FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 03, 2005

CONTACT: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider 202-226-7616

Pelosi: Republican Cover-Up Congress Refuses to Investigate Iraq War Abuses

Washington, D.C.– Today, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi introduced a privileged resolution to demand that Republican Congressional leadership conduct athorough investigation of abuses relating to the Iraq War.  The resolution failed by a party line vote, 220 to191, when Republicans unanimously moved to table, or effectively kill, the resolution.

“A vote to table is a vote to cover-up,” Pelosi said.  “Congress has the responsibility to find out why so many things in Iraq have gone so terribly wrong.  That is why I asked the House to investigate abuses relating to Iraq.  Yet, Republicans again thwarted efforts to answer the questions of the American people.  This Republican cover-up Congress refuses to live up to its oversight responsibility.”

“Congress has an obligation to identify and correct the problems that led to the production of flawed intelligence,” Pelosi said.  “Our troops are at risk until that is done, and yet, there is no sense of urgency to undertake a thorough review of what went wrong.   Neither the issue of the quality of the intelligence nor the equally important issue of whether intelligence was politicized, have been investigated by this Congress.”

Citing the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, evidence of the Bush Administration’s efforts to discredit critics of the Iraq war, prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Guantanamo, and Afghanistan, and the responsibility of Congress to oversee the decisions and actions of other branches of government, Pelosi demanded investigative action by the Republican Congress.

The war in Iraq has resulted in the loss of more than 2,000 American lives and more than 15,000 wounded soldiers, and has cost the American people hundreds of billions of dollars, providing further evidence of the need for oversight.

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Below is the text of Leader Pelosi’s privileged resolution:

Whereas the war in Iraq has resulted in the loss of over 2,000 American lives and more than 15,000 wounded soldiers, and has cost the American people $190 billion dollars;

Whereas the basis for going to war was Iraq’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the President made a series of misleading statements regarding threats posed by Iraq, but no weapons of mass destruction have been found;

Whereas the Republican Leadership and Committee Chairmen have repeatedly denied requests by Democratic Members to complete an investigation of pre-war intelligence on Iraq and have ignored the question of whether that intelligence was manipulated for political purposes;

Whereas the Vice President’s Chief of Staff Lewis Libby has been indicted on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in connection with the disclosure of the identity of a CIA operative, and that disclosure was part of a pattern of Administration efforts to discredit critics of the Iraq war;

Whereas four separate requests to hold hearings on the disclosure of the CIA operative were denied in the Government Reform Committee, and Resolutions of Inquiry were rejected in the Intelligence, Judiciary, Armed Services, and International Relations Committees;

Whereas the American people have spent $20.9 billion dollars to rebuild Iraq with much of the money squandered on no-bid contracts for Halliburton and other favored contractors;

Whereas Halliburton received a sole-source contract worth $7 billion to implement the restoration of Iraq’s oil infrastructure, and a senior Army Corps of Engineers official wrote that the sole-source contract was “coordinated with the Vice President’s office”;

Whereas despite these revelations, on July 22, 2004 the Republican-controlled Government Reform Committee voted to reject a subpoena by Democratic Members appropriately seeking information on communications of the Vice President’s office on awarding contracts to Halliburton;

Whereas prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Guantanamo, and Afghanistan have seriously damaged the reputation of the United States, and increased the danger to U.S. personnel serving in Iraq and abroad;

Whereas the Republican Leadership and Committee Chairmen have denied requests for hearings, defeated resolutions of inquiry for information, and failed to aggressively pursue serious allegations, including how far up the chain of command the responsibility lies for the treatment of detainees;

Whereas the oversight of decisions and actions of other branches of government is an established and fundamental responsibility of Congress;

Whereas the Republican Leadership and the Chairmen of the committees of jurisdiction have failed to undertake meaningful, substantive investigations of any of the abuses pertaining to the Iraq war, including the manipulation of pre-war intelligence, the public release of a covert operative’s name, the role of the Vice President in Iraqi reconstruction, and the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal;

Therefore be it resolved that:

The House calls upon the Republican Leadership and Chairmen of the committees of jurisdiction to comply with their oversight responsibilities, demands they conduct a thorough investigation of abuses relating to the Iraq War, and condemns their refusal to conduct oversight of an Executive Branch controlled by the same party, which is in contradiction to the established rules of standing committees and Congressional precedent.

“ Democrats are united in presenting a New Direction for America, one that will make our nation as strong as its people, one that brings opportunity, security, and prosperity to all Americans. ”

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi