Friday, September 28, 2007
Update on Select Committee
A few updates on the Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007:
The committee released it’s interim report today. To view it click here.
C-SPAN 3 will air the full committee hearing tonight at 6:14 p.m. EDT.
Finally, Roll Call and CQ have stories on yesterday’s hearing. Below are excerpts:
Roll Call:
This conflict between parties, men and machine must be thoroughly investigated. ... We will expose the truth of what happened,” said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the panel’s ranking member. He later added: “This report lays a solid foundation for us to begin our work.
**
The investigation will focus on an Aug. 2 vote on a GOP-authored amendment to the Agriculture spending bill that would have prohibited illegal immigrants from accessing certain federally funded programs.
Republicans allege that the Democratic majority mishandled the vote, resulting in the defeat of the measure. GOP leaders assert that a tied 214-214 vote — rending a defeat — announced by Rep. Mike McNulty (D-N.Y.) was inaccurate and that the motion had in fact passed 215-213 as Republicans changed their votes.
CQ:
Members of a bipartisan House panel charged with scrutinizing a contested Aug. 2 floor vote on Thursday approved a draft interim report and began gathering information about the intricacies of the chamber’s voting procedures.
The six-member select committee, chaired by Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., heard from its first witness, House Clerk Lorraine C. Miller, who testified that the clerk’s office had retained 21 items of evidence related to the contested vote.
Lawmakers peppered Miller with questions about the availability of video and audio records of the disputed vote, which Republican leaders claim the Democrats unfairly manipulated in violation of House rules.
Mike Pence of Indiana, the panel’s top Republican, said he hoped the panel’s investigation would shed light on the incident, which he described as “a serious breakdown in the voting system of this institution, when the integrity of the means of measurement were called into question.”
The select committee also approved by voice vote a interim report, due Sept. 30, prepared by the Congressional Research Service. The panel was established Aug. 3 under a resolution (H Res 611) sponsored by Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio.
An aide described the document, which was to be made public later Thursday, as “an initial outline of the areas of inquiry and how the panel is expected to proceed over the next few months.”
The report was not expected to reach any conclusions about the events or to recommend changes to House voting rules, another aspect of the committee’s charge.
**
This conflict between parties, man and machine must be thoroughly investigated,” Pence said. “The select committee must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may.
PENCE CONDEMNS DEFENSE BILL WITH HATE CRIMES PROVISION
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Congressman Mike Pence released the following statement condemning the hate crimes amendment that passed the U.S. Senate yesterday as part of the Defense Department authorization bill. Pence, as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, fought a hate crimes measure that passed the committee and the U.S. House earlier this year.
"By adding protections for homosexual behavior to the defense authorization bill, the Senate has done a disservice to our Armed Forces and the freedoms they fight to protect. Hate crimes legislation that includes sexual preference endangers the freedom of religion in this country.
“If this bill becomes law, any religious leader who teaches a traditional view of sexual orientation could face criminal charges for aiding, abetting or inducing a hate crime. For the sake of our soldiers and freedoms they fight to protect, House and Senate conferees should remove this provision and, if not, the President should veto this bill.”
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Pence on Redstate
Congressman Pence authored a post on Redstate today. Click here to read it.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Pence has sharp words for Iranian president
Congressman Pence serves as ranking member of the Middle East Subcommittee and today he took to the House floor to denounce Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Below are some excerpts from his speech. Click here to read the entire speech.
Excerpts:
"The reasons to do so are legion. Iran, for instance, denies the Holocaust and hosted a Holocaust denying conference which aired on Arab television across the region. President Ahmadinejad, as I will describe in a moment, has repeatedly advocated ‘wiping Israel off the map.’ Their headlong and reckless pursuit of a nuclear weapons program ominously would enable them to do that in a matter of minutes when combined with their missile technology.
“Iran supplies and trains insurgents fighting U..S Forces and Iraqi Forces in Iraq, as General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker and the physical evidence and the incarceration of Iranian intelligence now in Baghdad now attest.
“Iran supports Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations. But I want to speak specifically to yesterday and today’s events involving the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who arrived yesterday for a forum at Columbia University and an address at the United Nations today.
“Let me be clear, if our colleagues have no other reason to support H.R. 1400 we can look to the rhetoric and the statements in the past 48 hours of President Ahmadinejad. He is a destabilizing force leading a threatening country and gave evidence of that repeatedly in statements on American television, Columbia University, and I expect at the U.N. today.”
