[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.

     

                          ____________________