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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (36151)	1/24/2004 9:22:37 PM
From: Rick Faurot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Democrat Edwards Wants Iraq War Case Investigation Sat January 24, 2004 08:14 PM ET By Mark Egan LACONIA, N.H. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards called on Saturday for an independent commission to investigate if the Bush administration misled the U.S. Congress in making its case for war with Iraq and demanded an end to "war profiteering." The senator from North Carolina was responding to remarks by former chief U.S. arms hunter David Kay, who told Reuters after stepping down on Friday that he had concluded there were no stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons to be found. "It's a serious issue and it's why I have called for an independent commission to investigate the discrepancy between what's found there and what we were told before," Edwards told reporters in New Hampshire before next Tuesday's primary. Edwards voted for the congressional resolution authorizing President Bush to wage war against Iraq. Asked if he felt the Bush administration had misled lawmakers when making its case for war, Edwards said, "That's exactly why ... we need an independent commission to get to the bottom of this." Before the war, the Bush administration said it feared Iraq was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. But Kay said on Friday, "I don't think they existed." Edwards also called for an end to "war profiteering." He said Halliburton Co. and others who had secured contracts to rebuild Iraq were major Bush political contributors. Halliburton said on Friday that its workers might have taken kickbacks from a Kuwaiti subcontractor supplying U.S. troops in Iraq, prompting the company to send a $6.3 million check to the U.S. Army to cover potential overbilling. 'A MAGNIFYING GLASS' "The American people know there is something wrong going on with war profiteering and Halliburton and the contracts in Iraq because there is something wrong going on, and we have to change it," Edwards said. Later, at a town hall meeting in Rochester, New Hampshire, which drew about 700 supporters, Edwards said that if elected president, he would examine all Iraq rebuilding contracts "with a magnifying glass" to stop companies from "fleecing the American people." "This has got to come to an end," said the former trial lawyer turned politician. Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, is the largest contractor in Iraq with more than $8 billion in potential work doing everything from laundry for U.S. occupation forces to repairing damaged oil fields. With just three days to go to New Hampshire's primary, Edwards remained in single digits in the latest Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby poll, but his support appeared to be rising. The poll showed Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry leading former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean with retired Gen. Wesley Clark in third. But a new Sunday Boston Herald poll showed Edwards leapfrogging Clark into third position with 14 percent of the vote. Edwards, who finished second in Monday's Iowa caucus after a late surge, is hoping for a respectable finish in New Hampshire. Some polls show him leading in South Carolina, which holds its primary on Feb. 3 along with six other states.