[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 129 (Thursday, September 26, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H5878-H5880]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Valadao). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Gohmert) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, there has been some interesting news come 
out. The Council on American-Islamic Relations is changing its name. 
There was an article in the American Thinker on September 23. This 
article points out that an explosive story posted Sunday by Charles 
Johnson at The Daily Caller reveals that:

       CAIR has apparently been laundering money obtained from 
     Middle East donors in violation of Federal law. While it 
     publicly presents itself as a single organization, CAIR has, 
     in fact, created a multitude of 501(c)(3) organizations and a 
     501(c)(4), CAIR Action Network. By moving donations around, 
     CAIR may have evaded taxes and has avoided disclosure of its 
     foreign funding sources required by the Foreign Agent 
     Registration Act.
       Quoting Johnson, ``Under IRS regulations, an organization 
     may have 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) related entities, but they 
     must maintain a wall between the two; this is accomplished by 
     establishing separate bank accounts, board of directors, 
     bookkeeping, and payroll. CAIR, though, had none of these.''
       Johnson cites David Reaboi, vice president for strategic 
     communications at Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy, 
     ``Plentiful legal evidence, acquired in the course of a 
     lawsuit--plus CAIR's own official filing documents to the 
     Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) and 
     IRS--make clear that CAIR has engaged in a thinly-disguised 
     money laundering operation. In addition to violating its 
     501(c)3 regulations, CAIR's undisclosed and hidden foreign 
     donations amount to violation of the Foreign Agent 
     Registration Act as well.''
       Guidestar reveals nine state chapters, a property holding 
     company in California, a main office in Washington, D.C., and 
     the CAIR Foundation. Many of these chapters have little 
     income. The Iowa chapter--yes, there is one--has none. The 
     Foundation was de-listed in 2011 because it failed to file 
     the requisite IRS form 990 tax returns for the three prior 
     years. However, in June, WND reported that while Tea Party 
     organizations were being sandbagged by IRS, the agency 
     quietly restored the CAIR Foundation's nonprofit status 
     following a meeting with White House officials.

  Well, the article, though, points out that CAIR is changing its name. 
And it should also be noted that this comes on the heels of an 
inspector general report last week that was made public that 
established that the FBI had not properly followed its own directives, 
that it had told FBI offices that they were not to have non-
investigative relations with CAIR as part of their so-called community 
outreach program because of the evidence that was introduced in the 
Holy Land Foundation trial in 2007-2008.
  It should be noted that the judge in the U.S. District Court in the 
Holy Land Foundation trial--in which there were over 100 counts of 
funding terrorism, basically, that were found to have been violated, 
criminal violations--found that when CAIR, ISNA moved to have their 
name struck--there was one other name, I believe--they had been listed 
as unindicted coconspirators. And they wanted to have their names 
removed. And the court there at the District Court refused to remove 
their names. So they appealed to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of 
Appeals. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court group of judges ruled that there 
was plenty of evidence to support CAIR, ISNA, their names being part of 
the suit because the evidence was sufficient to show they were the 
largest Muslim Brotherhood front organizations in America.
  So it is interesting when the article points out that they got their 
IRS nonprofit status returned after they had visited with White House 
officials.
  Which reminds me of back 2 years ago. There was a law enforcement 
seminar at Langley out at the CIA headquarters. And CAIR, though--at 
the time, the FBI was not supposed to have any relationship with them. 
The White House certainly had plenty of relationships with them. And 
they made calls to the administration, and they got these seminars 
eliminated out at Langley because they objected to people being taught 
about what radical Islam believed, what it wanted to accomplish.
  And they actually got people delisted from being able to teach. One 
of whom, Steve Coughlin, spent many years studying radical Islam. And 
he used to brief our military commanders. And it was located at the 
Pentagon. Studied radical Islam. And then all of a sudden, because CAIR 
makes a phone call or two to the administration, now a man that knows a 
tremendous amount about radical Islam is no longer able to teach people 
about the dangers of radical Islam. That went well in line with CAIR's 
complaints that the FBI training material needed to be purged because 
there were things in there that they found offensive. And so things 
were eliminated.
  Well, when Michele Bachmann, Trent Franks, myself, and a couple of 
others sent five separate letters to five different departments--the 
Department of State, Homeland Security, intelligence--one was to the 
Department of Justice. And in each letter, it set out specific facts 
indicating that there was at least some Muslim Brotherhood influence in 
that department. So the inquiry was not requesting an indictment, just 
an investigation about the extent of Muslim Brotherhood influence in 
that particular department.
  The Department of Justice response indicated they had an ongoing 
investigation at that time, and it was with regard to the impropriety 
of FBI offices dealing with CAIR, despite the FBI's new policy to the 
contrary, since there was evidence they were a large Muslim Brotherhood 
front organization.
  But nonetheless, some FBI offices continued to have their so-called 
outreach programs. One found that they had brought a couple of CAIR 
officials in to help teach about Islam and Muslim activities. And the 
relationship went on.
  I asked the former FBI director why it took so long since the FBI had 
been gathering that information about CAIR's relationship to the Muslim 
Brotherhood, why it took so many years after they started gathering 
evidence about them to sever that partnership relationship for 
community outreach.
  So there's no question there's Muslim Brotherhood influence in this 
administration. The Egyptians have pointed that out for a long time. 
And

