[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 35 (Tuesday, March 18, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1042]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SUPPORT FOR APPOINTMENT OF ALEXIS HERMAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters] is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment first to join 
with my colleagues in a word of praise for Alexis Herman. As an African 
American woman, I am so very proud that she has been nominated.
  Despite the growth that we have had in this country of tolerance and 
the work that has been done to get rid of racism and discrimination and 
to try and open up opportunities for all, it still has been rather slow 
in coming. And it is not often, as a matter of fact, it is extremely 
rare, that an African-American woman would have the opportunity to 
serve as secretary of an administration. Alexis Herman has done 
everything that your parents, your community would have you do to get 
recognized as a person who is capable and competent so the President 
has nominated her.
  This woman served at the Department of Labor, where she headed the 
Women's Bureau. That is when I first met her. That was a number of 
years ago. And not only have I been impressed with her competence and 
her ability, she has been of assistance to so many people, to so many 
women. And of course her time and her service in the White House itself 
has exemplary.
  So I am hopeful that everything will go well. I am extremely proud 
and I am hopeful that within a short period of time, we will be able to 
say Madam Secretary, Alexis Herman.


                               On the CIA

  For the rest of my time, Mr. Speaker, I would like to continue 
because I have a statement that I would like to make about a very 
important matter.
  I think this week we have the Members of our Permanent Select 
Committee on Intelligence here in the House examining the CIA. They are 
probably taking a look at a number of the activities of the CIA and 
starting to talk about its budget. We have been hearing a lot about the 
CIA, certainly about cases where our own employees in the CIA decided 
to become spies for other nations.
  But beyond that, we have learned a lot about who the CIA deals with, 
and there are many people who will excuse who they deal with because 
they will tell you because of their covert operations they have to deal 
with the worst of them.
  We have seen some efforts in recent days to do some scrubbing in the 
CIA. That simply means that they are going to try and disassociate with 
some of the terrorists, the drug traffickers, and the murderers that 
they have been working with for a number of years. They say that they 
are going to get rid of their relationships with them, and that is 
called scrubbing.
  But I am very concerned about the CIA. It is a $30 billion budget. 
That is a lot of money when you are talking about balancing the budget. 
It is a $30 billion budget. And none of us knows what it is spent for. 
We just kind of give it over to the CIA. Then all these stories start 
to float back.
  I have been involved for over 6 months now as a result of the 
revelations of the San Jose Mercury News about the CIA's involvement in 
drug trafficking in south central Los Angeles in the 1980's.
  We identified Mr. Danilo Blandon and Mr. Norwin Meneses, two of the 
principals in the drug trafficking, one of whom, Danilo Blandon, has 
testified under oath that he was an operative for the CIA. You know 
this story. They sold drugs; they fueled the explosion of crack 
cocaine.
  It spread out across the United States, and part of those proceeds 
were used to fund the Contras, because they were the supporters of 
Somoza down in Nicaragua when the Contras were fighting against the 
Sandinistas under the so-called banner of the freedom fighters. They 
were looking for money all over the world. And the CIA had created the 
Contras, the so-called resistance movement, and they had to fund the 
army of the Contras known as the FDN. So in looking for this money, it 
certainly appears that they turned their backs and they allowed the 
selling of cocaine in huge amounts that got cooked into crack cocaine 
that exploded in this Nation.
  We have the investigations going on now. The inspector general of the 
CIA, the inspector general of the Justice Department, intelligence 
committees of both Houses, all are supposedly involved in these 
operations looking at them and investigating.
  But beyond that, we find other information about the CIA in 
Venezuela.

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