Effort To Oust Saddam Out In Open

Across Europe, the Middle East and the United States, the exiled officers who once ran Saddam Hussein's army are being recruited by a U.S.-backed Iraqi opposition group that sees signals the United States may soon embark on a concerted effort to topple Saddam.

The Iraqi National Congress is trying to bring the exiled, dissident soldiers together this month to discuss a future command structure for the army. Though no date or venue has been set, the opposition's planning has reached a feverish stage as Vice President Dick Cheney begins a Middle East tour, reportedly seeking support for American action against Iraq.

The opposition group is only looking for a military leader, but it's natural to think one of the generals might be destined for a bigger role given that Iraq's security forces traditionally have played a major role in politics and that the civilian opposition is weakened by infighting.

A three-man ruling council for a government-in-waiting that the Iraqi National Congress formed in 1992 has collapsed amid clashing personal ambitions, political differences and the agendas of the exiles' host countries. The congress has operatives within Iraq but only a weak following among the people.

One potential military leader being touted in Iraqi opposition circles is Gen. Nizar al-Khazraji, a former chief of staff and a hero of the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war, who is now seeking asylum in Denmark.

In a country divided between the Shiite and Sunni strains of Islam, Al-Khazraji is from the Sunni sect that has dominated Iraq since its independence in 1922. He is the highest-ranking officer to defect from Saddam's ranks and is believed to still enjoy support inside the army.

Those attributes — and his staying out of squabbles within the opposition community — have led some to suggest he is Iraq's equivalent of Hamid Karzai, leader of the interim government of Afghanistan.

Among others floated as possible successors or members of an interim government are another general, Fawzi al-Shamari, who defected in the mid-1980s and now lives in the United States, and Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, who might be presented as a consensus choice of the minority Kurds and the Shiites.

Al-Khazraji "is an example of a professional and a credible officer that can unify the army behind him," Iraqi journalist Haroun Mohammed, who covered al-Khazraji's army career, told The Associated Press from London.

Saddam appears to see al-Khazraji as a serious rival. Babil, the newspaper owned by Saddam's eldest son, has tried to tarnish his image with articles questioning his wife's reputation. Iraq also has started extradition proceedings, claiming al-Khazraji is wanted for questioning in Iraq about whether he was responsible for a car accident in which someone was killed or injured.

In interviews with the Saudi-owned MBC television network, al-Khazraji, who defected in 1995, has outlined plans for the regime change under which the army would take over temporarily until a new government can be elected.

In an interview at his home in Denmark, al-Khazraji denied he had thoughts of succeeding Saddam himself.

"The military's role is to topple (Saddam) and let the politicians and the people do the rest," he said. "I'm a soldier and I stay a soldier."

Al-Khazraji's biggest liability is charges that during his tenure the Iraqi army used chemical weapons against Kurds. He maintains he is innocent, saying Saddam, not he, controlled the chemical stockpiles. He said Saddam ordered the attacks and that a confidant of the Iraqi leader was in charge of military activities in Kurdish areas. Some Kurdish opposition groups have defended the general.

The Danish government is investigating to determine whether al-Khazraji should face war crimes charges because of the chemical weapons accusations. Under Danish law the general cannot travel abroad until the question is resolved.

Al-Khazraji told the AP he wasn't planning to attend the generals' meeting anyway, saying he believes important decisions are better made outside a glare of publicity like the one focused on the meeting.

Some other former high-ranking Iraqi officers are planning to attend, but many among the some 1,000 exiled Iraqi officers have expressed reservations or said no, especially since the Iraqi National Congress has put forward no concrete plan for finally changing the regime at home. Some independent analysts say the Iraqi opposition is too weak to fight Saddam.

Still, Najib al-Salehi, a retired brigadier-general who now heads the Iraqi Free Officers Movement, is upbeat about the prospects.

The Americans "look serious this time about toppling Saddam, even by force. We cannot stay idle," al-Salehi said in telephone interview from his Washington home.

The Iraqi National Congress apparently envisions an insurgency that would coincide with or quickly follow an American strike against Saddam's military and security apparatus.

Mohammed Kardri Saeed, an Egyptian military analysts with the Cairo-based Al Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, said that whether the United States invades outright or supports an insurgency, it will need the opposition groups to succeed.

"The Americans are talking about a regime change which means on the day after, there should be somebody or some group to take over," Saeed said in an interview.

Some opposition groups are resisting joining a U.S.-backed insurgency, fearing that will look like American puppets or that the move will just lead to a military dictatorship.

Sobhi al-Jumaili, London-based leader of the Iraqi Communist Party, said his party and several other leftist, Islamic and pan-Arab movements want to form broad coalition as an alternative to the Iraqi National Congress.

The two key Kurdish groups controlling northern Iraq and the main Shiite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq have said they will not join a U.S.-sponsored military attack.

Talabani, the Kurdish leader, was in Turkey recently to discuss U.S. plans and said his group would like to see "democratic change" in Iraq.

"We are not supporting replacing an old dictator with a new one," he told reporters.

By SALAH NASRAWI