[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 30 (Friday, March 15, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1962-S1965]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BRINGING SOUTH DAKOTA'S STRENGTH TO THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, 2 months ago, I traveled with some of our
other Senate colleagues to Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations.
We wanted to see what progress is being made in the war against
terrorism. We also wanted to talk with our allies in the region to try
to assess how we might help make their nations hospitable to freedom--
and inhospitable to terrorists.
We learned a great deal.
I have already had a chance to share many of my thoughts and
observations with Secretary Powell.
Today, I would like to say a few words publicly about the part of our
trip that I found the most moving and impressive: the other Americans
we met--men and women who are serving our Nation's interests every day
in places far from home--often under incredibly challenging conditions.
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We met extraordinary people from almost every State. They all deserve
our profound appreciation.
I was especially moved by five people I met from my own State.
Listening to them, and watching them perform their jobs, made me very
proud to be a South Dakotan. It also reinforced my conviction that we
will triumph in the war against terrorism.
This week, as we mark the 6-month anniversary of the attacks on our
Nation, seems like a fitting time to tell my colleagues about them.
David Nelson, the Senior Economic Counselor in the U.S. Embassy in
Berlin, is from Brookings, SD. Day in and day out, he is working to
protect America's economic interests in Germany. Since September 11, he
has also played a critical role in our efforts to cut off the
terrorists' money supplies.
Dr. Jan Riemers is from Bristol, SD. She is the only western doctor
in Uzbekistan's capital city of Tashkent. She is a sort of modern-day
Albert Schweitzer, who moved her entire family to Uzbekistan so she
could serve people who might otherwise never see a doctor.
I also met three remarkable young men who are even more directly
involved in the war against terrorism. They are serving our country in
uniform. For security reasons, I won't use their names.
One is an Army private from Midland, SD who I met in Uzbekistan. When
we met, it had been almost 2 years since his last leave.
On September 11, he was just completing a tour of duty in Bosnia. He
and his colleagues had been living in tents and eating MREs--packaged
meals--three times a day for several months at that point. He could
have come home instead, he volunteered to go to Central Asia to be a
part of the war against terrorism. And he said he was honored to do so.
In Afghanistan, I met an Air Force master sergeant from Rapid City.
He is involved in delivering two things Afghanistan needs desperately:
U.S. military support, and humanitarian assistance.
His efforts helped make possible the military victories we have seen
in Afghanistan. They are also part of the reason we have not seen the
humanitarian disaster some predicted at the outset of the war.
In Kyrgyzstan, I met an Air Force staff sergeant from Yankton--one of
the first U.S. service members deployed to that country. We met at
Manas International Airport, where he and other Americans are working
to build an air base that will host personnel from several countries
and serve as a hub for air operations in Afghanistan. He came out to
meet us in the middle of a snowstorm, and he could not have been more
excited about his mission.
We ask our service men and women--like these three honorable South
Dakotans--to attempt extraordinary things and make extraordinary
sacrifices. Time after time, they not only meet our expectations, they
exceed them.
In this week, when we mark the 6-month anniversary of the attacks on
our Nation, it seems appropriate that we also honor the men and women
who are working--and risking their lives--to try to prevent us from
ever experiencing that heartache again.
They are true patriots. They come from my State and yours, and from
every State and territory in our Nation. They make us proud. And they
are making America, and the world, stronger and better.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the report we have
compiled regarding the trip to Afghanistan from January 10 to 19 of
this year be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Daschle CODEL to Central Asia, January 10 to 19, 2002
Senator Daschle led a bipartisan and bicameral
Congressional Delegation CODEL to Germany, Uzbekistan,
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan from
January 10 to January 19. The following views expressed in
this report, however, reflect only the views and findings of
Senators Daschle and Durbin.
summary of findings and key recommendations
The initial phase of the war on terrorism has been a clear
success.
It was evident from our trip to Central Asia that the
conduct of the war on terrorism has, to date, produced
impressive results. Our troops, President Bush, Secretary
Rumsfeld, and Secretary Powell deserve credit and recognition
for that success.
U.S. troops are a credit to themselves and the country.
The performance of U.S. troops in Central Asia and
Afghanistan has been remarkable and a tribute to the hard
work and commitment of the thousands of men and women who are
carrying out Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. personnel are
braving harsh weather and very rudimentary accommodations.
