Congressional Record, Volume 150 Issue 12 (Wednesday, February 4, 2004)

[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 12 (Wednesday, February 4, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H377-H390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

{time} 2030
REPORT ON TRIP TO LIBYA, IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, UZBEKISTAN, AND MILITARY
HOSPITAL IN GERMANY

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. King of Iowa). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the
majority leader.
Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, the topic of my Special
Order this evening, and I think I will be joined by other Members from
both sides, is our recent trip to Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan,
and our military hospital for our troops in Germany. But before I get
into my comments about the trip, let me put some specific quotes from
Dr. Kay, who has just been referred to by a previous speaker, who made
the allegation that Dr. Kay said there was no basis for our activity in
Iraq.
Mr. Speaker, let me put the actual quote in the Record, not something
that is paraphrasing, but the actual quote. In an interview that Dr.
Kay conducted on NBC TV, he was asked to comment on whether it was
prudent to go to war. Dr. Kay said, ``I think it was absolutely
prudent. In fact, I think at the end of the inspection process, we will
paint a picture of Iraq that was far more dangerous than we even
thought it was before the war.''
Mr. Speaker, that is not me paraphrasing; that is not me summarizing
or putting my own spin on what Dr. Kay said. That is a direct quote
from Dr. Kay, and the American people and our colleagues need to
understand that as we analyze what has been said in the findings of the
Kay report, that we actually look at those statements, as opposed to
trying to spin them. Some of our colleagues on the other side,
especially those running for the Presidency, have tried to put a spin
on what Dr. Kay said. It is more important for the American people and
for our colleagues to look at in actuality what he said.
But, Mr. Speaker, there is one more point I want to make on this
whole effort of the spin of Dr. Kay, which ties into our trip, because
of the 45 meetings that we held over the 7 days, visiting eight
different countries and traveling 25,500 miles in military aircraft,
including a military aircraft to get over, a Navy plane, C-130s and

[[Page H378]]

Blackhawk helicopters in Iraq, I think the most significant meeting we
had was in Iraq, and that meeting was with the individual who is
actually responsible for the Iraqi Survey Group, which is actually
doing the search for weapons of mass destruction.
Now, Mr. Speaker, many of our colleagues in this room and many of the
people around America have been convinced by the media that Dr. Kay was
in charge of the investigation for weapons of mass destruction. Mr.
Speaker, that is wrong. Dr. Kay was a consultant to the general who was
in charge of the Iraq Survey Group, and that general is a two star
general by the name of Keith Dayton.
On our trip to Iraq, in Baghdad we were taken to the Fusion Center,
where all of the intelligence is brought for the Iraqi Survey Group to
do their work, and for 90 minutes members of the Republican Party and
the Democrat Party who were a part of my bipartisan delegation had a
chance to listen to the actual leader of the inspection process in Iraq
give us an update.
I want to share with our colleagues, Mr. Speaker, what General Dayton
said. First of all, he was perplexed. He was frustrated. He could not
understand why David Kay came back to America and made this public
report when he had not yet, first of all, talked to the individual who
was responsible for the Iraqi inspection process, General Dayton. In
fact, all of the individuals that we met who were overseeing the 1,500
people who are involved in the Iraq survey team were equally
frustrated.
We learned, for instance, that when David Kay left Iraq, he was not
entirely happy, because he was dissatisfied that General Dayton had
other missions besides the search for weapons of mass destruction and
actually had troops assigned to efforts like looking for our POW-MIA
Scott Spiker, and also were involved in the anti-terrorism efforts on
the ground. David Kay became upset and told this to General Dayton,
that there were assets being diverted away from his efforts to look for
weapons of mass destruction. That was one of the reasons why David Kay
left the Iraqi theater to come back to America.
Mr. Speaker, I have not seen that in the American media. I have not
heard that story yet brought forward. But the individual in charge of
the Iraq Survey Group, General Keith Dayton, told us that when we had
our meeting with him in Baghdad.
Mr. Speaker, we also learned that Dr. Kay had not been in Iraq for
the last several months, during which time he could have had an
exchange, an update of the work that was being done by the Iraq Survey
Group. So, Mr. Speaker, I think it is essentially important that we
take an additional step here.
Now, Dr. Kay has issued a report that I think stands on its own and
speaks for itself. It does not help when Members of this body or the
media or candidates for the Presidency misinterpret what David Kay
said. But we need to go beyond that, Mr. Speaker. We need to bring over
the individual who was actually responsible for the weapons of mass
destruction search in Iraq. That is not Dr. Kay; that is General Keith
Dayton. General Dayton has that responsibility, and it is he who
oversees those 1,500 people.
General Dayton told us that they are in fact enthusiastic about the
work they are doing. He explained to us the process now under way to
send teams into the rivers of Iraq, the lakes of Iraq, the bodies of
water where they have leads that perhaps weapons of mass destruction
were dumped, and they are now conducting that search.
They also told us, General Dayton and his colleagues, that there are
literally millions of pages and volumes of documents that have yet to
be searched that can provide leads as to where weapons of mass
destruction might be.
I can tell you after visiting the ``spider hole'' up in Takrit where
Saddam Hussein was holed up for a number of days, that our military
personnel went over top of that site a dozen times and never found
Saddam Hussein. Now, that hole was rather large. So if we could not
find a hole with Saddam in it for 8 or 9 months, then I think we
certainly owe it to General Dayton to give him the time to continue the
search for the evidence that he thinks in fact his team can come up
with.
So the point is, Mr. Speaker, that on this meeting in Iraq with the
general in charge of the survey team for weapons of mass destruction,
we got a clearly different picture from that that is being portrayed by
the American media, both in terms of Dr. Kay's report and the spin that
has been made on that report.
Today, Mr. Speaker, Secretary Rumsfeld appeared before our Committee
on Armed Services in the House, and I was the first Member of Congress
that was invited to ask questions of Secretary Rumsfeld. I laid all of
this out to him, and I asked him if he did not think it was time to do
what the famous media person, Paul Harvey, used to say at the end of
his stories: and now we will hear the other half of the story.
Mr. Speaker, today I requested of Secretary Rumsfeld that Major
General Keith Dayton be brought back to America to testify before the
Congress about the work that he is directing right now on looking for
weapons of mass destruction. Then Members of Congress can ask him about
the conditions under which David Kay operated, that he was in fact a
consultant to General Dayton. Then we can ask the questions about the
circumstances under which Dr. Kay left Iraq. Was there friction? What
was that friction? Then we can ask the most important question for the
American people of a two star general who is apolitical and is not
going to put any kind of a spin on his statement, What is your current
effort in Iraq and do you expect and do you anticipate the ability to
find weapons of mass destruction over the next several months?
I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, what he told us unconditionally is that
they are very much into this search. It has not ended; it is not
winding down. In fact, they have placed more in the way of assets and
resources into the search for weapons of mass destruction.
Now, oftentimes in this city we do not pay attention to the facts. We
try to spin things. So I think it is extremely important that we bring
over General Keith Dayton to give us a firsthand accounting of the
search for weapons of mass destruction and to give us the other half of
the story to the findings of Dr. Kay, who was a consultant to General
Dayton.
Mr. Speaker, let me get back to the trip that we took, the bipartisan
trip, which in fact was the first trip to Libya by Americans since
1969.
My job as a member of the Committee on Armed Services for the past 17
years has been to make sure that we give our military the best
equipment, the best technology, and the best training to allow them to
continue to be the best military on the face of the Earth, and we have
done that. I am a self-described hawk in terms of supporting our
military.
But, Mr. Speaker, as the vice chairman of the Committee on Armed
Services, I consider my number one priority to be the avoidance of war,
because war has always got to be the last choice, because when we
commit our troops to war, then we put America's sons and daughters into
harm's way, knowing full well that some or perhaps many of them will
not return to their families.
So over the past 17 years, while serving on the Committee on Armed
Services, making sure our military has the equipment they need, is
properly trained, and has the financial support that they deserve, I
have spent an equal amount of time on the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction technology and trying to find ways to take those
enemies of ours and those would-be enemies of ours and turn them into,
if not allies, at least countries that we can work with.
My primary focus has been with the former Soviet states, where I have
traveled almost 35 times and established a relationship with the
parliaments of all of those former nations that were once a part of the
Soviet Union. For the past 13 years, with my colleague, the gentleman
from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), we have co-chaired a formal effort with the
Duma in the Russian Government, the legislative body of that country,
to establish a close relationship of friends and partners. We have had
some ups and downs, but the fact is that we are still working
aggressively together.
We have done the same thing with Ukraine, with the Rada; with
Moldova, with the Parliament; with Georgia,

[[Page H379]]

with their Parliament; with Azerbaijan and with Armenia. We have done
it with Uzbekistan, and we are now reaching out to other countries that
were once a part of the Soviet Union to bring all of those countries
into a level of cooperation and understanding with us.
Mr. Speaker, the Soviet Union and its republics were the source of
much of the technology that ended up in the hands of the Libyans, the
Iraqis, the Iranians, the North Koreans and the Syrians. In fact, Mr.
Speaker, during the 1990s, I must have given 100 speeches on what we
saw occurring on a regular basis, the transfer of technology from
Russia and China and those former Soviet states into the hands of those
five countries that I just mentioned. Time and again there were
violations of arms control agreements. But the response of the
administration in the nineties was to pretend we did not see it,
because the administration was more concerned with keeping Boris
Yeltsin in power, even when the people of Russia had come to believe
that he was no longer a credible leader for their nation.
Mr. Speaker, we did the same thing in reaching out to other
countries, like China, that in fact were heading towards a course of
perhaps being an enemy of the U.S.; leading six delegations to that
Nation; being the only elected official asked to speak two times at the
National Defense University of the People's Liberation Army in Beijing.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, last May, after 2 years of planning, I was
proud to take the first delegation of Members of Congress, again a
bipartisan delegation, into Pyongyang, North Korea, the goal there
being to support the President and continuing the dialogue of the six
nations to eventually resolve the conflict between North Korea, South
Korea and the rest of the world.
In fact, Mr. Speaker, following the next round of six-way talks at
the end of this month, I will again lead a delegation back into North
Korea to continue a positive effort to support our President in finding
a peaceful solution to the Korean nuclear crisis, again to avoid war,
because of the consequence of putting America's sons and daughters into
harm's way.

