Kuwaiti intelligence officers uncovered a plot to assassinate George Bush just before his April arrival in Kuwait but didn't alert the former president to the potential danger during his three-day stay there, according to U.S. and Kuwaiti officials.
Bush said through his Houston office on Friday that he was unaware of the Iraqi assassination scheme until after he returned from the triumphant April 14-16 visit. The Kuwaiti government hosted the event to honor Bush for his role in the Persian Gulf War."Had he known, he wouldn't have gone," an aide in Houston said. The aide commented after talking by telephone on Friday with the ex-president, who was at his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
Vince Cannistraro, former chief of counterterrorism operations for the CIA, said that Kuwaiti officials did not tell the Secret Service about the plot because they were afraid that Bush would abort the trip. The Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington disputed that account, and Secret Service officials could not be reached for comment.
President Clinton ordered a retaliatory U.S. missile strike against Iraq last weekend. Clinton cited "compelling evidence" that the Iraqi Intelligence Service plotted to kill Bush and other members of his high-ranking entourage with a car bomb powerful enough to destroy a four-block area.
Bush has declined interviews but released a statement after the missile strike supporting Clinton's actions.
Raed al-Rifai, press attache for the Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington, said that Kuwaiti intelligence officers discovered the plot April 13. Operating on a tip from outside the country, they arrested 14 suspects and seized a Toyota Land Cruiser containing 80 kilograms (176 pounds) of hidden explosives, al-Rifai said.
Two other suspects, he said, were still at large after Bush and his party arrived April 14 for three days of high-profile ceremonies, speeches and tours through war-ravaged neighborhoods. Several members of the presidential entourage said in interviews or through spokesmen that they were not told of the foiled assassination attempt.
"None of us knew it," said Sig Rogich, a former aide in the Bush White House.
Former Secretary of State James Baker III was "unaware that anything was going on" until reading newspaper accounts of the assassination scheme after flying to Egypt from Kuwait, said spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler.