[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 106 (Thursday, July 18, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H7997-H8003]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1715
                        THE SCOURGE OF TERRORISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Barton). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of May 12, 1995, the gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, and anybody who watches the 
proceedings of this, the world's greatest legislative body, first among 
equals even with the distinguished U.S. Senate, because all money bills 
start here, all spending bills, and all tax bills start in this Chamber 
on the south side of this exquisite Capitol Building.
  When people watch this floor, they expect promises to be kept. I made 
a promise the day before yesterday when I returned from the funeral of 
the highest ranking Navy ace in history, the Navy's ace of aces, Capt. 
David McCampbell. I said, because it was only a 5-minute special order, 
that I would read this beautiful eulogy from a fellow Medal of Honor 
winner, a fellow Medal of Honor winner to Captain McCampbell. Barney 
Barnum from a different war won his as a 24-year-old Marine company 
commander, actually a platoon leader who took over the company when his 
commander died in his arms. It was such a beautiful eulogy I said I 
would read it on the floor tonight.
  I will read as much of it as I can, but the business at hand that 
requires some comment is yet what will turn out to be another terrorist 
horror.
  Everybody is holding their fire and their analysis. It is all couched 
in careful terms because of the unfortunate jumping to the conclusion 
that the atrocity in Oklahoma City on Patriot's Day, April 19 a year 
ago, was a terrorist act, which it was. But they assumed no Americans 
would kill women and children and Army and Navy and Air Force 
recruiters and law enforcement officers and marshals and FBI agents. We 
assumed no American would perpetrate a terrorist act like that so that 
it had to be outside terrorists. Americans of Arab culture, of Middle 
Eastern background, and that can be Mennonite Christians from Lebanon, 
like my great friend, former late great Danny Thomas, family name was 
Jacobs. My brothers and I went to school with his children, Margie 
Thomas, later became a television star known as Marlo Thomas Margie 
Jacobs was known to us. But John Sununu, a Lebanese family, the great 
Governor of New Hampshire, great TV debater now.
  All the way through all of the countries. Persian, people from Iran, 
who are Islamic in religious culture but not Arab in nationality. It 
was very unfair to every American who is Christian, Islamic, or even 
Jewish of Arab blood. People jump to the conclusion not incorrectly 
that Oklahoma City, the bomber of the Murrah Building was terrorism, it 
was, but they assumed it had to be outside evil terrorists, not evil 
Americans.
  Also, the tragedy of ValuJet, my favorite airline at the time because 
it had lowered its prices and made jet travel so available to so many 
American families. It was growing so amazingly, up to 51 aircraft when 
that explosion tore it out of the sky, because people jumped to the 
conclusion that that might have been a terrorist bomb. And then we 
found out it was dangerous cargo, improperly loaded. We passed 
regulations. All the airlines are absolutely at a high state of alert 
for that not happening again.
  All of that focuses in on this tragedy of TWA flight 800, where we do 
not have to jump to conclusion over what group or what heritage of any 
group was responsible for this. But all the vectors are coming together 
here that this was a catastrophic explosion; that in spite of the age 
of this big giant beautiful Boeing 747, it was over 25 years old, one 
of the oldest in the fleet, in spite of the fact there was a small 
difficulty with some part in Athens before it flew back to its home 
base there at JFK Airport there in New York, that it was on the ground 
for 3 hours.
  I am convinced, until told otherwise, and I am in my 8th year in the 
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, that dogs are going over 
every aircraft that comes in from foreign airports and that it sat 
there for 3 hours and that the Los Angeles passengers, including, I am 
told, a constituent of mine that boarded this flight number changed 
equipment, that means aircraft, and got on this 747 only 3 hours on the 
ground from Athens. And off they go to be torn out of the sky by this 
catastrophic explosion.
  We have not found, at least when I left the TV set in the Republican 
Cloakroom, we have not found the blackbox yet. It will be found. The 
water is manageable. Half-hour or more, it would have been out over the 
deep Atlantic. Another few minutes after that, it would have been off 
the Continental Shelf, and we would be dealing with the depths of the 
H.M.S. Titanic, 15,000 feet at the bottom of the sea. And then we might 
never have known.

[[Page H7998]]

