Senators stress importance of finding Saddam

Cite documentation on WMD 'program'

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A bipartisan group of senators who returned Thursday from a three-day visit to Iraq said that finding Saddam Hussein and his sons was critical to overcoming a climate of fear in that war-wracked country.

"We must find Saddam Hussein and his sons," Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas said. "When we do, then the people of Iraq will no longer live in fear of his return, which is a real and palatable state of mind of many Iraqi citizens. You can see it in their faces, you can hear it in their voices."

Roberts is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The senators held a press conference on Capitol Hill to talk about their trip at about the same time the Bush administration announced that it was offering a $25 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Saddam or proof of his death and $15 million for the same on Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay.(Full story)

Some three months after a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq led to the fall of Saddam's regime, the deposed Iraqi leader remains unaccounted for -- even as the United States maintains a sizable military presence in that country.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was "struck by how important it is that we capture or kill" Saddam and his two sons, saying there is a "pervasive climate of fear" among the populace.

"That fear prevents us from making progress as rapidly as we otherwise would. And that fear emboldens those who would attack our troops," she said.

The senators, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, visited sites in the north, central and southern regions of the country.

'This will take time'

They lauded the troops and coalition efforts to rebuild the country, said the proper resources should be committed for reconstruction and security, voiced concerns about overextending troops and counseled patience to the American people.

"This will take time," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia.

It was also clear that there is disagreement on the question of whether the Bush administration hyped the threat from Iraq before the war, particularly as it relates to weapons of mass destruction.

"Whether we find weapons or we don't find weapons, the allegations, with certainty, that there were weapons of mass destruction, imminently available and would be used by Saddam Hussein, was based on intelligence which seems to me ... was exaggerated," said Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Nothing I saw on this trip changed my view of the troubling nature of that evidence."

But other senators said it was too early to draw any conclusions about what Saddam may have had, and they said that documents were being collected that demonstrated Saddam's interest in a WMD "program."

"Now, as to WMD, it's going to take additional time to uncover Saddam's weapons programs, not the finished product, but the program," Roberts said. "This was a program designed to be hidden -- hidden by people who knew what their fate would be if they revealed it."

'Stretched thin'

The senators' visit to Iraq came as attacks against U.S. targets, thought to be from remnants of Saddam regime, continue. In the latest incidents Thursday, 10 U.S. soldiers were wounded. Since May 1, there have been 26 hostile and 42 non-hostile U.S. deaths in Iraq, according to the Pentagon.

Levin said efforts to transform and stabilize Iraq can be done with the help of other countries since American troops are "stretched thin" and are targets in places like Baghdad.

"First, we must end the feud with Germany and France and with the U.N.," Levin said. "We must seek the help of those countries. We must seek the support and the participation of NATO and the U.N. A number of countries will join us, I believe, if there is that U.N. or NATO participation."

Other senators on the trip were John Warner, R-Virginia, the Armed Services Committee chairman and a member of the Intelligence Committee; Mark Dayton, D-Minnesota, Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island; and Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska.

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