[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 52 (Wednesday, May 1, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3627-S3628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
By Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire:
S. 2432. A bill to prohibit the use of fiscal year 2003 Federal funds
for support of the Palestinian Authority pending the cessation of
terrorist activities by the Palestinian Authority; to the Committee on
Foreign Relations.
Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. Madam President, I rise today to offer a
long-overdue bill for the purpose of defunding terrorism by Yasser
Arafat and his supporters, by shutting off their flow of dollars from
the U.S. Treasury.
It was the belief of the previous administration that Yasser Arafat
and his Palestine Liberation Organization would live up to their
renunciation of terrorism, and the newly-formed Palestinian Authority
headed by Arafat and his PLO cronies could operate as a responsible
governing body to further peace.
Instead, Arafat, the PLO and the PA have used the guise of their new-
found political legitimacy, and agreement to the Tenet peace plan, to
mask their real desires.
The reality of the situation is that the Palestinian Authority is
joined at the hip with the PLO and other terrorist groups, such as
Tanzim, the armed wing of Fatah, the largest faction of the PLO.
Tanzim is headed by a member of the PA's legislature, and is believed
to have developed an alliance with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic
Jihad.
Our aid frees up other money the PA uses to pay for the bombs that
are killing innocent men, women and children in Israel.
The chart was compiled by my staff from a published list of each such
attack last year. That list is 25 pages long.
We dare not forget the level of terror visited upon Israel by
Palestinian terrorists. The terror attacks in Israel in the year 2001
alone, from the first one on New Year's day, to the last one on
December 12 are sobering: 79 separate incidents; 1220 injured; an
additional 160 killed.
It has been reported that on March 2, 1973, Yasser Arafat ordered the
execution of Cleo Noel, the American Ambassador to the Sudan. Arafat
and his supporters have since been tied to countless acts of terror and
murder. Therefore, it is beyond belief that our country to this day
provides the Palestinian Authority and related entities more than $75
million dollars every year.
[[Page S3628]]
There have been foreign intelligence reports that Arafat has perhaps
$10 billion stowed away, a small fortune. He doesn't ``need'' U.S.
humanitarian aid.
It is flat out wrong to ask American taxpayers to support and
subsidize the PA when Yasser Arafat and the PLO have made no attempt to
use the resources at their disposal to provide the most basic of
humanitarian aid and services to their people. The interest alone from
Arafat's bank account could lift countless Palestinians out of squalid
conditions.
Of course the opponents of my bill will argue that this is just
``humanitarian aid'' for Arafat-friendly NGO's, which begs the reality
that those dollars free up Arafat's other money for him to then use to
pay to manufacture bombs.
We now have the proof, in Arafat's own handwriting, that the
Palestinian Authority is still paying the terrorist's bills.
Consider the proof, on the official letterhead of the Presidential
Bureau of the Palestinian Authority, slash, Palestine Liberation
Organization, bearing the signature of Yasser Arafat just 8 days after
our country was attacked on 9-11, ordering $600 be paid from the
treasury of the Palestinian Authority to each of three terrorists. Two
of them are senior activists of the Fatah terrorist group, one of
these, Ziad Da'as, is the head of the group behind a recent deadly
terrorist attack on a Bat-mitzvah party in Israel. The Israeli Defense
Ministry says they recently captured this document at Arafat's office
in Ramallah.
There is still more proof: an order for Yasser Arafat to the Finance
Ministry of the Palestinian Authority from January 7 of this year. It
was faxed from Fatah on January 20. Here, Arafat orders the
disbursement of $350 to each of the 12 named Fatah activists. According
to the Israeli Defense Ministry, who captured this document at Arafat's
headquarters in Ramallah, each of these 12 individuals are known
terrorists, belonging to Fatah and or Tanzim. Arafat's approval is
given in response to a request of Ra'ed Karmi, then the head of the
Fatah and Tanzim terror groups, which perpetrated numerous murderous
attacks on innocent Israeli civilians since September 2000.
