[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18343-18353]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                A NEW VISION FOR U.S.-RUSSIAN RELATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to lead a 
Special Order that we expect will involve a number of our colleagues 
who just returned last evening, as I did, from a whirlwind 5-day trip 
around the world

[[Page 18344]]

to try to deal with the issue of, not just the terrorism that occurred 
on September 11, but to improve and change our relations with Russia.
  Mr. Speaker, this trip was not scheduled after September 11, but 
rather had been scheduled in August, when our Russian friends contacted 
me and asked me to bring over some ideas that I had to improve the 
relationship between our two countries and to give them some of the 
ideas I was working on as the basis for the upcoming Bush-Putin summit 
and to change direction in our relationship.
  The preparation of a document entitled ``A New Time, a New 
Beginning'' was, in fact, the subject of that presentation; and the 
delegation that traveled with me that I had the pleasure of chairing, 
along with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), my good friend, as the 
cochair, was designed to present this document to the Russian 
leadership. We did that in a series of meetings in Moscow over 3 days.
  We met with the representatives to the President of Russia; the Prime 
Minister of Russia; President Putin; leaders of the Duma; Deputy 
Speaker Sliska; the chairman of the International Affairs Committee 
Yablako; Chairman Kulikov; and a number of the various leaders of the 
Russian Government. And every one of them was extremely excited about 
this new direction in our relationship.
  The package, which will not be presented here in detail, that will 
occur several weeks from now, it is just for discussion purposes now, 
involves us in 11 specific areas with the Russians. Instead of focusing 
on the differences in defense and foreign policy, the new initiative 
focuses on cultural relations, economic relations, energy and natural 
resources, defense and security, environmental cooperation, health 
care, judicial and legal, local government, science and technology, 
space and aviation, and agriculture. I will include a summary of these 
documents now, to be made a part of the Record of this Special Order at 
this point in time in the presentation.

                A New Vision for U.S.-Russian Relations

       Those of us who value the U.S.-Russian relationship have 
     been on a roller-coaster ride for the past decade. During the 
     heady days of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the following 
     collapse of the Soviet Union, it appeared that our two 
     countries would cooperate as never before. The world cheered 
     when Presidents Bush and Yeltsin hailed a new ``strategic 
     partnership'' between America and Russia.
       There followed, however, a dark period--marked by misguided 
     American policies and rampant Russian corruption. The Russian 
     economy sagged as American aid--money meant for the Russian 
     people--was siphoned off and stashed in Swiss banks and 
     American real estate investment. At the same, NATO's war in 
     Kosovo strained the already sinking bilateral relationship. 
     What were the results of this increasingly bitter 
     disenchantment? A more aggressive Russian foreign policy, 
     increased proliferation from Moscow to rogue states, and the 
     final coup de grace: Russia and China announced last year a 
     new ``strategic partnership''--against the interests of 
     America and the west.
       Now is the time, with new leaders in Washington and Moscow, 
     to improve the relationship for the long-term.
       My interest in this relationship began when I was nineteen 
     years old, when a college professor convinced me to switch my 
     major to Russian Studies. Since that time, I have been 
     fascinated with the Soviet Union and Russia--and have 
     traveled there more than twenty-five times.
       I began my travels when I was a member of my local County 
     Council and was invited to travel to Moscow by the American 
     Council of Young Political Leaders. I have continued to visit 
     Russia since my election to Congress, as a member of the 
     House Armed Services Committee and later as co-chairman of 
     the Duma-Congress Study Group, the official 
     interparliamentary exchange between the U.S. and Russia.
       My interactions with leaders across Russia have taught me 
     that the Russians are a proud people, historically aware, and 
     mindful of Russia's unique global rule. Increasingly, they 
     are becoming aware of the limitless possibilities for U.S.-
     Russian cooperation on a host of issues.
       This brief paper, then, is an effort to weave together a 
     comprehensive program of U.S.-Russian cooperation across a 
     wide-range of issues.
       Too often, the focus of our bilateral relations has been on 
     defense and security--precisely the issues on which our 
     interests often collide. It would be more useful, as we move 
     forward with a Russian policy for the 21st century to take a 
     more holistic approach--one that takes into account Russia's 
     myriad concerns as well as our own.
       Therefore, in consultation with many of the leading experts 
     on Russia, I propose a series of initiatives to engage Russia 
     on issues like the environment, energy, economic development, 
     health care--as well as defense and security. Some of these 
     are new ideas, but many are not. Many of these initiatives 
     are already underway, and need additional support to make 
     even greater progress.
       Such engagement is in the U.S. interest as well as 
     Russia's. For if the U.S. and Russia are cooperating on 
     issues across the board, Russia will be more likely to work 
     closely with America on the national security issues that 
     matter most to us--missile defense, the war against 
     terrorism, and proliferation.
       This is not, and will never be, a finished product. The 
     contours of our bilateral relationship change daily with 
     world events. Not will it likely be turned into a grand 
     legislative proposal, although certainly parts of it may be. 
     I hope only that it is a starting point for discussions 
     between Russia and America on ways that we can forge a new 
     relationship that will benefit both our countries.
       For if we make a new American-Russian relationship, one 
     based on common interests that benefit the citizens of both 
     countries, than we will make great progress--not just for 
     America and Russia alone, but for peace and stability across 
     the globe.
                                  ____


                      A New Time, a New Beginning


                     summary of key recommendations

     Cultural Development
       Expand cultural ties outside the major cities.
       Assist Russian regional museums generate tourism.
       Provide for more Russian language and cultural studies in 
     U.S. schools.
     Economic Development
       Help facilitate Russia's accession to the WTO and its 
     acceptance of all WTO agreements.
       Increase funding for OPIC and EX-IM Bank projects in 
     Russia.
       Work with Russia to improve intellectual property rights.
     Energy/Natural Resources
       Foster cooperative pilot projects, starting with oil and 
     gas exploration in Timan Pechora.
       Convene bilateral task force to discuss the energy 
     ramifications of the war on terrorism.
       Eliminate bureaucratic obstacles to joint cooperation on 
     energy.
     Defense and Security
       Initiate new bilateral talks similar to the Ross-Mamedov 
     talks on a Global Protection System.
       Move forward with joint talks on a new nonproliferation 
     regime.
       Encourage progress on the RAMOS program and restructure the 
     Nuclear Cities Initiative.
     Environmental Cooperation
       Develop a revolving fund to assure development of promising 
     Russian technologies.
       Expand debt for nature swaps.
       Dramatically expand cooperation on marine science research.
     Health Care
       Increase emphasis on chronic diseases like cardiovascular 
     and diabetes.
       Develop more extensive physician exchange programs.
       Augment existing cooperation between NIH and appropriate 
     Russian research institutes.
     Judicial Systems
       Support expansion of jury trials into all Russian regions.
       Expand Environmental Public Advocacy Centers into Russia.
       Encourage a doubling of the number of legal clinics in 
     Russia.
     Local Governments
       Propose ways to expand the tax base available to local 
     governments.
       Encourage political participation by increasing local 
     partisan affiliations.
       Encourage the gradual devolution of services to the local 
     level.
     Science and Technology
       Increase cooperation in the area of nuclear fuel cycles.
       Expand cooperative fusion research on nonpolluting energy 
     solutions.
       Involve Russian industry in embryonic U.S. nanotechnology 
     efforts.
     Space and Aeronautics
       Utilize commercial joint ventures to enable Russia to meet 
     its Space Station obligations.
       Increase joint projects on space solar power, propulsion 
     technology, and weather satellites.
       Cooperate on mutually-beneficial planetary defense tracking 
     technologies.

