Concerning the treatment of members of the Armed Forces held as prisoner of war by Iraqi authorities.

Mr. Speaker, before we begin, let me yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt), the distinguished former district attorney from Boston, to finish his statement.

Mr. Speaker, we want to talk a little bit about the situation in Iraq tonight and a number of other subjects.

Mr. Speaker, I am joined by the distinguished gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Beauprez), a businessman and new freshman. The gentleman is on his way to take his daughter to dinner, and, as a father of two daughters, that takes high priority. So let me yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Beauprez.)

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Colorado; and I want to commend him on words well said. I appreciate everything that he is doing to help free the people of Iraq as a new Member of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about a number of things. I want to read a letter from an Iraqi woman. I want to read a letter from Charlie Daniels. I wanted to talk about a French company that has nearly a $1 billion catering contract to the U.S. Marine Corps, and I want to talk about Iraqi violations of the Geneva Convention.

First, let me read a rather spirited letter from Charlie Daniels. We know Charlie Daniels is the songwriter who wrote The Devil Went Down to Georgia, among other things. He is great playing the fiddle, and he is a great American. So this is Charlie Daniels' letter, open letter to the Hollywood bunch. I am going to read directly from the letter.

Okay, let's say just for a moment you bunch of pampered,

overpaid, unrealistic children had your way and the USA did

not go into Iraq.

Let's say that you really get your way and we destroy all

of our nuclear weapons, stick daisies in our gun barrels and

sit around with some white wine and cheese and pat ourselves

on the back, so proud of what we have done for world peace.

Let's say that we cut the military budget to just enough to

keep the National Guard on hand to help out with floods and

fires.

Let's say that we close down our military bases all over

the world and bring our troops home, increase foreign aid,

and drop all trade sanctions against everybody.

I suppose that in your fantasy world, this would create a

utopian world where everybody would live in peace. After all,

the great monster, the United States of America, the cause of

all of the world's trouble, would have disbanded its horrible

military and certainly all of the other countries of the

world would follow suit.

After all, they only arm themselves to defend their country

from the mean USA.

Why, you bunch of pitiful, hypocritical, idiotic spoiled

mugwumps. Get your head out of the sand and smell the Trade

Towers burning.

Do you think that a trip to Iraq by Sean Penn did anything

but encourage a wanton murderer to think that the people of

the USA didn't have the nerve or guts to fight him?

Barbara Streisand's fanatical and hateful rantings about

George Bush makes about as much sense as Michael Jackson

hanging a baby over a railing.

You people need to get out of Hollywood once in a while and

get into the real world. You'd be surprised at the hostility

you would find out here.

Stop in at a truck stop and tell an overworked long-

distance trucker that you don't think Saddam Hussein is doing

anything wrong.

Tell a farmer with a couple of sons in the United States

military that you think the United States has no right to

defend itself.

Go down to Baxley, Georgia, and hold an antiwar rally and

see what the folks down there think about you.

You people are some of the most disgusting examples of a

waste of protoplasm I've ever had the displeasure to hear

about.

Sean Penn, you are a traitor to the United States of

America. You gave aid and comfort to the enemy. How many

American lives will your little fact-finding trip to Iraq

cost? You encourage Saddam Hussein to think that we didn't

have the stomach for war.

You people protect one of the most evil men on the face of

this earth and you won't lift a finger to save the life of an

unborn baby. Freedom of choice, you say?

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. Speaker, I am reading a letter from Charlie Daniels which I think I am certainly allowed under the rules to do. Not that I would ever argue with the distinguished parliamentarian, particularly the one on your right, but I believe I can read a letter.

I thank the Speaker. I am still in quotes, Mr. Speaker, and probably it is very appropriate for the Speaker to point out that I am reading a letter, open letter to Hollywood written by Mr. Charlie Daniels, one of America's most popular entertainers. I am going to continue with that, back to the quoted letter.

Well, I'm going to exercise some freedom of choice of my

own.

If I see any of your names on a marquee, I'm going to

boycott the movie. I will completely stop going to the movies

if I have to. In most cases, it certainly wouldn't be much of

a loss.

You scoff at our military whose boots you are not even

worthy to shine.

They go to battle and risk their lives so ingrates like you

can live in luxury.

The day of reckoning is coming when you will be faced with

the undeniable truth that the war against Saddam Hussein is

the war on terrorism.

America is in imminent danger.

You're either for her or against her. There is no middle

ground.

