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“VOICE OF AMERICA EDITORIAL” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S10792 on Oct. 19, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
VOICE OF AMERICA EDITORIAL
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, on October 18 the Voice of America broadcast an editorial entitled ``Terrorism Will Fail,'' strongly condemning the terrorist bomb attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Aden harbor, which took the lives of 17 U.S. sailors. The editorial concluded:
``U.S. policy remains unchanged. The U.S. will make no concessions to terrorists. The U.S. will bring to justice those who attack its citizens and interests. The U.S. will hold state sponsors of terrorism fully accountable.''
This is unambiguous language, which reflects not only United States government policy but also the feelings of all Americans. Unfortunately, however, the bureaucratic road from writing, to approval, to broadcasting this editorial was anything but unambiguous. In fact, it revealed both initial bad judgment by the State Department, and the need for better vetting procedures of VOA editorials by the appropriate authorities.
VOA editorials are statements of American policy, so they are rightly cleared by the State Department for consistency with official U.S. Government policy. Regrettably, in this case the State Department initially vetoed the editorial's language. The reason for stopping the editorial was totally unjustified. It was dead wrong to stop the editorial because of fighting and casualties that were occurring elsewhere in the Middle East. American service men and women were tragically killed in this terrorist attack and a clear statement by Voice of America condemning the action should have gone out immediately.
Subsequently, the State Department fortunately disavowed the earlier veto of the editorial memo, saying that the initial veto memorandum
``in no way reflects the views of the Secretary of State, the Department or the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.'' Moreover, it stated that the initial veto memorandum had not been vetted or approved through appropriate channels.
It is inconceivable to me how anyone could advocate deleting an editorial condemning the cruel, cowardly, terrorist murder of American service men and women.
I hope and trust this occurred because of the understandable stress officials at the Department of State were under due to the tragic deaths from this dastardly act of terrorism in Yemen occurring at the same time the crises in the Middle East was also absorbing the attention of the Department.
Fortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the Voice of America did broadcast the editorial in its entirety.
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