[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 96 (Tuesday, July 13, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H5622]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          OIL-FOR-FOOD PROGRAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCOTTER. First, just a couple of minor observations on the 
debate so far tonight. We heard earlier the gentleman from Oregon 
mention that the Pentagon on three separate occasions believed that 
they could strike and eliminate a terrorist who was a threat to the 
United States. I would just caution the gentleman to be very careful 
lest he be considered as advocating a preemptive unilateral act of war 
against a resident alien in his sovereign host country.
  Also, on the previous mentioning of plans, whether real or not, that 
explored potentially delaying the election, I, too, would just like to 
say that I would oppose any plan to delay an American election. But I 
also think that it is important to remember that in the 1864 election 
Abraham Lincoln did not spend a lot of time personally campaigning to 
win the votes of southern voters, as my understanding is that those 
people chose not to participate in that election. The distinction which 
is critical would be, then, that while the southern States in rebellion 
chose not to participate in the Presidential election, there may be 
many Americans who, through an act of terror, may be precluded against 
their will from participating in an American election.
  So if we are done with the rhetorical flourishes of partisanship, 
perhaps there would be some who would like to explore a responsible 
policy approach and instead think of if an urban center, which are 
primarily the targets of the terrorists, would be attacked, we do not 
suspend the date of the election but perhaps the election could be 
extended until those people could be given their American 
constitutional right to vote in that election. I say that as a 
Republican knowing full well that my party does not do well in large 
urban areas, but I say that as an American respecting the rights of my 
fellow citizens to be able to participate in the choosing of their 
national leadership.
  On to the point that I wish to talk about. Mr. Speaker, in addition 
to playing host to the United Nations, United States taxpayers provide 
22 percent of the United Nations' core funding. It is not, therefore, 
inhospitable nor unwarranted for U.S. taxpayers to demand a full and 
fair accounting of the U.N.'s $111 billion Oil-for-Food Program, 
especially when, as revealed in a May 6 article by Hudson Institute 
Fellow Claudia Rosett, the U.S. Treasury Department has designated one 
of the Oil-for-Food contractors as a front group for senior officials 
of the Saddam Hussein regime.
  Initial reports estimate over $10 billion has been stolen, misplaced 
and/or skimmed from this program that was designed to help the Iraqi 
people. Combined with the aforementioned front group/contractor, we may 
well have witnessed a U.N.-administered relief program result in food 
being torn from the mouths of victimized Iraqis and placed in the 
pockets of Saddam's executioners and their contemptible, utterly 
corrupt international co-conspirators.
  We in the world demand and deserve answers, Mr. Speaker, and yet we 
have been met by a stone wall of resistance and a wealth of stealth on 
the part of the United Nations. Excuses abound for the cover-up, the 
two most noticeable being that it is an institutional response. I am 
sure that they culled that from the old records of Tammany Hall. They 
also say that they will not release any of the 55 internal audits 
because of the, quote, sensitivity of member states. I think that the 
sensitivities of member states like the United States and the United 
States Congress which have repeatedly asked for these documents should 
be accorded as much as the purported sensitivity of states who may have 
something to hide.

                              {time}  2000

  If they do in fact have nothing to hide, if the intimidating letters 
to contractors and the untendered records to Congress may be belied, 
then to save its last lingering endangered chard of integrity, General 
Secretary Kofi Annan, with the stroke of a pen, can release all the 
requisite oil for food documents and shed transparency and truth upon 
this abominable fraud. And while the U.S. taxpayers might not hold our 
breath until he complies, we U.S. taxpayers must withhold our funding 
from the United Nations until he does.

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