Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Kiron in western Iowa, left Friday afternoon on a Congressional “fact-finding” mission in Iraq.King says he asked to be part of the group because King says what he’s hearing in the classified briefings he gets as a member of Congress don’t match what he’s hearing in the news. King says he wants to meet the people on the ground, talk to Iraqis and to U.S. troops, and bring his real-person accounts back to Iowa and the floor of the House.King says he’ll have greater credibility when he talks about Iraq after he’s been there, on the ground. King says it’s one thing to get a briefing from a top Pentagon official and another thing entirely to be able to ask questions of the folks on the ground in Iraq rather than getting the answers the Pentagon has prepared. This past week King voted in favor of the President’s 87 billion dollar request for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq.