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To: HH who wrote (8655)	1/17/1998 11:02:00 PM
From: Teddy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Doesn't look like Iraqi will be selling oil for long. hey, i'm don't like war, but this guy is a nut: Updated 5:56 PM ET January 17, 1998 Saddam Calls for Volunteers to Face US Threat By Dominic Evans BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has called on Iraqis to volunteer for training to confront what he termed continuing threats from the United States, Iraqi television reported on Saturday. It said the call was issued at a meeting of the regional command of the ruling Baath Party on Friday night. "We should show an essential part of the people's determination under the leadership of the great Baath (party) to fight in order that Iraq exists and remains as it should be," state television quoted Saddam as saying in a letter addressed to the meeting. He called for "mobilization for training an essential unit of our forces through volunteers -- out of conviction and not through orders," it added. The television gave no details of the size of the proposed force. It said Saddam was addressing the Baath party leadership on Friday night, the seventh anniversary of the start of 1991 Gulf War when U.S.-led forces launched air raids at the start of a campaign to evict Iraqi troops from Kuwait. "Although we are in the eighth year, our enemy, the enemy of God and humanity, America and Zionism, are still continuing their evil work and searching for any thread of hope to fulfill their wicked goals," he said. "The president's letter also stressed the principle of free volunteering for citizens in this jihad (holy struggle) which will cover all of Iraq and men and women of ages capable of military training and carrying weapons," the television said. Iraq and the United Nations have been locked in a tense stand-off over U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq. Washington has said it will not rule out the use of force to resolve the dispute. Earlier on Saturday, Saddam threatened to halt U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq within months and warned Washington against taking military action over Baghdad's deepening row with the United Nations. In a defiant speech marking the start of the 1991 Gulf War which drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait, Saddam said Baghdad would carry out a demand from its parliament to end the arms inspections unless seven-year sanctions on Iraq were lifted. The U.N.'s chief arms inspector Richard Butler arrived in the Gulf on Saturday on his way to Baghdad for talks over the latest standoff. Butler, who heads the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) charged with dismantling Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, will spend two days in Bahrain before leaving on Monday for Baghdad. There he has pledged to listen, "so their legitimate concerns of dignity and sovereignty can be attended to." The United States, which has deployed a powerful military force in the Gulf, said it was losing patience with Iraq and insisted the international community was committed to ensuring the dismantling of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The White House and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said there was no chance U.N. trade sanctions imposed on Baghdad for the invasion of Kuwait would be removed without Iraq allowing unfettered access to weapons sites. Ambassador Bill Richardson told CBS television on Saturday the Iraqi president was "dreaming" if he thought sanctions would go unless Iraq complied with all U.N. Security Council resolutions and allowed "full and unfettered access to all sites of weapons of mass destruction." A White House official said: "Iraq has not yet met its obligations under the requirements of the U.N. Security Council resolution. It must heed the repeated unanimous calls on it to end its defiance and comply with the requirements." Saddam blasted the sanctions and said the Iraqi people and leadership were "determined to launch a great jihad (holy struggle)" to get them lifted. "If the (U.N.) Security Council does not adopt its decision to meet its obligations towards Iraq... Iraq is determined to adopt a stand parallel to a recommendation by representatives of the people in the National Assembly," he said, wearing military uniform and standing in front of an Iraqi flag. "There is no other option left for Iraq but this position." Iraq's National Assembly recommended last October that Baghdad should halt cooperation with the U.N. inspectors. One month later it set a May deadline for them to complete their work. Tension over the inspections flared again in recent days when Iraq barred a team of inspectors led by American Scott Ritter -- whom Baghdad accuses of spying -- from carrying out its work. Britain, which is sending an aircraft carrier to the Gulf to join two U.S. carriers already there, said it was working to secure Iraq's cooperation with the weapons inspection teams by diplomatic means. "But if these efforts fail, we may need to consider other measures, including the use of force," Defense Secretary George Robertson said. Saddam warned Washington against any military attack, saying it would reap nothing from such action. "They (the United States) should not deceive themselves to think that what they have failed to achieve through wickedness and tricks they are able to realize by a military aggression. "They should be more careful and they should reconsider what they are intending to do," he said. The United States had shown itself to be an "arrogant force, selfish and blind, which sees nothing but its own narrow interests," Saddam said. Warning sirens wailed again in Baghdad on Saturday morning to mark the anniversary of the 1991 outbreak of what Iraq called the "Mother of All Battles," in which U.S.-led forces expelled Iraqi troops from Kuwait. The U.N. Security Council condemned Iraq's blocking of Ritter's team in a vote on Wednesday, but several U.S. allies have begun to question whether at least some of the sanctions imposed on Baghdad should not be eased. President Bill Clinton has said the United States would await the results of Butler's visit to Baghdad. Butler will report to the U.N. Security Council in New York next Friday. Russia, France and China have tried to defuse Iraqi complaints that UNSCOM is dominated by Americans and Britons. They have offered to contribute more arms experts to search for Iraqi weapons. Moscow has also offered to replace U.S. U-2 surveillance planes hired by the U.N. arms inspectors to fly over Iraq with comparable Russian aircraft. But Cohen said flights by the U-2 planes over Iraq should continue. Saddam on Saturday paid a nostalgic return to a Baghdad house where he said he took refuge on the first night of the 1991 Gulf War. State television, showing the house for the first time, broadcast film of the Iraqi leader guiding local reporters around the building from which he watched the opening bombardments in the early hours of January 17, 1991.