[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 141 (Friday, October 9, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1989-E1991]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE TALIBAN: PROTECTORS OF TERRORISTS, PRODUCERS OF DRUGS, H. CON. RES.
336
______
HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN
of new york
in the house of representatives
Thursday, October 8, 1998
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing H. Con. Res. 336,
legislation condemning the Taliban regime and supporting a broad based
government in Afghanistan.
The attacks on our embassies in Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam that left
254 dead including 12 Americans and over 5,000 injured reflect the
failure of U.S. policymakers to confront a new kind of warfare and a
new kind of adversary, one that draws its power from a convergence of
the destructive tactics of international terrorism and radical Muslim
extremism with one of the world's largest heroin empires.
This is a war, not between Islam and the United States, but between a
small but growing army of religious fanatics who want to undermine the
West and radicalize the Islamic world by overthrowing moderate Islamic
governments.
We are in this predicament because the Clinton administration has
failed to distinguish between those who are devout Muslims and those
who use Islam as a rallying point to attack both the West and those who
do not subscribe to their interpretation of the Koran.
Perhaps the most dangerous example of this lack of distinction is
found in the administration's attitude toward the Taliban regime of
Afghanistan, the principal protectors of Osama bin Ladin.
As the Taliban has extended its sway over Afghanistan, it has grown
increasingly extremist and anti-Western, its leaders proclaiming that
virtually every aspect of Western culture violates their version of
Islam.
[[Page E1990]]
In addition to restrictions against women, such as barring them from
holding jobs or traveling unaccompanied by a male relative, ancient and
cruel forms of punishment, such as stoning have been revived. There are
reports of massive ethnic killings and starvation. The evolution of the
Taliban bears a fearsome resemblance to the murderously fanatical and
purist Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.
Moreover, under the Taliban, Afghanistan has become perhaps the
world's largest producer of heroin. The Taliban are involved at every
level of activity, from licensing and taxing poppy cultivation to
expanding new refining facilities to controlling transportation and
distribution.
Disturbingly, Taliban leaders, who have made narcotics the economic
base of their regime, view the drug trade itself as a potential weapon.
Viewing the West and many pro-Western countries in the Muslim world as
corrupt, the Taliban have no compunction about trafficking in
narcotics.
The new threat to the West is that these drugs are now financing
activities of anti-western fanatics who view terrorism as an effective
means to further their aims.
Another key reason for the numerous terrorist training camps that
have sprung up in the Taliban controlled areas of Afghanistan, in
addition to bin Ladin's, has been the benign posture of neighboring
Pakistan.
Islamabad has not only countenanced the Afghan terrorist training
camps, it has also provided crucial diplomatic support for the Taliban.
They have done so out of interest in agitation by Muslim extremists in
the disputed Indian territory of Kashmir, and in hopes that the
Taliban, after gaining control throughout Afghanistan, will be
dependent on Pakistan, thus providing not only strategic depth in the
region, but a corridor to the important energy reserves of Central
Asia.
Regrettably, the Clinton administration has consistently
underestimated the stakes in this situation, particularly in taking its
cue from Pakistan on dealing with the Taliban. Even after the U.S.
attack on the terrorist camps in Afghanistan, it was reported that
administration officials believed they could negotiate with the Taliban
for bin Ladin's extradition. If dialogue with the Taliban over bin
Ladin exemplifies the basic strategy for confronting this new terrorist
threat, we are in serious trouble.
Bin Ladin is only the tip of the iceberg and removing him will not
end the threat the U.S. faces from Muslim terrorist extremists of his
stripe. Regrettably, the administration has not understood that the
fate of Afghanistan cannot be permitted to rest in the hands of the
Taliban and their supporters in Pakistan and elsewhere.
For the Taliban's divinely mandated war has no borders and they will
not stop with the conquest of Afghanistan. The head of the Taliban has
donned the cloak of the Prophet Mohammed and proclaimed himself
``Commander of the Faithful,'' a claim of suzerainty over all Muslims
in the region, and a challenge to every government there.
It should be no surprise that, with the advent of the Taliban,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have invited Russian forces to help protect
their southern borders and Iran has assembled 70,000 troops or more on
its border with Afghanistan.
Moreover, recent events in Pakistan clearly demonstrate that the
fundamentalists there, encouraged by the Taliban successes, have
leveraged considerable power over the government.
President Nawaz Sharif recently declared that Pakistan will become a
Shariat state, confirming that the radical message of the Taliban is
spreading to Pakistan's political structure. Fundamentalists are
gaining an upper hand--and Pakistan has the bomb.
It is time for U.S. policymakers to stop taking its lead from
Islamabad and to bolster relationships with the Muslim states of
Central Asia, as well as other important states in the region, such as
India, and begin to realistically confront the danger that the Taliban
present, not only to the West, but to other Muslim governments that do
not share their extremist ideology.
H. Con. Res. 336 outlines this serious U.S. foreign policy failure
and attempts to correct the administration's deficiencies in this
regard. Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to support H. Con. Res. 336.
I request that the full text of H. Con. Res. 336 to be printed in the
Record at this point.
