Saddam fears U.S. strikes in wake of terrorist attacks

Amman, Iraq Press, Sept. 14 - Initial euphoria over the devastating terrorist attacks on the
United States has apparently evaporated in Iraq as the country braces up once for a massive
military strike.

As the whole world reacted with horror to the attacks on the World Trade Center in New
York and the Pentagon on Tuesday Saddam's controlled media rejoiced, saying the terror
strikes were a lesson to ''all tyrants and oppressors'' and the fruit of American policy.

Even Saddam had no word of sympathy for the victims. In his first reaction on Thursday he
said the attacks in which thousands of people have died were the harvest of the ''evil policy''
of the United States.

''Regardless of ... human feelings on what happened yesterday, America is reaping the thorns
sown by its rulers in the world,'' the Iraqi News Agency quoted Saddam as saying in his first
directly reported comment on the attacks.

''He who does not want to reap evil should not sow evil,'' Saddam said at a meeting with the
minister of military industrialization, Abdul Tawab Mullah Huweish, and a group of
engineers.

The United States has vowed to wage war on the perpetrators and their sponsors. Initial leads
at the disposal of U.S. investigators point the finger at Osma Bin Laden.

But intelligence analysts say the suicide hijacking that downed the World Trade Center and
destroyed parts of the Pentagon was too large an operation for any one group.

The analysts say that the most likely sponsor of the attack is Iraq. They say the regime in
Baghdad has long maintained an alliance with Ben Laden and other terrorist groups.

Iraq is on the U.S. list of rogue countries sponsoring terrorism. In 1997, reports surfaced that
Iraq was striving to form a pact with Ben Laden. That agreement was said to have foundered
but the mere fact that the two sides were in contact will attach credence even to flimsy
evidence implicating Baghdad.

Informed Iraqi sources told Iraq Press that none of Saddam's advisers had the courage to
suggest that it was in Iraq's interest to denounce the attacks on America.

The sources said Saddam's obsession with personal security may have spurred him to order a
halt to the exuberance and the festive mood Iraqi media outlets exhibited particularly those
run by his eldest son Udai.

Saddam realizes that many in the United States regard his regime as No. 1 enemy. His fears
of a massive U.S. retaliation may be well-founded. The sources said a campaign was under
way in Baghdad to evacuate sensitive and strategic installations in anticipation of a military
strike.

Vehicles were seen moving documents and equipment from inside buildings in Baghdad to
unknown destinations, the sources said. They said the ministry charged with military
industries was trying to empty weapons factories of contents.

But it remains to be seen how far the United States is ready to go this time against its
nemesis in Iraq. In 1990, George W. Bush's father, the then U.S. president, brought together
an international coalition against Saddam for his invasion of the tiny oil-rich state of Kuwait.

The coalition routed Iraqi troops and devastated Iraqi infrastructure but stopped short of
removing Saddam. If the regime in Baghdad is found to be an accomplice in the attacks the
son will be under immense pressure to do what the father left undone.
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