  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. This entire document, which we have 
briefed to the administration, and which I have given to Senator Levin 
and Senator Lugar and have talked to Senator Biden about on the phone, 
will be presented to our colleagues in a formal

[[Page 18345]]

context after we have had a chance to make some modifications and 
changes. We have also presented this initiative to the White House, to 
the Vice President's staff, to the National Security Council, the 
Defense Department, and the State Department.
  Truly, it was a landmark opportunity for us, a historic opportunity, 
to change the direction in our relationships with the Russians.
  Mr. Speaker, the other activity that we did on this trip, which grew 
out of the September 11 incident, was to try to find a way to further 
support our President to build an international alliance that would 
work together on terrorism. To that end, we drafted a piece of 
legislation, had it translated into Russian, faxed it over in advance 
of our trip, and asked the leaders of the Duma, which is their 
congress, to consider passing an identical bill to one that we have 
passed in the House. This legislation calls for the creation of a joint 
task force on terrorism involving Members of the House and the Senate, 
the Duma, and the Federation Council.
  Our Russian colleagues were very much supportive, indicated that they 
could pass such a measure in 3 weeks. At this point, Mr. Speaker, I 
will enter the actual resolution in the Congressional Record.

                            H. Con. Res. --

       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring),

     SECTION 1. FINDINGS; DECLARATION OF POLICY.

       (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
       (1) On September 11, 2001, acts of treacherous violence 
     were committed against the United States and its citizens 
     when terrorists hijacked and destroyed four civilian 
     aircraft, crashing two of them into the towers of the World 
     Trade Center in New York City, and a third into the Pentagon 
     outside Washington, D.C.
       (2) In the past, similar acts of violence have been 
     committed against the Russian Federation and its citizens.
       (3) Such acts continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary 
     threat to the national security and foreign policy of both 
     the United States and the Russian Federation.
       (b) Declaration of Policy.--Congress--
       (1) condemns in the strongest possible terms the terrorists 
     who planned and carried out the September 11, 2001, attacks 
     against the United States, as well as their sponsors; and
       (2) reaffirms the importance of joint efforts between the 
     United States and the Russian Federation to provide the 
     fullest possible level of cooperation on antiterrorism 
     activities.

     SEC. 2. UNITED STATES CONGRESS-RUSSIAN FEDERATION PARLIAMENT 
                   JOINT TASKFORCE ON ANTITERRORISM.

       (a) Negotiations.--The Speaker of the House of 
     Representatives (in consultation with members of the Duma 
     Congress Study Group) and the majority leader of the Senate 
     shall seek to enter into negotiations with appropriate 
     officials of the State Duma and the Federation Council of the 
     Russian Federation for the establishment of a joint taskforce 
     on antiterrorism.
       (b) Membership.--The joint taskforce shall consist of 
     members of the House of Representatives and the Senate and 
     members of the State Duma and the Federation Council.
       (c) Duties.--The joint taskforce shall provide for 
     increased cooperation between the United States Congress and 
     the Russian Federation Parliament on issues relating to 
     antiterrorism.

  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, this is a bill that I hope 
our colleagues will support. The 11 members of our delegation will be 
the original bipartisan sponsors of this bill. We have not yet dropped 
it. But it will be, in fact, the first time that the parliaments and 
the governments, legislatures of Russia and the U.S., pass an identical 
bill, perhaps even on the same day, because they are 8 hours ahead of 
us, that calls for the creation of a joint task force to work together 
on terrorism.
  Mr. Speaker, we thank our Russian friends for their condolences, we 
thank them for offering to allow our airplanes to use their airspace to 
assist us in intelligence, and we thank them for their support of our 
trip on the second leg of our journey to Rome.
  In Rome, Mr. Speaker, we traveled for 30, 40 minutes outside of town 
under heavy security to visit the King of Afghanistan living in exile.

                              {time}  2030

  The king of Afghanistan was thrown out of that country in 1973. He 
has lived outside of Rome under heavy security since that time. We made 
a special visit to him to enlist his support in eventually returning to 
his native country to convene a cooperative effort with those leaders 
in the northern front, now called the Joint Task Force, or the Unified 
Front, to overturn the Taliban government, to remove Osama bin Laden, 
and to support the people of Afghanistan taking over their government.
  Our meeting with the King lasted for 90 minutes. It was extremely 
constructive. Our colleagues will discuss it in more detail when they 
speak.
  Following that meeting, we met for 90 minutes with approximately 10 
or 12 leaders of the various military factions in Afghanistan who had 
flown in to meet with us and the King. We were convinced that this new 
effort is broad, it is across the spectrum in Afghanistan, and involves 
all the various tribes.
  We are convinced that we should continue, as our President has said, 
to support this Unified Front with both money and any type of military 
support that they would require. In fact, we have prepared 
recommendations to present to President Bush, the Secretary of State, 
Secretary of Defense, the National Security advisor, on additional 
efforts that can assist this Unified Front to remove Osama bin Laden.
  Following our trip to Rome and our meetings with the King and the 
Unified Front, we went on to Ankara, Turkey. On Sunday and Monday in 
Turkey we met with leaders of their parliament, leaders of their 
government, and thanked them again for their outpouring of support for 
our people. We thanked them for their steadfast loyalty to America 
during very difficult times.
  Turkey has been one of our strongest partners during good times and 
bad times. Turkey, a 99 percent Muslim nation, has no problem standing 
up with America and proudly performing any task that we ask them. In 
fact, Turkey has a unique position. They are best of friends, not just 
with the U.S., but also with Israel, with Russia, and with Pakistan.
  In our meetings with the Turkish military and with the Turkish 
leadership, we came to the conclusion that we should put further 
emphasis on Turkey playing a lead role in helping us to remove Osama 
bin Laden and to remove the Taliban, assuming they continue to disagree 
with the President's request to turn bin Laden over.
  Again, we make specific recommendations to the administration which 
are contained in a document that I will offer as part of the 
Congressional Record.
  The document referred to is as follows:

     U.S.-Russia-Turkey Partnership: Anti-Terrorism and Afghanistan

  [A Bi-partisan Congressional Delegation led by Representative Curt 
       Weldon: Russia-Italy-Turkey--September 26-October 1, 2001]


                                overview

       This Congressional delegation to Moscow was originally 
     planned in August as part of the continuing dialogue of the 
     Congress-Duma Study Group, chaired on the U.S. side by 
     Chairman Weldon (R-PA). After the September 11 terrorist 
     attack in New York and Washington, the delegation saw an 
     opportunity to reinforce President Bush's coalition building 
     effort and expanded its mission to consult with leaders in 
     the region to gain information that could prove helpful to 
     the Congress and Administration in furthering the war on 
     terrorism. As a result additional stops were scheduled for 
     Rome and Ankara. In addition to the original agenda in Moscow 
     that sought to expand the basis of discussions with the Duma 
     (atch 4, ``A New Time, A New Beginning,'' an eleven point 
     agenda), the delegation prepared and presented to the 
     Russians proposed legislation (atch 5) on counter terrorism 
     that the delegation hopes to see passed in both the Duma and 
     Congress.
       In Moscow, representatives of the Duma, Federation Council 
     and executive branch officials were enthusiastic about both 
     the 11-point program proposed for broadened Congress-Duma 
     discussions, and the counter terrorism legislative proposal. 
     All of the Russian officials encouraged the Delegation to 
     pursue its fact-finding opportunity with the exiled Afghan 
     King and United Front/Northern Alliance leadership in Rome.
       The main objective of the counter terrorist, fact-finding 
     portion of the trip was to explore recommendations by key 
     allies that would enhance the understanding of Congress by 
     seeking insights into the difficult challenges in the fight 
     against terrorism, especially in Afghanistan. In Rome, the 
     delegation had an in-depth discussion with Zaher

[[Page 18346]]

     Shah and United Front field commanders from diverse areas of 
     Afghanistan provided a detailed briefing on the current 
     military situation. Turkish military and foreign policy 
     leaders, as well as members of Parliament, gave the 
     delegation poignant insights and their perspectives on 
     defeating the Taliban and other terrorist forces.


