James Traficant: “I wanted to say a couple of things, and I do not want to belabor the House; but I thought I would take time on my…”

“I wanted to say a couple of things, and I do not want to belabor the House; but I thought I would take time on my amendment. I listened to the words of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood), who is certainly one of our outstanding leaders; and he made a lot of sense. I agreed with the gentleman. I was prepared to vote with the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss), but I wanted to make a statement today. In the back of the room is the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha), and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) came to the floor and he made a point about true bipartisanship. I can remember when the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), now the chairman of the full Committee on Appropriations, was chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense and he worked with the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha). They came to the floor and they had their problems worked out. The world was not confused with what America was going to do militarily. And we cannot be confused with what we are going to do with our intelligence program. Let me just take one minute now and give some of my views. Pollard, Hansen, USS Cole, Pan Am 103, the first attack on the World Trade Center, that we were warned about. My colleagues, we had anonymous reports and warnings that Pan Am 103 would be blown up. Now, look, it is not about laying blame. No one in this Congress, with all of our duties, has enough time to see and oversee all of these problems.”