[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 121 (Friday, September 5, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H8002]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REGARDING MILITARY INTERVENTION IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, about a century and a half ago, a 
little longer than that, the House of Representatives passed a rule 
banning, prohibiting the discussion of slavery in the U.S. House of 
Representatives. In those days John Quincy Adams, former President, was 
a Member of the House of Representatives and while he was banned, was 
prohibited from discussing slavery, former President Adams, Congressman 
Adams as an abolitionist believed that slavery was the biggest blot on 
our Nation's history and wanted to remove that. He came to the House 
floor day after day, week after week, and because he could not talk 
directly about slavery, he read letters from his constituents in 
Massachusetts expressing their concern about slavery.
  Along those lines, this Congress today, my friends in the majority, 
will not allow us to debate the issue of the President's perhaps not 
telling the whole truth about his decision to attack Iraq. We have 
gotten literally hundreds of thousands of signatures in this body, 
petitions stating that Congress should support an independent 
commission to investigate the Bush administration's distortion of 
evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program.
  I would like to share some of those literally thousands of letters 
from my State that have come with those petitions asking this Congress 
to investigate.
  From Delaware, Ohio:
  ``I opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning, convinced there were 
other ways to working towards regime change, and I'm convinced that 
Saddam Hussein had more dangerous weapons secreted away than did many 
other national dictators. Now it seems possible the American public was 
duped by the Bush administration.''
  From Dayton, Ohio:
  ``I am concerned that the public was not fully informed about the 
intelligence used to urge us to support going to war in Iraq. I'm 
particularly distressed that we didn't try harder to get United Nations 
support and that occupation plans were poorly formulated. If we had 
full intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, we might 
have been able to make a more reasoned decision.''
  I am hearing letter after letter now coming into my office, people 
concerned, people especially upset as the President announced this week 
that we are going to spend $60 to $70 billion in Iraq, we are now 
spending $1 billion a week of U.S. taxpayer dollars, dollars we are not 
spending to reconstruct America's schools, dollars we are not spending 
on highways, in mass transit and infrastructure, dollars we are not 
spending on prescription drug benefits, dollars we are not spending to 
give tax breaks to the middle class. We are spending $1 billion a week 
in Iraq.
  But to make that even worse, my constituents tell me, and I hear 
people especially upset, is one-third of those dollars, those billion 
dollars a week, are going to private contractors, companies like 
Halliburton, happens to be a company on which Vice President Cheney is 
still on the payroll. Halliburton still pays Vice President Cheney 
$15,000 a month. They are getting billions of dollars in unbid 
contracts of our tax dollars as President Bush and our country continue 
the occupation of Iraq. A billion dollars a week we are spending in 
Iraq, a third of that goes to unbid contracts, mostly to the 
President's friends. Is it any surprise the President can raise $200 
million in his campaign when he is giving unbid contracts to his 
friends of literally hundreds of millions of dollars every single week?
  Another letter comes from a gentleman in Ohio also who writes:
  ``It's very important that this administration be held to the same 
standards of scrutiny and accountability as any other. This 
investigation is a congressional obligation, not simply a discretionary 
option. I urge you to support the vote for establishing a commission.''

                              {time}  1545

  Another letter from Ohio: ``Please cosponsor H.R. 260 and open up the 
hearings to the public. If the hearings are closed, it will send a loud 
message that Congress doesn't care about the truth that our 
Representatives want to hide foreign policy from the whole world, 
including the American citizens.''
  Another letter: ``As a Vietnam veteran, I demand an investigation. 
Our children should not be expendable for political or financial 
gain.''
  These letters, as I said, continue to show concern and in some cases 
outrage that we are spending $1 billion a week in Iraq with $300 
million of that going to unbid contracts to private contractors, many 
of whom are major contributors to the President.
  From Kent, Ohio: ``I am appalled by the continuing arrogance of the 
administration and its deceptive practices. Please call a commission to 
make them accountable for the killing of Americans in Iraq that I fear 
has only begun.''
  Mr. Speaker, it goes on and on and on, from thousands of concerned 
citizens, literally hundreds of thousands, across the country.

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