And does this look like "an Arab?
Posted on 09/14/2002 9:05:35 AM PDT by HAL9000
An American elected official in visit in Baghdad criticizes "the rhetoric of US war"
Saturday September 14, 2002 - 15h47 GMT
BAGHDAD, 14 seven (AFP) - an American member of Parliament, Nick Rahall, on mission of peace "in Baghdad, invited Saturday the Administration of the president George W Bush to attenuate his" rhetoric of war "with regard to the Iraqi mode.
"We are very worried by the climbing of the rhetoric of war emanating from our Administration. It is time to attenuate this rhetoric and to rather let prevail the reason and the dialogue ", declared Mr. Rahall with the press at the end of discussions with deputies and the president of the Iraqi Parliament Saadoun Hammadi.
Mr. Rahall arrived at dawn by plane coming from Damas, accompanied by the executive director of Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA), a ' think tank ' based in San Francisco, Norman Solomon, of International president de Conscience, a group of defense of the humans right based in Atlanta, James Jennings, and of the ex-senator James Abourezk.
"Our delegation does not exclude a peaceful outcome from the current situation between Iraq and the United States. We do not want to see occurring what arrived at your country twelve years ago ", it added in allusion to the war of the Gulf.
Mr. Rahall, representative democratic of Western Virginia, moreover "regretted" that the addressed invitation at the beginning of August by Mr. Hammadi with the Congress to send a mission of investigation on the supposed prohibited weapons of Iraq "did not arrive to all the members of the Congress" because it according to him "was diverted on other levels within our government".
"I consider it regrettable that you did not receive response to this invitation and I hope as a member of the Congress that my visit here today will contribute to the opening of a dialogue" between the United States and Iraq, it has says.
"We come here to tighten the hand for a dialogue with the Iraqi people and its direction", it added.
Mr. Rahall had before visited a hospital of pediatry in Baghdad and had met the Minister for Health as well as the Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Aziz in his office in the Iraqi capital, according to the correspondent of the AFP on the spot.
Nothing filtered on these discussions.
Mr. Rahall, who is of Lebanese origin, had indicated on his arrival in Baghdad that it was "on mission humane" sponsored by IPA."Je am here to convince the Iraqi people that the American people are worried by his suffering and to show the Iraqis that the vast majority of the Americans are individuals épris of peace and not of the sabre-rattlers ", has it says.
"We want to give a chance to peace and this mission could be regarded as history if it could contribute to a peaceful payment", the member of Parliament added.
Mr. Rahall affirmed that it planned at the time of his meetings with the Iraqi persons in charge "to insist on the need for granting an unconditional access and without obstacles to the experts in disarmament of UNO".
Mr. Aziz had affirmed Friday that an "unconditional" return of the inspectors in Iraq does not règlerait the problem, while specifying that it returned to the Iraqi direction to come to a conclusion about this question.
Mr. Bush called Thursday, in a speech with UNO, the Security Council to adopt a new resolution to force Iraq to disarm and threatened to resort to the force if this country refused to yield there. Friday, it required that any resolution be equipped with a cut off date shortly.
The American member of Parliament as affirmed as its visit had been approved by the State Department "in the name of the national interest".
To: Duty Intern From: fill in duty project officer name Subject: Rahall Safe Arrival
(and, Intern, for god's sake, make sure you send this in most secret code _ WITH NO COPIES!
Rahall - Good to see you've arrived safely and were able to get all the stuff past the Iqs.
Distribute the cash and documents to the Iq opp as planned.
Change in plan on planting Israeli material on SH son. Col who was to carry been sent to NF zone and is judged to be still OK. Trying to recruit from SH most trusted guards an officer whose kid in Eu needs much cash. Will inform within 48.
Final - Try to get pictures with micro-camera of new large squarish building half mile NNE of hotel. OUT
Intern- quiet and secret, got it?
Think you missed the zinger in there. Do I need to draw a diagram??????
U.S. Delegation Arrives in Iraq
Sat Sep 14, 6:22 AM ET
By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - An American delegation headed by West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall arrived in Iraq on Saturday, with members saying they would push for peace as well as the return of U.N. weapons inspectors.
"We are on a humanitarian mission ... not only to convince the Iraqi people that the American people are concerned with their suffering, but also to show that the American people, their vast majority, are peace-waging individuals," said Rahall, a Democrat.
The delegation, which also includes former South Dakota Sen. James Abourezk, plans to visit hospitals in Baghdad. The trip is sponsored by the Institute of Public Accuracy, a Washington-based group of analysts.
The delegation flew to Baghdad overnight from Syria. It arrived two days after President Bush told the U.N. General Assembly that the Iraqi government must grant access to U.N. weapons inspectors or face a confrontation.
Ratcheting up the pressure Friday, Bush said he was "talking days and weeks" for a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution that would demand Iraq admit inspectors or face the consequences. Iraq has barred inspectors, who are charged with verifying the elimination of its weapons of mass destruction, since 1998.
Speaking in the al-Rasheed Hotel, Rahall said he had no scheduled meetings with Iraqi government officials, but "if such opportunity presents itself, it is my desire to stress upon the Iraqi government and its president that they must accept unconditional access to their country by U.N. weapons inspectors."
Rahall said the return of inspectors would be a step toward peace, but he declined to say if it would put an end to Bush's desire to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
"I cannot speak on behalf of President Bush. I am not here as a secretary of state or a weapons inspector. I am here as individual member of congress who has questions that I would like to get answers to," Rahall said.
The other delegates are Nick Solomon, the head of the Institute of Public Accuracy, and James Jennings, the president of Conscience International — an Atlanta-based aid and rights group. The State Department has approved the trip, the first by a U.S. legislator to Iraq in several years.
And does this look like "an Arab?
I should have caught that. Thanks for the correction.
The article is a computer translation from German.
Watch your mouth. That's my mother, grandmother, great grandmother and great-great grandmother you are talking about there. We prefer the term "Mountain William".
Nick Joe is a punk. And the heir apparent to Bobby Byrd (who is falling rapidly downhill). I've met the man more than once and watched him campaign a few times. He's the best snake oil salesman in the state.
Make that Nick Joe 'The Appeaser' Rahall
As I have posted on another thread, Nick Rahall is perhaps the biggest lush on Capitol Hill. Yes, that's right, a bigger lush than either Senators Kennedy or Dodd.
I stayed at the bar at "Bullfeathers," the closest watering hole to the Capitol of the Free World, for three hours one night to watch Rahall drink himself into oblivion four feet away from me. His Administrative Assistant and the two lobbyists who were with him, pretended that they did not notice that the Congressman had lost the ability to pronounce the letter "S" and had a death grip on the bar so he wouldn't topple off his stool. A Senator who shall remain unnamed decribed that to me as "stool-hugging drunk."
Rahall is also a member of the taxpayer-funded millionaires club. He has served (or should it be, has been served) in the House so long that his congressional pension will well exceed $1 million, if his liver holds out long enough for him to receive it.
I suspect that Rahall's participation in this journey was procured by substantial campaign donations plus a promise of an open bar on the plane, all the way over and all the way back.
Congressman Billybob
Click for major article on turnover in the House of Representatives: "Til Death Do Us Part."
Click for latest column: "The Star-Spangled Banner, Part II, & More Lies from the Media"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.