  As in the Air India 747, it was blown to bits off the southern coast 
of Ireland. We have never been able to trace that accident, including 
some others lost at sea. So we will be able to unravel the mystery of 
where the bomb was when it went off, how badly it tore the aircraft 
apart.
  Obviously, the stewardesses were serving milk and soft drinks to 
those beautiful children from Pennsylvania, from that French class that 
must have been having the thrill of their life headed toward the City 
of Light across the North Atlantic. Not in weeks, a journey of weeks 
and months like all the European forbearers of the citizens of this 
Nation, but in just a matter of hours. The thrill of a lifetime, 
practicing their French.
  I do not know whether my constituent is from Santa Ana, Garden Grove, 
Anaheim, CA, whether they live in the shadow of Disneyland, whether 
they are from 1 of 10 parts of other small cities that adjoin mine, 
Fountain Valley, Orange. I do not know where this person is from. I do 
not know whether it is a child going to visit a mom or a dad in Paris 
or whether they were with a parent or if it is just a parent or if it 
is a senior citizen taking maybe their last trip to Europe.
  I leave this lectern tonight and call out to California to learn a 
name, a gender, an age of a constituent of mine that I might have met 
at a town hall meeting that maybe voted against me, for me, maybe wrote 
to me. We will look in my files to see if we ever helped them find a 
veterans check, a Social Security check. It will personalize this for 
me, as it will for 229 Congressmen. Now the children and the five 
teachers all are from one congressional district.
  The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Clinger] said he represented 
this city. It has a French name. Is that not ironc, Montoursville, and 
that will concentrate some constituents in one district. But there are 
probably going to be 200 Congressmen trying to call people and say how 
sorry they are that this has happened.
  Now, obviously, with the Olympics beginning, with the beautiful torch 
ceremony bringing together some young athletes and some not so young, 
some in their 40's, from all over the world to celebrate, to begin the 
second century of these modern Olympic games, this throws a cloud over 
tomorrow night.
  I went to the 1972 Olympics as the producer of my own television 
show, the Robert K. Dornan Show, in 1972. I was lucky enough to control 
90 minutes live on Saturday night of television time in the second 
biggest market in the world. I assigned myself to go to Munich for the 
1972 games and cover them.
  The terrible tragedy of terrorists killing the Olympic athletes 
there, the Israeli coaches, weight lifters, athletes, and team members. 
I think it was 14 or more died, burned to death strapped in their 
helicopters with their hands tied behind their back. The three 
terrorists that survived the German sniper fire, they were released on 
another terrorist act holding people hostages. And although it was 
fictionalized partly in a movie titled Operation Jericho, it is my 
understanding, from visits in Israel, talking to their intelligence 
officers, that they hunted down every one of the surviving killers.
  I think there were eight terrorists. The three that survived and were 
released by Germany, went to Libya, they hunted them all down. And in 
the Old Testament, an-eye-for-an-eye justice sent them to meet their 
God, our God, Allah is Yahweh is God. And Israel's correcting this 
injustice is probably what we should be doing in Libya. PanAmerican, 
one of my favorite airlines, PanAmerican Airways, PAA, was destroyed by 
the terrorist bombers.
  We know who they are. They are in Libya right now being protected by 
a warlord dictator, Mu'ammar Qadhafi. They, in Christmas week, a week 
before Christmas, killed not 229, 259 and 11 people on the ground in 
the quiet little Scottish village of Lockerbie, 270.

                              {time}  1730

  When a Russian fighter pilot shot down and killed my colleague, who 
had served with 6 years up to that point, Larry McDonald of Georgia, 
that plane took 12 minutes to slowly descend on fire with everybody 
putting on their life vests. Russians to this day have hidden their 
bodies that they recovered. And slowly, as they descend, 12 minutes is 
a long time, next time you are 12 minutes out on a flight to anywhere 
in this country, give your watch a hack and think how long 12 minutes 
is. That is a quarter in high school football, as I said on the floor.
  There is Larry McDonald, doing his congressional duty, going over to 
celebrate the 30th year ending of the cease-fire in Korea, 1953 to 
1983. Larry was murdered by Russian evil empire Soviet orders at that 
time.
  It was still August 31, when we found out about it here in 
Washington. On the other side of the world, that side of the 
international dateline, his death is recorded as September 1. That was 
a 747, Korean 007, 268 people killed. So 268, 270, 229, three 747's and 
others around the world. How about the one that good intelligence 
precluded from happening, an Irish or a Middle Eastern terrorist has 
his Irish girlfriend pregnant with his child and her child and loads 
her up with a bomb and puts her on a 747 heading to Europe and 
fortunately that was thwarted and the plane was saved. The people were 
saved. She was saved to go on and have her child that its own father 
was going to murder. Been a few success cases we cannot even talk 
about, because we do not want to give away the modus operandi of how to 
preclude one of these tragedies from happening.
  I think that it is time for the United States of America to revisit 
our standoff and our embargo of Italy which is, excuse me, of Libya, 
which is broken regularly by Italy, former colonial master of Libya, by 
Germany, by other European countries trading with Libya, ignoring our 
embargo on them until Mu'ammar Qadhafi turns over the assassins, the 
terrorists that destroyed an airline, that ripped the hearts out of 
hundreds of American families in Christmas week and that blew up Pan Am 
103.
  Is this going to be fatal to this other great airline, the other of 
our initial transcontinental, excuse me, trans- national airlines? TWA, 
Pan Am were the two greatest world intercontinental carriers of all 
through most of my life. One is gone, destroyed by this kind of 
terrorism. Now TWA, just starting to come out of Chapter 11, just 
starting to advertise and rebuild the morale of its flight attendant 
corps and certainly its pilot corps, without a word from this aircraft, 
it was so catastrophic, without people putting on their life vests like 
Korean 007 with the U.S. Congressman on board. That was 68 Americans on 
that flight. Without any warning, this giant aircraft, the drawing on 
the front page of the LA Times is terrifying. It says that shortly 
after takeoff, still skirting the south shore of Long Island, if that 
was not a safety procedure, they flew as the crow flies, following a 
great circle route that would take you right along the length of Long 
Island, and they would have fallen on some village that would have been 
the equivalent of Lockerbie, Scotland, burning to death people on the 
ground.
  But putting together, the LA Times did, several eyewitnesses, it 
says, flame shoots from the plane like a flare. An eyewitness who did 
not see that, and I saw this with my own eyes late last night, he said 
he picked up the aircraft when it was in a steep descent and rotating, 
He thought it was an acrobatic aircraft. That is, given the curvature 
of the earth even at this time of night in summertime at around 8:40, 
an aircraft, an aircraft at 5,000 feet or more is still getting light 
that you are not getting on the ground. It even makes more, it makes it 
more like something up on a stage where it is highlighted. He thought 
it was an acrobatic plane turning.

