Steve Quayle News Alerts

June 22, 2002
Stewart M. Stogel, NewsMax.com

Editor's note: This is part three of an exclusive interview with Mohammed Aldouri, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations. See part one, Iraqi Ambassador Predicts War With U.S.. Part two: Iraqi Ambassador Says U.S. Will Attack Regardless of Evidence.

Q: Does President Bush have a ground war plan ready to go to attack Iraq, even though he has claimed he doesn't?

Aldouri: We hope that he does not have one and will not implement any plan. We don't want a war with the United States, but if he does it, certainly we will be there to do our duty for our country.

Q: On the U.S. accusation that a member of your staff is a spy and must leave New York City?

Aldouri: Perhaps the purpose of the United States on this question is to hinder the upcoming talks with the U.N. in Vienna.

Or perhaps it is a response to our complaint, and we have evidence, that the U.S. tried to harass members of our delegation to the last round of U.N. talks in New York in May. ... They [the U.S.] delayed visas to come to the U.N. We have declared this openly.

[Aldouri says three members of the delegation to the last round of U.N. talks had been approached by the U.S. to defect. Aldouri says the three were of ministerial rank.]

And now I repeat: How can you recruit American people [as spies] if you cannot speak English?

Q: However, you do not necessarily need to speak English if your recruiting is done in Arab neighborhoods, or at mosques or Islamic cultural centers, do you?

Aldouri: I do not think that any of our diplomats have any relations with any Islamic Center. ... Our people pray here in the United Nations on Friday, and that's all they do.

Let the U.S. provide the evidence [of spying] not to us but to the secretary-general. I am confident that the gentlemen [fingered by the U.S.] and all my staff at the mission have no illegal relations with any Americans, just simple normal human contact and discussions.

Perhaps our interview will become suspect by the U.S. This is unbelievable and unwise, but this is part of the game, the American game. I do not know what the real reason is behind the Americans.

Q: Is Washington still trying to tie Baghdad to the Sept. 11 attacks?

Aldouri: They cannot tie us. They cannot find anything. ... I am confident they will not find any relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda. This is a fact. This is not to justify or convince America. This is the reality.

Q: If Mullah Omar or Osama bin Laden surfaced in Baghdad, what would happen?

Aldouri: Well, I don't think this will happen. ... We had no relations with them in the past, so why in the future?

I can assure you they will not come to Iraq. They will find another place, perhaps within the borders of countries that are allies of the United States, not with Iraq.

[end interview excerpts]

Stiffed

Troubles for the regime of Saddam Hussein mounted when word leaked late this week that several Iraqi diplomats who left New York over the past year also left JPMorgan Chase with more than $77,000 in unpaid credit card bills.

"This was news to me," Aldouri said.

"They [Chase] came to me on June 11 and say you owe us $77,000. I asked them to supply me with statements, since the credit cards were personal ones. Three days later, I receive a letter from the U.S. Mission [State Department] reminding me to pay the bills."

Aldouri said such incidents had not occurred in all the years Iraq has operated at the U.N., but added that if the charges were made they would be paid for. Credit card fraud is an "imprisonable offense" in Iraq, and diplomats are not given exemptions, he said.

The U.N. diplomat asked why all these problems seemed to be surfacing just before a crucial round of talks with the U.N. in Vienna on July 4.

"Is it a coincidence? I don't think so," Aldouri exclaimed. To be on the safe side, he said, he has asked all his staff to stash their credit cards and use something novel instead: cash.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/6/21/153749.shtml