Live from Washington: CROSSFIRE. On the left: Bill Press. On the
right: Robert Novak. In the crossfire: former secretary of defense, and
resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Richard Perle; and
CATO Institute vice president for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Ted
Galen Carpenter.
NOVAK: Richard, the deputy prime minister of Iraq, Tariq Aziz, said something I thought was very interesting to say today. And let's take a look at it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZIZ: Agree that UNSCOM, which is supposed to be a subsidiary organ of the Security Council, the United Nations' organization, let it be an honest, professional body; not a dishonest body, which is lying, creating crisis, fabricating crisis, and showing to the whole world that UNSCOM is a subsidiary organ of the CIA and of the Mossad, not a subsidiary organ of the United Nations -- of the Security Council.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOVAK: Now, Richard, I would ordinarily say that's Iraqi propaganda.
PERLE: You would be right.
NOVAK: No. I would be wrong, because I read an absolutely brilliant piece of journalism in the November 9th, "New Yorker." "Scott Ritter's Private War" by Peter J. Boyer. Did you read that?
PERLE: No, I haven't read it.
NOVAK: I recommend it to you, because it shows that UNSCOM in their inspection with Scott Ritter now resigned, the American in charge of the UNSCOM team, worked like this with the CIA. It was a CIA operation, and that Ritter was so deep in with the Mossad that the U.S. thought he was an Israeli agent. Did you know that?
PERLE: I think -- Bob, I think you have got this all wrong. First of all, Ritter and the CIA have been at loggerheads for a long time and for good reason. The CIA incompetence in this region meant that they not only didn't help UNSCOM, they actually stood in the way of UNSCOM doing its mission on a number of occasions. And I have, on previous occasions, called for the resignation of the head of the CIA responsible for the Middle East, because I think he's incompetent, and partly because of their interference with UNSCOM. The fact is that Scott Ritter, who is a terrific, tenacious guy, who ferreted out all kinds of bad stuff by Saddam, worked with anyone who could help him get the information.
NOVAK: Including the Mossad.
PERLE: Sure, absolutely.
NOVAK: So he's right. It's a Mossad operation.
PERLE: No, he's not right. He's not -- first of all, it's not a Mossad operation. Ritter went for help where he could get it, because he couldn't get it from the CIA. But the main point is that Ritter was on the trail of significant, significant illegal acquisition of weapons of mass destruction, and was prevented from seeing that to a conclusion by none other than our own Madeleine Albright.
NOVAK: We're going to have to take a break, but I want to just read
one thing to you from this -- from the Peter Boyer article in the "New
Yorker." He talks about Ritter's inspection. He says this was an inherently
confrontational approach, quote, "it was more like a military mission,
than like a traditional arms verification exercise," unquote, and then
he goes on to show that.