One Air Force Sergeant said he ``had been living in the mud''
in Uzbekistan for 3 months, further saying he was honored to
be doing so. An Army Colonel in Afghanistan, while eating
chicken Chow Mein for the fourth night in a row, observed,
``I can't complain, because it's hot [food].'' Another Army
PFC declared he was proud to have spent the past 3 months
serving Afghanistan, notwithstanding the fact that he was
deployed to the region 1 week after moving into a new house
with his new wife. The morale of U.S. troops is very high, as
evidenced by another Army PFC from South Dakota who has not
had leave since February 2000 and volunteered to serve in
Uzbekistan as he was finishing a tour of duty in Bosnia
because he was eager to participate in the war against
terrorism.
The U.S. personnel from other U.S. agencies in the region
are also a credit to America. Foreign Service officers in
Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are working around the
clock--literally--to advance U.S. interests and ensure the
safety of American personnel. The Embassy in Tashkent is
overcrowded, the Embassy in Kabul is in terrible straits
after being overrun by decades of war, and families of
personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad were forced to
return to the U.S. as a result of security threats.
On a more personal note, we were proud to meet a number of
South Dakotan and Illinois servicemen and women who are
serving their country in the region. To a person, they
support the mission and take pride in the role they are
playing to improve living conditions in the region and defeat
international terrorism.
Senator Daschle was also proud of the generosity of South
Dakotans was greatly appreciated by Afghans. The delegation
delivered three boxes of winter clothing to the Afghan
Minister of Orphans, Widows and Martyrs. The clothing was
collected by South Dakotan business leaders and students at
two separate elementary schools.
The troops' success allow us to focus on consolidating gains.
The successful effort that started as a war in Afghanistan
to bring to justice those responsible for the September 11th
attacks is shifting to focus on consolidating gains and
helping to bring some semblance of economic, political, and
physical security to the region. Challenges are many, but the
United States undertook a remarkable effort to confront and
defeat the first such challenge--widespread hunger.
A remarkable U.S.-led effort to deliver food and shelter
has averted humanitarian disaster, which last fall, after
years of mismanagement by the Taliban, looked inevitable. But
the USG--led by the Department of Defense and USAID with
significant assistance from CARE, Catholic Relief Services,
Church World Services, International Rescue Committee, and
others--provided nearly $200 million worth of food, water,
health care and shelter to millions of Afghans in FY 2002.
Challenges remain. It is particularly troubling that Bin
Laden, the bulk of the senior Al Qaeda leadership, Mullah
Omar and the majority of the Taliban leadership remain at
large.
The fact that so many key terrorist leaders are unaccounted
for is one factor that contributes to insecurity in
Afghanistan, which is increasingly threatening the gains the
United States has made in the region. At the time of the trip
to Afghanistan, Chairman Karzai and U.S. personnel in the
region were clearly concerned about security. Events since
the delegation's visit to Afghanistan--such as the fights
between warlords in Gardez, the murder of the interim tourism
minister, and increasingly alarming reports out of the
Administration about a general rise of lawlessness and
warlordism, including a specific report that some warlords
may be preparing to sabotage the loya jirga set for June--
only serve to harden that assessment.
The current configuration of the International Security
Force (ISAF) is insufficient to confront this insecurity. At
the very least, the ISAF should be expanded beyond Kabul and
into other Afghan cities until efforts to train a police
force and an Afghan military loyal to the interim
government can catch up with this insecurity. While
success of the ISAF is not dependent on the U.S. providing
ground troops as part of an expanded effort, it is clear
that an American component for transportation,
intelligence and search-and-rescue is likely to be a
precondition for significant international participation
in an expanded ISAF.
An increased U.S. military role in support of an expanded
ISAF is entirely consistent with the Administration's
apparent policy goal of maintaining a U.S. presence in the
region, evidenced by the substantial upgrades beginning at
Manas Airport in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and a more permanent
presence being prepared in Uzbekistan and Georgia. This
increased American military
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presence can play an important role in support of the ISAF.
Central Asian Republics have taken significant steps in
support of the U.S.--and are urging a long term American
presence in return.
