[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 5 (Friday, January 8, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H215-H220]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REGULATORY GRIDLOCK
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Jenkins of West Virginia). Under the
Speaker's announced policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Gohmert) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the
majority leader.
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr.
Hardy).
Mr. HARDY. I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, this is our first week back in session after spending
the holidays in our districts. While we were meeting with our
constituents and enjoying the company of loved ones, the Federal
bureaucracy was firing on all cylinders, cranking out thousands of
pages of regulations.
Mr. Speaker, I hold in my hand what our regulators were doing on
Christmas Eve. In my other hand I am holding 298 pages of what our
Federal regulators were doing on New Year's Eve.
This breakneck pace of activity, deep within the bowels of our
executive branch, capped off a record year for the Federal Register,
the official record of the government's regulatory and other actions.
The grand total for 2015 was 82,035 pages of regulations. This leaves
the current administration with an annual
[[Page H216]]
page count of nearly 80,000 per year and puts it on pace to contribute
more pages of regulations to the Federal Register than any other
administration in American history.
Mr. Speaker, this is a perversion of our Founding Fathers' intent and
a disservice to the American people.
Article I, section 1, of the Constitution vests all legislative power
in a Congress of the United States, not with regulatory agencies.
Article I, section 8, of the Constitution vests all the power to make
all laws in Congress to the United States, not with regulatory
agencies.
Article II, section 3, of the Constitution clearly states that the
President shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. That
means executive agencies execute the laws as Congress intended, not
that they make their own.
Mr. Speaker, there is no ambiguity. Federal laws get made right here
on this floor and in the other Chamber across the rotunda and nowhere
else. But over the past 228 years, the founding principles have been
manipulated.
With this massive expansion of the Federal Government's role during
the New Deal, agencies were awarded rulemaking authority through acts
of Congress. This statutory authority was granted to allow our Federal
agencies to better implement the law in a growing, complex Nation. But
it was not a blank check.
Unfortunately, far too many here in Congress have been complicit in
delegating our sacred lawmaking authority to legions of unelected
bureaucrats. How can this be?
We are the first branch of government, the branch that is closest to
the people. We are directly accountable to our constituents. It is
because of that accountability that we must reclaim that constitutional
duty to make all laws.
That is why I am a proud original cosponsor of the REINS Act of 2015
and why I voted to pass that important bill last year. The REINS Act
takes the important step of requiring congressional approval of all
major rules. This is a huge improvement over the current status quo
under the Congressional Review Act.
The default standard for all major rules should be rejection unless
they are congressionally approved, not acceptance until rejection.
The Congressional Review Act is a failed attempt to reclaim our
exclusive legislating authority. Rejecting one single rule on ergonomic
chairs in 20 years is simply unacceptable. We need laws with more
teeth.
The bills we passed this week, including the SCRUB Act of 2015, will
help in this effort.
Mr. Speaker, something needs to change. Churning out thousands of
final rules on tens of thousands of Federal Register pages each and
every year is hamstringing our economy and crushing our businesses.
{time} 1345
According to a study done by the National Association of
Manufacturers, complying with the Federal regulations costs Americans
$2.028 trillion in lost economic growth each and every year. That is 12
percent of our GDP down the drain.
As a former small-business owner, I can tell you that mom-and-pop
shops aren't poring over each and every issue of the Federal Register,
and they sure aren't doing it on Christmas Eve. Unlike large
corporations that can afford armies of attorneys to navigate the
complex Federal bureaucracy, small businesses are left hanging out to
dry.
As the people's House, we are advocates for the people we represent.
We serve them. We are accountable to them. We owe it to the people to
go on record and vote on major rules that impact their daily lives.
I challenge any President or elected official to say that the
American people don't deserve the right to hold their government
accountable.
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, news surfaced today. Here is a story from
Ed Morrissey: ``Has the State Department released a smoking gun in the
Hillary Clinton email scandal? In a thread from June 2011, Hillary
Clinton exchanges emails with Jake Sullivan, then her deputy chief of
staff and now her campaign foreign-policy adviser, in which she
impatiently waits for a set of talking points. When Sullivan tells her
that the source is having trouble with the secure fax, Hillary then
orders Sullivan to have the data stripped of its markings and sent
through a non-secure channel.''
