Saddam accuses US of trying to enslave Arabs

SADDAM HUSSEIN yesterday accused the US of trying to enslave Arabs and said Iraq will defeat any invaders, even as he continued to destroy his Al Samoud 2 missile system in hopes of averting a war.

“The tyrant thinks he is capable of enslaving the people and hiding the decisions, freedoms and legitimate choices (they were born with) when their mothers delivered them as free people,” Saddam said in a letter read on Iraqi television yesterday.

“Tyranny will be defeated. ... Arrogance will be of no help to it.”

Meanwhile, Iraqi workers crushed Al Samoud 2 missiles, a launcher and five engines used for the missile, according to inspectors’ spokesman Hiro Ueki. Since Saturday, Iraq has destroyed 19 of about 100 Al Samoud 2 missiles.

The engines, originally made for Soviet SA-2 missiles, were imported in violation of UN resolutions and modified for use in the Al Samoud 2.

Iraq has been trying to show the United Nations it is co-operating with weapons inspectors in advance of a vote on a new UN resolution authorising force against the state. That vote is expected next week.

Inspectors yesterday visited a factory that makes remotely piloted vehicles, an oil facility and a chemical installation, as well as a customs office in the northern city of Mosul, Ueki said.

Saddam’s letter marked the Islamic New Year. But while many businesses were closed, the holiday is not publicly celebrated in Iraq.

“We believe, with the coming of the Islamic new year and with God’s help, we will be victorious against the tyrant,” Saddam said. “The believers will triumph over tyranny and its accomplices.”

Of the US, he said: “The tyrant of this era thinks that he is an alternative to God and is His shadow on Earth. The tyrant imagines himself, God forbid, as God ... and thus his devil has thrown him into the abyss of evil.”