Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: More Details on Iraq= Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 04:29:59 EST Message-ID: <6.1992Oct29.042959@AmeriCast.com> More Details on Iraq= NOT ONLY WAS American policy toward Iraq flawed in the run-up to the invasion of Kuwait, but it becomes increasingly clear that its execution was exceedingly careless. The policy, up until the invasion in 1990, was to try to bribe the Iraqis with many kinds of support into more civilized conduct toward their neighbors. That, notoriously, didn't work. Now, bit by bit, details are em- erging on the unwise lengths to which first the Reagan adminis- tration and then the Bush administration went. Rep. Henry Gonzalez, chairman of the House Banking Committee, has been carrying on a one-man investigation and crusade on this sub- ject since immediately after Kuwait fell. This week he took his most recent findings to a hearing of the Senate Banking Commit- tee, where he offered evidence that the United States had author- ized the export of American computers and software to Iraq's su- pergun project. Earlier the State Department had denied that this country had approved any exports for the project. Now it says that its previous statement was intended to refer only to muni- tions, not to auxiliary equipment like computers to design them. For its part the Senate Banking Committee came up with a letter from the secretary of state, James A. Baker, to the secretary of commerce, Robert A. Mosbacher, expressing alarm at "Iraq's ex- traordinarily aggressive weapons proliferation efforts" and re- questing tighter control of exports. That letter, as Sen. Donald Riegle pointed out, was written eight days before Iraq invaded Kuwait. A lot of pieces have been contributed to this mosaic, but the full picture is not yet apparent. A number of congressional in- quiries are going forward, but so far they are all on separate tracks headed in different directions. As Mr. Gonzalez observed, his House committee doesn't have jurisdiction over export con- trols. That's why he went to the Senate committee, which does. But that hearing was the Senate Banking Committee's first flicker of interest in the subject. Similarly, Sen. David Boren and his Intelligence Committee have been looking into the collision between the CIA and the Justice Department, but the committee doesn't have jurisdiction over the Justice Department. The Judi- ciary Committee, which does have jurisdiction, seems to be in a trance. The dimensions of the Iraq affair are turning it into a test for Congress. If it wants the answers to which it and the rest of the country are entitled, it is going to have to organize an investi- gation capable of bridging the jurisdictional boundaries that are keeping each part of the story segmented from the others. 02:05 10-29C9999----- Copyright 1992, The Washington Post. This story is from the Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar- chived or redistributed. For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor- poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)