H. Con. Res. 336
Whereas the military defeat of the Soviet Union in
Afghanistan, in which more than 1,000,000 Afghans lost their
lives, was a key contribution to the ending of the Cold War;
Whereas upon the Soviet Union's withdrawal from
Afghanistan, the United States generally lost interest in the
region and Afghanistan's neighbors became more influential
inside Afghanistan, and the various Afghan factions were thus
unable to form a broad-based and representative national
government;
Whereas in October 1994 a new force called the Taliban
emerged in Afghanistan, pledging itself to establish a true
Islamic government, disarm all other factions, eliminate
narcotics cultivation, establish law and order, and restore
peace;
Whereas since 1994 the Taliban movement has, often through
force and terror, continued to expand its domination of more
and more territory within Afghanistan, while the movement
itself has become more and more militant and extreme in its
actions and its interpretation of Islamic principles;
Whereas the Taliban movement, especially key members of its
leadership, has become increasingly associated and deeply
involved with individuals and groups involved in
international terrorism, including, but not limited to, Osama
bin Ladin, who was responsible for the August 1998 attacks on
United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania;
Whereas those terrorist elements with which the Taliban are
associated are not only focused on separatist activities in
Kashmir but also significantly involved in anti-Western and
anti-American terrorist activities;
Whereas over 95 percent of heroin produced in Afghanistan
is from areas controlled by the Taliban and some large
portion of that heroin is sold on America's streets and, in
spite of United Nations crop substitution program in Taliban
areas, poppy cultivation and heroin trafficking have
increased dramatically;
Whereas linkages have been established between Afghanistan
and terrorists who were involved in the World Trade Center
bombing, the murder of Central Intelligence Agency personnel
in Langley, Virginia, and the recent bombings of United
States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania;
Whereas the inter-Afghan dialogue initiative began in early
1997 and has successfully held 3 major meetings, concluding
its last gathering of approximately 200 Afghans in Bonn,
Germany, in July 1998;
Whereas the United States launched a limited attack against
terrorist bases in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan on August
20, 1998;
Whereas the Taliban rule by fear and terror and
systematically abuse the rights of all Afghans, especially
women, and are intolerant to non-Sunni Muslim believers,
especially Hazara, many of whom are Shiite Muslims;
Whereas the Government of Pakistan has been a vigorous
defender of the Taliban's activities and tens of thousands of
Pakistani Taliban have linked up with Afghan Taliban creating
a transborder movement with growing influence inside
Pakistan;
Whereas reports of the persecution of Christians, Shiites,
and other religious minorities inside Pakistan are a growing
concern to Congress;
Whereas the Central Asian States, especially Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan, in addition to Russia and Iran have voiced alarm
at the fall of northern areas of Afghanistan, where there has
been almost no narcotics cultivation and where all the major
groups have been interested in strong and close relations
with the United States;
Whereas it is widely accepted in the region that the United
States Department of State, and consequently the United
States Government, supports the Taliban;
Whereas Congress has repeatedly condemned the activities of
the Taliban regime and urged more vigorous support for
efforts to form a broad-based government based on the inter-
Afghan dialogue initiative, several of whose members have
been executed by the Taliban for no apparent crime; and
Whereas there needs to be a fundamental reappraisal of
overall United States policy toward Afghanistan and its
neighbors: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That it is the sense of the House of
Representatives and the Senate that--
(1) the United States should publicly condemn the Taliban
regime for its reprehensible atrocities against human rights,
in particular women's rights, its embrace of international
terrorism, and its willing integration into a worldwide
narcotics syndicate;
(2) the United States should recognize that it will be
better served by a comprehensive regional strategy that
addresses Afghan issues rather than its current one that
relies primarily on Pakistan;
(3) the United States should explore its mutual interest
regarding the danger of the Taliban with other countries of
the region;
(4) the United States should not grant diplomatic
recognition to the Taliban or assist in any way its
recognition in the United Nations but rather should support
the inter-Afghan dialogue efforts to form a truly
representative broad-based government;
(5) the Department of Defense should conduct a
vulnerability assessment of the Taliban regime;
(6) the United States should work to initiate through the
United Nations Security Council a ban on all international
commercial air travel to and from Taliban controlled
Afghanistan;
(7) the United States should call on the Taliban regime to
permit humanitarian supplies to be delivered without
interference to all regions of Afghanistan;
[[Page E1991]]
(8) the United States should consider those Afghans,
especially known friends of the United States, fleeing
political persecution from the Taliban regime to be refugees
eligible for consideration for asylum;
(9) the Department of State should urge the Islamic
Republic of Pakistan to protect the rights of Christians and
Shiite Muslims in Pakistan and should publish a special
report to Congress on the human rights situation in Pakistan,
especially as it affects religious minorities; and
(10) the Department of State should report to the Congress
concerning whether the Taliban, which provides a safe haven
for Osama bin Laden and other terrorist organizations as well
as illicit drug monies which assist these terrorists, should
be added to the list of designated foreign terrorist
organizations.
____________________