BUSH-QUAYLE IRAQ POLICY: PROFOUND ERRORS, DUPLICITY, COVER-UP Gore says Bush Created Threat, Then Risked Americans to Confront It URGES BUSH TO ANSWER QUESTIONS, TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH WASHINGTON--The Bush-Quayle Administration's policy toward Iraq is "deeply shadowed in profound error, in duplicity, and in amoral disregard for our most basic values as a nation," Sen. Al Gore, D-TN, said today, delivering a sharp and specific indictment of that policy, concluding that "George Bush does not fit the requirements of the New World Order his own speechwriters once summoned up." The detailed record of George Bush's policy toward Iraq "provides a deeply disturbing look at a blatant disregard for brutal terrorism, a dangerous blindness to the murderous ambitions of a despot, and what certainly appears to be an ongoing effort to hide the facts from the American people whose tax dollars paid for this policy and whose sons and daughters risked and lost their lives in its pursuit," Gore said today in a speech before the Center for National Policy. Gore also questions the President's claims to be "out of the loop" on the Reagan-Bush Administration's decision to sell arms to Iran. "Far from being 'out of the loop,' Bush seems to have been one of the most vigorous and vociferous advocates of the illegal side of the argument," Gore said. "Indeed, his arguments to the contrary are simply no longer credible." Gore supported authorizing the use of force in the Persian Gulf but has been a strong and persistent critic of U.S. policy before and after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. As early as 1988, Gore was protesting Saddam Hussein's brutality and urging U.S. action. After the Desert Storm cease-fire, Gore was among the first in Congress to raise alarms about the U.S. failure to uphold the cease-fire agreement and Saddam Hussein's violent treatment of the Kurds and Shiites. "George Bush wants the American people to see him as the hero who put out a raging fire. But new evidence now shows that he is the one who set the fire. He not only struck the match, he poured gasoline on the flames. So give him credit for calling in the fire department, but understand who started the blaze," Gore said today. In a detailed and comprehensive speech, Gore provided a thorough review of the Bush-Quayle Administration's policy toward Iraq. There is, he said, "substantial evidence that [the Bush] Administration intentionally falsified export records and reports to Congress, and in the process apparently violated a number of laws intended to prevent such horrendous mistakes." Gore said of Bush: "His poor judgment, moral blindness and bungling policies led directly to a war that should never have taken place. And, because of his naivete, U.S. taxpayers are now stuck with paying the bill for $l.9 billion President Bush gave to Saddam Hussein even though top administration officials were repeatedly told Saddam was using our dollars to buy weapons technology." "Bush deserves heavy blame for intentionally concealing from the American people the clear nature of Saddam Hussein and his regime, for convincing himself that friendly relations with such a monster were possible, and for persisting in this effort far, far beyond the point of folly," Gore said. "In the end, the U.S. taxpayer has been left holding the bag for almost $2 billion of loans to Iraq which will never be repaid. After bailing out the savings and loans, American taxpayers are now being forced by Bush's poor decisions to bail out Saddam," Gore said. "Coddling tyrants is a hallmark of the Bush foreign policy," Gore said. "George Bush sent loan guarantees to an oil-rich dictator. George Bush sold dangerous technology to a criminal who was intent on developing and using lethal weapons. George Bush refused to face the truth or hear the urgent warnings coming from his own Administration. And, then, George Bush put American lives on the line in a war that never would have happened except for his mistakes." "When it came time to confront the consequences of these years of serious mistakes, when it came time to confront Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait with an international coalition united in its resolve and purpose, George Bush, all the way up to the moment the combat ended, displayed fortitude and skill," Gore said. "But the chestnuts he pulled from the fire were his own. His policies nurtured Saddam Hussein. He was deaf to information that to any other ear was a fire bell in the night, ringing clearly that our policies were disastrously wrong." "Should a man who mistook Saddam Hussein for a docile ally and who then pursued that error to the point where the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans had to be put on the line, have a second term as President of the United States? Has George Bush told the truth, the whole truth about a policy that left our nation facing a brutal, murderous dictator? If he will take credit for the victory, will he also take responsibility for the policy that made war inevitable? The answer to these questions is, 'no'," Gore said. "In so many ways, George Bush does not fit the requirements of the New World Order his own speechwriters once summoned up. We require a fresh approach from a new leader of vigor and high intelligence, of courage and vision, who believes to the core that the enemies of freedom cannot be anything but the enemies of our country. I think that the people of the United States have and will take the opportunity to select such a leader. Bill Clinton is that man," Gore said. In his speech, Gore challenged the President's statement, in June of this year, that "We did not enhance Saddam Hussein's nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons capability." Gore cited specific evidence to the contrary in U.S. exports: * Almost 30 percent of our non-agricultural exports to Iraq between 1985 and 1990 went to the Iraqi military-industrial complex. * Of these exports, there were 162 items that were licensed for sale despite their potential nuclear applications. * The Administration permitted the sale of powerful computers comparable to those used in our own missile test ranges, despite objections from the Department of Defense. * The Administration allowed shipment of high-tech equipment needed for Iraq's Condor II missile, which was to have been able to deliver a nuclear warhead at a range of more than 600 miles. * The Administration allowed for the export of materials needed for the infamous "supergun" project, intended to have the ability to launch nuclear weapons like artillery shells over hundreds of miles. * Machine tools, lasers, and other equipment for the manufacture of rocket casings used in SCUD missiles were sold. When U.N. inspectors went into Iraq, they found at Saddam Hussein's main nuclear weapons complex a carbide-tipped machine tool factory which had been built with technology and equipment licensed for export by the Bush Administration. * The Administration licensed technology and equipment for fabricating shapes out of glass fiber over the objections of the Department of Defense, which noted that the purchaser was part of the Iraqi military-industrial complex, and that this kind of equipment was needed for a nuclear weapons program. The Administration preferred to accept the importer's claim that the equipment would be used to make shower stalls. * Equipment for a "detergent" factory was licensed, yet this same factory was used to make chemical weapons. * 17 licenses for the export of bacterial and fungus cultures to Iraq were granted, even though the CIA specifically linked the Iraqi government agencies involved to "biological warfare support and numerous other military activities." * The U.N. Special Commission, once it finally got inside Iraq, is reported to have found equipment from 11 American companies in Iraqi missile and chemical weapons plants. Gore also pointed up the list of Iraqi customers approved by the Administration: * The Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization (known as MIMI), which was headed by a brigadier general who was Saddam Hussein's son-in-law, and which the CIA identified as "controlling Iraq's nuclear network." * The Saddam State Establishment and Salah Al Din, called in an intelligence report "typical of Iraq's arms production facilities." * SAAD 16, identified back in 1986 as a key missile production site, where as much as 40 percent of the equipment was reported to be U.S.-made. * The Administration even sold Saddam Hussein helicopters for his personal use, equipped with special infra-red guidance and defensive systems. #######################