COURTESY OF ED CASE
Ed Case talked in Baghdad with David Kay, the head of the Bush administration's search for weapons of mass destruction.
Case sees role
for isles in Iraqi
agricultural aid
Hawaii could contribute to the rebuilding of Iraq by providing assistance to the country's agricultural industry, said U.S. Rep. Ed Case.
The Hawaii Democrat said yesterday he was struck by the quality of the agricultural land in the area near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers known as the "fertile crescent" during a tour of the region yesterday and Friday.
"Agriculture has huge potential in Iraq," Case said, and Hawaii's expertise in that area should be tapped.
Case cited a $3.7 million contract awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development to the University of Hawaii at Manoa's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to assist two universities (the University of Mosul's College of Agriculture and Forestry and the University of Dohuk's College of Agriculture) with agricultural education, research, extension and training in northern Iraq. That grant could be worth more than $11 million if it is renewed annually.
"I want to try to figure out how I can bring in more of the agriculture community in Hawaii into this, because we're really made for it," he said.
The climate in Baghdad, he said, surprised him in being much like Hawaii in terms of temperature and humidity.
Case was in Iraq as part of a six-member congressional delegation there to review U.S. military and reconstruction efforts in the region. He spoke to reporters yesterday morning in a conference call.
Case said he was encouraged that a threatened Iraqi "Day of Resistance" to U.S. presence there "didn't really pan out."
"Security was a little tighter today (Saturday) than it was yesterday and the day before," Case said, because of anonymous leaflets that "were warning people if they go to places where Americans were they'd risk their lives."
But, he said, "nothing much seemed to materialize from that. ... There weren't any mass protests I could see or that I heard of."
"Iraqis were out living their lives" Case said at 10 p.m. yesterday Iraqi time (9 a.m. Hawaii time). As his congressional delegation traveled around Baghdad, "We saw school children going to school" and the Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters, which employs many Iraqis, "was a real beehive of activity."
Case's group -- members of the House Small Business Committee -- are also looking into opportunities for small American businesses to be involved with the rebuilding of Iraq, he said.
Iraq "has an incredible bunch of natural resources that the rest of the Middle East doesn't have -- water, a pretty good infrastructure and an educated population," Case said.
The group has been staying in Kuwait since Thursday and making day trips to military and reconstruction locations in Iraq. The trip is expected to conclude next week with a stop in Germany.
"I don't feel as safe as being on the beach in Waimanalo. I know I'm in a dangerous environment," Case said. "I believe this is a risk worth taking because of what I need to know about what's happening in Iraq."
David Kay, the head of the Bush administration's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, briefed the delegation.
He told the congressmen that inspection teams have found no completed weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological or nuclear) nor any missiles with a reasonable capability of delivering weapons of mass destruction 1,000 miles or more, such as to Israel, Turkey or beyond, Case said.
It remains possible, Case said, that components of such weapons and missiles that have been discovered by weapons inspectors mean Saddam Hussein's government was planning to put the pieces together at a later date or that intact weapons just haven't been found.
Case said he found it "disturbing ... there have not been any weapons of mass destruction found thus far" because "rightly or wrongly, that was the justification of our president for intervening in Iraq."
"We can't really do anything about the fact now that we did intervene, but we can certainly ask how the information available to the administration led to them" calling for an invasion, Case said.
Now that the U.S. is in Iraq, "We have undertaken a course of conduct and I am convinced we cannot pull out."
But Case cautioned that he would look extremely hard at any requests beyond the $87 billion President Bush has asked of Congress for reconstruction efforts.
Case said one of the questions he's trying to answer for himself on the trip is: "Do the Iraqis want us here? My observation is that a majority wants us here for a limited period of time -- long enough to restore security, assist in rebuilding basic services and assist them in revitalizing the economy and political structure. Then they want us to leave."
Because of security, "it's not like I can go to the local grocery store and hang with them and say, 'Hey, how do like us being here?' But I have certainly talked to people who have done that and I think that, one step removed, I have come to that conclusion."
"Clearly there's electricity, there is water, there is commerce going on. People have food -- nobody's starving. The basics of life are relatively OK," Case said. What needs to be better before the U.S. leaves, he said are: security, telecommunications, banking and other business assistance.
For three decades, hundreds of key Iraqi companies have been run by Saddam's cronies, he said.
"Everything I've seen in Iraq bears out ... the amazing amount of domination that this brutal dictator had over Iraq," Case said.
Case said he felt that the morale of servicemen in Iraq is good and they realize that the public supports them.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
