[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 67 (Tuesday, April 25, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5624-S5627]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          DISASTER IN OKLAHOMA

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, 5 days ago we had a disaster that occurred 
in Oklahoma. I happened at the time to be in Dallas in a regional 
meeting on base closure when I got a call from the President of the 
United States. At that time, the entire Nation, only hours after the 
blast, was watching as the smoke still had not yet cleared.
  The President advised me as to what the Federal Government was doing. 
He told me about the FEMA team that was coming in, about the FBI, about 
law enforcement, all having to do with the tragedy, and asked if there 
was anything more that I could think of that could be done from the 
Federal level. Of course, I told the President there was nothing else I 
could think of that could happen, and I proceeded back to Oklahoma.
  When you see something like this that happens and you see the 
resources that are poured in from the Federal Government, the State 
government, the city government, but then most of all from the 
individuals, it is, indeed, heart warming. I agree with Billy Graham, 
during the memorial service, when he made the statement that it draws 
us together, it brings out the best in people when a tragedy of this 
nature takes place. It is one thing to watch it on the television, and 
it is another thing to experience it knowing that you have personal 
friends that are 
[[Page S5625]] inside the building. And as we speak today, I have 
personal friends that are inside the building. It was 5 days ago--5 
days and 1 hour ago--that the blast went off. When you look at the 
building and see that it happened from the north side, the lower half 
of the building on the south side is still intact to some degree. I 
have hope and faith that there will be some individuals who are still 
alive in the building.
  But when I think back and remember the 4 days that I spent over 
there, some of the experiences that we have had are very difficult to 
describe. My son is an orthopedic surgeon. There is a doctor who 
practices with him. The doctor had to go in and amputate a lady's leg, 
in order to extract her alive from the rubbish--it was a decision that 
she had to make--with no anesthetic. Do you want to die or do you want 
us to take your leg off and pull you out? And she chose the leg.
  On the first night when the rains came and it turned cold, I watched 
in cadence some 200 firemen marching down with all their regalia on--
their crash helmets, their fire suits, their boots--knowing that 40 at 
a time would have to go inside this building and crawl around on their 
hands and knees, not knowing whether the structure of the building 
would hold up and allow them to remain alive. They did risk their 
lives. I was told that there was not one that went in that was ordered 
in. They all volunteered to do it. As you know, we have lost some lives 
of those who have been a part of the medical and rescue teams.
  During this time, we had an occasion to look at where do we go from 
here? I was asked by the President 2 hours after the blast, ``What 
could be done to preclude something like this from happening?'' I have 
come to the conclusion that nothing in terms of added security or 
nothing in terms of taking away more freedoms is going to preclude some 
mad person from doing something like this if he has his mind set on 
doing it. This was a mobile unit, it was an explosion put together 
using fertilizer, using things that are certainly legal on the market. 
And if we were to take those things off the market, they would find 
something else, we know that. It would just make it more challenging to 
them.
  I think that if we try to approach this providing more security, we 
are wasting our time. However, I do think there are some things that 
can be done. Senator Nickles, Senator Dole and I have submitted a 
resolution which we will be voting on in just a few minutes.
  The resolution calls for condemning the violence in the strongest 
possible terms. We send condolences to the families. It applauds the 
rescue workers and supports the death penalty and commends the 
President and the Attorney General for their quick action. But it also 
pledges to approve legislation to combat terrorism.
  I remember in 1990 when we had the airport security bill. I had an 
amendment on the floor--at that time, it was in the other body--to have 
the death penalty in cases where a terrorist was carrying out a 
hijacking and it resulted in a death. You never heard so many bleeding 
hearts in your life standing up saying, ``You can't do that, that's 
inhumane.'' I believe something like that today will pass. While 
nothing good comes from tragedies like this, if anything good were to 
come, it would be that we are going to be able to get tough on these 
guys and actually punish them.
  I look at our system--I am not a lawyer--but when I see Roger Dale 
Stafford, of the Sirloin Stockade murder, sitting there watching color 
TV year after year, when I see that it takes an average of 9\1/2\ years 
to carry out an execution, then something is wrong.
  I had a debate during the course of this with Mr. Ron Cubie, who is 
the defense lawyer in the World Trade Center case. He was contending 
that the 1994 crime bill was one that could take care of problems like 
this, that it provided the death penalty in case of terrorism. That is 
not true. The 1994 crime bill was a farce. It did not provide any 
exclusionary rule reform. It did not provide any habeas corpus reform. 