I think we all know where you stand.

What do you think?

God bless America.

Unquote, Charlie Daniels.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues can get this off the website. However, due to technological ethics, I am unable to give out that website number, but if somebody would call my office, I would be glad to give it to them.

Mr. Speaker, here is a guy who is one of the American-dream-type success stories, came up the hard way. I believe Charlie Daniels went to the University of Chicago, so he is not exactly just this country boy from back home on the farm that Hollywood would scoff at. But this is a guy who has really made it pretty big in the entertainment world, knows the Hollywood bunch because he calls them up front and he writes a letter like that to give us an idea of what he thinks.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I am going to read another letter by a woman named

Katrin Michael. She is member of Women for a Free Iraq, a Washington- based advocacy group. She wrote this for Newsday, but I read it in the Savannah Morning News. I am going to again quote from this.

As an Iraqi woman who wages peace and has fought in war, I

am compelled to support a U.S.-led action to remove Saddam

Hussein. After 26 years of resistance against Saddam, I have

come to the conclusion that only forces from outside Iraq can

bring an end to the nightmare of his rule.

The stories of Saddam Hussein's brutality are all true.

Ethnic cleansing, summary imprisonment and execution, torture

and rape are all part of the nightmare. I know this from

personal experience.

My father founded an Iraqi peace movement, a crime for

which he was murdered. At the time I was 14 years old. I was

arrested by the regime merely because I joined the Iraqi

Women's League. I was not the only young girl arrested for

such a trivial offense.

Later, I joined the Kurdish resistance, even though I was,

in their eyes, a mere woman and a Christian. I traveled in

disguise to Baghdad and around the country to organize

opposition to Saddam. When I was injured in one of his

chemical bombardments against hundreds of Kurdish villages in

1987 and 1988, I was forced to flee to a refugee camp in

southern Turkey where I stayed until I finally reached

freedom in the United States in 1997. I continue to suffer to

this day from lung, nerve and eye damage caused by these

weapons.

No one in Iraq is immune from Saddam's brutality, not even

the closest members of his own family. He even executed two

of his own sons-in-law in 1996.

A commonly used form of torture is to bring a detainee's

female relative, preferably his wife, daughter or mother, and

gang rape her in front of him.

Members of the Iraqi opposition in exile receive videotape

of tapes of their female relatives in Iraq being raped. Women

who criticize or merely offend Saddam are accused of being

prostitutes and regularly beheaded in public.

His son, Uday, often leads these beheadings. They occur in

Baghdad as well as in smaller villages throughout Iraq. The

heads of the executed women are hung on the doors of their

houses for all to see.

I am saddened when I see people who sincerely care for the

fate of the Iraqi people resist the American-led effort to

remove Saddam and restore hope for the Iraqis. We cannot do

it alone.

Iraqis had their closest brush with freedom in 1992 during

Operation Desert Storm. I regret, as do most Iraqis, that the

United States and its allies allowed Saddam to squash this

resistance and remain in power. Those who care about peace

and justice for the Iraqis should not make the same mistake

again.

Saddam will never leave power willingly. He will never give

up his weapons and allow the Iraqi people to live in freedom.

That is the end of the letter, Mr. Speaker, but I want to restate one more time that this was written by an Iraqi woman who was raised in Iraq, who was part of the peace movement, who has come to the conclusion that only a U.S.-led action will remove Saddam Hussein, and that is the only way that the world will be rid of him.

I think that is so important, Mr. Speaker, because there are a lot of well-meaning people who are against the United States action. There are a lot who are not so well-meaning. A lot of people just have a gripe with George Bush, and they find the war a convenient vehicle to air their opinion. There are a lot of people who do not like the United States of America and, again, they find the war a convenient excuse to air their opinion on that. But then there are a lot of people who are absolutely sincere: peace first, peace only, negotiations.

Yet what this Iraqi woman is saying, who has been there and has been injured by Saddam Hussein, is we cannot do it alone, we have to have a U.S.-led coalition.

Today, Mr. Speaker, in Basra, we did find out that there was an uprising and at this point it has not continued, but I think that it will, and I think in the days and weeks ahead we are going to see more and more Iraqi citizens coming out of their hiding places and facing Saddam Hussein and joining the resistance against him.

Now, I have been joined by our friend from Miami, Florida (Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart). I want to yield some time to him.

