The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“IRAQ” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S1134-S1135 on Feb. 27, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
IRAQ
Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, the latest confrontation with Iraq shines a harsh light on an important truth. The collapse of the Soviet Union consigned to the ash heap of history has not created a world safe for democracy. The ``Evil Empire'' may have vanished but, alas, the world remains a dangerous and unpredictable place.
In Iraq, we are confronted with a dictator as evil as Hitler. Saddam has killed thousands of his own citizens, licensed acts of terrorism, and produced and stockpiled weapons of mass destruction. It is a reign of terror unmatched in the post-cold war era.
And how has this administration responded? Rather than draw a bright line in the sand, the President has been relegated to the role of spectator.
The Commander in Chief has surrendered his moral authority at home and found himself ill-equipped to defend American interests abroad.
At the moment of truth, America's acting Secretary of State--Kofi Annan--cut a deal with the devil and, tragically, a weakened, uncertain President endorsed the settlement before the ink had even dried.
Today, we hear reports that there is no final consensus on what to do if Iraq violates the settlement. Have we known Saddam to keep his promises? What if he does not adhere to the agreement as in previous cases? The United Nations apparently cannot come to an agreement on what to do about it.
The President's failure to lead has handed America's foreign policy to a cast of functionaries at the United Nations. Mr. President, U.S. foreign policy should not be subcontracted to Kofi Annan or written at the United Nations. America should not sacrifice one ounce--any other ounce--of her sovereignty to the architect and acolytes of one world government.
This ill-conceived transfer of sovereignty has left America and her allies with an emboldened Saddam. In Iraq today, Saddam has a firmer grip on power, carries more regional prestige and can sell more oil. Some dare call this a triumph of diplomacy.
As I indicated to Secretary Albright this week: ``Preservation of the status quo is not a diplomatic triumph, Madam Secretary, it's a tragedy. The clear winner of this round is Saddam Hussein.''
Instead of being penalized for his defiance, Saddam is winning bonus points: more oil sales, heightened standing, and new momentum to end the sanctioned regime. Ironically, in agreeing to agree, Saddam has committed to do nothing more than he was obliged to do all along.
Mr. President, by the grace of God, America won the cold war. We triumphed over the ``Evil Empire'' of Lenin and Stalin. It is time for us to stand again for liberty and freedom.
Saddam is a brutal dictator, a tyrant whose actions at home betray his intentions abroad.
Let us sound a certain trumpet for America's vital national interests--in the Middle East and around the world. Let us not be governed by the whims and the will of Kofi Annan and the United Nations. Let America lead the world by the force of our principles and the power of our ideas, with the hope that one day the long tug of memory might look favorably upon us as we look approvingly on those who answered freedom's call in decades past.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a column which appeared in the Washington Post, Friday, the 27th of February, by Charles Krauthammer be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
A Deal That's Worse Than Worthless--Peace in Our Time--Again
Two days before Kofi Annan made his ``breakthrough'' in Baghdad, the U.N. Security Council, with U.S. approval, authorized a huge increase in the amount of oil that Iraq can sell. In a stroke, this ``humanitarian'' gesture doubled Iraq's oil income to $10.5 billion a year. Iraq can now sell nearly 2 million barrels a day--about two-thirds of the oil it was selling when producing at peak capacity before the embargo. And that number does not even count the oil that we know Saddam is illegally smuggling through Iranian coastal waters.
At this U.N.- and U.S.-authorized level, Iraq--under sanctions!--becomes the eighth-largest oil exporter in the world.
This embargo-buster passed with little fanfare. It barely made the back pages of the newspapers. All hands pretended, moreover, that there was no linkage between this bonanza and the subsequent Saddam-Annan deal in Baghdad.
But remember that last November, when the administration was desperately looking for a way out of the last Iraq crisis, the State Department said we'd be willing to offer Saddam a ``carrot'' to get him to be nice. Such as? Such as a sharp increase in the amount of ``humanitarian'' oil that Iraq could sell.
So last time, when Saddam broke the Gulf War agreements and kicked out U.S. arms inspectors, the carrot was offered. This time, when Saddam broke the Gulf War agreements and stymied all the arms inspectors, the carrot was delivered.
Last time, President Clinton flapped about threateningly, then watched meekly as the Russian foreign minister brokered a ``compromise.'' This time, Clinton flapped about threateningly, then watched meekly as the U.N. secretary general brokered a new ``compromise.''
Last time, Clinton's U.N. ambassador crowed that Saddam had
``blinked.'' This time, Madeleine Albright's spokesman deemed the deal ``win-win'' for us.
Last time, the deal turned out to be completely worthless, giving Saddam four more months to hide his nasty stuff. This time, the deal is worse than worthless, giving Saddam crucial victories on the two issues he cares most about: economic sanctions and weapons inspections.
1. Sanctions. Not only did Saddam incur no penalty for his open defiance of the United Nations and open provocation of the United States, he was treated by Annan with a deference and flattery that bordered on the indecent. Moreover, the Annan-Saddam Memorandum of Understanding breathes not a word of criticism about Iraq's violating previous agreements, nor about its creating this crisis. On the contrary, Annan trashed his own arms inspectors (UNSCOM) as unruly
``cowboys'' and undertook, in writing, to bring Saddam's ultimate objective, the lifting of sanctions, ``to the full attention of the members of the Security Council.''
Sure enough, upon his return to New York, Annan began emphasing the need to show Iraq ``the light at the end of the tunnel,'' the Iraqi code phrase for ending sanctions. Like Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who brokered the first nonagreement in November, Annan has become Saddam's sanctions-lifting advocate to the world. Unlike Saddam buddy and ex-KGB biggie Primakow, however, Annan is an effective shill.
2. Inspections. The United States had demanded no retreat from free and full access and no tampering by Iraq with the composition and authority of UNSCOM teams. Annan came back with a radical change in the composition of the inspection teams and a serious erosion of their authority. Inspection of
``presidential sites,'' those huge complexes with hundreds of buildings where Saddam could be hiding anything, is taken away from control of UNSCOM, the tough inspectors whose probity we can rely on.
These sites are instead entrusted to a new body, headed by an Annan appointee. It will comprise political appointees, including diplomat-spies from Iraq-friendly France, Russia and China, as well as inspectors who presumably possess the requisite delicacy and sensitivity to Iraqi feelings. Iraqis can be so touchy about their stores of poison gas and anthrax.
How do you carry out a spot inspection--the only kind that has any hope of finding anything--when you first have to notify and await the arrival of, say, the Russian appointee, who has a hot line to the very Iraqi regime he is supposed to inspect? Inspector Clouseau has a better chance of finding concealed nerve gas than this polyglot outfit of compromised politicians and handpicked inspectors.
So tote it up. For Saddam: No penalty. Annan shilling for his demand to end all sanctions. UNSCOW undermined. Presidential palaces secure for storing anthrax and such. And his oil output doubled.
Another triumph of Clinton diplomacy.
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