from your experience whether you have anything that can illuminate this situation. Ambassador ALBRIGHT. Well, I have to tell you that I do not, but I do know the following thing, having been in the Soviet field, how wrong we were, and that there were generations of Soviet scholars who kind of saw one-however that story goes-one piece of the elephant without really understanding the full aspect of it. And I think that this comment of yours is a good alert to everybody that we need to know how much we do not know in order to be able to find out, so that whatever are our policies are based on fact and not on supposition or on erroneous statistics. So I think, as with all your questions, Senator, I think that they are so well informed and so thoughtful that I hope very much that we will in fact have an opportunity to spend a lot of time, as we say, scoping them out and making sure that we put the resources in the right place to get the answers that we need in order to have a policy that makes sense. Senator LUGAR. I look forward to that. I thank you very much for your answer. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your patience, and the other members of the committee. The CHAIRMAN. Well, thank you, Senator. Is there any other comment or question from the committee? [No response.] Madam Ambassador, Senator Biden and I have been discussing the possibilities. We have run a poll on how many Senators we can have here on 10 different days, and we come fairly close. But that is apparently not possible at this moment. We have decided, have we not, Joe, that along about 11 a.m., or a time to be set on Inauguration Day, the committee will be solicited to gather in what we call the President's room and have a vote on this nomination. I do not have any doubt about how it is coming out. We might make this condition, Senator Biden, that if in the meantime an earlier date can be worked out to the satisfaction of all Senators and to the nominee, we will do that. But right now that appears to be the best possibility we have. Now, we are going to leave the record open so that questions can be filed as late as the close of business on this coming Friday, January 10. The more quickly you can return the answers to those, the more helpful it will be to us. Senator BIDEN. Mr. Chairman? The CHAIRMAN. Yes, sir. Senator BIDEN. If you will indulge me for a second here, I want to sincerely thank you for your expediting this and explain to the Ambassador that this is usually a period between now and the time that the inauguration occurs the Senators are back in their home States. They are willing, I expect, if we needed to and the Republicans are prepared to provide half the quorum, to come back, which is not only unusual, but generous. The truth is that if we do this and we have done this at least once before when I chaired the Judiciary Committee-as we assemble to go out for the inauguration, we will have, if all things prevail as we think they will, a business meeting off the floor of the Senate and vote on your nomination. And the Chairman is considering requesting that we waive what we call the 3-day rule, so that on the following day, our first day of business on the January 21, we might be able to vote on your nomination. And if in the meantime The CHAIRMAN. We, being the Senate. Senator BIDEN. The entire Senate. So I want to publicly thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your consideration. He is going the extra yard. This is a bit unusual, but he is being, as he always is, extremely accommodating in trying to do the business of the committee. So I think you should understand A, our dilemma, and B, the generosity of the Chair. The CHAIRMAN. With that, we will sing the Doxology and depart. But, no kidding, you have been a trooper today. I sent a note back to Barbara Larkin, did I not, to let me know if Ambassador Albright wanted to pause sometime, and Senators, Ambassador Albright replied that she did not. She said press on, press on. That is typical of Madeleine. This has been an interesting day, and I think a fruitful day for you and for us. There are some things that we are going to disagree about, and we may fuss a little bit about it, but it is a pleasure to work with you, and I look forward to that happening. Any further business? Senator BIDEN. Mr. Chairman, Senator Mikulski would like a statement she had be inserted in the record, if it is possible. The CHAIRMAN. Absolutely, the record will be open until Friday, close of business. [The prepared statement of Senator Mikulski follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR MIKULSKI Mr. Chairman: I am proud to support Ambassador Madeleine Albright's confirmation as Secretary of State. I know Madeleine Albright well. We have been friends and colleagues for many years. I am so enthusiastic about her nomination-not just because of her skills and experience, but because of her character and her values. She is a woman of honor, integrity and extraordinary patriotism. As President Clinton was making his decision, I called him to urge that he consider Madeleine Albright. I said that there are three important reasons why I feel that Madeleine Albright is the ideal person to serve as Secretary of State into the new millennium. First, she is extraordinarily skilled and competent in foreign policy. Second, her remarkable personal story is the story of America. Third, she has a great and unusual ability to communicate our foreign policy to the American people and to the world. First of all, she would bring extraordinary competency and experience to the post. Foreign policy is her life's work and her life's passion. In addition to her dazzling intellectual accomplishments and scholarship, Ambassador Albright also has great diplomatic skills and an understanding of what this new world is all about. She has a proven record. As our Ambassador to the United Nations she showed her backbone and her brains in asserting U.S. policy. We don't need to question whether she can deal with China, or with different cultures, or with dictators-she has already done it. She is respected by our allies and by our enemies. She has proven that she is firm and fair. For the past four years, she has defended our values and interests at the United Nations. She has done more to bring fiscal responsibility to the United Nations. She stood up to dictators, and she stood by friends. As Secretary of State, Ambassador Albright will also do something else. She will bring to the world a story of America. I discussed with the President her personal story. As a child, she lost her home to dictatorship. Her family was forced to flee twice-first from fascism and later from communism. She is the daughter of the last ambassador from a free Czechoslovakia until the end of the Cold War. Her father