[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 21, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E18-E19]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         ONE IRAQI'S PERSPECTIVE ON U.S. ACTIONS IN HIS COUNTRY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 21, 2004

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, as our country wrestles with the 
consequences of the war in Iraq, I think it is more important than ever 
to encourage thoughtful and critical discussion of America's role in 
the world and to be open to a continuing public dialogue on the wisdom 
of our policies in the Middle East and elsewhere around the globe.
  Whether one supported the war or not, I believe our responsibility as 
elected representatives of the people must include maintaining an open 
mind on these matters, and to seek out the judgment and opinions of 
those who may have experiences unique from our own.
  In this regard, I would like to submit for the Record a copy of 
remarks written by Mr. Ibrahim Kazerooni, an Iraqi dissident who fought 
against the regime of Saddam Hussein and who is now a respected 
clerical leader of the Muslim community in Colorado. I met Mr. 
Kazerooni shortly after the infamous attacks on our country on 
September 11, 2001 and have found his insights on the problem of 
terrorism and democracy in Iraq to be unique and well worth the 
attention of my colleagues.

                  [From the Denver Post, Dec. 7, 2003]

                 Iraq War Makes Us Less Safe, Not More

                         (By Ibrahim Kazerooni)

       Having been imprisoned and tortured several times by the 
     former Baathist regime of Iraq, I came to expect any 
     absurdity from that dictatorship.
       Under the Baathists, the people of Iraq were fed a steady 
     stream of government-generated lies on just about everything. 
     The regime skillfully operated under the premise that as long 
     as you said something often enough, it didn't have to be true 
     in order to get people to believe it.
       Even though the Baathist regime is gone, it appears the 
     Bush administration has adopted their practice of 
     intentionally misleading the public--in this case, the 
     American public--through the incessant repetition of false 
     information.
       For example, we continue to be told by the White House that 
     taking over Iraq was necessary for the war on terrorism, 
     despite the

[[Page E19]]

     absence of credible evidence of a link between al-Qaeda and 
     the former regime of Saddam Hussein.
       On June 26, The Associated Press reported, ``The U.N. 
     terrorism committee has found no evidence to support Bush 
     administration claims of a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, 
     and the United States has provided the committee with no 
     proof.''
       This should not be surprising, since the secular Saddam 
     Hussein was notorious for brutally crushing any and all 
     Islamist elements in Iraq. As a result, the Islamists and the 
     Baathists had nothing but pure disdain and mistrust for one 
     another.
       One of the most respected authorities on terrorism and 
     defense issues, the International Institute for Strategic 
     Studies, reported Oct. 15 that the invasion and occupation of 
     Iraq has had the effect of ``swelling its [al-Qaeda's] ranks 
     and galvanizing its will.''
       Beyond that, the administration's mismanagement of post-war 
     Iraq has created ripe conditions for terrorism to thrive, to 
     the point where it is now feared Iraq is exporting terrorism 
     to its neighbors.
       The White House and others also continue to insist that the 
     security situation in Iraq--upon which everything depends, 
     especially reconstruction--is improving. Yet, the facts 
     reveal that the insurgency is spreading.
       Part of the reason for the spread of the insurgency is the 
     resentment we've generated among ordinary Iraqis, the very 
     people we said we came to liberate. Dr. Rajaa Habib Kbuzai, 
     handpicked by the Bush administration to sit on the Iraqi 
     Governing Council, said in September, ``There is considerable 
     discontent with the coalition forces, the majority of whom 
     treat the Iraqi people with violence and contempt.''
       This analysis is shared by Marco Calamai, a special 
     counselor to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in 
     Iraq, who resigned his position in November because he said 
     the U.S.-led CPA has created ``delusion, social discontent, 
     and anger'' among Iraqis and allowed terrorism to ``easily 
     take root.''
       Calamai's view was confirmed by a classified CIA report 
     leaked in November, which found that more Iraqis are 
     ``flooding to the ranks of the guerrillas'' and predicted the 
     security situation in Iraq would continue to get worse as the 
     insurgency spreads across the country.
       We invaded Iraq on the premise that the Baathist regime 
     possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and would 
     share them with al-Qaeda. Not invading, we were told, could 
     likely result in ``mushroom clouds'' over American cities.
       However, not only was the supposed link to al-Qaeda grossly 
     absent, so are the alleged WMDs. The failure to find Iraq's 
     alleged WMDs is entirely consistent with Secretary of State 
     Colin Powell's statement on Feb. 24, 2001, in Cairo: ``He 
     [Saddam Hussein] has not developed any significant capability 
     with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to 
     project conventional power against his neighbors.''
       Powell's statement reflects the statements of Iraqi 
     scientists and Saddam Hussein's son-in-law, Hussein Kamel, 
     who defected to the West in 1995 and was later murdered by 
     his father-in-law for defecting. He told U.N., U.S. and 
     British experts debriefing him in August 1995, ``I ordered 
     destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons--biological, 
     chemical, missile, nuclear--were destroyed.''
       The invasion and occupation of Iraq has not only distracted 
     us from the war against al-Qaeda and diverted billions of 
     dollars from homeland security to operations in Iraq, it has 
     actually increased al-Qaeda's recruiting and created more 
     sympathizers for the organization among the world's 1.2 
     billion Muslims.
       As long as the White House arrogantly continues to mislead 
     the public with fabricated intelligence and sugar-coated 
     assessments, we cannot possibly expect to win the war on 
     terror.

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