[[Page H5879]]

even under President Morsi in Egypt, it was published that they were so 
proud that there were six--and they named the six--Muslim brothers who 
were in high positions affecting the Obama administration.
  Well, since CAIR--like ACORN had before it, when ACORN was found to 
have engaged in improper activities and they were captured on video 
engaging in highly inappropriate activities, and there was a move in 
Congress to sever any Federal funds going to ACORN--well, they just 
changed their name, and established different organizations so they 
could still get Federal funding.
  But now CAIR--and I don't know if they had seen what ACORN did so 
they could still get Federal funding from different other agencies--
CAIR, according to this article, has changed their name, to the WTF. 
They changed their name to WTF. So no longer will they be CAIR for the 
Council on American-Islamic Relations. Now they will be WTF. CAIR has 
now become WTF? Well, now when people want to have relations with CAIR, 
they'll have to seek out WTF.
  So the article also mentions the Justice Department inspector 
general's report. This article says, ``Yesterday the Justice Department 
Office of Inspector General released, then yanked, then released again, 
its report on the FBI's questionable interaction with CAIR--sorry 
again, WTF. The FBI had a strict policy in place limiting its 
interactions with the group following revelations of CAIR's involvement 
with terror in the Holy Land Foundation Trial. But those policies have 
not been followed.''
  So anyway, quite interesting there.
  And I see my friend from Minnesota has come to the House floor. But 
it is very important to know that CAIR has been found by a district 
court and a Federal appellate court to be a Muslim Brotherhood front 
organization.

