7/26[/2001]. The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on the nomination of Michael Garcia to be Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the Department of Commerce. Garcia is an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he was involved in the prosecutions stemming from the World Trade Center bombing and the bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa. Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Chairman of the Committee, praised Garcia. Garcia stated that "I will work hard to ensure that any violations of U.S. dual use exports are detected, investigated and sanctioned."
Sen. Sarbanes said that he wanted the Committee to approve his nomination early next week, and the full Senate to approve it before it goes on its August recess.
Prepared Remarks of
Michael J. Garcia
Commerce Assistant Secretary
of Export EnforcementBefore the United States-China Commission
January 17, 2002
Introduction
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I would like to offer a few prepared remarks on the Department of Commerce's activities with respect to enforcement of restrictions on dual-use items to China.Before doing that, however, let me introduce myself. I am the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement, and I was confirmed to that post in August 2001. Prior to joining the Commerce Department's enforcement team, I was an Assistant United States Attorney ("AUSA") in the Southern District of New York where I focused on prosecuting national security-related cases.
As an AUSA, I prosecuted a number of terrorist cases, including the four defendants who were charged with conspiring, along with Usama Bin Laden and 17 others, to kill Americans overseas by bombing our two embassies in East Africa. Those four defendants were convicted in May 2001. While an AUSA, I also participated in the successful prosecution of four defendants in the first World Trade Center bombing trial and the successful prosecution of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and two others who had plotted to cause 48 hours of "terror in the sky" by planting bombs aboard American jetliners flying from South East Asia to the United States.
These cases involved very real threats to our national security. I bring this experience, this background, to my work as Assistant Secretary of Export Enforcement...
more