[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 121 (Monday, September 25, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H7334-H7339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REPUBLICANS PROVIDE SECURITY TO AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be here 
tonight and to share this time with my colleagues, several of whom I 
believe will be joining me. We are going to be talking tonight about 
national security.
  I want to start the evening with a very simple comment about a very 
simple item. I am wearing on my arm, or I have just taken off, a 
bracelet. These are very common these days to commemorate different 
things. It says AMAR. It represents AMAR Manufacturing Corporation.
  Today, in my home district in Davie County, we had a celebration 
about a new manufacturing plant that is going to open up. And it 
occurred to me as we were doing that today, and as I looked at this, 
that the people of America are going on about their business on a day-
to-day basis, oblivious of the fact that there are many things going on 
in our country and outside our country to help us be secure.
  The American people are in many ways the most secure people in the 
world. We are used to going on about our business, having announcements 
of new businesses and just dealing on a day-to-day basis with taking 
our children to school, taking them to football practice, to baseball 
practice, doing all of those things that we are used to doing because 
we live in a very secure Nation.
  It is the role of the Federal Government to keep our Nation secure. 
The number one responsibility of the Federal Government is the defense 
of this Nation, and a large part of the defense of this Nation again is 
tied up in the word security.
  So we want to talk tonight a little bit about what has happened to 
threaten that security in the last 30 years or so and what we have done 
as a Republican Congress in order to bring back a sense of security to 
our Nation.
  We will talk about horrific events that have happened in the past but 
also talk about the many achievements that have occurred especially in 
the last 5 years in terms of our bringing back a sense of security and 
our making sure that in the future the things that we are doing now can 
be built upon and can allow the people of this country to go about 
their daily routines and feel secure and not feel threatened in the 
things that they want to do.
  The United States of America has never been an aggressor nation. We 
have always focused again on providing for the freedom that we have in 
this country and making sure that what the average American takes for 
granted every day will be there for him or her.
  I want to recognize now my wonderful colleague, the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee, Congresswoman Blackburn, who is such an articulate 
spokesperson for so many of the issues that we discuss on the floor of 
the House. She is going to help talk about the issue of national 
security.
  I think she is going to give a little perspective on where we have 
come from and where we are now in terms of dealing with this issue.
  I would like to recognize again my colleague, the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee, Congresswoman Blackburn.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from North 
Carolina. I thank her for her commitment to keeping our Nation safe. As 
an educator and having spent many years in schools teaching, leading, 
directing those activities, she knows that it is an imperative that, in 
order for children to learn, they have to feel secure in their 
environment.
  In order for parents to participate, they have to have that sense of 
certainty that there is control and security. And this is something 
that, yes, in our free Nation we are so blessed and so grateful to be 
able to just expect that.
  When we get up in the morning, we expect that we are going to be able 
to put the children on the school bus, that we are going to be able to 
go to work, go to the grocery store and participate in those activities 
with a little bit of control over what happens in those environments 
and with some predictability and certainty as to what the expectations 
are going to be.
  So indeed we are very blessed in that regard. It is an incredible 
gift that having a strong national defense, how wonderful it is, what a 
gift that that has allowed us as a people to enjoy.
  As the gentlewoman said, sometimes in order to look forward and to 
assess, what we have to do is be certain that we have perspective, that 
we look at where we have been, where we have come from and where we are 
heading.
  In a Nation where we have defense as one of our top priorities and 
where it is one of the top priorities of this Government, sometimes it 
is important to cast that perspective and to say this is why we have to 
say, back to basics, shift our focus, and begin to look at terrorist 
attacks not as civil disobedience but to view them as what they are, 
acts of war, and to respond to them as what they are, acts of war.
  And as the gentlewoman mentioned, this is a problem that has been 
brewing and that we have had to deal with for decades. Terrorism and 
terrorists have been attacking our Nation not for a few months, and it 
did not start on September 11. It has been going on for decades.
  I think that many of us remember November of 1979 when the Iranian 
radicals took control of the embassy in Tehran. That was a siege that 
lasted for 444 days, where they had the embassy and 53 hostages. We all 
remember how the end of that attack came about.
  In 1983, we had 63 people that were killed in an embassy booming in 
Lebanon. 1983, also, there was a suicide bomb attack on the U.S. 
compound in Lebanon, where 242 Americans were attacked and killed. All 
the while, attacks that were taking place on U.S. interests but not on 
U.S. soil.
  In 1986, a Berlin discotheque was bombed, and we also had 79 
servicemen that were bombed, injured in a bombing attack in West 
Germany.
  In 1988, we remember December of 1988, Pan Am flight 103 that was 
blown up by the Libyan terrorists.
  And then in February of 1993 the first World Trade Center bombing 
killed 6 people, injured over 1,000 people. That was February of 1993.
  Going through the following years and leading up to September 11, 
2001. In 1995, we had a military complex in Saudi Arabia that was 
bombed. The Khobar Towers in 1996. The attack in our embassies in 1998. 
The Cole bombing by al Qaeda in 2000; and then, of course, the al 
Qaeda-led plot that was enacted on September 11, 2001.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, what we see from this is the pattern of terrorist 
activity for two full decades. What we also have seen since September 
11 is that no longer do we respond to terrorist attacks as civil 
disobedience; we respond to it as an act of war, as what it is.
  One of the things that we have to keep focused on right now, every 
single day, is that this war on terror is just that, it is a war. Yes, 
we have the battle in Afghanistan. Yes, the battle in Iraq. And, yes, 
there are terrorist cells that are scattered around the globe. But we 
started sending a different message on September 11. And we are very 
grateful for the work that the intelligence community, that our 
homeland security organizations, that our American military has done, 
that the coalition partners have done in working together to fight 
terrorism, to fight the spread of terrorism.
  And the reason we do it, Mr. Speaker, the reason the leadership in 
this House remains so solidly focused on terrorism is exactly what my 
colleague was speaking of when she opened her remarks. The reason is so 
that the American people can go about their daily lives exercising the 
control, exercising the freedom, being certain that those children are 
going to school in safe and free environments, being certain that they 
are going into the workplace with safe and free environments.
  That is the reason that the focus has shifted. That is the reason 
that it remains the top priority of the leadership of this House.
  I also want to thank the leadership for the work that they have done 
on this issue and our colleagues who are

