[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18433-18434]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




INDEPENDENT COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE DISTORTION OF EVIDENCE OF IRAQ'S 
                  WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION PROGRAMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gingrey). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is 
recognized for 50 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I will not consume the entire 50 
minutes.
  Many Members of Congress are receiving hundreds of letters each and 
aggregately tens of thousands of letters questioning this Congress' 
refusal to get to the bottom of the misinformation campaign on Iraq. 
Hundreds of thousands of citizens have signed an on-line petition which 
states that Congress should support an independent commission to 
investigate the Bush administration's distortion of evidence of Iraq's 
weapons of mass destruction programs.
  Unfortunately, the leadership in this House, the Republican 
leadership in this body, has refused to allow serious debate on this 
misinformation campaign, has refused to appoint an independent 
commission, has refused even to hold congressional hearings on what did 
the President tell the American people, were the reasons that he stated 
to the American people justifiable, were they truthful, and/or were 
they misleading to the American public and as reasons given for the 
attack on Iraq.
  As I think about it, I look at American history and I think of 
another time when Members of Congress were not given the opportunity to 
debate a major national issue that affected national security, that 
affected the way of life of so many Americans, that affected issues of 
justice. Think back to more than 150 years ago when John Quincy Adams, 
a former president who came back to this body after he was President, 
and in those days, in the 1830s and 1840s, this Congress, with a very 
conservative leadership, actually passed a rule to prohibit the 
discussion or the debate of the issue of slavery in the House of 
Representatives. So in the halls of Congress, slavery, one of the great 
shames of this country, slavery was not even allowed to be discussed on 
the floor because of the ruling of the legislative leadership in those 
days.
  Today, Members of Congress have been precluded in any kind of 
legislative vehicle, any kind of investigation from debating this issue 
of the administration's distortion of evidence of Iraq's weapons of 
mass destruction. Perhaps the President did nothing wrong, perhaps he 
did, but we have not really been able to debate that here.
  So what John Quincy Adams did in the 1830s and 1840s was collect 
letters from his constituents, he called them petitions, and he read 
those petitions, those letters on the House floor. In other words, he 
let the people of the United States speak for themselves, using his 
voice. He was the megaphone to allow them to speak.
  Many Members of Congress the last two nights, and we will continue in 
the nights ahead, are doing the same thing. They are taking many of 
these letters that we have received, people who have signed a petition 
saying Congress should support an independent commission to investigate 
the Bush administration's distortion of evidence of Iraq's weapons of 
mass destruction program, and simply read those letters and allowed 
people to speak directly. It really is a night, as it was last night 
and the night before, for the people to take over the People's House, 
and Members of Congress, who are elected by 630,000 people, as all of 
us are, simply the mouthpiece for these constituents.
  I would just like to share for 5 or 10 minutes, Mr. Speaker, some of 
these letters.
  Jeff Hutchinson from Cincinnati, Ohio, wrote:
  As a proud citizen of the United States of America, I am deeply 
concerned about the recent turn of events involving our Nation's 
foreign policy and our military invasion of Iraq. I have no doubt that 
the previous regime in Iraq was like many other contemporary 
governments, corrupt, violent, inhumane. I am concerned about the 
credibility of the United States before the international community if 
it is determined that this Nation enters into war based on uncertain 
evidence.
  That was Mr. Hutchinson of Cincinnati. Those are his words, not mine, 
as all of these will be the words of constituents.
  Thomas Gentry, Sr., Akron, Ohio, in my congressional district, wrote, 
``A president and his administration must be truthful about dangers in 
our country. Please help form an independent commission to investigate 
the cloud hanging over the Bush administration for the apparent lying 
that took place to justify going to war with Iraq. Thank you.''
  Celine Riedel, from Avon Lake, Ohio. She writes, ``Democrats should 
not be alone in demanding an open, full-scale investigation into the 
intelligence that helped plummet us into a preemptive war with Iraq. 
Republican Members of Congress should also be clamoring for the truth. 
If the American people were presented with a Gordian knot of deception, 
then now is the time for that knot to be untied.''
  Natalie Sydorenko, from Akron, Ohio, wrote, ``No one is above the law 
or investigation. The truth will come out one way or another,'' she 
writes. ``Those who discourage uncovering the truth will appear just as 
deceptive as those hiding it. Please think about it.'' Natalie 
Sydorenko, from Akron, Ohio.
  From Columbus, Ohio, Jason Bennett writes, ``I am appalled at the 
apparent lack of concern in Congress at the bold deceptions carried out 
by the administration in its arguments for the war on Iraq. It has been 
clear for months to anyone paying attention that the claims regarding 
Iraq's attempts to buy uranium from Niger were completely baseless. I 
am afraid this is only the most notorious in a litany of half-truths by 
which we have been lead to war on and occupation of Iraq. We owe it to 
the boys who are dying in Iraq to get the truth behind the President's 
claims,'' Mr. Bennett writes.
  Mark Duckwall of Yellow Springs, southwest Ohio, writes, ``It is 
apparent the Bush administration creatively expanded the real threat 
from Iraq. We are now mired in a mess that will take years, billions of 
dollars, and more American lives to get out of. Please show the world 
that we hold our leaders accountable and are a peace-loving country,'' 
writes Mr. Duckwall.
  Mr. Brad Steinmetz of Columbus, in central Ohio, the State capital, 
writes, ``The absence of an independent investigation into the serious 
questions surrounding the basis for our involvement in Iraq gives the 
impression that this administration has something to hide. It is as 
important for President Bush to earn the trust of the American people 
as it is for America to earn the trust of the people of the world,'' 
Mr. Steinmetz writes.
  Diane Ciekaway, from Athens, Ohio, the district of the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Strickland), writes, ``I feel the American people should hold 
their leaders to high standards of accountability. This is what we 
teach in our universities in our Nation and what I teach my students,'' 
she writes. ``Whatever the results of the inquiry, it will benefit the 
American public to understand how information is collected and how it 
is used to support U.S. policies.''
  Abbey Steele, from Avon, Ohio, just down the street from where I live 
in Lorraine. Ms. Steele writes, ``Please take President Bush and his 
administration to task for massive distortion of intelligence. The 
country was deceived into war in order to advance a hegemonic 
international agenda that eschews principles of justice for those of 
`might makes right.' The fact that Bush now refers to those questioning 
the evidence cited leading to war as `revisionists of history,''' and 
those are the President's words as cited by Ms. Steele, ``demonstrates 
how little this administration credits the American public. We can't 
let this administration continue to treat the public with such 
cynicism, either in foreign or domestic politics. Please keep our 
public officials accountable,'' Ms. Steele writes.
  Paul Lubben, from Berea, Ohio, near Cleveland, writes, ``The 
possibility that

