[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 93 (Monday, June 23, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8381-S8383]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD ISRAEL

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I thank the Republican manager in the 
Chamber and my colleague, the Democratic whip, for allowing me time to 
speak as in morning business.
  What I want to do is call attention to some incidents that have 
occurred recently and that were highlighted, in my view, in the New 
York Times, on the front page, today. I will read from parts of these 
articles. I want to explain the reason I am so exercised by what I see.
  I ask unanimous consent that the full text of these two articles be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, June 23, 2003]

       After Missile Raid on Convoy, U.S. Hunts for Hussein's DNA

                  (By Douglas Jehl with Eric Schmitt)

       Washington, June 22.--An American Predator drone aircraft 
     firing Hellfire missiles destroyed a convoy last week that 
     was believed to be carrying fugitive Iraqi leaders, and 
     experts are trying to determine whether those killed might 
     have included Saddam Hussein or his sons, United States 
     government officials said today.
       The officials said they had obtained intelligence 
     indicating that senior Iraqi leaders were traveling in the 
     convoy. They suggested that the intelligence might have come 
     from an intercepted telephone conversation or an informant. 
     The attack took place Wednesday near the Syrian border in 
     western Iraq.
       There was no evidence so far, the officials said, to 
     support the idea that Mr. Hussein or his sons might have been 
     killed in the raid, and some officials were doubtful that 
     they were. But they said intelligence teams, including DNA 
     experts, were at the site to review the wreckage and assess 
     the evidence.
       Officials declined to say how many people, or vehicles, 
     were in the convoy, but they said it had been completely 
     destroyed. If DNA evidence was the only method of determining 
     who had been killed, it could take days to get the results.
       A British newspaper, The Observer, disclosed the attack in 
     today's issue and said it had been an attempt to kill Mr. 
     Hussein. The Pentagon and the United States Central Command 
     declined today to discuss that report, and American officials 
     who agreed to discuss it on the condition of anonymity said 
     the United states had never been certain that Mr. Hussein or 
     his sons were in the convoy.
       Still, administration officials said the strike underscored 
     a growing belief among American intelligence officials that 
     Mr. Hussein and his sons were not killed during the war and 
     have remained in Iraq. The attack on the convoy showed the 
     pressure of a stepped-up manhunt after information provided 
     by a Hussein confidant who was detained last week.
       The aide, Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti, 46, who had served 
     as the Iraqi leader's secretary and bodyguard, told his 
     American interrogators that Mr. Hussein and his sons, Uday 
     and Qusay, survived the war, and that he himself traveled to 
     Syria after the conflict with Mr. Hussein's sons before being 
     expelled, according to Defense Department officials who have 
     said they have not been able to corroborate those claims.
       A senior administration official said tonight that 
     President Bush had been aware of the strike before it 
     occurred but did not have to approve it. The official said a 
     team was moving in to try to recover the DNA of those in the 
     convoy, but it was unclear if they had yet arrived at the 
     scene.
       Some American officials described the attack as having been 
     in the same category as the March 19 and April 7 attacks on 
     compounds where Mr. Hussein and his sons were believed to be 
     hiding. American intelligence analysts now believe that Mr. 
     Hussein and his sons probably survived both those attacks.
       A senior administration official described the intelligence 
     that led to the Wednesday attack as a good lead. But another 
     administration official said, ``I have no information that 
     leads us to believe we got Saddam.'' A military officer said 
     intelligence reports that Mr. Hussein or his sons might have 
     been in the convoy might have been based more on hope than 
     evidence.
       ``There might be people crossing their fingers, but it's 
     just like a year ago, when they were crossing their fingers'' 
     in the hopes of capturing Osama bin Laden, one military 
     official said, Mr. bin Laden, Al Qaeda's leader, is still 
     believed to be alive after 21 months in which he has been the 
     target of an intense manhunt.
       In a television interview today, King Abdullah of Jordan 
     said he had heard reports several days ago that Mr. Hussein 
     and his sons were in Iraq's western desert region. But he 
     said he had heard many reports of their whereabouts in recent 
     weeks and months and did not know if this one was accurate.
       ``It's like Elvis,'' King Abdullah said on the ABC News 
     program ``this Week.'' ``There's a lot of sightings of him 
     all over the place.''
       Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, including the 
     chairman, Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, said in 
     television appearances today that they had not been informed 
     of any new missile strike aimed at the Iraqi leader. Still, 
     Senator Roberts, speaking on ``Fox News Sunday,'' said, ``I 
     will not be surprised at any military action that would lead 
     to the possibility that we have now finally killed Saddam 
     Hussein.''
       Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the 
     ranking Democrat on the committee, said on the same program 
     that any confirmation of the death of Mr. Hussein would serve 
     to undercut the morale of fighters who are staging hit-and-
     run attacks on American soldiers and at the same time instill 
     confidence among the broader Iraqi public.
       The search for Mr. Hussein has been led by Task Force 20, a 
     secret military organization that is working closely with 
     American intelligence agencies and whose members include

