"Worse" is Yet to Come, Says Kucinich
The following is a press release from May 7, 2004, by the Kucinich campaign
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"Worse" is Yet to Come, Says Kucinich
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2004
Contact: Matt Harris, (216) 403-3980, media@kucinich.us, Terre Lundy, (515) 988-5534
Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich said statements by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, coupled with new revelations in a report by the International Red Cross, "indicate that this appalling story of torture, degradation, and inhumanity is going to get worse" when all the facts are fully disclosed.
The most troubling parts of Rumsfeld's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee today, Kucinich said, relate to "what the American people haven' t been told yet." Rumsfeld told the committee that all of the facts relating to the Iraq prison abuse scandal were not yet known. He said he was aware of additional photographs and videos of sexual humiliation that have yet to be released publicly. "There are a lot more photos and videos that exist," Rumsfeld said. "If these are released to the public, they are going to make matters worse."
Rumsfeld's admission that the scandal is more widespread than currently believed comes on the same day as a damning report by the International Red Cross claiming that Iraqi detainees held by U.S. forces were subjected to systematic degrading treatment, sometimes close to torture, that may have been officially condoned. According to the report, "Our findings do not allow us to conclude that what we were dealing with...were isolated acts of individual members of coalition forces. What we have described is a pattern and a broad system." Kucinich said, "This is beyond inexcusable. This is obscene."
"What could possibly be worse than an obscene war that dehumanizes the Iraqi people who were promised freedom from tyranny and terror?" Kucinich asked. "The only thing worse is to remain there -- as occupiers, as targets, and as perceived enemies of the very principles of liberty and decency that we claim to believe in -- in even greater numbers and force, with no end in sight." Kucinich, a Congressman from Ohio, blamed the Bush Administration for creating the environment that led to the abuses and for failing to take swift action to deal with them. "We have not begun to go far enough to examine the true intent and conduct of the leadership of this country" he said, nor "have we gone far enough to bring an end to this unjustified war."
Today, while campaigning in West Virginia, he said, "There is no doubt that this will get worse -- for the Iraqi people, for our men and women in uniform who are now at even greater risk, and for the image of the United States in the eyes of the world community." He added, "The Republican Administration is unwilling to admit its mistakes, so it now falls on the leadership of the Democratic Party to demand an end to the war and to call on the Administration to bring our troops home."
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