Then it is quoting from the email: ``If they can't, turn into
nonpaper with no identifying heading and send nonsecure.''
The article goes on to say: ``That's an order to violate the laws
handling classified material. There is no other way to read that
demand. Regardless of whether or not Sullivan complied, this demolishes
Hillary claim to be ignorant of marking issues, as well as strongly
suggests that the other thousand-plus instances where this did occur
likely came under her direction.''
Fox News also noticed the email this morning, although they don't
have a copy of it linked. And it is quoting: ``However, one email
thread from June 2011 appears to include Clinton telling her top
adviser Jake Sullivan to send security information through insecure
means.
``In response to Clinton's request for a set of since-redacted
talking points, Sullivan writes, 'They say they've had issues sending
secure fax. They are working on it.' Clinton responds, 'If they can't,
turn it into nonpaper with no identifying heading and send nonsecure.'
``Ironically, an email thread from 4 months earlier shows Clinton
saying she was 'surprised' that a diplomatic officer named John Godfrey
used a personal email account to send a memo on Libya policy after the
fall of Muammar Qaddafi.''
The article goes on later: ``Did those talking points get illegally
transmitted on Hillary Clinton's order? If so, then Sullivan may find
himself in legal trouble, too. Paragraph (g)''--quoting from the law--
``makes it clear that `each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be
subject to the punishment provided for the offense which is the object
of such conspiracy.'
``This explains why more than a thousand pieces of classified
information have found their way into Hillary unauthorized and
unsecured email system--and why the markings have been stripped from
them. Hillary herself apparently ordered the Code Red, so to speak.
In an update, the author says: ``There are a few people wondering
whether the `TPs' ''--or talking points--``in question in this thread
were classified in the first place.
``There are a couple of points to remember in that context:
Unclassified material doesn't need to be transmitted by secure fax; if
the material wasn't classified, Sullivan would have just faxed them
normally.
``Ordering aides to remove headers to facilitate the transmission
over unsecured means strongly suggests the information was not
unclassified. On top of that, removing headers to avoid transmission
security would be a violation of 18 USC 793 anyway, which does not
require material to be classified--only sensitive to national
security.''
Also: ``State did leave this document unclassified, but that's
because there isn't any discussion of what the talking points cover.
They redacted the subject headers with B5 and B6 exemptions, invoked to
note that the FOIA''--Freedom of Information Act--``demand doesn't
cover the material.
``Ordering the headings stripped, and Sullivan's apparent reluctance
to work around the secure fax system, makes it all but certain that the
material was classified at some level--and Hillary knew it.''
Just breaking news of interest.
Activities of Abdurahman Alamoudi
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, a matter of grave concern continues to
arise stemming back from a man who was born in Eritrea named Abdurahman
Alamoudi. And this is from DiscoverTheNetworks.org.
He, Mr. Alamoudi, immigrated to the United States in 1979. That would
be the same year, Mr. Speaker, you will recall, that radical Islam
declared war on the United States, attacked our embassy in Tehran, took
over 50 Americans hostage, and held them for over a year.
That same year, that year, 1979, is the year Mr. Alamoudi came to the
United States, and then he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1996.
In 1981, he founded the Islamic Society of Boston. It is not in this
article, but I have also seen the documentation
[[Page H217]]
of his founding. And it is, I think, worth noting that the Islamic
Society of Boston that Mr. Alamoudi founded, the two mosques in the
Boston area, one of which produced the Tsarnaev brothers, where they
worshipped and learned more about Islam.
This article says, from 1985 to 1990 Mr. Alamoudi served as executive
assistant to the president of the SAAR Foundation in Northern Virginia.
In 1990, Alamoudi founded the American Muslim Council. The following
year, he established the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans
Affairs Council, whose purpose was to ``certify Muslim chaplains hired
by the military.''
During the 1992 Presidential election cycle, Alamoudi courted both
the Democratic and the Republican Parties. When Bill Clinton emerged
victorious, Alamoudi increased his donations to Democrats. He went on
to serve the Clinton administration as an Islamic affairs adviser and a
State Department ``goodwill ambassador'' to Muslim nations.
