[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 104 (Wednesday, June 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2082-S2085]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



             Unanimous Consent Request--Executive Calendar

  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to support the 
nomination of Ambassador Elizabeth Richard to be Coordinator for 
Counterterrorism.
  Ambassador Richard is an eminently qualified candidate to lead the 
State Department's Bureau of Counterterrorism, and it is well past time 
that we confirm her nomination. Having already served our country as 
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Ambassador Richard is deeply familiar with 
the geostrategic and counterterrorism issues facing the Middle East.
  Throughout her career, she has worked across the region to advance 
U.S. national security interests and support the safety of the American 
people. That is why I believe she is exceptionally qualified to serve 
as the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, and it is a role that needs to 
be filled urgently.
  The counterterrorism challenges that we currently face and could face 
in the future are crystalized in the detention and displaced person 
camps in Syria. Mingled together in camps across northeastern Syria are 
an estimated 12,000 suspected ISIS fighters and 60,000 women and 
children who have possible ISIS affiliation. The humanitarian 
conditions in those detainee camps are dire. And compounding the 
pressure of ISIS extremists are inadequate medical facilities, 
insufficient sanitation, and lack of access to schooling.
  Last fall, the Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by U.S. troops, 
completed the 24-day security operation which yielded 300 ISIS 
operative terrorists and freed 6 women from slavery.
  This is a crisis waiting to happen.
  I have heard very directly from General Kurilla, who is the head of 
CENTCOM, about his concerns at the detainee camps. This is another 
reason why we urgently need a senior official in place to lead the U.S. 
Government's efforts to work toward closing the camps, to address the 
humanitarian and security concerns in the camps, and to coalesce the 
international support that is needed to achieve the enduring defeat of 
ISIS.
  Under the Biden administration, the Coordinator for Counterterrorism 
has also served as the ISIS Detainee Coordinator. That is a role which 
my bipartisan legislation, the Syria Detainee and Displaced Persons 
Act, would codify. Along with Senators Graham, Menendez, and Risch, I 
introduced this legislation to ensure that the U.S. Government has a 
senior official working to coordinate all lines of effort to address 
the causes and consequences of the ISIS detainee camps in Syria.
  The creation of this position was originally a recommendation of the 
Syria Study Group, and it would empower the coordinator to lead on all 
diplomatic engagements and the planning regarding the future of ISIS 
detainees. But as Ambassador Richard's nomination to be the Coordinator 
for Counterterrorism has been stalled by Republicans, this important 
position has been unfilled.
  Right now, we have hundreds of general officers who are being held up 
by one of our Republican colleagues. They can't take their promotions 
and move on to their next deployments because they are being held up. 
We have multiple ambassadorial nominees who are being held up, like 
Ambassador Richard.
  We hear that one of our colleagues from Ohio is planning to hold up 
all nominees to the Justice Department.
  These are not games we are playing here. These are not games. These 
are serious issues that affect the ability of the United States to 
compete in a global environment, and holding up the people whom we need 
in positions to address the critical challenges facing this country is 
really just unacceptable.
  I hope we can move Ambassador Richard's nomination, just as I hope 
our colleagues are going to stop their obstructionism and let us move 
on the other nominees who are critical to ensuring our national 
security.
  With that in mind, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to 
the consideration of the following nomination: Calendar No. 144, 
Elizabeth H. Richard, to be Coordinator for Counterterrorism; that the 
Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; 
that if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid 
upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the 
Senate's action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CRUZ. Reserving the right to object, I agree with the Senator 
from New Hampshire that this position at the State Department is 
important, and it should be filled by someone qualified and someone who 
will use the position to stand up to the terrorists who target 
Americans all across the world. Unfortunately, Ms. Richard--her record 
makes her singularly unqualified for this post.

  The Biden administration has put forward many troubling and radical 
nominees during the past 2\1/2\ years. Indeed, the nominees who have 
been put forth by this President are more extreme, are more radical 
than any nominees I have ever seen in my lifetime.

[[Page S2083]]

