Porter Goss: “I come to this debate primarily focused on national security, obviously as chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on…”

“I come to this debate primarily focused on national security, obviously as chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, with very high hopes but also with some deep underlying concerns. I have high hopes that the United States can and will step up to the challenge of engaging the Asia-Pacific region while protecting U.S. interests and the interests of our friends and allies in that area and elsewhere. I do remain concerned that we lack sufficient and sustained leadership on this issue from the Clinton-Gore administration, while at the same time we do have a wide range of vigorously conflicted, highly visible viewpoints on how we should proceed even within this Congress. As a result, we run the risk of sending mixed signals that could weaken rather than reinforce the message of resolve that we need to send to the Chinese leadership about our priorities. That is what we are here about, resolve.”