In 1993, the Defense Department certified Alamoudi's American Muslim
Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council as one of two organizations,
along with the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences,
authorized to approve and endorse Muslim chaplains.
Among the chaplains endorsed by Alamoudi's group was James Yee, who
eventually would be arrested in 2003 on suspicion of espionage.
Mr. Speaker, it is very reassuring that this man arrested on
suspicion of espionage here in the United States was certified by Mr.
Alamoudi's group.
In March 1993, Alamoudi disparaged the Federal Government for the
``flimsy'' evidence it had used as a basis for arresting Mohammed
Salameh, a suspect in the World Trade Center bombing of February 26 of
1993. Salameh was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison on
what, apparently, Mr. Alamoudi thought was flimsy evidence.
It goes on: ``In 1995, Alamoudi helped President Clinton''--
interesting verb that, helped--``Alamoudi helped President Clinton and
the American Civil Liberties Union develop a Presidential guideline
entitled `Religious Expression in Public School,' which established a
legal justification upon which the ACLU would file lawsuits restricting
Christmas celebrations and removing Nativity scenes from public
schools.
``Alamoudi made numerous controversial statements during the 1990s
and early 2000s, including these:
``In 1994 he said: `Hamas is not a terrorist group . . . I have
followed the good work of Hamas.
``In March 1996, Alamoudi said he was `honored to be a member of the
committee that is defending' Islamic Association of Palestine''--or
IAP--``founder Musa Abu Marzuk, who in 1997 would be deported from the
United States because of his Hamas-related activities. `I really
consider him to be from among the best people in the Islamic movement.'
''--that is a quote from Alamoudi--``Alamoudi added. `Hamas . . . and I
work together with him.' ''
In December of 1996, as Alamoudi continued to work with the Clinton
administration to find good Muslims to work in the government, Alamoudi
told a meeting of the IAP: ``I think if we were outside this country we
can say, `Oh, Allah, destroy America,' but once we are here, our
mission in this country is to change it . . . You can be violent
anywhere else but in America.''
``In October 2000, Alamoudi attended an anti-Israel protest outside
the White House, where he proudly declared himself `a supporter of
Hamas' and `a supporter of Hezbollah.' '' And apparently there is video
of that.
In 2000, Alamoudi literally ``began making regular trips to Libya,
where he met with government officials to discuss strategies by which
they could create `headaches' for Saudi Arabia.
``In January 2001, Alamoudi attended a conference in Beirut with
leaders of numerous terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda, Hamas,
Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad.
``In June 2001, Alamoudi was a guest speaker at a Northern Virginia
conference where senior Islamic militants from throughout the Middle
East were gathered. Many of the speakers denounced the `Zionist entity
that aims to destroy the Muslim ummah,'' or community.
{time} 1400
``That same month, Alamoudi attended a briefing on President Bush's
faith-based initiative, and the White House invited him to the post-9/
11 prayer service on September 14th at the National Cathedral in
Washington.
In September 2003, British customs officials arrested Alamoudi at
Heathrow Airport as he was returning from Libya with 340,000 in cash
given to him by President Muammar Qadhafi to finance a plot involving
two U.K.-based al Qaeda operatives intending to assassinate Saudi Crown
Prince, later King Abdullah.
Alamoudi was subsequently extradited to the United States. In October
2003, he was arrested at Dulles Airport on charges of having illegally
accepted $10,700 from the Libyan mission to the United Nations.
``With Alamoudi in custody, federal authorities released a transcript
of a telephone conversation in which he had: lamented that no Americans
had died during al Qaeda's 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya;
recommended that more operations be conducted like the 1994 Hezbollah
bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people
died; and clearly articulated his objective of turning America into a
Muslim nation.
``Alamoudi was indicted not only for his illegal dealings with Libya,
but also for tax evasion and immigration fraud. He ultimately pled
guilty to, and was convicted of, being a senior al Qaeda financier who
had funneled at least $1 million into the coffers of that terrorist
organization. He also acknowledged that he had pocketed almost $1
million for himself in the process. In October 2004, Alamoudi was
sentenced to 23 years in federal prison.
