[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20120]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            TRUTH ABOUT IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. INSLEE. Madam Speaker, I heard a very disturbing report today. 
While we are engaging in a very important and legitimate debate about 
our strategy in Iraq, one thing for sure we ought to be united on, and 
that is Americans ought to have access to the truth and not to be the 
subject of spin by their own government and should not have their own 
government suppressing the truth about Iraq. Things are difficult 
enough about Iraq without the Federal Government suppressing the truth 
about Iraq.
  Unfortunately, that appears to be what is going on in this 
administration. Today in the Washington Post an article related that 
the USAID ordered the restriction of preventing distribution of reports 
by the contractor Kroll Security International which had previously 
shown that the number of daily attacks by insurgents in Iraq had 
increased significantly. In response to the news that these insurgent 
attacks are increasing, about 5 weeks before this election, this 
administration decided apparently to suppress that information and the 
agency ordered that this information no longer be disseminated to the 
American public.
  This is information generated with U.S. American taxpayer dollars 
that this administration, 5 weeks before the election, does not want 
the American people to hear about.

                              {time}  1830

  The article in The Washington Post says: ``The Kroll reports suggest 
a broad and intensifying campaign of insurgent violence.'' In response 
to that bad news, the agency official at USAID sent an e-mail to 
congressional aides stating, ``This is the last Kroll report to come 
in. After The Washington Post story, they shut it down in order to 
regroup. I'll let you know when it restarts.''
  There is no excuse for this administration shielding information 
about Iraq and the fact that we have great difficulties there from the 
American people. We have a legitimate right to know this information. 
We have an important debate in our national body politic to figure out 
the right strategy in Iraq, and it is wrong to suppress this 
information.
  We cannot decide the right decision in Iraq by looking through rose-
colored glasses anymore. Hope is not a strategy. Simply saying we are 
going to have the same old, same old in Iraq and shield and hide the 
ball from the American people just will not cut it. Tonight it would be 
nice if the administration and the President admitted that we have some 
difficulties in Iraq and admitted we need to make some changes in 
strategy or we are going to have deep trouble.
  But this is not the only symptom of an administration that is 
refusing to face reality in Iraq. In that same story in The Washington 
Post, I read that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's office is now 
sponsoring a sort of happy talk, good news tour through our bases and 
that we are using taxpayers' money to bring Iraqis to spread the good 
news of Iraq to our military bases here in this country. The memo 
disclosing this tour paid for by taxpayer dollars says it is ``designed 
to be uplifting accounts with good news messages.'' Rumsfeld's office, 
which will pay for the tour, recommends that the installations seek 
local news coverage, noting that ``these events and presentations are 
positive public relations opportunities.'' We do not need a public 
relations campaign. We need a campaign for success in bringing our 
troops home in Iraq. We are not getting that from this administration.
  The memo went on to suggest that the commanders at each base ``are in 
the best position on how to market this voluntary attendance program 
effectively.'' We do not need a marketing campaign. We need an honest 
discussion of how to get a strategy to bring our troops home after 
success. But that is not what we are getting from this administration. 
Instead of recognizing and coming clean with the American people about 
their failures to find weapons of mass destruction, their failures to 
tell the accurate situation about connections with al Qaeda, their 
failures to have enough troops on the ground, their failures to have 
enough body armor, they have given us a marketing technique protocol 
paid for with taxpayer dollars. It is wrong. We need a strategy, not a 
marketing campaign.

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