Eurobiz is caught arming Saddam; the strident opposition in some European capitals to U.S. military action against Saddam Hussein may have roots in some bottom-line corporate considerations

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 18, 2003 | by Kenneth R. Timmerman

Most INC officials and their supporters in Congress blame the missteps on the CIA, which staffs the NSC. "If the NSC had its own budget and didn't have to rely on detailees from the agency and from State, it would be a whole new ballgame," says Rand Fishbein, a former congressional staffer and Washington consultant. "As it is, the people who are whispering into the ears of the president's top assistants are pursuing a different agenda."

In a recent editorial, the New York Sun singled out Khaliazad's top staffer, Ben Miller, a CIA detailee to the NSC. "Mr. Miller invested years in planning failed military plots and coups in Iraq," the Sun reported. "There's no indication he has ever been committed to the democratic Iraqi opposition." That commitment is essential in the weeks and months to come. The United States faces a choice between a Saddam clone, as championed by the CIA and the State Department, who in theory will "keep things together" when chaos erupts in Baghdad, or the more challenging but ultimately more rewarding course of helping Iraqi democrats reshape their society, and through it the Middle East.

"The U.S. interest is in removing Saddam's regime, not just Saddam himself," Bush administration adviser Richard Perle tells INSIGHT. "I can't imagine a coup that would effectively deal with Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and lead to the transformation of Iraq toward a healthy, stable country that would be friendly to the United States embrace Western values and treat its own people decently."--KRT

KENNETH R. TIMMERMAN IS A SENIOR WRITER FOR Insight MAGAZINE.