[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 55 (Wednesday, April 1, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H4256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STRUGGLE AGAINST VIOLENT EXTREMISM

  (Mr. MORAN of Virginia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Madam Speaker, a couple of recent Washington 
Post headlines deserve mentioning on the House floor. The first was on 
March 16, where the Red Cross Confirmed that the United States Violated 
International Laws Against Torture.
  Last Sunday's article points out that that torture policy applied to 
an individual by the name of Abu Zubaida sent our government officials 
on any number of false leads. It produced no reliable information. It 
turns out that that suspect, Abu Zubaida, wasn't even an official 
member of al Qaeda. He told our professional interrogators what he knew 
to be true, until--under pressure from the Cheney White House to 
torture him--he sent our government on any number of false leads. As 
usual, people being tortured tell you what they know that you want to 
hear in order to stop the torture.
  The point for the Congress to act on is that if we are ever going to 
prevail in our struggle against violent extremism, we need to stand up 
for America's defining principles of equal justice under the law. We 
have to hold those people accountable who pressured and enabled 
American government officials to perform actions that were 
counterproductive to our national security, that were illegal, and were 
immoral, and thus were anti-American. Only through such judicial 
accountability can we regain the moral high ground and once again lead 
the world by practicing what our founders preached.

                          ____________________