[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17062-17065]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1450
                 PRESIDENT MOHAMED MORSI'S ALLEGIANCES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Gohmert) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. As most anyone can tell you, it's important to know who 
your friends are and who your enemies are. That's absolutely true when 
it comes to knowing who to deal with favorably and unfavorably when it 
comes to foreign relations, when it comes to gifts to foreign nations.
  An article from December 11, by Maxim Lott says the following:

       Key lawmakers are expressing concerns about the Obama 
     administration's plan to send 20 F-16 fighter jets to Egypt, 
     where new President Mohamed Morsi's allegiances are as 
     uncertain as his grip on power.
       Under a foreign aid deal signed in 2010, when Morsi's U.S.-
     friendly predecessor Hosni Mubarak was in charge, the U.S. is 
     giving the planes to Egypt's air force, which already has 
     more than 200 of the aircraft. The first four jets are to be 
     delivered beginning January 22, a source at the naval air 
     base in Fort Worth, where the planes have been undergoing 
     testing, told FoxNews.com. But the $213 million gift is 
     raising questions on Capitol Hill as Morsi is under fire for 
     trying to seize dictatorial powers and allegedly siccing 
     thugs and rapists on protesters.

  That's the allegation.
  The article goes on:

       Florida Representative Vern Buchanan, who recently called 
     for ending foreign aid to Egypt altogether, said the Muslim 
     Brotherhood-backed Morsi government has been sending 
     increasingly troubling signals to Washington, and giving it 
     state-of-the-art fighter jets is a dangerous idea.

  It quotes Vern as saying:

       ``American tax dollars must not be used to aid and abet any 
     dictatorial regime that stands with terrorists.''
       Representative Mac Thornberry from Texas, vice chairman of 
     the House Armed Services Committee told FoxNews.com Egypt is 
     a wildcard under Morsi.
       ``At this point, we don't know where Egypt is headed,'' 
     Thornberry said. ``We should be cautious about driving them 
     away, but we should also be cautious about the arms we 
     provide.''

  The article says:

       Just last week, vigilante supporters of Morsi captured 
     dozens of protesters, detaining and beating them before 
     handing them over to police. According to human rights

[[Page 17063]]

     advocates, Morsi-backed groups have also been accused of 
     using rape to intimidate female protesters who have gathered 
     in Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest a sharia-based 
     constitution and Morsi's neutering of the nation's legal 
     system.
       The U.S. Government ordered and paid for the fighter jets 
     for Egypt's military back in 2010. But since Mubarak's 
     ouster, the democratically elected Morsi has sent mixed 
     signals about whether he wants an alliance with Washington, 
     even meeting with leaders in Iran earlier this year.
       ``The Morsi-led Muslim Brotherhood government has not 
     proven to be a partner for democracy, as they had promised, 
     given the recent attempted power grab,'' a senior Republican 
     congressional aid told FoxNews.com.
       Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen from Florida, who chairs 
     the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, recently criticized 
     U.S. military aid to Egypt. She said:
       ``The Obama administration wants to simply throw money at 
     an Egyptian Government that the President cannot even clearly 
     state is an ally of the United States.''
       The package had to be approved by lawmakers in Washington. 
     While the basic F-16 has been a military workhorse for top 
     Air Forces for more than 25 years, the cockpit electronics 
     are constantly updated and the models Egypt is getting are 
     the best defense contractor Lockheed Martin makes.
       ``This is a great day for Lockheed Martin and a testament 
     to the enduring partnership and commitment we've made to the 
     government of Egypt,'' said John Larson, vice president, 
     Lockheed Martin F-16 programs. ``We remain committed to 
     providing our customer with a proven, advanced fourth 
     generation multirole fighter.''
       ``In an air combat role, the F-16's maneuverability and 
     combat radius exceed that of all potential threat fighter 
     aircraft,'' the U.S. Air Force description of the plane 
     reads.
       ``The F-16 can fly more than 500 miles, deliver its weapons 
     with superior accuracy, defend itself against enemy aircraft, 
     and return to its starting point. An all-weather capability 
     allows it to accurately deliver ordnance during nonvisual 
     bombing conditions.''
       A Pentagon spokesman said the United States and Egypt have 
     had an important alliance that is furthered by the transfer:
       ``The U.S.-Egypt defense relationship has served as the 
     cornerstone of our broader strategic partnership for over 30 
     years,'' said Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Miller. ``The 
     delivery of the first set of F-16s in January 2013 reflects 
     the U.S. commitment to supporting the Egyptian military's 
     modernization efforts. Egyptian acquisition of F-16s will 
     increase our military's interoperability and enhance Egypt's 
     capacity to contribute to regional mission sets.''
       But Malou Innocent, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato 
     Institute, warned that Egypt's murky intentions could lead to 
     the prospect of U.S. ally Israel facing an air assault from 
     even more U.S. made planes.
       ``Should an overreaction by Egypt spiral into a broader 
     conflict between Egypt and Israel, such a scenario would put 
     U.S. officials in an embarrassing position of having supplied 
     massive amounts of military hardware to both belligerents. 
     Given Washington's fiscal woes, American taxpayers should no 
     longer be Egypt's major arms supplier.''

