Congresswoman Brown Furious with Administration's Plans Regarding Iran

Congresswoman Brown Furious with Administration's Plans Regarding Iran

Congresswoman Brown made the following statement regarding the Bush administration's authorization to use U.S. military forces to capture or kill Iranian agents in Iraq who, they claim, are plotting attacks against U.S. and coalition forces.

"I am extremely concerned about recent overtones the President has made with respect to Iran. The same pretexts, the same aggressive stance with scant evidence. If the administration is planning, or even considering carrying out a full fledged attack on Iran, I categorically believe that the President should not initiate any military action without obtaining prior Congressional authorization.

On January 10th, during Bush's address to the nation on Iraq, similar to their rhetoric before attacking Iraq, he began to mount his case against Iran. The President stated that he believes ‘Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops… (and plans to) disrupt the attacks on our forces… (and to) seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.' To me, this serves as pretty clear evidence that the administration plans to expand the war across the Iraqi border and into Iran.

Moreover, in addition to today's announcement, U.S. forces already went in and detained five Iranian agents earlier this month in Irbil, and claim to have found links between the detainees and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who, they argue, has been providing funds, weapons, bomb technology and training to Iraqi extremists. To me, this "link" sounds more than reminiscent of previous arguments made leading up to the war in Iraq, such as administration claims of weapons of mass destruction, which were never found, and Saddam Hussein's ties to Al-Queda, which has never been proven.

Not only have I never been a supporter of the war in Iraq, I wholeheartedly do not support an expansion of the war, particularly in light of the administration's poor military decisions, low public support for the Iraq war, and outright illegitimate grounds for being there in the first place."

http://www.house.gov/list/press/fl03_brown/pr_070126.html