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Bush Iraq Plan Hits Snag In Senate
Associated Press ^ | 8 October 2002 | Jim Abrams

Posted on 10/08/2002 1:02:41 PM PDT by Asmodeus

WASHINGTON –– Saddam Hussein's apparent policy of not resorting to terrorist attacks against the United States could change if he concludes a U.S.-led attack against him was inevitable, CIA Director George Tenet said as President's Bush bid for congressional support to use force hit a snag in the Senate.

Tenet, in a letter read before a joint hearing of the House and Senate intelligence committees Tuesday, said that "Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or chemical or biological weapons."

But Tenet went on to say that should Saddam conclude that a U.S.-led attack against his country could not be deterred, "he probably would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist action."

Both the House and the Senate were debating the Iraq war resolution.

But while it appeared to be clear sailing for the measure in the GOP-led House, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., served notice on other Democrats at a party luncheon that he intended to use parliamentary tactics to delay a final vote, according to those who attended the session.

That could delay the vote well into next week, suggested Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-W.Va.

Byrd, widely respected for his deep knowledge of the Senate rules, has emerged as the primary Senate opponent to the president's war resolution.

The House began a fateful three-day debate on the measure on Tuesday. The Senate, which has been debating the measure since last Thursday, resumed its debate.

If forced into war, "We will prevail," President Bush told a Tennessee audience.

"At this moment, the people's house begins debate on one of the most difficult questions we will ever face," said Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif.

The House hoped to conclude by Thursday night. The measure before both chambers provides the president wide latitude to take military action to disarm Saddam of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and, if possible, depose the Iraqi leader.

Anticipating an overwhelming vote of support in Congress, Bush told a Knoxville, Tenn., rally on Tuesday, "Military option is my last choice, the last choice. But should we commit our military, we'll be ready. We'll be prepared. We'll have a great plan and make no mistake about it, we will prevail."

Secretary of State Colin Powell, meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, said the congressional resolution "will definitely strengthen my hand as I try to do the diplomatic work up in New York to get a United Nations Security Council resolution" requiring unimpeded weapons inspections in Iraq.

Powell said there was increasing support at the U.N. for a new inspections mandate. "All of my colleagues at the United Nations and others I've spoken to around the world clearly see the threat," he said.

At the Pentagon, a Defense Intelligence Agency official told reporters that Saddam is actively making biological and chemical weapons – and trying to hide that fact from the world.

Iraq is "taking steps to conceal sensitive equipment and documentation in anticipation of new inspections," John Yurechko said.

In a somber address to the nation Monday evening, Bush said the threat from Iraq was unique and imminent and there was no time to wait for final proof that Saddam had developed a nuclear capability – "the smoking gun – that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

"While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place," the president said.

Bush told a Cincinnati audience in his televised speech that Saddam was "a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction," and that if he succeeds in obtaining nuclear weapons to add to his biological and chemical stockpiles, he "would be in a position to blackmail anyone who opposes his aggression."

In Baghdad, the government of Iraq on Tuesday described Bush's speech as an attempt to justify an attack.

"The speech contained misleading information through which Bush is trying to justify an illogical and illegitimate attack on Iraq," said Foreign Minister Naji Sabri Sabri.

On Tuesday, a Pentagon official reiterated U.S. warnings that Iraqi military officers should refuse orders to use chemical or biological weapons. Any Iraqis involved in such attacks would be treated as war criminals after the conflict ended, said Douglas Feith, undersecretary for policy at the Defense Department.

The House has allotted 21 hours to debate what House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., a chief sponsor of the White House-backed resolution, called "one of the most consequential questions we will deal with for years to come."

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iraq; mideast; war
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To: You Dirty Rats
Thank-you. This explained things a little better.
61 posted on 10/08/2002 6:07:29 PM PDT by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
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To: Always Right
It is astonishing that the depostic democrats don't get the point of blackmail since they are already folding to stealth blackmail and the Insane one doesn't even have a nuke yet! Yeah, play the democrat's postponeNIK game and see if Saddam acts in good faith. [Would someone please slap Bonior in that socialist mouth of his, and remind that IDIOT that Saddam build billions of dollars in 'palaces' while his children in Iraq went under nourished? Would someone explain to that freak, Bonior, that the best chance those Iraqi children have of being fed adequately is for US to crush that bastard in Iraq and set up representative government there? I'm sick and tired of the postponeNIKS of the despotic criminal enterprise democrat party lying and appeasing, putting US in ever growing danger!]
62 posted on 10/08/2002 6:11:51 PM PDT by MHGinTN
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To: Always Right
You know if we just let Hitler take Poland, he may not try to take over the rest of Europe.

NOBODY let Hitler take Poland - Hitler took half of Poland without permission. Only that he was helped by Soviet Union - the power which later defeated him in the end. Saddam Hussein is not another second Hitler. At most he could be a second Ataturk if allowed to succeed.

63 posted on 10/08/2002 6:39:45 PM PDT by A. Pole
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To: A. Pole
Saddam Hussein is not another second Hitler.

If Saddam ever gets nukes he could match Hitlers death toll in a day.

64 posted on 10/08/2002 6:42:09 PM PDT by Always Right
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To: Asmodeus
Note that Tenet is singing the same tune as his ex-boss, Clinton: Saddam is innocent, but he'll use al-Qaeda to hit America with biological weapons if you go after him. Put it another way: What people don't know won't hurt them. Let sleeping dogs lie. 9-11 is water under the bridge now. Why dredge up this bad business? Keep your trap shut, because if you expose us, you're going to regret it.
65 posted on 10/08/2002 7:14:03 PM PDT by The Great Satan
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To: Asmodeus
Tenet, in a letter read before a joint hearing of the House and Senate intelligence committees Tuesday, said that "Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or chemical or biological weapons."

