[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 13385-13387]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            REMEMBERING 9/11

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Walberg). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is 
recognized for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. As always, it is an honor to speak on this floor where 
so much history has been made, where, after Pearl Harbor, President 
Franklin Roosevelt stood here in this Hall and announced that was a day 
that would live in infamy. There have been some great Americans from 
different walks of life, ages, races who do great things in this Hall. 
Sometimes we have to take a look and have some time of self-
examination; and 9/11--yesterday, 10 years after the worst attack in 
American history on our soil--is a good time to really take inventory 
of where we are, what have we learned, what have we done.
  We know that we have five who helped organize 9/11. They're being 
held at Guantanamo Bay. The man who acknowledges his role--and most say 
he was the leader, the instigator--Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is there, a 
very smart man. He can still be smart and be crazy. A very smart man.
  At a lengthy hearing during which he was interviewed by the judge in 
the military commission trial down at Guantanamo Bay--I've been there a 
couple of times. The design of that courtroom is absolutely ideal for 
the kind of trial that was to take place there of those five 
defendants, but they announced they intended to plead guilty back in 
December of 2008. That was before the new administration, including our 
Attorney General, Eric Holder, indicated that we wanted to give them a 
trial in New York City, itself. We wanted to bring those people to the 
heart of Manhattan, where some estimated it would cost not merely 
millions but potentially hundreds of millions for the security to have 
that trial there.
  And the fact was they had already announced they were going to plead 
guilty. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed made very, very clear in a lengthy 
interview there in court--it's on the record, and we have the verbatim 
interview. He, under oath, such as it was, admitted enough detail. It 
was very clear this man was behind the killing of thousands of 
Americans on 9/11.
  He is smart enough that he did his own translation and filed his 
pleading in response. The judge in the case before this administration 
took over was kind enough to declassify this pleading, and it can be 
found on my Web site at gohmert.house.gov. It can be found in a number 
of places. The things he says are extraordinary. Of course, he blames 
the United States.
  But just in case there are people, Mr. Speaker, that wonder do we 
really have the right guys that organized, planned, plotted to kill 
innocent fathers and mothers and children there at the World Trade 
Center, at the Pentagon, and, yes, apparently even here at our Nation's 
Capitol that some say is the most recognized building in the entire 
world, well, he says--and he quotes from the Koran.
  Thank God, most Muslims do not believe ``jihad'' means what the 
radicals believe. But make no mistake, just as it was in Afghanistan 
when the radical Islamists--the Taliban--took over Afghanistan, 
moderate Muslims were at risk because, to some like the Taliban, if you 
don't believe in Islam and the Koran exactly like they do, then you're 
eligible for a capital offense.

                              {time}  2110

  You can be put to death. You're not a proper believer. You could be 
cast aside as an infidel.
  So moderate Muslims are every bit as much at risk--even more so at 
times--than the rest of us infidels, according to the likes of Khalid 
Sheikh Mohammed.
  He quotes from the Koran in his pleading. It says: ``In God's book, 
verse 9, Al-Taubah, Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find 
them, and seize them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in each 
and every ambush.''
  Down at the bottom of page 4 of his pleading, he says: ``We do not 
possess your military might, not your nuclear weapons''--and 
parenthetically, I would interject, not yet. Iran is working on that, 
and certainly we can expect the terrorists will have the nuclear 
weapons once Iran has them.
  Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, on behalf of himself and the other 
codefendants, said, ``Nevertheless, we fight you with the almighty God. 
So if our act of jihad and our fighting with you cause fear and terror, 
then many thanks to God because it is him that has thrown fear into 
your hearts, which resulted in your infidelity, paganism, and your 
statement that God had a son and your Trinity beliefs.''
  Now, according to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a radical Islamist, the 
mere belief or statement that God had a son or that there is a holy 
Trinity is a capital offense worthy of the death penalty because you 
have associated some other person or entity with God.
  Then he quotes from the Koran. He says, God stated in his book, verse 
151, Al-Umran: ``Soon shall we cast terror into the hearts of the 
unbelievers for that they join companies with Allah, for which he has 
sent no authority. Their place will be the fire, and evil is the home 
of the wrongdoers.'' So once again, in his own legal pleadings, Khalid 
Sheikh Mohammed, on behalf of himself and four other codefendants, 
makes clear he felt like they were justified in inflicting capital 
punishment on what those of us who are somewhat sane in the world would 
say was an act of hatred, an act of war, an act worthy of the death 
penalty, itself.
  He goes on. There's quite a bit here in his six-page pleading, but he 
quotes from the Koran again: ``God has stated in his book, verse 14, 
Al-Hashir, They fight not against you even together except in fortified 
townships or from behind walls. Their enmity among themselves is very 
great. You would think they are united, but their hearts are divided. 
That is because they are a people who understand not.''
  He's right about that. As we have people who have tried to stand up 
and say these guys are thugs, they're hateful, they're evil, they 
deserve the death penalty for what they have admitted under oath in 
court that they did, they deserve the death penalty, we have people 
running around saying, no, no, no. Let's give them a show trial. Let's 
spend hundreds of millions of dollars to give them a show trial so they 
can spew their venom and their hatred out on all of the airways. That's 
not what they deserve.
  Under our system of justice--and people need to understand, Mr. 
Speaker, we go by the Constitution. And there is only one Court created 
in the Constitution that is not created by the United States Congress, 
and that is the Supreme Court. As my constitutional law professor used 
to make very clear, David Gwinn, he would say, if Congress has the 
power to create every court in the country, they have the power to 
dissolve them. They are congressionally created courts. Only the 
Supreme Court is a court they can't mess with the jurisdiction; that's 
set aside for them in the Constitution.
  We have the power under the Constitution to set up military 
commissions, tribunals. The Bush administration made a mistake in 
initially trying to set up a military commission on its own. That was 
not constitutionally appropriate. The Constitution gives that power to 
Congress. So once that was struck down, then we did it here in Congress 
in 2006. Of course, it included some mean-spirited, nasty words about 
people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,

