[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H5685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        NEW AL QAEDA TAPES FEATURE U.S. CAPITOL UNDER ``ATTACK''

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, President Bush today gave a 
speech, and he talked about the terrorist threat, and he talked about 
the attempts on the United States that have taken place since 9/11. He 
talked a little bit about the attempted attack last week at Fort Dix.
  Yet I don't believe any of the media is paying any attention to that. 
It seems like every time the President talks about the threat, it just 
never makes the television networks.
  That is very troubling to me, because after 9/11, the President said 
we are in a world war against terrorism, and it may go on for a long, 
long time. It may go on for more than my tenure in office. It may go on 
for decades.
  When you are fighting a war of terrorism like that, you have to be 
resolute of purpose. There's no question that the war that's going on 
in Iraq and Afghanistan has been very trying on the American people, 
but this is a war against terrorism, and we must be resolute of 
purpose.
  This week on the Internet, al Qaeda had put out a new message to 
possible recruits for them around the world. I would like to read to 
you what was on the Internet.
  It says, al Qaeda has a new opening graphic for its propaganda tapes, 
the U.S. Capitol, that's this place right here, under attack. His 
quote, ``The Islamic State of Iraq . . . March Towards Washington,'' 
reads the headline in English superimposed over a digitally created 
scene of the U.S. Capitol under attack in the introductory sequence of 
one tape released on the Internet this week.
  Another from al Qaeda's ``as Sahab'' production arm announces, 
``Holocaust of the Americans in the land of Khorasan,'' and shows an 
image of the U.S. Capitol. They introduce a short clip of al Qaeda 
fighters.
  ``This is a disturbing trend,'' says Laura Mansfield, an Arabic 
expert who monitors jihadi videos on the Internet. ``Recall that in 
January of 2006, Osama bin Laden said that plans for attacks in the 
U.S. were in progress,'' Mansfield told the Blotter on ABCNews.com. 
``It may be that this new imagery is designed to motivate terrorist 
activity in the U.S., but it is certainly intended as a recruiting tool 
and perhaps intended to reassure al Qaeda's jihadi followers that they 
haven't forgotten their goal of an al Qaeda attack on Washington, 
D.C.,'' this city.
  I don't tout television shows very often, but occasionally I urge my 
colleagues to watch something that I think is important. I just say to 
my colleague, I understand that tonight on the O'Reilly show on Fox 
Network, he is going to talk about a poll that was taken among Muslims 
in the United States. There are approximately 6 million Muslims in the 
United States, and I believe that 99 percent of them or 95 percent of 
them are very patriotic Americans. But in this poll they found that the 
Muslims between the ages of 18 and 29, approximately around 20 percent 
of them, are sympathetic to the terrorists who kill themselves, blow 
themselves up in an attack on American targets. This is a very 
disturbing poll that was taken.
  This is a very trying time for Americans and for this country. I urge 
all of my colleagues to remember what the President said after 9/11. 
Remember, this is a world war against terrorism. Remember what I just 
read here that was on the Internet, that their ultimate goal is to 
attack Washington, D.C., and remember that there is a growing number of 
young men in America, Muslims, who are very sympathetic to the 
terrorists who blow themselves up.
  We need to make sure that the American people understand the gravity 
of this situation. To back down to the terrorists now would be a big 
mistake. It's very important that we stay our ground in Iraq and 
throughout the world and send a message to the terrorists that we will 
not surrender and we will not be defeated.

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