Saddam Hussein Must Be Deposed

[W]hat happened in the United States yesterday is a lesson for all tyrants, oppressors and criminals. U.S. leaders must expect such a lesson because they have shown insupportable cruelty towards people and that ended by blowing up in their face, destroying their symbols and making Americans weep bitter tears. It is the prestige, arrogance, and institutions of America that burn….

-Iraqi Government Newspaper al-Iraq, September 12, 2001

Even before the World Trade Towers finally collapsed the morning of September 11, the prospect of direct involvement by the government of Saddam Hussein in the attacks was the subject of widespread speculation. Many intelligence experts suggested that the intelligence, training, and manpower required to plan and execute four simultaneous hijackings in the manner done indicated the near certainty of state sponsorship. The usual suspects were mentioned: Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, and Lybia. But the dedication, the awesome hatred, and the willingness to risk eventual discovery that would have been necessary for a government to spend months orchestrating such an attack seemed to all but eliminate the final five members of the list.

In the weeks that followed, many reports and rumors surfaced concerning alleged meetings among Iraqi intelligence agents and various members of Islamic fundamentalist and Arab nationalist terrorist organizations. Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross stated on October 26 that Czech intelligence agents had observed Mohammad Atta, who hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and crashed it into the north tower of the World Trade Center, meeting with Iraqi consul Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani in March or April of 2001. Amad, the Israeli military intelligence service, claimed in the September 19 edition of Jane’s Foreign Report that, “for the past two years Iraqi intelligence officers were shuttling between Baghdad and Afghanistan, meeting with Ayman Al Zawahiri.” Zawahiri is believed to be Osama bin Ladin’s deputy, and was indicted along with Bin Laden by a federal grand jury in New York in 1999 for the US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar-es Salaam in August 1998.

The Bush Administration is clearly dedicating a great deal of time and money to the covert gathering of whatever evidence may exist concerning the involvement of the Iraqi government in the massacres of September 11. It is also clear that the Administration wants to deal with one enemy at a time and will not release any information implicating Iraq, thereby splitting the coalition, until it has done all that it wishes to do in Afghanistan. So long as this information is withheld, it is too early to state conclusively whether or not Iraq had complicity in the hijackings.

But it is not too early for the American people to make firm decisions about our policy towards Iraq. We have all the information we need to make these decisions, and have had this information for many years.

We know that Saddam Hussein has for decades been obsessed with the acquisition of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. UNSCOM investigators confirmed in S/1997/774 of 06/10/97 Fourth report under resolution 1051 that during the period from 1981 to 1990, Iraq produced a minimum of 152,119 “munitions filled with chemical warfare agents or components,” including mustard gas and sarin nerve gas. Speaking of the most lethal of all nerve gasses, the commission reported that “Iraq had indeed succeeded in acquiring VX production capabilities.” In addition to these chemical agents, the commission stated that Iraq had admitted to producing significant quantities of aflatoxin, botulinum toxin, and anthrax spores. Much of the chemical and biological material was destroyed, but none of the inspectors doubts that Iraq was able to hide a certain amount of both product and production equipment.

In addition to chemical and biological weapons production, since he first gained power in 1979 Hussein has dedicated an incredible quantity of Iraq’s resources towards the acquisition of nuclear weaponry. On June 28, 1981, the Israeli Air Force destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactors at Tuwaitha because Israel had evidence that they were being used for the creation of weapons-grade plutonium. When inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency entered Iraq following the Gulf War, they determined that Hussein’s clandestine nuclear program was, “Aimed at the production of a small arsenal of nuclear weapons, well funded, well staffed, ‘initiated’ in the 1970’s, [and] implemented in the 1980’s.” There has been no international monitoring of this nuclear program since IAEA staff was withdrawn in December, 1998.

We also know that Saddam Hussein does not consider the use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons to be morally different than the use of conventional weapons. He extensively used a variety of chemical agents in his 1980’s war with Iran; the British government estimated in the summer of 1986 that this use had at that point accounted for more than 10,000 Iranian casualties. During a Kurdish uprising in that same war, he used mustard gas against Kurdish villages as a means of terrorizing the populace into submission.

And finally, we know that Hussein has a great hatred against America and seeks revenge for our successful routing of his troops from Kuwait in 1991. The clearest example of this hatred was shown in the foiled plot to assassinate former President George Bush during a visit to Kuwait in mid-April 1993. Shortly before his arrival, Kuwaiti authorities discovered a Toyota Landcruiser with 80 to 90 kilograms of RDX explosive. Seventeen plotters were arrested, and two of these confessed both to the Kuwaitis and later to FBI agents that they had participated in the plot at the direction of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

To summarize: Saddam Hussein certainly possesses chemical and biological weapons; it is only a matter of time before he acquires nuclear devices; he longs to strike back at the nation that defeated and hobbled his empire; and since morality is clearly not a concern of his, the only reason why he would not strike American targets is because he does not feel that it is in his own best interests.

Tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel needed to be used in precisely the right manner, in accordance with months of planning, to cause the deaths of roughly five thousand people on September 11. A small nuclear device could be smuggled into America with ease. Detonated in D.C. on the right day, it could kill the President, Vice President, Supreme Court, and most members of Congress. Detonated anywhere in lower Manhattan, it could kill millions. This unspeakable horror will remain a distinct possibility so long as Saddam Hussein is allowed to remain in power.

America cannot allow such a threat to persist. As soon as we have finished our business in Afghanistan, and therefore no longer require the support of Arab governments, we must fully mobilize our armed forces and occupy Iraq. We must kill Hussein and his senior officers and establish a coalition government in which Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs, and Kurds share power under the auspices of the UN. Only when this is done will America be safe. A long road lies between our nation and security. That road begins in Iraq.