[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 14 (Thursday, February 14, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H512-H518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SUPPORTING PAKISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2001, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, at Congress the highs are very high, and the 
depths can be very low. We certainly ended the session last night on a 
high note. It was 2:30 in the morning with you, but we finally passed a 
campaign finance reform, a piece of legislation that is likely to 
survive in concert with the other body. And also I think that there is 
a rumor the President may sign it. So I think the American people have 
a lot to applaud along with the Members of this House for our work this 
week.
  We go into Valentine's Day, a day of love of all kinds. I hope 
everybody feels many different forms, kind of love and is willing to 
exhibit that love and compassion. Unfortunately we sank to a new low on 
Valentine's Day by refusing to pass a stimulus package which addressed 
the sufferings of working families in America. It would have been so 
easy for us to celebrate this day by addressing the immediate problem 
of the unemployed workers. Whether they are unemployed because of the 
fact of the tragedy on September 11, or they were unemployed because of 
the creeping recession that was on the way before, we still should have 
addressed those problems.
  We should have addressed those proposals that were made by the 
Progressive Caucus that were made for some 3 or 4 months that not only 
should we have increased the amounts of weeks that unemployed workers 
can receive unemployment insurance, but we should also increase the 
amounts of money available, because in many States they have reduced 
the amount of money available in the unemployment insurance payments. 
We also suggested that, pushed hard for a combination of health 
benefits to go along with the unemployment insurance benefits so that 
workers losing their jobs temporarily, we hope it is temporary, would 
be able to maintain for 6 months a health care plan which would carry 
their families during that period.
  These are very compassionate and humane considerations, and it is a 
pity that on Valentine's Day, in the process of playing games with a 
stimulus package, what we call a stimulus package, we would not address 
the needs of working families in America.
  It might be noted that we still have not addressed the needs of the 
immediate airline workers who were laid off as a result of a 
constrictions within the airline industry. We addressed the industry 
and the executives and their needs. We appropriated billions of dollars 
for immediate cash to make up for any losses they might have 
experienced as a result of the September 11 tragedy, and we also set up 
an $11 billion low-interest loan fund.
  We did a great deal for the airline industry, and the executives will 
profit a great deal, and the shareholders will profit a great deal. We 
made a promise that we will come back and take care of the airline 
industry workers who were laid off, the estimated number being about 
100,000. We have not made good on that promise either. It would have 
been great if on Valentine's Day it could have been made good on that 
promise.
  I want to talk today about the matter of failing to show compassion 
and sympathy to the Americans who need it most, those people who now 
need a safety net, that failure of compassion and where it fits into a 
number of different issues and problems that we are considering now in 
the country as a whole. I want to talk about a conversion of issues, 
and this issue of compassion for those who were on the bottom, 
compassion for those who need safety nets is a key at the heart of the 
discussion of all of these other items that I want to mention.
  I want to include the fact that in this conversion of issues, that it 
is important that we have here on the Hill today the President of 
Pakistan, President Musharraf. President Musharraf was here as a major 
ally in the war against terrorism, a country which certainly had to 
think for a long time and think hard before joining the alliance 
against terrorism because it had a great deal at stake has come down 
firmly on the side of those of us who care about democracy, those of us 
who care about liberties and freedom, those of us who care about women 
being treated equally. They have come down on the side of a coalition 
which was proposed by President Bush.

[[Page H513]]

  They are taking great risk; the President of Pakistan and his 
government are taking great risk. They are right on the border of 
Afghanistan. They are right in the heart of two nations that are 
Islamic. They are threatened on the other hand by India that is hostile 
for various reasons. I will not go into all the of them at this point.
  They are in a precarious position, but once again, Pakistan has come 
to the aid of the United States. They have always done this. During the 
Cold War they were there. When the Russians attacked Afghanistan, they 
were there. We have always relied heavily on the goodwill and 
participation in an alliance by Pakistan. Unfortunately, we have not 
rewarded Pakistan when the need for their services has been over. We 
have too often neglected to follow through and show our appreciation.
  In fact, today as I met with the Committee on International Relations 
in their session with President Musharraf, President Musharraf used the 
phrase that he said somebody had mentioned yesterday he was not so 
familiar with that term, but he assumed what it meant. Somebody said, 
Are you worried about when the United States will again dump Pakistan; 
will they dump Pakistan again? He assumed that this meant abandon 
Pakistan, and he is correct. But ``dump'' somehow is a more poignant 
word which gets to the heart of the matter.

