Iraqis Said to Plan Blast in Street if Bush Escaped Plot

An Iraqi agent was ordered to detonate a car bomb in a street in Kuwait city if he failed to use it to kill visiting former President George Bush, a security police officer testified Monday.

The United States launched a missile attack on Baghdad over the weekend in retaliation for what President Clinton called compelling evidence that Iraq’s intelligence service directed a plot to kill Bush during an April 14-16 visit to Kuwait.

The officer, who may not be identified under court regulations, was testifying on the third day of a trial of 11 Iraqis and three Kuwaitis charged with involvement in the plot. Iraq says it is a fabrication of the Kuwaiti government.

Two defendants, Raad Assadi, 33, and Wali Abdelhadi Ghazali, 36, have admitted involvement in the plot. The rest have denied any part in it.

Police said most of the 14 drove across the frontier April 12 in two vehicles, one of which was rigged with 180 pounds of explosives.

Officers said they were on alert after a tip from “secret sources” in Iraq and arrested the group during Bush’s visit before it was able to put the alleged plan into action.

The security officer told the court that Ghazali has given Kuwaiti police interrogators details of his orders from Iraqi intelligence.

“If you can’t blow it up at Kuwait University, blow it up in Fahd al Salem Street, because this would give media momentum,” Ghazali quoted one of his superiors as saying, the officer told the state security court.

The street is a major thoroughfare. Bush visited Kuwait University to receive an award in honor of his role during the Gulf War ending Iraq’s 1990-91 occupation.

In a last-minute change of schedule, Bush gave a speech in a small hall rather than the larger campus venue he was scheduled to visit.

In earlier testimony, Ghazali said he had orders that if he was unable to use the car bomb, he was to strap on an explosives-laden belt, try to get near Bush and then detonate the belt so as to kill both himself and Bush.