  Imagine the terror inside this airplane, but that is the very root 
word for terrorist. Then all of a sudden two explosions, and then smoke 
and flame just enveloped the airplane until some people thought, who 
looked up at that moment, that it was a fireworks display.
  I have had two classified briefings today. I did not learn anything 
that citizens, Mr. Speaker, will not learn watching the networks 
tonight and watching C-SPAN, I mean CNN, all day long. I think we are 
going to have to revisit Libya, revisit with our NATO allies their 
disregard of our embargo of Libya and clean up the ugliness of Pan 
American Flight 103 and give those relatives who still call me, give 
them

[[Page H7999]]

some peace and rest by bringing to justice, even if we have to run a 
covert operation, which is difficult, difficult as hell given the 
background of the person that sits in the White House, but we have to 
do something along Israeli lines to let every terrorist know what 
President Reagan said at the time and was unable to fulfill, and that 
is, you can hide but we will get you.
  President Reagan did at least, after the terrorist bombings at the La 
Belle disco in Germany, April 5, 1986, he did unleash our F-111's from 
England. And by the way, I understand years later that France did 
cooperate but had plausible denial. They let our refueling tankers fly 
over France to refuel the F-111's.
  I recall two Americans gave their lives, too young to have served in 
Vietnam, just 30 years of age, one 29, Paul Lawrence and Fernando 
Revesdominich. This crew that was shot exiting Libya, people say, was 
that a cowboy act of Reagan's? Did it work? That aggressive action of 
Ronald Reagan to bomb Benghazi and military facilities outside of 
Tripoli and, yes, Qadhafi himself with 1,000-pound bombs. That so 
rattled that warlord's brain that there were no terrorist acts out of 
Libya for about a decade. I would say that that direct action worked 
and maybe that is the kind of direct action we are going to have to 
take here.
  Of course, they are not going to do anything leading up to the 
Olympic ceremonies tomorrow. I pray to God they will not, because they 
are patient, these terrorists. They strike and then they pull back, and 
then they completely change their modus operandi.
  We were going over every aircraft coming into this country leading up 
to the Olympics, bringing the athletes with literally the old cliche, a 
fine-toothed comb, and dogs as well. So they changed their modus 
operandi and put maybe a catastrophic explosive device on a plane 
leaving the country.
  It is so difficult to play defense and stay ahead of terrorists when 
they are on offense. The timing is all theirs. Occasionally they can 
opt to use suicide people. If someone would blow himself up twice in 
one week on Tel Aviv or Jerusalem buses, why would not someone be 
willing to die on the aircraft? And there goes the baggage underneath. 
That is very difficult to go through each piece of luggage. They slow 
down the pace of modern life. They do terrorize some of us. They cause 
some senior citizens to never fly again in their lives. And not even to 
enjoy their savings, to see this fascinating world of ours.
  It is just incredible, but like the so-called war on narcotics that 
has never been a war under this President, evil is something that is 
with us perennially since the fall of Adam, and it is just our 
expertise on defense against theirs. But occasionally, offense is 
required. That is what we should do with Libya now, go back on the 
offense. And it gives a message to Syria, Iraq, and it gives a message 
to Iran, countries that maybe in a few years will again know what it is 
like to have freedom and free elections.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to cut a little bit into my own time that I am 
going to dedicate to David McCampbell, Navy ace of aces, and discuss 
something that I just put around in a dear colleague letter: Bosnia.
  Bosnia, once more into the breach, Richard Holbrooke, the man who I 
met the first time in the lobby of the U.S. Embassy or the court yard 
showing some friends the bullet holes still in our U.S. Embassy from 
the liberation of Paris in August 1944. And I am standing in the 
courtyard, and here comes Richard Holbrooke, then working Asian 
affairs, not Balkan affairs. And I said to him, of course, he is 19 
years younger. I took off my POW bracelet with Maj. David Hrdlicka's 
name on it, known prisoner in Laos, right up till the prisoner exchange 
a few years before that June 1977 date.
  I said, you tell the Vietnamese, Richard, Mr. Assistant Secretary, 
that thousands of Americans, 13 million wore these bracelets. There are 
still hundreds of thousands wearing them. This year of 1977, you tell 
them that we know they are holding back live Americans and hundreds of 
records, psychologically torturing our families. OK, I will do it.
  About 2 weeks later a brown envelope arrives in my office, Mr. 
Speaker, with my POW bracelet in it. And Richard Holbrooke says to me, 
sorry, never got a chance to bring that up with the Vietnamese. So I do 
not hold him in awe as a negotiator the way some people do. But I will 
give him this: He is working on his second million dollars as a Wall 
Street honcho. I do not know what exactly his title was. His friend, 
Warren Christopher, Secretary of State, says, you have got to come back 
and you have got to go back and talk to Milosevic, that we have to 
solve this problem of ousting Radavan Karazdic, who is a killer, a 
warlord, killer, Serbian genocide creator. And he does it.
  So he is over there a few days ago. At stake are the elections in 
Bosnia, scheduled for September 14. That is the date in the courts that 
Holbrooke, before he left the State Department last spring as an 
assistant secretary for that area, actually, Ambassador 
Plenipotentiary, he is over there now telling Milosevic, who himself is 
a warlord and a nonelected person, certainly not in any free election 
up in Belgrade, he himself unleashed this genocide. He himself is not 
just an unindicted coconspirator but by the people that I respect, like 
Richard Goldstone, who is the immediate prior head of the war crimes 
trials in the Netherlands, he told me Milosevic is a war criminal. So 
here is Richard Holbrooke, civilian Wall Street, now temporarily 
seconded back to the State Department to sit down with Milosevic and 
say, look, 20,000 United States troops are in Bosnia. It is part of the 
60,000 U.N. mission. We have another 20,000 spread all around naval 
ships, Hungary, other places I visited a few months ago on the same 
airplane that killed Ron Brown. The agreement forbids those indicted 
for war crimes such as Karazdic from holding office or even 
participating in the elections.

