IRAQ: President Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, has warned the United States of huge losses and a calamity worse than the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington if it goes ahead with plans to invade Iraq.
"It is better for them [the Americans] to keep themselves away from us," Uday Hussein was quoted as saying by al-Shabab (Youth) Television, which he owns.
"Because, if they come, September 11th, which they are crying over and see as a big thing, will be a real picnic for them, God willing," he said, referring to the attacks which killed about 3,000 people in 2001.
"They will be hurt and \ pay a price they will never imagine," he added, repeating comments similar to those in an editorial in Thursday's Babel newspaper, which he also owns.
Uday Hussein insisted that Washington would not succeed in deposing his father. "They can get much more from Iraq by dialogue, without resorting to the logic of force and war," he said.
The US believes that Saddam Hussein is hiding weapons of mass destruction from UN weapons inspectors and has threatened to disarm him by force if necessary. Iraq denies having such weapons.
"They [the inspectors\] will discover that we do not have these things. We are not lying, we are telling the truth, we have no proscribed weapons," Uday Hussein said.
Calls were made for victory over US forces during Friday prayers in mosques throughout Baghdad yesterday.
"God, make us victorious against our enemies," the imam of the old Kilani mosque said amid a chorus of thousands of reciting worshippers.
Yesterday, the US Deputy Defence Secretary, Mr Paul Wolfowitz, claimed that another of Saddam Hussein's sons, Qusay, was responsible for "anti-inspection activities" and was using a network of "thugs, spies and hackers" to thwart the hunt for weapons.
The "anti-inspectors" in Qusay Hussein's "special security organisation" were spying on the United Nations arms inspectors, hacking into their computers and threatening Iraqi scientists who might talk about their work on weapons of mass destruction, Mr Wolfowitz said in New York.
"We know from multiple sources that Saddam has ordered that any scientist who co-operates during interviews will be killed, as well as their families," he added. - (Reuters, PA)