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[Page: E2923]

• Mrs. ROUKEMA. Mr. Speaker, 2 years ago, on December 21, 1988, America suffered the most serious terrorist attack against a civilian target in its history. A terrorist bomb exploded aboard Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 270 passengers and crew. People worldwide share the anguish with the families of the victims. Many of those killed were sons and daughters in the springtime of their youth.

• Let us not forget that but for the grace of God each of us could have easily been one of those 270 victims. Are we all to be at the mercy of terrorists? Are we to be thrown into the Dark Age, intimidated by terrorist anarchy? Our lessons are far from over, but we have learned.

• Immediately after the bombing I introduced legislation to establish an Independent Commission to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the events leading up to this incident and report to the President and the American people. However, in August, President Bush established the Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism. In May 1990, the President's Commission presented a series of recommendations to improve aviation security and the ability of the Government to respond to such an act of terrorism.

• During the Commission's investigation it was revealed that in addition to dealing with their private grief, the families and friends of those aboard flight 103 had to struggle with State Department bureaucracy and insensitivity to secure the return of the bodies and personal effects. The Commission also found that the families, along with all Americans, have gained a growing skepticism about the ability of the Federal Government to protect civil aviation targets from future acts of terrorism.

• Recently, the Commission's recommendations have been introduced in the Aviation Security Act, H.R. 5200, of which I am a cosponsor. This legislation will help to ensure the safety and security of passengers of U.S. planes against terrorist threats and gives this responsibility the highest priority. This legislation includes many of the Commissions findings especially language that requires the State Department to be sensitized to the demands posed by tragedies such as Pan Am 103, and that the U.S. Government consider the question of notification.

• The American people need the quick passage of the Aviation Security Act. Support for this bill is not only found in the halls of Congress. I have received many letters of support from constituents of mine, including one from State Senator Henry McNamara. Senator McNamara expressed his support for this legislation in a letter to Mr. and Mrs. Dater, who tragically lost their daughter Gretchen in the bombing. I hereby submit a copy of his letter for the Record:

New Jersey Senate,
Franklin Lakes, NJ, August 31, 1990.

[Page: E2924]

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Dater,
Ramsey, NJ.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Dater: Two years ago, four days before Christmas, we lost Gretchen Dater forever.

She perished, along with hundreds of others, in the tragic crash of Pan Am Flight 103.

Gretchen is from Ramsey, a town in my legislative district. Her parents Tom and Joan have become my friends. Gretchen's loss touched me personally. I'll be left to wonder forever how things might have been different had this artistically-gifted and life-loving young woman not, on December 21, 1988, stepped aboard a plane whose cargo held a ticking bomb.

I can't help but think, too, that Gretchen boarded Flight 103 secure in the fact that everything humanly possible had been done to insure her safety. She was trusting. But, tragically, she was wrong. We have since learned that measures undertaken to protect Gretchen were lax. Both the airline security system and those who operate and oversee it proved imperfect.

Well, we have come to expect imperfection from government, haven't we? We have grown used to mistakes.

If we did not know it before Flight 103 crashed in Lockerby, Scotland, we know now that when it comes to protecting the life of a young college junior named Gretchen Dater, nothing less than perfect will do.

I'm amazed at how often in the course of debating taxes and budgets, we lose sight of government's first and most important duty; protect the life and welfare of our citizens. We can be nothing less than earnest in living up to that responsibility. We must--simply must--strive for perfection.

I wanted to express for myself, and on behalf of hundreds of my constituents who knew and loved Gretchen, support for the Aviation Security Improvmeent Act of 1990 now being considered before the Congress.

It is, if not perfect, a reaffirmation of government's priority: No effort is too great when it comes to protecting our citizens. I urge the Congress, in its deliberation of this measure, to demand nothing less than the best efforts from the Department of State, the FBI and FAA and all other agencies and air carriers involved in the constant vigil over airport security.

It is my hope, shared by many of my colleagues in the New Jersey State Senate, as well as by many New Jerseyans, that the Congress act to improve airline security today and make enduring improvements so that we will never again suffer the pain caused by the Flight 103 crash.

I am no expert in airline security. I do not know my way around the federal bureaucracy. And the internal workings of Congress remain to me, as to so many Americans, a mystery. But I would suggest that Members of Congress pay careful attention to the recommendations of the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism and, wherever possible, incorporate those recommendations into its final aviation security plan.

I ask you to look at the airline security problem through the eyes of Joan Dater, Gretchen's mother. What you will see, when you are able to shake away the anguish that seems never to go away, is the need to know that another Gretchen from Florida, or Michigan or California will board a plane for home, now, or in the years to come, and make it home safely into the arms of her mother.

Respectfully submitted on this date,

Hank McNamara,
New Jersey State Senator.

• I am sure that Senator McNamara would join me in saying `Never again! No more Lockerbies. No more innocent victims.' We can and must do more to protect the traveling public from the repugnant threat of terrorism.

END