Date: 1993-11-10
Speaker: D ORNAN (republican)
Chamber: H

Madam Speaker. I have been on the oor several times with this photograph. I am going to raise it up higher for our excellent crew downstairs so they can come In steady on this and show what I think is the .great tragedy of Somalia and what was for a while the focal point of our debate. And on the eve of Veterans Day. tomorrow. I want to discuss again. to make this point very clear to all the Members of this Chamber. some of them may have the TVs on in their office on CSPAN. getting ready to go back -to their districts for this weekend. many of them will participate in veterans ceremonies. I think that they will want to ave answers for the veterans across this country as to why there was no armor to back up our 18 killed in action Rangers and Special Forces soldiers in that special ops operation on the afternoon of October 3 that turned into the longest fire fight since Vietnam. egual in ferocity to some of the major engagements with German armor in World War IL when it degenerated into. with the armor knocked out. into an automatic weapons fire battle. One of the Army people referred to as the fire fight from hell. The young wounded Rangers and veterans. and I keep saying young. I guess that is my point of view. But there are mature family men. wives. many children. in their late 20s and early 30s. There were -only a few young private first classes and corporals. Rangers from this great 75th Ranger Regiment. that were killed in that shootout. Now. here are Russiandesigned. and I am not sure if they are Sovietbuilt and -purchased by the nation of India or built under license in a big tank plant outside of Delhi. the capital city of India. but this Is a picture that 1 took from a UH60 Blackhawk aircraft that belonged to the 1bth Wountafn flivisin. General 3dmotgorery was in the helicopter with me. He is the commamer ofour quickeartion force. We were not out of the International Airport a! Mogadishu. or 4 minutes when I looked down at the Indian ompneand on the southwest side -of the city -of Mogaftihu. And I am looking at these white painted main battle tanks. That is a mlitay berm. MBT. I said "What are those?" I thought at first .they might be British Challenger ls. He says. "Those are Russiandesigned T72s:" That As the Indian flag. It Is flying over. There is a U.N. flag here. The Indian flag -was iover here. I -am getting my camera ajusted and trying to zoom in on -this with the .70 millineter zoom lens. Here is an armored personnel carrier. Here are four of what I found out were 14 T72 tanks. Now. I looked over at General Montgomery. a good man. Silver Star from Vietnam. several Bronze Stars with V" for valor. Air Medals. a wellrounded general. He could almost read my mind through my eyes. Isaid. "Tell me they werent here October 3." He said. "Congressman. I called the Indians. They said they would have to call.DelhL" This was on the afternoon of a Sunday. Given the time advantage. it was already into thetime disadvantage. The world was rotating toward New Delhi s direction. So it was 2 or 3 times zones later than the Horn of Africa. probably 2. And so it was already dinnertime in India. He said they could not get permission to supply him with this armor. which is probably about 8 to 10 minutes. tank driving speed.30 to 35 miles an hour. to the CA circle that our Rangers had gone through -when they reached Aideeds headquarters In about 10 minutes from the Ranger headquarters at the international airport. The more I investigate this. the more fascinating it becomes. Here is -what I have been able to determine by pressing the United Nations using the Intelligence Committee. the Library of Congress Research Committee and a beginning of less resistance from my friends who I highly admire In the Pentagon in the structure of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Italy had M6W tanks. about a dozen of them. The general. later. in his office. General Montgomery told me he called Italy. They had to check with Rome. Now. since Rome is one time zone to Egypt. one to Rome. it is a 2hour time zone advantage. in other words. at 5 oclock. when all hell was breaking loose on Sunday afternoon on this high ground near the Olympic Hotel in Aldeeds headquarters in Mogadishu. In Italy It was only 3 oclock. But it was a Sunday in Rome. That is a Christian nation so that was the Lords Day. Why we could not have a hot line to whatever .the Pentagon is called in Rome o? wherever their military headquarters is to unleash 12 M0 tanks. The M60 tank