[[Page H7335]]

sponsoring legislation and bringing it to the floor, this week, last 
week, the last few weeks as we are preparing to finish up some of the 
work to increase, increase the funding and the focus on defending this 
Nation against terrorism.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for 
yielding. It is an honor to come and spend some time on the floor with 
her and to talk with the American people about some of the work that we 
are doing as we lead in the war against terrorism and against 
terrorists.
  Ms. FOXX. Thank you, Congresswoman Blackburn, for your comments. As I 
said, you always present a very articulate and coherent message to the 
people of this country when you speak; and it is a real pleasure to 
work with you and to have you here in the Congress pointing out very 
commonsense kinds of things that we can be doing to make this country a 
better place.
  I appreciate very much your setting the stage for what has happened 
over the last 20 or so years in terms of the terrorist threats that 
came to this country that were largely ignored because most people 
could not envision the horrific event that occurred on 9/11, 2001, or 
could not see how these different events were connected with each 
other.

                              {time}  2200

  I want to talk a little bit about what we have done since 9/11 in 
order to make sure that we do not suffer such an attack in the future, 
and let me point out some of these things.
  In the first key stage of the 9/11 attack, al Qaeda conceived and 
planned the attacks from abroad, but here are some of the responses 
that we have made as a result of that. We have taken the key advantages 
al Qaeda enjoyed while plotting the 9/11 attack in Afghanistan away. We 
now have removed the Taliban from power, closed the al Qaeda training 
camps and taken away financial tools that were available to them. They 
can no longer move around in Afghanistan with impunity. Many of al 
Qaeda's most important leaders have been captured or killed, including 
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, believed to be the mastermind behind the 9/11 
attacks. So we have had a big impact on what has happened abroad.
  The second key stage of the 9/11 attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 
bin Laden identified, trained and deployed operatives to the United 
States. We have addressed that since 9/11. We have addressed the gaps 
in America's defenses that were exploited by al Qaeda. We have upgraded 
technology, and we have added new layers of screening and security to 
the immigration and visa system. Today, visa applicants, like those who 
participated in the 9/11 hijackings, would have to appear for face-to-
face interviews, be fingerprinted and screened against an extensive 
database of known or suspected terrorists and be checked again to make 
sure that their fingerprints matched those on their visas. We have 
improved our terrorist watch list. We have established common criteria 
for posting terrorists on a consolidated terrorist watch list.
  The NSA created the terrorist surveillance program at the President's 
direction, and we are going to be dealing more with that this week, as 
my colleague Congresswoman Blackburn has mentioned. Before 9/11, U.S. 
intelligence professionals found it difficult to monitor international 
communications such as those between the planners of the 9/11 attacks 
abroad and al Qaeda operatives operating secretly in the United States. 
This is not a program to spy on American citizens, as our colleagues 
have accused us and the President of doing. This is a program to stop 
the kind of collaboration that existed between those operatives working 
overseas and those here in the United States, and we are going to work 
on the terrorist surveillance program this week I believe and pass 
something that will allow the President and the people who are using 
this program to thwart these terrorists, to be able to thwart them.
  The third key stage of the 9/11 plot, the rest of the 19 al Qaeda 
operatives came to the United States. So the FBI has now made 
protecting America from terrorist attacks its top priority. Before 9/
11, that was not the top priority of the FBI, but now we have more 
counterterrorism agents and lists. We have the unified national 
security branch to coordinate terrorism investigations and intelligence 
operations, and we have expanded the number of joint terrorism task 
forces to help Federal, State, and local law enforcement officers work 
together; and with legislation we passed last week, we are going to 
strengthen that program where we work with local law enforcement 
officers, and that is going to be helping.
  In addition, we have now torn down the legal and bureaucratic wall 
that kept law enforcement and intelligence from sharing information. 
All levels of government are sharing far more information than ever 
before and connecting the dots to stop terrorists before they strike. 
People kept saying why did we not connect the dots, why did we not 
connect the dots. That is because we had silos for our various 
bureaucracies and intelligence agencies, and they were not allowed to 
talk to each other; but we have torn those silos down now and people 
are communicating with each other.
  We have passed the PATRIOT Act. This good law has increased the flow 
of information and helped break up terrorist cells in the United 
States, and Congress was right to renew it last year.
  We have created the national counterterrorism center, the NCTC. Law 
enforcement intelligence personnel work side by side in the same 
headquarters. We have created the position of Director of National 
Intelligence. The Director of National Intelligence operates the 
intelligence community as a single, unified enterprise.
  We have set up the Terrorist Screening Center. The Terrorist 
Screening Center maintains the government's consolidated list of 
suspected terrorists and individuals with terrorist links and helps get 
this information into the hands of State and local law enforcement.
  At every level, America's law enforcement officers now have a clear 
goal: to identify, locate and stop terrorists in our country before 
they can kill. That is very, very important.
  The fourth and final stage of the 9/11 plot came on the morning of 
the attack. We have taken many steps to address the security gaps that 
the hijackers exploited that morning. We have created the 
Transportation Security Administration to make sure that every 
passenger and every bag is screened. We have increased the number of 
Federal air marshals, and we have trained and authorized thousands of 
pilots to carry firearms and hardened cockpit doors to prevent 
terrorists from gaining access to the controls.
  In addition, we have merged 22 government agencies into a single 
Department of Homeland Security and tripled spending for security of 
airlines, ports, borders and other critical areas; and we are working 
constantly to stay several steps, not one step but several steps, ahead 
of the terrorists. We have gone on the offense across the world, and 
our country is definitely safer.
  We have captured many of the most significant al Qaeda members and 
associates. We have kept the terrorists from achieving their key goal 
to overthrow governments across the broader Middle East and seize 
control.
  Our allies in the war on terror include two nations that used to 
harbor or sponsor terror, but now help us fight it, the democratic 
nations of Afghanistan and Iraq.
  As we fight the enemies of a free Iraq, we must also ensure that al 
Qaeda and its allies never get their hands on the tools of mass murder. 
So we are working very hard in the area of national security to make 
sure that a 9/11 attack can never occur again in this country.
  Now, I want to say what some of the very important things are that 
have been accomplished under Republican stewardship, specifically what 
congressional Republicans have done.
  We have strengthened the national defense. We have helped our troops 
succeed in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have increased benefits of our men 
and women in uniform. We have protected our troops with state-of-the-
art body armor and equipment. We have streamlined bureaucratic red tape 
to ensure our servicemembers have all that is necessary to complete 
their missions. We have increased funding for necessary and state-of-
the-art equipment.

