Bill Clinton: “First, let me talk about Iraq, and then I will discuss the other issues. There was no discrimination involved. Our…”

“First, let me talk about Iraq, and then I will discuss the other issues. There was no discrimination involved. Our intelligence and law enforcement agencies conducted an investigation on the people who were arrested in Kuwait and charged with bringing in a very dangerous bomb for the purpose of assassinating former President Bush because of actions he took as President in the Gulf war. I was advised that they believe that that in fact occurred, that a plan devised by the Iraqi Government was attempted to be carried out in Kuwait to kill former President Bush with a bomb that had a lethal radius of about 400 yards. That is, it could have killed people within 400 yards around where it exploded. So I took what I thought was appropriate and perfectly legal retaliatory action, basically as a deterrent to further behavior of that kind. It had nothing to do with any racial or religious distinction. And indeed, Iraq's closest neighbors, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, applauded the action that was taken. Secondly, with regard to Bosnia, the United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid. It is prepared to do more and advocated, along with the nonaligned nations and most of the Muslim nations of the world, lifting the arms embargo on the Bosnian Government and giving the Bosnian Government time to implement the arms embargo with standby air power. That position did not prevail in the United Nations because others were against it. That's what I thought the right thing to do was. The United States also was involved in helping people in Somalia. We were actively involved in the agreement announced just last weekend to restore Father Aristide to Haiti within 4 months. There was no racial or religious or ethnic discrimination involved in the Iraqi action. It was, I believe, clearly the right thing to do. But we are reaching out to Muslim peoples all across the world with our friendship with Turkey, our friendship with many of the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, and elsewhere, people who share our values. We respect their religious and their cultural traditions. We want stronger ties. And I very much hope that the multiethnic government in Bosnia can survive.”