  It also requires signatories, such as Milosevic, to turn such 
individuals over to the tribunal at The Hague without, of course, 
turning himself over. So Richard Holbrooke, chief U.S. architect of the 
accords, is back over there.
  Holbrooke is quoted in news reports as saying he believes the Bosnian 
Serbs are defying the Dayton agreement. But there is nothing to be 
heard or discussed about possible consequences. Despite repeated 
violations of the accord, Clinton has certified that the conditions 
necessary for a free and fair election exist. Many observers, including 
my colleague in the Senate, William Cohen, have warned that this new 
term IFOR 2, IFOR 2 is now going to be an open-ended, unlimited 
extension of our United States commitment to Bosnia.
  Mr. Speaker, I did not have our Speaker, Mr. Gingrich, in my corner 
or eight of his lieutenants, various Congressmen from different 
districts, but I came last winter within four votes. A shift of four 
votes and this House would have gone on record cutting off the money 
for Clinton to follow up his Somalia misadventure which killed 19 of 
our very best Rangers and Delta Force people. And Haiti, where we 
compromised our intelligence, put out bad intelligence and allowed a 
competing, wonderful female lawyer, Bertrand, to be shot down and 
killed in the street. This lady, because we were so screwed up in the 
way we were trying to cover for Aristide down there, that murders took 
place that we could have prevented. That is all being bottled up for 
the election.
  Now, just what I predicted from this, from that microphone and 
lectern controlling the debate, that this was an open-ended engagement, 
that Clinton was not qualified to be the Commander in Chief of an 
operation like this and we should cut off the money. Here we are in the 
election. The election is 111 days from today. Mr. Perry, a nice man, 
said in front of my Committee on National Security that we would start 
pulling out troops in August.

                              {time}  1745

  That is in 2 weeks from now, and instead it is an open-ended 
commitment now with the IFOR force. The implementation force, IFOR, is 
now going to be IFOR-2 and they are going to stay. I found out when I 
went over there the second time that all these U.N. vehicles that they 
repainted khaki with the white paint underneath, they were all going to 
be repainted white, and it was going to go back to a U.N. operation 
anyway, with us paying a quarter or more of that bill.

[[Page H8000]]

  Bob Novak, my pal, one of the best political pundits and writers in 
this last couple of decades in American life, he says: ``Brace 
yourself. We are stuck in the Balkans just as I predicted.''
  So even my friend who I was honored to have lunch with Tuesday, Bob 
Dole, former great Senate leader, and we know that, God willing, he 
will be the nominee of my party on August 15, next month, he is having 
second thoughts about whether he should have not looked at it like 
backing up the troops on the ground with full support but should have 
looked at cutting off the money in the Senate, joining the Dornan 
effort over here and telling Clinton there is no money for this 
operation.
  And by the way, the money is cutting into our operations and training 
from Haiti and from Bosnia, open-ended billing tearing apart the 
defense readiness of this country.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, if the first part of my special order here was 
terrorism, and then Bosnia, this third of four parts is going to be on 
what it is like to be a Christian in a post-Christendom period of 
secular humanism and mockery of those who believe that Jesus Christ was 
the Son of God, our Savior who died for our sins.
  I got this letter from one of the finest voices on radio in this 
country, a great child psychologist, educated man from a family of 
reverends, but not a minister himself, Dr. James Dobson, and listen to 
this newsletter, actually last week in June, from Jim Dobson. He says 
at the beginning of his family on the focus newsletter:
  ``Even if you are not accustomed to reading my letters, Dr. Dobson's 
focus on the family letters each month, I plead with you to read this 
one to the end. The words I have quoted here will inspire you and give 
you a new vision for this great land, the United States of America. 
More importantly, you will see that the road we are traveling as a 
nation was feared by our Founding Fathers, and their warnings must be 
heeded while there is time. God bless you, Jim Dobson, June 1996, dear 
friends.''
  Keep in mind what Billy Graham said May 2 in our beautiful secular 
cathedral, the nave of this building in our rotunda when we awarded him 
unanimously, both Houses, both parties, the Congressional Medal. Billy 
Graham said, ``We are a Nation on the brink of self-destruction.''
  Follow up those terrifying words with the words of Jim Dobson quoting 
Justice Scalia:
  ``On April 9,'' that is Bataan Death March Day, remember, you 
veterans who love your country, bled for it and are great devotees of 
watching the proceedings on this House floor, even these special orders 
when the Chamber may be empty, and stupid writers like to point out why 
is Bob Dornan or anybody speaking to an empty Chamber. One million 
three hundred thousand people are watching my image on television 
reading this letter from Jim Dobson to this friends:
  On April 9, 1996, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia delivered 
a historic address at the invitation of the Mississippi College School 
of Law, a Baptist school. No printed texts are available, and I could 
not get one from Mr. Justice Scalia's office, and his remarks were not 
recorded electronically; that is a tragedy. Excerpts of Justice 
Scalia's April 9 speech were reported in the news media the following 
day and continue to reverberate throughout the Nation, continue to 
reverberate months later. Indeed his speech generated a fire storm of 
criticism among indignant members of the liberal press. Just like Vice 
President Dan Quayle's controversial Murphy Brown speech in 1992, 
Justice Scalia had the audacity to be politically incorrect in the 
public square. Justice Scalia's address helped with the ridicule of 
Christians in the United States, and the fact that we have brought upon 
us Christians disdain in which their cherished beliefs are held by the 
culture elite.
  I am going to read that sentence again; ``His address at Mississippi 
College School of Law dealt with the ridicule of Christians in the 
United States and the disdain in which their cherished Christian 
beliefs are held by the cultural elite.'' That means the New York Times 
and many people at the networks. Perhaps--oh, and my pal Ted Turner 
saying that Christians were basically jerks. Remember that wonderful 
moment that he sort of apologized for, that he was quoting Jane Fonda 
at the time? So he was not too interested in really apologizing. Maybe 
one of these days Ted will apologize properly. The Christians are 
jerks, backwards, uneducated, and the Washington Post said something to 
that effect within weeks after that insult from Ted Turner.
  Perhaps Scalia's comments on that day were motivated by cover 
stories, Easter Week stories in Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World 
Report, each questioning the historic validity of Jesus' resurrection.
  Mr. Speaker, I read all three of those magazine. They really were 
offensive, particularly two of the three. Not surprisingly, those 
stories were run during or near Easter Week; that is in your face, when 
Christians were celebrating the risen Savior. Scalia's speech was 
reported in this manner. They at least let this much out.
  Quote: Devout Christians are destined to be regarded as fools in 
modern society, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Tuesday 
offering a rare glimpse of his private views. We are fools for Christ's 
sake, the conservative jurist said. We must pray for the courage to 
endure the scorn of the so-called sophisticated world. Scalia said 
intellectuals through history have rejected miracles and the Easter 
story. The wise do not investigate such silliness, he said 
sarcastically. They do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. 
Scalia said it is irrational. You must reject miracles. One can be 
sophisticated and believe in God. Reason and intellect are not to be 
laid aside where matters or religion are concerned.

