People's Democracy

THE United States has taken another major step to promote lawlessness and state terrorism. President Bush has recently signed an order directing the CIA to undertake a comprehensive programme to topple the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussain. The order authorises the use of lethal force to capture the Iraqi president. In other words, the sanction has been given to assassinate Saddam Hussain. For this, CIA teams and special forces can also be used.

For more than a decade, the United States has been trying to get rid of Iraq's Head of State. From pumping in millions of dollars, to infiltrating agents, to economic blockade and outright military attacks -- nothing has been spared in America's war against Iraq.

After having failed in all its efforts to impose a puppet regime in Iraq, a renewed thrust is now on by president Bush to use the so-called "war against terrorism" to target Iraq. In April this year, Bush declared that Saddam Hussain has to go, as if the United States has the divine right to decide who should rule any country. Later, in early June, addressing the cadets of the US military academy, Bush announced that he would take preemptive action against regimes he deemed a threat to the United States. In the list of such regime figures Iraq and also Cuba.

Bush has been equally offensive about Cuba. He declared that Cuba's socialist system cannot be tolerated by the United States and issued threats in a speech catering to the Cuban émigrés living in Miami. In his stunning reply, Fidel Castro, addressing a mammoth rally, exposed Bush's intimate links with the Cuban counter revolutionary organisations who are organising terrorist activities and murderous attacks in Cuba. Castro hit the nail on the head when he said: "Mr. Bush's intimate relationship with these terrorists completely undermines his moral authority and disqualifies him as a world leader to fight against terrorism".

Bush has become the epitome of imperialist terror and brigandage. His recent actions will further undermine any credibility for the US "war against terrorism".

As for Vajpayee and Advani, willing accomplices of Bush's criminal acts, the Indian people would like to know from them how they can tolerate the sanction to eliminate the Head of a State with whom India has close and friendly relations. The dangerous implications of allowing the US full access and collaboration with our security and intelligence apparatus has not dawned on them. This very collaboration will be used against the Indian state and its leadership whenever the United States decides they are inimical to its interests.