Henry Waxman: “George Will wrote a column recently about the administration's lack of accountability. He pointed out that no one was…”

“George Will wrote a column recently about the administration's lack of accountability. He pointed out that no one was held accountable for the administration's false claim that Iraq attempted to obtain uranium from Niger or misleading claims about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. He correctly concluded failures are multiplying because of choices for which no one seems accountable. We are about to repeat this mistake once again. We all agree that the abuse and torture of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison is completely unacceptable. Congress has rightly condemned this illegal and inhumane conduct; but this House must take the next step, and fully investigate these terrible episodes. We must determine how many individuals were involved and how far up the chain of command this extends. We also must find out whether this type of abuse has occurred elsewhere, inside or outside of Iraq. We need to review the role of independent contractors; what role they played, to whom were they accountable.”