[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 62 (Thursday, May 6, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2712-H2716]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1645
CALLING FOR RESIGNATION OF SECRETARY RUMSFELD
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cole). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to address the
U.S. House of Representatives this evening and also the American
people.
This hour every week the Congressional Black Caucus comes together to
speak to the people of the United States about issues that are facing
our country, how we can play offense in certain areas to make sure that
we stay a vital and sovereign country. But today I must say it is a
very difficult day to stand here in this House of Representatives and
be able to share with the American people that we have grave issues
with the leadership of the Bush administration as it relates to the
handling of what has happened to Iraqi prisoners in our custody.
It is appropriate to say there will be investigations that will be
conducted. It is appropriate to say that there are future courts
martial that will take place and individuals will pay on the front
line; but it is very difficult for us to continue, and when I say us, I
would mainly want to say the majority party of this House, and for the
majority leaders of this House to look in the face of something very
wrong, very much mishandled in this country as it relates to the abuse
of these prisoners.
I will say this is a very emotional thing for me due to the fact that
I have had more than four people in my district die in Iraq. Yes, I
commend the troops for their service. Yes, every day on the Committee
on Armed Services I make sure that we do what we have to do to make
sure that they have the equipment that they need to protect themselves,
to make sure that Reservists that signed up to defend their country if
need be, that they are able to make ends meet.
We commend our troops every day. We appreciate their patriotism. We
have over 120,000 troops in the Middle East, not even counting the
individuals that are providing civilian services and contract services
throughout the world.
But I must say that Secretary Rumsfeld, with him having the number
one job at the Pentagon and being the Secretary, should resign from the
Department of Defense. The reason we are calling for his resignation is
not because he happens to be a part of the Republican administration or
we disagree with Secretary Rumsfeld with his strategy towards the war.
It is to save American lives. It is just that simple.
American troops will be terrorized even more now in the Middle East
than they have been over recent weeks and days due to the fact of the
humiliation of Iraqis and pictures that we will never live down. The
Iraqi people will never live it down, the Arab world will never live it
down because their pictures are all over the Internet, The Washington
Post, CNN, any network Web site. You can definitely pick them up by
just picking up the New York Times. The Washington Post today has a
picture of one of our soldiers with an Iraqi prisoner on a dog chain.
We all condemn these acts. There is nothing wrong with condemning
them, but there is something fundamentally wrong for the President of
the United States not to be able to say, I am sorry or someone in my
administration, or I was wrong. I will share with you as a Member of
Congress and somebody who has been elected for 10 years, there are days
I have to admit that I am wrong. There are days that publicly I have to
say that I made a mistake. There are certainly days I have to say I am
sorry, to not even my constituents when I make a mistake, but also to
the American people.
But I will say, this is not the time to shield the administration,
the majority
[[Page H2713]]
party in this Congress, to shield the President because this is an
election year, or to shield Secretary Rumsfeld because he is going to
be before the Senate and before the Committee on Armed Services at 3 by
putting forth a resolution saying we commend the troops' service in
Iraq.
We commend them. We appreciate them. We love them. Members of the
minority party here on the Democratic side, we are fighting for up-
armoring Humvees. We fought to make sure that individuals had Kevlar
vests. We are working to make sure that the Reservists called up on a
12-month call, that they can get home in 24 months or even shorter
because their families are going through a lot.
But for this administration, and as it relates to the economy and
other issues that have taken place in this country, where the President
has hunkered down and said they are my friends, we are in this
together, and we are going down together, he cannot do that this time.
I do not want the President to have to fire Secretary Rumsfeld, but
that may have to happen. I am hoping that Secretary Rumsfeld
understands on behalf of the country and on behalf of protecting
American troops abroad and also on behalf of protecting Americans and
shielding us against additional terrorist attacks in this country, that
not only should the world see it, but America sees it.
