I want to talk a little bit about the division of iraq or keeping iraq whole. On the one hand, quh you look at some of these borders in the middle east, they were all done by the colonialists and i have often felt why should we be obligated to maintain those borders . Iraq is not a real state. It was slapped together. Youve got the kurds, you have the shia and the sunni, who really dont want to be part of each other, and so particularly the kurds, who have autonomy now, practically have their own nation, and probably will proclaim it very shortly, so my sympathies would be to say to the kurds, well, why should we suck you back into iraq . You have the right to your own nation. Frankly, nobody has ever explained to me why the palestinians are entitled to selfdetermination but somehow the kurds are not. I dont know i dont think thats fair, quite frankly. On the other hand, we are told that if the kurds break off, theres practically no way that you could stop the radicals from dominating
For her coverage of the National Security agency and in 2000 received a citation from the education writers association. She will moderate our panel. Thank you so much, and thanks for joining us for our, i guess, officially unsexy panel. [laughter] but congressional reform is probably the most high profile reform that has never fully or really at all been embraced. And in their tenyear report looking at the current state of play for National Security, the commission cites theres actually been a proliferation of committees that are now responsible for counterterrorism and Homeland Security types of issues. Were now up from 88 to 92, so i guess thats some kind of accomplishment that well discuss here. The report also highlights another congressional oversight problem in another realm which is actually too little congressional oversight when it comes to certain types of programs like sensitive intelligence programs, particularly as weve seen recently those that were highlighted in the sno
For the members the journey started in 93 but for others sooner. I have a thing for dates so january 30th, 1992, i was returning home from boston to d. C. We had been fighting or i should say fighting i should say nicely advocating on behalf of other family members with lawmakers about issues related to the Victim Compensation fund. I was reading an article in the newspaper on the flight home. The article said president bush wanted to only have investigation into the intelligence failures that surrounded 9 11 and not anything else. I thought i was just an average, ordinary citizen who suddenly got caught up in a terrible tragedy like like so many others on september 11th. I couldnt imagine why the government wouldnt want to investigate to see it never happened again. We fought the 9 11 family members for many, many months. We have a lot of stories about that fight. Remember our rally in june, we didnt know d. C. Very well. Having a rally in june didnt send offend warning bells that it
Nation and probably will proclaim it very shortly. So, my sympathies would be to say to the kurds, well, why should we suck you back into iraq . You have the right to your own nation. Frankly, nobody has ever explained to me why the palestinians are entitled to Self Determination but somehow the kurds are not. I dont think thats fair, quite frankly. On the other hand, were told that if the kurds break off, theres practically no way that you could stop the radicals from dominating whats left of iraq and that the kurds provide some kind of counterbalance to prevent the radicals from gaining control. I would like to hear from both of you, what your views are on keeping iraq intact or not. As i described in testimony, its a concept that is under the iraqi constitution that would recognize a very substantial devolution of powers. Theres a recognition in iraq that from the center out youre never going to fully control all of these areas, particularly given the capacity of isol. And locals an
Have not had the direct testimony of those affected by it and those who represent some who are affected by it. And so thats what this hearing was before. The fact that some senators have left, dont let that bother you. Markups are unusual. And thats why they had to come because theyre all 13, and they had to go do something else, but youre the point of all this. I want that to be very, very clear to you. So as i said, very glad to welcome four witnesses who will help us understand firsthand the consequences of the instances and what they had to go through. Yoig this is not an easy subject to talk about, let that be said, okay, so that its painful. And however you reflect that pain, the committee understands it. Welcomes it, joins you in, you know, the difficulty of coming up here and testifying before a senate committee. Although its really not that difficult after all. The cruise industry, im happy to say, is not happy that im holding this hearing. Theyre very unhappy. Those companies