Good long term relations with the Central Asian Republics
is very much in the national interest of the United States.
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and even Turkmenistan have
demonstrated, with their efforts in Afghanistan, a solid
commitment to the war against terrorism.
Uzbekistan agreed to our request for basing and overflight
rights, including the right for the United States to maintain
a significant troop presence at the airfield at Khanabad. As
a result, our two countries signed a Status of Forces
Agreement on October 7 and a Memorandum of Understanding on
Economic Cooperation on November 7. Last fall, the U.S. also
allocated an additional $100 million in assistance for
Uzbekistan, and the Administration is reported to be
considering an additional tranche of assistance in a
supplemental for ``front line states'' expected to be
submitted to Congress in mid-to-late March.
The Government of Uzbekistan has also provided important
cooperation with U.S. programs to curb the proliferation of
material for use in weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The
October 22 agreement between the U.S. and Uzbekistan to begin
cleaning up the former Soviet biological weapons test range
on Vozrozhdeniya in the Aral Sea is an important step forward
in U.S. efforts to halt the proliferation of WMD material.
The Government of Uzbekistan also ought to be commended for
efforts, supported by the U.S., at strengthening border
controls of weapons material.
Kyrgyzstan provided overflight and landing rights and
agreed to permit the basing of a large number of coalition
personnel and aircraft at the international airport in Manas,
a site which will function as a ``transportation hub'' for
coalition efforts in Afghanistan and the region.
Turkmenistan has allowed for some overflight rights and
became an important--indeed the principal--conduit of
American and international humanitarian assistance into
northern Afghanistan.
These steps represent a move toward the West, but sustaining
positive long term relationships still demand major
improvements on political and economic reform.
Each country claimed that they had made a deliberate and
conscious choice to reach out to the West. What is not clear
is whether the governments are also committed to embracing
universal human and voting rights that have been sorely
lacking in each country.
While the U.S. is right to continue cooperating with these
governments, significant and sustained economic and political
reforms are a pre-requisite to consolidating long term
relationships with these countries.
Each country's continuing refusal to enact political reform
while at the same time continuing to violate basic human
rights will contribute to extremism and threaten the
stability that each government argues it is seeking.
The human rights situation in Uzbekistan is abysmal. There
is no freedom of association and independent institutions--
including the press--are banned. In one telling moment, a
human rights leader in Uzbekistan said that the media in
Russia--currently being cracked down on by government
regulators--is much more free than the Uzbek media. Even the
Parliament is largely a rubber stamp for the Karimov
government, with little, if any, influence.
Civil society in Uzbekistan has also been drastically
restricted. NGOs are not allowed to register or function. The
few independent groups that do exist are subjected to
harassment based on Soviet practices, including firing
``agitators'' from state run jobs, confiscating human rights
workers passports, confiscating equipment of independent
NGOs. Human rights leaders and the U.S. State Department also
catalogued instances where the government used torture and
prolonged detention to deter other civil society activity.
In Kyrgyzstan, where the United States encouraged the
government's bold steps in the early and mid-1990s toward
democratization, there has been a dramatic backsliding in its
political reform process. Of particular concern are reports
of constant pressure on opposition political parties,
harassment of journalists who criticized members of the
government, and numerous flaws--many apparently
deliberate--in the October 29, 2000 presidential
elections. In fact, the Office for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Office of Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights concluded that the October
elections ``failed to comply with OSCE commitments for
democratic elections.''
In Turkmenistan, there are no legally registered opposition
parties and absolutely no free press. The State Department
reports that the most recent elections, in December 1999,
``did not even approach minimum international standards.''
The only officially recognized religions are the Russian
Orthodox church and Sunni Islamism; all other faiths face
harsh persecution and harassment. In what seems to be a
fitting moniker, several analysts refer to insular
Turkmenistan as the North Korea of Central Asia. Furthermore,
while the leaders of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan at least
admitted to having significant human rights problems, the
National Security Adviser of Turkmenistan simply dismissed
concerns about human rights saying, ``I understand that these
things [freedom of religion, the media and association] are
important for America, but it is simply not time for such
reforms in Turkmenistan. Before we do these things, we need
time to strengthen our economy.''
HIV/AIDS is a growing threat in Central Asia.
