U.S. Insists It Won’t Meddle in Iraqi Uprisings

Declaring that it has no intention of interfering in the insurrections against Saddam Hussein, the Bush Administration on Tuesday definitively abandoned the idea of shooting down combat helicopters that the Iraqi government is using against the rebels.

Iraq’s use of helicopters is “not covered by the terms of the cease-fire” between the U.S.-led coalition and Iraq, and helicopters will be attacked only “if they threaten U.S. forces or coalition forces,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said, closing off two weeks of confusion and conflicting statements on the subject.

“We don’t intend to take a role in the internal fighting that’s going on in Iraq,” Fitzwater added. “We do not intend to involve ourselves in the internal conflicts in Iraq.”

Fitzwater’s assertion of non-involvement echoed statements that other senior Administration officials have been making for several weeks. On Saturday, for example, President Bush told a news conference that, even though the Administration dislikes President Hussein, “it would be inappropriate to try to shape, or suggest even, what government” Iraq should have.

But the repeated assertions seemed to contradict equally frequent suggestions from some officials that the Administration might try to use force to prevent the Iraqi army from employing combat helicopters, which are among its most effective weapons against the rebels.

Adding to the confusion, the suggestions by some officials--including Bush himself--that helicopters might be shot down sometimes were contradicted by other officials, including Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the U.S. commander in the Persian Gulf.

The contradictions reflected a considerable debate within the Administration over how to handle the helicopter issue, officials said. “I wouldn’t say it’s been vitriolic, but it took some attention,” one official acknowledged.

On the one hand, the Administration clearly opposes Hussein, would like to see him overthrown and has qualms about sitting on the sidelines as the Baghdad regime systematically exterminates its foes.

On the other hand, officials generally do not believe that the rebels, particularly the Shiite Muslim forces in southern Iraq, are capable of overthrowing Hussein’s regime. At least some officials believe that the rebellions actually are buying time for Hussein, allowing him to rally his military, which otherwise might turn against him.

The Administration also is skeptical about the Kurdish rebellion, which seeks to split off northern Iraq into a separate Kurdish state.

“Our policy is not to see a Lebanonization of Iraq,” State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said. “We are not for the dismemberment of Iraq. . . . We respect the territorial integrity of Iraq.”

Tugged by those conflicting considerations, the Administration has vacillated. “When the President first spoke about it, it took us two hours to put out a statement saying nothing” in an attempt to explain what Bush had meant, an Administration official noted. U.S. forces have shot down two Iraqi warplanes caught flying in violation of the cease-fire agreement, but no attempt has been made to down helicopters.

Bush first broached the helicopter issue at a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in Ottawa on March 13.

“I must confess to some concern about the use of Iraqi helicopters in violation of what our understanding was,” Bush said at the time. The issue “has got to be resolved before we’re going to have any permanence to any cease-fire,” he added. “These helicopters should not be used for combat purposes inside Iraq.”

Just after the press conference, Bush remarked to reporters that he was “warning” the Iraqis, “Do not do this.”

Fitzwater backed away from that position Tuesday. Combat use of helicopters is “not covered by the terms of the cease-fire,” although it “does violate the understanding” Schwarzkopf thought he had with Iraqi commanders, Fitzwater said. It was “oral discussion, nothing in writing,” he added.

In an interview to be broadcast tonight, Schwarzkopf told David Frost that he believes he was “suckered” at the negotiating table by the Iraqis, who apparently “intended right then” to use their helicopters to quell the insurrection.

“At that time, you see, nothing was flying over Iraq,” Schwarzkopf said. “And they looked me straight in the eye and said: ‘Well, you know you have destroyed all of our roads, and therefore it’s hard to get around the country. We would like to fly our helicopters, and the purpose of flying those helicopters will be for transportation of government officials.’ ”

Preoccupied with getting allied prisoners of war back and separating the two forces so that hostilities would not start again by accident, Schwarzkopf said he agreed to the request, which “seemed . . . reasonable.”

Since then, the Iraqis have used helicopters repeatedly against rebel forces, a form of attack that is continuing in northern Iraq, Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said. Presumably because of bad weather, helicopter activity has declined in the past several days, he added.

The combat use of helicopters “is obviously a violation of the President’s urging that they not do that,” Williams acknowledged. But he said the United States has no plans to take action to prevent the flights.

U.S. military officials have been unable to confirm rebel charges that Iraqi forces are using chemical weapons and napalm against them, Williams said. But there is evidence that phosphorous weapons, which set off intense fires and cause severe skin burns, have been used against the insurgents, he said.

Separately, Williams said that 128,500 U.S. troops have left the Persian Gulf region and are either back at their original bases or en route home. That represents 24% of the peak force of 540,000. Officials hope to have the majority of U.S. troops home by July 4.

So far, regular forces are being withdrawn more quickly than reserves, and the Navy and Air Force are pulling out more quickly than the Army, Williams said.

While U.S. troop numbers are declining, the number of Iraqi prisoners of war continues to grow as Iraqi troops surrender or are captured faster than the allies are releasing them. Allied forces now hold 63,000 Iraqi prisoners--3,000 more than when the cease-fire was declared a month ago.

“We continue to have Iraqis turn themselves in to us, and we still continue to find Iraqis coming out of bunkers and hiding places in the area which we control in southern Iraq,” Williams said.

A total of 2,793 Iraqi prisoners have been repatriated to date, officials said. But many prisoners have pleaded to remain in allied custody until the internal unrest has subsided, fearing that Hussein’s forces will punish them for deserting or surrendering.

In the past, U.S. soldiers in some cases had turned away Iraqis who were trying to surrender at American checkpoints, Williams said. But that practice has ended, and all Iraqis wishing to turn themselves in are being accepted, he said.

Times staff writers Melissa Healy and Norman Kempster contributed to this report.