24 October 2001
Transcript: Powell Says U.S. Finding Strong Coalition Support
(Opening Statement before House International Relations Committee)
(3010)
Secretary of State Colin Powell told the House International Relations
Committee that the broad anti-terrorism coalition that arose after the
September 11 attacks was a spontaneous response of the world
community.
Appearing before the committee October 24, Powell said that "Once
people saw what happened on the 11th of September, they weren't just
sitting around waiting for us to beg them to come into a coalition
arrangement." He noted that within 24 hours NATO had acted, within 48
hours the UN had acted, then the ANZUS Treaty was invoked, the Rio
Pact invoked, the Organization of American States acted,
"organizations around the world wanting to be a part of this."
When the Organization of the Islamic Conference, with 56 Islamic
country members, met two weeks ago, Powell said, "We were worried
about it. Would they come out with something that might be troublesome
for us? Instead, they came out with a strong, powerful statement that
said what Usama bin Laden and his associates did on the 11th of
September was wrong, was representative of no faith, was not
representative of the faith of Islam and was a desecration."
Powell added that contrary to what some have suggested, after six
weeks the coalition is not fraying but getting stronger: "The
President just came back from a trip to Shanghai where he met with
APEC, the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation Organization. And 21
Asian Pacific nations came together and, in their final declaration,
gave the President a strong, strong show of support, all united."
Other countries, Powell said, have said they want to participate in
the rebuilding effort in Afghanistan after al-Qaida and Usama bin
Laden are gone. Nations also are coming forward with humanitarian aid,
he noted, especially to help assure that needed supplies get into the
country as the winter approaches. He called this "perhaps one of our
most difficult challenges at the moment."
Following is a transcript of Powell's opening statement to the
committee:
(begin transcript)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
October 24, 2001
REMARKS BY SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN L. POWELL
BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
October 24, 2001
Washington, D.C.
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for
your opening remarks and, Mr. Lantos, I thank you for your kind
remarks as well. I have a long statement for the record that I would
present for the record, Mr. Chairman, and it covers a number of the
things that we have been doing since the 11th of September to prepare
for this campaign. But I would just like to shorten all of that with a
brief opening statement, so you can get right to your questions.
THE CHAIRMAN: Without objection, the full statement will be made a
part of the record. And I hope, Mr. Secretary, you notice for the
first time in my political career, we have real back benchers here.
(Laughter.)
SECRETARY POWELL: I notice members are double-decked in a way I have
never seen before. (Laughter.)
THE CHAIRMAN: Please proceed.
SECRETARY POWELL: Mr. Chairman, let me congratulate you and the
members of the Committee for this hearing today, to show that the
people's House is at work, the People's representatives are at work,
the American government is solid and at work. We are cautious, we are
taking necessary precautions. But we will not be frightened, we will
not be afraid to do the business that the people have sent us all here
to do. And I can assure you that is also the attitude within the
Administration and especially the attitude within your State
Department.
I have been traveling around a bit lately, India, Pakistan, Shanghai,
and a number of other places, and I can also report to you that the
men and women of the Department of State are hard at work, serving
under rather arduous circumstances these days, with the same kind of
threats that we see here on Capitol Hill and other parts of town. And
I think I just need to report to you that you should be proud of the
great job that your diplomats in action are doing for the American
people.
Mr. Chairman, I would also like to thank this Committee and, frankly,
the entire Congress for the support that you have provided to the
President's efforts since the 11th of September. It means a great deal
to us. And, not only that, it sends a signal to the world that we are
unified. We are unified under President Bush's leadership. We are
unified to pursue those who are responsible for the tragic events of
September 11th. That day is seared into all of our souls, it is a day
we will never forget.
But we came out of that day with a deep resolve, to make sure that
those who are responsible for that day will pay for it, will be
brought to justice or, as the President said, will have justice
brought to them.
To that end, the President has undertaken a campaign to go after them.
It is a campaign that has many dimensions to it: financial attacks,
law enforcement attacks, intelligence attacks, military attacks. It is
a campaign that is being waged not only by the United States but by a
broad international coalition that has come together. And the reason
this coalition has come together so quickly and so successfully is
that everybody who has joined this coalition realizes that what
happened in the United States on the 11th of September and especially
what happened in New York was not just an attack against America, was
not just an attack against New York, it was an attack against
civilization. It was an attack against the world community. Some 80
nations lost citizens in the World Trade Center, and all of those
nations have joined us in the counter-attack, the campaign to go after
those responsible.
