[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 58 (Thursday, May 11, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H2953]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        INTERNATIONAL ABDUCTION

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to tell the story of Rayma and 
Rasheed El-Saleh, two children who were abducted from Cincinnati, Ohio, 
to Saudi Arabia in 1992 by their noncustodial father.
  After an investigation led by the mother, Mary El-Saleh, the father's 
brother, was contacted in Lebanon and eventually the abductor called 
Mary and the children were able to speak to her. Rayma and Rasheed 
expressed how much they missed their mother and sounded depressed.
  The children's father, Saleh Chenade El-Saleh, who was formerly 
trained as a Palestinian terrorist, is very controlling and may be 
abusive toward the children. He has tried to force Rasheed to testify 
against his mother and Rayma is apparently showing a great deal of 
mental stress and is threatening suicide.
  Mr. Speaker, Rayma and Rasheed have been wrongfully taken from their 
mother and placed in a possibly dangerous situation. This House must do 
something to bring them and the other 10,000 American children who have 
been abducted to foreign countries back home.

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