Bill Delahunt

Mr. DELAHUNT

Mr. DELAHUNT. And be honest with us about the cost of the prescription drug benefit proposal put forth by his party and his White House.

Mr. DELAHUNT. That is only half of the story. I think it is very important that those that are watching us tonight in our hour ``hour of conversation'' understand that not only have we lost millions of jobs, but, as the gentleman indicated, we create and we lose, and it is netted out to some 2.5 million jobs we have lost. He will be the next Herbert Hoover. But, do you know what is happening? It is not just a jobless recovery, it is a wage recession. That is really important, that those that are unaware be given that information. The jobs that are replacing the jobs that are lost are coming in at a wage level some 22 percent less than the jobs that they replace.

Mr. DELAHUNT

Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. DELAHUNT

Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Marjorie Murphy, who has recently been named Citizen of the Year by the Cohasset Mariner, a respected newspaper on the South Shore of Boston, MA. Marjie, as she is affectionately known, has made a positive impact on the lives of families throughout the area for 30 years. Originally a first grade teacher, she soon realized her true passion was introducing youngsters to the wonder of a good book. For the next quarter-century, Marjie touched countless lives as a librarian at Deer Hill Elementary School in Cohasset. With her lifetime of public service in mind, Mr. Speaker, I submit to my colleagues this Cohasset Mariner tribute: Citizen of the Year (By Mary Ford) As editor of the Cohasset Mariner, it is my pleasure to announce that Marjorie Murphy is the Citizen of the Year. The mother of three and grandmother of two has touched countless lives through her roughly 25 years as school librarian at Deer Hill. With eyes that twinkle and an infectious smile, Mrs. Murphy--fondly known as Marjie--can make even the oldest readers among as decide to pick up a children's book, perhaps for the first time in many years. Mrs. Murphy did not start out as a librarian. She taught the first grade and wasn't so sure being in the library was the right place for her--until she tried it, and then she didn't look back. She doesn't forget any of the hundreds of children that have passed through the doors to her warm, welcoming library complete with sofas to curl up and read upon. While nominations were open, a total of 33 different individuals, families or organizations took the time to propose a citizen for the annual award--detailing his or her contributions to help make this town we all love a better place. The selection panel consisting of Judy Volungis of Forest Avenue, Betsy Connolly of Lily Pond Lane and Roger Hill of Highland Avenue joined myself, editor Mary Ford, on Sunday to pore over the heartfelt letters of nomination. Barb Mullin wrote, ``With Marjie, children always come first. She's never too busy to help a child select that `perfect' book or listen to a review of their latest read. It's a pleasure to watch former students drop by--and they frequently do! She never seems to forget a face or a name. Ask any one of them about a teacher who positively influenced them and Marjie's name always pops up.'' Claire Cahill said Mrs. Murphy deserved the award for her many yeas of dedication to the children of Cohasset. ``Her smile, her sparks of enthusiasm, and her unending quest to interest every child in her love of reading has made her a very likely candidate for Citizen of the Year,'' wrote Karen Murphy. Dot and Lee Cisneros stated, ``Marjie is a giver. She has given and continues to give of her time, her knowledge, her understanding, her devotion to selling the young and the old on her definition of the value of learning.'' Judith Collins simply said. ``She makes each child feel special.'' So we extend our warm congratulations to Mrs. Murphy, who has devoted her life to helping children discover the wonders of reading and the value of a good book. With this award, the Cohasset Mariner offers recognition for making a difference. In our society too many role models go unrecognized. Too often people today look to the sports, rock or movie stars with envy, when the real hero is the local police officer, firefighter, parent, teacher, church leader, neighbor or government official. The annual Citizen of the Year Award is our way of taking our hats off to those among us who go that extra mile without asking for anything in return but the intrinsic reward of helping to make Cohasset a better place.

