[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 55 (Tuesday, April 17, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2347-S2348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              AID TO EGYPT

  Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, I rise today to speak to an amendment that 
would end aid to Egypt until they end the prosecution of our U.S. 
citizens. I offered this amendment earlier this spring when Egypt was 
detaining our citizens--these prodemocracy workers--and was not letting 
them leave the country. Since then, they have let them leave the 
country but sort of in an insulting fashion in the sense they have let 
them leave when we paid, basically, ransom. We had to pay about $5 
million in ransom--$300,000 per person--to let these people leave 
Egypt.
  So they came home, but Egypt still could only get its aid if the 
administration certified they were pro democracy. Within days, 
Secretary Clinton did release the aid and said they were achieving 
their democratic goals. I wrote a letter to Secretary Clinton asking 
her not to do this because the prosecutions still go on. These American 
citizens who were allowed to leave the country had to pay $300,000 in 
bail but they also had to sign a statement saying they were coming back 
for the trial.
  Everybody said, well, I doubt they are ever going back to Egypt for 
these show trials. But it gets worse. It turns out in December of last 
year, President Obama signed an Executive order--this is Order No. 
13524--that gives Interpol, the international police organization, 
immunity in our country. We also have an extradition treaty with Egypt,

[[Page S2348]]

meaning if you are accused of a crime in Egypt, we can send you back.
  The danger is whether these prodemocracy workers are safe in the 
United States. We have Interpol agents in the United States who now 
have immunity and we have an extradition treaty with Egypt. There are 
definitely problems with allowing this to go on. This is an indication 
to me that maybe Egypt is not pursuing democratic goals, and that 
certifying them as a democratic country is perhaps not in our best 
interest, and maybe sending nearly $2 billion of taxpayer money to 
Egypt, which continues to prosecute our citizens, is not a good idea.
  Let me give an example of what Interpol is doing. Interpol recently 
took a Saudi journalist from Malaysia and sent him back to Saudi 
Arabia. Do you know what the crime was? He was accused of blasphemy. He 
was accused of the religious crime of apostasy. Do you know what the 
penalty in Saudi Arabia for blasphemy is? The death penalty. So we are 
now using an international police agency to go into a sovereign nation, 
where someone is accused of a religious crime and is sent back to a 
country where they can be put to death. This alarms me.
  People say, oh, that could never happen in America. Well, right now, 
the President has allowed Interpol, through an Executive order, through 
the President's signature, to have diplomatic immunity in our country. 
For all I know, Interpol could be at this very moment looking for 
American citizens in this country and trying to get those people and 
extradite them to Egypt. This is a problem. This is why you don't want 
an international police force to operate within your sovereign Nation. 
There can be cooperation, but you don't want impunity and immunity for 
an international police force within your borders.
  So I will introduce again an amendment to this bill and this 
amendment will say no aid to Egypt until they end this prosecution; no 
aid to Egypt until they end these red letter warrants they have asked 
for on U.S. citizens to be extradited to Egypt. We can't allow U.S. 
citizens to be sent to a foreign country to be tried in that country 
where blasphemy is a crime. Those are not American values, those are 
not American ways, and we cannot allow U.S. citizens to be subject to 
foreign laws and foreign crimes.
  I will ask today for a vote on an amendment that will end Egyptian 
aid or at least delay Egyptian foreign aid until they relinquish this 
prosecution of our citizens.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Manchin). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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