Kendrick Meek: “I am so glad that the chairman shared with the American people and Members of the House on how dangerous this situation…”

“I am so glad that the chairman shared with the American people and Members of the House on how dangerous this situation is for our troops in Iraq. And, Mr. Speaker, I am going to enter for the Record a statement of why I voted against a resolution today and I will hand it to the Clerk. But I think it is important for discussion points to the fact that the Pentagon knew to contact 60 Minutes II 2 weeks ago, when they wanted to run the story of these pictures and what has happened to these prisoners and they were guaranteed once, if other news organizations were moving forth, if they were to just stand by and allow the Pentagon to take another look at this that they would be given an exclusive interview. Those kinds of things, when a news organization, 60 Minutes II, or 60 Minutes period, when they call, I mean it is kind of difficult for me to even just comprehend or understand that the Secretary of Defense had no knowledge of what was going on in this prison. That is one fact. The second fact is the issue on January 13 of 2004. A soldier gave a disk of pictures to a brass commander to let him know what was going on. The Ryder report never made it up the chain of command, that is what someone has said. But I will tell you, we are going to continue to have problems, and even more problems, if we slow-walk this thing, if we politic this thing in a way of trying to shield the administration and the President. I can care less about shielding someone.”