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.
“SITUATION IN IRAQ” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H10350-H10351 on Sept. 12, 1996.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SITUATION IN IRAQ
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of theHouse, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Weldon] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to continue the dialog that we started before theHouse went into special orders regarding the current situation in Iraq.
As a senior member of Committee on National Security and chairman of Subcommittee on Military Research and Development, I take great pride in supporting our troops in all possible ways. I supported the President when he initially went in to take action in Iraq because I had an idea of what was occurring. In fact, I sat through a briefing a week ago that, I might add, was attended by less than 100 of my colleagues, where we were briefed by the State Department and the military on what was happening. Unfortunately, the briefing, which was closed, did not tell me much more than that as reported by CNN and the national news media.
My concern is right now, Mr. Speaker, that we are reading reports that the President, in his position as Commander in Chief, is now escalating that. First, we have seen additional shots of cruise missiles. Now we are hearing that F-117's are being transferred to the theater. We are hearing that those F-117's may be based in Kuwait, partly because the Saudis are saying they do not want to have them based in their country. We are furthermore hearing that Saddam, in fact, has considered Kuwait's action, in allowing the basing to take place there, an act of aggression against Iraq.
Mr. Speaker, we may want to, in fact, support all of this. But the point is that the President is doing this unilaterally. There, in fact, has been no consultation with this body.
My colleagues on the other side raised the issue of how they supported President Bush during Desert Storm. In fact, I went back and checked the Congressional Record. Two of the three speakers who stood up just a few short moments ago actually voted against President Bush's involvement of our troops. That is OK, because they should have that right to speak their mind. But we are not being given the opportunity to even understand what is going on, let alone vote to put our troops into harm's way.
Right now we are sending young troops and 117's over to the Middle East and no one has been briefed. The chairman of the Committee on International Relations, the chairman of the Committee on National Security, the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, even the majority leader has told me he has not been given a briefing as to what is going on. This, Mr. Speaker, is unacceptable. We need to know what is going on because we are putting our troops in a situation this weekend that could result in actions, hostile actions against our people.
I, for one, as a representative of 600,000 constituents, I want to know what, in fact, my constituents are being subjected to in terms of this President's operations.
{time} 1245
Mr. Speaker, that has not been done.
I yield to my friend.
Mr. CHAMBLISS. I know the gentleman was a Member of this body back with events leading, where at the time events leading up to Desert Storm occurred. Can you tell us that President Bush did at that time as far as informing the Members of this body what was going on?
Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. The gentleman raises an excellent point and one that we need to keep in mind. President Bush went to the United Nations six or seven consecutive times and had the United Nations pass very specific resolutions, and then he came to this body and allowed us to have a vote, and I might add, by the way, just for the record, that I checked the Record. The Speaker at the time, Mr. Foley, voted ``no'' against President Bush; the majority leader at the time, Mr. Gephardt, voted ``no''; Mr. Bonior voted ``no''; all against the deployment and the support of our troops in the Middle East as requested by President Bush. But that is OK. They are allowed to do that.
My point is that we are not being given that opportunity. Who knows what this President is getting us into? We have no idea. We do not know. All we know is our allies are not supporting us except for Great Britain, and all we know is now even some of the Arab countries are having second thoughts about what unilateral actions we are taking. That to me, Mr. Speaker, is outrageous and should allow this body to have a vote.
Mr. Speaker, I am preparing right now today, and I would hope that our colleagues who are sitting in their offices, or their staff members, would call my office to support not only a letter asking what is going on but a resolution asking for the legal justification under the United Nations resolution that is very specific for us to take unilateral action, and also asking for the compliance with the War Powers Act. Why have not the leader of the Committee on National Security, why have not the bipartisan leaders of the Committee on International Affairs been consulted in the current plans for this weekend? Perhaps it is that we do not have any plans, or perhaps those plans have not been totally thought out.
We, in this body, whether a member of those appropriate committees or not, have the right and the responsibility to know what situations our troops are being placed into, and in my opinion based upon what I am seeing and hearing that, in fact, is not occurring.
This is an issue, Mr. Speaker, that is going to be on the minds of the American people this weekend because right now our kids who fly those F-117's are gassing them up and fueling them up for a 2-day flight to the Middle East. There is not one Member in this body who has any idea of what they are doing there. Are we going to be attacking specific targets? Do we know if there is backup support being provided? What is our exit plan? Is our goal to go in and get Saddam Hussein or to go in after chemical weapons facilities? What we are going after? No one knows.
Mr. Speaker, we demand some answers.
____________________
