30 January 2003
DeLay Says Confronting Saddam Hussein Part of War on Terrorism
(House Majority Leader says Baghdad has terror weapons) (1520) For the second most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives, the question about Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein isn't whether he has weapons of terror, but how he will use them. In a January 28 speech to the House of Representatives, House Majority Leader Representative Tom DeLay (Republican of Texas) told fellow lawmakers that Saddam Hussein has terror weapons. "American soldiers found and destroyed chemical weapons depots 12 years ago," DeLay said, "Saddam later confirmed our fears with the thousands of corpses that littered the Iraqi countryside." The real question facing the United States and the international community, he said, is where and when the Iraqi dictator will choose to use "the countless terror weapons he still has." "Will it be here in the United States? Will Saddam's agents launch the attack, or will Saddam quietly transfer his chemical or biological weapons to al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization? Will they be leveraged to blackmail freedom-loving nations into inaction in the face of future aggression?" DeLay asked. "Confronting Saddam Hussein is a central and defining measure of our commitment to win the war on terrorism," he told fellow lawmakers. "If President Bush determines that America must act, he can be confident that the unified support of the American people will be with him until the danger is defeated," DeLay said. Once Saddam Hussein's regime "fails and falls, the Iraqi people will shock and disgust the world by revealing the full ghastly scope of Saddam's oppression," he added. In the hierarchy of aggressive and military regimes, DeLay went on, Saddam Hussein's dictatorship "is a clear and present danger to the United States." By providing Saddam added time, added time to supply, train and support terrorist groups, DeLay said, pleas for patience "convert a virtue into a vice." To deny the threat represented by Saddam Hussein's regime is to place "the free world at jeopardy by ignoring this dictator's infamous past and evil aspirations," DeLay said. Following is the text of the January 28 speech by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay from the Congressional Record: (begin text) REJECTING THE APOSTLES OF INACTION House of Representatives January 28, 2003 Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, in recent days we have heard a loud and relentless chorus of critics who are attempting to hamstring President Bush and restrict his ability to defend this country. These foreign and domestic apologists for inaction would subordinate U.S. national security decisions to an international litmus test. They are subverting the real issue beneath the false allure of avoidance and a smokescreen of diplomatic double-dealings and evasions. Under their specious logic, the burden of proof shifts from Saddam Hussein's evil regime to the free and democratic nations insisting that he disarm. It is a known fact that Saddam developed, deployed and destroyed thousands of lives with weapons of mass terror. It is not a question of whether or not he has terror weapons. American soldiers found and destroyed chemical weapons depots 12 years ago. Saddam later confirmed our fears with the thousands of corpses that littered the Iraqi countryside. Here is the real question: Where and when will he choose to use the countless terror weapons he still has? Will it be here in the United States? Will Saddam's agents launch the attack, or will Saddam quietly transfer his chemical or biological weapons to al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization? Will they be leveraged to blackmail freedom-loving nations into inaction in the face of future aggression? The answer is that we cannot know what this dictator will do, and for that reason the only acceptable outcome to the United States is that either Saddam Hussein voluntarily destroys all the materials related to his nuclear, chemical and biological weapons development programs or a coalition of free nations will do the job, and this brings up a widespread misperception. The purpose of the U.N. inspectors in Iraq, a purpose that is either misunderstood or it is being manipulated by the left, is simply to verify that Saddam is declaring and destroying his known but hidden weapons of mass destruction programs and weapons caches. It is not the inspectors' mission to fruitlessly scour the Iraqi countryside in a feckless search for Saddam's terror weapons. In a country larger than the State of California, that would be an empty objective doomed to fail. Outside observers cannot hope to uncover the truth within an uncooperative and hostile regime. It is an impossible task to discover weapons of mass destruction within a ruthlessly wicked and oppressive dictatorship that refuses to cooperate. Iraq is not destroying its weapons. Let us just be clear about it. Saddam is an evil tyrant. He illegitimately holds power by controlling the thoughts and the behavior of the Iraqi people with a climate of state-administered terror. His secret police coerce the Iraqi people into a terror-driven code of silence. Time and time again over the 20th century the West learned that the scale of crimes committed by totalitarian regimes was far worse than we even knew. It was not until those brutal regimes fell and their victims documented the full extent of the monstrous abuse that we learned the truth. We saw it in Hitler's Germany. We saw it in the Soviet Union. We saw it in Cambodia, and eventually we will see it in Cuba, and once Saddam fails and falls, the Iraqi people will shock and disgust the world by revealing the full ghastly scope of Saddam's oppression. This much is obvious today. We will never get to the truth about Saddam's weapons so long as his regime holds power. We need to recognize that it will be extremely difficult for Saddam's past and future victims to tell inspectors what they know. When they, their friends and their families are subject to brutal and wicked reprisals, including rape, torture and murder at the hands of Saddam's secret police, U.N. inspectors cannot approach the truth in Iraq. And it is not their job to discover Saddam's weapons. No, the onus is squarely on Saddam Hussein to prove to the world that he has disarmed. Unfortunately, many observers continue claiming that the United States has to round out the indictment of Saddam Hussein's regime with additional evidence. No such evidence is needed. No more facts need emerge before America can rightfully take action against this regime. We have all the evidence that we need. The pages of history. There has never been a threat confronting the United States that was overcome or improved through inaction or the counsels of contrived evasions and equivocations. The American people expect us to face our threats squarely and directly. Many observers would have us pin the security of the United States to a fading fallacy, the discredited notion that a U.N. inspections team, operating within a hostile regime, can adequately secure our security. They cannot. There is great danger in so elevating the trappings of international consultation and the rituals of multilateralism that they become a surrogate for our true purpose: we have to protect ourselves and the world by disarming Saddam Hussein. Some observers refuse to acknowledge the grave consequences of allowing Saddam Hussein to remain in power. In the hierarchy of aggressive and military regimes, Saddam's dictatorship is a clear and present danger to the United States. And by providing Saddam added time, added time to supply, train and support terrorist groups, these endless pleas for patience convert a virtue into a vice. Any nation which naively denies the clear threat from Saddam Hussein's regime is placing the free world at jeopardy by ignoring this dictator's infamous past and evil aspirations. Regardless of what others may say, the final authority governing American action is not the United Nations. It is the Constitution of the United States and the decisions of our own elected government. If and when President Bush decides America must confront Saddam Hussein's regime, he will be exercising his authority as commander in chief and expressing the broad support already demonstrated by Congress through the Iraq Resolution passed months ago. The Left is attempting to turn us from our purpose with another bit of sophistry. They claim our imperative to confront Saddam Hussein's dictatorship is a diversion from the war against terrorism. Well, far from a diversion, confronting Saddam Hussein is a central and defining measure of our commitment to win the war on terrorism. If President Bush determines that America must act, he can be confident that the unified support of the American people will be with him until the danger is defeated. The President should know that we stand beside him and that the United States will not shrink from our obligation to defend freedom. While we seek the broadest possible coalition of freedom-loving countries in this effort, we cannot let a hunt for international consensus divide us and deter us from our purpose. We will not be dissuaded from taking action to defend America. (end text) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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