U.S. Dismisses Iraq’s Response To Sanctions U.N. Ambassador Calls Saddam Hussein’s Actions ‘Sign Of Megalomania’

Iraq has produced enough biological warfare agents to kill everyone on Earth, U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright told Congress Thursday in a detailed denunciation of Iraqi military gains and terrorism.

A day after the Clinton administration pledged to use its U.N. Security Council veto, if necessary, to maintain sanctions against Saddam Hussein’s government, Albright showed a congressional panel photos of the Iraqi president’s weaponry and luxurious palaces.

Attacking Saddam as a megalomaniac, Albright dismissed recent Iraqi steps toward compliance with U.N. demands as “grudging, slow, sporadic and insufficient.”

“Experience tells us that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq will respond constructively only to a policy of firmness,” Albright told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee overseeing the Middle East.

She noted that Iraq recently admitted to producing deadly anthrax and botulinum toxin at its Al Hakam facility, although it denies using the agents for weaponry - a denial U.S. officials do not believe.

Iraq also claims to have destroyed the agents, but Albright said it has yet to show evidence of what has happened to 17 tons of biological growth media.

“Although limitations on delivery capability would limit potency,” Albright said, “it is at least theoretically true that the amount of biological warfare agents Iraq admitted producing is more than enough to kill every man, woman and child on Earth.”

“We believe that the Iraqis began their biological warfare program much earlier than they have admitted, and that more biological agents were manufactured and many more facilities and people involved than Iraq has revealed,” she said.

In addition, Iraq has yet to show how it has destroyed biological warfare agents, she said.

She showed senators before-and-after photos of the Al Kindi Missile Research and Development Facility in Mosul, Iraq, showing its development since the Gulf War. Iraq has 3,750 TOW missiles, she said.

Another aerial photo showed seven BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles Albright said were stolen from Kuwait. Iraq claims to have only four, and Albright said U.S. officials have counted 206.

Albright said U.S. officials believe the Iraqi government is responsible for several terrorist incidents, including an automobile accident last year that killed the son of the late spiritual leader of Shiite Muslims and the murder of Iraqi opposition leader Talib al-Suhayl in Beirut in April 1994.

She also showed drawings and photos of elaborate palaces Saddam has been building around the country, including a complex of four giant palaces at Mosul.

In all, Iraq has built 50 new palaces and luxury residences for Saddam and his close supporters since the 1990 Gulf War, she said.

“Clearly, it is a sign of megalomania,” Albright said.

She also attacked Saddam’s son, Uday, who she said controls extensive business interests.

“Some family members exploit the economic distortions caused by U.N. sanctions by importing goods into Iraq for resale at exorbitant prices,” she said.

Albright said before discussions can begin on lifting the U.N. sanctions against Iraq, it must return stolen property, account for missing Kuwaitis from the Gulf War and “end support for terrorism and repression against the Iraqi people.”