Defiant Hussein issues warning

UNITED NATIONS -- Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Thursday defied recent U.S. threats of military action, telling his nation in a televised address that those who attack Iraq will "end up in the dustbin of history."

In a speech aimed at rallying Iraq's neighbors and allies as well as its citizens, the Iraqi dictator warned that an attack against any Arab nation would be one against the entire Muslim world -- and doomed to failure.

"The forces of evil will carry their coffins on their back, die in disgraceful failure," said Hussein, who dressed in a dark suit and stood before an array of funereal white lilies. Those who attack Iraq will be "digging their own graves," he said.

Thousands of military-clad, rifle-toting supporters marched in the streets of Baghdad before Hussein's speech to mark the anniversary of the 1988 end of the Iran-Iraq war.

The crowds vowed to defend Iraq and their leader.

The Bush administration dismissed the speech as insignificant, with State Department spokesman Philip Reeker calling it "bluster from an internationally isolated dictator, demonstrative yet again that his regime shows no intention to live up to its obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions."

Under terms set at the end of the Gulf War in 1991, the U.N. Security Council is demanding the return of inspectors to ensure that Iraq has destroyed its weapons of mass destruction. The weapons experts were withdrawn in 1998 and have been banned by Baghdad.

Despite negotiations with the United Nations over the experts' return, Thursday's 22-minute speech by Hussein made no reference to them. Instead, the Iraqi leader called for the Security Council to answer a list of 19 questions posed to it by Iraq this spring.

The questions, which touched on everything from whether Washington's threats to oust Hussein was a violation of international law to technical details of U.N. inspections, were only partially answered by the Security Council.

The Security Council insists that Iraq adhere to the terms of U.N. Resolution 1284, which requires inspections before any discussion of future steps Iraq must take toward disarmament.

Iraq had wanted talks to occur first.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who has met with Iraqi officials three times since March to persuade them to accept the UN weapons experts, said Thursday's speech indicated no "change in attitude."

"At this stage, it seems as if they are not giving in an inch," said Annan, who is waiting for an answer from Iraq as to whether it will accept the United Nations' condition for its experts to visit Baghdad.

In its first such overture since 1998, Baghdad recently asked U.N. weapons inspectors to visit, but under terms that are unacceptable to the Security Council.

Analysts in the Middle East and the United States Thursday said that Hussein's speech -- while defiant in tone -- contained no new threats and no fresh details.

In Egypt, a spokesman for President Hosni Mubarak said the speech had "no substance" and did not change the need for Hussein to comply with U.N. weapons inspections. Some political experts noted that the speech, with its threats against the United States, was aimed at winning popular support from those in the Arab world who are disaffected with the Bush administration.

Hussein mentioned the Palestinians, who began an uprising against Israeli occupation nearly two years ago, as well as other Muslims embarked on jihad, or holy war. Excerpts of the speech were carried on the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera TV network, which has a wide following in the Arab world.

"I think he's hoping there will be a way to mobilize Arab opinion in support of him," said Jerrold Green, director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy at the Rand Corporation, a policy research group. "He tries to build equity on the fact he is our adversary."

President Bush has said that no decision has been made to attack Iraq. But the administration originally said the return of U.N. inspectors would be satisfactory, but administration officials now stress that inspections may not be enough to halt the Iraqi leader's suspected buildup of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons.

Top Republican warns against attack on Iraq

WASHINGTON -- House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, warned Thursday that an unprovoked attack against Iraq would violate international law and undermine world support for President Bush's goal of ousting Saddam Hussein.

The remarks by Armey, who is retiring this year, are the most prominent sign of congressional unease that the administration is moving rapidly toward a war against Iraq, and were especially striking coming from a leading conservative and a staunch Bush ally.

"If we try to act against Saddam Hussein, as obnoxious as he is, without proper provocation, we will not have the support of other nation states who might do so," Armey told reporters in Des Moines during a campaign swing for a House candidate.

"I don't believe that America will justifiably make an unprovoked attack on another nation," Armey said. "It would not be consistent with what we have been as a nation or what we should be as a nation."

"My own view would be to let him bluster, let him rant and rave all he wants and let that be a matter between he and his own country," Armey said in response to a reporter's question. "As long as he behaves himself within his own borders, we should not be addressing any attack or resources against him."

Bush pledged this week that he would consult with Congress before ordering any invasion, but he stopped short of promising to ask for a vote authorizing an attack.

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