[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 5 (Thursday, January 9, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H129-H132]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1930
              CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO THE MIDDLE EAST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Minnesota 
(Mrs. Bachmann) for 30 minutes.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As always, it is a privilege 
to be able to come to the great well of the House of Representatives, 
the greatest deliberative body in the history of the world, to be here 
and have an opportunity to bring a voice to the table and to speak to 
the American people as well as my constituents in the Sixth District of 
Minnesota.
  I want to join my colleagues in wishing a happy New Year to all the 
people in the United States. We look forward to a wonderful year in 
2014. There are so many things that are good that we can look forward 
to this year, so many things that this body can get done, that we can 
agree on.
  We can agree on our veterans, standing for them, thanking them, first 
of all, that tonight, as we are here in this Chamber, we have men and 
women

[[Page H130]]

across the globe who are laying their lives on the line for us. Our 
prayers are with you, and our prayers are with your families.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I know that I speak for you and for all of our 
colleagues, that we want to let our troops know, there is nothing more 
important than the work that you do to secure our liberty and our 
freedom. We are for you, and we will be standing here for you this 
year, as we have in the past.
  We also stand together in recognition that the first and greatest 
obligation of all of us, as Members of Congress in this Chamber, is to 
secure the safety and security of the American people, the welfare of 
the American people, Mr. Speaker. We do that here domestically, but our 
obligation is to make sure that our national security is held safe here 
in the homeland but also our vital American national security interests 
across the globe.
  To that end, several of my colleagues and myself took a fact-finding 
trip in December. After we had concluded our work in December, we went 
into the Middle East. We took a very extensive journey. This was no 
pleasure trip in any way. This was a working mission. We went first 
into Amsterdam. While we were there, we met an individual who has one 
of the most extensive collections of communist penetration throughout 
the world. It was interesting, as we dialogued with him about communist 
infiltration, what that has meant over the course of history, 
particularly over the last century, and what that means for Americans 
today.
  From there, we journeyed into Cairo, Egypt. While we were there, we 
spoke with leaders of Egypt. There has been a tremendous change that 
has occurred, and we know that literally in just over a week's time, 
people in Egypt will have an opportunity to go to the ballot box and 
vote in a referendum on a brand-new Constitution.
  A very brief recent history of Egypt is that there was an overthrow 
in Egypt of the Mubarak presidency, which had been stable for some 30-
plus years. The people of Egypt spoke. They were very unhappy with 
their government. There was a referendum that had occurred, and during 
that time, the Muslim Brotherhood came to power through the president, 
President Morsi. The Muslim Brotherhood, through the Freedom and 
Justice Party, established a new regime.
  So repulsed were the people of Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood and 
their tactics during the course of just something over a year that the 
people of Egypt took to the streets, some 33 million people in what 
some people say was the largest human demonstration ever in the history 
of the world because the people of Egypt were outraged at the 
atrocities and the extremism of the Muslim Brotherhood as they were 
displayed across Egypt.
  Really, so much of this so-called Arab Spring has been the 
persecution of Christians, religious minorities, and women, 
particularly in the Middle East region. Nowhere has this been felt more 
than in Egypt, and the people rose up.
  You see, in the Egyptian Constitution, which was put together by the 
Muslim Brotherhood, there was no avenue for the people to remove the 
Muslim Brotherhood president, President Morsi. There was no impeachment 
process like we have in the United States. The only option available to 
the people was to go into the streets and demonstrate and seek the 
removal of the Muslim Brotherhood president. That is what the people 
effectuated.
  In that time, there is now an interim president. His name is 
President Mansour. I met with him numerous times in Cairo. We have had 
very good conversations with interim President Mansour. He told me in 
Egypt, together with my colleagues, that he would not be seeking 
reelection. We also met with General el-Sisi, the head of the military 
in Egypt, trying to maintain order in that country.
  We heard some very good news, and, Mr. Speaker, among the news that 
we heard while we were in Egypt was this: Egypt enjoys the most 
favorable relationship with the Jewish State of Israel that they have 
had in over 35 years. The Obama administration asked Egypt to work 
harder in the Sinai. That is the border, Mr. Speaker, between Egypt and 
Israel.
  The Obama administration asked the Egyptian Government to work to 
clear out al Qaeda and to try to secure that border. You see, Mr. 
Speaker, the Muslim Brotherhood, instead, had been placing more attacks 
through using al Qaeda and al Qaeda elements in various flavors. When 
you think of the old phrase of Baskin-Robbins and its 28 flavors of ice 
cream, there are multiple flavors, if you will, Mr. Speaker, of al 
Qaeda. There is the Al-Nusra Front. There is Jemaah Islamiyah. There is 
one organization after another, but they share the same ideology.
  Much of this ideology makes its way through an organization called 
the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Muslim Brotherhood was actively 
facilitating attacks on Israel through tunnels ruled by Hamas, which is 
essentially another affiliate, a franchise of the Muslim Brotherhood in 
the Gaza region. So whether it was weapons, whether it was attacks, 
whether it was fighters, Israel had its hands full in the Sinai border.
  Now the good news is that General el-Sisi, interim President Mansour 
in Egypt took to heart the request from the Obama administration and, 
for their own survival, worked to take apart the al Qaeda network and 
the strength that there was of jihadist-based fighters on the Sinai, 
and they have been incredibly successful.
  I am pleased to report to you tonight, Mr. Speaker, that what we 
heard from the leadership in Egypt was that over 70 percent of the 
jihadist activity on the Sinai has been silenced, deconstructed, taken 
apart. That means that Israel has had a better time, a more peaceful 
time on its border, but also, this has helped the Egyptian Government 
as well.
  The Nile River in Egypt is kind of a dividing point. You have western 
Egypt. You have eastern Egypt, eastern Egypt being the more violent, 
where it has been essentially a ``wild west,'' if you will, in the 
Sinai. It has been very difficult for securing peace in the Middle 
East, very difficult for Israel, but we have to thank the current 
interim government, under the leadership of President Mansour and under 
the guidance of General el-Sisi in the Sinai region. That is the good 
news. Of all of the turmoil and all of the chaos that there is today in 
the Middle East, this is our bright and shining spot.

