Panel One of a Hearing of the House International Relations Committee - Diplomacy in the Age of Terrorism

Federal News Service August 19, 2004 Thursday

HEADLINE: PANEL ONE OF A HEARING OF THE HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE SUBJECT: DIPLOMACY IN THE AGE OF TERRORISM: STATE DEPARTMENT STRATEGY

CHAIRED BY: REPRESENTATIVE CHRIS SMITH (R-NJ)

WITNESSES: CHRISTOPHER KOJM, DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 9/11 COMMISSION; SUSAN GINSBURG, TEAM LEADER FOR BORDER SECURITY AND FOREIGN VISITORS, 9/11 COMMISSION

BODY:

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REP. BETTY MCCOLLUM (D-MN): Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to first just say again, and I know every member of Congress starts out with thanking the work that the commission does, but the staff deserves so much credit in the way that you presented information for those who watched it on TV or heard it on radio and in the book that has been published because it is factual, it is cited-the footnotes sometimes are as interesting as the chapter itself-but more importantly, with all the facts and all the information that is in there, it is presented in a way in which any person in the United States who wants to learn more about what happened and what steps our government can do to prevent this type of situation from happening together is presented in a very usable form, and that in and of itself is a great task. So thank you.

I want to talk about diplomacy and issues of diplomacy because this is the International Relations Committee. And there have been processes put in place to track student visas and all those kinds of things, and then the funding was never put in place to follow up to make some of those systems work. So Congress has a responsibility in anything that it puts forward to make sure that the funding's there so that it works, as well as do a better job in oversight.

But you talk about youth exchanges in the 9/11 commission report. You talk about the fact that libraries had been closed. I just recently came back from Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, as well as being in the Palestinian-controlled areas, and my question is, the exchanges that you mention in here are us opening up resources for people in other countries to interact with American government, American ideas. But I didn't see much in the report about what's going on currently with people from all over the globe, whether they be scientists or students, having access to America itself and realizing border security needs to be addressed. And I fully support many of the recommendations in here to increase border security.

Could you talk to me about the importance of having exchange, because these leaders, whether they were from Syria or Lebanon, the people who are moving forward in the peace process, the people that our embassies could work with and have dialogue with, the majority of them have been educated in the United States and they're not coming here anymore.

MR. KOJM: Thank you for the question. It's a very important one.

And first, thank you for your comments about the staff. We represent the 80 really spectacular professionals who served on the staff, and on their behalf, thank you for those words.

Your comments ring very true to a university president who serves as chairman and as the director for the center for scholars-International Center for Scholars. Both the chair and vice chair know firsthand whereof what you speak and the very great difficulties that scholars, scientists, business people, students, tourists all have coming to the United States now. And the challenge for us is to devise a system that does not impede this very important part of international commerce that's essential to our cultural, economic and scientific dynamism as a country.

And I'll ask my colleague Susan to comment further.

MS. GINSBURG: Well, the commission did consider the point you raised and looked at the visa applications numbers since 9/11, and report in the report that they're down significantly, by 46 percent from the Middle East. My understanding is those numbers are turning around right now. But one of the things we say is that the design of security measures and the training need to be continuously adjusted to respond to that problem. And some of the measures taken in recent weeks seem to be addressing that.

We looked at several of the programs that were put in place after 9/11, particularly those dealing with the additional scrutiny on the visas. And as we reported in one of our staff statements-I think it was staff statement number 10 -- we did see a lot of results, security benefits, from some of the measures put in place immediately after 9/11. So the call for adjustment is really a call to have programs that are put in place for security reasons looked at in terms of what their outcomes are and to really make sure that they are providing the security that was intended when they were put in place.

REP. MCCOLLUM: I would like to talk about the U.S. and our engagement with the world.

We have differences here in the Congress about some treaties being approved and, you know, whether global climate change-and then more serious treaties. When we aren't engaged actively in dialogue and treating one another as equal partners, we diminish our credibility when we come to the table as honest brokers in some issues. That's what I was hearing from business people in some of the countries, political people. And what came up over and over and over again was their concern about a major attitude change that the United States had in using diplomacy as the first resort, the second resort, the third resort, and it came down to preemptive war.

And countries that we had been working in, improving human rights relationships and that, that respected the fact that we had power, we're the most powerful country in the world, always felt that diplomacy and engagement would be used, paramount, before preemptive war.

How-and so I'm not going to ask you to necessarily-but you discussed Iraq, and you said that you have no comment to make on that. But as diplomacy and the words we choose and the actions we take, if we aren't careful in what we do, groups like al Qaeda are able to use that to define us to their best interest. And you do allude to some of that in the report. And if you could just make a comment on that, I'd appreciate it.

MR. KOJM: Thank you. You're certainly right; I can't comment on every aspect of your question. But I think I can comment meaningfully.

What we have found-and I hope what I've represented today-is that on the question of paramount importance to the national security of the United States, international terrorism, we cannot succeed in that war over the long term without deep, continuous, profound interaction and support from international partners. And it doesn't matter what aspect of our struggle with international terrorism, Islamist terrorism you look at; we cannot do it alone. The secretary of State, the director of Central Intelligence, every senior official who is charged with national security is continuously engaged in dialogue, interaction, exchanges of information, asking requests, responding to requests from international partners.

You know, some things you can do alone that are helpful and beneficial, most assuredly. But over the long term -- (chuckles) -- success requires international partnership.

Now how do you get that partnership? Well, you build trust and cooperation when you treat people as partners. And I'll just stop at that point.

REP. MCCOLLUM: Thank you.

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