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Source: http://www.news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/01/14/wirq14.xml
White House Fears Baghdad Palace Coup
(Telegraph-UK) - Toby Harnden After years of trying to provoke a coup against Saddam Hussein, Washington is now concerned that his overthrow on the eve of American-led military action could create more problems than it solves. Planners in the State Department have drawn up a list of the "filthy 40" Iraqi leaders who would be unacceptable as replacements for Saddam because of their war crimes records. The White House fears that it would face protests from Western allies and intense pressure to call off an invasion even if a coup left Saddam's Ba'athist regime in place and his weapons of mass destruction unaccounted for.