By Phillip Kurata
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says there are compelling reasons for removing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power, although President Bush has not decided how to do it.

"He's used chemical weapons against his own people and against his neighbors. He's invaded his neighbors. He's killed thousands of his own people. He shoots at our planes, our airplanes, in the no fly zone where we're trying to enforce UN security resolutions and he, despite the fact that he lost this war, a war by the way which he started, he negotiates with the United Nations as if he won the war. I think it's a very stunning indictment," Rice said in an interview that the BBC broadcast August 15.

Rice said history is littered with cases of inaction against dictators who should have been stopped before they could inflict massive killing.

"We just have to look back and ask how many dictators who ended up being a tremendous global threat and killing thousands and indeed millions of people should we have stopped in their tracks. That's really the question," she said.

The issue of whether or not to attack Iraq has generated a heated debate in the U.S. national media and Congress. There is a broad agreement that Saddam Hussein poses a threat, but no consensus on whether pre-emptive military action would be preferable to a continuation of the present policy of containment.

Senator Carl Levin (Democrat from Ohio), the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, recently said that attacking Saddam might provoke just what the world most fears from Saddam -- use of chemical and biological weapons.

Rice said if military intervention were used to depose Saddam, then follow-up action would be required to improve the lives of people in Iraq and the region afterward.

"I would think that at the end of any action that we might take toward regime change, it would be an obligation for all of us to make certain that things are better for the people of the country and the people of the region," she said.

While the Bush administration has not made a decision to proceed with an attack, it is working with opposition Iraqi groups to prepare for a post-Saddam era. The administration has funded the Iraqi National Congress with an additional $8 million to publish a newspaper, beam anti-Saddam television broadcasts into Iraq and operate humanitarian relief programs. The administration also is accepting bids from non-governmental organizations to receive $6.6 million to fund programs to deliver humanitarian assistance to Iraqis.

Responding to a question from the BBC interviewer whether the next step in the war on terrorism should not be to help resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians rather than attack Iraq, Rice said that President Bush is acting very aggressively to help those parties achieve peace.

"The president laid out a very aggressive agenda and a very aggressive vision for a different kind of Middle East, one in which you have two states. He's been by far more direct in talking about two states than any American president has dared be. He's called it Palestine, for goodness sake, and now that's changed the terms of the debate," Rice said. "In order to get there we have to have a leadership that is committed on the Palestinian side to dealing with the terrorism in its midst."

The national security adviser also commented on Iran, where she said, "an unelected few are really crushing the aspirations of their people."

"What we're saying to the Iranians is act like elected leaders, and these unelected few should not be permitted to hijack the aspirations of the Iranian people. But it's very clear that Iran is not on the side of peace," Rice said.