``During the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development trial of
2007, which examined evidence of the HLF's fundraising on behalf of
Hamas, the U.S. government released a list of approximately 300 of
HLF's 'unindicted co-conspirators' and 'joint venturers.' Alamoudi was
named in that list . . . In addition to the affiliations listed above,
Alamoudi has also been, at various times, a board member of American
Muslims for Jerusalem; the head of the American Task Force for Bosnia;
a board member of the Council for the National Interest Foundation; a
director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR''--which,
by the way, Mr. Speaker, has very open access to the highest officials,
including the President.
They are the ones that got Langley to call off a 2-day seminar for
law enforcement on radical Islam and got the rules changed so people
that were American experts on Islam could not talk to any U.S.
Government group about radical Islam unless they got approval from
people like those that CAIR approved of.
CAIR--we are talking also about a named co-conspirator in the Holy
Land Foundation trial in which convictions were obtained for principals
in the Holy Land Foundation for supporting terrorism. I would humbly
submit that had Eric Holder not become Attorney General and Barack
Obama not become President of the United States, many, if not all, of
those co-conspirators would have been then indicted and tried as
supporters of terrorism.
Instead, a new President and a new Attorney General came in, and
instead of being indicted and tried for supporting terrorism as they
were named in the Federal District Court in Dallas and the Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals said in opinions--there was plenty of evidence
to support that they were co-conspirators--well, the new administration
dropped the matter, and these people became helpful to the
administration in advising on Islam.
It also notes that Mr. Alamoudi was a founding trustee of the Fiqh
Council of North America, a board member of the Interfaith Impact for
Justice and Peace, a regional representative for the Islamic Society of
North America--which was also a named co-conspirator for supporting
terrorism--a board member of Mercy International, president of the
Muslim Student Association of the U.S. and Canada, a board member of
the Somali Relief Fund, secretary of the Muslim Brotherhood Affiliated,
Success Foundation, and director of the Talibah International Aid
Association.
In fact, in an article back in 2004, Andrew C. McCarthy noted that:
[[Page H218]]
``Abdurahman Alamoudi was sentenced today to 23 years' imprisonment for
terrorism financing, false statements on his naturalization petition,
and tax violations. The sentence was imposed by Judge Claude Hilton of
the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.
``Alamoudi was influential in the American Muslim circles, and thus
in Washington. He participated in several political and charitable
organizations, founding the American Muslim Council--an enthusiastic
supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah. The federal government permitted him
a key role in selecting the Islamic clerics who minister in the
military and in the prison system. Over the years, moreover, he
occasionally traveled the globe as an emissary of the State Department.
``As we now know, he also traveled to Libya, engaged in financial
transactions with Qadhafi's government, and collected hefty sums,
including the $340,000 seized from him when he was arrested last year,
which were designed to be routed back to his causes in the U.S. without
the knowledge of American authorities. All of those activities violate
the International Emergency Economic Powers Act imposes terrorism-
related sanctions prohibiting unlicensed travel to and commerce with
Libya.''
I will parenthetically insert here that it had to be very convenient
for Mr. Alamoudi, this convicted supporter of terrorism, to be working
for the State Department as he went to different countries and
apparently continued to conspire to support terrorism as the State
Department funded his travel on its behalf.
But also found was this article. The author was Brian Blomquist and
the date is June 27, 2003. It is an article about the esteemed U.S.
Senator Charles, or Chuck, Schumer entitled, ``Schumer wants fanatical
imams rooted out of jails, armed forces.''
The article says: ``Militant Muslim imams are preaching a distorted,
hateful form of Islam to U.S. soldiers and federal prisoners, creating
a `dangerous situation,' Senator Charles Schumer charged yesterday.
``Schumer said the problem is that the Pentagon and the federal
Bureau of Prisons select Muslim imams on the advice of Islamic groups
in the grip of the fanatical Wahhabism strain of the religion.
`` `While the potential Wahhabi influence in the U.S. Armed Forces is
not well documented, these organizations have succeeded in ensuring
that militant Wahhabism is the only form of Islam that is preached to
the 12,000 Muslims in federal prison,' Schumer said at a Senate hearing
on extremist Wahhabi Islam, which has been linked to terrorism.