But the President understood right away, within 24 hours, that it
could not just be a campaign against the perpetrators who are clearly
the al-Qaida organization led by Usama bin Laden. It had to be against
all forms of terrorism. It had to be a broad-based campaign that
brought all of the members of the international community together
once and for all to go after this scourge that exists on the face of
the earth, this scourge that is targeted against civilization, this
scourge that is targeted against the democratic way of life, the
democratic way of doing things.
As Mr. Lantos said, it has nothing to do with Iraqi sanctions, it has
nothing to do with our presence in the Persian Gulf. We are there to
defend Muslims, to defend Muslims from other Muslims. So our purpose
there is noble, is an attack against who we are, our value systems,
our belief in the dignity of the individual, our belief in democracy,
our belief in the free enterprise system -- that is what it is an
attack against. And it is not an attack that was delivered against us
in the name of faith. It is a violation of the faith of Islam. It is a
violation of every known faith that any man or woman believes in, and
we must not let Usama bin Laden make this false claim.
We cannot also let him make the claim that somehow he is doing it in
the name of the Palestinian people or betrodden Muslims. He lifted not
a finger, he gave not a dollar of the wealth that he had to help his
fellow Muslims or to help the people who are suffering in the Middle
East. Instead, he used his money for the worst sorts of purposes, to
go out and murder innocent civilians. And we must not let him get away
with delivering a message that is different from that simple message.
As the President has said, he is an evildoer, he must be punished as
an evildoer. And there are many terrorist organizations around the
world that are similarly motivated. And we have to go after them
wherever we find them.
The first phase of this campaign against terrorism is after Usama bin
Laden and al-Qaida, and wherever al-Qaida exists throughout the world,
not just in Afghanistan. And I now come to the fact that we put this
rather incredible coalition together. There are some who have said,
well, isn't the coalition a burden? Doesn't the coalition in some way
constrain the President of the United States?
The answer: it does not constrain him in the slightest. As we pulled
this coalition together, we made sure that the President retained all
of his constitutional authority, for obviously when you have a
coalition, you have to be considerate of the interests of all the
members of the coalition. But in being considerate of the interests of
all the members of the coalition, the President in no way gave away
any of his authority to act as he saw fit and may see fit in the
future to protect American interests.
Second point with respect to the coalition. Without this coalition, we
wouldn't be able to wage this campaign. We wouldn't be able to conduct
this war. If we're going after the financial systems of these
organizations, you can't do it just by yourself. You need all the
nations that have financial systems that are relevant to come in to
this coalition so we can work together.
If you're going to go after the intelligence infrastructure that he
uses so we can get inside of that intelligence system, then you have
to use all the intelligence systems of the coalition members. If you
want to deliver a military strike against Usama bin Laden and al-Qaida
and the Taliban regime, you need a coalition to do that. You need
people who will go into battle with you, you need people who will give
you overflight, you need people who will support you. And the
President has been absolutely marvelous, in my judgment, in pulling
such a coalition together.
I will make one final point about this coalition. It was hard to stop
it. Once people saw what happened on the 11th of September, they
weren't just sitting around waiting for us to beg them to come into a
coalition arrangement. Within 24 hours, NATO had acted, invoking
Article V. Within 48 hours, the UN had acted, passing a Security
Council resolution and then a General Assembly resolution. And as we
really got ourselves mobilized, they came in one after the other, the
ANZUS Treaty invoked, the Rio Pact invoked, organizations around the
world wanting to be a part of this. The OAS and recently the
Organization of the Islamic Conference, 56 Islamic nations coming
together just two weeks ago. We were worried about it. Would they come
out with something that might be troublesome for us. Instead, they
came out with a strong, powerful statement that said what Usama bin
Laden and his associates did on the 11th of September was wrong, was
representative of no faith, was not representative of the faith of
Islam and was a desecration. And they understood the necessity for
action against such terrorists and such kinds of activity.
And so this is a coalition that is in the interests of our goals and
objectives. It is a coalition that people have suggested, well, it
will start to fray, it will start to break up. Well, it's been six
weeks now; it's getting stronger.