[[Page 13386]]

who rejoiced at the terror Americans had on 9/11.
  They felt like ``enemy combatants'' was just too mean-spirited to 
call such a wondrous creature like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Let's be 
kinder and gentler with our treatment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. So in 
2009, the Democratically controlled House and Senate passed an 
amendment. We watered down ``enemy combatant.'' It was just so harsh 
about these fine people. They are now called officially ``unprivileged, 
alien, enemy belligerents.'' And I hope they don't take offense of 
being called ``enemies''; but since they call us their enemies, then 
perhaps it's not too harsh.
  Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in his pleading, goes on. He says, ``We will 
make our materials available to defend and deter and egress you and the 
filthy Jews from our countries.'' Yeah, this wonderful creature, Khalid 
Sheikh Mohammed, has a real love for our Jewish friends both in the 
United States and Israel and around the world. What a good guy. I hope 
we didn't offend him by calling him an ``enemy belligerent'' or an 
``enemy combatant.''
  But he said, ``God has ordered us to spend for jihad in his cause. 
This is evident, he says, in many Koranic verses. He goes on, and he 
says, ``We ask to be near to God. We fight you and destroy you and 
terrorize you. The jihad in God's cause is a great duty in our 
religion. We have news for you. The news is--'' these are Khalid Sheikh 
Mohammed's words ``--you will be greatly defeated in Africa and Iraq, 
and America will fall politically, militarily, and economically. Your 
end is very near, and your fall will be just as the fall of the towers 
on the blessed 9/11 day.
  ``We will raise from the ruins, God willing. We will leave this 
imprisonment with our noses raised high in dignity as the lion emerges 
from his den. We shall pass over the blades of the sword into the gates 
of heaven.'' He said, ``So we ask from God to accept our contributions 
to the great attack, the great attack on America, and to place our 19 
martyred brethren among the highest peaks in paradise.''
  ``Unprivileged, alien, enemy belligerent,'' according to the 
Democratically controlled House and Senate, 2009. He's not an enemy 
combatant; he's an unprivileged enemy belligerent who wants to destroy 
America.
  Now I know there are many Christians that I've heard from who are 
really torn over this issue of how a Christian should respond to 
hateful, evil attacks as we experienced on 9/11.

