Expressing the Sense of the House Regarding Withholding of Information Relating to Corruption in Iraq

EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE HOUSE REGARDING WITHHOLDING OF INFORMATION RELATING TO CORRUPTION IN IRAQ -- (House of Representatives - October 16, 2007)

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Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from California for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that the American people understand what exactly is going on here. This is not about the Clinton administration. It is not about Blackwater.

I just want to touch on a few facts here. Number one, $450 billion has already been committed by this President and his administration toward the war in Iraq. Recently, the President has come back to us with a request for an additional $150 billion also to be spent in Iraq on, among other things, schools, roads, bridges, power plants, water treatment facilities, not in the United States, but in Iraq.

Now, Congress, our responsibility here, we have the power of the purse. The power of the purse is not simply the power to open the purse, but it also includes the duty and the obligation to inspect appropriations and to inquire whether or not this country, this government, who has had the benefit of, if the bill goes through, it will be $600 billion, we have the duty to inquire whether that government is corrupt.

We received several reports, one from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Mr. Stuart Bowen, who indicates there is widespread corruption. There is a commission headed by General James Jones, United States Marine Corps, indicating there is widespread corruption in Iraq among the government, and again by Comptroller General David Walker, who indicated, again, there is widespread corruption in Iraq.

We have requested, in response to these reports, testimony and documents from the State Department. They have said ``no.'' They have said, no, they would not testify; they would not give us documents. Chairman Waxman had to join with the committee and we issued four subpoenas. They were joined in by my respected colleague from Virginia (Mr. Davis) who agreed that he would support the subpoenas, as well. However, they did not give us all the documents. The witnesses came forward, but refused to testify as to the level of corruption in Iraq. They have denied Congress the access to the information we need.

There's a strong irony here; it is inescapable to me. The State Department has retroactively classified two reports by its own officials regarding Iraqi corruption. Do you know, it is ironic, the name of the office inside the U.S. Embassy that wrote those reports? It is the Office of Accountability and Transparency. They have refused to give us information. They are the ones who are supposed to be teaching the Iraqi Government how to be more transparent, how to be more accountable to their own government.

What about the other report the State Department classified, basically has hidden from the American people? Who issued that one? The Government Accountability Office. The statement retroactively classified that one, too. If this were not so serious, it would be laughable. These offices were set up with the express mission of calling the government to account, not only the Government of Iraq but also the Government of the United States. This effort to classify this information has been done for the express purpose of saving the Maliki government from embarrassment because of the allegations of corruption regarding their officials.

So here we are supposed to be exporting democracy, but what we are doing here now is covering up for a corrupt government at the expense of the American people. And the irony runs deep. The Bush administration says we are in Iraq to spread democracy and the rule of law; but, instead, it appears that we are, indeed, complicit with the corruption that is going on in the Maliki government.

I question how it makes America look not only to Iraqis but to our own citizens. I believe it does render us complicit. It harms our core mission. It does not win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. It loses them. America must lead by action and by example, not by suppressing public discussing of corruption in government.

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