[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 132 (Wednesday, October 9, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10141-S10145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE IRAQ RESOLUTION
Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I take this opportunity to discuss the very
serious matter that is before us today and this week. This is, I trust,
going to be a very somber discussion as we had approximately 11 years
ago when this body approved the actions which led to Desert Storm.
Unfortunately, at that time we did not solve the problems confronting
us as a result of Saddam Hussein and his murderous regime in Iraq.
As we move toward a resolution authorizing the use of force against
the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, let us be clear about the intent.
This resolution we will send a clear message to the world community and
to the Iraqi regime that the demands of the United Nations Security
Council must be followed. Saddam Hussein must be disarmed.
For over a decade now we have tried every means of diplomacy,
sanctions, and inspections to encourage Saddam to keep the promises
that he made after the gulf war. Nothing has worked. Saddam has made a
mockery of the United Nations resolutions and the threat he now poses
to the world is significant and growing.
President Bush stated last night that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein
is a ``murderous tyrant'' who could attack the United States ``on any
given day'' using unmanned aerial vehicles loaded with chemical or
biological weapons. Iraq is unique. By its past and present actions, by
its technological capabilities, by the merciless nature of its regime,
Iraq is unique. Iraq is a true present danger to the United States. As
a former chief weapons inspector of the U.N. has said:
The fundamental problem with Iraq remains the nature of the
regime, itself. Saddam Hussein is a homicidal dictator who is
addicted to weapons of mass destruction.
The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons, is
rebuilding the facilities to make more and, according to the British
Prime Minister Tony Blair, could launch a biological or chemical attack
in as little as 45 minutes after the order is given. The regime has
long-standing and continuing ties to terrorist groups, and we now know
that there are al Qaeda terrorists inside Iraq. In fact, senior members
of the Iraqi government and members of the al Qaeda network have been
in contact for many years. This regime is seeking a nuclear weapon and
the delivery capability to go with it.
[[Page S10142]]
There have been reports in the past from Desert Storm that rather
than having the acquisition of a nuclear weapon years in advance, it
could have been within a year that they could have developed a nuclear
weapon. Had he waited until he had that nuclear device before he
invaded Kuwait, we would have been in a far different position as we
attempted at that time to expel him from Kuwait.
The Iraqi dictator has answered a decade of resolutions with a decade
of defiance. In the Southern and Northern No-fly zones over Iraq,
coalition aircraft continue to be fired on and coalition pilots
continue to put their lives on the line to enforce these resolutions.
There is an ongoing war that Saddam Hussein has carried out against
the coalition which is seeking to enforce United Nations resolutions.
Just this year alone, coalition aircraft have been fired on over 400
times. Since Saddam Hussein made what I believe, from past experience,
will be shown to be a hollow promise to cooperate with the United
Nations, they have fired on coalition aircraft more than 47 times.
Saddam Hussein is a master at saying one thing and doing another.
As President Bush has stated in the past:
The Iraqi regime is led by a dangerous and brutal man. We
know he is actively seeking the destructive technologies to
match his hatred. And we know that he must be stopped. The
dangers we face will only worsen from month to month and year
to year. To ignore these threats is to encourage them--and
when they have fully materialized, it may be too late to
protect ourselves and our allies. By then, the Iraqi dictator
will have had the means to terrorize and dominate the region,
and each passing day could be the one on which the Iraqi
regime gives anthrax or VX nerve gas or someday a nuclear
weapon to a terrorist group.
The mantle of leadership requires this body to act. We have seen the
results of a decade of speaking loudly and carrying a soft stick.
We have pointed out, in past years, the danger of this regime. We
have called for changes. We have asked the United Nations to strengthen
its resolutions. We have asked Saddam Hussein to readmit inspectors to
assure us there are no deadly weapons of mass destruction being
stockpiled. We have been rejected at all points.
Let us act now and pass this resolution in support of our President.
