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

Press Release

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. ISSA. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member.

Mr. Speaker, the chairman of this committee cannot have it both ways. And the Speaker of the House cannot have it both ways. In their blind hatred for this administration and the President, they would have you believe on Tuesday of last week that you must believe the Ministry of Interior in Iraq and you must believe that the veterans, now serving for Blackwater, murdered in cold blood 17 Iraqis who were unarmed, defenseless, simply for the sport of it. On Tuesday, that is what Erik Prince had to deal with on the orders of Speaker Pelosi and dealt out by Chairman Waxman.

That was Tuesday. By Thursday, we were looking at what we see here today, that the administration was covering up so much corruption, particularly the corruption of the Ministry of Interior. Mr. Speaker, I am going to vote for this resolution not because it is flawless. It has its understandable flaws. But I am going to vote for it because in the whereases it says, whereas, the independent commission on security forces of Iraq chaired by General James L. Jones (Retired) reported on September 6, 2007 that ``sectarianism and corruption are pervasive in the Ministry of Interior and cripple the ministry's ability to accomplish its mission.''

It goes on and on to make the point I am making, just as the majority has already made, Mr. Speaker, and that is that in order to believe that combat veterans, special forces veterans, Green Berets and special forces SEALS now out of the military and out of harm's way in Iraq working for Blackwater, in order to believe that they murdered in cold blood defenseless civilians at an intersection just for sport just after a bomb went off, you would have had to believe the Minister of Interior. And Mr. Waxman would have had the committee believe that on Tuesday. But by Thursday, of course, we have the coverup of such rampant corruption. Yet in the very, very resolution, we have an independent commission headed by a distinguished former general say, in no uncertain terms, there is rampant and widespread corruption. That has not been taken back by the administration.

Mr. Speaker, what I would say is Mr. Waxman and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, cannot have it both ways. They cannot go after our troops in harm's way, our contractors serving in those capacities similar, most of them, if not all of them veterans, they cannot denounce every aspect of this war, how we got there and when we go there and then say, but this group is so corrupt we must leave.

The previous speaker, Mr. Speaker, went out of his way to say the third from the bottom in corruption is Iraq, never mentioning that Burma was below that. Burma managed to be one of the two at the very bottom. Mr. Speaker, would the majority have us pull out our representation and support in Burma and leave to those who are already the victims of corruption an even more corrupt government? Or would they, given that this administration in their view is not doing enough, say, We should do more, we should engage, we should spend the money insisting on transparency and reform?

Mr. Speaker, I am voting for this resolution because, in fact, I believe the majority and the minority should agree that there is corruption, corruption so widespread in Iraq for the Minister of Interior to frame men and women in harm's way in order to get them out of the way. I do not want this body and this Congress to be a party to framing Americans who are putting their lives on the line as patriots in Iraq.

I ask that people support it on both sides, not because Mr. Waxman isn't trying to have it both ways, but because, in fact, there is corruption in Iraq, and hopefully, at some point, he will begin to believe loyal Americans over those very corrupt entities that he denounces in other parts of his resolution.

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