[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 117 (Friday, August 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9648-S9649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         WAR CRIMES ACT OF 1996

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
now proceed to the consideration of H.R. 3680 which was received from 
the House.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 3680) to amend title 18, United States Code, 
     to carry out the international obligations of the United 
     States under the Geneva Conventions to provide criminal 
     penalties for certain war crimes.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the immediate 
consideration of the bill?
  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, this particular act is known as the War 
Crimes Act of 1996. This was called to my attention by a very 
articulate young Congressman from North Carolina, Walter Jones, Jr., 
whose father we served with for many, many years over in the House of 
Representatives.
  He was very observant in discovering something, that after 40 years, 
after the ratification of the Geneva Conventions, that it was not self-
enacting, and we actually have never passed the necessary legislation 
to accept jurisdiction within our Federal courts to prosecute war 
crimes that we were aware of.
  So this legislation will correct that after this long period of time. 
It is kind of inconceivable to me that we would send out to battle and 
to various parts of the world our young troops, trying to equip them 
properly--I would say properly, that if we ever get our authorization 
passed--and have these people ready to do the work that they are 
trained to do, and yet if a crime is perpetrated against them, and that 
criminal happens to be in the United States, we cannot even prosecute 
them in our Federal courts. That is all going to come to a stop.
  I think also this bill might even address another problem that is 
taking place right now in this country. As you know, I am from 
Oklahoma. And one of the worst terrorist acts took place just a little 
over a year ago in Oklahoma City with the bombing of the Murrah Federal 
Office Building. And with all of the terrorist acts recently, this 
could act as a deterrent, this War Crimes Act of 1996, for people who 
may be considering perpetrating some terrorist act that could be 
defined as a war crime.
  So I believe this is something that should have been done some 40 
years ago, but was not. So we will correct that tonight. This has been 
cleared by both sides.
  Mr HELMS. Mr. President, this bill will help to close a major gap in 
our Federal criminal law by permitting American servicemen and 
nationals, who are victims of war crimes, to see the criminal brought 
to justice in the United States.
  Before addressing the need for this legislation, let me thank and 
commend the distinguished Walter Jones, who so ably represents the 
third district of North Carolina, for his commitment and hard work 
toward the passage of this bill. I'd also like to thank my 
distinguished colleague, Senator James Inhofe, for his support of this 
important bill.
  Many have not realized that the U.S. cannot prosecute, in Federal 
court, the perpetrators of some war crimes against American servicemen 
and nationals. Currently, if the United States were to find a war 
criminal within our borders--for example, one who had murdered an 
American POW--the only options would be to deport or extradite the 
criminal or to try him or her before an international war crimes 
tribunal or military commission. Alone, these options are not enough to 
insure that justice is done.
  While the Geneva Convention of 1949 grants the U.S. authority to 
criminally prosecute these acts, the Congress has never enacted 
implementing legislation. The War Crimes Act of 1996 corrects this 
oversight by giving Federal district courts jurisdiction to try 
individuals charged with committing a grave breach of the Geneva 
Conventions, whenever the victim or perpetrator is a U.S. serviceman or 
national.
  The bill would also allow an American, who is charged with a war 
crime, to be tried in an American court and to receive all of the 
procedural protections afforded by our American justice system.
  Mr. President, at a time when American servicemen and women serve our 
Nation in conflicts around the world, it is important that we give them 
every protection possible. I urge my colleagues to support this 
bipartisan bill and reaffirm our commitment to our country's 
servicemembers.
  I ask unanimous consent that an article from the New York Times be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, June 25, 1996]

                      Ms. Maloney and Mr. Waldheim

                          (By A.M. Rosenthal)

