[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 89 (Thursday, June 4, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H3909-H3912]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1330
THREATS AROUND THE WORLD
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Zinke). 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, there is so much going on these days, and I
would just like to take up a very important issue that is going on
right now.
There was an interview by our President that was discussed in the
L.A. Times, an article by Christi Parsons and Michael Memoli, and I saw
part of the interview on television. The headline of this story is
``Obama Raises Possibility of Allowing U.N. Vote on Palestinian
Statehood.'' Their subheadline says, ``Obama makes veiled threat about
Palestinian statehood in an interview.''
The article says, ``President Obama took a step toward a tougher line
with Israel in an interview released Tuesday, raising the possibility
that the U.S. will allow a United Nations vote on issues related to the
Palestinians if the two sides make no meaningful movement toward
peace.''
In an interview with an Israeli television station, Obama noted that
his administration has ``up until this point'' quashed such efforts at
the U.N., while insisting that the Israelis and Palestinians must
negotiate a resolution; but he said it is a challenge for the U.S. to
keep demanding that the Palestinians negotiate in good faith if no one
believes the Israelis are doing the same.
Further down, it says, ``Obama's critical tone toward Netanyahu,
describing him as someone who is `predisposed' to `think perhaps that
peace is naive', appeared to return to the tough language that marked
administration statements earlier this spring around the time of the
Israeli election. More recently, the White House had seemed to be
trying to mend fences.'' Well, obviously, that is not the case now.
I thought it might be important, Mr. Speaker, to take a look at some
of the comments that have been made by folks who say they are leaders,
and we know them to be leaders of the Palestinians because Mr. Obama is
getting some terrible advice.
I don't know who is advising him. Maybe he is still skipping those
briefings, and who knows where it is coming from, but somebody needs--
somebody, and I hope, Mr. Speaker, somebody close to the President--to
start advising him on the position of the Palestinians. They cannot
make their position more clear.
Prime Minister Netanyahu stood right here at the second level and
made the statement, in essence, that, if Israel lays down its arms,
there is no Israel; if the Palestinians lay down their arms, there will
be peace.
They will not do so, and they continue to teach their children about
how evil and horrible these Jews are, these Israelis are, that they
need to be wiped off the map. They continue to name streets and
holidays for those who would kill innocent Israeli children, innocent
Israeli moms and dads as they
[[Page H3910]]
sit having coffee. Oh, they think that is wonderful; let's make them
heroes because they killed innocent Israelis.
Yet this President continues to want to help the Palestinians have a
big spot in Israel, a massive spot, which Israel has already seen makes
their nation indefensible, while the President seems not to be getting
the message of their position: they want to wipe Israel off the map.
Some quotes, this is from Yasser Arafat, the previous PLO leader. He
said: ``We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely
Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by
psychological warfare and population explosion. We Palestinians will
take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.''
Now, the current Palestinian President has made clear--and his
statement is: ``We cannot compromise on Jerusalem.'' They are taking
all of Jerusalem.
Also, this quote, that they would never recognize a Jewish state. The
quote is: ``First of all, let me make something clear about the story
of the Jewish state,'' he told Dream 2 TV on October 23, 2011. He is
quoted: ``They started talking to me about the Jewish state only 2
years ago, discussing it with me at every opportunity, every forum I
went to--Jewish or non-Jewish--asking: `What do you think about the
Jewish state?' I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I will never
recognize the Jewishness of the state, or a `Jewish state.' ''
Another quote: ``Hamas kidnapped--or rather, captured--a soldier and
managed to keep him for 5 years, and that is a good thing.''
Another quote from President Abbas: ``In a final resolution, we would
not see the presence of a single Israeli--civilian or soldier--on our
lands.'' Of course, their lands, they anticipate getting all of Israel.
They intend to wipe the Israelis off the map.
``Whoever wants resistance, whoever wants jihad, the direction for
jihad is well-known and clear.'' This is Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the
Palestinian Minister for Religious Affairs. He said, ``Those who send
young people to Syria or elsewhere to die for a misdirected cause must
stop and understand that Jerusalem is still waiting. Jerusalem is the
direction, Jerusalem is the address.''
Another quote--Hamas, a group designated by the State Department and
European Union as a foreign terrorist organization. They, of course,
are well respected in the area the Palestinians are occupying.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian diplomat's chief negotiator, said,
``Hamas is a Palestinian movement, is not and will never be a terrorist
organization.'' Well, we know the facts dictate otherwise.
