KEEP SADDAM'S OIL LINES CLOSED, RETIRING CIA DIRECTOR WARNS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660036-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: May 31, 1991
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sl Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23 :CIA-RDP99-014488000401660036-3
The Washington Post _
The New York Times _
The Washington Times _
The Wall Street Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daily News
USA Today
The Chicago ~rlt~ne
Keep Saddam's Oil Lines Closed, Retiring CIA Director warns
By RUTH SINAI
Associated Press Writer
WAS~IINGTON (AP) -Iraqi President Saddam Hussein remains firmly
in charge of his country, and the United States must keep his oil
pipelines closed in order to weaken his grip on power, says the
retiring director of the CIA.
William Webster also says the United States is skeptical that
Saddam has any intention of fulfilling his prcmises to share power
and bring about other democratic reform.
Taking his leave of reporters who covered his four-year tenure,
Webster said in awide-ranging interview Thursday that he didn't
see "anything in hindsight that suggests " Saddam world have
pulled his troops out of Kuwait unless the allies had forced him
out militarily.
Removing Saddam himself fran power was not a U.S. goal, he said.
~~Saddam Hussein is still very mach in charge," Webster said.
He has surrounded himself with those he can trust and has begun
rebuilding his country's devastated, infrastructure, he said.
Iraqi society has becane so subdued " under his repressive
rule that even the punishment inflicted by the massive allied
bombings of Iraq didn't force the population of Baghdad into the
streets to remove Saddam, Webster said.
Two groups which did rebel -the Kurdish minority in the north
and the Moslem Shiites in the south -were brutally repressed.
The only leverage the United States and its allies have to
remove Saddam is to withhold oil revenues that he could use to buy
influence and rearm in the future, Webster said.
~~It will require a continued concerted policy of the coalition
rnanbers to encourage those things that would remove him," he said.
~~without that, I think he'll stay there " as he has since taking
power in 1979, Webster said.
Webster said he was concerned that allied policy might be eroded
by pressure fran Iraq's neighbors to reopen the two oil pipelines
through which Iraq was able to export most of its oil until its
Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia, through which the pipes pass to sea
terminals, turned off the oil flow to punish Iraq for the invasion.
A U.N. resolution adopted April 3 to establish acease-fire with
Iraq prohibits resumption of the oil flow until the Iraqis destroy
all their arsenals of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
But Webster said he was concerned that Turkey, Saudi Arabia,
'ONTINUEU
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23 :CIA-RDP99-014488000401660036-3
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23 :CIA-RDP99-014488000401660036-3
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Kuwait and other countries might seek the pipelines' reopening so
they can collect the reparations they're entitled to under the
cease-fire resolution.
U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de C~.iellar is expected to
set ceilings soon for the percentage of future Iraqi oil. profits to
be used for canpensation claims.
Claims are expected to cover personal losses and injury, loss of
wages for thousands of foreign workers who fled after the invasion,
damages for the burning of hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells and
pollution in the gulf.
U.S. officials say Iraq should pay 40 percent to 50 percent of
its future oil profits to canperLSate victims.
Third World diplomats favor a figure of 5 percent to 10 percent,
allowing Iraq sufficient revenue to rebuild its infrastructure.
western diplomats say about 25 percent would be appropriate
because that is the amount -about S8 billion ayear -Iraq used to
spend on arms purchases.
Iraq's creditors don't want the figure to be so high because
they want to be repaid score of the S80 billion Iraq owes abroad.
/Z
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23 :CIA-RDP99-014488000401660036-3