[[Page H7336]]

We have modernized acquisition and procurement programs. We have 
enhanced the quality of life for servicemembers and their families, and 
we are steadily increasing the pay benefits for them.
  We have made real progress in missile defense. We have conducted 
successful missile defense tests. We have ensured the missile defense 
program goes farther and faster than ever before. So we are making real 
progress in these areas.
  We have seen major changes occurring in the Iraqi Government where 
they are taking control of their armed forces there and moving ahead to 
make the country safer and safer.
  The Iraqis themselves have overwhelmingly rejected religious or the 
ethnic breakup of Iraq. They are solidly behind a centrally controlled 
government. Seventy-eight percent of the Iraqis disagree or strongly 
disagree with the idea of segregating the country by religious or 
ethnic sect. They want to keep their country whole and not break it up.
  Eighty-nine percent of the Iraqis said the formation of a national 
government, including the country's main ethnic and religious 
communities, was extremely important to the future peace and stability 
of Iraq. They believe that the country is headed in the right 
direction, and we know that it is.
  So what we are doing to strengthen Iraq and strengthen Afghanistan 
are both important in the war on terror. It is a global war on terror. 
So what we are doing is all over the world, not just in Iraq and 
Afghanistan.
  We saw that with what we did in England where with the British, we 
and the Pakistani Government worked together to thwart another plot to 
take down our airlines filled with Americans. So we have worked on the 
national security from that perspective to never let another 9/11 
happen and do the things that we should do to do that, and while we are 
doing that, we are strengthening Iraq and Afghanistan.
  Now, what are we also doing on border security, because border 
security is national security? We have done a great deal in this House 
to make sure that we have border security in this country and that 
people understand that border security is national security.
  Mr. Speaker, we have passed several bills and we have several bills 
yet to pass that are going to make our borders more secure. We have 
passed the REAL ID Act. We have passed a strong border security bill 
last December. We have the Effective Immigration Enforcement and 
Community Protection Act. The chairman of our Judiciary Committee, 
Chairman Sensenbrenner, has been leading us in putting together the 
bills out of the Judiciary Committee to tighten up our border security.
  We are ending catch-and-release. The administration has done this on 
their own, but we are going to strengthen their hand in ending catch-
and-release. We are no longer going to catch criminals and potential 
terrorists and release them again. We are going to keep them in prison 
or make sure that they get sent back home and they are not back in this 
country.
  We are removing illegal immigrant gang members to make sure that we 
are enhancing what we are doing again from our border security. We have 
established penalties for border tunnels. The bill that we passed last 
week establishes criminal penalties of up to 20 years' imprisonment for 
persons who knowingly construct or finance the construction of an 
unauthorized tunnel across a U.S. international border.
  We are prosecuting more smuggling offenses. We are tightening up of 
the laws on that, and we are making the offenses much more stringent.
  We are removing criminal illegal immigrants, getting rid of people 
who have come into this country to commit crimes. So we are continuing 
to do things that will make our borders stronger and stronger, which 
will help our national security. Every time that we can enhance our 
border security, we are enhancing our national security.
  We are also enhancing our homeland security through our homeland 
security legislation, and I want to talk a little bit about that, too.
  We have funded first responders in homeland security. Through a 
variety of programs, over $30 billion in Federal funding has been 
allocated for first responders since 2001. Total nondefense homeland 
security spending across all agencies has gone from $11.8 billion in 
fiscal year 2001 to $41.5 billion for fiscal year 2007.
  I mentioned earlier that we passed the USA PATRIOT Act. We 
reauthorized it. The bill was passed in 2001, and it has now been 
reauthorized. A key tool in preventing another domestic attack, the 
PATRIOT Act has enabled the Federal Government to effectively deter and 
punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world.
  I mentioned earlier the REAL ID Act, which was the first bill to pass 
in this Congress.