We keep coming back to this point, Mr. Speaker. As long as the
leaders of the Palestinians continue to say that terrorist
organizations are peaceful, in their view, even though they want to
kill Israelis, wipe them off the map, and as long as they continue to
say they will never recognize an Israeli state, a Jewish state, they
will never allow them to exist, they will continue to push to wipe them
off the map, how in the world can the President of the United States
act like he is a friend to Israel, yet say we want to accommodate their
getting a vote that will make Israel indefensible to people that want
to destroy them?
Here are some more quotes. The following are excerpts from an
interview with Hamas MP and cleric Yunis Al-Astal, which aired on Al-
Aqsa TV on May 11 of 2011. He said: ``The Jews are brought in droves to
Palestine so that the Palestinians--and the Islamic nation behind
them--will have the honor of annihilating the evil of this gang.''
``All the predators, all the birds of prey, all the dangerous
reptiles and insects, and all the lethal bacteria are far less
dangerous than the Jews.''
Here is another: ``In just a few years, all the Zionists and the
settlers will realize that their arrival in Palestine was for the
purpose of the great massacre, by means of which Allah wants to relieve
humanity of their evil.''
Here is another from this Hamas member and cleric: ``When Palestine
is liberated and its people return to it, and the entire region, with
the grace of Allah, will have turned into the United States of Islam,
the land of Palestine will become the capital of the Islamic Caliphate,
and all these countries will turn into states within the Caliphate.''
Another great quote from these wonderful leaders, another leader
said: ``I swear that if we had a nuke, we'd have used it this very
morning.''
Those are the people that the President of the United States thinks
are being extremely reasonable, and he considers that Netanyahu, in
wanting to keep a country in which they can live without being wiped
off the map, is being unreasonable.
Netanyahu has made very clear, they want peace; but how can they sit
down with people who will not even acknowledge they have a right to
exist? That is not a precondition. That is a condition for wiping them
off the map as a threat to mankind if they are not willing to recognize
that genocide is inappropriate.
They are war criminal wannabes. When people make clear that they are
going to commit murder or genocide, how long do you have to wait before
it is okay to stop them? Well, the President has made clear it may be
time to move out of the way so that these Palestinians that want to
obliterate Israel can have their will.
One thought came back to mind. Back in my days as a felony judge,
when you have somebody who is driving a car and people say, ``Hey, we
just need a ride to this location. Once we get there, we are going to
murder some people, but we don't need anything from you. We just need a
ride,'' the person that drove that car, knowing that those people made
those comments about wanting to kill people when they get to that
location, they are also guilty of murder.
I am not accusing anybody. I am raising questions. If the United
States says, ``Here, Palestinian terrorist groups, we want to provide
you the vehicle to have a powerful place right in the middle, a huge
section of Israel. We want to give you that place, and you have made
clear, we know you have made clear, once you are there, you are going
to wipe out Israel,'' does that make the United States' leaders that
facilitate that, does that make them accessories? I am just asking.
Mr. Speaker, you can advise the Parliamentarian, I am not accusing
anybody. I am just asking the question.
The President needs to be advised by somebody that people are
threatening murder, genocide, and those are not the people whose side
we should be on trying to accommodate to reach that goal. It is a
difficult time, and it is a scary time.
Many of us believe what Scripture says, to whom much is given, of
them much is required.
I have mentioned a number of times the elderly West African gentleman
who advised me when I was over there with Mercy Ships: We were so
excited when you elected your first Black President, but we have
continued since then to see America get weaker, and you have got to go
back to Washington and tell your friends there that, when America gets
weaker, we suffer.
Then we see the stories of to whom much is given. This United States
of America, that our leaders in this administration, according to
articles, a Catholic Bishop in Nigeria, that this administration is
saying: We are not going to help you stop Boko Haram, these radical
Islamists; we are going to let them keep killing innocent Christians,
kidnapping, and sexually raping, abusing Christian girls. But, if you
will change your laws and accommodate same sex marriage and pay for
abortion, then we will be willing to come help.
{time} 1345
I was advised by some other Members of Congress who got back from a
trip to East Africa, where they were told by leaders in East African
nations the same thing that they are being told by the people in this
administration: Oh, yeah, we will help you with radical Islam, but only
if you change your laws to violate your strongly held Christian beliefs
that same-sex marriage is wrong. And also, start providing abortions,
also violating your strongly held religious beliefs.
Only if you will violate your Christian beliefs will we be willing to
come help you. If there is a God as the Bible talks about, there will
be a price to this Nation for acting in such a way.
