Condemning the series of terrorist attacks against the Russian Federation that occurred in late August and early September 2004.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 760) condemning the series of terrorist attacks against the Russian Federation that occurred in late August and early September 2004.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on this resolution under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution. I would like to begin by thanking the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) for their support of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, in recent weeks, the Russian people have suffered greatly from terrorism.

They have seen two airplanes blown out of the sky, killing all on board. They have seen bombs explode in subway tunnels, killing people who were just going home or just going to work. And then they saw the tragedy in a town called Beslan, in southern Russia.

And in Russia the first day of school is known there as ``the day of knowledge.'' For Middle School No. 1 in Beslan, it turned into a day of terror. As students and teachers and parents gathered for that first day, 30 terrorists stormed the school, and they took 1,180 occupants as hostage. They herded the group of children and teachers and parents into the school gymnasium, and they rigged it with explosives. And those who did not obey orders on the spot were executed on that site. And there they sat the hostages in the sweltering gymnasium for 52 hours with no food, with no water. Hostages stripped off their clothes from relief of the heat and did what they could to save themselves and try to stay hydrated.

These attacks were planned in meticulous detail with a cache of weapons and other equipment hidden underneath the school's library wooden floor for weeks before the attack. The terrorists were well trained. They were very well equipped. They possessed gas masks and hand-held radios and specialized weaponry. They even possessed two sentry dogs as expertly trained as the attackers themselves. This attack reflects the tactics used by Islamist terrorist groups around the world, including extensive preparation, simultaneous attacks requiring coordination, and the use of suicide bombers in the attack itself. It was no amateur operation.

The end of the seizure resulted in more than 330 dead, half of them children. Hundreds were wounded, and still more were unaccounted for after the bomb blasts. Children were shot in the back as they tried to escape.

The bombed-out school leaves an unimaginable scene, desks littered with bullet holes, bloody handprints on tiles, body parts of suicide bombers litter the floor and the ceiling of the classroom, and on the chalkboard one can see in the film that the teacher had prepared an arithmetic lesson four plus two equals six.

In Beslan last week, caskets, many of them child-sized, were carried one by one for burial. A patch of land about the size of a football field had to be prepared for more graves because the town's cemetery was not big enough to hold all the bodies.

Mr. Speaker, September 1 is Russia's 9/11. The world has expressed its sympathy for the people of Beslan. At the Russian Embassy here in Washington, D.C., hundreds have lined up to sign condolence books, including Secretary Powell and President Bush. Secretary Powell wrote: ``As a parent, my heart and my prayers go out to those who lost children. The United States stands firmly and with solidarity with Russia in fighting all forms of terrorism. This tragedy will serve to energize our efforts.''

As Americans are now sending their children back to school across the country, this calamity has moved many Americans. Many have commented on the Russian government's response to this war and to its policies in Chechnya and its anti-democratic actions in Chechnya. This deserves debate in appropriate forums. However, one thing is clear: nothing can justify this deliberate targeting of innocent children. The use of children as targets by these trained terrorists is reprehensible. These are children, again, that were specifically targeted. This resolution rightly condemns this establishment.

Mr. Speaker, the unfortunate reality is that today's terrorism knows no borders. This killing has spread and apparently will continue to spread. The children and people of Beslan, Russia, have now joined the people of New York and Bali and Moscow and Karachi and Jerusalem and Madrid and many other places around the globe as victims of international terrorism.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the vice chairman of the Committee on International Relations.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon), who will soon travel to Beslan, Russia.

(Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this tragedy brings the world's attention to a region of the globe that has been perhaps overlooked for too long, but it has also spurred debate about the next steps in an escalating conflict that transcends borders.

It should also galvanize debate about the threat that the world faces. As the bipartisan 9/11 Commission states, ``The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is the threat posed by Islamic terrorism, especially the al Qaeda network and its affiliates and its ideology.''

I believe this is what we are seeing in southern Russia. These are not criminals united by happenstance, but by militant Islam, united by ideology, doctrine and practice, its adherence drawn from Africa to Southeast Asia, from the Middle East to the Caucasus.

Al Qaeda's interest in the Caucasus is undisputed. Chechnya's lawless period of independence produced the conditions ripe for fomenting global jihad. Fighters, weapons, cash and ideology, much of it Saudi Wahabism, poured in from abroad.

Like al Qaeda, Chechen fighters have used front charities to secure funds. Benevolence International Foundation, whose assets were blocked by the U.S. Government for supporting al Qaeda, has also been found to support jihadists in Chechnya. In fact, evidence seized from Benevolence International indicates that it spent over 40 percent of its budget on Chechnya.

The bipartisan 9/11 Commission exposes other links, noting that several of the 9/11 hijackers, including Mohammed Atta, were headed to Chechnya to fight against the Russians. Only a chance meeting on that train in Germany with another terrorist caused the group to make the decision to travel to Afghanistan instead.

Several Chechens, including Shamil Basayev, believed to be the master mind of this school attack, received training in Afghan terror camps. Perhaps most telling, Afghanistan's Taliban was the only regime in the world to recognize Chechnya's independence in January of 2000 and to pledge it help in its fight against Russia.

