[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.

                          ____________________