This is a huge mistake. This is a mistake that is going to cost
Americans their lives. I hope that he would be leader enough to say,
you know, Mr. President, I did the best I could, but I know the
circumstances that we are living under now, and I know the pressure
being put on the United States and I know this endangers our troops
even more. Personally, even though I did not have my hands on these
individuals, I resign. Not to say by him resigning this issue goes
away, but it at least shows Americans and the world that we have some
level of account and balance.
I think it is very, very important for us to understand that, one, we
have over 120,000 American troops in uniform overseas; two, we have
Americans that live here in the United States that need protection and
we need the Arab world to be with us, or some of our allies in the Arab
world to be with us in our efforts against terrorism. As a member of
the Select Committee on Homeland Security, terrorism is alive and well
in the world; and we need as many friends as we can get.
So chastising Mr. Rumsfeld in the Oval Office, as is referenced in
the New York Times today, is not enough to let individuals know that we
are sorry and that we are working towards corrective action to make
sure that does not happen again. Going on television, going around on
Arab television and saying this is not how Americans see the war, this
is not how we look to fight against terrorism, we denounce the acts of
the pictures, that is not saying anything.
Pictures, the President said today in his press conference we are
sorry that these pictures have given an image of Americans that we are
insensitive. I am sorry about the pictures. Sorry about the pictures
and the act are two different things.
We need to make sure, Mr. President, and to the majority party here
in this Congress, we need to protect our troops in harm's way. We need
to make sure we do that. If we do not remove Secretary Rumsfeld from
the position of Secretary of Defense, we are letting the world know
that we are not really sorry. We are letting the American people know
that we are not really sorry. We are not doing that. I will share with
you that we cannot fall short of that.
This is not the first mistake, this is not the first blunder, but
this is a serious, serious issue. I do not think the American people,
and definitely some Members of this Congress, understand the gravity of
this situation. This is a very, very difficult situation dealing with
some very, very dangerous individuals that will use these pictures to
fuel more terrorism, show them to young Arab children and say, this is
what America thinks of you. We have to be able to push back by saying
that is not true, we removed the individuals that were in control. It
was not just front line individuals that were held responsible; and it
is very, very important that we do that.
Before I yield to the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, I
just want to make sure that the American people understand that this is
not a partisan issue. When our troops are taken hostage or a civilian
employee is taken hostage, I guarantee Members that we, although
preferably not, will see something similar to this if we do not respond
to it in a very strong way.
Mr. Speaker, I would also say that the President has spoken out and
has done the right thing for less. I will say that this situation is
not a time to say that we are not going to allow certain Members of
Congress to ask for the Secretary to step down. American lives are at
stake.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings),
chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership
and service. I want to very briefly discuss some points. This afternoon
there was a vote on a resolution to condemn those folks, military and
otherwise, who did these despicable acts to prisoners in Iraq. As soon
as I got back to my office, Mr. Speaker, I was asked by several papers
and news outlets why is it that you voted against the resolution,
joining some 50 other Members in doing so.
I guess the thing that I would have to say is timing. Here we are, we
had a resolution which basically said, and let me quote it, it says,
``Resolved, That the House of Representatives (1) deplores and condemns
abuse of persons in the United States custody in Iraq regardless of the
circumstances.'' And then it goes on to talk about a handful. It says
``declares the alleged crimes of a handful of individuals should not
detract from the commendable sacrifices of over 300,000 members of the
United States Armed Forces who have served,'' and it goes on.
I think in and of itself the word ``handful'' is very, very upsetting
to me. We do not have a clue at this juncture as to how extensive this
abuse is. We have a situation where we know that there are officers,
military officers, who are in the various pictures. We know about the
report that was written by the military, a very extensive report that
Secretary Rumsfeld just recently said he had not read; but the fact is
that this is a situation that certainly calls for us not early on
limiting this to a ``handful'' of military personnel, or a ``handful''
of individuals, but it is one where we should be simply asking the
question what happened here in Iraq at the Abu Ghraib prison. Do we
have similar circumstances in Afghanistan? Do we have similar
circumstances at Guantanamo Bay?
