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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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