[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 17, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H1710-H1712]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IRAN NEGOTIATIONS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Jenkins of West Virginia). Under the
Speaker's announced policy of January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) for 30 minutes.
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, it is interesting these days to hear our
current Secretary of State, someone who as a Congressman went to
Central America and basically was negotiating a deal with a communist
leader--corrupt--at the same time the Reagan administration was
conducting negotiations.
I am very proud of my Senate friends down at the other end of the
Capitol who sent a letter to Iran, since the former constitutional law
instructor--not professor, but instructor--from Chicago doesn't seem to
realize he needs the Senate advice and consent in order to create a
binding treaty with another country, especially one that actually has a
major impact on the ability to continue to exist for Israel and the
United States.
If this President and Secretary of State get the deal that includes
everything that we would want that this administration has not already
taken off the table overtly, then it means nuclear proliferation in the
Middle East.
Our allies in the Middle East, so-called Saudi Arabia; Qatar; UAE;
Egypt; and, in fact, most of the nations in the Middle East--Jordan,
perhaps--are all going to need nuclear weapons to protect themselves.
If this administration continues to persist with anything that does
not require dismantling and stoppage of the spinning of the centrifuges
in Iran that continue to develop nuclear material for bombs, then the
whole world is going to be in trouble.
In fact, the negotiations have become so desperate on the part of our
own administration that then-Congressman John Kerry would try to sit
down and negotiate with a communist criminal leader in Central America
and undermine the efforts of the Reagan administration.
Our friends down the hall--47 Senators--were completely aboveboard.
They said nothing inappropriate. There was no crime, no treason. They
were just advising people to the negotiations that here is what the
U.S. Constitution says.
Apparently, they had not been so advised by our constitutional law
instructor Commander in Chief, so it is important that somebody did,
and I am pleased that my colleague and friend Tom Cotton did just that.
But here we are. I think this article from townhall.com by Katie
Pavlich illustrates very clearly just how desperate this administration
has gotten to get any kind of deal, just any kind of deal so they can
say they got a deal.
Yes, okay, Iran has an agreement that will allow Iran to continue to
cheat, as they have been found to have done a number of times, so it
doesn't actually allow them to have not just a nuke in 10 years, they
could covertly develop a nuke within the year if they so wished.
My friends Dana Rohrabacher and Steve King met with IAEA
representatives who had been inspecting Iran, and it left me extremely
concerned about how quickly, easily, and covertly Iran could go ahead
and move to the next step, even beyond 5 or 20 percent enrichment, as
Iran has gotten.
Here is this article from Katie Pavlich from March 16. In part, she
says:
According to a report in The Times of Israel, the National
Intelligence Agency delivered a report to Congress that
scraps Iran and Hezbollah from the terrorism list, citing the
country's work against ISIS as one of the reasons why.
Mr. Speaker, if this administration is scrapping--taking--Iran and
Hezbollah off the terrorist list, then the last thing we need this
administration doing is negotiating with these terrorists--this
terrorist regime--trying to work out a deal because anybody that would
say Iran and Hezbollah are not a terrorist country and terrorist
organization should not be negotiating anything for the United States
of America, where the vast bulk--thank God--of the American people do
not want to support, lend credence to, or in any way help terrorist
countries or a terrorist organization like Hezbollah.
It goes ahead and quotes from the National Intelligence Agency report
from The Times of Israel and then has Ms. Pavlich's question:
Is ISIS a threat? Absolutely. Should we align ourselves
with or appease Iran because of their work against ISIS?
Absolutely not.
As a reminder, Hezbollah, funded by Iran, is the largest
terror organization in the world. Before 9/11, Hezbollah, not
al Qaeda, was responsible for the majority of U.S. terrorism
deaths, including the 1983 bombings of U.S. Marine barracks
and U.S. Embassy in Beirut, in addition to a series of
attacks in the 1980s.
Hezbollah is also responsible for countless attacks on
Israel. In 1992, Hezbollah, with help from Iran, bombed the
Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. In 1994, they bombed the
Jewish community center in the same South American city.
Those are just a handful of examples that don't even
account for the thousands of rockets Hezbollah has launched
into Israel throughout the years.
So what's going on here? Why strip Hezbollah and its
funding parent Iran from the terrorism label? Especially now?
It all points back to getting President Obama his deal with
Iran at all costs.
