In From The Cold

By Christopher Ogden

Never let it be said that April Glaspie does not know how to suffer in silence. Ever since Iraq invaded Kuwait last August, the Bush Administration has tried to make Glaspie, then the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, the scapegoat for Washington's prewar policy of appeasing Saddam Hussein. That was easy to do, since Glaspie was prohibited from giving her version of the infamous meeting she had in Baghdad with the Iraqi dictator a week before the invasion. Iraq leaked a doctored transcript in September quoting Glaspie as saying that the U.S. had "no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait." Since only the Iraqis had a transcript, Glaspie could offer no documentary evidence that contradicted Saddam's account. All she could do was obey orders and say nothing.

Last week Glaspie finally spoke up. The State Department allowed her to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she proved to be the best witness for her defense. Articulate and direct, Glaspie insisted that Iraq had "maliciously" edited the transcript "to the point of inaccuracy." A "great deal" in the Iraqi record was accurate, she conceded, but her stern warnings that the U.S. would not tolerate the use of force against Kuwait had been deleted. She said she described those warnings in a confidential cable she sent to the State Department immediately after the meeting. If U.S. officials had made a mistake in dealing with Saddam, she contended, it was not to "realize that he was stupid -- that he did not believe our clear and repeated warnings that we would support our vital interests."

Glaspie's impressive appearance before the committees left legislators all the more puzzled over why the Administration had refused to rebut the Iraqi version or clear up doubts about her toughness. Loyally, Glaspie refused to complain. "The Administration wanted to work on its job of collecting a coalition and winning the war," she explained. State Department officials, concerned that Iraq might release an embarrassing tape of the meeting, said last week that the U.S. had wanted to avoid "a debate" over the transcript during the diplomatic and war effort. Added Glaspie: "Now the war is over, and I was sent up here to answer your questions."

The lawmakers treated her with respect, which is not how the Administration had behaved toward the 25-year foreign-service veteran, one of its top Arabists and the first woman to head a Middle East embassy. Ordered home on July 30 for consultations, Glaspie was not allowed to return to Baghdad. When the Iraqi transcript was made public, State Department officials said omissions had been made but it was basically accurate. Asked last fall about Glaspie's instructions for the meeting with Saddam, Secretary of State James Baker made no effort to support his ambassador. "What you want me to do is say that those instructions were sent specifically by me on my specific orders. There are probably 312,000 cables that go out under my name." Although Baker took eight aides to his Jan. 9 meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz in Geneva, Glaspie was not among them, nor was she asked to join his postwar tour of the gulf earlier this month.

The Democratic chairmen of both committees asked the State Department to release Glaspie's cable describing her meeting with Saddam. If the State Department refuses, the issue will remain one of Saddam's word against Glaspie's. "I hope my credibility is at least as great as Saddam Hussein's," she said. Judging from her testimony, it is the Administration that must worry about credibility, not April Glaspie.