[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 117 (Thursday, July 24, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H6809-H6812]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS
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. Mr. Speaker, as always, it is a supreme privilege to
be able to stand here in the greatest deliberative body in the world,
the well of the United States House of Representatives.
It is a thrill to be able to be here also to be able to stand in
defense of our ally, the Jewish State of Israel, which is under attack,
even now, as we are here in this Chamber this evening.
As all Americans have seen across the country, the fighting that is
going on in the Middle East has been horrific, but we must remember
that all of this began with an unprovoked attack by the terrorist
organization named Hamas. Hamas is the governing organization over
Gaza.
If a person looks at a map of the Middle East, there is the
Mediterranean Sea. Just on the easternmost part of the Mediterranean
Sea lies the very tiny Nation of Israel, approximately the size of New
Jersey. On the southwest corner of Israel is a little area known as
Gaza.
In 2005, Israel willingly gave up the area called Gaza. Why? Because
the Palestinians that were in the area known as Gaza were continually
attacking and causing havoc against the Jews that lived in the Gaza
area.
Jews who had businesses, Jews who had homes, as well as synagogues,
relinquished those homes and businesses voluntarily in an effort known
as ``land for peace.'' So Israel gave up its land to Palestinians, and
the Palestinians promised there would be peace.
At that time, Abu Mazen, also known as Abbas, the head of the now
Palestinian Authority, had promised that the Gaza region would remain
demilitarized. In other words, that there would be no weaponry and no
rockets that would be contained in the Gaza region.
This has been a joke and an absolute lie and a fraud from the
Palestinians and from the leader Abbas from the beginning in 2005. How
do we know? Almost nearly overnight, the Palestinians in Gaza began
firing rockets at Israel. That was 9 years ago, in 2005. Today is 2014.
Nothing has changed. As a matter of fact, now we are seeing the rise
once again from Gaza of rockets being fired into Israel--again, in an
unprovoked attack.
We should also recognize Hamas isn't a stand-alone terrorist
organization. Hamas is a part of a wider constellation of terrorist
organizations--franchises, you might say--under an umbrella. That
umbrella is to my left.
That umbrella is known as the international Muslim Brotherhood. It
was began in 1928 to reconstitute the Islamic caliphate across the
world. Again, the umbrella organization is known as the Ikhwan, the
international Muslim Brotherhood.
There are various entities, Hamas being one of those terrorist
children, you may say, under the umbrella of this international
terrorist organization. It contains individuals who were part of
forming and putting together the attack on the United States during 9/
11, when our Nation was attacked and the Twin Towers came down, led by
Mohammed Atta, and also by the tragic hijacking of an airplane that
went into the Pentagon.
Also, one of the earliest terrorist attacks against the Twin Towers
in 1993 was masterminded by an individual known as Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, now contained at Guantanamo Bay as a detainee for his work in
that effort. He also was found guilty for the work he did there.
I am here tonight, Mr. Speaker, because I believe that the United
States does have an option of aiding and assisting our ally Israel in
this horrific tragedy that the world is seeing unfolding right now. And
it is this.
As we have seen with this terrorist organization under the auspices
of the international Muslim Brotherhood, known as Hamas, Hamas had a
very friendly entree when the Muslim Brotherhood was running Egypt, the
largest Arab nation in the Middle East region.
The Muslim Brotherhood, under then-President Morsi, had a deal with
Hamas; again, the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization in Gaza.
This was the deal. Hamas was allowed to run smuggling operations
through tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza territory. So lucrative was
the smuggling business that Hamas was making, it is reported, $2
billion a month.
When the people of Egypt decided to throw off the violent terrorist
regime known as the Muslim Brotherhood, literally tens of millions of
Egyptians took to the streets and said to the Muslim Brotherhood, You
must go, and to Morsi, You must go, because the Egyptian people wanted
to stop the slaughter and murder of innocent people, including the
Coptic Christians.
Coptic churches were burned in Egypt. Coptic businesses owned by
Coptic Christians were also burned and ransacked. Innocent people like
Christians--there are virtually no Jews left in Egypt because they have
been run out--and even Muslims considered apostate Muslims were all
attacked by the violent terrorists in the Muslim Brotherhood.
As I said, tens of millions of peace-loving Egyptians and Muslims
took to the streets and said, We want the violent terrorist
organization known as the Muslim Brotherhood to leave Egypt. The Muslim
Brotherhood had to leave. They no longer had any consent from the
Egyptian people to rule. There was no process of impeachment in Egypt.
This was the only avenue left to the Egyptian people.
The Muslim Brotherhood left, and in stepped the military led by
General al-Sisi. The Egyptian people then conducted democratic
elections and General al-Sisi was elected as the first President of the
modern state of Egypt. He is the President now.