                              {time}  1500

  There was an article that came out in September of 2012 after the 9/
11 horrific killing--murdering--of our Ambassador and three other 
Americans and of the wounding of other Americans who, apparently, this 
administration is keeping under wraps so that Members of Congress 
cannot interview them and find out what really went on. Even after the 
administration sent out Ambassador Rice with false talking points, we 
can't find out who created the false talking points. It apparently 
started out being more correct, but it became false in the way they 
were used, so they provided such false information to numerous networks 
and to people in America and around the world.
  One thing we do know is that we have the President on video and 
accurately quoted with this quote. He gave an interview with Telemundo 
on September 16, 2012, during which President Obama said and, I 
believe, used the pronoun ``them'':

       I don't think we would consider Egypt an ally, but we don't 
     consider them an enemy. They are a new government that is 
     trying to find its way.

  Yet we've still got people in our Air Force at the incredibly able 
Lockheed Martin facility who are not aware that Egypt is no longer an 
ally or that the Muslim Brotherhood won the election and that they are 
about to push through a sharia-based constitution that will further 
persecute Christians and Jews.
  You have a leader in Morsi who, yes, helped to temporarily suspend 
the altercation in the Gaza Strip with the massive number of rockets 
that were being flown out of the Gaza Strip into Israel--a constant 
death threat hanging over Israel. We haven't learned of anything that 
would indicate that he is slowing the growing importation, through 
tunnels and otherwise, into the Gaza Strip of more and bigger rockets 
that threaten Israel, and the President of the United States does not 
know if Egypt is an ally. He wouldn't say they're an enemy yet, even 
though they didn't stop the protesters, as they are required to do, 
from climbing up on our Embassy walls, which is American property, or 
stop them from bringing down the American flag and running up the 
Muslim Brotherhood flag.
  Mr. Speaker, I'd humbly submit that, until we know for sure that 
Egypt is not an enemy, we should not be sending 20 F-16s--the most 
advanced generation of F-16s--to a country which many of its leaders 
have made clear they want Israel gone off the face of the Earth.
  Now, Lockheed Martin relied on the representations of the United 
States Government that we were going to buy these planes and give them 
to our ally Egypt. Perhaps it would have been good if this 
administration had remembered that the Mubarak administration in Egypt 
was an ally. They were an ally according to the agreement that this 
administration made with their friend and ally Hosni Mubarak, as the 
head of Egypt, to send them a gift of 20 F-16s; but they forgot that, 
and they supported the removal of Mubarak, who at least made some 
pretense of trying to keep the peace there on the border of Israel.
  Morsi, on the other hand, in coming from the Muslim Brotherhood, 
doesn't seem so inclined. Simply engaging Gaza in asking them to hold 
up on sending rockets in to mock, hit, potentially kill Israelis was a 
nice gesture; but it's hardly evidence of a substantial nature that 
this is an ally. That's why the President hasn't made clear we're 
absolutely certain now that they're our ally. Until we are absolutely 
certain they're an ally, we don't need to be sending them the means and 
methods to kill Israeli friends. The Israelis are suffering enough and, 
in part, due to bad judgment here in the United States.
  When others outside the United States asked us to go in and get rid 
of Qadhafi, despite this administration's alliances and relationship 
with Qadhafi, this administration decided to provide air cover and 
enable al Qaeda-backed revolutionaries to take out Qadhafi. Qadhafi was 
not a good man; he had blood on his hands. But after 2003, the Bush 
administration, followed by the Obama administration, was working with 
Qadhafi, and he was completely transparent about all the weapons he 
had. Not so with what's going on in Libya today.
  At some point, instead of the President of the United States trying 
to nullify the Constitution and saying, You know what, I disagree with 
that marriage law that Congress did, so we're going to ignore it, and 
as I speak, so it shall be the new law--that's what kings do and that's 
what pharaohs do. So it would seem a little bit hypocritical if you 
have someone from an administration who said, You know what, we don't 
like the immigration law, and so, as I speak it, so shall it be. I will 
make--I will pronounce--new law because I don't like what was duly 
passed by Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate and 
was signed by a prior President. So, as I speak new law, so shall it 
be. It just seems a little hypocritical if an administration like that 
were to turn around and say, You know, Morsi is just suspending civil 
rights in Egypt, and we're not sure that he's a good guy for doing 
that.
  That's very interesting because what you have in Egypt is a leader 
who is taking away civil rights, who is ignoring the existing law. He 
has backed off of some of the abuses of the law, but he just makes law 
as he sees fit.
  It's time that the people in America, Mr. Speaker, made it clear to 
the White House that it's the United States that your allegiance is 
owed to. It's not to NATO. It's not to the OIC.

