[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 35 (Thursday, March 18, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H1232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, a year ago our troops went into Iraq, removed 
Saddam Hussein from power, and the world is a safer place with him 
gone. Hussein was a homicidal tyrant who disregarded international law, 
basic human rights, and invaded his neighbors at will. He supported 
Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers. He used chemical weapons of 
mass destruction against Iran and his own people. He killed thousands 
and thousands.
  Hussein reigned over the people of Iraq in terror and he terrorized 
the region. Human rights organizations report that women told them that 
rape was routinely used by Iraqi officials as a means of torture and 
intimidation. Electric shock, pulling out fingernails, dripping acid on 
victims' skin, gouging out eyes, were torture methods used by Saddam's 
regime.
  Iraq has come a long way since then. And if we stay the course, we 
can build a future for Iraq free of this kind of terror and deal a 
deathblow to the terrorists who rely on murder and coercion and death 
to advance the terrible agenda by building a free democratic Iraq.

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