House Armed Services Committe
Subcommittee Chairman Meehan's Opening Statement --April 25, 2007
"Good morning, and welcome to our witnesses and guests. This is the sixth session and second open hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on the topic of the development of Iraqi Security Forces.
"In his address to the nation on January 10th, the President announced his intention to accelerate the transition of security operations to the Iraqis. Reports from the field regarding the readiness and performance of the Iraqi Army have, however, been mixed, and news regarding the Iraqi Police Services has often been highly discouraging. It is my intent to lead this Subcommittee past the anecdotal evidence, and to get to the bottom of what kind of progress we are really making.
"To that end, we have been pursuing this effort through a series of briefings, hearings, and requests for information over the past several months to examine specific aspects of the Iraqi Security Forces. We have looked at training, equipment, logistics, and costs. We have talked to the leaders engaged in the effort, and have particularly tried to talk to the more junior personnel who work directly with Iraqi Security Forces on a daily basis.
"Last week, you may know, our efforts to do that were blocked at the last minute by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs. Since we have DOD witnesses with us today, I would like our record to reflect how unhappy we were about what happened last week, and furthermore, that no one from the senior levels of DOD or the Joint Staff has even called me to discuss the situation.
"I would also like to have it on our record today that this is not a settled question, and I would not expect OSD Legislative Affairs to stand in the way of this Subcommittee's constitutional responsibility to perform oversight, pursuant to our congressional prerogatives and policies, rather than those they would like to dictate to us.
"With that said, our work goes on. Today, we turn our attention to the role that private contractors have played in the mission to train, equip, and sustain Iraqi Security Forces. There were almost 127,000 contractors for the Department of Defense alone in Iraq as of DOD's most recent count, in addition to 145,000 troops. We must leave aside for another day the broader issue of whether this is an appropriate way for the United States to fight its modern wars. Today, we will focus on the role these contractors have played with respect to the Iraqi Security Forces mission.
"We will first receive testimony from a panel of Department of Defense, Department of State and Department of Justice witnesses. The reason for the breadth of this panel is that the Iraqi Security Forces mission does not involve only Iraqi military training. The Departments of State and Justice have played a major role in training Iraqi police, advising the Ministry of Interior, and other rule of law oriented missions. We will look forward to hearing about how the roles and responsibilities for each agency in Iraq have evolved, as well as the procedures for accountability, management, and oversight of contractors that have been put in place.
"In addition, we expect that our Department of Defense witnesses will provide us with greater insight into the nuts and bolts of how contracting for a mission as broad and complex as developing the Iraqi military and Iraqi police is done.
"Our first panel of witnesses includes Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Ambassador Anne Patterson; Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bruce Swartz; Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Gary Motsek; and Colonel Anita Raines, who is Chief of the Logistics Services Division of the Joint Staff.
"We will also welcome a second panel of witnesses today, who we expect to provide both outside perspectives on the use of contractors for this type of mission, and a real-life account of the contractor-led police development effort on the ground in Iraq. Our second panel includes Dr. Deborah Avant, who is the Director for Global and International Studies at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, Mr. Doug Brooks, the President of the International Peace Operations Association, and Mr. Gerald Burke, who is a retired Major in the Massachusetts State Police and former Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and Iraqi Police Services.
"To encourage discussion at today's hearing, I would like to follow the same less-formal procedures as we have had in our previous briefings and hearings I have talked with our distinguished Ranking Member, and he has agreed to dispense with the 5-minute rule during today's hearing. Pursuant to Rule 11(b)(2) of the Rules of our Committee, the Subcommittee will dispense with the five minute rule and allow questioning to proceed as subcommittee members express interest rather than strictly by seniority.
"I would like to remind everyone that while this is an open hearing, we have received closed briefings in which classified information was presented, so please be mindful of anything you might say based on what you heard in the closed briefings.
"Welcome again to our witnesses. We're looking forward to your remarks. We will take your whole text for the record, but I ask that you keep your prepared remarks fairly brief so we can get to our questions.
"Now, I would like to turn to my colleague, Mr. Akin, our ranking member, for any opening remarks he might have."
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