[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 39 (Thursday, April 7, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S3342]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE NEW IRAQI LEADERSHIP

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I have three or four comments I want 
to make this morning. Most importantly, I want to say a word about the 
new leadership in Iraq.
  In a delegation led by the Democratic leader, Senator Reid of Nevada, 
seven of us were in Iraq, in Baghdad, about 10 days ago. We met with 
two of the three new leaders who have been chosen. Mr. al-Hasani, the 
new speaker, a Sunni, spent some time with us. We spent an hour with 
Dr. al-Jaafari who, just an hour ago, was named the new Prime Minister 
of Iraq, and who will be the most important leader we will be dealing 
with.
  I believe our delegation was one of the first from the Senate to 
spend that much time with the new leader of Iraq. I want to report that 
I was most impressed with what we saw there. We met a man in his late 
fifties, who had been in exile from Iraq for a number of years because 
of the brutality of Saddam Hussein. He is a physician. It seems as 
though physicians are ascending in all sorts of different places, 
including in the U.S. Senate and in Iraq. He is a well-educated man and 
conducted our discussion in English. He showed in his presence a great 
deal of calm. He is not a quiet man, but he is a calm man who seems to 
know exactly what he believes and what he thinks.
  I was taken with the fact that he began his discussion with us with 
about a 5-minute monolog about the brutality of Saddam Hussein. He said 
he was ``worse than Hitler, worse than Stalin.'' Those were his words. 
He said Hussein had murdered a million people in 35 years. In his 
words, al-Jaafari said ``he had buried 300,000 people alive.'' He said 
that quietly, but he obviously feels that very deeply.
  Second, I was most impressed with his understanding of U.S. history. 
We talked about the difficulty of creating a democracy and how we are 
expecting them to create a constitution by August. In our situation, 
years ago, it took us 12 years from the time of the Declaration of 
Independence to the time of our Constitution. Our Founders locked the 
news media out for 6 months while they did that. Today, we are 
expecting the Iraqis to come together--people of different 
backgrounds--and have a constitution by August, while we watch and 
criticize on 24/7 television everything they do.
  He has a good understanding of U.S. history and, I thought, a great 
appreciation for democracy and freedom. He showed not only no 
resentment about the American presence in Iraq, he showed great 
gratitude for the American presence in Iraq. He wants us to stay there 
for a while, so that there is enough security for their constitutional 
government to form. He seemed very comfortable with that.
  Finally, he is a brave man--brave during exile, brave today. There 
may be only a few thousand people in Iraq--a country the size of 
California with 25 million people--who are causing all the trouble, but 
they are making it a dangerous place to be. Even the Green Zone and the 
areas around it are not entirely safe.
  So we have a sophisticated, English-speaking, well-educated, U.S.-
history-knowing, brave man, who is the new leader of Iraq, a man who is 
grateful for the American presence and who is determined to help create 
a democracy. I congratulate the Iraqi people on the substantial 
achievement.
  Also, Mr. al-Hasani, the new speaker, a Sunni--the new Prime Minister 
is a Shiite--was very impressive to us in the Senate delegation. He, as 
well as the Prime Minister, wore western clothing in these meetings. I 
say this as a fact, not as a judgment.
  Mr. al-Hasani was educated in the U.S. at two major universities. He 
lived in Los Angeles during his exile. He created a business in Los 
Angeles. He went back to Iraq to help create a new democracy. He is 
also a sophisticated person with a strong knowledge of freedom and 
democracy, a strong appreciation of the United States, and he is also a 
brave man to be undertaking this. I congratulate the Iraqis for that.

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