EXPATRIATE MANAGERS IN IRAQ

Expatriate Managers in Iraq

Expatriate Managers in Iraq

Since the Gulf War, the United States have continued to conduct covert military operations in Iraq, most of which have involved the CIA. Their goal was to bring about the demise of Saddam Hussein. Many attempts have been made to over- throw the dictator usually ending with dismal results. Even though the world does need policing, the United States or any other Nation or State, is not solely suited to the responsibility. 'Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator is a ruthless despot who has brought enormous misery on his own people. It is a pity he remains in power...' (Finley 27). When the subject is Iraq, the United States still feel a need to act as International Police. Saddam's paranoia about plots to over-throw him has meant the death of many. One incident caused a Squadron Commander in the Iraqi army to bribe a truck driver to sneak him out of Baghdad after discovering that Iraqi Intelligence had been to his fathers home asking about an alleged coup plot to assassinate Hussein. After fleeing Baghdad, the Commander walked twenty five miles across Iraqi army lines to a Kurdish defector camp. This camp was set up in 1991 by the United States, Britain and France. Located in Northern Iraq, its primary intent was to protect the 3.5 million Kurds from attacks by Saddam Hussein - who retaliated to the Kurdish rebellion against Baghdad near the end of the Gulf War. The 'safe haven', encompassing over 14,000 square miles, also accommodates defectors from the Iraqi army (Cooperman 59). Hussein thoroughly purged his operations, executing hundreds of his military officers who he felt were plotting against him. A splinter group that split from the Kurdish rebels, calling themselves the Kurdish Democratic Party, and backed by Iraqi fighters, staged an assault on the defector camp killing hundreds of suspected spies, confiscating computers, broadcast equipment and printing presses that were later destroyed by Hussein's military members if unable to be put to use. All this equipment was provided by the CIA. The support of this defector camp is said to be '...the largest American-funded covert operation since the Afghanistan War against the Soviet Union.' (50). '...says Michael Dunn, editor of Estimate, a Washington based newsletter on the Middle East, 'The side now mopping with Saddam is the one we were closest with. Are we now going to attack the very Kurds we have been protecting for five years?'...' (Cooperman 50). The CIA also helped an organization called the Iraqi National Congress, an organization that broadcasts radio and television propaganda; based out of London, England, this opposition group produces videos and radio programs that pin-point the scandalous and evil ways of Saddam Hussein and the political necessity of his demise. The Iraqi National Accord, another opposition group, were channeled technical information by United States Intelligence hoping that they could help Iraqi military insiders stage a revolt sometime in the future (Cooperman ...