Analyses | Gunning For Saddam | FRONTLINE

FRONTLINE

Former defense and weapons experts, Iraqi defectors, and two journalists discuss key themes explored in this report. There is a general consensus among all that Saddam Hussein is a perpetrator of terrorism. There is no consensus, however, on when the U.S. should try to overthrow him, or how it can be done.

	A summary of what international weapons inspections during the 1990s revealed about Iraq's biochemical and nuclear weapons capability. In 1998, Iraq blocked the weapons inspection agencies, UNSCOM and IAEA, from conducting further U.N.-mandated inspections.
	This mix of views on Saddam Hussein adds up to the specter of a revenge-seeking, destruction-addicted dictator who had -- and may have again -- an arsenal of biological and chemical weapons he is more than likely ready to use. Here are excerpts from FRONTLINE's interviews with journalist Laurie Mylroie; Khidhir Hamza, Saddam's former chief nuclear scientist; Sabah Khodada, a former Iraqi army officer who says Iraq has a highly secret terrorist training camp; Richard Perle, chairman of the Defense Policy Board; Richard Butler, former head of the U.N. weapons inspection agency, UNSCOM; and R. James Woolsey, former director of the CIA.
	Those who argue for widening the current anti-terrorism campaign to include Saddam point to an accretion of evidence that he is behind state-sponsored terrorism -- from Iraqi links to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the assassination attempt on former president George H. W. Bush that same year, to accumulating evidence that there are Iraqi ties to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Here are excerpts from interviews with journalist Laurie Mylroie; Khidhir Hamza, Saddam's former chief nuclear scientist; Sabah Khodada, a former Iraqi army captain who says Iraq has highly secret terrorist training camps; Richard Perle, chairman of the Defense Policy Board; Richard Butler, former head of the U.N. weapons inspection agency, UNSCOM; and R. James Woolsey, former director of the CIA.
	Former U.S. National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, both of whom dealt with Saddam during the Gulf War, say targeting him should be a separate issue from the current war on terrorism. Along with New York Times reporter Elaine Sciolino, they point to the political and military challenges in launching a military operation against Iraq.

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