[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.

                          ____________________