was used by our U.S. Marine Corps in Desert Storm. They did not have their full complement of M1 Abrams. To have an M1 tank there. we have got a dozen of them now. which weighs 139.000 pounds. that is almost 70 tons. that is amazing. would have been ideal. But look at what an M60 weighs or. for example. Pakistan. after all. we were supposedly avenging the killings by ambush and the total mutilitation of the bodies of 24 peacekeepers from the nation of Pakistan. ambushed by Aideeds people. Pakistan had 12. at least a dozen. M48 tanks. An M48 is about 105.000 pounds so it is over 52 tons. The M60s that the Italians had are 107.000 pounds. again. about 54 tons. perfectly suited to crushing road blocks and getting in in a rescue operation to perform a blocking operation. All you would need would be four of them at the four main streets around the intersection around the two intersections where helicopters went down. It would have been very nice to have eight. backed up by armored personnel carriers. to pull out wounded men. This lack of coordination between the U.N. forces is why I voted. even though I am against any datesetting at all. why I voted for us to be out at the end of January. early February. rather than the end of March. At either date picked by this House. January 31 or March 31. we have put ourselves in a very untenable situation against a dedicated. ferocious killer of a warlord. Mohamed Farah Aideed. This man has been threatening us all week long in a firefight that his henchmen started near the Malaysian compound. The Malaysians are in a panicky mood. They engaged in a much bigger. firefight. and I am not going to secondguess them. and their judgment was whatever it was on scene. but they ended up killing a father of eight children who was a good Somali. the security chief for one of the major volunteer compounds. a wonderful world organization. CARE. the CARE security chief. father of eight. killed in this firefight because Adeeds snipers were sniping at the Malaysians. and several wounded on that side. These are very dangerous times in. to paraphrase Mr. Kissinger. the new world order. The United States in many cases may be the only force for justice in the world. If we get into situations like this where we do not have a clear battle plan. or civilians in the Pentagon are denying requests for sufficient protection for our men and young women. in many cases. in the field. then we are going to be in a situation where the isolationists of the world. growing now in both great parties of this country. are going to prevail in every argument. because whbn we put Americans in harms way. the Colin Powell. Dick Cheney. George Bush. but principally Ronald ReaganCap Weinberger theory of overwhelming force. with the support of the people. that means their elected Representatives and Senators voting in affirmation. or at least counseling with the leadership members and the experienced people on the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees in both Chambers. this will of the people. an overwhelming force. is the only way Americans are going to be able to help anybody in this world. If we have people at the Pentagon of the background of Morton Halperin. a designee. who the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy has admitted to Senators. and this is Frank Wisner. with a distinguished background as Ambassador to the Philippines. to an African country. to an Indonesian nation. he has a fine ambassadorial background. he admitted to Senators. and maybe I should not say "admitted." it is a guilt word. he discussed with Senators that Morton Halperin. not yet confirmed by the Senate. in a created Under Secretary position with a very romantic title. Under Secretary of Defense for Peacekeeping and Democracy. that he weighed in on this decision to jerk the AC130 Specter gunships. with a huge cannon on them. holding tons of. ammunition. multiple gatling guns. trains with the Rangers and our Special Forces folks all the time. can fly above �.000 feet. that is above rocketpropelled grenade or small arms fire. and give unbelievable protective firepower support to any Rangers or Special Ops guys trapped on the ground. Why was Morton Halperin weighing in on this? Let me spend some of this special hour on this eve of Veterans Day on Mr. Halperin. Here is an article from Army Times. the same Army times. by the way. which has a superb article that. if my staff gets it over here. because I realize I do not have it. has an article by an acquaintance of mine. Tom Donnelly. It is the first