So while they had on record the death penalty, they did not do anything 
about the endless delays that keeps the invocation of the death penalty 
from becoming a reality.
  That being the case, there is no deterrent. It is no deterrent for a 
terrorist who is proposing to do something as was done in Oklahoma 5 
days ago.
 If he thinks the very worst scenario, the worst thing that can happen 
to him, is that he is going to wait 9\1/2\ years and then be executed, 
he looks at our system and laughs at our system.

  I am one of those rare individuals who honestly believes in his own 
heart that punishment is a deterrent to crime. And when we wait for the 
punishment, long delayed periods, many of those people are waiting in 
an environment that is more livable than the environment that they are 
accustomed to. And to many of the people who might be involved from 
some other nations, Middle Eastern nations, that is not a deterrent. I 
have long sensed, in the years that I spent in the other body, that one 
of the problems we have in combating crime in this country is that the 
majority of people in Congress prior to the election of November 8 
honestly did not believe in their hearts that punishment was a 
deterrent to crime. Now we have the ACLU and these organizations 
sitting around saying that we are so concerned about these poor people 
who are involved in these crimes. We have been much more concerned 
about the criminals than we have been about the victims.
  Mr. President, that is something that is going to change. Maybe it 
took this tragedy in Oklahoma to make that change. I suspect that is 
the case. There are some bills that have been introduced prior to this 
tragedy--one was introduced by Senators Biden and Specter--that are 
going to do something about our ability to use resources out there to 
bring people to justice. Wiretapping for law enforcement officers to 
use. Is that an invasion of privacy? Yes, maybe it is. But somebody has 
to do something about it. We have a lot of procedural things that can 
be done that are addressed in that legislation that I think should 
pass.
  I think the resolution submitted by my colleague from Oklahoma, 
Senator Nickles, and our majority leader, Senator Dole, and others, is 
going to set the stage for the passage of tough legislation, providing 
tough and swift penalties for those people in America that are involved 
in terrorist activities or those people who are proposing to become 
involved in any other crime.
  I think that it may be that we will look back 10 years from now and 
say that because of those individuals that died painful deaths out in 
Oklahoma, maybe that resulted in doing something about crime in 
America.
  I do not think that it is over yet. As we speak today, there are 
firefighters and rescue workers crawling through the rubbish on their 
hands and knees, hearing the cracks. When you walk by, as Senator 
Nickles and I did, and see the human flesh that is on jagged pieces of 
iron--my office is located three blocks away, my Senate office in 
Oklahoma City. Our windows were blasted out. It is very difficult to 
explain to people the magnitude of that explosion--one that they 
originally said was a 1,200-pound explosion. They now say it had to be 
5,000 pounds. To put that in perspective, in World War II, that was 
about 10 of the largest nonatomic bombs they used in the war. And this 
was all perpetrated by one or two deranged minds, who somehow feel 
people had to be murdered to prove some type of a point.
  Lastly, I am going to hope that those individuals--and there are some 
around--who would try to exploit this tragedy into saying that we were 
wrong in the elections of 1994 in rebelling against some of the 
intrusions into our lives by Government, or that somehow this 
philosophy is tied into this far extreme fringe right wing that appears 
to be responsible for this tragedy, when in fact the revolution, as I 
have referred to it, that took place in the ballot box on November 8, 
1994, should not be reversed and people should not try to exploit this 
tragedy in reversing it.
  Finally, I want to commend those who have joined me and those whom I 
have joined in putting together this resolution. I am sure it will pass 
at noon today. I think that will be the predicate for doing something 
very meaningful about this type of activity in America.
  As we speak, there is a funeral taking place in Oklahoma City. It is 
for a daughter of a very close, personal friend of Don Nickles and 
myself. There will be many more funerals. I 
[[Page S5626]] think the Nation will be standing by and watching. I am 
sure that all the Nation grieves with us. I have been called by people 
not just from all over the Nation but all over the world. We should 
take any action necessary to make sure that something like this does 
not happen again. It has been said many times that if it can happen in 
the heartland of America, in Oklahoma City, it could happen anywhere. 
