Updated 1/24/2011
One of the crown jewels of secret pre-Gulf War negotiations was unveiled tonight when the notorious Glaspie Memo, or as it is now known 90BAGHDAD423, was released by WikiLeaks
The cable, whose official title was “Saddam’s Message of Friendship to President Bush” details the meeting between US Ambassador April Glaspie and Saddam Hussein on July 25, 1990, just a week before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
The meeting has long been a matter of speculation, as it had long been speculated that comments by Glaspie had led Saddam to believe that the United States was giving them the green light to invade Kuwait if diplomacy failed.
The memo reveals indeed Hussein expressing concern about the Bush Administration’s position on Iraq owing to its participation in military exercises with the United Arab Emirates and pledges to “defend its allies” in the region. He complained the US pledges were making Kuwait and the UAE refuse to negotiate with Iraq. He also expressed concern about negative media coverage in the US, which Ambassador Glaspie assured him did not reflect US policy and singled out a Diane Sawyer report on “nuclear bomb triggers” for condemnation.
Rather Glaspie assured Saddam of Bush’s friendship and expressed support for the negotiations being set up by Hosni Mubarak for the weekend of July 28-30. She also explicitly said the United States took no position on the border dispute between Iraq and Kuwait, though the summary also mentions that she made clear the US wanted the move solved peacefully. Hussein assured that no action would be taken against Kuwait if the negotiations showed some progress, which seemed to suit the US at the time.
But the talks didn’t accomplish anything and by August 2 Iraq was invading Kuwait. Within hours the mutual friendship was completely torn up and US officials were railing against Iraq. A few months later the US invaded for the first time, sparking invasions, decades of enmity, sanctions which killed massive numbers of Iraqi civilians and, eventually, a full US occupation which continues to this day.
A complaint that "U.S. policy was making Kuwait and the UAE refuse to negotiate." Interesting, where else are we witnessing this phenomenon in the Middle East.
Jason, in your last paragraph you should have mentioned that the Iraq war and the sanctions that followed contributed to Bin Laden's decision to strike back against the United States.
It was a trap from day 1….. and Saddam fell for it….
Did you read the cable? It doesn't sound like it was a trap but that the US was unwilling to compromise with Iraq's needs. I don't see any evidence in there of a trap.
It may not have been a trap,Bush advantage of the situation and gave Saddam no way out.
No trap?! Why did she told Saddam US took no position on Iraq/Kuwait border dispute. This was consistent with the fact that USA reacted furiously against Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
The interesting question is the motivation behind this trap. Well it is not that complicated — USA or Israel wanted an excuse to flatten Iraq, a strong enemy of Israel.
This may be one of the few really meaningful Wikileaks documents, as it seems to support what "conspiracy theorists" have been saying for years – that Bush intentionally baited Saddam into war.
But wait, according to Antiwar, there are no such things as conspiracy theories and all conspiracy theorists are crackpots…
typical american.
It just shows how stupid and brash Saddam was. He was never one to be cautious, and he proved it!!
20+ paragraphs of saddam begging for peace…
interpreters cry at the fact that their country is so poor they can't afford pensions for the iran iraq war orphans and widows,
begging the united states to help find a diplomatic solution
He must be stopped!!.
…. because he is a hitler!
The same thought goes to those Liberals and Democrats who voted for Obama thinking that he at the time was a socialist…., and just been landing from Chicago politburo – dreamland to save the poor world with his healthcare program.., not knowing that heaven have two side one is just called “heaven” the other militarism. Yet trusting George Bush and his son you have to be stupid as stupid dose.
This is Suckerpunch 101:All World Leaders and National governments should assume this is what the US will do.
Hussein was a demented, devious character -but I don't understand why he fell for this. (Perhaps he had other back channel communications) surrounding Kuwait at that time???)
Dave,
What is the basis of your claim that Saddam Hussein was demented and devious? He certainly comes across as forthright and reasonable in Glaspie's account of her 2 hour meeting with him.
I am fairly sure that the invasion was an afterthought prompted by England's outrage against the invasion of Kuwait, it's 'gas pump' in the Middle East. Waiting for that, and other related shoes to drop.
There may very well be parts of Glaspie's conversation that she conveniently left out of the memorandum – this is not a disinterested record of the conversation. In any case, the memorandum clearly shows that Iraq was in desperate straits and wanted to be cut some slack to deal with its financial crisis. The FedGov was clearly prepared to offer Saddam plenty of glittering (and meaningless) generalities, all the while encouraging the oil sheikhs to give Saddam the finger. Typical FedGov duplicity. This, of course, could quite easily be described as an attempt to bait the Iraqis. What is needed now to make a proper assessment of the probable baiting is to see what was being said in Washington. Does Wikileaks have those documents? Also of use would be documents describing exactly how the UAE and Kuwait were giving Saddam the finger. For negotiations to collapse in three days would seem to require quite a bit of unadulterated effrontery.
The part of Glaspie's memo where she said the U.S. opposed the use of force to solve disputes was obviously a lie, since the U.S. supported Iraq's war with Iran, which Iraq started by invading Iran. The problem for liars has always been, "How do I get it across to them that this time I'm not lying?"
Very interesting.
Noticed that no western media has reported about the cable yet?
Your article is the only one.
There's a more complete transcript of this meeting, apparently from the NYT, Sept 23, 1990 :
"WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 — On July 25,President Saddam Hussein of Iraq summoned the United States Ambassador to Baghdad, April Glaspie, to his office in the last high-level contact between the two Governments before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2. Here are excerpts from a document described by Iraqi Government officials as a transcript of the meeting, which also included the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Tariq Aziz. A copy was provided to The New York Times by ABC News, which translated from the Arabic. The State Department has declined to comment on its accuracy."
http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/glaspi…
Many of the details seem to line up, so it seems pretty authentic.
(thanks to commenter "oomoex" on Greenwald's forum)
Why doesn't Anti-War open a poll to find which country in the world is the most: despicable, duplicitous, blood-thirsty, greedy, immoral, deceitful, brutal, cruel, corrupt and dishonest?
Well, there's only one contender that I can think of and it's not Fiji!
http://www.dangerouscreation.com