**
“Yet his musings are as clear and as threatening as those musings written in a prison cell in the 1930’s, Mein Kampf. This is a man on a misguided mission. This is a dangerous and deluded leader. We ignore his intents at our peril.
“While his speech at Columbia University yesterday was described as a rambling speech by the New York Times that meandered from science and religion, to the creation of human beings, it was his claim that he was a ‘peaceful man,’ that Iran possessed, as he made some mention to, a thriving Jewish community. And his claim that Iran was a country where no homosexuals live.”
Friday, September 21, 2007
Washington Post editorializes on media shield
The Senate Judiciary Committee is going to take up media shield legislation next week. Today’s Washington Post has a great editorial about the need for such a law. Congressman Pence is carrying the House version of the Free Flow of Information Act with Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA).
Key excerpt:
More than 40 reporters have been questioned in recent years by federal prosecutors about their sources, notes and reports in civil and criminal cases. No doubt those who would talk to the media confidentially have been chilled by such action. Without adequate protection on the federal level, much information that Americans have a right to know might never be known. That's not good for journalism -- and it isn't good for the republic, either.
More news on Select Committee
The Hill features an article today on funding for the Select House Committee that is tasked with investigating irregularities that occurred on August 2nd. Click here to read the article.
Pence amendment would protect children from pedophiles
The Hollywood Reporter has a story today about an amendment Congressman Pence authored that would protect children from pedophiles. Check out the story here.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
New York Times media shield editorial
The New York Times ran an editorial today on the need for a federal media shield law.
Key excerpt:
Passage of a federal shield law would be a major achievement. Some 32 states and the District of Columbia have such laws, and 17 other states have recognized a reporter’s privilege to maintain the confidentiality of sources through judicial decisions. Prosecutions have not suffered, and it is past time for Congress to act.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Muncie Star Press Article
The Star Press reported on the recent news that IBM is now hiring for its Daleville call center. Click here to read the article.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The Hill on Select Investigative Committee
Click here to read The Hill's article on a Select House Committee that was formed to investigate a contested vote on August 2nd. Congressman Pence is ranking member on the committee.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Congressman Pence on CNN’s Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer
In case you missed it, below is a transcript of Congressman Pence on CNN’s Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer yesterday. The congressman appeared opposite House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos.
We're joined by key members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The committee chairman, Tom Lantos, is joining us from San Francisco. And with us here in Washington, Republican member Mike Pence of Indiana. Congressmen, thanks to both of you for coming in.
Mr. Chairman, I'll start with you, and I'm going to play a little clip of what you said this week in introducing Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and General David Petraeus, the overall commander in Iraq. I'm going to play your words back to you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TOM LANTOS (D), CALIFORNIA: The fact remains, gentlemen, that the administration has sent you here today to convince the members of the two committees and the Congress that victory is at hand. With all due respect to you, I must say, I don't buy it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Now, within moments of your saying that, Mr. Chairman, General Petraeus said this in his opening remarks. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARMY GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, U.S. COMMANDER OF FORCES IN IRAQ: I wrote this statement myself and did not clear it with anyone in the Pentagon, the White House or Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right. Mr. Chairman, tell us what you meant when you said, "With all due respect, I must say I don't buy it," because the implication, as you know, was that he was just doing the bidding of the White House.
LANTOS: Well, let me say first, I have the highest regard for General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. They are among our finest public servants with a remarkably distinguished military and diplomatic record.
What I don't buy is the continued insistence of this administration that things are going well, and that clearly was the essence of the testimony. This administration is attempting to unscramble the omelet. Mistakes made four years ago, three years ago, two years ago cannot be undone. This war has been mismanaged from the very beginning. We all know what the factors are, inadequate troops and unwillingness to nip the military activities by the terrorists early on. And four and a half into this -- four and a half years into this war, the notion that things can be turned around is very difficult.
BLITZER: But Mr. Chairman, let me interrupt and just -- I want to make it clear. Were you questioning the integrity of these two career professionals, a career diplomat in the name of Ryan Crocker and a career soldier, General Petraeus?
LANTOS: Of course not. I have the highest regard for both of them.
BLITZER: All right. What about that, Congressman Pence? What do you think?
