Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for not to exceed 10 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, last night I observed, as I am sure many Americans did, Richard Clarke's statement on the program ``60 Minutes'' where he made some very strong allegations concerning President Bush and his lack of effort on the war on terrorism. I was struck by his tone, by his statements, and also by the lack of questions concerning what he had done the previous years. I believe Mr. Clarke was appointed in May of 1998 by President Clinton as the first National Coordinator for Security Infrastructure Protection and Counterterrorism at the National Security Council. That is a very long title, but many people say ``counterterrorism czar.'' He was the person to combat terrorism. That is a very prestigious position, a very important position. Looking at the events that occurred in 1998 and also in 2000, I wonder what we were doing. I kept waiting for the questioner to ask him: Why didn't we do more? On August 7, 1998, terrorists bombed the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Madam President, 212 people were killed on August 7, 1998, and over 4,000 people were injured in Nairobi. Eleven people were killed and 72 people were wounded in Tanzania. It was a very deadly day. Two U.S. embassies--that happens to be U.S. soil--a lot of people are not aware of that but our embassies are U.S. soil. Those are U.S. buildings, those were U.S. employees, some U.S. citizens--almost all U.S. employees. Africans were killed. What was our response? The Clinton administration, with Mr. Clarke as the head of counterterrorism, lobbed a few cruise missiles, supposedly to get Mr. bin Laden. We missed, but I compliment them for trying. What else did we do? Did we try again? The answer is no. Did we send special forces over there? The answer is no. They killed 212 people in Nairobi, 11 people in Tanzania, over 4,000 people injured, some of them critically, very seriously injured, and what did we do? We lobbed a few cruise missiles and hit the desert. This was in August of 1998. I kept waiting for the questioner to say: Why didn't we do more in 1998? I heard him say: We were on a wartime footing; we had a lot of meetings; I had a lot of face time with President Clinton; I talked with him about it; we urged him to do more. Why didn't we do more? I have only served with a few Presidents but I could not help but think Ronald Reagan would have done more. We had American soldiers who were killed as a result of a terrorist bombing in Germany, and Ronald Reagan sent planes to Libya and sent a heck of a signal to Mr. Qadhafi and, frankly, I think he changed his terrorist ways to some extent. I can't help but think President Bush 1 would have done more, and I know President Bush 2, the current President, would have done a lot more. President Clinton was President for 8 years, and Mr. Clarke was head of his counterterrorism division for about 3 of those years. He worked in his administration in another capacity as well. But we didn't do hardly anything after the 1998 bombings, which was a direct assault on the United States and our citizens, our people, our property, and two poor countries in Africa, and we did not do anything. Later, the USS Cole was attacked on October 12, 2000, and 17 people were killed, 39 were wounded, and it was pretty close to being a lot more serious than that. We could have had hundreds killed. Again, that was a direct attack on the United States. Mr. Clarke was still head of counterterrorism, and what did we do then? The answer is nothing. They might have had some meetings, but they did not do anything. They did not do anything visible, anything we could see. They did not make concerted efforts. Last week, I was watching on TV a picture of bin Laden walking in Afghanistan where we had satellites viewing him, and we still did not do anything. We did not have assets in the region. Why? We had plenty of time to put assets in the region to make a change and maybe prevent 9/11/2001 from even happening, but maybe the administration and maybe Mr. Clarke were preoccupied or they did not have it high on their priorities. Those questions were not asked in this program. Maybe, for whatever reason, he has a vendetta against the current President. I don't know. I also learned today from Condoleezza Rice, the President's National Security Adviser, that Mr. Clarke wanted a job in the new Department of Homeland Security. I don't know what caused his change. I don't know what his motivation is. I am not sure if he wants to sell books or is looking for a job or what his efforts are. But I am amazed at the neglect or the lack of interest in the previous administration after we had our embassies attacked, after we had the USS Cole attacked, and we had Americans killed and hundreds of American employees killed. We had thousands of people injured, and we did not do anything. For him to have the gall or the nerve to start pointing a finger at President Bush saying he did not do enough in fighting the war on terrorism when Mr. Clarke was actually in a position to really do something for 2 or 3 years during the Clinton administration, I find unbelievable. I cannot believe the press would not ask, why did he not do more, why did President Clinton not do more? Why did we not respond? If we would have responded in 1998, 1999, or 2000, maybe 9/11 would have never happened. It is unbelievable that kind of attack would be made. Maybe it is for political reasons. I do not know. It is very sobering and startling. I hope when he is in front of the cameras or maybe when he is before a committee in Congress people ask him why did he not do more when he was in a position to do so. It is also interesting to note on October 19, 2001, the Bush White House issued a press release saying Mr. Clarke was recently named special adviser to the President for cyberspace security. It is not the same. The President has an excellent team and he receives counsel from an excellent team. With his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, Vice President Dick Cheney, with Secretary of State Colin Powell, the President has an excellent team in foreign policy. I am very disappointed in Mr. Clarke's comments. I think he should be held accountable and questions need to be asked of him. I yield the remainder of my time, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I have yet to have a chance to review the amendment of the Senator from California. I object at this point and I expect in the near future I will be happy to accommodate our friend. She can begin her debate and maybe that will help clarify the intention of her amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. I still haven't reviewed the amendment. I will do this: I tell my colleague I am happy to enter into time agreements on a lot of amendments but I will state I want to see the amendments first. I know there is a whole package of amendments. I suggest we go under the assumption it will be that. I will grant you that in just a moment.

