Pete Sessions: “These Iraqis have a special perspective on the Abu Ghraib prison. It was there that they each had their right hand…”

“These Iraqis have a special perspective on the Abu Ghraib prison. It was there that they each had their right hand amputated by the Saddam Hussein regime. Their crime? Doing business with American dollars. Those were atrocities. That was life in Abu Ghraib before the liberation in Iraq, substantially different than under the American Army, even allowing for the physical abuse and psychological abuse we have seen in the photographs recently. There were several hours of videotapes that were discovered and found of other atrocities that came to my attention. This was discovered in the seizure of records and documents in Iraq by the American soldiers. People's hands, fingers, tongues, heads being cut off, as well as people being pushed off buildings--all on videotape. These were not low-level rogues. These were not isolated instances. It was systematic torture by a regime that used torture, mutilation, and murder as a means to a political end. The videotapes were made, in fact, at Saddam Hussein's request and direction so he could be certain his brutal orders were carried out. In fact, that is what dictators such as Saddam Hussein do. If you have seen some of the films of the history of Saddam Hussein's regime, you know he used random terror, random violence, death and destruction and mutilation as a tool to instill fear throughout the populace and help strengthen his hold on that country and to make sure nobody would cross him.”