Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners

ABUSE OF IRAQI PRISONERS

Mr. SCHUMER. I thank my colleagues from Nevada and Illinois for what they have said. The bottom line is, of course, very little could be more counterproductive to this war effort than what has happened. The best way to deal with it is to come clean and come clean quickly, to find out how often it happened, where it happened, how high up the chain of command, and exorcise it. Because to the overwhelming majority of our troops and our military leadership this is abhorrent. The sooner we can exorcise this cancer, the better off we will all be. Keeping this secret is not going to work. It is going to come out. It has come out. I join my colleagues. I hope we can get Secretary Rumsfeld to come back before us very quickly and give us a full and complete briefing on what has happened. That should happen this week, because last week he gave a briefing in room 407 and didn't even mention this, even though it was going to appear on TV that night.

All of us who care so much about our troops, who are risking their lives with bravery, hate to see any stain upon them. The quicker we deal with this, the better it will be for everybody. Don't hide it. Don't underplay it. Just get it out, exorcise it, and go forward. That is what we have to do. I hope Mr. Rumsfeld will come before us quickly.