{time} 2045

Now, I also fully realize, Mr. Speaker, that that is not always
possible, and one case in point was Iraq. We gave Saddam Hussein 18
chances to abide by U.N. resolutions, 18 opportunities to come clean,
to basically come forward and tell the world what he had been doing.
And the response of Saddam Hussein was to thumb his nose at us and at
the rest of the world and to defy the world community. As a result, the
President was left with no choice when he asked us to support him in a
resolution of war.
For the life of me, Mr. Speaker, I cannot understand the logic of
those in this body and the leader of France, Jacques Chirac, and the
leader of Germany Gerhard Schroeder who criticized President Bush for
going into Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein. Because what is interesting
is, just 4 short years ago, many of these same people criticizing
President Bush from this body, as well as Jacques Chirac and Gerhard
Schroeder, were the very individuals pushing Bill Clinton into a war in
Yugoslavia to remove Milosevic from power. And guess what, Mr. Speaker?
When Schroeder and Chirac and some of the Members of this body who are
criticizing President Bush pushed Bill Clinton into an armed conflict,
they did not go to the U.N. for a resolution, because they knew full
well that Russia would veto any such resolution of the Security
Council. So what did they do? Bill Clinton, Gerhard Schroeder, and
Jacques Chirac, supported by many of those in this body who have been
criticizing President Bush, did not go to the U.N. as George Bush did,
they went to NATO.
Now, Mr. Speaker, NATO is a defensive body. It was organized as a
defensive entity to defend Europe and the NATO countries from an attack
by a nation like the Soviet Union. NATO was never meant to be an
offensive organization. But in 1999, many of those same people,
including many of those Democrat candidates for President today, were
out there supporting Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder and Bill
Clinton in using NATO for the first and only time ever in its history
as an offensive invasion force into a non NATO country.
So we invaded Yugoslavia. We bombed Serbia. We removed Milosevic, who
was a war criminal. But what is so confusing to me, Mr. Speaker, is
that those same people who were on Bill Clinton's band wagon to invade
Serbia and Yugoslavia because Milosevic was a war criminal, all of a
sudden, having supported George Bush, even though he went to the U.N.
for the 17th and 18th time, even though Saddam Hussein has been
characterized by everyone, from Max Vanderstadt, the U.N. Human Rights
Advisor, to Amnesty International as the worst human rights abuser
since Adolf Hitler, did not want to support the effort in Iraq. Sounds
like politics to me, Mr. Speaker. It does not sound like much
consistency or substance.
How can you be for removing a war criminal like Milosevic from power
and not going through the U.N., but using NATO as an offensive force,
and then 4 years later, criticize President Bush after having gone to
NATO for the 17th and 18th time, after having given Saddam Hussein
every opportunity, and then, in the end, who decided we had to remove
this war criminal, this user of weapons of mass destruction, as he did
against the Kurds, as he did against the Iranians, from power. It does
not make sense to me, Mr. Speaker, unless, of course, you add in the
political equation.
But again, in that case, I thought the military action was justified,
but I would say in the case of North Korea and Libya and perhaps Iran,
if we can avoid conflict, we should take every opportunity to explore
that to its end.
That is why, Mr. Speaker, almost a year ago, at a conference on world
energy issues in Houston, Texas, I challenged major international
energy corporations to come together and establish an International
Energy Advisory Council, to specifically focus on the use of energy as
a mechanism to avoid war and as a mechanism to help us solve regional
conflicts that could lead to major escalations of war. That group,
headed up by Jeffrey Waterers, had an initial meeting in Washington,
D.C. in July in the Rayburn Office Building, where Chalabi came over
from Iraq and spoke to the energy leaders about Iraq postwar. We had
major leaders from the State Department and DOD came into speak, and
allowed the energy corporations, including those from Iraq and Iran, to
come together and see if energy could not provide a partial solution to
the crisis both in Iraq as well as other crises around the world.
In October, a second forum was held in London, again attended by all
of the major leaders around the world in the energy industry, which I
could not attend. But following that meeting, I set up a private
meeting with Colonel Gadhafi's son, Saif al Saleem al Gadhafi, a 34-
year-old, London-educated, Ph.D. candidate at the London School of
Economics, who today is apparently, according to some pundits, in line
to succeed his father as the leader of Libya.
I wanted to meet this individual, because we had mutual interests, to
see whether or not there was a possibility of breaking new ground with
Libya politically, of seeing whether or not there would be a movement
away from the policies of the past, which I had heard to be rumored
back in the middle part of last year, unaware of what was happening
with our own private discussions within our government. In January of
this year, the meeting with Saif al Gadhafi took place. He and I had a
long discussion. We talked about Libya's past relationship with the
U.S. and the West. We talked about the horrible bombings, the terrible
tragedy of Lockerbie, the bombings in Berlin, the linkage of Libyan
state-sponsored terrorism, and I told Saif, we can never forgive and
never forget. Likewise, he told me it was difficult for he and his
father to forget that we had bombed their home and in fact killed his
1\1/2\ year old sister. But we both said it was time to look to the
future as opposed to the past.
But Saif was one who was looking to settle the past problems with the
Lockerbie victims' families, to look at putting to rest those issues
where Libya had done horrible things, and that perhaps it was time to
move into a new direction. So he invited me to

[[Page H380]]

bring a delegation of our colleagues to Tripoli. I said I would gladly
take that invitation. Two days later, a formal written invitation came
to my office in Washington from the chairman of the People'S Congress
in Libya, inviting me to bring a delegation in. We secured a military
plane and we decided our trip would involve not just Libya, but a trip
that the White House had been encouraging me to take with Members to
Iraq and Afghanistan.

So the plane was secured, and from the Speaker's list of Members who
were asked to go to Libya and Afghanistan, we assembled a delegation, a
bipartisan delegation, including my good friend, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Ortiz) who would have been here tonight, but he had a death
of a close friend and is down back in his district; the gentleman from
New York (Mr. Israel), a Democrat; the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr.
Alexander), a Democrat; the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Miller), a
Republican; the gentleman from California (Mr. Gallegly), a Republican;
the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder), a Republican; and the
gentleman from California (Mr. Issa), a Republican. The gentlemen from
California (Mr. Gallegly) and (Mr. Issa) joined us the day before we
left. They were not a part of the delegation going on to Iraq and
Afghanistan; they only joined us for the Libyan portion of the trip.
And I would say, Mr. Speaker, any Member of Congress could have come
with us on that trip into Libya. We had over 100 empty seats on our
aircraft. So any Member of Congress could have joined us if they had
just called and expressed an interest, as the gentlemen from California
did the day before we left.
Mr. Speaker, our trip to Libya and the other countries was
exhausting. As I mentioned earlier, we traveled 25,500 miles, we
visited 8 countries, and we had 45 meetings. Members of our delegation
on some nights got less than 2 hours sleep. When we arrived in Kuwait,
before going into Iraq, we arrived at 4 o'clock in the morning from our
plane, got to our hotel and had to be up at 6 o'clock in the morning
for the military to take us into Baghdad. So I want to congratulate the
members of the delegation that were on this trip because of their
outstanding service to the country in performing an extremely difficult
task, completing the mission that we set out for ourselves.
But I want to talk specifically about what we actually did and, in
the end, I will ask to put our trip report in the Congressional Record.
We did not know what to expect in Libya, Mr. Speaker, because no one
had been there from our country for the past 35 years. We were not sure
what the response would be. In fact, we were told by the White House
and the National Security Council that the Libyans did not want any
presence of the U.S., they certainly did not want to see the flag
flown, and they did not want America in any way displayed because it
would upset the people of the country. In fact, up until the 11th hour,
they did not want us to land our military plane at the Tripoli Airport.
How wrong they were.
When we arrived in Tripoli, Mr. Speaker, and our plane pulled up to
the tarmac, the number one spot in front of the air terminal at the
main Tripoli Airport, there was a whole core of individuals from the
leadership of Libya waiting to meet us. Officials from the government
of the country, the foreign ministry, the people's Congress, all out
there welcoming the Americans back to their nation. In fact, there was
a huge media entourage, TV cameras, reporters who were there to ask us
questions about why we were there and to follow us through our initial
meeting which was held in the lobby of the Tripoli Airport.
The welcome was unbelievable; unbelievably positive. As we sat down
and talked about our agenda for the 2 days we were going to be there, I
had asked for less than a dozen meetings. Mr. Speaker, not only was
every meeting that I asked for granted to us, but they even went beyond
and gave us meetings we had not asked for. We met with the Prime
Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Vice Prime Minister, the
Foreign Minister, the minister in charge of removing weapons of mass
destruction from Libya. We met with the foundation established by Saif
al Gadhafi, the same foundation overseeing the refunding of the money
that is owed to those victims' families of the Lockerbie disaster. We
met at the largest university in Libya, Al Fateh University, which has
75,000 students. We met with the leaders of the Libyan-American
Friendship Society, which was started in 2000, where 400 people waited
for 3 hours for us to arrive in this large tent to welcome us openly
with American flags flying outside of the tent and inside of the tent,
with children dressed up in colorful costumes to sing for us, with
young people reciting poetry for us and speeches welcoming America back
to Libya.

Everyplace we went, Mr. Speaker, every person we met, every group we
talked to was hungry and starving for a new positive relationship with
America.
In fact, during our first day in downtown Tripoli, I asked the
delegation to break away with me to go on an unplanned event, to walk 3
or 4 blocks away from the hotel, and to go into the marketplace, the
old city, the shopping district, where hundreds of shops and local
stores are there for the Libyan citizens to buy their materials, their
clothing, their housewares, their pots and pans, and the things that
they need for their own lives. The delegation walked together, without
any preannouncement, without guards around us, without any advanced
alert, and we went through the marketplace. Every person we met in the
Libyan marketplace in downtown Tripoli was positive. They came up to
us, they shook our hands. A young 10-year-old, when the gentlewoman
from Michigan (Mrs. Miller) said, Hi, how are you, said back to her, I
am fine, how are you? And she said, You speak excellent English. He
said, I have been practicing in school.
We met shopkeepers, an elderly gentleman who was pounding the copper,
making pots, who looked up and said, We are glad to have you in our
country. We hope it is a new beginning. Everyone we met on the streets
of Tripoli, Mr. Speaker, were positive toward America. It overwhelmed
us. It was not what we expected, it was not what we were told to expect
by our own government back here in our country.
In fact, Mr. Speaker, Members sitting around the table at the
university with the President of the Al Fateh University and about 25
of his department heads; and remember, this is a 75,000 student
university, they have major programs in medicine, in law, in health
care, in science, in technology, in education, in environment and
agriculture. As he went around the room, each of these department
heads, all of whom spoke excellent English, give us their background
and what department they headed. It was unbelievable, Mr. Speaker. All
but two of them were educated here in America. They told us what
schools they attended: UCLA, Princeton, Colorado, Michigan, University
of Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Georgia, all the major schools of our
country.

{time} 2100

And they told us of their longing to once again reestablish ties with
the American educational system and with the American people. In fact,
one of the professors at the University, professor of English, Dr. T.
T. Tarhuui, wrote a poem entitled ``Members of Congress,'' which I will
enter into the Record when I place our trip report in at the end so the
American people and our colleagues can read the poem he wrote for our
visit.
So the response by the people and the leaders of Libya was
unbelievably and overwhelmingly positive. In fact, we asked to see a
weapons of mass destruction site. Not only did they take us to their
nuclear complex but we had full access to their 10 megawatt research
reactor which they opened to look into and to understand what they were
doing with radio isotopes and discuss with them their nuclear program;
but before we went to that site, they had us sit down with the minister
who was in charge of the entire program to allow the IAEA and the U.S.
and Great Britain to remove the weapons of mass destruction from that
nuclear site and from Libya. In fact, much of that removal took place
the same week that we were in Libya on a separate military aircraft.
But perhaps the most interesting meeting in Libya was with Colonel
Qadafi. We did not know what to expect. We were taken to his residence