REP. MIKE PENCE (R), INDIANA: Well, I have the highest regard for Chairman Lantos, but I do take exception to comments that he made at the hearing on a couple fronts. Number one is, Mr. Lantos said that General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker had been sent to the committee. In fact, they'd been summoned by the Congress to come and to provide an independent assessment from our lead diplomatic and military men downrange about the situation on the ground. And they did that.
And on the second point, I clarified this again with General Petraeus in my question and answers, Wolf. He was quite emphatic that neither the Pentagon nor the White House had even seen or participated in the creation of this document.
BLITZER: All right. Let me let...
PENCE: The American people had an independent assessment, and that's what the Congress asked them to give them.
BLITZER: Let me ask Congressman Lantos to respond. The law did require that both these gentlemen appear before the Congress, and presumably they're going to come back in March and testify how things are going then? Is that right, Mr. Chairman?
LANTOS: Yes, it is. And I look forward to their testimony next spring. The fact remains that this administration is attempting to put forward two credible men, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, to defend a discredited policy.
The fact that they wrote their own testimony, I certainly accept, but that their testimony is clearly attempting to support the administration's policy is not in doubt. Anybody who watched the hearing could see it very, very clearly.
BLITZER: You want to respond?
PENCE: Well, I really do. Because I really think what the American people got here was an independent assessment from our military and diplomatic leaders down range. They came to the Congress and they said despite the lack of political progress, the military surge is working. And it's working to such an extent that we're going to be able to substantially reduce our forces even by the summer of next year.
BLITZER: When you say substantially reduce, it's going to go down to where it was in January and February of this year, back to 130,000, 135,000 level.
PENCE: Well, that's exactly right. But Chairman Lantos, for instance, in his opening statement said that to remove a brigade would be a whisper. And just moments later, General Petraeus announced that he was removing five brigades from Iraq.
BLITZER: Between now and next summer.
PENCE: And as Secretary Gates has suggested, Wolf, conditions on the ground may make it possible for us to even remove more troops. But again, as the president said, it's return on success. The surge is working.
BLITZER: I'm going to get to all of that, but I'm going to let Chairman Lantos respond. Go ahead, Mr. Chairman.
LANTOS: Well, in the first place, the administration doesn't have much choice. The number of troops available to this administration is very limited, and unless they further extend the service of our men and women on the ground, they have to withdraw these forces which were sent in for the so-called surge.
I also think it's very important to bear in mind that the surge is not a goal in itself. The surge was designed by this administration to provide the Iraqi government with the political space to work out reconciliation, and they clearly failed in that.
BLITZER: And here's what Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a Republican, said during the hearing that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had on Tuesday. Congressman Pence, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAGEL: The president said let's buy time. Buy time? For what? Every report I've seen, and I assume both of you agree with this, there's been little, if any, political process that is the ultimate core issue, political reconciliation in Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, do you disagree with him on that? Because the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has failed to meet almost all of the so-called benchmarks that you and the administration have been demanding.
PENCE: Right. Well, I don't entirely disagree with Senator Hagel or the comments that Chairman Lantos made at the hearing. I'm frustrated that the national government in Iraq has not been able to move forward on a whole range of legislative initiatives that will bring about reconciliation, revenue oil sharing, de-Baathification.
But what we heard in the testimony from Ambassador Crocker and the general is that what they're not able to do in the central government in Baghdad seems to be beginning to happen -- de- Baathification, de facto de-Baathification -- at the local level. And we're starting to see revenues flow out of Baghdad into Anbar province even without a national agreement.
BLITZER: All right. Congressman Lantos, what do you think?
LANTOS: Well, I think the administration is pursuing two fundamentally contradictory policies. On the one hand, they are attempting to create an Iraqi national government with national policies, but since it is not working, they are also cooperating with regional groups, most recently with the Sunnis in Anbar province.
Now, these two goals cannot be pursued simultaneously because they are at cross purposes, and if one looks ahead, it is perfectly possible that we are training both sides in an impending religiously- based civil war.
BLITZER: Here's some very disturbing, Congressman Pence, poll numbers that were conducted by ABC News, the BBC, NHK, and they were released this week. Among Iraqis -- they went out and asked Iraqis all over the country these questions.
On Iraqis who think the U.S. forces should leave now, in November 2005, only 26 percent said yes, American troops should get out. In March of this year, went up to 35 percent. In August of this year, last month, 47 percent, almost half of the Iraqis questioned, said it's time for the United States forces to leave Iraq.