``In February, the New York prison system barred its top Muslim
chaplain from its prison facilities after the imam, Warith Dean Umar,
said the 9/11 hijackers should be treated as martyrs.
`` `The imams flood the prisons with anti-American, pro-bin Laden
videos, literature and sermon tapes . . . The point of prison should be
to rehabilitate violent prisoners.' ''
Mr. Schumer is so right.
The article goes on: ``The Bureau of Prisons uses the Graduate School
of Islamic and Social Sciences, which is under investigation for
possible funneling of money to terrorists, and the Islamic Society of
North America, which has board members with terror links, Schumer
charged.
``American Muslim Foundation President Abdurahman Alamoudi said his
organization had no role advising the Pentagon. Alamoudi said he
formerly gave the Pentagon advice on selecting imams, but `they pushed
me out.' ''
Well, we know that that was not until right before the British
Government arrested Alamoudi and then provided apparently the U.S.
Government plenty of evidence to show that Alamoudi was supporting
terrorism.
That is why I was so shocked, since the FBI got information from
Britain, gathered their own information that they had been gathering at
least since 1991 on radical Islamic beginnings here in the United
States, that during the Bush administration the FBI would have a
partnership outreach program with the Council of American-Islamic
relations, of which Mr. Alamoudi was a board member. CAIR was a named
co-conspirator for supporting terrorists, which the courts have said
there is plenty of evidence to support that they are. While the FBI had
gathered such evidence, they were outreach partners with this
organization, CAIR, named as a co-conspirator with the Holy Land
Foundation.
This article from WND, ``Pentagon admits chaplains from Muslim
Brotherhood group,'' published on March 6, 2014, by Aaron Klein said:
``The U.S. Army and Air Force has selected two Muslim chaplains from a
program run by an Islamic group closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood
that was named by the Justice Department as an unindicted co-
conspirator in a scheme to raise money for Hamas.
``WND broke the story in 2011 that the controversial Islamic Society
of North America, or ISNA, is the official endorsing agency for the
U.S. Armed Forces Muslim chaplain program.
``WND further reported that year that the Muslim chaplain program was
founded by a terror-supporting convict, while the Army's first Islamic
chaplain, who is still serving, has been associated with a charity
widely accused of serving as an al-Qaida front.
``Now, ISNA has announced that two of its former applicants for
chaplaincy were selected to serve on active duty in the United States
Army and Air Force.
`` `The significance of this news is that the Department of Defense .
. . has not selected an ISNA-endorsed chaplain for active duty in over
15 years,' said the ISNA press release.
``ISNA Chaplain Services Director and Islamic Endorsing Agent Abdul-
Rasheed Muhammad said in a statement that the two chaplains selected
for active duty are ready to serve Allah and the country--making the
statement in that order.
`` `After speaking by phone with both soldiers, it was more than
clear both were eager and ready to serve Allah and country'. . . `May
Allah bless our new chaplain candidates and their families as they
prepare for new challenges and opportunities in the Army and Air Force
Chaplain Corps,' said Muhammad.
``While the new chaplains' ties to ISNA has received some attention
in the conservative blogosphere in recent days, missing from the
conversation is the larger partnership between the U.S. military and
not just the ISNA but also other terror-tied groups.
``In fact, Muhammad himself, the ISNA's endorsing agent, has been
tied to a group accused of serving as an al-Qaida front.''
By the way, parenthetically, 1993 was the year in which we had
another terrorist attack, that being the first attempted bombing, or
the first bombing, of the Word Trade Center in an attempt to bring it
down and kill tens of thousands of Americans.
{time} 1415
``Since the Muslim chaplain program's inception in 1993, ISNA has
been the official endorsing agency of the new chaplains.
``In 2005, ISNA initiated a yearly Muslim chaplain conference that
includes leadership talks for chaplains in both the military and the
U.S. prison system.
``Discover the Networks notes that ISNA--through its Saudi-
government-backed affiliate, the North American Islamic Trust--
reportedly holds the mortgages on 50 percent to 80 percent of all
mosques in the U.S. and Canada.
`` `Thus the organization can freely exercise ultimate authority over
these houses of worship and their teachings,' states Discover the
Networks.