definitive article in any publication on this firefight from hell. I enjoyed meeting with a vice president of Readers Digest last night at a friend of mines affair at the Capitol Hill Club. at the Friends of Pat Nolan affair. I met this VP who said .that Malcolm McConnell. one of the finest military writers. or writers. period. at Readers Digest. will be working over the next few months on doing the definitive piece in a magazine that sells 14. million copies a month. so all of these heroes and their great widows. wives. flances. and families who have suffered so much. particularly the ones who are going to suffer with loved ones with arms missing or in wheelchairs for the rest of their lives. leg and arm gone in the case of one hero rescuer. Christopher Reid. who is up at Walter Reed right now. and I was humbled to visit with this fine young Marine sergeant of AfricanAmerican descent. who gave his arm and leg to try and just retrieve the remains of three Americans burned to death in the back of the first Blackhawk that was shot down on September 25. For these men on Veterans Day. I want to see what I can do to bring Les Aspin to his senses. and his bosses in the White House. to ask Morton Halperin to do the decent thing and withdraw his nomination. Madam Speaker. again. if my staff is listening. and they .should be. if they will bring over this fine article by Tom Donnelly in this weeks Army Times on the firefight. I will put that in the RECORD with my remarks tonight. In that article. in that Army Times. an article by Rick Maze. one of their staff writers in Army Times. it says. "Halperin as peacekeeper?" Subtitle "Qualified." that is arguable. "Qualified but controversial nominee draws fire." Then it shows the two sides of Morton Halperin. how he is going through a transformation. like a caterpillar to a butterfly. I guess. Here is the old. the old Morton Halperin: "All of the genuine security needs of the United States can be met by a simple rule which permits us to only intervene when invited to do so by a foreign government." as In Grenada. That was 1979. 6 years after we had left Vietnam.. It was in the Nation magazine. He also said -more recently. just at the beginning of the summer. in Foreign Policy. and this is still the old Halperin. The United States should explicitly surrender the right to intervene unilaterally in the affairs of other countries by overt military means or by convert operations. Such selfrestraint would bar Interventions like those in Grenada or Panama unless the United States first gained the explicit consent of the international community acting through the Security Council. Here is the new Morton: We must ensure that other nations clearly understand that the United States is prepared to use force unilaterally when it determines its interests are threatened. That was a memorandum to the Senate Committee on Armed Services. which can call him before that committee before they confirm him. That looks like it was a 30- to 45day switcheroo when he realized his nomination was in trouble. Here is another one from the same month of August: I can support the conduct of Sekirk operations conducted pursuant to the requirements of law. So now he is hedging his lifelong stance against any convert operations whatsoever. I wonder if Mr. Clinton cleared the launching of 23 Tomahawk missiles. each one with a thousand pound warhead. against the massive and brand newly opened intelligence building in Baghdad. I wonder if Clinton checked with Halperin before he launched that Navy attack to avenge the alleged. proved to my satisfaction. assassination attempt on George Bush. H9156 CC or thwarted attempt against a former President of Xhe United States. Here is what Rick Mazes -article says: The nomination ofa longtime Washington Insider to a new Pentagon post overseeing peacekeeping -operations has turned into a floestorm -of criflcism aimed -t the nominee and President Vlintens recently foreign palicy setback. On rthe -surface. dt .would appear that Halperin would make an Adeal .nominee for the newlyceated post of Assistant .Secretary Tor Diplomacy and Peacekeeping. an important job In the postCold -War world. What is that. kind of a downgraded title. now? The 55yearold Brooklyn native has taught nuclear strategy and arms control po cy at major -universities: Columbia. Harvard. MIT. Yale. .e served In the Pentagon as Deputy MAiatant Defense Secretary lIar International Zscurit Affairs during the Johnson AdmlnistratIon. and then worked on the National .Scurity Council staff under