                              {time}  2215

  I was a very proud original cosponsor of that bill and extremely 
proud to be a freshman and be allowed to be a cosponsor of that bill. 
My own State of North Carolina has been a haven for illegal aliens 
coming in and getting drivers' licenses and then being able to use 
those as IDs to get on airplanes. We know that the terrorists who 
brought down the Twin Towers had many, many illegal drivers licenses, 
and the REAL ID Act will cut down on that capability.
  The Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which 
established the Department of Homeland Security.
  We again are doing more and more on border security. The SAFE Port 
Act, the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act, or the SAFE 
Port Act, addresses port security defenses within and beyond U.S. 
ports, including enhancing security programs and others.
  The Project Bioshield, which delivered $5.6 billion to enhance 
research, procurement and use of biomedical countermeasures to respond 
to public health threats affecting our national security.
  Emergency communications. We are working on making sure that 
different agencies can communicate with each other so folks will be 
able to help thwart any threatened terrorist attacks.
  The Maritime Transportation Security Act, the MTSA. Congress passed 
the MTSA in 2002, requiring every regulated U.S. port facility to 
establish and implement a security plan that outlines procedures for 
controlling access to the facility, verifying credentials for port 
workers, inspecting cargo for tampering, designating security 
responsibilities, training and reporting security breaches.
  So we have worked very hard on making sure that we are securing not 
just the borders, the northern and southern borders, but also all of 
our ports all over this country. It is the Republicans who are leading 
the way on bringing these issues up to the country, to the Congress, 
and making sure that they are passed.
  So what do we face from the Democrats? The same things. Even though 
we bring up over and over and over again the fact that the number one 
responsibility of the Federal Government is the defense of this Nation, 
we know this from our Constitution, but we constantly have to remind 
the Democrats that that is the role of the Federal Government.
  The Federal Government in past years has gotten involved with many 
worthwhile activities. Don't get me wrong. I know that many of the 
programs that are spending Federal dollars do good things. But those 
are not the jobs of the Federal Government. The Constitution is a 
brilliant document, and if we follow the Constitution in the way that 
it was written and we do what our forefathers outlined for us to do, we 
will be so much better off in this country.
  One of those things that we should be doing is focusing on national 
security, focusing on the defense of this Nation from the Federal 
level, and leaving these other things to the States and the localities 
to deal with. But if you hear the Democrats talking, what they want to 
do is to continue to talk about no, no, no. They are not interested in 
enhancing our border security. They are not interested in enhancing 
national security, when you listen to what they talk about.
  When you look at what they have voted against, they have voted 
against so many things that were designed to enhance our national 
security. I want to just mention a few of those things that they have 
voted against.

[[Page H7337]]