``ISNA was founded in 1981 by the Saudi-funded Muslim Students`
Association, which was founded partially by the Muslim Brotherhood. The
two groups are still partners.
``WND previously attended an MSA event at which violence against the
U.S. was urged by speakers.
`` `We are not Americans,' shouted one speaker, Muhammad Faheed, at
Queensborough Community College in 2003. `We are Muslims. The U.S. is
going to deport and attack us! It is us versus them! Truth against
falsehood! The colonizers and masters against the oppressed, and we
will burn down the master`s house!' ''
Well, Mr. Speaker, with those kind of comments coming at their
meetings, it is so wonderful that principles from these organizations
have such close ties with the current leadership in the country, in the
White House, in the State Department, and in the Justice Department.
[[Page H219]]
This article goes on:
``ISNA was named in a May 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document, `An
Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in
North America,' as one of the Brotherhood's likeminded `organizations
of our friends' who shared the common goal of destroying America and
turning it into a Muslim nation, according to Discover the Networks.
``Islam scholar Stephen Schwartz describes ISNA as `one of the chief
conduits through which the radical Saudi form of Islam passes into the
United States.'
``According to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, ISNA `is a radical
group hiding under a false veneer of moderation' that publishes a
bimonthly magazine, Islamic Horizons, that `often champions militant
Islamist doctrine.' The group also `convenes annual conferences where
Islamist militants have been given a platform to incite violence and
promote hatred,' states Emerson. Emerson cites an ISNA conference in
which al-Qaida supporter and PLO official Yusuf Al Qaradhawi was
invited to speak.
``Emerson further reports that in September of 2002, a full year
after 9/11, speakers at ISNA's annual conference still refused to
acknowledge Osama bin Laden's role in the terrorist attacks.
``Also, ISNA has held fundraisers for terrorists, notes Discover the
Networks. After Hamas leader Mousa Marzook was arrested and eventually
deported in 1997, ISNA raised money for his defense. The group also has
condemned the U.S. government`s post-9/11 seizure of the financial
assets of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
``ISNA, meanwhile, has an extensive relationship with the Obama
administration, which recently announced it is open to diplomacy with
the Muslim Brotherhood.''
Mr. Speaker, this is where I have to say, having visited with leaders
in the Middle East, Muslim leaders who are actually friends of the
United States, not in official open meetings, but when we get in
private, they ask the question: Why does your U.S. administration
continue to support the Muslim Brotherhood? Do you not understand the
Muslim Brotherhood has been at war with the United States since 1979,
and you have got friendly Muslims that want to help you--I would submit
that the current President of Egypt is one of those--and yet you are
insistent on helping the Muslim Brotherhood that is at war with the
United States? Oh, not with violence yet, but they claim they are
getting so much accomplished in taking over the United States without
violence, that they don't want to use that yet. That will come later if
necessary. But right now they are doing such a good job as advisers and
in important positions in the administration that they should not be
using violence.
Well, back to the article:
``The relationship began even before Obama took office.
``One week before last year's presidential inauguration''--again,
keeping in mind this article is from 2014.
``One week before last year's presidential inauguration, Sayyid
Syeed, national director of ISNA's Office for Interfaith and Community
Alliances, was part of a delegation that met with the directors of
Obama's transition team. The delegation discussed a request for an
executive order ending `torture.'
``ISNA President Mattson represented American Muslims at Obama's
inauguration, where she offered a prayer during the televised event.
Mattson also represented ISNA at Obama's Ramadan dinner at the White
House.
``In June 2009, Obama senior aide Valerie Jarrett invited Mattson to
work on the White House Council on Women and Girls, which Jarrett
leads.''
Yeah, that is what you want. You want someone who supports the Muslim
Brotherhood's idea that women don't have rights. They have no business
showing their face in public or driving or having property. Yeah, that
is what you want advising the White House on women's issues, for
heaven`s sake.
The article goes on:
``One month later, the Justice Department sponsored an information
booth at an ISNA bazaar in Washington, D.C.
``Also that month, Jarrett addressed ISNA's 46th annual convention.
According to the White House, Jarrett attended as part of Obama`s
outreach to Muslims.