                              {time}  1445

  We have repeatedly dumped Pakistan after using Pakistan. I hope it 
does not happen again, but that significant attempt is a convergence of 
issues I want to talk about today.
  Our success against the Taliban in Afghanistan would have not been 
possible without the help of Pakistan. They have gone to great lengths 
to provide maximum help to the United States in that fight against the 
Taliban. The success against the Taliban is something we ought to take 
a look at and understand the implications of that. Why were we so 
successful so swiftly? I think at the heart of that success is the fact 
that the Taliban never had the population of Afghanistan on their side.
  It relates very much to another issue that I am going to discuss 
later and that is Haiti. The Taliban was an example of what happened in 
Haiti. We have a group of 4- or 5,000 armed thugs who have command of 
the tanks and the guns and the bullets. They can take over a nation, 
and they can rule that nation, although they are only a tiny percentage 
of the nation. It happened in Haiti with its 7 million people, and we 
had to work for 3 years in order to get back into Haiti the 
democratically elected President, and in the final analysis it took 
troops.
  President Clinton had to have the guts to order the troops to go into 
Haiti to restore democracy. When our troops landed, not a single shot 
was fired. If we think the Taliban was easy in Afghanistan, remember 
Haiti. Not a single shot was fired. No lives were lost. We went on for 
quite a long time before even a soldier was killed by accident in Haiti 
because the people of Haiti were not in favor of the government they 
had. The people would not stand against it. The so-called military were 
cowards, and they would terrorize the people, but once they were 
confronted, they melted away.
  That is the lesson we ought to bear in mind as we look at the Taliban 
and the implications of the Taliban. We are now concerned about now 
that the Taliban have been defeated, what are we going to do in terms 
of helping Afghanistan become a strong nation, let Afghanistan become a 
strong nation so that never again will a bin Laden or someone like that 
attempt to take over the country and use the country as a base for 
terrorism.
  The whole concept of nation-building, which was much maligned just a 
few years ago, has now become a positive concept as it always should 
have been. Nation-building should not be a dirty phrase, and we are 
beginning to understand that, and beyond nation-building we ought to 
take a look at the possibility of nation preservation. The nations that 
already exist who are on wobbly legs, who are in deep trouble, deserve 
some help in being able to maintain legal, constitutional, 
democratically elected governments, which brings me to another issue 
that I want to put in this mix of issues.
  That is the war against drugs in Colombia. Colombia was allocated a 
billion dollars for the war against drugs there. It is a military war. 
Military expenditures and military wars are the most expensive ways to 
fight drugs, to fight for the integrity of a country. We could have 
done so much more with less money if we had given economic aid to 
Colombia 5 or 10 years ago, but right now Colombia is a nation very 
much like Afghanistan. There is a back and forth with guerrillas, and 
the guerrillas may take over and they may become friendly with a 
government that is not necessarily threatening America with terrorism, 
but with a more steady flow of drugs and with relationships with other 
nations in the hemisphere, small islands in the Caribbean, Haiti.
  The Colombian drug trade has the potential to spread its tentacles 
out with such enormous amounts of money at the command of the drug 
lords that it will impact among many nations in the hemisphere, and we 
may find ourselves surrounded by a circle of nations run by drug lords 
which will be a far greater threat to America than the Taliban in 
Afghanistan.
  The growing influence of drug lords in the Western Hemisphere is a 
major problem we should be concerned with, which brings me to the 
questions in Haiti.
  Haiti, at the time that the Army of Haiti staged a coup and kicked 
out the lawfully elected, democratically elected President, kicked him 
out, he had to run for his life. At that time the drug lords were very 
much in control in Haiti, and for a long time, the people in charge, 
Michel Francois and Raoul Cedras were the beneficiaries of an inflow of 
drug money from the drug czars so that every time one went to the 
bargaining table with them to try to get them to be reasonable and 
accept the democratically elected president returning to Haiti, they 
were very strong because they had a source of money, so far as income, 
which kept them well-heeled despite the fact that we had imposed an 
economic embargo on Haiti. And we were certainly making the people of 
Haiti in general suffer, but those guys never suffered a day in their 
lives because they had an influx of money from drug lords.
  The same thing is happening now in Haiti. The drug lords are becoming 
stronger and stronger every day because since the return of a 
democratic government in Haiti, the policies of the United States have 
been very backwards, hostile, mean-spirited, hateful. There is a small 
cabal of very powerful leaders in America who literally hate the 
Government of Haiti at this point. They hate President Aristide and all 
he stands for. I have never seen such personal venom directed to a 
nation or its leader, and we are making foreign policy toward Haiti on 
the basis of those powerful people who will not live up to promises of 
aid.
  They have promised $200 million in aid as a kingpin part of a 
package, that was supposed to be the kingpin and lead to a domino 
effect that was positive, and other nations like France and Canada and 
Great Britain, everybody was going to contribute to an effort that 
depended on being started by the $200 million the United States would 
supply. Powerful forces here in Washington, sometimes single 
individuals, have blocked the flow of that money to Haiti, and then 
Haiti has experienced a great deal of suffering.
  The people who had such high optimism for their democratically 
elected government have now begun to sink into a great deal of despair, 
and the old problems are coming back in terms of more and more 
violence. That appears to be the only answer for those who really want 
to weigh out and want to take shortcuts.
  So the strangling of a nation is taking place right before our eyes 
in this hemisphere with respect to Haiti. We need a global policy with 
immediate focus on this hemisphere, global policy which deals with 
Haiti first, a policy which deals with the fact the drug lords may have 
a great deal of influence in the nations surrounding us in the 
Caribbean islands other than Haiti, a policy which deals with this 
hemisphere in terms of something better in Colombia than the present 
military war which we are losing, and, even if we win, will not lead to 
any permanent eradication of Colombia as a major base for drugs.
  I forgot to point out that the Taliban in Afghanistan were primarily 
funded

