Word: iraq
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Iraq has mastered the art of the shell game, whisking its secret stores from nook to nook ahead of the inspectors. Most difficult of all to get hold of are the logbooks that compare prewar acquisitions with what is accounted for now; and the plans and designs, on paper or computer discs or simply locked in scientists' heads, that would enable Saddam to reconstitute his warheads and missiles if inspections ever stopped. Last week Saddam refused to give inspectors access to some key papers, once again raising prospects for confrontation. "We knew we'd get back to square one with...
...aide involved in the effort. "There's no easy way either to directly oust him or to create an opposition group that over time can do it." In fact, say military analysts, the liberation law is a fine symbol to show that the U.S. stands with the people of Iraq against Saddam, but it is hardly a blueprint for his demise...
...spooked by past failures, stalled over new ideas. Around June, the White House finally delivered a top-secret covert-action memo to Congress, but it smelled like a rehash of tired, old schemes, and the Senate Intelligence Committee bounced it. Instead, it backed the $97 million Iraq Liberation Act, an ambitious bill designed to bring support for anti-Saddam dissidents out of the closet and funnel money and guns to them...
...that trooped back to Baghdad last week can bridle Saddam's more dangerous ambitions. But privately, the hope is starting to wilt. U.S. officials are concerned that the eight-year-old U.N. regime may have done almost all it can to uncover existing stockpiles. UNSCOM inspectors have already rid Iraq of many of its missiles, launchers and tons of chemical munitions and production equipment. They are now searching mainly for biological weapons--small, easily hidden stores of anthrax, botulinum and aflatoxin, along with growth medium to produce new supplies. U.S. inspectors have privately concluded that Saddam has at least...
First, Annan sent a letter that offered Saddam not just an out but a win: a nice reward--broad hints of accelerating the move to lift the economic embargo of Iraq--if Saddam would just act nice. Saddam responded with his "Swiss cheese" letter, a disingenuous, heavily hedged show of compliance with U.N. demands that was, in fact, a prescription for more Iraqi "cheat and retreat" on weapons inspections. Nonetheless, the very transmittal of that letter, as yet unparsed, was enough to prompt President Clinton to recall his bombers in midflight...