I think when all is said and done, the resolution that we passed
today that I voted against will be inaccurate in declaring that there
were only a handful of individuals.
{time} 1700
One of the other concerns that I had about this document was that it
talked about the military investigating this matter as if the Congress
consisted of a bunch of potted plants sitting in a window doing
nothing. This is a Congress that voted with regard to the Iraq War.
This is a Congress that has stood up over and over again talking about
its love for our military. This is a great Congress. But the fact is
that when we stand to the side and say to our military to go and
investigate themselves and then send us a report from time to time, I
think it sends a horrible message not only to the military, and I will
explain that in a moment, but it also sends a horrible message to the
Muslim community and to the world.
Why do I say that? It would appear that there has already been
substantial finger pointing within the military itself. The people who
are caught in the picture, some of them have said that they have got
orders from higher-ups. The person who was in charge of all the
prisoners there said that she did not even have much of any authority
on this particular cell block.
So then there is finger pointing in the military in and of itself.
There are also allegations that civilians were involved in all of this.
So the question becomes not whether the military can effectively do a
good job of investigating itself, the question becomes is how will the
investigation appear to the world when we have already gotten finger
pointing within the military itself?
[[Page H2714]]
Just the other night, I was at the Howard County Muslim Council at a
dinner in my district. And as I listened and I talked to members of the
Muslim community, some of them with tears in their eyes talked about
how offensive these pictures were and how offensive the allegations
were to the Muslim people, not only because of who they are, not only
because of their culture, but also because of their religion. And one
of the things that they talked about was whether they could now trust
the United States to do a fair job in providing a transparent and
thorough investigation of these types of acts. And one of the things
that they asked me to do is just ask the question why not a tribunal?
Why not a worldwide investigative agency look into this so that when
the message is sent back to the world, the world will be satisfied that
we have done all that we could to investigate every single human being,
be they military or civilian, that had anything to do with these kinds
of despicable acts no matter where they may fall in the line of
command?
So what they want is an investigation which is thorough and one that
is transparent and one where they can feel comfortable that all of
those involved will be brought to justice and that they will be
punished accordingly. So that is so very important that we do that.
The other thing that concerned me here was that we talk about
investigating a handful of people and we talk about wanting to make
sure that these investigations take place, but as I said a little bit
earlier, what is the Congress's role in all of this? We have a duty. We
have a duty to look into these matters. We have a duty as a Senate and
the House to look carefully at every aspect of all of this because one
of the things that we do that no other organization on this level does
in this country is we set policy not only for this country, but quite
often policy that affects the world.
And if we are not gathering information ourselves to make sure that
we have a complete understanding of how these kinds of acts could take
place and whether there were people asleep at the switch or whether
there were folks who simply did not care or whether there were people
who just failed to read reports, and then to claim that they had no
knowledge of the information, or whether those who had an obligation to
let the Congress know and the President know of these atrocities and
did not, we need to have that information so that we can set policy to
make sure that it never happens again and so that we can send a
powerful message, a very powerful message, to the world that we have
done all that we could do.
The other audience that we send a message to is our military. Early
on in this process, we would read reports where the President and
others and military brass said we will reprimand certain folks that may
have been in the chain of command. And as soon as I heard that, I said
it is too early. It is too early to be reprimanding anybody because I
do not see how they can reprimand when they do not know the full extent
of the alleged offense.
It does not make sense. So when our friends in the Muslim community
and when our friends in the world hear that, the question is, is this a
slap on the wrist to reprimand someone for being a part of a process
that caused other people to go through indignities and to be offended
to such a great extent? I just think that that sends a wrong message to
the military when they hear that there is going to be a slap on the
wrist early on before a true investigation by the military or by the
Congress or by an international tribunal-type organization is done.
