Saddam's rivals reveal plan aimed at his ouster

WASHINGTON -- To hear officials from Iraq's main resistance group describe it, opposition to Saddam Hussein inside the country is such that not much will be needed to dislodge him.

They believe it could be done with 3,000 U.S.-trained Iraqi rebels, an Afghanistan-style bombing campaign, the insertion of several thousand U.S. special forces and a big assist from Iran. A show of American resolve would cause mass defections, they say, crumbling Saddam's regime.

The plan is being circulated by the Iraqi National Congress, a London-based confederation of Iraqi opposition groups that enjoys considerable backing on Capitol Hill but is seen as largely ineffectual by many in the administration.

The Bush administration hasn't said what military options, if any, it has in mind for Iraq.

"What happened in Afghanistan is basically what we want to do in Iraq," says Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the INC.

Its officials say the Bush administration has its own plan for removing Saddam.

Rankled general

In 1997, Congress allocated $97 million to the INC for military training and equipment. That rankled Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, who commanded U.S. forces in the Middle East. Before retiring from the military last year, Zinni, now the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, criticized Congress' efforts to "let some silk-suited, Rolex-wearing guys in London gin up an expedition."

He said equipping a thousand fighters with $97 million worth of AK-47's and sending them into Iraq could end in failure like the 1961 attempt to overthrow Cuba's Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs.

"What will we have? A Bay of Goats, most likely," Zinni wrote in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings.

Richard Perle, a former Pentagon aide who maintains close ties with administration officials, says he is unaware of any serious new U.S. military plan to get rid of Saddam.

Says Secretary of State Colin Powell: "With respect to what is sometimes characterized as taking out Saddam, I never saw a plan that was going to take him out."

Officials also are concerned about unintended consequences from a U.S.-backed attempt to oust Saddam. One is the possible disintegration of Iraq.

Iranian involvement

One of the more controversial aspects of the INC plan involves Iran, Iraq's eastern neighbor and longtime enemy of Saddam. The two countries fought a devastating war from 1980-1988.

Chalabi says the Iranians are prepared to help the United States remove Saddam.

"They will do nothing without U.S. support," he said.

Specifically, INC officials say Iran will provide transit, staging and logistical support for Iraqi rebel troops if the United States commits fully to the operation's success.

Perle says any role for Iran would be a mistake. "We should be encouraging the collapse of the Iranian regime," he says. "If the U.S. were to step in and cooperate with Iran in going after Iraq, this would undermine the mounting opposition to the regime."