Mr. President, I rise in support of the amendments of my colleagues, Senator Torricelli and Senator Smith of New Hampshire. These amendments, of which I'm a cosponsor, are, I think, very good amendments. I have not had the opportunity in the years past to hear the arguments and debates on these issues.

I consider these amendments to be very well-founded. What they do is they have conditions for lifting restrictions on the financing of agricultural sales to Cuba; two findings have to be made. Number one, the President must certify to Congress that convicted felons wanted by the FBI who are currently living as fugitives in Cuba have been returned to the United States for incarceration.

The second condition is that the President must certify to Congress that Cuba is not a state sponsor of international terrorism. That is the Senator Bob Smith amendment. This is the amendment of Senator Torricelli.

Now, Mr. President, I support fair, free trade and increased opportunities for United States workers and businesses, including our agricultural sector, to trade with other countries. However, prudence would lead us to seek to finance trade with countries that are not - that are not - terrorist states.

The Secretary of State maintains a list of countries that have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism. Currently there are seven countries on that State Department terrorism list. They are in alphabetical order: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. It's appropriate that Cuba is on that list. Fidel Castro's regime has a long history of providing arms and training to terrorist organizations, many of which were articulated previously by Senator Graham.

Our State Department notes that Havana remains a safe haven to several international terrorists and U.S. fugitives as well. As we have seen since September 11, terrorists operate in an environment largely dominated by legally and geographically defined nation states. Terrorists sometimes rely on state-provided funding for bases, equipment, technical advice, logistical and support services.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush in addressing our nation stressed that the United States in responding to these attacks will make no distinction - no distinction - between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them. As we heard, the President characterized these terrorist acts as "acts of war."

An ongoing issue for our Congress and the Administration is how do we respond to state-sponsored, or state-sanctioned, terrorists and terrorism? There is no question we need to respond. In my view, this country has gone along too many years not being worried about international terrorism, thinking that it would never affect us here at home. We have come to recognize that we must wage warfare against terrorists and those who aid, support and comfort them.

An important part of that warfare is to oppose the terrorist states with every reasonable weapon at hand. That may be financial intercepts. It may be surveillance, enhanced scrutiny of entrants into our country, infiltrating some of these terrorist organizations, greater intelligence here as well as abroad, military action when necessary, law enforcement abroad as well as here at home are all components of our multifaceted war on terrorism. Now, trade is also an important component of our current struggle against countries that are on the terrorism list.

Now let's get into another aspect of Cuba. In February of this year, the State Department reported several salient facts about Cuba and life in Cuba for the people of Cuba, who we are purportedly trying to help. And I do want to help the people of Cuba. But here's how we help them: First, let's recognize what they're facing. Cuba's human rights record remains poor. It continues to violate systematically the fundamental civil and political rights of its citizens.

The State Department pointed out that the citizens of Cuba, as if we didn't know this already, but I'll repeat it, do not have the right to change their government peacefully. The government of Cuba does not allow criticism of the revolution four decades ago or its repressive tyrannical leaders. Cuba's laws against antigovernment statements and expressions of disrespect of government officials carry penalties of between three months and one year in prison. And if Fidel Castro or members of the National Assembly or the Council of States are the objects of this criticism, the sentence for such expressions can be extended to three years in prison.

Recently Fidel Castro was asked by Robert MacNeil - quote - "Do you have political prisoners still in jail in Cuba?" Castro responded, "Yes, we have them. We have a few hundred political prisoners. Is that a violation of human rights?"

Well, I'll answer Castro's rhetorical question: Yes, it is. Darned right, it is a violation of human rights. And Castro's human rights practices are arbitrary and repressive. Hundreds of peaceful opponents of the government remain in prison. Many thousands more are subject to short-term detentions, house arrests, surveillance, arbitrary searches, convictions, travel restrictions, politically motivated dismissals from employment, threats to them or threats to their families and other forms of harassment by the Cuban government authorities.

Mr. President, let me repeat what our State Department said: Citizens of Cuba do not have the right to change their government peacefully. Let us recall the words written 225 years ago by Thomas Jefferson in our Declaration of Independence: "When a long train of abuses and usurpations … evinces a design to reduce (people) under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Just as it was important for our ancestors to have the right to throw off the chains of the tyrannical monarchy 225 years ago, it must be the right of the Cuban people to free themselves of the chains of the tyrannical Castro regime.

Let us support the opportunities of the Cuban people to enjoy their unalienable rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness. Let us not retreat in our opposition to terrorism, nor flinch from the advocacy of liberty. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues in the Senate to support these amendments by Senator Smith and Senator Torricelli. I yield back the floor.

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