  He, Scalia, took note that, I learned this from him, that the word 
``cretin'' or ``fool'' is derived from the French word for Christian. 
That probably came upright before the reign of terror and the 
bloodletting and murder of priests and nuns during the French 
Revolution and the destruction of all of the great church art and the 
smashing of every statue, even in beautiful Notre Dame in Paris.
  Scalia continues: To be honest about it, that is the way of 
Christians taken by modern society. Six hundred fifty people were at 
Mississippi College School of Law. Surely those who adhere to all or 
most of these traditional Christian beliefs are to be regarded as 
simple-minded.
  Another quote. To many Americans, Scalia added sarcastically, 
everything from the Easter morning to the Ascension had to be made up 
by the groveling enthusiasts, the disciples of Christ, as part of their 
plan to get themselves martyred.
  Dr. Dobson goes back to his text. Only a few excerpts from Scalia's 
speech had been published to date, but they were enough to bring down 
the liberal roof. Prominent editorial writers, columnists, cultural 
elites were appalled at his audacity. They came after the justice with 
a vengeance, just as they knew they would and just as they regularly 
castigate another conservative justice, any of them, but notably 
Clarence Thomas.
  Richard Cohen, reporter for the Washington Post, my debate partner 
sometimes on Cross Fire wrote: I am less enamored of Scalia than some 
of my colleagues. I think this Supreme Court Justice is a cheap-shot 
artist.
  Cohen went on to talk about Scalia's foolishness and concluded by 
writing Scalia's remarks are joined. Whatever his intentions, he showed 
himself to be a man who misjudges the nature and the motives of those 
who insist on a constitutional law of church and State, pretending that 
is in the Constitution when it was merely in the letter of Thomas 
Jefferson in passing, and it has been misinterpreted and misquoted for 
two centuries.
  It seems his mind is made up--this is Cohen on Scalia--on such 
matters, and anyone who thinks Scalia will give first amendment issues 
a fair and reasoned hearing is, it seems, proceeding in a way Scalia 
would appreciate solely on faith.
  Elliot Mintzberg, legal director for the People for the American Way, 
found Scalia's words to be troubling because they so closely resemble 
those used by Christian political activists like Pat Buchanan. This is 
a disturbing view for a Supreme Court Justice to have.
  Remember when people attacked Clarence Thomas, that his life had