I have a couple of other topics I want to talk about surrounding Iraq. One of them has to do with a French company that has a lucrative contract with the Department of Defense feeding 55 garrisons throughout America. I also want to talk about the House Resolution that we passed today urging Iraq to comply with the Geneva Convention. But the gentleman has been a very active freshman Member of Congress and has a lot of issues he has been working on, too. So I yield to him to jump in on this or switch topics or whatever pleases him.

I want to thank the gentleman for those words, Mr. Speaker.

It is interesting, today we had a great moment where all Members, Democrat and Republican, came together on the issue of Iraq complying with the Geneva Convention, which of course they are not doing. Each day there is a new revelation.

There was a very tender moment today as we in Congress saw the pictures of the prisoners, the American POWs, that Iraq had filmed. As the gentleman knows, it was very gruesome. First, the cameras panned on some dead soldiers, soldiers who at least three of them had a shot right in their forehead; young men, strong men, men in uniform, men with their dog tags around their necks and the blood that was on their chests, in some cases. It was a very sobering, very gut-wrenching scene to see.

Then, apparently in the same room, but it was not clear, were the live prisoners. Iraqi TV or whoever the reporters were were interviewing them and asking them a lot of questions. There seemed to be some pushing and shoving in the room. It seemed that there were a lot of people. We could tell by the look in these American prisoners' eyes that they did not know if they were going to be alive the next minute, or make it through the night, or what was going to happen to them. It seemed like utter confusion.

What struck me, among other things, is that even in Somalia, and we all have read or seen ``Blackhawk Down,'' which I think was a great depiction of that battle. When they had the captive helicopter operator, he was still allowed to get the International Red Cross to come in. Yet in Iraq they do not even let the Red Cross in to see our prisoners.

Today, on a bipartisan basis, we debated, and we will vote on it tomorrow, House Concurrent Resolution 118, which I had, I guess I am not going to say the honor, which would be the usual word, but I offered it, along with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes).

I represent the Third Infantry in Hinesville, Georgia, and he represents Fort Bliss in Texas, where the members of 507th Maintenance Division were from, supporting the Third Infantry.

Just to see the House come together and say, you know, this is absolutely not right, and we are going to put the folks from Iraq on notice that they will be tried as war criminals as soon as possible. If that means waiting until the war is over, fine; but if we can get them out of there before then, they will be tried as war criminals. We made that statement to them, number one.

Number two, we assured our troops that we are watching and we are with them in thought and in spirit, and we are going to do everything that we can to get them out of there alive.

Number three, we sent a signal to the international community, the French, the Germans, the Chinese, the Russians, those who were so quick to denounce the United States of America and this action. Well, there are 164 countries that have signed the Geneva Conventions going back to 1949. Let these countries now step forward and denounce Iraq, who incidentally is a signer of the Geneva Conventions; and let the world community find something that they can agree on in the form of these seven soldiers who are captured as we speak tonight.

That Russian equipment sold to Iraq, Mr. Speaker, that is radar-jamming or missile-jamming technology. Is that not the case?

It is interesting that the gentleman mentions that, because there is a degree of racism, I think, on the part of the peace activists of the world. The reason why I say racism is because would these people support a Saddam Hussein if he were in Paris? Would they do it if he were in Germany? No. They would denounce him quickly. But as long as he is in the Middle East, well, they have been fighting for years. Or if he is in, say, South Asia or something, well, they have been fighting for years; or if he is in Africa.

How many times have we heard, they have been fighting for years, we cannot bring peace in the Middle East, like the people in the Middle East do not deserve peace; but the folks in Europe, that is the high standard to live by. To me it is just a double standard. I can only summarize it with racism.

The gentleman mentioned Russia selling sophisticated, high-tech equipment to Iraq. We already are seeing in Congress that we have the supplemental budget coming, and it is going to be to fund the military operation as well as the humanitarian operation.

As a result of the humanitarian operation, I am already seeing a gold rush. I am seeing companies actually start lobbying for contracts. That bothers me a lot when we have one missing in action today, seven captured, and eight casualties American and 18 British. Yet what really bothers me is some of these countries are not American countries and they are not English countries and they are not Australian; they are not coalition countries.

I have one example, though, of a company. USAID, which is a foreign aid branch, it does a lot of good things, but it is going to let some humanitarian contracts go, and French and German companies will be eligible to compete for it. That bothers me a lot, that they will be able to profit from this war.

