Senate panel told Iraq sanctions aren't curbing Hussein

By Amy Herstek/CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- International sanctions on Iraq have so far proven unsuccessful toward curbing the predatory power of Saddam Hussein, according to testimony given Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler

"Given the last 22 months, given today's circumstances of crumbling sanctions, given the fact that he is back in the arms business, Mister Chairman, it follows as the night follows the day for me to say what I am saying: These sanctions are not working," said former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler.

While the panel's chairman, Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, noted the current policy is a "confusing" one. "Few have been able to come forward with a better policy that's being followed by this administration, Great Britain and other allied support that we have received in enforcing the restrictions on Saddam Hussein and Iraq, in the Gulf region by way of naval interdiction."

Warner added that 10 years after the Gulf War, U.S. and British military personnel continue to put themselves in harm's way to enforce the no-fly zone over Iraq, yet allied support appears to be waning.

"We have seen a weakening of the resolve of the international community to force Saddam Hussein to comply with the terms and conditions he accepted and accepted in writing at the conclusion of the Gulf War in '91," Warner said.

"What is at stake here is the credibility of the United Nations, and the enforcement of its mandates, and that of the Security Council. And yet, two permanent members of the Security Council, Russia and France, are now openly defying Security Council resolution by conducting flights into Baghdad without prior U.N. approval," he added.

Sen. John Warner

The hearing comes just as several countries -- including Jordan, Russia, Yemen, and possibly Syria, and Iceland -- have scheduled flights to Iraq.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told a visiting Jordanian delegation Thursday that after 10 years, Iraq is fed up with the U.N. sanctions.

"Enough is enough. The sanctions have been imposed for reasons which don't exist any more and it's time to lift those sanctions," Aziz said.

Members of the Jordanian delegation, who apparently secured the appropriate U.N. permits for the flight to Iraq, also expressed impatience with continuing the sanctions. Jordan and Iraq have historically been strong trading partners, a point Aziz seized on Thursday.

"These signs are the beginning of the collapse of the embargo," Aziz told the delegates at the al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad. "America might have its opinion, but it cannot impose its will on all."

But Aziz may have spoken too soon: the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced Thursday that it would not demand an end to international sanctions against Iraq. The group is currently meeting in Caracas.

Lifting the sanctions would be "like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop," according to retired U.S. Marine Corps General Anthony C. Zinni. the general served as the commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command in the middle-east region.

Retired U.S. Marine Corps General Anthony C. Zinni

"If we stopped patrolling the no-fly zone," Zinni told the Senate panel. "He will fill the vacuum. Saddam will poke back every time it looks like we are drawing back."

Richard Perle, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, noted that sanctions should be eased for humanitarian reasons, and instead the U.S. should "aggressively support" Iraqi freedom fighters. But Zinni was not so sure.

Hussein, Zinni said, "holds on ever more ruthlessly, like a thug. His people would like to see sanctions eased because they would get more food. There are no easy solutions, but we need to be in it for the long haul."

"I would just caution against strategies that sound good, and sound cheap and sound like they would be effective," the general added.

Throughout the past decade, the Iraqi leader has prevented U.N. weapons inspectors from gaining access to facilities and thwarted their attempts to locate weapons manufacturing sites.

Sen. Carl Levin

"It's obvious that Saddam Hussein is trying to compile weapons of mass destruction, said Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is the committee's highest ranking member. "But what is the rationale?"

Butler gave four reasons -- the first being that Hussein primarily seeks to remain in power. "Nothing concentrates his mind more firmly than that, and he believes that it is necessary for him to be as muscular and as highly armed as possible."

And Iraqi representatives have said that they consider themselves to be threatened by other ethnic groups, primarily the "Persians and the Jewish people," Butler said. "And they said this is why they had acquired biological, chemical and nuclear weapons."

Hussein also harbors a "pan-Arabist ambition" and ultimately seeks to use the weapons to "threaten the west, either directly or to supply his weapons to terrorist groups," Butler noted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report