Bill Delahunt: “I would hope that one additional question might be asked of this Secretary who stands here next to the President of…”

“I would hope that one additional question might be asked of this Secretary who stands here next to the President of Uzbekistan, who is a tyrant, a despot and a dictator, who some day will rival Saddam Hussein as a gross violator and threat to regional stability, but is now part of the coalition of the willing... Beneath the surface was a battle, O'Neill, that seemed brewing since the National Security Council meeting on January 30. Remember, the President had been in office for a week. It was Powell and his moderates at the State Department versus hard-liners like Rumsfeld, Cheney and Wolfowitz, who were already planning the next war in Iraq in the shape of a post-Saddam country.”