[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 26 (Wednesday, March 3, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H807-H808]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               GADDAFI DELIVERS HISTORIC 90-MINUTE SPEECH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, a group of seven Members of 
Congress just finished leaving the airplane at Andrews Air Force Base 
from a 3-day trip to Libya, the second trip that I have led there in 30 
days. This trip is one that will go down in history as one of the most 
historic events that was documented in that country that has been a 
problem for us over the past 30 years.
  Mr. Speaker, I was asked by the chairman of the People's Congress of 
Libya to give a speech at the opening session 2 days ago, which I did. 
Senator Biden is giving a speech there today. Along with my speech and 
speeches from the French, the Egyptians, the head of the European 
Parliament, Colonel Gaddafi rose to the podium and spoke for 90 
minutes. He gave what will go down in history, I am convinced, as a 
speech that will equal the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the 
event that had Boris Yeltsin standing alongside the tank outside of the 
Moscow White House proclaiming that communism was dead because in this 
90-minute speech Gaddafi, who has been someone that we have not had any 
type of relationship with, whose country has admitted to completing the 
bombing of Pan Am 103, Gaddafi, in front of the 600 people assembled in 
the auditorium and 100 nations that were in attendance, renounced the 
actions of Libya over the past 25 years.
  He admitted to his people that they had been involved in funding 
terrorist organizations from the IRA in Ireland to the PLA, to the 
Sandinistas, to other terrorist groups around the world. He admitted 
that they were involved in crimes, and they had done things for other 
groups. He rose to the occasion to tell his people that he had come to 
the conclusion it was time for Libya to abandon these people who no 
longer were needing of the support of

[[Page H808]]

the Libyan people, and whom the Libyan people only suffered from, 
becoming isolated from the rest of the world.
  He spoke of the United States and the Pan Am 103 bombing. He said it 
is a part of history that they want to put behind them after I had said 
in my speech that we were happy that the Libyans had admitted to that 
bombing and being responsible for it. We told them that we would never 
forgive nor forget the actions of their country, but here was Moammar 
Gaddafi changing not for the international community, but in front of 
his own people saying it was time for Libya to renounce weapons of mass 
destruction, and calling for complete and total transparency, calling 
for other terrorist nations to abandon their weapons of mass 
destruction, telling them that it is no longer a valid position for 
countries to take, to encourage and support terrorism throughout the 
world.
  Then he said about the United States, the United States does not want 
to bomb Libya. We are not Libya's enemies. If we wanted to take over 
their country, we would have done that 27 years ago when they asked us 
to get out of the military bases we had in their country. He said to 
his people, America did not fight, they simply left our country as our 
friends. He said it was only in recent times that we have become an 
enemy, and he said no longer will Libya be an enemy of the United 
States; Libya wants to return, to become a friend, they want to attempt 
as much as possible to join the family of nations and join those multi-
national groups in Europe and around the world. They want to become a 
part of arms control regimes. He even agreed, as I met with the Gaddafi 
Foundation, that they should look to rejoin efforts like the Vienna 
Conference that oversees the Helsinki final act guaranteeing basic 
human rights for all citizens. We talked about human rights, and the 
fact that Libya was now on a course to set out for their people an 
effort to clean up the human rights records of the Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, this speech was not to the world community. The external 
media was not invited. It was broadcast live throughout Libya. Every 
television in Libya had this proceeding on for 90 minutes in front of 
600 delegates, 100 nations and 7 Members of Congress. Moammar Gaddafi 
issued the message to the people of the world that Libya had changed 
dramatically and completely, that Libya was ready now to begin a new 
chapter.
  He was very thankful that our delegation was there because he said it 
showed the Libyan people that America was ready to respond. Senator 
Biden's speech today will reinforce that. I congratulate my colleagues 
on both sides of the aisle who traveled to Libya. We will be putting a 
complete report into every Member's office before the end of this week.

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