No one is immune.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I compliment my colleague, Senator 
Inhofe, for his statement and appreciate his assistance in putting this 
resolution together. It is with a sense of sadness that we have this 
resolution before the Senate today. We will be voting on it at 12 
o'clock. I wish that we were not here. I wish the tragic disaster that 
happened last Wednesday, April 19, had not happened. The deadliest 
terrorist attack that ever happened on our soil happened in Oklahoma 
City at 9 o'clock.
  This resolution is cosponsored by Senators Inhofe, Dole, and Daschle, 
and a total of 75 of our colleagues have cosponsored. My guess is that 
many more will join in cosponsoring by the time we finish our vote.
  This resolution speaks for the Senate but really speaks for America 
when it says we want to condemn this type of violence. It is a cowardly 
act, an evil act, one that is responsible for at least 80 deaths that 
now have been confirmed, with 150 missing and will probably be 
recovered in the next couple of days. Most of those are expected to be 
fatalities. In excess of 400 were injured. I visited some of those 
injured. Some were injured very severely. Some will be significantly 
injured for the rest of their lives as a result of this cowardly 
terrorist attack.
  Mr. President, it becomes very personal when you see and know the 
individuals affected. Senator Inhofe mentioned that we have a very good 
friend who is having a funeral today for his daughter. I talked to 
another friend today whose wife almost lost her life. She is a very 
good friend of ours as well. I talked to another friend who actually 
worked for the Senate, worked for my colleague, Senator Boren, for 
several years. His child was almost killed and is still listed in 
critical condition.
  At the memorial service or prayer service on Sunday, I talked to a 
lot of the victims. I talked to one young couple that lost two 
children, and that experience makes it all become very personal. I 
talked to two children who lost their mother.
  I talked to an individual who lost a spouse. The stories go on and 
on. This is a real tragedy of immense proportions with great damage 
inflicted on those lives.
  This resolution expresses our condolences, sympathies and prayers for 
the families of the victims, to the injured and also for the deceased. 
We pray for them and we want them to know of our outrage for the crime 
and our compassion for those individuals as well.
  This resolution states our strong support for the President and for 
the law enforcement officials who are doing everything within their 
power to apprehend and try and punish those people who are responsible, 
and it states that we support the President and the Attorney General as 
they say this is certainly a case in which the death penalty is 
appropriate. I concur with that.
  This resolution also goes a little bit further and says we want to 
thank the volunteers and the countless people who have put so much into 
alleviating the pain. Senator Inhofe mentioned some of the 
firefighters. I remember I was also in Dallas, and I flew up in the 
first plane available, returning to Oklahoma City, and I was 
accompanied by three firefighters who donated their time and money. 
They wanted to be there to help rescue innocent people. We have met 
countless people, and not just from Oklahoma. We have had firefighters 
across our State, but we met firefighters from Arizona and from 
Maryland and from all corners of the country. They are working 
unbelievable hours, and it is not easy work. I might mention that the 
work was very difficult at that time and very dangerous.
 It is not any easier now, because the likelihood of finding survivors 
is diminishing by the day.

  So their task right now is very gruesome, very difficult, and it 
continues to be dangerous. And our heartfelt thanks--and I am speaking 
on behalf of all Oklahomans, but really all Americans--for their 
courageous efforts.
  When we see this type of evil deed, it makes people think, how in the 
world could society degenerate to such a low level, or how could evil 
be so prevalent to have such an act of violence destroy so many 
innocent lives.
  I might also mention, maybe the light that comes after this evil is 
to see so much good that has come from so many people, so many 
thousands of people, all across the State of Oklahoma and all across 
the country, who are not only condemning the violence but reaching out 
to help those people who have been injured, to help those families that 
have been torn apart, to comfort and console.
  It has been heartwarming to hear President Clinton's remarks, 
Reverend Graham's remarks, Governor Keating, Mayor Norick, all of which 
I will say did an outstanding job not only at the prayer service, ``the 
time for healing,'' as Mrs. Keating referred to it, but really to reach 
out to the families and to comfort and console those families and let 
them know that we really do care.
  It is very heartwarming and it made us feel good, and as Reverend 
Graham said, ``Good will overcome evil.'' We want to thank the 
volunteers, all the people that worked in the hospitals. I talked to a 
survivor's family, and he said had it not been for the outstanding work 
of so many volunteers and the rescue operation, his wife would not have 
survived, and she is now anticipated to be a healthy survivor.
  We want to thank those countless people who risked their lives and 
were willing to make that kind of sacrifice for other people. It makes 
me very proud of my State. It makes me very proud of my country. 
