In January 1998, the neoconservative Project for the New American Century sent a letter to President Bill Clinton calling on him to overthrow the Iraqi government and making that goal an official “aim of American foreign policy.” The letter — signed by leading Washington hawks such as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, John Bolton, and Elliott Abrams — charged that U.S. policy was being “crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.” Less than a year later, that letter would form the basis for the Iraq Liberation Act, which codified changing the Iraqi regime as a goal of U.S. foreign policy and helped lay the groundwork for the eventual invasion. It also authorized increased support for Iraqi exiles, some of whom worked with the CIA. Joe Biden voted in favor of the act, which was signed into law by Clinton in October 1998. In touting his support for the law, Biden said, “So it seems to me that we have a big problem. Saddam is the problem. Saddam is in place. Saddam is not going anywhere unless we do something relatively drastic. It is clear our allies are not prepared to do anything drastic.”