  The United States, in my opinion, needs to do everything that we can 
to encourage and foster peace in this region. As I believe that my 
colleagues, whether it is on the Democrat side, on the Republican side, 
whether it is in the House, whether it is in the Senate, this is 
something that we agree upon. We want to see peace in the Middle East, 
peace in the largest Arab country in the Middle East, which would be 
Egypt, but also peace in the Jewish State of Israel, and this is the 
place to forge that peace.
  The good news is to hear that on this very sensitive border, we are 
seeing the Egyptians working together to make sure that there can be 
peace to fight a common enemy, and that would be al Qaeda and the 
radical elements in this regime. That is good news.
  We went from Cairo, Egypt, where we heard very good news from General 
el-Sisi, very good news from Amr Moussa, who is heading the Committee 
of 50 which is writing the new Constitution that the people of Egypt 
will be voting on in the referendum on January 14 and January 15. I 
believe the people of Egypt will see the wisdom in this new 
Constitution which, by the way, Mr. Speaker, does have a provision for 
impeachment so that the people in Egypt in the future will have an 
opportunity to be able to change their President and their country. 
They also guarantee the freedom of belief in Egypt, and they have a 
dedication to rebuilding the houses of worship that were destroyed by 
the Muslim Brotherhood.
  The Muslim Brotherhood destroyed shops, homes, and places of worship 
of Coptic Christians in Egypt. The government is committed to 
rebuilding the Christian houses of worship in Egypt. This is a 
wonderful advancement for peace and for tolerance in that region of the 
world, and one that I think we should encourage and get behind.
  From there, my colleagues and I, in a delegation which was led by 
Representative Steve King of Iowa--also in attendance was 
Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas and also Representative Robert 
Pittenger of North Carolina--from there, we went on to Beirut,

[[Page H131]]

