WASHINGTON — Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has emerged from his latest confrontation with the United States politically stronger than he was even six weeks ago, Central Intelligence Agency Director John M. Deutch said Thursday.
Deutch's assessment, delivered in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, appeared to take the edge off President Clinton's repeated assertions that the recent round of U.S. military actions has left Hussein "strategically worse off" than he was before.
Deutch also disclosed that Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party, or KDP, faction that asked Iraq to send its troops into the Kurdish enclave in the north to help it rout another group, is now asking the U.S. and its allies for protection again in an effort to keep Baghdad at arm's length.
Barzani met privately with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Pelletreau in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday to hear a U.S. appeal that the two rival Kurdish factions get back together, but no decisions were announced.
"Barzani is playing an enormously dangerous game," Deutch said.
Deutch's remarks seemed likely to be greeted with disappointment by the Clinton administration, which has been trying to defend itself against Republican assertions that Hussein has come out the victor in the latest confrontation with the United States.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other Republican leaders have contended that the Iraqi leader is now "far better off than he was two weeks ago."
McCain asserted Tuesday that the administration had "not matched deeds with rhetoric" in dealing with Hussein.
Although Deutch agreed with Clinton that the U.S. cruise-missile attacks earlier this month--and the president's decision to expand the "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq--had weakened Hussein strategically, he said that Iraq had emerged from the fray politically stronger.
He said the recent confrontation had left "a perception" that the allied coalition had weakened, that there is a new willingness by Turkey to negotiate its own deals with Hussein and that there is growing worldwide sympathy for Iraq that eventually could win it relief from United Nations economic sanctions.
Deutch confirmed that, largely in response to the latest U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf region, Iraq has stopped firing missiles at allied aircraft in recent days and that it has been returning its mobile air-defense units to their garrisons.
