SANTORUM COMMENTS ON TORTURE OF IRAQI BUSINESSMEN DURING SADDAM HUSSEIN’S REGIME
Contact: Christine Shott (202) 224-0610
Wednesday, June 2, 2004Washington, DC – Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, held a press conference today with Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL). The Senators introduced seven victims of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and released a never-before-seen video of torture conducted by the regime.
Senator Santorum issued the following statement on the torture of Iraqi businessmen while they were prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in 1995:
“Saddam Hussein’s regime used torture as one method of instilling fear and asserting authority over the Iraqi people. The seven Iraqi businessmen visiting with us here today suffered physical torture and mutilation by Saddam's brutal regime. In 1995, these men had their right hands removed for the crime of handling U.S. currency, and had ‘X’s’ tattooed on their foreheads as punishment for the economic strife affecting Iraq at that time.
“These men are on Capitol Hill today to share their personal experiences as a testament to the merciless and cruel treatment by the Hussein regime.
“U.S. forces entered Iraq over a year ago to liberate a nation from an inhumane and evil regime. Today, as U.S. forces continue their work in rebuilding Iraq, it is not surprising that remnants of the Hussein regime and their supporters would mount a coordinated terrorist campaign against a free Iraq. Winning freedom is not easy when the opposition believes that torture and persecution are the only ways to govern a nation. There is a lot of work left to do, but we have an opportunity to fight terrorism and to stop the horrific torture and treatment of innocent civilians.”
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