This resolution is needed to send an important signal to our allies and
to the United Nations. With our leadership, I am convinced the
President will build a robust coalition to say no to Saddam Hussein. It
will tell the world we are serious about disarmament, and it will
reaffirm our message to Saddam Hussein.
Approving this resolution does not mean military action is imminent
or unavoidable. The resolution will tell the United Nations and all
nations America speaks with one voice and is determined to make the
demands of the civilized world mean something.
If we do not act, then we face the terrible dangers of an attack with
weapons of mass destruction. If the United Nations does not act, it
faces the prospect of joining the League of Nations on the dustbin of
history: an international organization, organized with the highest
purposes, and by its inaction shown to be ineffective.
I believe and I trust we will give a strong vote, a bipartisan vote,
in support of this resolution. I believe building on that resolution we
will build a coalition, and our world will be a safer place, even
though we have to take the risks that are necessary and that come with
this resolution in order to secure that safety and that peace for
ourselves, our children, and our future.
Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution. I
look forward to working with them on this matter.
I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise to speak today on the resolution
before this body concerning the use of force against Iraq.
For the third time in 12 years, the Senate is considering a
resolution to address a threat posed by Saddam Hussein to America as
well as to the global community.
As I said on the floor of the House of Representatives when I was a
Member of that body in 1991, on behalf of the authorization of what
would become Operation Desert Storm:
[T]he magnitude of the vote I now face is greater than any
other I have or likely will cast.
That is true any time we consider whether to potentially place
American men and women in harm's way. That is why I approached this
particular vote with the deliberation and the solemnity it demands.
During that 1991 debate, I concluded Saddam Hussein's invasion of
Kuwait ``threatened in infancy a new decade of hope.'' As I said at the
time, I voted as I did:
. . . not because the military option is inevitable, but in
order not to undermine the President's efforts to achieve a
peaceful outcome to this crisis--efforts which require that a
credible military threat be maintained against a brutal
aggressor who only understands the language of force. A
credible threat is necessary against a man who has raised one
of the world's largest armies, used chemical weapons against
his own people, invaded two neighbors and is developing
nuclear and biological capabilities. We are hardly dealing
with a man of peace in Saddam Hussein.
History, regrettably, has a way of repeating itself. Because 7 years
later, in 1998, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution which found
Iraq in ``material and unacceptable breach of its international
obligations'' under previous U.N. resolutions--including Security
Council Resolution 687 that set the terms and conditions for the 1991
cease-fire--and urged the President ``to take appropriate action . . .
to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations.'' But
compliance, as we know, never followed.
Which brings us to today, to the resolution we have before us, and to
the two fundamental questions that are being asked here in Washington,
in Maine, and throughout America: Why Saddam Hussein? And why now?
As to the first question, I have come to the conclusion--based on the
facts--that Saddam Hussein's continued, aggressive production of
weapons of mass destruction presents a real and immediate global mess,
particularly in light of the absence of any U.N.-mandated inspectors
over the last 4 years. Indeed, it was just 4 months after Congress
passed the 1998 resolution that Hussein drove out the U.N. weapons
inspectors.
And what were those inspectors leaving behind? A 1999 report by
Richard Butler, the chief inspector, UNSCOM, found when they left Iraq,
they were unable to account for 360 tons of bulk chemical agent,
including 1\1/2\ tons of VX nerve agent, 3,000 tons of precursor
chemicals, enough growth media to manufacture 25,000 liters of anthrax
spores, and 30,000 special munitions for delivering of chemical and
biological agents.
Today, there is no reason to believe Hussein has ever looked back. As
reported in the U.S. intelligence community document made public on
October 4, 2002, he has been seeking to revamp and accelerate his
nuclear weapons program. The report concluded that if left unchecked,
Iraq would ``probably have a nuclear weapon during this decade,'' and
that if Hussein could acquire weapons-grade fissile material from
abroad ``it could make a nuclear weapon within a year.''
This information is echoed in the September 24, 2002, intelligence
dossier released by British Prime Minister Tony Blair--a critical voice
and ally in our war on terrorism. That dossier outlines Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction programs past and present.