And then they were asked this question, whether security in Iraq over the last six months has gotten better, wore or the same. Only 11 percent of Iraqis said the security situation is better, 61 percent said it's actually gotten worse over the past six months, 28 percent said it's stayed the same.
These numbers are not very encouraging based on what the United States is trying to achieve. The Iraqis themselves by and large are saying get out.
PENCE: Well, it's not surprising, though. In one of my first trips to Iraq, I remember asking an Iraqi leader in Basra what the opinion was about U.S. troops and he said Iraqis want American forces to leave and Iraqis want American forces to stay. They're of two minds about that.
And I think that the security situation on the ground -- not polling data, but the reality on the ground which, according to General Petraeus and other independent assessments, even The Brookings Institute, we've seen a significant decline in civilian deaths.
We've seen the security situation on the ground in Baghdad improve. And Al Anbar, despite the tragic loss of a courageous leader in Sheik Sattar earlier this week, the Anbar awakening has literally driven Al Qaida out of that region.
BLITZER: But you know what the response to that is, that if you take a look at what's happened on the ground in Iraq, Congressman Pence, over the past four-and-a-half years, you've 2 million Iraqis who have fled the country, a million basically to Syria, a million to Jordan.
Another 2 million have been displaced internally. They've left their Shia areas or their Sunni areas. They're living out. They're just trying to survive. And hundreds of thousands have been killed over the past four-and-a-half years. And who knows how many have been injured.
So the reduction over the past few weeks or months in some of the numbers -- and it's unclear whether there actually has been a reduction -- is in part the result that there are fewer people there, 10 or 20 percent of the country is gone.
PENCE: Well, I challenge people to take a look at what General Petraeus put forward. It was very accessible testimony, very accessible grasp, but also look at sources like the more liberal- leaning Brookings Institute that came out with very encouraging numbers as well.
Civilian deaths are down. The military surge is working. That's creating an environment where we're going to be able to start to bring our troops home even before the end of the year. And -- but all the choices are bad. Ambassador Crocker said that. All the choices going forward are bad, but they're still not as bad as the results of a rapid withdrawal.
BLITZER: All right. We're going to ask both of these congressman to stand by. We have much more to talk about right after this. We're also going to talk about the former Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan. He's famous for his complex, hard to understand statements when he was the chairman.
His comments now in a brand new book are very clear. They're very critical of the Bush administration. We're going to talk about that, a lot more with these two Congressman.
Also, later, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani had some tough words for the Democratic presidential front-runner, Hillary Clinton. Who won? Some of the members of our best political team are standing by to weigh in on that and a lot more. Much more "Late Edition" after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to "Late Edition." I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.
We're continuing our conversation with two key members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the chairman Tom Lantos, Democrat of California, and Republican member Mike Pence of Indiana.
Alan Greenspan has a new book that has just come out, Chairman Lantos, entitled, "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World," in which he makes a very, very sharp charge about the war in Iraq.
I'll read it to you: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows. The Iraq war is largely about oil." Do you agree with him?
LANTOS: To a very large extent I agree with him, and I think it is very remarkable that it took Alan Greenspan all these many years and being out of office for stating the obvious. It is self-evident that this administration would not have taken the position it has had it not been for the oil issue.
BLITZER: A lot of oil reserves in Iraq, as you know, Congressman Pence. Do you agree with Alan Greenspan?
PENCE: Well, I really don't, and I don't -- I was never in meetings where the chairman of the Federal Reserve was present during the run-up to the war. I was in many meetings where we discussed the 16 different U.N. resolutions that have been flouted by the Iraqi regime, the unwillingness to open up to U.N. weapons inspectors, the record on human rights.
BLITZER: Because you know a lot of people believe that the whole weapons of mass destruction was a charade. The real reason was oil.
PENCE: Right. I mean, but in point of fact, Saddam Hussein did have chemical weapons of mass destruction. He used them against the population of Kurdistan.
BLITZER: But that was in the '80s. That was in the '80s...
PENCE: It was, but...
BLITZER: ... before the first Gulf War.
PENCE: ... I don't think anyone really doubts today, Wolf, that if the government of Saddam Hussein was in place with everything that Iran is doing with the nuclear weapons program, that there would be a nuclear weapons arms race going on between those two countries.
