[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 64 (Wednesday, May 5, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4725-S4727]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 COMMENDING THE REVEREND JESSE JACKSON

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, let me read the resolving clause of the 
resolution on which we are about to vote.

       (1) The Senate commends the Reverend Jesse Jackson for his 
     successful efforts in securing the release of Sergeant 
     Ramirez, Sergeant Stone, and Specialist Gonzales and for his 
     leadership and actions arising from his deep faith in God; 
     and
       (2) The Senate joins the families of Sergeant Ramirez, 
     Sergeant Stone, and Specialist Gonzales in expressing relief 
     and joy of their safe release.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, Two days ago, when that military 
transport plane touched down at Andrews Air Force Base and we saw our 
three American soldiers safe again at last, I said, instinctively, 
``thank you.''
  ``Thank you, God, and thank you, Jesse Jackson, for bringing Steven 
Gonzales, Andrew Ramirez and Christopher Stone safely home from their 
captivity in Serbia.'' Millions of people all across our country, I 
suspect, said much the same thing. I am pleased today to repeat those 
words here, in the United States Senate, and to support this resolution 
honoring Reverend Jackson and the others in his delegation who played 
such a critical role in securing the release of our service men.
  ``When I was in prison, you visited me.'' That was one of the ways 
Jesus said we could recognize those who do his work. In daring to visit 
our soldiers in prison in Serbia, Reverend Jackson and the delegation 
of religious leaders who accompanied him surely were following Jesus's 
teachings as they understood them. Our nation owes them a debt of 
gratitude.
  Some have questioned the wisdom of the delegation's trip. There has 
been speculation about what effect their going to Serbia could have on 
political or military tactics. Frankly, I don't want to get into that 
debate. This was not a political or military mission. It was a 
humanitarian mission.

[[Page S4726]]

  Much praise rightly goes to Reverend Jackson, who organized the trip. 
I also want to acknowledge another member of the delegation: 
Congressman Rod Blagojevich, a second-term Congressman from Chicago's 
North Side, and the only Serbian-American in the House of 
Representatives.
  There are moments in history where a person emerges who seems almost 
to have been born to fulfill a critical role. On this mission, Rod 
Blagojevich was that person. Not only is he a man of significant 
political and moral courage, he is also the son of Yugoslav immigrants. 
His father spent four years in a Nazi POW camp during World War II. He 
learned to speak Serbo-Croation as a child, and still speaks it.
  I remember when I first was elected to the House. I sought out 
several of my political heroes to ask them ``How can a young 
Congressman make a difference--a real difference--in people's lives?'' 
Rod Blagojevich has found an answer to that question. Steven Gonzales, 
Andrew Ramirez and Christopher Stone are united today with their 
families, in large measure because of the courage he, and Reverend 
Jackson, and the other religious leaders in their delegation displayed 
in going to Serbia.
  Today's Washington Post contains an interesting account of their 
mission, from the time it was first conceived by Reverend Jackson 
through their triumphant return home. I ask unanimous consent that a 
copy of that article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Washington Post, May 5, 1999]

  Mission Accomplished: The Congressman Who Pulled Strings for POWs' 
                                Release

                           (By Kevin Merida)

       The interview begins with a little shake-rattle-and-roll. 
     Rod Blagojevich doing Elvis Presley.
       ``I'm all shook up, unh-hunh-hunh.''
       Blagojevich is a huge fan of The King (``Do you think he's 
     still alive?''), and he's feeling loose. It's not often--
     let's say never--that a second-term congressman from the 
     North Side of Chicago can thrust himself onto the 
     international stage, help rescue three Americans held captive 
     and claim a patch of glory. That would be the patch right 
     behind Jesse Jackson's. Meaning he's in all the brought-back-
     our-boys camera shots, but not prominently placed. But he's 
     okay with that. Blagojevich is the boyish-looking dude with 
     the mop of brown hair combed to the left, a cross between 
     John Travolta and Henry Winkler. He sometimes takes his meals 
     at Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street. No one recognizes him there. 
     Maybe someone will recognize him now.
       Without Rod Blagojevich (pronounced bla-GOYA-vich), there 
     might not have been a trip to Belgrade, no meeting with 
     President Slobodan Milosevic, no tearful family reunions this 
     week for U.S. soldiers Christopher Stone, Andrew Ramirez and 
     Steven Gonzales. Blagojevich was the arranger, working his 
     contacts in the Serbian American community when it looked 
     like the trip was dead. Those contacts ultimately cleared a 
     path to Milosevic himself.
       Not that the whole country is applauding. Some 
     administration officials carped--anonymous carping is the 
     best fun of all--that the unofficial Jackson peace mission 
     only undercut the NATO bombing campaign and could potentially 
     fracture the allies. Not to mention that it might damage 
     President Clinton's credibility at home on the war. Pundits 
     spouted: PR props for the Serb-led Yugoslav government.
       ``If Mother Teresa had been one of those prisoners and we 
     had gotten her out, we would have been criticized,'' 
     Blagojevich says. ``I guess if you're not being criticized, 
     you're not important. But it's thrilling to be in the mix. It 
     sure beats digging a ditch for a living.''
       Blagojevich, 42, a Democrat, is the only House member of 
     Serbian descent, which is perhaps the key part of this story. 
     He grew up speaking both English and Serbo-Croatian. Still 
     does. His father, Rade, was an immigrant to this country. A 
     Yugoslavian army officer, Rade Blagojevich was captured by 
     the Nazis in World War II and spent four years in a German 
     POW camp. He eventually made his way to the United States and 
     married a Chicago-born woman whose parents had emigrated from 
     Bosnia-Herzegovina.
       Together they tried to raise Rod and his brother as 
     Americans, but as Americans with a rich understanding of 
     their ancestry. Often, their mother would pull in one 
     direction and their father would tug in the other.
       It was one thing to play the tamburitza, a ukulele-like 
     instrument; it was another thing to sport the white-socks-
     and-sandals look that his dad thought was authentically 
     Yugoslav.
       ``I don't want to wear that,'' he told his father. ``I'm 
     going to get laughed out of the neighborhood if I wear that. 
     That's a bad look.''
       Blagojevich parents have passed away, but it is with their 
     memory in mind and all that he has learned about Serb culture 
     over the years that he injected himself into this war. He 
     felt he had a unique perspective to offer. Ironically, some 
     in the Serbian community here have been disappointed in him 
     for not being more active in Serbain American affairs.
       Shortly after the soldiers were captured on March 31, 
     Blagojevich telephoned national security adviser Samuel 
     ``Sandy'' Berger and White House chief of staff John Podesta 
     to offer his help. Nothing grew out of those calls. He then 
     read in the newspapers that Jackson wanted to take a 
     delegation of American religious leaders over to visit the 
     soldiers and try to win their release. Jackson was having 
     trouble getting guarantees from Milosevic that the delegation 
     could even see the GIs.
       Blagojevich approached Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) on 
     the House floor and mentioned that he had some contacts who 
     might be able to help. The younger Jackson put Blagojevich in 
     contact with his father. Blagojevich got to work. Soon, he 
     was talking directly to Yugoslavian deputy premier Vuk 
     Draskovic. Things were working out. Draskovic had assured the 
     group's safety and a visit with the soldiers. The soldiers 
     would be allowed to talk to their families. He'd get it in 
     writing. The trip was back on. Except on the eve of 
     departure, the maverick Draskovic was axed.
       Blagojevich recalls the Rev. Jackson's reaction to that 
     development as they were hashing out last-minute details for 
     the trip in Washington. He lapses into his Jackson 
     impersonation. ``Blagojevich, our boy just got fired. You got 
     any others out there?''
       Actually, Blagojevich did.
       Once in Belgrade, it was Jackson who set the agenda, 
     Jackson who commanded the spotlight. Blagojevich, as he put 
     it, ``worked the corridors'' and took advantage of his 
     ``cultural connection'' and ability to speak the language.
       As Blagojevich explained his role in a conversation in his 
     office yesterday, he pulled out two business cards. Nebojsa 
     Vujovic, spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Foreign 
     Affairs, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. They had a common 
     friend in Chicago. Bogoljub Karic, minister without 
     portfolio, Republic of Serbia. He had met with this guy in 
     his congressional office two days before the bombing 
     campaign. He later saw the same man on TV emerging from a 
     Milosevic cabinet meeting.
       While all the attention was focused on Jackson, Blagojevich 
     says, ``it was proper and part of the strategy to be working 
     these other guys. He and I were working different angles.''
       Jackson and Blagojevich both were in the three-hour meeting 
     with Milosevic on Saturday morning that produced the release 
     of the American prisoners the next day. Jackson then met with 
     Milosevic privately.
       The trip produced some light moments amid all the intensity 
     and emotion--Blogojevich, a member of the House Armed 
     Services Committee, greeted Sgt. Stone by promising him a 
     raise--but there were no light moments with Milosevic.
       ``I detected absolutely no warmth toward me,'' Blagojevich 
     says. ``In fact, I detected a decided lack of warmth.''
       A lack of warmth? Could it be that Milosevic remembered 
     that this Chicago congressman had pronounced him guilty of 
     ``ethnic cleansing'' and compared his tactics to those of 
     Nazi leaders?
       Once back home, Jackson, Blagojevich and others met at the 
     White House Monday evening with Clinton. Secretary of State 
     Madeleine Albright was there. Berger was there. Vice 
     President Gore dropped by for a moment.
       Jackson gave a detailed explanation and interpretation of 
     what the delegation heard and saw in Belgrade. He said that 
     Milosevic's gesture deserved to be matched. He talked of 
     other leaders who were so far apart, but had talked to each 
     other and had become closer over time. Sadat and Begin.
       ``Then I was up,'' recalled Blagojevich, who told Clinton 
     that the Serbs weren't backing down. He pitched his proposal 
     for a partition of Kosovo, which would give Serbs control of 
     the northern region where most of the Orthodox cathedrals and 
     historic sites important to them are located. An autonomous 
     homeland would be created in the south for the ethnic 
     Albanians driven out by Milosevic's forces.
       ``I like Clinton. I'm happy I voted to impeach him. I do 
     think he needs to step up to the plate and take charge of 
     this. With all due respect, I think Madeleine Albright and 
     Sandy Berger are running the show.''
       Blagojevich says he is ``extremely skeptical'' that the 
     bombing campaign will be successful. The NATO allies have 
     underestimated the Serbs' resolve, he believes. ``Despite the 
     bombs, daily life goes on.'' The timing for a negotiated 
     solution is right, he thinks.
       The administration apparently thinks not.
       ``They were on a mission of peace and it was successful,'' 
     says National Security Council spokesman David Leavy of the 
     Jackson-led group, ``but the fundamental reality remains the 
     same. There are a million Kosovars who are not going home to 
     their families.''
       However the war ends, the Jackson-Blagojevich bond has 
     strengthened.
       ``I feel like I'm a second cousin now,'' Blagojevich says.
       The younger Jackson puts the relationship in context: 
     Blagojevich's father-in-law, Alderman Dick Mell, is a 
     longtime Chicago machine boss. Blagojevich's district, 1 
     percent black, is a bastion of white ethnic pride. For

[[Page S4727]]

     many years, it was represented by Dan Rostenkowski. It is not 
     a district in which Jesse Jackson and Jesse Jackson Jr. are 
     exactly popular.
       ``Us relating to Rod and Rod relating to us is something 
     taboo,'' Rep. Jackson explains, noting that although he and 
     Blagojevich and their wives have grown close personally, he 
     understands that the North Side member takes flak for the 
     association.
       ``You being part of that Jackson thing is really going to 
     cost you your career,'' says Jackson Jr., imitating his 
     friend's critics. ``But after this trip, he is now officially 
     an honorary South Sider. Apparently, it was a great growing 
     experience for both him and Reverend Jackson.''
       After his 15 minutes of fame at Jackson's side, 
     Blagojevich's only question is this: ``When do I take my seat 
     on the back bench again?''

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I will vote for this resolution because I 
share in the happiness and relief that the families of Sergeant 
Ramirez, Sergeant Stone, and Specialist Gonzales, and all Americans 
feel now that these fine young men have been released from captivity. 
We are all thankful that they are home, safe from harm.
  I do not believe, however, that private diplomacy that is at odds 
with our country's objectives in this war and public relations stunts 
by Mr. Milosevic deserve our praise. I cannot commend the participation 
of any American in his propaganda.

                          ____________________