It finds Hussein, following the departure of U.N. inspectors in 1998,
is aggressively pursuing development of a nuclear capability, and is
undeniably seeking items needed to enrich uranium, such as fissile
material and gas centrifuge components like vacuum pumps and
specialized aluminum tubes. Tellingly, the report also documents Iraq's
attempts to buy large quantities of uranium from Africa, even though
Iraq has no civil nuclear power program. All of this is in breach of
U.N. Security Council Resolution 687.
Furthermore, the October 4 report states that Iraq is capable of
``quickly producing and weaponizing'' a variety of both chemical and
biological agents, including anthrax, ``for delivery by bombs,
missiles, aerial sprayers, and covert operatives, including potentially
against the U.S. homeland.'' Both reports highlight that Hussein's
weapons are hidden in ``highly survivable'' facilities, some of them
mobile, and, of course, in further violation of
[[Page S10143]]
Resolution 687, his unrelenting effort to expand his ballistic missile
capabilities beyond 150 kilometers.
Finally, the October 4 report found that Iraq has rebuilt missile and
biological weapons facilities damaged during U.S. cruise missile
strikes in 1998. Iraq has begun renewed production of chemical warfare
agents, probably including mustard, sarin, cyclosarin, and VX--all
lethal chemical toxins.
All of this is in flagrant violation not only of the case-fire
resolution, but also 12 other U.S. calls for disarmament over the
ensuing 11 years. So it should come as no surprise that the Security
Council would have issued 30 letters of condemnation to Iraq over this
last decade alone.
Iraq was condemned for failures to cooperate fully and immediately,
failures to allow immediate, unconditional, and unrestricted access,
and failures to fulfill all of its obligations as set out in previous
resolutions. The bottom line is, in every instance, he has failed to
comply--and the U.N. has failed to enforce.
Which brings us to the question of: Why now? What urgency has
interjected itself that would necessitate the actions we contemplate
today? My answer begins not by citing a single fact or occurrence, but
rather by illustrating a new, encroaching threat over the past decade
that was foreshadowed by the first attack on American soil since Pearl
Harbor--the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
I believe that was the seminal moment when our enemies of today were
introduced to the realm of the possible--as those who would wish our
destruction developed and implemented comprehensive strategies to
systematically assault Americans and our interests whenever, wherever,
and however they could.
It also should have been an awakening for America. That is why I
spearheaded investigations into the comings and goings of Sheikh Omar
Abdel Rahman, the mastermind of that bombing in 1993, who entered and
existed this country five times totally unimpeded.
What I found led me to introduce legislation in 1994, requiring
information sharing among critical Government agencies, to ensure those
on the front lines of securing America would have the resources to keep
dangerous aliens from entering the U.S. But there were those who didn't
take the threat seriously, and those reforms were quietly altered, and
allowed to fade out of law in 1998, and out of the national
consciousness.
Now, as we peel back the layers through further investigation, we
discovered the Sheikh was closely tied to Osama bin Laden and the
network we now know as al-Qaida. The point is, over the decade of the
1990s and into the fledgling days of the 21st century, our
consciousness was not attuned to the emerging pattern of attacks, and
so the pattern continued--from Khobar Towers in 1996, to the 1998
embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, to the attack on the USS Cole
in the fall of 2000, and culminating in the horrific events of
September 11, 2001.
That terrible day would finally and forever change the way we assess
our security and vulnerability, single-handedly adding the term
``homeland Security'' to our national lexicon. It has changed our
conception of what constitutes weapons and warfare--and how both may be
used against us.
To paraphrase Governor Ridge, we are now compelled to come to grips
with an enemy who makes no distinction between combatants and
noncombatants. The battlefield itself has changed--today, asymmetrical
threats accost us in a theater of engagement that includes our own
backyard. There is no line of demarcation.
