Iraqi Pillaging Prompts U.S. War Warning

The exiled emir of Kuwait told President Bush on Friday that Iraq is brazenly pillaging and repopulating the occupied desert kingdom, a report that prompted the President’s national security adviser to warn that the timetable for military action may be shortening.

Standing alongside Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah, the Kuwaiti ruler, after two hours of meetings, Bush declared: “Iraq will fail. Kuwait, free Kuwait, will endure.”

The President’s angry remarks, coupled with what National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft described as the emir’s “devastating” report about “the terrifying situation inside Kuwait” and Scowcroft’s own subsequent assessment, provided yet another indication that the Administration’s focus is shifting step by step toward a military solution.

Scowcroft’s discussion of the impact of Iraq’s actions inside Kuwait on Bush’s timetable appeared to be intended specifically as a warning that White House patience may be growing thin. In addition, Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, acknowledged that “the Administration is looking more favorably on an early war option.”

Friday’s meeting was the first between the President and the Kuwaiti leader, who fled his palace for the safety of Saudi Arabia just ahead of the lightning-like advance of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s invading troops Aug. 2.

While the 64-year-old emir--diminutive in appearance, his chin etched with a sharp, jet-black goatee--fidgeted with his gold-trimmed, black robe, Bush declared to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, “His Highness and I agreed that we must keep all our options open to ensure that Iraq’s unlawful occupation of Kuwait is ended and Kuwait’s legitimate government restored.”

While the timing of a possible shift to military action was not discussed, Scowcroft said, “There is no question that what’s happening inside Kuwait affects the timetable” for considering steps beyond the economic sanctions underlying the current international effort to pressure Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.

The national security adviser said Bush and the emir reviewed the military situation in the gulf, discussing the strengths and morale of the forces in the region.

Scowcroft, the only U.S. official to join Bush in the hourlong private meeting with the emir before they sat down with other advisers for lunch in the White House family dining room, said the visitor “sees his country being destroyed right in front of him.”

The emir described “Iraqis going into hospitals, taking babies out of incubators, to send the incubators back to Iraq; taking other people off life-support systems and sending the machinery back to Iraq,” Scowcroft said.

“It was a pretty devastating account, especially in the face of Saddam Hussein saying he is the defender of the Arabs against the outside,” he said.

Officials have expressed increasing concern that Saddam Hussein is rapidly repopulating Kuwait with Palestinians and Iraqis, making prospects for restoring the previous government very difficult even if Iraqi troops are forced out.

Asked whether the emir’s report added to the urgency of resolving the crisis, Scowcroft said, “Certainly on the part of the emir, who sees his country being destroyed right in front of him.”

He said Kuwaitis are being pushed out to the south, across the border with Saudi Arabia. Their identification papers were being taken from them, he said, and then given to Iraqis and Palestinians repopulating Kuwait from the north.

“The longer the situation goes on the way it is, the less there will be of what is recognizable as Kuwait,” Scowcroft added.

Government analysts have said the incidents of brutality inside Kuwait appear to have been deliberate, rather than a breakdown of discipline. The apparent goal is to induce fear and terror that will put pressure on Kuwaitis to leave the country--in effect handing their homeland over to the Iraqi invaders and their supporters who are moving in.

Since the invasion, according to these reports, the population of the emirate may have dropped as low as 200,000 Kuwaitis. The pre-invasion population of Kuwait was about 2.2 million, of which 500,000 were native Kuwaiti citizens. About 100,000 were believed to be out of the country at the time of the invasion.

If Iraq can get rid of most of the Kuwaitis, it might then propose a United Nations-sponsored referendum on the country’s future in which every Arab residing in Kuwait could cast a vote, a government analyst said. Such a move would take advantage of the fact that there were 200,000 to 300,000 Palestinians, many of them sympathetic to Iraq, living in Kuwait before the invasion, and more have moved in.

Under a “ruthless and ambitious dictator,” Bush said, “Iraqi aggression has ransacked and pillaged a once peaceful and secure country--its population assaulted, incarcerated, intimidated and even murdered.

“I have reaffirmed to the emir that America’s resolve to end this aggression against Kuwait remains firm and undiminished. Kuwait’s sovereignty and territorial integrity will be restored. The stability and security of the Persian Gulf region is assured and the safety of all innocent citizens is secured,” Bush said.

The emir, who ruled Kuwait for nearly 13 years as the latest leader in a family dynasty that stretches back more than 200 years, told Bush he looks forward to receiving the President “in liberated, independent Kuwait.”

Aspin said he based his assessment that the Administration is considering an “early war option” partly on a meeting that he and other congressional leaders had with Bush a week ago. The President’s tone, Aspin said, “is more hawkish.”

But, Aspin added, other factors contributed to his view that the Administration was moving more toward a military approach: the deteriorating conditions in Kuwait, the growing strength of the more than 150,000 U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf region, and the preference among military commanders to act before troop morale deteriorates.

In addition, he said, the Administration would like to complete any military operation before the hajj, the annual holy pilgrimage to Mecca, brings millions of Muslims to Saudi Arabia next June.

The Administration also fears that Iraq’s program to develop deadly biological weapons will be operational before the end of the year, Aspin said. In addition to its substantial arsenal of chemical weapons, Iraq is believed to be conducting research on biological agents, including those causing anthrax, cholera, typhus and tularemia.

According to one report, U.S. intelligence officials believe that Baghdad already has deployed anthrax for possible use against the multinational forces deployed in Saudi Arabia. Officials said that if used, the deadly toxin probably would be released from high-pressure canisters carried by helicopters.

Meanwhile Friday, the House authorized the President to sell 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve--three times the amount that the White House proposed on Wednesday in an effort to dampen recent oil price speculation.

The House, on a voice vote with no dissent, raised the ceiling on test sales from the 590-million-barrel reserve in response to testimony by Energy Secretary James D. Watkins that a 5-million-barrel test would be inadequate.

White House spokesman Steve Hart said, however, the Administration is taking no formal position on Watkins’ suggestion.

Times staff writer Maura Reynolds contributed to this report.

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