September 18, 2006
REID: AMERICA DESERVES ACCOUNTABILITY FOR IRAQ CONTRACTING ABUSES
Washington, DC — Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid today delivered the following speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate, calling for a change of course in what has become a civil war in Iraq. While the White House and the Republican Congress prefer to close their eyes to their own mistakes and blindly stay the same failed course, Democrats are fighting for a new direction.
The text of Senator Reid’s remarks as delivered, including a colloquy with Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin, is below.
SENATOR REID: Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. President, for more than three years this Congress, which has been given the name “The Do-Nothing Congress,” has turned a blind eye to the intractable war in Iraq, ignoring the Administration’s many mistakes, allowing it to stay a failed course.
Here we are with six days left in the 109th Congress, and the Republicans, which control the House and the Senate and the White House, have not held one hearing, not one, into the President’s wartime failures. During the Civil War, President Lincoln was faced continually with oversight hearings by his Congress. And of course we know during World War II there were a number of commissions. The most famous was that conducted by Senator Harry Truman of Missouri which led to his becoming Vice President, and some say that if it wasn’t for that he wouldn’t have been chosen as Vice President.
What was the Truman Commission? It was to determine what was going on with World War II. It was used to investigate money being wasted for troop levels. Korea hearings were held. We know that many, many hearings on Vietnam were held.
But, Mr. President, this war: none. Even though this war has taken longer than it took to settle the difference in the European Theatre in World War II. And so we’ll be at the same amount of time that we were able to defeat Japan.
This Republican Congress has wasted 20 months on the Schiavo case, dealing with someone’s personal relationships that should not have been before this body. Gay marriage, the nuclear option, flag burning, repealing the estate tax. But they couldn’t find a day – they couldn’t find a day – for time to look at the President’s mistakes. Missteps, misconduct which have hurt American security and plunged Iraq into a civil war. Not a day.
Yesterday’s “Washington Post” newspaper brought the latest indictment of the Bush incompetence in Iraq. In a front-page story, “Ties To G.O.P. Trumped Knwo-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq”. This says a lot of things, this article, but here’s some of the things it said: “Applicants didn’t need to be experts in the Middle East in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush Administration”.
And it’s interesting to note the person selected to do this is a man by the name of O'Beirne. I was on a talk show with a woman by the name of Kate O'Beirne, and I thought it just happened to be her husband.
Here are some of the questions asked: “Did you vote for George W. Bush 2000?” They even asked questions, how the applicant felt about Roe v. Wade. People being interviewed for purposes of helping rebuild war-damaged Iraq were asked questions on Roe v. Wade. The Questions had nothing to do with one’s competence, their education background or their experience. The article says, “From June 2003 to June 2004, it was clear that O'Beirne lacked vital skills to do what he was supposed to do.”
“A 24 year-old who never worked in finance but applied for a White House job was sent to reopen Baghdad’s Stock Exchange.”
The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq’s $13 billion budget, even though they had no background in accounting.
Interviews with scores of former personnel over the past two years depict an organization that was dominated and ultimately hobbled by administration ideologues.
“We didn't tap -- and it should have started from the White House on down -- just didn't tap the right people to do this job,” said Frederick Smith, who served as the deputy director of the CPA's Washington office. "It was a tough, tough job. Instead we got people who went out there because of their political leanings.”
Many of the staff members were more interested in other things, in instituting a flat tax. People sent there with no background, no education academic experience, set out to create a flat tax in Iraq.
They were interested in selling off government assets and ending food rations and otherwise zoning a new nation, it looked a lot like the United States. Many spent days quartered in a green zone in a walled off enclave in Central Baghdad with resort-size swimming pools. Mr. President, this picture here kind of says it all. Here’s Paul Bremmer who – they dumped General Garner after a few weeks and brought him in. Here he is. Here he is on his thrown. He’s on a throne surrounded by Iraqis.
more:
http://democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=263222&
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