[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 184 (Thursday, December 17, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H9687-H9689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISSUES OF THE DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. 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, here is an article just in Politico by
Burgess Everett. It is today. It concludes with a quote from Senator
Charles Schumer of New York:
`` `Sen. McConnell wants to see the Senate work,' Schumer said. 'But
the good news for us is, to make it work, he has to do basically our
agenda.' ''
That is what we have been telling people for so long, Mr. Speaker,
that people across America say: We would like to see you guys in
Washington work together. We would like to see government not shut
down, that you guys work together and get things done.
But as we explained repeatedly--and now it has been confirmed by
Senator Schumer--there is only one way that some folks here in this
Capitol building will reach an agreement with Republicans. Normally,
that is if we do exactly their agenda.
I go back to the spring of 2011, when Republicans resumed the
majority in the House of Representatives. There was a CR that was going
to expire. The Government would run out of money at midnight. As I
recall, it was a Friday.
It appeared to me--and I have said since then that it certainly
appeared that Harry Reid believed and the White House believed the
conventional wisdom here in Washington--that, if the Democrats could
force a shutdown, then their massive friends in the mainstream media
would blame Republicans and that would be their best shot at regaining
a majority in the House and keeping it in the Senate.
So, basically, to avoid a shutdown at midnight, although our Speaker
at the time, Speaker Boehner, gathered us together late that evening
and said, ``Look, we have gotten $29 billion in cuts. I know we said it
would be $100 billion originally and then $60 billion, but we have $29
billion,'' it turns out we didn't get those, that we may have spent
more money.
In essence, it appears that the Speaker had to basically cave to what
Harry Reid wanted in order to avoid a shutdown in the spring of 2011.
That continued to occur. We would come up on deadlines. The Senate
would not pass any of the appropriations bills, would sit back and say:
We are not going to do our work. We are not going to comply with our
constitutional responsibility. We are going to sit back. We are going
to wait, get bills from the House, and then demand our agenda. If they
don't give us our agenda, then we will shut things down. Our friends in
the mainstream media will blame Republicans. Then we will get the
majority back in the House.
Finally, in September of 2013, we gave Harry Reid basically
everything he wanted and he still shut the government down. Just as
conventional wisdom had indicated, the mainstream media blamed
Republicans.
In fact, the mainstream media mantra was so overwhelming that even
Speaker Boehner got confused or maybe--I guess maybe he did blame
Republicans because we didn't totally capitulate on everything Harry
Reid wanted. We gave him most everything he wanted.
The last thing we did was appoint--this is at 1:10 a.m. on the
morning of October 1 of 2013--we approved the appointment of conferees.
Harry Reid wouldn't even approve conferees so we could have a deal
worked out by 8 a.m. and nobody would miss work. He wouldn't even do
that. He didn't want a deal worked out. He wanted a shutdown.
They had already contracted to bring barriers to shut down open air
memorials so people couldn't even walk down the sidewalk. Apparently,
the people in this administration believed, if we can jerk around World
War II veterans, then Republicans will get blamed for that, too. So
they violated the law. They spent more in shutting things down than
they would normally spend in keeping them open.
That violates the law as it exists. They shut down things that there
was totally no reason to shut down. They brought in more Park Service
people to help shut them down than are normally ever out there.
All of that was to try to make people blame Republicans when it was
clearly the calloused, intentional desire to inflict harm on people,
including World War II veterans, by some people within this
administration.
But America didn't fall for it, and they didn't give Democrats back
the majority in the House. In fact, they gave Republicans the majority
in the Senate.
Today we get this story quoting Senator Schumer, a Democrat from New
York: The good news for us is, to make it work, Senator McConnell has
to do basically our agenda.
Then we find out a story today from Carolyn May:
``Senior officials rejected a proposal to incorporate social media
screenings in the vetting process of foreign visa applicants in 2011.''
Four years ago this administration said: We are going to continue our
effort to blind ourselves of our ability to see our enemy and to know
who our enemy is. That started back in 2009, when this administration
came into town.
Basically, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a coconspirator
named in the Holy Land Foundation trial for supporting terrorism, has
an open door and they answered their phones at the White House anytime
they called and complained.
