[Peace-discuss] Iraqi opposition

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Iraqi Opposition Say Not U.S. Lackeys
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
Filed at 2:24 p.m. ET

LONDON (AP) -- Iraqi opposition leaders based in Britain -- where anti-war 
sentiment runs high despite government support of U.S. policy -- are on the 
defensive: They are not U.S. lackeys, they say, but simply share the U.S. 
goal of ousting Saddam Hussein.

Further, the dozens of groups and numerous independent Iraqi dissidents are 
suspicious of the United States. Memories are vivid of Iraqi Shiite Muslims 
and Kurds rebelling against Saddam with U.S. encouragement after the Gulf War 
only to be left without U.S. military support and crushed by Saddam's army.

An uncomfortable alliance between the United States and Iraq's dissidents 
could make for rocky times in an immediate post-Saddam era. Washington is 
likely rely on returning exiles to help run Iraq, and the Iraqis will need 
U.S. cash and muscle to transform their country into the stable democracy 
they envision.

For now, the strange bedfellows are working together -- if warily.

The Americans ``seem to be serious now,'' said Mumtaz Mufti of the Kurdish 
Democratic Party. ``They have spent a lot of money and deployed so many 
troops ... We are not going to be betrayed this time. But we are not 100 
percent sure either.''

The United States has ordered thousands of troops, attack aircraft and ships 
to the Gulf. Britain is sending 3,000 Royal Marines. But the British public 
is divided by the prospect of war, with polls suggesting a majority oppose 
military action without U.N. approval.

The strong anti-war fervor in much of Europe and the Arab world has isolated 
Iraqi exiles, and embittered them toward fellow Arabs they say are 
unsympathetic to the suffering of Iraqis under Saddam.

To defend their U.S. alliance, they argue the Iraqis are unable to topple 
Saddam on their own.

``Everyone's hope is now pinned on America to make the move,'' said Hussein 
al-Rikabi, an independent dissident. ``This regime is criminal. It's 
oppressive. The Americans have their own interests to change this regime. Our 
interests and theirs have merged.''

On Friday, President Bush met for the first time with opposition figures at 
the White House. The two sides laid out a broad vision for Iraq's future in 
the 30-minute meeting but did not discuss details of how to achieve their 
goals, according to a dissident spokesman.

Bush has vowed to use force to topple Saddam if Iraq is found to have weapons 
of mass destruction or programs to develop them. The United States has 
announced it would provide military training for up to 3,000 Iraqis, 
including dissidents, or other Arabs for possible deployment in their 
homeland.

But the Americans don't seem entirely convinced of the credibility of the 
Iraqi opposition. U.S. relations with the Iraqi National Congress, a leader 
group, have repeatedly been complicated by what State Department officials 
see as financial management problems within the congress, which has received 
millions from the United States for such projects as a satellite television 
channel tailored for Iraqi viewers.

Still, Washington needs the opposition as a ``political cover'' for a war 
against Saddam, said Abdelbari Atwan, editor of the Palestinian Al Quds 
newspaper published in London.

Atwan is among those who say the Iraqi people would rather not have returning 
exiles run a future Iraq. Preferable leaders, he says, would include people 
still in Iraq who tried to rebuild and keep the economy going after the Gulf 
War and under U.N. sanctions.

``It wasn't those men sitting in five-star hotels cursing Saddam Hussein,'' 
Atwan said, referring to a recent U.S.-backed meeting in London at which 
Iraqi dissidents chose a committee some see as the core of a post-Saddam 
transition government.

Given the assumption that if Washington deposes Saddam, it will have a say in 
who runs the country afterward, other critics question the promotion of 
dissidents -- some of whom are described as dubious businessmen, political 
opportunists and even thugs.

The chairman of the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmed Chalabi, was convicted of 
fraud in a Jordan bank scandal in 1989. Chalabi is well-connected in 
Washington but not widely popular with the opposition inside or outside Iraq.

Another main group, the Iraqi National Accord, is said to have links with 
U.S., British and Saudi intelligence agencies, and opposition sources say the 
group receives covert U.S. financial backing.

But while the Iraqi National Congress is often portrayed as closest to the 
United States, a congress official, speaking on condition of anonymity, 
described relations with Washington, especially the State Department, as 
``long, tangled and convoluted.''

He said his group was pushing to create a democracy in Iraq, but that U.S. 
officials are concerned how such a transformation could affect Middle Eastern 
autocrats who are also American allies.

``We are not naive,'' he said. ``We are not going into this relationship 
blindly.''