  Over and over and over again they bring up negative things. You would 
think that they wanted to simply open up our borders and let anybody 
come in here that wanted to come in here and just ignore the fact that 
we had an attack on 9/11, that we had those other attacks that 
Congresswoman Blackburn mentioned to us.
  You would think that the kinds of things that we have done are the 
worst things that could have ever been done in this Nation. The 
terrorist surveillance program, you would think, if you were not aware 
of what the Democrats are saying, that our government has turned on its 
own people instead of doing everything that we possibly can to protect 
the people.
  As I said before, I was at AMAT Manufacturing today, sitting there 
thinking about how it is the role of the Federal Government to make 
sure that we are safe so we can do the things like that, the routine 
things that we do.
  I want to talk some about how the Democrats have tried to thwart us 
at every step in trying to maintain security in this country, national 
security and border security.
  I have been joined by one of my colleagues, one of my most articulate 
colleagues, one of our favorite freshmen, who can always tell the very 
best stories, but is always right on point on issues dealing with 
whatever legislation we are dealing with.
  I want to recognize Congressman Gohmert from the great Republic of 
Texas, who is here to talk a little bit about this issue and give some 
illustrations of his own of what we have done right and how the 
Democrats would have us be thwarted in what we have done.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from North Carolina, the 
gentlelady, Ms. Foxx. Thank you for yielding and thank you for the time 
you have taken tonight to talk about our national security issues. As 
always, you are most impressive. If someone didn't know before, they 
might know, Mr. Speaker, that the gentlelady from North Carolina is a 
teacher, is an educator, and then, of course, got forced to being 
president of a school. But, anyway, from someone who bore that great 
title of teacher, it is an honor.
  Mr. Speaker, there are so many people in our country that want to 
blame America first. They think America is the cause for so much of the 
ills in the world, when the fact is that this is the Nation that has 
brought about freedom all over the world.
  We have some people in the world say America is a bunch of 
imperialists, when the fact is no nation in the history of the world 
has helped so many countries obtain the right to rule themselves. If we 
were imperialists, France certainly wouldn't be speaking French 
anymore. Germany wouldn't be speaking German anymore. Countries around 
the world, including in the Middle East, would not be speaking their 
native tongues. They would be speaking English. But that is because we 
are about freedom and allowing people to reach their God-given 
potentials.
  I started something last week, and it continues this week, and that 
is, although there are those who seek to blame America first, and we 
have had people that have stood right here on this floor, a former 
Marine accusing Marines of being cold-blooded killers and the military 
covering things up without a trial, without a charge being made. It 
just seems with all the blame going around and being made that we need 
to recognize those who were willing to do what Jesus himself said, 
which was show the greatest love. As he said, greater love hath no man, 
no one, than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Certainly 
he would know.
  But the U.S. military has been faced with tremendous challenges since 
September 11, 2001. Fortunately, we are blessed to have an exceptional 
fighting force that is full of troops that are ready and eager to rise 
to the challenge.
  As an example, and this is what I started last week, every day we are 
in session I want to recognize someone who has received one of our 
Nation's highest honors and what they have done. This is the America 
that the world should acknowledge. This is the America that this body 
should acknowledge, the true heroes who put others above self.
  That is the example of Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester. She made history 
last year when she was the first female soldier to receive the Silver 
Star since World War II and became the first female ever to be cited 
for close combat.
  The Silver Star, as many of you may know, is awarded for gallantry in 
action against an enemy of the United States while engaged in military 
operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force.
  On March 20, 2005, Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester was serving in the 617th 
Military Police Company. It is a National Guard unit out of Richmond, 
Kentucky. Her squad was shadowing a supply convoy south of Baghdad near 
Salman Pak when about 50 insurgents ambushed the convoy. Sergeant 
Hester's squad moved to the side of the road, flanking the insurgents 
and cutting off their escape route.
  Sergeant Hester herself led her team through what is known as the 
``kill zone'' and into a flanking position, where she assaulted a 
trench line with grenades and M203 grenade launcher rounds. Sergeant 
Hester and her squad leader, Staff Sergeant Timothy Nein, then cleared 
two trenches, at which time she killed three insurgents with her own M-
4 rifle.
  Her actions saved the lives of numerous convoy members. When the 
fight was over, 27 insurgents were dead, six were wounded and one was 
captured. Many, many Americans were saved in the process.
  Sergeant Hester was only 23 years of age at the time of her action. 
She was born in 1982 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, later moved to 
Nashville, Tennessee, and she joined the National Guard in April of 
2001.
  These are the people that we need to honor and recognize, and cease 
playing the blame game. We would encourage all of our colleagues to 
begin looking for the good, because, as Abraham Lincoln said, if you 
look for the good in people, you truly will find it.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from North Carolina for the great 
good she is doing.
  Ms. FOXX. Thank you, Mr. Gohmert, and thank you for reminding us of 
what we should be doing in terms of honoring these people. Sergeant 
Hester sounds like an absolutely fabulous woman, and we are so 
fortunate to have her serving in our military and being a great role 
model for all of us.
  I was talking earlier when Congressman Gohmert came in and I yielded 
time to him about the fact that in so many of these things that we have 
accomplished with the Republican leadership in this Congress, to make 
sure that we thwart terrorists who want to come here, who want to do 
the kinds of things that were done on 9/11/2001, in so many of those 
ways we have had to fight the Democrats at every step of the way. They 
have been opposed to almost every effort that we have made here. The 
PATRIOT Act, the border security bills, over and over and over again 
they have said no.
  Their answer to fighting the war on terror is to withdraw from Iraq. 
Take our troops out. Put them somewhere else in the Middle East, but 
get out of Iraq. They talk out of both sides of their mouths. They say, 
on the one hand, the minority leader says, okay, all the damage that 
Osama bin Laden can do he did 5 years ago. She criticizes the President 
for not having enough forces in Afghanistan to catch Osama bin Laden; 
and then she says, well, it wouldn't matter if we caught him anyway. We 
would not be any safer if we caught him.
  So, over and over and over again, we get mixed signals from the 
Democrats. That gives comfort and aid to our enemy. They see that 
happening, and they think, boy, if there is a chance that the Democrats 
could take control, then we wouldn't have to worry about being pursued. 
We wouldn't have to worry about what the Congress is going to try to do 
to us in conjunction with what the administration is doing. We can just 
sit back and wait for them, for the Democrats to get in control.