[[Page H514]]

through the movement of drugs, just as their people who helped us to 
liberate the population from the Taliban, the Northern Alliance, also 
depend heavily on drugs and the flow of drugs, the drug trade, to 
finance them.
  Drugs are a major problem in our fight against terrorism. It may not 
be so overt at this point, but if countries are eventually controlled 
by drug lords in this hemisphere, they will not necessarily have an 
agenda of hate against the United States for political reasons or 
religious reasons. They have their own selfish reasons for doing 
whatever they do, and they certainly would be available and for sale 
for enemies with bigger agendas, or they themselves would be an enemy 
that we should fear a great deal because of the way they would allow 
drugs to flow into our country with greater and greater ease and lower 
and lower prices, addicting more and more of our population. All of 
these problems are inevitably interwoven.
  I am going to yield in a few minutes to a colleague of mine who 
particularly wants to discuss the problems in Haiti and the kinds of 
needed emergency that we are faced with here and the fact that the 
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who himself is of Jamaican descent, 
visited with the members of Caricom.
  Caricom is an economic organization consisting of all the various 
Caribbean governments, and he visited with them, and they had a long 
discussion, and one of the great problems that was put forth by the 
heads of Caribbean states was that they are being overwhelmed by a 
great number of Haitian refugees. We have in the Clinton administration 
boatloads of Haitian refugees directed at this country and coming in at 
large numbers, ships sinking at sea, and finally we had to interdict 
and carry people off, and at one point we had 19,000 people at 
Guantanamo Naval Base, Haitian refugees, the problem was that big, 
until President Clinton finally moved to ease the pressure by restoring 
democracy in Haiti.
  People went home and they stayed home because they had hope. Now that 
hope is being lost, they are not coming to this country again because 
probably the Coast Guard is out there very aware and very, probably 
very effective in stopping the movement of boats in this direction, 
maybe deadly so. We do not know, but they know the problem because they 
had it before. So instead of coming into this country, the refugees are 
going to targets which are easier to get into, and that is the other 
countries of the Caribbean.
  I want to yield to my colleague from Florida if she would like to 
speak on the issue of Haiti at this point.
  As I said before, all these problems are inevitably interwoven. We 
have a need for a vision and a comprehensive policy to deal with these 
problems, and human affairs is as complicated or more complicated than 
nuclear physics. So a complicated policy which understands how these 
issues relate to each other is needed; some vision is needed by this 
administration. We have but one enemy out there to fight, and that is 
the enemy that is against democracy or against liberty and against our 
constitutional civilization. These enemies, whether they come in the 
form of drug lords or Taliban spouting hatred on a religious basis, 
they are still enemies.

  Haiti is a particular case where an elected government, 
democratically elected, is being harassed, ignored, neglected and 
abandoned by our own policies here in this country, and we need to move 
to deal with putting pressure on our administration to move in a more 
humane manner in order to save a nation. We do not have to build a 
nation in Haiti. We have to preserve a nation.
  I yield to my colleague, the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Meek).
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and very 
academic Representative, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens), for 
reserving this time today and for leadership over the years on behalf 
of the nation of Haiti.
  When I came to the Congress in 1992, the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Owens) was the person at that time who inspired me to keep up this 
fight for Haiti. I represent a great number of Haitians in this 
country. I am from Miami, Florida, and we do have a very large 
representation, almost as large as the gentleman from New York's 
representation.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I think the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. 
Meek) represents the larger Haitian population, contrary to my 
congressional district.
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this is a subject that I know 
something about. One of the neighbors in my district, one of the 
largest neighborhoods is called Little Haiti, and it is one of the 
largest concentrations of Haitians in the world outside of Haiti 
itself.
  While Haiti is an abstraction for many Americans, to many of my 
constituents it is their place of birth, the place of birth of their 
mothers and fathers, and still home to friends and family.
  The human suffering in Haiti in this hemisphere, the poorest in the 
world, is something that no American would be proud of if they really 
understood what Haiti is going through and what the people in Haiti are 
going through.
  Let me give my colleagues just a little background as to why we 
should be more aware of what is going on in Haiti and try to help 
America understand the plight of this country. Sixty percent of 8.2 
million people are undernourished. Think of it, 60 percent of the 
people who live there. Their illiteracy rate is 48 percent, and 85 
percent of Haitian adults are illiterate.
  The United States has made some efforts in Haiti, not enough, but we 
are here today to say that the efforts that have been made are not in 
jeopardy.
  Only 40 percent of the population has access to clean water. Think of 
it. We take all of these things for granted, but only 40 percent of the 
population in Haiti has access to clean water.

                              {time}  1500

  The per capita income of people living in Haiti is only $460 per 
year. What a dismal thing when we think of what is going on in Haiti. 
AIDS is the leading cause of death in Haiti, and infant mortality is 
more than twice the regional average. Life expectancy is 54 years of 
age, compared to a regional average of 70.
  Clearly, Haiti's problems far exceed the resources it has to address 
them. That is why I am so grateful today that my colleague brought 
Haiti to the attention of this country.
  Let us talk a little bit about the loans that were supposed to go to 
Haiti. The problems are being made worse because of decisions that are 
made by our own government. Just last week, Secretary of State Colin 
Powell said that the United States would oppose the $200 million in 
loans for the Inter-American Development Bank until the Haitian 
Government and its opposition find a way to settle their dispute. That 
stems from local and legislative elections held in 2000.
  Now, think of this picture. Colin Powell has said they are going to 
hold back the loans that are to go to Haiti until they straighten out 
the legislative elections held in 2000. How long are they going to keep 
food, clean water, and clean air from the children who are suffering in 
Haiti?
  Secretary Powell said he was terribly concerned about the political 
unrest in Haiti and that he does not believe that enough has been done 
to move the political process forward. That is another challenge. But, 
still, the children are dying, they are going without food, they are 
going without proper clothing, and we must wait until the political 
process moves forward.
  Secretary Powell said he felt he had to hold President Aristide and 
the Haitian Government to ``fairly high levels of performance'' before 
we could simply allow funds to flow into the country. My question is, 
my esteemed colleague, what does Secretary Powell expect from the 
poorest country in the hemisphere, where people routinely go hungry, 
where children have no school, where health care is reserved for the 
wealthy and the economy is in shambles?
  Haiti returned to constitutional government in 1994, following 
decades of the brutal dictatorships of Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier 
and the military powerhouse which was directed against a brief period 
of democratic rule. Mr. Speaker, democracy is a very difficult form of 
government. Ask me, I know about it, even in the best of circumstances. 
We know this from our own experience here in the United States where we 
have every advantage.
  Imagine how difficult it is to make democracy work when 85 percent of 
the