Mr. Speaker, I could go on, but it is important to recognize these facts. It is important to recognize that this is the enemy that faces Russia, that faces the United States and that faces the world.

As I said earlier, many have commented on the Russian government's response to this war, to its policies in Chechnya and its anti- democratic actions. This is a debate we should have, but we should have this debate with a clear understanding of what the Russian people and what we are up against.

I urge the passage of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend for yielding me this time and for his leadership on this issue. I thank the gentleman from California for his leadership.

I rise as a co-author and co-sponsor of this important resolution to send a clear, unequivocal statement to the people and leaders of Russia that we are with them, that we are one in their fight against terrorism.

Mr. Speaker, later on this week I will make my 38th or 39th trip to Moscow. This will be the most solemn trip that I will have made in my career as I extend the sympathy and the concern and the personal feelings of all of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to our friends in Russia.

Mr. Speaker, it is outrageous that we have witnessed the kinds of actions not just in the school in Beslan but as has been described here today, the terrorist attacks on airlines, the terrorist attacks in hotels where many of us have stayed. In fact, many of us have stayed at the National Hotel in downtown Moscow right across from the Duma headquarters.

That was bombed earlier this year.

The people of Russia have suffered much. Now is not the time for us to criticize, although all of us have differences of opinion with the Russian leadership on various aspects of our bilateral relations. Now is the time to come together unequivocally standing one-on-one with the Russian people as they did with us on September 11.

I would remind our colleagues, Mr. Speaker, that it was Vladimir Putin who was the first foreign leader to telephone President Bush after 9/11. It was not the leader of Great Britain or Canada or Australia; it was President Putin, who expressed his solidarity with the people of America during our darkest hour.

There were scores of Russian Duma deputies, many friends of people in this body and the other body, who were contacted personally as they expressed to us their outrage and their feelings of horror and shock and grief as America came under attack on September 11.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, I was in Moscow shortly after the attack and had a chance to ride by our embassy in downtown Moscow. You could not see the front gate of the American embassy in Moscow for the literally thousands and thousands of flowers and personal notes that literally thousands of Russian ordinary citizens had come to place by our embassy in Moscow expressing their grief and concern with what happened to us.

So it is appropriate that we take this time to stand up and let the world know that today we are standing shoulder to shoulder with the people of Russia. We are supporting their efforts to rid their country of terrorism, and we stand with them to fully investigate the details of the outrageous act that occurred at the school in Beslan, as well as the other terrorist activities that have taken place in that nation.

Mr. Speaker, we have come a long way in the last 12 and 13 years since Russia threw off communism. It has been a rough road. There are those who say that perhaps Russia has not done enough, there are those that say we have not done enough. But now is not the time for us to debate differences, now is the time for us to stand together, shoulder- to-shoulder, and let the people of the world know that in the fight against terrorism we are one and the same.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank our colleagues for their leadership. It was just 4 short years ago that I hosted the current Speaker of the Duma, my friend Boris Gryzlov, at the Republican National Convention for 6 days. He stayed with me. At the time he was the First Deputy Speaker of the Duma. He went on to become the Minister of Interior. He is one of President Putin's best friends. In fact, he ran President Putin's reelection campaign.

Boris Gryzlov reached out to me as soon as that attack occurred. In words that I can only describe as overtly emotional, he said Congressman Weldon, all of us in Russia share the grief that is being shared by the people of your Nation.

So to our friend Boris Gryzlov, who stands today as the Speaker of the Russian Duma, a close adviser to President Putin, and to President Putin himself, representing all of the people of Russia, America stands ready to pass this resolution, I hope with overwhelming support of both parties, because leadership comes from the most distinguished leaders on foreign affairs issues of this body, that we rise up and let the people of Russia know that they are truly our brothers and sisters.

We pray for those victims, we pray for those families, we pray for those young children. As a teacher myself, I cannot believe on the first day of school, which is a great day in Russia, as my friend and chairman outlined in his opening statement, that they would attack young Russian children, the most vulnerable of their society.

So, Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleagues, I look forward to working to pass this resolution, and, more importantly, I look forward to delivering this message in person when I arrive in Moscow before the end this week.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution. First I want to express my appreciation to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Royce), my good friend, for introducing this most important resolution and to the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde) for facilitating its expeditious consideration on the floor.

Mr. Speaker, September 1 is usually a very happy day for Russian families. It is the traditional first day of the school year, when parents accompany their children to school. And at School No. 1 in the town of Beslan in southern Russia, September 1, 2004, began in a joyous and celebratory manner. Children were dressed in their best clothes, busily catching up with their young friends and with their teachers after the summer break. Festive music played for this important and happy occasion in the lives of these carefree children and their parents.

Suddenly dozens of masked, armed terrorists stormed the school, causing mass chaos and fright, and forcing hundreds of students and parents into the gymnasium of the school. It sickens all of us to read the eyewitness accounts of the school seizure or to watch the video which was shot by the terrorists documenting their bloody and barbaric actions.

