Posted on 07/29/2002 3:16:38 PM PDT by grimalkin
WASHINGTON, Jul 29, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The State Department said Monday that it was seeking a change of leadership in Iraq and has invited six Iraqi opposition leaders to Washington next week for talks.
"We believe that a regime change there would benefit all of us, including the Iraqis," Phillip Reeker, the department's deputy spokesman, told a briefing in Washington.
He described Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as "a direct threat" to his neighbors, adding that his ouster would also be good for them.
Reeker said that the international community needed "to be very concerned about his (Saddam's) efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and the capabilities with which to use them."
He said that the U.S. would coordinate its Iraq strategy with the six opposition leaders.
Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith would coordinate this meeting, which is expected to be held in early August, he added.
He said it was important to "increase the level of coordination and cooperation among these groups. And that's the purpose of the meeting."
On Friday, United Press International reported that the State Department and the Pentagon had invited leaders from the Iraqi National Congress to Washington next month to discuss "next steps" in opposition activities against the current regime.
A letter Thursday from Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ryan Crocker said the purpose of the Aug. 9 meeting "is to discuss ideas for next steps and coordinating our work with the Iraqi opposition."
The letter was sent to Ahmad Chalabi, head of the INC's information collection program and the former president of the organization.
It was also sent to Sharif Ali bin Hussein, official spokesman for the rebel coalition and the leader of the constitutional monarchist movement; both major Kurdish leaders (Jalal Talibani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Masoud Barzani of the Kurdish Democratic Party); Iyad Allawi, the leader of the CIA-supported Iraqi National Accord; and Mohammed Baqr Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite-based rebel organization supported by the Iranian government and Syria.
As a result of the Bush administration's increasing interest in toppling the Baghdad regime, the State Department and CIA in recent months have increased contact with numerous opposition groups.
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.
He may yet be able to accomplish this overthrow with very few or no troops committed to Iraq.
What will the critics have to harp on then? Bush approval rating to 120%
After destroying him and his supporters, we will have a Kurdish independence movement, a Byzantine mix of deposed generals all competing grimly to live in the presidential palace, and Shi'ite fundamentalists who hate the U.S. and Israel as devotedly as bin Laden himself and who will seek to impose an Islamic theocracy.
I doubt at that point they'll take our foreign aid dollars to stay where we put them. Rumor has it that the savvy Northern Alliance chieftains demanded gold bullion.
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