[[Page H515]]

adults cannot read, unemployment is in double digits, and inflation 
hovers around 15 percent. I submit that American democracy would be 
sorely tested under such conditions.
  It is clear that Haitian progress and political stability is tied 
very closely to the release of $200 million in Inter-American 
Development Bank loans which the United States is blocking. Because of 
the United States Government's action, the European Union has also 
withheld funds from Haiti. Two great nations, the United States and the 
European Union.
  Our small island neighbors in the Caribbean, called Caricom, have 
criticized our government because it is depriving the Aristide 
government of the resources it desperately needs to alleviate human 
suffering, move the economy and stabilize their society. I think it is 
ironic that our government has agreed to $380 million in United States 
taxpayer guaranteed loans to keep American West Airlines in business, 
but they will not approve $200 million in loans for the Inter-American 
Development Bank to keep the country of Haiti from collapsing.
  I plan to visit Haiti again next week. The gentleman from New York 
(Mr. Owens) and I, and several members of the Congressional Black 
Caucus, have visited Haiti many times. Next week, we plan to go over 
there on a CODEL with the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), 
ranking member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, and others of 
my colleagues. We are trying to seek a way out of this impasse.
  It is my hope that the administration will stop treating the nation 
of Haiti as an enemy. Haiti is not an enemy of the United States, they 
are not terrorists either, and instead begin to see Haiti for what it 
is, a poor and fledgling democracy, a needy neighbor, a nation filled 
with desperate people who, like poor and desperate people all over the 
world, look to the richest and most powerful Nation on the Earth for 
help.
  We need help. It is in the pipeline for Haiti. And I want to thank my 
colleague very much for giving me this opportunity to speak just a 
little while about the poor people of Haiti and about the people in 
Miami I represent and what their feelings are toward helping this 
Nation.
  Mr. OWENS. I thank my colleague from Florida, and I wish she could 
remain a minute to have a brief colloquy with me.
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Yes.
  Mr. OWENS. Since I think most Americans do not know it, could the 
gentlewoman tell us how far away or how close Haiti is to the American 
mainland?
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. It is very close. I think it is about 90 miles. 
It takes just an hour by plane from Miami to Haiti. It is the closest 
democracy to us. Mile-wise, I am not sure exactly the mileage.
  Mr. OWENS. Could the gentlewoman also tell us about the Haitian 
community in Miami? To what extent does the gentlewoman see influences 
of the drug lords there from Haiti?
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Well, drugs are a problem in Miami, in that 
drugs are now being routed into Haiti because it is a poor country, it 
is a depressed country. Something needs to be done about interdiction. 
I think our government should intervene in Haiti to keep the drug lords 
from taking over Haiti. It is very close to the Dominican Republic. 
They have trouble with the Haitian infusion there. Nassau, the Bahamas, 
is having trouble because the people in Haiti are very poor.
  To answer the question, the Haitian community in Miami is well aware 
of these problems. They are organizing every day to try to bring these 
problems we have discussed to the light of this country. So the drug 
problem is great.
  Also, immigration is a problem. And, of course, if situations 
continue to get worse and worse in Haiti, then they are going to try to 
migrate to the United States. And when they do that, they come in 
boats, they come in any way they can get there, and many of them lose 
their lives. Many of them are washed up on the shores of Miami Beach.
  It makes a very bad picture to see these pictures of people who are 
running from a very poor and deprived country coming to another 
country, where there is all the good, when America could be extending 
the loans and the help which they should be giving to Haiti now. 
Because it would stop people from dying, and it would stop the drug 
lords from looking at Haiti as being a very lucrative place to peddle 
their drugs.
  So it is a big problem. It is a security risk as long as we allow the 
drug lords to operate in and out of there. It is a country that has a 
lot of water around it, and they can deal in drugs and cause drugs to 
go there.
  So we are trying to plead to this country that the $200 million or 
more that they are holding up is really a detriment. It is not worth it 
when we could give some relief to that country and sort of delay the 
infusion of drugs that are there.
  So the Haitian community in Miami is a very intelligent community. 
They are working very hard. They are very industrious. They are also 
very nationalistic. They love America. They want to become a part of 
our society, and they have in the past, and they will continue to do 
so.
  I guess what I am saying is that they are aware of these problems. 
They have really appealed to the government, and my colleague has been 
a big part of it. When we came up here to appeal to the Clinton 
administration to do something about the situation in Haiti, they did 
try. They did send monies to Haiti. They tried to develop a police 
force.
  But I go back to the point that this is a very fledgling democracy, 
and democracy is not easy. We cannot just give up and back out the 
first time we have some problems there. And it appears that President 
Aristide seems to be a problem with many of the people here in the 
United States, even here in this Congress. It is a very unfair 
assessment of President Aristide.
  Mr. OWENS. If the gentlewoman will answer one more question. It is my 
opinion that the hostile forces here in Washington, hostile people, the 
four or five key people with a lot of power, very hostile towards 
President Aristide's government, are using the election as an excuse, 
the technicalities of an election, which was not a bad election at all, 
in my opinion.
  The gentlewoman is closer to what happened in Florida, the 
heartbreaking Presidential election fiasco in Florida. Can the 
gentlewoman tell us whether she thinks what happened in Florida was far 
more outrageous and complicated and probably controversial than what 
happened in the Haitian elections; and that we are moving on and nobody 
dares to chastise us or penalize us for the election problems that we 
had in the Presidential election related to Florida.
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. As a matter of fact, I thank the gentleman for 
that question. The election in Florida was a quagmire of confusion and 
delusion, in that the election in Florida cannot even be compared to 
Haiti's elections.
  Haiti elections were much better run than the election in Florida. 
There were so many circumstances that happened in Florida, in this 
Nation. In this Nation, where we have all the technology in the world, 
in this Nation where we have all of the leadership in the world, to 
have an election that some people were denied the right to vote is a 
travesty of democracy.