                              {time}  2230

  Nothing could be worse for our country than for them to be put in 
control and to withdraw our troops from Iraq where we are making 
tremendous progress on helping those people live in a free country. 
That is what they want.
  I had the great opportunity to go to Iraq in July, just at the end of 
our session in July, and the Iraqi people said

[[Page H7338]]

to us: we are so grateful to you for bringing freedom to us. We are so 
grateful. Don't leave too soon. We are committed to a democracy; we are 
committed to maintaining freedom here in this country. Please don't go 
away before we can get our feet on the ground. This is the first chance 
we have had to have freedom in the history of this country, and we want 
it and we are going to have it.
  And as you read about what is happening in the country and you see 
that while there are these militias out there, they are not attacking 
the government of the country, they are attacking each other. There are 
Sunnis going against Shias, Shias going against Sunnis, but none of 
them are attacking the Government of Iraq because they all have a 
vested interest in keeping that government going, and that is very, 
very important.
  But you never read about that. It makes it look like these people are 
all attacking the government, but they are not doing it. President 
Maliki I think has done a wonderful job of forming a government that 
can gain the support of the three major groups in Iraq, and so we are 
seeing tremendous progress there. Even though we see the insurgents and 
even though we see the IEDs and even though there has been horrible 
loss of life, it is not directed at bringing down the government.
  There is a fabulous article in the National Review dated today, as a 
matter of fact, about the importance of that, and I would commend it to 
people to read it about why the government is strengthening there in 
Iraq and how it is strengthening and why things are going well there 
instead of going badly as the popular press would have you believe. So 
we have to keep fighting, and we have to fight this war on terror and 
improve our national security on all the fronts that we have before us.
  And I want to talk a little bit about a couple of episodes that 
happened last week that I think show the American people again how much 
we are at war and what a dangerous place this world still is. The 
President reminds us periodically about it, and again, as we go about 
our day-to-day activities, it is difficult to believe that we are at 
war even though the news media makes it sound as horrific as they 
possibly can because they want to undermine what we are doing to 
improve our national security, and they want to undermine the work of 
this Republican Congress and this Republican President. And I want to 
point out what happened last week with two people who came to this 
country to appear at the United Nations and talk at the United Nations 
and condemn this country for what we are doing.
  We dealt with hearing President Chavez and the President of Iran, 
Ahmadinejad. They both made just absolutely outrageous speeches on the 
floor of the United Nations. And it is difficult to believe that these 
people could come into our country and say the kinds of things that 
they did, but in many ways their speeches were gifts to us because they 
pointed out the danger that we face from these tyrannical leaders of 
other countries.
  I want to mention first some comments from the President of Iran. He 
mentioned in his speech that justice was a victim of force and 
aggression. Well, it certainly is. It was certainly a victim of force 
and aggression when he participated in the overthrow of the American 
Embassy in Iran in 1979, and held American hostages for 444 days. He 
spoke of ridding the world of nuclear, biological, and chemical 
weapons; but he continually refuses to halt the production of enriched 
uranium in Iran. He wants to rid the world of aggression and strive for 
peace, even though he created a proxy war in Lebanon and continually 
funnels weapons to Hezbollah which continually attacks Israel and tries 
to bring on world war there.
  I was astonished when he spoke of dignity for all human beings and is 
longing for peace. These words are surprising here from a man who has 
prayed for the demise of America and constantly calls for Israel to be 
wiped off the map.
  His biography reads like a horror novel, directing multiple 