                                findings

       In all countries, there appeared to be unanimous support 
     and approval for the President's efforts to build a strong 
     coalition against terrorism and to put an end to Osama bin 
     Laden (OBL) and the extremist Taliban regime. Russian and 
     Turkish leaders supported the delegation's effort to meet 
     with King Zaher Shah, whom they believe can be a unifying 
     figure, as well as the United Front commanders. Both Russia 
     and Turkey recommended that Afghan resistance forces conduct 
     the bulk of the fighting and hunting bin Laden inside of 
     Afghanistan with adequate support from America and our 
     allies. Humanitarian support in areas controlled by the 
     United Front is also a necessary component both during and 
     after the current crisis.
       In Rome, the resistance commanders, representing all groups 
     and many regions of Afghanistan--north and south--expressed a 
     willingness to work with the King as a symbol of unity and 
     were confident that with adequate material support and 
     limited air support that they could overturn Taliban rule in 
     a rapid period of time. [There is less than two months before 
     Winter sets in, when snow will prevent offensive actions in 
     much of the country.] Most commanders believe they could root 
     bin Laden and his terrorist forces out of their mountain 
     bases.
       Russian and Turkish experts expressed serious concern about 
     instability in Pakistan. The consensus advice to the United 
     States was against basing US forces inside of Pakistan or 
     using Pakistan territory as a support base for military or 
     humanitarian efforts. All parties reminded the delegation 
     that Pakistan facilitated the creation of the Taliban and has 
     been its primary political and military backer.
       King Zaher Shah presented a three-part plan for peace in 
     Afghanistan: (1) Conduct a loya jirga of tribal elders inside 
     of Afghanistan; (2) Establish an interim coalition 
     government, including any moderate Taliban, to serve for two 
     years to begin post-war recovery, integrate returning 
     refugees and to write with Constitution; (3) Conduct 
     nationwide elections to choose leaders and to choose a form 
     of government.
       King Zaher Shah and the field commanders believe that the 
     Taliban are weak and vulnerable. The Talibs have lost the 
     support of the Afghan people due, in large part, to their 
     brutal rule and the presence of international terrorists as 
     their shock troops. The United Front commanders claim that 
     the core of Taliban forces are some 10,000 international 
     terrorists recruited by bin Laden and some 25,000 Pakistanis. 
     They estimate the Taliban's Afghan troop strength at 40,000. 
     The resistance claims 70,000 to 75,000 total anti-Taliban 
     forces.
       The resistance commanders also claim that many Afghan 
     Pashtuns currently allied to the Taliban are in contact with 
     the United Front and plan to switch sides when a coordinated 
     offensive begins. They believe the Taliban could collapse 
     rapidly. In order to begin the offensive before Winter sets 
     in, the United Front requires an immediate infusion of 
     ammunition and other supplies. Essential items include 
     communications gear, long-range artillery, rockets, anti-tank 
     weapons and anti-aircraft capability. The Taliban is 
     estimated to have approximately a dozen fighter aircraft, a 
     limited number of attack helicopters and 20 battle tanks, 
     which must be eliminated if the battle is to be won.
       Zaher Shah expressed an openness to direct U.S. military 
     support for the resistance if the United Nations did not 
     respond in a timely manner. Turkish experts recommend that 
     currently an emergency humanitarian aid program is 
     desperately needed. And a much-needed infrastructure 
     development program should be done in a way that would not 
     overwhelm the Afghan people's ability to absorb it. The Under 
     Secretary of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Ugur Ziyal, said 
     Turkey has accomplished effective programs using limited 
     funding--unlike high-cost and high-overhead UN and USG 
     programs--by working closely with the Afghan people.
       Turkish officials expressed a frustration of often being 
     ignored by the West, especially in dealing with their own 
     terrorism problem, which has led to the deaths of over 30,000 
     citizens during the past two decades. However, Turkey 
     considers the United States as a steadfast friend. As they 
     already have modest humanitarian aid programs in United Front 
     zones of Afghanistan, they would be willing to be a 
     facilitator of US aid.


                            recommendations

       Avoid placing US forces in Pakistan.
       Expedite US assistance to the Afghan United Front to 
     conduct operations before winter begins. Be prepared to 
     respond to possible rapid changes on the battlefield and in 
     Kandahar and Kabul.
       Support the return of King Zaher Shah to Afghanistan as a 
     unifying figure between all ethnic groups and factions and to 
     conduct a loya jirga.
       After the Talibs/bin Laden are defeated, cost-effective 
     developmental assistance--not bloated ``nation building''--
     could go a long way. Turkish experts said $10 to $20 million 
     of targeted aid would do tremendous good if a team of experts 
     worked with indigenous Afghans.
       Develop greater intelligence cooperation with turkey. 
     Utilize Turkish NGOs as conduits for some U.S. aid into 
     Northern Alliance zones of Afghanistan.
       Establish a Congress-to-Congress working group with Turkey.
       Consider forgiveness of Turkey's FMF debt.


                              codel weldon

       Representatives: Curt Weldon, Solomon Ortiz, Bob Clement, 
     Dana Rohrabacher, Clifford Stearns, Robert Cramer, Roscoe 
     Bartlett, Nick Smith, Silvestre Reyes, Brian Kerns, Todd 
     Platts.
       Staff: Al Santoli, Office of Rep. Rohrabacher; Xenia 
     Horzczakiwskyj, Office of Rep. Weldon; Doug Roach, 
     Professional Staff Member, Committee on Armed Services.


                              key contacts

       Russia: Ambassador Vershbow, U.S. Ambassador to Russia; 
     Lyubov Sliska, 1st Dep. Speaker of the Duma; Andrey Kokoshin, 
     Dep. Chairman of the Committee on Industry, Construction, 
     Industries, and High Technologies (former National Security 
     Advisor to President Yeltsin); Vladimir Lukhin, State 
     Federation Council Chairman, Yablako, Former Chairman 
     International Affairs Committee/Russia Ambassador to the 
     United States; Konstantin Kosachev, Vice Chairman 
     International Affairs Committee; Anatoly Savin, Kommeta 
     Institute; Anatoly Kulikov, Chairman of the Terrorism Task 
     Force, Russian Duma; Valkov, First Dep. Head of Pres. Putin's 
     Advisory Committee; Vladimir Andrianov, Sr. Advisor to Prime 
     Minister; U.S.-Russia Business Council; American Chamber of 
     Commerce; Moscow Petroleum Club.
       Italy: Exiled King of Afghanistan, King Mohammad Zaher Shah 
     (86); Prince Mir Wais Zaher (40), youngest son and ``closest 
     aid''; Mostapha Zaher, King's grandson. United Front/Northern 
     Alliance Commanders: Malik Zarin (Konar Province); Haji Nasir 
     (Nangehar Province); Haji Khaleq Ghor (Onazon and Farak 
     Provinces); Commander Arif (Kandahar Province); General Awari 
     (Shomali Plains, Kabul area, and Bagram Airfield, North of 
     Kabul); Commander Kazeni (Parwan Province); Abdul Khalig 
     (Kuman Province); Commander Jegdalak (Kabul Area); Commander 
     Zaman (Nangahar Province); Yunis Kanoni, delegation spokesman 
     (Panjer Valley).
       Turkey: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador 
     Ugur Ziyal, Undersecretary (DEPSEC equivalent), (Faruk 
     Logoglu, new Turkish Ambassador to the USA). Turkish General 
     Staff: LTGEN Koksal Karabay, Turkish Gen. Staff (TGS), 
     Turkish Land Forces; LTGEN Turgut, TGS, Turkish Air Forces; 
     MGEN Nusret Tasdeler; COL Kusu, briefer; Namik Tan, American 
     Desk, Dept. Head.