There is another example. Another company called Sedxho, S-E-D-X-H-O, it is a French company. It is a publicly-owned French company, but they have $1 billion worth of food service contracts with the United States Department of Defense. Recently, they signed an $881 million contract to feed the U.S. Marines in 55 different garrisons. We are working on a letter to the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Rumsfeld, to say he needs to renegotiate this, he needs to cancel it, he needs to look into it. But can my colleague imagine, here is a French company, and France, I do not remember one division in the country of France in terms of their stance against America in the last 3 to 6 months. I do not remember anybody moderating.

In America we had division. We had a pro-war and an anti-war group, and the world knew that. But, in France, it seems like they were all united against the United States and against this war.

Apparently, that is not a problem to Sedxho, because they are a French company. And yet here are the Marines, the brave and the honorable Marines who are the ones who discovered this hospital today, allegedly a hospital, and yet 55 different garrisons in the United States of America, when an 18-year-old Marine sits down for lunch, a French company is making a profit from that. That is unbelievable, and I call on the Department of Defense to cancel that contract.

Listen, there are reasons sometimes we have to buy from an enemy. There are reasons that somebody has something unique, but we are talking catering. I am sure there are good companies in Florida and Georgia and all over America that can do the catering service for the U.S. Marine corps, but a French company, it is unbelievable.

Mr. Speaker, also, are they not making a buck or profit, things like that, but they have had a lucrative oil contract in Iraq they did not want to disturb. That it is clear France is not after some noble or high ground about peace, but it simply boils down to profit.

If the gentleman would like to make any closing comments, I need to actually make an engagement.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate everything the gentleman is doing.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. I was listening to the gentleman's words today, and I was moved by the gentleman's statements and by the strength and veracity of that letter from that young woman who suffered the intense oppression of that brutal, crazy dictator, that dictator that is oppressing the people of Iraq.

What she says is so true: the Iraqi people have been suffering for a long, long time. They have suffered through what we really cannot even imagine, the most horrendous humiliations, tortures, murders, assassinations. That man who has killed about 1.5 million people, has gassed his own people, and other nations; who has no concern for life or for any basic principles or freedoms, and who the world was negotiating with for about 12 years.

Think about that. We all believe in negotiations. We all believe in diplomacy. I believe that we should try to negotiate; and when we have a dictator, a crazy, insane man who has committed mass genocide and murder, that we should try to negotiate, for 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 10 years, 12 years? When is enough failed negotiations enough? When is enough failure enough?

I believe that the United Nations has a role to play. Yes, I believe we should get the United Nations resolutions to express the sentiment of the world once, twice, three times, ten times. But 17 times? How many resolutions must he ignore and continue his oppression, his assassination, and more dangerous to us, his trying to obtain nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction?

How many times should we say, or is there a time when we should say, enough? What does it take? What does it take for the world to react?

Thank God, fortunately, we have a President who stated after the attacks, those horrendous attacks that occurred on 9-11 against our people, our innocent people, he stated very clearly that those that harbor terrorism were terrorists, and that there was going to be a price to pay.

Then he tried to warn, and he did warn, Saddam Hussein. He went to the United Nations and got one last chance for Saddam Hussein from the United Nations. But there is a time, unfortunately, when one must act. That time has come. Now our brave men and women are doing what the President said he was going to do, what he was going to ask them to do if Saddam Hussein did not disarm. He was going to disarm them with our brave men and women.

They are doing an incredible job, an incredible job. This is the time to support our troops. This is the time to not vacillate in that support for our troops.

I know there are those who say, well, we support our troops, but we wish they were not there. They are there. They are performing a vital job. We have to support them wholeheartedly, not with caveats, not with reservations. We have to support them. We have to support them, and they have to do what it takes to get the job done.

It is up to us, who are living and enjoying the freedoms that those thousands of men and women in uniform for generations have fought to give us. We should utilize those freedoms to show appreciation, to show respect, to show admiration, and to say, job well done. We are with you. We are going to be with you to the end.

They are going to succeed because the vast majority of the American people supports them; because the vast majority of the American people supports our President, our Commander in Chief, in his efforts. We are so grateful.

I actually was walking through, and I heard what the gentleman was saying on the floor. I had to come by and thank the gentleman, thank the gentleman for those words, and thank him for reminding us what is at stake. When the gentleman read that letter from that young woman, I think it brought it home. It brought it home to roost. What is at stake here is so precious. It is liberty, it is life, it is everything that we care for, everything that we believe in.

