevent a massive loss of civilian life as the result of a military
operation, and that power was ceded to a truly alternative government,
it would be considered. "There would have to be real change. He could
not simply hand over to his son."

Which countries would take President Saddam is unclear. One US source
suggested Algeria or Mauritania might be options. The source added:
"North Korea and China might also take him. China might do it just to
piss us off."

The Iraqi leader has said he would not agree to any such plan. It is
understood that when Qatar's foreign minister, Hamad al-Thani, raised
the prospect during a meeting in August, President Saddam angrily asked
him to leave. "We know the meeting took place, but we don't know what
happened in the room," said a spokesman for Qatar's embassy in
Washington.

Disclosure of the exile plan came as Baghdad rejected the draft UN
resolution for which Britain and the US are seeking international
backing. Senior officials from the two countries are in Moscow after
visiting Paris, looking for approval for a resolution that would set a
timetable for the return of weapons inspectors and make clear that
military force would be used if Iraq did not fully comply with the
inspectors' demands.

Iraq's vice-president and deputy prime minister, Taha Yassin Ramadan,
said yesterday: "We have made our position very clear. We have invited
back the inspectors under existing UN resolutions. We shall not accept
additional proposals which have the aims of harming Iraq and provoking a
war."

Iraqi officials are due to visit Moscow in the next few days in an
attempt to ensure President Vladimir Putin and, through him, France,
continue to oppose the new resolution. Officials said they were pressing
ahead with their meeting with the UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix,
scheduled for tomorrow.

Diplomatic sources said Vice-President Ramadan and Tariq Aziz, the
deputy prime minister, believe privately that war is now inevitable and
it is only a matter of time before the US and Britain attack.