Bill Delahunt: “Just to pick up on the point by my friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), it is beyond the incompetence and…”

“Just to pick up on the point by my friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), it is beyond the incompetence and the ineptitude that seems to characterize the civilian leadership of the Department of Defense. That can only be called callousness, and it is rank and raw. And maybe he ought to join us as we attend the funerals of those who have died in the service of this country. I have already attended two, two funerals. A young man in Quincy and just recently a young man in Plymouth. This Saturday I am attending another funeral. And just maybe if Under Secretary Wolfowitz was at that funeral with me, he might know the number of Americans that have died in this war. But maybe it is just simply ineptitude. We were talking earlier about these contractors, these mercenaries, these Hessians, if you will. A report exists that has targeted two individuals who worked for contractors. Now, I am not going to reach a conclusion, because everyone deserves due process, everyone deserves the implementation of the rule of law as we know it in our democracy; but they have not even received notice. Just imagine that. They have heard nothing from the Pentagon. It is in a report and there has been no communication to these private companies. Yesterday in the New York Times the lead contractors implicated in prison abuse remain on the job. They are still there.…”