[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 52 (Wednesday, April 17, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H2119-H2122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CURRENT EVENTS IN REVIEW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Walorski). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, we know that there is so much going on 
after the tragedy in Boston where not just Boston was attacked, but the 
United States was attacked by acts of sheer evil, perpetrators who did 
not care about innocent people and innocent lives. They thought it 
better to try to kill, maim, and destroy. What sick, twisted, evil 
human being or human beings would do that?
  But we saw 9/11/2001 vividly clear. There actually are people who are 
so radical, so mean, so evil, so twisted that they actually believe 
they could make for themselves a way to paradise by killing innocent 
people, killing children not even old enough to have really done 
anything wrong, and that is what they obviously felt would make their 
great mark in the world. I can't help but strongly believe with all my 
heart that, unless they repent and find grace, they are in for a very 
rude awakening in the next life.
  It is my hope, as well, that the individual or individuals who are 
responsible will be held to account with the death penalty that will be 
implemented behind closed doors, without cameras present, without an 
opportunity for them to yet insult or hurt anyone else. They've done 
enough.

                              {time}  1930

  We'll await to see who it is that ends up being responsible. Perhaps 
there's an announcement tonight, perhaps not.
  I am glad that even though there was a person of interest, that the 
investigators did not rush to judgment on that, that they continue to 
explore every possible clue, every possible video and photograph, 
thoroughly doing a good job it certainly appears in law enforcement so 
that when the evil culprits are apprehended and they go to trial and 
their attorneys are trying to raise a reasonable doubt with a jury, 
that the investigation will have been so thorough and there will not 
have been an inappropriate rush to judgment such that a fair trial is 
had, due process is had, and then making sure that it is,

[[Page H2120]]

indeed, the perpetrator or perpetrators and then carry out a death 
penalty. I hope that is the justice that ends up being carried out.
  In the meantime, we had a gun bill that was voted down, as I 
understand, 54-46 in the Senate. It did not pass. It did not have 
enough votes. But with all of our hearts having poured out and 
continuing to have prayers and sympathy and empathy for the people in 
Sandy Hook, in Newtown, we still had a bill that was being brought to 
the Senate floor that all of the people who supported the bill, as I 
heard, had basically admitted that bill would not have saved a single 
one of the precious, dear little children that were so violently gunned 
down in their schoolroom. It would not have saved the heroic 
administrator, a teacher, those who were trying to protect the 
children.
  It just seems that if people in Washington or other parts of the 
world, New York City or wherever, are going to manipulate and use such 
a tragic situation, such sympathetic victims, they ought to at least, 
for goodness' sake, at least put forward a bill that if it had been 
implemented would have ensured that at least one of the children or 
adults killed at Sandy Hook would not have been killed.
  Otherwise, let's put together laws and let's have this administration 
finally enforcing laws that both together will reduce violence. Pushing 
forward a bill that would not save any of the lives lost there or in 
Colorado is just inappropriate and manipulative, and the victims 
deserve better.
  I still completely understand the families of the victims, their 
hearts, the struggle, the difficulty. I understand, but let's not 
manipulate them for an individual political agenda.
  Now, I was on C-SPAN this morning with the host, Greta Brawner, a 
terrific host, as is Susan Swain. I've enjoyed being on with both of 
them. But we were talking about border security and a bill that the so-
called ``Gang of Eight'' is putting forward. They're great people in 
the ``Gang of Eight,'' and I know they mean well. They want good for 
this country.
  I'm also reminded of a line that I was told back in the Soviet Union 
in the summer of 1973 when I got close to a Soviet college student and 
we had a free exchange of ideas. He never put down his country at all. 
Despite that, he was ordered not to talk to me anymore after we became 
good friends because that's what happens in a country where the 
government becomes too powerful: you can't even choose your friends any 
more.
  At one point we were sitting alone visiting, and he tugged on my 
shirt and he said, We don't have material this good for our individual 
citizens. We wish we did, but we recognize you have so much more and 
better things for your citizens in the United States than we do here in 
the Soviet Union. He said, But you've got to understand that here in 
the Soviet Union, since we were formed in 1918, we have had two major 
wars fought on our own soil that have kept this country just in 
turmoil, and we have had to spend most of our resources not on such 
nice clothes and good things for individuals, but in defending our 
country because we never had two oceans protecting us the way you have 
in the United States.