He has been engaged in a very serious struggle with the Muslim
Brotherhood. He has worked with them. Their violent protests continued.
Remarkably, now President al-Sisi has been able to bring down
dramatically the level of violence from the Muslim Brotherhood. The
streets are far safer today in Egypt than they were before. And it came
at a price.
It came at a price of many deaths in Egypt, but now we are seeing
more peace. It is because of the work of President al-Sisi on the
border with Gaza that we have seen a dramatic decrease in weapons,
munitions, and
[[Page H6810]]
most particularly, $2 billion going into Gaza.
How does this frame into what a new alternative solution would be to
tamp down this terrorist organization known as Hamas?
{time} 2030
The United States Government designated Hamas a terror organization.
Again, let's remember. This is a U.S.-designated terror organization
called Hamas, which unilaterally and unprovoked launched thousands of
rockets against our ally Israel. Israel did not provoke Hamas. Israel
did not send munitions into the Gaza territory. Israel did not fire the
first shot against Gaza. It was Hamas that fired the first shot.
Let us not forget that it was Hamas that fired rockets specifically
at the greatest number of civilian targets. We even read this last week
that Hamas dressed up in Israeli uniforms, IDF uniforms, and went
through a tunnel, into Israel, to specifically go to an Israeli kibbutz
so that they could slaughter a mass number of innocent Israeli citizens
as well as IDF soldiers.
That is what we are dealing with--greater terrorist acts than we have
ever seen before.
They are reporting now from Turkey and from other parts in the Middle
East region that they are again calling on wiping out the Jewish
state--in other words, killing the Jews in the Jewish state and
eliminating and annihilating the Jewish State of Israel. This is
nothing more than a genocide.
How can we stop this continual slaughter by the terrorist
organization known as Hamas?
They were greatly weakened when President al-Sisi did the United
States--the world--a favor when they closed those tunnels between Egypt
and Hamas. That greatly reduced the income that was coming into this
terrorist, corrupt, violent organization under the Muslim Brotherhood
umbrella, but it is not enough because, you see, the umbrella is
essentially the lifeline economically for the terrorist organization
known as Hamas. If you will, the umbrella is the umbilical cord that
feeds economically, politically, and with munitions into this violent
terrorist organization.
The question then, Mr. Speaker, is: How can we get the Muslim
Brotherhood to stop feeding economically to prop up this terrorist
organization known as Hamas?
This is how we can do it:
When the United States Government effectively labeled Hamas as a
foreign terrorist organization, then any organization or person who
tried to offer material support to Hamas was effectively continuing a
terrorist enterprise, and, thereby, there would be sanctions, and in
fact, there would be convictions that could be brought against those
people.
That happened in a charity called the Holy Land Foundation. This
charity was directed by the international Muslim Brotherhood, the
umbrella organization. The international Muslim Brotherhood directed
the United States' chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood to raise men,
raise money, and raise media support for Hamas, the terrorist
organization that is now firing rockets unprovoked against Israel.
That charity in the United States was found guilty by a United States
Federal court. That happened in 2008. Our Federal Government has
already found, through our Department of Justice, that the Muslim
Brotherhood has engaged in terrorist activities. We have Federal courts
that have also found that the international Muslim Brotherhood, the
umbrella organization, has, in fact, engaged in terrorist activities.
Also, our FBI Director in 2011, Robert Mueller, said before the
committee of which I am privileged to be a part--the House Intelligence
Committee--that the international Muslim Brotherhood has engaged in
terrorist activities both abroad and in the United States.
Whether it is through entities, like designating Hamas a foreign
terrorist organization, or through our Federal courts, where we have
found Muslim Brotherhood charities--in this case, the Holy Land
Foundation, a Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization--our government
has found members of the international Muslim Brotherhood to be
terrorists who are engaging in the material support for terrorist
activities. That would include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who this night
is sitting in Guantanamo Bay, behind bars--where he should be--because
his goal was to bring down the Twin Towers in New York City. This was
in 1993. We know that the Muslim Brotherhood was successful and brought
down the Twin Towers in a horrific display of terrorism on American
soil on September 11, 2001.
So, you see, Mr. Speaker, it isn't enough for the United States to
cripple Hamas, the foreign terrorist organization, by designating them
a foreign terrorist organization. That was a good beginning. What this
body can do is to pass a resolution to urge President Obama--who has
the power to direct the United States Department of State--to now
designate the international Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist
organization.
If we want Hamas to collapse--to collapse economically, to collapse
politically, to collapse because they are bereft of munitions and
weapons--what we must do is designate the international Muslim
Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization because then, you see, it
would cripple the international Muslim Brotherhood with various
economic sanctions. Also, those who are members of the international
Muslim Brotherhood would no longer have the ability to be granted visas
by the United States Government to come into the United States.
