ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 18, 1997 TAG: 9704180089
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: In Congress
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Retired Gen. Colin Powell, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War, said Thursday he never received a CIA warning about Iraqi chemical weapons stored at an arms depot before U.S. troops were ordered to blow it up after the 1991 war.
If he had known about the chemical weapons at the Kamisiyah depot, Powell said, he would have tried to remove them and ``show them to the world'' as evidence of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's villainy.
Appearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Powell called for the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Department to release all information they hold on the chemical exposure of U.S. troops during the gulf conflict.
``Why it isn't all just flooding out so everybody can see it, I just do not understand,'' Powell said.
Powell told the senators that U.S. military commanders went into the war expecting Iraq to use chemical weapons and that he was prepared ``to fight through it [chemical attack], though it would mean casualties.''
He outlined for the first time retaliatory measures that the United States planned to take if Saddam did attempt chemical warfare, including bombing Iraqi industrial and petroleum plants, as well as dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, ``from which the devastation would have been enormous.''
-CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Senate backs global chemical-arms penalties
WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Thursday to impose tough penalties on anyone dealing with chemical weapons and unanimously agreed to vote on ratification of a global poison-gas treaty next week.
Democrats dismissed the penalty bill, passed 53-44 on a nearly party-line vote, as unnecessary. Some treaty opponents touted it as an alternative to the sweeping accord ratified by 72 nations that aims to rid the world of chemical weapons.
The agreement to vote on the treaty followed four years of efforts by the Clinton administration to get Senate consent to ratification. Its acceptance, however, remained in doubt as the Senate also agreed to take up five amendments, any of which the White House said would kill U.S. participation in the pact.
``This treaty literally was `made in America' and it also is right for America,'' President Clinton said in praising both parties' Senate leaders for agreeing to schedule the ratification vote.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Name-calling ends hearing on civility
WASHINGTON - A hearing on civility in Congress came to an abrupt end Thursday after decidedly uncivil behavior - name-calling and angry exchanges - broke out on the House floor.
Midway through a genteel hearing by a subcommittee on rules and organization of the House, the panel's chairman, Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., said he regretted that the hearing would have to be halted because of the apparent breach of decorum.
Speaker Newt Gingrich was about to announce that he would pay a $300,000 fine for ethical lapses with money loaned to him by former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who resigned last year to become the unsuccessful GOP candidate against President Clinton.
But before the announcement, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., infuriated Republican lawmakers by saying Gingrich would be making a payment for ``lying to Congress.''
Rep. Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Rules Committee, sprang to his feet, shook his head and angrily demanded that the offensive language be stricken from the record.
Accusing a fellow lawmaker of having lied is not allowed. House etiquette rules hold that such a statement implies the lawmaker is not honorable and is therefore construed as a personal attack.
The members duly voted to strike Lewis' words from the record and to silence him for the rest of the day.
Earlier, tempers had flared between Solomon and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., after Miller accused Gingrich of accepting a ``special interest'' loan from Dole.
``When will it ever end with respect to special-interest money?'' Miller asked. He said Gingrich ``will pay his fine for lying to Congress by borrowing it from Bob Dole, who is the chief lobbyist for the tobacco industry.''
Dole is not a lobbyist, but he starts work next week with the law and lobbying firm of Verner Liipfert Bernhard McPherson and Hand, a Washington powerhouse that made $6.8 million in lobbying fees last year. CNN reported Thursday that the firm represents two tobacco companies.
-HEARST NEWSPAPERS
GOP supports limited bill for kids' health insurance
WASHINGTON - Republicans led by Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, put their support behind a modest health insurance bill Thursday that aims to cover a third of the nation's uninsured children. Republicans rejected a stronger bipartisan plan.
Gramm predicted the plan, which would give states money with few strings attached, would win support from Republicans who spurned a bill sponsored by Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Retired Gen. Colin Powell says release allby CNBinformation on chemical exposure of U.S. troops.