                              {time}  2120

  Some say, well, Jesus talked about turning the other cheek. Indeed he 
did. His Beatitudes that he gave in his Sermon on the Mount make clear 
that war is not something an individual is supposed to declare on 
another individual. And I don't try to impose my religious beliefs on 
somebody else, but it's important to have these discussions since we, 
for a little while longer, have the freedom of speech and freedom of 
religion even if we're not radical Islamists. So for a little while 
longer we can discuss this publicly.
  Anyone who believes the New Testament has to believe the book of 
Romans as well. And when you get to Romans 13:4 and it says, if you do 
evil, be afraid, it says, for our government is God's minister to you 
for good. But if you do evil be afraid, for our government does not 
bear the sword in vain. Our government is God's minister, an avenger to 
execute wrath on him who practices evil.
  Those of us who believe all that's in the New Testament also believe 
Jesus' words that God does work things all together for good for those 
who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.
  I don't know what all good things will come from this act of sheer 
evil and hatred on 9/11, that much hate that could bring down that many 
people and that much in the way of structure on the heads, on the 
bodies of innocent men and women, but I do know we should learn 
lessons.
  This government, whether you're a Christian, a Muslim, whether you're 
of the Jewish faith, whatever your faith, you have to understand, there 
needs to be a government in order to maintain order in society because 
this is not a perfect world and people are not perfect, and there will 
always be people bent on evil, bent on no good, and people who want to 
live in peace have to have governments in order to keep them safe as 
safe can be in a world where people exist who want to do evil.
  Jesus did say, Blessed are the peacemakers, but he also said, you 
know, if you say Racca, which was a crime back then, an offense, you'll 
have to answer to the courts. He anticipated there had to be an orderly 
government where people had to answer for their offenses and crimes 
against others.
  This is the government. We, the people of the United States, are the 
government, and every couple of years, there's a hiring day when people 
are supposed to examine the resumes, examine the backgrounds of those 
applying for the job to be servant. It's a hiring day. And we have a 
huge percentage of people who don't come out and even participate even 
though they're the government and they're supposed to hire servants to 
come in here and do the job of protecting them. That's the government's 
role.
  On 9/11, we had people who did evil. If you believe Romans, they 
should be afraid. And there is nothing prohibitive in our United States 
Constitution of someone who is an enemy of the United States, is not an 
American citizen, being tried in a military commission or tribunal as 
long as it's set up by the Congress. There is nothing unconstitutional 
about that no more than there is anything unconstitutional about the 
U.S. Government trying people in the United States military under the 
Uniform Code of Military Justice. There's nothing inappropriate about 
that under our Constitution. That's why, in my 4 years in the Army, 
people I knew were court-martialed, and they were tried under those 
rules that would not meet the requirements for someone who was not in 
the military.
  But the Constitution anticipates different people in different 
circumstances could have different types of trials. Nothing 
unconstitutional about that. And someone who is a foreign enemy of the 
United States, who commits, participates, aids, abets, encourages an 
act of war against the United States is worthy of being tried in a 
military tribunal, a military commission, and he's worthy of being put 
to death if capital punishment is the judgment of the tribunal or the 
commission.
  What is not worthy is people coming in and intervening when 
defendants who were responsible, admittedly, over and over, for killing 
3,000 Americans, and they're ready to plead guilty, they are pleading 
guilty, and they come in and say, Oh, not so fast. We want to give you 
a pulpit to spew your venom and hate and pay lots and lots of money.
  That's not worthy of this government. That's the way you lose 
countries, when people will not stand up when they are the government 
and defend the people they are charged with defending.
  Our role is to provide for the common defense against all enemies, 
foreign and domestic, and that means people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 
and others who would try to destroy this country and our freedoms. It 
should not happen.
  Do we wonder, some people say, well, it's so inappropriate to talk 
about Christianity at all. The Founders, we're told sometimes, they 
never meant for that kind of thing to go on. Well, let's see.
  I know, in my 4 years in the Army, I never had an officer who ordered 
that it was a violation, and it was a violation of his orders, to take 
God's name in vain. We'd have had a lot of people being court-martialed 
if that had been the case back when I was in. And I imagine that's true 
today.
  But Washington felt that we could not expect God to bless us and 
protect us and to help in the revolution if we were taking his name in 
vain, or soldiers were at the same time they were asking for his 
blessing. Washington said so many things. But he also ordered, this is 
an order of May 2, 1778, to the troops at Valley Forge, Commander-in-
Chief, and these are Washington's signed orders:

[[Page 13387]]

  Commander-in-Chief directs that divine service be performed every 
Sunday at 11:00 in each brigade which has a chaplain. Those brigades 
which have none will attend the places of worship nearest to them. It 
is expected that officers of all ranks will, by their attendance, set 
an example for their men. While we are zealously performing the duties 
of God, citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive 
to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of 
patriot, it should be our highest glory to laud the more distinguished 
character of Christian.
  And he did capitalize the word ``Christian.''
  We're not advocating that everybody in America should be a Christian, 
because we have freedom to do whatever we wish--worship, not worship. 
But it is not right to try to rewrite history to say the things that 
happened did not happen, the things that we were founded on did not 
happen.
  Jefferson and Madison both attended church just down the hall each 
Sunday they were in Washington, D.C., at the biggest church in the 
District of Columbia, held in the House of Representatives.
  Thomas Jefferson not only did not think it was inappropriate or 
unconstitutional to have a nondenominational Christian worship service 
in the House of Representatives, but he often had the Marine Band come 
play hymns for their worship services. He's the guy that coined the 
phrase, ``separation of church and state.''
  When you hear someone say there's a wall of separation that the 
Constitution says we must have, that the Constitution says we must have 
separation of church and state, you know, you may be dealing with an 
intelligent person, but you're dealing with an ignorant person, because 
those things are not in the Constitution. They were in a letter written 
to the Danbury Baptists by Thomas Jefferson.

