[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 115 (Wednesday, September 22, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H7407-H7408]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TERRORISM AROUND THE WORLD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bishop of Utah). Under a previous order 
of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to the previous 
speaker's comments. My son was on active duty when I announced my run 
for office. He finished his tour of duty in June of 2002, shortly after 
I won my primary; and he signed up for the Air National Guard about 3 
months later, and he continues to serve with the Guard. He is trying to 
complete his college. He does not know whether he will be called up or 
not.
  So I wish the speakers on the other side would show some sensitivity. 
Perhaps we should circulate a notice of who has sons or daughters or 
wives or husbands on active duty or in the Guard, but I suspect it is 
more than one or two people in this House.
  I was not in this House when the vote was taken to go into the 
country of Iraq, but I certainly support the President's efforts, and I 
understand what the President is trying to do. And I believe that the 
world will be a different place in 20 or 30 years' time because of our 
activities in that country than we would have had had we finished out 
Saddam Hussein's term and then allowed his sons to be the logical heirs 
to that reign of terror that he was perpetuating on his people. But I 
did not come here tonight to talk about that.
  The previous speaker talked about how loved ones and innocent folks 
may be in harm's way, and that is a very real phenomenon. I want to 
introduce this House to a young man named Alan that I met this past 
weekend at the Federal Pediatric Hospital in Moscow, Russia. Alan is 11 
years old and is a bright young boy.
  Alan was in the hospital because he is recovering from surgery. He 
had surgery 2 weeks ago to remove a piece of metal from his chest, a 
piece of metal that sunk deep into his chest on Alan's first day of 
school in Beslan.
  This piece of metal was placed in a mine that was created under the 
direction of a man named Skhmeel Masaif. Now, little Alan is healing 
now, but little Alan was perhaps lucky. More than 300 dead, over half 
of those children, were killed when those bombs went off in the 
gymnasium in Beslan. A quote from the newspaper that I read over the 
weekend from a townsperson there in Beslan said, ``We bury and bury and 
we still have not finished the job.''

[[Page H7408]]

  More than 300 people died in that attack; but, in fact, Skhmeel 
Masaif is probably responsible for over 500 deaths in the past 3 or 4 
weeks in Russia. Two airplanes lost simultaneously over Russian air 
space and a bomb attack outside a Russian metro station, not that much 
different than Metro stations that we have here in Washington, D.C., 
all under the direction of Skhmeel Masaif.
  I want the House to look at the piece of metal that was removed from 
little Alan's chest. His mother is holding it here in her hands. And 
you look at it and you think, well, what is that? That is just a piece 
of junk. That is a little piece of metallic shrapnel that was recovered 
from a junk yard or a landfill or somewhere. It was placed into that 
bomb. Those small pieces of metal were placed into that bomb so they 
would have the maximum dispersal when the bomb went off. That is, they 
could ensure the maximum number of innocent persons could be harmed 
when that bomb went off.
  This bomb-maker built the bomb under the direction of Skhmeel Masaif. 
It was designed to hurt. It was designed to kill. It was designed to 
inflict pain and suffering on the most innocent, the most innocent 
citizens on this Earth, 10, 11, 12 year olds, on their first day of 
school in Beslan, Russia.
  Mr. Speaker, it is not wrong to identify evil when we see evil, and 
it is not wrong to call it by its proper name, which is evil. And 
whether it is the school children in Public School No. 1 in Beslan, 
whether it is the innocent victims on the two airplanes in Russia, the 
victims outside the metro station, the victims of improvised explosive 
devices in the country of Iraq or whether it is our victims here in 9/
11, these are victims of people who hate the United States, people who 
are evil; and we must not rest until they are reduced to their natural 
subatomic particles and removed from the Earth.

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