Iraqi Press Blasts Bush

Iraqi newspapers issued stinging criticism of President Bush on Saturday as U.N. weapons inspectors visited 10 sites, including their fourth known visit to a large plant where Iraqi scientists once worked on a nuclear bomb.

The daily Al-Iraq said “the forces of evil and aggression, led by the great Satan -- the United States -- and its arrogant idiot President Bush” were doomed to fail in what the newspaper said were plans to attack Baghdad under “false pretexts.”

Also Saturday, Babel, the newspaper owned by President Saddam Hussein’s elder son, Uday, was printed for the first time since it was banned for a month. It accused the U.S. of “bloodthirstiness” and beating the “drums of war.”

The huge al-Qa’qaa complex visited by U.N. experts Saturday was inspected for three consecutive days beginning a week ago and had been under U.N. scrutiny in the 1990s. It was involved in the final design of a nuclear bomb before United Nations teams dismantled much of Iraq’s nuclear program after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

The site, about 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, contains a sulfuric acid plant, an explosives production facility and storage areas.

Among the other sites visited Saturday by U.N. teams were the Samara pharmaceutical factory, 80 miles north of Baghdad; the Al Samood missile factory, about 25 miles west of Baghdad; the Al Furat State Chemical Industry Co. in Baghdad; an oil refinery south of Baghdad; and a communications center near the Iranian border.

Meanwhile, Bush canceled a January trip to Africa, and the U.S. military forged ahead with a buildup that could have more than 100,000 troops in the Persian Gulf region in weeks.

An Iraqi opposition leader said Saturday that he believed a U.S-led attack on Iraq could happen very soon. Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress spoke in Turkey, which borders northern Iraq, and urged Turkey to help in any such campaign.

“If Turkey participates in a possible operation on Iraq, peace could be achieved faster due to its position in the U.N. and its relations with neighboring countries,” he said.

But in Syria, leaders spoke out against any attack. Vice President Zuheir Masharka accused Washington of double standards.

“The priorities of U.S. policies clash with the interests and hopes of the [region’s] people, increasing their outrage against U.S. policies,” he said. “There is no justification allowing the U.S. administration to launch a war against Iraq, no matter how numerous the pretexts are.

“It is Israel that has a large arsenal of weapons of mass destruction,” he said, “and it is Israel that represents the most dangerous core of terrorism in the region and the world.”

Meanwhile Saturday, Western aircraft dropped leaflets over southern Iraq advertising radio frequencies carrying appeals to Iraqi soldiers to desert, U.S. Central Command said. Officials say 240,000 leaflets were dropped.