Stewart Stogel
Thursday March 6, 2003

United Nations – "Yes, the war has started, yes this is my belief," so says Iraq's United Nations ambassador in an interview at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Mohammed Aldouri was speaking as two "security attaches" at Iraq's U.N. mission were told by the State Department to leave the U.S. by Friday.

Washington says the two were "engaged in activities incompatible with their diplomatic status" – in short, spying. The two men, Nazih Abul Latif Rahman and Yehia Naeem Suaoud, provided "internal" security at Iraq's U.N. mission and ambassadorial residence.

According to Aldouri, neither had any duties outside the Iraqi properties and neither spoke English.

"They speak only Arabic, they only work at our mission. Who are they threatening?" asked Aldouri.

The ambassador insisted that the State Department refused requests by his office "to specify" the charges against the two men.

Aldorui alleges that Washington is engaged in a campaign "to reduce" the staff at his U.N. mission to put "maximum pressure" on the remaining diplomats to defect.

"This is exactly what they [the U.S.] are doing, this is clear," the ambassador told NewsMax.

He went on to claim that "everyone" [but him] at Iraq's U.N. mission "has been approached and pressured" by Washington to defect, up to and including his deputy U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Salman Ali.

Ali returned to Baghdad on "family matters" last month.

NewsMax has learned that Baghdad has opted to keep Ali in Iraq and not return him to NYC.

Ironically, NewsMax first revealed in December 2002 that Ali was suspected by Washington as being the NYC station chief for Iraqi intelligence.

His predecessor disappeared from NYC early last year, days before he was scheduled to return to Baghdad. Eventually, he surfaced in the custody of the FBI seeking "political asylum."

Last week, the U.N. correspondent for the Iraqi News Agency, Mohammed Alawi, was also expelled by the State Department for alleged spying.

All of this comes as the diplomatic pressure at the U.N. continues to build.

On Wednesday, the Times of London reported that U.N. chief Kofi Annan has begun "contingency" planning to create a new interim government in Iraq, should a war break out and Saddam Hussein be overthrown.

"Any government (or organization) should do this. It would be irresponsible to do otherwise" explained Russia's U.N. ambassador Sergey Lavrov.

While Lavrov insisted that any war started by the U.S. and U.K. without specific Security Council approval would be illegal, the U.N. would still have the responsibility to engage in "humanitarian" activities.

Another Council ambassador (who requested confidentiality) was more specific:

"It is clear that the U.S. and U.K. now have a game plan in mind. They will create new facts on the ground [in Iraq] with or without Security Council approval. They will create an ex post facto situation and force the Council to react."

Those comments came as Gen. Tommy Franks met at the White House with President George W. Bush and informed him that U.S. military forces in the Gulf are now prepared for action.

The Pentagon says more than 300,000 troops are in the region, about half the strength of Coalition forces during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Saddam Hussein/Iraq
United Nations

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