Posted on 03/06/2003 6:49:42 AM PST by Indy Pendance
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States has asked about 60 countries to expel selected Iraqis who officials say are undercover agents possibly poised to attack American interests overseas, officials said.
In a separate development Wednesday, the State Department said it had ordered two U.N.-based Iraqi diplomats to leave the country.
The government has identified 300 Iraqis in the 60 countries whom officials want expelled, the U.S. officials said. Some are operating as diplomats out of Iraqi embassies, the officials said, adding that the foreign governments were expected to comply with the U.S. request.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker confirmed the expulsion request but offered no information on the number of countries or their identities, or on how many suspected Iraqi agents were involved.
Reeker said the action had no bearing on possible U.S. military action against Iraq.
The government officials, asking not to be identified, said the State Department made similar requests of foreign governments before the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The current request comes as a U.S.-led war against Iraq appears increasingly likely. U.S. officials and outside analysts have warned that an attack on Iraq could well trigger attacks on U.S. interests by Iraq or its allies.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday the real risk lies in failure to act against Saddam.
In that event, he said, there would be a world "where Saddam and the likes of Saddam are emboldened to acquire and wield weapons of mass destruction."
In New York, Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Al-Douri, said the two Iraqis being expelled were informed of the expulsion order Tuesday at 6 p.m. and given 72 hours to leave the United States.
The State Department identified them as Nazih Abdul Latif Rahman and Yehia Naeem Suaoud.
The men speak only Arabic and have the ranks of attaches but are not on the list of personnel accredited to the United Nations, Al-Douri said.
"They are the security personnel of the mission, the guards," the ambassador told The Associated Press. "They are living in the basement of the (Iraqi) mission."
He said both diplomats had been approached by U.S. officials and asked to defect.
"All of our diplomats were pressurized, were asked if they would like to leave the Iraqi government right now, to stay here in the United States," the ambassador said. "And those people, they refused those kinds of proposals. And this is a kind of vengeance because they didn't accept what had been asked by Americans, by CIA, or FBI or whatever.
"All Iraqi people in the mission have been approached in that way, except me," he said.
But the State Department, in a statement, said: "The two attaches were engaged in activities outside the scope of their official function. Federal law enforcement authorities deemed the activities to be harmful to our national security."
Last month, the U.S. government expelled an Iraqi journalist who covered the United Nations for the official Iraqi News Agency, saying he was "harmful" to the security of the United States.
History will note the war began with this explusion.
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