As recently as April 7 of this year, Tim Russert on ``Meet the
Press'' asked the Secretary of State to deny that Arafat is funding
terrorism. Here is what Russert said:
``Israel says documents link Arafat and terrorism. They
seized documents and made them public, which liked the office
of Yasser Arafat with terrorist attacks carried out against
Israeli civilians and other targets. One of the documents,
said to be an invoice submitted by a leading Palestinian
militant group to a Palestinian official.... Among other
items, the invoice requested 20,000 Israeli Shekels, ($4,200
American), to buy electrical and chemical components for the
production of a month's supply of 30 bombs. It's an invoice
of terrorism, said Dori Gold, an advisor to Prime Minister
Sharon. Mr. Secretary, do you believe the Palestinian
Authority harbors or supports terrorism?
Do you know what our Secretary of State replied?
Did he deny the authenticity of this document? He did not.
Did he deny that Arafat paid the bill? He did not.
Did he deny that our taxpayer dollars are thus funding the killing of
innocent men, women and children? He did not.
What he said was, ``It is a complex situation''.
There's nothing complex about it! Our tax dollars should never be
used for terrorism. Period. End of discussion!
I don't care if Arafat has agreed to negotiate.
I don't care if Arafat has agreed to the Tenet plan.
I don't care that we need to keep contacts with the Palestinians, we
can do that anyway without subsidizing, and therefore legitimating,
their activity.
We should not be funding terrorism, and that is all there is to it
The United States should not continue a policy which has utterly
failed to curb the violence on the part of these radical
Islamic terrorist groups that Arafat and the PLO have sway over.
Furthermore, American taxpayers should not be fooled into footing a
bill for ``humanitarian aid'' when Arafat and his regime have no desire
in their hearts to co-exist peacefully with the State of Israel.
When our land was so brutally attacked last fall, the President set a
new agenda. He said, ``From this day forward, any nation that continues
to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as
a hostile regime.''
Well, my colleagues, that is what Mr. Arafat and his minions are: a
hostile regime.
Even Secretary Powell, in that ``Meet the Press'' interview conceded
as much. He said that the United States has never shrunk from the
accusation that the Palestinian Authority supports and harbors
terrorism.
So why then, why are we taking tens of millions of dollars every year
out of our taxpayer's pockets and sending it to the P.A. where it can
be used to free up other money to build bombs that suicidal maniacs
strap on themselves to blow up a cafe, or a schoolbus?
The bill I am offering today will put an end to that. I say no more
money should be sent to anyone that will use it in a way that frees up
Arafat to pay his bomb-building bills.
I say no more money that goes to de-stabilizing the powderkeg in the
Middle East.
I say no more money for Arafat's new intifada against Israel.
My colleagues, I strongly urge you to stand with me on the side of
Israel and against terrorism and to support this bill.
I ask unanimous consent that the text of bill be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the
Record, as follows:
S. 2432
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. PROHIBITION ON USE OF FISCAL YEAR 2003 FEDERAL
FUNDS FOR SUPPORT OF PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
PENDING CESSATION OF TERRORIST ACTIVITIES BY
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY.
(a) Contingent Prohibition on Availability of Fiscal Year
2003 Funds.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no
funds available to any department, agency, or other element
of the Federal Government for fiscal year 2003 may be
obligated or expended for the purpose, or in a manner which
would have the effect, of supporting--
(1) the Palestinian Authority;
(2) any entity supported by the Palestinian Authority;
(3) any successor entity to the Palestinian Authority or an
entity referred to in paragraph (2); or
(4) any private, voluntary organization for--
(A) projects related to the Palestinian Authority; or
(B) projects located in Palestine that would otherwise be
undertaken by the Palestinian Authority or an entity referred
to in paragraph (2) or (3).
(b) Termination of Prohibition.--The prohibition in
subsection (a) shall cease to be effective upon the submittal
by the President to Congress of a certification that neither
the Palestinian Authority, nor any entity supported by the
Palestinian Authority, has engaged in planning or carrying
out any terrorist act during the six-month period ending on
the date of the certification.
(c) Support.--For purposes of this section, support shall
include direct and indirect support, whether such support is
financial or otherwise, including support for the Holst Fund
of the World Bank and the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency.
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