[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 5, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CUBAN ATTACK

                                 ______


                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 5, 1996

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member commends to his colleagues two 
important editorials which appeared in the Omaha World-Herald on 
February 27 and February 28, 1996.

              [From the Omaha World-Herald Feb. 27, 1996]

    Cuban Attack Is U.S. Business; Clinton Too Quick to Call in U.N.

       Saturday, Feb. 24, 1996. Two American-based civilian 
     aircraft, belonging to a Cuban exile group called Brothers to 
     the Rescue, are blasted out of the sky by Fidel Castro's 
     warplanes. Four people are missing and presumed dead.
       President Clinton's immediate response is to slink off and 
     ask the United Nations to do something. By Sunday evening, 
     the Security Council is meeting in closed session. Cuba asks 
     for more time to give its version of the event. The question 
     of whether the United States would respond unilaterally 
     seemed to be on hold.
       Monday, Clinton belatedly came through. He halted charter 
     air travel between Cuba and the mainland, places further 
     restrictions on the movements of Cuban diplomats in the 
     United States and threw his support to pending legislation to 
     tighten U.S. sanctions against the island nation. He also 
     allowed frozen Cuban assets to be used to help the families 
     of the victims.
       But even as Clinton acted, the effectiveness of his 
     previous policies toward Castro came under scrutiny. Under 
     Clinton, travel between Cuba and the mainland had become 
     easier. Telephone links were established. U.S. businesses 
     encountered less resistance from their own government in 
     establishing contacts with the Cubans--indeed, when a move 
     originated in Congress to punish them for doing business on 
     the island, Clinton was against it.
       When Castro wanted to attend the U.N. anniversary 
     celebration in New York City, the U.S. government did not 
     stop him. Moreover the U.S. government had urged Brothers to 
     the Rescue pilots not to fly into Cuban air space during 
     their flights to spot refugees at sea and notify U.S. 
     authorities--a warning that the Brothers ignored when they 
     dropped leaflets on Cuban cities, urging that Castro be 
     overthrown.
       U.S. concessions made no more impression on Fidel Castro 
     than they did on Gerry Adams, apparently. A few days earlier, 
     it was the Irish Republican Army that repaid hopeful 
     concessions with unspeakable violence. Clinton had given the 
     IRA and its Sinn Fein partners a claim to respectability by 
     inviting Adams to be a guest in the White House. The naivete 
     of that approach became clear when the IRA went back to its 
     old practice of planting bombs where dozens of innocent 
     people were likely to be injured.
       The intentional destruction of unarmed airplanes was once 
     considered an act of war. As Patrick Buchanan said Sunday, 
     this was murder. U.S. citizens, flying the small planes, were 
     the victims. Clinton was too quick, in our opinion, to turn 
     to the United Nations. This attack endangers the peace of the 
     Caribbean and is accordingly, America's business.
                                                                    ____


              [From the Omaha World-Herald, Feb. 28, 1996]

                    U.N. Response to Cuba Too Timid

       The Clinton administration unnecessarily humbled itself by 
     going hat in hand to the United Nations after Cuba's air 
     force used missiles to shoot down two American-based, small 
     civilian planes. The incident need not have required a 
     finding by an international body that Cuba was wrong. That 
     was self-evident. It required only an appropriate U.S. 
     response, firm and prompt.
       As it turned out, the U.N. response was minimal and 
     perfunctory. The United States had requested a formal 
     resolution, condemning the assault. Instead, it received a 
     ``presidential statement,'' which required no vote and which 
     deplored rather than condemned. To their credit, the drafters 
     of the statement mentioned that international covenants ban 
     the use of weapons against civilian aircraft.
       But any outrage was muted. Diplomats said there was no 
     support for punitive action against Cuba.
       Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the United 
     Nations, called attention to the heinousness of the Cuban 
     barbarism when she played a tape in which the Cuban pilots 
     expressed joy about their success and made crude remarks 
     about their victims.
       At one point, one of the fighter pilots radioed that the 
     target was in sight and that it was a small plane. Ground 
     control acknowledged that it was a ``small plane.'' The pilot 
     identified the plane as a Cessna 337. An order came back: 
     ``Authorized to destroy.''
       Ms. Albright said she was ``struck by the joy of these 
     pilots as they committed cold-blooded murder.'' Her fellow 
     Security Council members, however, showed little outrage.
       This should be a lesson to the administration. There may be 
     times when the United Nations serves a purpose. But certainly 
     there are other times--and this was one--when the United 
     States has better things to do than solicit an expression of 
     support from the United Nations.

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