A rchive Date
[ 26-09-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWS/iraqbush_sep26-ap.html
Bush pushes for resolution on Iraq
By JIM ABRAMS -- The Associated Press
Thursday, September 26, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Thursday he is close to an agreement with Congress to "speak with one voice" against Saddam Hussein, even as Democrats accused him of making the nation's security a political issue.
"Democrats and Republicans refuse to live in a future of fear," Bush said in the Rose Garden, flanked by Democratic and Republican lawmakers who support his plans to oust Saddam -- with military force if necessary.
Bush made the remarks amid a backdrop of fingerpointing and name-calling as both the White House and congressional Democrats accused each other playing politics with Iraq.
Bush's remarks -- though far short of an apology sought by Democrats -- were meant to return civility to the debate and erase any doubts Democrats and the general public might have about his motives, White House officials said.
"We're near an agreement soon and we will speak with one voice," Bush said.
As the bitter back and forth threatened negotiations over a resolution giving Bush power to wage war, he said, "We are engaged in a deliberate and civil and thorough discussion. We are moving toward a strong resolution. All of us, and many others in Congress, are united in our determination to confront an urgent threat to America."
His appearance, organized at the last minute by the White House, came at the same time as a news conference that Democratic leaders had planned with live TV coverage.
Bush spoke shortly after House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt said the administration must "take security out of politics," saying a bitter partisan fight complicates efforts to find unity on Iraq.
Meanwhile, a senior administration official said Thursday the Pentagon is preparing to train at least 1,000 Iraqi opponents of Saddam to assist U.S. troops in the event of an Iraqi assault.
The Pentagon is waiting for Bush to sign a directive that would authorize the training under the 1998 Iraq Liberation act. The official said Bush was expected to sign it, but not Thursday.
The Defense Department is compiling a list of recruits and looking at how much training they would get, who would do it and other details, said a Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Bush painted a grim portrait of Saddam's regime, and its threat to the United States. He restated his belief that Saddam has stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and could soon develop a nuclear weapon.
"We know he must be stopped," Bush said.
"To ignore these threats is to encourage them, and when they're fully materialized it may be too late to protect ourselves and our friends and our allies," the president said. "By then, the Iraqi dictator would have the means to terrorize and dominate the region. Each passing day could be the one which the Iraq regime gives anthrax or VX nerve gas or some day a nuclear weapon to a terrorist ally."
Bush also accused the Iraq government -- led by a "dangerous and brutal man" -- of using rape to intimidate women and torturing its dissenters.
The planning of aid Iraqi dissenters is under way so that the military doesn't have to start from scratch when Bush signs an expected directive ordering the expanded training.
During the Clinton administration, some 140 Iraqis received limited military training in such areas as logistics, warehouse management, the laws on war crimes, public relations and so on at military schools in Texas, Rhode Island and elsewhere.
An Iraqi opposition leader, Francis Brooke, said earlier that the Pentagon had "dramatically intensified" planning for the training of opponents of Saddam. Brooke is the Washington representative of the Iraqi National Congress.
Speaking a day after Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle publicly chastised Bush for statements Bush made, Gephardt said Democrats share Republicans' concern about security even if differences arise over the details of the U.S. response to terrorism.
Daschle went to the Senate floor Wednesday to assail Bush's statement earlier in the week which suggested that Democrats were putting politics ahead of the nation's security. That ignited a fierce response from Republicans.
Daschle said Bush should "apologize to every veteran who has fought in every war who is a Democrat in the Senate. He ought to apologize to the American people. We ought not politicize this war."
The White House said Daschle misstated remarks the president made when Bush said the Democratic-controlled Senate, in failing to pass legislation creating a Homeland Security Department, was "not interested in the security of the American people."
When asked if Bush stood by that statement, spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president believes that if the Senate does not pass the homeland security bill, "the security of our country will not have been protected."
Appearing Thursday on CBS' "The Early Show," Gephardt said he understood that Bush had been referring to the homeland security bill, but said, "This is a security issue. Homeland security is in the same club of issues as what to do about Iraq. We're going to have some differences on details in the bill. ... Why that is attacking the bill itself or why we're against homeland security, is ridiculous."
Hours after Daschle spoke, Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said in a television interview that the Baghdad regime was sheltering al-Qaida terrorists, increasing the stakes in the president's campaign to drive Saddam from power.
There is evidence of "contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of al-Qaida going back for actually quite a long time," Rice said on PBS' "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" program.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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