Wednesday, July 30, 2003
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Wednesday, July 30, 2003 |
Collins: Operation Iraqi Freedom still has work to doWASHINGTON - In a rare open hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Congressman Mac Collins presented evidence of Iraq's possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction, expressed satisfaction with the job being done by the U.S. Military, and support for the President in liberating the Iraqi people. In his opening comments before the testimony of former CIA directors James Woolsey and John Deutch, Collins discussed the reasons for attacking Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "Look at the name of the operation," Collins said. "It was not 'Operation find Weapons of Mass Destruction.' It was not 'Operation Determine Whether Saddam Hussein Tried to Buy Uranium From Africa.' It was Operation Iraqi Freedom. That means you are taking down a tyrant and a dictator who had killed a lot of his own people. And not only his own people, but he wanted to rule the region. We saw this when we pushed him out of Kuwait in 1991." Collins also laid out the case for Hussein's ties to the Al Queda terrorist organization; discussing now declassified intelligence revealing flight training facilities in Iraq, support for Palestinian suicide bombers, and incidents of terrorists taking refuge in Iraq. "We have evidence that Iraq was training terrorists in how to take over a jet liner to use as a weapon to kill Americans," Collins said. "A Boeing 707 used for that very purpose was found in Iraq. Even with all of the problems we have with our Intelligence Community, intelligent people can make the determination that Iraq was involved with terrorists and the evidence shows this." Collins admitted there were problems with the gathering of intelligence but that these problems were being addressed by the committee. "Are there problems in the Intelligence Community?Yes. Are we addressing them? Yes," Collins said. The testimony of DCIs Woolsey and Deutch bore out those problems and the steps being taken to address them. "One of the biggest problems we face is the willingness to listen to walk-ins and those who volunteer information and not just recruited assets," Woolsey told the committee. One of the ways Woolsey claimed this is being addressed is by advisory groups within each of the agencies which will often approach those walk-ins turned away by CIA. While the bulk of the fighting in Iraq has ended, Collins expressed that we have only entered the second phase of operations. "We are in phase two," Collins said. "The first phase was the swift military action and air strikes by our forces.This second phase is the stabilization of the government of Iraq; returning the people to a sense of normalcy. We knew we would face terrorist attacks and snipers.We have faced these problems in every conflict we have ever fought throughout our history.But we will be successful in helping the people of Iraq establish a democracy after so many years of oppression. "We could have had more casualties if we had fought door to door from the Kuwait border to Baghdad, but we didn't do that.We bypassed those areas to get to the head of the evil government and by doing so we saved the lives of many more soldiers and Marines, as well as the Iraqi people. Now we have to clean up those pockets of resistance and we are in the process of doing that." When asked how long American troops will stay in Iraq, Collins' response, and that of the soldiers, is "until the job is done.We have put in place an interim council to establish self rule for the Iraqi people. The chief of the Infantry School from Fort Benning is there training a new Iraqi military so they can stand up and defend themselves. We are training a police force; many of them are already in uniform and on duty. We are putting in place a judicial system which can administer justice. Schools are open and infrastructure is being repaired. This second phase is setting the stage for phase three, the exit plan when we can bring our troops home and the nation of Iraq can once again rule itself." Another issue addressed by the Committee was whether Iraq possessed illegal WMDs. The committee examined the amount of biological and chemical agents needed to carry out a massive lethal attack on the United States or its allies. Former DCI Woolsey described the amount of unaccounted for agents as half a truck full of chemical agents and a few suitcases of biological agents hidden in a nation the size of California, yet capable of killing millions. "To put it in perspective, imagine how many half truckloads of marijuana and how many suitcases of cocaine are currently in California without the knowledge of the authorities," Woosley said. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Additionally, Congress has released the declassified version of the joint inquiry report on Sept. 11, 2001.The entire report may be downloaded from Collins' Web site at http://www.house.gov/maccollins/911report.pdf.
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