ACCESSION 
NUMBER:328331

FILE ID:POL306

DATE:02/23/94

TITLE:CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23 (02/23/94)

TEXT:*94022306.POL

CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23



(Burdensharing, Dole, Farrakhan)  (700)

PERRY SAYS TROOPS STILL NEEDED IN EUROPE

Defense Secretary Perry says the 100,000 U.S. troops slated to remain in

Europe in the near future are absolutely necessary for American security --

1ut members of the House of Representatives Budget Committee disagree on

the number of troops needed.



U.S. troop levels under NATO command that peaked at 300,000 during the Cold

War are being reduced over five years to about 100,000.



During a hearing February 23, Committee Chairman Martin Olav Sabo asserted

that European allies should be doing more to defend themselves, especially

with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.  Sabo said

the administration's budget projections may be relying too much on American

military power and not enough on NATO.



John Kasich, the ranking minority Republican on the panel, assailed the

European allies for not paying more to quarter U.S. troops that they host.

European countries pay only about $300 million per year while Tokyo pays

about $2,500 million to billet a far smaller number of U.S. troops in

Japan, he said.



Perry responded that the 100,000 American troops scheduled to stay in Europe

are there "not as a favor to European nations" but rather to insure "our

own national interest."



"We are not free of security problems" in Europe, and are not likely to be

so for a long time, he asserted.



DOLE ASSAILS RUSSIA FOR SPYING ON U.S.

In a statement critical of Russia and President Clinton's policy toward that

country, Senate Republican leader Robert Dole said February 23 that Russian

President Boris Yeltsin cannot "have it both ways," spying on the United

States and seeking American help.



Dole was responding to the arrest February 22 of a Central Intelligence

Agency (CIA) official accused of spying for Russia even since the collapse

of the Soviet Union.  Dole's viewpoint is especially important because a

small group of his Republican colleagues might be able to block Russian aid

legislation despite efforts by the Democratic-controlled White House and

Congress.



"The American Congress and American taxpayers will not keep sending...aid"

to Russia if Moscow continues to "pursue Cold War business as usual," Dole

declared.



He outlined three conditions that Russia must meet if it is to receive any

further American help:



-- cease and condemn efforts to penetrate U.S. intelligence and issue a

clear presidential statement of policy to that effect;



-- cooperate fully with Washington in assessing the damage of the latest

espionage incident to U.S. security, and;



-- remove all Russian spies from the United States.

"In my view, such steps are a bare minimum for a recipient of massive tax

dollars form the United States," said Dole.



He also criticized Clinton for moving "perhaps too far, too fast" in

assuming Russia had changed since the Soviet demise.  Clinton was wrong, he

said, to allow Russian veto of NATO expansion, wrong to ignore Russian

military and intelligence activities in other former Soviet states, and

wrong to welcome a Russian role in ending the Bosnia conflict.



"Had we known" about the spy incident "when we talked about foreign aid to

Russia, it wouldn't have passed," Dole added.



HOUSE VOTES TO CONDEMN SPEECH BY FARRAKHAN AIDE

The House of Representatives by a vote of 361-34 February 23 has condemned a

1peech by an aide to Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan as racist,

anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic.



The aide, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, called Jews "bloodsuckers of the black

nation" in a speech at Kean College in New Jersey.  He also attacked the

Pope and called for "the assassination of every white infant, child, man,

and woman in South Africa."



The speech, the resolution states, "incites divisiveness and violence on the

basis of race, religion, and ethnicity."



The resolution states that the House of Representatives condemns the speech

"as outrageous hatemongering of the most vicious and vile kind" and

"condemns all manifestations and expressions of racism, anti-Catholicism,

anti-Semitism, and ethnic or religious intolerance."



The resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 3

by Democratic Representative Tom Lantos.  The Senate passed a similar

resolution a day earlier.



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