         
       
The Congressional Record...
on Lies in the Congressional Record...
and the Rewards and Payoff to Those Who Promoted Those
Lies for War...
and What Those Who Promoted The Lies Think About Your
Opinions...
This document is unedited except for color
coding to aid the reader in quickly identifying the relative passages
and identities involved. It reveals not only
that the story regarding the Iraqi Army killing babies in order to steal
their incubators was a fraud... but that it was a fraud designed to move
America into an otherwise illegal war... and that those responsible for
the lie were intended to be rewarded by the system by posh appointments...
that they could do even more damage at some future point on behalf of whomever
pulled their strings. Most notably, that would be CIA and whomever pulled
their
strings. In this case, CIA reports to the President, who was George Bush,
who himself was CIA. And they pulled the fraud off beautifully. We bought
it hook, line, and sinker. Yet we do not question what the same group of
people tell us about 911? What is wrong with this picture? Perhaps
what
they think about your opinions are correct
after all.
Please know that Robert Gray and Company, and Hill and Knowlton are
PR (Public Relations) firms long associated with CIA, some thinking them
an outright proprietary. Further, the United States Information Agency
is also a CIA hot bed. They have repeatedly been involved in promotional
efforts on behalf of CIA which can only be described as lies, fabrications,
half truths. In short, propoganda, which is itself a form of mind control
exercised by CIA on enemy states. That they should use this tactic on you
and me makes us their defacto enemy, for they are the defacto enemy of
this nation and our Constitution when they seek to overthrow our form of
open government and replace it with a form of oppressive government based
on lies and murders which are conceived and executed in violation of that
Constitution. Document follows:
SENATE RECORD VOTE ANALYSIS
103d Congress
2d Session
June 16, 1994, 1:43 p.m.
Page
S-6983
Temp. Record
Vote No. 147
FITZ-PEGADO NOMINATION/Motion to Recommit
SUBJECT:
Nomination of Lauri
Fitz-Pegado, of Maryland, to be Assistant
Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the United States and Foreign
Commercial Service. Faircloth motion to recommit.
MOTION TO RECOMMIT REJECTED, 37-61
SYNOPSIS:
A pertinent vote on this legislation includes No. 148.
Lauri Fitz-Pegado, of Washington, D.C., was born
June 10, 1955. She received a B.A. from Vassar College in 1977, graduating
Phi Beta Kappa, and she received an M.A. in 1986 from the Johns Hopkins
School of Advanced International Studies. From 1977 to 1982, Ms. Fitz-Pegado
worked at the United States Information Agency,
first in the personnel department, then as a foreign service officer. Since
1982, she has worked at Hill and Knowlton,
Inc., most recently as Senior
Vice President and Managing
Director of the International Public Affairs Counseling Division
(she was first an employee of Gray and Company,
which was purchased by Hill & Knowlton
in 1986).
During debate, Senator Faircloth moved to recommit the nomination to the
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Those favoring the motion to recommit contended:
Lauri Fitz-Pegado has coached perjured testimony
before Congress. She has served as a lobbyist for the Communist Government
in Angola. She has worked for the murderous Duvalier regime in Haiti,
a
regime which has left us with the tragic legacy we are attempting to deal
with today. She has been a hired gun for disreputable foreign interests.
She has deliberately attempted to mislead Senators about her past. In short,
Lauri Fitz-Pegado has disqualified herself from service in the position
to which she has been nominated. None of these facts and allegations were
disclosed either to the Chairman or the Ranking Republican of the Banking
Committee when her nomination was voted on. Now that Senators have been
made aware of Ms. Fitz-Pegado's background, many of them are concerned,
and they should be. Lauri Fitz-Pegado has been involved in many questionable
activities, and the Banking Committee should have a chance to review them.
One of the reasons why her nomination should be returned
to the Banking Committee is to find out more information on her
role in orchestrating perjury before Congress and the United Nations Security
Council as the representative of "Citizens for a Free Kuwait."
In 1990, after the Iraqi invasion of their country, the Kuwaiti Government
in exile formed "Citizens for a Free Kuwait." They hired the lobbying firm
of Hill & Knowlton to attempt to influence public opinion in the United
States toward entering the conflict. Lauri Fitz-Pegado was in charge of
the effort. Her strategy was to use alleged
witnesses to atrocities to tell stories of human rights violations in occupied
Kuwait. Using their testimony live and on
video
news releases, she orchestrated what has come to be known as "the baby
incubator fraud." Ms. Fitz-Pegado first coached
a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, identified only at the time as "Nayira," to
testify before Congress that she had seen Iraqi soldiers remove Kuwaiti
babies from hospital respirators. Nayira claimed
to be a Kuwaiti refugee who had been working as a volunteer in a Kuwaiti
hospital throughout the first few weeks of the Iraqi occupation. She said
that she had seen the Iraqis take babies out of incubators, take the incubators,
and then leave the babies "on the cold floor to die."
Nayira's emotional testimony riveted human rights
organizations, the news media, and the Nation. That
incident was cited by six Members of the Senate as a reason to go to war
with Iraq. However, it
was later discovered that the girl--who had only been identified as an
escapee from occupied Kuwait--was in fact the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador
to the United States. It also turned out that
Lauri
Fitz-Pegado had concealed Nayira's real identity.
Apologists for Lauri Fitz-Pegado say that she did not hide Nayira's real
identity; she told Congressman Tom Lantos who Nayira was. But what Ms.
Fitz-Pegado's supporters do not say is that Congressman Lantos' Congressional
Human Rights Foundation received rent-free office space from Lauri Fitz-Pegado's
firm, Hill & Knowlton. Their telephones were answered by the Hill &
Knowlton switchboard, and Citizens for a Free Kuwait made a $50,000 donation
to the foundation after the invasion. Instead of apologizing for Lauri
Fitz-Pegado, we should be investigating those ties.
Since the congressional testimony of Nayira, every
reputable human rights organization and journalist has concluded that the
baby incubator story was an outright fabrication. Terrible things were
done by the Iraqis, but Nayira never saw what she said she saw. Even a
study commissioned later by the Kuwaiti Government could not produce a
shred of real evidence that the Ambassador's daughter had managed to do
a few weeks of volunteer work in occupied Kuwait--in a hospital overrun
by bloodthirsty Iraqis. Again, Fitz-Pegado apologists say otherwise. But
tell them that you want Nayira to testify at a formal hearing, on the record,
and under oath, and then find out how interested they really are in arriving
at the truth. When Lauri Fitz-Pegado was asked
to account for the discrepancies between Nayira's account, what Ms. Fitz-Pegado
knew, and what the truth really was, she said: "Oh come on John. Who gives
a ." The word she used is so foul that it cannot be repeated on the Senate
floor.
If the other members of the Banking Committee, Democrat and Republican
alike, had been aware of even this limited set of facts during the confirmation
process, her nomination would have been rejected by that committee. All
of the people who supported this country's involvement in the Gulf war
should be offended that Lauri Fitz-Pegado believed that those kinds of
illegal and unethical activities were necessary to get this country to
face the threat of Saddam Hussein.
President Clinton said in his 1992 campaign that he was going to shut down
the revolving door between lobbyists and Government. This is not the way
to shut it down. With the likes of Lauri Fitz-Pegado, he has greased it.
We need an open hearing, with members of the media present, and with witnesses
under oath, before we even think of voting to confirm this woman. Lauri
Fitz-Pegado deserves the chance to explain her involvement in this issue,
as well as several other issues, such as her involvement with the Marxist
Government of Angola, her ties to the bloody Duvalier regime in Haiti,
and her lobbying efforts on behalf of the arms dealer, Adnan Khashogi.
The American people deserve to hear her explanations in the full light
of day, on the record, and under oath. We urge our colleagues to support
the motion to recommit so we can learn more about this nominee before we
confirm her to an important position in the United States Government.
