Free Republic

For Immediate Release: June 14th, 2005 LEADING MEMBER OF the U.S.CONGRESS TO LEAD PROTEST AT EMBASSY OF BURMA PHOTO OPPORTUNITY, WASHINGTON, DC JUNE 17TH AT 10:00 AM   For More Information, Contact: Lynne Weil, (202) 225-6735 Office of Congressman Tom Lantos Jeremy Woodrum (202) 246-7924 US Campaign for Burma Tom Lantos, Top Democrat on International Relations Committee, To Deliver 6,000 Birthday Cards Demanding Release of World's Only Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Aung San Suu Kyi  (Washington, DC)  Tom Lantos (D-CA), the ranking member on the House International Relations Committee, will lead a protest in front of the Embassy...

WASHINGTON (June 11) - A musician long before she became an academic and then a world-famous diplomat, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took to the Kennedy Center concert stage Saturday to accompany a young soprano battling an often-fatal disease. Rice's rare and unpublicized appearance at the piano marked a striking departure from her routine as America's No. 1 diplomat. A pianist from the age of 3 she played a half-dozen selections to accompany Charity Sunshine, a 21-year-old singer who was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension a little more than a year ago. The soprano is a granddaughter of Rep. Tom Lantos,...

Panel backs mandate with list of reforms to be met in 2 years. Washington -- Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, narrowly lost an effort Wednesday to fend off a Republican bill to slash U.S. dues payments to the United Nations by 50 percent unless the world body completes a long list of reforms within two years. During a three-hour debate at the House International Relations Committee, Lantos and his colleagues in the Democratic minority agreed with the Republican majority that the United Nations -- rocked most recently by the Iraq oil-for-food scandal and charges that peacekeepers in the Congo...

Democrats Offer Alternate U.N. Reform Bill By NICK WADHAMS The Associated Press Tuesday, June 7, 2005; 8:39 PM UNITED NATIONS -- U.S. congressional Democrats on Tuesday sought to deflate a Republican bill that would link U.S. dues to the United Nations with reform of the world body, offering a version of their own that doesn't directly tie payments to change. The offer from U.S. Representative Tom Lantos of California would give the U.S. State Department the choice of withholding up to 50 percent of dues if the United Nations doesn't carry out reforms, Lantos spokeswoman Lynne Weil said. But it...

WASHINGTON - The senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee said yesterday he would condition U.S. aid to the Palestinians on oil-rich Arab "deadbeats" making good on their own promised contributions. The assertion by Rep. Tom Lantos at a hearing on Middle East peace prospects drew swift endorsement from the leadoff witness, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. "I think it is reasonable that the surrounding Arab states that have resources should at least match U.S. support," Kissinger said. Lantos said he backed President George W. Bush's request that Congress double to $350 million U.S. aid to the Palestinians...

U.S. President George Bush yesterday hosted at the White House two Israeli-Russian businessmen involved in the Yukos oil major who are wanted by Moscow for alleged tax offenses. Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov, both shareholders in the giant Russian oil enterprise Yukos, were invited to a White House breakfast as guests of Congressmen Tom Lantos and Christopher Cox, Israel’s Haaretz daily reported. But U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow said that Brudno and Dubov are staying in the United States legally and cannot be arrested. “They are both, as I understand it, dual citizens of Israel and Russia, and they...

BEIJING (AP) - A U.S. congressman traveling North Korea Saturday said he will discuss the communist regime's nuclear program and human rights issues during talks with officials of the secretive communist nation. The trip by Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, comes with a similar visit in the works by Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who announced plans to travel with a bipartisan delegation earlier this week. "I anticipate meeting with North Korean officials, discussing about the nuclear program, hopefully their reintegration into the international community," Lantos said at Beijing's airport while waiting to...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos expressed confidence Monday in U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan but predicted the world body will have to clean house over allegations of corruption in the U.N.-administered oil-for-food program in Iraq. Lantos, the only survivor of the Holocaust in Congress, also said he was appalled by reports of opposition by some Arab countries to the call by the United States to hold a special session on Jan. 24 to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. Such opposition, the Hungarian-born Lantos said, "reflects hysterical and mindless venom, which is...

Former American fugitive Marc Rich was a middleman for several of Iraq's suspect oil deals in February 2001, just one month after his pardon from President Clinton, according to oil industry shipping records obtained by ABC News. And a U.S. criminal investigation is looking into whether Rich, as well as several other prominent oil traders, made illegal payments to Iraq in order to obtain the lucrative oil contracts. "Without that kind of middleman, the system would not work because the major oil companies did not want to deal with Iraq because there was a mandated kickback," said human rights investigator...

