Don Nickles: “I think I heard my colleague say he agreed with me that the administration should have vetoed the U.N. resolution that…”

“I think I heard my colleague say he agreed with me that the administration should have vetoed the U.N. resolution that strongly condemned Israel and was silent about Palestinian violence. We agree. I think he also said he agreed with me that we should be very assertive in trying to find those people responsible for the Khobar Towers, for that bombing that was so damaging, that killed 19 Americans, wounded a couple hundred others. We haven't had success. He is critical of the Saudi Government. So am I. The point being, our language and our rhetoric in some cases has exceeded our results. When we had two American embassies that were bombed, what did we do? We lobbed a few cruise missiles. We don't know if those hit the people who were directly responsible or not. The point is, if you are going to hold people accountable, you want to hold the people who are directly accountable for committing the crime against American citizens who killed American citizens, and we haven't done that in the two latest cases of terrorism. Frankly, if you don't hold them accountable, I think that sends a bad signal. I would agree with my colleague from New Jersey, we should certainly hold people accountable for the U.S.S. Cole. Likewise we should hold people accountable on Khobar Towers and on American embassies, and that hasn't happened yet. That was my point.”