Doug Bereuter: “this Member rises in the strongest possible support for House Resolution 120, legislation condemning the recent…”

“this Member rises in the strongest possible support for House Resolution 120, legislation condemning the recent outrageous behavior of Iraq in seizing and incarcerating two American citizens. It has been over 4 years since the end of the Persian Gulf conflict, but Saddam Hussein and his band of thugs continue to flaunt basic international norms, seemingly at every opportunity. For example, Saddam Hussein continues to let his people starve because he refuses to pump oil and provide the proceeds into international humanitarian organizations. People are starving, the economy is in a shambles, but Saddam's military remains intact. Iraq has waged a vicious war against the Marsh Arabs in the south, and with the Kurds in the north. Iraq has waged a clever campaign to lift the sanctions that the United Nations imposed, but it continues in every way to behave as an outlaw. The most recent outrage is the seizure of William Barloon and David Daliberti, two civilian Americans who were seized as they went to visit a friend at a U.N. compound just south of the Iraq-Kuwait border. Lost and having strayed across the border, Iraqi military forces seized these two Americans, charged them with sabotage, and sentenced them to 8 years in prison in what was patently a kangaroo court. Mr. Speaker, civilized societies do not behave in this manner. Responsible governments do not impose trumped up charges against innocent civilians in an effort to achieve foreign policy objectives.”