Wednesday, December 10, 2003
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Wednesday, December 10, 2003 |
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Collins reports on Iraq trip Says allies should work faster to rid Iraq of symbols of Saddam’s regime WASHINGTON - During an interview last week on the Fox News Channel, U.S. Rep. Mac Collins said he was pleased with the results of a trip by a congressional delegation that he led to Iraq during Thanksgiving week. Collins called on coalition forces to work faster to destroy remaining statues and other items symbolizing Saddam’s regime. Four big Saddam statues were removed by the coalition forces at the Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters. Collins and the delegation met with Ambassador Paul Bremer, Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Gen. Paul Eaton, Col. Ralph Baker, Dr. David Kay and key members of the intelligence community. They also had Thanksgiving dinner with American troops. Many Iraqis, according to Collins, are impressed with the many positive actions the Americans and coalition forces have done for the Iraqis since Saddam was driven from power and they have helped authorities capture Saddam's henchmen. “The opening up of schools and projects like hospitals and other reconstruction projects that we are doing there, have caused (Iraqi) people to become very involved and informing them (coalition forces) of who the bad guys are,” said Collins. Iraqis have also been cooperating with coalition authorities to successfully conduct house raids and pick up those “we consider the bad guys” but more must be done to rid the country of reminders of Saddam. “We need to do away with some of the remnants of Saddam Hussein. There’s still some statues (of Saddam) standing. There's evidence of his regime that we need to do away with so that the Iraqi people can no longer see those symbols. We need to wipe out those symbols,” Collins said. Collins, while not seeing President Bush in Iraq, said his surprise Thanksgiving Day visit raised the morale of the troops. He sensed it in conversations with military personnel. “You measure it by what the individual soldier tells you when you have dinner with them or lunch with them,” Collins said. “I circled the mess hall there in the (CPA headquarters) Command Post and talked with a number of people,” said Collins. “I talked with soldiers, I talked with contractors, I talked with people from Iraq who worked with the Iraqi Ministry of Justice. That’s how you get a feel of how people think and how the morale is.” Collins is a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He led the delegation that consisted of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), and Anibal Acevedo-Vila (D-PR) and their staffs, military escorts and representatives from the White House and the nation’s intelligence community.
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