Porter Goss: “I too would like to associate with the extraordinary outpouring of tributes to Ham Fish by so many of our colleagues.…”

“I too would like to associate with the extraordinary outpouring of tributes to Ham Fish by so many of our colleagues. They bring back many happy memories of a wonderful man, and I join in the sympathies sent to Mary Ann and the family. Mr. Speaker, yesterday when we began hearing from some of our acquaintances down in Haiti regarding a sudden and apparently secret surprise increase in American troop presence, we were not sure what was going on. Despite the high level of interest in Haiti, of many offices on the Hill here, no one in the administration appears to have taken the time to notify anybody of this new deployment. Frankly, this kind of uncertainty falls far short of adequate when we are talking about committing more American troops anywhere, especially in Haiti, especially today. Because we took the time to ask around, we now think we have confirmation that indeed a force from the 82d Airborne has arrived in Haiti. Billed as an extension of Operation Fairwinds, which is an operation there, 200 members strong, civil engineering mission that has been in Haiti. Apparently company size or so, about that many troops have been sent on a mission of reconnaissance and threat assessment. Mr. Speaker, this brings up a number of questions, questions that certainly are going to be of interest to the taxpayers of this country who have already seen the Clinton administration spend something like $3 billion in Haiti.”