00:00Whether you under your watch a genocide will take place and you will look the other way because American interests were being upheld is a fair question because the American people want to know that anytime we engage a country that we think about what our actions could be and how we believe our values are being farthered.
00:30That is my question.
00:31Ms. Omar.
00:34Thank you, Chairman.
00:38Thank you all for being here and thank you for your testimonies.
00:41Mr. Adams, in 1991, you pleaded guilty to two counts of withholding information from Congress regarding your involvement in the Iran-Kortra affair,
00:55for which you were later buttoned by President George H.W. Bush.
01:01I fail to understand why members of this committee or the American people should find any testimony that you give today to be truthful.
01:14If I can respond to that.
01:18It wasn't a question.
01:20It was an attack.
01:21That was not a question.
01:23I reserve the right to my time.
01:27It is not right.
01:29That was not a question.
01:30Members of this committee can attack a witness who is not permitted to reply.
01:34That was not a question.
01:35Thank you for your participation.
01:37On February 8, 1982, you testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about U.S. policy in El Salvador.
01:47In that hearing, you dismissed as communist propaganda report about the massacre of El Masote,
01:57in which more than 800 civilians, including children as young as two years old, were brutally murdered by U.S.-trained troops.
02:07During that massacre, some of those troops bragged about raping a 12-year-old girl before they killed them, girls before they killed them.
02:20You later said that the U.S. policy in El Salvador was a fabulous achievement.
02:28Yes or no, do you still think so?
02:31From the day that President Duarte was elected in a free election to this day, El Salvador has been a democracy.
02:42That's a fabulous achievement.
02:44Yes or no, do you think that massacre was a fabulous achievement that happened under our watch?
02:54That is a ridiculous question.
02:56Yes or no?
02:57No.
02:58I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman.
02:59I will take that as a yes.
03:00I am not going to respond to that kind of personal attack, which is not a question.
03:05Yes or no, would you support an armed faction within Venezuela that engages in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide,
03:15if you believe they were serving U.S. interests, as you did in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua?
03:24I am not going to respond to that question.
03:27I'm sorry.
03:27I don't think this entire line of questioning is meant to be real questions, and so I will not reply.
03:34Whether you, under your watch, a genocide will take place and you will look the other way because American interests were being upheld is a fair question.
03:45Because the American people want to know that any time we engage a country that we think about what our actions could be and how we believe our values are being farthered.
04:04That is my question.
04:05Will you make sure that human rights are not violated and that we uphold international and human rights?
04:17I suppose there is a question in there, and the answer is that the entire thrust of American policy in Venezuela is to support the Venezuelan people's effort to restore democracy to their country.
04:34That's our policy.
04:35I don't think anybody disputes that.
04:39The question I had for you is that the interest, does the interest of the United States include protecting human rights and include protecting people against genocide?
04:53That is always the position of the United States.
04:59I yield back my time.
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