Really? Then who sent this letter, which held a sample of anthrax "ground to a microscopic fineness not achieved by U.S. biological-weapons experts"?


66 posted on 10/08/2002 7:43:21 PM PDT by The Great Satan
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To: MHGinTN
Saddam build billions of dollars in 'palaces' while his children in Iraq went under nourished?

And we are supposed to care about this?

folding to stealth blackmail

We folded in Eastern Europe in the Cold War and we will fold to some Islamic nuclear state before long. In a sense we have already folded to Pakistan.

67 posted on 10/08/2002 7:45:38 PM PDT by palmer
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To: varina davis
Great find!

It gets greater. Before Nix went to sleep we looked a little at the Fatemi connection.

Seems there is a whole Fatemi branch of the Byrdies. So this old KKK kingpin has a two-generation Arab side to the family tree :).

Mohammad Fatemi is into oil. His sons seems well connected in the military establishment. Just an example from Fredrik Fatemi's background:

Laser systems : Nd:YAG, excimer, and tunable OPO pulsed laser systems

He seems to have done a stint at Naval Research Laboratory.

Much more here.

68 posted on 10/08/2002 10:00:36 PM PDT by Cachelot
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To: Recovering_Democrat
Don't wish Daschle on us. We already have enough problems here in the Mountain State.
69 posted on 10/09/2002 1:17:58 AM PDT by Lawdoc
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To: rightwing2
You obviously have a problem with the president's "liberty doctrine", or you would not be able to make this type of comment.. I'm not going to argue with you on this thread about it, or even educate you about it here, but you may wish to educate yourself. I suggest you start by going over to whitehouse.gov and looking up the president's speech at West Point in early June, then checking out the new National Strategic Policy. Whether you like it or not, we have no other rational choice in how we fight this war, or who we fight against.
70 posted on 10/09/2002 1:20:18 AM PDT by AFPhys
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To: TonyInOhio
You're exactly right!... the demodogs worst fear is pushing this issue right up into the election. I think it is actually too late for them now, though. I have actually refrained from calling my representatives in hopes the demodogs will reveal themselves to the voters.
71 posted on 10/09/2002 1:23:34 AM PDT by AFPhys
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To: Nix 2
bttt
72 posted on 10/09/2002 1:28:53 AM PDT by kayak
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To: Always Right
If Saddam ever gets nukes he could match Hitlers death toll in a day.

Many, many ifs. But for certain he has a lot of oil!

73 posted on 10/09/2002 5:02:30 AM PDT by A. Pole
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To: Asmodeus
If Byrd were a Republican, each reference would include the discripter "former Ku-Klux-Klan Knight, Robert Byrd."

Each time Byrd's name is mentioned, in print or speech, the truth about his KKK connection must be revealed!

74 posted on 10/09/2002 5:06:47 AM PDT by joyful1
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To: PhilDragoo
Grand Wizard Byrd should be drug out of Washington behind an oil-spraying pavement truck flanked by floats of cherubs sprinkling him with feathers.

I'd vote for you, PhilDragoo!

75 posted on 10/09/2002 5:10:37 AM PDT by joyful1
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To: MHGinTN
Saddam build billions of dollars in 'palaces' while his children in Iraq went under nourished?

They are not exactly his personal residences - they are the government buildings - otherwise they would not be of interest for weapons instructors (in Iraq every second thing is "presidential"). It is not sure that they cost "billions" and who gives a hoot about starving children? Certainly not Madeleine Albright: "We Think the Price Is Worth It"

Either way, you are not proposing the war because of high price of government buildings?

76 posted on 10/09/2002 5:11:06 AM PDT by A. Pole
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To: Nix 2
WOWWWW!!!

Erma and I are the proud great-grandparents of little Caroline Byrd Fatemi. I married the former Erma Ora James, my high school sweetheart and a coal miner's daughter, and we are the parents of two daughters, Mrs. Mohammad (Mona Byrd) Fatemi and Mrs. Jon (Marjorie Byrd) Moore

SHAZAAAAMMM!! I honestly didn't know Byrd's son-in-law's name is Mohammad! Is this real???!! What?

77 posted on 10/09/2002 5:15:10 AM PDT by joyful1
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To: A. Pole
Many, many ifs. But for certain he has a lot of oil!

If we want oil, why didn't we take it. We could have owned the middle east on numerous occassions and all their oil if that was our objective. I have never once heard a rationale arguement about oil. Just a bunch of mindless liberals spouting its all about the oil, but none of them know why except for some wild ass conspiracy theory that makes obsolutely no sense.

78 posted on 10/09/2002 5:18:03 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: Always Right
I have never once heard a rational argument about oil.

Hmm, really? Maybe it is because you did not listen, Mr Always Right? Please, I mean no offence, but I cannot resist a good pun :)

79 posted on 10/09/2002 5:27:37 AM PDT by A. Pole
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To: Asmodeus
I just contacted FOX news about this Byrd/Muslim connection. It is fair to ask, is Byrd sympathetic to radical Islam???

This is from the Byrd webpage!!: Erma and I are the proud great-grandparents of little Caroline Byrd Fatemi. I married the former Erma Ora James, my high school sweetheart and a coal miner's daughter, and we are the parents of two daughters, Mrs. Mohammad (Mona Byrd) Fatemi and Mrs. Jon (Marjorie Byrd) Moore

From the Byrd webpage?? Is he sypathetic to radical Islam???

80 posted on 10/09/2002 5:44:49 AM PDT by joyful1
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