[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 131 (Wednesday, October 18, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S10705]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      STATE DEPARTMENT MEMORANDUM

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, yesterday, we learned that a memorandum 
from the Inter-Agency Coordinator for the State Department instructed 
the Voice of America to refrain from broadcasting an editorial 
denouncing the terrorist act that took the lives of seventeen American 
sailors on the U.S.S. Cole and expressing the United States' resolute 
opposition to all terrorism. Apparently she perceived in the editorial 
an insensitivity to the fact that ``the seventeen or so dead does not 
compare to the 100+ Palestinians who have died in recent weeks where we 
have remained silent.''
  Mr. President, I was not aware that the United States had remained 
silent about the loss of life, both Israeli and Palestinian, in the 
current conflicts threatening the prospects for peace in the Middle 
East. Indeed, I believe the President and a good many members of 
Congress have been quite outspoken on the subject. Moreover, the losses 
incurred in that conflict and our responsibility to do what we can to 
help bring violence there to an end, does not preclude the United 
States from strongly, unequivocally addressing the first responsibility 
of any U.S. Government: the safety of American lives.
  I understand that the State Department spokesman has issued a 
statement calling the official's extraordinarily offensive memorandum 
``wrong,'' ``not approved through appropriate channels'' and assuring 
that it in ``no way reflects the views of the Secretary or the 
Department.'' Fine, we can let the matter rest there.
  Let me add a thought, though. It's a free country, but the official 
in question is not free to represent her own controversial priorities 
as official U.S. policy. Should she be unable to meet this basic 
professional and civic responsibility, perhaps she should seek a place 
of employment that is more compatible with her views.

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