  I will say, unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues will rubberstamp 
whatever radical is put on this floor, and they have demonstrated an 
unwillingness to stand up and reject even the most extreme nominees 
submitted.
  If you look at Ms. Richard's record, and in particular her time as 
Ambassador to Lebanon, her record, catastrophically, when it concerns 
terrorists, is to downplay the threat of terrorists, to appease the 
terrorists, and even, astonishingly, to fund the terrorists.
  While in Lebanon, Ms. Richard established a clear record of 
effectively boosting the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. And for 
all practical matters, her tenure as Ambassador demonstrates that she 
aided and assisted Hezbollah rather than standing strong against them.
  Let me give you three examples to demonstrate these points. Elizabeth 
Richard shielded Hezbollah while we were fighting for Amer Fakhoury's 
release. Ms. Richard consistently sought to downplay the threat posed 
by Hezbollah.
  Take the case of Amer Fakhoury, an American citizen who was held 
hostage by the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese Government while he was 
dying of cancer. The Senator from New Hampshire knows this case well 
because Mr. Fakhoury and his family are constituents of hers in the 
State of New Hampshire. She and I worked together closely, 
aggressively, fighting to secure his release from captivity. Amer 
Fakhoury was an American citizen, a beloved family man, and a small 
business owner who traveled to Lebanon in September of 2019. While he 
was there, he was abducted; he was illegally detained; he was beaten; 
and he was held hostage. He was suffering from stage IV cancer, and his 
symptoms were exacerbated by the beatings that he received at the hands 
of Lebanese security officials who were looking to extract a false 
confession.
  The Senator from New Hampshire and I came together to pressure the 
Lebanese Government to free Mr. Fakhoury. Together, we introduced 
legislation to impose sanctions that would have brought down the 
Lebanese political class unless they immediately released him. When it 
became public that Senator Shaheen and I, together, were advancing our 
legislation toward passage in the Senate, Mr. Fakhoury was freed. Good 
news. Success--a bipartisan success, freeing an American hostage in 
captivity in Lebanon.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Fakhoury passed away from cancer just 5 months 
after he came home to the United States, but at least, together, we 
were able to ensure that he did so surrounded by his family and not by 
the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese Government thugs who had held him 
hostage.
  Why did it take Senator Shaheen and me coming together on the floor 
of the Senate to target the Lebanese Government and force them to 
release an American hostage? Well, one of the significant reasons it 
took action at the Senate level is because the U.S. Embassy in Beirut 
and our Ambassador there were effectively running interference for the 
Lebanese Government, were fighting against us and effectively running 
interference for Hezbollah. And who was our Ambassador at the time? 
Elizabeth Richard.
  I want to read you what Mr. Fakhoury's family says about that and 
what they say about President Biden's nomination of Ms. Richard. They 
said:

       As the family of the late U.S. hostage, Amer Fakhoury, we 
     are shocked by the news that Ambassador Richard is being 
     confirmed as the next counterterrorism [czar] in the State 
     Department. Our father would still be here today if the U.S. 
     embassy under Ambassador [Richard] prioritized an American 
     citizen's life first instead of catering to the Hezbollah 
     backed Lebanese government.

  These are the words of the family of Amer Fakhoury, whom you see 
here, constituents of the Senator from New Hampshire. And this is what 
they say about the Senate and about the nominee whom the Senate is 
being asked to confirm; that this is a nominee who is responsible for 
accelerating the death of their father because she refused to stand up 
to Hezbollah.
  Second example. Ms. Richard did not just establish a record of 
downplaying Hezbollah's terrorism. She also consistently sought to 
appease the Iranian-controlled terror group. At the beginning of 2020, 
the U.S. Armed Forces killed Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian regime arch-
terrorist with blood on his hands of hundreds of American service men 
and women whom he had murdered.
  I will note that the Senate subsequently passed language that I 
authored specifically praising President Trump and our Armed Forces for 
the operation taking out Qasem Soleimani. The vote on the floor of the 
Senate was 64 to 34. One of the ``yea'' votes was my colleague from New 
Hampshire, Senator Shaheen. Meanwhile, the Trump administration sent a 
quick response force to our Embassy in Lebanon to protect it from 
retaliation by Iran and Hezbollah.
  Yet again, American citizens' lives were in danger, and what did Ms. 
Richard do? She secretly sent them away in defiance of the political 
leadership of the State Department and behind the backs of Secretary 
Pompeo and the State Department's No. 2 officer, both of whom had been 
confirmed by this body. She secretly sent them away, directly 
endangering lives of the men and women in our Embassy.
  Now, why did she do that? Well, this deeply troubling incident was 
first reported by Politico, and Politico explained her reasoning. First 
and foremost, she said, she didn't want to antagonize Hezbollah. 
Despite threats to the Embassy and despite an obligation to protect the 
lives of the Americans who worked there, Ms. Richard left them exposed 
and vulnerable because her policy over and over again was to appease 
and avoid confronting Hezbollah.
  Finally, Ms. Richard did not just downplay and appease terrorists; in 
several cases during her tenure in Lebanon, she actively funded 
Hezbollah allies.
  One of the many corrupt branches of the Lebanese Government is the 
Internal Security Forces or ISF. According to one Lebanon expert who 
recently wrote about the group, they are ``the Hezbollah auxiliary 
forces who run counterintelligence for the terror group.'' They do 
Hezbollah's ``counterintelligence dirty work.''
  What does that mean in plain language? It means that they break up 
the Israeli spy networks and espionage rings that our allies use to 
track Hezbollah's threats and Iran's threats. That is what they do. It 
is what they have always done. Just recently, they announced that they 
had broken up 17 Israeli networks. The damage was incalculable to the 
safety and security of our friend and ally, the State of Israel, and 
also to the safety and security of America. And in 2022, Hezbollah 
publicly heaped praise on the ISF for all the work they do.
  What did Ms. Richard do when she was in Lebanon? She pushed for 
policies to fund and boost the ISF with American taxpayer dollars. She 
even oversaw the building of the ISF academy, funded by American tax 
dollars.
  I wish we had a nominee for this post whom I could enthusiastically 
support. I wish I were not obliged to come down and object to an 
extreme nominee whose record demonstrates she is unfit and unqualified 
to serve in this post, but unfortunately President Biden has not given 
me that choice.
  Having examined Ms. Richard's record, the only conclusion is that her 
approach to counterterrorism consistently is to downplay terrorism, to 
appease the terrorists, and even to fund terrorist groups and their 
enablers. That approach is utterly disqualifying for a nominee for 
Coordinator of Counterterrorism. It is a policy that has had terrible 
consequences when she pursued it in the Middle East, and it would have 
terrible consequences if she took it from Lebanon and applied it 
globally, appeasing not just Hezbollah but every other terrorist on 
Earth.
  The Iranian regime right now--the Ayatollah right now--is pursuing 
murderous terrorism, including against Americans, right now. The 
Ayatollah right now has hired a hit team with the intention of 
murdering the former Secretary of State of the United States, Mike 
Pompeo. Secretary Blinken confirmed at the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee, on my questioning, that the State Department is spending $2 
million a month providing security to Secretary Pompeo because Iran is 
actively trying to murder him.
  We need a Coordinator of Counterterrorism who will stand up to Iran, 
who will stand up to Hezbollah, who will stand up to Hamas, who will 
stand up