It sends a terrible message. And the message that it sends is that,
although millions of people have been offended by these acts, that they
do not measure up to the kind of investigation and the type of justice
that they should be subjected to. And that is a major problem because
we do not want anyone believing, whether they are in the military or
whether they are civilian, that this kind of conduct is all right.
Finally, the other audience is the American people and our soldiers.
The American people have stood up over and over again, as has the
Congressional Black Caucus, for our troops. They believe in our troops,
for they are our sons, our daughters, our mothers, our fathers, our
aunts, our friends. They are the ones who live in our neighborhoods.
They are the ones who coach the Little League baseball team. They are
the police officers when they, as National Guard, would go away on
weekends and now they are serving for more than a year, but they are
our neighbors; so we all care about them.
We also are in prayer for them for we realize that they are in harm's
way. It pains us tremendously when we go to Walter Reed Hospital and
see our young men and young women with amputations of the leg and of
the arms. It pains us tremendously when we see pictures on the front
page of The Washington Post and The New York Times of caskets, rows and
rows of caskets, of our young people coming back in these steel
caskets. It hurts and it pains us. But the fact still remains that, as
the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) said a few moments ago, if we
send a message to the world, and that message is that they get a slap
on the wrist when the world has seen these kinds of pictures, the
question becomes what happens when our military folk or when our
civilians are captured? Does it become a tit for tat: If you did it to
me, I will do it to you?
One of the things we in the Congressional Black Caucus has said over
and over again is that we stand up for the moral authority of this
country. Not the military authority, the moral authority. And the
question certainly becomes have we violated that moral authority when
we do not address these problems?
Finally, let me say this: that no one will stand behind one of these
podiums and even begin to suggest that we have a lot of our military
that could fall in the category of the folks who did these kinds of
despicable acts. No, we will never do that because we do not believe
it. I believe in my heart that 99.9 percent of our military would never
engage in this kind of activity and would find it despicable just as
the Congressional Black Caucus finds it despicable. But the fact is
that we must get to the bottom of this so we also protect their
reputations, so that we pull out those who would do these kinds of
things so that the others can say, okay, fine, now we have now rid
ourselves of those who have no respect for human dignity, who have no
respect for the beliefs of others, who have no respect for the culture
of others, who have no respect for human life.
And I end on that point in that there have been even allegations that
there have been deaths, and again, when we give a slap on the wrist, we
never get to the question of did people die at the hands of our
military? Are those deaths being hidden? And that is why I could not,
for the life of me, understand why we would restrict this to a handful
of folks, a handful, and I think that does a disservice to our
military, I think it does a disservice to our country, I think it does
a disservice to the world.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am so glad that the chairman
shared with the American people and Members of the House on how
dangerous this situation is for our troops in Iraq. And, Mr. Speaker, I
am going to enter for the Record a statement of why I voted against a
resolution today and I will hand it to the Clerk.
But I think it is important for discussion points to the fact that
the Pentagon knew to contact 60 Minutes II 2 weeks ago, when they
wanted to run the story of these pictures and what has happened to
these prisoners and they were guaranteed once, if other news
organizations were moving forth, if they were to just stand by and
allow the Pentagon to take another look at this that they would be
given an exclusive interview.
Those kinds of things, when a news organization, 60 Minutes II, or 60
Minutes period, when they call, I mean it is kind of difficult for me
to even just comprehend or understand that the Secretary of Defense had
no knowledge of what was going on in this prison. That is one fact.
The second fact is the issue on January 13 of 2004.
{time} 1715
A soldier gave a disk of pictures to a brass commander to let him
know what was going on. The Ryder report never made it up the chain of
command, that is what someone has said. But I will
[[Page H2715]]
tell you, we are going to continue to have problems, and even more
problems, if we slow-walk this thing, if we politic this thing in a way
of trying to shield the administration and the President. I can care
less about shielding someone. I do care about protecting American
lives. I am glad the gentleman addressed that.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield further, I
just think the gentleman is absolutely right. We have to stand up for
what is right. I heard the gentleman say a little bit earlier that you
do have to leave the politics at the door.