This is the best action that the United States could take today to
benefit our ally Israel as they are being mercilessly attacked by the
U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization known as Hamas. Cut off
the head. Cut off the feeder unit to Hamas. Cut it off, and then we
will see Hamas collapse. That is what we could do.
Now, President Obama doesn't need the United States Congress to pass
this resolution. He doesn't need that. President Obama, on his own this
evening, could designate the international Muslim Brotherhood a foreign
terrorist organization, and I call upon our President to do exactly
that in order to help our ally Israel.
That would send a resounding signal across the world if the United
States took that action because, you see, this has already been done by
other countries--by Egypt, led by President al-Sisi. They have already
designated the international Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist
organization. Jordan, our ally and friend, has designated the Muslim
Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Saudi Arabia sees the
international Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. The
United Arab Emirates sees the international Muslim Brotherhood as a
terrorist organization as does the Jewish State of Israel see the
international Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
If the nations that are most impacted by the terrorist activities of
the international Muslim Brotherhood could designate this nefarious
organization as such after the Muslim Brotherhood's participation in
the greatest horrific act on U.S. soil--September 11, 2001--and if we
have designated charities and entities of the Muslim Brotherhood and
leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists, participating in
terrorist activities, why in the world wouldn't the United States join
Egypt, Israel, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia in
doing the right thing in designating the international Muslim
Brotherhood a terrorist organization?
You see, once we do that to the umbrella organization, then all of
the other organizations that are represented therein are also duly
impacted by that designation. That is how we bring peace. That is how
we bring peace to Israel. That is how we bring peace to this region.
Just a few years ago, the conventional wisdom here in Washington,
D.C., was that the Muslim Brotherhood would be a moderating force in
the Middle East and bring democracy to the region. We had great hopes
that that is who the Muslim Brotherhood would be. That was the face
that they tried to present here in Washington. Tunisia removed their
Muslim Brotherhood-led governments because they saw that the Muslim
Brotherhood wasn't a moderating force. Hardly. It was a violent
terrorist force. As I said, other Middle East nations have taken
measures to designate the organization as a terrorist group, and these
nations banned the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood completely.
[[Page H6811]]
Even our British allies have opened an official investigation into
the Muslim Brotherhood's activities and connection to violent
terrorism. For the past 20 years and in three different
administrations, the United States Government has identified and
designated branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist
organizations, and its leaders are branded as terrorists. United States
Government officials have testified under oath before Congress, here in
this building, that the international Muslim Brotherhood has supported
terrorism not only here at home but also across the world.
From its earliest days, the Muslim Brotherhood used violence as its
strategy. They formed what was called a ``secret apparatus''--that is
their term--to attack government officials and foreigners in Egypt,
even killing two Egyptian Prime Ministers. Richard Clarke was the
counterterrorism czar to both Democrat President Bill Clinton and to
Republican President George W. Bush. Richard Clarke testified before
the Senate Banking Committee in October of 2003 that the common links
that are shared by al Qaeda, by the Islamic jihad and by Hamas were
``the membership and the ideology of the Muslim Brothers.'' As was
recognized by our own 9/11 Commission Report, virtually every Islamic
terrorist group has built its organization on the ideological bedrock
the Muslim Brotherhood established--that is astounding--al Qaeda as
well as Hamas.
Some have tried to paint al Qaeda as a great enemy of the Muslim
Brotherhood, but whatever differences they have are merely tactical,
and there are many reports of the groups cooperating together and
endorsing their terrorist activities.
In February 1993, the United States House of Representatives Task
Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare reported that various
branches of the international Muslim Brotherhood regularly took part in
terror conferences with al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps, called the Quds Force. The senior clerical
leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood is led by the group's Qatar-based
top jurist, Yusuf al-Qaradawi. He issued a fatwa in November of 2004
that authorized the killing of American soldiers and contractors in
Iraq while we were conducting that liberation force at that time.
Many of al Qaeda's leaders also came through the Muslim Brotherhood's
ranks. Mohamed Atta, as I previously stated, was the ring leader of the
9/11 terrorist attack here in America on our Twin Towers. According to
The Washington Post, he was radicalized while he was a part of the
Muslim Brotherhood's engineering syndicate in Egypt. It is fair to say
that, rather than being opposed to al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood has
been an open gateway to al Qaeda.
One of the enduring myths about the Muslim Brotherhood is that the
group has renounced violence. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Then how can one explain the Muslim Brotherhood's long-time support for
the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas? In fact, Hamas identifies
itself in its 1988 Covenant as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim
Brotherhood--in other words, a franchise of the Muslim Brotherhood--in
Palestine's own words.
