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| Iowa Greens Call for Harkin, Grassley and Nussle to Support WMD Investigation. |
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IOWA GREEN PARTY Contacts: Iowa Greens Call for Harkin, Grassley and Nussle to Support WMD Investigation The Iowa Green Party on Monday June 9 called for U.S. Senators Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley and U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle to support efforts to launch official investigations into the Bush Administration's still - unsubstantiated pre-war claims of Iraqi WMD capability. "Iowa Greens believe democracy must empower citizens to obtain timely and accurate information from their government," said Ted Pfeiff, secretary/treasurer of the Scott County Green Party. "When such facts aren't easily accessible, elected oficials like Harkin, Grassley and Nussle have the responsibility of acting on the public's behalf and bringing them to light for scrutiny." Sen. John McCain has already called for an official inquiry into the WMD claims, as has Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh. Sen. Robert Byrd has demanded answers. And on Thursday, June 5, Rep. Dennis Kucinich led 30 House members in introducing a Resolution of Inquiry. Claims of Iraqi possession of WMDs were offered by President Bush and other Administration officials as justifications for U.S. invasion of that country. But those claims are being regarded with increasing suspicion. And critics recently received further reason for questioning those allegations' credibility. In an interview published in early June, Greg Thielmann, retired director of the Strategic, Proliferation and Military Office in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told the AP of his own professional doubts. "What disturbs me deeply is what I think are the disingenuous statements made from the very top about what the intelligence did say," Thielmann said. "The area of distortion was greatest in the nuclear field." Thielmann also charged that Bush Administration claims of Iraqi al-Qaida ties were not supported by existing intelligence. And on Friday, June 6, CNN reported that Chief Arms Inspector Hans Blix said in his final UN Security Council report that investigators had "not at any time during the inspections found evidence of the continuation or resumption of programs of weapons of mass destruction." Questions about the Bush Administration's WMD claims come not only from politicians of all parties, but also from journalists and international observers. Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report have all published pieces offering criticisms. Members of the British Parliment and other foreign governmental bodies are voicing increasing skepticism of the Bush White House. On the Friday, June 6 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Nation magazine editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel said, "This is an issue of 'High Crimes and Misdemeanors'" and as such potentially worthy of impeachment. Iowa Greens' support for investigating the WMD claims and call for Harkin, Grassley and Nussle joining that effort do not owe to partisanship. The credibility of the U.S. government stands in serious question, and resolving this matter is of concern to all citizens regardless of political affiliation. Like the national Green Party and countless other parties, organizations and individuals around the country, the IAGP opposed the war in Iraq and participated in actions and marches against it, including one in Washington, DC last January. Senators Harkin and Grassley and Rep. Nussle, though, all supported the Bush Administration's unjust and unwise war on Iraq. And because of that enabling support, they have all the more reason to endorse investigation of the truthfulness of allegations advanced in that war's interests. (Harkin, most of all; in March, he told reporters that he felt that he'd been "fooled" by Bush White House claims of preference for diplomatic resolution. Were he to vote on it again, he said, he would oppose war.) We will with proprietary interest watch U.S. government actions on this in the coming days. And we hope to see Harkin, Grassley and Nussle lending their endorsements to the investigative pursuit of the facts. |
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