[[Page H381]]

that we had bombed in 1986. We saw the devastation still evident. We
saw the lessons and the stories about his daughter who was killed. And
we were then brought to another part of the complex where there was a
large outdoor tent. We were led in and sat down on the sofas arranged
in a semi-circle manner and awaited the arrival of Colonel Qadafi.
About 5 minutes later, he came into the tent in his glowing purple
robed outfit with his hat on, shook our hands, smiled and sat down. And
for 2 hours we had a discussion among the group. And then I had a
private session with him for 30 minutes.
In the trip report, Mr. Speaker, are the very quotes that Colonel
Qadafi made to our group as transcribed by both our staff director,
Doug Roach, and our military escort. We had two separate note takers in
that meeting.
It was a very solemn meeting with Qadafi. For the first 25 or 30
minutes he talked to us in a very low tone, a very deliberate tone. And
he said, You know, I am so happy that you are here, he said, but my
question is why has it taken over 30 years for someone from your
country to sit down with me and talk to me? I could understand if you
met with me and you had problems because I had done something wrong,
some terrible act, but if you would have met with me and talked with me
and then felt that I was lying, you would have been justified in
bombing me. But you did not talk to me for over 30 years.
He said, You do not understand the Libyan people. We understand
America. We studied all about it. And I would ask you to help me in my
effort to reestablish that relationship with your country.
Now, Mr. Speaker, we made no apologies to Colonel Qadafi. We let him
and his leaders know that the past actions of his government and some
of his people were outrageous and will never be forgiven nor forgotten.
But we also said it is time to move into a new direction.
We praised him personally for the public statements that he has made
about his willingness to remove his weapons of mass destruction and
about his willingness to turn over a new page in a relationship with
the West.
He talked about his country's coming into the arms control regimes
that for decades they have not been a part of. And for that we thanked
him. And we said to Colonel Qadafi, Your words are important and we
praise them, but words will not carry the day. You must show us with
your actions that you truly are serious with removing the weapons of
mass destruction, about changing the ways of the past, about working
with us on the problem of terrorism, about rooting out those cells that
exist in your country, and about laying down a new foundation for the
future.
We told him that we would judge Libya and their colonel's comments
based on substance as opposed to words and dialogue. But we also told
him that if that process continued that we were sure that one day a
normalization of relations would occur. And when that day came, we in
the Congress, Democrats and Republicans, were prepared to help our
President establish a new relationship with the people and the
institutions of Libya.
Our meetings with Qadafi were productive, were candid, and were
designed to convey a positive message of support for the leadership of
our President in stating that Libya has become a model of moving in the
right direction away from terrorism.
One of the things that Colonel Qadafi said to us was that he was
taking tremendous heat from the other Arab leaders in the region who
were making fun of him, who were criticizing him and calling him
because of his decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction. And
his concern was that America not abandon him if, in fact, he continues
to do the kinds of things that have happened over the past several
weeks with both the IAEA, Great Britain, and the United States.
So, Mr. Speaker, I think our trip to Libya was extremely positive. We
were not there to become a patsy for anyone. We were not there to try
to brush over what has happened in the past. We were there to do what I
said earlier is my top job as the vice chairman of the Committee on
Armed Services, to avoid another war, to find a way not to appease
anyone, but to continue on the path that our President has laid down,
to turn a former terrorist nation, a nation that has been involved in
state-sponsored activity in a new direction to becoming friends with
the U.S.
The second part of our trip moved us to Iraq. We had amazing meetings
with the troops. We had time with Ambassador Bremer, with General
Sanchez. We asked them to give us updates on the troops' activities, on
the stability inside of that country.
We had a meeting with Dr. Pachachi, who is the leader of the
governing council. We had several of his colleagues there with us as we
talked about the plan to hand Iraq over to his people. And he thanked
us for that support. We assured him that America was there for the long
haul; and that even though the political rhetoric of this election year
will cause Democrats and Republicans to criticize each other, that we
were not going to as Americans abandon what we had started in Iraq.

We then went out with the troops, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned we talked
at length with the Iraq survey team. I will not review that because I
did it at the beginning of my Special Order. But we went out and had
other meetings as well in Iraq. In fact, we traveled up to Tikrit. We
went in a C-130, and we saw the terrible trauma that our C-130 pilots
are under as they have to evasively fly into airports to do
unbelievable maneuvers so they can avoid the surface-to-air missiles
that still exist in Iraq.
On the ground up in the Tikrit area, we were able to take Blackhawk
helicopters out into the troop areas to meet with troops, to go to the
spider hole where Saddam had been holed up, to visit with our Special
Forces. In fact, we were able to be a part of a ceremony as one of our
young Special Forces, Mr. Reyes, Sergeant Reyes, reenlisted. We became
a part of that ceremony to honor him for his commitment to our country.
We had a tremendous interaction with the general in charge of the 4th
Infantry Division, General Odierno, who gave us a personal update as to
the encounters that were taking place on a daily basis. In fact, I had
a very moving experience there with General Odierno because one of my
constituents, a 24-year-old young man who I had nominated to West
Point, was killed in an attack back in the latter part of 2003.
As General Odierno was describing to us some of the attacks on his
troops, he talked about a young 24-year-old that he had come to know,
an outstanding leader whose convoy was attacked, whose troops came
under heavy fire, who himself was hit, and in spite of his own
injuries, continued to protect and save the lives of at least one and
possibly two other soldiers before his life was snuffed out.
As the general talked, and as I described to him the 24-year-old that
I had nominated to West Point, the general asked me his name. And I
said Bernstein. He said Congressman, that is who I was talking about.
He went to school with my son at West Point. I happen to have a 3-page
letter with me from Lieutenant Bernstein's parents thanking me for the
praise we had acknowledged for him to his family, including comments
from those who knew the lieutenant, who had been touched by him during
his brief life. I gave a copy of that letter to the general. He was
very moved and presented me with the unit coin which I will present to
the Bernstein family in remembrance of their son, a brave American
hero.
Our visit with the troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Uzbekistan
was to assess what they needed. We came back with the idea that they
need more linguistic support, they need more UAVs, and we need better
benefits and support for our Guard and Reservists who are serving so
well. And that message was conveyed throughout the trip.
In leaving Iraq, we went to Islamabad and then flew into Afghanistan
into the capital city of Kabul where we met with King Zahir Shah to
assess his continuing role as the leader of that country, someone who
helped us get the Afghanis to convene Aloya Jirga to bring together the
leaders to establish a constitutional government.
In following the meeting with King Zahir Shah, we met with the leader
of the government of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. He talked to the
success only made possible by the leadership of the

[[Page H382]]

United States. In between we met with more of our troops.
Then we flew from Kabul up to our K2 base in Uzbekistan, a former
Soviet military site where we spent a day and a half with the troops.
Each member of our delegation walked through the wards. We went to the
bedsides of those soldiers, some who had shrapnel wounds, some who had
been shot in the leg, some who had piercings of the eyes, some who had
skin diseases. And we told them that they were our heroes.
We met with those that were on the way out in transition, that were
coming back to the States. In fact, we offered seats to 12 of those
young soldiers who came back with us to America and then were taken to
the Army medical facility here in Washington, D.C. for further
treatment and eventual transport back to their districts.
We had two town meetings in the military base in K2. As we stayed
overnight, we had dinner one night and breakfast the next morning with
the troops. And during the evening and the morning, we had town
meetings to allow the troops to tell us what was on their minds. They
told us the good things and bad things; but without any question, Mr.
Speaker, the morale of our troops in every visit we made was
overwhelmingly positive. They knew why they were there. They were
positive for being there. And they were happy that we came.
We delivered 10,000 Valentine's cards, made by schoolchildren all
over America. We delivered 25 cases of Tasty Cakes so the troops could
get a fresh taste of America and the treats that come from my hometown
city of Philadelphia. We even brought over shirts from the Philadelphia
Eagles. Unfortunately, not many wanted them because the Eagles had lost
a terribly embarrassing game before in the playoffs, but we gave them
out anyway.
Mr. Speaker, our trip was an overwhelming success. I am proud of
those Members of Congress that went on this journey to try to improve
relations with these nations, with these emerging democracies, and the
conversion of this former arch enemy of ours.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to the gentleman from Indiana
(Mr. Souder) for whatever time he would like to consume, one of the
stars on this trip. He was the only member of the delegation not on the
Committee on Armed Services, the other five were; but he is a strong
supporter of our military and, more importantly, he is the chairman of
the oversight committee that oversees all of our anti-narcotics and
abuse efforts worldwide. He has been a leader in helping the President
and the administration deal with the problems of narcoterrorism, and he
and his staff were there to specifically focus on that issue, and he
did it extremely well at every stop. But it was a pleasure to have him
with us. He has traveled in the past with me to Russia. And I was proud
to have him as a colleague on this trip.

{time} 2115

Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I first want to praise the gentleman for his
continuing efforts in this often, and previously, ignored region of the
world. He has been an expert in Russia for a long time. I believe he
said 33 different trips to Russia, someone who is a familiar face
there, who will go nose to nose with the Russians, and at the same time
the Russians know he will be back again and again and again. He is our
friend while he is also arguing with us.
I have watched the gentleman practice that in tough negotiations with
Russia and prepare himself for the other types of things that he has
been working with in this troubled region of the world.
He has spent time in the Ukraine, in Georgia. His commitment to
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and the so-called ``Stans'' was there long
before we had the focus in the recent post-9/11 issues. The gentleman
was interested in this for a long time since the Republicans came into
control in Congress and even before that in his career.
His efforts in North Korea. He has been in the world hot spots before
they were known as the world hot spots; therefore, the particular trip
that we were able to do, as the gentleman has explained tonight, we
cannot overstate the gentleman's role and the connections and how these
things are connected.
Because the gentleman is involved in the energy, he got to know
Mohammar Khadafi's son, who would enable us to get into places we were
never able to get in and help facilitate the breakthrough that we are
having in Libya. The gentleman deserves that credit. No matter how many
times it is said, the fact remains that we were able to get into places
that we were not able to get into, that Americans would not have been
able to get into had the gentleman not been spending a lot longer than
just the most recent time, but time way before that. I thank the
gentleman very much for that.
Let me kind of reinforce a couple of things that the gentleman said.
First, I would like to start with Libya because there were many of us,
and let me just in my little piece that I got to say to the leader, Mr.
Khadaffi, it was very clear. I said, look, I am a fundamentalist
Christian. I am a strong supporter of Israel. I am one of your critics.
But at the same time, and I did not particularly like some of the
things he was claiming to be, this great democracy and how great
socialism was working. We did not agree. But he said it in a debating
type of way, probably a little nicer than some of the debate we had
here earlier this evening. It was a good discussion. He seems to want
to start to communicate.
While I found some of the things he said offensive or in
disagreement, the bottom line is he took a huge step to open up a
country that was previously and still is on our terrorist list, that
may be networking; and those of us who have seen all sorts of
classified things know we have Libyan suspects all over the world for
potential networks suspects. If he shuts this down, if he shuts this
nuclear development down, look, I am willing to sit through a few
lectures. I am willing to talk. If somebody can be moved off the
terrorist list, if somebody can be moved off the nuclear list, we can
sit down and talk. It does not mean that we are apologizing or that we
are agreeing with past things. Okay. What is done is done.
If we have a chance at a time when we are under assault all over the
world to find a friend who wants to fight al Qaeda, who wants to take
on bin Laden, who wants to dismantle, and on the whole I would just as
soon they did health research and tried to figure out how to put their
nuclear research into desalinization of water. They want our help to
try to figure out how to get more water in Libya so they can irrigate.
And that is a lot better than developing bombs to blow up our people.
His comment that you referred to where he said, we do not know much
about Libya, partly we will never know that much about Libya. And some
of it was rhetoric and frustration we hear all around the world. But
you know what, we did just not know much about Libya. I love to study
history. We did not know hardly anything about Libya. Apparently, our
government does not either.
They were telling the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) that
we cannot land there. We do not know how we will be received. They will
be hostile. There will be no press coverage. And we landed, and there
is not any other way to state this, it was the friendliest place I've
even been on a CODEL.
Everybody was so excited to see us. Once the leader said, this is
okay, all this Americanism is pouring out. The gentleman mentioned the
university. They want to get our education. The 38 of the top 40 people
have been educated in America. The U.S.-Libyan Friendship Society,
there is hundreds of people waiting 3 hours to have lunch with a few
Congressmen.
The excitement of the whole trip there, you go, something is a
disconnect. We do not understand. And at one of the dinners where the
Libyan husband of an American citizen asked me, Are you guys over here
just to tick off the French? And I said, What? I said, I hate to be an
ignorant American here, but why would we be ticking off the French? He
said, You do not understand. In North Africa, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria,
the French and the Italians are viewed as the occupiers. The Americans
came in in World War II and liberated us. We like America. And I am
thinking, no, no, these are the guys that hate us.
It is not that we just do not know much about Libya; we do not know
anything. We had it backwards. If they

[[Page H383]]

are willing to work with us, hey, look, it is trust but verify. They
could have taken us into a nuclear facility.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) knew more than I did
because he has been to Russia so many times, he goes, oh, that is a
Russian system. Were you working with this university? Were you working
with that university? It is clear that the pressure that President
Reagan put on communism to get the fall of the Berlin Wall and the
change in Russia meant that it also dried up a lot of the assistance
they were getting in Libya. And then they had to go into the market to
pick up a few things. That knowledge, while the gentleman knows a lot,
quite frankly, he said repeatedly, look, there is only so much we can
do. The President makes these decisions. We can input. We can help once
it goes through, how to put these plans together, but the bottom line
is we want nuclear scientists to look at their nuclear facilities. We
want experts to verify what we have heard.

