Mistreatment of Iraqi Prisoners

MISTREATMENT OF IRAQI PRISONERS -- (House of Representatives - May 06, 2004)

(Mr. ISSA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, the one bipartisan thing that we can all agree on today that we will address in a resolution today is that the conduct which we have all witnessed in pictures spread around the world by a few misguided and perhaps sadistic and criminally accountable young men and women in charge of prisoners of war was wrong. There is no debate on that. There is no debate outside the American military. There is no debate inside the Congress that this was wrong.

But I do believe it is important, Mr. Speaker, for the American people to understand that every soldier is instructed that this is unacceptable. Every officer is trained that this is unacceptable. From my experience both as an enlisted man and as an officer, the military will see that these individuals who were instructed that this was not acceptable and then broke the regulations will be punished. This Congress will oversee that. That is a word that the people of the Arab world need to understand, that the people of Iraq need to understand. Things have changed. This Congress will not tolerate this behavior.

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