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U.N. inspectors may have aided U.S.

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. weapons inspectors may have helped Washington collect sensitive Iraqi communications to undermine Saddam Hussein's regime, newspapers reported. But the top inspector denied the allegations Wednesday.

''It's simply not true,'' Richard Butler said as he entered U.N. headquarters when asked about reports in The Washington Post and The Boston Globe that detailed such an operation but differed on certain elements of it.

Butler told reporters outside the Security Council Wedesday that Iraq ''calls us spies'' and will again but ''we have never conducted spying for anybody.''

''Are we spies? Absolutely not,'' Butler declared. He admitted having ''received assistance from 40 (U.N.) members,'' including the United States, but said ''none of it included eavesdropping equipment'' and none of it contravened U.N. laws.

A special adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, John Ruggie, said Wednesday the U.N. chief had no knowledge of any eavesdropping operation that allowed U.S. intelligence agents to listen in on secret communications among military units responsible for the Iraqi leader's safety.

The Post quoted confidants close to Annan as saying he is convinced Washington used the operation to penetrate the security apparatus protecting Saddam.

''I think it's quite erroneous to say as (The Post) did that the secretary-general has convincing evidence,'' Ruggie said in an interview with The Associated Press. ''We have no convincing evidence.''

Annan has known about such rumors for weeks, and asked Butler about them, ''and Butler categorically denied them,'' Ruggie said.

Ruggie was meeting this morning with Annan to discuss what to do in the wake of the reports, which suggested that Annan would like to pressure Butler to resign in favor of a replacement who might win the consent of Iraq and its defenders on the U.N. Security Council.

Iraq, which has long demanded Butler's ouster, banned inspections following the Dec. 16-19 U.S.-British airstrikes. The inspectors must ascertain that Iraq has destroyed its banned weapons before sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 can be lifted.

One Annan adviser told The Post that Annan had become aware Butler's U.N. Special Commission ''directly facilitated the creation of an intelligence collection system for the United States in violation of its mandate.

''The United Nations cannot be party to an operation to overthrow one of its member-states. In the most fundamental way, that is what's wrong with the UNSCOM operation,'' The Post quoted the adviser as saying.

Though denying any knowledge of such an operation, Ruggie acknowledged that if the claims were true, ''they do pose a serious problem'' for the United Nations, and Butler in particular.

But Ruggie denied Annan was eager to replace Butler. ''This is not about Butler,'' Ruggie said, adding Annan's primary concern was getting UNSCOM back in Iraq.

The Globe said the surveillance equipment allowed U.N. inspectors to listen in on radio, cell phone and walkie-talkie communications by members of the Iraqi security network.

Former inspector Scott Ritter told The Globe that beginning in March, the United States pressured British and Israeli intelligence to stop supporting the U.N. eavesdropping operation and took it over itself.

''The U.S. decided this system is too sensitive to be run by UNSCOM,'' Ritter told the paper. ''They bulled their way in and took it over. Now any data collected by the activity is not being assessed by UNSCOM. Now, the U.S. gained 100% access and is not feeding any of it back.''

Butler has said that many states have helped UNSCOM in collecting data.

A Clinton administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Post: ''We've already established that Saddam's personal security apparatus and the apparatus that conceals weapons of mass destruction are one and the same.'' Distinguishing between them would be impossible for intelligence-gathering efforts, he added.

At the White House this morning, press secretary Joe Lockhart said he was not prepared to discuss the matter except to say: The weapons-inspection program ''is not the problem. Saddam Hussein and Iraq's unwillingness to live up to the commitments they made at the end of the Gulf War - to disarm and destroy their weapons of mass destruction - is the problem and that remains the problem.''

By The Associated Press

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