[[Page S8382]]

     special Army and Navy counterterrorist teams.
       The United States is flying U-2 spy planes and RC-135 
     electronic eavesdropping aircraft over Iraq on a regular 
     basis. Both are able to scoop up electronic emissions and 
     pinpointing locations for strike aircraft or Predator drones, 
     which are piloted by remote control and can be either armed 
     or unarmed; they are being flown from an air base in Iraq.
       One senior administration official noted that Hellfire 
     missile attacks on convoys by the Predators were rare and 
     would not have been carried out except on the basis of good 
     intelligence about an important target.
       Other officials said that the United States had obtained 
     good reconnaissance photos showing that the convoy had been 
     destroyed, but that those photographs did not clarify who had 
     been in the wreckage.
       ``Although we do have good intelligence, you don't know if 
     you have someone until you've seen the analysis from the 
     ground,'' said one senior American officer.
                                  ____


                [From the New York Times, June 23, 2003]

            Israelis and Palestinians Pressed to Compromise

                         (By Steven R. Weisman)

       Shuneh, Jordan, June 22.--Secretary of State Colin L. 
     Powell joined with top European, Arab and United Nations 
     diplomats today to press for concessions in peace talks 
     between Israel and the Palestinians, but their efforts were 
     punctured by violence in the Gaza Strip that left four 
     Palestinians dead.
       In an illustration of the frustrations of the Middle East, 
     diplomats here reported that before the latest deaths in 
     Gaza, negotiators had made some progress in their talks over 
     transferring security in most of the Gaza Strip from Israel 
     to the Palestinian Authority. There was no telling tonight 
     whether that progress would be set back.
       The four Palestinians from the Aksa Martyrs Brigades were 
     first said to have been killed today by Israeli tank fire, 
     though other reports said they might have died when a bomb 
     they were planting exploded prematurely.
       The day's events lent a surreal cast to the scene here at 
     the World Economic Forum in a resort on the Dead Sea, where 
     more than 1,200 envoys, officials, business leaders and other 
     conferees hailed recent progress in the Israeli-Palestinian 
     situation even as the bitterness of that dispute coursed 
     through countless conversations.
       Coming to the end of one of his longest trips as secretary 
     of state, Mr. Powell started in the morning by expressing 
     mild but unmistakable criticism of Israel's killing of a top 
     Hamas leader on Saturday night.
       ``I regret we had an incident that could be an impediment 
     to progress,'' Mr. Powell said, referring to the killing of 
     Abdullah Qawasmeh, a leading Hamas figure. ``I would much 
     rather on a Sunday morning wake up to find that we are moving 
     forward, and it was not necessary to have this kind of 
     activity on either side.''
       The secretary's terse reference to Israel's latest strike 
     against suspected Palestinian terrorists marked the second 
     time in two weeks that the United States felt compelled to 
     criticize Israel, if only obliquely. The week before last, 
     President Bush rebuked Israel for an attempt to kill a Hamas 
     leader, saying it had undercut peace talks.
       But the rebuke for Israel was mixed today with exhortations 
     directed at the Palestinians by Mr. Powell and others to take 
     action to stop attacks on Israeli soldiers and citizens so as 
     to fortify Middle East peace efforts that have looked more 
     promising recently than at any time in the past two and a 
     half years.
       Two diplomatic tracks were underway in Israel that were the 
     focus of much of the discussion here on the Dead Sea. One was 
     Israel's negotiation with the Palestinians on Gaza. The other 
     was the Palestinian Authority's negotiations to achieve a 
     cease-fire with Hamas.
       A cease-fire with Hamas is supported by the Palestinians' 
     leadership and by its main Arab backers, Saudi Arabia, Egypt 
     and Jordan. All of them say they would prefer such an 
