Helms Says Iraq, Saddam Should Be U.S. Targets

September 22, 2001 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms said on Saturday the U.S. military may
target Iraq and Saddam Hussein when it launches retaliatory strikes for last week's suicide
attacks on New York and Washington that pushed the United States to the brink of war and
recession. 

Helms, in an interview on CNN'S "Evans, Novak, Hunt & Shields", said he believes Iraq
and Saddam, who led the invasion of Kuwait in 1991 that sparked the Gulf War, should be a
target in the U.S. military campaign. 

"Well, if they (the U.S. military) are ready to do the attacking. Now I don't think we are
quite ready yet. As of Friday afternoon we were not, but we're right close to it," he said. "I
think they (Iraq) will be a target." 

"The first President Bush ought to have gotten rid of him," Helms said of Saddam. "I say
that with all due respect to the former president ... that was one of the major mistakes that
was made at that time," said the staunch conservative and former head of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee. 

Helms, a five-term Republican from North Carolina, blamed the entire U.S. intelligence
community, including the CIA, FBI and even Congress, for failing to detect the Sept. 11
attacks on New York and Washington which left 6,800 dead or missing 

"I don't think we've followed up every lead that we should have and I'm not on the
appropriate committee, but I think as a result of this you will see a great improvement in
following up on what's good about this and what's lacking about that," he said. 

In a taped interview to be aired later in the day, Helms said the United States would not
attack Iraq until a coalition was in place to support the U.S. military action. 

"Well some of us have been guaranteed that it would not happen until we are ready for it to
happen because if we go in there with the wrong kind of preparation that would be another
disaster. But we're pretty near there," he said. 

Helms also said it was a "waste of time" for Secretary of State Colin Powell to ally with
China and Russia in the U.S. "war on terrorism." 

"China has demonstrated time and time again that they're not interested in working with the
United States on anything. They are determined to do the best they can for China regardless
of the United States and I haven't seen much better from Russia," he said. 
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