When I saw the picture, and the gentleman showed it today a little
bit earlier, I know he showed it at a news conference and it has been
on the front page of so many papers, where a lady soldier has what
appears to be something similar to a dog chain, dog leash, around the
neck of a naked Iraqi prisoner, and he is on the ground naked, and it
looks as if she is trying to pull him around.
I tell you, when I think about any person, sometimes I think that we
need to pause and try to put ourselves in the position of people who
may be suffering through something, and I think if we imagine our son
or imagine our father or imagine our daughter being dragged around on a
leash like a dog, I think it would cause you to say, wait a minute,
hold it.
I want to get to the very bottom of this. There have been diaries, at
least one diary I know of, that has been featured in the Baltimore Sun,
in my newspaper, as to how a gentleman in the military described and
talked about how deep this thing went. In other words, it was not a
little handful of people. They are talking about commands coming from
people beyond the prison cells. In other words, loosen them up, they
were told, or put them in a position so they will confess to certain
things and provide certain information.
I just think that we in the United States, as I said before, we have
done well because of moral authority. Just the words ``moral
authority'' are so powerful.
I would hate to think that countries all around the world would begin
to say, Wait a minute, hold it. You are telling us about moral
authority? You are telling us about how to treat inmates? You are
telling us about how to address issues in a humane fashion? And then
they just would throw out the pictures and say, well, it is a problem.
We are not going to do that. If that is the way you do it, you cannot
suggest to us what to do when we see what you are doing.
That is what we have to be concerned about. That is part of the
reason why it is not just a political issue. It is not a political
issue. It is a humane issue, how human beings should be treated.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, what is about
to happen is due to the lack of top-end response from this
administration, that you are going to have the true American spirit
break through many of the troops that know different. They are going to
blow the whistle on them. Not blowing the whistle on them because they
are an Independent or member of the Green Party or the Democratic Party
or the Republican Party that disagrees with the President. They are
going to blow the whistle to save lives of Americans, because they know
the tension and how Americans are treated abroad now.
You have people that are living overseas that they would not wear a
flag, or you have some ambassadors that are not flying the American
flags on their cars due to the fact of terrorism, of them being a
target.
If we are going to be the leader of the free world, then we have to
be the leader. We have to be able to lead in a way that lives up to
that title.
I will tell you, today earlier when we had a press conference about
Secretary Rumsfeld, if you have a basketball team and they are not
doing well, sometimes you have to remove the coach.
I will tell you right now, I am not one to stand up on a daily basis
or I do not remember a time in my career that I have asked for someone
to step down. I really have not. It is not something in my nature. I
feel it is something that someone will say, well, I am not performing
the job in a way that I should perform it on behalf of especially the
lives of troops that are overseas, that are fighting right now as we
are here on this floor, fighting on behalf of Americans and fighting on
behalf of making sure that we are able to make advances in the Arab
world, fighting on behalf of creating and trying to maintain
democracies, that their lives are at stake and we want them to come
home. We want them to come home. We want to make sure they get home to
their families.
I just want to share a few things. 135,000 soldiers are in Iraq right
now; 767 and counting have died since the war. Nearly 40 troops have
died since these pictures were released last week.
I will tell you that I am just getting goose bumps by just mentioning
those numbers. But I also feel for those individuals from the Middle
East that are Americans, that are fighting in the armed services, that
are paying taxes every day, that hate and despise and pray against
future terrorism, that they are wearing the flag on their shoulder,
they are carrying that M-5 machine gun. They are taking the bullets;
they are losing limbs. And to have people of the same hue, people that
live in the Middle East, being treated like these pictures depict that
they are treated, or depicting how they have been treated, I will tell
you, from what I have seen thus far and what has been reported thus
far, we have not even broken the ice on this issue.