   Meeting With Ambassador Ziyal, Undersecretary of the Ministry of 
                 Foreign Affairs, Turkey--Oct. 1, 2001


                               key points

       The Ambassador lived in Afghanistan in 1948-1952.
       There is no ``nation'' of Afghanistan, just a collection of 
     various groups/tribes/clans/warloads. They unite to confront 
     foreigners. It is near impossible to assert central control, 
     but the exiled-King could be a unifying symbol.
       The Taliban originated in Pakistan. They were initially 
     welcomed because they established order out of the chaos of 
     the end of the war against the Soviet invasion they ``bring 
     out worst in humanity and Islam'' they are ``hardest on their 
     own'' who deviate from their hard line--viewed as heretics. 
     They were supported by Arab Afghans--``radical Saudis pumped 
     in millions''--and support was provided by other Gulf Arabs.
       The Taliban ``became force of evil.'' OBL is a supreme 
     organizer. He created a ``senseless organization of terror.''
       The OBL/Taliban network ``recruits the young to brain wash 
     them.'' It is impossible to protect society against suicide 
     bombers.
       Turkey has a humanitarian (3 clinics) presence in Northern 
     Alliance areas in Afghanistan.
       Turkey had a school in Kabul, but couldn't agree with 
     Taliban on a curriculum and the Turks left--``Taliban 
     wouldn't listen to reason--they are fanatics.''
       King is a figurehead. Authority lies with tribal leaders. 
     There could be a role for him as an umbrella, interim leader. 
     Tribal leaders will cooperate if they see it in their 
     interest to do so. Groups change sides very easily--for 
     various reasons: money, power, jealousy.
       Rep Bartlett: (Referencing Turkish General Staff Brief: 
     ``There seems to be a bewildering array of terrorist groups. 
     The US is focusing on the Taliban. How much of the 
     ``problem'' is the Taliban?
       Ambassador: OBL is 5 percent of the (terrorist) problem.
       ``US tends to personify issues, for example Saddam and 
     Sadat.'' Particular realities of each nation need to be 
     addressed without regard to what leaders happen to be present 
     at the time.

[[Page 18347]]

       Is the King's three part plan realistic?
       Ambassador: Yes. Local tribal leaders are the only real 
     option, however. Forming a ``Democracy is a tall order--until 
     quality of life versus survival becomes the issue, 
     Afghanistan leaping to a democracy is unlikely.''
       Rep Ortiz: Are you concerned about the survival of the 
     Pakistani government?
       Ambassador: ``We are concerned.''
       On the Peace Process: ``American policy has hurt American 
     standing in the region--Arafat sees he made a mistake.'' We 
     talk to both sides. With Barak, things were close. It is 
     important that Israel be accepted--it would benefit regimes 
     in the area. Saddam has gained ground just by giving lip 
     service/propaganda. Everyone in the area is concerned, even 
     the Omanis. Israeli responses to Palestinian attacks are 
     disproportionate.
       Recommended course of action:
       The Northern Alliance first needs ammunition and U.S. 
     military strikes against main Taliban armament (10 planes and 
     20 tanks).
       ``The U.S. needs to stay involved to raise the quality of 
     life'' Afghans need help to survive what the Taliban has done 
     to them--large sums of money is not required if you employ 
     Afghans to provide assistance to fellow Afghans. (``UN 
     overhead very high''). ``We would be willing to help.''
       Chairman Weldon: How much would it take--$10 million--or 
     $20 million?
       Ambassador: ``That would go a long way if implemented 
     locally--billions would be a disaster. It could not be 
     absorbed--would only lead to corruption.''
       Need allies on the ground--United Front/Northern Alliance--
     ``and they are willing.'' ``They are willing because the 
     Taliban is seen as destroying the country and way of life''
       Ambassador felt that Taliban could fall within 30 days. 
     ``If allies of the Taliban see them losing, their allies will 
     desert them.''

  Mr. Speaker, this document entitled ``U.S.-Russia-Turkey Partnership: 
Anti-terrorism in Afghanistan'' has a summary of our trip, the details 
of who we met with, the specific recommendations, and a call for 
action.
  Mr. Speaker, we also need to understand as Americans that if and when 
we remove Osama bin Laden, that is not going to eliminate the terrorism 
problem in America. The government of Turkey identified at least a 
dozen other major terrorist groups that have killed over 30,000 
innocent people in Turkey over the past 10 years.
  We need to understand that Osama bin Laden is only one network, 
accounting for about 5 percent of the international terrorism in the 
world. We must understand that this is just a beginning. Removing the 
Taliban and Osama bin Laden, allowing the people of Afghanistan to take 
back their country, is only the first step in what President Bush has 
described as a long-term process.
  We in the Congress went on this mission in full support of our 
President. At every stop, we reiterated the fact that we only have one 
President in America, one Secretary of State, and the 11 Members of 
Congress who traveled together were in total and complete unanimity 
that our President speaks for us. We are behind his leadership 100 
percent.
  I want to thank our colleagues for traveling. They were outstanding 
Members. I am going to ask each of them now to make comments about 
their thoughts on the trip. I will simply be here to monitor the time 
so everyone gets a chance to speak.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to our good friend and colleague, the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), an outstanding senior Member of the Congress 
who has been in the House for 20 years, a senior member of the 
Committee on Armed Services.
  Mr. ORTIZ. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania for his leadership. I think it was a great trip, a very 
productive trip. We were able to learn things that we were not used to 
talking about from countries like Turkey, Russia, some of the other 
countries who have had terrorist acts. For the United States, it was 
something new.
  I think that individually I was able to learn a lot from Turkey. 
Turkey will continue to play a very, very important role in the defense 
of this country that is so dear to them. But we feel sometimes that we 
have neglected Turkey. They are proud citizens, they are proud 
soldiers. They have stood by our side during almost every conflict that 
we have been involved in.
  One of the things that really impressed me was the relationship that 
our good chairman, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) has 
with the officials from Russia and the people of Russia.
  We were received with open arms. Not only that, they stated that they 
were willing to work with us. This legislation that the chairman is 
talking about is very, very important, not only for the United States, 
but for the rest of the world. This is a cancer that has to be removed.
  Bin Laden, even though we were able to dispose of him, to remove him 
from power, he has been able to train many young men to conduct the 
same terrorist acts that have been conducted all over the world. We 
just hope that the Muslim and Islamic leaders can explain to the rest 
of the world that this is not Islamic religion, this is not the 
teachings of the Muslim world; this is hatred, this is murder. 
Hopefully, we will be in a position to do better as a world, to be more 
understanding.
  I know Muslims do not preach hate. They do not condone the killing. 
But I am so happy that I went on this trip, because this was really a 
fact-finding trip, Mr. Speaker. I want to say again, I thank the 
gentleman for his leadership.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend and 
colleague for his leadership and support as a co-leader of this 
delegation. We came away with some very special feelings, and he came 
away with some special symbols of our relationship. I thank him for the 
cooperation that he has given me.
  I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Clement), our next 
member of the delegation.
  Mr. CLEMENT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I returned Monday from a very successful bipartisan 
congressional delegation that included meetings with the Russian Duma, 
the exiled king of Afghanistan, representatives of the United Front 
fighting the Taliban, and Turkish foreign and military affairs 
officials.
  I want to praise my colleagues, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Weldon) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), for chairing this 
trip. I also want to commend all of my colleagues for their hard work 
and dedication to these meetings. We had a real team working together, 
and I think because of our teamwork, we were very successful.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to say also that this is not a battle between the 
East versus West, it is not a battle that is Muslim versus Christian. 
It comes down to a travesty that happened September 11 that hurt, 
injured, and lost the lives of many Americans.
  But what I learned on this trip when we traveled to Russia and Italy 
and Turkey is that most of the world has experienced terrorism for a 
number of years. We have been immune from terrorism, but not anymore. 
Now we have to face up to our responsibilities, knowing that other 
countries have had to live with it for many years, and now we, as the 
superpower.
  We are the only superpower now. It used to be the Soviet Union and 
the United States, so now it has come down to just the United States. 
It puts us in a position where we must act, and we will act. The United 
States and our allies will move against the terrorists. It probably is 
very soon.
  But I have also learned from meeting with the other countries that 
they accept and are excited about the possibilities of the United 
States working with them to combat terrorism in the world. Because if 
we do not work together, we cannot solve the problem. Even if we knock 
out or even if we capture or even if we bring to justice Osama bin 
Laden, and even if the Taliban regime comes to an end very shortly, 
which very well could happen, that does not mean it is the end of 
terrorism, because there are many terrorist groups and organizations, 
some of which are even operating in the United States, many of which 
operate in other countries.
  But if we work together, if we share our intelligence, if we 
understand one another, it does not have to happen. People can live in 
peace, and people do not have to live in fear. But we have to bring 
these people to justice, and we have to demonstrate to the world that 
we care about their fellow man.