  The Haitian election was much better run. But did we censor this 
country because of it? Were we able to get any redress of our 
grievances? No. Were we able to come before this very Congress to show 
the situation in the election and show them what a bad situation it 
was, how it defied democracy? No, we could not get any redress. And it 
was a well-kept secret, the many, many problems in Florida.
  So it is so difficult to even compare it with Haiti. It does not even 
come up to the standards of the election in Haiti and some of the other 
underdeveloped countries as well.
  So, no, I do not see why we would use that. We are making it a 
political football because we do not want to help Haiti, and it is 
strictly political. There are people even in our own Congress who have 
fought against Haiti for the entire 10 years I have been here.
  I have never been so wrought up in my life as I have been coming to 
this Congress appealing for some help for Haiti. We can get it for 
other countries, and many of them, in my opinion, who do not deserve as 
much help as they are getting. But Haiti, one of

[[Page H516]]

the poorest countries in the world, cannot get any because of the 
political nuances or the political deep-seated feelings and hate and 
despise people have for Haiti.
  I cannot understand it. And it is important that we help America 
understand that these few people are keeping their foot on the necks of 
Haiti.
  Mr. OWENS. Does the gentlewoman have any immediate recommendations 
for action that she thinks we could take? I know there will be a CODEL 
visiting Haiti soon. Are there any other things she thinks we should do 
right away?
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Well, I think we should undertake things we 
undertook in 1992, and we have been working on it for the last 10 
years. We should continue to bring this to the forefront of our 
government, to help our President and his cabinet understand the 
importance of paying attention to Haiti.
  I think it is a matter of helping America understand that we cannot 
sweep this condition under the rug. We cannot continue to let four or 
five well-meaning people, who are deliberately, because of their 
feelings about Haiti, cause people to die in Haiti, cause children to 
not have clothing.
  I think we should continue with the kinds of things the gentleman is 
doing this afternoon, the kinds of things we do in our meetings back 
home, the kinds of things we do when we go on the radio, appealing for 
help. We have to let our leaders understand how important help is to 
Haiti, how important help is to a nation that is struggling to become a 
democracy. Haiti is a democracy, and it is a small democracy that is 
struggling to keep democracy alive. And I repeat, it is not easy.
  So what we need to do is to continue to help this country and the 
leaders in this Congress understand, and our administration. I think 
they will be better able to help us if we continue to stress it. We 
must not lean away from it and ease up on the pressure.
  So I guess my recommendation is that we keep the pressure on; that 
groups such as the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional 
Hispanic Caucus, and all the caucuses in this Congress should continue 
to put pressure. There was a time when we were pressing on the Attorney 
General of this country to help. I think we should go back again to 
Attorney General Ashcroft and give him the same kind of briefings that 
we gave Attorney General Reno and continue that effort to help America 
understand.
  I am saying, in full, that we cannot cease our pressure on the 
government. That is the only way. We must also continue to seek the 
Haitian people in this country, in the gentleman's district and in my 
district, and say to them, look, you must continue to petition your 
government. It is your government, you must continue to petition them. 
They cannot sit back and wait on those of us in Congress to do all the 
work. They must continue the things that they started in 1990-1992 in 
general.
  We do need people to discuss this, to talk about it, to bring it to 
light in the world. We cannot allow any more to sit back and rest. We 
are going to Haiti again; we are going to have CODELs there. We are 
going to come back to the Congress and talk about the situation there.
  There is a woman in Miami, a very fine woman, a white woman, who went 
to Haiti, and she saw what was going on over there.

