[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5705]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          WORST TERRORIST ACT

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, in December 1988, a few days before 
Christmas, a terrorist bomb exploded on Pan Am flight #103 over 
Scotland. 270 people died--murdered is the more fitting word--including 
189 Americans. It was one of the worst terrorist attacks in history.
  Next month, two Libyan suspects are scheduled to go on trial in the 
Netherlands for the bombing. These two Libyans are believed to have 
planted the bomb, but there is widespread belief that the Libyan 
government ordered the attack.
  Though the United Nations has suspended sanctions on Libya since 
Qadhafi saw fit to turn over the two suspects in the Pan Am 103 
bombing, Libya has by no means been restored to the status of a 
civilized nation. Libya is a rogue nation that has been an avowed enemy 
of the United States for three decades. (``The time has come for us to 
deal America a strong slap on it's cool arrogant face,'' Qadhafi said 
in 1973--at the same time he ``nationalized'' all foreign oil 
concessions in his country. ``Nationalized'' in this instance is a 
dressed-up word for outright thievery.)
  So it is Qadhafi's regime that stands accused of the deliberate 
murder of American servicemen in the 1986 La Belle discotheque bombing. 
The same regime whose top officials have been convicted, in absentia, 
by French courts for bombing a French jetliner, killing 171 people, 
including seven Americans. The same regime that ordered the murder of 
189 Americans on Pan Am Flight 103--Americans from 22 states: New York, 
New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, 
Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland, North Dakota, California, New Hampshire, 
Colorado, West Virginia, Texas, Florida, Virginia, Kansas, Arkansas, 
Rhode Island, and Washington D.C. Nearly half of America's states lost 
one or more residents to the Libyan terrorists in that 1988 bombing of 
Pan Am 103 over Scotland.
  The mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, and all those children 
of the Pan Am 103 victims will never forget the horror but, 
unfortunately, the U.S. foreign policy establishment appears less 
concerned with that history, hence the recent U.S. decision to 
``review'' the ban on American citizens' travel to Libya.
  Mr. President, this resolution should remind the Administration of 
the heinous crimes committed by the Libyan regime. It identifies 
Libya's continued refusal to accept responsibility for its role in 
these acts. It calls on President Clinton to consult with Congress on 
policy toward Libya--consultations that would include disclosing United 
Nations documents containing assurances to the Qadhafi regime that it 
would not be destabilized as a result of the trial in The Hague.
  Most importantly, this resolution would emphasize the Sense of the 
Senate that all U.S. restrictions on Libya, including the travel ban, 
should remain in place until all cases of Libyan terrorism against 
Americans have been resolved, and until the Libyan government 
cooperates in bringing the murderers to justice.
  A clear signal is needed to Qadhafi, and, apparently, to the Clinton 
Administration--that the United States will not stand idly by when our 
citizens are murdered.
  If and when Libya apologizes and begins to make amends to all 
Americans, then perhaps there can be talks. Not before.

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