[[Page 18348]]

  We know that there are a lot of wonderful Muslims in our own country. 
They care about their faith, just like we Christians care about our 
faith. We do have a great country, and it was a great honor, I say to 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Chairman Weldon), to be with him on 
this wonderful trip, which was a fact-finding trip.
  As the gentleman mentioned a while ago, we are going to share this 
trip with the Secretary of State, with the Defense Department, with the 
national security agencies, and with a lot of entities, even our fellow 
Congressmen and U.S. Senators, for them to know what happened, how it 
happened, and that through our trip, and I really believe this, we are 
going to save a lot of lives. We are going to minimize the loss of life 
that could have occurred if we had not taken this trip.
  God bless the gentleman and God bless this country.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Clement), our good friend and colleague.
  To follow up, we met with the King for 90 minutes at his residence on 
Sunday, and following that we met for 90 minutes with a dozen or so 
members of the Unified Front. It was on Monday, the day after we left, 
that that group came together and publicly announced a solidarity.
  We would like to think that our conversations with both of those 
groups helped to convince them that America was there to work with them 
as Afghanistani people take over their own country and take back their 
land from this terrorist operation, this Taliban organization, that 
does not abide by the rules of civilization, but rather, abides by some 
commitment to destroying and killing people.
  We also said to them, Americans are good people. In fact, we are the 
largest supplier of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people even today; 
that assuming we can get rid of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, and 
begin to clean up this terrorist network, we are prepared for the long 
haul to support efforts and endeavors to help them improve their health 
care, feed their people, take care of their housing and environmental 
problems; to work with them to join the community of nations.
  I think, in fact, this trip did have a significant part of the 
success in allowing, the day after we left, the King and the opposition 
leaders to come together in a way that we have not seen up until now.
  Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Michigan is another one of the vital 
leaders of the task force who was a leader on technology issues in the 
House. He played a critical role and was involved in both our 
discussions and in questions, and in engaging in our meetings. We had 
some 19 meetings in each of our stops.
  I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith).
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania very much.
  Quite often, we in Congress get in partisan debates here, and are, in 
effect, sort of in a shell. But on this CODEL, 11 Members of Congress 
broke out of that shell and went on a CODEL to other parts of the world 
that was totally bipartisan, probably the most effective trip that I 
have ever taken.
  For the record, I say to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Weldon), allow me to read in the Members that went on that CODEL.
  Of course, the chairman of the CODEL was the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon).
  The cochairman was the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), a Democrat.
  Other Members were the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Clement), a 
Democrat; the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher), a 
Republican; the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns), a Republican; the 
gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Cramer), a Democrat; the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Bartlett), a Republican; myself, from Michigan; the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes), a Democrat; the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Kerns), a Republican; and the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Platts), a Republican.
  Sometimes when legislators go and meet with legislators from other 
countries, the discussion back and forth is more frank than it is 
sometimes with the bureaucrats, with the diplomats, who have a more 
formal agenda. So some of the debate and the discussion and some of the 
criticism of the United States for things that it might have done in 
the past I think were more readily outcoming to end up not only with a 
frank discussion, but with actual friendship of these legislators in 
these other countries.
  So I think some of the information that we have garnered is going to 
be the information that the State Department needs to have, as well as 
the President of the United States. I saw somewhat of a welcoming by 
these other countries that have experienced terrorism, that finally the 
United States is taking it seriously enough to help them do something.

                              {time}  2045

  Our briefings in Russia were excellent. Our briefings in Italy were 
excellent, but let me just read a couple paragraphs out of several good 
briefings that we had in Turkey. And they gave us several booklets on 
terror because they have been studying and putting up with terror for a 
long time.
  I think it was about eight different terrorists groups. The PKK was 
one of these groups and the introduction to this book on terrorism or 
the PKK says, this booklet provides a detailed account of some of the 
terrorist attacks perpetrated in Turkey by the PKK, which is the 
Kurdish acronym for the Kurdistan Workers Party, one of the most brutal 
terror organizations in the world, both in terms of number of the 
victims of its terror acts.
  By the way, these acts have been committed, and they go on to say, as 
a result of the indiscriminate terrorist attack of the PKK, over 30,000 
Turkish citizens have lost their lives since 1984, and among these were 
thousands of innocent victims that included women and children and the 
elderly and infants.
  We learned that the terrorist organizations are organized throughout 
the world and the training of these terrorists often begins with 
orphans that are then taken in by the terrorist groups and started to 
be indoctrinated into the religion and they are indoctrinated and 
brainwashed, if you will, not just over a short time period but a 
longer time period. So what we are dealing with is individuals that 
have been so indoctrinated over their young lives that it is going to 
be very difficult to indoctrinate them the other way around.
  So the question becomes not only what do we with bin Laden, what do 
we do with other terrorist leaders, what do we do with all these other 
individuals that have been so trained that their main goal in life is 
to get rid of the predicament they are in and cause these murders of 
people that have that same understanding of democracies that we have in 
the United States.
  It is going to be a huge challenge, but one thing we gain from these 
meetings in other countries is that other countries are willing to help 
us. One of their questions was are we going to have the will power, 
the, if you will, intestinal fortitude in the United States to continue 
this fight against terrorism, not for just months but possibly for 
years, possibly for a generation if we are going to be successful 
because the total economic well-being of all of these citizens of the 
world depend, I think, on our success in this particular battle against 
terrorism.
  And with that I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) 
for his leadership on this trip.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleague and 
friend, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) for his comments, for 
his outstanding contribution on the trip, and for his involvement in 
the follow-up that is going to be necessary to implement the 
recommendations that we have, in fact, suggested.
  Mr. Speaker, I now yield as much time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes), my good friend on the other side of 
the

[[Page 18349]]

