Iraqi Detainees at Abu Ghraib Prison

IRAQI DETAINEES AT ABU GHRAIB PRISON -- (House of Representatives - May 04, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cole). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. MEEKS of New York. Mr. Speaker, it is hard to decide where to start in expressing one's outrage about the revelations, including the graphic photographs, that our military personnel literally tortured Iraqi detainees at a prison near Baghdad. It is even harder to know where the responsibility ends for conduct that obviously violates the Geneva Convention on care for prisoners of war and Geneva Convention on the obligations of an occupation authority.

For any decent-minded American, whether he or she supports the war or opposes the war, to remain silent about this conduct is to be complicit with this conduct. To refuse to condemn it in the strongest terms possible, to be reluctant to hold accountable not only those who did this but also those who permitted it, those who ordered it, those who created an atmosphere that encouraged it, and those who sent the signals that everything and anything goes, no matter how far up the chain of command, it jeopardizes our relationship with the entire Arab and Muslim world. We should all fear for every American soldier and civilian in Iraq whose life has been placed in jeopardy by this irresponsible behavior and, frankly, the irresponsible conduct of this war.

Before these revelations, it was manifestly clear that our Iraq policy was in deep, deep trouble. It was already clear that we faced a widening and deepening resistance. It was already clear that the administration's characterizations of the resistance as "dead-enders," "remnants of Saddam's regime," and "terrorists from the outside" did not coincide with reality. These allegations, revealed first last week by 60 Minutes II, then detailed by investigator reporter Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker Magazine, and substantiated in a courageous report by Major General Antonio M. Taguba, may have made our situation irrevocably untenable.

Think of the predicament now facing U.S. occupation this way: What would anyone anywhere in the world want to do to someone who had done such despicable acts to a family member?

The President and other senior administration and Pentagon officials have been quick to say that only a few participated in these deeds. My question is who are the few? Over the weekend, the mistreatment was said to involve only six or seven military police. Now at mid week, we are told that 17 U.S. soldiers are under investigation for their role in the abuses, including seven supervising officers who will receive an official reprimand or admonishment, six enlisted personnel who are charged with criminal offenses in

March, and another four who are under criminal investigation.

Against this backdrop, General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this past Sunday that he had not read the Taguba report. It has taken until today for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to make a statement, and according to a Pentagon spokesman, as late as today, Mr. Rumsfeld had not read the report either.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is the coordinator of our overall efforts in Iraq. She has been silent as well. Secretary of State Colin Powell says that the entire military should not be condemned for the actions of only a few.

No one is condemning the entire military, but once again I ask who are the few? Does it include those, whoever they are, who told the military police to "soften up" the detainees for interrogation? I cannot accept, especially when we hear that military intelligence and private contractors ordered the actions, that these military police officers just happened to choose acts that are offensive in any culture, but are especially humiliating to males in the Arab and Islamic cultures.

And logic leads me to believe the psychological implications were well understood, and the acts imposed on the detainees were deliberately selected.

It is fair to ask what else may be going on? Has there been such a heavy reliance on private military contractors precisely to evade criminal liability? Have not Iraqis been given new reason to view the United States war on terrorism as a war on terrorism against them, their religion, and their culture?

Congress needs to conduct a probe of the incidents and their wider ramifications. Congress and the American people must answer to questions that we can be sure that the people of Iraq and all Muslim lands are asking. While the full weight of punishment should be brought on all of those implicated, the American people, as a whole, need to appreciate how much higher the mountain now is that the President must climb to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and to persuade the Middle East to follow the model of American democracy. Under his leadership things continue to go from bad to worse to terrible.