BY NAOMI CRAINE
United Nations "arms inspectors" are once more on the ground in Iraq, demanding access to facilities and documents from the Iraqi government. Washington and London have already begun accusing Baghdad of "refusing to cooperate" with the snoops, who have been imposed since the end of the 1991 U.S.-organized slaughter of more than 150,000 Iraqis in the Gulf War.

Simultaneously, the Clinton administration has stepped up its threats and slanders against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The Clinton administration has repeatedly used accusations that Baghdad has "weapons of mass destruction" to justify continuing the economic blockade that has already killed several hundreds of thousands of Iraqis over the last eight years. Provocations by the "inspectors" have likewise served to justify Washington's recurring plans to use its own weapons of mass destruction and launch a military assault on Iraq. The aim of such an attack would be to increase U.S. dominance in the oil-rich region, bolster Washington's position vis-a-vis its imperialist rivals, and tighten the U.S.-led military encirclement of the workers state in Russia.

The supposed resolution of the latest round of U.S. threats to bomb Iraq, in which Baghdad agreed November 14 to allow the so-called inspectors back into the country, put the U.S. war makers on an even tighter hair trigger.

In the mid-November confrontation, Washington was prepared for a slaughter of up to 10,000 Iraqis, U.S. officials have acknowledged. That was the Pentagon's estimate of Iraqi casualties in its planned bombing assault.

An article in the November 20 Financial Times of London described how the inspectors' task will be to try to push Iraqi officials over the brink. The paper quoted unnamed officials as saying that "over the next two weeks inspectors would test access to `a full array of sites, documents, information and people.' "

Initially, the "inspectors" demanded Baghdad hand over a wide range of documents, including some the government maintains do not exist or deal with Iraq's national security. In one case, Iraqi officials offered to show them key parts of a requested document, but only in the presence of a UN special envoy. The immediate response of Sen. Richard Lugar, the second- ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee, was to tell television reporters, "When the president returns home [from Asia]... we better be prepared for the military strike."

Days earlier, British defense secretary George Robertson made clear his government's readiness to take part in an assault on Iraq. "The fuse is much shorter," he said in Washington before meeting with his U.S. counterpart, William Cohen, November 19. "The next time the only warning he [Iraqi president Saddam Hussein] will get is a withdrawal of the UN inspectors." Some 23,000 U.S. troops, nearly 200 aircraft, and 23 Navy ships remain poised in the Arab-Persian Gulf. This force will be beefed up with a second aircraft carrier by the end of November.

Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz said November 22 that Richard Butler, who heads the "inspection" operation, was "either creating a superficial pretext to justify the American aggression or he is trying to confuse and undermine the comprehensive review" of the UN sanctions against Iraq. The Clinton administration refuses to allow such a review by the United Nations Security Council, where Washington has a veto, until there is "full cooperation" with the investigators. Washington and London have publicly reiterated their long- standing goal overthrowing the Iraqi government. To this end, the British government demonstratively publicized its November 23 meeting in London with about 15 Iraqi opposition groups, which are dependent on Washington and London for their existence.

U.S. threats against north Korea
Meanwhile, President William Clinton spoke to U.S. troops in south Korea November 22, near the so-called demilitarized zone, where a massive wall built by Washington and Seoul divides the Korean peninsula. Clinton compared north Korea to Iraq, stating that the DPRK was "also a major concern" and renewing U.S. charges that the government in Pyongyang possesses chemical and biological weapons. "Lately, signs of danger have intensified with incursions from the North, provocative missile tests and the question of a suspected underground installation," he asserted.

The week before, Clinton's envoy to north Korea, Charles Kartman, claimed to have "compelling evidence" that the DPRK government was constructing an underground facility for nuclear uses. Washington is demanding that it be allowed to inspect the site. A few days later, Clinton qualified Kartman's assertion, turning the "compelling evidence" into "strong information that raises a suspicion, but no one yet knows for sure."

Washington has roughly 40,000 troops in south Korea along with a massive arsenal, which includes nuclear-armed submarines off the coast. These forces have maintained the division of the Korean nation for the last 45 years since the Korean people succeeded in fighting Washington to a stalemate in the 1950-53 Korean War.  
 
 
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