[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21022]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, 165 years ago in this House of 
Representatives, John Quincy Adams came to the floor of the House to 
share letters from his constituents, letters which allowed him to speak 
about an issue that the House rules prohibited him from speaking about.
  Mr. Speaker, the House of Representatives in 1838, 1840, and 1842 
passed a rule prohibiting, banning, a discussion of slavery, the 
biggest blemish in American history, prohibiting the discussion of 
slavery, banning the slavery debate from the floor of the House of 
Representatives. As a result, John Quincy Adams, former President, then 
Member of Congress in those years, came to the House floor and read 
letters from various constituents, organizations in his Massachusetts 
district and throughout the State of Massachusetts.
  Today we see something perhaps not quite as serious, but pretty 
serious, and that is the questions of whether President Bush told us 
the truth about Iraq, about the weapons of mass destruction, about 
Saddam Hussein's and Iraq's links to al Qaeda, and the focus the 
President has lost from the war on terrorism by attacking another 
country, as bad as Saddam Hussein was, attacking another country and 
not 'fessing up to the American people the real story.

                              {time}  1945

  So because the President, this leadership, and this Congress will not 
let us really investigate what, in fact, happened, what the President 
said, what the truth is, I am reading letters tonight from constituents 
all over Ohio brought to us by an organization called MoveOn.org. 
MoveOn.org has received almost half a million signatures of people 
asking for this investigation. And about 100,000 of those petitioners 
to MoveOn have sent letters to the United States Congress, and I would 
like to share some of those letters from citizens in my State concerned 
about investigating how it is that we ended up in Iraq.
  From Lorain, Ohio, in my district, a petitioner writes, ``Our leaders 
must respect our democracy. If our leaders lie or mislead their own 
people to support military action and to make an immense change in 
foreign policy, this greatly undermines our country. Saddam Hussein was 
evil, to be sure. Maybe we should have gone ahead with this invasion, 
but that decision should have been based on accurate reporting by the 
leaders and not by deceiving the American people.''
  From Cleveland, Ohio: ``United States citizens, particularly the 
families of soldiers in Iraq, deserve to know the truth about whatever 
intelligence did or did not exist regarding weapons of mass destruction 
in Iraq and support for terrorism by Saddam Hussein prior to the war 
and about whether or not that intelligence was falsely represented to 
Congress and the American people to make the case for war.''
  From Marion, Ohio: ``It is time for the Oval Office to quit hiding 
behind false and misleading information. We were wrong to invade Iraq. 
Please help to spread honesty in the Federal Government.''
  From Cincinnati, Ohio: ``I am very concerned about what led our 
government to undertake war in Iraq. Clearly the threat of imminent 
danger to the U.S. and her citizens was trumped up. It is an extremely 
serious situation which has led to the loss of over 150 American 
soldiers and thousands of Iraqi citizens, mostly civilians.''
  From Cleveland Heights, Ohio: ``There is no graver abuse of trust 
than a leader who deceives his fellow citizens into sacrificing 
themselves, their sons and their daughters in the name of protecting 
their liberty. These charges are too serious not to pursue until every 
question is answered.''
  From Loveland, Ohio: ``This is a very important issue. Our 
credibility in the world is already at grave risk. We can restore it in 
part by taking this misinformation seriously and tracking down the 
process that led to erroneous statements by Colin Powell to the United 
Nations and by President Bush in his State of the Union address. I 
implore you to consider the image in a nonpartisan light and support an 
independent investigation.''
  From Columbus, Ohio: ``As a decorated combat veteran and the parent 
of a currently-serving member of the U.S. Navy, both status that is not 
shared with many administration officials or Members of Congress, I 
gather, I am particularly concerned that there be no hint that our 
military forces are being used primarily for political ends.'' That was 
from Columbus.
  From Cincinnati, Ohio: ``As a daughter and sister of veterans, I am 
appalled that soldiers may have been lied to about the reasons they 
were sent to Iraq. Please support an independent, nonpartisan 
investigation to get to the truth of the administration's call to 
arms.''
  From Granville, Ohio: ``It was obvious at the time that the Bush and 
Blair administrations were playing fast and loose with the facts in 
order to drum up support for a war they had wanted to wage since 
September 11. It is time that the American people and British citizens, 
as well as people of the world, learn the facts.''
  Mr. Speaker, these are letters from constituents in Ohio.

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