October 9, 1997 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð Extensions of Remarks E1983 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS THE WAR ON DRUGS across the country,'' he said. ``The seizures INTRODUCTION OF H.R. 2635ÐTHE are getting larger and the purity is going HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION ACT HON. NEWT GINGRICH up.'' OF GEORGIA McGrath pleaded not guilty Tuesday and HON. TOM LANTOS was released on $50,000 bond. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF CALIFORNIA Thursday, October 9, 1997 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES f Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I want to en- Thursday, October 9, 1997 courage my colleagues to read the following IN PRAISE OF SGT. KEITH NOWLIN Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, yesterday with a article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution number of our distinguished colleagues in the dated September 24, 1997. I believe this is a House, I introduced H.R. 2635, the Human blatant example of how our country has lost HON. RALPH M. HALL Rights Information Act. Joining me to intro- some major battles with the war on drugs, but OF TEXAS duce this bill were my colleagues CONSTANCE the war itself is not lost. To many people it's MORELLA of Maryland, JAMES MCGOVERN of become painfully apparent in the last few IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Massachusetts, ELIZABETH FURSE of Oregon, years the war on drugs has been failing. Thursday, October 9, 1997 JOHN LEWIS of Georgia, JAMES OBERSTAR of America has spent millions of dollars on ef- Minnesota, MARTIN SABO also of Minnesota, forts to rid our society of the ravages of illegal Mr. HALL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, one of my JOSE SERRANO of New York, BERNIE SANDERS drugs, only to find ourselves in a situation constituents, Army Sgt. 1st Class Keith H. of Vermont, and MARTIN MEEHAN of Massa- that's worse than when we began. We must Nowlin, son of William H. and Mary E. Nowlin chusetts. Our legislation is a companion bill to now have the resolve and fortitude to carry the of Ivanhoe, TX, was recently involved in spe- S. 1220, which Senator CHRISTOPHER DODD of fight to the dealers and traffickers themselves. cialized military training that is deserving of Connecticut introduced in the Senate with a This is exactly why I introduced H.R. 41, the our recognition. number of his distinguished colleagues in that Drug Importer Death Penalty Act, to assist in Sergeant Nowlin was part of an elite group House. curbing the quantities of drugs entering the Our legislation will dramatically improve the United States. The legislation would call for a of soldiers from Fort Hood, TX, who traveled to the Army's National Training Center in Fort current declassification procedures of human mandatory life sentence if someone is found rights documents pertaining to gross human to have brought a commercial quantity of Irwin, CA, to test the world's most advanced military technology that could transform the rights violations in Guatemala and Honduras. drugs into the United States. On the second This important bill strikes an appropriate bal- offense, a sentence of death would be im- battlefield of the 21st century. He is a member of the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade, a ance between the need for speedy and com- posed. It is time for us to send a serious and prehensive declassification and the need to unmistakable message to those individuals unit charged with learning and testing new software, computers and weapon systems that protect legitimate U.S. national security inter- who are profiting from destroying lives and ir- ests. It will be of invaluable assistance to the revocably chaining our youth to the tragedy of could be used in refitting conventional tanks, artillery equipment, air defense weapon sys- work of my good friend, Dr. Leo Valladares, illegal drugs. We will not tolerate the use of il- the Honduran Human Rights commissioner, legal drugs, and furthermore we will defend tems, infantry fighting vehicles, and attack hel- icopters. who came to testify before the Congressional our country from those who wish to enter our Human Rights Caucus, which I cochair with borders with the intent to distribute these The unit traveled to California's Mojave Congressman JOHN EDWARD PORTER. It also drugs that are poison to our society. Desert to do battle with a highly trained oppo- will support the work of the Guatemalan Clari- SUITCASES PACKING HEROIN sition unit called the OPFOR, which is made fication Commission, as well as the people of (By Ron Martz) up of some of the Army's best soldiers trained Guatemala and Honduras in general. Only full The second major heroin seizure in Atlanta in former Soviet Union tactics and using So- consideration and