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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 20, 1991                   TAG: 9103200206
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

KUWAIT SAFE FROM ATTACK, SADDAM SAID

A week before the invasion of Kuwait, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein asked U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie to tell President Bush personally that Saddam did not plan to attack, an administration official said Tuesday.

Glaspie left Baghdad a few days later intending to carry that message to Bush but got only as far as London before learning that the Iraqi army had invaded Kuwait, the official said.

The official, asking not to be identified, made the disclosure as Glaspie prepared to discuss for the first time her knowledge of events leading up to the invasion. She has agreed to testify today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Congressional Democrats have been eager to question her about her role in pre-crisis diplomacy, and in particular about her July 25 meeting with Saddam.

One of the many questions is why Glaspie did not foresee the invasion. In one of her few public statements since Aug. 2, she said she should have been more alert to Iraqi intentions.

The Iraqi version of the July 25 meeting has been used by some to suggest that Glaspie gave Saddam the impression that the United States would not contest an attack on Kuwait.

According to an Iraqi account, Glaspie told Saddam that her government "had no opinion on inter-Arab disputes, such as your border disagreement with Kuwait."

Seizing on that comment, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has said Glaspie, on instructions from the State Department, "virtually gave a green light to Saddam Hussein."

But other officials have said Glaspie's account indicated the Iraqi version was self-serving, omitting her admonitions to Saddam on the need for a peaceful settlement.

by CNB