Excerpt from press conference with Sen. Bob Graham (D-Florida), Foreign Press Center, October 25, 2001

Excerpt from press conference with Sen. Bob Graham (D-Florida), Foreign Press Center, October 25, 2001
The Senate vote yesterday refusing to reinstate more money for the Andean initiative -- does this indicate that there is a waning of interest in the counter-drug efforts in Colombia?

SEN. GRAHAM: I was very discouraged and disappointed at the vote yesterday in the Senate when the funding for the Andean initiative was cut by 22 percent. First, it is our only remaining anti-drug activity at the source of supply in the Western Hemisphere. Second, it is a commitment that the United States has made not only to Colombia, but also to the other countries -- Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia -- who have been participating with us in attempting to reduce the flow of drugs into the United States. And, third, this is our current battle against terrorism. There were approximately 500 acts of terrorism committed against United States citizens or United States interests in the world in the year 2000, the last year for which statistics are available. Of those almost 500 incidents, 44 percent of them were in one country. Was that country Egypt? No. Israel? No. Afghanistan? Hardly a tick. Forty-four percent were in Colombia. That's where the terrorist war has been raging, and now we are saying at the very time that rhetorically we are going to war against global terrorists, that in the area where we are at greatest immediate threat we are in retreat. I didn't think that was a very wise policy by the United States Senate. And, as happens from time to time in American history, we will now look to the United States House of Representatives to save us from ourselves. (Laughter.) (Applause.)