[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2153]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         ENSURING EFFECTIVE OVERSIGHT OF U.S. TAXPAYER DOLLARS

  (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, the State Department has notified this House 
of the President's intent to transfer $86 million to provide vehicles, 
uniforms and body armor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' 
security forces. Yet on January 11, Abbas made the following remarks at 
a Fatah rally in Ramallah: ``Let 1,000 flowers bloom and let our 
rifles, all our rifles, all our rifles, be aimed at the occupation.''
  Mr. Speaker, we have seen this movie before. In 1996, the U.S. 
pledged $100 million to help Fatah defeat Hamas terrorists. But in 
2000, Yasser Arafat turned his American-funded security forces on 
Israel.
  Now, Abbas calls on rifles to be aimed at Israel again, and we are 
poised to give him $86 million to upgrade his security forces, without 
first establishing an independent audit regime.
  I urge my colleagues to apply the lessons of history and to increase 
the effective oversight of this taxpayer-funded program, which in the 
past has been turned against our allies in Israel.

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