Dial 1-800-Kurd

By RICHARD ZOGLIN/

Observers of U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf are increasingly puzzled over Washington's failure to play one potentially strong card: seeking the support of Iraqi opponents to Saddam Hussein, particularly leaders of the oppressed Kurdish minority. Washington has dropped heavy hints that it would like to see Saddam overthrown, and the Kurds are among Saddam's bitterest foes. But so far there have been no calls from Washington to the dissidents. The U.S., says a spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, a Kurdish independence group, "should look more closely at the internal situation in Iraq. And this can only be done by talking to the opposition."

With reporting by David E. Thigpen