This reclassification of Iran and Hezbollah without the
terrorism label is a certain warning sign the deal the White
House is working on to appease the rogue regime does not have
the best interests of the United States as a top priority.
Since, apparently, this administration is not aware, I would hope,
Mr. Speaker, our colleagues here in Congress would want to be aware of
what the administration isn't. Maybe that comes from not reading the
intelligence reports, but you don't even have to get an intelligence
report from an intelligence agency.
This, for example, comes from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle
East Reporting in America, and it is a timeline for Hezbollah violence.
1982, Israel invades Lebanon to drive out the PLO's
terrorist army, which had frequently attacked Israel from its
informal ``state within a state'' in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah, a Shiite group inspired by the teachings and
revolution of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, is created with the
assistance of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The group is called Hezbollah, or ``party of God'' after
initially taking responsibility for attacks under the name
``Islamic jihad.''
Some thought that was the Republican Party, but actually it is
Hezbollah that is the party of God.
{time} 1830
In July of 1982, the president of American University in
Beirut, Davis S. Dodge, is kidnapped. Hezbollah is believed
to be behind this and most of the other 30 Westerners
kidnapped over the next 10 years.
April 18, 1983, Hezbollah attacks the U.S. Embassy in
Beirut with a car bomb, killing 63 people, 17 of whom were
American citizens.
October 23, 1983, the group attacks a U.S. Marine barracks
with a truck bomb, killing 241 American military personnel
stationed in Beirut as part of the peacekeeping force. A
separate attack against the French military compound in
Beirut kills 58.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I understand that, to the Obama administration, the
killing of all these marines, the killing of all these American
citizens in Beirut, and the kidnapping of Americans and other diplomats
by Hezbollah would be considered workplace violence. I get that. But to
most people in America, they understand these are acts of sheer
terrorism, and they need to be called what they are.
September of 1984, the group attacks the U.S. Embassy annex
in Beirut with a car bomb, killing two Americans and 22
others.
More workplace violence.
March of 1984, William F. Buckley, a CIA operative working
at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, is kidnapped and later
murdered.
April of 1984, Hezbollah attacks a restaurant near the U.S.
Air Force Base in Spain. The bombing kills 18 U.S.
servicemen, injuries 83.
December of '84, Hezbollah terrorists hijack a Kuwait
Airlines plane. Four passengers are murdered, including two
Americans.
I don't see how this administration would be able to classify that
hijacking and murders as workplace violence, but you never know.
February 1985, Hezbollah publicizes its manifesto. It notes
that the group's struggle
[[Page H1711]]
will continue until Israel is destroyed and rejects any
cease-fire or peace treaty with Israel. The document also
attacks the U.S. and France.
June 1985, Hezbollah terrorists attack TWA Flight 847. The
hijackers severely beat passenger Robert Stethem, a U.S. Navy
diver, before killing him and dumping his body onto the
tarmac at the Beirut airport. Other passengers are held
hostage before being released on June 30.
I am hoping, Mr. Speaker, that many Americans will remember these
events and know how strongly we felt about the terrorism being carried
out by Hezbollah, that this administration would like to call a peace-
seeking organization. Yeah, it is a peace-seeking organization, just
like a heat-seeking missile is a peacekeeping missile. They will blow
up anything that they can get ahold of that is American.
December '86, under the alias of Organization of Oppressed
on Earth, Hezbollah announces it had kidnapped and murdered
three Lebanese Jews. The organization previously had taken
responsibility for killing four other Jews since 1984.
February of '88, Hezbollah kidnaps Colonel William Higgins,
a U.S. Marine serving with a U.N. truce-monitoring group in
Lebanon, and murders him.
October of '89, members of the dissolved Lebanese
Parliament ratify the Taif Agreement. Although the agreement
calls for the disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese
militias, Hezbollah remains active.
February '92, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah takes over Hezbollah
after Israel kills the group's leader, Abbas Musawi.
March of '92, with the help of Iranian intelligence,
Hezbollah bombs the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing
29, injuring over 200.
July 1994, Hezbollah bombs the Jewish Community Center in
Buenos Aires, again with Iranian help, killing 86 and
injuring over 200.
November 1995, Hezbollah bombards towns in northern Israel
with volleys of Katyusha rockets in one of the group's
numerous attacks on Israeli civilians.