                              {time}  1515

  She came back and she is using her own money because she saw what was 
going on in Haiti. She is raising money and helping the children in 
Haiti. She has been here to talk to us. I hope to bring her before a 
committee to hear what she has done. This is one woman who has 
undertaken this because of her humanitarian feeling toward the people 
of Haiti.
  Mr. Speaker, if we continue to expose this to our government and 
appeal to this administration, as we did the past administration, if we 
continue to ask Haitians who are here in this country who have become 
Haitian Americans to continue to speak out, I think Haiti will come 
back to what we think is a true democracy.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. 
Meek).
  I would like to emphasize a few points, and that is that Haiti is a 
democracy right now. They have the most democratic government that 
Haiti has ever had since Haiti was founded. In this hemisphere, Haiti 
was the second independent nation after the United States became 
independent. Haiti wanted its independence. The only slave revolt in 
history that was successful in keeping the oppressors out and 
establishing their own nation, but it was not democratically run for 
most of the years of its existence, including the 32 years that the 
United States Government, the United States Army occupied Haiti.
  Then came Francois Duvalier and his son Baby Doc Duvalier, and they 
were dictators of the worst kind, and yet our government cooperated 
with them for almost 40 years.
  Now we have a democratically elected government, and because of a 
technicality related to some of the precincts and some of the things 
that did not go right in the election, we are using that as an excuse 
for withholding $200 million that was promised 8 years ago when 
Aristide was first restored as the President of Haiti. That promise was 
there. And the failure of the Western powers, the United States in the 
lead, to act has meant that hope has been lost and despair has set in, 
and now we have an erosion of the faith of the people in constitutional 
and democratic government. People are desperate, and they are taking 
out on the high seas to find another place and putting a great deal of 
pressure on other nations within the hemisphere.
  We have not been noble at all in our conduct toward Haiti. The whole 
United States of America, the great country that it is, has allowed a 
number of people which I can put on one hand, less than 5 people are 
responsible for the bottlenecks that have blocked any aid to Haiti. 
Their own hatred and hostility have held up aid to this nation because 
of the hostility and personal peeve of a handful of powerful Americans.
  Haiti came to our aid in the War of 1812. And throughout the history 
of Haiti, World War I and World War II, nobody has been able to use 
Haiti as a base for sabotage to harm the United States.
  Like Pakistan, the President used the term that he heard from an 
American, are we going to get dumped again? Pakistan has had a history 
of certainly being loyal to the American cause, supporting us in 
alliances, and the great question is are we going to be ignoble in our 
behavior towards Pakistan.
  President Musharraf has good reason to be concerned. We have done 
some terrible things to Pakistan. We have held up funds that they had 
paid for certain fighter airplanes. We did not give them the airplanes 
back or the money back. They still have not resolved the issue of 
getting the money back. We should do one or the other. That is a well-
known contemptuous act toward the Government of Pakistan that ought to 
be corrected.
  In a broader sense and a more important sense, we have abandoned 
Pakistan's legitimate request that the question of Kashmir, the 
territory between India and Pakistan, be settled in accordance with a 
United Nations mandate. The United Nations called for elections where 
the population of Kashmir would have the right to determine what they 
wanted to do, whether they wanted to be an independent state, annexed 
to India, or annexed to Pakistan. That is a United Nations mandate that 
is more than 50 years old.
  Pakistan is still willing to abide by that mandate. They are willing 
to take their chances, take the risk of their interests not being dealt 
with appropriately, but they are willing to have internationally 
supervised elections. India is not, and our United States of America 
has abandoned the legal, moral position of asking India to live up to 
the United Nations mandate.
  We are willing to leave the issue on the table and let it be silent. 
We are not raising it or demanding that something be done immediately. 
So we have an escalating problem in that area of the world which throws 
Pakistan off base and keeps it in a position where it has to spend a 
far greater amount of money on its military than it should be spending; 
and at the same time, it threatens now the possibility of a nuclear 
conflict.

[[Page H517]]