brought the family to America as refugees. They lost their home, they lost everything-and they came to America. Only a true patriot would leave his homeland rather than live under dictatorship. As new immigrants, Madeleine Albright and her family used America's unique opportunity structure to rebuild their lives. Where else in the world could a refugee rise to become the highest ranking woman in our history? These experiences formed her values. She truly understands what America is and why American leadership is so important. As Secretary of State, she will continue to turn our values into action. As a child whose family escaped from Europe as the Iron Curtain was raised, she will work to incorporate the new democracies of Central Europe into the family of democracies. As a refugee from dictatorship, she will stand up to the dictators who support terrorism. As a member of an immigrant family making a start in a new country, she will work to ensure that our foreign aid is used to foster opportunity around the world. The third reason that Ambassador Albright will be an extraordinary Secretary of State is that she has a great and unusual talent for communication. Ambassador Albright has demonstrated her capacity to articulate the president's policies and agenda-not only to the world but also to the American people. She will enable people to understand American policies. This is essential to mobilize support for these policies-both at home and around the world. Even if our policies are not supported-they will be understood and respected. No one does a better job of explaining American foreign policy to the American people than Madeleine Albright. Most people are understandably concerned about their jobs, their children, and their security. It is a lot to ask them, after all this, to also be concerned about Bosnia and Haiti and Chechnya. After paying billions of dollars to win the Cold War, many Americans are wondering why we must continue to maintain the burden of leadership. We can't solve every problem in the world and we shouldn't try. But we must act where we can make a difference-and where American values and interests are at stake. With Madeleine Albright as Secretary of State, we will continue to have a foreign policy that operationalizes our values and that serves our interests. Mr. Chairman: This is truly a historic occasion. The Foreign Relations Committee is about to confirm the highest ranking woman in our history. This is a moment for all of us to take pride in the opportunity and fairness that is America. And finally Mr. Chairman, isn't it great to have a Secretary of State who said, after being nominated by the President, that after years of worrying about where her daughters were-now they will have to worry about where she is?` But the American people won't have to worry. We will know, whether she is in Cyprus, or Syria or Singapore, that she will be defending American values and interests. She will be one of the best Secretaries' of State that we have ever had. The CHAIRMAN. We will insert any other statements in that connection. [Additional statements may be found in the appendix.] If there is no further business to come before the committee, we stand in recess. [Whereupon, at 5:54 p.m., the hearing was adjourned, to reconvene subject to the call of the Chair.] APPENDIX LETTER TO CHAIRMAN HELMS FROM BARBARA LARKIN WASHINGTON, DC, 20520, January 16, 1997. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Following the January 8, 1997 nomination hearing of Secretary of State-designate Madeleine K. Albright, additional questions were submitted for the record. Please find enclosed the responses to those questions. On those matters in which Secretary-designate Albright has not been directly involved, the responses are based on the best information available to the Department. This letter also responds to the request for documents on development of the 1993 UNOSOM II mandate in Somalia which you and Senator Hagel submitted as part of the questions for the record. The Department has asked the relevant offices to conduct the search you have requested, and we are working to respond to your request as quickly as possible. As we have discussed with Committee staff, producing the documents requested requires an extensive search of Department records involving a number of different offices. Not all files are centralized, so nineteen different offices have been asked to search for relevant documents. That search has begun. In addition, potentially relevant documents on this subject from 1993 have been retired, so old files no longer located in the Department have to be identified, retrieved from other Storage locations and searched as well. That process is also underway. We will continue to work closely with your staff as the search proceeds and consult on steps that might expedite the process. In this regard, for example, we have agreed that intelligence documents in the Department's files originated by other agencies will not be subjected to the search because the Department of State cannot authorize their release to Congress. We seek to respond to this request in as timely a manner as possible, and have also discussed with your staff the possibility of providing the Committee appropriate access to responsive material identified by this search in tranches. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, Enclosures: BARBARA LARKIN, Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs. RESPONSES OF MADELEINE ALBRIGHT TO QUESTIONS ASKED BY SENATOR HELMS Question. Do you agree that, as we approach the 21st century, religious persecution constitutes one of the most serious threats to individual freedom, and that addressing this problem must be a top priority in U.S. human rights policy? Answer. Yes. One disturbing aspect of the post-Cold War world has been the persistence, and in some cases the intensification, of religious intolerance and of the exploitation of religious and ethnic differences for narrow and violent political ends; the conflict in Bosnia is but one tragic example of this trend. People of faith are persecuted for their beliefs and cultural localities in many parts of the world. At the same time, it is heartening that many religious communities are actively engaged in promoting tolerance and religious freedom and in trying to resolve conflicts among groups. Freedom of conscience and belief is one of the bedrock principles of our republic. This value goes hand-in-hand with our interests in preventing and resolving conflicts that have a religious component. The U.S. Government uses both quiet diplomacy and public condemnation to combat religious intolerance. Our aim has been to secure the release and improve the treatment of individuals in countries where they face incarceration or harassment (105) |