Defector Says Iraq Was Set To Invade // The Reported Targets: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia

AMMAN, Jordan Iraqi President Saddam Hussein planned to invadeKuwait and Saudi Arabia this month but called off the attack when twoof his top aides defected to Jordan, one of the defectors saidSunday.

Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel al-Majid, who was head of the country'sclandestine weapons program and is Hussein's son-in-law, said heattended meetings of the Cabinet and the Revolutionary CommandCouncil in which the invasions were discussed.

"All army units were informed to enter Kuwait and the easternparts of Saudi Arabia," he said in his first interview since an Aug.12 news conference. "The move was reversed after . . . ourdeparture."

There was no way to independently confirm the claims ofal-Majid, who served as industry minister in addition to his otherposts. As a newly converted Iraqi opposition figure, it would be inal-Majid's interest to play up any hints that Iraq was planning suchmoves.

In another development involving al-Majid, the Observernewspaper in London reported Sunday that he had told U.S. debriefersthat Hussein had been months away from testing an atomic bomb whenU.S.-led allied forces launched the Gulf War to drive his invadingforces out of Kuwait. The Observer quoted sources close to theAmerican team.

If true, the report would mean that Iraq already had finishedbuilding a bomb when its army crossed into Kuwait in 1990.

United Nations inspectors discovered Iraq's clandestine nuclearprogram after the 1990-91 Gulf War. Since then, there have beendiffering estimates of how close the Iraqis were to building a bomb.

The CIA estimated a time frame of four or five years when Iraqinvaded Kuwait in August, 1990, but five months later, it saidBaghdad could be as little as six months away from building a bomb,said Frederick Forsyth, who researched the subject for a novel aboutthe Gulf War.

The Observer quoted sources as saying that Iraq also had plannedto invade Kuwait last October, but Hussein backed down after theUnited States responded quickly to Iraqi troop maneuvers near theborder.

"It was the real thing, it was not a feint, we were not justconducting maneuvers," the paper quoted al-Majid as telling Americanofficials. "Saddam changed his mind only because you responded soquickly."

Al-Majid was granted asylum in Jordan after defecting Aug. 8with his brother Saddam Kamel and their wives - both daughters ofHussein.

The defections - and intelligence reports that all elements ofthe Iraqi armed forces were making unusual movements in southern Iraq- prompted Washington to move warships and military supplies towardthe Persian Gulf.

President Clinton vowed to protect Jordan against any Iraqireprisal for granting the asylum.

Last week, U.S. officials said al-Majid told them Hussein hadcontemplated attacking Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. But the officials didnot indicate that he had a concrete plan or that an invasion might beimminent.

On Sunday, however, al-Majid said Iraq was on the verge ofattacking when he defected.

"The latest movement of a large number of troops toward Basrawas aimed at entering Kuwait," he said, referring to the city insouthern Iraq near the Kuwaiti border.

Iraq has denied that its troop movements were unusual, sayingonly that its armed forces recently held several training exercises.It accuses the United States of whipping up hysteria and spreadingfalse fears of war.

Al-Majid, in his early 40s, said he defected because he "couldnot continue to tolerate the oppression of the Iraqi people and thesavagery of the regime."

He has vowed to topple Hussein and said Sunday that hiscountrymen "must be prepared for a new era," where "democracy andpolitical pluralism will prevail."