Congressional aides ignore State Dept., arrive in Iraq for fact-finding mission
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, August 31, 1999
NICOSIA -- Five U.S. congressional staff members have arrived in
Baghdad and began the first U.S. fact-finding mission to Iraq since the 1991
Persian Gulf War.
The staffers ignored State Department objections and a U.S. travel ban
and entered Iraq without using their U.S. passports. The staffers arrived
after a 10-hour overland drive from Jordan and carried special entry
documents.
Organizer Phyllis Bennis said the staffers wanted to examine the effect
of United Nations sanctions on Iraq. Ms. Bennis, of the Washington-based
Institute for Policy Studies, said the visit was an independent examination
of what was taking place in Iraq. She said that the group did not plan a
meeting with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The visit came as U.S. and British warplanes carry out nearly daily
strikes to enforce the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq. Some
members of Congress have begun to question the U.S. policy.
On Sunday night, the delegation met Hans von Sponeck, the U.N.
humanitarian coordinator in Iraq. Von Sponeck briefed the group on the
"oil-for-food" program, in which Iraq can sell a limited amount of oil to
buy humanitarian goods including food and medicine.
The congressional group also would explore the possibility of U.S. grain
sales to Iraq.
The group consists of Amos Hochstein, who works for Rep. Sam Gejdenson,
D-Conn.,; Peter Hickey, with the office of Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga.;
Jack Zylman, from the staff of Rep. Earl Hilliard, D-Ala.; Brian Sims, who
works for Rep. Danny K. Davis, D-Ill.; and Danielle LeClair, from the office
of Rep. Bernard Sanders, an independent from Vermont.
In 1995, President Bill Clinton sent Bill Richardson -- then a
Democratic congressman representing New Mexico and now the nation's energy
secretary -- to Iraq to meet with Saddam and secure the release of two
Americans imprisoned for four months after straying across the Iraqi border
with Kuwait. Three years later, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan
visited Iraq.
Tuesday, August 31, 1999
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