[[Page 17064]]

Yes, we have alliances with them. It's not with the U.N., though we 
have agreements with them. Your number one alliance is to the people of 
the United States of America. When anyone is not a supporter--is not an 
ally--or is someone we're not sure of their ally status, it should not 
be a country that we start giving planes to even when the alliances are 
made with a prior administration, because this administration had a 
good working relationship with Mubarak sufficient to cause President 
Obama to work this deal with Hosni Mubarak, the leader of Egypt, and 
sufficient to make them want to just give Egypt under the leadership of 
Mubarak 20 F-16s. Once that leadership changes and we no longer know 
whether they're an ally, it is outrageous to send them, or to even 
contemplate sending them, planes.
  What you do with those 20 planes that we already agreed to buy as the 
U.S. Government and give away is you give them to someone you know is 
an ally. If you want to give them to somebody, give them to Israel. 
Israel believes in the same value of life as we do here in the United 
States. They believe in the equality of women. They believe in the 
value of children. They do not believe women and children are the 
property of some man. They have our values and they have had our back, 
so the best defense money we can spend is in providing a defense to 
Israel because any nation--look it up--any nation that has said they 
want to destroy the little Satan of Israel normally follows it up by 
wanting to destroy the big Satan, the United States. So, according to 
these wild-eyed radical terrorists, if they see Israel as the little 
Satan and want to hit Israel, we will be next. We're next on their 
agenda.