I have a dear friend--I think the world of him--a man named Sean
[[Page H3911]]
Hannity. I don't usually get to see his program live. Again, last night
in the wee hours I was watching a replay of Sean's program, and he was
talking about, once again, a terrorist with ties to a mosque in the
Boston area.
Of course, I had done some research on this and found research that
had been done by others. I found an article by Ryan Mauro back from
December 2013.
I know when I was questioning the Director of the FBI, Director
Mueller, before our Judiciary Committee, I was incredulous that the
Russians, of all people, could advise the United States twice that the
older Tsarnaev had been radicalized long before he ever killed people
and maimed people during the Boston Marathon.
We had been advised twice. When we took no action the first time,
then they advised the FBI that the older Tsarnaev had been radicalized,
and you need to check into it. And the best I can find out is the FBI
interviewed Tsarnaev, and he said he wasn't a terrorist--imagine that--
and they talked to his mother and she said her son was not a terrorist.
And I challenged him and said, in effect: You didn't even go to the
Boston mosque where Tsarnaev attended to find out, to investigate if he
had been radicalized? And he challenged me. He said that wasn't true. I
said: What part wasn't true? And he said: We did go to the mosque
there.
I didn't hear the little tag-on line he put after that until I heard
a replay. My staff had to say: You apparently didn't hear what he said
after he said ``We did go to the mosque.'' So I had to listen to the
replay. What he said: ``We did go to the mosque in our outreach
program.''
In the outreach program. We talked about that before. It took years
before the FBI finally suspended their partnership with CAIR after,
years before, the FBI had found evidence that was utilized in the Holy
Land Foundation trial, the largest terrorist prosecution case in
American history.
CAIR was named as an unindicted coconspirator. They tried to have
their name removed from the pleadings, but the Federal judges at the
district level and at the United States Court of Appeals both said
there is plenty of evidence to support CAIR being a coconspirator
supporting terrorism. So no, we are not going to strike their names
from the pleadings. There were other names that were challenging as
well.
So I was surprised it took years for the FBI to decide to suspend
their outreach program, their partnership with CAIR. And yet, according
to Director Mueller, they continued that outreach program to that
mosque.
But I did challenge him with one final question. I held up these
documents here, the Articles of Organization. This is with the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts that they got these Articles of
Organization. And it is organizing a group called the Islamic Society
of Boston, which established the mosque in Boston that Tsarnaev
attended, that the latest terrorist attended.
My friend, Sean Hannity, was asking the question about this mosque
because he was shocked, like I was previously, as to why there had not
been more investigation.
This article from 2013 pretty well tells the tale: ``Clarion Project:
Islamic Society of Boston.'' It says:
``The Islamic Society of Boston's teachings are largely based on
Islamists like Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi
and Sayyid Qutb, the Brotherhood cleric who influenced Osama bin Laden,
as reported in 2008 that the Muslim Brotherhood and the Pakistani
Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami `are the prominent belief systems. The
popular web sites used by members, and recommended by mosque leaders,
are mostly fundamentalist, and rabidly homophobic.' ''
So we already knew that. Osama bin Laden had said that the writings
of Qutb, particularly the booklet ``Milestones,'' helped radicalized
him.
If our FBI training materials had not been purged, as have our
intelligence training materials and other training materials, if they
had not been purged of material that CAIR found offensive--CAIR being
the entity that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and a U.S. District
Court said there is plenty of evidence to support their being
coconspirators in terrorism. They found some language offensive and so
there were--well they classified it. I thought it was ridiculous, and I
won't say an approximate amount. They found many pages to be offensive
to them, this coconspirator in terrorism, according to the pleadings in
the Holy Land Foundation trial, and so they were removed. As one
intelligence officer told me: We blinded ourselves of the ability to
see our enemy.
They don't even know. Our FBI should go into the mosque and talk to
people there. They should have asked: Well, look, do you know Tsarnaev?
Was he reading Qutb--well, they call him an Egyptian martyr, but he was
a terrorist. He promoted terrorism, and he wrote this booklet that has
helped radicalize people.
But if you know what radicals believe, then you are able to ask the
questions and get to the bottom. And so you are not just going to the
mosque to sit down and pat each other on the back and have some food
together. You are actually investigating whether somebody is going to
kill people at the Boston Marathon in the future so you can save their
lives. But they didn't know enough to do that because they are not
properly trained anymore because CAIR gets offended when we try to
properly train them.
This article goes on and says:
``Their writings and teachings were fanatical.''