aisle and this was truly a bipartisan effort. We are good friends 
anyway, but when the plane took off the ground, we were all one group 
working together. This gentleman is the chairman of the Hispanic 
Caucus, representing all of our Hispanic Members in the House, and 
besides that, a senior member of the Committee on Armed Services, and 
someone who is a tireless advocate for defending our country, my good 
friend from El Paso, Texas.
  Mr. REYES. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Weldon) yielding the time, and Mr. Speaker, this is an important 
time for our country.
  I as well as a number of our colleagues that had the privilege of 
traveling this weekend and going to Russia, going to Italy, and then 
winding up the trip in Turkey feel confident that this is one of the 
most important trips we have taken. This has the ability of redefining 
the way we look not just at our foreign policy but at the way we deal 
with the rest of the world.
  I want to congratulate our chairman and very good friend Chairman 
Weldon for his vision and his leadership in putting together a 
comprehensive document that I hope we will use to define a new 
relationship between us and Russia.
  I had the privilege of participating in a number of the discussions, 
and it was clear the respect that Chairman Weldon enjoys in Russia, but 
more than that, I considered it a great privilege to have been part of 
this trip because at every one of the places that we visited, starting 
with the visit to Moscow, one of the most poignant moments was driving 
by the American embassy and seeing huge piles of flowers and wreaths 
and notes from the citizens of Moscow offering their condolences to a 
country that lost a number of its citizens on that tragic day of 
September 11.
  Moving on to Rome where we met with a very humble, I thought, king 
but a committed individual that is willing to do anything and 
everything, including, he told us, going to Afghanistan the next day. 
He said I will go back to Afghanistan tomorrow if it makes a difference 
to my people. A very humble individual that at that point discussed 
with us his three point plan. A three point plan that includes some 
very significant recommendations.
  The ability to come together in a loya jirga, which is a meeting of 
the senior members of the Afghanistan leadership in Afghanistan, and he 
was willing to be there alongside with them, but more important, to put 
together a plan that they would elect a leader for an interim period of 
2 years with the guarantee that they would have democratic elections so 
they would have a democratic government to lead the people.
  Finishing out our trip, we visited in Ankara, Turkey, with our best 
ally in the region, a very tough neighborhood, a neighborhood that has 
seen repeatedly a tremendous amount of unrest, a very unstable region 
of the world, but yet a region of the world where we can always rely 
and count on the friendship, the support, the commitment of the Turks 
and the Turkish government. And what an important series of meetings 
and briefings we held there and listened to their recommendations that 
essentially, if the chairman will recall, they backed up what we heard 
from the ground commanders from Afghanistan, and that was we do not 
need to send American troops on the ground. All we need to do is 
support the Afghanistan's United Front versus the Northern Alliance 
that we refer to now. More importantly, the fact that if we do not need 
to risk American lives on the ground in Afghanistan, we should not do 
it.
  Second, we should support the Afghanistan movement. The Northern 
Alliance, whether we call them the Northern Alliance or the United 
Front, as they prefer to be called, they know and they explained to us 
that they have the capability, they have the wherewithal to bring this 
to a conclusion and defeat the Taliban and its government and take care 
of Osama bin Laden in the process.
  We all know and we have heard from a number of colleagues today that 
Osama bin Laden and the Taliban are a small part of the bigger 
challenge we face as we fight terrorism, but a fight worth taking on, a 
fight that we heard in Moscow, that we heard in Rome, and that we heard 
in Ankara that it is going to entail a tremendous amount of effort, a 
tremendous amount of commitment and, ultimately, the benefits will be a 
safer more prosperous world for everyone.
  So I appreciate the opportunity to participate with the chairman on 
this trip; and more than that, I appreciate the gentleman's confidence 
and the confidence of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz) in including 
me in this delegation. I am very proud this evening, jet lag and all, I 
am proud to stand here before the American people and tell my 
colleagues that the kind of dedication and commitment we saw on behalf 
of our country with this delegation will bring us great results.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. I thank my distinguished colleague, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes). Besides his intellect, besides his 
aggressiveness and his common sense, his wit added much to the trip. He 
kept us all smiling as we went from city to city, plane to plane, 
nonstop, in trying to accomplish and did accomplish all of our 
objectives.
  So it was great and the gentleman's humor added much to our trip. I 
thank him.
  Mr. REYES. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, the next member of the 
delegation who traveled is a senior Member of the House, someone who 
has earned the respect of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle. He 
is involved in a number of issues. This, I believe, was his first trip 
to Moscow; but he was as involved as any other Member and played a key 
role in helping us articulate our message to the leaders in each of the 
countries we visited, the gentleman from the State of Florida (Mr. 
Stearns).
  Mr. STEARNS. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I am 
delighted to be here. I thought I would select this side of the aisle 
just to show what a bipartisan effort the gentleman created through his 
leadership on this very strategic and important trip that we took to 
Moscow and, of course, the outskirts of Rome to meet with the exiled 
king of Afghanistan, and then back into Turkey.
  I think, as has been expressed by my other colleagues, Turkey has a 
key role to play here; and we can learn much from what Turkey has done 
to combat terrorism. More specifically, in the last 20 years, Turkey 
has had 30,000 people killed by terrorist acts. Certainly this is a 
menace in the country, but they have put together an entire program to 
combat terrorism. And we were briefed by the general staff of the 
Turkish army on what they had done to protect themselves and their 
country, and they made broad recommendations for the United States and 
all countries around this globe of ours to put into place what is 
necessary if we expect to control terrorism.
  Turkey, as my colleagues know, is a land between Europe and Asia and 
is protected by the straits between the Black Sea and the 
Mediterranean. Turkey is quite simply one of the most important 
countries in the region. It is interesting to note that some of their 
neighbors are the most hostile, aggressive people: Syria, Iraq, Iran. 
Prior to that, of course, they were close to Russia, with Georgia, 
Armenia, and Azerbaijan. So it is a very difficult, tough neighborhood, 
and Turkey occupies a strategic position and is of utmost importance to 
us.
  In fact, Incirlik is an Air Force Base we have there; and through the 
kindness and support of the Turkish government, we have our military 
planes there, which has a radius which covers all these countries. So 
it is extremely important to have the friendship of Turkey. I thought I 
would put into the record some of the recommendations they have 
suggested for us, and I hope President Bush will take note of some of 
these recommendations.
  President Bush has done an outstanding job of bringing together 
consensus. The Prime Minister of England today, Tony Blair, gave an 
outstanding

[[Page 18350]]

speech, putting in perspective some of the things that we have to cope 
with as a free democracy, a civilized country, when we deal with 
terrorists.
  The terrorist attacks of September 11 has shown that we need 
international consensus. There are four things that the Turkish 
government has recommended. First of all, believe it or not, there is 
not a common definition of what terrorism is throughout the world. Each 
country seems to have a little different definition for it. If we 
cannot define what it is, it is going to be hard to go after it. So the 
first thing we have to do is to define what terrorism is.
  And the second thing the Turkey generals suggested is international 
law related to terrorism, specifically oriented to reciprocity, so that 
if we are trying to get a terrorist returned to the country where the 
crime occurred, there will be the ability to do so.

