[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5694-5695]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    POLITICAL RECONCILIATION IN IRAQ

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. A couple days ago, we had General Petraeus and 
Ambassador Crocker in front of our Senate Armed Services Committee in 
the morning, and then I had a chance to visit with them again in the 
afternoon in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. These are two very 
dedicated and bright public servants, and their public service is 
certainly appreciated, and we expressed that--I think every Senator who 
questioned them.
  The bottom line for this Senator from the State of Florida is that if 
we go back and look at what was the initial reason stated for the 
surge, which was over a year ago, it was stated that it was to bring 
some stability and give some time in order that the Sunnis and the 
Shiites could have more reconciliation so they could start charting a 
more stable government for themselves. When pressed on whether that 
political reconciliation had occurred, both General Petraeus and 
Ambassador Crocker said they thought it had. And then when I asked, 
well, what laws have been passed, they named two or three, as if that 
were the example of political reconciliation, and I think it would be 
one indicia.
  I further asked had those laws been implemented. Of course, with each 
of

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the questions that narrowed the focus, the answer was less and less 
painting a picture that political reconciliation had occurred. We would 
certainly hope that political reconciliation would occur, because it 
would clearly be in the interest of the United States that Iraq could 
be stabilized.
  It is the opinion of this Senator that the political reconciliation 
has not occurred--while at the same time the aggressive diplomatic 
effort in reaching out to other countries in the region that are very 
important to bringing about political reconciliation in Iraq has not 
occurred. Therefore, the tremendous success and effectiveness of the 
surge, militarily, in fact has not borne the fruit of political 
reconciliation as we had hoped it would. That is a disappointment to 
this Senator.
  On the subject of Iraq, I need to bring to the attention of the 
Senate that yesterday I had the privilege of chairing a subcommittee in 
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the question of whether the 
rapes of American women who are contractor personnel in Iraq as a 
result of the war effort there--whether these rapes are being 
prosecuted. The answer to that is, sadly, no. We had dramatic testimony 
by a Mrs. Mary Beth Kineston, who is a rape victim, and Mrs. Dawn 
Leamon, who for the first time revealed her identity yesterday in the 
hearing. In the couple of times she spoke on the radio before, she was 
using a pseudonym. Of course, that testimony was exceptionally 
emotional, and it was very graphic as to the trauma that these two 
women had suffered, not only in the act of the sexual assault--and in 
the case of one of the women, a gang rape after she had been drugged by 
fellow Americans--but the trauma in the aftermath of the contractor 
trying to sweep it under the rug so that it didn't disturb the waters; 
and all of the trauma each of them went through and the way they were 
treated by their fellow American workers and fellow contractors in the 
aftermath of them not being able to get any help. In each case it was 
not until the military intervened that they actually got any help. In 
the case of Mrs. Leamon, it was 5 weeks after the fact when she was 
finally able to see a U.S. military doctor at another base from the 
forward operating base where the assault took place, and she in fact 
was told by the doctor that you need to continue to try to work through 
this and get help; you were drugged and you were raped.
  The second panel in our hearing was the Department of Justice, the 
Department of State, and the Department of Defense. To say the response 
on why there had not been a prosecution of 26 identified assaults among 
contractor personnel--not U.S. military--contractors, American women 
personnel and there had not been one conviction was, indeed, not only 
deeply disturbing but deeply disappointing.
  The way I tried to conduct that hearing, since I chaired the hearing, 
was to say to those representatives of the Departments of State, 
Defense, and Justice that we were going to conduct that hearing in a 
respectful way, and at the end of the day what we wanted was to 
graphically bring to light the problem that is occurring, not only with 
the assaults but the aftermath where American women cannot get justice, 
and that it is the responsibility of their ultimate guarantors, the 
very departments that are contracting out for the war effort, to see 
that justice is done. Hopefully, that may have occurred yesterday, to 
remind all those folks that in a very difficult environment, a war 
zone, we still have to obey the rule of law and, particularly, when it 
comes to the rights of Americans, and particularly American women, to 
be protected and to have the full extent of the law to support their 
rights.
  I bring this to the attention of the Senate because this is not the 
last time we are going to hear about this issue and, hopefully, the 
next stories we will hear in the aftermath of this drama that played 
out in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday will 
be more a story of success, of how the wheels of the Department of 
Justice will continue to turn to, as the Good Book says, love mercy and 
to do justice.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington.

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