[[Page S2084]]

to al-Qaida, who will stand up to al-Nusra, who will stand up to ISIS, 
who will stand up to every terrorist in the world who seeks to murder 
American citizens.
  We need a Coordinator for Counterterrorism whose record is not so 
extreme that the grieving family of a hostage is telling the Senate:

       Our father would still be here today if the U.S. embassy 
     under Ambassador [Richard] prioritized an American citizen's 
     life first instead of catering to the Hezbollah backed 
     Lebanese government.

  For these reasons, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  The Senator from New Hampshire.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am very disappointed that Senator Cruz 
continues to hold up a nomination that is so critical to our national 
security.
  We need a counterterrorism coordinator in place. We need that to 
ensure that the complex issues that require a whole-of-government 
approach have the attention and focus that are needed to advance U.S. 
policy and to protect this country.
  This isn't a partisan issue. As you pointed out, I voted with the 
majority to condemn Soleimani and to support the strike that took him 
out. But we have been without a Senate-confirmed coordinator for over 2 
years, and it is past time that we confirm Ambassador Richard.
  I think my colleague is punishing Ambassador Richard, who served for 
most of her tenure under a Republican administration, under former 
President Trump. So if you didn't agree with what she was doing, that 
was the Trump administration that was in place during most of her 
years.
  I am very familiar with the tragic case of Amer Fakhoury, who was a 
constituent of mine, and his family I still continue to be in touch 
with. I worked very hard with his family, with Robert O'Brien, the 
National Security Advisor under the Trump administration, and I 
appreciated Senator Cruz's help on that sanctions legislation. But I 
don't remember Senator Cruz on all of those calls we had almost weekly 
with Ambassador Richard to talk about what else we might be able to do 
to be able to free Amer Fakhoury.
  It is a tragic case, but punishing a former ambassador for U.S. 
policy in Lebanon is not the way to empower future diplomats to do what 
we need to have them do. It is ensuring that they get into their 
position and that they support the policies.
  I am afraid that your opposition--just like all of the opposition 
that we are hearing from our colleague Senator Tuberville on the 
military promotions and that we are hearing from our colleague J.D. 
Vance on holding up judicial appointments--is going to have a chilling 
effect on the ability of our diplomats to do what they need to do.

