[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9584]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina 
(Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I continue to be disappointed in the House 
leadership in that we are not looking into this issue of the CIA giving 
tens of millions of dollars to Karzai, the corrupt leader of 
Afghanistan. We don't hold any hearings about it, we're spending money 
there, and kids are still dying. In fact, we had four American soldiers 
killed yesterday in Afghanistan.
  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Senator Corker from 
Tennessee for taking the lead on Monday and writing a letter to the 
Secretary of State, John Kerry, and demanding an explanation of the 
secret payments by the CIA. I fully agree with the Senator's decision 
to place a hold on U.S. funding for Afghanistan.
  Mr. Speaker, we're still having kids killed in Afghanistan, severely 
wounded, and yet there is no full debate on the floor of the House. 
That to me is a tragedy. We should be debating the issue of 
Afghanistan.
  Mr. Speaker, to make things worse, yesterday in The New York Times, 
Karzai's office made the following statement:

       In view of the contradictions between acts and statements 
     made by the United States of America in regard to the peace 
     process, the Afghan Government suspended negotiations 
     currently under way in Kabul between Afghan and the U.S. 
     delegations, on the bilateral security agreement.

  Mr. Speaker, it would be my wish that we would just totally scrap the 
bilateral security agreement. That means that America would be there 
for 10 more years after 2014 with a semblance of a military presence 
and also spending money that we don't have. This is just another failed 
policy that we in the Congress continue to support.
  Karzai will not last as the leader of Afghanistan. What will happen 
is the Taliban will eventually take over. They are the Pashtuns that 
make up the majority of the Taliban. They are the largest tribe in 
Afghanistan, and they will eventually lead Afghanistan.
  I do not understand why the Taliban that we're fighting today, who 
will probably be the leaders in the next 2 or 3 years of Afghanistan, 
why we're going to support them with finances and with young men and 
women. There's something wrong here, and I hope that the House of 
Representatives, the leadership in both parties, will come together and 
say we're going to debate the policy in Afghanistan.
  Mr. Speaker, this cartoon that I have that I've been handing out in a 
flyer to members in my district, it's got Mr. Karzai standing in front 
of a CIA ATM machine. He's got a little card. I guess it's paid for by 
Uncle Sam. He's taking money out, and you can see bags of cash at his 
feet. Karzai says: ``I'm just making a quick withdrawal.'' But the sad 
thing about it is that a soldier standing behind him says: ``I would 
like to make a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan.''
  I hope the American people will put pressure on the House and Senate 
to stop spending money we don't have in Afghanistan if for no other 
reason than to save the lives of our young men and women who are dying 
over there each and every week. And I will continue to ask how a Nation 
that is financially broke can continue to pay a corrupt leader to stay 
in power when he criticizes us in the paper almost every other week.
  It's time for Congress to meet its responsibility based on the 
Constitution and have a debate on this war in Afghanistan.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I will close by asking God to please bless 
our men and women in uniform, to please bless the families of our men 
and women in uniform. I ask God in His loving arms to hold the families 
who have given a child dying for freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq. I ask 
God to bless the House and the Senate, that we will do what is right in 
the eyes of God. I ask God to please bless the President, that he will 
do what is right in the eyes of God. And I close three times by saying 
God, please, God, please, God, please continue to bless America.

                          ____________________