Phil Gingrey: “if the chairman would yield for a minute, there was certainly an opportunity to meet with those students in Beirut.…”

“if the chairman would yield for a minute, there was certainly an opportunity to meet with those students in Beirut. Actually, they were in a tent city and had been there protesting the Syrian involvement in Lebanon, and they came up to us. It was fairly early in the day. They probably just came out of the tents where their living conditions were not so great. They were unshaven, but as the Chairman pointed out, just to look in their eyes, just to look in that deep feeling that we could see, it just came through, loud and clear. They care so much to have democracy and freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of the opportunity to vote, and freedom from outside interference with their country. The Lebanese are very proud, proud people, as the chairman pointed out, and that was a very important moment for me.”