Mr. NICKLES. That will be more than acceptable. I ask unanimous consent that there be 30 minutes equally divided on the Sarbanes amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. I will agree with that, Mr. President. I amend my request to include the Dorgan amendment to be 20 minutes equally divided.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I won't make the request now. I am telling our colleagues, the Senator from North Dakota has about 5 hours, maybe a little less now. I ask the Chair, how many hours remain?

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I reserved time for the Senator from Oklahoma to speak on the amendment. He has not done that, so I will continue to reserve 7 minutes for my colleague from Oklahoma.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, if our colleague would decide not to send his amendment to the desk, I would be much more favorably inclined to discuss it.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Massachusetts. He is my very good friend. He did not get as excited today as yesterday. I do not know if that is good or bad.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. If the Senator will yield, I think we should elevate them to higher office. Mr. President, I compliment my colleague from Florida and thank him for his cooperation.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, we are making very good progress. For the information of our Members, I think momentarily we will be able to dispose of seven or eight amendments. I believe the Senator from Georgia wishes to discuss an amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I am happy to do that. I compliment our staffers, and I see them running to the floor. We have four amendments our joint staffs have worked on: One, Senator Conrad's amendment on tribal colleges; one by Senator Bingaman on the pediatric vaccine reserve fund; one by Senator Wyden on healthy forests; and one by Senator Kennedy on the SCHIP. We have reviewed those, and I believe they have been approved by both sides. I add one additional amendment by Senator Thomas and Senator Conrad, No. 2794, dealing with rural health. I ask unanimous consent that these five amendments be considered en bloc.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I believe that the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee has an amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I believe we have had lots and lots of votes. I hope we can avoid any more votes, but my guess is we will have to have some. My guess is we will have a vote on NIH--maybe not; maybe that can be agreed to. We may have to have a vote on this. That is fine. You just mentioned an additional amendment, and that was Senator Landrieu?

Mr. NICKLES. Don't keep pointing. It is not fair to tell our colleague from Kentucky he does not get a vote and we have six people raising their hands.

Mr. NICKLES. I will ask my colleague to call upon one of his colleagues to offer an amendment that will require a vote. In the meantime, we will see if we cannot negotiate an agreeable arrangement for the Senator from Kentucky to have a vote on his amendment and on the NIH.

Mr. NICKLES. Could you give me a hint what his amendment might be?

Mr. NICKLES. Still, I do not know what it is.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, we have at least four more amendments that we have agreed to. We are working to see if we cannot agree to a couple of others in the queue. First, we have an amendment by Senators Lincoln, Baucus, Snowe, and Breaux. I believe it has been cleared. Another is a sense-of-the-Senate amendment by Senators Grassley, Lugar, and others, dealing with agriculture research. Another is an amendment by Senator Snowe and others dealing with SBA. Our staff said it is agreed to. Another amendment is by Senators Sessions, Cornyn, Graham, and Nelson, and Shelby, dealing with NASA funding. We ask that these amendments be agreed to en bloc.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, we have voted on homeland security four or five times.

Mr. NICKLES. Let's look at it. I haven't looked at it yet. If the Senator wants to call up an amendment for a rollcall vote, I suggest we do the Dayton amendment. I remember that from last year.

Mr. NICKLES. Again, we have an amendment that Senator Lugar has on global AIDS in foreign affairs. Maybe they can get together and we can eliminate a vote on both of those. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.