investigation of human in less than a month is raising concerns viet-style equipment. Nowlin and his unit used rights abuses in these two countries can among law enforcement officials that the their new technology in a series of mock bat- achieve the full accountability needed to re- city has become a target for organizations tles to see how well they performed against build a peaceful and reconciled civil society in trafficking in the drug. the OPFOR. Nowlin was a platoon sergeant in Nine pounds of heroin believed to have those areas. this high-tech battle. His training included two The Government of Guatemala and the come from Pakistan were discovered hidden years of classes and field testing of over 70 in the linings of two large suitcases at rebels, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Hartsfield International Airport on Monday different pieces of high tech equipment and Unity [URNG], formally ended their hostilities night, bringing to 22 pounds the amount of software packages. The information gathered at the end of 1996. But peace cannot exist the drug found in recent raids, the Drug En- from this exercise is being processed to help without truth, a principle which these parties forcement Administration announced Tues- determine what systems work and what do recognized in agreeing to establish a truth day. not. Police allegedly found 13 pounds of heroin commissionÐThe Commission for the Histori- from Thailand in the Atlanta apartment of Mr. Speaker, I am proud that my congres- cal Clarification of Human Rights Violations John McGrath, 53, a native of Australia, on sional district is represented in this type of and Acts of Violence which have Caused Suf- August 28. McGrath and three others have training, which is so important to our strategic fering to the Guatemalan People. Given this been arrested and charged with running an defense planning. The future security of our monumental task, the commission has only a international heroin trafficking ring that great Nation will depend on the training and very short period to accomplish its important brought the drug into Atlanta. expertise of our enlisted men and women as work. The commission's work by law is to take Kashis Rashid Rana, 22, of Kennesaw, was arrested and charged in Monday's seizure at well as advanced technologies such as those only 6 months, but that time limit can be ex- the airport, which DEA officials said was being tested in the deserts of California. I tended for another 6 months. The clock began worth about $4 million. commend Sergeant Nowlin's efforts and the ticking when the work of the commission for- The street value for a kilogram (2.2 efforts of all those in our military who are dedi- mally began on July 31, 1997. Therefore swift pounds) of heroin can range from $70,000 to cating their lives and their careers to the de- and comprehensive declassification of all rel- $200,000, DEA officials said. fense of our Nation. As we adjourn today, I evant United States agency documents is criti- The two seizures are not related, according ask my colleagues to join me in expressing to cal to the success for peace and democracy to John Andrejko, head of the Atlanta office of the DEA, who called them ``two of the them our gratitude and our support, and to let in Guatemala. largest ever`` in the state. Sergeant Nowlin know that we are very proud The same applies to Honduras. In 1979, the ``But what we're seeing in Atlanta is indic- of his accomplishments of the pastÐand of first disappearance took place in Honduras ative of what we're seeing in the larger cities his service today and in the future. and dozens of others followed, along with · This ``bullet'' symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. E1984 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð Extensions of Remarks October 9, 1997 extrajudicial killings. This nightmare followed and currently works with Guatemala Partners charged with the conduct of foreign policy or the implementation of the Honduran military's and the Latin American Youth Center. foreign intelligence, including the Depart- National Security Doctrine which embarked on Meredith Larson, a human rights worker at- ment of State, the Agency for International Development, the Department of Defense a deliberate policy of eliminating people sus- tacked by knife-wielding assailants in 1989, is (and all of its components), the Central In- pected of having links with insurgencies in a founding member of Coalition ``Missing.'' telligence Agency, the National Reconnais- Honduras and El Salvador or with the Sandi- She is a resident of the beautiful city of San sance Office, the Department of Justice (and nistas in Nicaragua. In May 1992, a law cre- Francisco and came to Washington especially all of its components), the National Security ated the National Commissioner for the Pro- for this event.