                              {time}  2130

  How about John Quincy Adams? He wrote this September, 1811: ``So 
great is my veneration for the Bible and so strong my belief, that when 
duly read and meditated on, it is of all books in the world that which 
contributes most to make men good, wise and happy--that the earlier my 
children begin to read it, the more steadily they pursue the practice 
of reading it throughout their lives, the more lively and confident 
will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens of their country, 
respectable members of society.''
  And that's a man who believed he was called to run for the House of 
Representatives after he was defeated for a second term for President.
  Or how about this general order: ``President, Commander in Chief of 
the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the 
Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The 
importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred 
rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the 
best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine 
Will demand that Sunday labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the 
measure of strict necessity.''
  By the way, this was Abraham Lincoln, his order as Commander in 
Chief. He said: ``The discipline and character of the national forces 
should not suffer nor the cause they defend be imperiled by the 
profanation of the day or name of the Most High.
  ``At this time of public distress,'' adopting the words of Washington 
in 1776, ``men may find enough to do in the service of God and their 
country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.''
  Abraham Lincoln also in 1863 said this: ``We have forgotten God. We 
have forgotten the gracious hand that preserved us in peace, and 
multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly 
imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings 
were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
  ``Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-
sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too 
proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us then to humble 
ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and 
to pray for clemency and forgiveness.''
  We have such a rich heritage. But we need to understand where we come 
from if we're going to understand where we're going.
  How about Franklin D. Roosevelt's prayer on June 6, 1944, D-day, when 
he knew thousands of Americans were being killed on the beaches of 
Normandy. And he led the Nation in prayer over the radio, an emotional 
prayer it is. It can be found online without a problem.
  Jefferson's memorial shows this quote: ``God who gave us life gave us 
liberty. And can the liberties of a Nation be thought secure when we 
have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the 
people that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for 
my country when I reflect our God is just; that His justice cannot 
sleep forever.''
  I don't know what good God will work from the evil terror of 9/11. 
But I know something I saw on 9/11 and on
9/12, and this is the 10th anniversary of the day we came together as a 
Nation like I'd never seen before.
  I went into the Army on active duty after Vietnam was over. It was 
not a good time to be in the military at all. We were sometimes ordered 
not to wear our uniforms off-post at Fort Riley, occasionally Fort 
Benning, because of violence that could be inflicted on military 
members if they were caught by themselves. It was not a good time. I've 
been spit on in uniform. It was not a good time to be in the military.
  I really didn't think I would ever see the level of patriotism again 
that people saw after World War II.
  And then came 9/11. And people in this country that had called police 
and law enforcement ``pigs''; people who had been irritated and angry 
at fire department personnel because they were slowing things down, 
getting in the way; people who were upset with ambulances and EMTs for 
getting in their way; people who were upset with the military had a new 
profound appreciation like could never have happened without those evil 
men committing those acts of hatred.
  That night of September 11, 10 years ago, I went to a church I was 
not a member of, and we prayed--people from all walks, all ages, all 
races--we prayed together. We held hands. We asked God for protection 
like the children of Israel did when they knew they had no other place 
to turn but than the God Jehovah.
  And the next day in our town square, like thousands and thousands of 
town squares around America, we gathered, we prayed, we spoke, we sang 
``Amazing Grace,'' we sang ``God Bless America. That is a prayer. We 
held hands. And it hit me: Martin Luther King, Jr., had a dream of some 
day seeing people judged for the content of their character, not the 
color of their skin. And as I held hands and looked around at all of 
these hundreds of people in our town square holding hands and being of 
one heart, it hit me--a small glimpse of the dream he had. And it's 
beautiful.
  That day there were no Euro-Americans, there were no Anglo-Americans, 
African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans. There were no 
hyphenated Americans 10 years ago today. We were Americans. May God 
grant that we will return to that sense of unity and purpose once 
again.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________