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Wolfowitz denies authorship of controversial Iraq memo

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Paul Wolfowitz, US deputy defence secretary, denied at a press conference on Friday that he was the author of a much publicised 1991 memo that described the ending of the Gulf war as “premature” and called for necessary steps, even regime change, to assure “access” to Persian Gulf oil.

The memorandum was published by the New York Times first and is frequently quoted to prove that the war in Iraq and the regime change it is aimed at bringing about are all part of an old carefully worked-out plan. Wolfowitz is viewed as one of the principal hawks in the Bush administration.

In a special briefing at the Foreign Press Center for overseas correspondents, Wolfowitz answering a question from Daily Times as to his having any second thoughts on the plan of which he is believed to be an author, replied, “I’m not sure exactly — you have these vague references, and there are so many things attributed to me that I — many of which are simply not true. If we’re talking about a draft that some staff member of mine wrote 11 years ago and appeared in the New York Times before I had even read it, I can comment on that some other time.

“If you’re talking about my belief, which really began at the time of the Shi’a and Kurdish uprisings at the end of the Gulf War, that the Iraqi people deserve to be free, that Saddam Hussein would remain a danger to all of us, frankly that is a belief that at the time was shared by the Arab governments that had fought with us. And I remember listening to conversations between senior Arab leaders persuading — trying to persuade the United States that we should in fact support those uprisings. We’re where we are today. The problem grew over 12 years. I believe the world will be a much better place when the Saddam Hussein regime is gone.”

In answer to another question about growing anti-Americanism in the world because of the Iraq war, Wolfowitz said, “There’s no question anti-American sentiment is a problem and an issue. I think some of the people who stoke it should ask themselves why they do.

I think there’s no question that progress on the Arab-Israeli issue, and particularly between Israelis and Palestinians, would be an enormous boon to the entire Middle East, and it would certainly put democrats in Arab countries in a much better position. It’s one of many reasons why we want to pursue that avenue. But I truly believe that it cannot but help democratic movements to see talented people like these people’s countrymen and countrywomen free to demonstrate what Arabs can achieve, and I believe it will be pretty impressive.”

The US official also denied that the United States was trying to impose a government on the Iraqi people. “We’re not trying to impose a particular type of government. The word democracy gets used kind of freely, but if you look around the world, there are 75 different variants of democracy. I think the essential idea is that the government has to represent the people, it has to respect the people through the rule of law, and it has to provide for their freedom. And I think when this regime is gone and Iraqis are free to express themselves,” he added.

In answer the question why the US had not so far found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Wolfowitz said, “We are fighting a war — our men and women are out there fighting for their lives, they’re fighting to achieve a military objective.

When that objective is achieved, then we can search this country, which I remind you, is the size of the state of California, for weapons that have been hidden extremely carefully. Then we will have access to people who are free to speak and tell us where things are. We’re not yet on a hunt for weapons of mass destruction.”

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