assassinations while he was in elite military units and working with 
Ansar al Hezbollah, the violent Islamic vigilante group. His main goal 
is the destruction of Western Civilization. That speech was a complete 
farce. He has shown his true agenda time after time, and one misleading 
speech at the United Nations is not going to fool America or the world.
  While we witnessed the Iranian dictator lecture us on freedom, 
democracy, and justice, it is ironic that in his own country this 
tyrant denies his own people the basic rights of freedom of speech and 
freedom to assemble. His speech focused on freedom, justice, and 
dignity for human beings, but as the President he has done nothing to 
bring any of his so-called goals to his own people. Women are denied 
rights of inheritance, divorce, and child custody and use of their 
rights of self-expression and economic creativity. Basic rights are 
denied for the people of Iran, and that is why even with the soaring 
prices of oil, more than 40 percent of the Iranians live below the 
poverty line.
  Today in Iran, dissent is brutally suppressed and terror is the 
regime's only instrument of domestic or foreign policy. While he may 
resent us for being powerful, he does not realize that the foundation 
of our power is rooted in the freedom of our great people to pursue 
happiness, to innovate, and to speak freely.
  So while it was very painful for us to hear the President of Iran 
come here and lecture us and be such a hypocrite, I think it was 
instructive and reminded the American people of how close we are to 
having a world dominated by tyrants like him and tyrants like Hugo 
Chavez who would turn the world back, in Iran's case to the fifth 
century, where they would be in charge and where there would be no 
freedom like we know it. It would be a horrible world, and yet they 
want to do that. They hate Western Civilization and want to destroy 
Western Civilization at every possibility.
  I want to take a moment now to recognize another one of my colleagues 
who is here from the great State of Texas who wants to I think join me 
and talk about the national security issue, and so I am going to yield 
to my colleague, Congressman Burgess, who is going to speak briefly on 
the issue of the national security.
  Mr. BURGESS. I was actually coming to do a memorial for one of our 
firefighters who we lost over the weekend, but I certainly want to echo 
the sentiments and the comments that you have made. I, like many of my 
colleagues, was outraged by Hugo Chavez in this country, and I think he 
was appropriately reprimanded and upbraided by a Member on the other 
side of the aisle, Charles Rangel, in whose district the gentleman from 
Venezuela chose to make his rant public.
  It is indeed unfortunate that people feel that they have the license 
to come to this country and criticize our government as our guests. It 
is I suppose just a fact of life when there are people who are as 
kindhearted and as generous as we are that from time to time we are 
going to be abused by those in the world who choose to behave that way.
  The gentlewoman also mentioned the 9/11 Commission, and we hear from 
time to time about the 9/11 Commission and how many of the 
recommendations of the 9/11 Commission have not been met. But two of 
those recommendations I think are extremely important. The 9/11 
Commission said that, number one, you have got to secure your borders. 
You have got to know who is in your country, when they come, when they 
leave, what they are doing here while they are there.
  The 9/11 commission was very explicit in this instance, and I think 
it is critical that this Congress in the time that we have left this 
year make certain that we indeed get that legislation passed.
  The other thing the 9/11 Commission brought up was that we ought to 
be encouraging democracies particularly in unstable parts of the world, 
such as the Middle East, and certainly the President has done just 
that. It is not always easy, it is not always straightforward, it is 
not always a job for which we are thanked, but it is the right thing to 
do. And if you take the long view and if you look out over the next 20 
or 30 years' time, I think that history will judge this time and this 
Presidency as having been absolutely critical for reestablishing that 
degree of stability that we may achieve in the Middle East by 
establishing those democracies.

