[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 14, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H4093]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SAUDI AMBASSADOR TO APPEAR ON ``HARDBALL'' TONIGHT
(Mr. BURTON of Indiana asked and was given permission to address the
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, tonight on the program
``Hardball'' on MSNBC, Chris Matthews, who is a very expert
interviewer, will be interviewing Prince Bandar, who is the Saudi
Ambassador to the United States of America. I hope tonight Chris will
ask him some of these questions that are very, very important that need
to be answered for the American people. Here are a few of them:
Why were 15 of the 19 hijackers that attacked us on 9/11 from Saudi
Arabia?
Why does the Saudi Government provide financial aid to families of
suicide bombers?
Why does the Saudi Government support Wahabi clerics and institutions
that preach hate and call for suicide attacks against Christians and
Jews? They are teaching these children in their schools with the help
of the Saudi Government on a daily basis.
According to a Royal Canadian Mounted Police report, through phony
charities, huge sums of Saudi money are sent to terrorists; $1- to $2
million a month went to al Qaeda.
Why did the Saudi Embassy provide travel documents to Maha Marri, the
wife of a terrorism suspect, and her five children so they could escape
the United States even though a grand jury had demanded testimony from
that lady and the FBI had confiscated her passport? They helped her
leave the country.
And why was Prince Bandar's wife, Princess Haifa, providing $130,000
to a Saudi woman in Virginia, who in turn gave some of this money to a
family who gave shelter to two of the September 11 hijackers?
And how is it that 19 al Qaeda operatives who battled the Saudi
police in a gunfight just days ago escaped?
These are things that must be answered. Tonight Chris Matthews has
the opportunity to put it right to the Saudi Ambassador. I hope he will
do that.
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