
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 14, 1991                   TAG: 9102140439
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THOMAS BOYER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

REWARD OFFERED FOR SADDAM/ BUSINESS GROUP SEEKS IRAQI ARREST

Hoping an anonymous Middle East tipster might accomplish what U.S. bombers have not, a group of Richmond businessmen Wednesday announced plans to raise $25 million as a reward to anyone who helps apprehend Saddam Hussein.

The group, calling itself Americans for Desert Calm, plans to employ an international form of Crime Stoppers to end the Gulf War. It hopes to entice someone close to Saddam Hussein to turn the Iraqi president over to the allies to be tried for war crimes.

The group's members have set up a nationwide 900 number to accept pledges, not donations, for $25 million. The pledges would be collected if someone in the Middle East provides information "which results in bringing the Iraqi terrorist leader to justice," the group said.

Group members conceded that chances of an arrest are slim, but it's at least a way they can contribute to the war effort.

"Even if it just keeps [Saddam] thinking about that guy next to him," said Paul E. Galanti, head of the Virginia Pharmaceutical Association, who spent seven years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "He's sort of paranoid anyway. It'll make him sleep a little less well."

Group members said their fund raising does not amount to a bounty; no reward will be paid if Saddam is killed or critically injured, in part because U.S. law bars assassination of foreign leaders.

However, they said any tips collected would be turned over to the Pentagon or other allied forces.

Business executive Ernest T. Brown, who calls himself "just a frustrated, helpless-feeling citizen," said he and a handful of friends hatched the idea two weeks ago over lunch while trying to figure out what they could do to make a difference in the war.

As word of their plans worked its way around the nation Wednesday, group members started hearing from media organizations from Chicago to Japan. By Wednesday evening they had raised $30,000 in pledges.

They'll accept pledges on a national toll line, 1-900-230-4455. Callers' telephone bills will be charged 75 cents a minute, of which the phone company gets 50 cents and the group 25 cents.

When the pledges reach $100,000, the group will set up what they called a "contact point" in the Middle East - an agency or business to begin accepting tips.

by CNB