[[Page H8001]]

probably been ruined by the nuns because he thanked them for giving him 
a good education and did not bother to find out that he had never 
converted to Catholicism, was not a Catholic. He, just as a young black 
child, got a great education from nuns in his Southern State.
  Jim Dobson just pours out his heart, 1 page, 2 page, 3 page, 4 page, 
and then he comes back to quoting more of how there is this built-in 
bias. Then he starts quoting some of the fathers of our country: John 
Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson. Let me come 
back to this Jefferson quote.
  Jefferson, our third President and one of the principal Framers of 
the constitution and one of the three writers of the Declaration of 
Independence, the first among three equals, Benjamin Franklin, John 
Adams being the others, a man who revisionists tell us wanted a wall of 
separation to protect the Government from the people of faith, wrote 
the words that now appear in his memorial in Washington, and yes I have 
seen this, the beautiful Jefferson Memorial. Around the frieze inside 
it says: I swear upon the altar of God, eternal vigilance against every 
tyranny over the mind of man.
  But it also says in there, Dobson quotes, can the liberties of a 
Nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a 
conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift 
of God?
  That bears rereading. Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson: Can the liberties 
of a Nation be thought secure when we have removed--today he would have 
said ripped from them their only firm basis for all these liberties, a 
conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift 
of God.
  The year 1781, so it was written before the French fleet blocked the 
British and gave George Washington his victory at Yorktown on October 
19 of that very year.
  This is go good, and I do not have time. I wish that I had time to 
read it all. He comes up through Calvin Coolidge.
  Franklin Roosevelt prayed this prayer on a national radio hookup on 
D-day. I read this on the House floor on the 50th anniversary of D-day: 
Almighty God, with thy blessing we shall prevail over the unholy forces 
of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial 
arrogance. Lead us to the saving of our country. Thy will be done, 
almighty God. Amen. The year 1944.
  Meanwhile on every one of the 5,000-plus invasion ships over the 
public address systems General Eisenhower had ordered that the Lord's 
Prayer be read. Every single one of the attacking young men, many of 
them it was the last sunrise of their lives, that carried a small Bible 
with a red cover. I have a commemorative edition published on the 50th 
anniversary, with Roosevelt's beautiful speech in the frontispiece of 
that little Bible.

                              {time}  1800

  Harry Truman, 33d President, a man who said ``You can't ever trust an 
adulterer,'' he was not known to be a deeply committed believer. 
Nevertheless, he understood the spiritual heritage of this Nation. He 
had absorbed it sort of by osmosis.
  Truman said, ``If men and nations would but live by the precepts of 
the ancient prophets and the teachings of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, 
problems which now seem so difficult would soon disappear. That is a 
supreme opportunity for the church to continue to fulfill its mission 
on earth. The Protestant church, the Catholic Church, and the Jewish 
synagogue, bound together in the American unity of brotherhood,'' this 
is all 1946, Mr. Speaker, ``must provide the shock forces to accomplish 
this moral and spiritual awakening. No other agency can do that. Unless 
it is done, we are headed for the disaster we would deserve. Oh, for an 
Isaiah or a St. Paul, to reawaken a sick world to its moral 
responsibilities;'' Harry Truman, Capt. Harry, like my dad, Capt. 
Harry, artillery officer, World War I, French trenches.
  Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, forgive me, Jerry for skipping over 
yours, but I am only going to read one more.
  Ronald Reagan, 40th President, gave this in a speech: ``The 
frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion claim they 
are doing it in the name of tolerance, freedom, and openmindedness. 
Question: Isn't the real truth that they are intolerant of religion? 
They refuse to tolerate its importance in our lives.''
  Ronald Reagan, the year of his second victory, where he took every 
single State but Senator Mondale's, Vice President Mondale's own home 
State of Minnesota, because Ronald Reagan refused to campaign there. He 
only lost by a few hundred votes. He refused to campaign there, in 
Mondale's face, and discourteously take his own State away from him. So 
Ronald Reagan, a man of ultimate decency, was content to win the 
biggest State majority ever 49 States out of 50.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that Jim Dobson's whole newsletter be put in the 
Record.
  Mr. Speaker, the other night I said that one of our cameras up in the 
gallery probably could not capture this picture closely enough. When I 
went home my wife had taped the picture, and it showed up, although it 
is a black and white picture, it showed up. I just have to tilt it a 
little more for flare, even though it is a fax picture, of Capt. David 
McCampbell.


         The navy ace of aces goes to that big hanger in heaven

  There is Chester, his plane captain, the crew chief of his airplane. 
There are 34 Rising Sun Japanese warlord flags on his F-6F Hellcat 
beautiful R2800 that was also in the corsair, and lots of two-engine 
airplanes on the other side of the world bombing Nazi Germany, those 
evil enemies that Roosevelt had condemned.
  What I love about it is that David McCampbell even then is 34 years 
of age. He was the commander of the air group, the CAG, way over the 
age of the young pilots like George Bush, who at that very time this 
photograph was taken was in between his two aircraft losses and halfway 
through Bush's 58 combat missions. He was 20 years of age. So here is 
someone 14 years older.
  David McCampbell, I went to his funeral Tuesday, a beautiful, moving 
ceremony. He has passed away at 86 years of age on the 30th. Here is 
that incomparable eulogy given by a fellow Medal of Honor winner, 
Col. H.C. ``Barney'' Barnum, Company Commander, Vietnam. He did it in 
cryptic terms at first, beautifully laid out. He gave me his original 
text, and it looked like quatrains in a poem.