What we see is they need it economically. His son, who is the next
potential leader, wants to change the country. He is being schooled at
the London School of Economics. When you go into Tunisia, you can see
the differences between there and Libya. So can all their people next
door. They have reasons to want to change. He does not want to be
caught in a spider hole like Saddam was.
All the evidence suggests that this is real. What the chairman said,
to go up to Libya, was a huge breakthrough. The administration is
moving rapidly and this may be one of the biggest things in our life
time that saves lots. And it is much to the gentleman's credit, and it
was a great stop in Libya.
I only want to mention one thing about Iraq because I agree with
everything the gentleman has stated about that, from everything to
morale to others; but I supported and the gentleman mentioned about
getting General Dayton in here and the weapons of mass destruction,
trying to understand that the consultants somehow got more high profile
than the people that are actually running the weapons of mass
destruction program, that there are multiple directions here; but what
I wanted to comment on particularly was the spider hole itself.
It taught me something else with this that I have been trying to
communicate back home as well. That hole was not very big. I am not a
particularly big person, maybe a little overweight but not that much,
but I did not fit into the hole very well. The bigger you were, the
tighter it was. The taller you were, the tighter it was. It was a very
small hole.
What we heard was that there was inside information, we had already
been to that farm twice looking for it, looking for him. Saw nothing.
Then inside information, not voluntarily given, told them where it was.
They went in with Special Forces and still did not find it. Found a
different hole. Then they had to go back and get a drawn map to go.
First off, if you think of the hole as very small and the part where
he would go down into basically like a casket with a higher ceiling,
there was not much room when you got down in there. You could not move
barely at all.
No wonder he was disoriented. If he had American troops tromping
around above him while they are making several visits with a little
tube going down, he was probably getting very little oxygen, it was
dark, there was no food, it is not like it is a lighted well-structured
cell. It was a little dirt box that he was in. And if it is that hard
by the time they put the grass over the top of it and something over
the top of that, there was no way even Special Forces with a map could
find it. Put this in the context of weapons of mass destruction.
If you cannot find Saddam when you have a map from his top staffers,
and you have your top forces searching for it with a map and it takes
you two runs, we may never find some of this stuff. Just because we do
not find it does not mean it does not exist. We have already proven it
was worthwhile to go in there because they were clearly developing.
The other thing was in going down to the Believer's Palace at the
bottom, when we went down and saw the supposed place where he would
feed back all this stuff to us and we were one of the first groups, I
believe they had just opened up the basement there, and you saw the
ability to put 200 of his special guards and his cabinet and himself in
there. What we saw was not only the masks that you always hear about,
chemical and biological masks, but they had controls on the wall for
different types of chemical and biological weapons to control the air
systems and other things. This guy was not preparing for conventional
war.
Whether he was preparing now or a year from now or 2 years from now
may be debated, but he was getting ready to fight an unconventional
war.
In Afghanistan, which was one of my primary goals to talk again to
President Karzai, who I met here as well as the former King, about
narcotics. Afghan heroin is again flooding the market. We have major
obligations here with Afghanistan. As the King said in Rome, the
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) took the first delegation in.
We followed shortly after that, and the King told me at that time, we
used to grow all sorts of crops where they now do poppy, and
Afghanistan is often remembered when there is trouble, but then you
forget us because we are a poor country that gets run over by all the
major powers. My people are hungry.
I have never seen a country without a middle class or even nice
hotels. It was a suburb of hell, quite frankly, in Kabul. They need
help. Yet at the same time, I think 85 percent of the people turned out
in a recent election even though al Qaeda was threatening to kill them.
They are excited. They have a multiparty system, multicandidates
running.
We have to figure out how to get them off the heroin because their
farmers are not making that much from heroin. It is going to middle
men. And these middle men that are making the money are often tied to
the terrorist networks. They use narcotics, human trafficking and other
illegal substances to fund it. So what I was trying to explain and
President Karzai has been helpful, the general, the nephew I think of
the King, said that we need Special Forces, Afghani Special Forces to
go in after the heroin because the RPGs and the bombs and the suicide
bombers are getting funded in Afghanistan largely by the fact that when
the heroin poppy goes into market, that money then gets to middle men
who take that money to buy armaments and to build al Qaeda and other
terrorist networks around the world.
It is a very close link between drugs and terrorism, a very close
link to reestablishing the control in Afghanistan. They have the will.
They are turning out to vote at greater rates than we are. They are
excited about the freedom. Women have their first freedom. We have an
American-educated leader who really is dynamic in what he wants to do
in Afghanistan, a King who has shown his commitment for 40 years and
then transferring it to democratic power there.
I was hopeful for Afghanistan even though it is a very tough country
that has been abused by every major power through world history for
hundreds and hundreds of years. This was an eye-opening trip. It was a
tremendous privilege to be allowed on it.
I commend the gentleman for leading a breakthrough in Libya, major
steps in Iraq, and showing the courage to go into Afghanistan even when
people were telling us, the day we were still going in, do not go in
there. It is not safe right now; we went in. President Karzai was able
to go in front of his media and say, look, the Americans are here. They
are backing us up. They are not bailing out just because two suicide
bombers hit us in the last few days and somebody hit an ammunition
dump. We are not retreating. This is real. It is not just the
President; it is the Congress that is behind you.
I thank the gentleman for his leadership.
Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I want to add a comment
about the role of this body and members of foreign policy.
There are some who say that Members of Congress should not travel
overseas or travel to countries that we are having problems with.
I will say that is absolutely, totally wrong. There are some within
the State Department who take offense to the fact that Members of
Congress will

[[Page H384]]

travel to countries like this. Let me say to my colleagues in this
body, many of you will be here for 10 years or 20 years. If you focus
on one country or a group of countries, you will have far more
opportunities to specialize in that country than a State Department
official who spends 3 years in one post and moves on someplace else.
There is a very real and substantive role for Members of Congress to
play, and we must play it. This is not a case where the executive
branch controls everything and we are just subservient to them. We are
an equal part of the Federal Government, and we have the responsibility
because we appropriate the dollars, we levy the taxes, and we oversee
the way the money is spent, to travel to these countries, to open
doors, to look for new ways to establish relationships, and to support
the administration, which we did on this trip as we have on every major
trip. But there is a role for the Congress to play.
I am convinced that Members of Congress can play an extremely
constructive role because we do not have to act as diplomats. We do not
have to watch how we sit, how we sip our tea, what words did we use,
because we are not representing the President. We are not representing
the Secretary of State. We are representing ourselves. The members of
Congress on this CODEL, as it has been on every CODEL that I have been
a part of, did a fantastic job on behalf of America.

{time} 2130

Mr. Speaker, I would like to at this point in time place the trip
report in the Record, filed as a part of our process as we do for every
trip that gives the American people and our colleagues a complete,
factual understanding of what we did, where we went and how we
represented our country.
I am proud of this delegation, Democrats and Republicans alike,
opening new doors to help in the security of not just America but of
all those countries that want peace around the world.

Congressional Delegation (CODEL) Weldon to Libya, Tunisia, Kuwait,
Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Germany--January 25-31,
2004

Summary

A bipartisan congressional delegation (CODEL) led by
Representative Curt Weldon (R-PA), traveled to Tripoli,
Libya; Tunis, Tunisia; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Baghdad, Balad
Air Base, and Ad Dawr, Iraq; Islamabad, Pakistan; Kabul,
Afghanistan; Karshi Kharnabad (``K2''), Uzbekistan; and
Ramstein Air Base and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center,
Germany January 25-31, 2004. The delegation met with the
leadership of Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraqi Governing Council
representatives, the former Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United
States, reviewed U.S. military operations and visited
personnel supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in Kuwait
and Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Pakistan,
Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. The delegation included:

Representative Curt Weldon (R-PA)
Representative Solomon Ortiz (D-TX)
Representative Steve Israel (D-NY)
Representative Rodney Alexander (D-LA)
Representative Candice Miller (R-MI)
Representative Elton Gallegly (R-CA)
Representative Mark Souder (R-IN)
Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA)

A listing of the complete delegation and key personnel
contacted at each location is provided at attachments 1 and
2, respectively.
Libya, January 25-26
The delegation was the first bipartisan congressional
delegation to meet with Colonel Moammar Gaddafi in 35 years.
Fourteen other meetings were held with senior ministry,
legislative, educational, and charitable foundation
officials. The discussions with Colonel Gaddafi and all other
senior leaders were extraordinarily positive regarding the
potential for normalized relations between Libya and the U.S.
The delegation encouraged the Libyan leader to follow through
on his encouraging public statements regarding elimination of
Libyan weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs, with
swift, verifiable elimination of those programs. Further, the
delegation spoke with Libyan leaders regarding numerous
public and private cooperative science, technology,
environmental, health care, economic development, and energy-
related programs that could be developed and instituted
immediately upon normalization of relations. The delegation
also delivered introductory letters from American University
students to students of Al Fateh University in Tripoli.
Colonel Gaddafi thanked Chairman Weldon for making the
visit possible: ``coming at a very critical time''--observing
that he wished that ``such a meeting could have taken place
thirty years ago'' and stating his hope ``to be able to
compensate for what we missed.'' He commented at length on
the need for countries to communicate and engage in dialogue
before taking up arms against one another. He denied any
responsibility for the night club bombing in 1986 that led to
the U.S. bombing of Libya and the death of his step daughter:
``For 30 years we haven't discussed anything with each
other . . . taking the wrong approach right from the
beginning, with wars, losses, damage, loss of valuable time,
without a good, specific reason for doing so . . . The
picture of Gaddafi (in the U.S.) is not a real one. When I
took the decision on elimination of weapons of mass
destruction, I did it for my people, out of conviction . . .
If I had the atomic bomb I would put it on the table. There
is no reason for Libya and the United States not to have good
relations. The right course is the one you have taken: to
come here and meet . . . the policies were wrong in the past.
We can't rectify such wrongs . . . We have to compensate for
what we have missed. . . I highly value your visit because it
is necessary that you know us very well. Because once you
know us well, then you will take the appropriate policy
decisions.''
He further commented regarding what he believed to be a
lack of knowledge in the U.S. about Libya's government:
``Americans don't even know the governing system in Libya.
We know the governing system in the U.S.: the White House,
the NSC (National Security Council), Congress . . . We know
about the Pentagon. We know about the newspapers, one by one.
We even know the writers. We know names of companies and
specializations. Nevertheless, Americans don't know anything
about our congresses, peoples' committees, revolutionary
committees, social structure, leadership, or anything about
the Green Book.''
Colonel Gaddafi also mentioned criticism from Arab
countries he said was aimed at Libya for deciding to
eliminate its WMD programs:
``In the past year there have been bad mediators. Tunisia,
Egypt and other Arab countries see it as not in their best
interest for Libya and the United States to have good
relations. These countries are benefiting from the embargo
and seek a continuation of the embargo for their own
interests. How would you expect them to work for good
relations between Libya and America? The Arabs are waging a
fierce campaign against us for deciding to get rid of WMD. I
hope they are not successful in taking revenge against us. I
hope that even Libyans are not sorry for taking such a step.
It all depends on your supporting us. It does deserve support
and encouragement so that Libyans won't be disappointed.''
Chairman Weldon stated that before coming to Libya the
delegation had been told by U.S. officials of the positive
attitude taken by Libyans in cooperating with the survey of
Libyan WMD programs and initial steps to eliminate WMD
programs:
``There is no doubt in my mind that your policies and
leadership will lead to normalized relations between our
countries. Even President Bush, in his recent State of the
Union message, mentioned Libya as a model for other
countries. You have to understand that President Bush has
been criticized by elements of our society for calling Libya
a model, just as you have been criticized by Arab leaders who
want to see Libya and America stay apart.''
Chairman Weldon indicated that normalization of relations
between the two countries would permit initiatives to be
undertaken between the Libyan General Peoples' Congress and
the U.S. Congress, much like has been done with the Russian
Duma and other parliaments, to further governmental and non-
governmental cooperation between peoples of the two
countries, leading to better understanding, peaceful
cooperation, and providing for a better quality of life for
all peoples: ``The path forward will not be easy, good things
have to be worked for . . . I am convinced that if we work as
hard on our side as you have on your side, we can start a new
chapter in our relationship, without make judgments about
your country or your culture, but to work together, as
partners.''
Kuwait-Iraq, January 26-28
The delegation traveled to Baghdad to meet with and receive
updates from L. Paul Bremer, Administrator of the Coalition
Provisional Authority; General Sanchez, Commander, Joint Task
Force Seven; the Iraq Survey Group, responsible for the
search for weapons of mass destruction; representatives of
the primary factions of the Iraqi Governing Council; and the
Deputy Commanding General, 1st Armored Division, responsible
for the security of Baghdad.
Four members of the delegation met with Sheik Saud al
Sabah, former Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, to
renew acquaintances and discuss the general political,
economic, and military situation in the region. Sheik Sabah
has personally established a fund for families of U.S.
military personnel killed in the 1991 Gulf War.

