Hearing of the Senate Committee on Appropriations - The President's FY 2008 Supplemental Request for the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Statement

Hearing of the Senate Committee on Appropriations - The President's FY 2008 Supplemental Request for the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

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SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

General Pace, let me join in thanking you for your great service to our country. When you were a plebe at Annapolis, I was across the river here at Georgetown, getting started in college. And you've certainly served our country well. So thank you for everything.

GEN. PACE: Thank you very much, sir.

SEN. DURBIN: Secretary Gates and Secretary Negroponte, it's very clear, from the questions here, Blackwater is no longer an enigmatic operation. It is front and center. The Iraqis have expelled them, officially.

And now we're starting to ask questions that probably should have been asked years ago: Who are they? What authority do they have? How many of them are they? How much do we pay them? How many incidents have we been through? Has anyone prosecuted them for their wrongdoing? Who's in charge?

Who monitors incidents involving the use of firearms? Who monitors whether or not they are shooting civilians? Who investigates those shootings? Who monitors their movements within the country of Iraq?

Do you know the answers to those questions?

SEC. GATES: Senator, I'll turn it over to Ambassador Negroponte, but let me just tell you that that sounds very much like the list of questions that I've been asking over the past few weeks.

SEN. DURBIN: May I suggest that we're in the fifth year of this war, and I think they have been there from the earliest part of it. And I respect you very much and voted for your confirmation, and I respect your service. It would seem that that would have been a question asked long before this incident.

Mr. Ambassador?

MR. NEGROPONTE: Yeah. I think I have some of the answers to those questions, but let me say two things.

First of all, Senator, I have a statement on Blackwater that I had prepared in conjunction with this -- in preparation for this hearing. I'd like to introduce that for the record if I may, Mr. Chairman.

SEN. BYRD: Without objection, it is so ordered.

MR. NEGROPONTE: Just answers to a few of your questions -- you asked me -- speaking now with respect to those members of Blackwater who provide security for American mission -- American Embassy personnel, people who are under the authority of Ambassador Crocker --

SEN. DURBIN: Which I understand to be under different rules than those working for the Department of Defense. Is that correct?

MR. NEGROPONTE: I don't know about the Department of Defense rules, but that could well be correct. I doubt they would be very divergent. But in any case, there's 1,270 of them overall, contractors who provide security for our people in Iraq. And of those 1,270, 842 are from Blackwater.

I might just mention a few things. We were talking earlier about their qualifications. Every one of these people requires at least one year experience in protective security assignments. That's to say the kind of assignments you would get in the Diplomatic Security Service, the Secret Service, the Special Forces or the FBI, or one year experience in law enforcement.

So these are not people who are not properly prepared for their assignments. They have 164 hours of instruction.

SEN. DURBIN: Mr. Ambassador, I'm sorry to interrupt you but I only have a few minutes.

MR. NEGROPONTE: No, I understand, but I just wanted to --

SEN. DURBIN: I'd like to read your statement for the record and so I understand it.

MR. NEGROPONTE: Okay.

SEN. DURBIN: And I will concede, having met many of them, having been protected by many of them when I visited Iraq, they are in fact experienced in security. There's no question in my mind. I want to know the rules they play by and who they answer to and whether they are above the law -- certainly they are in Iraq at this point -- and whether they're above our law at some point.

In December of 2007, if I'm not -- 2006, an intoxicated member of Blackwater shot and killed a bodyguard of the vice president of Iraq. He was removed from service, sent back to the United States. No action has been taken against him, as I understand it. Maybe you could correct me on that if I'm wrong.

MR. NEGROPONTE: But it is the case, to which I was referring earlier, which is under investigation by the Justice Department.

SEN. DURBIN: I would hope so.

I've asked Senator Inouye for a separate hearing on Blackwater and the security contractors. It is time for us to lift the lid and look inside. I think there are some terrible things that have occurred next to so many, very many, honorable and courageous things that have occurred in the conduct of these security contractors.

Mr. Secretary, it is my opinion -- and I just don't suggest it's anyone else's -- (off mike) -- that is the intention of this administration to leave office with this war in Iraq just about the way we see it today. It is the president's intention on January 20th, 2009, to leave and to hand this over to whomever his successor should be. I take a look at what he will leave behind, what I consider to be the worst foreign policy mistake in our history, a nation which we have aspirations far that are far beyond reality in terms of self- governance and self-defense, but also a military that has been severely weakened by this war and our decisions to go to war.

As secretary of Defense this has to be personal to you because that is what will be the case when you leave office -- people will judge. Where is -- what is the status of America's military today? Are they still well-skilled, well-trained and courageous? Of course. But do they have the highest divorce rates that they've had in years among enlisted men twice what they were in 2005; the highest divorce rates among the officers, three times what they were in 2005? Do we have the highest suicide rates among our military that we've had since records have been kept since 1981? Do we have a situation where these military are returning, many of them after multiple deployments, facing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the need for counseling?

Are we offering cash incentives unheard of in the history of the United States to recruit young men and women into service, $10,000 cash or those who will show up in a matter of months and twice that amount if they'll show up in a matter of weeks? Are we in a situation where we have to be very honest -- we've used security contractors because we can't recruit them fast enough for this war? We know what the status is of equipment for the National Guard and regular Army. It's been severely depleted by this war despite the billions of dollars that we have given this president.

As you will project a year from now, can you say that our military will be as strong or stronger than it is when this president leaves office?

SEC. GATES: I think that the measures that have been put in place to reconstitute and reset the force, to expand the size of the Army and the Marine Corps, the Army is planning to try to accelerate its growth beyond the five-year program and shorter than the five-year program to try and alleviate some of these concerns. Clearly, bringing the combat brigades out of Iraq is going to begin to provide some relief to these troops.

So all I can tell you, Senator Durbin, is that we are in the middle of a terrible war, and it is my hope that we have plans in motion, both in terms of the force and in terms of where we're headed in Iraq, that we will be in a better place a year from now than we are now in terms of our force.

SEN. DURBIN: I would hope that it would go beyond hope. I sincerely believe it should be part of our plan. And I will tell you, as I mentioned to you once before, as I visited a patrol base south of Baghdad in the first week of August and had an officer come to me and say what Jim Webb has been saying on the floor over and over again -- 15-month deployments are too long. These are young men and women with families; separating them for this period of time and giving them 12 months between deployments is -- it cannot be good for morale, and it certainly isn't good for the psychological health of the men and women who serve.

And I know the president has no recourse as long as he wants to maintain this level of combat commitment, and I think it is a mistake. I think we are weakening the greatest warriors in the world, and I think that has to be part of our calculation about our future.

Thank you very much.

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