  Medal of Honor recipient Barney Barnum says:
  David McCampbell, Navy fighter pilot extraordinaire, superb combat 
leader--a true warrior, a patriotic American. He was to naval aviation 
what Gen. George Patton was to Army armor, Generals Chesty Puller, 
Howlin Mad Smith, and Lew Walt were to Marine Corps infantry--all true 
combat warriors.
  My first recollection of Captain McCampbell as a newly decorated 
Vietnam veteran was at my first Medal of Honor Society convention. I 
recall his flashy clothes, the infamous cane, his flare for having a 
good time, but most of all, his willingness to sit and talk with the 
new guys, the Vietnam Medal of Honor veterans.
  Accompanied by Col. Joseph McCarthy years ago, I visited Captain 
McCampbell in Lake Worth. That is Florida, I believe. I recall upon 
arrival he had to show us his new Cadillac he had just bought his wife, 
Buffy. We sat for hours in a room adorned with photos of Navy fighter 
aircraft, ships, photos, models of his famous F-6F Hellcat.
  I recall vividly David's accounts of the decisions required in air 
combat, the excitement of combat flying. He always said he was never 
scared, but at times was apprehensive.
  I want to add at this point, so people can enjoy this eulogy, I 
forgot to point out the other night that of those 34 aerial victories, 
Mr. Speaker, 9 were on one mission, one flight a little short of an 
hour and a half. He returned back on the carrier deck with less than 10 
minutes of fuel. That is one bolter in a go-around to get it back on 
that deck, and only two physical 50-caliber bullets, two out of 
hundreds, left in his guns.
  Imagine what a sharpshooter he was, and how he shepherded his 
ammunition, to be able to shoot down 9 bombers and so demoralize the 
formation of almost 40 aircraft that they turned around. He destroyed 
their mission. They dropped no bombs on his carrier battle group, the 
Essex group, and they left.
  That is what another young Medal of Honor winner paid for later with 
his

[[Page H8002]]

life, Butch O'Hare, that O'Hare airport in Chicago was named after. 
Butch shot down six on one mission and won the Medal of Honor. He shot 
down nine in one mission, and earlier that year of 1944, shot down six 
in one day. Nobody has ever equalled that feat, not even the three Army 
Air Corps aces still living with us; No. three, Gabreski; or the two 
that died in the South Pacific, Tommy McGuire, with 38 victories, or 
all-time American Ace of aces, young Dick Bong with 40. So think of 
those combat missions when you hear Barney Barnum's tribute.
  He said, ``I ask you not only to remember what a great American 
combat warrior he was, but think about the living example he set for 
his fellow aviators, the young pilots he led. The footprints he put in 
the sands of naval aviation were truly a path for those aviators who 
came after him to follow,'' including our own colleague, the gentleman 
from California, Randall Cunningham, ``Duke'', his call sign and to his 
friends; a great congressman from San Diego, CA.
  Those who knew David McCampbell will recall, I am sure, that he 
worked hard and he played hard. He truly did it all the way. He was 
born in Bessemer, AL, 86 years ago, attended prep school right down the 
road apiece from here in Virginia, at Stanton Military Academy, out 
there on highway 81. He had a year at Georgia Tech before his 
appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, giving up his first year in 
college to make it a 5-year deal.

  Many, many of the cadets I met up there at West Point a few weeks ago 
have a 5-year college course, because they go 1 year someplace else, 
making up for a C grade somewhere in high school, and then to start 
over as a freshman, to have that great military academy degree, and 
even more than that, the integrity, the duty, honor, country training.
  He graduated in 1933, the year I was born, in the same class with 
Adm. John Duncan Bulkely, who I did a tribute to on this floor, the 
great Navy surface fleet and PT boat commander who took MacArthur off 
Corregidor. I did not realize that, both of this class of 1933, so they 
were seasoned middle-field-grade naval officers in 1941 when their 
Nation put them to the test.
  As a midshipman, David exhibited his true competitive spirit as an 
active baseball player, swimmer. He went on to become the 1931 AAU 
diving champion, mid-Atlantic States, while a midshipman, and 
subsequently Eastern intercollegiate diving champion in 1932.
  Upon graduation June 1, 1933, due to congressional legislation 
limiting commissions in the U.S. Navy, the same kind of shut-
everything-down thinking we are still fighting in this Chamber, Mr. 
Speaker, he was discharged from the Navy, the same as Admiral Bulkely, 
and commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He went inactive 
for 1 year before being recalled in 1934 and commissioned as an ensign 
in the regular Navy.
  His first duty was aboard the U.S.S. Portland as aircraft gunnery 
officer with Scouting Squadron 11. They are all biplanes, of course. 
The aviation unit aboard the cruiser, and that is even more than a 
biplane, that is a float plane biplane. In 1937, he was detached from 
the Portland and reported to Pensacola for flight training and was 
designated a naval aviator in 1938.
  Imagine this, it took him 9 years after he reported in to Annapolis. 
That is stick-to-itiveness. For the next 2 years he served with Fighter 
Squadron 4 above our very first carrier, the Ranger, until being 
transferred in 1940 to Norfolk. There were clouds of war on the horizon 
for duty with the Wasp Air Group.
  I found out at the funeral he was on the Wasp when it was sunk in the 
Battle of the Solomon Islands in September 1942. They told me he was 
the LSO, the landing officer, bringing in all the planes coming back to 
be recovered, only to go down when the ship went down.
  From November 1942 to August 1943, after returning from the Pacific, 
he had consecutive duty at Jacksonville, Melbourne, FL, dying to get 
back into the fight. I can feel his fighter pilot's heart jumping out 
through these words of Barney Barnum's.
  Then he fitted out Squadron 15. He went on to command that squadron 
from 1943 to February 1944 and then assumed command of Air Group 15, 
which was later to be labeled Fabled 15, aboard the U.S.S. Essex, the 
Galloping Ghost, they called it. The Japanese claimed they sunk the 
Essex six times during the war and never got her.
  In addition to all the responsibilities incumbent with being the CAG, 
commander of the Air Group, McCampbell became the Navy's highest 
scoring pilot, 34 enemy planes destroyed, the greatest number ever shot 
down by an American pilot during a single combat duty tour. It took 
McGuire and Dick Bong two tours to get to their totals of 40 and 38.
  His phenomenal feat of destroying nine Japanese aircraft in one day 
is unequalled in the annals of combat aviation. We have one Army Air 
Force pilot who shot down seven in Europe; no, six, flying a 
reconnaissance Mustang. It did not even have a full load of ammunition 
because of the cameras. They called it, instead of P-51, they called 
them F-5's and F-6's, the P-38 and Mustang photo versions.