Coalition Provisional Authority

Ambassador Bremer indicated that work continues on
formulating the strategic framework for Iraqi security, its
economy, and political transition. He noted that while the
security situation had improved, there still exists a major
terrorist threat. He further stated that the ``consumption
economy'' is working well, but structural problems exist,
largely due to the distorting economic effects of five cents
a gallon gasoline. The focus is in getting capital into the
economy. Work continues, as well, on the transition to a
National Assembly by July 1, 2004.

[[Page H385]]

Differences within the Governing Council and among the
general populace on the selection of delegates by caucus or
direct election continue to cause significant debate and
public demonstrations. Ambassador Bremer noted that an
announcement is due in the near future from the United
Nations on its recommendations on elections in Iraq based
on the results of a study completed by a visiting United
Nations team.

CJTF-7

General Sanchez indicated that the number of attacks by
former regime elements, foreign terrorists, and others had
continued to decline since the capture of Hussein, now
averaging less than 20 per day, down from a high of 50 per
day.

Iraqi Governing Council

The delegation met with four members of the Iraqi Governing
Council (IGC), representing the primary political and
religious factions within Iraq. The President of the IGC, Dr.
Adrian Pachachi, a secularist, indicated the Council was in
the final phase of establishing basic laws, establishing the
details of a provisional government, and completing the
constitution. Dr. Pachachi further indicated his belief that
the draft constitution covers every conceivable right:
freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the rule of law, etc.
Three of the four council members--Dr. Pachachi, the Sunni,
and Shia IGC Members--were unanimous in stating their views
that it is an oversimplification to conclude that individual
Iraqi religious affiliation dictates the views of the Iraqi
people on various policy issues: ``the reality is that the
fanatics are a tiny minority, but very vocal and very well
organized.'' The Sunni IGC member indicated that Sunni and
Shia will vote on the issues, not on the basis of religion,
but on the substance of the issues under consideration--``the
educated middle class in Iraq is much more open minded.''
The Kurdish member stated that the Kurds live under a
different system and different culture, observing that they
have suffered under Iraqi rule, and ``have the right to
establish their own way.'' Dr. Pachachi, acknowledged that
``from the beginning we have recognized that the Kurds are
distinct, that their special status will be maintained. We
are in the process of agreeing to that arrangement.'' Dr.
Pachachi further indicated that the problem at hand is
deciding the best way to select members of the legislature:
``The problem is that it will be difficult to have credible
elections in such a short period . . . If the UN doesn't
believe elections are possible, they will likely propose
other possibilities.''

Iraq Survey Group

Major General Keith Dayton, Director of the Iraqi Survey
Group, provided a classified update on the search for weapons
of mass destruction and counter terrorism programs. A common
misperception is that Dr. Kay headed the hunt for WMD. While
Dr. Kay has been a very valuable advisor in the hunt for WMD,
General Dayton has headed the group responsible for the hunt
for WMD since its inception in June 2003, and with Dr. Kay's
departure, will continue to head the group.
What can be said about the delegations' discussions is that
there, the people in the trenches actually doing the day-to-
day searches, collecting, and analyzing the data
and material, expressed a sense of ``frustration and
dismay'' over ``what Dr Kay is doing''--or at least some
of the media's characterizations of ``what Dr. Kay is
doing,'' as he exits from his high visibility role in the
hunt for WMD.
The ISG has responsibilities beyond the sole search for
WMD. Although not the Commander of the ISG, but responsible
as the special advisor for WMD, apparently Dr. Kay sought
total control of all the assets under the ISG for the sole
purpose of the hunt for WMD. It was a matter of ``all or
nothing.'' And when he didn't get all of the assets--even
when those assets were increased to provide additional funds
for areas other than the search for WMD, Dr. Kay objected,
ultimately being a factor in his departure.
Those responsible for the search for WMD in Iraq believe
that while no large stockpiles of WMD have yet to be
uncovered, no shortage of leads exist--with literally tens-
of-millions of documents remaining to be fully examined and
considerable leads and circumstantial evidence to be
pursued--``with much remaining to be done.''
General Dayton believes the declared failure by some to yet
find large stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, or biological
weapons is premature and ignores the significance of the
evidence that has been found about the undisputed activities
in each of these areas providing evidence of future
intentions and breakout capabilities being pursued and proven
to have existed. In the nuclear area, Dr. Kay said as
recently as January 28 that, ``Look, the man had the intent
to acquire these weapons, he invested huge amounts of money
in them. The fact is he wasn't successful.''
In the end, Dr. Kay's judgment, regardless of the
disappointment resident in the ISG, came down on the side of
the continued search. In an interview on NBC in which he was
asked to comment on whether it was prudent to go to war, Dr.
Kay said ``I think it was absolutely prudent. In fact, I
think at the end of the inspection process we'll paint a
picture of Iraq that was far more dangerous than we even
thought it was before the war . . .''

Balad Air Base-Ad Dawr

At Balad Air Base, the delegation met with the Commanding
General of the 4th Infantry Division, Major General Mike
Odierno and the Commander, Third Brigade, 4th ID, Colonel
Fred Rudesheim. The delegation also visited the capture site
of Saddam Hussein at Ad Dawr. At each stop the Members had an
opportunity to meet with military personnel from their home
states and districts.
Afghanistan, January 29
The delegation met with President Hamid Karzai and the
former King of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah. President Karzai
expressed his appreciation to the delegation for the many
sacrifices made by America to further political stability,
economic progress, and increased employment in Afghanistan
and for America's continued war on terrorism . . . ``Our
people know what America has done.'' He described the Loya
Jirga process, the adoption of the Afghan Constitution,
patterned after the U.S. Constitution, and the anticipated
general elections.

President Hamid Karzai

President Karzai cited the key importance of Pakistan to
stability in Afghanistan, by not interfering in Afghan
affairs, yet assisting in elimination of the Taliban threat.
The President and the delegation discussed the significant
problem of continued high levels of poppy cultivation in
Afghanistan. President Karzai acknowledged. Afghanistan's
failed efforts to eliminate poppy cultivation and described
the government's plan to destroy poppy fields, while
assisting farmers in alternative crop cultivation,
interdiction of drug routes, and destruction of heroin
production labs. The President concluded that for Afghanistan
to emerge as a nation-state it has to destroy the poppy crop:
``to destroy terrorism, we must destroy poppies.'' The
delegation cited its support and commitment to Afghanistan,
``for the long haul.''

His Highness, Zahir Shah

The former King, Zahir Shah, thanked the delegation for
U.S. assistance in establishing peace and security in
Afghanistan. He observed that the political process in
Afghanistan is based on a tribal structure--a democracy that
functions within a tribal structure--with the same goals as
the people in America.
Uzbekistan, January 29-30
Following meetings in Kabul, the delegation traveled to
Karshi-Kharnabad (``K2''), Uzbekistan, to visit U.S. military
personnel supporting OEF. In addition to being able to speak
informally at the evening and breakfast meals with personnel
from their districts, the delegation received mission
orientated briefings, toured a mission aircraft, and viewed a
static display of a Uzbek Air Force SU-27.
Germany, January 30-31

Commander, USAF Europe and U.S. Consul General

General ``Doc'' Foglesong and Consul General (CG) Peter
Bodde discussed NATO-related military and regional political
issues. General Foglesong described the challenges posed by
making the NATO Response Force (NRF) viable given the current
limited expeditionary capabilities of the NRF. He also
described the efforts at re-sizing NATO and U.S. operations--
``mining manpower positions''--and the use of ``reach back
capabilities'' to allow functions in the U.S. such as
intelligence to support the European theater instead of
having to have the capability resident in Europe. General
Foglesong further described efforts to develop niche
capabilities among NATO partners to preclude all nations from
having to have all military capabilities with some developing
expeditionary capabilities for billeting, some with medical,
others with civil engineering, etc.
Representative Souder expressed his deep concern regarding
Austria's, France's, Turkey's and Germany's various degrees
of lack of support for U.S. operations in Iraq. He also
commented on the cumbersome rules of engagement within NATO
in the war in Kosovo. General Foglesong indicated his
``cautious optimism'' about relations and support in dealing
with the countries within NATO: ``They recognize that
terrorists don't recognize borders.''
Representative Ortiz, expressing frustration, observed that
``it would be nice if the State Department would consider us
(Congress) equal players,'' indicating the both State and
Defense Departments frequently take action without
consultation or regard for the views of Congress.
Chairman Weldon concluded that regardless of the some
troubling aspects in the execution of foreign policy and some
military operations, ``the American peoples' support and the
support of Congress for the troops are solid and
unequivocal--and the troops need to know that.''

Contingency Aero-medical Staging Facility & Lanstuhl Regional Medical
Center

The delegation visited with injured military personnel from
Afghanistan and Iraq at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center
and Aero-medical Staging Facility at Ramstein Air Base. The
delegation was pleased to provide transportation for ten
soldiers, awaiting transportation to the U.S. to continue
their treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for
injuries suffered in Iraq.

Political, Economic, and Security Environment

The CODEL visit to Libya came shortly after Libyan leader
Moammar Gaddafi's pledge to rid his country of weapons of
mass destruction.

[[Page H386]]

The Iraq visit took place six weeks after the capture of
Saddam Hussein near Ad Dawr and nine months after the
declared end to major combat operations in Iraq. In October
2003, Congress had approved President Bush's $87 billion
fiscal year 2004 supplemental request for military,
intelligence, and reconstruction costs in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Acts of terrorism being conducted by former
regime elements, fundamentalist extremists, foreign
terrorists, and common criminals against coalition forces and
Iraqi civilians continued to cause casualties, although at a
reduced rate since Hussein's capture and the end of Ramadan.
The Iraqi people, particularly the police, have increasingly
become the target of the random terrorist attacks.
The Afghanistan visit came shortly after the adoption of
the Afghanistan constitution by the ``Loya Jirga.'' Lingering
Taliban elements and Al Qaeda continued efforts to threaten
the evolution of democratic Afghanistan through intimidation
and sporadic terrorist attacks against coalition forces, non-
governmental international aid organizations and Afghans.

Overview

A bipartisan congressional delegation (CODEL) comprised of
eight Members of Congress, led by Representative Curt Weldon
(R-PA), traveled to Tripoli, Libya; Tunis, Tunisia; Kuwait
City, Kuwait; Baghdad, Balad Air Base, and Ad Dawr, Iraq;
Islamabad, Pakistan; Kabul, Afghanistan; Karshi Kharnabad
(``K2''), Uzbekistan; and Ramstein Air Base and Landstuhl
Regional Medical Center, Germany January 25-31, 2004. The
delegation met with the leadership of Libya and Afghanistan,
representatives of the Iraqi governing Council (IGC), the
former Kuwaiti Ambassador to the U.S., reviewed U.S. military
operations and visited personnel supporting Operation Iraqi
Freedom (OIF) in Kuwait and Iraq and Operation Enduring
Freedom (OEF) in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. In
addition, thousands of Valentines Day cards from U.S. school
children as well as other gifts were presented to U.S. troops
serving in OIF and OEF in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan
in the war against terrorism.
Tripoli, Libya, January 25-26
The delegation was the first bipartisan congressional
delegation to visit Libya and meet with Colonel Moammar
Gaddafi in 35 years.