Those opposing the motion to recommit contended:
Lauri Fitz-Pegado has been nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce
and Director General of the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service. Her nomination
was jointly referred to the Senate Banking Committee and the Senate Commerce
Committee. The Banking Committee held its hearing on October 4, 1993, and
then met on October 19, 1993, to report out the nomination. Originally,
it was reported out without objection, but following the vote, a Senator
asked that he be recorded against reporting the nomination, and he was
duly recorded. Following Banking Committee action, the Commerce Committee
held a hearing on Ms. Fitz-Pegado's nomination on February 10, 1994. At
that hearing, opponents of her nomination did appear and did testify on
the nomination itself. The Commerce Committee then later met on May 17,
1994, and reported out her nomination on a voice vote; there were no Democratic
or Republican votes recorded against her. It is not appropriate to recommit
the nomination of Lauri Fitz-Pegado to the committee, particularly after
we have had a situation where two committees have already acted. The appropriate
place to air concerns about this nominee is right here in the Senate, on
the Senate floor, which is what we are doing today.
It is true that during Lauri Fitz-Pegado's private-sector career, she represented
foreign governments. During her hearing before the Senate Banking Committee,
she was specifically asked whether she understood that she would never
again be able to represent foreign governments if she were confirmed in
this position. She clearly stated that she understood that requirement
and that she made the pledge that she was required to make and that she
would abide by it. The other points that have been made against her have
also been considered in committee. The main accusation that has been made
against her, that the Kuwaiti commercial was fraudulent, has been answered
by Ms. Fitz-Pegado. She has stated that she did not know that it was a
made-up story. In order to get to the bottom of the controversy, the Commerce
Committee arranged to hear from a panel on the issue. That panel was not
able to make a case against Lauri Fitz-Pegado; the burden of proof has
not been met.
This nomination has received the strong endorsement and support of the
President of the United Sates and the Secretary of Commerce. It has now
been reviewed by two committees. There have been public hearings held.
There were witnesses heard in opposition to the nominee in the Commerce
Committee. There was only one recorded vote in opposition to the nominee
in the Banking Committee and the Commerce Committee. There is no reason
why this nomination should be recommitted to the Banking Committee; the
facts have been heard.
Ms. Fitz-Pegado offers 17 years of public and private experience in management,
policy analysis, and business promotion. She has been involved in extensive
negotiations with international public- and private-sector officials. Her
background in marketing and promotion gives her exactly the skills that
the position calls for. Lauri Fitz-Pegado is going to be a tremendous leader
for this very important branch of Government, and we urge all of our colleagues
to reject the idea of revisiting this nomination, thereby shunting it aside
and killing it, and to confirm Lauri Fitz-Pegado for a job she has earned,
she deserves, and in which she will excel.
VOTING YEA:
Republicans:
(34 or 79%) Bennett Bond Brown Burns Chafee Coats
Cochran Coverdell Craig D'Amato Dole Domenici Faircloth Gramm Grassley
Gregg HatchHelms Hutchison Kassebaum Kempthorne Lott Lugar Mack McConnell
Murkowski Nickles Packwood Simpson Smith Specter Stevens Thurmond Wallop
Democrats:
(3 or 5%) Conrad Dorgan Moynihan
VOTING NAY:
Republicans:
(9 or 21%) Cohen Danforth Durenberger Gorton Hatfield
Jeffords McCain Pressler Roth
Democrats:
(52 or 95%) Akaka Baucus Biden Bingaman Boxer Bradley
Breaux Bryan Bumpers Byrd Campbell Daschle DeConcini Dodd Exon Feingold
Feinstein Ford Glenn Graham Harkin Heflin Hollings Inouye Johnston Kennedy
Kerrey Kerry Kohl Lautenberg Leahy Levin Lieberman Mathews Metzenbaum Mikulski
Mitchell Moseley-Braun Murray Nunn Pell Pryor Reid Riegle Robb Rockefeller
Sarbanes Sasser Shelby Simon Wellstone Wofford
NOT VOTING:
Republicans:
(1) Warner-2
Democrats:
(1) Boren-2
ABSENCE CODE: 1-Official Business 2-Nec. absent 3-Illness 4-Other
Symbols: AY-Announced Yea AN-Announced Nay PY-Paired Yea PN-Paired
Nay
Compiled and written by the staff of the Republican Policy Committee
Don Nickles, Chairman
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