[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 140 (Thursday, September 20, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H10691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             BRING OUR TROOPS AND MILITARY CONTRACTORS HOME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, this week, we heard reports that private 
military contractor Blackwater has been ordered out of Iraq and had its 
license revoked after a shootout that took the lives of at least eight 
Iraqi civilians. This didn't happen in the ``wild west'' of Iraq, not 
even in the so-called ``triangle of death.'' Mr. Speaker, it happened 
within the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad. That's the area where 
the so-called surge was supposed to bring peace and stability.
  One account of the scene goes like this: a witness, Muhammad Hussein, 
saw his brother killed in the gunfight. Muhammad said, I was driving 
behind my brother's car and suddenly there was an explosion and firing. 
I tried to figure out what was happening when I saw a black convoy 
ahead of us, he told an international news agency, and went on to say, 
Soon after, I saw my brother slumped in the car. I dragged him out of 
the car and tried to hide to avoid the firing, but realized that he had 
been shot in the chest and he was already dead. That's what he said.
  So, Mr. Speaker, one week after General Petraeus came up to the Hill 
to brief Members of Congress, we are seeing private military 
contractors killing civil civilians in the streets of Baghdad. Is this 
the measure of success of the escalation? I should hope not. I should 
think not. To this date, the administration has either been unwilling 
or unable to account for all the private military contractors in Iraq.
  Contractors have their own rules. No one knows to whom they are 
accountable. Reports of these contractors, however, have been anything 
but promising. The Center for American Progress estimates the total 
number of private contractors in Iraq to be 126,000 to 180,000; 20,000 
to 50,000 of those are private security guards. They zip through Iraq, 
through Iraqi towns and neighborhoods in their convoys of armored SUVs. 
Are they accountable to an international law of war? Are they 
accountable to U.S. law? Can the Iraqis hold them accountable for acts 
of violence within Iraq? Nobody knows. Are these contractors receiving 
any mental health assistance? Are we ensuring that no one being paid by 
the United States is hitting the streets of Baghdad with PTSD? What is 
the screening process? We have no idea who's out there in the name of 
the United States of America.
  Every single day we open the paper to find report after report that 
the occupation of Iraq is a failure. Despite all of the heroic acts of 
our men and women in uniform, we cannot bring peace and stability to a 
nation at the point of a gun. We cannot win an occupation.
  This administration needs to get real about the situation on the 
ground. It is time, it is past time to fully fund a safe and orderly 
redeployment of our troops and of our military contractors from Iraq. 
That is all the Congress can accept.
  We support our troops. We support Iraqi sovereignty. We support a 
surge in diplomatic efforts. What we cannot, what we will not accept is 
another year, another decade or another flag-draped coffin.
  Let's bring our troops home. Let's bring our contractors home. And 
let's allow the people of Iraq to reclaim their country.

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