       For a full half-century, with determination and skill, and 
     with the help of the law, U.S. intelligence agencies have 
     kept secret the record of how they used Nazis for so many 
     years after World War II, what the agencies got from these 
     services--and what they gave as payback.
       Despite the secrecy blockade, we do know how one 
     cooperative former Wehrmacht officer and war crimes suspect 
     was treated. We know the U.S. got him the Secretary 
     Generalship of the U.N. as reward and base.
       For more than two years, Congress has had legislation 
     before it to allow the public access to information about 
     U.S.-Nazi intelligence relations--a bill introduced by 
     Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat, and 
     now winding through the legislative process.
       If Congress passes her War Crimes Disclosure Act, H.R. 
     1281, questions critical to history and the conduct of 
     foreign affairs can be answered and the power of government 
     to withhold them reduced. The case of Kurt Waldheim is the 
     most interesting example--the most interesting we know of at 
     the moment.
       Did the U.S. know when it backed him for Secretary General 
     that he had been put on the A list of war-crime suspects, 
     adopted in London in 1948, for his work as a Wehrmacht 
     intelligence officer in the Balkans, when tens of thousands 
     of Yugoslavs, Greeks, Italians, Jew and non-Jew, were being 
     deported to death?
       If not, isn't that real strange, since the U.S. 
     representative on the War Crimes Commission voted to list 
     him? A report was sent to the State Department. Didn't State 
     give the C.I.A. a copy--a peek?
       And when he was running for Secretary General why did State 
     Department biographies omit any reference to his military 
     service--just as he forgot to mention it in his 
     autobiographies?
       If all that information was lost by teams of stupid clerks, 
     once the Waldheim name came up for the job why did not the 
     U.S. do the obvious thing--check with Nazi and war-crime 
     records in London and Berlin to see if his name by any chance 
     was among those dearly wanted?
       Didn't the British know? They voted for the listing too. 
     And the Russians--Yugoslavia moved to list him when it was a 
     Soviet satellite. Belgrade never told Moscow?
       How did Mr. Waldheim repay the U.S. for its enduring 
     fondness to him? Twice it pushed him successfully for the 
     job. The third time it was among few countries that backed 
     him again but lost. Nobody can say the U.S. was not loyal to 
     the end.
       Did he also serve the Russians and British? One at a time? 
     Or was he a big-power groupie, serving all?
       One thing is not secret any longer, thanks to Prof. Robert 
     Herzstein of the University of South Carolina history 
     department. He has managed through years of perseverance to 
     pry some information loose. He found that while Mr. Waldheim 
     worked for the Austrian bureaucracy, the U.S. Embassy in 
     Vienna year after year sent in blurby reports about his 
     assistance to American foreign policy--friendly, outstanding, 
     cooperative, receptive to American thinking. All the while, 
     this cuddly fellow was on the A list, which was in the locked 
     files or absent with official leave.
       On May 24, 1994, I reported on Professor Herzstein's 
     findings and the need for opening files of war-crime 
     suspects. Representative Maloney quickly set to work on her 
     bill to open those files to Freedom of Information requests--
     providing safeguards for personal privacy, ongoing 
     investigations and national security if ever pertinent.
       Her first bill expired in the legislative machinery and in 
     1995 she tried again. She got her hearing recently thanks to 
     the chairman of her subcommittee of the Government Reform 
     Committee--Stephen Horn, the California Republican.
       If the leaders of Congress will it, the Maloney bill can be 
     passed this year. I nominate my New York Senators to 
     introduce it in the Senate. It will be a squeeze to get it 
     passed before the end of the year, so kindly ask your 
     representatives and senators to start squeezing.
       If not, the laborious legislative procedure will have to be 
     repeated next session. Questions about the Waldheim 
     connection will go unanswered, and also about other cases 
     that may be in the files or strangely misplaced, which will 
     also be of interest.

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be

[[Page S9649]]

deemed read a third time, and passed, and the motion to reconsider be 
laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill 
appear at the appropriate place in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is 
so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 3680) was deemed read the third time and passed.
  Mr. INHOFE. Thank you, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
  Mr. HATFIELD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.

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