[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 50 (Thursday, March 27, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H2448-H2449]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor with an issue that I 
feel the Members of this House should think about.
  The BBC carried a story on March 27 saying that there was proof of 
biological weapons found. They found protection suits, gas masks; and 
officials argued that these precautions were not to counter the threat 
of coalition attacks, as the Iraqis would know that the United Kingdom 
and U.S. forces in the gulf do not possess chemical and biological 
weapons.
  Mr. Hoon, who is the Secretary in the British Government, conceded 
that the discovery of the suits was obviously not conclusive proof that 
Iraqi forces were set to use chemical or biological weapons, but he 
added, ``It's clearly indicative of an intention, otherwise why equip 
his own forces to deal with a threat which he knows we do not have?''
  I just received an e-mail message from one of my friends in the 
British House of Lords who said to me there was a news story on the BBC 
this morning about the U.S. administration saying they may be prepared 
to use nonlethal chemical weapons in Iraq in an urban situation where 
it would be preferable to stun people rather than kill them. Now I do 
not know how we put those two stories together. We think the Iraqis are 
getting ready to do something; but the BBC, the very same, carries the 
story which we will never find in an American newspaper or on American 
television that we are talking about using chemical weapons.
  My correspondent went on to say this would be illegal; they are very 
nasty substances and can kill children. They would be effective against 
military forces equipped with even rudimentary gas masks. I am sure my 
colleagues will be speaking out against such a thing. However, it might 
help them to know that I am hoping to ask our government what action 
they would take in such a situation.

                              {time}  1430

  ``My party will certainly call for the U.K. troops to cease work with 
American forces if they use illegal chemical weapons, even nonlethal 
ones. If it happens during the Easter recess, we would call for a 
recall of Parliament to debate it.''
  Mr. Speaker, I bring this to the floor because the media in this 
country has done a terrible job reporting the war. They give us one 
side, they are all embedded inside our military, and they get whatever 
they are supposed to put out about what is going on. They are not 
looking broadly across the horizon at what is happening.
  The Washington Post carried a story today that the American people 
are so dissatisfied with the American press that the number one hit on 
the Internet is Al Jazeera, a Qatar television station that provides 
another point of view. Americans are trying to find out what the truth 
is.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not know, I cannot make head nor tail out of this. 
I looked

[[Page H2449]]

quickly to see if I could find the story, but it is not written in the 
BBC. I have no reason to believe that my correspondent would not tell 
me the truth. I believe this Congress should look into this issue.
  If we are going to start a war in which we are going after a country 
and we say they have weapons of mass destruction, we know it, but we 
have not found any, and now the story comes out that we are getting 
ready to use them. Remember what happened in Moscow when the Chechnyan 
rebels took over that theater with all those people in there, and the 
Russian Army used a nonlethal chemical weapon to stun the people, and 
they had several hundred die? The question is, are we prepared to use 
those on civilians in Iraq or how do we keep it only on the military 
and not on the civilians? When gas is spread, it goes around, and 
people breathe it.
  The United States Congress should be made aware of this. I do not go 
to the secret briefings because I want to be able to talk out here 
about what I hear in the general public. I do not think that they will 
tell Members in a secret briefing whether they will use it, but 
Congress should demand from the people in the war department and the 
White House as to whether or not they intend to use any kind of 
nonlethal chemical weapons. Are they talking about tear gas? What are 
they talking about? We do not want to be a part of doing the very thing 
that we accuse the Iraqis of.

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