Mr. Speaker, there is no need to relive today the violent and despicable

acts which followed. The entire world has seen them on television in all too graphic detail. But we now know that for the town of Beslan, and indeed for all of Russia, September 1, 2004, will hereafter be remembered as a day of horrible tragedy and unspeakable crime.

September 1, 2004, Mr. Speaker, will be remembered in Russia as we in the United States remember September 11, the day when we recognized our vulnerability to the brutality of Islamic terrorism and committed ourselves to a global battle against those who perpetrate these dastardly acts.

The Beslan attack was not Russia's first encounter with Islamic terrorists. Just days before, these same people brought down two commercial airliners in Russia, killing nearly a hundred civilians; and the suicide bombers struck in Moscow at a subway station, causing grief and suffering to families across Russia. Our hearts go out to the families of those who died or were injured in these tragic disasters.

Confronting, resisting, and defeating Islamic terrorism must be a global effort. The most meaningful contribution that we in Congress can make is to continue our commitment to carry on this battle until final victory. Today, as we remember the innocent victims of Beslan, the passengers of Sibir Airlines Flight 1047 and Volga-Avia Express 1303 and commuters and bystanders at the Rizhskaya subway station in Moscow, I want to offer the most heartfelt condolences of the American people to the Russian people and especially to the relatives and friends of the victims of Islamic terrorism.

I strongly support this resolution, and I urge all of my colleagues to do so as well.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no additional requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me thank and commend the gentleman from California (Chairman Royce) for his authorship of this very important and necessary resolution, and I am very pleased to join as a co-sponsor of H. Res. 760; and I join in the chorus of the Americans who stand in solidarity with the Russian people in their grief for those who have been murdered by terrorist actions. No words can adequately express the shock and sorrow that we feel at the events in Beslan. Our hearts go out to the people of Beslan as they bury their children and their neighbors. They have our deepest sympathy, and they have our prayers. Our hearts go out to the wounded and disabled, especially the young, who will bear the scars of terrorism for the rest of their lives.

This resolution properly deplores the terrorist attacks against Russia and expresses condolences to the families of the victims. Their grief is our grief. Their anger is our anger. Their loss is our loss.

Mr. Speaker, there is ample reason to criticize Russia's military operations in Chechnya. I continue to believe that Moscow's strategy in that tortured region has been brutal, ill-advised, and self-defeating. As chairman of the Helsinki Commission, I have met numerous times with Russian leaders to protest their policy in Chechnya and have held a number of hearings, including with people like Elena Bonner, to protest what is going on there.

But let me make it very clear that there is no justification, no justification whatsoever, for the bloody violence that was perpetrated by cowardly terrorists who use innocent children to achieve political ends. If the terrorists thought they were helping the people of Chechnya by killing innocent people in North Ossetia, they were tragically in error. The people of Chechnya seek a respite from war. They and many in Russia want a just peace, not more carnage. Slaughtering children and traumatizing many more betrays the cause of peace.

Mr. Speaker, I trust this resolution reflects not only the sentiments of this House but also of millions of Americans that we represent. We mourn the tragic loss, the wanton loss of innocent lives.

And again I want to commend my colleagues, especially the gentleman from California (Mr. Royce); the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde); and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), ranking member, for their leadership on this important resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution and would like to thank my friend from California for introducing it. Just over a week ago, the civilized world agonized over the massacre of more than 300 Russian school children who were returning to school after summer vacation when Islamic terrorists took them hostage and ultimately, took their lives. This cowardly and inhumane act occurred just days after two other vile acts of terror--the bombing of two Russian airliners, which killed 89 innocent men, women, and children, and the Moscow subway bombing that killed nine.

Mr. Speaker, there is no denying that the situation in Chechnya is a complicated one. Despite the mutually destructive history of Russian- Chechen relations, the acts of terror that have been unleashed upon the Russian people are inexcusable, inhumane, and are representative of the evil that we face today in the War on Terror. The fact that those who carried out these brutal acts purposely picked children as their primary targets further illuminates their utter disregard for the rules of law and the norms of human conduct.

Today, as we express our solidarity with the Russian people, let us take time to remember the fact that the War on Terror is a transnational conflict that requires strong alliances among nations both large and small. The people of Russia have a friend in the United States of America. It is my strong belief, that the murderers who took the lives of children in Beslan share ties with others who seek to wreak havoc within our own borders. Let those who wish us ill know that the United States, Russia and our allies will stop at nothing to destroy the global network of Islamic fundamentalism and all other forms of terrorism.

As the United States House of Representatives expresses its solidarity with the Russian people, I would like to remind my colleagues of the other victims of terrorism that the world has lost in recent years. People have mourned the losses of loved ones in Bali, Jerusalem, Madrid, Jakarta, New York, Washington, Baghdad, Kabul and various other places. May their memories and those of the children of Beslan, the passengers on the two aircraft and the people on the subway be the rallying cry for our ongoing struggle against terrorism.