BLITZER: Well, that raises a fair question to the chairman. Congressman Lantos, would the U.S. be better off right now had it never gone into Iraq and Saddam Hussein were still ruling that country? LANTOS: Well, Saddam Hussein ruling that country was a nightmare for the Iraqi people. But clearly, this was not the only way of removing Saddam Hussein.
Had this war -- even though it was based on a false premise, namely the existence of weapons of mass destruction, had it been conducted appropriately with sufficient forces, with a determination to put down the uprising early on, we would be in a very different situation.
What we have is a double dilemma. The administration created a set of false facts on which to justify the war and then conducted it with unbelievable incompetence. BLITZER: Let me get back to the book from Alan Greenspan, Congressman Pence. He really blasts the Bush administration, the president specifically, for failing, when the Republicans were in the majority of the House and Senate until the election of last year, to veto any spending bill.
"Congress and the president," Greenspan writes, "viewed budgetary restraint as inhibiting the legislation they wanted. 'Deficits don't matter,' to my chagrin, "became part of Republicans' rhetoric." And he goes on to say they deserve, the Republicans, to lose the majorities in the House and Senate because they were spending so wildly.
PENCE: Well, I think you know that I would strongly agree with him on that, Wolf. I said after the 2006 elections that Republicans didn't lose their majority. We lost our way.
And it was in the commitment and the practice of principles of limited government, expanding education spending, creating new entitlements, the earmark culture. I welcome Chairman Greenspan's voice on this. Could have used it during some of those debates, but it's welcome going forward as the Republican Party is in the process of hewing back to those roots of fiscal discipline and reform.
BLITZER: And now that the Democrats, Congressman Lantos, the Democrats are the majority in the House and Senate, it's going to be a lot easier politically for the president to start vetoing some of your spending bills.
LANTOS: Well, if I may comment on Mike Pence's observation, he's a very good friend of mine. The problem is not that we are spending too much money on education. The problem has been the pathological opposition of this administration to taxing corporations and wealthy individuals whose tax burden has been diminished dramatically during this administration.
Education spending is not driving us to bankruptcy. It's the unwillingness of this administration to have those who are capable of carrying the tax load to be exempt. That is the fundamental economic dilemma of this country.
BLITZER: The other argument, Congressman Pence, is that $2 billion or $3 billion, $100 billion a year, $150 billion a year spent on the war in Iraq, that's taxing the American taxpayer.
PENCE: Well, there's no question that the financial obligations of war always tax a nation. They did all the way back in the Lincoln administration. But I want to agree -- and I haven't read the book yet and I intend to read it -- I agree with the supposition that -- I don't think the American people so much chose the Democrat Party's big government agenda as that I don't think they hired them so much as they fired us. And Chairman Greenspan's challenge that my party return to its roots of fiscal discipline and reform is welcome.
BLITZER: Congressman Pence, thanks for coming in. Chairman Lantos, thanks to you as well. Up next, some tough talk from the man on the front line, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, in our best of "The Situation Room" from this week. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Indianapolis Television Coverage
Congressman Pence appeared on WISH TV last night to discuss progress in Iraq. Click here to view the story.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Transcript of Pence, Petreaus, Crocker Q&A
Below is the transcript of Congressman Pence's Q&A with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker during yesterday's hearing:
Transcript of Congressman Pence Questioning of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker
Joint House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Armed Services Committee Hearing
9/10/2007
Washington, DC
Congressman Pence: I would like to thank you General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker for you’re service to the Nation. The Old Book tells us if you owe debts, pay debts; if honor then honor; if respect, then respect, and having met with both of you on several occasions downrange in different assignments, I know this nation owes you a debt of honor and a debt of respect. I appreciate the way my colleagues have addressed this hearing today.
General Petraeus, just for clarification, it seems to me that you opened you’re testimony today with a very emphatic declarative, I think you’re words were “this is my testimony.” I think you added that it had not been cleared by the White House or the Department of Defense; again, we are getting the Petraeus Report.
General Petraeus: That is correct, as I stated, I have obviously given recommendations, and I gave an assessment as part of those recommendations during a week of video teleconferences, consultations with Admiral Fallon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of Defense, and then ultimately, the President.
But the testimony I have provided today, this statement, is one that I eventually took control of the electrons about two weeks ago, and as I have mentioned, have not been shared with anyone outside my inner-circle.
