[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 4, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H2496]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ABUSE OF IRAQI PRISONERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 20, 2004, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, as the chairman of the House delegation to 
the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and currently the president of the 
assembly, I have frequently had to reassure parliamentarians that the 
outrageous and false allegations they had heard about the way detainees 
were being treated by the U.S. at our Guantanamo detention facility 
were not true. Since I had been part of a small number of Permanent 
Select Committee on Intelligence members to visit Guantanamo, actually 
the first congressional delegation to visit, since the HPSCI members 
and staff have made several such trips and have given oversight to this 
interrogation and detention facility, and since I am a former military 
intelligence officer, I knew I could conscientiously give such an 
assurance.
  Now, however, from Abu Ghraib prison, and perhaps from elsewhere, we 
have reports, with photographs, graphically telling and showing 
outrageous abuses of Iraqi detainees by U.S. military personnel and 
possibly by military contractors. The international damage to the 
credibility and reputation of our country and our military absolutely 
cannot be overstated, especially in the Arab and Islamic communities. 
The alleged actions by at least a few members of our military, already 
confirmed by very recent disciplinarian action, makes the job being 
done by our dedicated and courageous military personnel in Iraq and 
Afghanistan just that much harder and much more dangerous. The 
extraordinary gravity of this matter, the insensitivity and the 
degrading abuse which has apparently been visited upon Iraqi detainees 
call for swift and just accountability.
  What has allegedly happened is so foreign to our country's principles 
and traditions and those of our Armed Forces that these people 
conducting or condoning such abuse do not deserve to be called 
Americans. If the use of such tactics of physical abuse and sexual 
humiliation is not dishonorable conduct, I do not know what is. If 
supervisors of such military personnel were inappropriately unaware or 
unconcerned about such conduct, then this is a clear case of 
dereliction of duty; and this accountability should apply several 
levels up the chain of command. If military contractors were involved, 
at a minimum the contract with the firm which employed them should be 
immediately terminated.
  Mr. Speaker, it is hard to imagine a more politically damaging set of 
actions, hopefully by just a few individuals, for American and for 
coalition efforts to replace the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein and to 
win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. We must have swift 
accountability, just accountability, and a demonstration that the 
American people repudiate such conduct and will not let it continue or 
happen again.
  Mr. Speaker, I include an editorial at this point from this morning's 
Omaha World Herald.

                             Ugly Americans

       When U.S. soldiers at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison (and, 
     some documents suggest, elsewhere) abused and humiliated 
     prisoners of war, they committed two serious wrongs.
       First, in sheer human terms, there is a code to be followed 
     for prisoners' treatment. It exists for good reasons, 
     starting with simple decency and progressing to the hope that 
     rules observed by one side will be observed by the other. 
     These soldiers trashed such considerations.
       Second, they did immeasurable harm to the goals of America 
     and its allies to bring about a peaceable and effective 
     transfer of limited self rule to Iraqis. They rendered 
     considerably more dubious the prospect of inculcating a 
     stable, beneficial democracy in the Middle East. (If this is 
     what democracy brings, who would want it?)
       The six men who engaged in the actual acts (pyramids of 
     naked detainees, false electrocution threats and more) face 
     criminal charges. They should. In addition, six supervisors 
     will receive a reprimand that can end their careers by 
     rendering promotions impossible. A seventh will draw a lesser 
     penalty.
       An internal Army report in February pointed to flaws in the 
     command structure at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. For one thing, 
     an intelligence officer whose duty was eliciting information 
     from the prisoners was effectively put in charge of their 
     day-to-day jailers--a dangerous practice, as events have 
     shown. Additionally, the military policy responsible for the 
     prisoners appear to have had little or no training in proper 
     handling of detainees.
       Such flaws cry out to be remedied, and apparently that will 
     now happen. But that still leaves the question, what happened 
     to common sense? America, for all its good intentions, is 
     already regarded with suspicion by many in the Middle East 
     and in Iraq in particular. Who could suppose that when 
     knowledge of these abominable acts leaked, as was bound to 
     happen, it would do anything less than throw gasoline on an 
     already smoldering fire?
       The United States needs to find some way to make clear in 
     Iraq that this is not the norm, and that Americans, too, are 
     repelled by what they saw. This isn't supposed to happen. 
     We're the good guys. But try telling that today to the 
     average Iraqi

     

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