Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October/November 1998, pages 25, 30

Congress Watch

Congressional Hearings Put Politics Above Country

By Shirl McArthur

Two hearings—one in the House and one in the Senate—were held during the past couple of months that held promise of furthering the debate on U.S. policy in the Middle East. They failed to do so, however, mostly because the participants were more interested in making points than in advancing U.S. interests in the region.

The first of these hearings was held by Chairman Benjamin Gilman’s (R-NY) House International Relations Committee on July 29. This was intended to be a routine hearing on “developments in the Middle East,” with Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Martin Indyk briefing the committee members and fielding their questions.

In his opening statement, Gilman made it clear that he disagreed with just about every aspect of U.S. policy in the region. He complained about softening of the administration’s position toward Iran and “the ongoing threats from Iraq,” and about “unhelpful” measures being taken by Arab organizations and governments against Israel.

Defending the administration’s latest policy toward the Middle East peace process, Indyk said: “We are in constant touch with both sides, but believe that it is essential for them to resolve these issues directly. As soon as they do so, we stand ready to involve ourselves.” On Iraq, he said the administration is countering efforts to lift sanctions, while supporting programs to meet the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people. On Iran, he said the administration takes seriously Iran’s test launching of a Shahab-III missile, but also continues “to encourage moderation in Iran’s international behavior.”

In the question period, ranking minority member Lee Hamilton (D-IN) tried to inject some substance into the hearing by asking whether Indyk agreed that progress in the peace process is the “linch-pin” to U.S. interests in the Middle East. Indyk would only say it is “one of them—along with what happens in Iran and Iraq,” which amounted to a complete cop-out.

One interesting claim made by Indyk during the question period (while never explicitly acknowledging that it was the administration’s proposal) was that two-thirds of the Israeli public supports a 13 percent Israeli withdrawal in the West Bank. He also acknowledged that Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad is becoming impatient with Israeli foot-dragging over restarting the Israel-Syria negotiations.

The second initially promising initiative was a Sept. 3 joint hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees on “U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq.” It followed the Aug. 26 resignation of chief inspector W. Scott Ritter, with Ritter as the only witness.

Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad is becoming impatient with Israeli foot-dragging.

This might have been a tailor-made opportunity for a rational debate on how best to contain Iraqi President Saddam Hussain’s destructive tendencies while preserving other U.S. interests in the region and without harming the Iraqi people. However, it soon became obvious that the issue would degenerate into partisan, election-year posturing.

The previous week, The Washington Post had reported that the Clinton administration had intervened at least six times since last fall to persuade the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) to delay surprise inspections in Iraq. Then, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) had signaled a concerted Republican attack on the administration’s Iraq policy, saying the disclosures indicated a shift “from confrontation to appeasement.” Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) said such reports indicated “the president and the national security adviser were misleading the Congress and the American people.”

At the Sept. 3 hearing, the Democrats counterattacked. After Ritter’s testimony that “the United States has undermined UNSCOM’s efforts through interference and manipulation, usually coming from the highest levels of the administration’s national security team, to include Ms. [Secretary of State Madeleine] Albright herself,” Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) accused Ritter, a retired Marine Corps major, of trying to assume the power “to decide when to pull the trigger” of force against Iraq.

Biden belittled Ritter for seeking to decide issues that are “above your pay grade.” Sen. Charles Robb (D-VA) described Ritter as the commander of “a smaller unit” who had no understanding of the larger mission.

The Republicans counter-counterattacked. Sen. John Warner (R-VA) called Ritter’s testimony “one of the most serious indictments against the top-level national security team of the country that has ever been done in contemporary times.” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a Vietnam War veteran, turned Biden’s “pay grade” comment around, saying to Ritter “some of us who fought in another conflict wish the Congress and the American people had listened to someone of your pay grade during that conflict.”

And so another opportunity foundered on the shoals of partisan politics.

Support for Positive Measures Languishing

The Arab American Institute (AAI) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) have been encouraging Arab Americans to lobby their senators and congressmen to support two initiatives currently circulating in Congress. The two measures (both described in detail in the September issue of the Washington Report ) are the letter being circulated in the House by Representatives David Bonior, John Conyers and Carolyn Kilpatrick, all Michigan Democrats, regarding humanitarian needs in Iraq, and the concurrent resolution being sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-MI) and in the House by Reps. Bonior and Tom Davis (R-VA) urging religious tolerance toward Muslims.

