 |
Please expand this article.
This template may be found on the article's talk page, where there may be further information. Alternatively, more information might be found at Requests for expansion.
Please remove this message once the article has been expanded. |
Operation Desert Fox was the military codename for a major three-day bombing campaign on Iraqi targets from December 16-December 18, 1998 by the United States and United Kingdom. These strikes were ordered by the President Bill Clinton and were undertaken in response to Iraq's continued failure to comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions as well as their interference with United Nations Special Commission inspectors.
It was a major flare-up in the Iraq disarmament crisis. The stated goal of the cruise missile and bombing attacks was to "degrade" Saddam Hussein's ability to produce weapons of mass destruction.
Background
While speaking at the Pentagon on February 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton warned of the "reckless acts of outlaw nations and an unholy axis of terrorists, drug traffickers and organized international criminals." These "predators of the twenty-first century," he said "will be all the more lethal if we allow them to build arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and missiles to deliver them. We simply cannot allow that to happen. There is no more clear example of this threat than Saddam Hussein's Iraq." [1]
On August 5, 1998 Iraq ceased all cooperation with UN weapons inspectors (UNSCOM) and threatened to end all monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Clinton Administration was concerned Saddam Hussein may provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations with global reach, such as al-Qaeda. Some of Iraq's efforts in this area were outside the borders of Iraq. In the months preceding Operation Desert Fox, the U.S. had been watching construction of a dual-use manufacturing plant in Khartoum, Sudan designed to make or handle chemical weapons and pharmaceuticals called Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory. William Cohen testified:
- "The al-Shifa facility had been under surveillance for some time because of a variety of intelligence reports, including HUMINT reports identifying it as a WMD-related facility, indirect links between the facility and Bin Laden and the Iraqi chemical weapons program, and extraordinary security – including surface-to-air missiles – used to protect it during its construction. The direct physical evidence from the scene obtained at that time convinced the U.S. intelligence community that their suspicions were correct about the facility’s chemical weapons role and that there was a risk of chemical agents getting into the hands of al Qaeda, whose interest in obtaining such weapons was clear." (Page 9) (PDF)
The 9/11 Commission Report noted that a passage regarding this plant caused Richard A. Clarke "who for years had read intelligence reports on Iraqi-Sudanese cooperation on chemical weapons, to speculate to Berger that a large Iraqi presence at chemical facilities in Khartoum was 'probably a direct result of the Iraq–Al Qida agreement.'" (page 128) (PDF) "This language about al Qaeda's "understanding" with Iraq had been dropped, however, when a superseding indictment was filed in November 1998." [2]
The Clinton Administration attacked the al-Shifa plant with cruise missiles on August 20, 1998.
President Clinton announced a new policy toward Iraq of "regime change." On October 31, 1998 the president signed into law H.R. 4655, the "Iraq Liberation Act." [3] [4] The new Act appropriated funds to Iraqi opposition groups in the hope of removing Saddam Hussein from power and replacing his regime with a democracy.
The Act also said that "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize or otherwise speak to the use of United States Armed Forces," except in direct aid to an active Iraqi rebellion.
Reaction
In reaction to the attack, three of five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, France, and the People's Republic of China) called for lifting of the eight-year oil embargo on Iraq, recasting or disbanding UNSCOM, and firing its chairman, Australian diplomat Richard Butler.
According to published reports, Saddam Hussein immediately sought revenge against the U.S. in a manner that would allow him to deny responsibility. They claim that Saddam sought to direct terrorist organizations to attack U.S. targets. Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Turkey, reportedly met with bin Laden. ([5], [6]) Corriere della Sera, a Milan newspaper, translated by the CIA, reads: “Saddam Hussayn and Usama bin Ladin have sealed a pact. Faruk Hidjazi, the former Director of the Iraqi Secret Services and now the country’s Ambassador to Turkey, held a secret meeting with the extremist leader on 21 December.” The newspaper had direct quotes from Hijazi without specifying the source of the quotes. (Page 328)(PDF)
On January 11, 1999 Newsweek magazine reported an Arab intelligence officer, reported to know Saddam personally, told Newsweek: "very soon, you will be witnessing large-scale terrorist activity by the Iraqis." The planned attacks are said to be Saddam's revenge for the "continuing aggression" posed by the no fly zones that show the countries are still at war since Operation Desert Fox.[7]
On January 31, 1999, Moscow newspaper Novosti claimed that "hundreds of Afghan Arabs are undergoing sabotage training in Southern Iraq and are preparing for armed actions on the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. They have declared as their goal a fight against the interests of the United States in the region." [8]
No such attacks ever materialized. The 9/11 Commission report notes that after American missiles destroyed Iraqi intelligence headquarters in 1993 as punishment for a bungled assassination plot against George H.W. Bush, "no further intelligence came in about terrorist acts planned by Iraq." [9] It also reported that the Commission's investigation had uncovered no "evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States," and no evidence of any "collaborative operational relationship." [10]
- See also: Iraq disarmament crisis timeline 1997-2000
External links
