[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18852]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Harris). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I have been here for a while and listened 
to the remarks such as those just given by my colleagues from the great 
State of Texas, but quite honestly I cannot understand how it is 
possible to criticize the President for the action that he took in 
Operation Iraqi Freedom and at the same time ask the President to go 
forward in an action in Liberia.
  That being said, I think it is incumbent upon us on the Republican 
side of this House to point out that after the terrorist attacks of 
September 11, 2001, it had become apparent that the United States 
needed, the United States was required to be more vigilant about 
terrorism and weapons proliferation and pay particular attention to the 
prospect of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of 
groups or states that would use them against American interests, 
American interests either here at home or abroad. And unfortunately, 
over the prior 10 years we have seen that with attacks in Saudi Arabia, 
the Khobar Towers, the bombing of the Cole and, of course, the attacks 
here on September 11.
  The Bush administration, the Clinton administration, indeed, the 
United Nations all agreed that Saddam Hussein possessed a significant 
biological and chemical capability in 1998 when the inspectors were 
withdrawn. There is broad agreement that Saddam Hussein, different from 
any other leader, had proven himself capable of using these weapons for 
offensive purposes and not merely in a defensive posture.
  Where those weapons are today falls into one of several categories. 
They may still be hidden. Saddam Hussein had become a master of 
concealment. Please remember that in 1995 the United Nations was 
preparing to lift sanctions believing that Iraq had disarmed. It was 
only the defection of Saddam's son-in-law, Hussein Jamal and the 
revelation that significant weapons were presented that halted the 
United Nations from lifting the sanctions in 1995.
  Perhaps Hussein did destroy the weapons after the inspectors left in 
1998. It seems preposterous on its face, but while this was unlikely 
given his other behavior, the burden of proof was clearly still on 
Saddam Hussein, not the United States, not President Bush and not the 
United Nations to demonstrate the destruction of the weapons had indeed 
occurred.
  There is also the possibility that the weapons had degraded over time 
or were destroyed in the bombing or looted during the first combat 
phase in Iraqi Freedom. It does not really matter. The disorder and 
political uncertainty we are witnessing in post-war Iraq, while at one 
level unsettling, are to some extent a reflection of how completely 
Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime dominated and dictated Iraqi life.
  There are efforts in the Congress to employ a full investigation into 
these difficult issues to understand whether any mistakes were made and 
to take action to fix them in fulfillment of Congress's important 
oversight responsibilities.
  To date, the chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, the Senate 
Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select 
Committee on Intelligence reject a broader probe of the weapons of mass 
destruction issue.
  I believe that Congress is exercising its oversight authority and has 
set in place procedures to review comprehensively and on a bipartisan 
basis the intelligence surrounding Iraq prior to the outbreak of war 
and to take into account any dissenting views on the Iraqi threat 
within the intelligence community.
  People who have lived in a police state with no freedom of speech are 
unlikely to volunteer information until stability and security are 
achieved in Iraq. We must remember 30 years of living under a 
dictatorship cannot be reversed overnight.
  But the most important point is this: A free Iraq makes America and 
its allies safer by removing a destabilizing force in the region, 
removing a regime that pursued weapons of mass destruction, eliminating 
a state sponsor of terrorism and, ultimately, by serving as a living 
example to the people of the Middle East of the benefits of freedom and 
democracy.

                          ____________________