[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 68 (Tuesday, May 5, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           UYGHUR TERRORISTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise on the floor again to raise the 
awareness of the American people and of the Congress that the safety of 
the United States could be put at risk should Attorney General Eric 
Holder approve the release of trained terrorists into our country. I 
repeat, released into this country, not held in jails, but let free in 
our neighborhoods and our communities.
  Eric Holder expects us to take his word that the detainees are not a 
threat, and that is unacceptable. The Attorney General expects this 
Congress to sit idly by and the American people to sit idly by until he 
announces he has released the Uyghurs held at Guantanamo Bay into the 
United States, into your neighborhood. In fact, he will not allow 
career FBI and government employees to even brief Members of Congress 
on this. So much for this administration's promise of transparency and 
accountability.
  Let me be clear: These detainees are trained terrorists who were 
caught in camps affiliated with Al Qaeda. Those who would use terror 
are terrorists no matter their intended target. There have been 
published reports that these terrorists were members of the Eastern 
Turkistan Islamic Movement, ETIM, a designated terrorist organization 
affiliated with Al Qaeda.
  The detainees held at Guantanamo Bay are trained terrorists. They 
were trained in facilities affiliated with Al Qaeda and Khalid Sheikh 
Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11 who took pleasure in beheading Wall 
Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
  Last month, the U.S. Treasury froze the assets of Abdul Haq, the 
leader of the ETIM. The Treasury Department targeted Haq as part of 
their efforts to shut down the Al Qaeda support network.
  So here Treasury designates Haq as a terrorist, and Eric Holder wants 
to release the members of the terrorist group to walk the streets.
  Upon making the designation, the Treasury Under Secretary for 
Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said, ``Abdul Haq commands a 
terror group that sought to sow violence and fracture international 
unity at the 2008 Olympic games in China.''
  What if our people had not picked up these terrorists and they had 
gotten their training and had gone back to China and had blown up one 
of the Olympic facilities when many American citizens were there? What 
if? How is it that the U.S. Treasury Department can declare that this 
is a terrorist group that ``sought to sow violence'' while the U.S. 
Justice Department asserts that members of the same group caught at 
terrorist training camps and held for 7 years at Guantanamo should be 
released free and clear into the United States, yet this Congress and 
the American people are left in the dark about the administration's 
plans to release the detainees?
  If the Congress doesn't really care and want to hold oversight 
hearings, certainly the American people have a right to know who the 
Attorney General is asking to place in their communities.
  Last Friday, I called on this administration to declassify and 
provide the American people with information regarding the capture, the 
detention, and the threat assessment of each detainee they intend to 
release inside the United States. Regardless of their intended targets 
of terror, the American people deserve to know whether they have been 
further radicalized due to their exposure to Al Qaeda leaders like 
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. They have been down in Guantanamo with some of 
the most violent people that have ever walked the Earth. And now, after 
the radicalization that may have taken place, Eric Holder now wants to 
release them into our neighborhoods and into our communities.
  I worry about the impact these released Uyghurs will have on our 
national security. I have talked with several former members who have 
worked in our intelligence community, and to a person they all believe 
that this will be dangerous for the United States. They all said, what 
message does their release into the United States send to Al Qaeda and 
other terrorist networks?
  How can Attorney General Holder guarantee that the released Uyghurs 
will not stay in contact with Al Qaeda and provide them with 
intelligence within the U.S.? Has Eric Holder never heard of 
radicalization in prison? Some people go into prison and come out worse 
than they go in. If the Attorney General cannot or will not answer 
these questions, he should not consider releasing them.
  I ask you, please, the American people need to have all of this 
information before a decision is made.

   East Turkistan Islamic Party Appeals for New Recruits in New Video

       The militant Islamist group East Turkistan Islamic Party 
     (ETIM) released a new propaganda video, in which it appealed 
     to Muslims in Turkistan to join the group's camps in 
     Waziristan, Pakistan.
       The 43-minute video is entitled ``Persistence and 
     preparation for Jihad'' and was produced by the group's media 
     wing Sawt al Islam.
       It includes a statement by the group's current leader 
     Sheikh Abul Haq, as well as its late leader Hassan Makhdum, 
     whose alias is Abu Mohammed al Turkistani. Abul Haq said 
     ``jihad'' was a duty that falls on all Muslims just like any 
     other religious duty. He also pledged more attacks against 
     Chinese forces. ``The operations of the Islamic Turkistani 
     Party will make China experience the same taste of shame and 
     defeat that America has experienced in Iraq and 
     Afghanistan,'' Abul Haq said.
       Footage from the group's training camp showed a group of 
     militants undergoing training under the supervision of 
     military commander identified as Seifullah. Once again, he 
     claimed credit for the bus bombings and the attack on the 
     police station in Shanghai and Yunnan in May and July of 
     2008.
       The attacks seem to have been carried out using remotely-
     detonated explosives devices. Footage shown on the video 
     showed a member of the group placing the explosives in a 
     small suitcase and covering it with some cloths, while having 
     a radio detonator in his hand.
       Seifullah also made an appeal to Turkistani Muslims to join 
     the group's camps in Waziristan and train on the latest 
     weapons used by the Chinese army's ground forces. He said 
     that the group is currently trying to develop a training 
     program on other weapons used by the army.
       The East Turkistan Islamic Movement is a militant group 
     that advocates the creation of an independent, Islamic state 
     of East Turkestan, formally part of Afghanistan, in what is 
     currently the Xinjiang region of China.
       The group is thought to have links with al Qaeda. In its 
     2005 report on terrorism, the U.S. State Department said that 
     the group was ``linked to al Qaeda and the international 
     jihadist movement'' and that al Qaeda provided the group with 
     ``training and financial assistance''.

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