Despite State Deptartment's Refusal to Validate Passports, Delegation of Congressional Aides Depart for Iraq
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 29, 1999 CONTACTS:
Erik Gustafson (202) 543-6176
In the wake of recent concern in Congress over the lack of direction in the Administration's Iraq policy, five congressional aides from the House of Representatives left for Iraq today to independently investigate the consequences of economic sanctions. This delegation represents the first step towards greater congressional oversight on a policy that has increasingly come under fire for causing hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. The delegation will also investigate the health effects of depleted uranium (DU), an anti-armour weapon used extensively by the U.S. during the Gulf War. DU has been attributed to Gulf War illnesses among U.S. veterans and Iraqi civilians.
At an August 23 briefing, State Department Spokesman James Foley confirmed that the State Department had refused to validate the passports of the aides, and added that traveling to Iraq on a U.S. passport which has not been validated "may constitute a violation" of U.S. law.
"The State Department's refusal to validate the passports at the request of Members of Congress represents an unprecedented form of censorship," said Erik Gustafson, a Gulf War veteran and Executive Director of the Education for Peace in Iraq Center. "The Administration has clearly tried to block Congress from examining a policy which has been in place for nine years. What are they afraid of? We applaud the decision of the congressional offices to go ahead with the delegation."
This delegation will be the first direct investigation of the impact, success, and limitations of the sanctions policy since 1991, either by members of Congress or by congressional staff. The group will return on September 5.
The trip also follows UNICEF's release of the first comprehensive survey on child and maternal mortality since 1991 (released August 12, 1999). The survey found that the majority of the country suffered a more-than-two fold rise in under-5 infant mortality, a tragedy that UNICEF's Executive Director, Carol Bellamy, blames partially on UN-imposed economic sanctions.
"With almost no congressional oversight, the Administration's Iraq policy has been a colossal failure," Gustafson continued. "Half a million children are dead, international consensus is destroyed, the disarmament process has collapsed, and American taxpayers and farmers are paying billions in taxes and lost export revenues."
Despite the urgent humanitarian crisis and the lack of congressional oversight in US Iraq policy thus far, the State Department attempted to block the delegation, citing the grave danger of what they termed "friendly fire." Their warning follows an escalation of air strikes by US and British planes, including a recent attack outside of the "no-fly" zone, which killed 19 civilians. The air strikes, which have continued almost daily since December 1998, constitute the longest sustained US bombing campaign since the Vietnam War. Recent initiatives in Congress have begun to question the lack of direction in current policy.
The congressional offices participating in the delegation are: Representatives Sam Gejdenson (CT) (ranking Democrat of the International Relations Committee), Cynthia McKinney (GA) (ranking Democrat of the International Operations & Human Rights Subcommittee), Danny Davis (D-IL), Earl Hilliard (D-AL) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
The delegation is endorsed by over 40 organizations and leading individuals, including the Arab American Institute, American Friends Service Committee, Education for Peace in Iraq Center, the Washington office of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the National Gulf War Resource Center, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, as well as a former Senator and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.
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