We all know that Libya is attempting to form a government.

we, as Americans, as we go around the world, try to persuade people that the only way society can prosper is if, indeed, you get rid of corruption and you get rid of any type of undue influence, and, for that matter, the appearance of it.

I fully appreciate that the person in question recused himself from the actual vote on something, but, you know, again, the appearance is very difficult to shake under these circumstances.

I worry most about nonstate actors, and I hope we can put that genie back in the bottle and that we are not seeing a new era now of chemical terrorism.

even though we might disagree with a country on a whole host of issues, sometimes we can find common cause on an issue.

What is happening today? Is that movement increasing? Is it decreasing? Has it leveled off?

We are seeing some open-source reporting that mustard gas is being used in Syria.

I am not going to be as generous as you are to the Russians.

The last thing any of us wants, and most especially myself, is for Syria to hold itself out as a member in good standing of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

if the United States was involved with a partner that was doing this sort of thing, I mean, we would wash our hands of it very quickly, or stop it, one or the other.

Thank you all for coming. This Subcommittee on Near East, South and Central Asia of the Foreign Relations Committee will come to order.

The problem here is very, very political, and I do not mean republican versus democrat.