[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 25, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H6564]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     AMERICA'S INTERESTS SHOULD BE FIRST ON THE FLOOR OF THE HOUSE

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, now, let us just kind of go back in time. 
Suppose it is August 2001, and a Member of Congress is speaking to a 
Rotary Club or something and says, listen, there is a guy out there, a 
known terrorist named Osama bin Laden. He has a group called al-Qaeda, 
and they have found sanctuary and training opportunities inside the 
corrupt Taliban government of Afghanistan. Now, I am telling you here 
and now, in August 2001, ladies and gentlemen, we need to instruct the 
President of the United States and instruct the CIA to take him out. We 
need to work with maybe an international coalition to get rid of this 
guy.
  Now, if a Member of Congress had been saying that 13 months ago, he 
would have been laughed at, he would have been ridiculed, and he would 
have been called a warmonger and, yet, how right that statement would 
have been 13 months ago.
  Now, are we not in the same position? We have Saddam Hussein, he 
hates America, he harbors terrorists, he has been directly and 
indirectly involved with all kinds of terrorist activity, many against 
America, all around the globe. Is it not prudent to take the course of 
action that our President is doing?
  Mr. Speaker, this is not time for partisanship or cowering behind 
whatever boundaries or ideas that one has; this is time to put our best 
thoughts together and work together as a Nation, as Democrats and 
Republicans, and bring America's interest first to the floor of this 
House and get behind the President of the United States.

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