Kucinich: Administration Abuses Classification Process To Cover Up Its Failures In Iraq

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Administration Abuses Classification Process To Cover Up Its Failures In Iraq
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2007-10-16 20:39. Congress

From the Office of Congressman Dennis Kucinich

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 16, 2007) — Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) released the following statement after voting for H.Res. 734. The resolution admonishes the Bush Administration for retroactively classifying documents that reveal the magnitude of corruption in Iraq.

“The Administration is abusing the classification process to avoid responsibility for its failed policy in Iraq,” Kucinich said. “It is obvious they are hiding the truth from the American public.

“This debate must be put into perspective. The Administration certainly helped to create the war. Iraq didn’t have Weapons of Mass Destruction but Iraq did have one thing that’s very valuable and that’s oil.”

The State Department has retroactively classified two significant reports on Iraqi corruption. The extensive and retroactive classification of all information is a severe abuse of classification rules.

“Now they can classify all they want over at the White House, but this is still about oil. They can’t classify nearly 3,800 deaths of our soldiers. They can’t classify one million deaths of innocent Iraqis. They can’t classify that the war will cost up to $2 trillion. They can’t classify that they are borrowing money from China to fight a war against Iraq,” Kucinich said.

“The Administration helped create the war. They created the Coalitional Provisional Authority and they helped to create the Maliki government.

“Now they are withholding information and classifying previously unclassified information. Again, no WMD’s in Iraq, but I maintain this is all about oil. The Administration looks the other way on corruption, putting great pressure on the Maliki government at this very moment to privatize $20 trillion to $30 trillion worth of Iraqi oil assets.

“This war has been based on lies. We agree we should all abide by the rules of the House. We should also abide by the United States Constitution, which is why I support impeachment.”