[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18172]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                   IRAQ'S WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

  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, I am here tonight to talk about something 
that is truly scary, the President's credibility gap. The fact that 
Members of Congress, the American people, and our international allies 
can no longer trust the evidence President Bush uses to justify war is 
a terrible threat to his credibility and, therefore, to America's 
security.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will remind Members that it is not 
in order to question the credibility of the President.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  Do not take my word for it. Listen to one of my constituents, Roy, 
from San Rafael. He writes:

       I was one of those who, traumatized by 9/11, trusted our 
     government to lead us down the right path based on 
     indisputable evidence and sound judgment. I supported their 
     decision to go to war. I deserve to know if I was duped.

  Mr. Speaker, the fact is that many people in this country are faced 
with a similar and terrible dilemma. Are they to believe whether or not 
the administration lied to them? Are they to believe that the White 
House is inept, that they based a decision to send young Americans to 
die on faulty information?
  Another constituent of mine, William, from Sebastopol, wrote about 
what President Bush's untruths meant to him:

       I love my country but I am not very proud of it right now. 
     This administration must answer for their deception. Business 
     as usual is not acceptable.

                              {time}  2030

  And Reede from Forest Knolls, California, sums up exactly why the 
White House must talk about these untruths and their unwillingness to 
come clean about them:

       There is nothing more essential to democracy than 
     information. The administration's calculated disinformation 
     campaign about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is a direct 
     attack upon our most cherished democratic values. Such 
     flagrant contempt for the right of the people to control 
     their government is unacceptable.

  After September 11, Mr. Speaker, we all wanted to trust. We wanted to 
give our administration the benefit of the doubt. However, it is 
increasingly obvious that it is either not worthy of that trust, or it 
is simply not trustworthy. Either way, the administration must be held 
accountable for the untruths that came out of their mouths.
  Don and Pam, two of my constituents from Santa Rosa, write,

       One of the Bush administration's favorite words is 
     accountability. But because of their obsession with secrecy 
     and control, they have successfully avoided making themselves 
     accountable. Reasons for going to war in Iraq and, beyond 
     that, the Bush foreign policy, including preemptive strikes 
     and unilateral action, demands accountability, accountability 
     through thorough investigation.

  Mr. Speaker, Americans want answers. They want answers from their 
administration, and they are getting the runaround.
  My constituent, Patrick from Sebastopol, writes,

       The administration's repeated use of the phrase, ``attempts 
     to rewrite history'' is unbelievable. They are the ones 
     attempting to rewrite history.

  The simple fact is that the American people demand answers, and it is 
now up to Congress to get them.
  Landis, from my own hometown, Petaluma, says it perfectly:

       It is very important to be able to trust one's government. 
     We don't always need to agree, but we do need to believe that 
     our government is working in our best interests. Even if the 
     current administration is able to fool many Americans, it is 
     not fooling the world. Until an independent commission 
     investigates possible manipulations of intelligence data, the 
     world and, indeed, many Americans, will not be able to trust 
     that the Bush administration is working in America's best 
     interest.

  Mr. Speaker, it is time for a meaningful investigation into the 
administration's statements. The people I work for in Marin and Sonoma 
Counties and Americans across the country are demanding an 
investigation, and Congress must carry it out. I am pleased to add my 
voice to those of my constituents and join the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Waxman) in his call for a bipartisan investigation into 
weapons of mass destruction.

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