  I was able to point something out to President Bush some years back 
when he was President and I was a freshman here. I said, Look, for most 
of this Nation's history, as the young Soviet college student told me 
when I was a college student, you have had two oceans protecting your 
country, the United States. He was exactly right. For most of our 
history, two oceans have protected the United States.
  I remember having conversations in the eighties and nineties, as we 
would see violence in other places, whether it was Beirut or the 
terrible atrocities inflicted on Israelis on their own soil, the 
constant bombings and people being blown up just as occurred at the 
terrible and evil event in Boston.
  People have actually said the thing about America is if somebody were 
to decide to be a suicide bomber in America, they'd have to cross 
either the Atlantic or the Pacific, and they'd have such a cooling-down 
time, that even though they might be whipped up into a rage before they 
left to fly to America, all of the hours of sitting quietly on a plane 
or days on a ship would be enough to cause them to pause; and when they 
got to America, they would think, Nah, I really didn't want to blow 
myself up after all. That seemed to work pretty well.
  But then the radicalization of Muslims got to the point where they 
were actually able to radicalize people who could cross an ocean, who 
could come into America; and as the 9/11 hijackers, they could come in 
here and unthinkably live in America, enjoy our liberties, our 
freedoms, enjoy the company of neighbors, share food with their 
neighbors, have neighbors invite them over and share food, share things 
such as if they need a cup of flour or whatever it is, share and see 
the way Americans share and are such a friendly country. They were able 
to live here. And too many of them were here on visas, and the visas 
expired.

                              {time}  1940

  Since neither Republican nor Democratic administration was 
effectively enforcing visas when they expired, these 9/11, hate-filled 
hijackers were able to keep on the mask that they enjoyed America, 
enjoyed the liberties, while all the time looking for the opportunity 
to kill themselves in a manner that would most effectively kill the 
greatest number of innocent people they could in America. It's 
unthinkable for American citizens.
  The only thing closely akin that came to mind after 9/11 was when 
some were talking about, Well, you know what, in World War II, the idea 
that someone would get in an airplane and fly it toward an American 
ship and crash their plane into the ship, trying to sink the ship, and 
kill as many as possible was foreign to Americans. We couldn't believe 
there was such a thing as kamikaze pilots. Who would do such a thing? 
Who would have that little regard for life and such hatred for other 
life that you would do all you could, including giving up your own 
life, just to kill as many people as you possibly could who just want 
to live free? That was foreign during World War II. It was strange. We 
couldn't believe it. I remember being taught about that in public 
schools while growing up. The teachers thought it was so strange, and 
we thought it was strange.
  Now we've seen that same type of mentality that was told to Thomas 
Jefferson when he went to negotiate with the Barbary pirates. In 
essence, he couldn't understand why these radical Muslims, the Barbary 
pirates, would be attacking American ships. As Jefferson and the other 
diplomats explained, We've never attacked your ships. We've never 
attacked you. We're not any threat to you. Why would you attack 
American ships?
  It was explained, In our religion, we believe that, if you die 
killing infidels, which you Americans are and since you don't believe 
what we do, then we go to paradise.
  Jefferson thought that so strange. He was so well read, so 
intelligent that he couldn't believe it. He got his own copy of the 
Koran, in English translation, and read it. He could not believe there 
was a religion that anybody believed was teaching that you would go to 
paradise by killing innocent people. That just seemed so strange.
  I am extremely grateful that most Muslims don't believe that. They 
don't believe they should get themselves a ticket to paradise by 
killing innocent people. They believe in reason and in talking and in 
trying to work things out. They don't want to be ruled and reigned over 
by radical Islamists either. Amazingly, I've had people approach me, 
the last in DFW airport, who have come up and indicated:
  Aren't you in Congress?
  Yes.
  I'm from Egypt.
  The last was getting ice cream there at DFW. He said, Aren't you in 
Congress?
  Yes.
  He said, You're helping the wrong people.
  He had family still in Egypt, and he said, You're helping the wrong 
people. You're helping the radicals. You're helping the Muslim 
Brotherhood. We don't want the Muslim Brotherhood running Egypt. We 
want freedom in Egypt. That's what we thought we were going to get, and 
then your government helps the wrong people. You help the radicals. You 
help the Muslim Brotherhood. Quit doing that. Please, tell others in 
Washington to quit doing that. Quit helping the radicals.