                              {time}  1830

  And now, when you seek out CAIR, you'll have to seek out WTF, the 
Washington Trust Foundation, or WTF instead.
  I'd like to yield to my friend from Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann).
  Mrs. BACHMANN. I thank the gentleman from Texas.
  You are talking about an extremely important subject because the 
Muslim Brotherhood has been on the rise across the world, and the 
Muslim Brotherhood, Mr. Speaker, as we know, is a terrorist 
organization.
  So a terrorist organization has tried to manufacture a false front or 
a false facade for itself. They called themselves CAIR, or the Council 
on Arab Islamic Relations. They set up shop here in America. They 
wanted to be the voice for the Muslim community in the United States, 
even though they are the voice for the violent Muslim Brotherhood 
terrorist group, which, by the way, was outlawed in Egypt for about 30 
years under former President Mubarak.
  And then the Muslim Brotherhood came in. They became the party of 
record in Egypt. The former President of the Muslim Brotherhood became 
the President of Egypt, until the people of Egypt decided to go into 
the streets, in the largest human demonstration in history, to take 
their country back because they didn't want the cruelties of this 
organization.
  It's bizarre to think that this organization, CAIR, was having any 
relationship of any kind with the United States Government, with the 
Obama administration, and with the FBI.
  When you think about our chief law enforcement organization, which we 
all have great respect for, it's incomprehensible that the FBI would be 
reaching out in a so-called engagement strategy and bring in this 
Muslim Brotherhood front group to advise the FBI on how to deal with 
Muslims.
  So here you have a terrorist organization that tries to put a new 
face on themselves, call themselves CAIR, a terrorist organization, 
come into the United States, and our FBI is working with them and 
asking CAIR to advise them on how to reach out and deal with the Muslim 
community? No wonder the FBI Director Mueller said, We're not going to 
have this anymore, and decided we wouldn't have that engagement. And 
it's disturbing to hear that there was continual engagement going on 
with this organization.
  One thing that I've noticed with a lot of these organizations that 
have sometimes nefarious purposes--certainly CAIR would be one of those 
groups--what is very interesting is that a lot of times these groups do 
change their name. They change it to protect the guilty because people 
are on to them, and that's exactly what's happened with CAIR. People 
figured out who they are, just like you said, Representative Gohmert, 
Mr. Speaker, that the CAIR organization was found to be part of this 
terrorist coalition and involved in terrorist financing in the Holy 
Land Foundation case.
  So, now that this word is getting out to the American people in a 
mainstream way, now they change their name to WTF. Well, it's kind of 
self-explanatory. WTF, that will be the new acronym. But the American 
people are smart. It's just the same group. They changed their name to 
protect the guilty terrorist organization they were before, a front 
group they were today. It doesn't matter what their name is. WTF may be 
a very good name for this organization, may be a very good name, but it 
doesn't change and alter who they are underneath.
  I'm glad that you brought that up.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Reclaiming my time, it's also important to note, the 
American people are smart, but somebody at this administration 
continues to give CAIR access to the White House, to the 
administration, continues to listen to them.
  I know the gentlelady from Minnesota and I were there to go through 
the materials that were purged from FBI training materials, and you 
actually came back and went through some additional materials later 
that I didn't, the only one to have done that.
  And it's interesting, again, to me that it was CAIR's complaining. 
Here they are, a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, according to 
the courts, and they complained about instruction on radical Islam and 
the material is removed.
  At the same time, another organization, the Islamic Society of North 
America, ISNA, was also one of those mentioned, a named coconspirator 
in the Holy Land Foundation trial. And ISNA's President, Mohamed Magid, 
Imam Mohamed Magid, has--every time we hear about him it seems like 
it's another piece of influence he has had on the White House.
  And I know I've even read a speech given by the Chief of Staff of the 
President himself, Denis McDonough, when he was the Deputy National 
Security Advisor. He spoke at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, 
ADAMS--and I'm sure John Adams appreciates this. But he spoke at the 
All Dulles Area Muslim Society and thanked Imam Magid for his wonderful 
prayers during the Iftar celebration at the White House.
  We know the head of ISNA, Imam Magid, has been in the center of the 
State Department, was there when President Obama gave a speech. He 
supposedly had helped him with his speech about the Middle East, which 
explains why there were problems with things the President said in his 
speech that were an insult to Israel and not factually accurate.
  So, just as the letter that we signed, five different letters, five 
different statements of fact in each of those five letters, but just as 
they pointed out, we know there is Muslim Brotherhood influence in each 
of those Departments. All we were asking for, not an indictment, just 
please investigate your Department, as this limited IG inspection did 
at Justice, of the FBI, and tell us how extensive or how little the 
influence is. We know there's some there, so is it very little? Is it 
great?
  It's still a legitimate question. And I think, in view of the IG 
report, it's time to revise our letter to the Department of Justice and 
make further inquiries, because there's more information the gentlelady 
from Minnesota and I have obtained that indicates it's an even bigger 
problem than we knew at the time that those letters were sent.

  I yield to my friend from Minnesota.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I think one thing that absolutely shocked me was in the month of 
June, when an individual who was the chief deputy of the spiritual 
advisor of the Muslim Brotherhood--Qaradawi is the spiritual advisor 
for the Muslim Brotherhood. His deputy, whose name is bin Bayyah, was 
granted a visa by the

[[Page H5880]]