Instead of this being the low mark which devastated not only our city 
and our State and our Nation, I think it is giving us the chance to 
rally around and say, yes, good will prevail. There are a lot of good 
people in this country, and people are reaching out and trying to 
assist and trying to help. We thank them for that.
  Mr. President, I want to address just another item, a development 
that has happened in the last day or so that I find very troubling in 
relation to this event. The issue is pointedly noted and cautioned 
against by columnist George Will, who noted that an attempt to locate 
the cause of a lunatic's action is ``apt to become a temptation to 
extract partisan advantage over spilled blood.'' With respect to this 
tragedy, the contempt for those people who try to gain political 
advantage from the Oklahoma City bombing will only be exceeded by the 
contempt for the perpetrators of this crime.
  Mr. President, where should our hearts be? What should our goals be? 
Where should our compassion be? Surely it should be to reach out to 
those families that are affected, and that has to be our focus, and 
then to arrest and convict and punish those people who are responsible 
for this atrocious, cowardly, evil act.
  Yet, even before the missing have been recovered, I see politicians 
and some pundits contemptibly jockeying for position, trying to blame 
the other side for the evil actions of a few individual criminals.
  The bombing in my State was not the work of the left or the right, of 
conservatives or liberals, Republicans or Democrats, or even right-wing 
extremists, as some people would say. The Reverend Billy Graham laid 
the blame on the proper place, noting that the tragic event has proved 
again that ``Satan is very real, and he has great power.'' He noted 
that the Bible tells us evil is real and the human heart is capable of 
limitless evil when it is cut off from God and cut off from moral law. 
I agree 100 percent.
  I am ashamed, I am bothered, even appalled by hearing politicians or 
pundits who would stoop so low as to play politics with this tragedy.
  A reporter on a talk show, Juan Williams, just recently linked the 
attack to Republicans in Congress saying, ``It's the same kind of idea 
that has fueled so much of the right-wing triumph over the agenda here 
in Washington.''
  In an attempt to blame Republican leaders in general, columnist Carl 
Rowan was quoted in the Washington 
[[Page S5627]] Post as saying, ``I am absolutely certain the harsher 
rhetoric of the Gingriches and the Doles * * * creates a climate of 
violence in America.''
  I do not know who the President was talking about yesterday when he 
said ``loud and angry voices'' spread hate and ``leave the impression 
that, by their very words, that violence is acceptable.''
  Mr. President, this tragedy took the lives of innocent young children 
and adults alike. Surely in the effort to lay blame, our focus must 
rest with the criminals--the evil, cowardly, individuals who took the 
lives of so many innocent people. Surely, the focus of our hearts and 
our passion and our prayers must remain with the families that have 
been devastated.
  I just hope and pray that those people who may be tempted to extract 
partisan advantage from this unbelievable act will look inwardly and 
find compassion in their hearts and not resort to playing politics with 
the lost lives of my fellow Oklahomans.
  If you were there--Senator Inhofe and I were there, Governor Keating 
and others--and walked around in the ruins, and talked to the firemen 
and talked to the rescue people who were struggling to find additional 
survivors, the very idea that someone might be playing politics with 
this is almost beyond comprehension. It is offensive. I hope we do not 
hear it again.
  Let us find those people responsible and punish them and show 
compassion for the families. Those families have had their lives 
ruined. They lost loved ones. They lost a child, a daughter, a spouse. 
They lost a father or a mother. Their lives in many cases have been 
more than devastated by a tragedy from which they may not be able to 
recover. If it were not for the grace and comfort of God, they may not 
be able to recover.
  This Senate, by our resolution today, I think, will be expressing 
comfort and consolation to those families, our outrage at this 
unbelievable, unspeakable crime, and our sense that we in Congress want 
the law enforcement people to apprehend them and to punish them.
  We compliment the law enforcement people for the outstanding job that 
they have done. We compliment the rescue efforts that are going on 
today and will probably be going on for some days ahead. We compliment 
our political leaders from President Clinton, Governor Keating, and the 
city officials, Mayor Norick, and many others who have put in so many 
tireless efforts, including fire officials and others.
  We want them to know we support them and we appreciate their efforts. 
We appreciate the sacrifices they made to show that good can overcome 
evil. I think we have seen that in my State. I am very proud of the 
State of Oklahoma and our country as a result. I yield the floor.
  Mr. BYRD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may consume 
such time as I may require.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  

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