[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 61 (Wednesday, May 5, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H2629]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ABU GHRAIB PRISON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, as an American, I am ashamed and 
disgusted by the horrendous unspeakable acts at Abu Ghraib prison 
caught in pictures and displayed around the world. The impact of these 
images is devastating precisely in the part of the world where we are 
already struggling to counter the widespread impression that we do not 
respect the Arab world and Islamic traditions.
  There is no excuse for these pictures and the acts shown. There is no 
excuse for a Secretary of Defense to be out of the loop and then 
deliver an apology that sounds like a lecture. I have listened 
repeatedly to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld dismissively brush 
aside penetrating questions from Members of Congress about both his 
policies and their execution.
  We have seen Rumsfeld and his civilian managers at the Pentagon fail 
to appreciate and understand concerns from their uniformed command 
structure. They have dismissed the truth tellers like General Eric 
Shinseki who gave an honest and accurate assessment of troop 
requirements. They have removed people within the administration like 
White House National Economic Council Director Larry Lindsey who was 
candid about the cost of this war.
  At one time I thought Rumsfeld's refusal to put a price on the 
projected cost on the mission he was leading was because he was trying 
to hide it.
  While it is true there has been no excess of candor from this crew, 
it is becoming more and more clear that another reason that Rumsfeld 
and his team have not been forthcoming is that they probably really do 
not know. They have not a clue and repeatedly do not appear to care 
that they do not know.
  The most recent example from the guy who is always trying to look 
like he is in charge but not knowing what is going on is the report of 
the abuse of Iraqi prisoners which has forced the President into a 
series of embarrassing efforts to apologize. A war that has begun with 
the exaggerated threats of weapons of mass destruction has morphed into 
a war that is based upon, well, I frankly do not begin to understand 
the latest justification. It took reporters like Seymour Hersh of the 
New Yorker to force other reporters to know what they knew and only 
when the truth behind the administration's contradictions and 
misinformation is exposed does the administration acknowledge that 
there may be a problem. And now months after a report that highlighted 
these problems, there is a grudging acknowledgment and apparently some 
steps are being taken to correct it after widespread damage to our 
credibility, damage to our already low-standing in the Arab world, and 
giving a green light to people who take our troops and other American 
citizens hostage as we have lost moral authority to effectively protest 
abuse of our people.
  The administration does not know what is going on and clearly they 
are unsure about what to do. They are spending huge sums of money on 
private contractors that is not just eating up far more than it would 
take to equip U.S. troops properly but blurs lines of responsibility. 
They do not know whom to hold accountable, and if they did, it is 
unclear what they can do to these independent contractors other than 
canceling a contract.
  I think it is clear four things need to happen. First, we should open 
our Iraqi prisons to independent third-party monitoring by the United 
Nations and International Red Cross. There is a reason why we should 
honor constitutional protections and commit to international standards 
of law and prisoner treatment. We should stop delegating to 
unaccountable private contractors functions that should be under the 
direct control and supervision of United States military uniformed 
command. We need to get a new Secretary of Defense, somebody who really 
is on top of the situation and who does read reports, who is not 
dismissive of our allies, of Congress, and of his own uniformed 
command.
  Most important, for those of us who are in Congress, we should be 
finding out ourselves about these issues, not relying on the New Yorker 
and CNN.
  There was a time when congressional panels, oversight committees were 
exercising oversight. We can grumble about the administration, but 
failure to do our job is only our fault.

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