OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Deploring Abuse of Persons in United States Custody in Iraq

Date: May 6, 2004
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights Defense


Deploring Abuse of Persons in United States Custody in Iraq -- (House of Representatives - May 06, 2004)

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, all Americans were shocked by what we saw at the Abu Ghraib prison. The abuse of Iraqi prisoners offends our values as human beings and as Americans. I am deeply disturbed by the administration's handling of this issue. A 3-month-old investigation has only now come to light. Some are questioning whether we may have lost control of civilian contractors who fall outside of the military chain of command.

But there is something equally as alarming about this news, the discovery that unregulated private contractors are interrogating prisoners in Iraq on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

This now becomes a question of accountability. In the fog of war, it is not only our military but also private companies deciding whom to deploy, whom to carry out operations, and how those people are vetted. There is almost no congressional oversight, civil regulation, or military law that governs them. By contracting out these critical tasks to civilian contractors who fall outside of the chain of command, there is no quality assurance, and there is questionable accountability.

The Secretary of Defense has been inattentive and perhaps negligent at great cost to our reputation and our security, and the call for the Secretary of Defense resignation is growing stronger day by day. At the very least, the Republican leadership in this House should convene bipartisan, bicameral congressional hearings to examine this urgent matter.

This reminds us that before we win the hearts and the minds of the Iraqis in this effort, we must win something else, trust, the trust of the American people.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I would just say to the gentleman that I think the report in terms of Members of Congress, the people's House, that we have in fact been kept in the dark. There may have been some who have known about it. I listened to General Myers.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I will tell the gentlewoman the entire world was told by this news release.

Ms. DeLAURO. Then it is even more poignant.

arrow_upward