Hussein Gained in Clash With U.S., CIA Chief Says

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has emerged from his latest confrontation with the United States politically stronger than he was even six weeks ago, Central Intelligence Agency Director John M. Deutch said Thursday.

Deutch’s assessment, delivered in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, appeared to take the edge off President Clinton’s repeated assertions that the recent round of U.S. military actions has left Hussein “strategically worse off” than he was before.

Deutch also disclosed that Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party, or KDP, faction that asked Iraq to send its troops into the Kurdish enclave in the north to help it rout another group, is now asking the U.S. and its allies for protection again in an effort to keep Baghdad at arm’s length.

Barzani met privately with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Pelletreau in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday to hear a U.S. appeal that the two rival Kurdish factions get back together, but no decisions were announced.

“Barzani is playing an enormously dangerous game,” Deutch said.

Deutch’s remarks seemed likely to be greeted with disappointment by the Clinton administration, which has been trying to defend itself against Republican assertions that Hussein has come out the victor in the latest confrontation with the United States.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other Republican leaders have contended that the Iraqi leader is now “far better off than he was two weeks ago.”

McCain asserted Tuesday that the administration had “not matched deeds with rhetoric” in dealing with Hussein.

Although Deutch agreed with Clinton that the U.S. cruise-missile attacks earlier this month--and the president’s decision to expand the “no-fly” zone over southern Iraq--had weakened Hussein strategically, he said that Iraq had emerged from the fray politically stronger.

He said the recent confrontation had left “a perception” that the allied coalition had weakened, that there is a new willingness by Turkey to negotiate its own deals with Hussein and that there is growing worldwide sympathy for Iraq that eventually could win it relief from United Nations economic sanctions.

Deutch confirmed that, largely in response to the latest U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf region, Iraq has stopped firing missiles at allied aircraft in recent days and that it has been returning its mobile air-defense units to their garrisons.

He said Clinton’s decision to expand the southern “no-fly” zone two weeks ago had “a significant effect on constraining [Hussein] and influencing the way he sees himself being put more and more into a small box.”

The prohibition against the use of Iraqi warplanes in the expanded area, which runs almost to the Baghdad suburbs, has “taken sovereignty away” from Hussein and “has caused him to pull back for the moment,” Deutch said.

But he acknowledged that “we should anticipate that Saddam will continue to challenge the [allied] coalition” for some years to come. “There will be no stability in the region . . . until Saddam Hussein and his regime [are] replaced.”

Deutch also made these points:

* Iraq continues to maintain significant supplies of chemical and biological agents with the ability to deliver them against potential adversaries either by aircraft or by loading them aboard Scud ballistic missiles, such as those used during the 1991 Gulf War.

* Hussein’s Iraq remains “a significant terrorist threat,” continuing to carry out terrorist activities in Jordan, Kuwait and other countries and providing havens for other Middle East terrorist groups.

The U.S. intelligence chief also said American efforts fell short in warning commanders at the U.S. air facility at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that the base might be the target of a truck-bombing attack. Nineteen airmen were killed in such an assault June 25.

Deutch said that, although intelligence agencies cautioned early on that terrorism was on the rise in the region, “our intelligence was not that good” in providing tactical information about the time and place the terrorists might strike.

Similar conclusions were reached in an independent report released Monday by retired Army Gen. Wayne A. Downing.

The Downing report faulted top military commanders and Pentagon leaders for not doing enough to protect U.S. forces in the area.

It was not immediately clear how forcefully the administration might be willing to come to Barzani’s aid in the wake of his recent alliance with the Iraqis.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said earlier that Washington was seeking to begin negotiations.

The KDP’s rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, headed by Jalal Talabani, aligned itself with Iran just before the latest crisis.

Barzani then invited Hussein to intervene, prompting the cruise-missile attacks by the United States.