[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2317]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




EXPRESSING CONDOLENCES ON THE ASSASSINATION OF EX-PRIME MINISTER RAFIK 
                                 HARIRI

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Petri). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer heartfelt sympathy to 
the people of Lebanon and to the many, many leaders of that country who 
have suffered a great loss yesterday with the assassination of the 
former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri.
  Over the last 10 years, I have had the opportunity to visit the small 
country of Lebanon. I have taken an interest in the country because of 
my Lebanese heritage and the fact that Lebanon needs a few advocates in 
the House of Representatives, and I have tried to be a strong advocate 
for this small country.
  During the 10 years that I have visited Lebanon, I had the 
opportunity to become well acquainted with Prime Minister Hariri. Over 
the 10 years that I have had a chance to visit Lebanon, I have seen the 
country rebuilt almost literally by the Prime Minister and his efforts 
and his resources in not only bringing people together but using many 
of his own resources, certainly, to rebuild the city of Beirut.
  Prior to the war, the city of Beirut was known as the Paris of the 
Middle East. Today, and what happened yesterday, will not only really 
hurt that opportunity for Beirut to continue to have that kind of a 
beauty because of what happened yesterday, it will also hurt our 
opportunities to bring about peace in that region of the world.
  Prime Minister Hariri did so much for the country and, in particular, 
for the city of Beirut. Ten years ago, there were many, many burnt-out 
buildings. Today, there are many beautiful hotels and condominiums, and 
the center of the city has a project known as Solidare that the Prime 
Minister took a great deal of interest in in really rebuilding the 
business center and creating a business center in downtown Beirut.
  He was also responsible for helping over 2,000 students a year by 
giving them scholarships so that they could attend universities and 
colleges all over the Middle East and also here in this country. His 
foundation in this country has been very, very generous. His presence 
in the country will be sorely missed. He was one who did try and bring 
about peace, did try and bring people together, did rebuild the country 
and rebuild the city of Beirut and, in that essence, tried to forge a 
peace among Nations in that region of the world.
  I know for his family this is a terrible loss, and I know for the 
people of Lebanon it is a terrible loss, and I know for the people of 
the region, it is a terrible loss.
  We will probably never know who those terrorists were who decided to 
snuff out his life. I hope that at some time we will be able to find 
them, but for now we say to the Prime Minister's family, to the people 
of Lebanon, you have suffered a great loss, we have suffered a great 
loss, those of us that have known the Prime Minister have suffered a 
great loss. The Prime Minister and his family are in our thoughts and 
prayers today and will be in the future.

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