A controversial resolution on independence for Serbia's southern province of Kosovo has been withdrawn from the US Congress House International Relations Committee. The resolution had been proposed by Committee Chairman Henry Hyde and deputy Tom Lantosh. B92 learnt this morning from the office of the Serbian president that it was withdrawn after the State Department intervened.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A California Republican congressman introduced a constitutional amendment Wednesday that would allow Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to run for president. But he insisted the candidate he really wants to see is a 76-year-old House Democrat from Hungary. "There are those here today who will interpret this constitutional proposal permitting naturalized citizens to serve as president as a political ploy," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, an early supporter of Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial bid, said in remarks prepared for the House floor. "This is no ploy. I honestly believe that Tom Lantos should be able to seek the highest office in the land,...

An item in Friday's Arutz-7 report is forebodingly reminiscent of a warning issued two years before Egypt's surprise attack against Israel on Yom Kippur 1973. Arutz-7 reported on Friday that U.S. Representative Tom Lantos (D-Ca.) warned that Egypt is building up its military in preparation for a future war with Israel. The House International Relations Committee member said that Egypt's military build-up and exercises are "ominously geared toward an Israeli enemy," and that Egypt recently supplemented its navy with 11 new battle units and other weapons procurements - despite the fact that Egypt has no serious enemies in the region....

US Congressman Warns Against Trusting Egypt 13:23 Jul 02, '04 / 13 Tammuz 5764 As Israel considers involving Egyptian troops in the aftermath of a withdrawal from Gaza, a United States Congressman warns of Egypt’s intentions. As Israel considers involving Egyptian troops in the aftermath of a withdrawal from Gaza, a United States Congressman warns of Egypt’s intentions. Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the ranking Democrat in the House International Relations Committee, says that Egypt is building up its military in preparation for a future war with Israel. He announced this week that he plans to introduce legislation that will...

<p>May 3, 2004 -- WHAT are the Congressional hearings to discover the truth about the United Nations' oil-for-food scandal? According to some of the committee's Democratic representatives, the hearings are a "misguided effort to discredit the United Nations."</p> <p>In other words - according to House Reps. Tom Lantos, Howard Berman and Gary Ackerman - it apparently doesn't matter what happened to the $2 billion worth of bribe money paid to 270 diplomats and politicians, or the $10 billion allegedly stolen by Saddam Hussein.</p>

Several days ago I was watching the House debate concerning the approval of a resolution which expressed commendation for the United States Armed Forces and Coalition forces for liberating Iraq and expressed its gratitude for their valiant service, called H. Res. 557. The more I think about this debate, the more I fume. I was struck by how utterly audacious it was of Democrats to spew forth rhetoric, suggesting Republicans were being divisive and partisan...and, alleging Republicans were using our brave soldiers for their own political gain. When I was watching the debate over this issue on C-SPAN, I was...

<p>California's top Democrats scrambled Thursday to defuse same-sex marriage as a political wedge issue that could cause them problems at the polls in November.</p> <p>As a new statewide poll showed that half of Californians oppose same-sex marriage and hinted of potential difficulties among Democratic and independent voters, key California Democratic officeholders began to express doubts about same-sex marriage, and some were openly unhappy the matter had become an object of national politics in a campaign year.</p>

SAN BRUNO -- A San Bruno couple facing deportation to Mexico and separation from their four American-born children were given another six months to stay in the country, thanks to Rep. Tom Lantos. Because of a change in immigration laws, Maria and Alfredo Plascencia were scheduled to be deported to Mexico on Jan. 6 and taken away from their four school-age children, who were born and raised in the United States. Moved by the Plascencias' 15-year struggle to stay in the country, Lantos, D-San Mateo, decided to give the family an early Christmas gift. After Lantos wrote to the director...

MOSCOW - In a reflection of rising anti-Russia sentiments in U.S. political circles, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, overstepped their bipartisan affiliations in November to send a joint, tough-worded proposal to the U.S. Senate, asking President George W. Bush to use his influence and exclude Russia from the G8, the elite club of world’s most advanced industrialized countries, measured by economic output. Rep. Tom Lantos and Rep. Chris Kox are also preparing a similar proposal to be tabled before Congress soon, according to the Ekho Moskvy radio station. Russia finally became a full G8 member at the Kananaskis...

O.K., Freepers. Maybe someone can enlighten me about the OTHER Hungarian immigrant (not Soros) who routinely makes the "mainstream news". Tom Lantos is the ancient, funny-sounding accented Congressman from some G*d-forsaken liberal slimepit in Southern California someplace. I have heard it claimed that he was an escapee from Hungary - post the crushed 1956 uprising there. What has puzzled me for years (as I am also an escapee from another Eastern European communist-era dictatorship), are the good Congressman's frankly ( in my OPINION) socialist, anti-American views. It is well-documented that, among the ranks of the many waves of immigrants during...

Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor in the US Congress, told Palestinian Authority prime minister designate Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting Monday that he will guide him through Washington's Holocaust Museum when Abbas comes calling. Abbas wrote a doctoral thesis some 20 years ago for Moscow's Oriental University denying that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, saying the number was even fewer than a million Jews." Lantos (D-CA), the highest ranking democrat on the House's International Relations Committee, was born in Budapest in 1928, and was 16 when the Nazis occupied Hungary. He was a member of the...