They wanted documents purged so our FBI agents, our intelligence
officials, our State Department people, could not be adequately trained
on what radical Islamists believe.
This administration still will not even recognize that such a thing
as radical Islam exists. Not one person in the administration that is
elected that is making these decisions or that has been confirmed by
the Senate has an advanced degree in Islamic studies and especially not
advanced degrees from the University of Baghdad in Islamic studies, as
one of the world's most renowned experts on Islam does.
That world-renowned expert on Islam with a Ph.D. from the University
of Baghdad in Islamic studies makes very clear that the Islamic State
is Islam. His name is al-Baghdadi. He is the head of the Islamic State.
As the very learned Carolyn Glick has pointed out, the failure of any
administration, Republican or Democrat, to recognize that radical Islam
is a part of Islam is performing a huge disfavor for moderate Muslims
who want to stand up against radical Islam.
{time} 1630
But, by this administration's saying there is no pluralism in Islam--
it is all good, and there are no bad people who are claiming to be and
who actually are Islamic--it does a great disservice to moderate
Muslims who would like to stand up and take it on. There have been
wonderful friends of the United States who have. President el-Sisi in
Egypt has, and others have. For some reason, this administration
chooses to alienate those who are Muslim who would stand up against
radical Islam, as if they don't have enough problems as it is.
It was a friend in intelligence, here in the U.S. Government, who
made that statement that I used a moment ago--``We have blinded
ourselves of our ability to see our enemy''--and that continues.
[[Page H9688]]
If this administration had not made that decision in 2011 to not look
at social media, they could have seen that Malik, which is, surely, not
her real name, had pledged her allegiance to radical Islam. It is kind
of tough to recognize when somebody pledges one's allegiance to radical
Islam if one won't even recognize that there is such a thing as radical
Islam.
This article from Joseph Kolb reads:
``A proposal to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees to the United States has
ignited a bitter debate in Washington, but more than 10 times that
number of people from the embattled country have quietly come to
America since 2012, according to figures obtained by FoxNews.com.
``Some 102,313 Syrians were granted admission to the United States as
legal permanent residents or through programs including work, study and
tourist visas from 2012 through August of this year, a period which
roughly coincides with the devastating civil war that still engulfs the
Middle Eastern country. Experts say any fears that terrorists might
infiltrate the proposed wave of refugees from the United Nations-run
camps should be dwarfed by the potential danger already here.
`` `The sheer number of people arriving on all kinds of visas and
with green cards, and possibly U.S. citizenship, makes it impossible
for our counterterrorism authorities to keep track of them all, much
less prevent them from carrying out attacks or belatedly try to deport
them,' said Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies.
`` `I think it's reasonable to assume that the U.S. Government ran
the minimum intelligence traces required at the time of entry.' ''
We know now, as of 2011, they wouldn't even bother to look to see if
someone who was wishing to come in had made statements on social media
or had even had his picture taken with known terrorists.
Of course, we had a great, valiant patriot in the person of Phil
Haney, in his working for the Department of Homeland Security, who was
cited for his brilliance in finding over 300 of 400 people who were
looked at, on whom he had entered data, and who should have been added
to the terrorist watch list from an organization called Tablighi
Jamaat. Since there are, apparently, ties with people in that
organization to this administration--perhaps it is CAIR--they
complained, and he ended up being chastised and put off, away from the
ability to enter data.
His investigation into Tablighi Jamaat and potential radicals within
that organization was shut down, not by his superior--his superior
recognized his importance--but by people way up the chain. If that
investigation had continued, it appears pretty clear there would have
been people alive today in San Bernardino who are dead.
``Numbers obtained from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection show
60,010 Syrian visa holders have entered the U.S. since 2012, including
16,245 this year through August. Additional numbers provided by a
Congressional source showed another 42,303 Syrians were granted
citizenship or green cards during the same period.