Congressman Pence: Thanks for clarifying that. I think it’s important, two quick points: first, on the subject of joint security stations. When I was there in April in Bagdad with you General Petraeus, we visited a joint security station downtown. I think your testimony today suggests that now that the joint security stations, to use you’re phrase, “are across Iraq.” I wondered if you might comment for these committees, about the extent to which, embedding, if you will, American and Iraqi forces together, living together, deploying together in neighborhood areas has expanded beyond the scope of Baghdad, the impact that it is having.
And for ambassador Crocker, just for the sake of efficiency, when I was in Ramadi, in that same trip, we met with Sheikh Sattar, some of the leaders of the Iraqi Awakening Movement, it was at that time, I think twenty of the twenty-two sheikhs in al Anbar province had organized that effort, the transformation of al Anbar has been extraordinary. You made a provocative comment today saying that, that movement is, “unfolding in other parts of Iraq.” And I think you mentioned Diala and Ninawa Provinces. I wondered if you might, each of you, separately, touch on. I saw those things in their nascent form this spring, and it seems like both of them have expanded well beyond expectations to the good of U.S. interests and stability in Iraq. General?
General Petraeus: Congressman, the concept again is that if you’re going to secure the population, you have to live with the population. You can’t commute to this fight. And the idea is that wherever possible to do it together with our Iraqi counterparts, in some cases police, in some cases army, sometimes all of the above. The idea of the joint security stations is to be really command and control hubs typically for areas in which there are coalition forces, Iraqi army, Iraqi police and sometimes now even these local volunteers, who again, by directive of Prime Minister Maliki, are individuals with whom the Iraqi army is supposed to deal as well. There are a number of other outposts, patrol bases, and other small bits of infrastructure, if you will, that have also been established to apply this idea so central to counterinsurgency operations of again, positioning in and among the population. And you see it in Ramadi. For example, in Ramadi there are a couple dozen, I think is the last count of police stations, patrol bases, combat outposts, you name it, many of which have both coalition, either U.S. Army or U.S. Marines together with Iraqi police or Iraqi soldiers, or in some cases, still local volunteers who are in the process of being transitioned into one of the security ministries.
We see the same in Fellujah. In Fellujah, though, it is police stations, and there are ten precincts now established in Fellujah, the last one was just completed. In each of those, there is typically a Marine Squad or a force of about that size. And over time, we have been able to move our main force elements out of Fellujah, and also now, to move two of the three Battalions of the Iraqi army that were in that area, which frees them up to go up and replace the Marine Expeditionary Unit that’s coming out, and continue the pressure on al-Qaeda Iraq up in the Lake Tharthar area.
Ambassador Crocker: Thank you Mr. Chairman. We’re seeing the phenomenon of Anbar repeated elsewhere, of Iraqis deciding they’ve had enough of terrorists. Anbar itself, the whole way it unfolded there, is unique to Anbar. We’ve got to have the, again, the area smarts and the tactical flexibility to perceive what opportunities are the regional differences. So Diala, for example, is much more complicated then Anbar because, instead of being just Sunni, that’s Sunni, Shiia, Kurd intermixed, and has required much more careful handling, which I must say, the military has done an absolutely brilliant job of, in an incredibly complex political-military context. But, again, in Anbar and Abu Ghraib west of Bagdad, in Baghdad, the three neighborhoods that General Petraeus mentioned, in Diala which is a little bit to the northeast, and also in Nineveh to the north, and in Salahuddin, a process underway that is conceptually similar to what happened in Anbar, but has in each case, its particular differences that have to be taken into account by the US and the Iraqi’s.
Pence appears on NewsHour
Congressman Pence appeared on the NewsHour last night to discuss General Petraeus' testimony. You can read the transcript and view the video here.
Wall Street Journal on Petraeus testimony yesterday
The Wall Street Journal has a great op-ed today on General Petraeus' testimony yesterday.
Key excerpt:
Important as was yesterday's appearance before Congress by General David Petraeus, the events leading up to his testimony may have been more significant. Members of the Democratic leadership and their supporters have now normalized the practice of accusing their opponents of lying. If other members of the Democratic Party don't move quickly to repudiate this turn, the ability of the U.S. political system to function will be impaired in a way no one would wish for.