United States State Department to come into the United States.
  Now, that's pretty unusual. You have a terrorist organization that 
was outlawed in Egypt formerly, and the United States Government is 
issuing a visa to the chief deputy of the spiritual advisor of the 
Muslim Brotherhood. That, in itself, should kind of raise concern. Not 
only was he granted a visa, he came into the United States this June. 
He had a meeting in the White House.
  How do we know that?
  Bin Bayyah put a photo up on his Web site and bragged about this 
meeting that he had, and he said it was in the White House, in the 
Executive Office Building. He named the people. There were people, 
obviously, in the photo. And he said, during the course of that 
meeting, he came in and requested that the White House give arms and 
training and weapons to terrorists that would be fighting in Syria. 
That was what the request was that he made. That's in his words. That's 
not my words. That was in bin Bayyah's words on his Web site.
  Well, just this last Monday, not the Monday of this week but the 
Monday before, on the same day as the tragic shooting of 13 people at 
the Navy Yard here in Washington, D.C., just 2 miles from where 
Representative Gohmert and I are standing today, Mr. Speaker, on that 
same day, President Obama signed a waiver to the Arms Export Control 
Act. Nobody heard about it because it was a big news day. Thirteen 
Americans were gunned down that day by an individual.
  But this is very big news because President Obama, when he signed 
this waiver of section 40 and section 40(a) of the Arms Export Control 
Act, what he did is waived the prohibition against the United States 
arming terrorists, including al Qaeda, in Syria. And this isn't Michele 
Bachmann saying this. This isn't Representative Louie Gohmert saying 
this. This is the White House saying this and also major news reports 
coming out that the President signed this waiver.
  Now, I want to just repeat it, because this was hard for me to 
understand when I heard this, that our President of the United States, 
Barack Obama--this is not meant to insult him in any way, it's just 
meant to inform the American people--he signed a waiver from the 
prohibition.
  It would make sense that we would prohibit spending U.S. tax money to 
arm terrorists. That would make sense that we wouldn't want to do 
something like that. No arming of terrorists, especially al Qaeda. 
We've only been trying to fight them and defeat them for 12 years, 
minimum, more than that.
  But a week ago Monday, President Obama chose to waive that 
prohibition; and, as myself and Representative Gohmert are standing on 
the floor today in this greatest of all deliberative bodies in the 
world, it is a fact, today, in the United States, that our President 
has intentionally chosen to arm terrorists, including al Qaeda.
  Now, I think it's important that the American people know that, that 
our President signed that piece of legislation--or not legislation, 
waiver, because if that was legislation that came on this floor, I 
don't think you would find Democrat Members of Congress who would be 
willing to vote for that measure. I don't believe they would, because 
one thing I know about this Congress, we're pretty bipartisan when it 
comes to national security. I don't care what your political background 
is, you want this country safe; and I'm very, very proud of what I've 
seen coming from Democrats and Republicans working together, because we 
want national security.
  But this is a big issue, and that's why I think it's very important 
that Representative Gohmert is bringing up this issue, Mr. Speaker, 
about the level of influence of the violent terrorist organization 
known as the Muslim Brotherhood, what their presence is in the United 
States, and, most particular, what their influence is on our United 
States Government.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Reclaiming my time, that is an extraordinary 
development, our President deciding, after America rose up so clearly 
with, basically, one voice, saying, do not get us involved in Syria.
  I know in my own office, we had heard from, I think, three people who 
did not live in our district and between 1,300, 1,400 that did, saying, 
do not get involved in the war in Syria.
  And we knew at the time that the largest part of the rebels were al 
Qaeda-linked. We knew that President Assad was backed by Iran and 
Hezbollah and with Shia. We knew that the rebels, the largest part of 
them, were Sunni, al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, and there's no reason 
to get in the middle of that. And, frankly, that's why, since we know 
so much about the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist activities abroad, 
despite CNN's reporting and so many reporting about the so-called coup 
in Egypt, we knew, the gentlelady from Minnesota and I having been in 
Egypt in the last few weeks and talking to so many people and doing our 
own homework, that that was not a coup. And the Coptic Christian Pope 
told both the lady from Minnesota and me that that was not a coup; that 
was the Egyptian people rising up.
  And I did not know--maybe the gentlelady from Minnesota knew. I did 
not realize that the constitution in Egypt that America supposedly gave 
them advice about, didn't have a provision for impeachment. So when 
they had a Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer as the President who was 
disregarding the constitution, there was no way they could bring 
impeachment charges to get him out.
  They had one answer, one solution, and they acted peacefully; and 
millions--millions--more than ever has protested in the history of the 
world, came out to the streets and demanded the Egyptian military 
remove the President. And they did so, and he's awaiting trial. I'm 
hoping they'll wait until newly elected officials are present so that 
they can have the trial of former President Morsi in front of a new 
regime that's elected by the people.

                              {time}  1845

  But we didn't help give them any options there. And yet so much of 
the mainstream media has been reporting, as the Muslim Brotherhood has 
been killing Christians, killing moderate Muslims, and just destroying 
and burning churches, that it's basically the military, when it's not 
the military at all. It's the Muslim Brotherhood.
  And they have made clear they'll burn the country down, and they'll 
kill everybody they can in order to get Egypt back under radical 
Islamic control. Because for those that envisioned a new Ottoman 
Empire, envisioned the beginning of a worldwide caliphate, they could 
not afford, in their dream of running the world as one massive, radical 
Islamic caliphate, to lose Egypt. And they were willing to do whatever 
violence they had to do to avoid that. As the gentlelady has mentioned, 
the Muslim Brotherhood now has been outlawed in Egypt. I really applaud 
the efforts of the people in Egypt.
  I couldn't help but be amused by some of the mainstream and then some 
of the far left-wing reporting about my coming here to the floor and 
showing blowups of pictures and giving speeches here about what the 
Egyptian people were doing and rising up and that they were upset not 
with America--they showed by their signs they love America--but they 
were upset with our President. Frankly, in my own ignorance, I didn't 
even know who our Ambassador was, but the people of Egypt knew. They 
had signs out there. They are upset with her. They were upset with the 
Obama administration. But they love America.
  And I thank the gentlelady from Minnesota for her valuable input, and 
I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________