February 23, 2003 --

adopted unanimously by the Democratic Party Committee Abroad in Washington on February 23, 2003

WHEREAS: In these troubled times, the American public needs
leaders who can preserve national security while representing our
diverse nation and provide leadership in a vision that believes in and
treasures American values such as inclusion, diversity, and civil
rights.

WHEREAS: On a radio call-in show, February 5, 2003, Rep.
Howard Coble (R-NC 6th) responded to a caller’s suggestion that Arab
Americans be interned by stating that the internment of Japanese
Americans during World War II was not wrong because “they were an
endangered species” and “it wasn’t safe for them to be on the street.”
He also stated that he agreed with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s
establishment of the internment camps because “some (Japanese
Americans) probably were intent on doing harm to us, just as some of
these Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us.”

WHEREAS: In the 1940s, 120,000 Japanese Americans were placed
in internment camps because they were seen as a threat to the country
during World War II. Executive Order 9066 was justified as a “military
necessity” to protect against domestic espionage and sabotage. However,
it was later documented that “our government had in its possession
proof that not one Japanese American, citizen or not, had engaged in
espionage, not one had committed any act of sabotage.”

WHEREAS: In 1998 under the Reagan administration, Congress
passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, also known as the Japanese
American Redress Bill, in which the United States government formally
apologized and acknowledged that “a grave injustice was done” and made
reparations to the victims of the internment. According to the
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, these
types of policies “were motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime
hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”

WHEREAS: As a representative of Democrats abroad, the
Democratic Party Committee Abroad sees these types of remarks as
harmful to the image of the United States and of Americans of all
political affiliations.

WHEREAS: Furthermore, the Democratic Party Committee Abroad
finds it completely inappropriate for a man whose task is to craft
policies for national security to support the racist practices of the
past.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT: The Democratic Party
Committee Abroad asks that Representative Coble apologize and resign
from his position as chair of the House Subcommittee on Crime,
Terrorism and Homeland Security, for the comments that he made
regarding the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.