Yes, unfortunately, it is expensive. It is expensive. It has been expensive for generations. But those who have to protect those lives, those freedoms are the American people. Once again, our troops are doing it with the honor, with the valor, with the talent that they have always done it. I want to thank them for what they are doing.

I want to thank you, sir, for once again bringing that to light. That is why I had to come by here. I saw the gentleman on TV, and I had to come by to thank him for these words of solidarity to our troops, to the Commander in Chief; and to remind everybody why it is that we are in this battle; and that we are going to win this battle because it is so important, because so much is at stake. Yes, we are on the right side.

Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, it is interesting, the gentleman mentioned some of these countries that were so quick to criticize the United States, criticize the United States for enforcing the resolutions that they unanimously supported, by the way.

Yet, we now see some of them, and I do not know why they have acted the way they have, but I can just throw some facts on the table. We now see that the Government of Russia has sold to the Iraqi Government some very high-tech military equipment.

It is highly sophisticated night vision equipment, equipment to avoid radar, missiles, and also to confuse GPS devices that are obviously a big part of a military arsenal.

Yet a lot of these things are things that were not permissible under the sanctions that those same governments supported. So on one side, they are saying, well, Iraq is a violator of all sorts of rights. They are trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction. They have supported all these resolutions in the past. On the other side of their mouths, they are selling them high-tech equipment, military equipment.

That regime that they have condemned for the human rights abuses, for the rape of the women, for the assassinations, they are selling that regime high-tech military equipment, much of it banned by the United Nations. Those countries voted to ban that equipment to the Iraqi regime.

We saw that the wonderful, talented men and women of the U.S. Air Force shot down missiles. Some were destined to land in populated areas of Kuwait. Those are missiles that supposedly they do not have, that Iraq does not have. What more proof do we need?

I ask a question, I ask a rhetorical question, How many violations does it take for these countries to realize that there is a problem? Of course, what we realize now is that it is not that they do not realize that they are violations. It is that they have been assisting this regime and selling them high-tech equipment that has been banned, that is unlawful, according to the United Nations resolutions. They have been assisting this regime in their oppression, in their assassinations.

I think we are going to find a lot of that. I am not telling the gentleman that is the reason why some of these countries oppose the United States' effort to free the people of Iraq, just like the United States military freed the people of France twice.

By the way, the people of France, thank God, they had the right to be free. A lot of brave young American GIs died to free the people of France. I am glad that France is free. The people of Iraq are no less human beings than the people of France. They have the right to be free, as well.

I could not agree with the gentleman more, if the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker. This is a two-fold problem. There is, first, the opposition to this effort to free the Iraqi people and to free the world from this very dangerous dictator, free the world from a dictator who is trying to get or obtain nuclear weapons, and who already has other weapons of mass destruction.

We are trying to free the Iraqi people while at the same time free the world from this incredible threat.

So we have to remember these countries that we are objecting to that, that even though unanimously, just a few months before, they said, hey, look, we are going to give this dictator one last chance, he has to disarm, but it is worse than that because not only are they objecting to the freeing of the Iraqi people, are they objecting to ridding of the world of this dictator who is trying to get nuclear weapons, who has ties with terrorist organizations and, by the way, including terrorist organizations that have assassinated Americans, but what is even more offensive is that at the same time they are selling this dictator high-tech equipment that he can use to further exploit, hurt, oppress, kill, murder his people and others because of his ties with terrorism.

One would hope that humanity has gone above and beyond that, and yet there are those that would like to profit even while selling high-tech equipment that they know they should not be selling because they have said it repeatedly in U.N. resolutions. So they know it, it is not by mistake, and yet they are doing so to earn a buck, to earn a buck?

If the gentleman would yield, I think we are going to find a lot of that. I think we are going to find a lot of companies that are profiting from selling goods to the United States, including to the United States Armed Forces and armed services, as the gentleman just pointed out, who, by the way, are probably also making a hefty profit selling products to Iraq, even though there are sanctions there and probably even some high-tech equipment to the tyranny in Iraq.

I think it kind of explains some of the ferocity of the argument, some of the aggressiveness of some of those that were objecting to the United States' noble stance to help free an oppressed people and also help rid the world of these weapons of mass destruction and the possible obtaining of nuclear weapons to this dictator. I think we are going to see a lot of that.

