House International Affairs Committ...

House International Affairs Committee Chairman Henry J Hyde (R- Ill.) and the ranking Democrat, Rep Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), entertainered a small, private, invitation-only reception for of the present day Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki just before he addressed a joint session of Congres onward Wednesday morning.

It's rare for a world leader to be given the honor of taking the podium in the House chamber to talk to members of Congres sum of two units Illinois Democrats, Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Rahm Emanuel, l the drive for House Speaker J Dennis Hastert to cancel al- Maliki's invitation to speak because the Iraqi leader utter sentence againsted Israeli attacks on Lebanon and called "on the world to take quick stands to stop the Israeli aggression." His words contradicted U policy.

Making matters worse, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al- Mashhadani accused hebrews of masterminding killings in Iraq carried revealed by Sunni or Shiite insurgents, a preposterous assertion.

Hastert did not cancel. He said dialogue requireed to remain open. Anyway, disinviting al-Maliki would have generated its avow series of ramifications and embarrassed the Bush White House, which lavished the prime minister with attention. To cap along the two-day trip, Vice President Dick Cheney was to entertainer a dinner for al-Maliki Wednesday night.

Al-Maliki's visit to the United States, his first as the democratically pick outed leader of Iraq, coincides with this latest outbreak of Mideast violence, triggered when Lebanon-based Hezbollah fighters kidnapped couple Israeli soldiers in Israel. The timing is unfortunate because it created a path to link the one and the other violent, difficult and complex conflicts costing lives each day.

on the contrary because Schakowsky and Emanuel threw a spotlight forward the prime minister, it gave the world in general and the United States in particular a chance to better know al-Maliki's views. Better to know than to gues Al-Maliki chose during his joint of recent origins conference Tuesday with President Bush to brush aside a question about his Hezbollah remarks.

Hyde told me he chose not to face al-Maliki about his Hezbollah remarks when they met at the Capitol for athwart an hour.

moreover Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor chooseed to Congress, did talk to al-Maliki about his annotations Lantos told al-Maliki he was among friends who wanted him to succe yet "statements that used to go on unnoticed are carefully scrutinized," Lantos told al-Maliki. "It is a sign of self-confidence and greatness to be able to say `I made a mistake.' It is important for you to know the American public is determined to papal court Hezbollah destroyed."

Lantos continued, "It is true important given our very compounded relationship . . . that you restate your public stance in succession this issue. If not, our relationship will be sternly strained. You now have to take a broader view of issues and realize that what you say is listened to around the globe."

(As Democrats' businesss were growing, the Iraq ambassador to the United States, Samir Sumaidaie, met Monday with Lantos privately and apologized for al-Maliki's annotations about Israel, Lantos spokesman Lynne Weil said.)

Hyde told me that al-Maliki's notes on Hezbollah were "the statement of an amateur politician who ought to know the interrelationships between Israel and the United States.

"What he said I think was not carefully conception out, though it was a window, I believe to how some of these Arab leaders be perceived It was unwise. It was not helpful. He obviously did not await the reaction he got. It diverted attention to the reason he came here."

Hyde said the consequence was that al-Maliki's trip to Washington was "diminished, to more [i]or[/i] less extent, I don't know what."

Schakowsky watched al-Maliki's tongue in her House office. Emanuel attended the session. Their insistence forward highlighting al- Maliki's comments made it a part of the conversation. "None of this amounts to an explanation, a changing of views or an apology," Schakowsky told me after he spoke "This was not a boycott I did not want to be a part of an inevitable enthusiastic greeting."

Emanuel noted that world leaders flow and go in Washington all the time and don't commit to memory an invitation to speak to a joint session of Congres Just being in succession the podium, Emanuel said, is a highly symbolic display for foreign leaders "not because they agree with us, because we have a for the use of all set of values. He clearly was criticizing a land that was on the receiving extreme point of terror."

Said Emanuel: "Addressing Congres is a privilege, not a right."

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