Arrival Meeting

The delegation was met by a delegation led by Abdullatife
Aldali, Chairman of the Tripoli Conference, who welcomed the
delegation: ``We look forward to a new relationship between
Libya and America.''
Following an introduction of the delegation, Chairman
Weldon indicated the delegation was in Libya to open a new
chapter in U.S.-Libyan relations, to listen and learn from
its Libyan counterparts: ``There are strong U.S. interests in
both political parties to be friends with Libya, to work to
resolve common concerns. We don't come here to represent the
Secretary of State or the President, but as representatives
of a coequal branch of the United States Government, looking
forward to normalized relations between our countries.''
Chairman Weldon described many of the inter-parliamentary
relationships Congress has with the parliaments in Russia,
Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and the European Parliament
and indicated his hope that there would one day be a similar
relationship with the General Peoples' Congress Great
Jamahiriya of Libya.
Representative Ortiz indicated that there is much to be
gained by both countries by being friends and thanked the
hosts for their warm welcome.

Overview of Ministry, Legislative, Educational, & Foundation Meetings

The delegation met with Colonel Gaddafi for two hours and
had fourteen other meetings with senior ministry,
legislative, educational, and charitable foundations. The
delegation spoke with the Libyan leaders about cooperative
governmental and non-governmental programs that could be
developed and instituted, much like has been done with the
parliaments of other countries. Chairman Weldon noted that
discussions regarding such programs could be started
immediately upon normalization of relations.
Chairman Weldon prefaced each of the discussions with
Libyan leaders with an explanation of the congressional role
in the U.S. federal system of separate, but equal branches of
government: ``We are not here to negotiate, that is the
responsibility of the executive branch of our government. But
after you take the necessary steps to follow through on your
stated intention to eliminate your WMD programs, Congress can
encourage our President and Secretary of State to expedite
normalization of relations with your country. Following that,
we can work with you, like we have with a number of other
parliaments around the world, to establish governmental and
non-governmental programs to bring our two countries closer
together and improve the welfare of both our peoples.'' The
discussions with Colonel Gaddafi and all other senior leaders
with whom the delegation met were extraordinarily positive
regarding the potential for normalized relations between
Libya and the U.S.

Colonel Gaddafi

Colonel Gaddafi thanked Chairman Weldon for making the
visit possible: ``coming at a very critical time,'' observing
that he wished that ``such a meeting could have taken place
thirty years ago'' and stating his ``hope to be able to
compensate for what we missed.'' He commented at length on
the need for countries to communicate and engage in dialogue
before taking up arms against one another. He denied any
responsibility for the night club bombing in 1986 that led to
the U.S. bombing of Libya and the death of his step daughter:
``For 30 years we haven't discussed anything with each
other . . . taking the wrong approach, right from the
beginning, with wars, losses, damage, loss of valuable time,
without a good, specific reason for doing so . . . The
picture of Gaddafi in the U.S. is not a real one. When I took
the decision on elimination of weapons of mass destruction, I
did it for my people, out of conviction . . . If I had the
atomic bomb I would put it on the table. There is no reason
for Libya and the United States not to have good relations.
The right course is the one you have taken: to come here and
meet . . . the policies were wrong in the past. We can't
rectify such wrongs . . . We have to compensate for what we
have missed. . . .I highly value your visit because it is
necessary that you know us very well. Because once you know
us well, then you will take the appropriate policy
decision.''
He further commented at length at what he believed to be a
lack of knowledge in the U.S. about Libya's government:
``You don't even know the governing system in Libya. We
know the governing system in the U.S.: the White House, the
NSC (national security council), Congress. We know about the
Pentagon. We know about the newspapers, one by one. We even
know the writers. We know names of companies and
specializations. Nevertheless, Americans don't know anything
about our congresses, peoples' committees, revolutionary
committees, social structure, leadership, or anything about
the Green Book.''
Colonel Gaddafi commented on the criticism he said was
aimed at Libya for deciding to eliminate its WMD programs:
``In the past there have been bad mediators. Tunisia, Egypt
and other Arab countries see it as not in their best
interests for Libya and the United States to have good
relations. They are benefiting from the embargo and seek a
continuation for their own interests. How would you expect
them to work for good relations between Libya and America?
The Arabs are waging a fierce campaign against us for
deciding to get rid of WMD. I hope they are not successful in
taking revenge against us. I hope that even Libyans are not
sorry for taking such a step. It all depends on your
supporting us. It does deserve support and encouragement so
that Libyans won't be disappointed.''
Chairman Weldon stated that before coming to Libya the
delegation had been told by U.S. officials of the positive
attitude taken by Libyans in cooperating with the survey of
Libyan WMD programs and initial steps to implement the WMD
program elimination.
``There is no doubt in my mind that your policies and
leadership will lead to normalized relations between our
countries. Even President Bush, in his recent State of the
Union message, mentioned Libya as a model for other
countries. You have to understand that President Bush has
been criticized by elements of our society for calling Libya
a model, just as you have been criticized by Arab leaders who
want to see Libya and America stay apart.''
Chairman Weldon indicated that normalization of relations
between the two countries would permit initiatives to be
undertaken between the Libyan General Peoples' Congress and
the U.S. Congress, much like has been done with the Russian
Duma and other parliaments, to further government and non-
governmental cooperation between peoples of the two
countries, leading to better understanding, peaceful
cooperation, and providing for a better quality of life for
all people: ``The path forward will not be easy, but most
good things you have to work hard for . . . I am convinced
that if we work hard on our side as you have on your side, we
can start a new chapter in our relationship, not to judge
your country, your culture, but to work together, as
partners.''
The delegation encouraged the Libyan leader to follow
through on his encouraging public statements regarding
elimination of Libyan weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
programs, with swift, verifiable elimination of WMD programs.

General Peoples' Congress Great Jamahiriya

Zinati Zinati, Speaker of the General Peoples' Congress
Great Jamahiriya, welcomed the delegation and expressed his
appreciation for the ``extraordinary effort'' the delegation
took to be in Libya: `` This is evidence of the great will on
your part to develop, promote and enhance relations between
our two countries.'' The Speaker provided the delegation with
a general overview of the structure of the ``basic
congresses'' and the General People's Congress, the annual
legislative agenda, and the Libya legislative procedures.
Chairman Weldon noted that the delegation was the first
U.S. bipartisan delegation to visit Libya in over 35 years.
He expressed his appreciation for the warm reception and how
this portended very productive discussions. The Chairman also
cited the gratifying experience of the delegation shortly
after the official arrival when the delegation had been able
to take advantage of a short period before the beginning of
the official itinerary to visit the nearby souq (market).
There, the delegation had an opportunity to meet several
Libyans, including small children, shopping and tending their
stores, who

[[Page H387]]

in each and every case warmly greeted the members of the
delegation, often in English.
Chairman Weldon indicated that the delegation had come to
Libya to praise Col Gaddafi for the ``bold steps he had taken
to begin to bring our countries back together.''
``The positive steps Libya has taken in settling
international claims against Libya; agreeing to rejoin
international non-proliferation organizations and treaties;
and declared intentions to deal with weapons of mass
destruction have been very well received around the world. In
fact the focus of the world is on Libya. It is a positive
focus, that can lead to normalized relations between our
countries. We came to let your Congress know that once
normalized relations can be established, that our Congress
can work with you, like we have done with the parliaments of
Ukraine, Russia, Europe, and other parliaments to establish
cooperative programs for the benefit of both our peoples.''
Chairman Weldon further described the detailed program
established with the Russian Duma outlined in A New Time, A
New Beginning, as described in attachment 3, prepared by
members of the U.S. Congress, that was promulgated for the
purpose of providing a catalyst for Russia and the U.S. to
work together to benefit the peoples of both countries. He
explained that a similar program and process for
implementation could be established between Libya and the
U.S. once normalized relations could be achieved. He further
states ``that, something more fundamentally important that
can occur is to change the image of Libya in America, and the
world. The American people have a limited knowledge of Libya.
By enhancing our formal relationship between our
parliaments we would have an opportunity to further
understanding between our peoples.''
Representative Ortiz commented that ``someone has a vision
to get us together and I want to thank my Chairman for his
vision.'' Mr. Ortiz quoted LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson):
``Let's sit down and reason together.'' Adding, ``that is
what we are here to do today. There have been incidents that
have caused us to drift apart. We can't change history, but
we don't want to repeat it . . . We have taken the first
step. I come from Texas and we have had a great relationship
with Libya in the past. We have only been here a few hours,
but I like what I see and I like what I hear. For the sake of
the future generations, we need to give them a chance to
hope, to dream, and to plan. We pledge we will do everything
to strengthen the bonds between our two countries.''
Chairman Weldon thanked the Speaker for the efforts of Saif
al Saleem al Gaddafi, Colonel Gaddafi's son, and Abdulmagid
Mansouri, a member of the International Energy Advisory
Council for their efforts in facilitating the visit of the
delegation. Chairman Weldon further stated that: ``I am happy
we are opening a new door between our countries and I want to
keep that door open and not repeat the tragedies of the
past.''
Suleiman Al Shahoumi, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the
General Peoples' Congress, observed that:
``Libya is a small country that inherited an ancient system
with people living in poverty and experiencing starvation.
The revolution in 1969 sought to bring up the level of life
for the Libyan people. The Libyan people have chosen a
political system--a direct democracy--in harmony with Libya's
culture and principles in life . . . A system based on
placing all authority in the hands of the people, distributed
through 450 Peoples' Basic Congresses. This system is
independent and balanced . . . The policies of these
congresses support national liberation for states and nations
and call for the respect of human rights and condemns all
forms of terrorism. This policy also believes that the only
way to resolve conflicts is through dialogue, calling for
peace, stability, and order and cooperation between peoples
and states. This policy believes that prosperity is achieved
through democracy and development. Therefore Libya, thanks to
the revolution, has been able to provide all types of rights
to the people: utilities, education, human resources,
housing, fresh water--all related to mankind. In spite of the
term human rights not being precisely defined, my country has
signed onto all treaties related to human rights.''
Secretary Shahoumi, commenting on terrorism, cited the
difficulty in ``differentiating between terrorism and the
legitimate right of nations and peoples to fight for their
freedom and human rights.'' He added that, ``we deny and
refuse the ways of connecting terrorism and Islam because we
believe terrorism has no religion, has no state or country or
home, and has no nationality.''
In commenting on weapons of mass destruction, the Secretary
noted that ever since the 1969 Revolution, Libya has been
calling for making the Middle East a region free of weapons
of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons:
``But nobody has ever responded to this initiative.
Therefore because of no response to our initiative, we
thought as a small country, a modest way to protect ourselves
was to establish WMD as part of our defense policy. However,
after breakthroughs in resolving conflicts like UTA and
Lockerbie and because of serious thoughts of the
international community to get rid of WMD, Libya decided to
formally announce its decision to dismantle its WMD programs.
In this regard, we wish to express our deep appreciation for
the positive international response to our initiative and we
again call for making the region a WMD-free zone. As a step
to that end, Libya has signed all relevant treaties and
conventions related to this topic, including treaties banning
all types of experiments related to WMD . . . And we call on
your support to make the Middle East a WMD-free zone.''
The Secretary further provided his view that the people of
Libya believe and have in fact published a White Book on the
topic of peace in the Middle East. He indicated the White
Book makes a ``practical and persuasive case'' for making
Israel and Palestine a ``bi-state country,'' modeled after
South Africa, with Muslims, Jews, and Christians all living
together with ``all rights and duties.''
Representative Issa observed that Libya's stated intent to
eliminate its WMD programs represents a ``huge step'' toward
the goal of a WMD-free Middle East: ``Your offer made in
Beirut two years ago to normalize relations with Israel was
also a huge step . . . I will have to admit that I am a
little cynical that Palestinians and Jews should join into
one country so readily. Your dream is still a good one.
Either option is acceptable to me. I hope you will join us in
seeking either option as an acceptable approach to achieving
peace in the Middle East.''

