Steve Quayle News Alerts

June 16, 2002; Page A01
By Bob Woodward, Washington Post Staff Writer

President Bush early this year signed an intelligence order directing the CIA to undertake a comprehensive, covert program to topple Saddam Hussein, including authority to use lethal force to capture the Iraqi president, according to informed sources.

The presidential order, an expansion of a previous presidential finding designed to oust Hussein, directs the CIA to use all available tools, including:

• Increased support to Iraqi opposition groups and forces inside and outside Iraq including money, weapons, equipment, training and intelligence information.

• Expanded efforts to collect intelligence within the Iraqi government, military, security service and overall population where pockets of intense anti-Hussein sentiment have been detected.

• Possible use of CIA and U.S. Special Forces teams, similar to those that have been successfully deployed in Afghanistan since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Such forces would be authorized to kill Hussein if they were acting in self-defense.

The administration has already allocated tens of millions of dollars to the covert program. Nonetheless, CIA Director George J. Tenet has told Bush and his war cabinet that the CIA effort alone, without companion military action, economic and diplomatic pressure, probably has only about a 10 to 20 percent chance of succeeding, the sources said.

One source said that the CIA covert action should be viewed largely as "preparatory" to a military strike so the agency can identify targets, intensify intelligence gathering on the ground in Iraq, and build relations with alternative future leaders and groups if Hussein is ousted.

Another well-placed source said of the covert plan, "It is not a silver bullet, but hopes are high and we could get lucky."

Yesterday afternoon, a CIA spokesman declined to comment.

Bush's intelligence order shows that the administration has begun to put money and resources into a policy that has publicly consisted mostly of tough rhetoric. Sources said the CIA initiative is part of a broader Bush administration plan to remove Hussein that includes economic pressure, diplomacy and what officials believe will eventually include military action on a large scale.

The president has made plain in speeches and interviews his desire to remove Hussein, by military force if necessary, but has offered few details of how he plans to do that. The Pentagon is considering a range of options, including an invasion that would use 200,000 to 250,000 military personnel. Sources said such an operation probably could not be launched until next year.

In an April 4 interview with British journalist Trevor McDonald that was later published by the White House, Bush was asked, "Have you made up your mind that Iraq must be attacked?"

"I made up my mind that Hussein needs to go," Bush responded. "That's about all I'm willing to share with you." Pressed, Bush said, "The policy of my government is that he goes."

Then two weeks ago at the U.S. Military Academy he declared that he would take preemptive action against regimes he deemed a threat to the United States. "If we wait for the threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long," Bush said.

Staff researcher Mark Malseed contributed to this report.
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