Washington, DC – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) today opposed H.Res. 627, the weak Republican resolution on the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers.

“This resolution offered by Congressional Republicans condemns abuse but presents glaring and unacceptable omissions,” said Lee.  “The boilerplate language of this resolution offers no real apology.  It does nothing to ease the enormous international tension that has grown out of revelations of clear abuse and humiliation and allegations of torture.  And it calls on the Department of Defense to investigate itself.”

“We need a full-scale, bipartisan congressional investigation into these charges and their devastating international consequences.  We also need to fully investigate the role of private contractors in the war, the reconstruction effort, and the prison system. Tens of thousands of American troops are serving with great honor and courage.  These outrages do not typify their behavior, but they do endanger their lives. As for those accused, I worry for our young men and women in uniform who are being dehumanized, dehumanized by a war that allows them to cross this threshold.”

“In explaining my 9/14 vote against giving this Administration a blank check to wage war essentially as it saw fit – echoing the words of Nathan Baxter, Dean of the Washington National Cathedral -- ‘As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.’ I am afraid that these words are all the more relevant today because some forces among us are turning us into that evil.”

“This is not about a handful of pictures.  It’s about a failure of leadership at the highest levels.  Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has failed in this and in planning for this war as a whole.  He should resign.”

Lee also participated in a Congressional Black Caucus press conference calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation. Lee has been a vocal opponent of Rumsfeld for months, signing a resignation resolution back in November 2003.  “I said then, and I say now, that Rumsfeld is one of the chief engineers of a military action that is deeply flawed. His role in the Iraqi prison abuse just shows once again that the failures of leadership are at the very highest levels.”

 

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