Prime Minister

Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem observed that strained
relations between Libya and the U.S. existed due to
``misunderstandings or misfortunes,'' and Libya wishes to
change that.
Representative Issa stated that it is important to sustain
the momentum that has developed in normalizing relations:
``Momentum is like magic when it works . . . it is about
expectations. Colonel Gaddafi turned on a dime in an
amazing way. With no missteps, the U.S. could have an
Embassy here in 300 days.''
Prime Minister Ghanem stated that ``with good intentions,
with each party trying to understand one another,''
differences can be worked out: ``When we talk we understand
one another. You are a big country--a super power--we are a
small country, yet neither of us has a monopoly on wisdom. We
have a duty to one another, and should not listen to a third
party. We are very interested in going the whole way. We
suffered from terrorism more than you. We failed to
communicate. We need to talk.'' Chairman Weldon added:
``Honesty and candor are critical.''
Representative Gallegly mentioned the change that has taken
place in American attitudes and the high level of
apprehension that exists since 9/11. He further commented on
the ``extremely warm welcome'' the delegation had received.
He added that ``the press can often become the wedge,
frequently seeing the glass as half empty. We can't let the
press control the debate on this issue.'' Prime Minister
responded that: ``the people are open and warm and have no
grudges whatsoever.''
Prime Minister Ghanem concluded that after 9/11 the whole
world is different: ``We can work together. Libya is a small
country. When we talk and listen you can find wisdom in a
small country. You will find us a good ally. The United
States was the number one place we sent our students. We
would like to do that again.''

Foreign Minister

Foreign Minister Abdulrakman Shalgam stated: ``it is an
honor for us to start a new era of relations with the U.S. .
. . I believe this is a chance for you to learn about our
people. Our expectation, our ideas and thoughts can benefit
from international peace . . . In the past there was a joint
misunderstanding. It is the mission for both of us to clear
up that misunderstanding . . . Certain circumstances caused a
misunderstanding. We started a bit late, but better late than
never. It is an honor to be receiving the first delegation
from America.''
Chairman Weldon stated that the delegation didn't know what
to expect in coming to Libya: ``Your people have overwhelmed
us with their warm greetings--in your markets and in all of
our meetings . . . The eyes of the world are on Libya because
of what you have done. Your decision to rid your country of
WMD and rejoin related treaties has caused Libya to become
the centerpiece for discussion all over our country. The
highest respect we can give is coming here personally . . .
As you know, we are not here to negotiate, that is not our
job. But if you continue the path you have chosen, as an
equal branch of our government, we believe we can institute a
process that will benefit both of our peoples. We have spoken
with your Congress about that day and talked to them about
the work we have done with other parliaments. We are excited,
optimistic, and with your leadership, we believe normalized
relations can be established.''
Representative Ortiz observed that he never believed that
one day he would be in Tripoli. He also spoke of the warm
greetings extended to the delegation.

Gaddafi International Foundation for Charitable Associations the
Gaddafi Human Rights Foundation & The Libyan Red Crescent

The delegation visited with officials of the Gaddafi
International Foundation for Charitable Associations, the
Gaddafi Human Rights Foundation, and the Libyan Red Crescent
to discuss their programs.

Al Fateh University

The delegation met with the President of Al Fateh
University, department heads, and

[[Page H388]]

delivered introductory letters from American University
students to students of the University. Professor Tarhuui
read a poem that he had prepared to celebrate the
delegation's visit, attachment 4.
Baghdad, Iraq, January 27
The delegation traveled to Baghdad to meet with and receive
updates from L. Paul Bremer, Administrator of the Coalition
Provisional Authority; General Sanchez, Commander, Joint Task
Force Seven; the Iraq Survey Group, responsible for the
search for weapons of mass destruction; representatives of
the primary factions of the Iraqi Governing Council; and the
Deputy Commanding General, 1st Armored Division, responsible
for the security of Baghdad.

Coalition Provisional Authority

Ambassador Bremer indicated that work continues on
formulating the strategic framework for Iraqi security, its
economy, and political transition. He indicated that while
the security situation had improved, there still exists a
major terrorist threat. He further indicated that the
``consumption economy'' is working well, but structural
problems exist, largely due to the distorting effects of five
cents a gallon gasoline. The focus is in getting capital into
the economy. Work continues, as well, on the transition to a
National Assembly by July 1, 2004. Differences within the
Governing Council and among the general populace on the
selection of delegates by caucus or direct election continue
to cause significant debate and public demonstrations. An
announcement is due in the near future from the United
Nations on its recommendations on elections in Iraq based on
the results of a study completed by a visiting United Nations
team.

CJTF-7

Lieutenant General (LTG) Ricardo Sanchez, the senior U.S.
military officer in Iraq (Commending General V Corps and
Coalition Joint Task Force 7), provided an update on combat,
security, and U.S. military personnel issues. General
Sanchez indicated that the number of attacks by former
regime elements, foreign terrorists, and others had
continued to decline since the capture of Hussein,
averaging less than 20 per day, down from a high of 50 per
day.

Iraqi Governing Council

The delegation met with four members of the Iraqi Governing
Council (IGC), representing the primary political and
religious factions within Iraq. The President of the IGC, Dr.
Adnan Pachachi, a secularist, indicated the council was in
the final phase of establishing basic laws, establishing the
details of a provisional government, and completing the
constitution. Dr. Pachachi indicated his belief that the
draft constitution covers every conceivable right: freedom of
speech, freedom of assembly, the rule of law, etc. Three of
the four members--Dr. Pachachi, the Sunni, and Shia IGC
Members were unanimous in stating their views that it is an
oversimplification to conclude that religious affiliation
dictates the views of the Iraqi people: ``the reality is that
the fanatics are a tiny minority, but very vocal and very
well organized.'' The Sunni IGC member indicated that Sunni
and Shia will vote on the issues, not on the basis of
religion, but on the substance of the issues under
consideration--``the educated middle class in Iraq is much
more open minded.''
The Kurdish member stated that the Kurds live under a
different system and culture, that they have suffered under
Iraqi rule, and ``have the right to establish their own
way.'' Dr. Pachachi acknowledged that ``from the beginning we
have recognized that the Kurds are distinct, that their
special status will be maintained. We are in the process of
agreeing to that arrangement.'' Dr. Pachachi further
indicated that the problem at hand is deciding the best way
to select members of the legislature: ``The problem is that
it will be difficult to have credible elections in such a
short period . . . If the U.N. doesn't believe elections are
possible, they will likely propose other possibilities.''

Iraq Survey Group

Major General Keith Dayton, Director of the Iraqi Survey
Group, provided a classified update on the search for weapons
of mass destruction and counterterrorism programs. A common
misperception is that Dr. Kay headed the hunt for WMD. While
Dr. Kay has been a very valuable advisor in the hunt for WMD,
General Dayton has headed the group responsible for the hunt
for WMD since its inception in June 2003, and with Dr. Kay's
departure will continue to head the group.
What can be said about the delegation's discussions is that
there, the people in the trenches actually doing the day-to-
day searches, collecting, and analyzing the data and
material, expressed a sense of ``frustration and dismay''
over ``what Dr. Kay is doing''--or at least some of the
media's characterization of ``what Dr. Kay is doing,'' as he
exits from his high visibility role in the hunt for WMD.
The ISG has responsibilities beyond the sole search for
WMD. Although not the Commander of the ISG, but responsible
as the special advisor for WMD, apparently Dr. Kay sought
total control of all the assets under the ISG for the sole
purpose of the hunt for WMD. It was a matter of ``all or
nothing.'' And when he didn't get all of the assets--even
when those assets were increased to provide additional funds
for areas other than the search for WMD, Dr. Kay objected,
ultimately being a factor in his departure.
Those responsible for the search for WMD in Iraq believe
that while no large stockpiles of WMD have yet to be
uncovered, no shortage of leads exist--with literally tens-
of-millions of documents remaining to be fully examined and
considerable leads and circumstantial evidence to be
pursued--``with much remaining to be done.''
General Dayton believes the declared failure by some to yet
find large stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, or biological
weapons is premature and ignores the significance of the
evidence that has been found about the undisputed activities
in each of these areas providing evidence of future
intentions and breakout capabilities being pursued and proven
to have existed. In the nuclear area, Dr. Kay said as
recently as January 28 that, ``Look, the man had the intent
to acquire these weapons, he invested huge amounts of money
in them. The fact is he wasn't successful.''
In the end, Dr. Kay's judgment, regardless of the
disappointment resident in the ISG, came down on the side of
the continued search. In an interview on NBC in which he was
asked to comment on whether it was prudent to go to war, Dr.
Kay said ``I think it was absolutely prudent. In fact, I
think at the end of the inspection process we'll paint a
picture of Iraq that was far more dangerous than we even
thought it was before the war . . .''.

1st Armored Division

Brigadier General Mark Hertling, Deputy Commanding General,
1st Armored Division, provided an update on security and
Iraqi police training programs within Baghdad.
Kuwait, January 27
Four members of the delegation met with Sheik Saud al
Sabah, former Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, to
renew acquaintances and discuss the general political,
economic, and military situation in the region. Sheik Sabah
has personally established a fund for families of U.S.
military personnel killed in the 1991 Gulf War.
Balad Air Base & Ad Dawr, January 28
Major General Ray Odierno, Commanding General, 4th Infantry
Division, and Colonel Frederick Rudesheim, Commander, 3rd
Brigade Combat Team, 4th ID, escorted the delegation to the
site of Saddam Hussein's capture near Ad Dawr and briefed
the delegation on operations and reconstruction efforts in
his area of responsibility.
Islamabad, Pakistan January 29
AMB Nancy J. Powell briefed the delegation on issues
relating to the bilateral relationship between the United
States and Pakistan, and responded to members' questions.
Chairman Weldon asked if Usama Bin Ladin were in
Baluchistan (the southern tribal area bordering Afghanistan),
and if he were being protected by Pakistani government
officials. AMB Powell responded that she does not believe
there are Al Qaeda sympathizers among the Pakistani
leadership, but the question of Taliban supporters is
``trickier.'' She noted that in general, Pakistani
cooperation has been excellent: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was
taken down by Pakistani elements, and that another high value
target was captured within 90 minutes of transmitting U.S.
intelligence to Pakistani forces.
Chairman Weldon followed up with a question concerning the
likelihood of assassination of President Musharraf AMB Powell
responded that it is always a danger--he recently survived
two attempts on his life, which Musharraf blames on Al-Qaeda.
AMB Powell pointed out that the 1988 plane crash that claimed
the life of President Zia is still surrounded by questions.
Chairman Weldon asked how extensive our contacts with
Pakistani officials were. AMB Powell responded that we lost
contact with an entire generation of Pakistani officers when
Pakistan was under sanctions between 1990-2001, but just this
last year we brought 75 junior officers into our training
programs. Chairman Weldon also asked about the F-16s that
Pakistan bought but were denied under sanctions, and AMB
Powell replied that they had been paid back.
Chairman Weldon suggested that Chairman Souder lead an
effort to create a tripartite interparliamentary exchanges
with Pakistani, Indian, and U.S. legislators. AMB Powell
remarked that this would be particularly helpful to Pakistani
parliamentarians: they passively await legislation drafted by
the government; they have no staff; no working committee
system.
Kabul, Afghanistan January 29
The delegation met with President Hamid Karzai and the
former King of Afghanistan Zahir Shah. President Karzai
expressed his appreciation to the delegation for the many
sacrifices made by America to further political stability,
economic progress, and increase employment in Afghanistan and
for America's continued war on terrorism . . . ``Our people
know what America has done.'' He described the Loya
Jirga process, the adoption of the Afghan Constitution,
patterned after the U.S. Constitution, and the anticipated
general elections.

