Congressional Record: July 10, 2003 (Senate)
Page S9162-S9215
Amendments to Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2004
[...]
Amendment No. 1197 to S. 925
Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I send an amendment authored by Senator
Durbin to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Indiana [Mr. Lugar], for Mr. Durbin, Mr.
Roberts, Mr. Rockefeller, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Warner, Mr. Lott,
Ms. Snowe, Mr. Chambliss, Mr. Hagel, Mr. DeWine, Mr. Lugar,
Mr. Levin, and Mr. Bond, proposes an amendment No. 1197.
Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the
amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To express the sense of Congress on an investigation into
assertions that Iraq attempted to obtain uranium from Africa)
On page 94, between lines 17 and 18 insert the following
new section:
SEC. 815. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON AN INVESTIGATION INTO
ASSERTIONS THAT IRAQ ATTEMPTED TO OBTAIN
URANIUM FROM AFRICA.
(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) In the State of the Union address in January 2003, the
President asserted that ``[t]he British government has
learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant
quantities of uranium from Africa''.
(2) It has been determined that the claim regarding the
efforts of Iraq to obtain uranium from Africa cannot be
substantiated.
(3) In May 2003, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the
Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate requested that
the Inspector General of the Department of State and the
Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency work
jointly to investigate the handling and characterization of
the underlying documents behind the assertions regarding the
efforts of Iraq to obtain uranium from Africa.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) Congress supports the thorough and expeditious joint
investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of
State and the Inspector General of Central Intelligence
Agency into the documents or other materials that the
President relied on to conclude that Iraq had attempted to
obtain uranium from Africa;
(2) the findings and conclusions of the joint investigation
should be completed not later than September 12, 2003; and
(3) such findings and conclusions should be unclassified to
the maximum extent possible, while fully protecting any
intelligence sources or methods.
(4) the findings and conclusions of the joint investigation
should be sent to the House and Senate Select Committees on
Intelligence and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and
the House International Relations Committee.
Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, the amendment has been cleared on both
sides. I ask unanimous consent that it be passed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate? If not, without
objection, the amendment is agreed to.
The amendment (No. 1197) was agreed to.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in his State of the Union message in
January of this year, the President discussed the threat posed by
Iraq's nuclear weapons development program. The President went on to
make the following statement: ``The British government has learned that
Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from
Africa.''
After numerous concerns being raised about the veracity of this last
statement, the administration has recently
[[Page S9206]]
acknowledged that the President should not have made this claim. In a
statement authorized by the White House, a senior Bush administration
official said on Monday, July 7: ``Knowing all that we know now, the
reference to Iraq's attempt to acquire uranium from Africa should not
have been included in the State of the Union speech.''
In May of this year, Chairman Pat Roberts and Vice Chairman Jay
Rockefeller of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence requested
that the Inspectors General of the Department of State and the Central
Intelligence Agency work jointly to investigate the handling and
characterization of the underlying documents behind the President's
statement.
I would note that earlier this year, the International Atomic Energy
Agency, IAEA, determined that some of the intelligence documents
provided to it by the United States are forgeries. These documents were
provided to the IAEA as evidence of Iraqi efforts to procure uranium
from the Republic of Niger. In March of this year, Senator Rockefeller
requested that the FBI investigate this issue as well.
I want to thank the bill managers for accepting the amendment I
planned to offer today a ``Sense of the Congress'' amendment to the
State Authorization Bill which, 1, expresses support for the thorough
and expeditious joint investigation into this matter by the Inspectors
General of the Department of State and the CIA; 2, that the findings
and conclusions of this joint investigation should be completed by
September 12, 2003; and, 3, that the findings and conclusions of this
joint investigation should be unclassified to the fullest extent
possible, consistent with the protection of intelligence sources and
methods.
I am a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence which is
conducting a review of pre-war intelligence on the existence of, and
the threat posed by, Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, WMD, as well
as other matters related to pre-war intelligence reporting related to
Iraq.
The reported existence of Iraq's WMD and support for international
terrorism, al-Qaida in particular, were the primary justifications put
forward for military action against Iraq by the Bush Administration to
the Congress, the American public and the international community.
There is no more serious undertaking for our government than to take
our Nation to war. Such a momentous decision must be made on the basis
of the best intelligence available--and intelligence analysis must be
objective and not influenced by policymakers or other outside
pressures.
As this issue demonstrates, the administration's intelligence-derived
assertions about Iraq's level of WMD-related activity raises increased
concerns about the integrity of the U.S. intelligence community and the
credibility of the U.S. Government--both here and around the world.
These concerns are all the more troubling because of the
administration's new national strategy of military pre-emption--which
places a premium on timely, accurate and non-political intelligence
assessments of the threats to our country.
Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote and move to
lay that motion on the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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