`` `It is highly unlikely that the 102,313 Syrians who were admitted
over the past three years were effectively vetted,' said spokesman Ira
Mehlman, of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. `Even in
countries where we have a strong diplomatic presence, the sheer volume
of background checks being carried out precludes the kind of thorough
vetting that is necessary.' ''
We know also, from Mark Krikorian's research, that it costs 12 times
more to bring Syrian refugees here to the United States than it does to
keep them alive and keep them functioning somewhere in the area of
Syria. So it is pretty arrogant for the United States to claim we need
to bring these Syrian refugees to the United States even though we
could, actually, help and keep alive and keep functioning 11 more
people in addition to the ones we brought here if we were to just help
them where they are.
We also had this report yesterday: ``Chattanooga shooting a `terror
attack,' FBI Director James Comey says.''
``The semantic dance of whether or not to call the July mass shooting
in Chattanooga a `terrorist' attack appears to be winding down.
``FBI Director James Comey twice called the deadly Chattanooga
shooting that killed four Marines and one sailor a 'terror attack'
during a press conference with NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton on
Wednesday. Bratton and Comey spoke after addressing the NYPD Shield
Conference in New York City.
`` `We've investigated Chattanooga as a terror attack from the
beginning,' Comey said. `The Chattanooga killer was inspired by a
foreign terror organization. It's hard to entangle which particular
source . . . there are lots of competing poisons out there.'
``That response came as Comey was asked to clarify an earlier
statement in which he linked the root cause of the July 16 rampage by
Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in
Kuwait, to the recent Islamic terrorist attack in San Bernardino.
`` `San Bernardino, as with Chattanooga, another terror attack we've
dealt with in recent times . . .' Comey began the answer to a question
about the December 2 terror attack in California.
``Abdulazeez, 24, was fatally shot by police after opening fire at a
military recruiting center and then driving to a reserve center, where
he killed five.''
Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely heartbreaking to know that people like
him are in this country, that they have got information out there on
social media that indicates their terrorist affiliations, and that this
administration, number one, will not recognize that there is something
called radical Islam and, number two, won't allow their people, who
work for them, to check to see if there is such information about
people who are seeking to come into this country who will ultimately
kill Americans.
Then this story yesterday from Judicial Watch: ``Team led by Middle
Eastern Woman Caught Surveilling U.S. Facility on Mexican Border.''
``A Middle Eastern woman was caught surveilling a U.S. port of entry
on the Mexican border holding a sketchbook with Arabic writing and
drawings of the facility and its security system, federal law
enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch.
``The woman has been identified as 23-year-old Leila Abdelrazaq,
according to a Customs and Border Patrol report . . . Abdelrazaq
appeared to have two accomplices, a 31-year-old man named Gabriel
Schivone and a 28-year-old woman named Leslie Mcafee. CBP agents
noticed the trio `observing the facilities' at the Port of Mariposa in
Nogales, Arizona on December 2. Schivone was first noticed inside the
entrance of the pedestrian area while the two women stood outside by
the entry door, the CBP document states.
``When Federal officers asked Abdelrazaq why she was drawing sketches
of the facilities she `stated because she's never been to the border,'
according to the CBP report . . . `During the inspection of the
Abdelrazaq sketching book, CBPOs noticed the book contained writings in
English and Arabic language . . . There were drawings of what appeared
to be a vehicle primary inspection area and an additional drawing of
pedestrian turnstile gate depicting video surveillance cameras above
the gate.' The report proceeds to reveal that the drawings were
`partial and incomplete.'
``This distressing information comes on the heels of two separate--
and equally alarming--incidents in the same vicinity. A few weeks ago
Judicial Watch reported that five young Middle Eastern men were
apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol in Amado, an Arizona town
situated about 30 miles from the Mexican border. Two of the men were
carrying stainless steel cylinders in backpacks, alarming Border Patrol
officials enough to call the Department of Homeland Security for
backup. DHS officially denies this ever occurred, but law enforcement
and other sources have confirmed . . . that the two men carrying the
cylinders were believed to be taken into custody by the FBI.
``Of interesting note is that only three of the men's names were
entered in the Border Patrol's E3 reporting system, which is used by
the agency to track apprehensions, detention hearings and removals of
illegal immigrants. E3 also collects and transmits biographic and
biometric data including fingerprints for identification and
verification . . . The other two men
[[Page H9689]]
were listed as `unknown subjects,' which is unheard of, according to a
Judicial Watch federal law enforcement source. `In all my years I've
never seen that before,' a veteran federal law enforcement agent told
Judicial Watch.''