                              {time}  1510

  So it is good defense for the United States when we help protect our 
friend Israel. And the thought that this administration would even 
still entertain the possibility of sending 20 F-16s to Egypt after we 
supported the deposing of our ally, President Mubarak, is outrageous. 
And what I would hope is that somebody in the administration would say, 
Mr. President, we're going to look pretty stupid if we send 20 F-16s of 
the most advanced generation to Egypt when they're making waves about 
and some of their leadership thinks they ought to go ahead and get rid 
of Israel. And so maybe we'd better hold up on that. And you've got 
people like Congressman Gohmert over on the Hill who's talking about 
how stupid it would be to give 20 F-16s to a potential renegade 
government if they continue to abuse the civil rights of people in 
Egypt, he's talking about how stupid it would be, why don't we go 
forward and say we can't believe that anybody would think for a moment 
that we're going to send 20 F-16s to a country when the President has 
said we don't even know if they're an ally.
  I would hope that somebody would tell the President: Let's go out and 
say people like Gohmert need to calm down because we're not going to 
send them. And I would welcome that news. But until that happens, 
people need to be speaking up and letting the White House know this is 
outrageous. You don't send advanced aircraft as a gift to a country 
that has been less than helpful, and we're not even sure if they won't 
take out Israel or try when they get a chance.
  It's a different government. It's not the same country, not the same 
administration with whom we made an agreement. It hasn't continued 
under the same constitution or laws. We have to make sure that we have 
an ally, and we don't know that. In fact, the indications are 
constantly to the contrary.
  So as soon as Clinton goes out after Morsi, goes into Gaza, expresses 
great sympathy for the people in Gaza, despite the fact they took over 
a Gaza strip from Israel that Israel unilaterally gave away, hoping it 
would buy them a semblance of peace, and fully equipped with 
greenhouses and businesses and ways to make a living and ways to live 
in great sustenance there on the Gaza strip, they walked away from it, 
gave it away, and immediately the greenhouses were destroyed. The 
people are living there in poverty, and they could keep stirring up the 
venom of hatred among the people, although the people of Israel had 
just done an incredibly unilateral and generous thing, hoping to buy 
peace.
  But what we see over and over, whether it's in southern Lebanon, 
whether it's in the Gaza strip, going back historically, any time 
Israel has given away land hoping to buy some peace, not only have they 
not bought peace, that land they gave away has ultimately at some point 
been used as a staging area from which to attack it. How sad would that 
be that Israel's incredibly generous gift of the Gaza strip, with ways 
to make a living and have full sustenance, plenty to eat, they gave 
that as a gift. They took the land and destroyed their ways of 
sustenance.
  And then, the ultimate irony, on top of the irony of that being used 
as a staging area to launch rockets on a continuous basis into Israel, 
how ironic if that ends up being the flyover area for new F-16s that we 
give to Egypt, that Egypt uses in an effort to attack Israel once 
again. We cannot allow the continued attacks on our allies. Israel has 
been an ally. Israel is an ally. Israel is operating under the same 
rules of government that they have when they have been our close ally. 
They've made mistakes. So have we. But they're our friend. And friends, 
as I saw when I was down in Florida not long ago, a billboard said, 
``Friends don't let friends get nuked.'' We need to take that to heart. 
It is done a bit tongue-in-cheek, of course.
  But this article from back in September, the day after 9/11, the 
President said in this article, September 12, from NBC's Shawna Thomas:

       President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that while he does 
     not believe Egypt is an ally of the United States, he also 
     doesn't consider the country an enemy. `I think that we are 
     going to have to see how they respond to this incident,' 
     Obama said in an interview with Telemundo anchor Jose Diaz-
     Balart, host of Noticiero Telemundo. He was referring to 
     Tuesday's protests in Egypt, during which demonstrators, 
     angered by a movie trailer parodying Prophet Muhammad, 
     breached the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

  The President continued:

       Certainly in this situation, what we're going to expect is 
     that (the Egyptian government is) responsive to our 
     insistence that our embassy is protected, our personnel is 
     protected, and if they take actions that they're not taking 
     those responsibilities, as all countries do where we have 
     embassies, I think that's going to be a real big problem.

  The President is also quoted as saying:

       Libya is a government that is very friendly towards us. The 
     vast majority of Libyans welcomed the United States' 
     involvement. They understand that it's because of us that 
     they got rid of a dictator who had crushed their spirits for 
     40 years.

  Those are quotes from President Obama.
  The article says President Obama expressed confidence. ``Our hope is 
to be able to capture them,''--talking about the people that attacked 
us in Libya--``but we're going to have to obviously cooperate with the 
Libyan government. And you know, I have confidence that we will stay on 
this relentlessly, because Chris Stevens, he's somebody who actually 
advised me and Secretary Clinton during the original Libyan uprising. 
He was somebody who Libyans recognize as being on the side of the 
people. And we're going to get help. We're going to get cooperation on 
this.''
  Well, that's what the President said in September. Now he said we 
were going to pursue the killers of Ambassador Stevens and the three 
others ``relentlessly,'' is his term. We will stay on this 
relentlessly. And yet what we've seen, we find out that they may have 
the instigator, and there is no outrage that this man has not been 
provided, turned over to the United States. There's no outrage that 
this man has not been brought to justice.
  Friends don't let other friends get nuked, and friends don't send 20 
F-16s to the enemies of their friends. It's time that this 
administration began to understand history to the point that when you 
reward your enemies, your enemies get stronger, and they get more 
abusive and more threatening.

                              {time}  1520

  The best thing this administration can do is reward friendship and 
punish

[[Page 17065]]

our enemies, and then our enemies cower, and our friends are 
emboldened, instead of what this administration has done the other way 
around.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________