``In February, Obama's top adviser on counter-terrorism, John
Brennan, came under fire for controversial remarks he made in a speech
to Muslim law students at an event sponsored by ISNA at New
York University.
``In his speech, Brennan, who later became CIA director, stated that
having a percentage of terrorists released by the U.S. return to
terrorist attacks `isn`t that bad,' since the recidivism rate for
inmates in the U.S. prison system is higher.
``He also criticized parts of the Bush administration's response to
9/11 as a `reaction some people might say was over the top in some
areas' that `in an overabundance of caution we implemented a number of
security measures and activities that upon reflection now we look back
after the heat of the battle has died down a bit we say they were
excessive, OK.'
``WND reported Brennan stated at the ISNA-organized event that the
Obama administration is working to calibrate policies in the fight
against terrorism that ensure Americans are `never' profiled.
``Speaking at the question-and-answer session, Brennan declared
himself a `citizen of the world.'
`` `We need to be looking at ourselves as individuals. Not the way we
look or the creed we have or our ethnic background. I consider myself a
citizen of the world,' he said.
``Brennan told the audience the Obama administration is trying to
`make sure that we as Americans can interact in a safe way, balance
policies in a way that optimizes national security but also optimizes
the opportunity in this country never to be profiled, never to be
discriminated against.' ''
Yes, that is right. Sure. If you hate America and you want America's
Western lifestyle and freedoms destroyed, you want women subjugated, we
shouldn't profile people just because they want America destroyed as
part of their religious beliefs. That kind of thinking gets a nation in
trouble. And, thus, we are in trouble.
This article was published this week, January 5, 2016, from Jennifer
Hickey, ``Ripe for Radicalization: Federal Prisons `Breeding Ground'
for Terrorists, Say Experts.'' Here we are in 2016 substantiating the
statements that Senator Chuck Schumer made back in 2003 that our
prisons have been, for years now, a breeding ground for radical
Islamism.
Under both Republican and Democratic administrations, we have allowed
people who have been named--and for which the Federal courts have said
there is plenty of evidence to support that they are co-conspirators in
financing terrorism and supporting terrorism--we have allowed them to
pick imams, approve imams, put imams in our military and in our
prisons. Is it any surprise that 13 years after Chuck Schumer raised
that issue, that since nothing has been done about it, that the Federal
prisons are a breeding ground for radical Islamists?
This quote from Representative Stephen Fincher, my friend from
Tennessee, says: ``Over the years, our Federal prisons have become a
breeding ground for radicalization.''
That is supportive of what Chuck Schumer said years ago.
In fact, this article by Carol Brown, December 5, 2014, american
thinker.com, ``Prisons are Breeding Grounds for Jihadist'':
``Muslims comprise 15% of the prison population. This number far
exceeds the percentage of Muslims in the general population. It is
eighteen times greater, to be exact.''
So there are 18 times more Muslims in Federal prison than the
percentage of Muslims in the general population. That raises issues,
questions, and problems.
``Put another way, there are about 2.4 million Muslims in the United
States and 350,000 of them are in jail. That means more than 12% of
Muslims in America are incarcerated.
``Reports on the number of prisoners who convert to Islam vary and
are framed in different ways. Some sources estimate 40,000 prisoners
per year convert. Others put the numbers closer to 135,000 per year.
Some posit that 80% of inmates who `find faith while in prison convert
to Islam.'
``One thing is for sure: The majority of those who convert to Islam
in prison
[[Page H220]]
are black, with as many as one in three black prisoners converting. The
number of Hispanic prisoners converting to Islam is also on the rise.
``These numbers are staggering. And the implications are serious, as
will be addressed further on in this article.
``There are numerous reasons why conversions to Islam are
skyrocketing in our jails.
``Many prisoners feel angry, disenfranchised, and yes, even
victimized and wronged by society. Many harbor a deep disdain for
America. They are, therefore, prime targets for recruitment to a
religious ideology that shares many of these attitudes.
``In addition, Islamic teachings are often framed as a noble code of
ethics to live by. Case in point: The Nation of Islam is the largest
prison ministry.''
I am sure they are meaning the largest prison ministry in the United
States.