  It was somewhere off the Philippine Islands, October 24, 1944, that 
McCampbell shot down those nine aircraft. In an interview later, David 
was quoted as saying, it was just me and my wing man. I stand 
corrected, Mr. Speaker, 60 incoming Japanese bombers and supporter 
fighters. I screamed for help over the radio like a wounded eagle, but 
there was not anyone to send.
  The air director that day was John Connally, later Secretary of the 
Navy and Governor of Texas, wounded the day Kennedy was murdered, 
assassinated.
  I asked him what I should do, and he said ``Use your judgment.'' You 
don't think of getting out of there, because that is not what you are 
trained to do. So my best judgment was to attack, 2 against 60, and 
attack we did. He went on to say in combat: You just do not think much 
of anything but the enemy, shooting him down, because that is what we 
were trained to do. I had help, of course, my wing man.
  And I am learning this along with you, Mr. Speaker, for the first 
time; shot down six planes that day. So he became an ace on this 
mission also; 15 airplanes between the two of them.
  Colonel Barnum said, I have heard David say ``I'm not a hero,'' but 
as I read his Medal of Honor citation, I know you will all agree with 
me that indeed he was truly a hero.
  I will close on this, Mr. Speaker. His Medal of Honor citation: David 
McCampbell, son of Alabama, Annapolis graduate, rank and organization 
commander, U.S. Navy Air Group 15; place and date, first and second 
Battle of the Philippines Sea, the biggest naval battle ever, by the 
way, June 19, 1944. Entered service at Florida. Born January 16, 1910, 
Bessemer, AL. Citation for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the 
risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Commander Air 
Group 15 during combat service against enemy Japanese aerial force in 
the first and second battles of the Philippine Sea.
  An inspiring leader fighting boldly in the fact of terrific odds, 
Commander McCampbell led his fighter planes against a force of 60. The 
Medal of Honor has it up to 80, 80 Japanese carrier-based aircraft 
bearing down on our fleet on June, 1944. Striking fiercely in valiant 
defense of our service force, he personally destroyed this seven 
hostile planes, later upgraded to nine, during this single engagement 
in which the outnumbering attack forces was utterly routed and 
virtually annihilated.
  During a major fleet engagement with the enemy, the next, October 24, 
Commander McCampbell assisted by but a single airplane, intercepted, 
and daringly attacked a formation of 60 hostile land-based craft 
approaching our forces. I see, they had it right. He takes on 90 and 
gets 6, he takes on 60 and gets 9.
  Fighting desperately but with superb skill against such overwhelming 
air power, he shot down nine Japanese planes and completely 
disorganizing the enemy group, forced the remainder to abandon the 
attack before a single aircraft could reach the fleet. His great 
personal valor and indomitable spirit of aggression under extremely 
perilous combat conditions reflect the highest credit upon Commander 
McCampbell and the U.S. Navy.

                              {time}  1815

  He is also credited with the destruction of 24 grounded airplanes and 
his

[[Page H8003]]

air group, which became known as Fabled 15, was credited with the 
destruction of more enemy airplanes than any other Navy group in the 
Pacific war. That means in history.
  It goes on to mention all the places that he fought, the Marianas, 
that was called the Turkey Shoot of Iwo Jima, bloody Palau, the 
Philippines, Formosa, and Nansei Shotos. He took part in the first 
battle of the Philippines. Over 400 enemy planes were destroyed in one 
battle. His remarkable exploits continued up to and including the 
Battle of Leyte Gulf.
  It goes on to talk about the ships sunk, a Japanese battleship, 3 
aircraft carriers, a heavy cruiser, additional ships, 3 more 
battleships, another carrier, 5 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 19 
destroyers. They destroyed the navy.
  And I remember George Bush's backseater Leo Nado. I said, ``Leo, in 
58 missions, how many times were you jumped by Japanese aircraft?'' He 
said, ``Congressman, Mr. Bush,'' he says ``I still call him ``Mr.'' 
because that is what he called ensigns and lieutenants,'' he said, 
``Mr. Bush and I never saw a Japanese airplane.'' I said ``What, in 58 
missions getting shot down twice?'' He said, ``No, our fighter pilots, 
those Hell Cat pilots,'' he is talking about McCampbell, and he 
gestured with his arm, Leo says, ``They swept the skies clear in front 
of Mr. Bush and myself.'' Bush of course in his combat missions was hit 
with ground fire.
  But we have buried another great hero at Arlington. He is in the new 
part of the cemetery, the plot where all the Vietnam veterans are.
  Mr. Speaker, I will be a conferee on the Senate-House authorization 
bill conference this year. I was just talking to Speaker Gingrich about 
it. I will be a conferee. I tell you that I will dedicate myself to a 
good authorization bill by thinking about people like Navy ace of aces 
David McCampbell.

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