U.S. funds Iraqi opposition

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is giving the Iraqi opposition expanded authority on how to spend millions of dollars in U.S. aid.

U.S. officials said the aid could be spent on virtually anything but weapons. The Bush administration has approved $4 million of aid to the Iraqi National Congress and plans to allocate up to $33 million in the effort to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The expanded authority was granted as INC leaders were preparing to meet senior Bush administration officials on Monday. Administration officials said they want to give the Iraqi opposition greater leeway in their drive against Baghdad while not plunging the INC into a military conflict with the Saddam regime.

The United States, however, appears to have ruled out its direct military involvement in Iraq unless Saddam restores his nonconventional weapons. "We reserve the right to use whatever means necessary as soon as we have a certain set of targets or we found something that we found was appropriate to go after," Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

On Friday, the administration announced that the United States was transferring to the INC $4 million for what officials said was in essence a drive to improve intelligence-gathering on the Saddam regime. The goal is to obtain information on the regime's war crimes.

"This is a further step in that process, and it is consistent with President Bush's support for the Iraqi opposition," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said. "So this ties back to the previous legislation."

Officials said the allocation marked the first time since 1996 that Washington has funded opposition activity inside Iraq. Money for such activities ended when Saddam crushed the opposition's stronghold in northern Iraq in 1997.

At the same time, the U.S. army is training Iraqi opposition members in what officials termed as special, non-combat training. The training focuses on medical aid and logistics.

Administration officials said the INC will no longer have to seek administration approval for every purchase. Instead, the opposition can purchase virtually anything required for an intelligence effort against Saddam as long as it does not include weapons.

"It is within their purview now to decide how to conduct these programs and using our money to do it," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "We know what they are doing. We are funding what they are doing essentially, though."

At the same time, the United States is becoming a key customer of Iraqi crude oil. The Nicosia-based Middle East Economic Survey reports that "U.S. refiners are buying the overwhelming majority of Iraqi oil exports" through third parties. Iraq exports around one million barrels per day under the United Nations oil-for-food program. The rest of the estimated 2.2 million barrels per day is believed smuggled out of Iraq through neighboring countries such as Syria.