I could hardly believe I was reading an epiphany of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher's (R-CA) this weekend. The Congressional record, as it always records, took down his speech from February 26th of last month. Now for the most part, Republicans tend to commend their party's President, for the war, the economy and whatever else they see as good in their deluded little heads. Yet, on February 26th, something different happened for one deluded head, it saw a little bit of light.
From AfterDowningStreet:
Madam Speaker, I come to the floor tonight with a
heavy heart. The nature of the allegations I make speaks poorly of this
administration. In my heart of hearts, I have always wanted this
administration to succeed, but the issue at hand is of such magnitude
that the American people need to know what is being done and what
precedents are being set.
In my tenure as a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, both as chairman and ranking member of an investigative
subcommittee, I have witnessed firsthand behavior by the Bush
administration which I find deeply troubling.
The disdain and uncooperative nature that this administration has
shown toward Congress, including Republican Members, is so egregious
that I can no longer assume that it is simply bureaucratic incompetence
or isolated mistakes. Rather, I have come to the sad conclusion that
this administration has intentionally obstructed Congress' rightful and
constitutional duties.
Obstructed Congress you say? Violated the separation of powers clause in the Constitution you say? Well Congressman, congratulations, you have entered the realm of reality. Do you have anything else to add while you are rightfully condemning George Bush?
In the last Congress, I was chairman of the Oversight and
Investigations Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In
that capacity, I learned that in the time immediately leading up to the
bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, convicted Oklahoma
City bomber and murderer Terry Nichols had been in Cebu City in the
Philippines. His stay in Cebu City coincided with another visitor to
that city, al Qaeda's terrorist leader Ramsey Yousef. Interestingly,
both Nichols and Yousef used similar bombs and methods just 2 years
apart to blow up two American targets. Yousef was the mastermind of the
first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. Nichols was a
coconspirator in the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building in
1995.
By the way, I would like to acknowledge that today happens to be the
15-year anniversary of that first devastating attack on the World Trade
Center.
These individuals, one American and one Arab, were responsible for
planning two of the most lethal terrorist attacks on our countrymen in
our history. We are to believe that by coincidence they ended up in an
off-the-beaten-track city in the Southern Philippines? One doesn't have
to be a conspiracy nut to understand that this coincidence is certainly
worth looking into.
I started an official congressional investigation sanctioned by Henry
Hyde, then the chairman of the International Relations Committee, to
see whether Terry Nichols or his accomplice, Timothy McVeigh, had
foreign help in their murderous terrorist bombing of the Alfred Murrah
Building in Oklahoma City.
In light of the fact that Terry Nichols and Ramsey Yousef were both
in Cebu City at the same time prior to hauntingly similar terrorist
attacks, it was no stretch for a congressional investigative committee
to be looking into this matter. However, the Bush administration felt
quite differently. To those I had to deal with, it was ``case closed,
don't bother us.'' They had looked into the matter, and Congress should
simply and blindly accept their conclusion that there was no Nichols-
Yousef connection. ``Don't bother us.'' This was at times bureaucratic
laziness, and at other times it was clearly based on a disdain for
congressional investigations and authority.
During my investigation, I secured Ramsey Yousef's cell phone
records. The records were part of the phone calls that he made when he
was in that New York City area in the months just prior to the bombing
of the World Trade Center in 1993.
The phone records show that Ramsey Yousef made at least two phone
calls to a row house in Queens, New York.
Well how about that, someone in the GOP Congressional caucus wanted to conduct an investigation into a possible link for the GWOT and was denied by the White House. Denied. I disagree with your first premise Congressman about the laziness. I do agree with your second premise however, that the White House has a disdain for Congressional authority because they believe that the Executive branch should be higher than the Congress and is not co-equal. You could be a Democrat, Republican or a Communist, but they aren't going to treat as their equal if you are anywhere but inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Even then, some people can be disregarded as well.
I don't know what kind of connection Ramsey Yousef had with Terry Nichols, but if the White House has their way, we'll never know. Now Congress, you should know what to do about this (*cough* impeachment *cough*) but I'm not holding my breath.
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