Iraq is a Regional Threat, capable of as much as 200 tons of VX nerve agent (1999 Clinton report)

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CONTENTS

Executive Summary

Impact of Sanctions

Iraqi Obstruction of Oil-for-Food

Misuse of Resources by the Regime

Repression of the Iraqi People

Evading U.N. Resolutions and Failure to Disarm

Iraq is a Regional Threat

U.S. Policy

War Crimes

Holds On Oil-For-Food Contracts

Iraq Omnibus Resolution

Palaces and Oil Smuggling

Support for the Mujahedin-e Khalq

Iraq is a Regional Threat

Summary

Iraq under Saddam Hussein remains dangerous, unreconstructed, and defiant. It has not disarmed. It has never apologized or expressed regret for the invasion of Kuwait. It continues to repress its people.

This is a dangerous regime that threatens its neighbors, has a long history of aggression, has ambitions to dominate the Gulf by force, and retains the capability to do so.

History of Aggression

Far from apologizing for its invasion of Kuwait, Iraq continues to assert that its actions were justified.

On this year's ninth anniversary of the invasion of Kuwait, the government newspaper Babel — owned by Saddam's son Uday — stated "We still believe that what we did on August 2, 1990, was the right response to foil a large and abortive conspiracy."
In an editorial on August 2, 1999, al Thawra, the regime's mouthpiece, referred to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait as, "the honorable day of the call."
In 1994, Saddam attempted to blackmail the UN Security Council into lifting sanctions by massing his forces for another invasion of Kuwait. In response, the UNSC passed Resolution 949, ordering Iraq to withdraw its Republican Guard forces from southern Iraq.

Not only does Baghdad consider its invasion of Kuwait "honorable," but Saddam Hussein has gone so far as to call for the overthrow of fellow Arab leaders and to attempt to murder the Emir of Kuwait and former president George Bush.

In Saddam's Army Day speech of January 6, 1999, he said: "Release your anger and rebel against the defiled ones who are playing with your fate and the fate of the nation.... Rebel against those who are proud of the friendship of the United States, those who are proud of being U.S. protégées..."
In 1993, Iraq organized an attempt to assassinate former U.S. President George Bush and the Emir of Kuwait.
In August 1996, the regime's forces attacked the Kurdish-held city of Irbil. Within hours, Iraqi secret police had swarmed over the city, arresting hundreds and killing scores of suspected oppositionists.
Baghdad continues to harbor the Muhjahideen e-Khalq (MEK), Iranian dissents who conduct a widespread terrorist campaign to support their political agenda. In the past, the MEK has been responsible for attacks on Americans, (including participating in the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979), Iraqis, Iranians, and Europeans.
Saddam continues to attack coalition aircraft enforcing the no-fly zones, which were established to prevent Saddam from attacking Kurdish and Shi'a civilians, in violation of UNSC Resolutions 688 and 949.

WMD Capability

Saddam retains the capability to inflict significant damage upon Iraq's neighbors and its own civilian population.

Since December 1998, Saddam Hussein has prevented UN weapons inspectors from even entering Iraq. We do not know for sure what he is doing under the roofs of the weapons factories they routinely monitored. So, in addition to the weapons he has worked so hard to hide since 1991, Saddam may well have his experts making chemical and biological weapons, and pursuing nuclear weapon designs.
Iraq is capable of assembling its prohibited Al-Hussein long-range missiles with key parts known to have been stripped from destroyed imported SCUDs.
Iraq has refused to account for precursor chemicals capable of making as much as 200 tons of VX nerve agent. Iraq has the know-how and equipment to weaponize VX, despite its continuing denials.
Iraq loaded VX, anthrax, botulism toxin, and other chemical and biological agents into Al-Hussein missile warheads and deployed them during the Gulf War.
Iraq loaded thousands of munitions such as aerial bombs, tactical rockets, and artillery shells with a variety of chemical and biological agents similar to those used against Iran and against Iraqi civilians.

Without sanctions, Saddam would be free to use his resources to rearm and make good on his threats against Kuwait and the region.

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