Before September 11, we underestimated the threat, and overestimated
our security. That is why the Senate and House have been holding joint
intelligence hearings, to determine how we can learn from failures of
the past. The lapses were so egregious that it prompted our recent vote
to authorize an independent commission, to conduct a more far-reaching
inquiry into how we could have done better and how we must do better in
the future.
Because there is no longer any question as to the scope of the
threat--and the ability and intent of terrorist groups to bring
devastation to our soil. As Secretary Rumsfeld said:
We have entered a world in which terrorist movements and
terrorist states are developing the capacity to cause
unprecedented destruction. Today, our margin of error is
notably different. In the 20th century, we were dealing, for
the most part, with conventional weapons--weapons that could
kill hundreds of thousands of people, generally combatants.
In the 21st century, we are dealing with weapons of mass
destruction that can kill potentially tens of thousands of
people--innocent men, women and children.
It is through this prism of the post-September 11 world that we must
view an ever emerging convergence of threats over the last 10 years,
represented on the one hand by transnational terrorism exemplified by
al-Qaida--with cells in more than 30 countries--and on the other by a
regime in Iraq that has already developed and deployed horrific weapons
of mass destruction.
Even as far back as 1991, the United Nations was concerned enough
about a potential linkage between terrorists and Saddam Hussein to
include in Resolution 687 a requirement that Iraq inform the Security
Council:
that it will not commit or support any act of international
terrorism or allow any organization directed towards
commission of such acts to operate within its territory . . .
Today, we know from Secretary Rumsfeld that ``al-Qaida is operating
in Iraq''. . . that we have ``accurate and not debatable'' evidence of
reportedly the presence of senior members of Al-Qaida in Baghdad, and
other associations.
Iraq has also reportedly provided safe haven to Abdul
Rahman Yasin, one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, who
was a key participant in the first World Trade Center
bombing.
We also know that Saddam Hussein continues to provide $25,000 rewards
to the families of suicide bombers in the Middle East, continues to
harbor the Abu Nidal Organization, and continues to harbor the
Palestinian Liberation Front.
And so the question we really need to ask ourselves is, why is
Hussein so single-mindedly and at all costs amassing such huge stores
of horrific weapons? We know he has them. We know he has used them
before. The question is, will he use them again?
The answer is that we don't know for certain. But from all I have
been able to ascertain from high-level briefings, the logical
conclusion--based on all the evidence, all the broken promises, all the
obfuscation. And now the nexus between Hussein and terrorist groups and
individuals--is that we simply can't afford the risk to humanity.
Some say we should wait until the threat is imminent. But how will we
know when the danger is clear, present and immediate? When people start
checking into hospitals? When the toxin shows up in the water supply?
When the dirty bomb goes off?
Because, in the shadowy world of terrorism, as we have seen, that
will already be too late. For these are not weapons that can be easily
intercepted or anticipated. They aren't detected by sonar, and they
don't show up on radar screens. Therefore, the standard by which we
judge the level and immediacy of threat must be calibrated accordingly.
In the instance of Iraq, for a terrorist organization that shares
Hussein's disdain for America, where better to acquire weapons of mass
destruction? And for Saddam Hussein, what better way to deliver these
weapons than a terrorist who might smuggle a vial of smallpox in a
suitcase or store a canister of sarin gas in a cargo container or
launch a drone aircraft or other unmanned aerial vehicle that sprays
aerosolized biological agents.
In fact, Richard Butler, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector, was
asked in an interview on October 8, 2002, ``how easy it would be . . .
for the Iraquis to arm a terrorist group, or an individual terrorist,
with weapons of mass destruction.'' It would be ``extremely easy,''
Ambassador Butler told the interviewer. ``If they decided to do it, it
would be a piece of cake.''
It is true we cannot enter the diabolical mind of Saddam Hussein to
know conclusively if and when he may deliver his weapons--or share
those weapons with terrorists organizations. But we do have an
obligation to make a judgment on which side of the equation we want to
err--knowing he has the means and opportunity to strike, and knowing we
will put potentially millions at risk should we misread his
inclination, miscalculate this timing, or underestimate his capability.
