[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26166]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              WAR IN IRAQ

  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, today in the Committee on Oversight and 
Reform, we are going to continue without a doubt the attack on our men 
and women in uniform. It is clear after last week's debate in which 79 
Members of the House refused to denounce MoveOn.org for their attacks 
on the patriotism of General David Petraeus, there are those who intend 
to continue to attack the war on any front.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise not because I support the war, not because I love 
war, not because in fact I have any desire to have this war or any war 
last one day longer than absolutely necessary.
  Mr. Speaker, unable to effectively portray our men and women in 
uniform as guilty of wrongdoing, in spite of the fact that 1 of our 
Members called in fact our marines, marines based at Camp Pendleton, 
killers of women and children in cold blood. Those charges for the most 
part have already been dismissed.
  Our men and women in uniform make mistakes. In the Committee on 
Oversight and Reform today, we are going to be talking about not our 
men and women in uniform, but men and women who served an average of 10 
years in uniform who have joined private contractors in support of our 
State Department. Specifically, Mr. Speaker, I am talking about 
Blackwater. I am not defending Blackwater. The truth is neither Speaker 
Pelosi nor Chairman Waxman know what happened in Iraq in September. 
What we do know is that there are investigations going on into the 
specific incidents, like so many incidents in a country in which every 
day soldiers, sailors and marines die by IEDs and roadside bombs and 
other ways of killing our men and women without taking risk to their 
own lives.
  An incident like that apparently occurred in September, but instead 
of waiting until the IG, the FBI, the State Department concluded their 
investigations, today, Mr. Speaker, the Government Oversight and Reform 
will decide that they are going to go after the facts directly. They 
have subpoenaed directly the CEO of that company, not because he was 
there, not because he has some special knowledge, but because, Mr. 
Speaker, it is all about the headlines. The bodies were not even cold 
on that incident before the Committee on Oversight and Reform began to 
prepare for today's hearings.
  In order to believe that Blackwater is guilty before the evidence is 
in, you have to believe the Minister of Interior. Mr. Speaker, you have 
to believe the very organization that former Washington, DC, Chief 
Ramsey and retired four star General Jim Jones called that organization 
that he leads, some 300,000 police, 85 percent of whom are Shia, so 
corrupted and so compromised as to be disbanded. In fact, that is 
exactly the organization that apparently arrived and apparently is to 
be believed that some wrongdoing occurred.
  Mr. Speaker, when I went to Iraq the last time or one time, I went 
with Chairman Waxman and now Speaker Pelosi, our unit was guarded by 
Blackwater. At that time, I didn't hear any objections to the overhead 
cover provided by Blackwater. I didn't hear any objections to the EOD 
unit that was protecting us against bombs. In fact, Mr. Speaker, the 
only time there seems to be a desire to have this type of oversight is 
when the headlines would help demean the very effort we are involved in 
in Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, I trust that the American people are in fact more 
knowledgeable of what this war is all about. Not that they want this 
war, but that they do not want to have the men and women in uniform or 
those Americans who under contract go to this combat zone willingly, 
most of them after service in that combat zone while in uniform, 
demeaned without a fair opportunity for investigation.
  Mr. Speaker, I was 1 of many Members of Congress who asked that 
today's hearing be postponed until at least the State Department, the 
FBI, and other organizations had an opportunity to do a proper 
investigation. I am proud to be a ranking member on the Subcommittee on 
Oversight and Reform, but I am ashamed that we in fact are doing trials 
rather than oversight. We have never done anything more shameless than 
what we are doing today, going after an organization without waiting 
for the facts. We do not oversee Blackwater in the Congress; we oversee 
the administration, and we should be looking at their reports, we 
should be looking at what they have done, and we should be in fact 
reforming anything that is wrong in the administration.
  So I trust that today's hearings will be watched by many people, Mr. 
Speaker. I trust that Members of this body will view this as what it 
is, a witch hunt, because they can't go after our men and women in 
uniform.

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