The thing that surprised me, and it does not surprise me anymore because we are starting to see why, and my colleague just mentioned it, we are starting to see why but, surprisingly, the ferocity of the argument and how France, for example, not only do they object to any resolution that was not of their liking in the U.N. recently and they said so, but, also, they went lobbying. They actually were talking to every nation possible to try to stop this movement to free the people of Iraq and to free the world from this dictator who has caused so much grief.

I think we are starting to see why, but it is sad, it is sad that it looks like one of the main reasons or at least one of the reasons may be because they are making a buck off of this dictator.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to thank the gentleman from Georgia. Again, I had to come to the floor today once I was hearing what he was talking about. I had to come here and thank the gentleman, thank him for standing up for our troops, thank him for supporting our troops, thank him for supporting the President of the United States, Commander in Chief in such a difficult time. Our troops are going to prevail because of their honor, their integrity, their decency and because they are the best people, best troops and the best human beings that this world has ever seen, and they are well led, and their cause is just.

I wanted to thank the gentleman again for his words. They were humbling, and they were touching, and I wanted to come here and thank him tonight for his words.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I want to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes), the cosponsor of this, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter), the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) for all the work that their committees did in bringing this to the floor today.

I am wearing, Mr. Speaker, a patch of the Third Infantry Division. This particular emblem, and we all get many lapel buttons in Congress, but it means probably more to me than any that I have ever received. It was given to me by retired Lieutenant Colonel Robin Webber, whose husband is General-promotable Joe Webber. He is over in the theater right now from the Third Infantry Division.

In communities like Fort Stewart, Georgia, which I have the honor of representing where the Third Infantry is headquartered, and Fort Bliss, Texas, and other military communities around the country, we see these young soldiers and some of the older soldiers and all the soldiers and the support personnel as friends and neighbors. When we have an international conflict, we look at it both on a personal level and, of course, on an international level.

I was there at the dockside when the Mendonza ship was loading up the equipment from Fort Stewart, 500,000 square feet worth of tanks and personnel movers and helicopters.

I was there at the DAG at Hunter Air Base when we were shaking hands with the soldiers and standing by the USO as they put the deodorant and the Bibles and sometimes the pocketbooks and other items in bags for them, shaking hands with these soldiers as they went off to mission.

I was at the luncheon meeting with the military wives' organization when Ms. Webber gave this patch to me. They were talking about their own personal struggles and how this conflict affects their lives. Yet to a person and to an experience, everybody who was

involved in this great human chain of activity was very proud of the work of the Third Infantry Division; and indeed now, as they sit on the banks of the Euphrates River, our hearts and thoughts remain with them more than ever.

The men and women who make up the Third Infantry Division, of course, come from all over the country. They come from Mission, Texas; Alamogordo, New Mexico; Park City, Kansas; Pennsauken, New Jersey; Lithia Springs, Georgia; Orlando, Florida; and all over. In that way they are so much members of the American fabric that we all are with them, even the people who did not see the horrible film which Members of Congress saw today, which Members of Congress saw some of our bravest and finest young men dead in apparent execution. We saw other soldiers, men and one woman, who were detained as prisoners of war.

It is with this outrage that we all come together on a bipartisan basis and support H. Con. Res. 118. We believe it is very important to send a signal not just to the soldiers and the members of the Iraqi military but the international community that we believe in the Geneva Convention and we expect any nation that we are at war with to abide by the Geneva Convention.

The four Geneva Conventions, Mr. Speaker, were agreed upon in August, 1949, and they were signed by 164 different nations, including Iraq. The International Committee of the Red Cross oversees the implementation of the conventions. The conventions include the following:

Article 13 states that prisoners of war must at all times be treated humanely, they must be protected against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.

Article 14 states that prisoners of war are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honor.

Article 17 states, in part, every prisoner of war, when questioned on the subject, is bound to give only his surname, first name and rank, date of birth, and army, regimental or personnel serial number or equivalent information. No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatsoever.

Article 19 states that POWs shall be evacuated as soon as possible after their capture to camps situated in an area far enough from the combat zone for them to be out of danger.

And article 23 says no POW may be sent to, or detailed in, areas where he may be exposed to the fire of the combat zone.

These articles, Mr. Speaker, seem to be totally ignored. We have soldiers over there now that are captured, seven that we know of, that we have confirmed. Yet we have 4,000 Iraqi soldiers, and we are abiding by the Geneva Convention. How easy it would be to manage for the care of seven prisoners compared to 4,000. Yet the United States, just like Iraq in 1949, signed these conventions; and we intend to stick by them.