[[Page S10144]]
And we have been wrong before. According to Secretary Rumsfeld,
before Operation Desert Storm, ``these best intelligence estimates were
that Iraq was at least 5 to 7 years away from having nuclear weapons.
The experts were wrong. When the U.S. got on the ground, it found the
Iraquis were probably 6 months to a year away . . .'' Just imagine if
we were confronted with an Iraq that already had nuclear capability.
Today he is procuring his weapons with the $6.6 billion in illict
revenue GAO estimates he has gained over the last 4 years through oil
smuggling and ``surcharges.'' When you consider that al-Qaida spent
merely $500,000 to inflict such horror as we saw in New York,
Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon, that equation becomes even more
ominous--all the more so as September 11 raised our sense of urgency
and illuminated a whole new range of dangerous scenarios that place
Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in a very different light.
As Henry Kissinger warned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on
September 26, ``We are only at the beginning of global proliferation,''
and thus we need to ``consider not only the risk of action but the
consequences of inaction.'' In context of all we know--we can no longer
assure Americans that he can be contained and confined to Iraq.
Therefore, I believe the world must disarm Saddam Hussein now, when the
development of his capability is imminent--not waiting until it is
imminent he is about to strike.
In the absence of true strength of enforcement, Hussein will continue
to exploit our every weakness through his methodical ``cheat and
retreat,'' as he has done systematically and persistently in the past--
resulting in more of the old dynamic of U.N. resolutions and economic
sanctions, followed by the repeated inability of the U.N. to enforce
its own mandates.
To change this paradigm, the President has now rightfully come to
Congress to seek authorization and support for a resolution ensuring
that when he speaks, he does so with the strength of a unified,
unequivocal American voice that leaves no ambivalence as to the
resoluteness of our position . . . no doubt where America stands.
Given the gravity of the global implications of Hussein's serial
intransigence, there is no substitute for the U.N. enforcing
compliance, or for the U.S. working through the U.N. Appropriately,
this resolution calls upon the President to use the full weight of this
office, first and foremost through his diplomatic means and persuasive
power--as well as that of his foreign policy team--to convince the U.N.
to impose and enforce unfettered, unrestricted inspections. And as
Secretary of State Powell has noted, ``our diplomatic efforts at the
United Nations would be helped by a strong Congressional resolution. .
. .''
Furthermore, as many of my colleagues, as well as my constituents,
have expressed, the use of force should be the last resort, and under
this resolution it is the last resort. The President emphasized in his
speech to the Nation that, ``congressional authorization does not mean
that military action is imminent or unavoidable.''
I realize there are those who oppose unilateral action should the
U.N. fail to act, and accordingly would oppose this resolution granting
such Presidential authority. But for those who would ultimately
preserve the right to authorize military action--even if we cannot
secure a U.N. mandate for enforcement--this resolution is preferable to
a two-tiered approach.
Why? In my view, by granting military authority to the President in
advance, it leaves no question or uncertainty as to the level of our
commitment, thereby strengthening the President's ability to secure
U.N. implementation of a new and enforceable resolution and potentially
places us on a course toward a peaceful disarmament. As always,
diplomacy must constitute our first line of defense. But in the event
that action becomes necessary to safeguard our national security
interests outside the auspices of the United Nations, let there be no
mistake--the President must exert the last full measure of effort in
building an international coalition to join us in disarming Saddam
Hussein, because this shouldn't have to be a solo endeavor for our
nation.
Iraq is not just a threat to America. It is a threat to all of
humanity. It is not just our interests we are protecting, it is the
interests of a new century that must be free from the scourge of global
terrorism. And our goals with regard to Saddam Hussein are inseparable
from our mission to eradicate terror at its roots.
I have come to the regrettable conclusion that if we allow the Iraqi
regime to continue developing its horrific capabilities with impunity,
we are endangering mankind by sending a corrosive message that the
stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction buys immunity from
international response.
