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November 4th,
2002 - New Group Aims to Drum Up Backing for Ousting Hussein |
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New Group Aims to Drum Up
Backing for Ousting Hussein Effort Seeks to Reverse Decline in Support for Attacking Iraq By Peter Slevin Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, November 4, 2002; Page A15 The Bush administration,
anticipating a successful U.N. Security Council vote on an Iraq resolution,
plans to embark soon on a campaign to build public support in the United
States to challenge and most likely unseat Iraqi President Saddam Hussein,
U.S. officials said. At a time when polls suggest
declining enthusiasm for a U.S.-led military assault on Hussein, top
officials will be urging opinion makers to focus on Hussein's actions in
response to the United Nations resolution on weapons inspections - and on his
past and present failings. They aim to regain momentum and prepare the
political ground for his forcible ouster, if necessary. The public relations effort
"has to focus on all the things that have gone on in Iraq, the threats
it presents and the way people have had to live. And the fact that things
could be a lot better if he wasn't around," a senior administration
official said. "We want to make sure Iraq is tested." With the administration's
blessing, a new group is forming to press the case in the United States and
Europe for ejecting Hussein from power. Called the Committee for the Liberation
of Iraq, the organization is modeled on a successful lobbying campaign to
expand the NATO alliance. Members include former secretary of state George P.
Shultz, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former senator Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.). Committee Chairman Bruce P.
Jackson called the Iraqi government "a tyranny that needs to be
changed" and said the group will be "useful for education, for
talking to people about what's at stake." He said one purpose will be to
lobby for resources to rebuild Iraq and restructure the country as a
democracy, a White House ambition sure to take years, if it succeeds at all. Despite campaign-trail
criticism of Iraq by President Bush and Vice President Cheney, polls released
last week showed a decline in support for U.S. military action to topple
Hussein. The Pew Research Center found that 55 percent of Americans support
an attack on Iraq, down from 64 percent in August. A Fox News poll showed a
decline to 62 percent from 72 percent. Only 27 percent of 1,751 Pew
respondents said they would favor the use of force if the United States were
acting alone, down from 33 percent in mid-September. Sixty percent of
opponents and supporters alike said they fear Iraq would use chemical or
biological weapons if attacked. "There is a great deal
of concern about the consequences of war," said Pew researcher Carroll
Doherty, who also noted a widening partisan divide, with 51 percent of
Democrats opposing action and 40 percent in favor. "The public effort by
the White House has not been prominent in recent weeks. Most of the action
has been behind closed doors at the U.N. and coverage has been overshadowed
by the sniper." A more prominent effort is
just what the administration intends, once the sensitive U.N. Security
Council debate and Tuesday's elections are over. White House officials
emphasize that Bush has made no decision about how to proceed against
Hussein, and in recent weeks, officials have left open the possibility that
Hussein could change sufficiently to preserve power. But leading administration
officials privately give the Iraqi leader virtually no chance of coming
clean. U.S. contingency planning continues for a wide array of possibilities,
from coup d'etat to abdication to armed American invasion, with a follow-up
military occupation to help install a new government. Aware that a resumption of
U.N. weapons inspections could take months to resolve, the administration
wants to keep the pressure on Hussein while building support for a possible
war. Critics have warned that a military move against Hussein could cost
American and Iraqi lives, destabilize the Middle East, incite anti-American
feeling and deliver Iraqis into an uncertain future. A series of upcoming
briefings of foreign policy groups, Iraq specialists and other opinion makers
will be a "new phase," said a White House spokesman, who described
the goal as building fresh public support for U.S. policy. National security
adviser Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, will be much
involved. The administration is
determined to avoid a repeat of August when they ceded the stage to opponents
of military action in Iraq and found themselves racing to announce their case
against Hussein. Cheney delivered a public indictment of Hussein at the end
of August, while Bush presented a bill of particulars to the opening session
of the U.N. General Assembly two weeks later. "There's going to be a
huge need in the post-election vacuum to make sure that what happened in
August doesn't happen in November and December," said Randy Scheunemann,
executive director of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. He said
Capitol Hill offices have been "getting a lot of calls against and not
many for." The White House declined to release its call records. The committee is just
getting started, installing telephones and computers last week to go with
fresh business cards and stationery. Its mission statement calls for the
replacement of Hussein with "a democratic government that respects the
rights of the Iraqi people and ceases to threaten the community of
nations." Its methods will borrow heavily from the NATO effort,
including sessions with opinion makers, contacts for journalists and mass
marketing when the time is ripe. The approach is a familiar
one to the Bush administration. Hadley, Bush's deputy national security
adviser, co-founded the NATO project. Its board members included Rice, Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and U.S. Trade Representative Robert B.
Zoellick. Cheney and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell advised the group,
Jackson said. While the Iraq committee is
an independent entity, committee officers said they expect to work closely
with the administration. They already have met with Hadley and Bush political
adviser Karl Rove. Committee officers and a White House spokesman said Rice,
Hadley and Cheney will soon meet with the group. Retired Gen. Wayne A.
Downing, a member of the committee who recently left the National Security
Council, said he hopes the group can help the administration overthrow
Hussein. Kerrey, president of the New School University, described the
committee as "a group of people who will talk to Americans about why the
liberation of Iraq is something the United States ought to do." © 2002 The Washington Post
Company External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64233-2002Nov3?language=printer |