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| Journal: Wilson Gets Tough in Prisoner-Abuse Hearings |
May 22, 2004 |
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By Michael Coleman
Journal Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON— Rep. Heather Wilson is the only female veteran in the U.S. House, an Air Force Academy graduate and a staunch supporter of President Bush and the war in Iraq.
She`s also one of the few Republicans in Congress asking repeated and pointed questions about the military`s alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The congresswoman`s questions— and calls to open private House briefings on the scandal— have irked some Republicans who want to downplay it for security and political reasons.
Wilson, who has no primary election opposition, said she is not trying to grandstand or win political points during an election year in her moderate, Albuquerque-based congressional district in New Mexico. She said she`s just trying to pinpoint exactly what went wrong in Abu Ghraib— and possibly other U.S. military prisons— and help prevent similar abuses in the future.
"It`s easy to be appalled by what happened at Abu Ghraib," Wilson said in an interview this week. "It`s more difficult to follow evidence where it leads. This is work I`m doing. It`s our constitutional responsibility."
As the only member of New Mexico`s congressional delegation with a seat on an armed services committee, Wilson has had unique access to officials, ranging from the Army general who wrote the report about Abu Ghraib to President Bush himself. The congresswoman, who was a Rhodes Scholar, is a former Air Force officer and worked for two years for the National Security Council.
This week, she sat in on two separate classified meetings— one with three Army generals, including Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who blew the lid off the prison abuse with his now-infamous report, and one with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. On May 13, she went to the White House with Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and several other Republicans for a private meeting with President Bush.
Wilson has resisted pressure from news outlets to discuss the conversation she and others had with the president. In a lengthy telephone interview with the Journal, she said, "We talked about Iraq."
`A time of war`
She said eight members of Congress attended the meeting and it lasted more than an hour. She refused to discuss the president`s comments or the questions that were asked. She said the meeting took place upstairs at the White House, not in the Oval Office.
"It`s a time of war, and I think members of Congress should be able to talk frankly with the president without having to" talk about the meeting publicly, Wilson said.
However, Wilson has called for more openness from her congressional colleagues on the prison issue. Last Tuesday, Wilson got crossways with Rep. Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, when she questioned his decision to close another hearing with Taguba and other generals on the prisoner abuse matter. Wilson even issued a public statement criticizing the decision.
"I think it is important for the world to see how America deals with allegations of abuse and mistreatment," Wilson said in an interview. "We don`t sweep it under the rug. We not only have to do what`s right, but we need to be seen doing it."
Hunter disagreed, saying that continued exposure of the prison abuse issue would inflame tensions in Iraq and put U.S. soldiers at risk. A spokesman said Hunter also thinks the hearings are being used as a political platform for Democrats and a few Republicans.
"He wanted to do a briefing and get to the heart of the matter and not have a public circus as we`ve seen on the (Senate) side," said Harald Stavanas, Hunter`s spokesman on the Armed Services Committee. "Congressman Hunter feels it`s being over-sensationalized."
Wilson maintained after attending the hearing that it should have been opened.
"These hearings focus on policy; they do not imperil soldiers in the field," she said.
Pressing Rumsfeld
Wilson began her inquiry into the prison abuse scandal on May 7, during an open hearing with Rumsfeld, Gen. Richard Myers, who is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other Pentagon officials. At that hearing, she compared the Iraq prison brutality and accompanying photos to the infamous My Lai massacre in the Vietnam War.
She told Rumsfeld that he needed to disclose everything he knew about the abuse, "irrespective of the way we`ve always done it."
Wilson also asked more technical questions, pointing out that a directive to put military police under the command of military intelligence officers was contrary to Army regulation. She repeatedly asked who signed the order to do so at Abu Ghraib and if any of the Pentagon officials at the hearing knew about it.
Rumsfeld and Myers said they had no idea who signed it. As it turned out, it was signed by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top military commander in Iraq.
Wilson said Friday that she wasn`t impressed with Rumsfeld`s performance at the hearing on May 7, or at another one this past Wednesday. She has also pressed the defense secretary to explain if there were special policies in place in Iraq that allowed prisoners to be treated outside the Geneva Conventions, which provide international standards for treatment of prisoners of war.
"He didn`t answer my questions," said Wilson, who has not called for Rumsfeld`s resignation.
Tripp Baird, a congressional liaison with the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, said Wilson`s comments— and those of Sen. Lindsey Graham, another Republican who has engaged in high-profile critiques of the prison policies— are unusual.
"It`s probably not helpful from the administration`s point of view," Baird said. "When situations like this happen and you have a Heather Wilson— a military person— (criticizing Pentagon policies), it lends credibility to the criticism."
But it can also prod the administration to correct the problems more quickly, he said.
"It hurts, but it`s also tough love," Baird said. |
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