Posted on 07/16/2002 2:58:03 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (July 16, 2002 12:03 p.m. EDT) - Saddam Hussein said in an interview published Tuesday that the United States is threatening the entire Arab world, not just Iraq.
"The latest is a Zionist-American (aggression) against the Arab world represented by Palestine and Iraq," the Iraqi president said in the interview, published in several Arab newspapers, including Qatar's Al-Sharq and the Emirates' Al-Khaleej.
The interview, the first with Saddam to appear in years, was conducted by Mohammed al-Misfir, a political science professor at the University of Qatar and former editor-in-chief of Qatar's daily Al-Rayah. Al-Misfir met Saddam in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad earlier this month.
Al-Misfir told The Associated Press on Tuesday that despite the threat of U.S. strikes, Saddam appeared confident Iraqis could confront any such event.
"America loves war and it has declared its stance toward Iraq and other nations, but we will confront this aggression with all available force," al-Misfir quoted Saddam as saying.
Saddam rarely speaks to reporters but regularly delivers televised speeches or issues statements through his government in Iraq.
The interview came amid increasing speculation about a possible U.S.-led military attack against Iraq.
President Bush has said he wants to remove Saddam, accusing the Iraqi government of sponsoring terrorism and producing and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
Bush signed an order earlier this year directing the CIA to increase support to Iraqi opposition groups and allowing possible use of CIA and Special Forces teams against Saddam. If covert attempts fail, some expect Bush to try military action.
"All the Arab nation is targeted. The battle is not about Iraq but about the nation as a whole," Saddam said in the interview, adding that Arabs were weakened because they did not act as one.
Saddam also praised suicide attacks against Israel, saying they will be "recorded in our history with shining letters."
"Whenever a (suicide) attack occurs against the enemy, I feel as if I carried it out myself and every Arab should look at these acts this way," Saddam said.
According to an April report by the official Iraqi news agency, since March, suicide bombers' families have been receiving $25,000 from Saddam, who likes to be seen as the Palestinians' best ally and equate Iraq's plight with that of the Palestinians.
So what are we going to do on the second day?
Oh that's right Saddam it is us that attacks our neigbors and fly airplanes into buildings!!!!
not you ap 
"You'll be sorry you messed with the U.S. of A.
We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way!"
Glad to hear it.
STILL keep cracking up over Saddam lining himself up with Yasser...is if THAT'S gonna help.
All of the Arab "nations" combined couldn't defeat France, much less anybody else.
They are terrible fighters who can only slaughter unarmed civilians.
They are treacherous untrustworthy cowards who have no sense of honor and stab each other in the back just as easily as they slit the throats of female flight attendants.
They and their kind would do well to submit to the USA instead of Allah while they still have the chance, because they are going to go down hard.
Thank you for at last confessing to the World Trade Center suicide attacks, giving us the last diplomatic fig leaf needed to seal your doom. The bombing will begin in five minutes.
D*mn straight, which is why Arabs shouldn't have killed 3000 Americans. Now, we can't afford to wait for the next attack, we have to strike first and ask questions later. Bad for us, worse for you. But that's the way it is.
"BEGIN LANDING YOUR TROOPS"
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