  In fact, on Ambassador Richard's watch, the United States imposed 
more sanctions designations on Hezbollah individuals and entities than 
it had ever done previously.
  I am just going to read some of these because I think they are 
telling, as you talk about how weak she was on terrorists.
  In January 9, 2017, Ali Damush and Mustafa Mughniyeh were sanctioned 
for support for Hezbollah.
  On February 3--I am going to have trouble reading all of these 
names--Hasan Deghan Ebrahimi, who is an IRGC official who was based in 
Lebanon at the time, Muhammad Farhat, Yahya al-Hajj, and several 
affiliated companies in Lebanon were sanctioned for operating a support 
network for the IRGC-QF.
  On May 16, Barly Offshore, a Lebanese-based front company to support 
transactions from Syria, was sanctioned.
  On May 19, Hashem Safieddine was sanctioned for serving as a senior 
leader in Hezbollah.
  On November 1, the Department maintained and amended a prior 
designation of the Azzam Brigades as a foreign terrorist organization, 
citing its role in the 2014 attack in Lebanon. That was in 2017.
  In 2018, on February 2, Lebanon-based Jihad Muhammad Qansu, Ali 
Muhammad Qansu, Issam Ahmad Saad, Nabil Mahmoud Assaf, and Iraq-based 
Abdul Latif Saad and Muhammad Badr-Al-Din for acting for or on behalf 
of Hezbollah member and financier Adham Tabaja or his company, Al-Inmaa 
Engineering and Contracting, were sanctioned.
  On April 18, Barakat transnational criminal organization--also known 
as Barakat alien smuggling organization--Syria, Lebanon, United Arab 
Emirates, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Venezuela, Panama, 
Mexico, for smuggling Syrians and Lebanese into the United States 
across the southwestern U.S. border.
  On May 15, Qasir Muhammad--Mohammed Jaafar; AKA Fadi; AKA Gholi, 
Hossein; AKA Majid; AKA Salah, Shaykh--for acting on behalf of 
Hezbollah and working with the IRGC-QF to transfer funds.
  On May 16, Hassan Nasrallah--I am sure you remember that--the 
secretary-general of Hezbollah, alongside Naim Qasim, Muhammad Yazbak, 
Husayn Al-Khalil, and Ibrahim al-Amin al-Sayyid, for their roles in 
Hezbollah's Shura Council, the primary decision-making body in 
Hezbollah, were sanctioned.
  On May 17--I mean, these go on for three more pages, all of the 
designations of sanctions that were made during Ambassador Richard's 
tenure.
  So I think the Senator from Texas has a different understanding of 
what happened in Lebanon. I don't think these are the actions of 
someone who is soft on Hezbollah.
  But, as I said earlier, unfortunately, Ambassador Richard's 
nomination is not an outlier. Around the world, the United States faces 
reduced diplomatic influence because of partisan obstruction by our 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
  When Ambassadors are not in place to advance U.S. interests, it is 
the American people who pay the price because without confirmed 
Ambassadors, we cannot effectively advocate on behalf of U.S. 
businesses that need support or advance democratic reform agendas to 
secure investments overseas. Without confirmed Ambassadors, we cannot 
advance our national security interests. Some countries refuse to speak 
to U.S. representatives without an ambassador in place. Without 
confirmed Ambassadors, we cannot effectively help detained or 
imprisoned Americans overseas.
  Ambassador Richard did everything in her capacity to secure the 
release of my constituent, Mr. Fakhoury. As I said, Senator Cruz may 
not recognize this because he wasn't on those calls that we did with 
the Ambassador on a regular basis. But I can tell Senator Cruz that she 
did everything she could amid a challenging political environment to 
bring Mr. Fakhoury home.
  But now, instead of confirming Ambassadors, Senator Cruz would rather 
prevent American diplomats from doing their jobs.
  I would add one other very concerning trend about all of these 
Ambassadors who are on hold, and that is that so many of them are 
women.
  At one point earlier in the administration, Senator Cruz was holding 
the nominations of 23 women, including those nominated to be 
Ambassadors to France, Spain, and NATO, as well as the heads of the 
Near East Affairs and Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureaus, at a 
time when we should be swiftly confirming our Ambassadors.
  We just had a hearing in the State and Foreign Operations 
Appropriations Subcommittee, and we were talking about the challenges 
that we face competing with the PRC and China as we look at their Belt 
and Road Initiative, as we look at the money they have to spend around 
the world. One of the points our colleague from South Carolina, Lindsey 
Graham, made--he quoted General Mattis, the former Secretary of 
Defense, who pointed out that if we don't have soft power, if we don't 
have these Ambassadors in place--that is my addition--then we need more 
bullets because we don't have the capability to do the diplomacy that 
deters conflict. That is why we need this nominee in place. That is why 
we need to move forward, and that is why we need to ensure that we 
protect the national security of the United States.

  I am disappointed because, as my colleague points out, he and I have 
worked together on a number of issues around national security. So I 
would have hoped that he would be more supportive of getting a nominee 
in place who could address counterterrorism.
  So, Mr. President, with that, I will yield the floor and continue to 
come

[[Page S2085]]

down to support efforts to put in place the Ambassadors we need to 
fight back against our adversaries around the world.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
  Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 
10 minutes prior to the scheduled rollcall votes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.