[[Page H2121]]

  I was surprised. That was not the first time, but it was the most 
recent time that someone turned out who was from Egypt, a Muslim. They 
want to live in peace. They don't want radicals ruining their lives, 
and they think it's wrong for radical Muslim Brotherhood members to 
persecute, kill, inflict pain and suffering on Coptic Christians and 
Jews. They don't think that's appropriate. They may not agree with 
them, but they want to live in peace. Yet this administration continues 
to help the wrong people.

  After I met the young man from Egypt at DFW, I find out we're sending 
tear gas to Egypt in order to help the radicals in the Muslim 
Brotherhood use it against people like Coptic Christians, like Jewish 
residents in Egypt, like moderate Muslims who disagree with the kind of 
radicalism that is being forced on them in Egypt. Then we find out this 
week that this administration is sending more tanks to be used to crush 
those who just want freedom in Egypt. They're moderate Muslims. They 
want to have freedom. They don't want radicals running their country.
  Just like our allies, the Northern Alliance--the moderate Muslims in 
Afghanistan who fought--many gave their lives. They lost friends and 
family in fighting the Taliban on our behalf, and now this 
administration has figuratively thrown them under the bus, and it's 
trying to buy friendship and peace--literally buy it with money--with 
the Taliban. That's not how you deal with the Taliban. The Northern 
Alliance knew how to deal with them. We helped them with some arms. We 
embedded less than 500 Special Operations people in intelligence, and 
within 3 or 4 months, the Northern Alliance had defeated the Taliban.
  Then as I learned in my first meeting with Northern Alliance leaders 
some years ago, we told them, Give us back the significant weapons 
we've given you because we're America. We will make sure you're safe 
now. We'll make sure Afghanistan is safe and peaceful now. So they 
turned in the weapons. They trusted the United States, and now they 
find an administration that had previously been offering to buy 
elegant, first-class international offices in Qatar, in the Middle 
East, to give the Taliban--who still wants to kill Americans and 
destroy our way of life--international standing, classing them up in 
their efforts to kill Americans and destroy our way of life.
  And what did the Northern Alliance get for their loyalty for 
defeating the Taliban initially before we allowed them to re-surge? 
They got betrayed. They have been betrayed.
  It was reported that the administration was offering to release some 
of the Taliban's murdering thugs and buy them elegant offices in Qatar. 
No preconditions. Just sit down and talk with us, and we will buy you 
stuff, and we will let your murdering thugs go from confinement. We've 
already done that.
  One of them was on television over a year ago, telling the 
Afghanistan people on the most watched television station, If you do 
not fully support the Taliban, then you have one chance, and that is to 
come apologize to us and, under sharia law, beg our forgiveness and ask 
for our protection. Then you will fall under our protection, and you 
will not be killed. They explained to the nation of Afghanistan--the 
leader that this administration let out of confinement and who is now 
back leading the Taliban against us--that everyone in the world knows 
that the Americans have been defeated, and so their President is 
pulling everyone out. They're running away; they're scared; they're 
cowards; they're afraid of us. So once the cowardly Americans finish 
running away from us, in 2014, we, the Taliban, will be back in charge.