Nixon. He was aholdover. Critics have scrutinized his history and foreign policy opinions. finding fault and discrepancies. My friend. Senator BOB Smirm. who came to thisCongress here in the 1984 election and served here -with great distinguished service. particularly. with a heart as big fa his 6foot4 frame Tor our missing -in action and their families. BoB SMIH. Republican. New Hampshire. -says. "Mr. Falperin is no stramger to Washington. and he Is nota stealth nominee either." BOB is on the Armed Services and the Intelligence Committees. like myself. albeit in the other Chamber. He has a very long and sordid track record. D 1750 More importantly perhaps. his nomination for a postsetting policy for 1.S. military involvement in nontraditiolal roles comes as the first of two postcold war peacekeeping missions off the Clinton administration which -have failed. Halperins hearings will become a forum to examine Clintons foreign and military policies. predicts Senator Tn EW Lorr. Republican. Mississippi. Another respedted. I -vill say graduAte of this Zhmber over to the Senate. He now represents the whole State of Mississippi instead of onefifth of the Stale of Mississippi. TRENT Lorr rose up to be our N9. 2 man. and I told him mayte -he should reconsider going to the Senate. I always thought I would live to see .him the Speaker of the House of Representatives. and that deed. seeing bim sitting in the chair where you are. Madam Speaker. as the Speaker. would have certainly finally put the grievanes -of the Civil War to rest after almost a century and 30 to 40.some years. But TB T chose to go to the Senate. and he serves his great State of Mississippi well over there. TaENT LoT -said that Halperin has played a roleexactly what -role is not clearin drafting presidential order PDD 13. I have been speaking About this Presidential directive for 6 months on this floor. or at least for 4 months when I first heard about it. This -PDD 13 would expand the role the IUnited States plays in U.N.-led peacekeeping missions. -here we are always the combat teeth. the sword. the cutting edge. and those takifg the most casualties. We have taken. if you take into consideration the Pakistanis had Three more men killed from ambush. and their death toll stands at .27 in this peacekeeping operation in Somalia. weare at30 killed violently and 4 more who died of nonbattle deaths and .that is 24. MBut we haxe wounded way .over 100. No nation comes close to suffering In blood and death. and -of course not in treasure..Sure. we still are assessed -mere than 35 percent of the USN. role. I vas with General Secretary Mr. Boutros BoutrosGhali .at lunch yesterday. and that high price we -pay for peacekeeping around the world. whether we have a say -or not. we get the bill -on a lot .of these peacekeeping operations. Keep in mind that the United States pays the bill for Deacekeeping in India and that goes back to 1948 when Nehru. with much leadership by Mahatma Gandhi. separated the country into two Muslim nations on either side. which eventually split off into Bangladesh and Pakistan. and the main part of India xemaining a Hindu nation. We are still there. we are still paying 35 percent of the bill. you. the taxpayers who follow this House. and as you well know. 1.300.000 People are listening to us right now. Madam Speaker. You taxpayers have paid the bill for peacekeeping in Cyprus since 1964. and the bill went up in 1974 when the Turks were using F100Ds that we gave them. And I saw the tail member on a plane on the evening news rolling in. close shots taken in formation. rolling in on the Gold Coast along Nicosia. tearing up gigantic tourist hotels with an airplane that I had flown on active .duty about 17 years before. What a staff I have. Think you. Timothy Hlarroun. Here is that article. "Anatomy of a Firefight: Our Rangers in Somalia." the first afteraction report. If you cannot get a hold of the Army rimes. Mr. and Mrs. America whose zons and daughters serve in our military. then Madam Speaker. they can get it out of the CoNGRESSONAL RECORD of the 218th birthday of the Marine Corps. today. November 10. Now lack to Idr. Morton Halperin. Under -Senate procedures. Halperins opponents could block the -nomination indefinitely. Instead they decided they want confirmation hearings so that they can grill Halperin. and at the same time blast illnton. Then. -aftei the brauig hearings. they hope to either defeat Halperin outright. or use Senate procedures to block action. .Now hear is the prostitute of th( Reagan .administration who works al Brookings. Lawrence J. Korb. -Becaust he is introduced as a former Reagan ap. pointee. and he left under a cloud .witl E November .. 