[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17121-17122]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER PAUL SALOPEK

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, during the August break, I took some time 
off with my wife. As we were traveling, we were contacted by Jim 
O'Shea, who works with the Chicago Tribune, in the city of Chicago, 
which I represent.
  He told me about a terrible situation. A writer for the Chicago 
Tribune, Paul Salopek, who was on assignment for National Geographic in 
Africa, was arrested and detained in the Sudan.
  For 9 days, our embassy was not notified. When they learned of this 
and found him, he was in a confinement or jail cell in El Fasher in 
Sudan. He is being charged with visa and other violations for crossing 
over into Sudan and most notably he is being charged with the crime of 
espionage.
  I come to the Senate today to let the American people know about his 
plight but also to speak to the Sudanese Government and their embassy 
in Washington. Many times when we come to the Senate to speak about 
foreign policy issues, we discuss the fate of hundreds of thousands, 
sometimes even

[[Page 17122]]

millions of people. This relates to the fate of one man. Paul Salopek 
is not just another journalist, not just another correspondent. He is a 
Pulitzer Prize winner.
  I first started reading his work in the Chicago Tribune. As soon as I 
would finish a piece he had written, I would rush to the byline to see 
who wrote this. He is truly a gifted writer. He has written some things 
which I have saved and clipped out, that I hang onto. They are dog-
eared and yellowed from age, he is just that good.
  When I went to the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this 
last December with Senator Brownback, we were touring an area where, 
sadly, 5,000 people a day die in this region of Africa. Very few people 
in the West are aware of it. In preparation for that journey, we looked 
at the National Geographic special on Africa and particularly the 
section on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was, once again, 
one of those pieces of writing that stops you cold. And you think: I 
wish I had the gift to come up with the words of this writer. The 
writer, once again, was Paul Salopek.
  On August 6, Paul Salopek was arrested in the Sudan while on 
freelance assignment for the National Geographic, along with his driver 
and interpreter. He has been charged, as I said, with espionage and 
with writing ``false news,'' along with an immigration violation.
  When you look at his assignment, it was not even close to being 
politically sensitive. National Geographic had sent him to this region 
to write about the history and culture of the Sahel region of Africa. I 
know that he undertook this assignment with the same commitment and 
passion as he has in all of his work.
  When we visited the Congo, one of the women there, who had worked 
with Paul while he was in that region, said she could not remember 
another writer who became so immersed in his work, spending the entire 
day with the Pygmy people of the Congo, and then at night he would be 
off to his tent and, by just a dim light, working on his computer 
writing all night to bring together all of his thoughts.
  His subject, in this case for the National Geographic, has been the 
geography, history, culture, environment, wildlife, natural resources, 
religion, landscape, and populace of the Sahel, a wide swath of land 
running from the Atlantic Ocean to the Horn of Africa. I know when the 
piece is finally written it will be well worth reading.
  The name ``Sahel'' comes from the Arabic word for ``border'' or 
``margin.'' And for many Americans, the Sahel is undoubtedly on the 
margins of their awareness. Paul Salopek's article would have helped 
change that. Now he awaits trial in El Fasher, in the North Darfur 
region of Sudan.
  I have been in close contact with the U.S. Embassy in Sudan and 
understand he is being treated well while he awaits trial. Mr. Bishop, 
who works for our embassy in Khartoum, has been in frequent contact, 
visiting him almost on a daily basis, providing him with water and food 
and the basics of life and making certain he is being taken care of. 
And I am glad to report that is happening. I appreciate that fact and 
all the efforts the State Department and others have undertaken on his 
behalf.
  Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer urged Sudanese President 
al-Bashir to release him. And many of us in Congress have been working 
to try to help effect his release.
  Let me make it clear: Those of us who know of the work of Paul 
Salopek know one thing for certain, Paul Salopek is a journalist. He is 
not a spy. He has written on everything from the human genome diversity 
project, for which he won his first Pulitzer Prize, to the civil war in 
the Congo, for which he won his second.
  He has been a student of cultural geography, which informs his 
current project on the Sahel, once traveling hundreds of miles by mule 
through the remote Sierra Madre region in Mexico.
  In another brilliant story, Paul traced the route of a barrel of oil, 
tracking shipments of crude oil from across the globe, until they 
reached South Elgin in my home State of Illinois, and filled the gas 
tanks of the cars in my home State.
  He has written a touching article about 7-year-old brides in Ethiopia 
and a 13-year-old school girl in Angola who was tortured after she was 
accused of witchcraft.
  His writing captures the reader from the opening sentence, 
illuminating and educating along the way. As Adlai Stevenson once said: 
He can make the words march on the page.
  One of his former colleagues, now with the Seattle Times, wrote this 
week:

       If we don't care about Paul, we don't care about the 
     stories he writes. We don't care about the world and the 
     people in its farthest reaches and most desperate 
     circumstances. His work serves us all, to help us understand 
     and feel.

  I would like to associate myself with that quotation.
  Paul Salopek is a journalist, a reporter, and most fundamentally he 
is a writer. He crossed a border without the correct paperwork, but he 
has spent his writing career breaking down borders that divide us in 
this world.
  I am hopeful the Government of Sudan will recognize the fact that 
although Paul did enter the country without a visa, which is a civil 
violation, he did so as a writer, writing for the National Geographic 
magazine. He is not a spy. He did not come to this region of the world 
with any political agenda.
  I am heartened by the news that the Khartoum Government has issued a 
pardon to a Slovenian writer and envoy who had been convicted of 
similar charges.
  I hope that Mr. Salopek can be released even more quickly.
  The American Society of Newspaper Editors, Reporters without Borders, 
the Overseas Press Club, and the Committee to Protect Journalists have 
all issued statements urging the release of Paul Salopek and his driver 
and translator who were detained with them.
  I want to repeat those calls on the floor of the Senate.
  This is an opportunity for the Sudanese Government to make one small 
step in the right direction, toward recognizing basic freedoms.
  I want to thank all those who tried to help; my colleague, Senator 
Obama, traveling in Africa, who has tried to do his part to help Paul 
Salopek. I also want to acknowledge the work that has been done by 
former Congressman, former Ambassador, former Secretary, now Governor 
Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who is also trying to help in every way 
he can.
  This is an opportunity for the Sudanese Government to make the right 
step in the right direction, toward recognizing basic freedoms, toward 
demonstrating the kind of humanitarianism which will leave, I think, 
the Sudanese Government in good stead with many countries around the 
world.
  It is my deepest hope that Paul Salopek will soon be reunited with 
his family and soon be released from this prison. It is a matter of the 
freedom of the press but, as I said, also the freedom of one fine man.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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