Hearing on Exiting Iraq to be Webcast Live on Thursday

[Kevin Spidel]

The hearing will be taped gavel-to-gavel by C-Span and broadcast during primetime Thursday evening. And there will be a live video link on http://www.woolsey.house.gov

Click where it says: Woolsey Forum "How to Bring the Troops Home". Live Webcast 10:00 A.M. ET - 1:00 P.M. ET.

**** HEARING WEBCAST LIVE ****
AT WOOLSEY.HOUSE.GOV 10:00 AM ET - 1:00 PM ET

WOOLSEY CALLS ON CONGRESS TO PLAN HOW TO BRING TROOPS HOME

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) is calling on Members of Congress and the President to work together to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, while helping the Iraqis regain control over their country and their future.

What: Bipartisan Congressional Hearing on How to Bring the Troops Home

When: Thursday, September 15, 2005
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Who: U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey
Other Members of Congress
Witnesses include:

U.S. Senator Max Cleland, former member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, former Director of the Veterans Administration and Vietnam veteran.

General Joseph Hoar (Ret. USMC), former Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command.

Ambassador David Mack, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, and current Vice President of the Middle East Institute.

Dr. Ken Katzman, Middle East analyst and Iraq specialist at the Congressional Research Service.

Antonia Chayes, Director of the Project on International Institutions and Conflict Management at Harvard Law School. Visiting Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and former Under Secretary of the Air Force during the Carter Administration.

Anas Shallal, founder of "Iraqi-Americans for Peaceful Alternatives."

Where: 122 Cannon House Office Building
Capitol Hill, Washington, DC

WEBCAST LIVE at Woolsey.house.gov

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, the first Member of Congress to call on the President to develop and implement a plan to bring U.S. troops out of Iraq, has requested hearings in the U.S. House International Relations Committee and the U.S. House Armed Services Committee to discuss plans to bring the troops home while helping the Iraqis regain control over their country and their future.

Since her requests of the President and the Republican controlled Congress have been ignored, Congresswoman Woolsey is organizing an informal hearing to discuss strategies to achieve military disengagement while still playing a constructive role in the rebuilding of Iraqi society.

[Kevin Spidel]

1. kickety kick.. come on people.. this is huge!

on in 10 min!

[Kevin Spidel]

2. i can't believe this is a dull topic in this forum...

that this gets no response.

WOW!

here is the live feed.... this is history folks!

http://anon.newmediamill.speedera.net/anon.newmediamill/woolsey/iraq.asx

[Coexist]

3. kick - nominated

will be watching!

[Kevin Spidel]

4. thx!

this is a great hearing/forum!

[meganmonkey]

5. Kick and nominated

[meganmonkey]

6. Aaaah - I keep losing my feed

oh - it's back for now...

[Coexist]

7. Oh man, I thought I read it STARTED at 1:00 -

it ENDS at one. I am at work with no speakers - can anyone help? I work for another 15 minutes.

[meganmonkey]

8. Who is this talking now?

He says this is the most corrupt and incompetent administration ever :)

[Kevin Spidel]

9. Max Cleland for President!

this man is a genuis and a war hero!

lets run him agains any repug!

[meganmonkey]

14. Oh that's who he was!

I shoulda known

[welshTerrier2]

10. DU's PDA forum has died ...

many may still be here as individuals but sadly, there is no organization ...

thanks for the heads up on the Iraq hearings ... i'll be tuned in and will help spread the word ...

[Kevin Spidel]

11. bummer :(

we will be putting online forums on the PDA site if your interestedin helping moderate.

[Kevin Spidel]

12. those petitions are PDA's 20,000 signatures! Go PDA'ers! n/t

[Coexist]

13. any update before I have to leave?

[meganmonkey]

15. I wish I could transcribe some of this

but I am at work and I keep getting pulled away from m y desk...

[liveoaktx]

16. Vid Clip of Lynn Woolsey talking about this

On Freedom Walk and her meeting on Thursday

[meganmonkey]

17. It looks like this will keep going until 1:30 or so...

[Kevin Spidel]

18. my reflections on Max Clelands comments.

Max Cleland is currently testifying at an "Out of Iraq" hearing hosted by Rep. Woolsey in Congress. He made a few points in which he called the "blunt truth about terror." I have to say, I wish more Democrats would be talking about these issues more often. Points he touches on, then I elaborated on are below with my own spin:

Our President, responsible for our security in regards to terror, has given more support to terrorist by fueling their mission. Bon Laden's main thesis in his recruitment is by stating that the America plans to occupy and control the Middle East, thus trying to squash the culture of the Middle Eastern practices. By invading Iraq and saying we are staying there for the foreseeable future, and talking about permanent military bases, are in fact fueling the mission of Bin Laden. The fact that we have not yet captured or killed Bin Laden and his support network is another failure on the war on terror. The simple fact that they continue to recruit, and we provide the climate and motive for them to do so, vis-à-vis Iraq, the Bush administration is aiding and supporting the terrorists.

In 2006, on the issue of terror, we need to rally around these issues. Bush has failed us on making America safer in regards to terror. He has lost focus on the main threat (Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda) and has put us into an unnecessary war based on failed intelligence, thus increasing the breeding ground on the war on terror. We have ballooned our government’s bureaucracy in response to terror in order to secure our "homeland" but can not secure the safety of our American citizens from the aftermath of a hurricane.

Where has the money gone Mr. President?

Where is the response Mr. President?

Where is the security Mr. President?

Where are the organizers and financiers of the attack on 9/11, Mr. President?

All that has been done is, spreading our defense so thin from a misguided war in Iraq, and unfinished job in Afghanistan, and a depleted National Guard which has hurt us here at home, on the border, and in the Gulf Coast in regards to the aftermath of Katrina. The President has promised that the main focus of our government post 9/11 is to secure the homeland and to bring Al-Qaeda to justice. Since then he has failed us on these promises. 4 years later Bin Laden is still missing. The largest most well financed military and government in the world could not respond efficiently in regards to basic evacuation and rescue after Katrina. A failed Iraq war has given birth to an even larger breeding ground to terror, thus increasing our threat. He has depleted our armed services and continues to cut veteran benefits.

Mr. President, you have failed us on the issue of security against terror.

Don’t you ever use that term “War on Terror” as a way to define the new paradigm our government is in. You have failed to provide anything that has secured us against terror. You have spent more tax dollars then any American President in regards to security. Yet still, we are failing the people of Iraq, we are failing the people of New Orleans, we are failing our troops, we are failing the American People.

Mr. President. You have failed!