9/11 Commission Report (Continued)

9/11 COMMISSION REPORT -- (House of Representatives - July 22, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Pearce) may continue not beyond midnight.

Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

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Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments again.

And, Mr. Speaker, I would note that during this week we were allowed and privileged to hear the Deputy National Security Adviser. He commented that much of Iraq is still very stable. Always when the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter) and I were in Iraq at the end of October and the first of November, it appeared that about 75 percent of the country was very stable, that there were areas of difficulty in Fallujah, Mosul, that there were areas of problems but that most of the country was doing exactly what the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter) said. People were trying to live normal lives.

As we drove up and down the highways, it was obvious that we were Americans. We had American flags on the convoy. We had armored vehicles. We were in armored vehicles, and yet there were no signs of obvious dislike or distrust of the Americans. People just seemed to be living their lives. Occasionally we would give waves. No overtly aggressive actions were taken toward us. Small kids sometimes waved and gave us the thumbs up. But that is the picture now of Iraq now under the transitional government, that people are trying to get out and live their lives, and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter) pointed out very well that while we were there they brought in fliers and showed us that these days of national resistance, if they take their child to school, they will either kill them or blow the school up. People still were selecting to send their kids to schools. About 50 percent of the school kids went that day with those difficult threats about them. Different fliers announced, Do not go shopping, Do not go into the business district today or we will kill you there. And yet the Iraqis, in trying to live normal lives, normal lives where they could expect to come and go, normal lives of freedom, the things that we take for granted and have somewhat become complacent about in this country that they are doing under the threat of death day in and day out.

So to find this transitional government operating actually quite well, we were actually able to hand the power over to them a couple of days early, and in fact many of the ministries were operating even before the handover date. By a couple of weeks they had already been operating. So we find the stability of the transition to be remarkable, and what we are finding also, according to this Deputy National Security Adviser, is that the Iraqis are buying more into the need for them to be out on the frontlines, and as they provide security in their neighborhoods, as they provide border security, they are able to do it better because the United States is not under the tremendous pressure that the international community would bring, and the Iraqis do not face that same pressure either. The Iraqis can act more decisively. They can act with more abruptness. They can act with far more retribution than what the Americans could do, and there is an acceptance in the international community when the Iraqis act in that fashion.

So, Mr. Speaker, if this country will maintain its resolve, if both sides of the debate will begin to discuss the actual truth instead of what they would like to be true, then, Mr. Speaker, we can win this war on terror.

One of the things that I think is very critical is for the media to begin to discuss it truthfully. The media has had it correct back as far as 1999. Many in the news media were publicly reporting the ties between Iraq and al Qaeda. It was only under President Bush, when they decided that they wanted to be against him, that they wanted to discredit him at any cost, that the media began to change their story. Mr. Speaker, I would hope that the media would take a look at the 9/11 Commission, that they would put that beside the Senate Select Committee, which had many of the same findings. I would hope that the news media would compare it to the Butler report on British intelligence and begin to report the truth, that this is indeed a war on terror, that this is indeed the war on terror that is going to determine the outcome of world history.

Mr. Speaker, the media had it right back in 1999. Newsweek Magazine ran an article on January 11, 1999, entitled Saddam + bin Laden? It read in part: "Saddam Hussein, who has a long record of supporting terrorism, is trying to rebuild his intelligence network overseas, assets that would allow him to establish a terrorism network. U.S. sources say he is reaching out to Islamic terrorists, including some who may be linked to Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi exile accused of masterminding the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa last summer."

Mr. Speaker, ABC News on January 15, 1999, also had a report in which they acknowledged the links between Iraq and al Qaeda, and yet now they are claiming that there is no link. But on January 15, 1999, ABC News said: "Intelligence sources say bin Laden's long relationship with the Iraqis began as he helped Sudan's fundamentalist government in their efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction." This according to ABC news. It goes on to say that "ABC News has learned that in December an Iraqi intelligence chief named Faruq Hijazi, now Iraq's Ambassador to Turkey, made a secret trip to Afghanistan to meet with bin Laden. Three intelligence agencies tell ABC News they cannot be certain what was discussed, but almost certainly, they say, bin Laden had been told he would be welcome in Baghdad."

Those findings are similar to the findings of the 9/11 Commission that I reported on earlier in this discussion tonight.
Another well-reported article and news source, NPR reporter Mike Shuster reported in an interview with Vincent Cannistraro, who was the former head of the CIA's counterterrorism center.

Mike Shuster reports on NPR that Iraq's contacts with bin Laden go back some years to at least 1994 when, according to one U.S. Government source, Hijazi met with him when bin Laden lived in Sudan. According to Cannistraro, Iraq invited bin Laden to live in Baghdad to be nearer to potential targets of terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Some experts believed bin Laden might be tempted to live in Iraq because of his reported desire to obtain chemical or biological weapons. CIA Director George Tenet referred to that in recent testimony before the Senate Committee on Armed Services, when he said bin Laden was planning additional attacks on American targets.

Mr. Speaker, the news media has had it correct in the past. I earnestly hope that they will return to the truthful reporting of the past and give this 9/11 report the hearing in front of the American people that it deserves. The American people need to know the truth, and the news media needs to be certain that the American people should and will know the truth, whether or not it comes from them.

Mr. Speaker, again, I would begin my wrap up comments by saying that Mr. Berger's removing of documents from the archives absolutely appears to have been criminal contact. I would recommend that this body and all other bodies responsible look into these sorts of illegal activities, to bring this to the highest level of examination.

Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that Mr. Berger wanted to take documents, some of which he has not returned, some of which supposedly have been destroyed. Mr. Berger needs to be held accountable for the illegal activities that he conducted while he was working with the Kerry campaign. I think, Mr. Speaker, that the Kerry campaign needs to also be very straightforward with the American people about their association with Mr. Berger.

Mr. Speaker, I would offer one last time to yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

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Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank you for your tolerance in allowing us to speak tonight about this very important subject, that of understanding the tie between Iraq, al Qaeda and the international war on terror. It is the most significant thing that this generation faces. We are either going to leave the world more safe, or we can leave the world without freedom.

Mr. Speaker, it is up to this body, it is up to this government, it is up to this President, and it is up to the American people. We must decide. We are going to decide this year which way we are going to pursue this particular war on terror.

Mr. Speaker, I would request humbly that all of the citizens, all of the people throughout this country, and especially the people in this body, would give that discussion their fullest attention and arrive at decisions, so we can explain to the next generation that we took the responsibility and handled that responsibility wisely.