[[Page 18434]]

the President took us into a war based on false information must be 
investigated by an independent group. In my opinion, this is a most 
serious charge,'' Mr. Lubben says.
  Ken Harlow of Powell, Ohio, in central Ohio, writes, ``The weapons of 
mass destruction evidence presented to justify the war in Iraq needs to 
be fully disclosed and investigated. How will Americans otherwise be 
ever able to trust their government,'' he asks.
  From Ravenna, Ohio, Alan Goldstein writes, ``As you know, I have 
written many times on the subject of the illegal wars created by the 
administration over the past couple of years. Now it seems that the 
media and the general public are finally paying attention to the 
seriousness of this situation. Now is the time to join your colleagues 
and to correct the wrongs that have been allowed to happen.''

                              {time}  2320

  Last from Dr. Mary Lou Shaw from Southwest Ohio, ``For us to continue 
to have a democracy, you must fight for the American people to know the 
truth.''
  As I stated earlier, that is a sample of the 2,500 letters that 
constituents from all over Ohio have written to their Members of 
Congress. I know there were some 6,000 letters from Illinois, some tens 
of thousands of letters from California, and many more from across the 
country, people who are concerned, people who are demanding 
petitioning, asking this Congress to support an independent commission 
to investigate the Bush administration's distortion of evidence in 
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program.
  I hope that leaders in this body will listen to those who are 
petitioning this Congress, will listen to the hundreds of thousands, 
perhaps even millions of voices in this country who want to know if we 
were deceived into war and want to get to the bottom of this, to 
restore the trust in the administration, to restore our trust in the 
President of the United States, and to restore our trust in the United 
States Congress, and to restore our trust in our government.

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