Anyway, there just continues to be more and more bad news from the
border.
When I read the article today, I thought: Nogales, Arizona. I read a
story before about Nogales. Obviously, this is indicating--with the
Arabic language, with the sketches of the entrance by people from the
Middle East--very curious behavior from these Middle Eastern folks. I
went back through articles I had, and this is where I had seen the name
Nogales, Arizona.
This is an article from December 27, 2013:
``John Dodson, the federal agent who blew the lid off the Justice
Department's `Fast and Furious' gun-walking scandal, claims the FBI had
ties to the men who killed U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, in
2010, near Nogales, Arizona. In fact, Dodson says the Mexican bandits
who gunned down Terry were working for FBI operatives and had been sent
to the border to do a `drug rip-off' using intelligence gathered by the
DEA. Dodson, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives, said he doesn't think the FBI was part of the
rip-off crew, but the agency was `directing the rip crew.' ''
The point here, I think, that is important is that we know that this
administration was pushing legitimate gun dealers in the United States
to sell to people who shouldn't have been allowed to get guns so that
they could end up going to drug cartels, and they could, supposedly,
follow the weapons. We know that one of those weapons this
administration pushed to be sold ended up in the hands of drug cartels
who killed, apparently, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010.
{time} 1645
So we know there is violent drug cartel activity in the Nogales,
Arizona, area. Now, this interesting report says that apparently there
is not just drug cartel activity in that area, there is also Middle
Eastern activity surveilling the entry areas.
I think it is also important to remember what this administration
did, as reported by Sharyl Attkisson, at the time with CBS News, before
they decided they didn't want someone working at CBS who was exposing
something that was such a big problem as Fast and Furious.
In Sharyl Attkisson's article of December 7, 2011, she points out
communications within this administration, after this administration
pushed gun dealers to sell to people they shouldn't have, so that guns
could go to drug cartels in Mexico. They then, according to
communications as reported by Sharyl Attkisson, in emails that were
gained, to use the fact that long guns were being sold to people that
shouldn't have been and that those were being used in crimes, they
wanted to use that to pass more gun control legislation or rules to
take law-abiding citizens' Second Amendment rights away from them.
Absolutely astounding.
Also, there is an article yesterday in the National Review entitled,
``Increasing the Number of Guest Worker Visas Will Hurt America's Most
Vulnerable Workers,'' by Ian Smith. It states: ``Pro-labor advocates
are criticizing a new addition to the Senate's omnibus spending bill, a
provision they say will quadruple the number of H-2B visas for
unskilled guest workers, for a total of more than 250,000.''
Most of the people I know who are Republicans want to bring down the
extremely high unemployment level for African Americans and other
minorities. Yet, this administration has pushed so hard something they
wanted. They want more people coming in and taking jobs, lowering the
wages of American citizens and American workers, taking entry-level
jobs away from those we should be pushing off welfare into jobs and
working. I know an awful lot of people that would love to work and
would love to have those jobs.
Here is another article from December 15, 2015, entitled: ``White
House Opens Door to CAIR Rep, Ignores Muslim Reformers.''
This is the problem, Mr. Speaker, in this administration. This
administration is allowing the foxes to set up and give advice on how
to run the henhouse. Unfortunately, the henhouse contains law-abiding
American citizens who are put at risk by this administration's refusal
to acknowledge that Islam is pluralistic, just like Christianity is.
There are extremes at different ends, but there is a radical Islam that
wants to destroy this country. There are others more moderate.
Like, those in the Muslim Brotherhood, they want to take over the
United States. But as they have indicated: We are making so much
progress in taking over the United States without violence. We will
have to use it at some point, but let's not use violence as long as we
are making so much progress. That seems to be the theme of the Muslim
Brotherhood right now in America.
This administration continues to be complicit in helping people that
were named in the prosecution of support for terrorist activity, which
convictions were obtained with the idea that we can go after the rest
of these named conspirators later. The trouble is, after the
conviction, within a month and a half, this administration takes over;
and they not only refused to prosecute the coconspirators, they bring
them in as their advisers. Is there any wonder there are not more
Americans being killed?
I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________