The terror attacks on the United States were "an inside job" and a sign of America's collapse, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said in an interview published Sunday.
The jetliner suicide bombings were "undoubtedly an inside job which heralds the beginning of the collapse [of the United States] from within," Ramadan told the weekly Al-Rai.
"This was an internal, not an [externally-orchestrated] operation ... I don't think any [foreign] organization is capable of staging such attacks in American airports," the Iraqi official added.
Ramadan said the "collapse" of the United States would be the result of "God's will". Washington should now "rethink both its internal and foreign policies", he said.
He denounced US threats against Afghanistan, which hosts Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, Washington's number one suspect in the terror attacks, saying they reflected its "hostility to Arabs and Muslims."
He also slammed Arab leaders who had "shamelessly" condemned the attacks, saying they "would have done better to remain silent or thank God for his mercy."
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the only Arab leader not to have condemned the attacks, Saturday advised the United States to refrain from using force in retaliation for the atrocities.
"The United States needs common sense and not force," Saddam said in an open letter addressed to the peoples and governments of the United States and other Western countries.
Saddam, whose country has been a sworn foe of Washington since the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait, has also said the Americans were "reaping the thorns sown" by their policies, drawing a sharp rebuke from the US secretary of state.
"I'm not surprised," Colin Powell said. "He [Saddam] is one of the leading terrorists on the face of the earth and I would not expect the slightest drop of milk of human kindness to be flowing in his veins” -- BAGHDAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
