[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 4, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2540-H2541]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IRAQI DETAINEES AT ABU GHRAIB PRISON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cole). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. MEEKS of New York. Mr. Speaker, it is hard to decide where to 
start in expressing one's outrage about the revelations, including the 
graphic photographs, that our military personnel literally tortured 
Iraqi detainees at a prison near Baghdad. It is even harder to know 
where the responsibility ends for conduct that obviously violates the 
Geneva Convention on care for prisoners of war and Geneva Convention on 
the obligations of an occupation authority.
  For any decent-minded American, whether he or she supports the war or 
opposes the war, to remain silent about this conduct is to be complicit 
with this conduct. To refuse to condemn it in the strongest terms 
possible, to be reluctant to hold accountable not only those who did 
this but also those who permitted it, those who ordered it, those who 
created an atmosphere that encouraged it, and those who sent the 
signals that everything and anything goes, no matter how far up the 
chain of command, it jeopardizes our relationship with the entire Arab 
and Muslim world. We should all fear for every American soldier and 
civilian in Iraq whose life has been placed in jeopardy by this 
irresponsible behavior and, frankly, the irresponsible conduct of this 
war.
  Before these revelations, it was manifestly clear that our Iraq 
policy was in deep, deep trouble. It was already clear that we faced a 
widening and deepening resistance. It was already clear that the 
administration's characterizations of the resistance as ``dead-
enders,'' ``remnants of Saddam's regime,'' and ``terrorists from the 
outside'' did not coincide with reality. These allegations, revealed 
first last week by 60 Minutes II, then detailed by investigator 
reporter Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker Magazine, and substantiated in 
a courageous report by Major General Antonio M. Taguba, may have made 
our situation irrevocably untenable.
  Think of the predicament now facing U.S. occupation this way: What 
would anyone anywhere in the world want to do to someone who had done 
such despicable acts to a family member?
  The President and other senior administration and Pentagon officials 
have been quick to say that only a few participated in these deeds. My 
question is who are the few? Over the weekend, the mistreatment was 
said to involve only six or seven military police. Now at mid week, we 
are told that 17 U.S. soldiers are under investigation for their role 
in the abuses, including seven supervising officers who will receive an 
official reprimand or admonishment, six enlisted personnel who are 
charged with criminal offenses in

[[Page H2541]]

March, and another four who are under criminal investigation.
  Against this backdrop, General Richard Myers, the chairman of the 
Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this past Sunday that he had not read the 
Taguba report. It has taken until today for Secretary of Defense Donald 
Rumsfeld to make a statement, and according to a Pentagon spokesman, as 
late as today, Mr. Rumsfeld had not read the report either.
  National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is the coordinator of our 
overall efforts in Iraq. She has been silent as well. Secretary of 
State Colin Powell says that the entire military should not be 
condemned for the actions of only a few.
  No one is condemning the entire military, but once again I ask who 
are the few? Does it include those, whoever they are, who told the 
military police to ``soften up'' the detainees for interrogation? I 
cannot accept, especially when we hear that military intelligence and 
private contractors ordered the actions, that these military police 
officers just happened to choose acts that are offensive in any 
culture, but are especially humiliating to males in the Arab and 
Islamic cultures.
  And logic leads me to believe the psychological implications were 
well understood, and the acts imposed on the detainees were 
deliberately selected.
  It is fair to ask what else may be going on? Has there been such a 
heavy reliance on private military contractors precisely to evade 
criminal liability? Have not Iraqis been given new reason to view the 
United States war on terrorism as a war on terrorism against them, 
their religion, and their culture?
  Congress needs to conduct a probe of the incidents and their wider 
ramifications. Congress and the American people must answer to 
questions that we can be sure that the people of Iraq and all Muslim 
lands are asking. While the full weight of punishment should be brought 
on all of those implicated, the American people, as a whole, need to 
appreciate how much higher the mountain now is that the President must 
climb to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and to persuade 
the Middle East to follow the model of American democracy. Under his 
leadership things continue to go from bad to worse to terrible.

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