Well, with one exception. MoveOn.org, the Democratic activist group, bought space in the New York Times yesterday to accuse General Petraeus of "cooking the books for the White House." The ad transmutes the general's name into "General Betray Us."
"Betrayal," as every military officer knows, is a word that through the history of their profession bears the stain of acts that are both dishonorable and unforgivable. That is to say, MoveOn.org didn't stumble upon this word; it was chosen with specific intent, to convey the most serious accusation possible against General Petraeus, that his word is false, that he is a liar and that he is willing to betray his country. The next and obvious word to which this equation with betrayal leads is treason. That it is merely insinuated makes it worse.
MoveOn.org calls itself a "progressive" political group, but it is in fact drawn from the hard left of American politics and a pedigree that sees politics as not so much an ongoing struggle but a final competition. Their Web-based group is new to the political scene, but its politics are not so new. More surprising and troubling are the formerly liberal institutions and politicians who now share this political ethos.
Monday, September 10, 2007
PENCE WELCOMES GEN. PETRAEUS TO CAPITOL HILL
Washington, Sep 10 - WASHINGTON, DC - US Congressman Mike Pence, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued the following statement on General Petraeus' visit to Capitol Hill.
“I am pleased to welcome General David Petraeus to the Foreign Affairs Committee today and I await his report, and that of Ambassador Crocker, on the state of U.S. efforts in Iraq. I first met General Petraeus in Baghdad when I led a delegation of congressmen to Iraq in September of 2005. He was wrapping up a tour of duty in Baghdad that was widely heralded as a success. I welcomed his return to Iraq in 2007 as he assumed command of the Multi-National Force-Iraq. I met again with General Petraeus when I returned to Baghdad in April of this year and joined him for the first tour of officials in downtown Baghdad.
“His reputation for intelligence, leadership and integrity is virtually unparalleled even among the extraordinary men and women of today's Army. You can judge for yourself, his biography appears below. Despite what some critics may say, I have every confidence that General Petraeus will give us the unvarnished truth of our military effort in Iraq.”
Biography of General David H. Petraeus
General David H. Petraeus assumed command of the Multi-National Force-Iraq on February 10th, 2007, following his assignment as the Commanding General, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth. Prior to assuming command at Ft. Leavenworth, he was the first commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, which he led from June 2004 to September 2005, and the NATO Training Mission- Iraq, which he commanded from October 2004 to September 2005. That deployment to Iraq followed his command of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), during which he led the “Screaming Eagles” in combat throughout the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His command of the 101st followed a year deployed on Operation Joint Forge in Bosnia, where he was the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations of the NATO Stabilization Force and the Deputy Commander of the US Joint Interagency Counter-Terrorism Task Force-Bosnia. Prior to his tour in Bosnia, he spent two years at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, serving first as the Assistant Division Commander for Operations of the 82nd Airborne Division and then as the Chief of Staff of XVIII Airborne Corps.
General Petraeus was commissioned in the Infantry upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1974. He has held leadership positions in airborne, mechanized, and air assault infantry units in Europe and the United States, including command of a battalion in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and a brigade in the 82nd Airborne Division. In addition, he has held a number of staff assignments: Aide to the Chief of Staff of the Army; battalion, brigade, and division operations officer; Military Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander - Europe; Chief of Operations of the United Nations Force in Haiti; and Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
General Petraeus was the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Class of 1983. He subsequently earned MPA and Ph.D. degrees in international relations from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and later served as an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the US Military Academy. He also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University.
Awards and decorations earned by General Petraeus include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, two awards of the Distinguished Service Medal, two awards of the Defense Superior Service Medal, four awards of the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal for valor, the State Department Superior Honor Award, the NATO Meritorious Service Medal, and the Gold Award of the Iraqi Order of the Date Palm. He is a Master Parachutist and is Air Assault and Ranger qualified. He has also earned the Combat Action Badge and French, British, and German Jump Wings. In 2005 he was recognized by the U.S. News and World Report as one of America’s 25 Best Leaders.
Friday, September 07, 2007
Pence to appear on FOX Monday
Congressman Pence will appear LIVE on the FOX News Channel Monday around 9:20 a.m. to discuss General Petraeus' report on Iraq. Be sure to tune in.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Coverage of Pence's appointment to Select Committee
Maureen Groppe and Sylvia Smith covered Congressman Pence's appointment to a Select Committee to Investigate Voting Irregularities yesterday. Read their stories here and here.
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