By Steve LaRocque
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington - Representative Scott McInnis (Republican of Colorado) in a September 9 speech in the House of Representatives warned of the menace posed by al Qaeda terrorists getting weapons of mass destruction from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

McInnis, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the United States faces a greater danger today than four years ago when President Clinton warned of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein.

The United States, McInnis said, has to find a way to stop any spread of weapons of mass destruction to terrorists, citing the threat to the United States posed by al Qaeda and Iraq.

"This is the quote from the al Qaeda," McInnis said, "'We ar e emerging stronger, and we will hit America. We will hit America's shopping malls, their stadiums and kindergartens. This is our promise.'"

While the threat is aimed at America, he said, our allies should recognize that, "Just because they are at the door of America's kindergartens today does not mean that they will not be at the door of your kindergartens tomorrow."

The one-time policeman repeated the al Qaeda quote to hit America's kindergartens, saying he wanted "to build a case" for his constituents and fellow lawmakers regarding Iraq.

The Colorado Republican said the Baghdad regime and al Qaeda "are comrades in arms."

They share a "very strong common bond," McInnis said, "They want to see the destruction of every man, woman and child, and keep in mind, child, kindergartners, of America."

After America, they would seek to bring the same destruction to "every man, woman and child in Canada. And when they are done with Canada, they will want to see it in France, and they will want to see it in the United Kingdom," McInnis said.

Such people, he said, "are mad people, but they are smart and they are intelligent. That is obvious by the strike they carried out against the United States."

McInnis compared the terrorist threat with cancer, "The people that speak like this, that carry out these acts, they are the equivalent of a horrible, fast-moving malignant cancer."

McInnis said Iraq "is not an idle threat sitting out there."

The Baghdad regime, he said, offers "a very realistic threat that could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, or it could happen five years from now."

Saddam Hussein, McInnis said, invaded Kuwait, killing thousands of men, women and children.

The Colorado Republican added that Saddam Hussein presided over "a coordinated assassination effort" against former President George H. W. Bush when he visited Kuwait.

"Look at the people within his own country that he gassed. Look at the Kurds. You can list example after example after example of how horribly evil, how malignant Saddam Hussein is and why we have got to do something," McInnis said.

The United States, he added, does not have any choice.

McInnis said he doubts that Saddam Hussein would use nuclear weapon against the United States if he had them today, but added that the Iraqi dictator would use them against Israel.

Instead, he went on, Saddam Hussein would give such weapons to "people like the al Qaeda, the people that swear that they are not done with America, that they are going after our kindergartens."

If terrorist continue their quest to develop weapons of mass destruction or "are given the weapons by people like Saddam Hussein, the next time they tally a hit ... we will see numbers in the thousands and tens of thousands."

The problem presented by Saddam Hussein, McInnis said, "is not something that just came up under the Bush administration."

McInnis added that he supported the proposition that Congress should debate U.S. policy toward Iraq and "be engaged in the declaration of any type of war," and that the President was constitutionally required to bring his case to the people regarding a possible military action.

Noting concern about possible U.S. policy toward Iraq among Democrats, the Colorado Republican said then-President Bill Clinton was aware of the threat posed by Iraq to U.S. security.

McInnis quoted President Clinton's February 18, 1998 statement, "'What if Saddam Hussein fails to comply and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop his programs of weapons of mass destruction, and continue to press for the release of sanctions, and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction.'"

"Does anybody in these Chambers believe that the capability, the destructive capability, of Saddam Hussein has been reduced? Does anybody in here believe, really, truly in their hearts, that this madman has abandoned his weapons of mass destruction, which include chemical warfare and the attempt to get nuclear weapons?" McInnis asked.

"We know in our hearts that he has not," he said, "We wish it were not true."

McInnis quoted Clinton again on Saddam Hussein, saying that, "'Some day, some way, I guarantee you he will use the arsenal.'"

President Clinton clearly recognized the threat four years ago, McInnis said, and "several of the leading Democrats, the Democrat leadership, got right behind the President in regard to the statement."

Yet, he continued, "those very leaders today are questioning President Bush."

McInnis went on to quote former President Clinton saying, "'We have to defend our future from these predators of the 21st century ... They will be all the more lethal if we allow them to build arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. We simply cannot allow that to happen. There is no more clear example of this threat than Saddam Hussein.'"

If Saddam Hussein was a major threat in February of 1998, McInnis said, "when President Bill Clinton prepared this country for war, and United Nations inspectors were still inside Iraq, it stands to reason that in the absence of those inspectors monitoring this weapons buildup, that Saddam is even a greater threat today," McInnis said.

"Why is it that in 2002, the Democratic leadership is pretending as if none of this has occurred? They are making demands upon President Bush that they never made upon President Clinton," he said.

"We have a man who has cooperated with people like al Qaeda; a man who invaded another country and killed thousands and thousands of people; a leader, a man who poisoned and gassed his own people; a man who, almost on a daily basis, fires missiles against American and allied aircraft," McInnis said.

He compared the threat posed by Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction with a cancer that must be dealt with aggressively.

"They are developing and have in their possession weapons of mass destruction and they will kill us. And if they do not attempt to kill us, they will give it to people like the al Qaeda that will carry this out. They do not care about our morality, values and our respect for our children and the preservation of life," McInnis said.

The United States, he said, has a commitment to secure the safety of the nation and the safety of our allies as well. "All free-loving countries in the world are under the threat of this cancer of Iraq and the al Qaeda," he warned.

"With the blessing of God, they have not hit our kindergarten yet," McInnis said, "But Members know that is one of their targets. That is what they have told us."

The time for a debate, McInnis said, "is rapidly approaching. We should have a resolution on this floor as quickly as we can get a resolution on this floor."

While Congress has a responsibility to debate the issue, McInnis said, it was important to get the debate "completed and to move in a unified fashion as this Congress and as the United States Senate signaled it would with President Clinton in 1998."

McInnis called on both the House and the Senate to "to come together in 2002 and move against the cancer that exists out there."

He added that he hoped U.S. allies "in the United Nations and the people of the United Nations understand what a threat this malignancy is out there, understand how unsuccessful we have been to convince through diplomatic efforts, through inspections, through economic sanctions, through no-fly zones, how unsuccessful these efforts have been to get Saddam Hussein to stop proceeding with these weapons, what the ramifications are of these weapons.

"Do my colleagues think that the al Qaeda, if they would have had nuclear weapons within their hands, do my colleagues think they would have used aircraft on September 11? They would have used nuclear weapons," he said.

"We have got to go after that cancer that has centered itself in Iraq and has spread to al Qaeda and throughout rest of the world," McInnis said.