I am very, very concerned about the future of our security here in
the United States. I am very, very concerned about the increased
attempts and achievements of terrorism, of terrorists achieving their
goal of killing American troops. I am concerned about the diplomatic
community, about the CIA agents that we have working within terrorist
organizations to try to weed out terrorism before it happens. I am
concerned about those individuals that are contract company workers
that are civilians that are there trying to fight with us in this war
on terrorism. I am concerned about their safety.
I do not have a lot of patience for the President to call the
Secretary of Defense into the office and chastise him. That is what you
do to a teenager when they stay out too late. This is the security of
the world. This is the security of the United States. This is our
future, how our children will live, how our grandchildren will live.
No one is going to stop a troop and say, wait a minute, are you a
Republican, before I kill and torture you. They are not going to do
that. They are not going to ask you if you are black or Hispanic. Well,
who do you support? They are going to kill you and torture you because
you are an American, because we are not responding in the way we should
respond.
I implore the administration and Mr. Rumsfeld, please do not try to
low-ball and low-roll this thing, to say we are going after some low-
level individuals, and it does not rise to the level of the Pentagon.
The Pentagon did know. I am pretty sure they did know. We will have
very good evidence in the very near future. But why do we have to lose
additional American lives, and then make sure that the world knows that
we mean business about this?
Passing resolutions to clear our conscience so we can go home and
spend the weekend and say we passed a resolution condemning and
commending our troops is not enough.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield further, I do
believe, to pick up on the very last statement that the gentleman made,
so often it is easy to pass a resolution clearing one's conscience; but
I do believe also that, as a reporter asked me, she said, why did you
want to vote against this resolution? Now you got to spend all this
time with me explaining it.
What I said to her was that perhaps my explaining it and explaining
why I wanted an extensive congressional investigation, why I wanted an
investigation to go beyond the military investigating itself, why I
wanted to send a strong message to the world, the Muslim world,
American world, all over the world, about how serious we consider this
matter to be, perhaps that might very well save some lives, not just
today, but for many years to come.
Just yesterday, Secretary Powell came before the Congressional Black
Caucus for an hour and 15 minutes, and I shall never forget the
expression on
[[Page H2716]]
his face when he said he had read the report, and when he said that he
found the acts to be terrible and horrific. But he also said something
else. He said, ``I promise you we will get to the bottom of this.''
That was yesterday, and here we are today saying a handful of
individuals committed some acts that were so despicable.
The thing that is so amazing is that I do not even see how we could
even have words like that in the resolution, because it does in fact
say to all those people that may have been involved, say there are
similar acts in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, other cell blocks in Iraq,
well, it looks like we got off pretty easy this time. It looks like we
will be okay. We got a little reprimand going on, and we will be fine.
So I want to thank the gentleman for his vigilance, for standing up
for people that do not even know, perhaps, that we are standing up for
them. They may not even know that those statements that we make today
may very well save lives tomorrow.
Someone asked the question, they said to the Congressional Black
Caucus, why is it that you stand up over and over and over again? Why
is it that you stand up and so often you do not win? You may not win
this battle.
But our response has been one of clarity, and it simply says that we
may not win, but we will set the trend. We may not win, but we will
stand up for what we believe in and know that somebody is listening. We
may not always win, but we do know that by being silent it is far
worse, because it appears that we go along with things as they are, and
silence basically is giving consent.
So I want to thank the gentleman for yielding and want to thank him
for his leadership.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman. I am glad he
is here, and we appreciate his service.
We are going to continue to stand up on behalf of the American
people, need it be defense, need it be education, need it be this issue
dealing with Iraq. I thank the gentleman for being here tonight, and I
thank the Black Caucus for continuing to do what they are doing.
Mr. Speaker, as I close, I just want to say that we must have the
annals of this House and the annals of history here in the United
States to reflect that pictures that continue to come out about the
abuses of what took place in Iraq or what is taking place in other
parts of the world, that we condemn them, and we salute our troops; but
at the same time our response is imperative and needed to be able to
continue this effort against terrorism and have friends in the world
that are willing to be with us.
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