By passing this resolution today, which we will, I hope, on a bipartisan and unanimous basis, we are sending a strong signal, three of them, Mr. Speaker, one to the troops, to say that you are foremost on our minds, so are your families and so are the other soldiers who are fighting to regain your freedom. Number two, we are sending a signal to the government and the military of Iraq that if you do ignore the Geneva Convention, then we intend to give you a criminal trial as a war criminal when this conflict is over with or as soon as possible.

And, number three, we are sending a signal to the international community because we know there are many who have opposed this action. We know there are many nations who do not like the United States of America, and yet since there are 164 nations that have signed the Geneva Conventions, we hope that all 162 others, excluding the United States and Iraq, would join us and say this is an outrage, we insist that Iraq abide by the Geneva Conventions. And this is an opportunity for France, for Russia, for China, for Germany, or any other critics that we have in this action to come together, as have Members of Congress, to say this is not right, we want these conventions followed.

So with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield the floor and close with the remarks of so many other colleagues. God bless these prisoners, God bless our troops, and God bless America.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friends, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes), for introducing this most important resolution.

Mr. Speaker, today marks the seventh day of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a valiant campaign by the United States, the United Kingdom, and our partners to rid the world of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and the regime that wields them.

We have achieved much in this war so far. Iraq's southern oil fields have been saved, its western deserts have been secured, and its gulf ports have been opened. Our Air Forces have meticulously degraded Iraq's defenses while minimizing civilian casualties, and our Third Infantry Division is poised at Saddam Hussein's doorstep.

We owe these successes to America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have performed bravely and brilliantly in this fight. The courage and skill they have displayed on the battlefield comes as no shock. Their training and leadership has prepared them well, but it does continue to inspire awe.

I know I speak for all Americans, Mr. Speaker, in expressing my deepest admiration and strongest support for all of our military men and women fighting in Iraq. We admire especially the service of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in this war to date, and those who may do so in the days ahead. Our deepest condolences go to the families who have lost their loved ones. The brave men and women who have laid down their lives in Iraq are true American heroes whose debt our thankful Nation can never repay.

America's Armed Forces, Mr. Speaker, represent the best our democracy has to offer. Their conduct reflects the values we cherish. We respect international law and uphold the highest human virtues in this fight.

The enemy we face does not share these values. The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein has waged this war in total violation of all norms of civilized behavior. Its armed forces use innocents as human shields, execute deserters on sight, hide in hospitals, fire from behind white flags, and deny their own people access to humanitarian assistance. They deliberately position their tanks and artillery next to mosques, schools, and hospitals, putting innocent Iraqi civilians at great risk.

In a futile attempt to build support for his doomed regime, Saddam Hussein has waged a relentless and reckless disinformation campaign. To this end, he has utilized American prisoners of war as propaganda props, abusing, humiliating, and intimidating them, in clear violation of the Geneva Convention.

The resolution before us delivers a stern warning to the Iraqi regime to end such atrocities and to comply with

the terms of the Third Geneva Convention relating to the treatment of prisoners of war. It places the full weight and power of the American people behind the enforcement of this code of conduct.

We should not delude ourselves, Mr. Speaker. Saddam Hussein has utter contempt for the Geneva Convention and all international agreements. He feels no obligation to abide by the norms of civilized behavior, as he showed in his reprehensible conduct towards coalition soldiers in the first Gulf War.

Our vote today is not likely to deter him, although we hope that it does. It will set the standard for the swift and certain justice we shall deliver to those who have perpetrated war crimes after Saddam's rotten regime collapses. It will show the entire world that the United States, the United Kingdom, and all of our partners are committed to the lawful, humane conduct of this war, despite the evil and cowardly tactics the enemy employs.

I urge my colleagues to lend their support to this resolution and to the American prisoners of war currently in captivity.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield such time as he may consume to my good friend, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes), the original author of this legislation and a distinguished member of our Committee on Armed Services.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Armed Services.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez).

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that each side be given an additional 10 minutes so that Members who choose to speak on this important resolution may have the opportunity to do so.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

(Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) to pay special tribute to women soldiers.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Before yielding back my time, I would like to make one observation. We have paid tributes to our military who have been captured. We have expressed our determination that they be treated with dignity and within the confines of the Geneva Convention, and we have expressed our commitment that those who do not will be punished however long it takes us to find them and to bring them to justice.