The leadership of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan noted their
concern regarding the trafficking of Afghan opium to and
through their countries, which has contributed to large
increases in illicit drug use throughout Central Asia in
recent years. According to UNAIDS, this surge in drug use has
brought the Central Asian republics to the ``verge of a major
public health and socio-economic development disaster, in
terms of large scale epidemics of HIV/AIDS.'' As such, the
United States should be looking for opportunities to increase
funding for bilateral AIDS prevention, care and treatment
programs targeted to Central Asia and to increase the annual
U.S. commitment to the Global Trust Fund to Fight AIDS, TB
and malaria.
Pakistan and President Musharraf are also making a strategic
choice to join the West. Concrete steps to confirm and
reward that choice will be welcomed.
Pakistan has been a vital ally in the war against
terrorism. With its location in a critical region of the
world, a nuclear arsenal, and a population set to double in
the next 20 years, American national security is undoubtedly
improved by President Musharraf's strategic choice.
The January 12 speech by President Musharraf--in which he
proclaimed a jihad against extremism--demonstrates that he is
ready to take Pakistan back from the extremists. He outlined
a far reaching proposal for reforming the Pakistani education
system and a systematic crackdown on extremists. Although
ultimate success in this effort can only be judged by
results, initial efforts suggest that he is committed to this
effort.
He has specifically requested U.S. support for reforms to
the Pakistani education system, which has been ignored by
previous Pakistani governments more interested in investing
in weapons systems than social services. The United States
should support that effort with significant new resources,
closely conditioned on President Musharraf maintaining his
commitment to reform. There can be no better investment of
U.S. assistance in Pakistan.
President Musharraf's comments about and concrete steps to
reform the ISI given widespread reports of its links to
extremists are also a reason for optimism. He should be
commended for his cooperation on the investigation of the
kidnapping and brutal murder of Danny Pearl case. However, as
with his speech on fighting extremism, the USG must demand
concrete results in this investigation. President Musharraf's
seriousness about confronting Islamic extremists--including
those responsible for the murder of Pearl--can be further
confirmed by Pakistan handing over to the United States
Sheikh Omar, the confessed mastermind of the abduction.
Germany taking concrete--and costly--steps in the war on
terrorism, but it is concerned about next steps.
German Foreign Minister Fischer referred to the way on
terrorism as a fight with a ``new totalitarianism.'' In a war
with such extremists, there can be no compromise, just as
there could be no compromise with the Nazis.
Germans also reserved blunt language for the conduct of the
Saudis in this effort against extremism--``democracy is the
necessary pre-condition of defeating terrorism''--and for the
lack of concerted effort by Palestinian Authority Chairman
Arafat--the decision to start the Intifada in September 2000
was judged an ``historic mistake'', and ``we all may have
overestimated how much Arafat wants peace.''
Germany has taken seriously its role in this war against
totalitarianism, taking concrete and historic steps in the
war in Afghanistan and in the law enforcement and
investigation efforts in the United States. Germany has
deployed troops to Afghanistan as part of Operating Enduring
Freedom and in Kabul with the ISAF and German naval vessels
are operating in the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa as
part of international efforts to stop the flow of arms to
Somalia.
Just as remarkably, Germany has provided intensive law
enforcement cooperation in the investigation of the September
11 attacks. German cooperation has been pivotal to initial
success in the United States, including the indictment of
Zacarias Moussaoui.
While it does not see another state that has sponsored
terrorism to the extent that Afghanistan did, the German
government recognizes clearly that this is going to be a
``long term war'' and appears to be ready to make further
contributions to that effort. In particular, the German
leadership pointed out Iran--and its clear desire for WMD--as
a problem that the west will have to confront.
Given the extent of German cooperation in the first phase
of the war against terrorism--and the political price paid by
the German government--it was interesting to hear the serious
concerns expressed by the German officials about the next
phases in the war.
German Government officials noted especially the threat
posed by Saddam Hussein--both to his own people and, with his
interest in developing weapons of mass destruction, to the
region, Europe and the United States.
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These officials also noted, however, that forcing military
action in Iraq without prior consultation with, if not
outright support from, the international community risks a
potentially even more threatening set of circumstances in the
Gulf with negative impacts on energy security as well as the
security of Israel.
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