Congressman Stephen F. Lynch (MA-09) this week sent the Final Report from the Congressional Delegation (CODEL) he led to Iraq and Afghanistan in April to President George W. Bush.  The Report was jointly signed by Congressman Lynch, Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT), and shares their findings with the Bush Administration, as well as their colleagues in the Congress.

 

To read the full report, click here.

 

During the seven-day CODEL, Congressman Lynch traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan and Turkey together with Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT), Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA), Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC).

 

This was Congressman Lynch’s sixth CODEL to Iraq and his second to Afghanistan.

 

The trip was intended to monitor the recent "surge" strategy in Baghdad and Anbar Province and to conduct congressional oversight of the Iraq Reconstruction process.

 

In Afghanistan, Lynch met with President Hamid Karzai to assess the situation along the tribal areas along the border with Pakistan.

As the Chairman of the House Task Force on Terrorist Financing and Proliferation, Lynch also met with central banking officials from several nations regarding transparency and anti-terrorist financing issues.

 

After Congressman Lynch and his colleagues returned home, they met in the Oval Office of the White House with President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Candida Wolff.  President Bush requested the meeting to discuss the findings of the CODEL.

 

At that meeting, Congressman Lynch informed the President that he would prepare a complete report of the CODEL’s findings and send it to his Administration.

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