[[Page H7339]]

  I thank the gentlewoman very much for yielding time.
  Ms. FOXX. I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) for coming 
in and adding to the comments that have been made by my colleagues on 
this issue of national security and bringing up some points that had 
not been made before. You have done a very, very fine job of bringing 
in those issues about the 9/11 Commission report and showing how we are 
doing the things that the 9/11 Commission has said that we need to do. 
It is something that I had intended to mention in my remarks, but I am 
glad that you brought them up because you were very eloquent in what 
you said.
  I want to say again that the Republican leadership here, the 
President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, we are all 
focused on improving national security for this country. We want to 
make sure that the people of this Nation know that they are secure in 
their everyday lives, that they can go about their jobs, go about their 
leisure, and go about their business every day doing what they should 
be doing and forgetting in many ways what happened in 9/11 because they 
have a government, a national government that is focused on the defense 
of this Nation and national security.
  And I want to encourage our Democratic colleagues to hear what I know 
their constituents must be saying to them, that they want to remain 
safe in this country and they want us to deal with those issues at this 
level. We know no other level of government can do that. And I feel 
confident that over the next week, as we continue to deal with the 
issues that we need to deal with before we take a recess to go home and 
work on our campaigns, that we will focus on the most important job of 
the Federal Government, and that is securing this country and focusing 
on the defense of this country and making sure that our citizens can go 
about their daily lives feeling safe as we did before 9/11 hit and as 
we will again.
  And I want to say to our leadership, you have done a wonderful job in 
taking us closer and closer to a time when we will be able to once 
again feel free to do all those things that we did before 9/11, and 
make sure that that kind of act never occurs in this country, and yet 
we maintain our constitutional rights and privileges and at the same 
time go after terrorists where we should be going after them.

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