March '96, Hezbollah fires 28 Katyusha rockets into
northern Israeli towns. A week later, the group fires 16
rockets, injuring 36 Israelis. Israel responds with a major
offensive known as the ``Grapes of Wrath'' operation to stop
Hezbollah rocket fire.
August 1997, Hezbollah opened fire on northern Israel with
dozens of rockets in one of the group's numerous attacks on
Israeli civilians.
October of '97, the United States lists Hezbollah as a
terrorist organization.
And parenthetically, we might insert, this is October of 1997. This
is the Clinton administration. This is the Clinton administration that
heard cries of Muslims in other parts of the world, and it seemed that,
despite the fact that the Clinton administration rushed, sent military
to assist Muslims in other parts of the world, all the while, Islamic
terrorists were plotting to blow up the World Trade Centers by sending
planes crashing into them.
Now, it would seem, if these were peace-seeking organizations, like
Hezbollah, like the Nation of Iran, the administration of that nation,
at least they would take note that, gee, the Clinton administration is
reaching out every way they can to help Muslims in the world, and we
should take note of that and ease up.
But that was not happening, not by a terrorist group like Hezbollah.
In fact, in May of 1999, Hezbollah opens fire on northern Israel with
dozens of rockets in one of the group's numerous attacks on Israeli
civilians.
June of '99, Hezbollah opens fire on northern Israel,
killing two.
May of 2000, Israel withdraws troops from Lebanon after 18
years of patrolling the ``security zone,'' a strip of land in
the south of the country. The security zone was set up to
prevent attacks on northern Israel.
June of 2000, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan certifies
Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon. Shortly thereafter, the
U.N. Security Council endorses Annan's report. Hezbollah,
nonetheless, alleges Israel occupies Lebanon, claiming the
small Shebaa Farms area Israel captured from Syria during the
1967 war as Lebanese territory.
It seems Hezbollah was so intent on being a terrorist organization,
even when Israel handed over land that it was claiming, they still were
not content. They wanted terrorism; and, actually, they want Israel and
the United States eliminated.
October of 2000, Hezbollah attacks Israel military posts
and raids Israel, kidnapping three Israeli soldiers.
March 2001, the British Government adds Hezbollah's
``military wing'' to its list of outlawed terrorist
organizations.
April 2002, Hezbollah launches Katyushas into northern
Israeli town, and the assault comes amidst almost daily
Hezbollah attacks against Israeli troops in Shebaa Farms.
December 2002, Canada lists Hezbollah as a terrorist
organization.
August 2003, Hezbollah shells and kills 16-year-old Israeli
boy, wounds others.
June 2003, Australia lists Hezbollah's ``military wing'' as
a terrorist organization.
September 2004, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 calls
for the ``disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-
Lebanese militias,'' a reference to Hezbollah.
December 2004, both the United States and France bans
Hezbollah's satellite television network, Al-Manar. A U.S.
State Department spokesman notes the channel ``preaches
violence and hatred.''
March 2005, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passes a
resolution stating: ``Parliament considers that clear
evidence exists of terrorist activities by Hezbollah. The
European Union Council should take all necessary steps to
curtail them.'' The European Union, nonetheless, refrains
from placing the group on its list of terrorist
organizations.
July of 2006, Hezbollah attacks Israel with Katyushas,
crosses the border, kidnaps two Israeli soldiers. Three
Israeli soldiers are killed in the initial attack. Five more
soldiers are killed as Israel launches an operation to rescue
the soldiers and push Hezbollah from its border. And during
the ensuing war, Hezbollah launches rockets at civilian
targets.
August 2006, the United Nations Security Council
unanimously adopts Resolution 1701, which calls for a
cessation of hostilities, the deployment of Lebanese and U.N.
forces into southern Lebanon, and the disarmament of armed
groups in Lebanon.
So anybody in this administration here in the U.S. or elsewhere who
thinks that Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization then clearly
thinks that every place that Hezbollah has killed innocent people is
just another workplace where violence occurred, a random act of
violence or violence in the workplace, because it is insane to think
that Iran is not a sponsor of terrorism, that Iran has not killed more
Americans than any other country in the last 15 years. It is
incredible. That is outside of 9/11, the killing of approximately 3,000
Americans on 9/11 between the Pentagon and New York City.
But as far as American servicemembers fighting in Iraq, it was Iran
who was behind the killing of most of those American servicemembers.
