-Caveat Lector- http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/03/attack/main524191.shtml
Iraq Support Solid At Home, Not At U.N. Oct. 10, 2002 "Congress is being stampeded, pressured, adjured, importuned into acting on this blank check." Sen. Robert Byrd (CBS) The House of Representatives was poised to vote Thursday to clear the way for President Bush to wage war against Iraq if he decides force alone can subdue Saddam Hussein. A decisive, bipartisan vote for the president was expected, and the Senate could follow by the end of the week, putting the United States on a combat-ready footing. Mr. Bush, who has stressed that he has made no decision on launching a military strike against Baghdad, has urged Congress to stand with him as he presses the U.N. Security Council to approve a new resolution demanding that Iraq abide by comprehensive inspections and disarmament or face the consequences. The Senate was likely to clear a hurdle Thursday with a vote to deter a possible filibuster by Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat who is a tenacious opponent of ceding congressional warmaking powers to the president. "Congress is being stampeded, pressured, adjured, importuned into acting on this blank check," said Byrd, the Senate's 84-year-old president pro tempore. Progress was slower on the diplomatic front, where three members of the U.N. Security Council — France, Russia and China — continued to hold out against a U.S.-British proposal sanctioning military action if Iraq does not comply with coercive inspections. A 25-minute telephone call between Bush and French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday failed to yield a breakthrough over wording of a new Security Council resolution to disarm Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "This is intricate diplomacy and we are continuing our consultations," White House spokesman Sean McCormack said. In Paris, Chirac spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said the French president was open to strengthening the powers of U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq, but still could not accept making military recourse an automatic response should they be hampered. In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov relayed a similar stance. Secretary of State Colin Powell, interviewed on CNN's "Larry King Live" program, said world leaders were coming together on Iraq. "There is a new determination, a new understanding within the international community that we cannot turn away from it this time, we cannot look away and trust Saddam Hussein to do the right thing," he said. Debate in the House went deep into the night both Tuesday and Wednesday, with nearly every member intent on expressing the necessity, and gravity, of granting authority to send Americans into war. "I know the heartache and pain of the families that are left behind," said a tearful Rep. Randy Cunningham, a California Republican who was a pilot in the Vietnam War. But Cunningham and almost every Republican backed the president. "It's time we go straight to the eye and dismantle the elements from which the storm of brutal, repressive tyranny and terrorism radiate," said Rep. Porter Goss, a Florida Republican, He said that as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, "I can attest to the evilness of Saddam Hussein." About half the Democrats were ready to vote for an alternative proposal, sponsored by Rep. John Spratt, a South Carolina Democrat, that would authorize the use of U.S. force in conjunction with U.N. punishment of Iraq, but require the president to come back for a second vote if he wants to act unilaterally against Saddam. The White House-backed resolution encourages cooperation with U.N. efforts, but gives the go-ahead for unilateral action. Many Democrats said unilateral action could come at a terrible cost in lives and resources, set a bad precedent for other countries seeking to depose the leaders of other countries and create a backlash in the Muslim world. "It is not a victory to strike down one tyrant and breed 10,000 terrorists," said Rep. Jay Inslee, a Washington state Democrat who is a supporter of the Spratt proposal. A similar proposal offered by Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, and debated Wednesday night in the Senate also seemed headed for defeat. An amendment by Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat, to expand Bush's authority for pre-emptive military action to include five terror organizations, went down, 88-10. At the same time, several senior Democrats said they would support the White House-backed resolution, with reservations, including Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate's second-ranked Democrat, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden of Delaware. Reid urged Bush to use his warmaking powers carefully, saying: "As president of the United States, you are the leader of the free world, not its ruler." Biden, who had favored more checks on presidential authority, came along as well, saying the measure would help give the administration more leverage before the Security Council. "If Saddam Hussein is around five years from now, we are in deep trouble as a country," Biden said. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, a possible Democratic presidential contender in 2004, said he would vote with the president because Saddam's weapons posed "a real and grave threat to our security." But he added that the administration had complicated its case and compromised U.S. credibility in the world by "engaging in hasty war talk rather than focusing on the central issue of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." In Baghdad, Iraq repeated denials that it is rearming and said Thursday that even without sophisticated weapons, it will teach the United States an unforgettable lesson if it is attacked. Minister of Military Industrialization Abdel Tawab Mullah Huweish spoke at a news conference Thursday, after U.S. officials claimed that Iraq is rebuilding at weapons research and development sites. "I am in charge of the weapons programs and I am saying here and now that we do not have weapons of mass destruction and we do not have programs to develop them," Huweish said. Iraqi officials have repeatedly denied they are working on nuclear weapons. U.S. intelligence does not believe Saddam has developed any, but thinks he may by 2010. Iraq's Deputy Premier Tariq Aziz, who is traveling the region trying to rally support, told reporters upon arrival in Lebanon Thursday that U.S. threats against Iraq were threats against "the Arab nation." <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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