There is only one item that has not yet been mentioned in this debate. The Arab television network Al Jazeera has become part and parcel of Saddam Hussein's propaganda machine. I call on the government of Qatar and others who are capable of doing so of rectifying the outrageous policies of this television network which is being used to humiliate and intimidate our military. It is unacceptable that an international television network be used as part of Saddam Hussein's propaganda machine, and we expect action to be taken on that issue.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me on this very important issue.

Let me first begin by thanking my colleague, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston), for allowing me to work with him to draft this resolution in support of our POWs.

Also, I would like to thank the gentleman from California (Chairman Hunter) sitting here; the ranking member, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton); the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde); and the ranking member, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), for their work to bring this resolution to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I stand today before the House not only as a Member of Congress but as a former member of the United States Armed Forces, and also as a proud citizen of this great country of ours.

As we all know too well, our country is currently facing very difficult times. We have all heard the unfortunate news concerning the captured members of the 507th Maintenance Company by Iraqi military. Fort Bliss, home of the 507th Maintenance Company, is located in my district. This disturbing news truly hit home for me and for all my constituents in El Paso, Texas. Over the past few months, nearly 4,000 of Fort Bliss's troops have been deployed to the Middle East. On February 17, 2003, the 507th Maintenance Company was also deployed.

Mr. Speaker, I can personally vividly remember that windy day back in 1967 when I was getting ready to deploy overseas. I remember then how proud I was wearing the uniform of our military, and how proud I was to be a soldier representing this great country. I also remember the concern that I had for my family.

I was leaving behind my mom and my dad, my nine brothers and sisters and my then girlfriend Carolina, who today has been my wife for 34 years. I was being sent away to a country unknown to me, away from my family and my friends; and I can assure my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, war is the most difficult of experiences one can experience.

Thirty-six years ago, I served my country proudly. I was fortunate enough to be one of those that returned. I will not even begin today to compare my experiences with those that are facing our courageous men and women being held captive in Iraq. I do strongly commend these troops for their unwavering bravery and pledge my support that they are returned safely.

Mr. Speaker, among those troops are the 507th Maintenance Company. Being held captive is a constituent of mine from El Paso. She is an honorable patriot, and now she is an inspiration not only to the people of El Paso but to all of us all across this country. We stand behind her and her brothers and her sisters in arms.

I would also like to recognize the courage of our other captive troops, including the Apache pilots from Fort Hood, Texas. My deepest and most heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with their families, as well as with all families affected by this tragedy.

I know the people of Fort Bliss and the city of El Paso will continue to keep our brothers and sisters in their prayers. I have the utmost confidence in our armed services so that they will very soon reunite the captive soldiers with their loved ones.

Mr. Speaker, I decided this afternoon that in my remarks I would not mention any names of any of the troops that are currently held prisoner out of respect for their privacy and the privacy of their families, as well as deferring to the request from the Department of Defense. It was recently this afternoon brought to my attention that two more of our soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

I am proud to be able to stand before this House and express my support for our troops. As a member of the House Committee on Armed Services, I have had the privilege and the honor of visiting our troops on many occasions, not only at Fort Bliss but around this country and around the Middle East. I am very proud and honored to be able to represent such brave and professional soldiers.

Mr. Speaker, I am in strong support of this resolution before us today. I want to assure the American people and the families and the friends of our captive troops that the Congress of the United States stands behind our brave men and women, and we will do everything in our power to see that our prisoners are treated with dignity and humanity and that they are recovered as quickly and as safely as possible.

I strongly encourage all my colleagues to vote for this resolution.

I also in the strongest terms wish to condemn the Iraqi government and the media that has sought to degrade and humiliate our soldiers in violation of the Geneva Convention, as some of my colleagues have already previously mentioned.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I would like to conclude by commending all the members of our armed services that are serving us so valiantly in Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as the troops that are supporting Operation Enduring Freedom for their patriotism, their bravery and their professionalism will never be forgotten.

I also wish to express my appreciation to the British and Australian troops and other members of the coalition who are fighting alongside Americans in combat and to all the personnel from other allied countries who are providing support to our troops. I support our government's effort to prosecute this war swiftly and successfully with a minimum of military and civilian casualties. Our soldiers deserve our fullest support, and they can count on all of us for that, no matter how long it takes.

Mr. Speaker, may God bless our troops and God bless America. I thank my good friend for yielding me the time.