Mr. DELAHUNT

Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, not even for the American taxpayers that are putting out some $167 billion to date. That is absolutely outrageous. What I learned this evening, and I find it particularly disturbing, is that Mr. Chalabi was present in this chamber during the State of the Union that was delivered by President Bush back in January and sat with other members of the Iraqi Governing Council in the box where the First Lady was sitting. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Mr. DELAHUNT. Let me read from the original story that I discussed; we are still paying for the tainted intelligence. The American taxpayers are going to foot the bill for Ahmed Chalabi to come to the United States and sit in the First Lady's box. Let me read this: ``The decision not to shut off funding for the information-gathering effort could become another liability for Bush as the Presidential campaign heats up, and suggests that some within the administration are intent on securing a key role for Chalabi in Iraq's political future.'' Chalabi, who built close ties to officials in Vice President Cheney's office, and among top Pentagon officials, is on the Iraqi Governing Council, a body of 25 Iraqis installed by the United States, to help administer the country following the ouster of Saddam Hussein in April. So here we are. We received false information, as the gentleman indicated in response to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Hoeffel) yielding. He said the Americans are in Baghdad, we got what we want, and he is continuing to get paid. And according to reports from British newspapers, business associates of his just secured more than $400 million of American taxpayer resources for contracts awarded by the CPA, by Paul Bremer.

Mr. DELAHUNT. To influence Members of Congress and influence the administration.

Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I think what he is saying is what we need is something that does not exist here in Washington at this moment in our history. And that is openness and transparency and accountability, and it is not happening. To think that, and I do not know whether it was the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Hoeffel) or the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Abercrombie) that mentioned it, they continued to benefit and with an attitude that arrogance is not a suitable adjective. It is far beyond arrogance. And it is time to lay everything out on the table or the American people will lose confidence, not only in the President but in the Congress.

Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, is the gentleman suggesting that there is no exit strategy?

Mr. DELAHUNT. Again, I am reading for the gentleman's benefit and for those who are viewing our conversation here this evening: ``Since 1986 Shea & Gardner has represented Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress in Washington for about $10,000 a month. One of the partners at Shea & Gardner is James Woolsey, the former CIA director. ``Chalabi also gets help from Francis Brooke, a political consultant, and Riva Levinson, the Washington firm founded by Charles Black, a long-time ally of President Bush. ``These contacts have paid off: at this year's State of the Union address, Chalabi sat in the VIP box with the first lady, Laura Bush. Chalabi was also one of the few Iraqis permitted to meet face to face with Saddam Hussein in his cell in the hours after his capture in late December. ``Chalabi has long been considered the favorite of the Defense Department officials to lead Iraq's new government.''

Mr. DELAHUNT. I share your disappointment. I really do. I find it so incredulous that I will presume that there is some responsible answer why that disclosure was never made. Maybe this is a question of inaccurate reporting, but this is what appeared today in the Roll Call magazine that is distributed throughout the Capitol building.

Mr. DELAHUNT. I would hope, and yet it would appear to be a remote possibility, given all that we know, that Mr. Woolsey was unaware of the representation possibly by another partner.

Mr. DELAHUNT. If the gentleman will yield, I think I can answer his question at least in part here. As the gentleman from Pennsylvania just indicated, there are rival camps now that presumably the American taxpayer is supporting in their lobbying efforts in terms of securing more resources and more tax dollars from Congress and the administration. But it would appear that Mr. Chalabi has an advantage. According to the Roll Call edition of today, it reports that unlike the Iraqi newcomers to Washington, Chalabi has worked for years in Washington cultivating friendships with key players like Cheney, like Vice President Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, all gentlemen that we have heard from during the course of the debate that many in the majority party have described as so-called neoconservatives. The Roll Call article goes on to indicate that since 1986, Shea & Gardner has represented Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress in Washington for $10,000 a month. So Mr. Chalabi certainly was an individual of some affluence. Clearly that was the impression that the Jordanians had when they convicted him of embezzling some 300 million American dollars from a significant financial institution in Jordan. But that was $10,000 a month. For your edification, for those of the viewing audience, they should be aware that one of the partners at Shea & Gardner is James Woolsey, the former CIA Director who has been an outspoken advocate for military intervention in Iraq.

