The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“WAR CRIMES ACT OF 1996” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S9648-S9649 on Aug. 2, 1996.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WAR CRIMES ACT OF 1996
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of H.R. 3680 which was received from the House.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 3680) to amend title 18, United States Code, to carry out the international obligations of the United States under the Geneva Conventions to provide criminal penalties for certain war crimes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the immediate consideration of the bill?
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, this particular act is known as the War Crimes Act of 1996. This was called to my attention by a very articulate young Congressman from North Carolina, Walter Jones, Jr., whose father we served with for many, many years over in the House of Representatives.
He was very observant in discovering something, that after 40 years, after the ratification of the Geneva Conventions, that it was not self-
enacting, and we actually have never passed the necessary legislation to accept jurisdiction within our Federal courts to prosecute war crimes that we were aware of.
So this legislation will correct that after this long period of time. It is kind of inconceivable to me that we would send out to battle and to various parts of the world our young troops, trying to equip them properly--I would say properly, that if we ever get our authorization passed--and have these people ready to do the work that they are trained to do, and yet if a crime is perpetrated against them, and that criminal happens to be in the United States, we cannot even prosecute them in our Federal courts. That is all going to come to a stop.
I think also this bill might even address another problem that is taking place right now in this country. As you know, I am from Oklahoma. And one of the worst terrorist acts took place just a little over a year ago in Oklahoma City with the bombing of the Murrah Federal Office Building. And with all of the terrorist acts recently, this could act as a deterrent, this War Crimes Act of 1996, for people who may be considering perpetrating some terrorist act that could be defined as a war crime.
So I believe this is something that should have been done some 40 years ago, but was not. So we will correct that tonight. This has been cleared by both sides.
Mr HELMS. Mr. President, this bill will help to close a major gap in our Federal criminal law by permitting American servicemen and nationals, who are victims of war crimes, to see the criminal brought to justice in the United States.
Before addressing the need for this legislation, let me thank and commend the distinguished Walter Jones, who so ably represents the third district of North Carolina, for his commitment and hard work toward the passage of this bill. I'd also like to thank my distinguished colleague, Senator James Inhofe, for his support of this important bill.
Many have not realized that the U.S. cannot prosecute, in Federal court, the perpetrators of some war crimes against American servicemen and nationals. Currently, if the United States were to find a war criminal within our borders--for example, one who had murdered an American POW--the only options would be to deport or extradite the criminal or to try him or her before an international war crimes tribunal or military commission. Alone, these options are not enough to insure that justice is done.
While the Geneva Convention of 1949 grants the U.S. authority to criminally prosecute these acts, the Congress has never enacted implementing legislation. The War Crimes Act of 1996 corrects this oversight by giving Federal district courts jurisdiction to try individuals charged with committing a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, whenever the victim or perpetrator is a U.S. serviceman or national.
The bill would also allow an American, who is charged with a war crime, to be tried in an American court and to receive all of the procedural protections afforded by our American justice system.
Mr. President, at a time when American servicemen and women serve our Nation in conflicts around the world, it is important that we give them every protection possible. I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill and reaffirm our commitment to our country's servicemembers.
I ask unanimous consent that an article from the New York Times be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
Ms. Maloney and Mr. Waldheim
(By A.M. Rosenthal)
For a full half-century, with determination and skill, and with the help of the law, U.S. intelligence agencies have kept secret the record of how they used Nazis for so many years after World War II, what the agencies got from these services--and what they gave as payback.
Despite the secrecy blockade, we do know how one cooperative former Wehrmacht officer and war crimes suspect was treated. We know the U.S. got him the Secretary Generalship of the U.N. as reward and base.
For more than two years, Congress has had legislation before it to allow the public access to information about U.S.-Nazi intelligence relations--a bill introduced by Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat, and now winding through the legislative process.
If Congress passes her War Crimes Disclosure Act, H.R. 1281, questions critical to history and the conduct of foreign affairs can be answered and the power of government to withhold them reduced. The case of Kurt Waldheim is the most interesting example--the most interesting we know of at the moment.
Did the U.S. know when it backed him for Secretary General that he had been put on the A list of war-crime suspects, adopted in London in 1948, for his work as a Wehrmacht intelligence officer in the Balkans, when tens of thousands of Yugoslavs, Greeks, Italians, Jew and non-Jew, were being deported to death?
If not, isn't that real strange, since the U.S. representative on the War Crimes Commission voted to list him? A report was sent to the State Department. Didn't State give the C.I.A. a copy--a peek?
And when he was running for Secretary General why did State Department biographies omit any reference to his military service--just as he forgot to mention it in his autobiographies?
If all that information was lost by teams of stupid clerks, once the Waldheim name came up for the job why did not the U.S. do the obvious thing--check with Nazi and war-crime records in London and Berlin to see if his name by any chance was among those dearly wanted?
Didn't the British know? They voted for the listing too. And the Russians--Yugoslavia moved to list him when it was a Soviet satellite. Belgrade never told Moscow?
How did Mr. Waldheim repay the U.S. for its enduring fondness to him? Twice it pushed him successfully for the job. The third time it was among few countries that backed him again but lost. Nobody can say the U.S. was not loyal to the end.
Did he also serve the Russians and British? One at a time? Or was he a big-power groupie, serving all?
One thing is not secret any longer, thanks to Prof. Robert Herzstein of the University of South Carolina history department. He has managed through years of perseverance to pry some information loose. He found that while Mr. Waldheim worked for the Austrian bureaucracy, the U.S. Embassy in Vienna year after year sent in blurby reports about his assistance to American foreign policy--friendly, outstanding, cooperative, receptive to American thinking. All the while, this cuddly fellow was on the A list, which was in the locked files or absent with official leave.
On May 24, 1994, I reported on Professor Herzstein's findings and the need for opening files of war-crime suspects. Representative Maloney quickly set to work on her bill to open those files to Freedom of Information requests--providing safeguards for personal privacy, ongoing investigations and national security if ever pertinent.
Her first bill expired in the legislative machinery and in 1995 she tried again. She got her hearing recently thanks to the chairman of her subcommittee of the Government Reform Committee--Stephen Horn, the California Republican.
If the leaders of Congress will it, the Maloney bill can be passed this year. I nominate my New York Senators to introduce it in the Senate. It will be a squeeze to get it passed before the end of the year, so kindly ask your representatives and senators to start squeezing.
If not, the laborious legislative procedure will have to be repeated next session. Questions about the Waldheim connection will go unanswered, and also about other cases that may be in the files or strangely misplaced, which will also be of interest.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be deemed read a third time, and passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill appear at the appropriate place in the Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is so ordered.
The bill (H.R. 3680) was deemed read the third time and passed.
Mr. INHOFE. Thank you, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
Mr. HATFIELD addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
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