European Parliament
McKenna (Verts/ALE ).
– Mr President, on a point of order, I would like on my own behalf and on behalf of many members of my group who were on the delegation to Iraq last week, to express our disquiet at media reports of you claiming we were being duped and manipulated by the Iraqi regime.
We were accompanied by many members of the media, who surely were not also being duped and manipulated. Their coverage shows quite clearly that we spoke out against the regime, that we insisted on full cooperation with the weapons inspectors and that we brought up past issues such as the gassing of the Kurds. In my opinion, this is questioning the credibility of the large number of Members of this Parliament who felt it necessary to go to Iraq because Parliament itself would not send an official delegation.
I fully agree with Mr Barón Crespo that murder is no solution to political conflict. That is why many of us went to Iraq. We believe that murder is no solution to political conflict and that we must do everything we can to ensure a political settlement. It is very disturbing to hear you, as President of this Parliament, criticise us in the media and question our credibility.