Mr. DELAHUNT. We would hope that that would be the Iraqi people, because if we preach democracy, hopefully we will abide by the decision that the Iraqi people in an election reach on their own. That is a message that I think, and I think we speak for many Members on both sides of the aisle here, that yes, the absolute sine qua non, the essential ingredient to a democracy is to give voice to all of the people, not some selected individuals hand-picked by Dick Cheney, by the CIA, or by anybody else to run the country for the Iraqis, because if that happens, the American taxpayer is going to end up with a much larger bill than we have already assumed.

Mr. DELAHUNT. The convicted felon.

Mr. DELAHUNT. I would just like to, if I may, pick up on that point with Mr. Chalabi. The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Hoeffel) described Mr. Chalabi in very unflattering terms, but I think a more apt description of Mr. Chalabi is that he is a convicted felon. When he fled Iraq he ended up in London for a period of time and then went ahead and conducted business, banking business, financial services, in the kingdom of Jordan. There he was charged with embezzlement and a series of other crimes that would constitute in our jurisprudence a felony. He was tried and convicted and was sentenced to 22 years by a Jordanian court. I am sure he would contest that. I am sure that he would proclaim his innocence, but that is a fact, a reality. That is not just simply an unflattering description of an individual. When the king of Jordan came and visited with Members of the House Committee on International Relations, and I forget if the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Hoeffel) was there, but I posed to the king, who has been an erstwhile ally of the United States and his father before him in the region for decades and has cooperated with the United States in terms of the war against terrorism, I asked the king if he had been consulted by the United States Government because I was aware that Mr. Chalabi had been convicted of a serious crime, an embezzlement of some hundreds of millions of dollars. He said, with certain equanimity, No, I was not. I did not pursue it because I did not want to cause the king any embarrassment, but it was clear to me and others at that meeting that he clearly was displeased, and to think that we turned our back on an ally, who according to newspaper reports, and the truth always outs, was encouraging defectors to provide intelligence that he should have known was false, was false. If I can pursue for just one more moment, this is dated February 19 and is from the Daily Telegraph in London, a British newspaper obviously. U.S. officials said last week that one of the most celebrated pieces of false intelligence, the claim that Saddam Hussein had a mobile biological weapons laboratory, had come from a major in the Iraqi intelligence service, made available by the INC. Those watching us tonight should understand that the INC is an anachronism for the Iraqi National Congress which is the creation of Ahmed Chalabi. U.S. officials at first found the information credible, and the defector even passed a lie detector test, but in later interviews it became apparent he was stretching the truth and had been coached by the INC. This is a report from a respected British newspaper that segues exactly the reporting that was done in the Washington Post. This is outrageous and to think that this gentleman was in this institution while sitting in the First Lady's box during the State of the Union, meanwhile we had voted, and many in this chamber on both sides of the aisle had voted a difficult vote, cast an extremely hard vote in terms of war and peace based upon false intelligence? Then we are carrying the burden, not just of the war but of the reconstruction. We are the only Nation, that I am aware of, that when we appropriated the moneys for Iraq did not insist that it be paid back at any point in time. All of the other donors insisted on some sort of a loan arrangement and we did not, and if we really want to pour salt on the wound, this is from the Houston Chronicle, and it is dated February 21. The headline is the United States still paying the source of the tainted intelligence. That is a Knight Ridder outlet. Indulge me for a moment while I read this to my colleagues. ``The Department of Defense is continuing to pay millions of dollars for information from the former Iraqi opposition group that produced some of the exaggerated and fabricated intelligence President Bush used to argue his case for war.'' We are paying now. Today. ``The Pentagon has set aside between $3 million and $4 million this year for the information collection program of the Iraqi National Congress led by Ahmed Chalabi, said two senior U.S. officials and a U.S. defense official. They spoke on condition of anonymity because intelligence programs are classified.''

Mr. DELAHUNT. Of course there are people in the administration.

Mr. DELAHUNT. Let me read it again, and let me go on because there is more information.

Mr. DELAHUNT. By Chalabi himself.

Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, I know the gentleman has heard the term before, but when we speak of a blind man in a room with deaf mutes, this is an apt description of absolutely what has occurred in this particular case involving this particular individual by the name of Chalabi, Ahmed Chalabi, a convicted felon. But let me give another possible motive. And again, this is simply a news story that I am reading to my colleagues and to those that are watching here this evening, because I think it is very important that the American people start to understand the dimensions and the magnitude of what occurred here and the absolute need for a thorough transparent presentation of all the facts over an extended period of time to the American people. This is not about politics. No, it is not. This is about the national security of the United States and how we are viewed by the rest of the world. Our credibility is at risk here. If we perceive another situation that is fraught with peril for our people, and we present intelligence to the rest of the world, who is going to believe us? Let me suggest another motive. This is from Newsday, a New York paper, and it is dated February 15. ``U.S. authorities in Iraq have awarded more than $400 million in contracts to a start-up company that has extensive family and, according to court documents, business ties with Ahmed Chalabi, the Pentagon favorite on the Iraqi Governing Council. The chief architect of the umbrella organization of the resistance, the Iraqi National Congress, Chalabi is viewed by many Iraqis as the hand-picked choice to rule Iraq.'' What a disaster that would be. And while we know there are very sensitive negotiations and discussions going on currently between elements in Iraq and between the United Nations, clearly Secretary General Kofi Annan has sent a special representative. He is in the process of reviewing it to make recommendations as to how power is transitioned to the Iraqi people. Yet here we are discussing on the floor of the House tonight the potential of having this particular individual as the hand-picked representative of American interests assuming a role in a future Iraqi Government that clearly, clearly most in the region, my earlier reference to my conversation with King Hussein from Jordan, will find particularly offensive. Clearly there is no support from the Iraqi people.

Mr. DELAHUNT

Mr. DELAHUNT. Has the Attorney General responded? Has he identified those officials that were responsible?

Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, to point out two other facts, the initial approach to Saddam Hussein in 1983 at the direction of President Reagan was done by a special envoy.

Mr. DELAHUNT. I can tell of a very sad moment when I attended a funeral in my hometown of a young man, 36 years old. His widow was there; his parents were there. His dad, Charlie Caldwell, taught my daughter in the local public school. He was killed. He was killed in a humvee. When we pause and think of it, the pain that this has caused. We have had this discussion before. Not only is it causing pain today; but in very real terms with the cost of this effort, if you will, we have already spent $187 billion. And while it is not in the President's budget, because clearly he has an interest in not increasing the deficit any more than it is and it is absolutely out of control, we know that and I think the American people know that, but we hear, and it has been reported that there is an additional $50 billion that will be in a supplemental. Of course, it will not happen before the election. But if I can just for one minute, because I want to go back, I want to let those who are watching, and maybe it is impossible, they cannot see this list; but this is just a small piece of exports to Iraq by U.S. companies from the year 1985 to 1990.

Mr. DELAHUNT. That is absolutely the correct definition. I think sometimes when we speak among ourselves because we know the terms, we seem to forget that oftentimes viewers and constituents and others, really, I am sure they are wondering, what are we talking about. I really thank the gentleman for making that clear. Yes, dual use means they can be used for peaceful purposes, or they can be used for the development of programs such as the nuclear program that Saddam Hussein began, started. It was well along the way in terms of its development when in 1990 during the Gulf War he was defeated, and under the agreement, the U.N. inspectors went in and found that, yes, he did have a nuclear program at that point in time. Actually, the United Nations inspection team did a superb job. But where did the technologies come from for the development of Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapon program? It is right here. Let me just read several. There are computers for possible use in nuclear weapons development. Computers useful for missile development. Computers that U.N. inspectors believed monitored uranium enrichment for atomic bomb fuel. Computers useful for graphic design of atomic bombs and missiles. Computers for manufacturing tool design and graphics. Computers for possible use in atomic bomb or missile development. This is the moneys that were paid to American firms under a license approved in the first Bush administration.

Mr. DELAHUNT

Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on the gentlewoman from California's (Ms. Lee) Special Order.