  Instead of waiting until there is an explosion and something that 
forces us to pay greater attention to it, why not be noble and moral, 
why not call for an implementation of the United Nations mandate of 
supervised elections in Kashmir and take Kashmir off the table as an 
explosive issue in that area of the world.
  Pakistan has a lot of problems. We hope that we are sincere about the 
aid that is now being designated for Pakistan. I understand that it is 
between $800 million and $1 billion, which is part of a package related 
to fighting terrorism, Pakistan's role in our effort to fight 
terrorism, which is a key role. Without Pakistan's help, I am certain 
that the present defeat of the Taliban would not have been accomplished 
with such low cost in terms of human life and American sacrifices.
  So Pakistan deserves to be rewarded. We have the package of between 
$800 million and $1 billion. Are they really going to get it, and are 
we going to make certain that it flows in a timely manner? The 
government needs to be boosted right now. The general is here and he is 
saying, we need economic aid. We need to have something to hold out to 
our people so that the fringe elements, and there are elements that are 
very strong. Pakistan is an Islamic Nation. General Musharraf stressed 
today that it is not a theocracy, but it is an Islamic nation. It has 
pressure on it from the rest of the Islamic world.
  A question was raised with President Musharraf about the fact that 
the madrasahs, those schools in Pakistan that are run by the clerics, 
are they going to continue to exist in large numbers, because at those 
schools we have evidence that the Koran and the basics of literacy are 
taught, but the only other subject that gets any attention is hatred of 
the West, and many of the people who ended up in the Taliban camps came 
out of the madrasahs at an early age in Pakistan. The madrasahs fill a 
vacuum in Pakistan.
  I was in Pakistan for a week because I have a lot of Pakistani 
American population in my district, and they had asked me to visit 
Pakistan for some time. I spent a week there. I visited Kashmir as well 
as several cities in Pakistan. I was primarily interested in visiting 
schools and observing what is going on in education. We visited the 
Ministry of Education and a number of different areas where education 
policy was made.
  I must truthfully report that the first and obvious observation is 
that the Pakistanis use a very small percentage of their budget for 
education. Education has traditionally suffered in Pakistan. The 
military gobbles up almost 60 percent of the budget. For many years 
before that, there was a lot of education on the books that really does 
not exist by admission of the authorities themselves. They have what 
they call phantom schools and teachers who were sent checks by the 
government, but they were not teaching. They have a lot of problems.
  They have to come to grips with those problems. For the aid that we 
give Pakistan, we should get assurances that a large part of that aid 
will go into education, because the future of the country lies with the 
improvement of the education of the population starting with literacy, 
but certainly beyond literacy they have to acquire high-tech skills in 
order to exist in this modern-day world.
  So Pakistan deserves to have as rapidly as possible a deliverance on 
the aid that has been promised. Pakistan deserves to have as much 
assistance from the United States Government as we can give. It 
deserves not to be hidebound and roadblocked by an obsolete approach of 
AID. AID must take a new approach and be able to be more creative and 
accept some improvisation.
  The President himself pointed out that a Pakistani group outside the 
country has put together a trustee fund, a fund that will be overseen 
by private trustees, and that fund is for education. His fund has put 2 
billion rupees into that fund, and the fund will be transparent. The 
public will be able to see how the funds are being spent on education.
  I would like to see our government contribute to that fund, 
regardless of how unorthodox that may be. They should move immediately 
to try to meet the Pakistanis halfway and try to move the issue of 
education forward as fast as possible.
  The challenge is not nation-building in Pakistan, the challenge is 
nation preservation. The President of Pakistan has committed himself to 
moving forward with elections in October. He said this morning that he 
would not be a candidate, which removes a great deal of tension from 
the process, but they will have elections in October.
  The preservation of democracy in Pakistan would go a long ways toward 
meeting the objectives of this country in terms of fighting terrorism, 
and, beyond that, creating a more just, a more civil, a freer world 
where greater numbers of people have opportunity is the best way to 
guarantee our own freedom, our own security.
  The tragedy of September 11 certainly demonstrated to us how powerful 
a small group can be in this complex, modern world of ours. You can hit 
a nerve center like the World Trade Center, and one can cause all kinds 
of havoc in terms of immediate lives that are destroyed and 
telecommunications disrupted and impact on a whole business area that 
may never come back again employing thousands of people. There is an 
impact on a city in terms of taking revenue away so that New York City 
has a budget shortfall of at least $4 billion. With one hit, a small 
group was able to accomplish all this.
  We want to minimize these threats. We will never get rid of all of 
the fanatics in the world. We will have to go to war at some points. We 
had no choice but to go to war after the attacks at the World Trade 
Center. Violent war, military war is the only way to deal with 
fanatics. But we can do so much more to eliminate the possibility of 
such groups arising either in the international arena or at home, and 
we are at danger at home of having psychofanatics, people like the 
bomber of the Oklahoma Federal Building who had no reason that we can 
clearly see except his mind was all messed up. Psychofanatics do a lot 
of harm, or we can have small groups that have political agendas or 
religious agendas out on the fringe who can do a great deal of harm.

                              {time}  1530

  We want to minimize the number of people like that. We want to deny 
those kinds of fanatical groups a breeding ground by having large 
numbers of people who are positive, who see themselves as having a 
piece of the American dream, by having unemployed workers who know that 
their government will not fail them, will come to their aid at a time 
when they are needed with unemployment insurance, with health benefits. 
You can remove a festering environment out there where these diseased 
movements and groups may take place and do it at a low cost.
  The war in Colombia is a very expensive war. Americans should pay 
attention to it. We have appropriated and talked in terms of $1 
billion. If you will take a couple of hundred million and move it to 
Haiti right now, you could avert any possibility of Haiti ever 
degenerating to the point of where you would have to go remove drug 
lords in Haiti with military force. There is Jamaica, a large nation, 
one of the largest nations in the Caribbean after Haiti. They recently 
had gun battles on the street. The drug lords supplied criminals with 
weapons, and they were able to drive the police off the street. They 
had more modern weapons. They had submachine guns and various weapons 
that frightened the police. You have that kind of situation.
  You had another Caribbean nation that despite the fact that the man 
was a known drug lord, he threw a birthday party and all the top 
officials of the nation went to the birthday party of the drug lord. He 
obviously invited them to make a point and he made the point. There is 
another small nation where a drug lord was responsible for the death of 
a sheriff. Everybody knows who did it, but they cannot get a jury 
together. They cannot get a group together to really deal with an 
indictment and punishment.
  The coming power of drug lords in this hemisphere is so great until 
it deserves special attention and ought to be put on the agenda as we 
consider a global policy for guaranteeing freedom, justice and 
constitutional democracy all over the world. It is the best way to 
fight the Taliban types, the Taliban syndrome. The Taliban syndrome 
exists in many more places than in Afghanistan in one way or another. 
It exists in places other than Somalia. It

