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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