[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 2935-2936]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, I refer my colleagues to an incident 
that has perhaps occurred without the knowledge of those who are 
lamenting that our dependence on imported oil has been relieved 
somewhat because prices are down.
  I call to the attention of my colleagues the fact that oil is now at 
a 6-month high. It is over $24.50 a barrel and going up. It is the 
highest in 6 months. This is caused by the cartel called OPEC and its 
commitment to maintain a price level somewhere between $22 and $28. 
They do that by addressing the supply of oil on the world market.
  Another very significant event occurred yesterday. This event was the 
response of Saddam Hussein to a request from the United Nations that 
inspectors again be allowed into Iraq. Saddam Hussein in effect told us 
to take a hike. He refused to allow inspectors into his country. We 
have not had inspectors in there in over 2 years.
  What does this mean? It is in the eyes of the beholder, but clearly 
he has made his call. The next call has to be made by our President and 
the U.N. Are we going to force our inspectors to go into Iraq? What are 
the circumstances surrounding this issue?
  One can conjecture that if we look at bin Laden, at the al-Qaida, we 
will wish we would have taken action prior to what occurred in 
association with the terrorist attacks on New York at the Twin Towers, 
the Pentagon, and the situation we are in of fighting terrorism. Could 
we have initiated an action sooner?
  We could have, but we didn't. In the case of Iraq, the recognition 
that we all are very much aware that Saddam Hussein is proceeding with 
weapons of mass destruction, many of my colleagues perhaps saw the CNN 
hour program the night before last on Iraq, the fact that he is using 
poison gas on some of his own people; that he has developed mass 
destruction weapons with warheads that obviously have biological as 
well as perhaps nuclear capability, clearly a delivery system that 
would take them from Iraq to Israel, one has to wonder just when we are 
going to address this reality and how we are going to do it.
  I won't belabor my point other than to try and draw some attention to 
the fact that, indeed, it is a time for alarm. This is a time when the 
United States is importing from Iraq nearly 800,000 barrels of oil a 
day. As we reflect on how to relieve that increasing dependence, how do 
Members reflect upon just how serious a threat Saddam Hussein is to 
peace in the western world? How do we address our concern over the 
reality that he has weapons of mass destruction? How are we going to 
reflect on just how we are going to reduce our dependence on oil from 
the Mideast when we look to the Saddam Husseins of this world to 
provide us with our needed oil as opposed to developing oil reserves 
here at home, either in the Gulf of Mexico or in the State of Alaska?
  This is a factor we will have to face because at some point in time, 
clearly, we will have to address the threat of Iraq and Saddam Hussein. 
It is my hope that we can somehow prevail on getting inspectors in 
there and relieving this threat. Saddam Hussein has clearly told us 
otherwise. He told us yesterday to go take a hike.
  I know the beliefs of the Chair with regard to the national security 
interests of our Nation as we continue to depend on unstable sources 
for our energy. I wish that more Members would concern themselves with 
this threat.

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