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       the following appeared in the "VILLAGE VOICE," January 22, 1991

  Slouching Toward Baghdad:  How Diplomatic Bungling Brought Us to the Brink

                              By Murray Waas
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         Let's Make This Perfectly Clear:  What's a Border Dispute?

       Early on the morning of July 28, CIA director William Webster and a
    small contingent of aides--including Richard Stolz, the deputy
    director of operations--arrived at the White House to inform President
    Bush that they believed that an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was imminent.
    But Webster told the president that the Iraqis were more likely to
    only annex the Rumaila oil fields and the two islands.  To
    substantiate their claims, the CIA officials were armed with satellite
    photos showing Iraqi troops massed near the Kuwaiti border.  Two CIA
    experts on satellite imaging accompanied Webster to the White House,
    in case Bush had detailed questions;  but the president showed little
    interest.
       (A White House spokesperson refused to confirm or deny that such a
    briefing was ever held for the president.  A spokesperson for the CIA,
    Mark Mansfield, told this reporter he could only say that the CIA
    furnished the White House with "very useful and timely information.")
       Despite Webster's personal warning, spokespersons for the Bush
    administration in the four days remaining before the invasion
    continued to insist the U.S. would remain neutral and not come to
    Kuwaits assistance.
       Then on July 31, just two days before the invasion, another senior
    official of the.Bush administration would leave little doubt with
    Saddam that the U.S. would not come to the rescue of Kuwait if it was
    attacked.  The occasion was yet another appearance by Assistant
    Secretary of State John Kelly before House foreign affairs
    subcommittee.
       By this time, analysts at both the CIA and the Defense Intelligence
    Agency reportedly had reached a consensus that some type of Iraqi
    military action against Kuwait was imminent, although there were
    disagreements as to whether Saddam was simply targeting the Rumaila
    oil fields and the two islands or the entire country.
       Despite this new assessment, Kelly told the congressmen in a
    prepared statement:  "Historically, the U.S. has taken no position on
    the border disputes in the area, not on matters pertaining to internal
    OPEC deliberations."
       The subcommittee chairman, Representative Lee Hamilton (Democrat,
    Indiana), who opposed U.S. military intervention at he time, pressed
    Kelly more specifically:
       "I read a statement . . . in the press [in which] Secretary Cheney
    said the United States' commitment was to come to . . . Kuwait's
    defense if attacked.  And I wondered if . . . I'm not sure that's an
    accurate statement, but that's what I read in the press.  Perhaps you
    could clarify for me just what our commitment is."
       Asserting that he had never even heard of Cheney's statement, Kelly
    said:  "We have no defense treaty relationship with any gulf country.
    That is clear. . . .  We have not historically taken a position on
    border disputes."
       Hamilton pressed Kelly further, apparently to make sure the U.S.
    was not about to become involved in a war in the Persian Gulf:  "If
    Iraq . . . charged across the border into Kuwait--what would be our
    position with regard to the use of U.S. forces? . . . It is correct to
    say, however, that we do not have a treaty commitment which would
    obligate us to engage U.S. forces there?"
       "That is correct." Kelly responded.
       Whatever little doubt, whatever slight ambiguity existed about the
    U.S. position on an Iraqi takeover of Kuwait was now gone, thanks to
    the public statement of a senior Bush administration policymaker.
       Two days later, Iraqi troops crossed the border into Kuwait.