Iraq

IRAQ

Mr. DOMENICI. I conclude with some comments on Iraq. I hope that tonight our President will tell our people the issue in Iraq is why has Saddam Hussein not destroyed the weapons of mass destruction that are in his country; not that we did not find them, not that we did not find a smoking gun.

The United Nations verified that he had thousands of weapons in his country, thousands of weapons of biological and chemical makeup that can kill millions of people.

I ask unanimous consent for 2 additional minutes.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chafee). Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. DOMENICI. Some 9 or 10 years ago, the United Nations said Saddam must get rid of them, and then we pulled out. The United Nations sat around, Iraq started selling oil again, and Saddam started being Saddam. Then we decided we will go in and see if he has gotten rid of them. Noncompliance by him means he has not shown what happened to the weapons.

The 12,000-page document, which was all over the press as if they had submitted 12,000 pages of real explanation, was presented some days ago as though it explained where these thousands of weapons went. The United States and its agents of absolute integrity have read every single page, every single line. The conclusion is that the 12,000-page document is a farce. It does not explain what happened to all of those weapons. It is a joke.

They put in those pages what they wanted, and they described what they wanted. The sum total is, where are they?

He continues to say: I am showing them everything. And we continue to say: It is your responsibility to show us what you did with them. After all, it is not like every country in the world would accept thousands of these chemical weapons. Some nation that is crazy enough to take them would have to be found. So we have to be told they are not here. But where are they? If they are dumped in the ocean, somebody would find out. They cannot easily be gotten rid of so he has not gotten rid of them. He hid them.

Now we are telling the world there is noncompliance. I hope the world sees it our way, but more importantly I hope Saddam sees it our way. I hope he understands there are a lot of us that understand what is going on and that it is like I just said: He better come clean or, in fact, something will happen. I hope he does it himself and I hope our friends realize they better join us in putting him on the spot or he will put the world on the spot, and he will do it very soon.

I yield the floor.