1993 much prejudice on the part of -ap Weinberger and the Pxesident himself. Ronald Reagan. Lawrence J. Korb is the mouthpiece they roll out -when they want to put the name Reagan following somebodys name. And then he proceeds to talk about how great it will be to have bisexuals in the military who can date the whole base .as long as they do not cross the enlisted/ officer barrier. and any time the media. the liberal dominant media culture wants to attack anything conservative in the military they roll .out Larry Korb. So of course Mr. Korb says what they .are doing. the Senators. is unfair and despicable. He usually quotes Daffy Duck. And here is a former Reagan -administration tdefense official. but they never put in parenthesis who left under a cloud and left in disgrace with prejudice. "There are a lot of things at play here." Korb sags. "that have nothing to do with Halperin!s merits. Republicans are trying to get -back at Democrats for blocking the nominaton of John Tower to be Defense .Secretary during the Reagan Administration." Korb said. That is absolutely hogwash. I do not think my friends. BOB SmwTH U.S. Senator from New Hampshire. or TRENT LO T. US. Senator from Mississippi. are dredging up the past back to the spring of 1989. not that they did not think it was horribly unfair to gut on the merest innuendo against John Tower. the longest serving Navy chief. chief. chief. master. master officer in the U.S. Navy Reserves. try to destroy him. and of course we put a good man in his place. who went through in a breeze because they felt so guilty about it over in the Senate. We got Dick Cheney in there by March. But it was terrible what happened to John Tower. a former chairman under President Reagan In 1981 through the year 1986 of the same Senate Armed Services Committee that stabbed him in the back. Korb says we are playing some revenge game. No. no. no. Larry Korb. we are going after Halperin on the merits of his life. because he did get a ticket. paid for by we do not know whom. and maybe we can find out -at the hearings. to fly to England when they were trying to kick out a sleazy Benedict Arnold. Piilip Agee. who had printed the names in -some sleazy magazine of our CIA station chiefs at many of our embassies all around the world. And one of them. -a fellow Catholic with chili dren. was murdered in the streets of Athens. Dick Welsh. So no. no. Larry Korb. We have plenty to .deal with on the merits with Morton Halperin. "Emotions of Vietnam. -a war Halperin -came to -oppose. are also at play." Korb says. There might be some truth to that. .One moderate Republican. JOHN WARNER of Virginia." and that title. moderate Republican. may come back tohauntJOHN whenhecomes up for reelection in 4years. "has suggested that Clinton withdraw the momination." So even the moderates are rallying against Halperin over in the Chamber at the north end of this great buillding. "It seems to me." WARNER says. that "it is timely for the President and the Secretary of Defense to take a second look. and a very careful look at this nomination." WARNER. of course. is the ranking Republican on the Select Committee on Intelligence. and I think he is No. 2 on the Armed Services Committee. "Halperin. through a Pentagon spokesman. declined to be interviewed.. " When your nomination is in such jeopardy. it is good to take a very low profile. stay underground. But a senior Pentagon official. faceless. nameless. anonymous. said Les Aspin continues to support him. "This nomination is winnable. the [unnamed] official said. Halperin is being tarred for the very reasons he was selected." What reasons could that be? That he brags that he helped defeat in this Chamber and in the Senate. working behind the scenes as head of the Washington. DC. ACLU. the amendment that at first was winning hands down to make it a crime to bring the American flag in front of veterans in wheelchairs. which is what they were approving. this beautiful flag that flies here under those great words. "In God We Trust." And the ACLU. by the way. wants "God" in the "In God We Trust" off this wall. In the Senate Chamber it is on the opposite wall. The President of the Senate. who is the Vice President of the United States. in tough times of breaking tie votes. he sees those words right in front of him. It is right under the clock. right here on their staff door in the Senate Chamber. the same words. "In God We Trust."