[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 25 (Tuesday, March 2, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H711-H712]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE CURTAILING OF INVESTIGATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 20, 2004, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I was deeply disturbed 
last week when I read that the Speaker of the House may use his 
authority and his power in the House not to extend the investigation 
into what happened before 9/11, what it is we did that was right and 
what it is we did that was wrong, what it is we knew and what it is we 
did not know that led to the tragedy of the World Trade Center and the 
tragic loss of life there and the largest terrorist attack against this 
Nation on this soil. I was deeply disturbed that somehow the 
investigation into that would be curtailed, that the commission would 
not be given the time that it believed professionally was necessary to 
arrive at those answers, when I think about the families and how 
important those answers are as to what were the real circumstances 
under which their family members died and perished in the World Trade 
Center. I was deeply disturbed that the President said that he would 
only talk with two members of the commission, that there apparently is 
a concerted effort to take those members of the commission that 
appeared to be the most intent on getting to the bottom of these issues 
and these questions on behalf of our Nation and on behalf of our 
security and on behalf of the families, that they would not be allowed 
to talk with the President, to interview them, that they would not be 
allowed to share their notes, those who got in to see the President.
  It is very troubling because the image of 9/11 and the tragedy of 9/
11 is absolutely seared in the mind of every American, those images and 
that tragedy. And for us to suggest that in any

[[Page H712]]

fashion this commission's work would be curtailed, not be given the 
time or the documents necessary, this is a matter of our national 
security so that it will never ever happen again. This cannot be about 
people in various agencies of the United States Government covering 
their tail because of something they did or did not do that may have 
helped us detect that act before it happened or have us understand what 
we need to do in the future.
  As I see that effort by the administration to curtail this, and now 
apparently it is going to go forward, they are going to get the 2 
months, I am also deeply concerned that I see the administration 
involved in some dramatic rewriting of history. When David Kay came 
back from his search for the weapons of mass destruction, in his 
meetings with the House and the Senate he told the American public and 
these two bodies that we all had it wrong. I am not sure that is quite 
accurate, because there in fact is a whole body of evidence that has 
been developed within the Intelligence Community, within the 
international Intelligence Community, within the State Department, and 
elsewhere that was present at the time suggesting that in fact maybe 
many of the reasons and the conditions in which this administration 
said we are going to war did not exist. They certainly did not exist in 
the clarity that the administration presented them to the Congress or 
to the American people or to the international community. And now it 
appears that the President is trying to say because he got it wrong 
everybody had it wrong. That is just not the case. That is just not the 
case. And yet we now have commissions to look into that matter.
  Tragically, this administration again is trying to curtail what those 
commissions can look at and not look at. The Senate may be allowed to 
look at one piece of evidence but not other pieces of evidence. The 
House may or may not have access. And then the President has his own 
commission which is supposed to investigate the administration but has 
been appointed by the administration. A little bit of a conflict of 
interest there. But these commissions are important, and these 
questions are important because, again, it goes to our national 
security.
  And there is another set of families, just as there are the 9/11 
families and those communities that suffer that tragic loss of those 
thousands of individuals, there is another set of families of those who 
have been sent off to fight in Iraq, over 500 that have been killed, 
thousands that have been wounded, so many that we have visited that are 
multiple amputees, that have lost their arms, lost their legs, lost the 
sight of one eye, that their life is changed forever. They are entitled 
to the answers and understanding how is it that this decision was set 
forth to go into Iraq when in fact we see substantial evidence 
suggesting, and as said by the CIA Director, ``We never said this was 
an imminent threat.'' The President wants to suggest that if we make 
that the test, the real threat against the United States, before we 
commit the lives of young men and women in this country, that somehow 
the only other option is it will surprise us. No, that is not the test, 
Mr. Speaker, but we will have more on this. But I think the American 
public ought to start to consider the level of interference that is 
being engaged in by this administration to keep these commissions, both 
congressional and civilian commissions, from getting to the bottom, to 
the real answers that are directly related to the future security of 
this Nation.

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