                              {time}  2100

  The third thing they said was to establish an international 
organization that would actually struggle day to day and work out 
strategic and tactical efforts to defeat terrorism. Today we have not 
established either in the European Union or in NATO or any community 
that encompasses all the countries and international organizations.
  The last thing they say we should do is to publicize a list of active 
terrorist organizations and where they are. I think a lot of Americans 
would be extremely surprised to find that a lot of the cells of these 
terrorists organizations are in the free democracies. There are a lot 
of countries that we think they would try to extricate these cell 
organization, but indeed they are there. They are being harbored there, 
and perhaps some of these democratic countries do not know it. But in 
many cases if these terrorist organizations were listed and were 
discussed and publicized throughout the free world, the countries that 
are interested in democracy and freedom, they would try to make greater 
efforts to rid themselves of this menace.
  I would conclude by also saying that the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Chairman Weldon) did an excellent job. My colleague, the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Rohrabacher), who came into Congress with me in 
1988 did an exceptional job also. The gentleman from California, when 
he was able to set up some of these appointments and because of his 
long experience dealing with Turkey and also dealing with Afghanistan, 
and, in fact, having been over there many times on his own 
participating, he understood a lot about the nuances of this whole 
situation. It is nice to have his support.
  I hope all my colleagues will read some of the recommendations of our 
report. I hope tonight the gentleman from Pennsylvania will go through 
and perhaps touch on some of them. Considering the fact that Turkey has 
lost so much because of the embargo on Iraq, we might consider 
forgiveness of Turkey's IMF debt. That is something the gentleman might 
want to touch on. It will probably be anathema to many Members of 
Congress; but if you put into perspective some of the sacrifices that 
Turkey has made, I think there might be some way to help them, because 
their economy is starting to falter; and we do not need to have that 
country under that kind of economic stress when we are trying to deal 
with the terrorists in that area.
  Mr. Speaker, I will conclude by saying it was an exceptional trip. I 
think we have made a difference. Every Member of Congress comes here 
for one reason and one reason only: he or she wants to make a 
difference, as small as that might be. Tonight, with this trip I think 
we just did that. I wanted to praise the chairman and I look forward to 
working with him on other issues.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank our friend and 
colleague, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns), for his comments 
and for his outstanding contributions on our trip and in our meetings.
  He mentioned a point that we will be following up on, that is, the 
fact that Turkey, which has been one of our most loyal allies, has 
approximately $5 billion of foreign military sale debts, that we have 
sold them equipment to help defend our interests and their interests in 
the region.
  Just by their involvement in Desert Storm where they immediately 
supported the U.S. President's position against Iraq in 1991, when that 
occurred, they cut off approximately 2 to $3 billion of sales annually 
of products to Iraq, resulting in a $30 billion net decrease in their 
economy. They did that because they are our friends. When our President 
asked them to respond, they did not hesitate. They immediately cut off 
contact with Iraq; and they immediately, even though it cost them 
billions of dollars, they immediately said we are going to stick with 
America because America stuck with us back at an earlier time when 
their sovereignty was being threatened.
  So the comments of the gentleman about the need for us to consider 
forgiving that $5 billion of debt, maybe over a period of time, maybe 
all at once, whatever it might be, I think is an outstanding 
recommendation and one that I would wholeheartedly support.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield?
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, maybe a forbearance or some type of policy, 
as you point out, where they are strategically located, and to give us 
an Air Force Base at that particular site, at Incirlik, and to allow us 
to have this full freedom with our Air Force is absolutely crucial to 
that area to protect it.
  As I pointed out earlier, their neighbors are hostile and aggressive 
and their economy is faltering. A lot of the problems they are having 
is perhaps because of their loyalty to the United States. I think in 
times of crisis like this, where you have opportunity and danger, it is 
probably very important to consider how to help them so that their 
economy is strong and they can continue to support us without any kind 
of reservation. So some type of forbearance should be thought of by us 
here in Congress.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman 
and thank him for his comments. I would just add that as we found out 
that Turkey is a 99 percent Muslim state, yet it is 99 percent behind 
America and the allies in this effort.
  That proves the point that President Bush and all of us have been 
making. This is not a war against Islam. This is not a war against 
Muslims. This is a war against a radical band of cowards who hide in 
the hills, right now hiding in the deep caverns of the mountains of 
Afghanistan because they know they have done wrong and they are afraid 
to show their faces. They are being hidden and kept their by the 
Taliban government that is just as bad as they are because they are 
harboring these terrorists that will not bring them forward.
  Turkey is a critical player. I thank the gentleman for raising that 
point, and I thank him for his comments.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to turn to one of our junior members. When 
you first come to Congress you are not expected to play a pivotal role. 
You are expected to be involved and learn and try to sort out what is 
going on; but this gentleman has hit the ground running. He has been in 
the House less than a year. He comes from a very dynamic part of 
Pennsylvania. He jumped at the opportunity to play a role as we asked 
to have some younger Members in seniority go on the trip with us.
  Two freshmen Members traveled on this trip with us. They were 
outstanding contributors. This gentleman, who should have a seat on the 
Committee on Armed Services because of his interest on defense and 
security issues and because of his commitment to America's security, 
was an outstanding contributor. He was involved in our discussions. He 
was articulate in asking questions, and he was credible in offering 
advice in each of our meetings.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure to welcome the gentleman from the 
State of Pennsylvania (Mr. Platts).
  Mr. PLATTS. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding time to

[[Page 18351]]

me and allowing me to share some thoughts. I especially want to thank 
the gentleman for organizing this delegation trip to Russia, to Rome, 
and to Turkey, and for including me as a freshman Member. From a 
personal sense, it provided an exceptional opportunity for me to become 
much more informed on a number of foreign affairs matters dealing with 
Russia, dealing with our challenges in Afghanistan, dealing with Turkey 
in a broad sense but also in a very specific sense.
  Mr. Speaker, I felt in our nonstop visits throughout the three 
nations, I received a crash course in the issues of national security 
and foreign affairs. I also echo my thanks to the ranking Democratic 
Member, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), for his welcoming me into 
the delegation, and, as a freshman Member, being given this 
opportunity.
  Mr. Speaker, before a couple of comments on the stops, I would like 
to thank the Air Force and Navy personnel who were critical in making 
this trip happen. Our Navy liaisons were our escorts at all the stops, 
the Air Force personnel who assured our safe travel abroad and back, 
the State Department personnel who played critical roles in our 
meetings being facilitated. There is a tremendous team of public 
servants throughout the world doing great work on the Nation's behalf.
  I took away from every meeting we had, whether it be with military 
officials, with civilian elected officials, with private citizens, 
every person started their conversation with us first with a deep 
expression of sympathy to our Nation and the loss of lives that we have 
encountered as a result of the attacks on September 11; and second, 
from the civilian and military leaders, a strong commitment of support 
in our war against terrorism, and a strong commitment of support to 
ensure that justice does prevail as we track down the murderers of our 
citizens on September 11.
  As Americans we have united here at home in this battle against 
terrorism. Abroad our friends are uniting with us in defeating 
terrorism and bringing justice to bear against the culprits involved in 
these attacks.
  When I look at the three sites of our stops, I will share some quick 
comments. In Moscow I came away greatly enthused that the good that we 
look for in all evil in talking about the attacks on September 11, 
making sure that we find the good; and one of the good is going to be 
our relationship with Moscow, specifically relating to joining together 
and fighting terrorism, and the opportunity to build a strong and 
lasting relationship with Russia on a whole host of issues: 
agriculture, energy, national security and defense issue, law and 
justice issues, environmental issues. The opportunity is extremely 
important that we move forward and develop much further a relationship 
with Russia for the good of our Nation and our citizens and Russia and 
her citizens and the world in total.
  From the elected members of the Duma we met with, I could see their 
sincere commitment in working with us and have our nations grow closer.
  The final two stops, Rome, with the Afghan King, King Zahir Shah, his 
commitment to try to help his people, and to the courageous commitment 
of the military leaders that came to Rome to meet with the King and 
with us. Their commitment to return their nation to a nation where 
their citizens are safe, secure and living in peace, to have an open 
and free government, returned to that nation; and the King's three-part 
plan where he wants to lay out and have the tribal leaders come 
together to pick an interim leader for their state to go forward and 
replacing the vacuum that will be created when the Taliban government 
is removed, as it must be removed, for the sake of the Afghan people 
and for the sake of people around the world being free from the 
terrorist state that they are harboring in their country.
  The Turkish vision was overwhelming. The knowledge that they shared 
in our visit Sunday and Monday morning, I came away very grateful that 
we have such a strong and loyal ally in that region, as was referenced 
by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns), how we need to better 
appreciate their loyalty and friendship in the issue of foreign 
military sales, and how we should look at forgiveness of that debt, and 
that is not something that they asked for.
  In fact, when it was raised how we can help Turkey, the chairman of 
their Foreign Affairs Committee in the Grand National Assembly saying 
in a time of crisis, as we are in today, it would be inappropriate to 
ask for something in return for our support. We want to help as a 
friend because it is the right thing to do, not because we will get 
something for it. We Members brought up that issue as something that 
they deserve, not just for their support now, but for their loyalty as 
a great ally of us.
  Mr. Speaker, the foreign minister, his insights, I think we need to 
give great weight; and we have recommended them in our report to the 
administration. Sometimes as Americans we think that we have all of the 
answers to the world's problems, and we forget that there are a lot of 
experts that we need to turn to. The foreign minister had a wealth of 
knowledge on Afghanistan and the relationships between the Northern 
Alliance, now the United Front, and Pakistan and how we can be 
effective in working with the citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, a final comment relating to the war on terrorism and how 
it applies to Afghanistan specifically, is that the King and the 
military leaders did not come to us and say, come in and save us and do 
their work. They came to us and said, help us liberate ourselves. They 
did not ask us to go into the country to rid them of the evil, but help 
them in doing it themselves. That is what America has been about, 
standing up on one's own two feet. That is what they are trying to do. 
They just need some assistance.
  I conclude by saying it was a privilege of being included and being 
given the opportunity to garner such information and knowledge from 
this trip.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Platts) for his involvement and participation in the 
trip. He was a vital part of our delegation. He will be a continuing 
rising star in the Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, it is now my honor to introduce another member of our 
delegation who played the most critical role in the Italian portion of 
our trip. The expertise of the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Rohrabacher) on Afghanistan is broad and deep, and it did not start 
with the bombing of the World Trade Center. He has traveled to that 
region of the world on numerous occasions. He has interacted with the 
leadership of Afghanistan, those in exile and those trying to take back 
their country, and probably has as good a perspective as anyone in the 
Congress, if not on the Hill, on Afghanistan. I also appreciate the 
cooperation and support of his assistant, Al Santoli.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Rohrabacher).

