[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10970-10971]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     COMMENDING SECRETARY RUMSFELD

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, first of all, I want to make some comments 
on the issue of the Abu Ghraib abuses and the role of Secretary 
Rumsfeld and some of the statements that he has made, but also the 
tremendous leadership he has given over the last several weeks in what 
have been very difficult times for us as a nation, as we have 
witnessed, through both report and visual images, the occurrences that 
happened at Abu Ghraib prison.
  First and foremost, I thank the Secretary for, ever since these 
abuses became apparent, being available to us in the Senate, the 
appropriate committees, and providing the appropriate resources and 
personnel to keep us informed of the abuses, the response to

[[Page 10971]]

the abuses, and the many investigations that are underway.
  Yesterday, Secretary Rumsfeld came to the Capitol for an all-Senators 
briefing on Iraq, and with him were a number of the generals and other 
men and women in our Armed Forces to help us better understand the 
events as they have unfolded over the last several weeks and months. 
The Secretary, as always, was forthright and direct and complete, 
sharing with us everything that was known, and being very clear that 
there is, at any point in time, a lot that is not known that will 
hopefully soon be known.
  He addressed a whole range of issues, in particular our efforts to 
secure peace, to fight boldly in this war on terror, and also shared 
with us his views, his observations, on the Army's investigation of the 
Abu Ghraib abuses. He reiterated again and again his absolute 
commitment to thorough and complete and timely investigations. For 
that, we thank him.
  Secretary Rumsfeld has appointed, also, an independent panel to 
review allegations of abuse at the DOD detention facilities. This 
particular panel will also review other matters related to detention 
operations. The panel consists of four individuals who have been 
involved in public service in the past. I believe all those names have 
been announced publicly. These experts will provide an independent and 
professional analysis to the Secretary, and they will make 
recommendations to address any problems they identify. I had the 
opportunity to talk to several members of this panel, and I look 
forward to their report and bringing together many of the other reports 
that are currently underway.
  Secretary Rumsfeld has made it very clear that all DOD, Department of 
Defense, agencies and the military services will be cooperating with 
this panel. The panel was to begin its work on May 20 and will report 
its findings in early July. That report will be shared with all of us 
in the Senate and throughout the Defense Department.
  As I said, Secretary Rumsfeld is displaying tremendous leadership. He 
is devoting, rightly so, a huge amount of time and resources to make 
sure that we, the American people, and the world get all the facts; 
that everything is transparent; that those people who are guilty are 
brought both to trial and punished appropriately. That is the American 
way. He made it clear that he is seeing that that is being done.
  He is committed to preventing such abuses and such incidents from 
ever happening in the future. I know the Secretary's resolve, and he 
has expressed that to the Senate.
  Secretary Rumsfeld has proven himself over and over again, through a 
long and distinguished career, to be a man of great integrity and 
results. We, as a nation, express our gratitude to him.
  These are difficult times for all Americans. The abuses at the Abu 
Ghraib prison continue to shock us--the photographs, the fact that such 
incidents, that we would have never thought possible, actually did 
occur. For some, the ugly behavior of a few made them question our 
overall mission in Iraq and fighting this war on terror. But while all 
this is going on we should not lose hope, we cannot lose hope, and we 
must not lose sight of that big picture.
  The vast majority of our troops--and, again, over 130,000 men and 
women are fighting for us overseas right now--the overwhelming majority 
of those troops are serving us each and every day with courage and with 
honor, of which we are all very proud. And we need to send that message 
to our troops. We do not say it nearly enough. And now is the time for 
us to do so, when the world is focused so much on the abuses, terrible 
abuses, caused by these very few people.
  The men and women overseas, every day, are improving the lives of 
Iraqis, of citizens throughout that country. They are bringing freedom. 
They are fighting for freedom. They are sacrificing for the freedom of 
the Iraqi people who have lived under merciless tyranny over the last 
several decades. By doing all this, our troops are there defending our 
security so we can live in this great country, enjoying the freedoms 
and democracy that maybe all too often we take for granted, but in 
these times we simply cannot. And that gratitude we express to those 
men and women who are overseas right now fighting for us with boldness 
and courage and integrity and unselfishness.
  I implied that elemental point of defending our security. Every day 
we see the pictures of the terrible abuses. We need to recognize that 
all this effort that our U.S. Government and the American people are 
directing is to defend our security. That is an elemental point that we 
need to keep coming back to. We are fighting a shadowy enemy that seeks 
nothing less--their goal is to have destruction of our way of life, of 
the freedoms that we enjoy.
  They take pleasure in wanton murder. They hide behind innocents and 
then slaughter them. They do so without hesitation. We can see the 
character of our enemy in the brutal slaughter last week of Nicholas 
Berg.
  We saw it in the slaughter of Daniel Pearl, and we saw it in the 
slaughter of 3,000 innocent people on September 11 in this country.
  As our President reminds us, we did not ask for this conflict. The 
war was brought to our doorstep. The battle against terror will last 
for years, and we all know that. That is the new reality. It may last 
for decades, but fight we must. It is a war we cannot afford to lose, 
and it is a war that we will win.
  To his credit, Secretary Rumsfeld has shown vision and resolve in 
preparing us against these new threats. At the very beginning of the 
administration, Secretary Rumsfeld resaw the need to modernize our 
military. From focusing at the time on what was an outdated cold war 
strategy to now this current era of adjusting to new threats, which are 
posed by terrorism, to be able to address issues as we did in the 
Senate this week on bioterrorism, using viruses and bacteria and 
microorganisms that know no boundaries or borders and can spread 
rapidly--this is the new reality. He recognized that not all future 
threats to America will come from enemy soldiers in uniform. And before 
he became Secretary of Defense, he chaired a commission that identified 
the growing danger of a missile strike against the homeland.
  Secretary Rumsfeld has been a strong and innovative leader. He has 
done a tremendous job in preparing our military for successful 
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are grateful for the 
tremendous service he demonstrates every day. America is, indeed, 
fortunate to have such an exceptional Secretary of Defense in these 
times of crisis. Every day he is on the job, he is helping to make 
America safer and more secure.

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