Lebanon, which has been a hotbed of violence because Iran has seen an 
avenue of advancement. Working through the terrorist organization 
Hezbollah, Iran has been bringing increased terror between Sunni and 
Shia in southern Lebanon.
  We flew into the airport at Beirut. The airport at Beirut is 
controlled by Hezbollah. There, we met with the ambassador. We met with 
leaders of political parties. It is devastating to hear what they have 
to say about the increased violence.
  A suicide bomber wearing a vest detonated that vest during our time 
when we were there. Obviously we weren't anywhere nearby. We weren't in 
any form of danger, but a vest was detonated. Four people were killed. 
Also, a soldier had shot into Israel and had killed an Israeli soldier 
during the time that we were there. There has been a very, very strong, 
increase in violence. Violence occurred prior to our entry. Violence 
continues to occur, and there are now new reports, Mr. Speaker, of Iran 
bringing even more dangerous, larger deadly weapons into that area, 
again, bringing to the fore the increase in fighting between Sunni and 
Shia.
  That is the kind of pressure that the Jewish State of Israel is 
looking at on its northern border, without even contemplating what is 
happening in Syria.
  Syria, Mr. Speaker, has completely fallen apart. It is in complete 
chaos now, with Assad having estimated to have killed over 200,000 of 
his own people. Now the so-called moderates who were being backed, led 
by General Idris--General Idris has now, reportedly, left Syria, and 
the extremist elements, including al Qaeda, of the Islamist jihadist 
regime are now fighting against Assad.
  So we have two very bad options in Syria today, and very recently, 
these Islamist jihadist fighters took over a weapons cache of very 
dangerous weapons, and they now have control of those weapons.
  Where do we go from here in Syria? It is a very, very difficult 
question.
  We have such utter chaos that Lebanon now is the recipient of the 
greatest number of Syrian refugees on a daily basis. So we have the 
tension of Palestinian refugees who have gone into Lebanon. We have 
Iran, which has its presence through Hezbollah, the terrorist 
organization, very agitated. Some estimates are that as many as 100,000 
missiles are located in people's homes, in schools, in nurseries, in 
nursing homes, embedded in civilian areas right on Israel's northern 
border. There is an utter and complete breakdown and chaos in Syria.
  Then you have all of the tension in Iraq, with increasing battles 
going on, again, between Sunni and Shia in Iraq. Iraq at one point had 
been fairly close to being secured by an American presence. It is has 
now utterly fallen apart.
  There continue to be attacks by the Taliban. A new report just came 
in that the Taliban, presumably, is responsible for six Americans who 
were killed in December. We have Karzai, the head of Afghanistan, who 
is not willing to agree to final settlement terms in Afghanistan to 
have aid and U.S. presence, despite the fact that the United States 
supplies something like 95 percent of the economy in Afghanistan. This 
is the thanks we are getting out of Afghanistan.
  We have that kind of tension and pressure together with numerous 
prisons where the worst of the worst Islamist thug al Qaeda-flavored 
jihadists have been let out of prisons and are going into Syria. From 
Syria, who knows where, again, adding to the pressure on Israel. At the 
same time, we have what, in my mind, was the very dangerous P5+1 
agreement dealing with Iran and dealing with trying to prevent or at 
least stop or at least freeze in place Iran's nuclear program, which 
all of the world knows will be meant to give Iran a nuclear weapon and 
the missile delivery systems capable of delivering those weapons 
against Israel, against Western Europe, and against the United States.