[[Page H518]]

exists in places other than Iraq, in the ``evil axis'' that has been 
named. It is only in small quantities now, it will grow, and it need 
not be. They always depend on chaos that results from people having no 
more hope, from people refusing to bow in allegiance to any authority, 
any government.
  We know the formula. The formula for fighting the Taliban syndrome is 
to provide more of our aid and assistance in every way possible short 
of the military. The military is to be the last resort.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to conclude my remarks with a piece that I had 
written to be placed in the Extension of Remarks in case I did not get 
this opportunity today. I had written it sometime ago, just finally 
finished it. It is based on a phrase that President Bush used in his 
State of the Union address. That phrase has not really been picked up 
that much. I would like to see it looked at in new terms.
  Mr. Speaker, President Bush included several memorable lines in his 
State of the Union address; however, the phrase which I found most 
impressive was one that has been largely ignored by the conservative 
media. He said, ``Let's roll. Let's roll. Let's roll, America.'' I hope 
that we can all recognize that this is the cry of the lead hero on the 
passenger jet where unprecedented bravery was exhibited by ordinary 
Americans.
  Remember, there was a jetliner headed for Washington; and the 
passengers counterattacked against the hijackers, and they forced the 
plane as a result of their counterattack to crash in a wooded area near 
Pittsburgh instead of crashing into the White House or maybe the 
Capitol. We were not sure where that plane was on course for in 
Washington. At a critical moment, ``let's roll'' was a call to action 
by a courageous young and modern American mind. I think the phrase 
``let's roll'' was captured on the cell phone that that young man was 
on at the time they made the decision to move against the hijackers.
  President Bush was quoting that. I think it went over the heads of a 
lot of people. I think the symbolism of it is very important. In his 
address, the President made a broad and sweeping interpretation. He was 
summing up all that he had said before in his speech when he got to the 
``let's roll'' part. You could take everything he said and put it 
together and say, ``Let's roll on all these fronts. Let's roll in all 
these areas.''
  The tragedy of September 11 has forced America to a crossroads where 
we must assume the role naturally bequeathed to us as the most powerful 
Nation that has ever existed. We have recognized now as never before 
that our way of life, our democracy, our constitutional civilization 
cannot remain secure unless we address the problem of freedom and 
justice throughout the world.

  As much as it is a military call to action, ``let's roll'' must also 
be a call for rolling our know-how and technology across the world 
along with the investment of our enormous amounts of surplus capital. 
And we must roll our megatons of grain across the world to feed the 
hungry. By striving to become the most compassionate Nation ever to 
exist, America has the opportunity to grow and lead mankind forever.
  I have condensed my strongly felt sentiments on this matter into an 
appropriately titled rap poem which I would like to recite. It is 
called ``Let's Roll America.''

  Let's roll America!
  Set the tracks of destiny straight,
  Don't look back
  But close the gate,
  Toast the past
  But change the cast.
  In every language of the earth
  To the country of all nations
  We have proudly given birth.
  At the Olympics of forever
  We will win all the races;
  We are Great Angels of tomorrow
  With magic mongrel faces.
  Let's roll America!
  Into the grand canyons
  Of great deeds to come,
  Up to the Sierra's highest peaks;
  Be generous philanthropy geeks,
  Be fanatic democracy freaks,
  All the Founders dared to seek;
  Sing loud the hallelujah note,
  All our races and women can vote.
  America, let's roll!
  Stand navy out to sea,
  Off we go flying to stay free,
  War never leaves us thrilled
  But maniacs demand to be killed.
  Saddam Hussein Satan's tutored underboss--
  Hitler minus the crooked cross
  Gleefully calculates the victim loss.
  Patrons of peace permitted no breath,
  Ayatollahs eat dinner with death,
  Bin Laden is the monster of stealth.
  The spirit of Gettysburg calls --
  Forward to the Normandy walls;
  Descendants of John Brown;
  Fascists under any flag
  We swear to drown.
  War never leaves us thrilled
  But maniacs demand to be killed.
  Let's roll America!
  Let kindergartners take a poll,
  Full baby bellies
  Is our favorite goal,
  Usher in the age of soul.
  Toast the past
  But change the cast;
  Come register for the test--
  Only the next generation can rest;
  God is our honored guest.
  Don't look back
  But close the gate,
  Greed is not great --
  Hang the blacksmiths of hate.
  Resolve globally to be kind
  Leave isolated arrogance behind.
  The Romans did fail
  Cause their hearts went stale.
  Let's roll America!
  Full baby bellies
  Is our favorite goal,
  Usher in the age of soul.
  Sing loud the hallelujah note--
  All our races and women can vote.
  Let's roll America!
  Rev up the freedom of Internets,
  Focus food cargo on speeding jets,
  Roll under dangerous skies
  With great grit that never dies.
  Volunteer saturation funding
  With wasted wealth rotting in locked accounts,
  Fortunes mushrooming toward infinite amounts,
  Carry capital deep into jungles
  Where only Bibles once bothered to go;
  Insure the risks of toiling mothers;
  Time to help schools and clinics grow,
  Pay off some debts that we don't owe.
  Compassion tells a star spangled story,
  Grandchildren will applaud a new brand of glory.
  Let's roll America!
  In every language on the earth
  To the country of all nations
  We have proudly given birth.
  At the Olympics of forever
  We will win all the races;
  We are Great Angels of tomorrow
  With magic mongrel faces.
  Let's roll America!
  Everywhere children at tables smiling
  Is our non-negotiable goal,
  Usher in the age of soul.
  America let's roll!

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