[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17189-17190]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to commend

[[Page 17190]]

my colleague, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey), for making 
tonight on the floor of this House her 100th statement concerning the 
war in Iraq.
  Over the course of the last 15 months, the gentlewoman from 
California has made a very substantial contribution to the debate 
concerning that tragic event in Iraq, the circumstances surrounding it, 
and also making recommendations as to what we might do in the future to 
correct the terrible mistakes and injustices that have been perpetrated 
against the Iraqi people and against our own country. I commend her for 
doing so.
  She and I were among those 143 Members of this House who voted 
against the resolution that was submitted by the Bush administration to 
authorize the war in Iraq. It has now come to my attention, and to, I 
think, many other Members of this House, that there are a growing 
number of people here, as well as around the country, that understand 
that this war was a deep and tragic mistake and that the rationale 
presented for it was based upon falsehoods. The statements which came 
from various people within the administration were completely false and 
misleading. Among those initially was the idea that Iraq had something 
to do with the attack on our country of September 11, 2001. That, of 
course, was completely and totally false.
  Additionally, it was stated by members of the Bush administration 
that there was some connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. 
That has been proven to be completely and totally false. Again, we were 
told that there were so-called weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, 
chemical and biological weapons, and the President himself in this 
House made allegations with regard to the development of a nuclear 
weapons program by Iraq. That too has been shown to be totally and 
completely false.
  This administration has entirely twisted and distorted the facts and 
the information and the intelligence to try to fit a policy decision 
which they made based on no facts or information, but based upon a 
decision which was made by this administration to suit their own 
private, personal, and political objectives. The consequence of that 
has been the loss of more than 1,760 lives of American service men and 
women for no good reason. That war was unnecessary, unjust; and we need 
to face up to it. The Members of this House need to face up to it.
  We have, over this period of time, been confronted with a gross 
amount of information which has been totally misleading and totally 
false. The administration contracted with private-public relations 
firms to persuade the American people of the falsity of their notions 
with regard to weapons of mass destruction and the relationship between 
Iraq and al Qaeda and the attack of September 11, now known to be 
totally and completely false.
  And the administration apparently continues to seek to mislead the 
country. We have just recently, just today, a report over CNN 
broadcasting which quotes two separate people in Iraq on two separate 
circumstances with regard to an attack that took place on July 13 and 
another that took place on July 24, just yesterday. Let me read into 
the Record what those news releases coming out of Iraq say:
  A Sunday, July 24, news release says: ``The terrorists are attacking 
the infrastructure, the ISF, and all of Iraq. They are enemies of 
humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my 
community today, and I will now take the fight to the terrorists, said 
one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified.''
  Eleven days earlier, it was reported from the same military sources, 
a July 13 news release said: ```The terrorists are attacking the 
infrastructure, the children, and all of Iraq,' said one Iraqi man who 
preferred not to be identified. `They are enemies of humanity without 
religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today, 
and I will now take the fight to the terrorists.'''
  These are false statements, obviously, and we continue to be 
afflicted by propaganda out of this administration to attempt to 
justify the initial attack, now the occupation, and the ongoing 
occupation which is increasingly dangerous.
  So I commend the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) for what 
she has done, and the House really needs to pay much more attention to 
these issues.

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