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House Poised to Rebuke State Department on Iraq Corruption Data
Real estate news By US Department of State
Oct. 16, 2007 – 2:03 p.m.
The House on Tuesday was expected to adopt a resolution condemning the State Department for withholding information about Iraqi corruption from the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The non-binding “sense of the House” measure (H Res 734), represents an unusually strong rebuke of the Bush administration for declining to discuss openly whether the government of Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki has the intent and the ability to solve rampant criminality that by all accounts has plagued its ministries.
“It is an abuse of the classification process to withhold from Congress and the people of the United States broad assessments of the extent of corruption in the Iraqi government,” said the resolution by the committee chairman, Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif. The State Department has argued that disclosure of the information could hurt U.S.-Iraq relations and has instructed its personnel not to address the government’s efforts, or lack thereof, to combat corruption.
Jim McGovern, D-Mass., a member of Rules, said Congress has a right to know whether the Iraqi government is “too corrupt to succeed.” Citing U.S. soldiers wounded and killed in Iraq, he said their families are entitled to learn, “What kind of government were they fighting for?” Republicans replied that the information sought by the committee could be provided in classified meetings, but they said the panel had declined these. They also criticized Democrats for refusing to allow consideration of a Republican amendment
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