     arrangement to a civil war between the militant groups and 
     the shaky security forces under Mahmoud Abbas, the 
     Palestinian prime minister.
       American and Israeli officials say they are less impressed 
     with the cease-fire talks, explaining that if there is a 
     cease-fire, it almost certainly will have to be followed by 
     aggressive actions by Palestinian security forces against 
     Hamas, including arrests, forced disarmament and potential 
     clashes.
       For now, the negotiations on the Gaza Strip and the Hamas 
     cease-fire talks, while not officially connected, appear to 
     be intertwined, making progress on both even more difficult. 
     Arab, European and American diplomats all say, for example, 
     that Mr. Abbas may be waiting for a cease-fire before 
     reaching an accord to take over the Gaza area.
       On the other hand, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, 
     may be holding up approval of a deal on the Gaza Strip until 
     he sees how Mr. Abbas is going to handle Hamas. Some here 
     speculate that Mr. Sharon may also be waiting to close the 
     Gaza deal when Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national 
     security adviser, visits Israel late next week.
       Arab diplomats attending the economic forum here assailed 
     Israel for the killing of Mr. Qawasmeh and for its policy of 
     pinpoint killings of militant leaders. Mr. Abbas's son said 
     here that he thought Israel was deliberately trying to 
     sabotage the cease-fire negotiations.
       Mr. Powell, who left Washington a week ago for Cambodia and 
     then traveled to Bangladesh before arriving here on Thursday 
     night, made an emotional appeal for restraint by both 
     Palestinians and Israelis at a news conference and in a 
     speech this afternoon.
       No less significant, Mr. Powell joined with Secretary 
     General Kofi Annan of the United Nations and the foreign 
     ministers of the European Union and Russia to sound the same 
     theme. The four officials, sometimes referred to as the 
     quartet, devised the staged peace plan for a Palestinian 
     state known as the road map.
       In a statement read by Mr. Annan, the four officials said 
     they ``deplore and condemn the brutal terror attacks against 
     Israeli citizens'' carried out by Palestinian militants, 
     citing not only Hamas but Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Al 
     Aksa Martyrs Brigades. ``All Palestinian individuals and 
     groups must end acts of terror against all Israelis, 
     anywhere,'' the group said.
       But there was also tough talk directed at Israel, including 
     ``deep concern over Israeli military actions that result in 
     the killing of innocent Palestinians and other civilians.''
       Mr. Annan, going beyond the statement, called on Israel 
     ``not to use disproportionate force in civilian areas,'' to 
     stop demolitions of Palestinian homes and to stop engaging in 
     ``extra-judicial killings.''
       The talk in the corridors here was about the Hamas and Gaza 
     negotiations next door in Israel, however. A diplomat close 
     to the negotiators said they seemed ``pretty close'' to 
     resolving the Gaza dispute, which has centered on Israel's 
     demand that it be allowed to maintain a security presence 
     along the main road that runs the length of the Gaza Strip.
       Israel maintains that is must keep some forces on the road 
     both to protect Israeli settlers in several pockets of Gaza 
     and to make sure that Hamas and other groups do not regroup 
     and arm themselves to carry out attacks in Israel itself.
       A source of surprise to many Arab and European diplomats 
     here is the increasing evidence of the United States' 
     willingness to make demands on Israel to take parallel 
     actions--not only by giving up the Gaza Strip, but also by 
     dismantling ``outposts'' of settlements and releasing 
     prisoners.
       The American demands on Israel are thought to be based on 
     the belief that without such actions, Mr. Abbas will not have 
     the political support to act against Hamas, diplomats say. 
     ``The Americans are not really letting the Israelis off the 
     hook on this,'' said a diplomat. ``We all realize that time 
     is running out.''

