Posted on 09/22/2002 11:49:10 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
After visiting Iraq last week, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., blamed the Bush administration on Sunday for Baghdad's decision to impose limits on proposed weapons inspections after Iraq first told the United Nations those inspections would be "unfettered."
"At first it appeared [the Iraqi pledge] was a step in the right direction with the first step they announced earlier this week," Rahall told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg.
But the West Virginia Democrat said the Bush administration's reaction to the Iraqi offer amounted to "slamming the door in their face" by saying that even unfettered inspections would make no difference.
"They've seen statements in the past from Cheney, from Rumsfeld, et al, that say inspectors don't matter, they're going to bomb anyway," the West Virginia Democrat complained to Malzberg.
"I can see what [Baghdad was] looking for," he explained. "They were looking for some light at the end of the tunnel. Because Iraqi feeling - feeling from the leadership and feeling from the people on the street - is basically they feel that they're damned if they do and they're damned if they don't.
"I truly believe that when they did not see any light at the end of the tunnel when they issued that first statement, that probably caused them to go backwards and start the game of trickery again," he added.
Rahall said that while in Baghdad last week, he hoped to secure a personal meeting with Saddam Hussein to encourage the Iraqi dictator to make a public pledge to open his schools, mosques, hospitals and presidential palaces to inspectors.
But when Saddam would not agree Iraqi officials instead offered Rahall a chance to inspect suspected weapons sites.
He said no. "Look, I'm not a weapons inspector," the West Virginia Democrat said he told his hosts. "I wouldn't know nuclear power from powdered sugar."
Rahall told Malzberg that he would not support a resolution giving President Bush the authority to attack Iraq, complaining that "it gives the president too broad authority; it does not limit him to Iraq."
The West Virginia Democrat also insisted there was no link between Saddam and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network despite the accounts from multiple Iraqi defectors who claim otherwise.
"I've been in the CIA briefings, the DIA briefings," Rahall told WABC. "There is no definitive - no conclusive proof of any link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein." (See: Salman Pak: Saddam's 9-11 Smoking Gun?)
Rep. Rahall also defended the Palestinian intifada, hinting that terrorist attacks against Israel were a legitimate "resistance" to an occupying army.
"Some of those instances ... they truly are a resistance against occupied lands, against a country [Israel] who's also violated U.N. resolutions," he explained.
He must have some French in his background...
And this guy has the gall to accuse the WH for Iraqi Inspection Switch? What a sh!thead!!
Straw man. Bait and switch.
This isn't about Al Qaeda. This is about not standing by while evil forces gather.
We are presently at war with Iraq, and have been. Our present war began 10 years ago, intended to stop the on-going slaughter of Iraqi Kurds and Shiites, and to prevent a repeat of the genocide Saddam committed against them throughout the eighties.
A reading of the history of Saddam's dealings with the Kurds is sufficient to shock the conscience of any moral creature. It reached its climax in the aftermath of the Gulf War.
Bush Sr. was not a do-gooder, and did not intend to be drawn into this, but the reality on the ground was so bad that he was driven to intervene. He put US Marines and Special Forces on the ground to stop the killing, and then instituted the aerial patrols that continue to this day.
These patrols have also kept Saddam's forces from repeating the invasion of Kuwait, which he has threatened several times since the Gulf War. It has kept him bottled up, and along with the sanctions, have kept him from rebuilding his military to its former power.
But he is trying. He has thousands of engineers and technicians working fulltime to develop nuclear weaponry. And he has the cooperation of the Germans and the French in all of this. No one doubts that, sanctions or no sanctions, inspectors or no, no-fly zones or none, he will eventually escape from his box.
If he is coming for you tomorrow, you must go for him today. Tomorrow will be too late.
This is not a rational thought! And then to add this little gem of wisdom...
"Look, I'm not a weapons inspector," the West Virginia Democrat said he told his hosts. "I wouldn't know nuclear power from powdered sugar..."
but nevertheless...
"I've been in the CIA briefings, the DIA briefings," Rahall told WABC.
Wake up, West Virginia!!! No offense intended, of course, but we must try harder to get these people out of there, I think...!!
(not that I have much hope of getting rid of my own dear "Dennis!", but I'm sure gonna try harder...!!)
"I've been in the CIA briefings, the DIA briefings," Rahall told WABC.
This POS has the info and I'd give dollars to donuts that So Damn Insane has the info now as well...
What a SCUMBAG!
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