If the United States and its allies offer nothing but disapproving
rhetoric or ineffective sanctions as the only price for Iraq's
hostility and defiance, then we concede a victory to the tactics of
aggression. Rather, if the free nations of the world are to remain the
authors of our own destiny, history teaches us that we must never
countenance the tyranny of such threats.
As Winston Churchill wrote in 1936 of the tyrants building stocks of
state-of-the-art weapons of the day:
Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not
dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
The world can no longer ignore the tiger in Iraq.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a transcript of the
``Today Show'' of October 8, 2002, be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Matt Lauer (co-host): As we reported, President Bush laid
out his case against Saddam Hussein again in a speech on
Monday night in Cincinnati. He talked about Iraq's capability
to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. Richard Butler
was chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq and the last person
to oversee an inspection team in Baghdad. Mr. Butler, good
morning to you.
Mr. Richard Butler (Former U.N. Weapons Inspector): Good
morning, Matt. Good to see you.
Lauer: Good to see you. In his speech last night, the
president actually quoted you, saying that Saddam Hussein is,
quote, ``addicted to weapons of mass destruction.'' You were
last in Iraq in 1998, and before your inspection team was
kicked out . . .
Mr. Butler: Mm-hmm.
Lauer: . . . you said, and I'm quoting a Time magazine
article, quote, ``you saw some really disturbing stuff,'' end
quote. Be more specific. What did you see that we should be
afraid of now?
Mr. Butler: Well, in particular, Matt, one of the
substances that the president mentioned last night, in may I
say what I thought was an outstanding speech, I think the
best he's given, that substance is called VX. It is the most
toxic of the chemical warfare agents. And we saw some deeply
disturbing evidence that Iraq had made a very significant
quantity of VX. I was pleased to see the president refer to
that last night. We also saw evidence that they had loaded it
into missile warheads. That's the--the difficulty Iraq has
always had, is how to weaponize this hideous stuff that they
make and they continue to make. And in the case of VX, we saw
evidence that they had loaded it into missile warheads for
delivery.
Lauer: Iraq has agreed to let UN weapons inspection teams
back into the country with limitations. They will not be
allowed to inspect Saddam Hussein's personal palaces. Is that
worth anything, in your opinion?
Mr. Butler: No, it's not, Matt. I'm really slightly stunned
to think that we are now exactly where we were four years
ago. And by the way, it's not palaces, it's presidential
sites. The--the parts of Iraq that the Iraqis declared in the
past to be of presidential significance measured some 75
square kilometers, you know, 50 square miles, much larger
than the eight palaces that Saddam has. The number of
buildings is what was really important in those presidential
sites. It . . .
Lauer: What's going on at . . .
Mr. Butler: . . . was 1,100 . . .
Lauer: . . . those sites . . .
Mr. Butler: . . . buildings.
Lauer: . . . in our opinion?
Mr. Butler: Well, no, we--we can't know without inspection.
But we had excellent intelligence information in the past
that weapons were stored there, that materials, with which to
make weapons were stored there. Matt, it's always been the
same, and it is the same today. The Iraqis say they have no
weapons, OK. If they don't, let the inspectors in. And what
they have tried to do today, as they did four years ago, is
say you can come in up to a point . . .
Lauer: Right.
Mr. Butler: . . . but not in the places that we say are
presidential. That's not good enough.
Lauer: And real, real quickly, how easy would it be, in
your opinion, Mr. Butler, for the Iraqis to arm a terrorist
group or an individual terrorist with weapons of mass
destruction?
Mr. Butler: Really quickly, Matt? Extremely easy. If they
decide to do it, piece of cake.
[[Page S10145]]
Lauer: Richard Butler. Mr. Butler, thanks very much for
your time.
Mr. Butler: Thank you.
Lauer: It's 17 after the hour. Once again, here's Katie.
Katie Couric (co-host): Thanks, Matt.
Ms. SNOWE. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Leahy). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
____________________