THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                   (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                    August 25, 1999

                   TEXT OF LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
             TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
                    AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

August 24, 1999

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

Pursuant to section 585(c) of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1999, as contained in the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1999 (Public Law 105-277) (the "Act"), I hereby transmit a report concerning Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs.

The report is comprised of three sections that provide the information required by section 585(c) of the Act, to the extent that such information is available: assessment of Iraq's nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction programs and its efforts to move toward procurement of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction; assessment of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) action team reports, and other IAEA efforts to monitor the extent and nature of Iraq's nuclear program; and an opinion on the value of maintaining the ongoing inspection regime rather than replacing it with a passive monitoring system.

Sincerely,

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

# # #