[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 26 (Thursday, February 29, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E253-E254]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO TUSHIA N. FISHER

                                 ______


                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 29, 1996

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize Ms. Tushia N. Fisher who 
is employed as a special assistant to the New York State Senate 
minority leader, Martin Connor. She is a student enrolled in the State 
University of New York Empire State College, in a combined master's 
degree program in political science.
  Tushia is a remarkable example of a 1990's woman, dedicated to her 
family, striving to improve herself as a single parent, and dedicated 
to improving and empowering her community. Tushia believes that 
children are our future. She has embarked on a campaign, starting with 
her 6-year-old son Jamere Jamison, to improve the plight of African-
American youth. Her efforts include volunteering at the Interfaith 
Hospital holiday drive, as well as the City Kids Foundation. 
Additionally, Tushia is an active member of Concord Baptist Church. She 
provides a wonderful example for single and dedicated parents about how 
to pursue personal and professional development while providing 
volunteer service to her community. I am happy to cite this wonderful 
community success story.

[[Page E254]]


                         TWILIGHT OF THE THUGS

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 29, 1996

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, today's Washington Post has an excellent 
column by the Post's distinguished diplomatic correspondent, Jim 
Hoagland. He discusses the recent incidents involving a series of 
``rogue regimes,'' the international outlaw countries which are a 
threat to global peace and stability. He rightfully points out that we 
must keep the focus on the leaders of these regimes and their 
outrageous policies and not let minor differences over how to deal with 
these dictators distort the fundamental agreement that exists among 
most Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, these rogue regimes represent the most serious threat to 
U.S. interests and policies in the world, and it is essential that we 
take strong action to deal with these countries. These states support 
and sponsor terrorism; they create instability in their regions through 
destabilizing policies toward their neighbors; they seek to acquire 
weapons of mass destruction and sell such weapons to other rogue 
regimes; they violate the human rights of their own citizens. The list 
of such countries is not long, but it includes Libya, Iran, Iraq, North 
Korea, Sudan, and Cuba.
  As my colleagues know, with my distinguished colleague from New York, 
Mr. King, I have introduced legislation that would put this House on 
record by condemning the visit of Louis Farrakhan to several of these 
rogue regimes, including Libya, Iran, and Iraq. It also calls on the 
President to direct executive agencies to determine if the Farrakhan 
visit and the actions that follow that visit--such as the reported gift 
from Libya's Qadhafi of $1 billion for Farrakhan's use in the United 
States--violate United States laws and, if that is the case, to 
prosecute vigorously such violations.
  Mr. Hoagland made this observation regarding Farrakhan's grand tour 
of terrorist states: ``Keep the focus on the Friends of Farrakhan. Make 
it clear that any financial transactions between the rogues and any 
Americans, including Farrakhan, will be investigated and if warranted 
prosecuted. President Clinton should not remain silent on the 
minister's travels.''
  I could not agree more with Mr. Hoagland. And--I would also add--the 
Congress should not remain silent on Farrakhan's travels. I invite my 
colleagues to join us in cosponsoring our resolution to condemn the 
Farrakhan tour of the terrorist states.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that Jim Hoagland's column be placed in the 
Record, and I urge my colleagues to read his excellent analysis.

               [From the Washington Post, Feb. 29, 1996]

                         Twilight of the Thugs

                           (By Jim Hoagland)