The President just came back from a trip to Shanghai where he met with
APEC, the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation Organization. And 21
Asian Pacific nations came together and, in their final declaration,
gave the President a strong, strong show of support, all united. All
want to cooperate with the financial piece, the economic piece, the
intelligence piece, the law enforcement piece, securing our borders.
How do we look at visas, how do we look at people traveling around.
And a number of them came forward and said, we want to be a part of
the military organization. In fact, my colleague, Don Rumsfeld, was
having as much difficulty figuring out how to use all the military
support that has been offered to him as he has in applying those who
were already in the field.
We have also had a number of nations that have come forward and said,
look, we are with you in the whole strategy that you have laid out,
not just to get al-Qaida and Usama bin Laden and Afghanistan, but what
happens after that, after the Taliban is defeated and they're no
longer there. We want to be a part of that effort that puts in a new
system, a new government for the Afghan people, a broad-based
government, representing all elements of Afghan society, we want to be
a part of that, the UN wants to be a part of that. We know that may
require some peacekeepers or others to go in to help this new
government get up and running and started, and we are working with the
UN and all interested nations in that regard.
We are working with the different elements of Afghan society in the
great Diaspora that is around the world, working with the King in
Rome, working with others, talking to all of the countries that are
within the neighborhood to make sure that we have a sense of what
everybody would like to do. Nations are coming forward with
humanitarian aid, to make sure that we get what we need into
Afghanistan as the winter approaches. That is perhaps one of our most
difficult challenges at the moment.
Nations are also coming in and saying, once we get a new government in
place that is representative of all the people of Afghanistan, we want
to stay there in order to help build the country, perhaps for the
first time. Not just rebuild, but build for the first time to give
hope to the people of Afghanistan.
We are also working hard, Mr. Chairman, to deal with the public
diplomacy aspects of this crisis. We want to get the message out that
Usama bin Laden is evil, his action is evil. One of the problems we
have is that out in the street, as they say, below the level of
government, there are a number of citizens in Muslim countries who
look at us as the aggressor. We're not the aggressor; we have never
gone to attack any Islamic country. We have never gone to invade any
Muslim people. We have never gone to subject them; we have gone to the
Gulf to rescue Kuwait from Iraq. We are there as a force for
stability, a force that protects the people of the region. And we have
to do a better job at making our case, and we are hard at work doing
that.
I also must say, Mr. Chairman, that even though I am now a diplomat
and no longer Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I cannot help but
view what my colleagues in uniform are doing and view it with the
greatest of admiration. We all should be so proud of what the
wonderful men and women entrusted to our care by the American people
are doing over the skies of Afghanistan and some on the ground. And we
must also be very thankful for the forces of other nations that are
participating with us in all of this.
The humanitarian challenge I touched on earlier is a difficult one and
we are working with the United Nations, the World Food Program and all
of the neighboring countries to make sure we can do everything
possible to get the tonnages in. And also, as you noted, Secretary
Rumsfeld and my colleagues in the Pentagon are also hard at work
dropping in supplies from the air in order to provide some emergency
support. And as we get further into the season, we might find that
that air bridge has an even more important role to play.
I just would conclude, Mr. Chairman, by saying that this is a noble
cause that we are all embarked upon. And it is a cause that we must
prevail in, we must be persistent, we must be patient. This isn't a
battle that is going to be won suddenly one day. It is going to be a
campaign, a battle, a war that is going to continue. And people have
asked me, how will we know when we have been successful? How will we
know when we have won?
And we will have won when we are living in security again, when we are
being cautious about how we travel and the other things we do in our
daily lives, but when we are once again secure in our homes, secure in
our cities, secure in our official buildings here in Washington and
elsewhere around the country, and when we get back to that America
that we all know and love so well, we are not threatened by this kind
of terrorism. And when we also help other nations around the world to
get rid of the terrorist threats that they face. That is when we know
we will have been successful.
I believe we will be successful because the cause is just. It is a
correct battle to fight at this time. And because I know that under
President Bush's leadership, we will apply the resources, the will and
the determination to that challenge and I am quite confident we will
enjoy the support of the American Congress, the American people and
the members of our coalition as we move forward.
I would like to stop at this point, Mr. Chairman, and invite your
questions and the questions of your members.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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