                              {time}  2115

  Mr. ROHRABACHER. I thank the gentleman very much. We have a very 
special system of government and we have a very special group of people 
that live in the United States of America. We are a group of people who 
are not one race, but we are every race on the planet because we have 
people who have come here from every ethnic and racial group. We do not 
represent just one nationality, because we have people who have come 
here from Europe, from Asia, from Africa, from Spanish-speaking 
countries and from French-speaking countries.
  We have Muslims and we have Buddhists and we have Christians and we 
have Catholics, and we have about every religion there is, but what 
ties us together as a people is a love of liberty and justice that was 
first discovered back about 225 years ago when our Founding Fathers saw 
that this was something that bound them together as a Nation, and that 
would be the unifying factor and established this government that we 
have. How government is made in our country and how policy is made is 
not just by passing

[[Page 18352]]

laws like this but, instead, there is a competition of ideas and a 
national debate that moves forward on any important issue.
  What we just did with the leadership of the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) or should I say Chairman Weldon, not as 
chairman of our delegation but chairman in the Committee on Armed 
Services of a very important subcommittee, but what we did in this 
delegation is make sure that we became part of the national debate, 
first by educating ourselves firsthand as to what the people on the 
scene were experiencing and feeling, what was the information on the 
front lines, and to try to educate ourselves, and then to be articulate 
and to speak out on the issues as we see them.
  That is what has happened. We are now part of that national debate. I 
really appreciate the leadership that the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
has provided on this and, by the way, many of the other issues that I 
have personally involved myself on, I find the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania got there first and the gentleman from Pennsylvania was 
providing some leadership when I just sort of jumped on.
  I was very happy that on this trip I was able to contribute because I 
do have a long-term commitment to the people of Afghanistan, I worked 
with them while I was in the Reagan White House to help get them the 
weaponry they needed to defeat the Soviet Union. It was their defeat of 
Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s that permitted us in the 
United States to have an era, a 10-year period of prosperity and 
happiness and peace. The fact is we were spending $100 billion a year 
less on military than we did during the Cold War. This, because the 
Afghan people were so brave. But we walked away from the Afghan people. 
We walked away and we let them sleep in the rubble. We did not even 
help them dig up the land mines we had given them to fight the 
Russians. If there was one, not demand, plea, by the Afghans that we 
met on this trip, the field commanders who are standing up against the 
terrorist Taliban regime, the one plea was, please, yes, help us defeat 
the Taliban by giving us the ammunition we need to do the fighting, but 
please don't walk away and leave us alone once the fighting has 
started. Help us build a country where our children can be healthy. 
Help us build a country where we can have an education system. Help us 
build a country where people can live decent lives. Don't walk away and 
abandon us like you did the last time we fought a battle that so 
benefited the United States as well as benefitting ourselves.
  I heard that plea, I have heard that plea a long time before, but I 
am sure some of our fellow members of this CODEL had not heard that 
before. We did not do the right thing by Afghanistan, and it came back 
to hurt us. That was a mistake that we made. I will have to say that is 
not a partisan mistake. That was made by George W. Bush's father when 
George Bush, Sr. was President. There were some mistakes made. He made 
another mistake. One mistake he made is after the Gulf War, instead of 
finishing the job, he permitted his advisers to convince him not to 
finish off the Saddam Hussein regime. Well, I am afraid we are 
beginning to make some of these same mistakes again.
  We have now the ability to get rid of this terrorist Taliban regime 
that has so brutalized the people of Afghanistan, and at the same time, 
has its fingerprints all over the atrocity that was committed in the 
death of thousands of our fellow citizens in New York on September 11, 
this murderous Taliban regime that has been a haven for terrorists, for 
bin Laden. It has been a regime that has permitted 60 percent of the 
world's heroin to be grown and distributed from within its borders, a 
regime that makes a mockery of all human rights and has murdered so 
many of their own people that their own people are terrorized.
  That regime is not that much different than the regime of Saddam 
Hussein. We left Saddam Hussein in power and now there are those in our 
own State Department, perhaps some of the same people who advised 
George W.'s father to permit Saddam Hussein to remain, who are now 
advising George W. Bush to just demand that bin Laden be handed over 
and let the Taliban stay in power. That cannot happen. That would be 
making a lie out of George W.'s tremendous speech that he gave here 
just a week and a half ago.
  Either we rid the world of the terrorist regime, the Taliban regime 
in Afghanistan, or no dictatorship and no terrorist will take our word 
and take it for granted that they cannot get away with their evil deeds 
in the future. We will be encouraging dictatorships and terrorist 
regimes in the future to believe that they can attack the United 
States, or harbor and help people who are attacking the United States 
and get away with it.
  No, the Taliban must be overthrown. Bin Laden must die. We learned on 
this trip that we have the means to do this. We have the means to 
accomplish this end. We met with the king of Afghanistan who is one of 
the most beloved people in his country. Poor Commander Masood was 
assassinated a short time ago right before the attack on the World 
Trade Center. But the king, he is in his 80s, as we met him, it was 
clear that he has a very sharp mind, but what is more important is that 
he is surrounded by the most educated and aggressive young Afghans who 
are willing to come back and provide the expertise needed to govern 
that country. The king has promised a temporary transitory regime, a 
regime that will be just a transition regime that after the overthrow 
of the Taliban would serve for only 2 years, as I am sure the gentleman 
has explained this already, and then after 2 years, would give way to 
some sort of a democratic process that would be put in place so that 
the Afghan people could control their own destiny through the ballot 
box.
  With our help in rebuilding their country, we can bring a new era of 
peace to Afghanistan, and instead of being a springboard to destroy the 
stability of Central Asia and undermine democracy and freedom in Russia 
and to be a terrorist haven that would murder millions of Americans, or 
at least thousands of Americans, Afghanistan can become a civilized 
part of the world community. We have got that opportunity now. We 
cannot pass it up. Our State Department, I do not know what has gotten 
into people's heads. I cannot understand the incompetence of people who 
are still advocating the policy of keeping the Taliban in power.
  By the way, we had incompetence as well with our intelligence 
community who permitted this attack to succeed in the first place. We 
need to clear out the executive level people in some of these agencies 
and departments. We need to make sure that we stand firm and that we 
send a message to the world, if you slaughter Americans, you will pay 
the price. It is not just rhetoric. We have got to make sure that those 
words mean something.
  It has been my privilege to serve on this delegation with Chairman 
Weldon. Without Chairman Weldon's leadership, we could not have, not 
only had the transportation but we could not have gotten the support we 
needed to have such a successful mission. Now we are back and we are 
part of the debate. It is what we are saying here tonight, and what we 
said out in our press conference today, and what we will say during our 
briefings to the senior members of this administration, will play a 
large role in making sure that the President chooses the right path, 
the path to long-term peace and tranquility which is the path of 
strength and courage and not deal-making with tyrants and terrorists.
  I am very, very grateful to the gentleman from Pennsylvania. I know 
all of us learned a lot. I think we have accomplished a lot with this 
journey to Central Asia, to see our friends in Turkey who are standing 
with us so solidly and to talk to also those people in Russia who want 
to be our friends, and in the future, build a better future for both 
our peoples and for the whole world.


  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. I thank our friend and colleague for his 
comments, for his outstanding leadership, for his involvement on these 
issues long before September 11.
  Mr. Speaker, I would ask our colleagues to read the text of the 
material

[[Page 18353]]

that is in this special order, the additions that we have supplied, and 
get a full sense of understanding of what 11 Members of Congress did 
over the past 5 days. We will be briefing the administration and our 
leadership, the Speaker and the minority leader and Members of the 
other body throughout the next several weeks.
  Together, supporting our President, we can win, we can replace Osama 
bin Laden, we can remove the Taliban and allow the people of 
Afghanistan to regain control of their homeland.

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