Iran has fought vehemently to eliminate the United States' presence
from Iraq.
I think if we could get to the bottom of why there was not a status
of forces agreement, you would find that it is because the Ayatollah
Khomeini, Ahmadinejad, President at the time, said they believed that
the twelfth imam, the Mahdi, would come, would arise back to power,
would come to power amidst chaos.
As I understand their beliefs and their beliefs in prophecy, he would
first come to reign from the town of Kufa, which the way the lines were
drawn in the 20th century put Kufa in Iraq.
Unfortunately, the State Department, the Justice Department, the
intelligence agencies under the Obama administration have had their
training materials regarding the beliefs of radical Islamists purged,
so they are not allowed to learn exactly what our enemy believes and
what they have believed, and so it is hard for them to anticipate what
our enemies want to do. And perhaps all the purging has helped lead
this administration to the idea that if we purge all the educational
material about what radical Islamists believe, then maybe it won't be
actual and factual.
{time} 1845
Yet the New York Post says: ``ISIS Accepts Boko Haram's Pledge of
Allegiance.''
We had an article in the last recent weeks where a Catholic bishop
from Nigeria had indicated that the Obama administration basically was
indicating that if Nigeria did not amend their marriage laws to go
against the laws of nature and nature's god, as Christians believe and
as the Bible teaches, then the Obama administration would not help them
at all against the terrorist activities of Boko Haram.
I don't know what kind of blindness it takes or prejudice it takes to
see the suffering in Africa, in a place like Nigeria, and hold the
hands and weep with the parents of daughters who were kidnapped by Boko
Haram, and understand the suffering being brought against Christians
for their beliefs, these Christian girls that Boko Haram has kidnapped,
forced into sexual slavery--what kind of callousness does it take to
see that suffering and say, Oh, no, if you don't go against your
religious beliefs in marriage between a
[[Page H1712]]
man and a woman, we are not going to help you, and we are going to let
Boko Haram continue to terrorize you and rape your women.
You talk about a war against women.
When I asked these mothers of the girls that were kidnapped there,
Did they initially attack your daughters' school because it was a
girls' school? they said, No, no. They hate girls. They consider them
nothing. But they attacked the school because it is Christian.
There is a report from Investor's Business Daily, March 13, that says
Islamic State recruits could enter the United States via the Caribbean.
Well, that is not really a news flash.
Another story, written by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D., March 17: ``ISIS
Kidnaps 20 Doctors and Nurses in Libya.''
A story from Charles Spiering, 17 March: ``President Obama Blames
Bush for Rise of ISIS.''
Well, actually, if you want to talk about class, despite my
disagreement with some of George W. Bush's policies and despite what
some have said, he had enough class that after 9/11 he never pointed
the finger at the Clinton administration. He knew that even though 9/11
was being plotted and planned during the Clinton administration and
there was an opportunity in the Clinton administration to take out
Osama bin Laden that was not seized upon, that there were so many
things that might have been stopped along the way, he didn't blame
President Clinton because he had enough class to know that it was an
attack by terrorists, and they should be made to pay.
If you really want to point the finger, it would go clear back to the
late seventies during the days I was in the United States Army and we
had what was considered, under most everybody's version of
international law, an act of war against the United States in Iran when
our Embassy was attacked and our people were taken hostage. And we
didn't help.
You go back before that, to the Carter administration turning its
back upon the shah of Iran--not a great guy, not a good man, from what
we understand, but he was able to keep radical Islam contained. But
after the Carter administration turned its back on the shah and
encouraged his overthrow, you had the coming from exile of Ayatollah
Khomeini, and President Carter welcomed him as a man of peace. As a
result, radical Islam, once again, raised its ugly head, as it does
from time to time.
And it is only all-out war against radical Islam that puts it in a
box--sometimes for 50 years, sometimes for 100 years. It depends on how
staunch the fight is against them.
But President Bush did not blame President Carter. There were
mistakes all along the way.
When the marine barracks in Beirut was hit, the Democrat-controlled
Congress made clear that they were not going to fund any more U.S.
peacekeeping troops in Beirut. Reagan brought them home. He should have
taken them out and done whatever it took, but he didn't.
Now this administration, in order to get any deal that is a terrible
deal, is willing to turn its back on the fact that Iran and Hezbollah
have terrorists in their lead, and they should not be recognized as
anything but terrorists.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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