{time} 1430
Mr. Speaker, this is going on as I speak. It has been going on for
the 13 years since Chuck Schumer brought it up in the Senate, and we
don't appear to have learned any lessons from this.
My friend Dana Rohrabacher is pushing that we invite the President of
Egypt, President el-Sisi, to come speak to a joint session of Congress.
I was talking to Chairman Royce about it. He believes it would be a
good idea.
Our majority whip, Steve Scalise, just met with President el-Sisi in
Egypt. I am thrilled he did. He is a Muslim leader who understands the
Muslim Brotherhood is a threat to freedom in Egypt and in America and
in Europe. It is time we did something about it to protect ourselves.
You don't have to profile Muslims, but you should be profiling those
who are studying radical Islam, like Qutb, like in his booklet
``Milestones,'' which Osama bin Laden said radicalized him--or helped.
Yet, this administration will not allow our Justice Department, our
intelligence departments and agencies, and our State Department to be
educated on radical Islam. So, of course, you are going to be admitting
a woman who takes a man's name that denotes a terrorist Islamic
Jihadist from hundreds of years ago, Tashfeen Malik.
Our Homeland Security has run off people who are real patriots, like
Phil Haney, and who are brilliant on the issue of radical Islam. We
have run them out.
The message is clear that you had better not study radical Islam and
you had better not know anything about radical Islam in Homeland
Security because, if you do, we will run you off if we don't do
something worse. Thank God Phil Haney had such a clean record. They
were looking for anything.
Our country is in trouble, and there are people who want to destroy
it. It is ridiculous that anybody still has to say: We know all Muslims
are not terrorists. Of course, they are not. But it is ridiculous to
continue to allow and to even encourage radical Islamist imams in our
prisons to transform prisoners into additional radical Jihadists, who
are going to go off like bombs, figuratively and literally, at some
point down the road.
We also have to look at our immigration policy when it comes to
continuing to allow people like al-Amoudi--who hates America, who
considers himself to be a person who could help bring about the global
caliphate, a person who is financing terrorism--have his wife come and
have a child in America.
Before he started trying to radicalize that country and take power
unto himself as if he were a dictator, Morsi's wife--Morsi, the former
President of Egypt--had a child here.
Do you think that child was being brought up to love America? Do you
think al-Amoudi's child was being raised to love America while his
parents were scheming to terrorize it?
Anwar al-Awlaki is one about whom my friends on both sides of the
aisle have discussed the proprieties or improprieties of having a
President just issue an order to kill an American citizen, Anwar al-
Awlaki, a man who led staffers in Muslim prayers right here on Capitol
Hill.
Capitol Hill staffers were led in prayer by a man who, ultimately,
the Obama administration--the President himself--considered to be so
dangerous he had to take him out with a drone strike in Yemen. He was
so dangerous to the United States that we couldn't even risk arresting
him later. He had to take him out with a bomb strike.
How was he an American citizen? His parents, who raised him to hate
America, came to America on student visas. They studied here and had
Anwar al-Awlaki. They took him back to Yemen and taught him to hate
America. He became so dangerous that even President Obama felt he had
to order a strike on an American citizen, without his having had a
trial, without due process. He felt he had to take him out with a drone
because that American citizen--an American citizen only because his
parents came here on visas--was too dangerous for them to do anything
else. It is time we started protecting our homeland, and we need an
administration that will do it.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, let me just add that the reports have been
that the Obama administration used the NSA to spy on Members of
Congress to help it keep the Iran treaty in play. Mr. Speaker, we have
got to get to the bottom of that.
If it turns out that our President was unconstitutionally spying on
Members of Congress, I do not care if they were all Democrats or
Republicans. I do not care. They may have been Democrats. It doesn't
matter.
If he were spying on Members of Congress--using the NSA or any other
government agency to spy on Members of Congress--we need to find out if
it happened. If he were, he needs to be removed from office, period.
Otherwise, we can't save the Nation.
I hope and pray those allegations are not true. I hope and pray that
the President of the United States did not have the NSA spying on
Members of Congress to help him with the Iran deal, to help him as he
was supporting the biggest supporters of terrorism in the world. I hope
and pray that is not true. I hope and pray it is not, but we need to
find out.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded not to engage in
personalities relating to the President.
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