Saddam Sees Spies In Disguise

President Saddam Hussein Monday accused U.N. inspectors of engaging in "intelligence work" instead of searching for suspected nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in Iraq.

The inspectors are collecting names of Iraqi scientists, putting questions to them that mask "hidden agendas" and gathering information about conventional arms not restricted by U.N. resolutions, Saddam said in a taped speech televised on Iraq's Army Day.

"All or most" of these activities "constitute purely intelligence work," Saddam said.

Saddam did not offer any specific evidence of spying, and his accusation was denied by Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear arm of inspection program.

"We certainly flatly reject any accusation that we work for any government or provide direct information to any single government," Fleming said at the agency's headquarters in Vienna.

If the inspectors are gathering intelligence, she said, "it's intelligence for the United Nations."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Saddam's accusations were "baseless and false" and making such charges was tantamount to not complying with U.N. Security Council-imposed obligations concerning disarmament.

"It is not the way to solve this situation," Boucher said. "His accusations are untrue and may indicate an intention not to comply."

But Saddam also appeared to open the way for a peaceful solution to the crisis, saying "we shall thank the almighty if he guides the enemies to the right path."

However, he added he also would be grateful if God "destroys them (the enemies) and brings shame to their arrogance."

Saddam's comments came amid growing signs the United States is preparing for a war to oust him.

USA Today reports the U.S. Army has placed more than 10,000 reservists on alert to head overseas in as little as one week, joining about 54,000 reservists already on active duty.

That followed announced Persian Gulf deployments last week for some units of the 45,000-member 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, as well as about 1300 engineers and intelligence officers based in Europe.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Monday said that war with Iraq had become less likely. But he wouldn't say why he thought the chances of war had diminished.

"I've repeated that war is not inevitable and that the preference of the international community is for (the situation) to be resolved peacefully," Straw said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp.

Meanwhile, Turkey's foreign minister is quoted in a newspaper as saying his parliament is unlikely to approve a large deployment of U.S. troops there. A final decision on the matter is expected in late January after U.N. inspectors make their final report.

Under a Security Council resolution passed in November, weapons inspectors are in the country to establish whether Iraq still has chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or the means to deliver them. Iraq has denied it has such weapons, but the United States and Britain have accused it of hiding banned arms.

President Bush and other U.S. officials have threatened to attack Iraq and topple Saddam's regime if it does not eliminate all weapons of mass destruction as required by U.N. resolutions adopted after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

In 1998, a previous U.N. monitoring regime collapsed amid disputes between Iraq and the United Nations over alleged U.S. spying from within the U.N. operation and inspectors' access to sensitive sites. Several American newspapers subsequently reported that the CIA had in fact infiltrated those weapons inspection teams.

In his speech, Saddam accused the United States of trying to push the U.N. inspectors to go beyond the declared objective of the Security Council, specifically mentioning American efforts to persuade the inspection teams to be more aggressive about questioning Iraqi scientists about the country's arms programs.

Saddam did not say whether his suspicions about the inspectors would lead Iraq to stop cooperating with them. Other Iraqi officials have expressed concerns about the manner in which the inspectors were carrying out their work, but said Iraq would continue to cooperate to prove it has no banned weapons and to avoid war.

The Iraqi leader also sought to appeal to other Arabs by raising the Palestinian question, saying the United States was trying to divert attention from "the heinous crimes perpetrate by the Zionist entity (Israel) against our people in Palestine."

Saddam also said talk of war in Washington was designed to distract the American people from the their country's problems, "the weakness of its (security) agencies" that led to the Sept. 11 attacks and "the weakness, or indeed near collapse, of the United States economy."

On Sunday, inspectors angered some Iraqis by sealing off an entire compound for hours, preventing women and children from leaving, because they wanted to search a single building within the grounds.