Congress unlikely to visit Iraq

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- An invitation to the U.S. Congress by the leadership of Iraq, which was first reported by United Press International, to visit that country has not been received, but will certainly be declined, according to the offices of several lawmakers thought to be invited.

"We have not received any such invitation, but wouldn't go to Iraq," said John Feehry, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "We will leave the job of diplomacy to the State Department."

The official Iraqi News Agency said Tuesday that Saadoun Hamadi, speaker of Baghdad's parliament, the Iraqi National Council, had written to a number of senators, including Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.; Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; John Kerry, D-Mass.; and Carl Levin, D-Mich.

The agency said these senators were selected for being "prominent members of the U.S. Congress, for being known for not taking hasty decisions concerning military measures against Iraq and for calling on Congress to continue discussing the Iraqi problem at length before taking the decision to use force."

But none of the mentioned lawmakers had received such a letter as of Friday. And none sounded ambiguous about the idea of a trip to Iraq.

"My office has not received any communication from the speaker of Iraq's Parliament or any other Iraqi official extending an invitation to me to come to Baghdad to look for weapons of mass destruction," Dodd said in a statement.

"Were I to receive such an invitation I would summarily reject it. Iraqi officials must stop playing games with the international community or face the consequences of their irresponsible actions. Saddam Hussein should immediately permit the return of U.N. Weapons Inspectors and allow unfettered access to all suspected sites. If Iraq fails to do so in the very near future, the U.S. and the international community will be fully justified in using all necessary means to remove the threat that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction pose to world peace and stability."

A spokesman for Kerry echoed Dodd's sentiment.

"We haven't received any kind of letter from the Iraqis and if the Iraqi regime has any sense at all they won't waste any time writing to John Kerry and will instead force the dictator in Baghdad to live by the cease-fire and weapons inspections agreement that left him in power at the conclusion of Operation Desert Storm," David Wade said. "Until then, they don't have a leg to stand on in the international community. All their doublespeak and delay doesn't change the fact that we reserve all options available to us to keep our country safe, including military force."

Hamadi sent the letters along with a copy of last month's invitation to the Congress to send a fact-finding team to find out whether Iraq had a program to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. No such invitation has been received by Hastert's office, Feehry said.

However, even without benefit of a direct invitation, one member of the House of Representatives was in Baghdad Friday. The office of Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., confirmed hat Rahall had traveled to Iraq with an independent group, but no reason for the trip was immediately available.

Iraq has repeatedly claimed it has no weapons of mass destruction and that its program was destroyed by U.N. inspections years ago in line with some 16 U.N. Security Council resolutions.

However, U.N. inspectors have not visited the country since 1998. Intelligence reports have suggested that Iraq has continued to various forms of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear.

President George W. Bush has said his goal is to topple Saddam's regime, and has recently been seeking international support for a U.S.-led military campaign to achieve it.