However, to date there are no additional signatures on the Bonior/Conyers/Kilpatrick letter beyond the 34 listed in the September issue. The Abraham resolution now has 10 co-sponsors: Senators Russell Feingold (D-WI), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Carl Levin (D-MI), Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL), Daniel Moynihan (D-NY), Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), and Paul Wellstone (D-MN). The Bonior/Davis resolution was introduced on Aug. 6, and has no additional co-sponsors.

“INS Terrorizes Arabs in U.S.”

The above headline was taken from the May 18 edition of the Legal Times, describing the use of “secret evidence” by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) against non-citizens in immigration proceedings. Following that and other tales of abuse of INS powers, Senator Abraham, in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), as ranking minority member, wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno and INS Commissioner Doris Meisser on Aug. 4 expressing their concerns. They said the use of secret evidence “raises extremely troubling fairness and due process issues,” and they questioned whether the INS has the legal authority to proceed based on secret evidence. They asked that the Justice Department and the INS “jointly engage in a thorough review of the regulations and policies relating to the use of such evidence and report back to the Subcommittee on Immigration concerning your conclusions.”

No reply has been received.

Aid for Lebanon

Senator Abraham has also been working to increase aid for Lebanon, especially for the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Lebanese American University (LAU), but with limited success. On March 31 Abraham wrote to Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee Chairman Mitch McConnell (R-KY) urging that the foreign aid appropriations bill include an earmark of $16 million for the support of American non-governmental organizations in Lebanon, of which $4 million would be for American educational institutions.

The foreign aid bill included no such earmark (see box, pp. 28-29), but Abraham was not through. During floor discussion of the bill, Abraham noted that the committee report accompanying the bill recognized the importance of AUB and LAU and said that these schools deserve further support. When Abraham asked McConnell whether he concurred that USAID should directly support these institutions, McConnell agreed. Abraham said he was pleased to hear that, but “unfortunately, AID currently is not pursuing such a policy in Lebanon.” McConnell acknowledged Abraham’s points, said he is “sure that AID will want to give them heed,” and assured Abraham that his committee would “encourage the agency to do so, and we will monitor the situation to see if changes are made.”

Free Speech Stops at the Waters’ Edge

In introducing his amendment to the foreign aid bill prohibiting aid to the Palestinian Broadcasting Company (PBC) (see pp. 28-29), Sen. John Ashcroft (R-MO) made public a May 19, 1998 letter to Albright, signed by 36 representatives and 26 senators, calling to her attention “the very troubling issue” of aid to the Palestinian Broadcasting Company (PBC) “which has been benefiting from U.S. assistance while engaging in a campaign in support of violence and hatred against the U.S., our ally Israel, and the goal of peace in the Middle East.”

Ashcroft was referring to a U.S. Information Agency (USIA) agreement to pay for two TVRO satellite dishes for the PBC in exchange for the PBC’s commitment to use seven hours of Worldnet broadcasting a week. What upset the Ashcroft letter’s authors was that the agreement between the PBC and USIA did not stipulate what programming would be shown and during what time periods. Thus, according to Ashcroft’s colleagues, the equipment could be used to import broadcasts from “Iraq, Iran, Libya and other nations” in exchange for showing some sporting event in the middle of the night.

Representatives signing the letter were Robert Aderholt (R-AL), Richard Armey (R-TX), Bob Barr (R-GA), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Kevin Brady (R-TX), Dan Burton (R-IN), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Charles Canady (R-FL), Steve Chabot (R-OH), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Tom DeLay (R-TX), Phil English (R-PA), Michael Forbes (R-NY), Jon Fox (R-PA), Bob Franks (R-NJ), Martin Frost (D-TX), Kay Granger (R-TX), Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), Henry Hyde (R-IL), Sue Kelly (R-NY), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Michael McNulty (D-NY), Michael Pappas (R-NJ), Richard Pombo (R-CA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Jim Saxton (R-NJ), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Pete Sessions (R-TX), Brad Sherman (D-CA), John Shimkus (R-IL), Vince Snowbarger (R-KS), Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), J.C. Watts (R-OK), Dave Weldon (R-FL), Jerry Weller (R-IL), and Frank Wolf (R-VA).

Senators were Wayne Allard (R-CO), Ashcroft, Christopher Bond (R-MO), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO), Dan Coats (R-IN), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Susan Collins (R-ME), Paul Coverdell (R-GA), Larry Craig (R-ID), Alfonse D’Amato (R-NY), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Jesse Helms (R-NC), Ernest Hollings (D-SC), Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), James Inhofe (R-OK), Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Don Nickles (R-OK), Harry Reid (D-NV), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Bob Smith (R-NH), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).