Saddam’s Daughters Bail Out

Two of dictator Saddam Hussein’s daughters and the former head of his regime’s clandestine arms industry are among more than a dozen top Iraqis who have defected, giving a rare glimpse of high-level tumult in Baghdad and prompting President Clinton to promise Thursday that the United States will defend Jordan if Iraq retaliates against it for granting the group asylum.

“It should be clear that the United States considers Jordan our ally and entitled to our protection if its security is threatened as a result of this incident,” Clinton told a news conference a few hours after Jordan’s foreign minister had announced the defections.

The president said King Hussein’s decision to give the defectors haven in Jordan, which shares a long border with Iraq, is “clearly an act of real courage.”

The monarch cooperated with Iraq during the Persian Gulf War, apparently because he feared Iraq’s military might.

Jubilant Clinton administration officials said the defections from the Iraqi dictator’s inner circle show how unstable the regime has become. Perhaps more important, they said, the defectors are “in a position to know everything” about Baghdad’s military and political secrets.

A senior official declined to say flatly that American interrogators will question them but added: “We are communicating closely with the Jordanians.”

The Iraqi dictator was so shaken by the defections that he sent his eldest son, Uday, to Amman to demand that the Iraqis be returned.

Jordan flatly turned him down.

Karim Kabariti, the Jordanian foreign minister, announced Thursday that Saddam Hussein’s daughters, Raghad and Rana, had sought asylum Tuesday in Jordan, along with their husbands and aides.

Raghad’s husband, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamel Majid, widely was regarded as the second-most-powerful figure in Iraq. A cousin of Saddam Hussein’s, he was in charge of industrial production, including the arms industry. A U.S. official said he was the former chief of Baghdad’s clandestine nuclear program.

Lt. Col. Saddam Kamel Majid, Rana’s husband, is the general’s brother and a senior officer in the Iraqi dictator’s personal bodyguard unit.

Clinton said he discussed the matter with King Hussein shortly after the Iraqis arrived in Amman. But U.S. officials said the monarch did not seek American advice before granting the group asylum. His decision seems to have shattered the often brittle relationship between his Hashemite kingdom and its bigger, stronger neighbor.

“I think what these defections demonstrate is just how difficult things are within Iraq now and how out of touch Saddam Hussein has become with reality,” Clinton said.

Administration officials said there have been military movements in Iraq in the last few days but the activity began before the defections and probably is not linked to them.

A senior official said Clinton has ordered the Pentagon to prepare contingency plans for the defense of Jordan. The Navy announced that it already has 20 warships, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carriers Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, in Middle Eastern waters.