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. The first article from the New York Times is 
headlined ``After Missile Raid on Convoy, U.S. Hunts for Hussein's 
DNA.''

       An American Predator drone aircraft firing Hellfire 
     missiles destroyed a convoy last week that was believed to be 
     carrying fugitive Iraqi leaders, and experts are trying to 
     determine whether those killed might have included Saddam 
     Hussein or his sons, United States government officials said 
     today.
       The officials said they had obtained intelligence 
     indicating that senior Iraqi leaders were traveling in the 
     convoy. They suggested that the intelligence might have come 
     from an intercepted telephone conversation or an informant. 
     The attack took place Wednesday near the Syrian border in 
     western Iraq.
       There was no evidence so far, the officials said, to 
     support the idea that Mr. Hussein or his sons might have been 
     killed in the raid, and some officials were doubtful that 
     they were. But they said intelligence teams, including DNA 
     experts, were at the site to review the wreckage and assess 
     the evidence.
       Officials declined to say how many people, or vehicles, 
     were in the convoy, but they said it had been completely 
     destroyed. If DNA evidence was the only method of determining 
     who had been killed, it could take days to get the results.

  The other article is printed almost side by side on the front page of 
the New York Times today. I read the first paragraph of the second 
article:

       Secretary of State Colin L. Powell joined with European, 
     Arab and United Nations diplomats today to press for 
     concessions in peace talks between Israel and the 
     Palestinians, but their efforts were punctured by violence in 
     the Gaza Strip that left four Palestinians dead.

  Further on:

       Coming to the end of one of his longest trips as Secretary 
     of State, Mr. Powell started in the morning by expressing 
     mild but unmistakable criticism of Israel's killing of a top 
     Hamas leader on Saturday night.
       ``I regret that we had an incident that could be an 
     impediment to progress,'' Mr. Powell said, referring to the 
     killing of Abdullah Qawasmeh, a leading Hamas figure. ``I 
     would much rather on a Sunday morning wake up to find that we 
     are moving forward, and it wasn't necessary to have this kind 
     of activity on either side.''

  The Secretary's reference to Israel's latest strike against suspected 
Palestinian terrorists marked the second time in 2 weeks that the 
United States felt compelled to criticize Israel, if only obliquely. 
The week before last, President Bush rebuked Israel for an attempt to 
kill a Hamas leader, saying it undercut peace talks.

[[Page S8383]]

  I call attention to the two stories that appeared side by side on the 
front page of today's New York Times with the headlines they were 
carrying. I was struck by the fact that officials are still trying to 
determine how many people were killed in the missile attack. The U.S. 
military struck the convoy that they believed carried wanted 
terrorists. And I support that, by the way. We are still waiting for 
CIA and Department of Defense corroboration that, indeed, regime 
members rather than civilians were hit in the attack.
  The other story reports, as I mentioned before, how Secretary Powell 
expressed mild but unmistakable criticism of Israel's killing of a top 
Hamas official this past Saturday.
  It just so happens that this past weekend, the Israeli Defense Forces 
targeted a Hamas leader by the name of Abdullah Qawasmeh who 
masterminded the death of 52 Israelis. If this number were converted to 
American lives on a proportionate basis, he would have killed more than 
2,400 of our citizens. How would we react to that?
  There is a curious inconsistency between how this administration is 
conducting its global war against terrorists--which, again, I support, 
including operations against remnants of the Iraqi regime--and how we 
expect our ally, Israel, to deal with its terrorist threats.
  I support a roadmap to peace, and I am pleased to see the 
administration live up to its responsibilities by reentering as a 
mediator in one of the world's most intractable conflicts. But I also 
believe that no peace process or roadmap will ever work when terrorists 
are placated or appeased. The roadmap can only go forward when all 
parties uniformly denounce and resist Hamas, Jihad, and the other 
enemies of peace.
  So I believe we must support Israel in its war against terrorists and 
act consistently in conducting our foreign policy.
  Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________