Posted on 09/24/2002 7:11:09 PM PDT by grimalkin
SEATTLE - Two Congressmen say they are going to Iraq to determine the damage caused by the Gulf War and 10 years of sanctions.
Congressman Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) and Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.) say they oppose nuclear war and the production and use of chemical weapons, and support the disarmament of Iraq. But McDermott says they must be a way to accomplish reasonable goals without the unprecedented step of a preemptive strike by the United States.
"I think disarmament can be achieved without going to war and without house-to-house combat," the Seattle congressman told a news conference at his Capitol office.
McDermott and Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., said they will leave for Iraq on Wednesday as part of a delegation organized by Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Interfaith Network of Concern for the People of Iraq, a unit of the Church Council of Greater Seattle.
McDermott and Bonior are the only members of Congress scheduled to go on the five-day trip, which includes an initial stop in Jordan before a 3 1/2-day stay in Iraq.
For McDermott, the trip marks a return to a country he first visited in 1991, a few months after the Persian Gulf War. He said he and Bonior want to talk to Iraqi citizens.
"You have to talk to people," McDermott said. "We ought to be talking to people" in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The trip by the two liberal Democrats comes as Congress considers President Bush's request to use force if necessary to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and remove Hussein from power. Votes in the House and Senate are expected as soon as next week.
McDermott, 65, expects to land in Baghdad sometime Thursday and return in time to vote on the Iraq issue.
He criticized the Bush administration for pushing the war effort, saying he was not convinced the current leadership in Iraq posed an immediate danger to the West.
"I don't think there's any evidence there's a real threat to us," he said.
The seven-term lawmaker acknowledged that his position was in a distinct minority in Congress, but he said many of his colleagues are genuinely conflicted about what to do.
While they privately have doubts, lawmakers of both parties "want to be with the president, and they feel the American people have been convinced there's some threat to us," McDermott said.
Even as momentum to invade Iraq increases in Congress and polls show a majority of Americans in favor of war, McDermott said he remains unconvinced.
"There are a lot of us who think the American people are getting only one point of view," McDermott said. "We need to give people a chance to know what their alternatives are."
McDermott and Bonior said they want the administration to exhaust all diplomatic measures and allow United Nations weapons inspectors to go to Iraq before the discussion turns to military action.
"Why do we have to vote to give (Bush) carte blanche before we even know what will happen" with other efforts? McDermott said.
Last week, McDermott was among about 19 House Democrats who participated in a news conference opposing military action in Iraq. He said Tuesday that as many as 60 members of Congress oppose military action, although he conceded a resolution authorizing an invasion is likely to pass overwhelmingly.
Meanwhile Tuesday, Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., was among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who attended a briefing on Iraq at the White House. Larsen could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.
'We Are Children Of Peace'
McDermott's trip is being underwritten by the Church Council of Seattle, and when in Iraq, he is expected to link up briefly with an interfaith group of six people -- four from Seattle, who are taking medicine to Iraq.
That group will also be carrying a videotape of 100 Seattle school children who gathered at a Wallingford District Church to sing a song written last year. It begins: "We are the children of peace, we are the children of the world"
One member of the group making medicine to Iraq, Bert Sacks, told KOMO 4 News: "We'll take it with us and I think there's a good chance we can get that on Iraqi television."
Alex Jonlin, a nine-year member of the children's group, said: "I think people are going to be watching their TV in Baghdad and thinking these kids want peace, they really don't want war."
Ten-year-old Isabel Khalili added: "I was thinking I was making a difference to the world, we were all making a difference because we were singing and sending it to the people in Iraq."
Because most in Iraq may not understand English sung by a chorus of school children, the song was sung in Arabic as well.
He'd feel more at home in the Iraqi government (actually, he's a dead philosophical ringer for that German witch who slandered Bush).
What a scum bag he is. Always on the look out for some girl young enough to be his grand-daughter.
Why don't you try stealing a peek under those veils, Jim?
I think the timing of the preliminary bombing has now been determined! :-)
McDermott is an outright communist and radical anti-American.
Moreover, the local Seattle 'palestinian' terror front groups support him unconditionally and he supports them (including financially)!
McDermott joins fellow terrorist supporters King county executive Ron Sims and Larry Gossett, a King County councilman.
And THAT'S why Seattle has islamic terror cells within.
Unfortunately McDermott's Seattle terrorist connections have already told saddam he's O.K. (and you know they're putting their lives on the line when they vouch for him).
BBC NEWS: "BLAIR OUTLINES IRAQ EVIDENCE" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The dossier claims Iraq has: * Continued to produce chemical and biological agents. * Drawn up military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons. * Tried to acquire from Africa material and technology for the production of nuclear weapons. * Illegally retained up to 20 al-Hussein missiles with a range of 650km, capable of carrying chemical or biological warheads. * Begun developing ballistic missiles with a range of more than 1,000km. * Learnt how to conceal equipment and documentation from weapons inspectors") (092402)
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH - INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2002: "STEALING THE FIRE" (NY Premiere) - "Stealing The Fire" is directed by John S. Friedman and Eric Nadler. This documentary video was produced in USA/Germany. (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Filmed over five years on four continents, Stealing the Fire focuses on Karl-Heinz Schaab, a German technician convicted of treason in 1999 for selling top secret nuclear weapons plans to Iraq. The film unflinchingly exposes a web of government and corporate intrigue and lays bare an unbroken chain of events and people that connects today's nuclear weapons underground with the atomic bomb program of Nazi Germany. Stealing the Fire investigates the 60-year history of a German multi-national corporation that directly profited from the Holocaust and in recent decades became a leading supplier of nuclear weapons technology to developing nations, including Iraq and Pakistan.")
ALBAWABA.com: "SADDAM SAYS AMERICAN TARGETS ALL ARABS; HAILS PALESTINIAN BOMBERS" [ARTICLE SNIPPET: "...Saddam also praised suicide attacks against Israel saying they will be "recorded in our history with shining letters."
"Whenever a (suicide) attack occurs against the enemy, I feel as if I carried it out myself and every Arab should look at these acts this way," Saddam said (Albawaba.com)"](071602)
Isn't it amazing that we (FReepers) do not have to jump on a plane and head for Iraq to get the big picture? No, it's not amazing at all. Too bad the Democrats don't understand what's going on. Maybe they should all stay in Iraq until they do get it.
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