GOP opposition to Clinton's anti-terrorism policies. Esp.-taggants

[LanternWaste]

Culled from various new sources. And yeah, I saw William Pitt's post on the front page as soon as I cam back to DU, but dammit-- I've been doing this for the past 45 minutes to do this and it's gonna get SOME airplay....


"We need to keep this country together right now. We need to focus on this terrorism issue," Clinton said during a White House news conference. (Apr. 1996)

But while the president pushed for quick legislation, Republican lawmakers hardened their stance against some of the proposed anti-terrorism measures. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, doubted that the Senate would rush to action before they recess this weekend. The Senate needs to study all the options, he said, and trying to get it done in the next three days would be tough. ( July 30, 1996 WASHINGTON (CNN) )

Republican leaders earlier met with White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta for about an hour in response to the president's call for "the very best ideas" for fighting terrorism. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, emerged from the meeting and said, "These are very controversial provisions that the White House wants. Some they're not going to get."

Hatch called Clinton's proposed study of taggants -- chemical markers in explosives that could help track terrorists -- "a phony issue." "If they want to, they can study the thing" already, Hatch asserted.

Clinton said he knew there was Republican opposition to his proposal on explosive taggants, but it should not be allowed to block the provisions on which both parties agree. "What I urge them to do is to be explicit about their disagreement, but don't let it overcome the areas of agreement," he said.

The president emphasized coming to terms on specific areas of disagreement would help move the legislation along. The president stressed it's important to get the legislation out before the weekend's recess, especially following the bombing of CuCentennial Olympic Park and the crash of TWA Flight 800.




"The most important thing right now is that they get the best, strongest bill they can out -- that they give us as much help as they can," he said.

"Yet the Republicans in Congress continue to oppose this commonsense initiative. Why? Because the Washington gun lobby told them to. One Republican congressman had another reason, an unbelievable one. He actually told his own committee chairman, "I trust Hamas more "

Gun users, however, are concerned that tagged gunpowder would be unstable and therefore unsafe for use in bullets. Pressure from lobbying groups such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) excluded gunpowder from the study that was included in the antiterrorism bill. "Taggants are merely a cheap attempt to get gun control through the back door," said Paul Rogers, a gun activist. He believes taggants are part of a plot to keep ammunition out of the hands of legal gun owners. "The anti-gunners have realized that it is difficult to work up front trying to ban guns, but if they eliminate ammunition, then firearms would become obsolete."

[Supersedeas]

1. the Corp Media silence is eerie, predictable...but eerie

[blm]

2. Good post - and how many GOPs even bothered to read The New War at that

same period?

A 1997 book that lays out the threat of a growing global terrorism and explains how the financial networks operate and can be tracked and what GOPs cared enough about terrorism then to read it?

[gatorboy]

3. Apparently the Republican that made the "Hamas" remark,

was Republican Bob Barr