{time} 2045
That is a fact that is recognized in the State Department's annual
Country Reports on Terrorism. It was President Bill Clinton who
designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1995, and I praised
President Bill Clinton for doing that. It was the right thing to do.
Now, President Obama must do the same and also designate the
international Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization
because, you see, Mr. Speaker, it is myopic to look at Hamas, as it
rains down thousands of missiles and rockets on our ally, Israel,
without considering the Muslim Brotherhood's greater role in the larger
context of global jihad.
In fact, our Justice Department, in 2007 and 2008, successfully
argued in Federal court that the international Muslim Brotherhood has
directed its affiliates here in this country, in the United States, to
organize to provide ``media, money, and men'' to Hamas, a U.S.-
designated foreign terrorist organization.
As Federal prosecutors showed during the Holy Land Foundation trial,
the largest terrorist financing trial in American history, the Muslim
Brotherhood's Palestine Committee raised millions of dollars for Hamas
here in the United States.
The judge in the case wrote an opinion that there was ``ample
evidence'' that establishes the association between Muslim Brotherhood
groups here in the United States with Hamas. The convictions of the
Holy Land Foundation executives have also been held up by our United
States Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
This was one of the reasons, Mr. Speaker, why the FBI Director,
Robert Mueller, testified before Congress in February of 2011 that
``elements of the Muslim Brotherhood both here and overseas have
supported terrorism.''
The U.S. Government has designated branches, charities, and leaders
of the Muslim Brotherhood, as I have pictured on this graphic under the
umbrella--branches, charities, and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.
U.S. Government officials have said, Mr. Speaker, that the Muslim
Brotherhood around the world has supported terrorist groups, and the
Justice Department has prosecuted elements of the Muslim Brotherhood
here in the U.S. for materially supporting terrorism.
It is long overdue to act on what the U.S. Government has already
acknowledged. It is time, Mr. Speaker, to designate the Muslim
Brotherhood as a terror organization.
I wanted to speak just a little bit, Mr. Speaker, about who some of
these people are under the umbrella, if I could have that slide right
here.
The umbrella organization, again, is the international Muslim
Brotherhood organization. Under that umbrella is an individual known as
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the operations chief under al Qaeda. The
9/11 Commission report said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, also known as
KSM, who is currently detained behind bars in Guantanamo Bay, he was
radicalized in the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood--Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,
under the Muslim Brotherhood.
Abdullah Azzam is part of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood. He is a
leader who was the cofounder, both of Hamas and of al Qaeda, also under
the international Muslim Brotherhood.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi is the chief jurist of the international Muslim
Brotherhood. Some call him the spiritual leader and guide of the Muslim
Brotherhood. He has been banned from entering the United States since
1991. He is the first Sunni cleric to endorse suicide bombing.
Then Mohamed Atta, he was the ringleader of the horrific 9/11 attack
against the United States of America, the ringleader of bringing down
the Twin Towers and also the attack on our Pentagon. He was radicalized
in the Muslim Brotherhood-controlled engineering syndicate in Egypt.
Then Hamas, the foreign terrorist organization raining down rockets,
even tonight, against our ally, Israel. Hamas is self-identified as the
Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Then the Union of Good, this is a Muslim Brotherhood charity that was
led by Yusuf al-Qaradawi. It was designated by our Treasury Department
in November of 2008 for Hamas financing.
Osama Bin Laden--no introduction necessary--he is the al Qaeda
cofounder who was radicalized by Muslim Brotherhood leaders at the
university in Jeddah.
You see, Mr. Speaker, the Muslim Brotherhood has its fingers all over
jihad because its mission statement is jihad. It is radical, violent
terrorism to achieve its goal of a global caliphate, to have control of
all Muslim and all infidels across the globe.
Then Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, he is the head of Yemen's Muslim
Brotherhood, al-Islah Party, and he is the mentor of Osama Bin Laden,
designated by our Treasury Department in February of 2004.
Ramzi Yousef, he is the convicted leader of the 1993 World Trade
Center bombing. He is the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, also
radicalized by Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood.
As a matter of fact, Mr. Speaker, if anyone watching this evening
would go to the official Muslim Brotherhood Web site today, they would
see that the international Muslim Brotherhood is praising Hamas for the
killing going on in Jerusalem and in Israel, even today.
[[Page H6812]]
This is why the best thing that the United States of America could
do--and I call on President Obama to do it, hopefully, with support
from both Democrats and Republicans, this is not a partisan issue--we
need to stand with our ally, Israel. We need to stand against radical
terrorism.
In order to do that, we need to designate the international Muslim
Brotherhood, the umbrella organization, for what it is, a foreign
terrorist organization.
Mr. Speaker, I call, again, on President Obama to bring about this
designation to bring peace to our world.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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