                              {time}  1950

  And so you've got a choice. You either come back, apologize, pledge 
devotion to us, ask forgiveness and protection, and under sharia law, 
we'll protect you. Otherwise, life may not last long once the Americans 
are gone.
  The message has been going around the world. In Egypt when we 
turned--this administration, at least--turned its back on our ally, 
Mubarak. When Qadhafi had blood on his hands since 2003, he had been an 
important ally of this country, giving us more information about 
terrorists because it was in his interest to keep terrorists at bay, 
giving us more information about terrorism at times than any other 
countries were able to give us; and that was repaid by this 
administration--helped bomb Qadhafi and his troops, and support the 
radicals. Back at the time, some of us here on the floor were 
explaining, we don't know who all's involved in the revolution, but we 
know there are al Qaeda elements of this revolution. Let's stop. This 
is not a good idea until we know whose side we should be on.
  But the world has seen this administration turns against its allies 
and tries to buy off its enemies. So if this administration were going 
to be consistent, it would seem that the thing to do, to expect for 
this administration to offer something, as the Clinton administration 
did to North Korea: hey, you know, we'll build you a nuclear plant; 
we'll do something if you just promise you won't develop nuclear 
weapons. Well, we saw how that worked. Madeleine Albright and President 
Clinton worked out a heck of a deal. We helped them get nuclear weapons 
because of the naivete of that administration, and now we're faced with 
a very difficult situation.
  Also understand, if North Korea continues on this path and Iran is 
not stopped, that what North Korea has Iran may have, and then no one 
in Israel will be safe at all. And Israel is considered in their minds, 
in radical Islamist minds, the Little Satan, and we're the Great Satan.
  I mentioned this morning on C-SPAN that we have been aware that not 
everyone that wants to come into this country wants to come for jobs. 
We know that. Most of the Hispanics are fantastic people. They want to 
work hard. They believe in God. They're devoted to family. And that is 
a bit of a generalization, but it's my hope that that Hispanic culture 
coming into this country will help bring a resurgence and make us the 
strong country we once were when it came to family values and an 
acknowledgement that ``In God We Trust,'' as is our national motto.
  Or as Ben Franklin said during the Constitutional Convention:

       I've lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live the 
     more convincing proofs I see of this truth: God governs in 
     the affairs of men.

  And as Franklin said:

       If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, 
     is it possible an empire could rise without His aid? We've 
     been assured in the sacred writing, that unless the Lord 
     build the House, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly 
     believe that.

  So I welcome people. And I've met Christian friends that I just fell 
in love with in West Africa. And one of them, an elderly black West 
African, wonderful, wonderful man, a heart as big as all outdoors, but 
he said, please tell others in Washington to quit getting weaker 
because if America grows weak, yes, we know where we go when we die, 
but if America grows weak, we have no chance of peace. We have no 
chance of a good life in this world. So please stop getting weaker. It 
looks like you're getting weaker.
  He started off by saying, We were excited when you elected your first 
black President, but please urge him to quit getting weaker in America. 
We need you to be strong.
  And I mentioned this morning that we even are aware that we've had al 
Qaeda, we've had radical Islamists try to disguise themselves as 
Hispanics and sneak across our southern border because Americans have 
never been worried about our Hispanic friends being radical and wanting 
to kill innocent people to go to paradise. That's not part of the 
Hispanic culture.
  And I've been amazed since then that the left wing always wants to 
try to distort, to create a story out of a twisted--I have to choose my 
words wisely because it'll be interesting to see what the twisted mind 
of the left does--but the ignorance was apparently only coupled by 
laziness by left wing media, so they go nuts trying to paint me as a 
bigot when obviously they are the bigots, and not only bigots but 
they're lazy because if they had bothered to even turn on their 
computer and use it for something besides mean-spirited, twisted, 
distorted untruths, they could have found this story from the 
``American Thinker'' back on August 2, 2010. In the story by Norah 
Petersen, it points out, it discusses that:

       In 2001, the brother of a Hezbollah military chief 
     illegally entered the United States by

[[Page H2122]]

     crossing the Mexican border. He then settled in Dearborn, 
     Michigan, and raised money for Hezbollah.
       In 2002, illegal immigrants from Lebanon who were thought 
     to have ties to Hezbollah were smuggled into the United 
     States via the Mexican border, according to a congressional 
     report:
       ``In December 2002, Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, a cafe 
     owner in Tijuana, Mexico, was arrested for illegally 
     smuggling more than 200 Lebanese illegally into the United 
     States, including several believed to have terrorist ties to 
     Hezbollah.''
       The congressional report also revealed that the FBI has 
     confirmed that persons from al Qaeda-linked nations have been 
     known to disguise themselves as Hispanic immigrants:
       ``Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller 
     has confirmed in testimony `that there are individuals from 
     countries with known al Qaeda connections who are changing 
     their Islamic surnames to Hispanic-sounding names and 
     obtaining false Hispanic identities, learning to speak 
     Spanish, and pretending to be Hispanic immigrants.' ''

  These are the kinds of things that our enemies are doing to try to 
bring down this Nation. I hope the administration will wise up and do 
something about it.
  With that, Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________