       Fidel Castro has demonstrated anew his zest for creating 
     mischief for a U.S. president seeking reelection. But Cuba's 
     cold-blooded shooting down of two unarmed U.S. civilian 
     aircraft on Saturday also shows the insecurity and 
     desperation that now envelops the Western Hemisphere's last 
     dictator and his kind.
       The two Cessnas piloted by Cuban exiles, out to help 
     fleeing rafters and perhaps drop propaganda leaflets on their 
     homeland were mosquitoes buzzing around El Jefe's beard. 
     Castro was not strong enough to laugh them off. Instead he 
     turned them into martyrs. His savage response is the act of a 
     wounded, cornered animal fighting off the end.
       To be sure, there is a mountain of politics and diplomacy 
     to be worked through in the days to come, with debates 
     flowing here over whether President Clinton's classically 
     incremental response to the shoot-down was overly mild.
       But the focus should stay on Castro and his regime, 
     revolutionary relics floating like debris in the wake of the 
     Soviet collapse of 1991. Just as time ran out on the Soviet 
     Union five years ago, it is now running out for the rogue 
     regimes and rulers who have clung to power in the Third World 
     after the demise of their superpower protector.
       The same lurching, cornered quality of the Cuban shoot-down 
     is apparent in the grisly spat between Saddam Hussein and the 
     two defectors-in-law he accepted back to Iraq and then had 
     executed, and in Moammar Gadhafi's desperate efforts to 
     construct the most grandiose poison gas factor in history in 
     the empty Libyan desert. Instead of fiddling as their regimes 
     crumble, these modern Neros pass their time by expanding 
     their repertoire of murder and mass destruction.
       North Korea plays out its version of the communist endgame 
     by blackmailing the United States and its allies for 
     financial help to stave off a total, sudden collapse. Vietnam 
     plays the game by opening up to foreign investment and trade, 
     an approach Syria toys with, trying to winkle concessions out 
     of Warren Christopher and Shimon Peres for doing so. China 
     and Iran, which also practice Soviet-style tyranny at home 
     and criminality abroad, do not--alas--appear to be as close 
     to revolutionary burnout. But cheer up. I could be wrong, 
     particularly about China.
       Why get our hopes up now? Because the extinguishing of the 
     Soviet sun has left this shrinking universe of thug-rulers 
     without a center, without a system of political gravity. They 
     have lost their international reason to exist. They have 
     coasted for five years on the strength of brute force and in 
     some cases on the political and financial glory of 
     nationalized oil or other resources coveted by the West.
       But the disgrace and isolation Castro, Gadhafi, Saddam, 
     Syria's Hafez Assad, North Korea's Kims and the others have 
     brought on their nations can no longer be justified in the 
     name of international revolutionary glory or hidden from 
     their citizens. The growing isolation of the world's outlaws 
     is underscored by their willingness to serve as platforms for 
     the pitch of an itinerant American snake oil salesman--that 
     is, for the race-baiting of Louis Farrakhan, recently hosted 
     by Gadhafi, Saddam, and ayatollahs and the criminals who run 
     Nigeria, and others.
       Farrakhan is no doubt right when he says he has a 
     constitutional right to travel to these countries and meet 
     with whomever he likes. But Americans who were willing to 
     grant him the benefit of the doubt based on his Million Man 
     March, and promises of reconciliation and tolerance he voiced 
     there, would be fools to continue that openness after his 
     Grand Tour of Murder Inc. International.
       Congress should not give Farrakhan a new platform by 
     bringing him to town to hearings that, as a master showman, 
     he can manipulate. Farrakhan has said everything Americans 
     need to know by kissing the bloodstained rings of the killers 
     with whom he has cavorted on this trip.
       But this does not mean that America should passively wait 
     for the world's second-tier thugs and their would-be acolytes 
     to disappear into the sunset created by the collapse of 
     communism. Keep the focus on the Friends of Farrakhan. Make 
     it clear that any financial transactions between the rogues 
     and any Americans, including Farrakhan, will be investigated 
     and if warranted prosecuted. President Clinton should not 
     remain silent on the minister's travels.
       On Cuba, keep the focus on Castro. Clinton's Republican 
     rivals lack a sense of history and proportionality in 
     concentrating their fire not on Castro but on the president's 
     low-key, still evolving response to the shoot-down. We fall 
     into Castro trap if we let these murders become an American 
     political football. You can almost hear Castro laughing and 
     saying, ``There they go again.''

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