House Dems
Demand More Iraq Hearings
Several House Democrats have called upon Republican chairmen
to exercise their full oversight responsibilities and hold further hearings into
the abuses at prisons in Iraq.
The ranking Democrats on the International Relations, Armed
Services and Government Reform committees all have sent letters. Judiciary
Democrats are drafting a letter that will likely be sent today. Other ranking
members, including Jane Harman (D-Calif.) of the Intelligence Committee, are
considering doing the same.
The letters were written at the request of House Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), according to one Democratic aide.
In what several aides characterized as the strongest of the
letters, Government Reform ranking Democrat Henry Waxman (Calif.) was joined by
the 18 other minority members of the committee. They called on Chairman Tom
Davis (R-Va.) to investigate the role of private contractors in the prison
abuses in Iraq.
Arguing that the “Bush administration has been shielded from
serious congressional oversight for far too long,” the panel’s Democrats
suggested in a letter to Davis yesterday that Republicans were shirking their
constitutional duty by failing to investigate the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at
Abu Ghraib.
The Democrats, joined by independent Rep. Bernie Sanders
(Vt.), said, “While other committees can examine the military’s involvement in
this appalling pattern of abuse, it is our Committee’s special responsibility to
investigate the involvement of private contractors.”
A spokesman for Davis dismissed Waxman’s letter as “partisan
mudslinging.” He
added that the Armed Services committees and the Defense
Department already were conducting investigations.
“If [Davis] senses there’s a missing piece related to
government-wide contracting
policy, he may reconsider his decision” not to hold hearings,
said his spokesman, David Marin. He also said that the regulations covering the
contractors in this case were under Armed Services’ jurisdiction, not Government
Reform’s.
“We’re not afraid to ask difficult questions,” Marin said.
“But Mr. Davis determines the agenda, not Mr. Waxman, and we’re not going to
craft our hearing schedule based on Mr. Waxman’s partisan blueprint.”
The House Armed Services Committee, chaired by California
Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, heard testimony about the abuses and subsequent
investigation from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other officials at a
hearing Friday.
Armed Services ranking Democrat Ike Skelton (Mo.) asked
Hunter to hold further hearings, in a letter sent earlier this week. His office
would not release the letter, describing it as personal correspondence between
the two lawmakers.
But the Government Reform Democrats’ letter cited an article
in The Hill last week in which Republican chairmen of House committees said they
would defer to the administration’s investigations into the alleged abuse.
“America’s reputation has been dealt a serious blow around
the world by the actions of a select few,” House Administration Chairman Bob Ney
(R-Ohio) told The Hill last week. “The last thing our nation needs now is for
others to enflame this hatred by providing fodder and sound bites for our
enemies.”
Other ranking members in the House sent similar letters. On
Friday, International Relations ranking member Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) asked
Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) to hold hearings covering three topics, said Lantos
spokeswoman Lynne Weil: the impact of the abuses on America’s efforts in Iraq,
the application of the Geneva convention and the use of contractors.
The Judiciary Committee Democrats’ letter will ask Chairman
James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) to investigate human-rights abuses in Iraq,
according to a spokesperson for ranking Democrat John Conyers (Mich.).
On the other side of the Capitol, senators on both sides of
the aisle have said they will launch thorough investigations. Top military
intelligence officials testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee
yesterday and addressed the role of civilian contractors.
“Contractors may not perform interrogations except under the
supervision of military personnel,” Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence
Stephen Cambone told the committee. “There may have been circumstances under
which this regulation was not followed. I cannot tell you that it was followed
in all respects.”
The role that private contractors play in Iraq has been under
scrutiny from House Democrats, some of whom were briefed by Brookings
Institution scholar Peter Singer on the topic last week. Rep. Jan Schakowsky
(D-Ill.) asked President Bush in a letter to stop contracting with private
security firms in Iraq.
In their letter yesterday, Government Reform Democrats
questioned whether private contractors should be involved in prisoner
interrogation and what laws apply to the contractors. “It appears that military
law does not apply to civilian contractors,” they wrote.
The hiring and screening processes of security contractors in
Iraq and government supervision of these civilians are other issues the
committee’s minority lawmakers would like to see investigated.
