Syria Accountability Act-Continued

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
PAGE S14405
Nov. 11, 2003

Syria Accountability Act-Continued

Mr. McCONNELL. Since September 11, the bar for assistance in our war against terrorism has been raised, and the Syrian Government is no longer entitled to a free pass. The United States must no longer allow Syria to get away with taking with the right hand what it gives with the left.

[Page S14412]

Unfortunately, the Government of Syria remains an obstacle to peace in Iraq, settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict-indeed, Syria has rebuffed repeated Israeli offers to make peace between Israel and Syria-democratic development and sovereignty for the Lebanese people, regional security, and the protection of human rights of the Syrian people themselves.

There is no doubt that Syria actively supports international terrorism. The evidence supporting this contention is overwhelming:

The U.S. State Department has certified Syria on its list of state sponsors of terrorism continuously since the 1970s. Syria's dubious company on this list includes Hussein's Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, and Communist Cuba.

Syria provides material support and safe haven to numerous international terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Islamic Jihad.

Syria allows terrorist groups to maintain training camps on Syrian soil. Indeed, in October, after a terrorist bombing in Haifa, Israel retaliated against a known Islamic Jihad terrorist training camp near Damascus.

Syrian-controlled southern Lebanon is a haven for anti-Israel terrorists and a staging ground for terrorist rocket attacks against Northern Israel.

Syria has facilitated the transfer of military equipment from Iran to terrorists operating in Syria-controlled Lebanon.

Syria maintains a robust chemical weapons program, raising the risk that Syria could transfer such weapons to terrorists.

In addition to Syria's long-time efforts to support the deadly aims of international terrorist groups, its government has played a decidedly unhelpful role in regional security. Most notably, the Syrian Government illegally collaborated with the Hussein regime to circumvent United Nations resolutions and has worked to undermine Iraqi democracy in the wake of the liberation of that country.

Although Syria voted for the recent U.N. resolution on Iraq, ostensibly expressing its support for the reconstruction of a free and democratic Iraq, Syria has used nearly every other opportunity to undermine the American-led coalition's efforts to liberate the people of that country from the brutal reign of Saddam Hussein. Furthermore, recent media reports indicate that Syria may have accepted and hidden Hussein's weapons of mass destruction before the U.S.-led invasion.

In addition, there are credible reports that Syria provided material support to Iraqi troops during the war and currently provides safe haven to former Hussein regime officials and loyalists. U.S. investigators have located $3 billion hidden by the Hussein regime in Syrian banks, and Syria has refused to return this money to its rightful owners: the people of Iraq.

During the 1990s, Syria repeatedly defied U.N. sanctions against Iraq by participating in enormous black market purchases of oil from the Saddam Hussein regime. The proceeds from these sales directly supported Hussein's military regime and opulent lifestyle.

Syria has not acted sufficiently to curb cross-border movement of foreign terrorists, including a significant number of Syrian nationals, into Iraq. Indeed, in some circumstances, the Syrian Government appears to have facilitated their migration to that country; Syrian passports have been found in the possession of international terrorists arrested by the U.S. military there. These terrorists seek to wage jihad against American troops and undermine democracy in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.

In addition to Syria's unhelpful polices in Iraq, it remains a spoiler for the development of peace and democracy in Lebanon, a country it has forcibly occupied for decades. Its military occupation of Lebanon undermines Lebanese efforts to create a sovereign democratic state and furthers instability in the region. Syria, a dictatorship, wields considerable political control in Lebanon, thereby distorting Lebanon's officially democratic process and making that country a de facto puppet state of the Syrian Government.

Unconditional U.S. engagement of Syria has failed to encourage true moderation in Damascus; a new approach is necessary to encourage the Syrians to cooperate or face the consequences. Other Arab governments who say one thing and do another-such as Egypt-would be wise to pay attention to the congressional debate about, and support for, the Syrian Accountability Act.

I believe the Syrian Accountability Act will give the administration the tools it needs to highlight to the Syrian Government the risk of choosing the wrong side in the global war against terrorism. The Syrian Government has an opportunity to reform itself, to provide its people with the economic and political freedoms they seek, to end its support for murderous terrorist organizations, and to become a proponent of peace in the Middle East.

If Syria's leaders decide to embark on a moderate and peaceful path, it will find the United States to be a benevolent and helpful ally. But if it continues to support international terrorism, Syria's leaders will find themselves international pariahs, with fewer resources or friends to help them maintain their increasingly tenuous grip on power.