This is from Sheikh Ahmed Mansour in 2013. He is talking about the
Islamic Society of Boston's teachings in the mosque. He said:
``The writings and teachings were fanatical. I left and refused to go
back to pray. I left Egypt to escape the Muslim Brotherhood, but I had
found it there.''
The Muslim Brotherhood advises this administration. And for the
incompetent people that say: ``Well, Gohmert never gives names; he just
says they advise the President,'' they don't know how many times I have
given names. Mohamed Elibiary from Plano was on the top advisory group
for Homeland Security.
Imam Magid, the president of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, or
ADAMS--I am sure John Adams would appreciate that--he was president of
that. He was part of a group that was named as a coconspirator in the
terrorist prosecution trial of the Holy Land Foundation. He advised the
President regularly. He gave him advice, according to the media. He
gave advice to the President about his speech back in 2011, where the
President inaccurately said everybody agrees to going back to the pre-
1967 boundaries. No, they didn't.
If you are Imam Magid, and you are part of what was named as a
coconspirator in terrorism, maybe you think that, but certainly the
parties didn't agree to that.
Anyway, this article goes on:
``In 2004, the Islamic Society of Boston Web site had a section
titled: `40 Recommendations for the Muslim Home.' It said to `hang up
the whip where the members of the household can see it,' and that
children are to be `hit' if they refuse to pray once they are 10 years
old.
``The section also said regarding wife beating, `Hitting is not the
way to discipline; it is not to be resorted to except when all other
means are exhausted or when it is needed to force someone to do
obligatory acts of obedience,' '' which apparently include of a sexual
nature.
The article says:
``One of the founders of the Islamic Society of Boston is Abdurrahman
Alamoudi, who was its first president.''
I insert here that I asked Director Mueller: Were you aware that
Alamoudi is the one that started this mosque that Tsarnaev attended?
And he said: No, he was not. But he sure knew who Alamoudi was. Because
the FBI gathered the evidence, whether they wanted to or not, that put
him in prison. Actually, I think the British gathered the evidence that
was so overwhelming that there wasn't much choice; he had to be
prosecuted.
Yes, he had helped the Clinton administration, he had been some help
to the Bush administration, according to Alamoudi. Anyway, he gets
arrested out at Dulles Airport and is doing I believe 23 years in
prison for supporting terrorism.
But the article points out:
``He was convicted on terrorism-related charges in 2004 and has
admitted
[[Page H3912]]
to being a secret Muslim Brotherhood operative. He wrote from his
prison cell, `I am, I hope, still a member of the Muslim Brotherhood
organization in the USA.' He was last paid a speaking fee by the
Islamic Society of Boston in 2000, the same year he publicly expressed
his support for Hamas and Hezbollah.
``Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi has been on
the ISB board of trustees. Tax filings for 1998-2000 include his name
under a list of `officers, directors, trustees, and key employees.'
``In 2002, Qaradawi helped ISB--the Islamic Society of Boston--
fundraise via videotape because the U.S. would not grant him entry. His
name also appeared on the Islamic Society of Boston's Web site until
March 2001. The Islamic Society of Boston originally denied having any
connection to Qaradawi and later claimed that the inclusion of his name
on the tax forms was an error.
``The ISB has hosted Islamic speakers like Salah Soltan and Yasir
Qadhi. In March 2010, Imam Abdullah Faarooq said that Aafia Siddiqui, a
young woman arrested for her al Qaeda ties, was innocent, and 'You must
grab on to this rope, grab on to the typewriter, grab on to the shovel,
grab on to the gun and the sword, don't be afraid to step out into this
world and do your job.'
``ISB has donated `thousands' of dollars to the Holy Land Foundation,
a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity later shut down for financing Hamas.
It also donated to the Benevolence International Foundation, later
identified as al Qaeda front.
``Imam Sheikh Basyouny Nehela, was has served the Islamic Society of
Boston for at least 10 years, is also a board member of the Boston
chapter of the Muslim American society.
``In 1994, Hamas fundraiser Mohammed El-Mezain addressed the Muslim
Arab Youth Association. He spoke after an individual that was
introduced as a leader of the `Hamas mosque military wing.' An FBI
report documented the speaker saying: `I have been told to restrict or
restrain what I say . . . I hope no one is recording me or taking any
pictures, as none are allowed . . . because I'm going to speak the
truth to you. It's simple. Finish off the Israelis. Kill them all.
Exterminate them. No peace ever.' ''
These are the Muslim Brothers that the President gets advice from.
It is time to stop this organization. It is time to listen to our
friends in Israel and do not, at all costs, facilitate the destruction
or the attempted destruction of Israel by our enemies and their
enemies.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
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