                              {time}  1945

  This is the greatest threat that the world faces today: a nuclear 
Iran. And even while we are here in this Chamber tonight, Mr. Speaker, 
many people think that the 6-month freeze is on tonight, that when 
President Obama went to the microphone--it was about a little after 10 
o'clock at night on a Saturday night--to announce with vigor that we 
had concluded this agreement with Iran and we will now have a 6-month 
freeze, that 6-month period hasn't even started yet. No one knows when 
that 6-month period of a so-called freeze will even start.
  So, Mr. Speaker, what I'm saying, quite frankly, is that as we are 
standing in this Chamber tonight, Iran continues to enrich uranium for 
a nuclear weapon. They are enriching it to 20 percent. That is not a 
small amount. It may sound small. That is a huge leap towards weapons 
grade uranium. They continue to install centrifuges. They have new-
generation centrifuges that can spin to enrich uranium six times faster 
than the current generation.
  Iran hasn't given up one ounce of its storage of enriched uranium. 
They haven't stopped their research and development on their delivery 
systems of their missiles. They haven't stopped research and 
development on the warheads that would go on the tips of missiles to 
deliver a nuclear bomb. They haven't stopped the production on the 
facility of plutonium at Arak. That continues going on. Nothing has 
stopped.
  In fact, the only thing we have heard from Iran is from the Iranian 
leadership. The Parliament has said, why don't we start enriching to 60 
percent? You see, weapons grade is 80 percent. Why don't we up it even 
further? That is what the Parliament is saying today after the 
agreement was signed. The mullahs, the religious leaders that 
effectively control Iran, are saying that this agreement means nothing 
to them. As a matter of fact, the leader of Iran said that they won't 
change one iota of their nuclear program. You see, it is very 
interesting. I think that when madmen speak, the world should listen, 
and Iran is acting in a way that is indicative of the madman of all 
time.
  Currently, Iran's plan is to have domination across the world by the 
use of nuclear weapons to wipe millions of innocent people off the map, 
beginning with the Jewish State of Israel. You see, about 80 percent of 
the people that live in Israel travel to the greater Tel Aviv area for 
their employment. It doesn't take much imagination to see how easy it 
would be for Iran to send multiple nuclear missiles and virtually wipe 
out the Jewish State of Israel.
  But let us never think as Iran calls Israel the Little Satan, Iran 
calls the United States the Great Satan--and we should never delude 
ourselves to think that this is a Middle East-only problem. It isn't, 
Mr. Speaker. I wish I could say it was. This is a problem the world 
must deal with.
  During the course of our travels in December for the week that we 
were in the Middle East, we were very disturbed by what we heard from 
various leaders. As a matter of fact, there was one leader that we met 
with in Lebanon during our time there in that very dangerous area--it 
was so dangerous, as a matter of fact, that this leader about a year 
earlier had been shot. There were three snipers--he pointed over a 
wall. They had to build a wall around his house. He is now confined to 
his house, in the compound around his house. It is too dangerous for 
him to even leave. There were three snipers about a mile away that took 
a shot at him while he was in his backyard. He almost lost his life, 
and now he is confined to his backyard.
  This is what he had to say to us, Mr. Speaker, when they were there. 
He told us that, unfortunately, in the last 2 to 3 years, there has 
been virtually no U.S. leadership in the Middle East. That is 
reminiscent of what we heard the former leader, Lech Walesa, of Poland 
tell the world, that the United States is no longer the political 
leader nor the moral leader of the world, that we have effectively 
walked off the world stage and that the world needs the leadership of 
the United States. We heard that repeated by this leader in Lebanon.
  He also told us that the opinion of the United States has gone down 
dramatically in the Middle East. He said he has a brother who is in the 
United States, and it has been a shock for his brother, a very 
intelligent individual in the United States, a shock to see how the 
United States has failed to respond to the rise of Islamic jihadist 
activity in the Middle East and how it is negatively impacting United 
States national security. He said there is no

[[Page H132]]

strategy; there is no outlook. It seems to be that the United States 
just acts day to day--no strategy.
  Shouldn't our strategy be the security and safety of the American 
people? Shouldn't our strategy--shouldn't our aim be securing American 
vital interests in the Middle East, standing with the best ally we have 
in the world, the Jewish State of Israel? And yet the Middle East 
doesn't have any idea what our strategy is because they are telling us 
it looks like it is ad hoc, day to day. He said, I'm telling you this 
as a friend. He said that prior there were no Russians in the Middle 
East, no Russian influence and presence. He said that now the Russians 
have strengthened and have a very strong presence in the Middle East. 
He said it has been very frustrating in the last 2 or 3 years.
  He said the Arabians have long been our friends, friends of the 
United States. But the Saudi Arabians, he said, no longer seem to trust 
the United States. He said the P5+1 agreement has made Iran stronger 
than ever before. And he told us that Iran is Hezbollah, and so he is 
facing things from Hezbollah every day. He said that there is more 
money available for Hezbollah because we have decreased, we have 
essentially lifted sanctions on Iran. All this has done is free up 
money so more money can go to the terrorist organization Hezbollah in 
Lebanon, and that is being used to hurt Israel, as well.
  Well, whether it is Syria, whether it is Iraq, whether it is Bahrain, 
whether it is Saudi Arabia, all of these countries are wondering what 
in the world the United States is doing. Because what they are saying 
to us is that things are much worse on the ground in the Middle East. 
As the Iranians have only turned their burner off temporarily, they can 
turn it back on again. I quote from him, This makes Iran stronger than 
ever, stronger in the Middle East.
  That is what we heard, Mr. Speaker, on the ground from leaders in 
Lebanon that Iran has been strengthened through this failed P5+1 
agreement.
  From Lebanon, Mr. Speaker, we went down to Tripoli, Libya, to get 
some answers on Benghazi and get some answers on what the P5+1 
agreement will mean in Libya. Well, we spoke with the Prime Minister in 
Libya; we spoke with leaders of the Justice Department and the foreign 
minister, as well. I asked them specifically about Benghazi. I asked 
them why was our FBI prevented from going into Libya--specifically to 
Benghazi--to conduct an investigation for 4 or 5 weeks after the 
terrible tragedy on September 11? And the response that we received was 
that this was a great insult to Libya when this attack occurred and 
that this was an attack against Libya and the Libyan people.
  Now, this compound that was attacked in Benghazi is considered 
sovereign American soil. When Chris Stevens, our Ambassador, was killed 
and the three other Americans--brave Americans--were killed, this was 
an attack on America, on our compound, on our Ambassador and on our 
American soldiers. This was an attack against us--not on Libya--against 
us. There was absolutely no reason why the Libyan Government prevented 
our FBI from coming in on our sovereign territory and conducting an 
investigation.

