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“THE LOGAN ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H3444 on April 17, 2007.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE LOGAN ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I have high regard for everybody in this whole body, but when someone does something wrong, it is imperative that it be brought to light, and brought to light in a public forum.
About a week ago, the Speaker of the House, along with others, took a trip that the State Department and the White House disapproved of, to visit Syria. Syria is a terrorist state, has been on the terrorist state list for a long, long time. They have been working with Iran, they have been a transit point for weapons that went into Lebanon, weapons that killed a lot of people. They support Hezbollah and Hamas, two terrorist organizations. They work closely with Iran which has been involved in terrorism and is also on the terrorist list. And for the Speaker and others to go over there and talk with Assad, in my opinion and in the opinion of the law, the Logan Act, that it was not only the wrong thing to do and sent the wrong message, but it was a violation of an act of Congress.
I want to read to you the language in the Logan Act. It says, ``Any citizen of the United States, wherever he or she may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 3 years or both.''
Now, I am not under any illusions that there is going to be any censorship of the Speaker or any prosecution of the Speaker, but I think the American people ought to know that she weakened the position of the United States in the Middle East, and she broke the law; and she should be held accountable for that. And tonight I hope the American people get this message and send a message to the Speaker.
She has talked recently, as I understand it, and she is thinking about going to Iran and talking to Ahmadinejad. He is one of the terrorist leaders of the world. And if she were to go over there while he is building nuclear weapons and the whole world is trying to get him to stop, it would be a sure sign of weakness on the part of the United States, and it would send such a signal that they would be more aggressive than they have been in the past.
In 1938 and 1939, Winston Churchill was looked upon as a warmonger because he warned about Hitler, and yet Lord Chamberlain went to Munich, Germany, and he signed a peace agreement on Hitler's terms, gave Hitler the Sudetenland, came back, and said, ``Peace in our time,'' because he went and talked with Hitler and he thought he could convince him not to be aggressive. That was the green light for World War II and 62 million people died.
Talking to these terrorists without getting them to discuss and want to change and move away from their policies of mass destruction is wrong. Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons and they will already have one; they are trying to build a delivery system for intercontinental, intermediate range, and short-range missiles.
We must not send a signal of weakness. I think the Speaker did the wrong thing. I believe she violated the Logan Act because she didn't have the approval of both the White House and the Defense Department, and I hope that she won't do this again. And I certainly hope she won't go to Iran.
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