Jay Inslee: “let me mention maybe one of the most embarrassing things, and I read about this today. When I said that this…”

“let me mention maybe one of the most embarrassing things, and I read about this today. When I said that this administration has put veterans on a lower tier of value, let me tell my colleagues the sort of icing on the cake. Today, I read that a group of veterans from the first Persian Gulf War who were tortured by Saddam Hussein in the Abu Ghraib prison brought a lawsuit in the American courts against Iraq, the Iraqi Government, and they were granted a significant judgment, several millions of dollars for the abuse, and it was horrendous abuse. These were fliers who went down in the first Persian Gulf War, were captured by Saddam's forces, and were terribly tortured; and they won a judgment that seemed to me to make the right decision considering what they went through. They now are attempting to enforce that judgment against Iraq and against the oil revenues that are generated in Iraq. So what did the administration do? Did it come to the aid of these veterans who were so terribly tortured at Abu Ghraib? No. This administration went to court to refuse to pay these veterans the judgment they had received against the Iraqi oil field money, essentially, which is now pouring into Iraq. And the irony of this is pretty amazing because our Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld, has said we are going to pay damages to the Iraqis who were subject to the abusive conditions in Abu Ghraib by our forces.”