  Journalists were inside. We know that CNN picked up the Ambassador's 
diaries and walked out with the Ambassador's diaries. Other sensitive 
information was on the ground and people came in and walked away with 
it. But the FBI couldn't get in? This is the only Ambassador in 30 
years to be killed, and we couldn't get in to find out what in the 
world happened, ask people and figure out what is going on? It has been 
over a year. We still don't know who, what, where, when, how, why, and 
how much were we prevented from knowing, because we were kept out of 
that country by over 4 and 5 weeks. It was wrong. And I told that to 
the leadership in Libya when we were there. It was wrong. That needs to 
be rectified. We demand and we expect full cooperation in getting to 
the bottom of Benghazi. That must be done, and that is a bipartisan 
issue. That is not a partisan issue.
  Well, from Libya, we traveled up to Israel where we met with Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the defense secretary. We were extremely 
grateful for the time we had there. Again, there is no question, the 
Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told us, that it was the worst day 
in 10 years when the P5+1 agreement was struck--the worst day in 10 
years. No one will be more negatively impacted by a nuclear Iran than 
the Jewish State of Israel.
  Wouldn't you think it would be wise for the United States and for the 
great nations of the world to listen to the concerns of the land that 
is on the slaughtering block when they say, wait a minute, this is the 
worst thing we could do, the P5+1 agreement, because this will not 
prevent, this will not stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb? That was 
confirmed on this most recent trip when we were with the Prime 
Minister. He is very concerned about that.
  He is also very concerned about the International Criminal Court, as 
well, and the fact that Israel will soon be drawn into the Criminal 
Court. There could be actions taking the United States in. We want to 
be under U.S. law. And we need to maintain the United States as a 
sovereign Nation and our American people subject only to United States 
sovereign law. We don't want the American people subject to some 
international court. The American people must now and for always only 
be subject to the American courts because only here will we be allowed 
to enjoy the protections under the Constitution that we have today. 
That will not happen under the International Criminal Court.
  From Israel, we traveled and went on up to Vienna where we met with 
the International Atomic Energy Agency. This agency is tasked with 
overseeing the P5+1 agreement with Iran. We appreciated our time in 
Vienna; we appreciated being able to speak with those who were present 
to talk about the process, what they will do. But I will tell you, on 
behalf of my colleagues, we didn't leave with a sense that we could 
have complete trust in knowing that the IAEA, while they will perform 
their jobs, that they will be able to completely appreciate when and if 
Iran decides to move into the creation of a nuclear weapon. That is 
something that we can't get wrong. Where do we go if that is wrong?
  Mr. Speaker, if I could ask how much time remains.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman's time is expired.
  Mrs. Bachmann. Well, I thank you. I appreciate that, and thank you 
for allowing me time to relate some of my concerns that we heard on our 
recent trip to the Middle East.

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