President Hamid Karzai

President Karzai cited the key importance of Pakistan to
stability in Afghanistan by not interfering in Afghan
affairs, yet assisting in elimination of the Taliban threat.
The President and the delegation discussed the significant
problem of continued high levels of poppy cultivation in
Afghanistan. President Karzai acknowledged Afghanistan's
failed efforts to eliminate poppy cultivation

[[Page H389]]

and described the government's plan to destroy poppy fields,
while assisting farmers in alternative crop cultivation,
interdiction of drug routes, and destruction of heroin
production labs. The President concluded that for Afghanistan
to emerge as a nation-state it has to destroy the poppy crop:
``to destroy terrorism, we must destroy poppies.'' The
delegation cited its support and commitment to Afghanistan,
``for the long haul.''

His Highness, Zahir Shah

The former King, Zahir Shah, thanked the delegation for
U.S. assistance in establishing peace and security in
Afghanistan. He observed that the political process in
Afghanistan is based on a tribal structure--a democracy that
functions within a tribal structure--with the same goals as
the people in America.
Karshi-Kharnabad, Uzbekistan, January 29-30
The delegation remained overnight at Karshi-Kharnabad (``K-
2''), Uzbekistan following meetings in Kabul to visit U.S.
military personnel supporting OEF. In addition to being able
to speak informally at the evening and breakfast meals with
personnel from their districts, the delegation received
mission orientation briefings and visited unit assigned
aircraft and a static display of a Uzbek SU-27 provided by
the Uzbek Air Force.
Ramstein and Lanstuhl Medical Center Germany, January 30-31

General ``Doc'' Foglesong and Consul General Bodde

General ``Doc'' Foglesong and Consul General (CG) Peter
Bodde discussed NATO-related military and regional political
issues. General Foglesong described the challenges posed by
making the NATO Response Force (NRF) viable given the current
limited expeditionary capabilities of the NRF. He also
described the efforts at re-sizing NATO and U.S. operations--
``mining manpower positions''--and the use of ``reach back
capabilities'' to allow functions in the U.S. such as
intelligence to support the European theater instead of
having to have the capability resident in Europe. General
Foglesong further described efforts to develop niche
capabilities among NATO partners to preclude all nations from
having to have all military capabilities with some
developing expeditionary capabilities for billeting, some
with medical, others with civil engineering, etc.
Representative Souder expressed his deep concern regarding
Austria's, France's, Turkey's and Germany's various degrees
of lack of support for U.S. operations in Iraq. He also
commented on the cumbersome rules of engagement within NATO
in the war in Kosovo, ``when eight foreign ministers were
involved in approving target lists.'' General Foglesong cited
need for ``balance'' in each of these relations and for
future planning, the need to assess our abilities to deploy
into and out of various countries and determine which
countries will allow the U.S. to ``kinematically execute''
from their bases.
The delegation also discussed the status of relationships
with the French and German governments. General Foglesong and
CG Bodde highlighted a number of efforts by Germany to assist
the U.S., e.g., providing air base security to permit U.S.
security personnel to be deployed to support operations like
OIF and OEF. General Foglesong indicated his optimism in
dealing with the countries within NATO: ``They recognize that
terrorists don't recognize borders.''
Representative Ortiz, expressing frustration, observed that
``it would be nice if the State Department would consider us
(Congress) equal players,'' indicating that both DOD and DOS
frequently take action without consultation or regard for the
views of Congress. Chairman Weldon also noted what seems to
be apparent ``disconnects'' between the State Department,
DOD, and NSC on foreign policy issues.
Chairman Weldon concluded that regardless of the many
troubling aspects in the execution of foreign policy and some
military operations, support for the troops is solid and
unequivocal and the troops need to know that.

Contingency Aero-medical Staging Facility & Lanstuhl Regional Medical
Center

Colonel Brenda McEleney provided the delegation a tour of
the Contingency Aero-medical Staging Facility where they were
able to visit with a number of troops awaiting transportation
to Walter Reed Medical Center.
Colonel Steven Older and Colonel Carol Gilmore provided the
delegation a tour of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center
where the delegation was able to meet with a number of
military personnel recovering from injuries sustained in
Iraq.
The delegation provided transportation from Ramstein Air
Base to Andrews Air Force Base for ten soldiers en route to
Walter Reed Army Medical Center where they were to receive
further treatment for injuries sustained in Iraq.

DELEGATION

MEMBERS

Representative Curt Weldon (R-PA), Representative Solomon
Ortiz (D-TX), Representative Steve Israel (D-NY)*,
Representative Candice Miller (R-MI), Representative Rodney
Alexander (D-LA), Representative Elton Gallegly (R-CA)**,
Representative Mark Souder (R-IN), Representative Darrell
Issa (R-CA)**.

Professional Staff

Doug Roach, Harald Stavenas, Richard Mereu**, Marc
Wheat***.

U.S. Army Escorts

Lt Colonel Craig Collier, Lt Colonel Gregg Blanchard, Sgt
Thai Kov, Sgt Hugh Griffin.

*Kuwait-Iraq only.
**Libya only.
***29-31 Jan.

KEY PERSONNEL

Libya

Colonel Moammar Gaddafi
Shokri Ghanem, Prime Minister
Abdulrakman Shalgam, Foreign Minister
Zinati Mohammad Zinati, Speaker of the General Peoples'
Congress
Matoug M. Matoug, Deputy Prime Minister for Service Affairs
(weapons of mass destruction)
Honorable Suleiman Al Shahoumi, Secretary of Foreign Affairs
at the General Peoples' Congress
Dr. Abdulhafed M. Jaber, Director, Technical Cooperation
Office, Ministry of Service Affairs (weapons of mass
destruction)
Abdulatife Aldali, Chairman of Tripoli Conference (Mayor of
Tripoli)
Abdulmagid Mansuri, Member, International Energy Advisory
Council
Tajura Nuclear Research Center
Professor E.F. Ehtuish, Chairman, Board on the Environment
Saleh Saleh, General Manager, Gaddafi International
Foundation for Charity Associations
Dr. Giuma Atigha, Gaddafi Human Rights Foundation
Dr. Mohamed Lutf Farhat, President, Al-Fateh University
Dr. Muftah M. Etwilb, Director of International Relations,
Libyan Red Crescent
Libyan-American Friendship Association

Baghdad

Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, Administrator of the Coalition
Provisional Authority (CPA) (c/o CPA Legislative Affairs,
1401 Wilson Blvd, Floor 5, Arlington, VA 22209-2306)
Dr. Adnan Pachachi, President, Iraqi Governing Council
(secularist)
Dr. Roj Schaways, Iraqi Governing Council Member (Kurd)
Dr. Muwaffak A1 Rubuic, Iraqi Governing Council Member (Shiia
religious leader)
Samir Sumaidaie, Iraqi Governing Council Member (Sunni)
Ambassador Richmond, UK Special Representative to Iraq
Lieutenant General (LTG) Ricardo Sanchez, the senior U.S.
military official in Iraq (Commanding General V Corps and
Coalition Joint Task Force 7) (HQ CJTF-7 CPA Command
Group, Unit 91400, APO AE 09342-1400)
Major General Keith Dayton, Commander, Iraqi Survey Group (c/
o CPA Legislative Affairs, 1401 Wilson Blvd, Floor 5,
Arlington, VA 22209-2306)
Brigadier General Mark Hertling, Deputy Commanding General,
1st Armored Division (Unit 93054 APO AE 09324-3053)
Robert Kelley, Legislative Counselor to Ambassador Bremer (c/
o CPA Legislative Affairs, 1401 Wilson Blvd, Floor 5,
Arlington, VA 22209-2306)
Lt Colonel Richardson, Distinguished Visitors Bureau
(Security detail) (c/o CPA Legislative Affairs, 1401
Wilson Blvd, Floor 5, Arlington, VA 22209-2306)

Kuwait

Sheik Saud al Sabah, former Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United
States
Joe Porto, U.S. Embassy Control Officer (US Embassy, Unit
69000, APO AE 098809000)

Balad Air Base

Major General Ray Odierno, Commanding General, 4th Infantry
Division (ID) (APO AE 92628)
Colonel Frederick Rudesheim, Commander, Third Brigade, 4th
ID, APO AE 09323

Islamabad, Pakistan

Nancy Powell, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, (Unit 62200, APO
AE 09812-2200)
Joel Reifman, economic section/control officer, U.S. Embassy

Kabul, Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan
Zahir Shah, former King of Afghanistan
Sardar Abdulwalij, General, retired (nephew and associate of
H.E. Zahir Shah)
Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan
Hank Tucker, political-military section/control officer, U.S.
Embassy

Karshi-Kharnabad, Uzbekistan

Jon R. Purnell, U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan (pouch address:
7110 Tashkent Place, Dulles, VA 20189-7110)
Colonel Scott Wagner, Installation Commander (Unit HHC 213
ASG APO AE 09311)
Lt. Colonel Hosil Mirzaev, Uzbekistan Air Force, (SU-27
display)

Ramstein Air Base and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany

General Robert (Doc) H. Foglesong, Commander, U.S. Air Forces
Europe
Lt General Arthur J. Lichte, Vice Commander, U.S. Air Forces
Europe
Peter W. Bodde, Consul General, U.S. Embassy, Frankfurt
(American Consulate General, Siesmayerstrasse 21, 60323
Frankfurt, Germany)
Brigadier General Rosanne Bailey, Commander, 435th Air Base
Wing
Colonel Philip Lakier, Deputy Surgeon General, USAF, Europe
Colonel Brenda McEleney, Deputy Commander, 435th Medical
Group

[[Page H390]]

Colonel Steven Older, Acting Commander, Landstuhl Regional
Medical Center
Colonel Carol Gilmore, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center
Larry Wright, Vice Consul, U.S. Consulate, Frankfurt

C-40 Aircraft crew (Fleet Logistics Support Squadron-VR 59, 1050
Boyington Dr. Ft Worth, Texas 76127-5000)

Commander Bill Snyder, Aircraft Commander
Lt. Commander Benjamin White, Copilot
AE2 Michael Marr, crew chief
AK2 Lyndal Crow, Loadmaster
AD1 James Davis, flight attendant
HM2 Letty Owour, flight attendant
AM2 Shawn Smith, maintenance technician
MAI Daniel Topper, security
MA2 John Eagles, security
MA2 Jason Stafford, security
MA3 Daniel Veccholla, security

A New Time; A New Beginning

A New Time, A New Beginning was published in 2001 under the
leadership of Representative Curt Weldon (PA-7), co-chairman
of the Duma-Congress Study Group, to provide a comprehensive
bipartisan program for cooperation between the United States
and Russia. It was endorsed by nearly one-third of the
members of Congress and provides 108 recommendations for
U.S.-Russia cooperation in the following 11 major subject
areas: Agricultural Development, Cultural/Education
Development, Defense and Security, Economic Development,
Energy/Natural Resources, Environmental Cooperation, Health
Care, Judicial/Legal Systems, Local Governments, Science and
Technology, and Space and Aeronautics.

Members of Congress

Welcome, men of Congress.
To the land of bless.
Here, peace is the belief.
And love is man's relief.
We are a nation of norms.
Disbelievers in terror of all forms.
Destructive arms is not our goal.
We are for peace, body and soul.
Our guide is sweetness and light,
First in beauty, first in might.
Think not of terror
Man's imposed horror.
Such sickly deeds
Are but evil seeds
That cause man to fall
And end the universe for all.

Dr. T.T. Tarhuui
Professor of English,
Al Fateh University
Tripoli Libya

____________________